memeorandum: Nearly 50 flights canceled Tuesday as Phoenix nears 120-degree day (Zachary Hansen/Arizona Republic)

4:05 PM ET, June 20, 2017

Top Items:

Trump's handling of Russia investigations weighs on approval ratings — President Trump's job approval rating has dipped in recent weeks, pushed down by negative reaction to his handling of the Russia investigations, and he's seen some slippage among Republicans as well.

Discussion: Washington Post, Bipartisan Report, Hullabaloo, Vox, New York Magazine, Politico, Daily Kos, IJR, Raw Story, Scared Monkeys, Axios, The Week, Talking Points Memo and Washington Times

David Brooks / New York Times:

Let's Not Get Carried Away — I was the op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal at the peak of the Whitewater scandal. We ran a series of investigative pieces “raising serious questions” (as we say in the scandal business) about the nefarious things the Clintons were thought to have done back in Arkansas.

Discussion: RedState, The Daily Caller, Shakesville, Balloon Juice and Althouse

NBC News:

Once Champions of Sunlight, GOP Pens Health Care Plan In the Dark — First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter. — Democrats stage overnight protest of Republican health care bill 2:15

Discussion: Roll Call, FiveThirtyEight, Washington Post, Political Insider blog and NBC News

Bill Gertz / Washington Free Beacon: Democrats Block Witnesses from Testifying in House Intel Probe

Rosie Gray / The Atlantic:

The White House Press Briefing Is Slowly Dying — Over the course of the Trump administration, the White House's daily press briefings have been pared progressively further back; they are now shorter, less frequent, and routinely held off-camera. — The daily briefing is a venerable …

Gabrielle Levy / Associated Press:
Sean Spicer Out as Press Secretary

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney: Why you should care about increasing secrecy in White House and Senate

Tom Kludt / CNNMoney:
Off-camera, no audio broadcast: White House keeps undermining press briefing

Discussion: HuffPost, AOL, The Week and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:

Senate Republicans Haven't Seen Their Health Bill Either — Collins, Flake and Toomey not ready to offer support for plan — McCain says he hasn't ‘met any American’ who has seen the bill — Senate Republicans may be asked to vote on a controversial health-care bill next week …

Discussion: CNBC and The Week

Rachel Roubein / The Hill:
RSC warns Senate: Healthcare changes may ‘jeopardize’ bill

Discussion: Politico, The Federalist and Axios

Aaron Rupar / ThinkProgress:
WATCH: McConnell signals Senate GOP will jam through Trumpcare after a few hours of debate

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, Vox, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Gizmodo and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Rachael Bade / Politico:
Senate GOP plans July debt ceiling vote

Discussion: Axios and Associated Press

Robert Kuttner / American Prospect:
What Will It Take to Dump Trump? — President Donald Trump walks …

Discussion: HuffPost

Zachary Hansen / Arizona Republic:

Nearly 50 flights canceled Tuesday as Phoenix nears 120-degree day … The extreme heat forecast for Phoenix on Tuesday now has caused the cancellation of nearly 50 American Airlines regional airline flights out of Sky Harbor International Airport. — According to a statement from American Airlines …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Fox News, CNN, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Verge, AOL and The Daily Caller

Zachary Hansen / USA Today:
It's so hot in Phoenix, they can't fly planes

Discussion: NPR, ThinkProgress, Associated Press and The Week

BBC: Phoenix flights cancelled because it's too hot for planes

Los Angeles Times:

Bodyguard for well-known alt-right figure stabbed several times in Santa Monica — A man who works as a bodyguard for a nationally known figure popular among the alt-right was stabbed multiple times in Santa Monica on Saturday night following a dispute in a parking lot, police said.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Wire

Eamon Javers / CNBC:

Tim Cook told Trump tech employees are ‘nervous’ about immigration — Tech employees are “nervous” about the Trump administration's approach on immigration, Tim Cook says. — Behind the scenes at the White House tech CEO meeting, Apple CEO Tim Cook told President Donald Trump …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Daily Kos, Raw Story, Politicus USA and The Week

Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:

FBI Director nominee removed reference to case involving Russian government from law firm bio — Christopher Wray represented an American energy executive in 2006 who was being criminally investigated by the Russian government. — The detail, which was included on Wray's biography …

Discussion: The Root, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Axios and The Week

Elena Schneider / Politico:

Georgia special election: 7 things to watch — It's Election Day in Georgia, where a House special election has put President Donald Trump's popularity back on the ballot, turned suburban Atlanta into a battleground for the first time in a generation and obliterated campaign finance records.

