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Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) announces the 2018 budget blueprint during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 18, 2017. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black is running for governor in Tennessee.

Black made the announcement Wednesday morning on her campaign website. In a video, she says she believes in conservative values and would fight for the right things as governor.

Other Republican candidates for governor so far include state House Speaker Beth Harwell, state Sen. Mae Beavers, businessman Randy Boyd and businessman Bill Lee. Karl Dean, the former mayor of Nashville, is running on the Democratic side.

Black is in charge of one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the House Budget Committee. She was named interim chair in January when President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Tom Price of Georgia to become secretary of Health and Human Services.

Before being elected to Congress, Black served as a state lawmaker.

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Republican US Rep. Diane Black to run for Tennessee governor - PBS NewsHour

Ed Butowsky bills himself as an "internationally recognized expert in the wealth management industry" and a "leading voice on financial matters." He's also been a semi-regular guest on Fox News and its sister channel, Fox Business Network, as well as a number of other media outlets.

It's those ties to Fox, as well as to the Trump White House, that helped thrust Butowsky to the center of a bizarre and explosive story involving a slain Democratic National Committee staffer and the Trump administration.

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Butowsky of working with the White House on a false (and eventually retracted) Fox News story about the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.

According to the suit, the story was intended to undermine the public's belief in the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia hacked the DNC and obtained the emails ultimately released by Wikileaks.

The lawsuit, which was brought by Rod Wheeler, a private investigator who was quoted in the retracted Fox story represents the first tangible link between the fringe conspiracy theory surrounding Rich's death and the White House.

Related: Lawsuit: Fox News concocted Seth Rich story with oversight from White House

Butowsky told CNN that the allegations are "bulls**t."

He further detailed his side of the story in an appearance on CNN Tonight on Tuesday, claiming the lawsuit was just an attempt by Wheeler to make money.

"I've never talked to President Trump in my life," Butowsky said, denying that the White House had "anything to do with any of this."

In a statement, Jay Wallace, Fox News' president of news, denied that the network published the story "to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue." Wallace also said that Fox has "no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted."

Though he is now more squarely in the public eye than ever before, Butowsky's role in the saga has been known for some time. After Fox's story lit up pro-Trump media in May, the Rich family revealed that Butowsky was subsidizing Wheeler's investigation into the murder, which Washington, D.C. police have blamed on a botched robbery.

But the Rich family was, according to a spokesman representing them, taken aback when they learned that Butowsky has ties to Steve Bannon, the White House strategist and former chairman of Breitbart News.

Butowsky has appeared on Breitbart News Radio multiple times over the years and has described Bannon as "a friend and a very nice man." But Butowsky later told BuzzFeed that he and Bannon are more like acquaintances.

"It's not like I have a Steve Bannon teddy bear," Butowsky said in May. "I've never eaten a meal with the guy."

Butowsky's website details a long career in business, including the 2005 launch of a private wealth management advisory firm in the Dallas area. He's described as "a well-respected member" of the community, and "an accomplished speaker on a variety of topics."

Beyond his business, Butowsky has also plied his trade as a go-to analyst for reporters and broadcasters, frequently popping up on television or in news articles.

His media hits include appearances with outlets outside the conservative media space occupied by Fox and Breitbart, including CNN, CNBC and CBS.

He's also a close friend of "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan, even serving as a spokesperson of sorts after Logan was hospitalized in 2015.

But on Tuesday, as the lawsuit reverberated throughout the media world that he's traveled for years, Butowsky tried to make himself less visible. He appeared to remove videos of his cable news appearances from YouTube, and he deleted his Twitter account.

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 1, 2017: 4:49 PM ET

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The wealthy Republican donor at the center of explosive Fox News lawsuit - CNNMoney

Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado was the first Republican in Congress last year to cut an ad promising to stand up to Donald Trump and six months into the presidency, he has tried to live up to that promise, bucking the president on immigration, health care and other issues.

