The office of First Lady Melania Trump has released a statement in response to President Trump's late night jab at NBA star LeBron James explaining that she would be "open to visiting" James' new I Promise school in Akron.
The background: Late Friday evening, the president tweeted a response to James' interview with CNN saying it made him "look smart, which isn't easy to do."
President Trump called out NBA superstar LeBron James in a surprise tweet late Friday night, saying his interview with CNN's Don Lemon made him "look smart, which isn't easy to do."
Why it matters: This isn't the first time the president has feuded with black athletes. James said in his interview with Lemon that he can't "sit back and say nothing" in regards to Trump's attacks on athletes and dividing the country, CNN reports.
At a Q&A hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond, Senator Elizabeth Warren said the U.S. criminal justice system is "racist...front to back," the Associated Press reports.
Why it matters: Warren, a potential Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election, is hoping to pick up more support from the African American community, something Bernie Sanders failed to do in the 2016 election, per the AP. Richmond told the AP ahead of the event that the "biggest political frustration in the African-American community is that we have a bunch of Democrats" who "don't get it — the black experience, the black struggle."
Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are among the Senate Democrats expected to meet with President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, upon returning from August break, the AP reports citing a senior Democratic aide.
Why it matters: Democrats had previously refused to meet with the nominee after the administration refused to consider nominating former President Obama's choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, Merrick Garland. According to the aide, "senators will demand the records in dispute from Kavanaugh directly and question him about their contents during their meetings with him." Kavanaugh recently turned over thousands of documents that are now in review.
In response to the Trump administration's claim that advocacy groups, specifically the ACLU, are responsible for reuniting migrant children with their parents, a federal judge on Friday slammed the request saying the government is "100%" responsible for the task, according to CNN.
The background: The Department of Justice asked the ACLU in a court filing Thursday to take on the responsibility of reuniting immigrant children with their missing parents that have already been deported.
A federal judge ruled on Friday the Trump administration must start accepting new applications for DACA protection — fully reinstating the program — because the administration has failed to offer a better, legal justification for rescinding the program, CNN reports.
Why it matters: Due to earlier court actions, Homeland Security is accepting applications to renew protections from undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and were already enrolled in the Obama-era program. While the judge gave the government 20 days to appeal, if unsuccessful, DACA will be fully operational as if Attorney General Jeff Sessions had never rescinded it — unless the Supreme Court decides to intervene.
President Trump privately expressed openness Thursday to reforms of federal sentencing guidelines in order to help a prison reform bill move through the Senate, The Hill first reported.
Why it matters: The earlier momentum behind prison reform stopped abruptly in the Senate, with Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Democrats unwilling to support a bill that didn't address harsh sentencing laws. But this compromise could get most players on board — at the same time Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking for bipartisan wins.
Matthew Dunlap, Maine's Secretary of State who served on President Trump's voter fraud commission, says the statements by the vice chairman and the White House alleging wide-spread voter fraud "were, in fact, false."
The details: Dunlap, a Democrat, won a lawsuit to gain access to documents about the commission's activities. He explained in a letter released Friday, "my experience on the Commission quickly caused me concern that its purpose was not to pursue the truth but rather to provide an official imprimatur of legitimacy on President Trump's assertions that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 election and to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote."
The Cook Political Report just moved the Texas Senate race from "likely" Republican to "lean" Republican — another sign that things are shifting blue ahead of November.
What's happening: President Trump's disapproval rating is at 52% in Texas, and a new poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling shows Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke trailing RepublicanSen. Ted Cruz by just four points.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has announced its condemnation of President Trump's ongoing derogatory remarks toward the press with experts saying the attacks "run counter to the country’s obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law."
"Russia, Immigration and Trade War Sticking to Trump" is the headline of a new polling memo for Priorities USA by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group and Global Strategy Group.
Why it matters: "This translates into the worst ratings for Trump on his truthfulness, temperament, dealings with Russia, and immigration policies we have not seen in any of our eleven previous national tracking surveys on the Trump presidency."
Social media misinformation campaigns are now a permanent fight for candidates and officeholders, and will just get worse with the AI-driven deepfake technologies, which make it easy to phony up images, audio and video.
Why it matters: Check out the photo above. Rarely do you publicly see this many national-security officials in one place. And it's even rarer for it to be in the White House briefing room, where most of the daily jousting is over inches.
Republican Rep. Diane Black gave up her seat in Congress to run for governor and she got crushed by an underdog candidate.
Why it matters: It's getting harder to be an ambitious House Republican these days. So far in 2018, Black is the fifth House GOP member to run for statewide office and lose.
