Barack Obama re-entered the political arena today, declaring himself a "fellow citizen" rather than former president.
Why it matters: The most successful Democratic politician of his generation is breaking with precedents from a more civil era. It's highly unusual for a former president to criticize a current one in such blunt terms.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings were full of sound and fury — protests, fights about the rules, questions and insinuations that quickly went viral — but the big picture hasn’t changed since the day he was nominated. He is very likely to be a Supreme Court justice, and a very conservative one, very soon and for a very long time.
Why it matters: Democrats are under a lot of pressure from their base to fight this nomination, and several of them made a go of it during Kavanaugh’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But two days of testimony only seemed to reinforce everyone’s existing opinions of Kavanaugh, and that momentum works to his benefit.
President Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he thinks Attorney General Jeff Sessions should investigate who the anonymous writer of the New York Times op-ed is, claiming it is a national security concern, according to the AP.
The big picture: Trump has already tried to claim that not revealing the identity of the op-ed writer poses a national security concern, although he has yet to specify how. He has also said he considers the act treasonous.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he wouldn't be surprised if Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) faced scrutiny from the Senate Ethics Committee for publicly releasing confidential documents regarding Brett Kavanaugh, the Washington Post reports.
The saga: The initial batch of documents Booker released on Thursday, which led to his "Spartacus moment" and revealed Kavanaugh's views on racial profiling, had already been approved for release the night before. But Booker said he later released additional documents that had not been cleared by the committee. Booker has repeatedly stated that he understands his actions were in violation of committee rules.
Church-attending and non-affiliated Christians have more negative views of immigrants and minority religions than unaffiliated adults in Western Europe, a new Pew Research Survey finds.
The big picture: While more Christians hold these views than those religiously unaffiliated, that does not translate to most Christians holding these views. Pew explains, "By most measures and in most countries surveyed, only minorities of Christians voice negative opinions about immigrants and religious minorities."
President Trump escalated his attacks on the N.Y. Times during an interview last night in Montana with Pete Hegseth of "Fox & Friends":
"Well, number one,The Times should never have done that [printed the anonymous Op-Ed] because really what they’ve done, virtually, it’s treason. You can call it a lot of things ..."
"They’re all saying,you know, it’s got to be at a fairly low level. ... I see all the people that are saying such great things. There’s a lot of love in the administration, and the White House is truly, as you would say, a well-oiled machine — it is working so well."
The House districts with the closest races in the midterm elections tend to be more educated than the rest of the country. Of the 30 districts currently rated as "tossups" by Cook Political Report, two thirds have a higher prevalence of college degrees than the national average.
Why it matters: It's yet another sign of potential midterm trouble for Republicans, since 28 of those races have a Republican incumbent and President Trump did best with people without college degrees. Strategists from both parties think it'll come down to how suburban voters react to Trump.
Bob Woodward's newest book unveils a letter that former Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn removed from President Trump's desk that, if the president had signed, would have ended the United States-Korea Free Trade agreement, CNN reports.
Why it matters: Had Trump signed the agreement, a program that can detect a nuclear missile launch from North Korea in seven seconds may have been jeopardized. CNN explains the letter "is an example of how top White House aides would steal and hide documents from Trump that they believed to be a danger to national security."
