memeorandum: Witness At Ted Cruz Hearing Accuses Congress' Two Muslim Members Of Muslim Brotherhood Ties (Sam Stein/The Huffington Post)

1:40 PM ET, June 29, 2016

Top Items:

Tal Kopan / CNN:

First on CNN: Poll shows Clinton with battleground leads — Elizabeth Warren joins Clinton to attack Donald Trump — Washington (CNN)Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump across the board in a new poll of battleground states. — According to Ballotpedia's battleground poll, Clinton leads Trump:

Discussion: Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh and The Week

Alan Rappeport / New York Times:

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Are Deadlocked, Poll Shows — Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump are deadlocked less than a month before the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions, according to a new national poll that shows the American electorate feeling disappointed in each candidate.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Week and Jezebel

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:

British Politicians Demand to Exit ... Donald Trump's Fundraising List — Americans are accustomed to being bombarded by unsolicited fundraising solicitations from American politicians. The British? Not so much. — Several members of the U.K. Parliament in recent days have publicly complained …

Discussion: Politicus USA, Scotsman, Raw Story and electionlawblog.org

Jim Ruth / Washington Post:
I hate Donald Trump. But he might get my vote.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Kristinn Taylor / The Gateway Pundit: Hillary Clinton Tweets for Trump=> “DONALD TRUMP KNOWS HOW TO CREATE MANUFACTURING JOBS”

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Donald Trump Wants America to Behead People Now and America Sort of Agrees

Discussion: Washington Post, Hullabaloo, Common Dreams, Talking Points Memo and FOX News Radio

Robin Wright / New Yorker:

Chris Stevens's Family: Don't Blame Hillary Clinton for Benghazi — On Tuesday, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which is controlled by a Republican majority, charged the Obama Administration with diplomatic miscalculations, security failures, and a lengthy delay in rescue efforts …

Donovan Slack / USA Today:

Exclusive: NRA to run $2 million Benghazi-themed ad campaign for Trump — The National Rifle Association's political arm is launching its first ad campaign of the 2016 presidential race, with a survivor of the terror attack in Benghazi urging viewers to vote for Donald Trump.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Media Matters for America, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, New York Magazine, Bearing Arms, Joe.My.God. and The Week

John Podhoretz / New York Post: Benghazi lies were just standard procedure under Obama

Katherine Krueger / Talking Points Memo:
Slain Ambassador Chris Stevens' Sister Speaks Out: ‘I Do Not Blame’ Clinton

Discussion: alan.com, Little Green Footballs, Associated Press and NOLA River

Bloomberg:

Trump Campaign Lining Up Tyson and Ditka for Convention — Several sports personalities and musical entertainers have agreed to appear at this summer's convention. — kevcirilli — ESPN has nothing on this summer's Republican national convention. — Donald Trump's campaign aides …

Discussion: Mediaite, RedState, Talking Points Memo, AOL, VICE, Daily Kos, Politicus USA, The Week, abc7chicago.com, Politico, KFOR-TV and New York Magazine

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:

Who will show up? Who will pay? The many unknowns of the GOP convention. — Dozens of well-known Republicans aren't showing up. There's no word yet on who will speak. A growing number of corporate sponsors are taking a pass. Groups of white supremacists and other agitators are on the way …

Discussion: Politico, RedState, CNN, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Joe.My.God., Addicting Info and Mediaite

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Anxiety mounts over GOP convention's security

Discussion: Washington Post, NPR and Talking Points Memo

ABC News:

Nate Silver Predicts Clinton Wins General Election Against Trump … “We're at halftime of the election right now,” Silver said. “She's taking a seven-point, maybe a ten-point lead into half time. There's a lot of football left to be played. She's ahead in almost every poll, every swing state, every national poll.”

Discussion: Towleroad, Business Insider, Mediaite, Political Wire, Joe.My.God. and AOL

Matt Canham / Salt Lake Tribune:

Utah's Misty Snow makes history as Dems' transgender Senate nominee — Primary sets up contest with GOP's Lee in November. — Utah voters picked a historic, and largely unknown, Democratic candidate to challenge Sen. Mike Lee this November. — Misty K. Snow is the first transgender nominee …

Discussion: Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Friendly Atheist, Guardian, Joe.My.God. and Althouse

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Two transgender candidates named ‘Misty’ win primaries

Discussion: Vox, Jezebel, Towleroad, AOL and The Week

Nick Gass / Politico:

Carson: My mother ‘would have taken a gun’ and shot ‘dishonest reporters’ — Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson joked Wednesday that if his mother did not have Alzheimer's disease, she would have likely taken to arms and gone after the “dishonest reporters” covering the campaign herself.

