Lawyers fighting a proposed census citizenship question have claimed it would dilute congressional representation for Democrats and Hispanics. New evidence suggests that was the question's intention all along.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Commerce Department's proposed addition sent a letter to District Court Judge Jesse Furman on Thursday alerting him to new evidence in the case. That evidence revealed the GOP's "Michelangelo of gerrymandering" Thomas Hofeller "played a crucial role in the Trump administration's decision" to add the question, The New York Times reports. And Hofeller made that suggestion because, in his own words, it "would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites."

Hofeller, a storied Republican consultant, died last summer, and his daughter unearthed his hard drives containing data she thought would aid in a case against North Carolina's gerrymandered districts. But they also revealed he had studied Texas' legislative districts and concluded that, if they were based on a count of voting-age U.S. citizens instead of a total population, they "would exclude traditionally Democratic Hispanics and their children from the population count" and "translate into fewer districts in traditionally Democratic areas," the Times writes.

All that couldn't happen "without a question on citizenship being included on the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire," Hofeller continued. So, as a Trump transition official in charge of census issues testified, Hofeller encouraged the incoming Trump administration to add it.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the addition of a question of citizenship on the 2020 census last March to help enforce the Voting Rights Act. Several lawsuits have since challenged that explanation, and several judges, including Furman, have so far blocked the question from being added. The Supreme Court heard arguments on the case in April, and is expected to deliver a decision in June. Kathryn Krawczyk

President Trump in a Wednesday interview went on a bizarre rant about supposed Twitter censorship, claiming the company is intentionally making it difficult for people to "join" him.

During an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo that lasted nearly an hour, Trump bemoaned "what they did to me on Twitter," claiming it's "very hard for people to join me" and that the fact that he isn't picking up followers at as quick a rate as he used to is evidence of some sort of a conspiracy.

"I was picking up 100,000 followers every few days … then all of a sudden, it stopped," Trump complained.

Trump then bizarrely suggested that many of his supporters are unable to follow him on Twitter, adding a new item to his long list of things he claims people just keep walking up to him and saying.

"I've had so many people come to me [and say], 'Sir, I can’t join you on Twitter,'" Trump said. "I see what's happening 100 percent."

Trump had previously met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the Oval Office during a meeting that he supposedly spent "a significant portion of" complaining about losing followers and probably launching into a rant not dissimilar to this one, no doubt making Dorsey long to be back on one of his silent meditation retreats. Brendan Morrow

Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent two years heading up a major investigation into 2016 Russian election interference, but, come on, that doesn't mean he actually knows its details, says Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade.

The Fox & Friends team on Tuesday was discussing the news that Mueller is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees on July 17. The Democrats, like House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who have been pushing for Mueller's testimony for quite some time are undoubtedly excited by the news. But Kilmeade thinks it could actually backfire.

"He's like the King of England on this," Kilmeade said, referring to Mueller. "He assigns the people." Kilmeade added that Nadler-led hearings "often get out of control," and he senses this one might as well, with the results differing from the Democrats intentions.

Kilmeade did concede that Mueller has a few weeks to "bone up" on the report, and guest host Jedediah Bila said that if Mueller doesn't know the details now, she's pretty sure "he's sitting with a highlighter going over it" because he'll want to "make this his moment." Watch the clip below. Tim O'Donnell

President Trump during a lengthy interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday tore into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who he again said he has the right to fire.

Trump during the interview mocked Powell as a guy who "nobody ever heard of " before, saying that "I made him and now he wants to show how tough he is." This came after Bartiromo pointed out that Powell has said he won't be pushed around amid Trump's repeated criticism.

"Let him show how tough he is," Trump said of Powell. "He's not doing a good job."

The president also once again contended that he could fire or demote Powell while noting that he never said he's actually going to do so. After Bloomberg reported that Trump had discussed demoting Powell earlier this year, Trump said in a Sunday interview that he "didn’t ever threaten to demote him" but "I'd be able to do that if I wanted."

