Presidential race

Two of California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's Democratic opponents lambasted him for calling racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month a “total hoax.”

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Rohrabacher said it was possible that a “former Hillary (Clinton) or Bernie (Sanders) supporter” organized “Civil War re-enactors” to rally around a statue of Robert E. Lee.

Lawyers for disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner claim that the teenage girl to whom he sent explicit messages wanted to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Weiner’s lawyers said that Weiner never sought out teenage girls, The Associated Press reported. But they admitted that Weiner’s acts were “born of deep sickness.”

A host of fresh criticism rained down on President Donald Trump’s commission on voter fraud Tuesday as it held its second meeting since the panel’s creation in May.

Most of the harshness was directed at Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who led the meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in his capacity as vice chairman. Vice President Mike Pence, the panel’s chairman, was not present.

It is as lasting an American literary metaphor as Captain Ahab and the white whale or Hester Prynne and her scarlet “A.”

We are, of course, referring to that branch of science known as cartoon thermodynamics. The first law, as popularized by the late film critic Roger Ebert, is worthy of Isaac Newton: “Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.”

Donald Trump Jr. spent about five hours Thursday answering questions from Senate Judiciary Committee staff about a meeting he set up between his father’s presidential campaign and a Russian lawyer, but the details beyond his opening statement remain private for now.

Several senators attended the closed-door, voluntary interview with the president’s son, part of the committee’s probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Only Senate staffers asked questions, however, and the committee will have to vote at a later time on whether to make the transcript public.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The fate of Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly’s re-election bid next year may lie in his ability to convince Hoosiers he’s not always on the same page as the national Democratic Party. Fortunately for him, he has a lot of practice, and has been highly successful at it, going back more than a dozen years.

“The party occasionally gets mad, I really don’t care,” said one of the Democrats’ most endangered incumbents.

The Senate Intelligence Committee might want California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher to testify about his meeting with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange.

“He hasn’t been contacted by the committee, but is happy to talk with them after he talks with President Trump,” Ken Grubbs, an aide to the Republican, said to CNN in its report.

Candidate Donald Trump often said he knew more when it came to the country’s foes than America’s top military leaders. But by siding with retired and current four-star generals on Afghanistan, Trump placed a big bet on a group he once believed had been “reduced to rubble.”

Trump announced Monday night at Joint Base Fort Myer Hamilton Hall in Arlington, Va., he will keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan despite his long-held disdain for the operation there. The president’s decision came after a months-long review by his national security team, and reports indicate he will raise the American military presence there to around 12,000.

Almost two hours after news broke Friday that President Donald Trump decided to part ways with White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy  — at least at that moment — had another topic on his mind.

He retweeted a message that the chief executive sent out Friday morning, before Bannon’s ouster was reported, about elevating the country’s Cyber Command. McCarthy called it “the right move.”

Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who the congressman said denied that Russia was involved in sending him emails from the Democratic National Committee. 

WikiLeaks published emails from the Democratic National Committee, which led to the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.