memeorandum: Flake challenger: Trump ‘is what the country wanted’ (Julia Manchester/The Hill)

3:15 PM ET, August 27, 2017

Top Items:

Jon Gabriel / USA Today:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is no conservative and no hero, no matter what President Trump says — Convicting Arpaio of contempt of court was like busting Al Capone on tax evasion. It was the tip of an iceberg of misdeeds I saw my longtime sheriff commit. — CONNECT

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump Island: Risk rising with Republican leaders — It started with Charlottesville. The pardon of Joe Arpaio sped it up. — Until now, most Republicans on the Hill have either backed Trump, or mostly stayed silent about their differences. Now, he's being openly defied.

Washington Post:

Trump asked Sessions about closing case against Arpaio, an ally since ‘birtherism’ … As Joseph Arpaio's federal case headed toward trial this past spring, President Trump wanted to act to help the former Arizona county sheriff who had become a campaign-trail companion and a partner in their crusade against illegal immigration.

Discussion: The Guardian, emptywheel, KTLA, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Refinery29, New York's PIX11, Axios, Joe.My.God., Mediaite and Political Wire

Peter Wehner / New York Times:

Behold Our ‘Child King’ — REPUBLICAN lawmakers have seen the Trump disaster coming for a while now. They simply have no clue what to do about it. — A couple of months ago — before we learned that Donald Trump Jr. wanted to spend quality time with people he believed represented the Russian government …

Amanda Erickson / Washington Post:
What authoritarianism experts think of Trump's decision to pardon Joe Arpaio

Discussion: BillMoyers.com, Impeachable Offenses?, Hullabaloo, New York Times, New York Magazine, Booman Tribune, BuzzFeed and The Guardian

Aaron Blake / Washington Post: What if Trump ditched the GOP?

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:
Obama adviser: Trump asking to drop case against Arpaio could get him impeached

Discussion: Washington Post, Infowars, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Business Insider

Maia Davis / ABC News:
Trump after pardoning Arpaio gives plug for another polarizing sheriff

Discussion: Associated Press, Shareblue, Mediaite and Joe.My.God.

Julia Manchester / The Hill:
Schiff: Trump pardon sends message to Russia investigation witnesses

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:
House Speaker Paul Ryan Criticizes Donald Trump's Pardon for Joe Arpaio

Discussion: Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, The Last Tradition, Don Surber, The Daily Caller, IJR, The Hill, Mediaite, Axios and Talking Points Memo

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Trump Asked Top Aides Months Ago if Arpaio Case Could Be Dropped, Officials Say

Discussion: Vox

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Trump's pardon of Arpaio fits a pattern: A divider, not a uniter

Discussion: Politico and FiveThirtyEight

Joe Biden / The Atlantic:

‘We Are Living Through a Battle for the Soul of This Nation’ — In January of 2009, I stood waiting in Wilmington, Delaware, for a train carrying the first African American elected president of the United States. I was there to join him as vice president on the way to a historic Inauguration.

Discussion: Shareblue, Business Insider, Raw Story, Mediaite and Washington Times

David Caplan / ABC News:

Harvey slams Texas: Rescue operations underway as historic flooding hits Houston area — Houston is being inundated with flooding of historic proportions after the ferocious Hurricane Harvey set in over the Texas Gulf Coast this weekend, dumping torrential rain on the city with no end in sight for days.

Discussion: The Texas Tribune, Mother Jones, RedState, The Atlantic, Daily Wire, Jamie Dupree - AJC, The Guardian, NBC News, The Verge, CBS News, NPR and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »

NHC Webmaster / National Hurricane Center GIS Data:
Summary - Tropical Storm Harvey (AT4/AL092017)

Discussion: Axios, ThinkProgress, The Verge, New York's PIX11 and FOX6Now.com

Associated Press:
Hurricane Harvey: Houston residents desperately seek help

Discussion: ABC News

ABC News:
‘This Week’ Transcript 8-27-17: Gov. Greg Abbott and Thomas Bossert

Discussion: Politico

Dave Lawler / Axios:

First Cohn, now Tillerson, turn on Trump — Asked by Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace about President Trump's values, Secretary of State Tillerson said, “the president speaks for himself.” Wallace followed up by asking Tillerson if he was separating himself from Trump's values …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politico, RedState, Outside the Beltway, Political Wire, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Business Insider and Joe.My.God.

John Wayne Ferguson / Galveston County Daily News:

15 rescued from Dickinson nursing home — Fifteen senior citizens were evacuated from the La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, David Popoff, the city's emergency management coordinator confirmed on Sunday afternoon. — A picture of the residents sitting in waist-deep water went viral on Twitter Sunday.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Kailani Koenig / NBC News:

Kasich on a 2020 Run With Dem Hickenlooper: ‘The Answer Is No’ — WASHINGTON — Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich on Sunday tried to shut down reports that he is considering an independent presidential bid in 2020 with Colorado's Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper.

Discussion: Political Wire, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Mediaite and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Flake challenger: Trump ‘is what the country wanted’ — .@kelliwardaz: “[@POTUS has] got lofty goals that we should accomplish that will put America First.” #SundayFutures @MariaBartiromo pic.twitter.com/t2iKl0LcO3 — Sen. Jeff Flake — 's (R-Ariz.) primary challenger praised President Trump's agenda …

Discussion: RedState

Adolfo Flores / BuzzFeed:

ICE Left 50 Immigrant Women And Kids Stranded At A Bus Station Before Hurricane Harvey Struck — The bus depot had been closed due to the approaching storm. — Federal immigration authorities left about 50 immigrant women and children, most of them asylum-seekers from Central America …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money and ImmigrationProf Blog

Caroline Orr / Shareblue:

Trump hasn't done a thing to declare the opioid crisis an official emergency — In early August, after Democrats managed to shame him enough to say something, Donald Trump told reporters that the country's ongoing opioid epidemic was a “national emergency,” and promised to take the necessary steps to make the declaration official.

Frances Robles / New York Times:

Two Men Arrested in Connection With Charlottesville Violence — The police arrested two men, including a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and were seeking a third in connection with violent episodes that took place at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., this month …

Discussion: Mashable