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** OPINION
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** Fox News’ Lara Trump is eyeing a Senate run in North Carolina
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Lara Trump, Fox News host and daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump, at the White House in March. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says he won’t run for reelection next year and already a Fox News host is considering throwing her name in the ring as his replacement.

Oh, the host is also the president’s daughter-in-law.

We’re talking about Lara Trump, who hosts a Saturday night show on Fox News and is married to Trump’s son, Eric. NBC News White House correspondent Vaughn Hillyard reports ([link removed]) that a source close to the Trump family says Lara is “strongly considering jumping in the race.”

When asked about the odds that Lara Trump runs to replace Tillis, the source said, “I’d put it as high as one could be considering it. … The race will be over before it begins.” (I take that to mean the race to be the Republican candidate.)

Lara Trump also reportedly considered running to replace Marco Rubio as one of the senators from Florida after Rubio stepped down to become secretary of state.

So, Florida? Now North Carolina?

Lara Trump was born in North Carolina and graduated from North Carolina State University.

Tillis, 64, announced he would not seek reelection one day after he was one of two Republicans who voted against advancing Trump’s sweeping agenda bill. Kentucky’s Rand Paul was the other. Tillis had expressed concern about the impact of potential Medicaid cuts.

Trump took to his Truth Social in a lengthy post ([link removed]) that was punctuated by him saying, “Thom Tillis is making a BIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina!”

Based on his statement and other reporting, it appears that Tillis had been thinking about walking away from the Senate well before the past few days. And, in his statement, Tillis did seem frustrated with today’s politics, writing, “In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.”

Tillis, however, was very outspoken Sunday night during the Senate discussion about the bill, saying at one point, “What do I tell 663,000 people in 2 or 3 years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding isn’t there anymore?”

In a post after Tillis’ announcement that he would not seek reelection, Trump wrote ([link removed]) , “Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis. I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

As you can see, he did not mention Lara in that post.

If Lara Trump does throw her name in the hat, Fox News would have to ask her to step away from hosting her weekend show, right?

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** More reporting on Iran
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Here’s more reporting suggesting that the U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear program last weekend might not have been as damaging as President Donald Trump and officials originally claimed.

After the June 21 attack, Trump said in a national address that it was a “spectacular military success,” adding, “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

In the days that followed, however, CNN ([link removed]) and others reported that an early U.S. intelligence report suggested Iran’s nuclear sites were not destroyed. CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post all wrote Iran’s nuclear program might have set back only a matter of months. Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt both have lashed out at the media over this reporting.

Now comes this story published Sunday by The Washington Post’s John Hudson and Warren P. Strobel: “Intercepted call of Iranian officials downplays damage of U.S. attack.” ([link removed])

Hudson and Strobel wrote, “The United States obtained intercepted communication between senior Iranian officials discussing this month’s U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and remarking that the attack was less devastating than they had expected, said four people familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government. The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they had anticipated, these people said. Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.”

According to the Post, the White House did not dispute that the communications were intercepted, but strongly disagreed with the Iranians’ assessment.

And then you can guess what happened next. The White House attacked the Post.

Leavitt said, “It’s shameful that The Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks. The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”

The Post smartly noted, “The Trump administration has criticized some media outlets for failing to note that the (early) report, which it deems ‘low confidence,’ cautions that a full battle damage assessment requires ‘days-to-weeks to accumulate the necessary data to assess effects on the target system.’ However, the administration has not waited to assert its own sweeping conclusions that the strikes have set back Iran’s program for ‘years.’”

Either way, despite continued pushback and attacks from the White House, it’s encouraging that media outlets continue to report on this story, as opposed to simply taking the word of Trump and government officials.


** Meanwhile, Trump could pressure media
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In an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump suggested that his administration would pressure media members to reveal their sources when it comes to reporting on Iran.

Last Thursday, in a post on Truth Social ([link removed]) , Trump wrote, “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!”

He repeated that stance in the Fox News interview, which was actually taped on Friday.

