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Trump “loved” Scaramucci's quotes — but he hates being upstaged — Top Republicans tell us that yesterday may have been an inflection point in the West Wing meltdown — that if behavior like this continues, apparently sanctioned by the President, people will finally leave.
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Why Anthony Scaramucci's Rant Probably Ticked Off the FBI … In his immediately infamous phone call to a New Yorker staff writer, Anthony Scaramucci didn't just say the White House chief of staff was a “f-king paranoid schizophrenic” or accuse the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, of engaging in autofellatio.
Discussion:
New Yorker, Reuters, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, Breitbart, Salon, Vox, Above the Law, Hullabaloo, VICE News, Bloomberg, New York Times, CNBC, IJR, The Root, Refinery29, The Gateway Pundit, Patterico's Pontifications, Mashable, Gothamist and Raw Story


Trump says he wants a ‘general’ to replace Priebus: report — President Trump has said privately that he wants to appoint “a general” to replace White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, The New York Times reports. — The president, the Times reported on Thursday, has so far focused …
Discussion:
New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, AOL, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, ABC News, Political Wire and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

The Daily 202: Trump's hardball tactics backfire as ‘skinny repeal’ goes down — THE BIG IDEA: President Trump's attacks on Republican senators are finally catching up with him, and Lisa Murkowski will not be bullied. — A last-ditch effort to keep the Obamacare repeal effort alive went …
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Monthly, Above the Law, CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, Just Security, Conservative News Today, vice, Mediaite, Political Insider blog, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, Power Line, Washington Free Beacon, Salon, The Week, TheBlaze, Talking Points Memo, IJR, Common Dreams, Weekly Standard, New York Times and Fox News


House Republicans despair after health care collapse — Speaker Paul Ryan had none of his Eagle Scout-like optimism. — At a closed-door conference meeting with House Republicans hours after Sen. John McCain scuttled perhaps the last best hope of repealing Obamacare, Ryan read an excerpt from …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Mediaite and Politicus USA


Onion Fact Checks: Anthony Scaramucci's ‘New Yorker’ Interview
Discussion:
Washington Monthly

Mooch to lower profile after New Yorker fracas
Discussion:
IJR and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Anthony Scaramucci's Empty Feud With Reince Priebus
Discussion:
NewsBusters, Politico, Washington Post and CNN

STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON VOTING “NO” ON “SKINNY REPEAL” — Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today on voting “no” on the so-called “skinny repeal” of Obamacare: — “From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare …
Discussion:
Vox, The Atlantic, The Gateway Pundit, New York Times, VICE News, Washington Post, PRI, New York Magazine, twitchy.com, The Daily Signal, TheBlaze, Speaker.gov, FOX40, KTLA, CNNMoney, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Week, Axios and TalkLeft
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The night John McCain killed the GOP's health-care fight — It was the most dramatic night in the United States Senate in recent history. Just ask the senators who witnessed it. — A seven-year quest to undo the Affordable Care Act collapsed — at least for now — as Sen. John McCain …
Discussion:
Shareblue, Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Daily Beast, CNBC, Splinter, Talking Points Memo, NPR, ThinkProgress, IJR, JONATHAN TURLEY, The American Mirror and New York Times


How McCain tanked Obamacare repeal — Paul Ryan couldn't persuade him. Neither could Mike Pence. And in the end, President Donald Trump couldn't reel in John McCain either. — The president made a last-ditch effort, calling the Arizona senator and key holdout on the GOP's Obamacare repeal measure …
Discussion:
Vox, ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, New York Times, Political Insider blog, Common Dreams, Mashable, The Week, Associated Press and Axios


John McCain saved Republicans from themselves
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Refinery29, AOL, bradford-delong.com, Jezebel, New York Magazine, Pacific Standard and CBS News

Enough about McCain. It was Collins, Murkowski and red-state Democrats who killed Trumpcare.
Discussion:
Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, vice, CleanTechnica and Raw Story

Taking Stock Of Trumpcare's Epic Collapse
Discussion:
bradford-delong.com

Senate Rejects Slimmed-Down Obamacare Repeal as McCain Votes No
Discussion:
Vox, CNBC, Rewire, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, WBUR, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Wire, Outside the Beltway, Politicus USA, NBC News, THE WARREN (HENRY) REPORT, Refinery29, Common Dreams, FiveThirtyEight, Lawyers, Guns & Money, fox8.com, The Times of Israel, Power Line, AOL, The Atlantic, Washington Free Beacon, CBS Pittsburgh, The Guardian, KQED News, twitchy.com, TheStreet, IJR, CANNONFIRE, Little Green Footballs, Balloon Juice and Fox Business

