memeorandum: Spicer: Mueller, Rosenstein “serve at the pleasure of the president” (Alayna Treene/Axios)

5:10 PM ET, June 19, 2017

Top Items:

GOP considers cancelling August recess to salvage agenda — Alarmed by the stalemate on healthcare reform, lack of progress on tax reform and appropriations bills that are far behind schedule, Republican lawmakers across Congress are increasingly willing to consider cancelling the month-long August recess.

Discussion: ABC News, Fox News, Vox, The Daily Caller, Infowars, Daily Kos, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, rubber hose, IJR, The Week and Axios

Alayna Treene / Axios:

Worrying numbers on health care plan for ‘swing vote’ senators — Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm, conducted polls in three states where a Republican Senator will have a key swing vote on the GOP health care plan: Nevada, West Virginia and Alaska.

Discussion: Political Wire and Fusion

Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:

Democrats to halt Senate business over Obamacare repeal — Democrats will grind Senate business to a halt in a protest against Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare. — Beginning Monday night, Democrats will start objecting to all unanimous consent requests in the Senate, according to a Democratic aide.

Discussion: AOL, The Daily Caller, Shakesville and Daily Kos

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:

Senate GOP considers deeper Medicaid cuts than House bill — A leading option in the Senate's ObamaCare repeal debate is to make even deeper cuts to Medicaid spending than the bill passed by the House, according to lobbyists and aides. — The proposal would start out the growth rate …

Discussion: Vox, Axios, Washington Post, Daily Kos and Balloon Juice

Haley Byrd / IJR:

House Republicans to Send McConnell a Letter Demanding Conservative Provisions in Senate Health Bill — The conservative Republican Study Committee is preparing to send a letter of demands to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week as he finalizes the upper chamber's version of the bill to replace Obamacare.

Discussion: Mashable and Raw Story

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Dems threaten to gum up Senate over ‘secret’ ObamaCare bill

Discussion: CNN, The Gateway Pundit, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Tara Palmeri / Politico:

Spicer searching for candidates to take over White House briefing — White House press secretary Sean Spicer is leading a search for his own replacement at the briefing room podium as part of a larger plan to shake up the White House communications operations, according to two people with knowledge of the effort.

Discussion: Fox Business, The New Civil Rights Movement, Raw Story, The Week and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:

Trump Weighs New Role for Press Secretary Sean Spicer — President's spokesman may move into more senior position — New spokesman may be hired, though discussions aren't final — The White House is weighing whether to move Press Secretary Sean Spicer into a more senior role focused …

Discussion: Axios, The Daily Caller and twitchy.com, more at Mediagazer »

Mallory Shelbourne / The Hill:
CNN's Acosta: Spicer is ‘kind of useless’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Political Wire and Fusion

Alayna Treene / Axios:
Spicer: Mueller, Rosenstein “serve at the pleasure of the president”

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
Trump demands face time with favored Cabinet heads

Discussion: Raw Story and twitchy.com

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: Congressional shooting clouds final days of Georgia special election — THE BIG IDEA: — JOHNS CREEK, Ga.—When Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel went table to table greeting patrons at Marlow's Tavern on Friday night, almost everyone asked her about the letters.

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Political Insider blog, Raw Story, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Daily Kos, Media Matters for America, ThinkProgress, TheBlaze, The Week, Washington Times, Bipartisan Report, Vox and Politico

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Why The Georgia Special Election Matters — The “takes” you'll read about the special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District on Tuesday night are probably going to be dumb. A close outcome in either direction would be consistent with what we know about the political environment.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Week

Nate Cohn / New York Times:
The 15 Best-Educated Districts in the U.S., and Why It Matters in the Georgia Race

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Shawn Musgrave / Politico: Georgia special election tweets traced to one source

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Democrats sweat the details in Georgia special election

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Daily Caller and Associated Press

Frank Pallotta / CNNMoney:

Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones interview got lots of attention, but not many viewers — Jones vs. Kelly: Battle between new and old media — Megyn Kelly's much talked about interview with Alex Jones got plenty of attention for Kelly and NBC, both good and bad, but not many viewers.

