memeorandum: Trump plan to hire 15,000 border and immigration personnel isn't justified, federal watchdog says (Lisa Rein/Washington Post)

8:35 PM ET, August 2, 2017

Top Items:

Trump Says U.S.'Losing' Afghan War in Tense Meeting With Generals — WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has become increasingly frustrated with his advisers tasked with crafting a new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and recently suggested firing the war's top military commander during …

Discussion: Axios, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, The Week, Raw Story, Politicus USA and Instapundit

The White House:

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on Signing the “Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” — Today, I signed into law the “Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,” which enacts new sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

Discussion: Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Guardian, Shareblue, NPR, Lawyers, Guns & Money, National Review, New York Magazine, IJR, TheBlaze and The Week

Dmitry Medvedev / Facebook:
The US President's signing of the package of new sanctions against Russia will have a few consequences.

Discussion: RT, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

Margaret Talev / Bloomberg:
Trump Signs Russia Sanctions Bill, But Lays Out His Concerns About the Law

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Little Green Footballs, Shareblue, Weekly Standard, Shakesville, Washington Free Beacon and ABC News

Donald Trump / ABC News:
Trump signs Russia sanctions bill he blasts as ‘clearly unconstitutional’

Discussion: Politico, twitchy.com, Axios, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Washington Free Beacon

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:
Trump signs what he calls ‘seriously flawed’ bill imposing new sanctions on Russia

Discussion: Vox and Mediaite

Los Angeles Times:
Read President Trump's statements outlining his concerns about the Russia sanctions bill

Discussion: The Mahablog and The National Interest

Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Signing of H.R. 3364

Discussion: Raw Story, Hit & Run, RedState, IJR and National Review

Rosie Gray / The Atlantic:

An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial Memo — A top official of the National Security Council was fired last month after arguing in a memo that President Trump is under sustained attack from subversive forces both within and outside the government who are deploying Maoist tactics …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Business Insider, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and Politico

Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:

Inside the McMaster-Bannon War — Under the new chief of staff, H.R. McMaster and Steve Bannon have gone to the mattresses. — General John Kelly may be trying to institute military-style discipline in the West Wing, but that hasn't put a stop to the civil war happening over President Donald Trump's National Security Council.

Discussion: The Atlantic, McMaster Leaks, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller and Rolling Stone

Shane Savitsky / Axios:
McMaster reshuffles National Security Council

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Political Wire

Mike Allen / Axios:

John Kelly closes the Oval Office door — The door to the Oval Office used to be wide open, with favored officials drifting in and out — even in the middle of meetings — to kibitz with Trump. — Now, the door is closed. Gen. John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff …

Discussion: Business Insider, IJR, The Daily Caller, Mashable, AOL, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Shakesville, New York Magazine and Associated Press, more at Mediagazer »

Bloomberg:
Trump Is Considering Perry for Homeland Security Chief

Discussion: RedState, Axios, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller and E&E News

Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Kelly cracks down on West Wing back channels to Trump

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Jonathan Lemire / Associated Press:
Trump's New Top Aide Assures Sessions His Job Is Safe

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Lisa Rein / Washington Post: Trump plan to hire 15,000 border and immigration personnel isn't justified, federal watchdog says

Dara Lind / Vox:
What John Kelly's final ICE raid tells us about Trump's new chief of staff

Discussion: Daily Kos

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Here Is Anthony Scaramucci's “Communications Plan” From Before He Was Fired — “Make it clear that horn tooting and denigrating colleagues is unacceptable,” Scaramucci's memo notes. — Recently ousted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci had big plans for the job …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Mike Cernovich:

Exclusive — Scaramucci Memo Showed Content Focused Vision for White House Communications Team — “An effective Comms shop will dictate the news of the day on most days,” former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci wrote in a rough draft of a memo sent to Cernovich Media.

Discussion: Business Insider, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Political Wire

David Crary / Associated Press:

Boy Scouts: Top leaders didn't call Trump to praise speech — https://apnews.com/aedbaf4543ea464dbcef 78491ba281b9 — Link copied! — NEW YORK (AP) — The Boy Scouts denied Wednesday that the head of the youth organization called President Donald Trump to praise his recent, politically aggressive speech to its national jamboree.

Discussion: National Review, New York Magazine, Political Wire and Politicus USA

CNBC:

As the lies and contradictions mount, federal officials are deciding to simply ignore Trump — Evidence arrives every day of the government treating the man elected to lead it as someone talking mostly to himself. — The phenomenon has grown more pronounced as Trump keeps struggling …

Adam Gabbatt / The Guardian:
Boy Scouts and Mexico both deny claims of calling Trump to offer praise

Discussion: Liberal Values, Raw Story, IJR, Splinter and The Daily Caller

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:

White House aide blasts CNN reporter for ‘cosmopolitan bias’ in bizarre exchange — White House senior adviser Stephen Miller smiled as he volunteered to “take one actual last question” at Wednesday's news briefing, before press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders returned to the podium.