Discussion: The Week

Dr. Ben Carson / Play.It:

Brown and Scoop … FacebookTwitter … Former Presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson joined the show. Dr. Carson discussed his Presidential campaign, supporting Donald Trump, the future of our nation if Hillary Clinton wins, his book Gifted Hands, and much more.

Discussion: Business Insider

Emma Platoff / Philly.com:

Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party — On June 16, police were called to an unlikely scene: an end-of-the-year class party at the William P. Tatem Elementary School in Collingswood. — A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class.

Discussion: Mediaite, Instapundit, Heat Street, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Bob Eschliman / Charisma News:

After Donald Trump's Salvation, Dr. James Dobson Reminds How to Deal With ‘Baby Christians’ — Following his statement last week that Donald Trump has been saved, Dr. James Dobson apparently had some explaining to do with some Christians. — He issued the following response as a result:

Discussion: The Resurgent and The Right Scoop

Allegra Kirkland / Talking Points Memo:
Evangelical Leader Backpedals On Story Of Trump's Recent Conversion

Discussion: alan.com and The Resurgent

The Hill:

EXCLUSIVE: Pro-Hillary group takes $200K in banned donations — has accepted $200,000 in donations from a company holding multiple contracts with the federal government — despite a ban on such contributions. — According to a review of contributions by The Hill, Boston-based Suffolk Construction …

Discussion: RedState, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, LawNewz, Washington Free Beacon and The Week

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

Plagiarized Lessons and Deceptive Tactics: A Look Inside the Trump Institute — In 2005, as he was making a transition from developing real estate to capitalizing on his fame through ventures like a reality show and product-licensing deals, Donald J. Trump hit upon a two-pronged strategy for entering the field of for-profit education.

Discussion: Raw Story

Ballotpedia News:

Ballotpedia's battleground poll, 2016 — Ballot access for presidential candidates — The media's coverage of Hillary Clinton — Insiders Poll: First Democratic debate (October 13, 2015) — Insiders Poll: Winners and losers from the Fox News Republican Debate

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState, New York Magazine and Hot Air

James Traub / Foreign Policy:

It's Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses — The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It's not about the left vs. the right; it's about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry. — I was born in 1954, and until now I would have said that the late 1960s …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:

The DoNotPay bot has beaten 160,000 traffic tickets — and counting — A bot made to challenge traffic tickets has been used more than 9,000 times by New Yorkers, according to DoNotPay maker Joshua Browder. — The bot was made available to New Yorkers in March.

Discussion: Telegraph, Guardian, LawNewz, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing and The Week

Daily Mail:

‘Gosh, I suppose I better get up!’ SARAH VINE (aka Mrs Gove) reveals what her husband said when he learned Leave had won the referendum... and how PM's resignation was ‘absolutely’ not intended — The first I knew about the referendum result was at 4.45am last Friday when I was woken …

Discussion: Guardian, Coffee House and New York Times

Susan Wright / RedState:

CHILLING: Senator Marco Rubio Accurately Predicts Istanbul Terrorist Attack — Florida Senator Marco Rubio is no lightweight, and has proven himself well-versed in the threats facing our nation at this very critical juncture in world history. — In the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attack …

Discussion: CNN, Mediaite, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Week and BizPac Review

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic:

What Is on Justice Anthony Kennedy's Mind? — Some years ago, Dahlia Lithwick and I christened Justice Anthony Kennedy “the Sphinx of Sacramento.” Throughout his nearly 30 years on the Supreme Court, Kennedy's mind has often seemed like a distant and mysterious country …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and New York Magazine

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Gun Control Wall, Bolstered by Republicans, Shows a Crack — WASHINGTON — A widely publicized sit-in by House Democrats. A bipartisan compromise proposal in the Senate. Neither is very likely to lead to any legislative action in Congress on gun safety this year.

Discussion: Politicus USA

Daniel Klaidman / Yahoo:

CIA chief Brennan looks at Turkish attack and sees a warning for Americans — Four hours after three suicide bombers killed at least 41 people and wounded hundreds more at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, CIA Director John Brennan said the attacks bore the grim hallmarks of ISIS and warned …

Discussion: Politico and Washington Free Beacon

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Lewandowski loses $1.2 million book deal — Corey Lewandowski had a $1.2-million offer from HarperCollins to write a book chronicling his time running Donald Trump's presidential campaign, but the publishing giant backed away from the deal amid concerns about Lewandowski's nondisclosure agreement …