memeorandum: Senate confirms former Boeing VP as deputy Defense secretary (Ellen Mitchell/The Hill)

5:20 PM ET, July 18, 2017

Top Items:

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:

Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified — An American-based employee of a Russian real estate company took part in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr., bringing to eight the number of known participants at the session that has emerged …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Little Green Footballs, Political Wire, Business Insider, IJR, NPR, New York Magazine, The Root, Axios, Daily Kos, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Shareblue and CNN

Pamela Brown / CNN:

First on CNN: Special Counsel investigators seeking info from ‘eighth man’ at Trump Tower meeting — Washington (CNN)Special counsel investigators are seeking information from the still-publicly unidentified eighth person who attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, USA Today, Washington Examiner, RedState, Talking Points Memo, TheStreet, Business Insider, Daily Kos, IJR, Mediaite, Joe.My.God. and Little Green Footballs

Wall Street Journal:

The Trumps and the Truth — The best defense against future revelations is radical transparency. — Even Donald Trump might agree that a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldn't abide Hillary Clinton's legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling.

Discussion: CNNMoney, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Washington Free Beacon

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:

The Master of ‘Kompromat’ Believed to Be Behind Trump Jr.'s Meeting — MOSCOW — The salacious video, of a naked man in bed with two women, was one of the most prominent examples of “kompromat,” the Russian art of spreading damaging information to discredit a rival or an enemy, in recent Russian history.

Los Angeles Times:
A California businessman born in the former Soviet Union also attended Trump Jr. meeting

Discussion: Mother Jones, Mediaite and KTLA

Malia Zimmerman / Fox News:
Hillary Clinton sided with Russia on sanctions as Bill made $500G on Moscow speech

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Gateway Pundit and Infowars

New York Times: Guest List at Trump Jr.'s Meeting With Russian Expands Again

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Trump calls on Senate to end filibuster after healthcare defeat — President Trump on Tuesday called on the Senate to end the legislative filibuster after the collapse of the Republican healthcare plan. — “The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Monthly, The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Washington Post, Axios, Deadline, Politicus USA, Daily Wire, SFist, Vox, CNBC, Media Matters for America and Talking Points Memo

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

‘Plan C’ on Obamacare, Repeal Now and Replace Later, Has Collapsed — WASHINGTON — With their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in tatters, Senate leaders on Tuesday pushed to vote on a different measure that would repeal major parts of President Barack Obama's health law without …

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, News, Indy Week, TheBlaze, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, alicublog, Refinery29 and IJR

Josh Dawsey / Politico:

Trump blindsided by implosion of GOP health care bill — President Donald Trump convened a strategy session over steak and succotash at the White House with senators Monday night, trying to plot an uphill path to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a GOP alternative.

Discussion: Vox, Axios, Business Insider, The Root, ABC News, Joe.My.God. and Raw Story

Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story:

WATCH: Mitch McConnell whines about people celebrating the defeat of his unpopular Trumpcare bill — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attempted to blame Democrats for the failure of the law known as Trumpcare that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Molly Ball / The Atlantic:
Republicans Aren't Turning on Trump—They're Turning on Each Other

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Fox News, Raw Story and Booman Tribune

Dan Balz / Washington Post: A Republican Party at war with itself hits the wall on health care

The Hill:
GOP's repeal-only plan quickly collapses in Senate

Discussion: Daily Kos

Rebecca Harrington / Business Insider:
A Republican senator jumped subway tracks to try to get away from reporters asking about the healthcare bill

Discussion: Raw Story and twitchy.com

Sam Baker / Axios:
The fallout: Admit defeat, move on to bigger defeat?

Discussion: Politico, Wall Street Journal and ABC News

Dylan Scott / Vox:
The last-ditch Obamacare repeal plan looks dead in the Senate

Discussion: Cincinnati.com, Washington Post, ABC News, CNN, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, Daily Wire, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, The Mahablog and Politicus USA

Caitlin Owens / Axios:
Senate health care attempt may not be dead yet

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Business Insider

Stan Collender / Forbes:
The GOP's Arrogance Was Thinking That 52 Votes Is A Majority

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill, CNN and WREG-TV

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Two GOP senators to vote against ObamaCare repeal-only bill

Discussion: Mother Jones and Refinery29

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Health Care Overhaul Collapses as Two Republican Senators Defect

