Top Items:
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
In major shift, White House privately backing earlier rollback of Medicaid expansion — Such a move, however, could blow up the already fragile efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act — Washington (CNN)The White House is privately lining up behind conservative calls to roll …
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Jim Acosta / CNN:
Trump to conservative leaders: If this plan fails, I'll blame Democrats — Washington (CNN)In an Oval Office meeting featuring several leaders of conservative groups already lining up against the House Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, President Donald Trump revealed his plan …
Washington Examiner:
Trump says privately second healthcare bill ready as early as next week
Trump says privately second healthcare bill ready as early as next week
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Hot Air, RedState and TheBlaze
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Trump has a secret backup plan to kill Obamacare. It's actually brilliant.
Trump has a secret backup plan to kill Obamacare. It's actually brilliant.
Discussion:
Breitbart, Washington Examiner, NPR, The Atlantic, NBC News, New York Times, The Daily Signal, New York Magazine and The Federalist
Rachael Bade / Politico:
Republican Study Committee backs two Medicaid changes to Obamacare repeal bill
Republican Study Committee backs two Medicaid changes to Obamacare repeal bill
Discussion:
New York Times, The Fiscal Times, Los Angeles Times, Daily Kos, Reuters, ABC News, Common Dreams, Hot Air, The Hill and John Hawkins' Right Wing News
Russell Berman / The Atlantic:
Professor Paul Ryan's Health-Care Pitch: This Is the Bill
Professor Paul Ryan's Health-Care Pitch: This Is the Bill
Discussion:
CNN, Politico, Sputnik International and CBS Philly
CNN:
Sources: FBI investigation continues into ‘odd’ computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization — (CNN)Federal investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.
Tom DiChristopher / CNBC:
EPA chief Scott Pruitt says carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming — EPA takes aim at CAFE standards: Scott Pruitt — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.
Discussion:
New York Times, Snopes.com, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Post, Reuters, Bloomberg, Truth Against the Machine, Axios, Common Dreams, Mashable, Union of Concerned Scientists, The Atlantic, Daily Kos, The Week, KTLA, Fox News Insider, The Daily Caller, Gothamist, The Verge, Engadget, The FADER, NPR, Media Matters for America, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, Shakesville, Liberty Unyielding, Washington Free Beacon and Political Wire
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Phil McKenna / InsideClimate News:
Chief Environmental Justice Official at EPA Resigns, With Plea to Pruitt to Protect Vulnerable Communities — Mustafa Ali quits after 24 years, as new administrator prepares deep cuts in programs affecting the poor and minorities. — Phil McKenna — The head of the environmental justice program …
Discussion:
twitchy.com, Washington Post, The Daily Caller and Mother Jones
Marie Le Conte / BuzzFeed:
Nigel Farage Just Visited The Ecuadorian Embassy In London — Asked by BuzzFeed News if he'd been visiting Julian Assange, the former UKIP leader said he couldn't remember what he'd been doing in the building. — Nigel Farage visited the Ecuadorian embassy in west London on Thursday …
Discussion:
The Independent, Raw Story, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, CANNONFIRE, Mediaite, The Week and New York Magazine
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Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Sasse to DOJ: Should Assange be in prison?
Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:
White House Pushes Back on McConnell: We're Getting Tax Reform Done By August
White House Pushes Back on McConnell: We're Getting Tax Reform Done By August
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
Travis Gettys / Raw Story:
FBI has records of Trump trickster Roger Stone communicating with Russians behind DNC hacks: report
FBI has records of Trump trickster Roger Stone communicating with Russians behind DNC hacks: report
Discussion:
The Smoking Gun, Media Matters for America, ThinkProgress, CANNONFIRE, Mediaite and Progress Pond
John Bacon / USA Today:
WikiLeaks will give tech firms access to CIA hacking tools: Assange
WikiLeaks will give tech firms access to CIA hacking tools: Assange
Discussion:
The Hill, Common Dreams, Engadget and RedState
Eric Tucker / Associated Press:
AG SUGGESTS OPENNESS TO REVIEW OF PREDECESSORS' ACTIONS — WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Thursday that he would be open to the appointment of an outside counsel to review actions taken by the Justice Department during the Obama administration.
Discussion:
Power Line
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Matt Vespa / Townhall.com:
Almost 7,000 IRS Documents Relating To Targeting Scandal Found. Bad News: No Clue When They'll Be Public
Almost 7,000 IRS Documents Relating To Targeting Scandal Found. Bad News: No Clue When They'll Be Public
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Free Beacon and Judicial Watch
Cortney O'Brien / Townhall.com:
Sessions May Appoint Outside Counsel to Investigate Obama's DOJ
Sessions May Appoint Outside Counsel to Investigate Obama's DOJ
Discussion:
The Hugh Hewitt Show, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, The Daily Caller and Washington Times
New York Times:
Is Trump Being Investigated? ‘No Comment,’ Justice Dept. Says — WASHINGTON — President Trump's weekend Twitter message asserting that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones forced the White House into ever more verbal contortions on Thursday as aides struggled to defend the president's charge.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Business Insider, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Common Dreams
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David Edwards / Raw Story:
Sean Spicer tries to walk back wiretap claims by comically repeating 'I'm not aware' 10 times — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer wants everyone to know that he, the White House and the president are “not aware” of a Justice Department investigation …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Ali Watkins / BuzzFeed:
Inside The Investigation To Get To The Bottom Of Russia's Role In The Election — The Senate Intelligence Committee has been given sweeping powers, unseen since the Watergate era, to investigate Russian meddling in the US election. As its scope grows to include suspected ties between …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Hot Air and Business Insider
RELATED:
Lee Stranahan / Breitbart:
Fix Is In: House Committee on ‘Russian Hacking’ Includes Only DNC-Hired Tech Experts
Fix Is In: House Committee on ‘Russian Hacking’ Includes Only DNC-Hired Tech Experts
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Sputnik International
Brookings Institution:
Expect the CBO to estimate large coverage losses from the GOP health care plan — Editor's Note: — This analysis is part of The Leonard D. Schaeffer Initiative for Innovation in Health Policy, which is a partnership between the Center for Health Policy at Brookings and the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.
