Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke has decided not to challenge Sen. John Cornyn for a Senate seat next year, paving the way for a 2020 presidential run, the Dallas Morning News reports.
"Amy and I have made a decision about how we can best serve our country. We are excited to share it with everyone soon."
— O'Rourke told the Dallas Morning News in an interview
The big picture: The former El Paso congressman told Oprah Winfrey that he’s thinking about running for president and will make a decision "before the end of this month." O'Rourke gained national prominence during his campaign for Senate last year, which he ultimately lost by a narrow margin to Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.
The District of Columbia's attorney general ordered President Trump’s inaugural committee to hand over documents relating to the $107 million fund and payments made to the Trump International Hotel or the Trump Organization, seeking to uncover if the money was "wasted, mismanaged and/or improperly provided private benefit," the New York Times reports.
The Florida Bar opened an investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) after the lawmaker posted a menacing tweet Tuesday, questioning President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen’s fidelity to his wife one day before he appeared before a House committee, The Daily Beast reported.
Details: Gaetz, an attorney, is a member of the organization that licenses lawyers to practice in the state. The group did not release any details about its inquiry, but spokesperson Francine Walker told The Daily Beast the bar is "aware of [Gaetz’s] comments ... and [has] opened an investigation," adding that if "rules have been violated, the Florida Bar will vigorously pursue appropriate discipline."
Hillary Clinton claimed that "Trump's fantasy about negotiating with the North Koreans" is more a play for positive headlines — or even a Nobel Prize — than national security.
What they're saying: In an appearance on the TBD with Tina Brown podcast from Wondery, Trump's 2016 opponent says she doesn't know "whose national security interests Trump is either pursuing or will actually try to defend" as he meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. She notes that the Russians and Chinese both have significant interests in the outcome of the summit, but that Trump himself is "much more interested in perceptions than reality."
Ahead of his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen submitted a series of documents to corroborate some of his allegations about President Trump.
During Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, Cohen plans to discuss experiences that have led him to believe President Trump is a "racist," a "conman" and a "cheat." Read his full opening testimony below.
Seven of the pharmaceutical industry's top CEOs came to Capitol Hill yesterday, spent a few hours pointing the finger at pharmacy benefit managers, and went home largely unscathed.
Between the lines: The pharma CEOs were able to stick to their plan. No one on the Finance Committee backed any of them into a corner, or knocked them very far off their talking points, or made them commit to anything they might regret. Their stocks were unaffected.
No one could have predicted that it would take two hours for a member of the Senate to prod Fed Chair Jerome Powell about the Fed's political independence — or that the U.S. deficit would be such a central point of yesterday's hearing.
Why it matters: Powell answered a handful of questions about the U.S. debt and then chimed in on the modern monetary theory debate — whether or not deficits matter for countries like the U.S. that print their own money.
President Trump's advisers say one of his more frequent gripes about the scandals and investigations — both by Mueller and the Hill — is that they weaken his standing with foreign leaders.
The big picture: One of Trump's former advisers said the president would tell stories of a foreign leader asking him about the special counsel's investigation. The adviser interpreted that as Trump feeling humiliated by having to discuss it.
A $35,000 check signed by Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2017 (after he became president) will be displayed during Michael Cohen's testimony to the House Oversight Committee today, a source close to Cohen tells Axios.
"It was another installment in the illegal hush money 'reimbursed' to Cohen ... for [the Stormy Daniels] hush money payoff," the source said.
President Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen has outlined in documents he will provide during testimony to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday allegations he says offer "irrefutable" proof that Trump had committed "illicit acts" .
President Trump knew his longtime adviser Roger Stone was in talks with WikiLeaks about releasing damaging information on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign when they were presidential candidates.
Cohen had previously lied to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.
While president, Trump wrote Cohen a check from his personal bank account to reimburse him for payments he had earlier made to porn star Stormy Daniels (Trump has previously stated he didn't know Cohen had paid her $130,000 before the election.).
What they're saying: "He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat," Cohen plans to say during his testimony. Trump later responded in a tweet just hours ahead of his Vietnam summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un: "Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!"
Read Michael Cohen's full testimony to the House Oversight Committee here:
Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Tuesday there's consensus within his family for him to become a 2020 presidential candidate, and he's "very close" to making a decision on whether to run.
What he's saying: "We do everything by family meetings, because no man or woman has a right to run for public office without it being a family decision," Biden told presidential historian Jon Meacham during an interview at the University of Delaware. "No matter who runs — it's a very difficult campaign. The primary will be very difficult. And the general election, running against President Trump, I don't think that he's likely to stop at anything, whomever he runs against."
House lawmakers passed a public lands conservation measure on Tuesday that will add more than 1 million acres of new wilderness, restore a conservation program funneling offshore drilling revenue to land conservation, and establish new national monuments to honor civil rights activists and Civil War soldiers.
The details: The House voted 363-62 to push the package through, just two weeks after the Senate approved the measure by 92-8. The bill will head to the White House for President Trump’s signature. This is viewed as a notable bipartisan victory for environmentalists at a time when the Trump administration is vigorously rolling back public land protections in favor of coal and big oil.
