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The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) issued a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday, calling it a "human rights issue" and saying a "diversity and inclusion" merit badge will be a requirement for Eagle Scouts going forward. The BSA executive committee in its statement expressed regret for "not [being] as brave as we should have been" on using the group's platform to address racism.

Heavily armed citizens showed up recently at protests in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Montana, Colorado and Idaho to allegedly protected peaceful protesters from antifa. ... The FBI stated there is no evidence that any protests have been linked to antifa. Still, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!” ... In mid-April, after blue-state governors enacted quarantine measure, he also claimed multiple times that these governors were trying to take people’s guns away...Less than two weeks later, armed anti-lockdown protesters descended on Michigan’s statehouse. In response, some state legislators...

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams says she has not heard from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign as it starts its vetting process to pick a nominee for vice president. “I have said many times that if called I will answer, but I have not received any calls,” Abrams, who rose to prominence when she narrowly lost Georgia’s gubernatorial race in 2018, said Wednesday night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Abrams, also a former leader in the Georgia state House, has been frequently floated as a possible running mate for Biden, particularly as pressure ramps up for the former vice president...

President Trump plans to resume campaign rallies in the next two weeks as states move forward with reopening businesses and allowing gatherings to resume. The plans were first reported by Politico and confirmed to The Hill by Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. The details of the rallies, including when and where they will take place and what safety protocols will be implemented, have not yet been decided. Trump’s last campaign rally took place in March, before most states issued stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. DEVELOPING

In a new series based on the beloved “Looney Tunes” cartoons, the classic character Elmer Fudd will no longer carry a gun. The new series “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” which premiered last week on the streaming service HBO Max, will feature the cartoon’s characteristic violence – using sticks of dynamite, booby traps and the iconic anvils and bank safes dropped onto characters, The New York Times reported last week. However, Peter Browngardt, the series executive producer and showrunner, told the outlet, “We’re not doing guns.” “But we can do cartoony violence — TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of...

CNN opted not to air President Trump's remarks on Friday's surprise jobs report showing 2.5 million jobs were added to the economy in May, with MSNBC carrying the comments partially, and Fox News, ABC, NBC and CBS carrying the speech from the Rose Garden in full. The president was in a celebratory mood following the report that the unemployment rate dropped from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent in May. Analysts had expected the report would show unemployment rising to as high as 20 percent, and the new figures suggested an economic rebound could come more quickly. Stocks jumped...

Iran has released U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, who had been detained for nearly two years, his family confirmed Thursday. “I am blessed to announce that the nightmare is over, and my son is safely in American custody and on his way home,” White’s mother, Joanne White, said in a statement shared by a family spokesman on Twitter. Joanne White thanked the State Department, Swiss diplomats and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) in her statement. U.S. special envoy for Iran Brian Hook flew to Zurich with a doctor to meet...

A reserved Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday called on President Trump to tone down his combative approach to the national protests for racial justice that have followed the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis last week. Clutching a Bible in the Capitol, Pelosi urged Trump to reach across the divides of race, party, region and religion to help the country heal instead. "We would hope that the president of the United States would follow the lead of so many other presidents before him to be a healer-in-chief, and not a fanner of the flame," she said.

‘Imagine if former President Bush, as Trump’s most recent Republican predecessor, backed a Democrat. Bush’s voice has the singular power to reach moderate Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters, freeing them to walk away from the Party of Trump.’ That’s Fox News analyst Juan Williams musing in an op-ed for The Hill on Monday about what an endorsement from George W. Bush could mean for Joe Biden’s chances in the 2020 election.

More than two dozen former prosecutors, judges and active trial lawyers filed a brief backing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to dismiss the case against President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The bipartisan group of former government attorneys are asking U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan for them to formally file an amicus brief on the case. The group includes former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). “The issue presented in this case is whether the court has discretion to deny a motion to dismiss to which the defendant consents, as...

