A new Carolina Journal poll shows former Democratic governor Roy Cooper widening his lead over Republican Michael Whatley in North Carolina's open Senate race. Cooper leads independents 55% to 34% and holds 91% of Democrats, while Whatley takes 81% of his own party. The finding worries GOP strategists defending a seat in a state President Donald Trump won twice. Whatley used the Republican midterm convention in Dallas to tie himself to Trump. High gas prices and climbing mortgage rates are complicating the party's national message.
President Donald Trump arrived in Ireland on Saturday for his first state visit since Catherine Connolly became president, meeting Ireland's leaders in Dublin before heading to his Doonbeg golf resort for the final rounds of the Amgen Irish Open. He said relations between the two countries have never been better and told reporters a united Ireland would be 'fantastic'. Large crowds protested in Dublin and a demonstration was planned in Doonbeg, where Irish authorities mounted one of the largest security operations in the state's history. Trump delayed his arrival to stay in the US for the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
President Donald Trump told CBS News Texas that he does not think Congress would need to approve his plan to send $5,000 to every adult American if Republicans hold the House and Senate. He unveiled the idea during the first Republican midterm convention in Dallas. The payments could cost more than a trillion dollars, and it is not clear what legal authority the president has to send them. Legal experts, economists and some fellow Republicans say the plan faces practical obstacles and long odds in Congress. Party officials in competitive districts have said their candidates will not campaign on the proposal, even as Trump presents it as a way to rescue Republican prospects in November.
A federal appeals court upheld a block on the Trump administration's restrictions on mail-in voting, leaving the rules frozen while the Supreme Court considers whether to intervene before November's midterm elections. Three judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with District Judge Indira Talwani, who barred the Postal Service from carrying out the executive order. The order would withhold mail ballots from states that do not provide lists of voters who should receive them. Talwani wrote there was no evidence of fraudulent mail voting to support the directive and has blocked it three times. Further appeals are expected.
New Hampshire voters chose a general election matchup that could help decide control of the U.S. Senate. Former senator John E. Sununu won the Republican nomination, and U.S. Representative Chris Pappas won the Democratic side, NBC News projected. Sununu, endorsed by President Trump, defeated former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown. Pappas cleared a crowded Democratic field. The seat is open because Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is retiring. New Hampshire has not elected a Republican senator since 2010, and the November race is seen as one of the GOP's best chances to flip a Democratic-held seat. Polls show Pappas ahead, and the outcome could shape which party controls the chamber after the midterms.
Lonnie Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, will step down by the end of the year, he announced Tuesday. Bunch, 73, is the first Black person and the first historian to lead the world's largest museum organization. His departure follows months of mounting pressure from the Trump administration, including an executive order seeking the removal of what it called improper ideology and an August 28 letter warning that federal agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian unless its leadership changes. Bunch, who has worked at the Smithsonian for 38 years, said the decision was his own and not tied to that pressure. Senator Alex Padilla said Congress must defend the institution's independence.
The share of Republicans who strongly approve of President Donald Trump and his handling of the Iran war has dropped sharply in recent months, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll. The survey found that Trump's pool of most ardent supporters is shrinking as Americans give him low marks on his overall job performance and on the war. Across the full electorate, 66 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's actions in the conflict, while 33 percent approve. The findings signal growing political risk for the White House as the military campaign in Iran continues with no clear endpoint, and they arrive as the administration faces legal fights and an active election season at home.
The Trump administration on Sunday again asked the Supreme Court to allow new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections. It is the third time the administration has sought the high court's intervention in the dispute over an executive order that voting rights groups and Democratic-led states say intrudes on state election authority. Lower courts have blocked key parts of the order, and a federal appeals court said it “directs unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson set a fast deadline for responses. North Carolina began mailing absentee ballots on Friday, and control of both chambers of Congress is at stake in November.
The Pentagon has put about 50 members of the Joint Staff through polygraph tests as part of an investigation into leaks about the U.S. military campaign against Iran, according to officials familiar with the effort. The tests took place in August after news reports detailed shrinking stocks of long-range missiles and Patriot interceptors. The Joint Staff employs between 1,500 and 2,000 people, making the sweep an unusually wide search. People with knowledge of the effort said the tests were also meant to discourage future leaks. No one has been publicly identified as the source, and officials have not said whether the tests produced an admission. The New York Times first reported the polygraph sweep.
The US Postal Service is rushing to build a computer system to screen mail-in ballots ahead of November's midterm elections, even as courts weigh challenges to the executive order behind it. A whistleblower told Congress the system is being built in about three months when it would normally take a year or more, and that a single scanning glitch could turn away entire batches of ballots. The system grew from President Donald Trump's March executive order, which requires states to give USPS lists of voters eligible to receive mail ballots. More than two dozen Democratic state attorneys general and voting rights groups have sued over the order. Senators called the project perilously rushed and potentially unlawful.