Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) announced Friday that he will retire from Congress at the end of his term, putting yet another Democratic congressional seat in Minnesota into play in the 2018 midterm elections, Politico notes.

Nolan's retirement forces Democrats to defend a seat in a district President Trump won in 2016 with 54 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 39 percent. Nolan, meanwhile, squeaked out a victory that year by only a little more than 2,000 votes.

The loss of Nolan comes after former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was forced to resign late last year in relation to accusations of sexual assault. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) tapped Tina Smith to take Franken's place in the Senate, but Smith will be forced to defend her seat too in a special election in November. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), meanwhile, will also be on the ballot, while Rep. Tim Walz's (D-Minn.) decision to run for governor puts at risk a Democratic seat in Minnesota's competitive first congressional district.

Clinton won Minnesota overall by just 1.5 percentage points in 2016 — hardly a confidence boost for Democrats. Still, Nolan struck an optimistic note in the statement announcing his resignation, saying that his district had "a number of highly qualified people" and predicting that "with hard work and broad base of support, one of them … will serve with distinction in the next Congress." Nolan served two non-consecutive terms in the House of Representatives, the first from 1975-1981 and the second beginning in 2013.

Read his full statement below. Kelly O'Meara Morales

China, Iran, and North Korea could join Russia in attempting to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections, National Security Adviser John Bolton said on ABC's This Week Sunday.

Bolton told host Martha Raddatz there is "a sufficient national security concern about Chinese meddling, Iranian meddling, and North Korean meddling that we're taking steps to try and prevent it" — but he would not answer her question about whether there is any evidence China has tried to hack American elections in the past.

Bolton is a diehard hawk who has advocated attacking Iran and North Korea.

Raddatz also asked whether Bolton would support fighting the 17-year war in Afghanistan entirely using contractors instead of the U.S. military. (Contractors already outnumber U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan by a large margin.) Bolton dodged the question with a bromide about entertaining new tactics.

Watch that exchange below. Bonnie Kristian

Former CIA Director John Brennan is considering legal action against the Trump administration after President Trump revoked his security clearance as part of a very public feud, Brennan said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday.

"I have been contacted by a number of lawyers and they have already given me their thoughts about the basis for a complaint, an injunction, to try and prevent him from doing this in the future," Brennan told host Chuck Todd. "If my clearances and my reputation — as I'm being pulled through the mud now — if that's the price we're going to pay to prevent Donald Trump from doing this against other people, to me it's a small price to pay, so I am going to do whatever I can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future, and if it means going to court, I will do that."

Pressed by Todd as to whether he regrets "essentially accusing the president of treason," Brennan said no. "I've been speaking out rather forcefully, because I believe it's important to do so," he said. "I don't believe I'm being political at all." Contra Todd, who highlighted his prominence as "the former CIA director accusing the sitting president of the United States," Brennan maintained he is merely a "private citizen."

Watch the full segment below. Bonnie Kristian

Those who say President Trump should testify for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation "because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, well, that's so silly, because it's somebody's version of the truth — not the truth [itself[," Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said on NBC News Sunday.

"Truth is truth," Meet the Press host Chuck Todd interjected.

"No," Giuliani replied, "it isn't truth. Truth isn't truth."

After a moment of crosstalk and protestation, Todd observed Giuliani's phrase "is going to become a bad meme."

While Trump himself has at times expressed eagerness to testify, his legal team has been wary of permitting it, with Giuliani alleging Mueller is attempting to trap Trump in perjury. His Orwellian phrasing aside, Giuliani's concern is not particularly unusual, especially for a lawyer with a loquacious fabulist for a client.

Giuliani's full interview mostly concerned Saturday's news that White House counsel Don McGahn has voluntarily given 30 hours of interviews to the Mueller team, as well as President Trump's response to that story. Watch the complete conversation with Todd below; the exchange about truth begins around the nine-minute mark. Bonnie Kristian

Syria's Idlib province is expected to be the site of the final major battle of the seven-year Syrian civil war.

The country's strongman President Bashar al-Assad has retaken most rebel-held territory across Syria, and Idlib is the last large rebel-held enclave. About 70,000 rebel fighters are in the province, driven by regime forces from other Syrian regions.

Idlib is also the temporary home of internally displaced people who have fled more intense fighting elsewhere in Syria. Now, the fighting will likely come to their doorsteps once again as a new offensive is thought to be imminent.

"We are asking God for mercy and protection from the bombing and the airstrikes," said a woman named Aisha, who lives in Idlib with her family. "If I take [my children] with me outside, I am scared. If I leave them inside the house, I'm also scared. Wherever I go, I will still be scared for their lives." Bonnie Kristian

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Wednesday arrested Joel Arrona-Lara as he drove his wife, Maria del Carmen Venegas, to the hospital to give birth. Arrona-Lara was detained when he stopped at a gas station, and Venegas, left sobbing at the station, ultimately drove herself to the hospital and delivered the baby alone.

ICE said Saturday the arrest was made because Arrona-Lara is in the U.S. illegally and there is an "outstanding warrant issued for his arrest in Mexico on homicide charges." The agency "will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement," the statement said. "All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States."

Venegas told CNN the murder accusation is the result of "a misunderstanding." The couple's attorney, Emilio Amaya García, said he was not able to locate a Mexican warrant for Arrona-Lara's arrest. "Using the name and date of birth, we couldn't find anything saying he was in any criminal proceedings," he said.

"I'm well healthwise, but emotionally bad," Venegas said after the birth. Her experience has been a nightmare, she added, and she "had wanted it to be a dream." Bonnie Kristian

President Trump intends to announce this coming week new guidelines for emissions from coal power plants, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

The proposal would reverse an Obama administration policy, the Clean Power Plan, intended to discourage coal use long-term. The new plan would allow states to set comparatively looser standards for coal plants for the next decade.

The Post reports the Trump proposal will result in the release of 12 times the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as compared to emissions under the Obama-era rules, and other pollutant emissions will be affected as well:

(The Washington Post)

"These numbers tell the story, that [the Trump administration] really remain[s] committed not to do anything to address greenhouse gas emissions," said Joseph Goffman, formerly associate assistant administrator for climate at the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation. "They show not merely indifference to climate change but really, opposition to doing anything about climate change."

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, meanwhile, hailed the expected rule change as a win. "We're certainly pleased and supportive of the administration rolling back what we thought were harmful regulations," said the organization's president, Michelle Bloodworth. "It's a step in the right direction." Bonnie Kristian

President Trump raged on Twitter early Sunday, continuing an overnight series of tweets on a Saturday New York Times report that White House counsel Don McGahn has cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation:

In previous posts, Trump claimed he approved McGahn's information sharing for the sake of transparency and that the Times published the piece to unfairly smear McGahn:

The president also reprised a familiar refrain of protests and misdirection about collusion, Hillary Clinton, the media, McCarthyism, and the "witch hunt." Read more about the Times story that has him so agitated here. Bonnie Kristian