With the DNC refusing to set up a climate-focused primary debate, The New Republic and Gizmodo announced Thursday that they've scheduled a "presidential climate summit" in New York City on Sept. 23.
Why it matters: The event, if top-tier candidates attend, will probe the 2020 hopefuls in a way that's vastly more in-depth than what's possible in a multi-topic debate.
President Trump has told confidants he's eager to remove Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, according to five sources who have discussed the matter directly with the president.
The state of play: Trump hasn't told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen "sooner rather than later."
Labor Secretary Alex Acosta announced Friday that he will resign next week during an appearance with President Trump at the White House.
The big picture: Acosta has faced scrutiny over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case during his tenure as a federal prosecutor in Florida. Trump said that Acosta had done a "very good job" at the Labor Department.
President Trump blasted former House Speaker Paul Ryan as "a long running lame duck failure" in a series of Thursday tweets.
"He quit Congress because he didn't know how to Win. They gave me standing O's in the Great State of Wisconsin, & booed him off the stage. ... Couldn't get him out of Congress fast enough!"
The big picture: It emerged earlier Thursday that Ryan said he viewed his retirement from Congress as an "escape hatch" from working with the president during a series of interviews for Tim Alberta's forthcoming book "American Carnage," which details the Republican Party's reaction to the rise of Trump.
Top figures in the conservative legal community are stunned and depressed by President Trump's cave in his fight for a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.
The state of play: Sources say Leonard Leo and other Federalist Society stalwarts were shocked and floored by how weak the decision was. "What was the dance ... all about if this was going to be the end result?" a conservative leader asked.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that the House will vote next week on criminal contempt charges against Attorney General Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over their failure to cooperate with a subpoena for documents related to the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 Census, Politico reports.
The state of play: Although the vote will serve as a good talking point for Democrats, it's exceedingly unlikely the Justice Department will take any action against two Trump administration officials.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan viewed retirement as an "escape hatch" from two more years working under President Trump, according to Tim Alberta's new book "American Carnage," per an early copy obtained by the Washington Post.
"Those of us around him really helped to stop him from making bad decisions. All the time.... We helped him make much better decisions, which were contrary to kind of what his knee-jerk reaction was. Now I think he's making some of these knee-jerk reactions."
Trump insiders tell Axios that Labor Secretary Alex Acosta did little to help himself at his high-stakes news conference defending his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case when he was a federal prosecutor in Florida.
The state of play: Trump hates being goaded into action by media outcries, and a source close to the president said there was "zero" chance he fires Acosta right away. "Zero," the source repeated — but allowing for Trump's impetuousness, another close source said: "I wouldn't say zero."
President Trump signed an executive order yesterday modernizing kidney disease care for the first time in decades, a move that could reduce spending and improve treatment for one of the country's most pervasive illnesses.
Why it matters: This could be a big deal for the 37 million Americans suffering from chronic kidney disease, including 726,000 with kidney failure.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of "singling out" newly elected women of color in Congress, in an interview with the Washington Post on Wednesday.
"When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood. But the persistent singling out … it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful … the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is due to start raids to arrest thousands of members of undocumented families Sunday, the New York Times reports, citing 2 current Homeland Security officials and 1 person who used to work there.
The big picture: Thursday's report comes after Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli told reporters Wednesday the raids would "absolutely" happen. Trump said last month he would delay what he called the "Illegal Immigration Removal Process," referencing the planned mass ICE raids, at the request of Democrats.
A Guatemalan migrant woman became emotional as she alleged to a congressional hearing Wednesday that her toddler daughter died soon after being released from a U.S. detention center because of "neglect and mistreatment," ABC video shows.
What she's saying: "We came to the United States, where I hoped to build a better and safer life for us," Yazmin Juárez told the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in Spanish, per CBS. "Instead, I watched my baby girl die slowly and painfully — just a few months before her second birthday."
