On July 9, John Delaney's senior team sat him down and told him to drop out of the presidential race by mid-August, according to three sources close to the campaign.

Why it matters: He's been running for president for 721 days. He's spent nearly $19 million as a 2020 candidate since 2017. He's loaned over $11 million of his own money to his campaign this year. He's visited all of Iowa's 99 counties already, including at least 14 stops in Carroll Country alone. And it's all been for nothing.

“I think a lot of people who did leave thought, 'You gotta eat. You need a paycheck.' So that was a big part of it,” said a former staffer.

The backdrop: Those close to him think there's no chance he makes the September debates, which have a harder qualification threshold than the first two.

https://www.axios.com/john-delaney-2020-presidential-campaign-drop-out-44634be2-0973-403b-aca0-55278a9c37da.html

Thread: After CNN was rightly criticized by experts for platforming a literal white nationalist on a pre-packaged segment, both Jake Tapper and Brian Stelter reacted defensively, Stelter saying the focus should be on HOW to include extremists in coverage and not on "whether".





https://twitter.com/crislopezg/status/1151890313323208706

(CNN)South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has made one of his biggest hires to date. Jess O'Connell, former Democratic National Committee CEO, is now a senior adviser to his presidential campaign.

The veteran democratic operative confirmed her new role with the campaign in a series of tweets Thursday: "I agree with Pete — this isn't about winning an election, this is about winning an era ... I am especially proud of the women running for president. I support Pete, but I am rooting for us all."

The hire comes after Buttigieg, once a little known mayor from Indiana, raised nearly $25 million in the second quarter, the most of any 2020 democratic presidential candidate, and has ramped up his staffing to look like a top-funded campaign.

O'Connell, who was also the executive director of Emily's List and had a senior role in Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, will lead the Buttigieg campaign's early state strategy and advise the campaign on political and electoral strategy.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/politics/buttigieg-hiring-dnc-ceo/index.html?utm_source=twCNNp&utm_term=image&utm_content=2019-07-18T16%3A10%3A05&utm_medium=social

This man just asked me to “please stop speaking Spanish” on this plane to NYC (in his defense it’s very early and he’s racist) so the man next to him STARTED SPEAKING SPANISH and then the flight attendant and my GOD i have never wanted to get up and dance more than i do now.

https://twitter.com/JaimePrimak/status/1151082359363710978

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent allegedly sought out an undocumented Guatemalan woman living in California, sent her Facebook messages and asked her to watch a live video of him masturbating — all while her 12-year-old son was in custody at the Border Patrol station in Clint, Tex., where he worked, according to an April complaint filed with CBP and interviews with the mother.

The complaint, obtained by The Washington Post, outlines conversations between the agent and the woman that she viewed as coercive, beginning with his asking for her Facebook handle after she was allowed to speak by phone with her son, who had been taken into custody at the border. She said in interviews that she had hoped the communication would yield information about her son but that instead she endured sexual advances from a CBP agent at the facility where her son was detained.

“I felt like the world was falling on top of me,” said the 48-year-old woman, an undocumented immigrant who came to the country from Guatemala and now lives in California. She spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from the agent and other immigration authorities. “I felt my son is in the hands of a bad man.”

A CBP spokesman said Tuesday that the agency was aware of the woman’s allegations and that an investigation was underway, but he said CBP could not comment on the ongoing probe.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/border-patrol-agent-in-clint-accused-of-harassing-mother-of-12-year-old-migrant-who-was-in-custody/2019/07/17/6d648426-a4e4-11e9-b732-41a79c2551bf_story.html?utm_term=.25a6cd583bac

The Palm Beach County GOP disinvited Anthony Scaramucci from addressing its annual fundraising event after the short-lived former White House spokesman criticized President Trump’s “racially charged” statement that four members of Congress who are women of color should leave the United States.

“He suggested the president’s comments were racist and that he was becoming a racist. Our board was infuriated,” said Michael A. Barnett, the Republican Party chairman in the county, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago winter getaway.

“We believe the tweets were not racist, the president is not racist and that Scaramucci’s comments were unfair,” said Barnett, who is African-American.

Scaramucci couldn’t be immediately reached. Barnett made his comments to POLITICO on Thursday morning after emailing Scaramucci that he was no longer invited to speak at the Aug. 15 event, called “Lobsterfest,” for the comments he has made against Trump since Tuesday.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/18/anthony-scaramucci-florida-gop-fundraiser-1419204

The DNC’s security chief warned 2020 candidates not to use the Russian-developed FaceApp, an application that lets users transform photos of themselves to see what they’d look like as old people, among other things.

According to CNN, Bob Lord told the presidential hopefuls that “the novelty is not without risk,” out of concern that the data will be misused by the app’s Russian developers.

“It’s not clear at this point what the privacy risks are, but what is clear is that the benefits of avoiding the app outweigh the risks,” he added.

The DNC was famously hacked by Russian actors during the 2016 election, and has since taken steps to gird itself and the many candidates for similar attacks leading up to the 2020 contest.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dnc-2020-candidates-faceapp-russia