Mark Sanford announces GOP primary challenge against Trump

"As a Republican Party, we have lost our way, and I'd say so on a couple of different fronts. First and sort of the epicenter of where I'm coming from is that we have lost our way on debt and deficits and spending. One of the hallmarks of the Republican Party and the conservative movement has always been how much do we spend. ... I think as a party we've lost our way. The president has called himself the king of debt, has a familiarity and comfort level with debt that I think is ultimately leading us in the wrong direction."

The big picture: Sanford, who lost his congressional primary in 2018 after Trump encouraged voters to ditch him, joins former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and former Gov. Bill Weld (R-Mass.) in the long-shot effort to oust Trump as the Republican nominee in 2020. Trump enjoys a near-90% approval rating in the Republican Party and is unlikely to be defeated in a primary.

• Sanford is well-known for a scandal in which he disappeared for a week in 2009, telling his staff that he would be hiking on the Appalachian Trail. In reality, the then-married governor was engaged in an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

Sanford addressed the controversy on Fox, telling Chris Wallace:

"I actually went on an apology tour, if you want to call it that, back home in the wake of that for the last year and a half of my governorship. And what I learned through that is, I guess what General Mattis talks about. The mistakes in life, mistakes that we make, are the great tuitions of life. They cost us, but you can learn from them. And for me, I learned a level of humility, a level of empathy that I didn't have before, a level of judgment. It is something of great regret. It's something I have apologized extensively for and in contrast to the president when he says there's not a single thing that he sort of regrets or apologizes for. I profoundly apologize for that.

Worth noting: Both Kansas and South Carolina's Republican parties shuttered their 2020 presidential primaries last week, making the long-shot GOP challengers even less likely to succeed.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker