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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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politics lead
Meet the IRS clean-up man
Washington (CNN) – Amid the storm of congressional outrage and accusations, there he sat, serene as a saint: IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
One Democrat said Koskinen faced an "inquisition" while testifying before Congress Monday, and over the past week. But the commissioner has held his own, refusing to apologize, and denying that he misled Congress about lost e-mails.
The White House could not have picked a better brawler. Koskinen was trained in physics at Duke, and law at Yale. He worked for a New York mayor, a Connecticut senator, and was deputy mayor of Washington, D.C., during a financial crisis.
What he likes most, however, are seemingly lost causes.
FULL POST
politics lead
Charlie Rangel's last fight has been his hardest
New York (CNN) - He says it's his last fight. And it's been his hardest.
After 43 years in Congress, New York Rep. Charlie Rangel said the campaign for his 23rd term is his final one.
The 84-year-old "Lion of Harlem" wants two more years in Washington, but on Tuesday, voters will decide if his time is up.
He's a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the former chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
But the legend of Harlem politics is on shaky ground.
world lead
Kerry: 'Words are cheap' but promising in Iraq
(CNN) - Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani is willing to participate in the formation of a new government in Baghdad, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
On Monday, Barzani told CNN that he would press the issue of Kurdish independence with Kerry when the U.S. official visited Irbil, saying, "The Kurdish people should seize the opportunity now."
politics lead
The wealth question: Bill Clinton cleans up Hillary's clean up
(CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton is coming to the defense of his wife Hillary, and her suggestion that their family was "dead broke" when they left the White House.
"It is factually true that we were several million dollars in debt," the former president said Tuesday, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative in Denver.
FULL POST
politics lead
Final chapter underway in nation's ugliest primary
Jackson, Mississippi (CNN) - Lifelong Democrat Jackie Bland is doing something she never thought she'd do: Urge people to vote for a Republican.
Bland supports Thad Cochran, a six-term Mississippi senator who's trying to fend off a fierce tea party challenge to his seat from Chris McDaniel as voting got underway in Tuesday's primary runoff.
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