Discussion:
Vox, Liberal Values, Mother Jones, Axios, Center For Children … and NPR
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Lauren Katz / Vox:
How has the ACA impacted your life? We asked, you answered.
How has the ACA impacted your life? We asked, you answered.
Discussion:
Politico, ABC News and Bleeding Heartland
Kyle Olson / The American Mirror:
Malik Obama shares photo of brother Barack's Kenya ‘certificate of birth’ — An Obama has joined the birther movement. — Malik Obama, Barack Obama's half-brother, tweeted image of what appears to be Barack's birth certificate. — Except it's not from Hawaii, but rather Kenya.
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Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Bill Clinton: Resurgent nationalism ‘taking us to the edge of our destruction’ — Don't buy what purports to be nationalism that's engulfed politics in America and all over the world, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday; what's actually at play, he argued, is more insidious and interconnected than that.
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
FISA-gate: The Times Revises History in Real Time — Donald Trump and President Barack Obama, right, arrive for Trump's inauguration ceremony (Reuters: J. Scott Applewhite) — For four months, media wanted us to think that Obama was investigating Trump; now they don't.
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Daily Wire and Power Line
RELATED:
Circa:
Widespread frustration — U.S. officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said there is widespread frustration among intelligence professionals who have watched in horror as a normally secretive process has been distorted by media leaks …
Discussion:
Doug Ross, Liberty Unyielding, Fox News Insider, BizPac Review, The Last Refuge and MARK-CM
RELATED:
Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:
Russian ambassador denied meeting with Trump or campaign officials in October speech
Russian ambassador denied meeting with Trump or campaign officials in October speech
Discussion:
Business Insider
Carla Marinucci / Politico:
Schwarzenegger for Senate? — SAN FRANCISCO — Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — the “Terminator” action hero who made “I'll be back” one of filmdom's most iconic phrases — may be mulling a political comeback, according to several GOP political insiders in California.
Discussion:
RedState
Manu Raju / CNN:
First on CNN: After lobbying from Trump, Orrin Hatch plans to run again — (CNN)Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving GOP senator, told CNN he is planning to run for re-election next year, abandoning his plans to quit the chamber after four decades of service.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, AOL, Political Wire, New York Magazine and Washington Times
BuzzFeed:
Steve Bannon Helped Preserve DACA But Democrats And Activists Aren't Celebrating — They're bracing for what's coming: millions of deportations and further crackdowns on both legal and illegal immigration. — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration doesn't want to talk about it.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Daily Wire, RedState and The Week
NBC News:
Wine Bar Sues Donald Trump for Unfair Competition Over D.C. Hotel — A Washington restaurant filed an unfair competition lawsuit Thursday against President Donald Trump and the company that runs his D.C. hotel, claiming he's siphoning away customers who hope to “curry favor” with his administration.
Discussion:
Politico, New York's PIX11, FOX31 Denver and CNBC
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Jonathan O'Connell / Washington Post:
Wine bar owners sue President Trump, saying D.C. hotel unfairly takes away business
Wine bar owners sue President Trump, saying D.C. hotel unfairly takes away business
Discussion:
Washingtonian, Eater, The Daily Caller and TheBlaze
Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:
President Mike Pence Doesn't Sound Quite So Bad, Some Top Democrats Say — “I'd sleep easier with almost any other human being as president than Donald Trump,” said a former Obama speechwriter. And they won't say so publicly, but several elected Democrats told BuzzFeed News they would much prefer …
Discussion:
Shakesville, Little Green Footballs, No More Mister Nice Blog, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller and The Week
Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story:
Feud breaks out during health care hearing as Republican whines that men have to pay for prenatal care — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) got into a battle with Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) Thursday during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing for the healthcare bill.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Mother Jones and LifeNews.com
Paul Szoldra / Business Insider:
The Marine Corps' nude-photo-sharing scandal is even worse than first realized — The scandal that prompted an investigation into hundreds of Marines who are accused of sharing naked photographs of their colleagues in a private Facebook group is much larger than has been reported, Business Insider has learned.
Discussion:
Axios, Engadget, AOL and The Daily Caller
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Cruz: Let's overrule Senate officer to expand ObamaCare bill — (R-Texas), emerging as a key player in negotiations to repeal and replace ObamaCare, says Vice President Pence should exert his power over the Senate to significantly expand the scope of the House healthcare reform bill.
Discussion:
Raw Story