Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Deadly crash: “Sixteen service members were killed in the military plane that crashed Monday afternoon in rural Mississippi, spurring an intense search for bodies and a federal investigation into what caused the fiery wreck. Marine Corps Maj. Andrew Aranda said at a news conference Tuesday that there was no immediate evidence of foul play.”
* This is pretty surprising: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday announced he is delaying the start of the traditional August recess this year by two weeks in order to work on health care and other issues.”
* Natalia Veselnitskaya: “The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. during the presidential campaign denied in an exclusive interview with NBC News that she had any connection to the Kremlin and insisted she met with President Donald Trump’s son in 2016 to discuss sanctions between Russia and the U.S., not to hand over information about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”
* Erik Prince and Stephen Feinberg: “President Trump’s advisers recruited two businessmen who profited from military contracting to devise alternatives to the Pentagon’s plan to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan, reflecting the Trump administration’s struggle to define its strategy for dealing with a war now 16 years old.”
* FBI: “The federal government is canceling the search for a new FBI headquarters, according to officials familiar with the decision, putting a more than decade-long effort by the bureau to move out of the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building back at square one.”
* Believable: “U.S. Golf Association executive director Mike Davis told members of the USGA’s executive committee that Donald Trump threatened to sue the organization if it moved the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminister, N.J., according to a person with direct knowledge of the meeting.” * Irrational fears lead to unwise policies: “Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security are floating a proposal that would require foreign students to reapply for permission to stay in the United States every year, a controversial move that would create new costs and paperwork for thousands of visa holders from China, India and other nations, according to two federal officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.” * Team Trump doesn’t understand how a free press works: “The White House asked the White House Correspondents’ Association to single out a reporter and criticize an article, WHCA President Jeff Mason said Monday evening…. Mason said he declined to do so and that ‘we’ve made clear that’s not our role.’” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
