--- title: Morning Must Reads: June 13 description: In the news: Iraq moves toward all-out sectarian conflict; Bowe Bergdahl is back in the U.S.; The rise of House Whip Kevin McCarthy canonical: https://time.com/2869935/morning-must-reads-june-13/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-13T13:09:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:24:09.444Z article:section: Politics og:title: Morning Must Reads: June 13 og:description: In the news: Iraq moves toward all-out sectarian conflict; Bowe Bergdahl is back in the U.S.; The rise of House Whip Kevin McCarthy og:url: https://time.com/2869935/morning-must-reads-june-13/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Morning Must Reads: June 13 twitter:description: In the news: Iraq moves toward all-out sectarian conflict; Bowe Bergdahl is back in the U.S.; The rise of House Whip Kevin McCarthy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Morning Must Reads: June 13 > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=72ecd2d4-0db6-4142-84a7-d9a33f947b47&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jun 13, 2014 1:09 PM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jun 13, 2014 1:09 PM UTC * “The senior Shiite cleric in Iraq issued an urgent call to arms on Friday, telling all able-bodied Iraqis to help the government fight Sunni militants who have seized broad stretches of Iraqi territory, in a sign of the growing desperation of the country’s Shiites and its shaky central government.” \[[NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/world/middleeast/iraq.html?%5Fr=0)\] * “Iraq edged closer to all-out sectarian conflict as Kurdish forces took control of a provincial capital in the oil-rich north on Thursday and Sunni militants threatened to march on two cities revered by Shiite Muslims and the capital.” \[[WSJ](http://online.wsj.com/articles/islamist-rebels-vow-to-march-on-iraqs-capital-1402562192?mod=WSJ%5Fhp%5FLEFTTopStories)\] * “The Obama administration is weighing options for an imminent response to the crisis in Iraq, including airstrikes against Islamic extremists who have overrun Iraqi cities to within striking distance of Baghdad, and expanded intelligence and targeting assistance for Iraqi military forces.” \[[WashPost](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-weighs-options-for-halting-gains-by-insurgents-in-iraq/2014/06/12/196cfc5a-f26e-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f%5Fstory.html?hpid=z1)\] * Violence in Iraq Could Raise the Price at the Pumps \[[TIME](http://time.com/2865887/iraq-gas-prices-isis-oil/)\] * Bowe Bergdahl Is Back in the U.S. \[[TIME](http://time.com/2869679/bowe-bergdahl-us-san-antonio/)\] * The Fall of Teachers Unions \[[Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/teachers-union-california-court-decision-107816.html?hp=t1)\] * “Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) ended his bid to become the next House majority leader on Thursday night, leaving Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the only candidate to replace Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was defeated in a historic primary loss on Tuesday.” \[[Hill](http://thehill.com/homenews/house/209260-sessions-out-of-leadership-race)\] * “A win by McCarthy, in just his fourth term, would complete a remarkable transformation for the affable Californian, who just a year ago was dogged by criticism that he wasn’t tough enough to persuade recalcitrant GOP lawmakers to vote with the leadership on critically important issues. He also faced questions about whether his policy chops were substantive enough for the job.” \[[WashPost](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-kevin-mccarthy-r-calif-favored-to-be-next-majority-leader-a-savant-of-relationships/2014/06/12/c07e1a12-f258-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217%5Fstory.html?hpid=z1)\] * “Iraq edged closer to all-out sectarian conflict as Kurdish forces took control of a provincial capital in the oil-rich north on Thursday and Sunni militants threatened to march on two cities revered by Shiite Muslims and the capital.” \[[WSJ](http://online.wsj.com/articles/islamist-rebels-vow-to-march-on-iraqs-capital-1402562192?mod=WSJ%5Fhp%5FLEFTTopStories)\] * “The Obama administration is weighing options for an imminent response to the crisis in Iraq, including airstrikes against Islamic extremists who have overrun Iraqi cities to within striking distance of Baghdad, and expanded intelligence and targeting assistance for Iraqi military forces.” \[[WashPost](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-weighs-options-for-halting-gains-by-insurgents-in-iraq/2014/06/12/196cfc5a-f26e-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f%5Fstory.html?hpid=z1)\] * Violence in Iraq Could Raise the Price at the Pumps \[[TIME](http://time.com/2865887/iraq-gas-prices-isis-oil/)\] * “A win by McCarthy, in just his fourth term, would complete a remarkable transformation for the affable Californian, who just a year ago was dogged by criticism that he wasn’t tough enough to persuade recalcitrant GOP lawmakers to vote with the leadership on critically important issues. He also faced questions about whether his policy chops were substantive enough for the job.” \[[WashPost](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-kevin-mccarthy-r-calif-favored-to-be-next-majority-leader-a-savant-of-relationships/2014/06/12/c07e1a12-f258-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217%5Fstory.html?hpid=z1)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2869935/morning-must-reads-june-13/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2869935/morning-must-reads-june-13/"},"headline":"Morning Must Reads: June 13","datePublished":"2014-06-13T13:09:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:24:09.444Z","description":"In the news: Iraq moves toward all-out sectarian conflict; Bowe Bergdahl is back in the U.S.; The rise of House Whip Kevin McCarthy","url":"https://time.com/2869935/morning-must-reads-june-13/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/morning-must-reads/","name":"Morning Must Reads"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2869935/morning-must-reads-june-13/","name":"Morning Must Reads: June 13"}}]}] ```