When Bartiromo asked who exactly should be prosecuted, Trump said that it would be easy to find out.

He told Bartiromo, “You go up and tell the reporter, ‘national security — who gave it?’ You have to do that. And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.”

Trump has already threatened to sue CNN and The New York Times for their reporting on the preliminary intelligence report. A personal attorney for Trump sent a letter to the Times saying their reporting damaged Trump’s reputation and demanded the Times retract the story and apologize. The lawyer called the Times report “false,” “defamatory” and “unpatriotic.”

In a response, New York Times lawyer David McCraw wrote, “No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.”


** What’s the right thing?
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Professional golfer Padraig Harrington at a tournament in May. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

OK, let’s take a break from all this Trump stuff to check out this interesting media ethics question from, of all places, senior professional golf.

A video went viral ([link removed]) in sports circles over the weekend in which senior golfer Padraig Harrington and NBC on-course analyst Roger Maltbie got into an animated discussion about something that happened during Harrington’s opening round at the Senior U.S. Open on Thursday.

Harrington hit a ball into a thicket of trees and could not find it. Golf.com ([link removed]) ’s Alan Bastable wrote ([link removed]) that Harrington, his caddie and various officials all started searching for the ball. (Under the rules, golfers only have three minutes to find their ball.) Bastable wrote, “It’s common practice for on-course analysts to assist players in finding their balls, but in this instance, Maltbie told GOLF.com in a phone interview Saturday morning, he was unable to help because his producer had asked Maltbie to be prepared to deliver an on-air report of what was unfolding.”

In other words, Maltbie had to do his job. He told Bastable, “I can’t do it from inside the thick of the trees. So I stayed outside, and then (Harrington) walked near me and he said, ‘You could help search for the ball,’ and I just didn’t respond.”

Maltbie tried to explain his position to Harrington after the round, and that’s the video that was the talk of the sports world.

I have to say, I’m with Maltbie on this one. His priority is not to help Harrington find a ball. His priority is to NBC and, most of all, NBC’s viewers. (The ball wasn’t found, and Harrington ended up bogeying the hole.)

Maltbie told Harrington in the video, “So I should have disobeyed my producer?”

Harrington later says, “You’ve played golf all your life. You understand. You don’t stand looking at somebody looking for a golf ball.”

Harrington kept saying Maltbie, who played on the PGA Tour in the 1970s and ’80s, didn’t follow proper golf etiquette to search for the ball and Maltbie kept trying to say he had a job to do.

Maltbie told Bastable, “I was very close to saying, ‘All these years, all these checks I’ve gotten from NBC, your name isn’t on any of them.’ I mean, his caddie works for him, so I’m sure his caddie does what Padraig tells him to do. Well, I have an employer, and if they tell me basically what I’m going to do or what they want from me, I have to honor that. But he just doesn’t see it that way.”

Maltbie added, “Padraig has lots of opinions, and some of them are quite contrary to what most people think, which is part of his charm, okay? I mean that’s part of what makes him Padraig — he has very unique takes on things. But I really expected him to understand.”

Oh, a postscript to the story. Harrington won the tournament on Sunday. And there were reports ([link removed]) Sunday evening that Harrington had apologized to Maltbie.


** Media tidbits
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* The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr with “Gavin Newsom sues Fox News over Jesse Watters segment about Trump call.” ([link removed])
* Mediaite’s Caleb Howe with “‘Why Not Just Condemn It?’ Mamdani Refuses to Condemn ‘Intifada’ Slogan Three More Times to Kristen Welker.” ([link removed])
* The latest “Mixed Signals” podcast from Semafor: “Steve Inskeep on NPR cuts, Iran, and radio’s place in the podcast era.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* “CBS News Sunday Morning” and senior contributor Ted Koppel with “When is cancer political?’ Medical researchers, patients decry Trump admin's layoffs, budget cuts.” ([link removed])
* The New York Times’ Declan Walsh and Tariq Panja with “The Sheikh Who Conquered Soccer and Coddles Warlords.” ([link removed])


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