memeorandum: Don't Compare Trump to Nixon. It's Unfair to Nixon. (Susan B. Glasser/Politico)

8:50 AM ET, July 17, 2017

Top Items:

Americans decided health care is for all. The GOP wants to roll that back. — Their plan would once again make it a privilege for the wealthy. — As vice president, I met with Americans all across our country. What they told me over and over is that the Affordable Care Act gave them peace of mind …

Discussion: Axios and CNN

Fred Barnes / Wall Street Journal:

Republicans Aren't Team Players — GOP Senators who defect from ObamaCare repeal will hurt themselves, their party and the country. — Politics is a team sport, and Republicans are playing it poorly. They have one more chance in the Senate to repeal and replace ObamaCare—possibly their last hope for a victory.

Burgess Everett / Politico:

How the White House and Republicans underestimated Obamacare repeal — The longer Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare flounder, the clearer it becomes that President Donald Trump's team and many in Congress dramatically underestimated the challenge of rolling back former President Barack Obama's signature achievement.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

David Nather / Axios: Now that they have a health care extension ...

Igor Bobic / HuffPost:
Tom Price Says Insurers Should ‘Dust Off How They Did Business Before Obamacare’

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and New York Magazine

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Health care on a scalpel's edge

Discussion: ABC News, Politico and New York Magazine

Noam N. Levey / Los Angeles Times:
Obamacare repeal bills could put coverage out of reach for millions of sick Americans

Discussion: RedState

New York Times:

McCain's Surgery May Be More Serious Than Thought, Experts Say — The condition for which Senator John McCain had surgery on Friday may be more serious than initial descriptions have implied, and it may delay his return to Washington by at least a week or two, medical experts said on Sunday.

Discussion: Mediaite, NBC News, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Booman Tribune, Balloon Juice, CNN, Political Wire, Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo, mccain.senate.gov, ABC News, New York's PIX11, Axios and NPR

Reuters:

U.S. Secret Service rejects suggestion it vetted Trump son's meeting — 4 MIN READ — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service on Sunday denied a suggestion from President Donald Trump's personal lawyer that it had vetted a meeting between the president's son and Russian nationals during the 2016 campaign.

Discussion: The Hill, Just Security, Slate, IJR, Washington Post, Politicus USA, Balloon Juice, ABC News, AOL, Shareblue, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and NBC News

Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Team Trump Excuses for the Don Jr. Meeting Go from Bad to Worse

Discussion: Raw Story

Brandon Carter / The Hill:
Fox News host defends Trump Jr.: I'd meet with the Devil for opposition research

Discussion: Raw Story, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Fox News Insider and Balloon Juice

Amber Athey / The Daily Caller:
Rep. Schiff: Democrat Collusion With Ukraine ‘Problematic’ [VIDEO]

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and The Gateway Pundit

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
Did Donald Trump's lawyer accidentally make a huge confession about the meeting with the Russian lawyer?

Discussion: Business Insider, Hullabaloo, Shareblue, IJR and Talking Points Memo

Julia Manchester / The Hill:
Secret Service responds to Trump lawyer: Russian lawyer meeting not screened

Discussion: Raw Story, ABC News, The Gateway Pundit and RedState

Rebecca Morin / Politico:
Secret Service: Trump Jr. not under protection during meeting with Russian lawyer

Discussion: Politicus USA, IJR and Mediaite

Mark Moore / New York Post:
Secret Service: We didn't clear Don Jr.'s Russian lawyer

Discussion: Washington Post, Weekly Standard and NBC News

Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:

Trump is killing the Republican Party — I did not leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left its senses. The political movement that once stood athwart history resisting bloated government and military adventurism has been reduced to an amalgam of talk-radio resentments.

Discussion: The Hill, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

What campaign wouldn't seek motherlode of Clinton emails? — The public learned on March 10, 2015 that Hillary Clinton had more than 60,000 emails on her private email system, and that she had turned over “about half” of them to the State Department and destroyed the rest, which she said were …

Discussion: Althouse

Gary Langer / ABC News:

Public to Trump: Lay off the Twitter (POLL) — Americans are highly disapproving of President Donald Trump in personal terms, with his tweeting habit a major irritant: Seventy percent say he's acted in an unpresidential manner since taking office, 68 percent don't see him as a positive role model …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Veronica Stracqualursi / ABC News:
The Note: Trump reaches a low even he can't ignore

Discussion: Common Dreams, Shareblue, IJR, twitchy.com and Joe.My.God.

Mike Barnes / Hollywood Reporter:

Martin Landau, Oscar Winner for ‘Ed Wood,’ Dies at 89 — His résumé includes ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘North by Northwest.’ It does not, however, include ‘Star Trek.’ — Martin Landau, the all-purpose actor who showcased his versatility …

Discussion: TMZ.com, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Fox News and Raw Story

John McCormick / Bloomberg:

Americans Feel Good About the Economy, Not So Good About Trump — Just 40 percent approve of president's performance in office — Narrow majority expect stock market to be higher by year's end — Almost six months into Donald Trump's presidency, Americans are feeling fairly optimistic about their jobs …

Discussion: USA Today and Politico

Cyra Master / The Hill:

Break-in reported at GOP Senator's office — DON'T MISS A BRIEF. SIGN UP FOR OUR DAILY EMAIL.

Discussion: Raw Story

Bryan Friesen / LASVEGASNOW:
Break in at Sen. Heller's Las Vegas office

Discussion: KXAN-TV and The Daily Caller

Alex Horton / Washington Post:

Foreign-born recruits, promised citizenship by the Pentagon, flee the country to avoid deportation — Frustrated by delayed promises from the U.S. military for citizenship, and in fear of the Islamic State if he were deported back to Iraq, Ranj Rafeeq has given up the American Dream for a Canadian one.

Susan B. Glasser / Politico:

Don't Compare Trump to Nixon. It's Unfair to Nixon. — Are we watching Watergate the rerun? — Six months into Donald Trump's already embattled presidency, references to the disgraced 37th president are everywhere. Jack Farrell's sharp biography of Richard Nixon, years in the making, is a surprise bestseller.

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

UAE orchestrated hacking of Qatari government sites, sparking regional upheaval, according to U.S. intelligence officials — The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites in order to post incendiary false quotes attributed to Qatar's emir …

Discussion: The American Conservative, France 24, The Gateway Pundit and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

Declan Walsh / New York Times: Qatar Opens Its Doors to All, to the Dismay of Some

Alexis Levinson / BuzzFeed:

Top Republicans Aren't Signing Up For Trump's War With The Media — “I love the media,” said the Freedom Caucus chairman. — Reporting From Washington, DC … You've read a lot about the Republican war on what Donald Trump calls fake news. But here's the thing: For many Republicans, it's a phony war too.

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

How ‘Neoliberalism’ Became the Left's Favorite Insult of Liberals — A generation ago, “neoliberalism” was the chosen label of a handful of moderately liberal opinion journalists, centered around Charles Peters, then-editor of the Washington Monthly. Some neoliberals started calling traditional liberals “paleoliberals.”

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

White House squeezes Jeff Flake — The White House has met with at least three actual or prospective primary challengers to Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in recent weeks, a reflection of Donald Trump's strained relations with the senator and the latest sign of the president's willingness …

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Nearly 150,000 attempts to hack SC voter registration system on Election Day: report — Hackers tried to infiltrate South Carolina's voter registration system nearly 150,000 times on Election Day 2016, according to a South Carolina State Election Commission report that was reported on by The Wall Street Journal.

Discussion: Raw Story