With six months to go before the midterm elections, Americans would prefer that the Senate remain under Democratic control, according to a CNN poll released Monday afternoon.

In the survey, 45 percent of respondents said that, should Republicans maintain control of the House come November, the country would be "better off" if Democrats kept their majority in the Senate. Meanwhile, 42 percent said they hoped Republicans would take the Senate while holding the House.

Given that Democrats face an unfavorable political climate and a 30-plus seat disadvantage in the House, the likelihood of Republicans losing control of the lower chamber is somewhere close to nil.

That said, national polls like this one don't necessarily capture the mood within battleground states. So even if the nation as a whole would like a Democratic-controlled Senate, it will be the voters in a few key contests who decide if that comes to pass. Jon Terbush

On Thursday, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opens in Montgomery, Alabama, along with its accompanying Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. The two sites will be the nation's first "comprehensive memorial dedicated to racial terror lynchings of African Americans and the legacy of slavery and racial inequality in America," according to the organization behind it, the Equal Justice Initiative. The memorial features 800 brown metal slabs inscribed with the names of 4,400 African Americans lynched or otherwise killed in "racial terror" incidents from 1977 to 1950. Each 6-foot-tall slab represents one of the 800 U.S. counties where the lynchings occurred.

Bryan Stevenson, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, said Monday that his legal advocacy group wanted to create a place for Americans to confront and "deal honestly with this history," like South Africa and Germany did to face their legacies of Apartheid and the Holocaust, respectively. "We don't have many places in America where we have urged people to look at the history of racial inequality, to look at the history of slavery, of lynching, of segregation," he said, adding that he expects some people to be "uncomfortable" visiting the memorial and museum.

The Legacy Museum starts with the enslavement of Africans and continues through today's criminal justice system. First thing you read in the museum is: "You are standing on a site where people were warehoused" — a reference to the site being a former Montgomery slave depot. And along with the slabs, the memorial includes a sculpture of six slaves in chains. "I think there is a better America still waiting, there is a more just America waiting," Stevenson told The Associated Press. "There's a kind of community that we haven't achieved yet. but we can't achieve it if we are unwilling to tell the truth about our past." Peter Weber

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) now favors legalized marijuana, but that's nothing compared to former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) jumping aboard the weed train, Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "News like this is certain to have an effect on pot culture, so I figured I'd check in with two experts in the field," Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.

"So, gentlemen, marijuana has become mainstream now — that's great news, right?" Colbert asked. "Actually, Stephen, we think this news sucks," Cheech said. "I mean, pot used to be rebellious." "Now, crusty old Republicans like John Boehner are into it, man — pot's over, man," Chong added. "Which is why we're here to announce Cheech & Chong are no longer doing stoner comedy." Colbert seemed surprised they were quitting comedy, but Cheech corrected him: "No way, man, we're just moving on to edgier territory, stuff that's still illegal." Yeah, Chong said, "like now we're into unpasteurized dairy products." There were other illicit subjects, too, and you can watch below. Peter Weber

President Trump had a very busy weekend, at least on Twitter. "I never thought I'd say this, but he should golf more," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. The topic that seemed to pique Trump's interest the most was a New York Times article pondering if lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen would flip, in part because Trump has treated him horribly for years. "Yes, Trump treats his friends 'like garbage' — as opposed to Trump's wives, who go in the recycling bin," Colbert joked.

"So what Trump is saying here," he recapped, "is: 'Cohen's a good guy, and this is all a witch hunt, unless he flips, in which case he's a liar and I've never met him.'" Trump also tweeted about James Comey's newly leaked memos, one of which caught Colbert's eyes. Trump had never officially met Vladimir Putin when he reportedly said Putin told him that Russia has "some of the most beautiful hookers in the world," but Putin had said that on TV. "Mr. President, just because somebody is talking on your TV, it doesn't mean they're talking to you — unless it's Fox & Friends, or me right now," Colbert said. He ended with "Trump's weirdest tweet of the weekend," about Sylvester Stallone, Jack Johnson, and pardoning a 100-year-old miscarriage of justice.

Colbert turned to happier news, the birth of a new British royal baby. "The palace announced the baby weighs just over 8.5 pounds — which is $12 in American money," he joked. And the birth was announced by a quasi-royal crier. "He's easy to mistake for royalty — he's got a stupid hat and he doesn't have a real job," Colbert said. "He's real to us, and we believe him, because England is just weird. But he's just a guy who wanders London in a costume you can take your photo with — it would be like if we let the Times Square Elmo announce our Supreme Court decisions." Watch below. Peter Weber

On Monday, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore announced that they successfully completed the first full penis and scrotum transplant. The patient, a U.S. service member whose lower legs and genitals were blown off by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, "is expected to be discharged from the hospital this week, and we are optimistic that he will regain near-normal urinary and sexual functions following full recovery," said Dr. Andrew Lee, chairman of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University.