As Republicans try to defend their House majority next year, lawmakers like Mr. Coffman are trying to find that elusive middle between being a Republican and being a Trump Republican.

For Mr. Coffman, who said last year that he didnt care for [Mr. Trump] much, little has changed. He is vowing to keep bucking the president when he wants, including voting against the American Health Care Act and trying to chart a more lenient path for illegal immigrants.

Mike Coffman has a long track record of independent leadership challenging big spenders in both parties and putting the interests of his constituents first. As Mike has said before, he will stand with President Trump when he agrees with him and stand up to him when he thinks hes wrong, said Tyler Sandberg, campaign adviser to Mr. Coffman.

Mr. Coffman won his district by 9 percentage points last cycle in the same region where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton topped Mr. Trump by 9 points.

Some Republicans say thats a good sign: Voters are willing to split their ticket and reward congressional Republicans even if they do not support Mr. Trump. One party strategist said that if incumbents such as Mr. Coffman can win swing districts when Mrs. Clinton or Barack Obama is on the ballot, then they are strong enough to win midterm elections.

Others said that might not be the case next year.

The Republican majority could not be any worse than it is right now, said David Flaherty, CEO of Magellan Strategies in Colorado. He said Republicans like Mr. Coffman will need to switch up their campaign strategies now that Mr. Trump is in the White House, and they can no longer sell themselves to voters as checks on government.

Instead, its Democrats who will be able to portray themselves as checks on a runaway Republican Party.

The generic ballot test when voters are asked if they would vote for a Democrat or a Republican in their districts congressional election next year is tilting toward Democrats by 9 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics average of polls.

Mr. Coffman is one of nearly two dozen Republicans representing districts Mrs. Clinton won last year.

Another is Rep. Barbara Comstock, Virginia Republican, whose district stretches from the Shenandoah Valley to the Washington suburbs. Ms. Comstock won her district in November by 6 points, and Mrs. Clinton won it by 10 points.

Mr. Coffman and Ms. Comstock voted against Republicans American Health Care Act and have voiced criticism of Mr. Trumps other policies.

I did not support the AHCA today because of the many uncertainties in achieving those goals. As the process moves forward, I hope that we can continue to work together to fix our broken health care system, Ms. Comstock said in a statement after the May vote.

Democrats, though, said each lawmaker has plenty of votes to gut Obamacare that they will have to explain.

Coffman is extremely vulnerable in 2018, especially in a district that was carried by Hillary Clinton and has seen an explosion of civic activism, Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said in a statement.

Democrats also said opposing Mr. Trump on some high-profile issues isnt enough for voters who want to see a broader resistance.

Congresswoman Comstock is stuck between a rock and a hard place, said Cole Leiter, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She can pretend to be a moderate and isolate herself from her base voters or march lockstep with her party and confirm for families who have rejected the Trump-Washington Republican agenda who she really is. Its an untenable position.

Ms. Comstock has voted for Mr. Trumps position 97 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEights count. Mr. Coffmans record is slightly less lockstep but still at 94 percent.

Nathaniel Gonzales, editor of Inside Elections, said Republicans are still looking for that elusive spot that shows independence but doesnt alienate Trump supporters.

I think every Republican member is playing a game of Survivor and trying to get the right equation to get re-elected. Barbara Comstock tried to distance from the president, but she also needs voters who like the president, Mr. Gonzales said.

Early polling suggests competing influences at work. A Washington Post/ABC News poll last month found a slight majority of voters 52 percent want Democrats to take control of Congress next year, but Republicans and Trump voters are more enthusiastic about their candidates.

Democrats say they have much better odds than Republicans because of Mr. Trumps historically low approval ratings and because the party in power usually loses some seats in midterm elections.

