memeorandum: Graham-Cassidy could turn a red electoral map blue. (Reihan Salam/Slate)

6:25 PM ET, September 20, 2017

Top Items:

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:

Mueller Seeks White House Documents Related to Trump's Actions as President — Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, is interested in Mr. Trump's firing of his F.B.I. director and national security adviser and other events. — September 20, 2017 — Republican Leaders Defy Bipartisan Opposition to Health Law Repeal

Discussion: RedState, Vox, Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, Fox News, Axios, CNBC, Business Insider, Occupy Democrats, Politicus USA, The Week, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story and CNN

Washington Post:

Manafort offered to give Russian billionaire ‘private briefings’ on 2016 campaign — FILE - In this July 17, 2016 file photo, then-Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort talks to reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland as Rick Gates listens at back left.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Political Wire, Mother Jones, Business Insider, Boing Boing, Occupy Democrats, Raw Story, Daily Kos and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Mueller casts broad net in requesting extensive records from Trump White House … The special counsel investigating Russian election meddling has requested extensive records and email correspondence from the White House, covering everything from the president's private discussions about firing …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:
All Mr. Comey's Wiretaps — Congress needs to learn …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Wire

Jeff Stein / Vox:

GOP senators are rushing to pass Graham-Cassidy. We asked 9 to explain what it does. — Republican senators are struggling to articulate why they are rushing to pass their last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare over the next 10 days before running into their September 30 deadline.

Discussion: Politico, Slate, Washington Post, National Review, ABC News, Daily Kos, Jezebel, ACA Signups, The Week and Politicus USA

Reihan Salam / Slate:

Graham-Cassidy could turn a red electoral map blue. — If Graham-Cassidy is signed into law, it just might represent the death knell of today's GOP. Needless to say, that is not the message we're hearing from the Republican senators who back the legislation, who insist it instead represents the last …

Discussion: Daily Wire, IJR and Washington Post

Avalere Health:

Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Bill Would Reduce Federal Funding to States by $215 Billion — New analysis from Avalere finds that the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would lead to a reduction in federal funding to states …

Discussion: Arizona Republic, Business Insider, Balkinization, Washington Post, FierceHealthcare, The Federalist, Vox, National Review, CNN, ThinkProgress, Balloon Juice, Politico and Common Dreams

Josh Barro / Business Insider:

The new healthcare bill includes an ‘Alaska Purchase’ to woo a key senator — On Tuesday evening, Robert VerBruggen of National Review noticed something odd: The financial projections produced by Sen. Bill Cassidy's office showed that, in 2026, his healthcare proposal would award each state …

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Daily Caller and Daily Kos

Sarah Kliff / Vox:

I've covered the GOP repeal plans since day one. Graham-Cassidy is the most radical. — Other Republican plans create a poorly funded version of Obamacare. This one blows up the law entirely. — I have spent the bulk of 2017 writing about the different Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Common Dreams, Hullabaloo, The Mahablog and ACA Signups

Benjy Sarlin / NBC News:

New GOP Plan Could Sow Health Care Chaos — WASHINGTON — The latest Republican bill to repeal Obamacare would set the stage for a decade of new health care fights as states struggle to cover residents with less money and an unstable source of funding. — A new analysis of the Graham-Cassidy bill …

Discussion: Political Wire, The Daily Caller and Informed Comment

Jason Noble / Des Moines Register:

Chuck Grassley: Fulfilling campaign promise just as important as ‘substance’ of health bill — Republican Senators have taken up another bill to repeal Obamacare. Here's what's in the legislation. USA TODAY — CONNECT — Despite many evident shortcomings in a bill to repeal …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Shareblue, Talking Points Memo and Occupy Democrats

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Senate girds for final Obamacare repeal vote

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post, Political Wire, Vox, The Atlantic, Daily Kos, The Week and Mediaite

Sarah Kliff / Vox:
Cassidy is selling his health plan with misleading numbers

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Washington Examiner, NPR, New York Times, Business Insider, Balloon Juice, Health Affairs Blog, Politico and Axios

Jonathan Cohn / HuffPost:
Bill Cassidy Responds To Jimmy Kimmel By Doubling Down On The Dishonesty

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Baltimore Sun, neo-neocon, Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Little Green Footballs, Towleroad, Vox, The Guardian, FierceHealthcare, Washington Post, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog and Shareblue

Katie Jennings / Politico:
Christie says he opposes Graham-Cassidy bill

Discussion: Vox, Political Wire, The Week, Washington Post, Mediaite, HuffPost and ThinkProgress

Sara R. Collins / The Commonwealth Fund:
What Are the Potential Effects of the Graham-Cassidy ACA Repeal-and-Replace Bill? Past Estimates Provide Some Clues

Discussion: Center for American …, Business Insider, ThinkProgress, Health Affairs Blog and Washington Post

Amber Phillips / Washington Post:
How well does Jimmy Kimmel understand the GOP health-care bill?