A team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons preformed the surgery over 14 hours in March, after five years of preparatory research and practice. The unidentified patient said in a statement that losing your genitals is "a real mind-boggling injury to suffer; it is not an easy one to accept," and "when I first woke up, I felt finally more normal." The doctors said that the patient will likely be able to urinate by the times he leaves the hospital but it will take about six months for the nerves to regrow enough for sexual function and sensation. The medical team did not transplant the donor's testes, due to ethical concerns about the patient being able to father the late donor's children.

Johns Hopkins released a mildly graphic illustrated re-enactment of the surgery, if you are interested:

More than 1,300 male veterans sustained genital injuries in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars between 2001 and 2013, according to a 2017 study in the Journal of Urology. Lee said the "hidden" genital injuries have a "devastating impact" on the identity, self-esteem, and relationships of afflicted veterans. This wasn't the first penis transplant — there was an apparently successful one in South Africa in 2015 and an unsuccessful one in China, and a 2016 penis transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital has left the patient, Thomas Manning, doing fine but without full sexual function, USA Today reports. Peter Weber

When Dana Carvey did his famous George H.W. Bush impression on Saturday Night Live, it was a hit with audiences and the man himself, who called the comedian to let him know he was a fan.

On Monday night's Conan, Carvey spoke about his 25-year friendship with Bush and his late wife, Barbara, who died last week at 92. The Bushes invited Carvey and his wife to the White House, and once Bush was out of office, the former president would often go to charity events with Carvey, popping up onstage in the middle of an impression. "Barbara was so funny," Carvey recalled, and the Bushes, with their "effortless" marriage, had "so much fun together."

Bush would send Carvey notes, he said, and he even called to chat with him on Election Day 2004, when his son, George W. Bush, was waiting to find out if he'd been re-elected. They became friends during a "different time," Carvey said. "It wasn't scorched earth, angry politics." Carvey's impression of Bush was equal parts silly and sweet, Conan O'Brien said, adding that the Bushes had a "real grace" when it came to comedians. Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia

President Trump is back to using his trusted (and less secure) personal cellphone to chat with outside advisers, and several White House officials told CNN it's either a sign that Chief of Staff John Kelly is losing his grip on Trump, or proof he's finally brought some semblance of organization to the chaotic administration.

One rose-colored-glasses-wearing senior official said Trump and Kelly have "grown into some level of comfort" with each other, and while there "used to be a level of babysitting," Kelly no longer needs to know everyone Trump calls. Others said Trump is "talking to all sorts of people" on his cell, and he doesn't want Kelly to know who is on the other end of the line. Three people told CNN that Trump is directly contacting Republican lawmakers, and Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has reportedly been bragging to his friends that thanks to Trump's phone, he has "unfettered" access to the president.

Kelly was able to keep tabs on the people Trump phoned via the White House switchboard because he received a printed list of the calls. One person told CNN "a lot of meetings, a lot of things have happened lately without Kelly being in the room," and two others said new National Security Adviser John Bolton and Larry Kudlow, Trump's fresh top economic adviser, have been told they directly report to Trump and not Kelly. For more on the current state of the Trump-Kelly relationship, visit CNN. Catherine Garcia

Statistically speaking, Seth Meyers said on Monday's Late Night, if you're someone close to President Trump, there's a "good chance" you're going to get raided by the FBI.

"At this point, even the kid who mowed the White House lawn is worried the FBI is going to kick in his door," Meyers said. First it was his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and this month, agents raided the home, office, and hotel room of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who is under investigation for potential bank and wire fraud. Everyone is talking about whether Cohen will flip on Trump, Meyers said, and Cohen "isn't saying Trump is innocent, he's saying, 'I would never rat him out.' It's just taken for granted that Trump did something illegal."

Trump's former attorney, Jay Goldberg, told The Wall Street Journal last week that he warned Trump about Cohen, noting, "The mob was broken by Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano caving in out of the prospect of a jail sentence." "If Sammy 'The Bull' flipped, you know Michael 'The Bulls—t' definitely will," Meyers joked.

As for Trump, he tweeted over the weekend that he's "always liked and respected" Cohen, and "most people will flip if the government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories." Meyers wasn't shocked by Trump's statement. "Of course Trump assumes most people would lie to get out of trouble because he's always lying to get out of trouble," he said. "If the feds put pressure on him there's a good chance he'll flip on himself." Watch the video below.Catherine Garcia