President Trump declined at a press conference Monday to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old supporter of his charged with murder over the shooting deaths of two people during protests in Kenosha last week.
What he's saying: "That was an interesting situation. You saw the same tape that I saw it. He was trying to get away from them, it looks like it. He fell and then they very violently attacked him. It was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble, he probably would have been killed."
Liberty University announced Monday it has hired one of the "leading forensic firms in the world" to conduct an investigation into "all facets" of the university's operations under Jerry Falwell Jr.'s leadership, including "financial, real estate, and legal matters."
The state of play: Falwell resigned as president of Liberty University following a Reuters story alleging that he and his wife had a years-long intimate relationship with business partner Giancarlo Granda. The top Trump ally and evangelical leader had endured a series of controversies and had taken an indefinite leave of absence before being forced to resign.
Twitter on Monday labeled a tweet from the Trump campaign's "War Room" account "manipulated media" for posting a misleading clip of Joe Biden saying, "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America!"
Reality check: More context would have shown that Biden was quoting President Trump and Vice President Pence as saying, "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America," during a speech in which the Democratic nominee was condemning violent protests and Trump's response to social unrest.
Reducing police brutality and improving trust between police departments and Black communities is urgent.
Axios Re:Cap digs in with Brookings Institution fellow and University of Maryland professor Rashawn Ray, who's spent more than a decade interviewing officers and running implicit bias trainings for police departments.
Senior Trump administration officials privately warned several states that spikes in coronavirus cases put them in high-risk "red zones" while publicly downplaying the threat of the virus, according to documents released by a special House committee overseeing the coronavirus response.
Why it matters: Democrats have long called for a national plan to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, while the White House has offered only guidance and insisted that states take the lead.
A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 on Monday that House Democrats do not have the legal authority to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Don McGahn.
Why it matters: The majority opinion deals a severe blow to the House's investigative power, ruling that Congress must pass a law in order to enforce subpoenas in court. House Democrats on Monday immediately said they would appeal the decision and ask the full appeals court to rehear the case.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon will stand trial on May 24 next year along with defendants Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: Bannon was arrested and indicted earlier this month for allegedly defrauding donors in a $25 million border wall fundraising campaign. All four men have pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.
Joe Biden on Monday rebutted President Trump's claim that the Democratic nominee would seek to ban fracking, the oil-and-gas extraction method that has enabled a surge in U.S. production over the last decade.
Why it matters: The remarks came during a speech in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state Trump carried in 2016 where fracking-enabled natural gas development is a major industry. Nearby Ohio, which Trump also won, is also a big gas-producing state.
Joe Biden on Monday gave his most forceful counterargument to President Trump on the issue of law and order, arguing in Pittsburgh there would be more violence in America if the president is re-elected.
What he's saying: "You know me. You know my heart. You know my story. Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really? I want a safe America," Biden said.
The full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an 8-2 ruling on Monday denying former national security adviser Michael Flynn's petition to force a federal judge to immediately drop his criminal case, as requested by the Justice Department.
Why it matters: The ruling will allow District Judge Emmet Sullivan to hold hearings to discuss the motion to dismiss the case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty in the Mueller investigation to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador.
A group of veteran Voice of America journalists penned a letter to VOA acting director Elez Biberaj saying that Michael Pack, the new CEO of VOA's parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), is endangering the livelihoods of contract journalists.
Why it matters: Pack has been the center of controversy ever since he took over the agency in June. The letter alleges that Pack's recent remarks in an interview with the conservative-leaning website The Federalist prove his malicious intent.
Flashback: In a similar poll conducted shortly before the 2016 election, Trump led Hillary Clinton by a 41%-21% margin. Since 2016, though, the president's approval rating among active-duty troops has fallen from 46% to 38%, while his disapproval rating has climbed to 50%.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction from Military Times. Due to an error, their article initially showed Biden with 43.1%, but has been updated to 41.3%.
CNN's Chris Cillizza has inked a book deal with Twelve to write a book — aimed for Father's Day 2022 or sooner — about how the sports presidents played, and watched, help us understand the men who have run our country.
Cillizza tells me the book, tentatively titled "It’s Way More Than a Game," aims to explain how each post-World War II president (and the society they governed) is best understood through sports — Ike and golf, Nixon and bowling, Obama and basketball.
"It Was Said" — Jon Meacham’s new C13Originals 10-part documentary podcast series from Cadence 13, focused on 10 of the most important, rousing, relevant and timeless speeches in history — launches Wednesday with two episodes:
Episode 1 explores the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" speech, delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968. King creates a mosaic of the ongoing civil rights struggle, culminating with a defiant premonition.
Episode 2 — the next day: Robert Kennedy learns of MLK's assassination while en route to a campaign event in the heart of a Black neighborhood in Indianapolis. He breaks the news to the crowd, delivering an unscripted eulogy for the apostle of nonviolence.
One of the crazy nuggets in a deeply reported book by the N.Y. Times' Michael Schmidt — "Donald Trump v. the United States," out tomorrow — is that President Trump mulled the idea of "settling" with special counsel Robert Mueller.
What he's saying: "At one point, as the investigation seemed to be intensifying," Schmidt writes, Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn "that there was nothing to worry about because if it was zeroing in on him, he would simply settle with Mueller. He would settle the case, as if he were negotiating terms in a lawsuit."
Four years after Donald Trump defied expectations set by pollsters and news organizations, the public should have even less confidence that public opinion data can accurately point to the winner.
Why it matters: This election could be deja vu all over again but worse, with polls setting false expectations amidst voting complicated by the pandemic and a president who has warned of a "rigged" process, the outcome of which he won't accept.
The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter shows, in a piece that's well worth your time, that President Trump is trailing "not because he's losing his 2016 base, but because he has never expanded beyond it."
By the numbers: Walter dug into the most recent national poll from the Pew Research Center (7/27-8/2) and compared it with their post-election poll in 2016 that uses official voting records.
Oregon State Police will return to Portland to assist city officers following a fatal shooting during clashes between supporters of President Trump and Black Lives Matter protesters, Gov. Kate Brown (D) announced Sunday.
What's happening: Brown made the announcement in a statement outlining a six-point plan that she said would "protect free speech and bring violence and arson to an end in Portland," including the U.S. attorney and FBI committing more resources for the investigation of criminal activity.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday to make an address "on whether voters feel safe" in President Trump's America and offer his vision for a "better future," his campaign said in a statement.
Of note: The Biden campaign's announcement Sunday comes one day after the New York Times reported that the former vice president would be making a trip to "condemn violence, and to note that chaos has unfolded" on Trump's watch.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) asked President Trump in a letter Sunday to reconsider his planned trip to Kenosha this week following protest unrest over Jacob Blake's shooting. But White House spokesperson Judd Deere told Axios the trip will go ahead.
The big picture: After Deere told reporters Saturday the president would "survey damage from recent riots," Everstold Trump he's concerned his presence "will only hinder our healing" and "delay our work to overcome division and move forward together."
