“It Was All About the Election”: The Ex-White House Aide Olivia Troye on Trump's Narcissistic Mishandling of COVID-19  —  The first staffer on the coronavirus task force to go public tells The New Yorker that America's pandemic response was “derailed by the person at the very top.”

U.S. Admits That Congressman Offered Pardon to Assange If He Covered Up Russia Links  —  Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher offered Assange the deal in 2017, a year after the emails that damaged Hillary Clinton had been published.  —  LONDON—Lawyers representing the United States …

Trump administration bans WeChat, TikTok from app stores beginning on Sunday  —  The Trump administration said it is banning China's TikTok and WeChat from mobile app stores beginning this Sunday, Sept. 20, in a move that will sharply raise tensions with Beijing.

‘Talk about losers’: The top moments from CNN's kid-gloves town hall with Biden  —  On Tuesday, voters got in Trump's face for the first time.  On Thursday, they practically gave Biden a hero's welcome in Scranton, Pa.  —  Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks …

Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him  —  A New York Times/Siena College survey showed Joe Biden leading President Trump by wide margins in Maine and Arizona, and effectively tied in North Carolina.  Susan Collins trailed her Democratic rival in Maine's Senate race.

Trump downplays legacy of slavery in appeal to white voters  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump intensified efforts to appeal to his core base of white voters on Thursday by downplaying the historical legacy of slavery in the United States and blasting efforts to address systemic racism as divisive.

Bill Barr's Prosecutorial Warning  —  The left distorts his important speech on political accountability.  —  By The Editorial Board  —  We live in a strange time when progressives say American law enforcement is racist, yet they'll also go to the mattresses to defend prosecutors from political accountability.

Alabama Senate Candidate Tommy Tuberville Struggles To Discuss Voting Rights Act  —  The Republican and former college football coach stumbled when asked his position on the landmark 1965 civil rights law.  —  Alabama Republican Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville struggled to explain …

Senior Biden campaign cybersecurity expert participated in racist internet troll group  —  A senior cybersecurity adviser to Joe Biden's presidential campaign spent years affiliating with a hacking organization and boasted on a personal blog about breaking into her neighbor's computers.

Rating Change: Republicans Sound Alarm, Riggleman's VA-05 Moves to Toss Up  —  Is it deja vu all over again?  In 2008, Virginia's 5th District was the site of a gigantic upset when tireless 34-year-old Democrat Tom Perriello unseated GOP Rep. Virgil Goode by 727 votes.

Book excerpt: An FBI sex crimes investigator helped trigger 2016's ‘October Surprise’  —  This article is adapted from “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election,” which will be published Sept. 22 by PublicAffairs.  The book is a comprehensive …

Michael Bloomberg unleashes $100 million “wall to wall” ad blitz to take down Trump in Florida  —  Mike Bloomberg's $100 million Florida blitz begins today and will continue “wall to wall” in all 10 TV markets through Election Day, advisers tell me.  —  Why it matters: Bloomberg thinks …

C.D.C. Testing Guidance Was Published Against Scientists' Objections  —  A controversial guideline saying people without Covid-19 symptoms didn't need to get tested for the virus came from H.H.S. officials and skipped the C.D.C.'s scientific review process.  —  A heavily criticized recommendation …

U.S. Generals are raising the alarm  —  Our military has leaned strongly Republican.  By law, active military are constrained from political action.  Most retired officers are highly politically aware but strive to be non-partisan, and are often not aligned with either party.

“That's Their Problem”: How Jared Kushner Let the Markets Decide America's COVID-19 Fate  —  First-person accounts of a tense meeting at the White House in late March suggest that President Trump's son-in-law resisted taking federal action to alleviate shortages and help Democratic-led New York.

Housekeepers Face a Disaster Generations in the Making  —  Ghosted by their employers, members of the profession are facing “a full-blown humanitarian crisis — a Depression-level situation.”  —  The scariest day of Maria Del Carmen's life started with a phone call that initially cheered her up.

How Trump Changed the World  —  On Sept. 16 the editorial board of the New York Times did the impossible.  It said something nice about President Trump.  “The normalization of relations between Israel and two Arab states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is, on the face of it …

Campaign staffer, 17, for Ilhan Omar's Republican congressional opponent is shot and killed in Minneapolis  — Andre Conley, 17, was shot dead outside a Minneapolis convenience store on Monday afternoon; another person was seriously wounded  — Police arrested a suspect wanted in connection …

The Soros Cover-Up  —  Americans can't let Twitter noise overwhelm political reality.  —  I have been watching a truly curious phenomenon over the past few days.  It seems there is suddenly a movement in media to silence anyone who speaks out against George Soros—and, specifically …

Republicans Killed the Obamacare Mandate.  New Data Shows It Didn't Really Matter.  —  Many experts now view the individual mandate as a policy that did little to increase health coverage — but did a lot to invite political backlash.  —  Health economists long had a favorite metaphor …

This Is How Biden Should Approach the Latino Vote  —  Some ways of talking about race and class are more effective politically.  And not just with Hispanics.  —  Mr. Haney López is the author of “Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections and Saving America.”

Hunter Biden Offered D.C. Access to Chinese Company in Exchange for Investments  —  Hunter Biden touted his family's political clout to solicit a $5 million investment from China for his U.S.-based financial advisory firm, according to a court filing by a white-collar convict who claims …

911 Call From Intoxicated Jerry Falwell Jr.'s House Last Month Describes ‘A Lot Of Blood’  —  Becki Falwell told the operator that her husband had cuts on his face from falling after he'd been drinking.  —  One week after Reuters published an explosive report on an alleged sexual …

F.B.I. Director Warns of Russian Interference and White Supremacist Violence  —  The testimony contradicted efforts by President Trump and other officials to downplay the threats.  —  WASHINGTON — Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I., warned a House committee on Thursday that Russia …

‘A fundraiser of unusual size’: Princess Bride reunion raises $4.25 million for Wisconsin Democrats  —  It was a fundraiser of unusual size.  —  When almost the entire original cast of “The Princess Bride” came together this week for the first time in more than 30 years for a table read …

From Russia (to Biden) With Love  —  Senate Democrats try to smear colleagues for investigating Hunter and Ukraine.  —  When Democrats look at Russia, they don't see a geopolitical threat.  They see the political gift that keeps giving.  They now hope it produces for Joe Biden.