memeorandum: Big Majority Want Congress to Stabilize Obamacare (Taegan Goddard/Political Wire)

10:45 AM ET, September 22, 2017

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: ABC News and Vox

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: ThinkProgress, Forbes, The Week, Whatever Source Derived, AOL, Hit & Run, Business Insider, Bloomberg, The Nation, Vox and CNN

Megan Messerly / The Nevada Independent:

Sandoval doubles down on criticism of Heller-sponsored measure; state analysis highlights up to $2 billion loss — Gov. Brian Sandoval said Thursday that the flexibility fellow Republican Sen. Dean Heller promised will be good for Nevada in a health-care bill he's sponsoring is a “false choice” …

Discussion: Washington Post and Political Wire

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: ThinkProgress, Politico, IJR, New York Magazine, baker, Vox and Politicus USA

CNN:

Axelrod: I cried when they passed Obamacare — David Axelrod: When ACA passed, I was reminded of my daughter's struggle with epilepsy and high cost of her medical care — The new GOP health-care bill would plunge many Americans into the same situation my family was in, he writes

Discussion: The Daily Caller

New York Times:
Latest Obamacare Repeal Effort Is Most Far-Reaching

Discussion: Bloomberg, Vox, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Honolulu Civil Beat, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Center For Children …, No More Mister Nice Blog, NPR and FiveThirtyEight

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
This Republican health-care bill is the most monstrous yet

Discussion: CNN, Politico, KTLA, WTVR-TV, Daily Kos, Forbes, Shareblue, The Mahablog and New York Magazine

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Trump cautions GOP to pass Obamacare repeal or face the consequences

Discussion: Political Wire and Axios

Jessie Hellmann / The Hill:
Medicaid directors issue warning on new ObamaCare repeal bill

Discussion: Common Dreams and The Week

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, Business Insider, Washington Post, The Week, Mashable, twitchy.com, Slate 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

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

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Trump says this is all a hoax. Mueller, Congress and Facebook disagree. — Special counsel Robert Mueller and three congressional committees are investigating Russian interference in the election, but President Trump is still telling his fans it's a “hoax.”

Discussion: Shareblue, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, CNBC, Deadline, IJR, Political Wire, Raw Story, Mediaite and NBC News, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Mueller requested phone records about Air Force One statement

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Washington Post, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Politicus USA, Raw Story, IJR, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Occupy Democrats, Media Matters for America and Shakesville

Mark Zuckerberg:
I just went live a minute ago. Here's what I said:

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, NPR, Facebook, RT, Mashable, The Daily Caller, New York Times, Deadline, Axios, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, GeekWire, Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo and Sunlight Foundation, more at Mediagazer »

Bob Grip / WALA-TV:

Roy Moore leads Luther Strange in FOX10 News poll — If the Alabama GOP Senate runoff election were held today, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore would defeat incumbent Senator Luther Strange, according to an exclusive, FOX10 News/Strategy Research statewide poll, conducted Wednesday.

Bloomberg:
Trump's Travel Ban Decision Could Set Off New Wave of Turmoil

Discussion: Axios

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Donald Trump Can't Lose

Discussion: CNN

John Verhovek / ABC News:
5 moments that mattered in the Alabama US Senate debate

Discussion: Politico

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: ThinkProgress, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, Politico and FierceHealthcare

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.

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios, Hullabaloo, Media Matters for America, New York Magazine, The Week, Associated Press, Politicus USA, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and Hit & Run

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, Defense One and New York Times

Associated Press:
Kim Jong Un: ‘Deranged’ Trump will ‘pay dearly’ for threat

Discussion: Axios, Talking Points Memo, IJR, USA Today and The Hill

Anna Fifield / Washington Post:
Kim Jong Un calls Trump a ‘mentally deranged U.S. dotard’

Discussion: RedState, IJR, Mashable and The Week

David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Amid new sanctions, Trump calls North Korea's leader ‘madman’ whose regime will face new tests

Discussion: The Hill, Reuters, The Daily Caller, NBC News, Just Security, The American Conservative, Business Insider, The Guardian, CNN, The Week, Mashable, Mediaite, RedState and New York Magazine

Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
Kim's Rejoinder to Trump's Rocket Man: ‘Mentally Deranged U.S. Dotard’

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Josh Delk / The Hill:

Coulter: If we're not getting the wall, we may as well have an attractive dignified president — Ann Coulter on Wednesday slammed President Trump as less “attractive” and “dignified” than Vice President Pence and doubled down on her recent harsh criticism of the president by advocating replacing him with his second in command.

Discussion: RedState

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”.

Discussion: Raw Story and The Week

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: The Hill, Washington Free Beacon and Business Insider

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, IJR, Daily Wire and The Daily Caller

Matthew Chapman / Shareblue:

Virginia Republican unleashes most racist attack ad since Willie Horton — GOP gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie released the vile ad — which depicts heavily tattooed Latino gang members overlaid with the words “Kill, Rape, Control” — to attack his Democratic opponent Ralph Northam for opposing a sanctuary city ban.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post and Daily Kos

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 …

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 …

Taegan Goddard / Political Wire:

Big Majority Want Congress to Stabilize Obamacare — The latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll finds that 69% of Americans think it's important for Congress to pass legislation to help stabilize the Affordable Care Act. — In contrast, just 47% think it's important to continue efforts to repeal and replace the law.