Discussion: Center For Children …, Common Dreams, Politicus USA and twitchy.com

The Daily Beast:
The Republican National Committee Is Weaponizing Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Plan

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, Politico and New York Magazine

Caitlin Owens / Axios:
Repeal first, ask questions later

Discussion: New York Times, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Politico, ABC News, The Atlantic, FierceHealthcare, Daily Kos, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Mother Jones, Los Angeles Times and VTDigger

John Harwood / CNBC: Many GOP senators would shortchange their states by backing the latest Obamacare repeal bill

The Daily Beast:

Russians Appear to Use Facebook to Push Pro-Trump ‘Flash Mobs’ in Florida … Suspected Russia propagandists on Facebook tried to organize more than a dozen pro-Trump rallies in Florida during last year's election, The Daily Beast has learned. — The demonstrations—at least …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, RedState, Liberal Values, The Verge, Raw Story, Politicus USA, Daily Kos and Mother Jones

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed:
Trump Is Using Targeted Facebook Ads To Reassure Supporters He Will Build The Border Wall

Discussion: Shakesville

CNN:

Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico with 155-mph winds — San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN)Hurricane Maria made landfall Wednesday morning in southeast Puerto Rico as a strong Category 4 storm, the National Hurricane Center said. — Maria slammed the island with winds of 155 mph …

Discussion: Gizmodo, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, Washington Post, fox13now.com, East Bay Times, twitchy.com, RedState, NBC News, Raw Story, WTVR-TV, Daily Wire, The Verge, FOX6Now.com, The Weather Channel and JustOneMinute

Washington Post:
Puerto Rico entirely without power as Hurricane Maria hammers island with force not seen in ‘modern history’

Discussion: Aleteia.org, TalkLeft and Balloon Juice

New York Times:
Hurricane Maria Live Updates: Puerto Rico Loses Power and Sets a Curfew

Discussion: Grist and Refinery29

Will Grant / BBC:
Hurricane Maria: Whole of Puerto Rico without power

Discussion: RedState, Mother Jones, Bloomberg, ABC News, Axios, The Guardian and USA Today

Politico:

How America feels about Trump — The latest approval ratings for the president and Congress from POLITICO/Morning Consult — Most Americans think President Donald Trump isn't doing a good job, according to the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Compared with last week's numbers …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, IJR, Business Insider, AOL and Political Wire

Steven Shepard / Politico:
Trump rebounds after polling slide

Discussion: CNN, Business Insider, Axios, Vox, The Week, Washington Post and Washington Times

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Voter Fraud? A Trump Nominee Looks Like He Cast an Illegal Ballot — WASHINGTON — As President Trump's voter integrity commission looks under rocks for possible voter malfeasance, its members might want to examine a presidential nominee awaiting confirmation by the Senate Finance Committee.

Discussion: The Atlantic and electionlawblog.org

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Trump says he's worried about voter fraud. One of his nominees may have voted illegally in Virginia.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and The Daily Signal

Sheryl Sandberg:

Last week we temporarily disabled some of our ads tools following news reports that slurs or other offensive language could be used as targeting criteria for advertising. If someone self-identified as a ‘Jew-hater’ or said they studied ‘how to burn Jews’ in their profile …

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Verge and Engadget, more at Mediagazer »

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:

AP Exclusive: Clinton book has sold more than 300,000 copies — https://apnews.com/d84bb58cfa234b3fb24e 009d6c31a497 — Link copied! — NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton's “What Happened” had a big debut. — Clinton's book about her stunning loss in 2016 to Donald Trump sold …

Discussion: Shareblue, IJR, Shakesville, Vox, Washington Free Beacon, CNBC and Political Wire

Rachana Pradhan / Politico:

Price's private-jet travel breaks precedent — In a sharp departure from his predecessors, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last week took private jets on five separate flights for official business, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars more than commercial travel.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, Shareblue, Bloomberg, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Instapundit, The Guardian, IJR, Common Dreams, KTLA, Washington Post, New York Magazine, NBC News, The Week, The Daily Caller, AOL, Political Wire, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Raw Story and Axios

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

LEAKED: Watch MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell's Unhinged Outtakes...for Eight Crazy Minutes — Lawrence O'Donnell had a really bad night on August 29, 2017. — We draw that conclusion based on the above clip obtained by Mediaite, showing behind the scenes footage of a furious O'Donnell absolutely …

Discussion: IJR and Washington Free Beacon

J.R. Taylor / National Enquirer:

Apology Regarding Judge Judy And Nicole Sheindlin — A statement from The National ENQUIRER — The National ENQUIRER and sister publication The National Examiner recently published articles which stated that Judge Judy Sheindlin suffered from “brain disease,” was “fighting” …

Discussion: Daily Wire, Jezebel and IJR

Adam Ciralsky / Vanity Fair:

Is Trump Mulling Peter Thiel for a Top Intelligence Advisory Post? — Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has been quietly advising the Trump administration for months. Now—as sources say he could be in line for a top intelligence oversight role—Steve Bannon, White House officials, friends …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, The Daily Caller and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Kimberly Roots / TVLine:

Law & Order Vet Sam Waterston to Bring Jack McCoy to SVU Season 19 — These are their stories... and some are so good, you wanna hear 'em again: Law & Order alum Sam Waterston will reprise his role from that series on an upcoming episode of SVU's Season 19, TVLine has learned.

Borys Kit / Hollywood Reporter:

Linda Hamilton Set to Return to ‘Terminator’ Franchise (Exclusive) — With James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger involved, it's a reunion more than 25 years in the making. — She'll be back. — After waving hasta la vista, baby, more than 25 years ago, Linda Hamilton is returning …

Discussion: Mashable, The Verge, IndieWire, ABC News, AOL, The Guardian, Consequence of Sound, CBS San Francisco, The Blast, Gizmodo and Engadget

CNN:

Trump judicial nominee said transgender children are part of 'Satan's plan', defended ‘conversion therapy’ — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)In a pair of 2015 speeches, President Donald Trump's nominee for a federal judgeship in Texas described transgender children as evidence of “Satan's plan …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Right Wing Watch, Raw Story and The Stranger …

Kim Hjelmgaard / USA Today:

There is meddling in Germany's election — not by Russia, but by U.S. right wing — Less than a week before Sunday's vote that is likely to hand German Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term, evidence of anticipated Russian meddling has yet to materialize, but U.S. right-wing groups have interfered, according to German researchers.

Discussion: Raw Story