memeorandum: Let's Ban Roses (Charlotte Mendelson/New Yorker)

2:05 PM ET, June 22, 2017

Top Items:

Caitlin Owens / Axios:

The conservative health care problem — Even before the Senate health care bill is released, conservatives already want to amend it. Sen. Ted Cruz may try to amend the bill to let insurers sell health plans that don't comply with Affordable Care Act rules — but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell …

Discussion: ABC News, Politico and FiveThirtyEight

David Nather / Axios:

The Senate health bill is out. Here's your speed read — You can read it here, and a summary here. The highlights: — Ends the Affordable Care Act's mandates and most of its taxes. — Phases out its Medicaid expansion over three years, ending in 2024.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite, STAT, Patterico's Pontifications, The Week and KTLA

Veronica Stracqualursi / ABC News:

The Note: Trump's ‘poor’ choice of words raises eyebrows — WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — Time to show their work: Senate Republicans share their health care draft this morning after negotiating it behind closed doors. The bill is expected to roll back Medicaid expansions but more gradually …

Discussion: Politico and Associated Press

Brian Beutler / New Republic:

The Media Bias Toward “New” News Helped the GOP Hide Its Secret Health Care Plan — Until a modest breakthrough this week, supporters of the Affordable Care Act had spent the month of June desperately trying to make issue of the Senate Republicans' secret plan to take health insurance away from millions of Americans.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Washington Post

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Here comes the Senate GOP's health bill. It's a cruel and cynical shell game.

Discussion: CNBC, Washington Examiner, Shareblue, The Atlantic, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and New York Times

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP senator: I would not call this ‘ObamaCare repeal’

Discussion: RedState

CNN:
Senate finally unveils secret health care bill

Discussion: Mother Jones, Refinery29, The Hill, TheBlaze, Joe.My.God. and Politicus USA

Sean Moran / Breitbart:
Senate Releases Healthcare Bill

Discussion: The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Week, Politicus USA and Daily Kos

Bloomberg:
Senate GOP Health Bill to Break With House on Key Points

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog and Daily Kos

Russell Berman / The Atlantic: What's In the Senate Republican Health-Care Bill

Paige Winfield Cunningham / Washington Post:
Senate health-care draft repeals Obamacare taxes, provides bigger subsidies for low-income Americans than House bill

Jordan Weissmann / Slate:
How Mitch McConnell weaponized our short attention span.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Daily Kos

Bloomberg: Senate Health Plan Draft Relies on Subsidies GOP Has Faulted

New York Times:
Senate Leaders Unveil Bill to Repeal the Affordable Care Act

Discussion: Washington Post, USA Today, Media Matters for America, The FADER, JustOneMinute, Hit & Run, Right Wing Watch, Fusion and Daily Kos

Bloomberg:

Trump Said to Not Have Recordings of Conversations With Comey — President Donald Trump doesn't have recordings of his conversations with then-FBI Director James Comey, according to a person familiar with the matter, capping weeks of speculation about whether such tapes exist.

Discussion: The Atlantic, Political Wire, Axios, Mediaite, Raw Story and IJR

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:

Gingrich: Trump was trying to ‘rattle’ Comey with tapes claim — Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he thinks President Trump was trying to “rattle” former FBI Director James Comey by suggesting there might be recordings of their conversations. — “I think he was, in his way …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit and The Week

Adam Kelsey / ABC News:
Trump: ‘I did not make, and do not have’ Comey tapes

Discussion: Toronto Star, Business Insider, KFOR-TV and Joe.My.God.

Associated Press:
Trump's tease of possible Comey tapes fits familiar pattern

Discussion: Politico

CNN:

Intel chiefs tell investigators Trump suggested they refute collusion with Russians — Coats and Rogers said interactions with Trump about the Russia investigation were odd, uncomfortable — (CNN)Two of the nation's top intelligence officials told Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team …

Discussion: Vox, New York Magazine, RedState, Business Insider, Bipartisan Report, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Axios, Shakesville, Politicus USA, Daily Kos, The Week, Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Political Wire and Washington Times

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Gingrich: Mueller's Trump investigation will be a ‘personal vendetta’

Discussion: RedState

BBC:

Exploding cream dispenser kills French fitness blogger — A well-known lifestyle blogger in France has been killed by an exploding whipped cream dispenser. — Rebecca Burger's death was announced on Facebook in what her family called a “domestic accident”.

