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By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Akela Lacy and Eli Okun

Presented by

OBAMA ENDORSES ... Here's a long list of endorsements from BARACK OBAMA. A FEW interesting nuggets ...

-- AN ACCOMPANYING statement says Obama will prioritize "taking back control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and growing the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus." Notice the difference?

-- OBAMA didn't endorse any red-state Democrats for Senate.

-- OBAMA will campaign in "several states this fall" and will endorse more candidates ahead of Election Day. ... The list of endorsements

NEW QUINNIPIAC POLL ... SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TEXAS) leads REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D-TEXAS) in the race for the U.S. Senate. 46% of Texans approve of the job PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is doing. 49% disapprove. PDF with some more details

TODAY'S WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING has been pushed back to 1:15 p.m., per Nancy Cook, today's pooler.

BREAKING ... THE PRESIDENT called on ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS to shutter the special counsel's investigation. THE TWEET, at 9:24 a.m.: "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!"

THE NRCC dropped another $344,747 on media against Danny O'Connor in Ohio's 12th congressional district. O'Connor is battling Troy Balderson. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is going to the district this weekend.

THE SENATE rejected a measure to add $250 million for state election security grants.

DEVELOPING -- "U.S. Prepares List of Turkey Economic Sanctions Targets," by Bloomberg's Benjamin Harvey: "The U.S. has prepared a list of Turkish entities and individuals that it will target should it decide to impose sanctions on Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government for imprisoning U.S. citizens and employees of its diplomatic mission, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. ...

"While negotiations to release one of the people, evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson, are ongoing, the preparation of the so-called 'designation packages' shows how close the U.S. has come to imposing unprecedented penalties against a NATO ally." Bloomberg

Good Wednesday afternoon. KNOWING T.S. ELLIS -- "'He has torn my head off': Manafort judge known for being tough during trials," by WaPo's Rachel Weiner: "As the federal judge in Alexandria oversees the trial of President Trump's onetime campaign chairman on tax and bank fraud charges, his sharp demeanor comes as no surprise to lawyers who appear before him often.

"'He has torn my head off in front of my wife multiple times,' said Kevin Mikolashek ...

"With degrees from Princeton, Harvard and Oxford and 31 years on the bench, Ellis is formidably sharp. And although he might scold prosecutors for not meeting his high standards, in trials Ellis often uses his intellect to their benefit. ... Ellis regularly interrupts trial testimony with his own questions and demands that certain lines of inquiry be cut short, clearing up ambiguity that defense attorneys hoped to create." WaPo

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-- DARREN SAMUELSOHN ON ELLIS: "It's a complicated picture. Ellis is very funny and has kept the mood in the room light for the jurors with jokes about the lunch menu and the troubles of commuting into Northern Virginia.

"But he's been a bit hard on the lawyers. This court is known as the 'rocket docket' and Ellis definitely is trying to keep things moving. No one expected jurors to be seated in one day, let alone four hours. But Ellis was the guy responsible for that.

"And in the opening hours of the trial, as well as during other preliminary events, he has given Mueller's prosecutors a particularly hard time. In May, Ellis's sharp questioning during a pre-trial hearing over whether Mueller even had the authority to bring the Manafort case prompted some premature victory laps from President Trump and his lawyers - Ellis ended up ruling with Mueller.

"Now, Ellis has been pushing the Mueller prosecutors to speed up their questioning, to stop asking compound questions that stack up too many topics at once and to limit some of the documents they're trying to enter into the record. This morning, Ellis rejected a request to make public a photo obtained under subpoena from Democratic consultant Daniel Rabin showing him with fellow Manafort consultants working on a campaign for Viktor Yanukovych, who in 2010 would win the country's presidency."

-- THE CRAZY TRIAL LOGISTICS: "Logistics here are very 1994. We can't bring ANYTHING electronic into the building. So our phones, laptops, etc. stay behind. Reporters are twitching. But on the plus side, we're getting exercise sprinting across the plaza during breaks back to the Westin where we're filing from our hotel room.

"There are no work stations in the courthouse except for a couple outlets that are here covering this district: AP, CNN, NBC and WaPo. So anyone else basically has to get a hotel room (the judge at one point told the media that was what we should do after rejecting a written request to let us bring our laptops into the building) or work outside in the plaza or wherever.

"The trial is happening on the ninth floor. There are no stairs accessible to the public I've seen. So you have a scramble for four elevators that everyone piles in during breaks as we try to get out of the building and back to our electronics outside. Lots of running or, we being reporters, mild jogging."

MORE FROM JOSH GERSTEIN AND DARREN -- "Manafort Trial Day 2: Prosecution floats idea of Rick Gates not testifying": POLITICO

WHAT'S ON PRESIDENT TRUMP'S MIND: @realDonaldTrump at 9:34 a.m.: "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion -- a Hoax!"

