memeorandum: Spain CRISIS: Police boats BLOCKED by Catalan ports as unrest threatens to RIP Spain APART (Simon Osborne/Daily Express)

11:25 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: Talking Points Memo, ABC News, Rewire 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, Talking Points Memo, Politico, baker, New York Magazine, IJR, 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

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

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

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

Discussion: Common Dreams and The Week

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

Discussion: Political Wire and Axios

New York Times:
New Effort to Kill Obamacare Is Called ‘the Most Radical’

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

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

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, JustOneMinute 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, ABC News, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, RT, CNN, CNBC, IJR, Politicus USA, Deadline, The Week, Political Wire and Raw Story, 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 and Media Matters for America

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

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, NPR, RT, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Facebook, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Deadline, Axios, New York Magazine, 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.

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Trump: Strange has ‘gained mightily’ since my endorsement

Discussion: ABC News

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

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

New York Times:
Full Text of Kim Jong-un's Response to President Trump

Discussion: Althouse, Washington Free Beacon and Daily Kos

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

Discussion: Shakesville and Washington Free Beacon

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

Discussion: RedState, IJR, Mashable and The Week

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

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

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, Business Insider, The American Conservative, Just Security, The Guardian, The Week, CNN, Mashable, Mediaite, RedState and New York Magazine

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: Shareblue, 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, The Week, New York Magazine, Politicus USA, Mediaite, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo and Hit & Run

Jason Leopold / BuzzFeed:

Sebastian Gorka Gave A Classified “Tirade” About Radical Islam — The former Trump aide delivered a two-and-a-half-hour speech to students at a US Army elite special operations center, documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show. People who were there said it was a fiery speech …

Discussion: Axios

Laura Meckler / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Administration Finalizes New Restrictions to Replace Travel Ban — Targeted rules would affect about eight or nine countries, vary based on factors including cooperation with U.S. mandates — The Trump administration is preparing to replace its controversial travel ban …

Discussion: Politico, New York Times and IJR

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

Discussion: Axios

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

Richard Fausset / New York Times:
For Puerto Ricans Off the Island, a Struggle to Make Contact After Maria

Discussion: Gothamist, CBS New York, CBS Philly and Orlando Weekly

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

Matthew Chapman / Shareblue:

Virginia Republican unleashes most racist attack ad since Willie Horton — In this year's Virginia gubernatorial race, Republican candidate and former RNC chair Ed Gillespie is often portrayed as a gentlemanly, clean alternative to the ugliness of Donald Trump.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post and Daily Kos

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

Scott Schwebke / Orange County Register:

End-of-world prediction interrupts TV broadcasts in Orange County — Some Orange County residents were stunned Thursday, Sept. 21, when television programming was suddenly interrupted for about a minute with an ominous message predicting the end of the world.

Discussion: Raw Story, CBS Los Angeles and The Last Tradition