Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), ranking member of the environment and climate change subcommittee, announced on Friday that he will retire and not seek re-election, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: He is the 14th GOP lawmaker to announce a resignation, retirement or change of office this year, per the Post. His seat is likely to remain Republican.
When negative coverage is excluded, stories about Elizabeth Warren are going farther online than coverage of any of the other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, according to data from NewsWhip exclusively provided to Axios.
Why it matters: Warren has been able to strike a balance of being discussed a lot without being the target of sustained criticism or media pile-on that other top candidates have endured. And many of the biggest stories about her have been downright glowing.
The Democratic National Committee is set to recommend that Iowa and Nevada not move forward with their plans to offer "virtual" telephone-based caucus participation in 2020 due to concerns about hacking, reports the Des Moines Register.
Why it matters: The virtual caucuses were envisioned as a way to expand voter access as part of a national mandate set by the DNC, but the organization remains wary after its email hacking incident during the 2016 election. The AP says that it still remains unclear if both states could overhaul their proposals or offer an alternative form of virtual caucus participation.
President Trump's longtime personal assistant Madeleine Westerhout suddenly resigned on Thursday, 2 people familiar with her departure told the New York Times.
Catch up quick: Westerhout's resignation came 2 weeks after she told reporters at an off-the-record dinner about "Trump’s eating habits, his youngest son, Barron Trump, and his thoughts about the weight and appearance of his daughter Tiffany Trump," the NYT reports, citing current and former administration officials who were told what happened.
The Trump administration proposed expanding its DNA testing program to include undocumented immigrants in government custody, per a draft copy of the plan obtained by Buzzfeed News.
What we know: The Department of Justice proposal would allow the extraction of DNA from undocumented immigrants in Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) custody. If implemented, hundreds of thousands of people could be subjected to testing annually, adding an expected 20,000 work hours for CBP officials. The proposal does not prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from participating in the testing, but does require them to do so, either.
Immigrants battling severe illnesses who would ordinarily be given special, temporary protection from deportation have been told those protections are no longer available and they must leave the U.S. within 33 days, according to letters sent by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and first reported by WBUR.
Why it matters: USCIS has since said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will now oversee the "medical deferred action" program — a change that had not been formally announced. An ICE official told the New York Times that the agency "had no idea" about the change, nor is it prepared to handle the new responsibility.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, currently leading in the polls for the 2020 Democratic nomination, got almost every detail incorrect in the retelling of his participation in a 2008 war story at a campaign stop, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Biden has drawn criticism in recent months for public gaffes and slips, including mistakenly thinking he was vice president during the 2018 Parkland shooting and mistaking Margaret Thatcher for Theresa May.
Personal financial disclosures have become a litmus test for Democratic 2020 hopefuls, as candidates link their tax disclosures with the long-standing fight to obtain President Trump’s tax returns.
Our thought bubble, per Axios' Alexi McCammond: It will likely be politically toxic for any 2020 Democrat not to release their tax returns, since this is an example of how anything they demand of Trump they must do themselves. This is Democrats’ way of separating themselves from Trump, trying to get back to norms and pushing for transparency.
Joe Walsh, the former Tea Party congressman and 2020 Republican primary challenger to President Trump, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News that his past tweets calling former President Obama a Muslim are his biggest regrets on the platform.
Why it matters: While Walsh has apologized for some of his rhetoric, his inflammatory record is littered with controversy — including statements he has admitted were racist.
State and city election boards have spent the better part of 3 years hardening their systems for a 2020 hacker invasion. Yet all that work may not be enough to keep out ransomware.
Driving the news: On Monday, Reuters was first to report that the Department of Homeland Security would begin helping elections officials prepare for ransomware attacks.
President Trump's latest tweets have continued a pattern of attacking the Federal Reserve and his handpicked chairman Jerome Powell for months using a mix of half-truths, mischaracterizations and hyperbolic fantasies, such as a claim that the stock market would be 10,000 points higher if not for the Fed.
Driving the news: On Wednesday morning, Trump said on Twitter that the Fed "cannot 'mentally' keep up with the competition - other countries. At the G-7 in France, all of the other Leaders were giddy about how low their Interest Costs have gone. Germany is actually “getting paid” to borrow money - ZERO INTEREST PLUS! No Clue Fed!"
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News' "'Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday that the Democratic National Committee's process for determining who qualifies in debates "lacks transparency."
"People deserve having that transparency, because, ultimately, it's the people who will decide who our Democratic nominee will be and ultimately who our next president, commander-in-chief will be. And when you see that lack of transparency, it creates, you know, a lack of faith and trust in the process."
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted on Wednesday that she needs security protection as she shared a death threat she received hours after Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore tweeted she should "go back to Somalia."
Why it matters: The Somalia-born U.S. citizen has said she experiences spikes in death threats when conservatives, including President Trump, target her in attacks. The writer of the latest death threat speaks of getting the "Somali stink" out of Minnesota as they threatened to shoot her at the state fair.
