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Citing health concerns, Republican Mark Harris said Tuesday that he won’t run in a new election for the 9th Congressional District. His announcement came five days after the State Board of Elections concluded a hearing into allegations of election fraud in the 9th District by calling for a new election. He hired a chief of staff and was assigned an office on Capitol Hill. Though Harris endorsed Republican Stony Rushing, a Union County commissioner, for the congressional seat Tuesday, his withdrawal opens the door to other Republicans. Mathew Ridenhour, a former Mecklenburg commissioner, said he’ll decide by next week. “General election candidates are chosen by the voters,” he said. During last week’s hearing, witnesses testified that Dowless illegally collected absentee ballots in 2018. First elected in 2002 as a Union County commissioner, Rushing served until 2006, then was elected again eight years later. ‘Stolen’ election Harris ended his time on the witness stand last week by saying that a new election should be called because of the evidence about corruption presented. But in the wake of the hearing, both parties accused the other of trying to steal the election.

What's relevant is the policies of the White House," Ivanka told ABC News' Deborah Roberts today in Wilder, Ida. "And what I feel deeply privileged every day is that I have the ability to serve our nation and lean in in areas where I'm deeply passionate and serve this country that's given me so much." The only person who knows that is one person—and he knows it." "He is my father—and he's my boss. While she sympathized with innocent children who were harmed, Ivanka agreed with her father that securing the border is the priority. Ivanka was also asked to share what she's learned since getting into politics. I think every misstep has made me smarter, made me stronger. Ivanka maintained they were properly archived and contained no classified information. She also denied it bears any resemblance to Hillary Clinton's email scandal, which Donald often criticized. Furthermore, Ivanka told Deborah, "There is no restriction of using personal email.

Democrats are set to take control of the House, powered by a triumphant left, while the remaining House Republicans and the larger Republican majority in the Senate will be Trumpier than ever. Then comes an indirect consequence: the behavior of President Donald Trump. But those powers are set to be checked as never before in this presidency. The news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been forced to step down triggered fast and furious statements from some Democratic leaders saying that if the president were to also fire special counsel Robert Mueller, it would be considered obstruction of justice and an impeachable offense. Expect work on health care, renewable energy and maybe more gun control. The TIP with John Verhovek While there are still nine House races not yet projected by ABC News, the current make-up of the 2018 Democratic majority tells us a lot about the state of America's political geography. Another factoid: Of the 31 seats Democrats have flipped thus far, none gave Donald Trump more than 55 percent of the vote in 2016. https://bit.ly/2M7OS5c FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast: What the Midterms Taught Us About America. ET on ABC. The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights political analysis of the day ahead.

The Ecuadorian Embassy in London may soon end the media blackout on WikiLeaks' embattled founder Julian Assange, but their demands in return for restoring his Internet, phone and visitor privileges amount to new “threats,” the embassy’s former consul told ABC News on Thursday. Over the weekend, Ecuadorian officials handed the Australian-born asylum seeker a list of new restrictions -- obtained by ABC News -- to which he would need to adhere in order to restore his virtual access to the outside world, including a prohibition on publishing or saying anything that may interfere with the affairs of other states. The former top diplomat in Ecuador’s London embassy, Fidel Narvaez, is a good friend and vocal supporter of Assange, telling ABC News that he is appalled by the government’s actions. "If implemented, these protocols will turn Ecuador from a protector into a persecutor and the consul staff in London will be forced to act like prison guards," said Narvaez, who left the London embassy last summer after eight years as one of Ecuador's most senior diplomats there. "The protocol is more like a list of threats than an agreement between two parties. Some even directly threaten to remove his Ecuadorean citizenship if he fails to comply. "Mister Assange needs to remember that despite the fact that Ecuadorian Republic recognizes his asylum condition, [Assange] while exercising his right of communication and freedom of speech from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, is prohibited from any activities that could be considered as political or interfering with other nations' affairs, or that could damage relationships between Ecuador and other states," according to a document listing the new protocols shared with ABC News. "Mister Assange will be in charge of the wellbeing, feeding, cleanliness and proper care of his pet,” the Ecuadorian document states. Government officials in Quito have told ABC News they acted under pressure from other countries, including the U.S. His base of support has split in recent months over a growing disbelief among many transparency movement activists of his repeated denials of colluding with Russian intelligence to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. There are no known criminal charges anywhere against Assange, but his lawyers have said in recent months that they fear he will then be charged by and extradited to the U.S. for either publishing U.S. government secrets or in connection with allegations that WikiLeaks collaborated with Russian military intelligence to disseminate hacked emails that were damaging to the Clinton campaign, a focus of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The United States must be aware of the growing threat and mount a response. As the trade war between Washington and Beijing escalates, China is using economic leverage to exert pressure on the U.S. political system. While the trade war rages in public, behind the scenes the U.S. government is preparing for the possibility that the Chinese government will decide to weaponize the influence network inside the United States that it has been building for years. Although Beijing has not yet employed Russian-style “active measures,” it has these capabilities at the ready. The Chinese Communist Party and its allies have also bought up several Chinese-language media outlets inside the United States as part of an effort to influence overseas Chinese. Finally, Beijing interferes through co-opting American elites and persuading them to push Chinese Communist Party messages. Under President Xi Jinping, the party has been ramping up its comprehensive foreign influence operations strategy, known as “united front” work. Still described in Maoist terms — to mobilize the party’s friends to strike at the party’s enemies — the system is overseen by the party’s United Front Work Department. “The UFWD directs ‘overseas Chinese work,’ which seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states,” says a report released last month by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. But as tensions continue to rise, Beijing’s cost-benefit analysis may change.

