McConnell Is On The Losing Side of History — And He Knows It  —  Mitch McConnell may be driving American politics to the brink of insanity, but let's assume that the majority leader himself is entirely sane.  —  There are two possible reasons why it would be rational for him to act …

Cindy McCain Endorses Biden, Citing Trump's Disparagement of Troops  —  The widow of Senator John McCain praised Joe Biden's “character and integrity” and noted that both he and her family had children who had served in the military.  —  WASHINGTON — Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain …

GOP senators' report calls Hunter Biden's board position with Ukraine firm ‘problematic,’ but fails to show how it changed U.S. policy  —  A pair of Senate Republican committee chairmen released a report Wednesday arguing that Hunter Biden's board position with a Ukrainian energy company was …

The Election That Could Break America … There is a cohort of close observers of our presidential elections, scholars and lawyers and political strategists, who find themselves in the uneasy position of intelligence analysts in the months before 9/11.  As November 3 approaches …

White House Accused of Intervening to Keep Bolton's Book From Becoming Public  —  A career official said political appointees “commandeered” the prepublication review process.  —  WASHINGTON — White House aides improperly intervened to falsely assert that a manuscript by the former national …

The Russian Trolls Have a Simpler Job Today.  Quote Trump.  —  As part of their attempt to interfere with the 2020 election, Russians are grabbing screenshots of President Trump's tweets, or quoting his own misleading statements, analysts and officials say.

CIA clamps down on flow of Russia intelligence to White House  —  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Gina Haspel and President Donald Trump attend the swearing-in ceremony for Haspel as CIA director May 21, 2018, in Langley, Va. |  The CIA has made it harder for intelligence about Russia to reach …

Colorado Senate Moves From Toss Up to Lean Democrat  —  With a Supreme Court nominee now all but certain to be confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate this year (either before or after the election), it looks like there will only be two defections from Republican ranks — Maine Sen. Susan Collins …

U.S. Ambassador to Netherlands Faces Questions About Political Interference  —  The outspoken conservative envoy, Pete Hoekstra, has been criticized for hosting a fund-raiser for a Dutch populist party at the U.S. Embassy.  —  BRUSSELS — One of President Trump's most outspoken ambassadors …

Kamala Harris Downplays Debate Skills as Buttigieg Stands In for Pence  — Former prosecutor known for withering attacks on opponents  — Harris created viral moments in presidential primary debates  —  Kamala Harris's team is working to manage public expectations that her upcoming debate …

States of Play: Battleground & National Likely Voter Surveys on the Mail-in Election, COVID-19 and the Supreme Court  —  Change Research/ CNBC Poll: September 18-20, 2020  —  Key Takeaways  — Biden now leads by 9 points nationally (51% to 42%), and maintains his advantage across six battleground states.

‘Bidin’ his time': Joe Biden battles being chronically late  —  WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden was running late.  Again.  —  On a recent Friday, he'd already apologized for the delayed start to a speech, then taken more questions than expected at a subsequent press conference.

Estimated Senate seats  —  Our model is updated every day, blending the latest data on polls and fundraising with “fundamental” factors like incumbency and each state's partisan lean.  Below is a chart over time of our best estimate of the most likely number of Senate seats each party will win …

Five Things Biden and His Allies Should Be Worried About  —  Interestingly, the suburban vote may not be one of them.  —  Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C. on politics, demographics and inequality.  —  There are at least five reasons Joe Biden's consistent lead …

House Democrats unveil reforms to ‘prevent future presidential abuses’  —  House Democrats unveiled a sweeping package of reforms Wednesday morning designed to strengthen Congress's ability to check the executive branch and prevent abuses of power, especially by the president.

Judith Butler on the culture wars, JK Rowling and living in “anti-intellectual times”  —  Thirty years ago, the philosopher Judith Butler, now 64, published a book that revolutionised popular attitudes on gender.  Gender Trouble, the work she is perhaps best known for, introduced ideas of gender as performance.

Vladimir Putin Thinks He Can Get Away With Anything  —  Why has the poisoning of Alexei Navalny been met with Western silence?  —  The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values.  It is separate from the newsroom.

Trump Says Reporters Covering Protests Deserve to Be Attacked  —  At his rally Tuesday night, President Trump delivered an extended riff on the glories of police attacking journalists.  First, he repeated a mangled version of a story that he told this weekend, about Ali Velshi being struck …

DHS awarded $6 million in contracts to firm where Acting Secretary Wolf's wife is executive … WASHINGTON — The consulting firm where the wife of acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is an executive has been awarded more than $6 million in contracts from the Department …

West Michigan man says yard signs were stolen.  So he put up Joe Biden freeway billboards.  —  After he said eight yard signs were stolen or vandalized, Marshall Stern had had enough.  —  Stern, a Democrat who lives in Newaygo County, a historically red area in west Michigan …

Scientific American's Scientifically Indefensible Biden Endorsement  —  An editorial that begins and ends with lies is, by definition, not credible and unworthy of a purportedly “scientific” journal ...  Breaking with 175 years of nonpartisan objectivity, German-owned Scientific American endorsed Joe Biden …

Trump-world clashes over Barrett vs. Lagoa  —  Donald Trump's looming Supreme Court decision is dividing the president's political orbit between the pragmatists and the purists.  —  One camp is dominated by the GOP operative class overseeing the party's electoral efforts, including the president's own campaign advisers and donors.

In apparent play for QAnon supporters, GOP attack ads claim Democrat lawmakers are defending ‘sex offenders’  —  WASHINGTON — The ad couldn't sound more ominous.  As darkened images of quiet suburban neighborhoods roll on the screen, a woman's voice delivers a scary message: “On every street …

Demographic shifts since 2016 could be enough to defeat Trump.  But it's complicated. … Four years ago, President Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes and still won the White House thanks to a near-perfect geographic vote distribution that allowed him to capture big Electoral College prizes by razor-thin margins.