... at 10:01 a.m.: "Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!"

... at 11:35 a.m.: "Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'Public Enemy Number One,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?"

FOR YOUR RADAR -- WAPO'S SEUNG MIN KIM (@seungminkim): "@realDonaldTrump's meeting with Senate Republicans this afternoon is on criminal justice reform, I'm told. @SenMikeLee is among those who are going. ... @ChuckGrassley will be going to WH as well."

ON THE BORDER -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement tells Playbook it's looking into an immigration lawyer's claim that a child died after "possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted" at a detention center in Dilley, Texas. ICE tweeted Wednesday morning, "Reports that a child died in ICE custody at Dilley are false." But Houston lawyer Mana Yegani, who heard about the death from another attorney, tweeted that the child died after leaving Dilley.

-- ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said in an email, "The updated accusation leaves little to no info that allows us to research. We are looking into the report of the death after custody, but without any specifics about who this was we are unable to provide anything further at this time."

STEPHEN MILLER'S FINGERPRINTS -- "White House Weighs Another Reduction in Refugees Admitted to U.S.," by NYT's Julie Hirschfeld Davis: "The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States, picking up where President Trump left off in 2017 in scaling back a program intended to offer protection to the world's most vulnerable people ...

"Under one plan currently being discussed, no more than 25,000 refugees could be resettled in the United States next year, a cut of more than 40 percent from this year's limit. It would be the lowest number of refugees admitted to the country since the creation of the program in 1980.

"The program's fate could hinge on Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state. His department has traditionally been a strong advocate for the refugee program, but Mr. Pompeo is now being advised by two senior aides who are close to [Stephen] Miller and share his hard-line approach." NYT

TRADE WARS -- "China vows retaliation if Trump slaps 25 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese imports," by Reuters' Ben Blanchard and Steve Holland: "China said on Wednesday that 'blackmail' wouldn't work and that it would hit back if the United States takes further steps hindering trade, as the Trump administration considers slapping a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion ... worth of Chinese goods." Reuters

WSJ'S ANDREW JEONG at OSAN AIR BASE, SOUTH KOREA: "U.S. Remains From Korean War Head Home as Identification Process Gears Up": "The 55 sets of remains ... have undergone preliminary analysis by Pentagon officials. But the task of identification is daunting. The remains of many service members were likely mixed with one another and don't always have details about where and when they were recovered, military officials say. ...

"Kelly McKeague, the [Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency]'s head, described the process of identifying war remains as 'CSI on steroids.'" WSJ

SCOTUS WATCH -- "Grassley: Kavanaugh confirmation hearings likely next month," by Elana Schor: POLITICO

WHAT BETSY DEVOS IS READING -- "Will Majoring in Psychology Make You Better Off? The Government Wants to Know," by WSJ's Michelle Hackman, Josh Mitchell and Douglas Belkin: "The Trump administration is moving to require colleges and universities to publish more detailed data on the finances of their graduates, part of a broader effort to make higher education more market driven and focused on consumer choice.

"The new rules, set to be unveiled by the Education Department in coming weeks, will build out an Obama-era initiative called the College Scorecard, but will supplant an Obama-era plan known as the 'gainful employment' rule. ... The new rules will drill deeper, providing debt and earnings by major, from English to engineering." WSJ

MORE ON THAT 3-D GUN STORY: "A Push for 3-D Weapons by One of the World's 'Most Dangerous People,'" by NYT's Dave Montgomery and Ian Urbina in Austin, Texas: "No stranger to controversy, [Cody] Wilson was listed by Wired magazine as one of the 15 Most Dangerous People in the World in 2012 ...

"Mr. Wilson dismisses the idea that publishing gun blueprints is threatening or illegal. 'The argument that I'm making,' he said, 'although not always very well, is that what I'm doing is actually a pretty mainline American idea.'" NYT

KRIS KOBACH WATCH -- "Kobach promised cities help. It cost them millions - and powered his political rise," by The Kansas City Star's Hunter Woodall and Bryan Lowry and ProPublica's Jessica Huseman and Blake Paterson: "He also earned more than $800,000 for his immigration work, paid by both towns and an advocacy group, over 13 years.

"Kobach's recent legal struggles have been widely reported. ... But Kobach's failures in the courtroom date back far longer. An investigation by ProPublica and The Kansas City Star shows that the towns Kobach represented - small, largely white municipalities overwhelmed by real or perceived demographic shifts - were swayed by Kobach's message: An ordinance would solve their problem and could easily be defended in court. Based on public records requests, filed in June with the towns that Kobach represented, this article for the first time details the costs to municipalities and the payments to Kobach for his lengthy local legal campaigns." The Kansas City Star

PAUL DEMKO: "Trump whacks Obamacare by boosting short-term health plans": "The Trump administration has finalized rules making it easier to enroll in short-term insurance plans, another blow to Obamacare markets that increases access to cheaper, skinnier coverage that doesn't adhere to the health care law's standards.

