Democrats are grappling with how to handle transgender politics and policy following a campaign that featured withering and often misleading GOP attacks on the issue.

The United States and Germany say that Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine’s border poses an “immediate and urgent challenge" to European security and that any intervention will draw severe consequences.

In honor of Veterans Day, a group of Democratic lawmakers is reviving an effort to pay the families of Black veterans who fought on behalf of the nation during World War II for benefits they were denied or prevented from taking full advantage of when they returned home from war.

Two members of Congress are facing criticism and questions following their surprise trip to Afghanistan this week.

Two members of Congress flew unannounced into Kabul airport in the middle of the ongoing chaotic evacuation, and their visit Tuesday stunned State Department and U.S. military personnel who had to divert resources to provide security and information to the lawmakers.

The loss marks the first time a member of the political dynasty has come up short in a race for Congress in Massachusetts. The Kennedy legacy hung over the race, especially in the closing weeks, when Kennedy more explicitly invoked his pedigree including JFK; former U.S. Kennedy helped raise millions of dollars for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats campaign arm, during the 2018 midterm elections. Massachusetts voters may have rejected him, but few remaining House Democrats carry the same national fundraising appeal as Kennedy. In 1986, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend lost a U.S. House race in Maryland, and in 2002, Mark Kennedy Shriver also lost a congressional primary in Maryland.

The DNC is also giving candidates a new option: Instead, they can reach at least 5% in two polls of the early-voting states. The polls must come in a window between September 13 and a week before the November debate. The DNC has not yet announced the date of that debate. The DNC started the 2020 election cycle with a mandate that candidates reach 65,000 donors or achieve at least 1% in polls. Because of those higher thresholds, the third Democratic debate -- held earlier this month in Houston -- was the first one conducted in just one night rather than two.

(CNN) - The Democratic primary dropouts are coming a mile a minute now. With those dropouts, there are 21 Democrats running for president. In primaries without an incumbent running since 1972, I count 86 candidates who ended up running and averaged less than 5% in the polls. None of the candidates polling below 5% in the horserace were able to get above 10% on this question. There are so many low polling candidates running, after all.

(CNN) - Rep. Seth Moulton will end his presidential bid on Friday during a speech at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting in San Francisco, according to prepared remarks of the speech the Massachusetts Democrat plans to deliver. The decision closes out a campaign in which the candidate failed to get traction or make this year's Democratic debates. "Today, I want to use this opportunity, with all of you here, to announce that I am ending my campaign for president," Moulton plans to tell the DNC meeting. "And most of all, I will be campaigning my ass off for whoever wins our nomination in 2020." Moulton is the latest Democratic candidate to get out of the 2020 race, following California Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Colorado Gov.