Discussion: Occidental Dissent and Gothamist

Rebekah Entralgo / ThinkProgress:
Stephen Miller attacks Statue of Liberty poem, echoing popular white nationalist talking point

Discussion: Raw Story

Garet Williams / Vox:
Stephen Miller couldn't defend a new immigration bill without demeaning the press

Discussion: Politico

CNN:

Trump nominee Sam Clovis blasted progressives as ‘race traders’ and ‘race traitors’ in old blog posts — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)Sam Clovis, President Donald Trump's nominee to be the Department of Agriculture's chief scientist, maintained a now-defunct blog for years in which he accused progressives of …

Discussion: Gizmodo, Boing Boing and The Daily Caller

Julia Manchester / The Hill:
Trump's USDA pick referred to progressives as ‘race traders’ and ‘race traitors’

Discussion: RedState

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Attorney Subpoenas Kushner Cos. Over Investment-For-Visa Program — Records sought from development firm owned by family of White House adviser Jared Kushner — Kushner Cos., the New York property development business owned by the family of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner …

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

Oh, Wait. Maybe It Was Collusion. — Did the Trump campaign collude with Russian agents trying to manipulate the course of the 2016 election? Some analysts have argued that the media has made too much of the collusion narrative; that Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting …

Discussion: LewRockwell

Annie Karni / Politico:

Zuckerberg hires former Clinton pollster Joel Benenson — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have hired Democratic pollster Joel Benenson, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama and the chief strategist to Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 presidential campaign …

Discussion: Raw Story

Jacey Fortin / New York Times:

Baltimore Drops Dozens of Cases After Video Casts Doubt on Officers — State attorneys are dismissing dozens of cases in Baltimore after reviewing a video that appears to show a police officer planting evidence while two other officers look on. — Over a hundred criminal cases …

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, The Root, The Verge and Baltimore Sun

Kevin Rector / Baltimore Sun:
Attorney for woman in drug case says body-camera footage shows officers planting drugs

Discussion: Gizmodo, The Daily Caller, WCMH-TV, CityLab, Daily Kos, VICE News, Splinter, Sputnik International and Boing Boing

Andy Shain / Post and Courier:

South Carolina governor candidate Catherine Templeton's ‘proud of the Confederacy’ remarks stir controversy — COLUMBIA — Catherine Templeton made waves in her first public forum as gubernatorial candidate by saying she is “proud of the Confederacy” and pledged “we're not going to rewrite history” by removing Confederate monuments.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Raw Story and Splinter

Seth Abramovitch / Hollywood Reporter:

How ‘Sharknado’ Casts Its C-Listers and Nearly Landed Trump as President — Months before he declared himself a candidate, Trump was set to play commander-in-chief in the schlocky Syfy film franchise that has lured everyone from Ann Coulter to Charo for cameos while regular Tara Reid makes a quarter of one male co-star's pay.

Discussion: The Hill, The Week, IJR, AOL, Washington Times, Refinery29, Business Insider, Mashable, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

Media Matters for America:

Right-wing troll Mike Cernovich says he's doing a “big pivot” away from Trump — Right-wing troll Mike Cernovich took to Periscope to announce that he's doing “a big pivot” away from “being a pro-Trump guy.” Cernovich enthusiastically supported President Donald Trump throughout …

James Kirchick / Los Angeles Times:

Op-Ed Remember all those left-wing pundits who drooled over Venezuela? — The majority of Venezuelans oppose the assembly and the new charter it will draft, fearing it will give Maduro dictatorial powers. — “Pundits should have fixed terms,” left-wing author Naomi Klein recently told the BBC.

Ian Cummings / Kansas City Star:

NAACP issues first-ever travel advisory for a state — and it's Missouri — NAACP officials say their recent travel advisory for Missouri is the first that the civil rights group has issued for any state. — But the warning follows a recent trend of similar alerts issued by other groups …

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress, RedState, NBC News, Refinery29 and AOL

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:

JAMES COMEY HAS BOOK DEAL, PUBLICATION SET FOR NEXT SPRING — NEW YORK (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey has a book deal. — Flatiron Books told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Comey is writing a book about leadership and decision making that will draw upon his career in government.

Discussion: The Hill, IJR, The Daily Caller, Axios, Political Wire, Washington Post and CNN, more at Mediagazer »

Amy Koski / Nature:

Correction of a pathogenic gene mutation in human embryos … Abstract — Genome editing has potential for the targeted correction of germline mutations. Here we describe the correction of the heterozygous MYBPC3 mutation in human preimplantation embryos with precise CRISPR-Cas9-based targeting accuracy …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, Mashable, STAT, The Guardian and Hit & Run

Drew Johnson / The Daily Caller:

EXCLUSIVE: Al Gore's Home Devours 34 Times More Electricity Than Average U.S. Household — On Friday, Al Gore's sequel to “An Inconvenient Truth” - “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” - arrives in movie theaters across the country. But there's another inconvenient sequel worth noting and …

Discussion: National Center …, MichelleMalkin.com, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Climate Depot, The Gateway Pundit, The Rush Limbaugh Show and twitchy.com

Grace Rauh / NY1 News:

Sources: Michael Grimm eyes return to Congress — The Staten Island political world is buzzing with talk that a former Republican congressman may want his old job back. NY1 Political Reporter Grace Rauh has that story. — For months now, there has been talk that Michael Grimm would try to get back into politics.