"Critics deride short-term plans as 'junk' insurance that won't protect people with pre-existing conditions, and they argue the plans will undermine Obamacare's fragile exchanges by siphoning off healthy customers. The Trump administration has prioritized expanding coverage options, arguing that the Affordable Care Act severely eroded choice for individuals shopping for insurance." POLITICO

2020 WATCH -- "On the Ballot in Some States: Expand or Limit Access to the Polls?" by WSJ's Jon Kamp: "Some of the measures are in battleground states that could help decide the presidential race. In North Carolina, Republican lawmakers are seeking new identification requirements at the polls. Florida, on the other hand, could expand its voter roster if it decides to reinstate voting rights for an estimated 1.4 million people with felony records." WSJ

AFTERNOON READ -- NATHANIEL RICH in an entire issue of NYT MAGAZINE: "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change": "Is it a comfort or a curse, the knowledge that we could have avoided all this?

"Because in the decade that ran from 1979 to 1989, we had an excellent opportunity to solve the climate crisis. The world's major powers came within several signatures of endorsing a binding, global framework to reduce carbon emissions - far closer than we've come since. During those years, the conditions for success could not have been more favorable. The obstacles we blame for our current inaction had yet to emerge. Almost nothing stood in our way - nothing except ourselves." NYT Magazine

WEDNESDAY LISTEN -- ANNA talked with PRIYA BASU of the WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS FINANCE INITIATIVE about the World Bank's investment in women, launching a startup within the bank and the initiative's work with the Trump administration in the latest "Women Rule" podcast. Listen

WHAT HILLARY CLINTON'S UP TO -- "Hillary Clinton, Steven Spielberg Bringing Women's Voting Drama to TV," by The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg: "Amblin TV has optioned the rights to Elaine Weiss' 'The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote,' with the former secretary of state and first lady attached as an executive producer." The Hollywood Reporter

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- POPVILLE: "Metro, AT&T, Sprint, T\u2010Mobile and Verizon Wireless announce additional wireless service in tunnel segments on Red and Green lines": "Red Line between Union Station and Dupont Circle stations ... Green/Yellow lines between Gallery Place and Fort Totten stations." PoPville

MEDIAWATCH -- NYT adds Sarah Jeong to its editorial board. NYT

TRANSITIONS ... Igor Volsky is now executive director of Guns Down. He was previously a VP at the Center for American Progress. ... Portia Wu is now managing director of U.S. public policy at Microsoft. She previously worked as a special assistant to President Barack Obama. ... Audrey Chang will be SVP for strategic communications at Subject Matter. She currently is managing director at the Harbour Group.

SPOTTED at a National Taxpayers Union reception Tuesday night featuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): Josh Bolten, Pete Sepp, Andrew Kovalcin, Mattie Duppler, Charles McCray, John Stanford, Ted Greener, Brandon Peck, Brandon Arnold, Beau Phillips, Heather Reams and Andrew Beilein.

SPOTTED: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on The Dubliner's patio Tuesday evening. ... Bob Bennett and Brendan Sullivan having lunch together at Casa Luca on Wednesday. ... Ben Rhodes running in Rose Park in Georgetown on Tuesday morning.

SPOTTED at a Homeland Security reception Tuesday night hosted by Frontier Security Strategies' Ed Cash at the Willard Office Building rooftop home to Emergent BioSolutions: Thad Allen, Chris Frech, Don Kent, Joe Nimmich, Dave Grant, Greg Giddens, Tom Dinanno, George Kovatch, Jim Williams, George Bamford, Hannah Kunasek, Dawn Scalici, Jill Hamaker, Dwight Williams, Rich Burke, Cedric Sims and Marc Pearl.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Kaitlin Fahey, chief of staff for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Scott Waddle, a firefighter and AFFI member, welcomed daughter Brenna Ellen Waddle, who joins big brother Ronan. Pic

- Matt Vallone, director of research and analysis at Avascent and a Carol Shea-Porter alum, and Jennifer Vallone, a lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, welcomed Elise. Pic

WEEKEND WEDDING -- Gregory Scruggs, a correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, on Sunday married Yiting Lim, a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Pic ... Another pic

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Drew Littman, policy director at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. A trend he thinks deserves more attention: "One trend that doesn't get enough attention is the Trump reverse-effect. Progressive priorities become much more popular when Trump comes out against them. Support for legal immigration, reproductive rights, tax fairness, and efforts to combat global warming have all reached record highs." Q&A

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