Congressional investigators have uncovered emails that indicate parties involved in the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower had subsequent communication after their summit, CNN reported Thursday. The meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya has come under the microscope because Trump Jr. accepted the invitation from British publicist Rob Goldstone after being promised Veselnitskaya would provide incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. has maintained that it quickly became clear Veselnitskaya had no such information and the meeting revolved around the subject of Russian adoption. He has also said that nothing came of the event and he never followed up with any of the attendees. None of the emails CNN reported on Thursday were sent to Trump Jr. directly, but were instead missives sent by Goldstone to Dan Scavino, then a top aide to the Trump campaign and now the White House's social media director, as well as Ike Kaveladze, a Russian who was present at the meeting.

Just days after the meeting, Goldstone apparently forwarded a message to Kaveladze referencing a report about Russia's breach of the Democratic National Committee. He sent the missive while "describing the news as 'eerily weird' given what they had discussed at Trump Tower five days earlier," CNN reported.

An attorney for Kaveladze said Kaveladze did receive the email but found it to be "odd because hacking was never discussed in the meeting," CNN wrote. Two sources told CNN that when Trump Jr. published the email chain that resulted in the June 2016 meeting, Kaveladze's son emailed his father asking why Trump Jr. was "admitting 'collusion,'" though it is unclear whether the younger Kaveladze was joking.

The other Goldstone email in question urged Scavino to put then-candidate Donald Trump on the Russian social networking site VX. While testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Trump Jr. reportedly said he did not remember the messages in question. Read more at CNN. Kimberly Alters

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been compared to the Zodiac Killer and the very smushy blobfish. Even his fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) once joked about murdering him.

But his wife? "Everyone loves Heidi," a Houston Democrat told The Atlantic. “Every time I talk to her I think, 'you should be running for office, not your husband.'”

Heidi Cruz and her husband married just a year after working on former President George W. Bush's 2000 campaign together — a time when Ted looked like a "1950s movie star," she told The Atlantic. Ted insisted on playing the Disney classic "A Whole New World" at the ceremony, and has described their life as a "magic-carpet ride" ever since. "Sometimes I'm like, 'I hope we don't hit the cement,'" Heidi said.

Heidi generally "sees eye to eye with her husband on policy," The Atlantic notes. So for her, the hardest part of Cruz's Senate and presidential campaigns, as well as his current stint on the Hill, has been disrupting her expertly-coordinated life plan to be there for him. Heidi loved her first Treasury Department job, but gave it up when her husband became Texas' solicitor general. She again paused her Goldman Sachs job in 2015 when he decided to run for president. Their daughter Caroline even warned Heidi that all this sacrifice might not be worth it.

When President Trump was running his campaign against Cruz, he retweeted an attack on Heidi's appearance. In retrospect, that memory now just leaves her laughing, The Atlantic notes, as does a National Enquirer insinuation that Ted has "five secret mistresses." But when Cruz dropped out of the race in 2016, "I don't know that I even shed a tear," she said. Read more about Heidi Cruz's sometimes-magical life at The Atlantic. Kathryn Krawczyk

Saudi Arabia's upcoming investment conference is continuing to fall apart.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Thursday that he will no longer be attending the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia as originally planned.

In recent days, a number of key companies and government officials have also pulled out of the event in reaction to concerns that Saudi Arabia's government murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who went missing earlier this month. Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement, but Turkey says it has evidence that a top Saudi diplomat was in the room while Khashoggi was tortured and beheaded at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

As recently as Monday, Mnuchin still planned to attend the conference, which was scheduled as a stop on his trip focused on fighting terrorist financing in the Middle East, The New York Times reports. But now, Mnuchin has changed his tune. The treasury secretary provided no further details about what went into his decision, but he said it came after he met with both President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo, who met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss Khashoggi's disappearance, said that he and Trump will give Saudi Arabia "a few more days" to complete an investigation into the matter, which the kingdom has assured will be "complete" and "thorough." Pompeo also emphasized that Saudi Arabia remains an "important counter-terrorism partner." Brendan Morrow

Fox & Friends often feels eerily similar to President Trump's rallies these days, but Thursday's broadcast was even more openly aligned with Republican talking points than usual.

