A bipartisan group of congressional members are seeking immediate action and an oversight hearing to address concerns that the Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to take responsibility for veterans suffering from military sexual trauma in recent years.
The details: An investigation conducted by the VA's inspector general found that the agency "improperly denied hundreds of military sexual trauma claims," refused to order medical exams in the majority of the cases, and re-routed claims to staff with no "specialized knowledge" on how to handle them. Eleven lawmakers signed an open letter urging Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), who heads the Veterans Affairs Committee, to hold a hearing on the matter. Another 12 lawmakers have also sent a letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie urging him to reprocess denied cases.
Prior to his conviction last week, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's legal defense team discussed a potential plea deal with prosecutors in the hopes of avoiding a second trial, but the negotiations failed, the Wall Street Journal's Aruna Viswanatha reports.
Why it matters: President Trump praised Manafort following his guilty verdict, calling him a "brave man" for not caving into pressure to make a deal — unlike Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to his charges.
President Trump issued a statement Monday saying he "respect[s] Senator John McCain’s service to our country" and has ordered the White House to fly its flag at half-staff until the day of the senator's interment.
The backdrop: The official statement comes after Trump received criticism for having refused to issue a traditional White House statement honoring McCain, telling his press staff that he preferred to tweet instead. The White House also received backlash for having raised its flag to full staff Monday morning.
Sen. John McCain, who died Saturday from brain cancer, wrote a farewell letter to his fellow Americans before his death, in which he expressed hope that the country will find its way "through these challenging times" and concludes that "Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history."
The letter was delivered and read aloud Monday by McCain's friend and former aide, Rick Davis.
Seth Frotman, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official in charge of overseeing the $1.5 trillion student loan market, has stepped down, saying the White House has made it difficult to protect the millions of students who have taken out loans for their higher education, the AP reports.
Key quote: “You have used the bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America. The damage you have done to the bureau betrays these families and sacrifices the financial futures of millions of Americans in communities across the country,” Frotman wrote in a letter to the Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney, who took over the CFPB in November.
Here's one reason Republicans are feeling better about the Montana Senate race: a new internal poll for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) shows Republican candidate Matt Rosendale leading Democratic Sen. Jon Tester by two points.
Why it matters: While this poll doesn't mean Democrats are certain to lose, they can't afford to give up this Senate seat in November. Montana's Senate seat is one of 10 Democrats are defending in states Trump won in 2016.
President Trump’s run of big, unorthodox bets — ranging from negotiating with a nuclear madman in North Korea to depending on friends who turned out to be "flippers" — is looking riskier and less winnable by the day.
The big picture: Consider his wildest bets — from engaging with North Korea to his ongoing trade war with China — allmade largely against the advice of advisers and most GOP leaders.
The schedule of events — from Phoenix, Ariz., to Washington, D.C. — that will celebrate the life of the late Sen. John McCain this week is beginning to come together.
The big thing: McCain will become just the 31st person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda since 1852 — one of the greatest honors available to an American statesman.
President Trump refused to issue a traditional, effusive White House statement honoring Sen. John McCain, telling his press staff that he preferred to tweet instead, per The Washington Post.
The big picture: The bad blood between Trump and McCain, highlighted by the fact Trump is not invited to the late senator's funeral, showed with Trump's curt Saturday evening tweet that did not mention McCain's life or career: "My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!"
On Thursday, a bespectacled gentleman who goes by the name "Lionel Media" on Twitter, met President Trump in the Oval Office.
The big picture: LionelMedia, whose real name is Michael William Lebron, is an enthusiastic proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that Trump and Robert Mueller have secretly teamed up to take on a global cabal of pedophiles (Hillary is on the same side as the pedophiles). He's also a 9/11 truther.
It's looking increasingly likely that Congress will fund the government by the Sept. 30 deadline without too much hubbub.
What we're hearing: Leadership sources from both parties tell me they think they can pass between five and nine spending bills, including the mammoth defense bill, funding more than half of the discretionary budget. They would then pass the remaining bills using a continuing resolution.
We saw fresh signs this week that Democrats won’t be able to stop the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. Axios spoke to the offices of the senators that the White House considers potential swing votes for the next Supreme Court Justice, and they’re saying all the things Team Kavanaugh would want to hear.
The bottom line: Even Democrats involved in the effort to oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination privately admitted to Axios that there will have to be a major new development for them to have any chance of killing his confirmation. They say they need an explosive document, or a trainwreck during the confirmation hearings.
Congressional Republicans are getting ready for hell. Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that's circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill — including at least one leadership office — that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House.
Why this matters: Publicly, House Republicans are putting on a brave face about the midterms. But privately, they are scrambling to prepare for the worst. This document, which catalogs requests Democrats have already made, is part of that effort.
John McCain's Arizona Senate seat, which he'd occupied for more than three decades, will remain vacant until after his burial at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Maryland, an aide to Gov. Doug Ducey told The Arizona Republic.
What's next: Ducey, a Republican, will appoint McCain's successor to serve until a special election in 2020. The winner of that election would complete the remainder of McCain's term, which ends in January 2023.
Sen. Mitch McConnell and other congressional leaders announced Sunday that John McCain will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol to allow the public to pay their respects.
Why it matters: McCain will become just the 31st person to have received the honor of lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda since Henry Clay became the first in 1852. McCain will join an illustrious list that includes Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Rosa Parks.
Lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s plan to ask about citizenship status during the 2020 census are being allowed by federal judges to move forward, dealing a blow to the federal government.
Why it matters: As the suits to remove the question make their way through courts in New York, Maryland and California, they could complicate preparation for the United States' constitutionally-mandated nationwide decennial count.
Following the passing of Sen. John McCain, reactions, statements, and memories have been pouring in recounting the senator’s influential life.
President Trump, who had publicly feuded with McCain, tweeted condolences: “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumertweeted Saturday night: "Nothing will overcome the loss of Senator McCain, but so that generations remember him I will be introducing a resolution to rename the Russell building after him."
Between the lines: The Russell Senate Office Building was named in 1972 for Sen. Richard Russell, a Democrat from Georgia (1897-1971), who served for 40 years. Per an official Senate history, Russell "often used his parliamentary skills to oppose civil rights legislation, including bills to ban lynching and to abolish the poll tax."
In January 2015, just after becoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John Sidney McCain III — a man who served his country for six decades throughout both a storied military and political career — was asked what he wants on his tombstone.
His answer to the N.Y. Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg: "He served his country."
