memeorandum: Biden 2020? It's Not as Crazy as It Sounds (Albert R. Hunt/Bloomberg)

7:40 AM ET, November 13, 2017

Top Items:

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Breitbart aims to discredit Roy Moore's accusers — Steve Bannon has sent two of Breitbart News' top reporters, Matt Boyle and Aaron Klein, to Alabama. Their mission: to discredit the Washington Post's reporting on Roy Moore's alleged sexual misconduct with teenagers.

Discussion: American Prospect, Raw Story, Shareblue Media and CNN, more at Mediagazer »

Aaron Klein / Breitbart:

EXCLUSIVE - Mother of Roy Moore Accuser: Washington Post Reporters Convinced My Daughter to Go Public — Birmingham, ALABAMA — The mother of Leigh Corfman, who says that Alabama Senatorial Candidate Roy Moore tried to engage in a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Last Tradition, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Mediaite, MTmofo, RedState, HuffPost, NBC News and The Gateway Pundit

David Atkins / Washington Monthly:

Yes. It's an Entire Culture of Sanctioned Sexual Abuse. — Yesterday I wrote that Roy Moore's behavior was in keeping with hardcore conservative evangelical culture of sanctioned patriarchal sexual abuse. I have also stated that the release of the Access Hollywood tape almost certainly …

Discussion: The Hill and Mother Jones

Matthew Boyle / Breitbart:
Exclusive — Alabama Polls: Judge Roy Moore Maintains Double Digit Lead Over Democrat Doug Jones …

Discussion: Change Research, The Last Tradition, Power Line, al.com, The Gateway Pundit and Politico

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Trump Officials Urge Caution on Judging Roy Moore as Senators Pull Support

Discussion: Raw Story, The Hill, American Thinker, WTVR-TV, NBC News, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, Media Matters for America, Breitbart, Shareblue Media, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Free Beacon

Aaron Klein / Breitbart:
EXCLUSIVE - Mother of Roy Moore Accuser Contradicts Key Detail of Daughter's Sexual Misconduct Story

Discussion: The Atlantic, Weekly Standard, The Reality-Based Community, USA Today, Patterico's Pontifications, Hullabaloo, The Hill, Power Line, The Last Tradition, New York Times, Mediaite, Hit & Run, Daily Kos, Refinery29 and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

House Republicans' big TAX REFORM moment — TRUMP TEASES a Wednesday trade announcement — MNUCHIN and IVANKA to NJ to sell tax reform — DEMS smell opportunity in the South — GREG KELLY gets married — DRIVING THE DAY — Good Monday morning. With the Roy Moore controversy continuing to rage …

David Nakamura / Washington Post:

News photographer who protested White House restrictions on access gets revenge with revealing shot of Trump — MANILA — The fight over access between reporters and any White House can sometimes seem more like an exercise in First Amendment theory than practical reality …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and Mashable, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Lemire / Associated Press:

In Asia, Trump briefly baffled by group handshake — MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Donald Trump is known for his long, at times aggressive, handshakes with world leaders. But at an international summit in the Philippines on Monday, he struggled briefly with a different kind of handshake.

Frances Robles / New York Times:

The Lineman Got $63 an Hour. The Utility Was Billed $319 an Hour. — SAN JUAN — The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico's tattered power grid had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.

Discussion: Raw Story and ThinkProgress

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Whitefish draws scrutiny over money charged to Puerto Rico: report — The Montana energy company that was awarded a contract to repair Puerto Rico's power grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria is facing scrutiny over the amount of money it has charged the island's state-run utility, according to a report from The New York Times.

Discussion: RedState

New York Times:

Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core — A serial leak of the agency's cyberweapons has damaged morale, slowed intelligence operations and resulted in hacking attacks on businesses and civilians worldwide. — WASHINGTON — Jake Williams awoke last April in an Orlando …

more at Techmeme »

Rebecca Traister / thecut:

We Are All Implicated in the Post-Weinstein Reckoning … The anger window is open. For decades, centuries, it was closed: Something bad happened to you, you shoved it down, you maybe told someone but probably didn't get much satisfaction — emotional or practical — from the confession.

Jay Rosen / PressThink:

Pricing access to the Trump White House: the strange case of the Times social media policy — Follow these events with me. Then I will share my view of what is going on here. — On Sep. 17, Glenn Thrush, White House reporter for the New York Times, posted this on Twitter:

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Mike Memoli / NBC News:

Biden Book Looks Back at the Path He Didn't Take (But Still Could) — In 2015, days after a New York Times column kicked into overdrive speculation about a Joe Biden presidential run, an aide delivered to the vice president a fresh draft of a speech announcing his intention to run.

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Liz Smith, Longtime Queen of Tabloid Gossip Columns, Dies at 94 — Liz Smith, the longtime queen of New York's tabloid gossip columns, who for more than three decades chronicled little triumphs and trespasses in the soap-opera lives of the rich, the famous and the merely beautiful, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan.

Discussion: NPR, CBS New York, Towleroad, NBC News, Joe.My.God., Jezebel and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:

Trump clarifies Putin comments: 'I'm with our agencies' on election meddling … President Trump clarified his comments Sunday on whether he believes Russia meddled in the U.S. 2016 presidential election, saying, “I believe in our intel agencies.” — Trump had told reporters on Air Force …

Discussion: The Atlantic