Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held his own against a Fox anchor who questioned him about his husband Chasten’s remarks in defence of protesters who gathered outside a restaurant where Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was eating.

Pushing back against the Fox host and noting that Mr Kavanaugh never actually came into contact with the protesters, Mr Buttigieg also noted that the “right to privacy” was the basis for the Roe vs Wade ruling protecting abortion rights that Mr Kavanaugh himself tossed out last month.

Read more from The Independent’s Gino Spocchia:

Joe Biden has a lot to worry about in a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College released on Monday.

The survey shows that a majority of Democrats do not think he should run for office in 2024. Nearly two-thirds want another nominee, disastrous numbers for a president seeking reelection any year but especially dangerous given Donald Trump’s public hinting about a third White House bid.

Read more from Eric Garcia in The Independent:

Donald Trump went on a Truth Social binge late Sunday evening, lashing out at his political enemies on the January 6 committee and elsewhere in Congress.

As Washington gears up for two more hearings set to expose Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 attack, the ex-president swiped at Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and other members of Congress as he wailed about why Democrats didn’t do more to protect the Capitol as his own supporters, who he personally told to be there, assaulted police officers.

“They should not be allowed to get away with it any longer!” he said of the committee, while labeling Ms Cheney a “pscycho [sic]”.

Joe Biden is working to reset the US’s relationship with Middle Eastern countries after four years of Donald Trump.

The president will visit Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia as he seeks to improve the US relationship with both the Israeli government and Saudi Arabia, two countries that enjoyed a comfortable relationship with the Trump administration but pulled back from US engagement after Joe Biden took office.

But some leaders in the region are privately wondering if the “Biden doctrine” is here to stay, or merely represents a four-year break from a returning Donald Trump.

“Both of these leaders in my judgment are now looking past the Biden administration, and looking very much forward to the return of Donald Trump or his avatar,” said Aaron David Miller, an expert on Arab-Israeli peace talks. “I think it’s a complex trip, and I think we should be extremely realistic about these expectations.”

Read more in The Associated Press:

Donald Trump refused to use the word vaccine when talking about Covid-19 at a rally for Republican candidates in Alaska on Saturday evening.

“We did so much in terms of therapeutics and a word that I’m not allowed to mention, but I’m still proud of that word,” he told supporters in Anchorage.

“We did that in nine months and it was supposed to take five years to 12 years, nobody else could have done it but I’m not mentioning it in front of my people.”

Eric Garcia has more details.

Donald Trump pulled two fans up on stage dressed in shirts emblazoned with his face and demanded they “give ‘em to me right now” during Saturday’s campaign rally in Alaska.

“I love this guy’s shirt, I tell you,” he says, laughing and pointing to the man in the crowd.

“I’d love to have you get up here. Come on, get up here. Let me see. Get up here. Get this guy up here.”

Rachel Sharp has the story.

Donald Trump vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports” during a crude, transphobic rant at a campaign rally in Alaska on Saturday night.

“It is actually demeaning to women, and it should not be allowed,” Mr Trump said.

Sarah Palin invoked gun imagery as she urged Republicans to keep fighting during a rally in Anchorage on Saturday night – weeks after a series of mass shootings that have left dozens of people dead.

“My dad, he was all about, no, you stiffen your spine,” the former Alaska governor told a cheering crowd at the GOP rally.

“My dad’s words exactly were: ‘Don’t retreat, reload’.”

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon, one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers and top supporters, has agreed to provide testimony to the January 6 committee, a panel member revealed on Sunday.

Rep Zoe Lofgren confirmed during an interview with CNN that Mr Bannon’s attorney had written to the committee stating Mr Bannon’s willingness to drop his opposition to their subpoena.

John Bowden reports.

Former president Donald Trump lashed out at Twitter and Facebook executives in an interview for new documentary Unprecedented shot soon after both social media sites banned him in the wake of the violent attack on the Capitol.

In an interview with filmmaker Alex Holder, Mr Trump said it was “a shame” that the two most popular social networks had kicked him off after he’d used their platforms to incite a riot, and lamented that leaders from authoritarian states remain allowed to access them.

“I’m not a horrific person,” he tells the documentary.

Read Andrew Feinberg’s full story here.