Top Items:
Washington Post:
Top FBI official assigned to Mueller's Russia probe said to have been removed after sending anti-Trump texts … The former top FBI official assigned to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election was taken off that job this past summer …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, The Last Refuge, NBC News, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Raw Story and ABC News
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New York Times:
Mueller Removed Top F.B.I. Agent Over Possible Anti-Trump Texts — Washington — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, removed a top F.B.I. agent from his investigation into Russian election meddling after the Justice Department's inspector general began examining whether …
Discussion:
Politico, Axios, New York Magazine, bizpacreview.com, Mediaite and ABC News
Washington Post:
Inside the secretive nerve center of the Mueller investigation … A white sedan whisked a man into the loading dock of a glass and concrete building in a drab office district in Southwest Washington. Security guards quickly waved the vehicle inside, then pushed a button that closed …
Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Is It Too Late for Robert Mueller to Save Us? — It might not be enough for the special counsel to hand us a smoking gun and an indictment. — We talk a lot these days about how the United States has sorted itself into two distinct media bubbles, and all the ways in which those bubbles become self-reinforcing and reality-denying.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Washington Post, New York Times and Shareblue Media
The Hill:
Mueller removed FBI agent from Trump investigation over possible bias: reports — Special counsel Robert Mueller removed a veteran FBI agent from his team amid an investigation into the agent potentially sending anti-Trump text messages, according to new reports on Saturday.
Discussion:
RedState and bizpacreview.com
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Mueller Investigation: Politics, Not Law Enforcement or Counterintelligence
Mueller Investigation: Politics, Not Law Enforcement or Counterintelligence
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
Michael Flynn's Guilty Plea Sends Donald Trump's Lawyers Scrambling — The President insists that the investigations into Russian meddling amount to nothing more than fake news. But the truth is now emerging. — Last June, less than a month after President Donald Trump fired James Comey …
Discussion:
Politico, Raw Story, The Week and Joe.My.God.
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Alicia Cohn / The Hill:
Trump: I'm not worried about Flynn's guilty plea
Trump: I'm not worried about Flynn's guilty plea
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Joe.My.God.
Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
Trump keeps playing nice with Mueller, for now
Trump keeps playing nice with Mueller, for now
Discussion:
Axios, Raw Story, Washington Post and Breitbart
Miranda Green / CNN:
Trump on Flynn deal: ‘There has been absolutely no collusion’
Trump on Flynn deal: ‘There has been absolutely no collusion’
Discussion:
Washington Post, Splinter, KTLA, Politico, The Hill, Joe.My.God., TheBlaze, New York's PIX11 and Common Dreams
New York Times:
A Historic Tax Heist — With barely a vote to spare early Saturday morning, the Senate passed a tax bill confirming that the Republican leaders' primary goal is to enrich the country's elite at the expense of everybody else, including future generations who will end up bearing the cost.
Discussion:
Breitbart, Washington Post, Splinter, The Atlantic, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Washington Monthly, Vox, Axios, Issues, Power Line, CNN, The Daily Signal, The Nevada Independent, Reuters, Politico, New York Times, Washington Post and taxpolicycenter.org
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Heather Long / Washington Post:
How an unequal tax cut grew more unequal — When Senate Republicans introduced their tax bill in mid-November, they faced competing interests: Some senators thought it wasn't generous enough for working-class families. Others thought it didn't deliver enough to business owners.
Discussion:
RedState
David Faris / The Week:
The GOP's massive tax overhaul is a monstrosity
The GOP's massive tax overhaul is a monstrosity
Discussion:
New York Times, The Mahablog, ThinkProgress, Shareblue Media, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, Mother Jones, The Hill and Politicus USA
Peter Sullivan / The Hill:
Senate GOP repeals ObamaCare mandate
Senate GOP repeals ObamaCare mandate
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and TheBlaze
Binyamin Appelbaum / New York Times:
Debt Concerns, Once a Core Republican Tenet, Take a Back Seat to Tax Cuts
Debt Concerns, Once a Core Republican Tenet, Take a Back Seat to Tax Cuts
Discussion:
The Nevada Independent, Common Dreams, The Week, BloombergQuint and Notice & Comment
Washington Post:
Alabama race is neck and neck, with voters divided over Roy Moore allegations, poll finds — Alabama's closely watched U.S. Senate race is a neck-and-neck contest as voter concerns about personal moral conduct weigh on the candidacy of Republican Roy Moore, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The Week, Joe.My.God., Axios and USA Today
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Charles Bethea / New Yorker:
Republican Women in Alabama Sound Off on Roy Moore
Republican Women in Alabama Sound Off on Roy Moore
Discussion:
Friendly Atheist, The Root and Salon
Suki Kim / thecut:
Public Radio Icon John Hockenberry Accused of Harrassing Female Colleagues — This story starts differently than most sexual harassment accounts out there. It begins with the accused harasser honorably “retiring” after a successful career, which sets off an investigation—my own …
Discussion:
WNYC News
Brian Faler / Politico:
What's next on tax reform — Republicans are confident they can quickly overcome the differences between the House and Senate tax bills and send President Donald Trump a plan he can sign into law by year's end. — In their efforts to enact the biggest changes to the tax code since …
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Jill Filipovic / New York Times:
The Men Who Cost Clinton the Election — Matt Lauer, like Charlie Rose and Mark Halperin before him, is a journalist out of a job after his employer fired him for sexually harassing female colleagues. It's good news that real penalties are now leveled on men who harass …
Detroit Free Press:
Next Slide — The public trust is in jeopardy, he said, especially since the election of Republican Donald Trump as president last year. That was one of the worst moments of his lengthy congressional career, he said. — “I understood why some people voted for him, but I was worried …
Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Kushner holding talks with Saudi prince: report — President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is engaged in negotiations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman focused on creating a Palestinian state or territory. — According to a Bloomberg report …
RELATED:
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Trump Throws a Holiday Party for the Press. Awk-ward. — WASHINGTON — The affair felt dissonant from the start: a festive gathering in the East Wing of the White House, thrown by President Trump for the journalists whose work and profession he lambastes on a near-daily basis.
Discussion:
The Guardian
Noor Al-Sibai / Raw Story:
Steve Schmidt: If Trump pardons Flynn it will create a ‘constitutional crisis’ that will end the GOP — GOP strategist Steve Schmidt isn't optimistic about the Republican Congress' potential for impeaching President Donald Trump in the wake of former adviser Mike Flynn's guilty plea …