Beto O'Rourke doesn't think his midterm election opponent Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, should have been heckled out of a restaurant in Washington on Monday.
Why it matters: O'Rourke is taking a stance on the so-called civility debate, which erupted when White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia over the summer. At a time when politics has gone crazy, O'Rourke's defense of the senator he's attempting to replace stands out.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Photo: Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows confirmed in court on Tuesday that President Trump's tweets authorizing the disclosure of documents related to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton's emails "were not self-executing declassification orders," after a federal judge demanded that Trump be asked about his intentions.
Why it matters: BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold cited the tweets in an emergency motion seeking to gain access to special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. This is the first time Trump himself has indicated, according to Meadows, that his tweets are not official directives.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The Chinese government is threatening to detain foreign citizens unless their home governments do what Beijing demands. In some cases, China has already made good on those threats.
The big picture: This marks a potential evolution of China's "wolf warrior diplomacy" to outright rogue state behavior, putting it in the company of countries like North Korea and Iran, which have also engaged in hostage diplomacy.
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