Dems In For Primary-palooza, Mueller Digs Into Trump's Don Jr. Meeting Claims, And GOPer Seeks To Kill Russia Probe

August 29th, 2017 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [Too Much Of A Good Thing? Candidate Glut Means Primary-palooza For House Dems]( The Gist: In nearly every top-targeted race across the country, Democrats face competitive primaries that could complicate their party’s chances of winning the majority. “I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm to run this early in a cycle,” said Dave Wasserman, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report’s House race guru. “It’s a good problem to have.” [Report: Mueller Probing Whether Trump Tried To Hide Nature Of Don Jr. Meeting]( The Gist: Federal investigators on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team are probing whether President Donald Trump tried to hide the nature of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer in crafting his son’s initial statement on the meeting, NBC News reported Monday evening, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter. [GOP Representative Puts Forward Proposal To Kill Mueller Probe]( The Gist: Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has put forward a provision that would make deep cuts to resources committed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russian officials, Politico reported. From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- A 26-year-old man who claimed he was stabbed after being mistaken for a “neo-Nazi,” admitted to local Colorado police that he made up the whole story after he accidentally cut himself with a knife, [TPM's Nicole Lafond reports](. Earlier this month, Joshua Witt told Sheridan, Colorado police that a man had approached him when he was exiting his car, asked if he was a “neo-Nazi” and tried to stab him. Police began to question his story when they couldn’t find surveillance footage to corroborate his accusations, Sheridan police said in a statement sent to TPM. When confronted with this information, Witt admitted he accidentally cut himself with the knife and fabricated the story. Agree Or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Marshall: "I believe that if you look both historically and in practice, when you have widespread street brawling between 'good' groups and 'bad' groups, [it almost always ends up being a victory for the fascist groups](. This is for a number of reasons. First is that these groups have historically used the presence of civil violence to justify 'law and order' crackdowns which usually empower and propagate authoritarian politics. You can already see this, tendentiously, in those hideous NRA video hate screeds. Again, history tells us this and I think it’s close to intuitive: breakdowns of civil peace lead to authoritarian crackdowns, which almost always have a right-wing and often racist valence." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "The thought was if there was an opportunity there to get two sides together to talk about Christian values, then that’s important. That was the gist of it, and it didn’t go anywhere." - Rick Clay, the former Iraq War contractor who reached out to a top Trump aide on behalf of an unnamed friend asking if the campaign would be interested in sitting down with Russian officials, [saying Monday]( that the friend only wanted to talk about "shared Christian values" with the Russians. BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "Bannon's supporting Moore isn't about opposing Trump, but going after McConnell's hold on his caucus. I suspect Bannon is backing Moore because he both wants to blow stuff up and because Moore would cause McConnell far more headaches." Related: [Report: Bannon Breaks With Trump, Backs Roy Moore In Alabama Run-off]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- What Rep. John Conyers’s Sweeping Single-Payer Health Care Bill Would Actually Do ([Vox]( Packing A Pistol For Yoga? The National Rifle Association’s First “Fashion Show” Has You Covered ([Quartz]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](