memeorandum: How A High School Reporter Scored An Interview With The US Secretary Of Defense (Talal Ansari/BuzzFeed)

11:40 AM ET, July 13, 2017

Top Items:

Highlights of Reuters interview with Trump — 7 MIN READ — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here are highlights of the Reuters Oval Office interview with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday. — ON WHETHER HE WAS AWARE HIS SON DONALD TRUMP JR. WAS MEETING WITH A RUSSIAN LAWYER — “No. That I didn't know.

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, The Hill, Politico, Shakesville, Shareblue, CNBC, Daily Kos, Mother Jones and CBN.com

The Hill:

Exclusive: DOJ let Russian lawyer into US before she met with Trump team — The Russian lawyer who penetrated Donald Trump — 's inner circle was initially cleared into the United States by the Justice Department under “extraordinary circumstances” before she embarked on a lobbying campaign …

Discussion: zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml, Politico, Breitbart, Daily Wire, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, IJR, Scared Monkeys, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera English, MichelleMalkin.com, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Clayton Cramer, Wired, NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, The Guardian and ABC News

Shane Harris / WSJ:

Russian Officials Overheard Discussing Trump Associates Before Campaign Began — U.S. intelligence starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed meetings with Trump associates — WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies starting …

Discussion: Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Suburban Guerrilla …, Mediaite, Raw Story, CNBC, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly and Wall Street Journal

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Conspiracy or Coincidence? A Timeline Open to Interpretation — WASHINGTON — At 6:14 p.m. on June 7, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. clicked the send button on an email to confirm a meeting with a woman described as a “Russian government attorney” who would give him “information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia.”

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Los Angeles Times, Politico, BillMoyers.com, The Colorado Independent, Washington Post, Just Security, AOL, Vox and National Review

Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:

Team Trump Hunts for ‘Traitors’ While the President ‘Growls’ at the TV … Three days after the Donald Trump Jr. email revelations broke, the White House seems stuck in purgatory, with aides still deeply unsure about who leaked the damaging information, and the president still yelling at the TV.

Discussion: Telegraph, The Guardian, Daily Kos, IJR, New York Times, AOL, Business Insider and Talking Points Memo

Steve Holland / Reuters:

Exclusive: Trump says he was unaware of son's meeting with Russian lawyer — 2 MIN READ — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was unaware of his son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting last year with a Russian lawyer at the heart of a White House controversy …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, CNN, New York Magazine, Politicus USA, Mediaite, ABC News, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, Political Wire, NPR, IJR, The Atlantic and Financial Review

Rusty Surette / KBTX-TV:

Rep. Flores says President Trump's children should be removed from White House — A Republican U.S. Representative from the Brazos Valley believes the President's children should be removed from the White House. — Rep. Bill Flores, District 17, made the remarks on Wednesday …

Discussion: Vox and Raw Story

Veronica Stracqualursi / ABC News:

The Note: Dark cloud hangs over Trump's visit to City of Lights — WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — Bonjour! President Trump is in Paris today and Friday at the invitation of his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, for the Bastille Day celebrations and to hold a one-on-one meeting.

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, The Root, The Guardian, NBC News, Axios, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Post and Politico

Katie Zavadski / The Daily Beast:
Was Donald Trump Jr.'s Russian Connect in U.S. Illegally?

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, TheBlaze, RedState and The Gateway Pundit

Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Trump's lawyers try to control unruly White House

Discussion: Raw Story

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: Trump lawyers want wall between Kushner, president

Discussion: Weekly Standard, New York Magazine, Politicus USA, IJR, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway, more at Mediagazer »

Esme Cribb / Talking Points Memo:
GOP Senator: Kushner's Meeting With Russian Lawyer Was ‘Known’ In April

Discussion: Politico

Andrew Egger / Weekly Standard:
Pence Spokesman Tries to Avoid Russia Questions

Discussion: Raw Story, CNN, Mother Jones and ABC News

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

Republican Senators Left Exposed in Health Care Ad Wars — By now, we know that Republicans in the Senate are having a tough time coming to agreement on a health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took the drastic step this week of cancelling at least the first two weeks …

Discussion: Reuters and New York Times

Sarah Karlin-Smith / Politico:

