Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) is retiring, according to a statement released Thursday by National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer.
Why it matters: Without Olson, Texas' 22nd congressional district is expected to shift from Republican to "toss-up", or a highly competitive seat that either party has a good chance of winning in 2020. The minority-majority district is "one of the fastest-diversifying" in the country, according to Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman.
In the 24 hours since former special counsel Robert Mueller warned of future election interference in his congressional testimony, Senate Republicans have blocked a collection of election security bills and a cybersecurity measure.
The latest: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday blocked Democrats from pushing forward a House-passed bill to authorize $775 million in state funding over the next 2 years to bolster voting system security, CNN reports.
A dozen Republican members of Congress sent President Trump a previously undisclosed letter on Tuesday urging him to delay the Pentagon's plan to award a $10 billion cloud computing contract to a single company.
Why it matters: The letter, obtained by Axios, argues that awarding the contract would be "premature" given the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General is still investigating potential conflicts of interest with those involved in the negotiations. The letter strikes a contrast with a ruling from a federal judge earlier this month, which found that allegations that DOD employees unfairly favored Amazon Web Services for its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing program were meritless.
Pete Buttigieg has spent roughly $300,000 on private jet travel this year, more than any other Democrat running for the White House, according to an analysis of campaign finance data by AP's Brian Slodysko.
By the numbers: Joe Biden spent $256,000 on charter flights, and the rest of the field spent far less. Sen. Elizabeth Warren spent $60,000, Sen. Bernie Sanders spent $18,000 and Sen. Kamala Harris spent $17,000.
Several bills that aim to tackle climate change are surfacing as lawmakers scramble before their August congressional break.
Why it matters: While none of the measures is likely to pass any time soon (if ever), they’re nonetheless a sign of the increasing saliency of climate change among politicians, particularly Democrats, but, in a slowly shifting trend, Republicans, too.
A$AP Rocky has been charged along with 2 others with assault in Sweden and will remain in custody until a trial takes place, prosecutors said Thursday, adding no trial date had been set.
The big picture: President Trump said Saturday he phoned Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven to vouch for bail for the U.S. rapper after Kim Kardashian West alerted him to A$AP Rocky's detention. However, Sweden's criminal justice system doesn't include bail.
A California federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday to block the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants at the southern border who do not first apply for protections in at least one other country they've traveled through.
Asked by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) to react to quotes by President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 campaign praising stolen material published by WikiLeaks, special counsel Robert Mueller responded: "Problematic is an understatement."
Why it matters: Throughout his testimony, Mueller has been reluctant to answer questions that stray outside the contents of his 450-page report. His sharp criticism of Trump's praise of WikiLeaks, which he described as an "hostile intelligence service" whose founder Julian Assange is under indictment, is a rare rebuke of the president.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller told the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday that his investigation is "absolutely" not a "witch hunt" and that Russian interference in the 2016 election is not a "hoax."
The Senate voted 52-40 Wednesday along party lines to confirm Stephen Dickson as the new administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The FAA has not had a confirmed head since January 2018. Former American Airlines pilot Daniel Elwell served as the acting chief in the interim.
Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), the sophomore representative to Republican House leadership, will not seek re-election next year, blaming the political climate in Washington, reports Politico.
"I think leaders have to lead. They have to stand up, and they have to demonstrate what we should expect of each other in our country. I was commenting earlier to our senior staff, 'Do we see the next four [years], in the near term, the better angels coming out of this?'"
The big picture: Mitchell publicly split with President Trump earlier this month, saying that Trump's racist tweets targeting four Democratic congresswomen of color were "beneath leaders." Mitchell also told Politico that he is frustrated with the environment in Congress, which he says does nothing but "rewards extremes."
Just minutes into his back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, former special counsel Robert Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that his report did not exonerate President Trump of obstruction of justice.
The big picture: Just a half-hour before the hearing began, Trump tweeted, "NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!" Mueller had previously stated at a press conference in May that he "would have said" if his office was confident the president did not commit a crime.
In his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee, former special counsel Robert Mueller summarized the top-line findings of his investigation and discussed what topics he would not be able to publicly discuss with Congress — including the actions of Attorney General Barr and the FBI's opening of the Russia investigation.
Negative stories about the Trump administration's immigration policies are getting much more online attention than stories that appeal to readers with immigration views aligned with the president, according to data from NewsWhip exclusively provided to Axios.
Why it matters: According to this tracker — which measures reach and engagement — immigration has been the top issue throughout the campaign by far, and President Trump has continuously leaned into it because he sees it as a political winner. This data shows that he's losing the war of how this issue is being framed online.
Details: The New York Times noted during his 80-minute speech Trump incorrectly claimed that unauthorized immigrants can vote and that the election systems in states like California are "rigged," without citing any evidence.
Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Dallas-born 18-year-old American citizen, was released from immigration custody on Tuesday after being detained for 26 days, reports the Dallas News, which first brought his plight to attention.
Details: He left an ICE detention center in Pearsall, Texas, after being transferred there following 3 weeks in a Border Patrol facility, per AP. Galicia, who's from the border city of Edinburg, Texas, was stopped with his Mexico-born brother Marlon Galicia, 17, and friends at a checkpoint and detained despite having a state ID, the New York Times notes.
His brother was freed after signing papers agreeing to effectively self-deport and is staying with relatives in Reynosa, Mexico, the NYT said.
More than 4,000 migrant kids are at risk of being held indefinitely in federal government shelters because no relative or family friend has come forward to take custody of them, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) director Jonathan Hayes told CBS in a June interview.
Why it matters: A third of all migrant children in ORR's care are in this situation — an unprecedented number. They're being held in shelters that are nearing capacity and not designed for long-term care.
