Top Items:
Politico:
Trump publicly backs healthcare effort, privately harbors doubts — While the president appears all in some in the White House wonder about Graham-Cassidy's contents and its chances. — In public, President Donald Trump is all-in on the Senate's final chance to repeal Obamacare.
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Megan Messerly / The Nevada Independent:
Sandoval doubles down on criticism of Heller-sponsored measure; state analysis highlights up to $2 billion loss — Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, left, and Senator Dean Heller speak with media inside the Grant Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas on Friday, June 23, 2017. Daniel Clark/The Nevada Independent
Discussion:
Washington Post and Political Wire
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Cruelty, Incompetence and Lies — Graham-Cassidy, the health bill the Senate may vote on next week, is stunningly cruel. It's also incompetently drafted: The bill's sponsors clearly had no idea what they were doing when they put it together. Furthermore, their efforts to sell the bill involve obvious, blatant lies.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Vox, The Atlantic, Forbes, The Guardian, The Week, Whatever Source Derived, AOL, Washington Post, CNN, Business Insider, NPR, Center For Children … and The Nation
Caitlin Owens / Axios:
The key states that would lose funding under Graham-Cassidy — A new estimate obtained by Axios from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that Alaska, home to key swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski, would lose 38% of federal funding for premium subsidies and Medicaid by 2026 under the Graham-Cassidy proposal.
Discussion:
New York Magazine
Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
This Republican health-care bill is the most monstrous yet
Discussion:
CNN, KTLA, WTVR-TV, Daily Kos, Shareblue, Forbes, The Mahablog, New York Magazine and Politico
Louis Nelson / Politico:
Trump cautions GOP to pass Obamacare repeal or face the consequences
Discussion:
Political Wire
Washington Post:
Federal estimate shows states' big win-loss gap by 2026 under Cassidy-Graham bill
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Marginal REVOLUTION, Hullabaloo and The Week
Theodore Kupfer / National Review:
Jimmy Kimmel, Policy-Wonk Wannabe
Discussion:
Vox, Washington Post, The Week, Mashable, twitchy.com, Slate, Business Insider and Save My Care
Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump aides begin looking for the exits — A fast-growing number of White House staffers are starting to look for the exits, even though the one-year mark of President Donald Trump's first term is still months away. — Many who joined the administration in January did so with the explicit idea …
Discussion:
The Week, Raw Story, Washington Free Beacon and twitchy.com
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Shane Harris / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Monitored Manafort After He Left Trump Campaign — The surveillance came as part of a counterintelligence probe into Russian interference with presidential election — U.S. authorities placed Paul Manafort under surveillance after he was ousted as Donald Trump's campaign manager …
Discussion:
The Hill and Washington Post
Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Mueller requested phone records about Air Force One statement — The special counsel has also recently made requests for documents concerning a statement made by Sean Spicer in the days preceding James Comey's firing as FBI director. — Special counsel Robert Mueller has sought phone records concerning …
Aaron C. Davis / Washington Post:
How Tom Price decided chartered, private jets were a good use of taxpayer money — After Tom Price was sworn in as health and human services secretary, the Georgia Republican faced an inconvenience known to millions of Americans: His flight was delayed, an aide said, and he was forced to spend hours at an airport.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Daily Kos, Politico and FierceHealthcare
RELATED:
Dan Diamond / Politico:
Price traveled by private plane at least 24 times — Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has taken at least 24 flights on private charter planes at taxpayers' expense since early May, according to people with knowledge of his travel plans and a review of HHS documents.
Jonathan Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
North Korea Warns of Hydrogen-Bomb Test Over Pacific Ocean — Threat made in response to U.S. president's speech before U.N.; Kim Jong Un calls Donald Trump ‘mentally deranged’ — SEOUL—North Korea's foreign minister said the country could detonate a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean …
Discussion:
RedState
RELATED:
David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Amid new sanctions, Trump calls North Korea's leader ‘madman’ whose regime will face new tests — NEW YORK — President Trump lashed back Friday at North Korea's leader, calling Kim Jong Un a “madman” whose regime will be “tested like never before” amid new U. S-imposed financial sanctions.
