“Earlier this summer, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told every member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet it was nearing time to decide whether they plan to stick around through the rest of the term,“ NBC News reports.
“Cabinet members should report back around Labor Day, he said, according to the officials. And, while some of Cabinet members were tempted to leave, they all opted to stay.”
CBS News: “When an outside firm hired by then-congressional hopeful George Santos in 2021 delivered a secret internal report detailing aspects of the candidate’s checkered background, several of his aides found it too much to stomach. They urged Santos to drop out, and when he refused, they quit.”
“But even after New York voters elected Santos the following year and news reports began exposing concerning questions about his conduct, that original report was never made public, until now.”
“The head of the Chicago Teachers Union is facing backlash for sending her eldest child to a private high school, a decision she says represents a stark statement about disinvestment in public schools and drives home why the fight to fully fund neighborhood schools is so important,” the Chicago Sun Times reports.
Said Stacy Davis Gates: “In many of our schools on the South Side and the West Side, the course offerings are very marginal and limited. Then the other thing, and it was a very strong priority, was his ability to participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, which quite frankly, don’t exist in many of the schools, high schools in particular.”
“Fox News has fired veteran executive John Finley after determining that he violated the company’s conduct standards,” the Washington Post reports.
“Finley, who helped develop many of the network’s biggest shows and had once been Sean Hannity’s executive producer, was put on leave from his role as executive vice president of development in recent weeks while an investigation was conducted by an outside law firm. He was fired by the network Friday based on the firm’s findings.”
“The man who federal authorities say set off a brutal battle with police at the lower west tunnel of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested Friday, nearly two years after he was identified by online sleuths,” NBC News reports.
“Gregory Mijares was identified by online ‘Sedition Hunters’ in 2021. An FBI affidavit said the bureau received a tip in October 2021, and then interviewed Mijares in March 2023.”
Joe Klein: “Biden has done what he said he would. He’s been a solid ‘transitional’ President, but transition requires transit, a second act. We need to transition to something, a new Democratic vision of America — or to someone who can plausibly promise a creative way out of this molasses stasis. But Democrats are paralyzed. They’re terrified that a real conversation, a real political contest, will result in chaos — that Biden will collapse under pressure and there won’t be anyone credible to replace him…”
“But it’s the wrong concern. Democrats really should be terrified by the opposite: that nothing will change between now and [the] election, except Joe Biden will get older.”
David Lauter: “How we got to this point says a lot about where power lies in the two parties.”
“On the Republican side, Trump’s grassroots support is overriding the deep misgivings of party leaders.”
“Among Democrats, the reverse is true: Party leaders and elected officials have significantly more enthusiasm for Biden — or concern about the alternatives — than do average voters.”
“Senate Republicans stung by disappointing losses in the 2022 midterm elections are working to craft a more effective message on abortion as their party confronts the fallout from last year’s Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to the procedure,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“How the GOP handles the issue could be critical to the party’s efforts to retake the Senate and the White House in 2024, when abortion is once again expected to play a central role in elections nationwide.”
New York Times: “By all appearances, Mr. Newsom is a man with an eye on the White House, building a national network of supporters and accumulating the kind of good will among donors, party operatives and voters that could prove critical should he decide to move beyond Sacramento. Mr. Newsom said in an interview that he was not running for president, and that the time has come for Democrats to rally around President Biden.”
“But it may be difficult for Mr. Newsom to quiet speculation about his own future. He has spent months positioning himself as one of his party’s leading voices during a time of deep Democratic worry and lingering unease about the political strengths of Mr. Biden, who is 80, and his vice president, Kamala Harris.”
Tim Miller: “Super PACs for several GOP candidates challenging Donald Trump have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund efforts to displace him as the party’s nominee—and they have absolutely nothing to show for it.”
“No progress. No signs of life. No movement. Nada.”
“The impotence of the super PAC efforts is an all-the-more-inviting target for ridicule when you consider that this entire rategic approach was discredited in the 2016 and 2020 presidential races.”
The U.S. government seized nearly 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil allegedly bound for China, CNN reports.
“Brazil’s Supreme Court on Saturday authorized a cooperation deal between former President Jair Bolsonaro’s former aide and the country’s Federal Police, tightening the vice on the ex-leader who faces multiple criminal probes that could land him in jail,” Reuters reports.
“The aide, Mauro Cid, has been at the center of various investigations into the former president, including allegations of falsified vaccination records and a scheme to sell off expensive jewels given to the Bolsonaro administration.”
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