Donald Trump Jr told ABC News that he's concerned that his father is more isolated than ever the people he's needs to rely upon to carry out the duties of his office. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is…

On ABC News’ Powerhouse Politics podcast, neither incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano nor his challenger, Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley, named specific policy differences, with both supporting a broad swath of progressive policy proposals – but both cited aspects of their identity in making their pitch to voters. Pressley, the first African-American woman to serve on the Boston City Council, noted to host Rick Klein and guest host MaryAlice Parks that her own experience and identity would help her distinguish herself and legislate differently from Capuano. “People often say that, other than my age, race and gender, we are the same, which, on its face, I'm perplexed by that statement. In Capuano’s eyes, however, it’s nearly impossible to truly be a perfect representative of a district with so many diverse experiences. “I have 800,000 constituents. Every single one of them has a different perspective in life. Donald Trump ran the biggest identity politics campaign in history. Capuano also felt that the best way for progressives to respond to the anger generated by Trump’s election was to focus on defeating him and his allies, rather than going after Democrats whom they tend to agree with. You take your anger by finding the people you're angry about and take them out,” Capuano said. The two candidates face off in the Democratic primary on Sept. 4.

In 27 open races this week, 17 female candidates advanced to the November general election with Democratic Party nominations. The TIP with Meridith McGraw The GOP may have breathed a premature sigh of relief Tuesday night when controversial former coal baron Don Blankenship lost to current Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in West Virginia’s Republican Senate primary. Blankenship is looking at running in the general election as an independent, even though West Virginia has a “sour grapes” law that prohibits losing primary candidates from switching parties or running as an independent in the general. “We think the law is a little weak and perhaps not constitutional.” The ex-convict and millionaire’s continued presence in West Virginia Senate race is just one more challenge the Republican party faces as they take on sitting Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in the 2018 midterm. President Donald Trump made his general election debut in Indiana by rallying the crowd for the state’s recently nominated Republicans and rattling off some of his campaign’s greatest hits. (Mariam Khan) https://abcn.ws/2I5b8KV Trump to meet Kim Jong Un in Singapore for summit. President Donald Trump announced on Twitter on Thursday that a highly-anticipated meeting with Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12th. (ABC News) https://abcn.ws/2rz9RRn House Democrats release thousands of Russian-linked Facebook ads. A Fox Business Network host is apologizing for a remark a retired three-star general and guest made on his program Thursday – saying Sen. John McCain's opposition to Gina Haspel becoming CIA director was because torture "worked" on McCain. Even as North Korea prepares for the upcoming summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, Pyongyang's state media are still out to prove that the regime isn't giving in to any other country.

Photo:(ABC News: Matt Roberts) Scott Morrison's third budget will be described in many ways in the next few weeks. But the best way of describing what it is, and what drives it, is as a reflection of the transformation of Australian politics since the Coalition returned to power in 2013. And gone is the hangover of the global financial crisis in the budget's figures. This is a budget that is almost wholly and solely about tax — or more accurately, tax cuts. No-one sees it as a budget of profound tax reform. Mr Morrison was making lots of noise on Tuesday night about returning the budget to surplus and about how net debt is peaking in 2017-18. But any substantive improvements are still a long way away, in some cases close to a decade away. After that, it falls away over the next three years. But there is no great ambition attached to this — just the impact of the economy on reducing proportional spending. And it leaves room for the Government to make further decisions between now and the election if Labor seeks to outplay it in terms of election promises.

Earlier this year, Ryan Glasspiegel of The Big Lead reported that ESPN was “exploring its options to sell or otherwise divest from” FiveThirtyEight, the Nate Silver-led data-driven politics, sports and culture site they bought in 2013 and launched in March 2014. Our new home is ABC News! We're super excited to work with @ABC and combine our strengths with theirs as we tackle the 2018 and 2020 elections and other news stories. Nate Silver and his brilliant FiveThirtyEight team are joining ABC News from ESPN. And much of FiveThirtyEight’s coverage, especially when it comes to politics, seems like a better fit under that umbrella anyway; Goldston’s memo mentions that FiveThirtyEight worked with ABC News during the 2014 and 2016 elections, and this seems like a logical time to make that move; it’s well in advance of the 2018 midterm elections, and that will let the site be established under its new umbrella before that coverage really ramps up. The extent to which anything like Get Up or SC6 actually covers politics isn’t the point; it’s that those shows have been perceived as “political,” and that’s part of why ESPN went away from SC6. However, this is also notable as part of a larger strategy shift at ESPN. All in all, this is probably a move that makes some sense for everyone. Sending it over to ABC News means that the site stays within Disney, that it can work more closely with existing news teams on politics coverage, and that ESPN can disassociate itself from that side while still working with or picking up FiveThirtyEight’s sports coverage. But this is a further indication of how ESPN’s changed since 2014, and another part of the old ESPN that’s going away.