memeorandum: All Power Out as Hurricane Maria's Winds, Floods Crush Puerto Rico (NBC News)

9:50 PM ET, September 20, 2017

Top Items:

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: The Hill, Vox, Talking Points Memo, CANNONFIRE, New York Magazine, Axios, NBC News, The Week, The Root, Business Insider, Political Wire, Boing Boing, Occupy Democrats, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, CBS News, Mother Jones, Daily Kos and Mediaite

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

Wall Street Journal:

All Mr. Comey's Wiretaps — Congress needs to learn how the FBI meddled in the 2016 campaign. — When Donald Trump claimed in March that he'd had his “wires tapped” prior to the election, the press and Obama officials dismissed the accusation as a fantasy.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Wire

Sharyl Attkisson / The Hill:

It looks like Obama did spy on Trump, just as he apparently did to me — BY SHARYL ATTKISSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 09/20/17 08:30 AM EDT THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL — Many in the media are diving deeply into minutiae in order to discredit …

Discussion: Bloomberg

Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Manafort used Trump campaign account to email Ukrainian operative

Discussion: Washington Post

Washington Post:
Mueller casts broad net in requesting extensive records from Trump White House

Discussion: The Atlantic, Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Calvin Woodward / Associated Press:

Sen. Graham implores colleague to vote for GOP health bill — https://apnews.com/a017d33b2344493e8098 d47ed2ceb087 — Link copied! — WASHINGTON (AP) — In an overheard phone call Wednesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham leaned on a fellow senator to back his GOP health care bill despite “all its imperfections.”

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Occupy Democrats

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: Business Insider, Center for American …, Slate, Axios, Washington Post, Center For Children …, ABC News, National Review, Politico, Daily Kos, Jezebel, Politicus USA, The Week, ThinkProgress and ACA Signups

Ben Shapiro / Daily Wire:

Jimmy Kimmel Has No Moral Authority On Health Care Just Because His Son Had Heart Surgery. Here's Why. — On Tuesday evening, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel spoke from the heart once again about Obamacare. Citing his baby son's experience with open heart surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles …

Discussion: CNN, Politico, IJR, Vox and twitchy.com

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 and Daily Kos

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, HuffPost, New York Times, ThinkProgress, The Federalist, Vox, Business Insider, FierceHealthcare, National Review, Balkinization, Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Common Dreams, Politico and CNN

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, Occupy Democrats and Talking Points Memo

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:

Rand Paul's Epic Obamacare Flip-Flop? — He voted for a bill that kept 100 percent of the law's spending but says he can't vote for a bill that keeps 90 percent. — At the end of July, Kentucky senator Rand Paul advocated and voted for the so-called “skinny repeal” bill of Obamacare.

Discussion: RedState, The Hill, IJR, CNBC, CNN, Washington Post, Washington Times, NBC News, Business Insider and Hit & Run

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

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Axios, The Hill, The Atlantic, Washington Post, The Week, Daily Kos, Mediaite and Vox

Sarah Kliff / Vox:
I've covered the GOP repeal plans since day one. Graham-Cassidy is the most radical.

Discussion: Washington Post, Center For Children …, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Business Insider, The Mahablog, Hullabaloo, Common Dreams, ACA Signups, Little Green Footballs, The Week and Politicus USA

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

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

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

Discussion: Washington Post and CNN

Benjy Sarlin / NBC News:
New GOP Plan Could Sow Health Care Chaos

Discussion: The Commonwealth Fund, The Daily Caller, Political Wire and Informed Comment

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

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, Baltimore Sun, The Hill, FierceHealthcare, Washington Examiner, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, Business Insider, New York Magazine, ThinkProgress, Mother Jones, Balloon Juice, Health Affairs Blog and Axios

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

LEAKED: Watch MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell's Unhinged Outtakes...for Eight Crazy Minutes (UPDATE) — 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: Washington Free Beacon, RedState, Daily Wire, Instapundit, The Week and IJR

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, Hullabaloo, Sputnik International, Liberal Values, RedState, Daily Kos, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Politicus USA, The Verge and Mother Jones

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

Discussion: Shareblue and Shakesville

Jeff Greenfield / Politico:

The Strange Authenticity of Hillary Clinton — By now, you know the news nuggets from Hillary Clinton's new campaign memoir, What Happened. You know that she blames herself for the most shocking upset in American political history, while indicting (in varying degrees of anger and exasperation) …

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:
AP Exclusive: Clinton book has sold more than 300,000 copies

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

Caleb Ecarma / Mediaite:
Hillary Clinton Slams Vladimir Putin For ‘Manspreading’

Discussion: AOL and IJR

Jonathan O'Connell / Washington Post:

Black employees of BLT Prime, in Trump International Hotel, allege racial discrimination — Dominique Hill and Irving Smith Jr. had good jobs. — Last year, Hill worked as a bartender at P.F. Chang's in Tysons Corner and Smith had recently been promoted to bartender at Wildfire grill, also in Tysons.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

New York Times:

Manafort Working on Kurdish Referendum Opposed by U.S. — WASHINGTON — Paul J. Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Trump who is at the center of investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, is working for allies of the leader of Iraq's Kurdish region …

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story and Politico

NBC News:

All Power Out as Hurricane Maria's Winds, Floods Crush Puerto Rico — SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria is likely to have “destroyed” Puerto Rico, the island's emergency director said Wednesday after the monster storm smashed ripped roofs off buildings and flooded homes across the economically strained U.S. territory.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, UPI, Washington Post, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, The Root, AOL and Jezebel

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: Talking Points Memo, BuzzFeed, New York Times, Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, The Verge and Associated Press, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:

Trump Leaning Toward Decertifying Iran Nuclear Deal, Say Sources — President Donald Trump is leaning toward decertifying the Iran nuclear deal and putting the decision of whether the United States withdraw from the accord in the hands of Congress, according to four sources …

Discussion: RedState, Politico, CNBC, The Diplomat, NBC News, CNN and IJR

Adam Kredo / Washington Free Beacon:
Tillerson, Haley Clash Over Iran Nuclear Deal

Discussion: RedState, Bloomberg and IJR

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

Bret Baier / Fox News:

Samantha Power sought to unmask Americans on almost daily basis, sources say — Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was ‘unmasking’ at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016 …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

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, Gizmodo, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Daily Caller

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, Business Insider, IJR, Axios, Vox, The Week, AOL and Political Wire

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.

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

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: The Verge, Mashable, IndieWire, ABC News, The Guardian, CBS San Francisco, Consequence of Sound, The Blast, Gizmodo, AOL 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: Daily Kos, Right Wing Watch, The Daily Caller, The Stranger … and Raw Story