Top Items:
New York Times:
Trump Pressed Top Republicans to End Senate Russia Inquiry — WASHINGTON — President Trump over the summer repeatedly urged senior Senate Republicans, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to end the panel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, ABC News, Balloon Juice, Politicus USA, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Reuters, Vox, Raw Story, The Week, Taylor Marsh, Axios, Mediaite and Newsweek
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New York Times:
Flynn to Plead Guilty to Lying to the F.B.I. — WASHINGTON — President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, will plead guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about a conversation with the Russian ambassador last December. — The plea was the latest indication …
Discussion:
The Week
Justin Miller / The Daily Beast:
Michael Flynn Charged With Lying to FBI … Michael Flynn has been charged with making a false statement to the FBI, according to an indictment filed by the special counsel's office Friday. Flynn will reportedly plead guilty to the charge, which alleges he misled FBI agents during …
Sarah Rumpf / RedState:
Have We Been Lied to About the Kate Steinle Case? — The illegal immigrant who killed Kate Steinle in 2015 was found not guilty of her murder by a San Francisco jury today. Outrageous, right? — Before the killing, Garcia Zarate had been released from a San Francisco jail despite a standing federal deportation order.
Discussion:
National Review, Mercury News, Outside the Beltway, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, The Week, bizpacreview.com, Althouse, Axios and The Gateway Pundit
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Vivian Ho / San Francisco Chronicle:
Kate Steinle trial: Garcia Zarate acquitted in San Francisco pier killing — A homeless man whose undocumented immigration status intensified a national debate over the ethics of sanctuary laws was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges Thursday in the shooting of Kate Steinle …
Discussion:
RedState, bizpacreview.com, The Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys, Roll Call, Axios, Politico, Hit & Run, abc7news.com, Splinter and Mediaite
Elizabeth Zwirz / Fox News:
Kate Steinle's accused killer found not guilty of murder — Jurors have found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty of killing Kate Steinle on Pier 14 in San Francisco in July 2015 in the trial that sparked a national debate over illegal immigration. — Jurors reached the decision Thursday …
Discussion:
bizpacreview.com, IJR, TheBlaze, Fox News Insider, twitchy.com, The Gateway Pundit and The Last Refuge
John Diaz / San Francisco Chronicle:
Exclusive: Kate Steinle's family talks about the anguish and frustration — As they awaited the verdict in the trial of Kate Steinle's accused killer, her parents and brother had one overriding wish. It had nothing to do with the severity of the defendant's conviction.
Discussion:
New York Times, Business Insider, FOX31 Denver, abc7news.com and NBC News
CNN:
US to deport undocumented immigrant acquitted in Kate Steinle death — San Francisco (CNN)A Mexican man will be deported after he was found not guilty in the killing of Kate Steinle, whose death while out walking on a San Francisco pier reignited a national debate over immigration policy.
Lyanne Melendez / abc7news.com:
Kate Steinle suspect found not guilty, acquitted of murder and manslaughter
Kate Steinle suspect found not guilty, acquitted of murder and manslaughter
Bloomberg:
Senate GOP Working to Address Deficit Concerns (8:14 a.m.) — Senate Republicans made a lot of progress overnight in crafting a new approach to address deficit concerns in their sweeping tax legislation, according to a Senate GOP aide. — More work remains in the next few hours …
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BloombergQuint
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CNN:
Uncertainty looms over Senate's tax bill — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)Republican leaders are racing to find support for their tax bill just hours ahead a critical vote, harkening back to the health care bill debacle this summer that left them empty handed.
Discussion:
Political Wire and KTLA
Jim Puzzanghera / Los Angeles Times:
Inspector general launches inquiry into whether Treasury hid Republican tax bill analysis
Inspector general launches inquiry into whether Treasury hid Republican tax bill analysis
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, New York Times, Washington Post, Mother Jones, IJR, BloombergQuint, Shareblue Media, The Hill, Axios, Common Dreams and Splinter
Heather Long / Washington Post:
Why it's such a big deal the Senate tax bill would add $1 trillion to debt
Why it's such a big deal the Senate tax bill would add $1 trillion to debt
Discussion:
Politico, NPR, The Atlantic, New York Times, MSNBC, CRFB Papers and Blog Posts, KTLA, Mother Jones and Vox
The Hill:
GOP to reduce tax relief by $350B to win over deficit hawks
GOP to reduce tax relief by $350B to win over deficit hawks
Discussion:
CNBC, Christian Science Monitor, RedState, New York Magazine, National Review and Politico
Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal:
Trump White House Faces Prospect of More Senior Departures — Secretary of State Tillerson is most likely to leave as first anniversary approaches, say officials — WASHINGTON—The White House is facing the prospect of another round of senior departures in the coming weeks …
Discussion:
Political Wire and The Week
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Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
White House extends special holiday-party welcome to behind-the-scenes CNN staffers
White House extends special holiday-party welcome to behind-the-scenes CNN staffers
Discussion:
The Week, Splinter, TVNewser, Shareblue Media, The Gateway Pundit, AOL and bizpacreview.com
Washington Post:
Trump tells confidants that a government shutdown might be good for him … President Trump has told others that a government shutdown could be good for him politically and is focusing on his hard-line immigration stance as a way to win back supporters unhappy with his outreach to Democrats this fall …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Raw Story, Business Insider, The Week, Axios and Mediaite
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Rafael Bernal / The Hill:
DACA advocates see efforts gaining steam in the House — Immigration advocates are increasingly optimistic that a deal can be reached in the House before year's end to provide permanent protections for young undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally.