Discussion: RedState, Longreads, Mediaite, The New Civil Rights Movement, New York Times, IJR, TV By The Numbers …, Washington Free Beacon, Business Insider and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Joe Concha / The Hill:
Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones interview a ratings flop

Discussion: Mediaite, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Free Beacon and Infowars

Christopher Ingraham / Washington Post: Megyn Kelly just helped some guy get thousands of new followers

Jack Shafer / Politico:
Megyn Kelly Pantses Alex Jones

Discussion: NBC News, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Taylor Marsh, Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze, Conservative News Today, Washington Post, Mediaite, New York Magazine, The Root, The Hill, TVNewser, IJR and Media Matters for America, more at Mediagazer »

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Supreme Court to hear potentially landmark case on partisan gerrymandering — The Supreme Court declared Monday that it will consider whether gerrymandered election maps favoring one political party over another violate the Constitution, a potentially fundamental change in the way American elections are conducted.

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, electionlawblog.org, USA Today, Infowars, Fusion, Daily Kos, Politico, The Week and Axios

Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:
Supreme Court unanimously reaffirms: There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment

Discussion: Power Line and Daily Wire

CNN:
Supreme Court strikes down law banning use of Facebook by registered sex offenders

Discussion: TheBlaze and IJR

Fox News:
Supreme Court sides with The Slants, rules ban on offensive names is unconstitutional

Discussion: The Slants, Mediaite, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Lid

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Supreme Court: Rejecting trademarks that ‘disparage’ others violates the First Amendment

Discussion: Politico, ThinkProgress, NPR, Outside the Beltway and Fusion

Tom Batchelor / The Independent:

Russia to treat US jets in Syria as ‘targets’ after America guns down first regime warplane — Communication channel between Washington and Moscow to be suspended immediately — Russia has said it will treat US warplanes operating in parts of Syria where its air forces are present as …

Discussion: CNN, Reuters, ThinkProgress, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Daily Wire

Ellen Mitchell / The Hill:
Pentagon working to re-establish ‘deconfliction’ line with Russia

Discussion: The Guardian and Raw Story

United States Central Command:
Coalition Defends Partner Forces from Syrian Fighter Jet Attack

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, Hit & Run, Just Security, FDD's Long War Journal and The Guardian

New York Times:
Russia Warns U.S. After Downing of Syrian Warplane

Discussion: TASS, The Atlantic, Vox, Home Page Rotator, Daily Mail, Raw Story, IJR and New York Magazine

Washington Post:

Officials: 17-year-old Muslim girl assaulted and killed after leaving Virginia mosque — Police found remains Sunday thought to be those of a missing Virginia teenager who they say was assaulted and disappeared overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area, and a 22-year-old man …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Root, NPR, Daily Wire, Shakesville, Daily Kos, Friendly Atheist, No More Mister Nice Blog, The New Civil Rights Movement and NBC4 Washington

BuzzFeed:
A Muslim Teen Was Kidnapped And Murdered Outside A Virginia Mosque

Discussion: Fairfax County Police … and Refinery29

Washington Post:
Killing of a Muslim teenager in Virginia is being investigated as a road-rage incident, police say

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Lawyers, Guns & Money

FCPD Media Relations / Fairfax County Police …:
Man Charged with Assaulting and Killing a 17-Year-Old Girl

Discussion: WTVR-TV, New York Times, KTLA and The Guardian

Karen Freifeld / Reuters:

Mueller team lawyer brings witness-flipping expertise to Trump probes — A veteran federal prosecutor recruited onto special counsel Robert Mueller's team is known for a skill that may come in handy in the investigation of potential ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign team …

Discussion: Politicus USA and The Daily Caller

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:
We need a Robert Mueller resignation or a second special counsel

Discussion: Scared Monkeys

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Trump defiant as pressure grows

Discussion: Raw Story and The Guardian

John Hudson / BuzzFeed:

The Trump Administration Has A New Plan For Dealing With Russia — A classified document by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson lays out a new path for Russia and the US. But does the president, weighed down by scandal and investigation, support it? — As the White House fends off accusations …

Discussion: Axios, Raw Story and The Week

Lynn Thompson / The Seattle Times:

Mother with knife killed by police was pregnant and had mental-health issues, family says — Seattle police on Sunday shot and killed a 30-year-old old woman who had called officers to report an attempted burglary and then displayed a knife, SPD said. Police took three children from the home …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Guardian, Conservative News Today, AOL, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, New York's PIX11 and The Root

Gizmodo:

GOP Data Firm Accidentally Leaks Personal Details of Nearly 200 Million American Voters — Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server.

Discussion: Politico, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, The Verge and Hullabaloo, more at Techmeme »

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
198 million Americans hit by “largest ever” voter records leak

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, Mashable, The Daily Caller, The Week and Washington Free Beacon

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

New Study Shows What Really Happened in the 2016 Election — The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group has a new survey of the electorate that explodes many of the myths that we believe about American politics. Lee Drutman has a fascinating report delving into the data.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog