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In Tuesday’s Democratic congressional primary, voters in Missouri’s first district will decide whether to re-elect moderate incumbent Congressman Wesley Bell or replace him with Cori Bush, the Democratic Socialist who was the district’s Congressional representative until Bell ousted her two years ago.  Alongside Michigan’s Democratic congressional primary, Missouri’s first district race has become a referendum […]

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro hauled a crate of evidence to the White House Monday evening in a bid to convince President Donald Trump that vandals weren’t responsible for damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump is reportedly considering firing Pirro over the Department of Justice’s admission in court that the pool’s peeling lining was the result of “flawed” renovation work, not vandals.Pirro brought a large carton of evidence collected by the Department of the Interior to a private meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, sources familiar told CBS News Tuesday. The evidence was reportedly used to exonerate former U.S. Olympian David Hearn. Later, Pirro was spotted leaving the White House dragging her enormous box of proof behind her. BREAKING: Jeanine Pirro was just spotted leaving the WH with a briefcase and white box. Looks like she may have just been fired for not lying enough. pic.twitter.com/QoA7Rc7ImJ— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) August 4, 2026The occasionally heated meeting took place shortly after the president lashed out at her during a press conference. Since then, Trump has made no indication that he was the least bit convinced, but federal prosecutors have moved to drop the charges against the remaining two alleged vandals. In a filing last week, federal prosecutors admitted that the DOJ hadn’t fully investigated the matter because the pool hadn’t actually been drained, and the lining was “mostly obscured” by water. Federal prosecutors blamed the Department of the Interior for initially claiming that the damage was “entirely caused by vandals.” Pirro has been criticized for mounting prosecutions against a group of alleged vandals before fully investigating.

The Trump administration is making Haitians in the U.S. report to immigration offices to either get ankle monitors or immediately be deported after stripping their Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, last month.In Springfield, Ohio, dozens of Haitians with TPS were called to ICE offices, fitted with the ankle monitors, and given instructions not to travel more than 75 miles from their homes. The Haitian community in the city is about 15,000 strong, and a Supreme Court decision in June allowed the Trump administration to take away their TPS protections despite the ongoing poor security situation in Haiti.Many Haitians have asylum applications that have been pending for years. One Haitian resident was told to either wear an ankle monitor or be deported with $2,600, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. ICE has sent letters to Haitians with TPS to come to immigration offices with “any and all immigration documents.” “It is important that you keep this appointment and bring this letter with you,” the letter states. “If you are unable to do so, state your reason, sign below, and return this letter to this office at once.”A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Independent that “Temporary Protected Status is exactly that—temporary.”“What we would say now is it’s closing time which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” the spokesperson said. “The good news is it’s not too late to get a $2,600 check and a free flight home.”President Trump infamously accused Haitians in Springfield of eating cats and dogs on the campaign trail in 2024, and the Haitian community has been bracing for heavy-handed ICE raids ever since the Supreme Court’s decision in June. Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine has spoken up in support of Haitians in his state but has not promised any support beyond that.“These are people who have helped Springfield really come back,” DeWine said in a CBS interview last month, explaining that Haitians have filled jobs and opened businesses where the economy once struggled. “The Haitians who are living there and employed there, they came there to work, and they came there because there were jobs that were not being filled by other people.“Haiti is hell today. So you’d be sending people … back to hell.”

Some firms are willing to shell out $100,000 a month for early access to Trump’s social-media posts.

Senate Judiciary Democrats used their final moments ahead of Todd Blanche’s nomination vote Tuesday to remind the committee of numerous reasons why the acting attorney general should not be permanently promoted—but apparently all Republicans heard was a bunch of “whining.”Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt was quick to mock his Democratic committee colleagues, sharing a derogatory note on X that he penned during the proceedings.​​“So much whining!” the note read.Schmitt’s language is an interesting choice, considering that the “whining” was an explicit exploration of why Donald Trump’s personal attorney should not have the keys to the Justice Department.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse referred to Blanche’s botched rollout of the Epstein files as just one reason why he should be disqualified from consideration. Whitehouse reminded the committee that even other Trump officials—notably, former Attorney General Pam Bondi—said Blanche was responsible for the bungled release.Senator Dick Durbin effectively accused Blanche of violating his oath of office by having “aided and abetted the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States” rather than “serving the American people and upholding the rule of law and the Constitution.”Durbin further accused Blanche—who is, again, in the running to be America’s preeminent lawyer—of lying under oath about statements relating to Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund “to avoid offending President Trump.”Other damning details cited by Democrats involved Blanche’s personal role in crafting the collusive settlement between the DOJ, Trump’s personal attorneys, and the IRS that laid the groundwork for the taxpayer-funded honeypot. Liberal lawmakers also chided Blanche’s utilization of the Justice Department within his current limited capacity to target Trump’s perceived political enemies with bogus criminal cases.Democrats noted that Blanche still had not walked back a deal to protect Trump, a convicted tax fraudster, against future IRS investigations. But perhaps most scathing were the repeat references to Blanche’s bad lawyering. Democrats pointed to a petition signed by hundreds of Blanche’s former colleagues that claimed Blanche was simply unfit to be America’s top law enforcement official. The New York City Bar Association also protested Blanche’s nomination, accusing Blanche of having dubious ethical standards that failed to meet the standard required by the office.Schmitt’s dismissive tone could only suggest that he either didn’t listen to the complaints or he simply doesn’t care.

The US has imposed more tariffs on Chinese goods, blacklisted dozens more Chinese companies, and banned new Chinese humanoid robots.