During a segment Thursday morning, Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy suggested viewers have "got to vote for Republicans" if they don't want open borders, Mediaite reports. He said that "it's clear" that in the midterms, you should only support Democrats "if you think that our southern border should be open," but you should support Republicans "if you think the southern border should actually be a border with security, and stopping people, and processing them accordingly." At the last minute, he added "...the Republicans say" to suggest he was technically paraphrasing the Republican Party's message, but not before his fellow hosts had already moved on.

Doocy's comments came during a segment about a caravan of Central American migrants making its way to the U.S. with hopes of crossing the border. Doocy suggested Fox & Friends might sway voters this November, forcing them to think, “did you see that story this morning on Fox & Friends about the caravan? Can you believe that the Democrats want open borders?” The Democratic Party also calls for improving border security.

Other segments on Thursday's Fox & Friends included a friendly interview with Eric Trump, who similarly warned of chaos at the hands of the Democrats. To really drive the point home, the show aired a clip of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich characterizing the midterms as a "life and death struggle" with "radicalized" Democrats. Watch Doocy's warning below, via Fox News. Brendan Morrow

President Trump is taking his immigration rhetoric up to eleven.

Trump on Thursday urged Mexico "in the strongest of terms" to stop what he called an "onslaught" of illegal immigration into the United States. About 4,000 Central American migrants are heading toward the U.S. in hopes of crossing the border, NBC News reports, and the State Department wants Mexico to stop this caravan when it reaches the border with Guatemala. Mexico has dispatched about 500 officers to confront the caravan, but has said they will treat these migrants the same as any others, reports The Washington Post.

Now, the president is warning that if Mexico is unable to stop the group of migrants, which he said includes "MANY CRIMINALS," he will "call up the U.S. military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" He also suggested this could damage the recently-signed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as this "assault on our country" is "far more important" than trade.

Trump sought to place blame on Democrats, accusing them, without evidence, of wanting open borders and faulting them for "weak laws" on immigration. Based on his tweetstorm and recent USA Today op-ed, in which he claimed Democrats wanted "open-borders socialism," it seems Trump has found a new favorite talking point for the weeks leading up to the midterms. Brendan Morrow

When President Trump referred to Stormy Daniels as "horseface" on Twitter this week, one might have assumed he was acting on impulse. But amazingly, it seems he may have actually given the tweet some thought.

Trump workshopped the "horseface" nickname among White House aides and friends before firing it off, The Daily Beast reports, and he thought the tweet would be "politically advantageous." Some at the White House reportedly told him that going after Daniels would be unwise, but Trump disagreed, apparently feeling that hitting back at her would fire up his conservative base. Daniels has alleged she had an affair with Trump in 2006, an allegation Trump denies.

West Wing officials were still "caught off-guard" when Trump's tweet actually went live Tuesday, The Daily Beast reports. Many congressional Republicans pushed back against the remark, with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) saying there's "no place for that kind of language" and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) saying that Trump is "a street fighter, but he's also the president." Still, many Trump supporters lapped it up, and Fox News host Jesse Watters said Trump's critics were "clutching their pearls." Brendan Morrow

The Midwest is posing a challenge for Democrats' hopes of taking the Senate, but the party's prospects are a lot brighter in the gubernatorial races, according to projections from Politico on Thursday. Democratic candidates are expected to win in Illinois, Michigan, and New Mexico, all currently run by Republican governors. Races in GOP-held Wisconsin, Ohio, and Iowa are tossups, as are contests in Republican states Florida, Georgia, and Nevada. There are seven states that could tip either way, Politico reports, while Republicans are projected to win 17 races and Democrats are projected to win 12. Currently, Republicans hold the governorships in 33 states.

The Democrats' three best shots to flip Republican states are Illinois, where Democrat J.B. Pritzker is significantly ahead of incumbent GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner; New Mexico, where Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) leads Rep. Steve Pearce (R) to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Susana Martinez; and Michigan, where Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is term-limited and Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is leading state Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) and just won endorsement from the Detroit Area Chamber of Commerce's PAC, the first Democrat to get the regional business group's backing since 1990.

Democrats even have a shot at winning the governorships of deep-red Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, though Republicans are within striking distance of unseating Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D). You can read more about the races and projections at Politico. Peter Weber