memeorandum: GOP leaders have few sure votes on debt ceiling (Niv Elis/The Hill)

9:30 AM ET, July 3, 2017

Top Items:

PHOTOS: Christie, family soak up sun on N.J. beach he closed to public — Gallery: Gov. Chris Christie and family on closed Island Beach State Park in N.J. — NJ Advance Media for NJ.com — BERKELEY TOWNSHIP — People hoping to visit Island Beach State Park this holiday weekend …

Discussion: Philly.com, Washington Post, ABC News, Political Wire, NPR, IJR, The Week, New York Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Guardian, Fusion, Mediaite and ThinkProgress, more at Mediagazer »

Ryan Hutchins / Politico:

Christie spent night with his family in shuttered Island Beach State Park — Gov. Chris Christie joined his family at a state-owned retreat in Island Beach State Park on Saturday night, less than 24 hours after ordering the closure of all state parks and beaches because of the budget impasse in Trenton.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, New York Magazine and Daily Kos

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Bannon pushes tax hike for wealthy — Steve Bannon is causing a stir inside the administration by pushing an idea that's anathema to most Republicans: raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to pay for steep middle and working-class tax cuts. (Some officials who've heard Bannon's idea …

Discussion: CNBC, Business Insider and Mediaite

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

How Low Can Taxes Go? Outside Washington, Republicans Find Limits — WASHINGTON — Something strange has been happening to taxes in Republican-dominated states: They are going up. — Conservative lawmakers in Kansas, South Carolina and Tennessee have agreed to significant tax increases …

Discussion: Axios

New York Times:

Trump Foot Soldier Sidelined Under Glare of Russia Inquiry — Just over a decade ago, Donald J. Trump was locked in conflict with a group of apartment owners who had taken control of the condominium board at his new glass tower across from the United Nations.

Niv Elis / The Hill:

GOP leaders have few sure votes on debt ceiling — Only 16 House Republicans who are currently in office backed the last “clean” debt hike, and few of them will say they are certain to support it this year. — If the debt ceiling is raised with a clean hike — a distinct possibility given …

Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:

Deportation a ‘Death Sentence’ to Adoptees After a Lifetime in the U.S. — SEOUL, South Korea — Phillip Clay was adopted at 8 into an American family in Philadelphia. — Twenty-nine years later, in 2012, after numerous arrests and a struggle with drug addiction, he was deported back to his birth country, South Korea.

Rick Hasen / electionlawblog.org:

Justice Kennedy Tells October 2018 Clerkship Applicants He's Considering Retirement, Right Before 2018 Midterms — Big news hiding in Nina Totenberg's story on Justice Gorsuch voting 100% with Justice Thomas: … This would put Justice Kennedy's retirement right before the 2018 midterms …

Discussion: RedState, Political Wire, New York Magazine and Althouse

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

A Muslim Comes to Rural Minnesota — This morning the Washington Post tweeted a news alert that said: … The tweet linked to this article by reporter Stephanie McCrummen. It tells the story of Dr. Ayaz Virji, a graduate of Georgetown University medical school who practiced family medicine …

Stephanie McCrummen / Washington Post: ‘Love Thy Neighbor?’

Avi Selk / Washington Post:

A Reddit user who wrote about stabbing Muslims is claiming credit for Trump's CNN video — The user whose screen name is an unprintable corruption of “Han Solo” spent about a year on Reddit before attaining stardom, courtesy of a share from President Trump. — Some posts were unpopular.

Discussion: Quartz and Viking Pundit

Helena Horton / Telegraph:

Vagina surgery ‘sought by girls as young as nine’ because of pornography, doctors reveal — Girls as young as nine are reportedly seeking surgery on their private parts because of insecurities stemming from adult content such as pornography, according to leading doctors.

Discussion: The American Conservative

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings — Happy Birthday, America, I guess. — You're old enough to know that you can't always have a feel-good birthday. And let's face it: This Fourth of July just isn't going to be one of them. — How could it be when one of the pillars …

Discussion: ABC News and The Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Trump Tweets a Video of Him Wrestling ‘CNN’ to the Ground — President Trump posted a short video to his Twitter account on Sunday in which he is portrayed wrestling and punching a figure whose head has been replaced by the logo for CNN. — The video, about 28 seconds long …

Alicia Cohn / The Hill:
Trump takes down CNN in WWE fight video

Donald Trump / ABC News:
‘No one would perceive’ Trump's CNN tweet ‘as a threat,’ adviser says

Discussion: WREG-TV, Washington Post, Axios, ThinkProgress and The Week

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:

Sasse: Trump shouldn't ‘weaponize distrust’ of press — Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Sunday that President Trump should not “weaponize distrust” of the press. He noted that a free press is one of the necessary freedoms included in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

Discussion: RedState