“I Will Destroy You”: Biden Aide Threatened a Politico Reporter Pursuing a Story on His Relationship  —  Deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo lashed out at journalist Tara Palmeri, spurring conversations between Politico's brass and the White House—and raising questions about behavior tolerated in the Biden administration.

Even with acquittal, GOP sees trial ending Trump's shot at future office  —  Senate Republicans, including those who do not plan to vote to convict former President Trump, say this week's impeachment trial has effectively ended any chance of him becoming the GOP presidential nominee in 2024.

New Allegations of Cover-Up by Cuomo Over Nursing Home Virus Toll  —  In a leaked conversation, the governor's top aide admitted that data was withheld on nursing homes, where more than 10,000 New Yorkers have died during the pandemic.  —  ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his top aides …

Nikki Haley's Choice  —  The 2024 hopeful can't decide who she wants to be—the leader of the post-Trump GOP or a “friend” to the president who tried to sabotage democracy.

Firing Actors for Being Conservative Is Another Hollywood Blacklist  —  In the 1950s, Hollywood studios — under pressure from the right — promised they would not “knowingly employ a communist.”  This blacklist eventually became notorious, especially in Hollywood, which came to lionize its victims in several films.

The most influential Democrat you never hear from  —  Kyrsten Sinema doesn't often make big policy pronouncements.  But when she does, Democrats had better listen.  —  Take the $15 hourly minimum wage that Democratic leaders want to add to a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

Two officers who helped fight the Capitol mob died by suicide.  Many more are hurting.  —  Engulfed in the crush of rioters storming the Capitol, D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith sent his wife a text that spoke to the futility and fears of his mission.  —  “London has fallen,” …

POLITICO Playbook: Could McConnell surprise us all?  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BREAKING OVERNIGHT — LINCOLN PROJECT MELTDOWN: Late Thursday night, the Lincoln Project published what appeared to be the private Twitter messages of its recently departed co-founder JENNIFER HORN …

Melania Trump disengaged from her husband's second impeachment trial and bitter over Jill Biden's publicity  —  (CNN)While former President Donald Trump watches his second impeachment trial unfold, Melania Trump spends most of her time post-White House relaxing at the spa and staying out of the fray.

Scoop: FBI Investigating Allegations Against John Weaver, Sources Say  —  If you believe in the importance of this work and want to support me, subscribe here to get everything I publish and access to the community.  All you have to do is click the button above.  —  A subscription is just $5 a month or $49.99 a year.

Donald Trump's version of an insanity defense: His critics are insane  —  In the summer of 2015, two months after Donald Trump announced he was running for president, a blogger named Esther Goldberg read a Washington Post column by the conservative commentator George F. Will that accused Trump of being phony, vulgar and unprincipled.

Take whatever COVID vaccine you can get.  All of them stop death and hospitalization.  —  Waiting for a more effective vaccine is actually the worst thing you can do to lower your risk of getting severely ill and dying of COVID-19.  —  Almost every day, we get the same questions from family …

6-Month Delay In Census Redistricting Data Could Throw Elections Into Chaos  —  The 2020 census data needed for the redrawing of voting districts around the country are extremely delayed and now expected by Sept. 30.  —  A senior Democratic aide who was briefed by the Census Bureau on Friday …

Donors Fume: 'It's Bullshit' Biden Hasn't Called About Ambassadorships  —  “People are starting to second-guess whether or not they're qualified, whether or not they overshot the countries that they're qualified for,” one party bundler said.  —  They wrote massive checks.

Will Senate Republicans allow their louts to rule the party?  —  The first of this century's national traumas is denoted by two numbers: 9/11.  One purpose of, and a sufficient justification for, the second impeachment of the 45th president was to inscribe this century's second trauma in the nation's memory as: 1/6.

Read the column the New York Times didn't want you to read  —  Last weekend, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a piece criticizing the rationale behind the forced ouster of Times reporter Donald J. McNeil, but it was never published.  Stephens told colleagues the column was killed by publisher A.G. Sulzberger.

Buzz: Trump to unleash after trial, Cheney on his ‘list,’ GW's hair, JFK's sweater to auction  —  As soon as his Senate impeachment trial ends, former President Donald Trump plans to get back in public, according to his team.  —  With few social media avenues open to him, that will require Trump to get out personally.

Did The Democrats “Tank” The Second Trump Trial?  —  Below is my column in USA Today on the lack of a strategy by the House to secure conviction in the trial of former President Donald Trump.  As I have previously noted, the House managers did an excellent job in their presentations …

Inside the Making of Facebook's Supreme Court  —  The company has created a board that can overrule even Mark Zuckerberg.  Soon, it will decide whether to allow Trump back on Facebook.  —  On a morning in May, 2019, forty-three lawyers, academics, and media experts gathered in the windowless basement …