Discussion: neo-neocon, The Atlantic, CNN, The Hill, Politico, Power Line, Shareblue, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Media Matters for America, CNBC, Geller Report, HBR.org, Mother Jones, Vox, NPR, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, National Review, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Wire, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Infowars, Common Dreams, YouGov US Opinion Center News, RedState, NBC News, Kennebec Journal & …, IJR, Townhall.com, Business Insider, Fox News, Outside the Beltway, FOX News Radio, The Last Refuge, The Daily Gazette, Axios, Washington Times, Weekly Standard, Mediaite, United States Senator Mike Lee, Washington Free Beacon, ABC News, ACASignups.net, Deadline, Joe.My.God., U.S. Senator for Kansas …, The Guardian, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Political Wire, twitchy.com, Refinery29, The Moderate Voice and TheBlaze

Marina Fang / HuffPost:

Steve Bannon Reportedly Attacked Paul Ryan As ‘A Limp-D**k Motherf**ker’ — What? — Steve Bannon reportedly called House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) “a limp-dick motherf**ker who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation,” referring to the think tank whose fiscal conservative policies the representative espouses.

Discussion: IJR, The Daily Caller and Political Wire

Axios:
Go inside Trumpworld with “Devil's Bargain” book

Discussion: New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Raw Story

Bloomberg:
Paul Ryan's Approval Suffers as Republican Agenda Stalls

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Political Wire

Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:

Fox News' Sean Hannity calls colleague Shep Smith ‘so anti-Trump’ — Is the chief news anchor at Fox News anti-Trump? Sean Hannity thinks so. — Speaking on his radio show Monday afternoon with White House official Sebastian Gorka, Hannity said Shepard Smith was “a friend,” but someone who was no fan of President Donald Trump.

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, TVNewser, TheBlaze and Washington Free Beacon

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Sanders, Fox reporter exchange jabs over off-camera briefings

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, The Daily Caller and TVNewser

Matthew Nussbaum / Politico:
White House's Sanders slams Democrats, pledges health care action at off-camera briefing

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Free Beacon, Rewire, IJR and Axios

Eli Lake / Bloomberg:

Trump Just Came Very Close to Killing the Iran Deal — At the last minute, the president nearly told Tillerson not to certify Iranian compliance. — Under President Barack Obama this kind of thing was routine. Since the Iran nuclear deal was reached in 2015, every few months …

Discussion: RedState, Axios, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, IJR and Mediaite

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Trump Recertifies Iran Nuclear Deal, but Only Reluctantly

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Al-Monitor, IJR, The Resurgent, Politico, The American Conservative, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, dailycallernewsfoundation.org, The Guardian, National Review, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Power Line, Mother Jones, The National Interest, middleeastmonitor.com and Instapundit

Heather Nauert / US Department of State:
U.S. Announces New Iran-related Sanctions

Discussion: U.S. Department …, New York Times, The Atlantic, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and IJR

John McCormick / Bloomberg:

Finally, a Poll Trump Will Like: Clinton Is Even More Unpopular — Views on Democratic nominee harden since exit from spotlight — Obama now as popular as he was in first year in White House — For a president with historically low poll numbers, Donald Trump can at least find solace in this: Hillary Clinton is doing worse.

Discussion: Business Insider, Mediaite, TheBlaze, Daily Wire, IJR, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Politicus USA, AOL, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and twitchy.com

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
Poll: Clinton more unpopular than Trump

Discussion: The Resurgent, The Daily Caller and Political Wire

Cameron Easley / Morning Consult:

America's Most and Least Popular Governors — July 2017 — Never miss the latest political data and news from Morning Consult. Subscribe to Morning Consult's Washington email brief here. — Familiar faces remain affixed the top and bottom of the new Morning Consult Governor Approval Rankings …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, Alabama Today, WPRI-TV and National Review

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
As Party Drifts Left, Pragmatic Democratic Governors Have Eye on White House

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:

House GOP unveils budget plan that attaches major spending cuts to coming tax overhaul bill — House Republicans unveiled a 2018 budget plan Tuesday that would pave the way for ambitious tax reform legislation — but only alongside a package of politically sensitive spending cuts that threaten …

Discussion: CNN, The Atlantic, CNBC, Politico, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, ABC News, Mother Jones and 1A

Chris Jacobs / USA Today: What killed Senate health care bill? Liberal Medicaid alarmism

Ben Strauss / Politico:

Is the President Fit? — Few props have been more indispensable to Donald Trump's presidency than the golf cart. He drives them on his frequent weekend trips to the links (invariably at Trump-owned clubs, where he rolls onto the greens, too—normally a no-no).

Discussion: Althouse, USA Today, IJR, The Resurgent, Washington Free Beacon and Shakesville

KHQ-TV:

17-year-old Spokane girl pulls gun on home intruder on the run from Spokane County deputies — A 17-year-old north Spokane County girl protected herself and her home with her dad's gun when a suspected car thief on the run from Spokane County deputies came into her house Monday morning.

Discussion: Daily Wire, The Gateway Pundit, Bearing Arms, The Daily Caller and The Federalist