Top Items:
The Hill:
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
RELATED:
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:
Axios, 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.
Alayna Treene / Axios:
Worrying numbers on health care plan for ‘swing vote’ senators
Worrying numbers on health care plan for ‘swing vote’ senators
Discussion:
Political Wire and Fusion
Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Dems threaten to gum up Senate over ‘secret’ ObamaCare bill
Dems threaten to gum up Senate over ‘secret’ ObamaCare bill
Discussion:
CNN, ThinkProgress, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money
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.
RELATED:
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, Politico 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
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
Julia Manchester / The Hill:
Ad uses Scalise shooting against Ossoff in Georgia
Ad uses Scalise shooting against Ossoff in Georgia
Discussion:
Daily Wire, Political Insider blog, The Daily Caller, Bipartisan Report and Political Wire
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.
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Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:
Supreme Court unanimously reaffirms: There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment
Supreme Court unanimously reaffirms: There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment
Discussion:
Power Line and Daily Wire
Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Supreme Court: Rejecting trademarks that ‘disparage’ others violates the First Amendment
Supreme Court: Rejecting trademarks that ‘disparage’ others violates the First Amendment
Discussion:
Politico, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, NPR and Fusion
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:
Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
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
Mallory Shelbourne / The Hill:
CNN's Acosta: Spicer is ‘kind of useless’
CNN's Acosta: Spicer is ‘kind of useless’
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Political Wire and Raw Story
Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
Trump demands face time with favored Cabinet heads
Trump demands face time with favored Cabinet heads
Discussion:
Raw Story and twitchy.com
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.
RELATED:
Joe Concha / The Hill:
Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones interview a ratings flop
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
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 …
RELATED:
BuzzFeed:
A Muslim Teen Was Kidnapped And Murdered Outside A Virginia Mosque
A Muslim Teen Was Kidnapped And Murdered Outside A Virginia Mosque
Discussion:
Refinery29 and Fairfax County Police …
FCPD Media Relations / Fairfax County Police …:
Man Charged with Assaulting and Killing a 17-Year-Old Girl
Man Charged with Assaulting and Killing a 17-Year-Old Girl
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, WTVR-TV, New York Times, KTLA and The Guardian
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
RELATED:
Ellen Mitchell / The Hill:
Pentagon working to re-establish ‘deconfliction’ line with Russia
Pentagon working to re-establish ‘deconfliction’ line with Russia
Discussion:
The Guardian and Raw Story
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 …
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:
We need a Robert Mueller resignation or a second special counsel — The only way to avoid a tainted investigation or a political explosion is another counsel to investigate possible obstruction of justice. — Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a problem: He has a disqualifying conflict of interest regarding a large part of his work.
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys
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Karen Freifeld / Reuters:
Mueller team lawyer brings witness-flipping expertise to Trump probes
Mueller team lawyer brings witness-flipping expertise to Trump probes
Discussion:
Politicus USA and The Daily Caller
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, New York's PIX11, Daily Kos, New York Magazine 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, Hullabaloo and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
198 million Americans hit by “largest ever” voter records leak
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
RELATED:
Kurt Schlichter / Townhall.com:
If The Left Wins Their Soft Coup, Everyone Loses - But Mostly Them — You have to wonder how liberals think this works. So, a manifestly conflicted special counsel leading a pack of maxed-out Democrat donors decides Donald Trump has to be kicked out of office for “obstructing justice” …
Missoulian:
Gianforte assault emulated Jesus — Regarding June 9 letter by Polly Pfister, Helena ("OK with Christians to assault some?": — Jesus assaulted and bodily threw the money changers out of the temple who were trespassing in Gods' house. — Greg Gianforte emulated Jesus by assaulting Ben Jacobs …
Discussion:
Political Wire