Welcome to Thursday, July 25th, pins and needles...

Former special counsel Robert Mueller appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday, answering questions about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

We look at some key moments from the back-to-back hearings here, including:

• Mueller said Trump can be prosecuted after he leaves office—but did not say if Trump should be prosecuted.
• Despite Trump's repeated claims of "total exoneration," Mueller said "the president was not as exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed. It is not what the report said."
• Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) ripped into Mueller for not reviewing the motivations behind the the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Democrats during the 2106 campaign.
• Ahead of the hearings, Trump tweeted that Mueller's investigation was "the Greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history, by far!" Mueller told Congress that his investigation "is not a witch hunt" and "it was not a hoax."

What did you think of the Mueller hearing?

On the Radar

Country of First Asylum

A federal district judge on Wednesday let stand a Trump administration rule that denies asylum to migrants at the southern border who do not first apply for protection in at least one other country they've travelled through.

"It's in the greater public interest to allow the administration to carry out its immigration policy," U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of Washington, D.C., said from the bench.

The rule had been challenged in a lawsuit filed July 16 by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) and Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition.

“We are disappointed in the court’s decision today, but we will continue to fight to ensure that this harmful rule does not unjustly impact children and adults who apply for asylum as well as immigration legal service providers’ ability to help asylum seekers,” Claudia Cubas, CAIR Coalition’s litigation director, said in a statement.

Should migrants have to apply for asylum in the first country they enter?

Under the Radar

Farm Aid

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that the Trump administration will pay a minimum of $15 per acre in aid to farmers impacted by the president's ongoing trade war with China.

Craig Ratajczyk, chief executive of the Illinois Soybean Association, told Reuters that the $15-per-acre bailout will help farmers working with loan agencies.

“This will help provide some type of stability for that type of lending institution. It’s confidence,” Ratajczyk said.

The aid is planned to total about $16 billion dollars.

Do you support farm bailouts?

NATO's 70th

Seventy years ago, on July 25, 1949, President Harry S. Truman formally ratified the North Atlantic Treaty, marking the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Since its inception, the NATO alliance has provided for the collective defense of its members despite the internal and external challenges it has faced.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Western European democracies that fought alongside the U.S. were struggling to rebuild their countries that had been ravaged by years of war and in some cases Nazi occupation. The descent of the communist Soviet Union’s ‘iron curtain” ― as British wartime leader Winston Churchill called it ― across Eastern Europe posed a major military threat to Western Europe’s newfound freedom.

It appears probable that the alliance will continue grow in the future. North Macedonia will likely be the next nation to join NATO, while there have been discussions about future membership with the governments of Ukraine and the Republic of Georgia, plus Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other potential future members include Finland and Sweden, where public opinion has trended toward membership since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, despite their historic neutrality.

How do you feel about the NATO alliance on its 70th birthday?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should Consumer Protection Agencies Get New Powers to Combat Robocalls?