"We have a Fed that keeps raising interest rates," Trump also said on Wednesday. "I mean, you explain that one." Brendan Morrow

On Tuesday, Russell Moore, a prominent evangelical Christian theologian and president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, deplored how the U.S. is treating detained migrant children, suggesting that "we can do better than this."

Jerry Fallwell Jr., a prominent evangelical leader who heads Liberty University and is famously friendly with President Trump, decided to publicly disagree, calling Moore "a bureaucrat" who has never "made a payroll" or "built an organization of any type from scratch."

The comments on Falwell's tweet veered from the saucy — "Have you ever hired a pool boy?" asked conservative pundit Bill Kristol. "Have naked photos of your wife ever showed up on Michael Cohen's computer?" — to the serious. "How did Jesus treat children?" asked Christian journalist Elizabeth Bruenig. Brian Zahnd, founding pastor of Missouri's Word of Life Church, brought the fire and brimstone:

Were there memes? Yes, there were memes.

Did anyone defend Falwell's thoughts on Christianity? If so, their comments were buried among questions about Jesus making payroll and how many people Falwell had just driven away from Christianity. To be fair, Falwell has pointed out that he is not an ordained minister, just a businessman who runs a Christian university. Maybe he can audit some New Testament classes this fall. Peter Weber

After the publication of a graphic photo showing two migrant deaths at the border, former congressman Beto O'Rourke took aim at President Trump.

A disturbing picture of Salvadoran migrants, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, lying in shallow water at the Rio Grande was published by The Associated Press on Tuesday after originating from the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, and it quickly gained viral attention. Ramírez and his wife and daughter had reportedly tried swimming across the river because his family could not request asylum. The Trump administration has limited the number of migrants who can request asylum per day.

O'Rourke in response placed the blame right on Trump, linking to the Associated Press story while writing, "Trump is responsible for these deaths." He also said that the administration's refugee policy comes "at the expense of our humanity, not to the benefit of our safety."

Other 2020 Democrats similarly spoke out on the photo while not being quite as direct as O'Rourke, with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) writing that denying asylum to families fleeing violence is "inhumane" and that "this is a stain on our moral conscience," while former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro called the photo "absolutely heartbreaking" and called for immigration reform.

The White House hasn't commented on the photo, but Trump on Wednesday morning tweeted that Democrats "want Open Borders, which equals violent crime, drugs and human trafficking." Brendan Morrow

Oregon state Senate President Peter Courtney (D) announced Tuesday that House Bill 2020, a plan to enact a cap-and-trade climate bill in Oregon, was dead for this session, and a few hours later, Gov. Kate Brown (D) confirmed the bill's demise. The Senate's 11 Republicans, who fled the state a week ago to stymie the legislation by denying the 18 Democrats a quorum, "have blocked a bill that provides a better future for our state and for our children, and the tactics they employed to do so are not just unacceptable, but dangerous," Brown said in a statement.

"Unfortunately the chaos and corruption of Washington, D.C., are coming to Oregon, my Oregon," Brown told The Washington Post. "Oregon government used to function. They literally shut down the legislative branch. Eleven people took their marbles and went home." Brown challenged the Republicans to "prove me wrong" by coming back to work so the Senate can consider the remaining 125 bills before the legislative session ends on Sunday. "Are they against climate change legislation or are they against democracy?" she asked. "If they are not back by Wednesday afternoon, we will know the answer."

Senate Republicans don't seem inclined to return. Sen. Herman Baertschiger (R), speaking over the phone from an "undisclosed location" in Idaho, told reporters "it saddens me that we have to do this," but "this session has been horrible. It has been anything but bipartisan." His caucus fled the Senate in May, too; after Democrats agreed to drop two bills, on gun control and vaccinations, Republicans agreed to return and stay until the end of the session. After they fled again, one senator, Brian Boquist (R), appeared to threaten to shoot any State Police officer who came to collect him, and right-wing paramilitary groups sided with the Republicans, leading to the Capitol shutting down on Saturday. Peter Weber