A bill to reauthorize three expired surveillance programs is in jeopardy, with President Trump urging Republicans to oppose it and growing concerns from progressives on a key amendment. House Democratic leaders say they still intend to vote on the measure this week, but it’s suddenly unclear if it can muster the 218 votes needed to clear the chamber — despite an earlier version of the bill winning 278 votes in March. Despite the limbo status, Democratic leadership is signaling they will move forward, setting up a showdown on the House floor over the fate of the bill. An update from...

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it opposes House-proposed changes to surveillance reform legislation and will urge President Trump to veto the bill if it reaches his desk. The statement, from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, is the latest setback for the legislation, which is currently scheduled to get a vote on the House floor on Wednesday, after Trump on Tuesday night urged GOP opposition to vote against it. The veto threat from the Justice Department is a marked shift from March, when Attorney General William Barr helped negotiate the initial version of the bill with House leadership. The...

Dozens of House Democrats are planning to vote remotely this week for the first time in the chamber's history amid concerns about the health risks involved with traveling to Washington. At least 50 lawmakers are planning to vote by proxy, or designate a colleague physically present in the Capitol to cast votes on their behalf, according to a list published by the House clerk's office on Tuesday. Last week, just 18 were on the list. Democrats representing districts in the Washington, D.C. suburbs are the most popular proxies, given their proximity to the Capitol. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Jamie...

A Republican candidate seeking to challenge Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dropped out of the congressional GOP primary race late Monday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will travel to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a meeting with President Trump to discuss economic revival efforts. The governor said during a news conference on Tuesday that he hoped to discuss how infrastructure projects could be leveraged to kickstart the economy, which has cratered due to the coronavirus pandemic. "You want to restart the economy, you want to reopen the economy, let’s do something creative, let’s do it fast, let’s put Americans back to work, and let’s make America better," Cuomo said. "It is common sense." "You have an infrastructure that’s crumbling, you...

Tensions are flaring in the Senate as Republicans prepare to ramp up their investigations into Obama-era officials. Amid public and private pressure from President Trump, GOP senators are increasingly embracing calls to use their congressional power to investigate some of Trump’s biggest grievances stemming from the Obama administration, including the origins of the Russia investigation, the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Hunter Biden. Democrats argue Republicans are using their committee gavels to probe Trump’s political enemies, an effort they say is designed to hunt for political fodder against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that he wants to release the findings of his investigation into the federal Russia probe before the November election. Graham, speaking to a small group of reporters, said that he planned to wrap up the Judiciary Committee investigation by September or October. "I want to do it before the election, I want to get all the information out there," Graham said when asked if the plan was to release the report before the election. Graham's timeline, which was first reported by The Hill last week, would have him releasing a report on the committee's...

A leaked Pentagon memo on Tuesday revealed that top Defense Department officials have been planning for the possibility that the military could be dealing with a “globally-persistent” coronavirus pandemic well into 2021. The memo, obtained by Task and Purpose, also warns of the “real possibility” that a vaccine for COVID-19 won’t be available until “at least the summer of 2021.” “We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19. Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19...

Republicans and right-wing media are in a conspiracy theory-spewing meltdown. In the wake of selective, politically motivated “leaks” of sensitive documents, conservative pundits are launching an avalanche of baseless attacks against President Trump’s political opponents. But the reality is brutally obvious: Trump is weaponizing the American government to distract from his catastrophically incompetent pandemic response and the crushing economic fallout. While right-wing media continue to whip their audiences into hysteria over a nefarious Obama-led plot to undermine Trump, the documents — strategically released by Trump’s political lackeys atop the intelligence and law enforcement communities — do absolutely nothing to further...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said on Tuesday that she has had an “opening conversation” with Joe Biden’s campaign about her potential as a running mate pick for the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. In an interview on NBC’s “The Third Hour of Today,” Whitmer revealed that she has had a “conversation with some folks” about the running mate slot, but said that she did not see the discussion as particularly formal and is solely committed for the time being to her official duties as governor. “It was just an opening conversation and it’s not something that...