Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh late Wednesday, setting up a Friday procedural vote.
The details: This means that the Senate will make a final vote as early as Saturday. McConnell said the Senate will receive the FBI’s review of Kavanaugh’s background Wednesday night.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
The recent firestorm over the New York Post’s publication of stories relying on data from a hard drive allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden shows the increasingly hazy line between domestic political “dirty tricks” and a foreign-sponsored disinformation operation.
Why it matters: This haziness could give determined actors cover to conduct influence operations aimed at undermining U.S. democracy through channels that just look like old-fashioned hard-nosed politics.
Pope Francis at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Photo: Vatican Pool - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Pope Francis voiced his support for same-sex civil unions for the first time as pope in the documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival, per the Catholic News Agency.
Why it matters: The pope’s remarks represent a break from the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which has long taught that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered" and contrary to natural law.