Discussion:
CNN, New York Magazine, Politico, Roll Call, Washington Times and The Daily Caller
Katie Bo Williams / The Hill:
Erik Prince testifies before House Intelligence Committee — Erik Prince — the military contractor and Trump donor who attended a secret meeting in the Seychelles in January with a Kremlin-tied businessman — interviewed with the House Intelligence Committee for just over three hours on Thursday.
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ABC News
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Jim VandeHei / Axios:
Trump's mind-numbing media manipulation machine — There is a very specific — and dangerous — formula for manipulating the media and hijacking the Twitter/cable/conventional media industrial complex. Trump sets this formulaic trap increasingly often. And news organizations keep falling for it.
Discussion:
New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog and Little Green Footballs, more at Mediagazer »
Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed:
Conservative Megadonor Robert Mercer Funded Project Veritas — The Mercers, secretive billionaires who are among President Trump's most powerful donors, also helped to fund Project Veritas, the controversial activist organization, tax filings obtained by BuzzFeed News show.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politico and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »
Justin Fishel / ABC News:
Congress secretly paid near $100,000 to settle harassment claims against disgraced congressman — The Congressional Office of Compliance secretly paid close to $100,000 in taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims from at least two young male staffers who worked for disgraced former …
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, NewsBusters, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Politico and The Gateway Pundit
Bill Chappell / NPR:
Walmart Pulls T-Shirts That Hint At Lynching Journalists — Walmart has removed a controversial T-shirt with a simple message — “Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED” — from its website, after the Radio Television Digital News Association sent the largest retailer in the U.S. a note flagging the shirt's message.
Discussion:
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Ben Riley-Smith / Telegraph:
Donald Trump's ‘working visit’ to UK dropped as tensions with Theresa May grow over president's far-Right retweets — US diplomats have dropped plans for Donald Trump to conduct a visit to Britain in January amid a war of words between the two countries' leaders.
Discussion:
Informed Comment, Business Insider, TheBlaze and Joe.My.God.
Fox News:
White House releases ‘explosive’ tally of green cards issued in ‘chain migration’ — For the first time, the White House said, the federal government has counted the green cards issued between 2005 and 2015 to migrants admitted through family preference, or as immediate relatives …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, IJR and Fox News Insider
Avery Anapol / The Hill:
Obama: If I watched Fox News 'I wouldn't vote for me' — joked Friday that if he watched Fox News, he wouldn't have voted for himself. — Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, Obama took shots at the network, which is widely criticized for its negative coverage of Democrats.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Business Insider and RedState
Fareed Zakaria / Washington Post:
Maybe Trump knows his base better than we do — Watching the Republican tax plan race through Congress, one is reminded of a big apparent difference between President Trump's program and other populist movements in the Western world. In the United States, Trump is leading something …
Discussion:
The Week, TalkLeft, Politicus USA and Shakesville
Andrew Ferguson / Weekly Standard:
To Be Sure, Nazis Are Evil — The New York Times's needy readers. — It's not always easy to sympathize with reporters for the New York Times, because so many of them act like . . . how to put it? . . . like reporters for the New York Times.
Alana Semuels / The Atlantic:
The Neverending Foreclosure — GLENDORA, California—In retrospect, refinancing their home was a bad idea. But the Santillan family never thought that it would lead them to foreclosure, or that they'd spend years bouncing among hotels and living in their car.
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
Vice fires three employees amid investigations into sexual harassment — Vice Media fired three employees on Thursday amid a probe into sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct, according to a memo obtained by CNNMoney. — Vice did not name the employees.
Discussion:
Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
CNNMoney:
Why Twitter didn't delete anti-Muslim tweets — Outrage after Trump retweets anti-Muslim videos — President Trump has been heavily criticized for his decision to retweet three graphic anti-Muslim videos. — But why did Twitter allow them in the first place?
John Bowden / The Hill:
Mulvaney: Authority I have at consumer bureau ‘should frighten people’ … White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney — said Thursday that the authority wielded by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) chief “should frighten people” days after he assumed the role of acting director.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES