Colorado’s Department of Human Services is now acknowledging to CBS Denver that five reports of neglected children were missed — possibly for as long as five years — after they were sent to a state email address that was not being checked or monitored.
Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, trending news, a private podcast, no ads and more!
Duncan Hunter Sending Islamophobic Campaign Mailers
“Indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) is sending Islamophobic mail pieces to voters in his Southern California district, attacking his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, for his deceased grandfather alleged ties to a 1972 terrorist attack,” Politico reports.
“The mailers show a photo of one of the terrorists involved in an attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics wearing a ski mask on one side, and photos of Campa-Najjar and Muslim Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, on the other. Campa-Najjar is Christian.”
House Votes to Check Trump’s Authority to Strike Iran
“The House voted Friday to curb President Trump’s ability to strike Iran militarily on Friday, adopting a bipartisan provision that would require the president to get Congress’s approval before authorizing military force against Tehran,” the New York Times reports.
Pennsylvania GOP Rejects Trump Pick for Party Chair
“Pennsylvania’s Republican Party is trying to amicably settle a contested race for chairman between a candidate who had backing from Trump campaign advisers, and a rival,” the AP reports.
“The deal came together Friday, a day before committee members are to meet amid accusations about sexual harassment of women by Pennsylvania GOP officials.”
“The party says Bernadette Comfort instead will serve as the Trump campaign’s chairwoman in the presidential battleground state, while the state GOP’s former general counsel, Lawrence Tabas, will be the consensus candidate for state party chairman at Saturday’s meeting.”
Trump Wants Dan Coats Out
“President Trump has told confidants he’s eager to remove Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, according to five sources who have discussed the matter directly with the president,” Axios repos.
“Trump hasn’t told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen ‘sooner rather than later.’l
Mueller Testimony Delayed a Week
A House Judiciary Committee hearing with former special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, has been delayed by a week until July 24, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Acosta Resigns
President Trump said Friday morning that Alexander Acosta, his embattled secretary of labor, will resign following controversy over a lenient plea deal he made with Jeffrey Epstein when he was a prosecutor in Florida, the New York Times reports.
The Four Candidate Tiers
First Read sees four tiers emerging in the Democratic presidential race based on the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll:
- The Top 5: Biden (26 percent), Warren (19 percent), Harris (13 percent), Sanders (13 percent) and Buttigieg (7 percent).
- The 2 Percenters (the threshold to make the September debates): Andrew Yang (2 percent), Beto O’Rourke (2 percent).”
- The 1 Percenters: Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Jay Inslee, Marianne Williamson, John Delaney, John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet.
- The less-than-1-percenters: Everyone else.
“The good news for Booker, Klobuchar, Castro and even O’Rourke is that they get Democratic voters in our poll to say want to learn more about these candidates.”
“But that bad news for those in the 1 percent and below is that it looks like this field is going to winnow fast.”
How Far Did Trump Tip the Supreme Court Balance?
Adam Liptak talks to Chris Riback: “It was the Supreme Court session Democrats feared and Republicans had waited a generation for – a solidly conservative 5-4 majority. So how’d it go?”
Two Different Contests Define the Democratic Race
First Read: “Fifty-four percent of Democratic primary voters say they prefer a nominee who proposes larger-scale policies that might cost more and be harder to pass — but could still result in major change. Among these voters, Warren leads the pack (at 29%), and she’s followed by Bernie Sanders (18%), Biden (16%) and Kamala Harris (14%).”
“By contrast, 41% of Dem primary voters say they want a nominee who pushes for smaller-scale policies that cost less and might be easier to pass — but that bring less change. And among these voters, Biden holds a substantial lead (at 35%), followed by Harris (14%), Warren (8%), Pete Buttigieg (8%) and Sanders (7%).”
“Bottom line: The big-change Democratic voters outnumber the small-change ones. But you can see a situation how Warren and Sanders could split the former group, and how Biden might lap the field with the latter. That’s Biden’s path to victory, even in Iowa — if his candidacy holds up.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“To me free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposefully write bad. To me that’s very dangerous speech and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech.”
— President Trump, quoted by CNN.
Pentagon Leadership Vacuum Worries Lawmakers
“When he resigned as defense secretary last December, Jim Mattis thought it might take two months to install a successor. That seemed terribly long at the time,” the AP reports.
“Seven months later, the U.S. still has no confirmed defense chief even with the nation facing potential armed conflict with Iran. That’s the longest such stretch in Pentagon history.”
“There is also no confirmed deputy defense secretary, and other significant senior civilian and military Pentagon positions are in limbo, more than at any recent time.”
How Trump Co-Opts His Critics
Susan Glasser: “Yet the public spectacle of Presidential name-calling—Trump, while President, has called a former aide who turned on him a ‘dog’ and attacked as a ‘Horseface’ the alleged lover who said he had tried and failed to buy her silence—obscures a highly relevant political truth. Trump may love to hurl insults and quite visibly relishes nothing so much as a public Twitter spat. He is willing, though, to accept and make peace with even his harshest critics, as long as they cease and desist from their public dissent. Trump cares about the appearance of criticism more than the criticism itself. His unheralded genius is not in insulting his critics but in co-opting them—or at least in coming to mutually beneficial truces of the sort that suggests Trump’s social-media histrionics are more calculated than they seem.”
“After all, Trump has essentially stocked his entire government with formerly vehement critics, many of whom said far, far worse things about him than the British Ambassador did. When Trump was elected, the RNC aide who is now the President’s executive assistant wept. His chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, promised to protect the Constitution from him. Some of his biggest cheerleaders on Capitol Hill today once considered themselves diehard Never Trumpers.”
GOP Balks at Standalone Debt Ceiling Vote
“Republican lawmakers are pushing back on a new White House plan that calls for a vote on raising the debt ceiling before August and then revisiting spending talks in the fall,” The Hill reports.
“GOP senators say there’s little desire in their conference to vote on a standalone proposal to increase the nation’s debt limit, something that’s broadly unpopular with the base.”
Quote of the Day
“Presidential elections cannot be fought out in just a dozen battleground states. I believe that we need to reexamine the concept of the Electoral College.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders, quoted by the Washington Post.
Following the Money That Undermines Climate Science
New York Times: “It’s difficult to figure out who’s funding climate denial, because many of the think tanks that continue to question established climate science are nonprofit groups that aren’t required to disclose their donors. That’s true of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market research organization in Washington that disputes that climate change is a problem.”
“So, the program for a recent gala organized by the institute, which included a list of corporate donors, offered a rare glimpse into the money that makes the work of these think tanks possible.”
Among the sponsors: Google and Amazon.
Why Pence Spiked a Trump Judge
Vice President Mike Pence vetoed the Donald Trump’s pick for a federal judge nominee because he feared the nomination would bring up events from the past that could damage his reputation, Politico reports.
“The clash provides a rare glimpse into the vice president’s political calculations and ambitions, which he has been excruciatingly careful to conceal since signing on to the Trump ticket in the summer of 2016.”
Sanders and Warren Voters Have Little In Common
Politico: “In poll after poll, Sanders appeals to lower-income and less-educated people; Warren beats Sanders among those with postgraduate degrees. Sanders performs better with men, Warren with women. Younger people who vote less frequently are more often in Sanders’ camp; seniors who follow politics closely generally prefer Warren.”
“Sanders also has won over more African Americans than Warren: He earns a greater share of support from black voters than any candidate in the race except for Joe Biden, according to the latest Morning Consult surveys.”