Discussion:
The Hill, Reuters, The Daily Caller, Just Security, NBC News, The American Conservative, Business Insider, The Guardian, CNN, The Week, Mashable, Mediaite, RedState and New York Magazine
Associated Press:
Kim Jong Un: ‘Deranged’ Trump will ‘pay dearly’ for threat
Discussion:
Axios, Talking Points Memo, IJR, USA Today and The Hill
Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
Kim's Rejoinder to Trump's Rocket Man: ‘Mentally Deranged U.S. Dotard’
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon
John Verhovek / ABC News:
5 moments that mattered in the Alabama US Senate debate — Senator Luther Strange and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore faced off tonight in the only debate before the runoff election for the GOP nomination next Tuesday to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the U.S. Senate.
Discussion:
Politico
RELATED:
John Bresnahan / Politico:
McConnell lays it on the line
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Daily Caller
Russell Berman / The Atlantic:
How Democrats Gave the GOP One More Chance to Repeal Obamacare
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Financial Times:
Steve Bannon held secret meeting in Beijing — Steve Bannon flew to Beijing last week for a secret meeting with the second most powerful Chinese Communist party official, less than a month after the former chief White House strategist declared that America was at “economic war with China”.
Philip Wegmann / Washington Examiner:
The Left catapulted Valerie Plame to stardom without figuring out what she thinks — CIA Agent. Fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. Apparent anti-Semite. Valerie Plame is many things. — The left-wing darling just tweeted an article accusing Jews of starting American wars.
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, IJR, twitchy.com and Washington Free Beacon
RELATED:
Jason Le Miere / Newsweek:
STEVE BANNON HELPED WRITE TRUMP'S U.N. SPEECH, CLAIMS SEBASTIAN GORKA, WHO CALLED IT ‘CLASSIC MAGA AGENDA’ — Steve Bannon helped write President Donald Trump's address to the United Nations General Assembly before he was ousted from the White House last month, Sebastian Gorka told Newsweek Thursday.
Discussion:
Conservative News Today and The Daily Caller
RELATED:
Vann R. Newkirk II / The Atlantic:
There and Back Again — “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” So began the legendarium that dominated a genre, changed Western literature and the field of linguistics, created a tapestry of characters and mythology that endured four generations, built an anti-war ethos that endured …
New York Times:
Fighting Breaks Out at Turkish President's Speech in New York — Violence broke out at a New York hotel Thursday afternoon when protesters disrupted a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. — In the middle of Mr. Erdogan's speech, delivered in Turkish, a man …
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon, The Hill and Business Insider
Alexandra Petri / Washington Post:
Sorry I can't go to your thing. I must call my senator to plead for my life. — An email template from the near future. — I am sorry I cannot make it to your event, but I have to call Congress every eight minutes to plead for my life. — Would I like to go to your wedding/bar mitzvah …
Christopher Ingraham / Washington Post:
Flint's lead-poisoned water had a ‘horrifyingly large’ effect on fetal deaths, study finds — The fertility rate in Flint, Mich., dropped precipitously after the city decided to switch to lead-poisoned Flint River water in 2014, according to a new working paper.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, CityLab, Verrit, AOL, Jezebel, TheBlaze, Business Insider and The Reality-Based Community
Brownsville Herald:
De Leon apologizes; Leaked audio clips of foul language, slurs go viral — City Commissioner Cesar De Leon was apologetic Wednesday after multiple social media users this week shared audio clips of him using derogatory slurs to describe two assistant district attorneys.
Discussion:
Conservative News Today, Daily Wire and The Daily Caller
New York Times:
Trump Poised to Drop Some Limits on Drone Strikes and Commando Raids — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to dismantle key Obama-era limits on drone strikes and commando raids outside conventional battlefields, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.
Discussion:
Common Dreams, Lawfare and Just Security
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