Republicans are in a race to the right to see who can be the Trumpiest candidate. Voters in Colorado understand that a vote for the Republican Party in 2018 is a vote for the Trump agenda of giving more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and then sticking middle-class and working families with the bill, Ms. Carroll said.

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Republican incumbents in swing districts try to find right distance from Trump - Washington Times

On the last night of 2010, I was at a party in Caracas, Venezuela. Standing on the balcony of a house set high on a hillside, I watched fireworks burst randomly over the metropolis that spread across the valley below. A new year often brings hope of fresh beginnings, but, in that city that year, there were feelings of dread.

The political upheaval brought about by Venezuelas revolutionary populist president, Hugo Chavez, was slipping into economic calamity, political corruption and a wave of street crime. And, as is usual with revolutions gone stale, democratic ideals were being sacrificed so that the regime could cling to power.

One of the other guests at the party, a wry, fatalistic gentleman who had voted for Chavez, told me he now very much regretted his vote.

I was hoping wed get Swedish socialism, he said. Instead, were getting Cuban socialism.

Id like to know how that man and others that I met during my visit are faring now because the difficult situation of 2010 and 2011 has grown exponentially worse in 2017. The current president, Nicolas Maduro, has none of the charisma or cleverness of the now-deceased Chavez, but his impulse to authoritarianism is even deeper. Once a prosperous, relatively stable nation, Venezuela is now broke, thanks to terrible governance and the precipitous drop in oil prices, the countrys primary export commodity. Food and the basic goods necessary for a civilized life are in short supply. Crime is worse than ever. And, rather than taking responsibility for any of this, Maduro simply blames his enemies and uses the crisis as an excuse to censor the media, subvert civil liberties and seize more power.

Under Chavez, elections were still relatively fair. That is no longer the case. In a rigged referendum last weekend, Maduro engineered the election of a compliant constituent assembly that is expected to rewrite the countrys constitution and eliminate the opposition-dominated National Assembly.

Monday, in a White House briefing detailing new U.S. sanctions that are being imposed on Maduros regime, national security advisor H.R. McMaster said, Maduro is not just a bad leader. He is now a dictator.

Street protests that have been raging for months all across Venezuela have become much more violent as Maduro has tightened the screws on what is left of the nations democratic system. Government troops now gun down opposition protesters every day. Tuesday, several leaders of anti-Maduro political parties were arrested.

This deepening tragedy offers lessons for Americans of all political stripes.

For those on the left who cheered the rise of Chavez and turned a blind eye to his dictatorial inclinations and complicity in corruption, one might ask, when will you ever learn? Just as American leftists were dupes for Stalin in the 1930s and 40s, too many dreamy progressives all these years later still allow themselves to become apologists for self-proclaimed saviors of the people who spout egalitarian rhetoric but end up as despots.

For those on the right, Venezuela is not just an example of the failings of socialist revolutions, it is an illustration of what can happen when a crowd-pleasing populist politician attacks the free press, demonizes opponents, proclaims a militant nationalism and creates an alternative version of reality based on self-serving lies. The urge to make heroes out of bombastic demagogues is an affliction that affects people on the right as much as those on the left.

And for American political leaders, as well as the wielders of financial and corporate power, it should be noted that Venezuelas problems began with a failure to address the countrys extreme wealth gap. Until the current troubles reached a crisis point, Caracas was a vibrant, modern city, home to a large, healthy middle class and a very fortunate upper crust of wealthy families. But on the hills surrounding the city a vast barrio of desperately poor people seethed with resentment. Those resentments produced Chavez and, now, Maduro.

The Venezuelan political and economic elite failed to address the inequities and disconnections in their country and now every Venezuelan is being brought low. Growing social disaffection in the United States already helped elect Donald Trump to the presidency and the rips in the seams of our democracy run in every direction. If they are not repaired, Trumps follies may be only the start of the unraveling.