Discussion: ABC News, The Atlantic, Political Insider blog, Daily Kos, NPR, USA Today, AOL and Daily Wire

David Leonhardt / New York Times: If Liberals Voted ... If liberals voted at the same rate …

Joan Walsh / The Nation:
Women Are Leading the Charge in Georgia's 6th Congressional District

Discussion: Boing Boing

Jason Leopold / BuzzFeed:

Secret Government Report: Chelsea Manning Leaks Caused No Real Harm — Prosecutors said WikiLeaks' disclosures about Iraq and Afghanistan posed a major threat to US national security. But it turns out the classified document they cited — newly obtained by BuzzFeed News — said almost the exact opposite.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Balloon Juice and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Andrew Romano / Yahoo:

Eric Holder joins the anti-Trump resistance — and mulls a presidential campaign of his own … LOS ANGELES — More than two years after leaving the Obama administration, former Attorney General Eric Holder is reentering the political fray. — His goal: to lead the legal resistance …

Discussion: Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Bipartisan Report and Political Wire

Melanie Eversley / USA Today:

Tour group says no more Americans to North Korea after Warmbier's death — The travel company that took University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier to North Korea said Monday that it is wrangling with the 22-year-old's death and will no longer take Americans to North Korea.

Discussion: The White House, New York Magazine, mccain.senate.gov, Al Jazeera English, NBC News, Washington Post, CNN, Mediaite, Axios, Forbes, AOL, Scared Monkeys, Bipartisan Report, The Week, Washington Free Beacon and ABC News

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump calls Otto Warmbier's death ‘a total disgrace,’ indirectly blames Obama's inaction

Discussion: Fox News, The Guardian, Daily Kos and Business Insider

U.S. Central Command:

Coalition shoots down armed UAV in Syria — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: — SOUTHWEST ASIA — A U.S. aircraft shot down an armed pro-Syrian regime Unmanned Aerial Vehicle advancing on Coalition forces in Southern Syria, June 20. — The armed pro-regime Shaheed-129 UAV was shot …

Discussion: Axios, FDD's Long War Journal, The Daily Caller and Politico

CNN:
First on CNN: US shoots down another pro-regime drone in Syria

Discussion: The Atlantic, Business Insider, IJR and BBC

Ben Schreckinger / Politico:

Jill Stein Isn't Sorry — Had a few thousand votes in key Midwestern states gone to Hillary Clinton instead of Jill Stein, many on the left believe, America might be having a very different conversation today. — Instead, Democrats are still fuming about the role the Green Party nominee …

Discussion: Shakesville and Raw Story

Bloomberg:

China Invites Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to Visit Beijing — Latest sign of first family's influence on foreign policy — Trip later this year could pave way for president's visit — China has invited President Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law to visit later this year …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, AOL, Mediaite and Axios

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:

Franken: Impeaching Trump could lead to ‘zealot’ Pence — (D-Minn.) is cautioning his Democratic colleagues that if President Trump is impeached, Vice President Pence would become president and he “would be worse” on domestic issues. — “He's ideological, I consider him a zealot,” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, TheBlaze, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Times and Mediaite

Lucas Tomlinson / Fox News:

Armed Russian jet comes within 5 feet of US recon jet — An armed Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in the Baltic Sea on Monday, two U.S. officials told Fox News. — The Russian Su-27 jet had air-to-air missiles under its wings and approached …

Discussion: CNN, Axios, Mediaite, Reuters, Business Insider, Fox News Insider, IJR and New York Times

Peter Beinart / The Atlantic:

How the Democrats Lost Their Way on Immigration — the myth, which liberals like myself find tempting, is that only the right has changed. In June 2015, we tell ourselves, Donald Trump rode down his golden escalator and pretty soon nativism, long a feature of conservative politics, had engulfed it.

Discussion: Power Line and Viking Pundit

Caitlin Owens / Axios:

Senate Medicaid spending limits may lose moderate Republicans — A key moderate Senate Republican says she's uncomfortable with the emerging Senate health care plan, which is likely to cap Medicaid spending and shift it to a lower growth rate in 2025. “I think that's a problem.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, Associated Press and Daily Kos

Kate Mather / Los Angeles Times:

Four more cadets arrested as investigation of stolen LAPD cruisers continues — A police car crashed near the intersection of East 77th and San Pedro streets in Los Angeles on Thursday. Three juveniles were in custody in connection with the theft of two police cruisers and with leading officers on a chase that ended in a crash.

Discussion: KTLA

Tony Mauro / National Law Journal:

Mueller Recruits Another Lawyer from Solicitor General's Office to Russia Probe — Elizabeth Prelogar, a former law clerk to Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, appears to be fluent in Russian. She formerly worked in private practice at Hogan Lovells.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Power Line and Raw Story

Todd Van Luling / HuffPost:

New Moby Video Depicts Donald Trump's Rise And A Violent Demise — Moby spoke with HuffPost about activism and becoming a reluctant mouthpiece for anti-Trump intel. — Moby believes it is “obvious” the world is “a millimeter away from collapse.” — That fearful idea may already be seared …

Discussion: Breitbart, Washington Times, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, IJR and TheBlaze

Victor Davis Hanson / National Review:

The Architecture of Regime Change — The ‘Resistance’ is using any and all means — lies, leaks, lawbreaking, and violence — to overturn the results of the 2016 election. — The problem with the election of President Donald J. Trump was not just that he presented a roadblock to an ongoing progressive revolution.