Senate GOP's new health care bill expected to include controversial Cruz amendment — The Senate Republicans' draft Obamacare repeal bill due to be released on Thursday will tentatively include a controversial amendment from Ted Cruz, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Discussion: IJR and Business Insider

Dana Bash / CNN:

First on CNN: Graham, Cassidy unveil details of alternative health care plan — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)With the prospects for passing the current Senate Republican health care bill still in jeopardy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana …

Paige Winfield Cunningham / Washington Post:
The Health 202: Doctors make last-ditch effort to sink GOP health-care bill

Discussion: Mother Jones

Caitlin Owens / Axios:
Draft GOP health bill will include Cruz provision

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Sam Baker / Axios:
Here comes the brand new Senate health bill

Discussion: Politico

Matt Fuller / HuffPost:
Republicans Stare Down Failure On Health Care With No Real Plan B

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Media Matters for America and Business Insider

Rachana Pradhan / Politico:
Senate moderates sidelined in new Obamacare repeal bill

Discussion: Business Insider, Political Insider blog, Washington Post, Alaska Dispatch News and Political Wire

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Trump: ‘I will be very angry’ if GOP senators don't pass a health-care bill

Discussion: Politico and New York Magazine

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Republicans Still Can't Design a Workable Health-Care Plan

Discussion: Daily Kos, NBC News, New York Times, HuffPost, Mother Jones, Politico and ThinkProgress

Mark Katkov / NPR:

Justice Department Releases Sessions' Disclosure Form, A Day Late — Updated 11 a.m. — A day late, the Justice Department complied this morning with a federal court order and released part of a security clearance form dealing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' contacts with foreign governments.

Discussion: The Atlantic, National Security, Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog and Outside the Beltway

Aaron Rupar / ThinkProgress:
Ordered by court to disclose his Russia contacts, Sessions releases blank sheet of paper

Discussion: The Hill, American Prospect, Talking Points Memo, American Oversight, Business Insider, Raw Story, Just Security and Washington Post

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
America needs to hear from Jared Kushner

Discussion: New York Times, Townhall.com, Business Insider, Mediaite, Washington Times and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

Sheldon Silver's Conviction Is Overturned — A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the 2015 corruption conviction of Sheldon Silver, the once-powerful New York State Assembly speaker who obtained nearly $4 million in illicit payments in return for taking official actions that benefited others …

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency and New York Magazine

Lia Eustachewich / New York Post: Sheldon Silver's corruption conviction is overturned

Maura Dolan / Los Angeles Times:

‘He is a monkey’: Federal appeals court appears doubtful that a monkey who took a selfie can sue — An Indonesian macaque named Naruto allegedly grabbed a photographer's camera and snapped a self-portrait in 2011. (Wikimedia) — A federal appeals court appeared highly skeptical Wednesday …

Discussion: Above the Law

Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
Monkey selfie photographer says he's broke: 'I'm thinking of dog walking'

Discussion: Althouse

Shane Savitsky / Axios:

Chuck Todd: “every man and woman for themselves” in Trumpland — NBC News' Chuck Todd sat down with Axios' Jim VandeHei at the end of Axios and NBC News' roundtable discussion on the economy to talk about how President Trump's agenda is faring as the Russia scandal threatens to suck all of the air out of Washington.

Discussion: Political Wire

Hadas Gold / Politico:

HuffPost goes out in search of Middle America — Having made its name as a home for liberals and the blog posts of coastal elites, the recently renamed HuffPost is seeking to reinforce its new, less partisan image with a seven-week bus tour through Middle America to “listen and learn …

Discussion: Daily Wire and twitchy.com, more at Mediagazer »

Lydia Polgreen / HuffPost: We're hitting the road on a 23-city tour to hear concerns from across the nation.

Craig Unger / New Republic:

Trump's Russian Laundromat — How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real estate developer into the White House. — In 1984, a Russian émigré named David Bogatin went shopping for apartments in New York City.

Discussion: Scripting News

Josh Dawsey / Politico:

Trump crafting plan to slash legal immigration — Donald Trump and his aides are quietly working with two conservative senators to dramatically scale back legal immigration — a move that would mark a fulfillment of one of the president's biggest campaign promises.