The House Oversight Committee on Monday launched an ethics investigation into Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao.
The big picture: Reports allege Chao has used her position to benefit Foremost Group, a shipping company owned by her sisters and father. Chao was also accused of continuing to own stock in a construction materials company called Vulcan Materials, even though she claimed before her confirmation that she would divest. Chao later divested in June 2019 and admitted to “inadvertent misstatements of fact" in her financial disclosure report and ethics agreement.
Israel holds elections Tuesday for the second time in less than 6 months, and the latest election polls showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party getting close to the magic number of 61 members in the Knesset for a right-wing bloc.
Why it matters: Netanyahu needs a 61-member right-wing coalition to win immunity if the attorney general decides to indict him for 3 cases of corruption after his upcoming hearing on Oct. 3.
The Working Families Party, a progressive labor group, on Monday endorsed 2020 candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to the New York Times.
Why it matters: The WFP gained national attention in the 2016 presidential election when it endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. The party's early endorsement of Warren over Sanders signals that the Massachusetts senator is making significant inroads with progressive voters, a key wing of the Democratic Party.
2020 Democratic contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren released Monday a massive new plan to prevent corruption in Washington, D.C., as a part of her promise to institute what she calls "the most sweeping set of anti-corruption reforms since Watergate" if elected.
Why it matters: If enacted, the wide-ranging proposal would dramatically restructure the federal government by limiting lobbyists' influence on Congress, expanding protections for workers and requiring federal judges to publicly post their financial reports and speeches.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will escalate her caucus' anti-Mitch McConnell messaging this fall, testing a theory that this can be more effective than just continuing the party's anti-Trump rhetoric, Democratic leadership aides tell Axios.
Why it matters: Democrats are still divided over how much to focus on President Trump ahead of the 2020 elections — and they're aware that "Trump fatigue" could mean that their attacks will bring diminishing returns.
Democrats plan to portray President Trump, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as the three villains defining the three branches of government for the 2020 campaign.
Why it matters: Each of these white men, they will argue, symbolizes Republican corruption and rule-bending.
President Trump tweeted Sunday evening — after oil prices soared following attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure — that "there is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification."
Between the lines: Trump's statement was an implicit threat to Iran, based on a tweet hours earlier from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said "Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply."
Watch for Trump's former campaign manager at the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday — and not just because of the prospect of a fiery exchange with Chairman Jerry Nadler.
Why it matters: If Corey Lewandowski goes forward with a run for the Senate in his home state of New Hampshire — which he's seriously considering, a spokesperson says — he'd be the first in Trump's inner circle to test those coattails.
At a Trump rally back in February in El Paso, Texas, the campaign saw an unexpected pattern in the attendee data — a large crowd of New Mexicans crossed the state line to be there.
"That was our first glimpse into the idea that there might be something happening," the Trump campaign's Tim Murtaugh told Axios.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) told CNN Sunday that he is pulling his endorsement of former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro and is giving it to former Vice President Joe Biden.
Why it matters: Gonzalez says his party needs to "narrow the field and unite as Democrats to defeat Trump."
2020 contender Pete Buttigieg told CNN on Sunday that Beto O'Rourke's remark of "Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15" plays into the hands of Republicans on gun control.
O'Rourke's Twitter response: "Leaving millions of weapons of war on the streets because Trump and McConnell are 'at least pretending to be open to reforms'? That calculation and fear is what got us here in the first place. Let’s have the courage to say what we believe and fight for it."
New data suggests that fear over the Trump administration's crackdown on unauthorized immigration may be a factor in last week's Census Bureau report showing the first increase in the number of people without health insurance in nearly a decade, according to AP.
Why it matters: The White House blamed the Affordable Care Act's high premiums for the rise in the uninsured, but only Hispanics and foreign-born people experienced a significant increase in their uninsured rate.
In a speech Sunday morning at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Joe Biden warnedabout the return of "the domestic terrorism of white supremacy."
Four black girls were killed there 56 years ago today, in a bombing tied to the Ku Klux Klan.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are suffering from a crisis in morale after facing severe national backlash as the once obscure law enforcement job moves into the spotlight of the immigration debate, according to the New York Times.
Why it matters: Despite support from the White House and members of Congress and a decent middle-class wage, many agents have grown disillusioned with their jobs and the agency remains about 1,800 agents short of its hiring targets.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder told CNN Saturday that President Trump could face prosecution once he leaves office for allegedly breaking campaign finance laws. But he warned there's a "potential cost to the nation by putting on trial a former president."
Details: Holder told CNN political commentator David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, that there was an indictment in the Southern District of New York concerning former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's guilty plea to campaign finance violations and other charges, which saw him sentenced to 3 years in prison.
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