Let Venezuelas agony be a reminder: It can happen anywhere.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter

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Venezuela's descent into dictatorship shows democracy can be lost - Los Angeles Times

Veuer

Aug 1st 2017 7:03PM

The State Department may be looking to remove the promotion of democracy from its mission statement, according to the Washington Post, as part of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's efforts to overhaul the agency.

On Friday, the State Department sent an email to employees with a draft of the agency's statement which did not contain any language regarding the "promotion of democracy".

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Rex Tillerson through his career

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Exxon Mobil Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson speaks at a news conference following the Exxon Mobil annual shareholders meeting in Dallas, Texas May 30, 2007. Tillerson told reporters on Wednesday that the construction of the Mackenzie pipeline project in Canada was not viable at current cost levels.

(REUTERS/Mike Stone)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) and Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson look on at a signing ceremony in the Black Sea resort of Sochi August 30, 2011. Exxon and Russia's Rosneft signed a deal on Tuesday to develop oil and gas reserves in the Russian Arctic, opening up one of the last unconquered drilling frontiers to the global industry No.1.

(REUTERS/Alexsey Druginyn/RIA Novosti/Pool)

Executives from six major oil companies are sworn in to testify at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on the "Consolidation in the Oil and Gas Industry: Raising Prices?" on Capitol Hill in Washington March 14, 2006. The executives are (L-R) Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil Corp., James Mulva, Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, David O'Reilly, Chairman and CEO of Chevron Corp., Bill Klesse, CEO of Valero Energy Corp., John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil Company and Ross Pillari, President and CEO of BP America Inc.

(Jason Reed / Reuters)

ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson speaks during the IHS CERAWeek 2015 energy conference in Houston, Texas April 21, 2015.

(REUTERS/Daniel Kramer/File Photo)

Chairman, President and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation Rex Tillerson watches a tee shot on the 13th hole during the first round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club course in Pebble Beach, California, February 6, 2014.

(REUTERS/Michael Fiala)

Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil; John Watson, chairman and CEO of Chevron Corp.; James Mulva, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips; Marvin Odum, president of Shell Oil Co.; and Lamar McKay, president and chairman of BP America Inc.; are sworn in during the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing on their safety practices as oil continues to leak into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig - operated by BP - exploded last month.

(Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)

ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson speaks during the IHS CERAWeek 2015 energy conference in Houston, Texas April 21, 2015.

(REUTERS/Daniel Kramer/File Photo)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 12: James Mulva, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips; and Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp.; during the Senate Finance hearing on oil and gas tax incentives.

(Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)

Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation Rex W. Tillerson and Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg attends the United Nations Foundation's global leadership dinner at The Pierre Hotel on November 8, 2011 in New York City.

(Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images)

Rex Tillerson, chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., left, speaks with Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates Inc., during the 2015 IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Tuesday, April 21, 2015. CERAWeek 2015, in its 34th year, will provide new insights and critically-important dialogue with decision-makers in the oil and gas, electric power, coal, renewables, and nuclear sectors from around the world.

(Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Renda St. Clair and Rex Tillerson attend the reopening celebration at Ford's Theatre on February 11, 2009 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Abby Brack/Getty Images)

Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, listens during a meeting at the Department of the Interior September 22, 2010 in Washington, DC. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth L. Salazar hosted Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Gulf Oil Spill National Incident Commander Adm. Thad Allen (Ret.), representatives from the private sector and others to discus strengthening the containment abilities to deep water oil and gas well blowouts like the recent BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

(Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

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For comparison, the current state department mission statement says:

"The Department's mission is to shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere."

A former official of the Bush Administration, Elliot Abrams told the Washington Post that the removal of the words make a big difference.

He said "That change is a serious mistake that ought to be corrected," "If not, the message being sent will be a great comfort to every dictator in the world."

According to the Post, since taking office, President Trump hasn't made promoting democracy and human rights a high priority.

However, draft statements are still under review and have not been finalized.

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US State Department may remove 'democracy promotion' from mission statement - AOL