What McCain did was hard. What Murkowski and Collins did was much harder.
Discussion:
CNN, Media Matters for America, New York Magazine, IJR, Talking Points Memo and New York Times

What was in the failed Senate ‘skinny repeal’ health care bill?
Discussion:
Right Wing Watch, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Federalist

Obamacare Repeal Collapses as Senate GOP Blocks Health Bill
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, NBC News, The Hill, Vox, Washington Examiner, CNBC, Axios, neo-neocon, ABC News, NPR, ThinkProgress, Daily Wire, Common Dreams, Mediaite, Shareblue, USA Today, The Week, Washington Post, CBS New York, Politicus USA, Scared Monkeys, The Guardian, No More Mister Nice Blog, Deadline and Vox Popoli

These Two Women Senators Are The Real ‘Mavericks’ Of The GOP Health Care Vote
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Talking Points Memo, LGBT Weekly, Washington Post and DCReport.org

Obamacare Is Alive Because It Has Made Life Better For Millions
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo


Part Four: The Secrets Of The Spy In The Bag — Vladimir Putin's former media czar was murdered in Washington, DC on the eve of a planned meeting with the U.S. Justice Department, according to two FBI agents whose assertions cast new doubts on the US government's official explanation of his death.
Discussion:
Political Wire and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Trump Is Woody Allen Without the Humor — Half his tweets show utter weakness. They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after dawn. — The president's primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It's not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider.
Discussion:
alicublog and The American Conservative


Sally Yates: Protect the Justice Department From President Trump — The spectacle of President Trump's now daily efforts to humiliate the attorney general into resigning has transfixed the country. But while we are busy staring at the wreckage of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' relationship …
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Justice Department briefing at White House fuels ethics worries
Discussion:
Vox


Couple jump to their deaths because they 'can't afford' health care — A couple jumped to their death in Murray Hill early Friday. — Seth Gottfried — Manhattan parents struggling to pay their doctor's bills jumped to their deaths early Friday - leaving double suicide notes pleading …
Discussion:
Conservative News Today, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Raw Story and Daily Wire


‘Our beautiful boy has gone’: Little Charlie Gard's parents announce that their brave warrior whose plight touched the world has finally died after battling devastating genetic illness he fought for so long — Charlie's parents had fought a lengthy legal battle to take their severely ill baby son to the US for treatment
Discussion:
Fox News Insider, Faithwire, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze and Patterico's Pontifications
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Charlie Gard dies: Baby's life-support withdrawn in hospice as parents ‘denied final wish’
Discussion:
National Review


Mark Meadows: New healthcare bill is coming ‘that can get to 51’ — Rep. Mark Meadows, a key negotiator in the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, said a new effort is underway to write a bill that can pass the Senate that would include proposals offered by Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Ted Cruz, and Rob Portman.

Why I'm running for president — John Delaney, a Democrat, represents Maryland's 6th Congressional District in the House. — The American people are far greater than the sum of our political parties. It is time for us to rise above our broken politics and renew the spirit that enabled us to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Discussion:
CNN, AOL, Outside the Beltway, Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller and BuzzFeed


Russia Seizes 2 U.S. Properties and Orders Embassy to Cut Staff — MOSCOW — Russia seized two American diplomatic properties on Friday and ordered the United States Embassy in Moscow to reduce its staff by September, in the Kremlin's first retaliatory steps against proposed new American sanctions.
Discussion:
Vox, Wall Street Journal, TASS, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Magazine, Shakesville, The Resurgent and The Guardian
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Russia demands U.S. reduce diplomatic staff in new round of conflict over election hacking
Discussion:
Politico, PEN America and Axios


Russia probe could reveal Trump's closest-held secrets — Since Election Day, President Trump's businesses have sold at least 30 luxury condos and oceanfront lots for about $33 million. That includes millions of dollars in properties to secretive shell companies, which can hide the identities …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and The Daily Caller


Did a 9-year-old called ‘Pickle’ really write that letter to Trump? Yep, he's real. — On Wednesday afternoon, while paddling through a week that began with press secretary Sean Spicer's resignation and was pockmarked by Donald Trump dogging his attorney general, the White House launched …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Mediaite, CNN and CBS Philly


Machete-wielding man ‘screaming Allahu Akbar’ kills one person and injures several others during rampage in Hamburg supermarket — A machete-wielding man has killed one and injured several others after going on the rampage through a German supermarket this afternoon.
Discussion:
RedState, Washington Free Beacon and Vox Popoli


Trump job approval swings lower — After a brief rebound, President Trump's job approval rating has swung lower in the latest Harvard-Harris Poll survey. — Forty-four percent say they approve of the job Trump is doing, a 4-point drop from June and down near the previous low of 45 percent in May.
Discussion:
RedState