Discussion: Fox News, NBC News, KTLA, WTVR-TV, Fox 59, Boing Boing, KFOR-TV, The Daily Caller and WPMT FOX43

Amber Ferguson / Washington Post:
Whipped cream dispenser explodes, killing French Instagram fitness model

Discussion: The Guardian

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Trump Turns an Iowa Rally Into a Venting Session — CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — President Trump said on Wednesday that he was crafting legislation to bar new immigrants from receiving welfare for at least five years. He announced the proposal in a conquering-hero-returns speech in Iowa …

Discussion: CBS News, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, The New Civil Rights Movement, The Week, Mediaite, AOL and Joe.My.God.

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
Trump: 'I just don't want a poor person' in top economic roles

Discussion: Daily Wire

Graham Russell / The Guardian:
Trump says he doesn't want a ‘poor person’ handling economy

Discussion: Shakesville, Political Wire and Washington Free Beacon

New York Times:

Kamala Harris Was Silenced. Then She Silenced Us. — Last week, Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, made headlines when Republican senators interrupted her at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee while she interrogated Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Discussion: Friendly Atheist and Washington Free Beacon

CNN:

Some House Democrats says it's time for Pelosi to go — (CNN)A small group of House Democrats are publicly saying it's time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to step aside as the face of the party ahead of the 2018 midterms following Tuesday night's disappointing loss in a special election for a Georgia House seat.

Discussion: Politico, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, The Hill, IrishCentral, NBC News and Washington Post

Tara Golshan / Vox:
After 4 special election losses, panic is setting in on the left

Discussion: Axios and CNBC

Daniel Nussbaum / Breitbart:
Cher Turns on Nancy Pelosi After Ossoff Loss

Cristina Marcos / The Hill: Pelosi defends leadership after special election losses

Robert Fife / Globe and Mail:

Canadian elite special forces sniper makes record-breaking kill shot in Iraq — OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF — The Globe and Mail (includes correction) — A sniper with Canada's elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a staggering distance of 3,540 metres.

Discussion: USA Today, IJR, Business Insider, AOL, Daily Mail, CBS Sacramento and Clayton Cramer

Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:

MSNBC Gives Conservative Radio Host Hugh Hewitt a Show — The commentator is joining MSNBC's Saturday morning lineup, a move that is sure to raise eyebrows at the network and among the network's left-leaning fans. — MSNBC, which has been soaring lately in both ratings and in advertising prices …

Discussion: Media Matters for America and Washington Free Beacon

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
Hugh Hewitt to Host Show on MSNBC

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Joe.My.God. and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:

WATCH: Morning Joe panel slams ‘dear leader’ Trump with horrifying 2-minute mashup of his Iowa lies — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — A “Morning Joe” panel examined President Donald Trump's lie-filled rally in Iowa, where his supporters cheered each falsehood and jeered when he attacked the media.

Discussion: Washington Times

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Election hackers altered voter rolls: report — DON'T MISS A BRIEF. SIGN UP FOR OUR DAILY EMAIL.

Discussion: Axios and Raw Story

Jack Heretik / Washington Free Beacon:

Gowdy Wonders Why DNC Didn't Turn Over Hacked Server: 'There May Be Something They Didn't Want Law Enforcement to See' — Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) wondered Wednesday why the Democratic National Committee did not turn over its hacked computer server to authorities after the organization …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Breitbart and SARAH PALIN

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump: Russian interference is ‘all a big Dem HOAX!’

Discussion: The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, USA Today and New York Magazine

Chris Francescani / ABC News:

2 Cosby holdouts prevented guilty verdict, juror says — In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a juror in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case said that after dozens of hours of grueling deliberations in a tiny room, 10 of the 12 jurors agreed he was guilty on two counts.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, FiveThirtyEight, The Root, Associated Press and Althouse

Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:

A Cyberattack 'the World Isn't Ready For' — NEWARK — There have been times over the last two months when Golan Ben-Oni has felt like a voice in the wilderness. — On April 29, someone hit his employer, IDT Corporation, with two cyberweapons that had been stolen from the National Security Agency.

Kurt Schlichter / Townhall.com:

Spare Me The Principles Lecture — I think it was mildly amusing that some loud right-wingers spent a minute disrupting a bunch of New York liberals' conservative murder porn party. — There, I said it. And now, according to some people on the conservative side, I'm not a conservative anymore.