memeorandum: Nicaragua Joins Paris Accord, Leaving Trump Alone With Syria (Joe Ryan/Bloomberg)

8:25 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, Axios, New York Magazine, CANNONFIRE, Political Wire, NBC News, The Week, The Root, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, Boing Boing, Occupy Democrats, CBS News, Raw Story, 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: Washington Monthly, RedState, Vox, Fox News, Talking Points Memo, The Guardian, CNBC, IJR, Business Insider, Mother Jones, Shareblue, Axios, The Week, Mediaite, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Occupy Democrats, Politicus USA, 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

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

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

Discussion: Washington Post

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

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, New York Times, Business Insider, The Federalist, Vox, Balkinization, Washington Post, FierceHealthcare, National Review, CNN, ThinkProgress, Balloon Juice, Politico and Common Dreams

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

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

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

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

Senate girds for final Obamacare repeal vote — The Senate will vote next week on the latest bill to repeal Obamacare — but the outcome is anything but certain. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to put a bill written by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion: Washington Post and CNN

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, Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, Balloon Juice, Health Affairs Blog and Axios

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

Discussion: Center for American …, Occupy Democrats, Vox, Political Wire, The Week, Mediaite and Washington Post

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Rand Paul's Epic Obamacare Flip-Flop?

Discussion: RedState, The Hill, IJR, CNBC and Washington Post

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

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

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: Washington Free Beacon, Daily Wire, The Week, Instapundit and IJR

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: UPI, The Moderate Voice, ABC News, The Root, NBC News and AOL

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

Discussion: Grist, CBS News, Axios and Refinery29

CNN:
Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico with 155-mph winds

Discussion: RT, Gizmodo, Washington Post, fox13now.com, East Bay Times, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, NBC News, twitchy.com, RedState, Daily Wire, WTVR-TV, Raw Story, 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: Jezebel, Aleteia.org and Balloon Juice

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

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

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, Sputnik International, RedState, Liberal Values, Raw Story, Daily Kos, 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: Shakesville

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, Shakesville, IJR, Washington Free Beacon, Vox, CNBC and Political Wire

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

Discussion: IJR

Jeff Greenfield / Politico: The Strange Authenticity of Hillary Clinton

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

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, IJR, Vox, Axios, The Week, Washington Times and Washington Post

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

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

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

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.