memeorandum: Procedural Snag Delays GOP Tax Victory (Danielle Kurtzleben/NPR)

8:10 PM ET, December 19, 2017

Top Items:

CNN:

Public opposition to tax bill grows as vote approaches — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Trump's 35% approval is a new low in CNN polling, below previous first-year presidents at this point — WASHINGTON (CNN)With the House of Representatives set to vote on the Republican tax reform bill Tuesday …

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Hullabaloo, The Nation, The Guardian, CNBC, Washington Post, Paste, AOL, New Republic, Business Insider, IJR, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, The Week, Political Wire and Monmouth University

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

House will have to vote for tax-cut bill again — House Republicans will need to pass their tax plan for a second time after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that provisions in the bill violated the rules governing the legislation. — “Members are advised that we expect Senate Democrats …

Discussion: Axios and Political Wire

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Americans think Trump's tax plan is a giveaway to the rich. These new graphs show they're right. — THE MORNING PLUM: — With House Republicans widely expected to pass the final version of the Trump/GOP tax plan today, a new CNN poll shows that opposition has only grown.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, NBC News, Daily Kos, Hit & Run, Business Insider, taxpolicycenter.org, Mediaite, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, Mother Jones, AOL and Vox

Danielle Kurtzleben / NPR:

Procedural Snag Delays GOP Tax Victory — Republicans in Congress appeared set to pass their tax overhaul as soon as Tuesday evening. Now, they will have to wait at least one more day. — The bill hit a snag Tuesday afternoon, when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that two provisions would have to be removed from the bill.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, KQED News and CRFB Papers and Blog Posts

CBS News:
House must revote on approved final GOP tax bill, fearing Byrd Rule objections

Discussion: Clayton Cramer, IJR and CNN

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Poll: Trump's approval rating hits historic low of 35 percent

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Outside the Beltway and Politicus USA

New York Times:
Tax Bill Moves to Senate After House Passage Mostly Along Party Lines

Discussion: Above the Law, Refinery29, Mother Jones, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The Week, TalkLeft, taxpolicycenter.org, Business Insider and National Review

Guy Benson / Townhall.com:
Analysis from Left-Leaning Tax Policy Center: Actually, 80 Percent of Americans Get a Tax Cut Under GOP Plan

Discussion: twitchy.com, NPR, NBC News, HuffPost, taxpolicycenter.org, AOL, Vox, Washington Post, Fox News Insider and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

taxpolicycenter.org:
T17-0318 - Major Provisions in Conference Agreement: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Tax Units …

Discussion: Weekly Standard

U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget:
Parliamentarian Determines Three Provisions in Republican Tax Bill Are Impermissible

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Democrats.com

Gregory S. Schneider / Washington Post:

Democrat wins Va. House seat in recount by single vote, creating 50-50 tie in legislature — NEWPORT NEWS — A Republican seat flipped Democratic in a wild recount Tuesday - with the Democrat winning by a single vote - creating a rare 50-50 tie between the parties in the House of Delegates …

Discussion: USA Today, Shareblue Media, ThinkProgress, Vox, Axios, Weekly Standard, New York Magazine, IJR and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

The real reason Trump allies are attacking Mueller — President Donald Trump insists he's not going to fire Robert Mueller, but that's not stopping Republicans and others close to the president from orchestrating a relentless stream of attacks on the credibility and integrity of the special counsel and his team of Russia investigators.

Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story

Trevor Aaronson / The Intercept:
The FBI Routinely Abuses Its Powers but the Trump Investigation Has Been By the Book

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Adam B. Schiff / Wall Street Journal:
What We Know About the Trump Campaign's Collusion With Russia

Discussion: Politico and The Gateway Pundit

Robert Barnes / Law & Crime:
LEGAL ANALYSIS: Why Mueller's Seizure of Transition Emails Likely Violated the Law

Discussion: RedState, Gizmodo, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, National Review, Power Line, The Week, Lawfare and Fox News Insider

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:

Democrats unlikely to force DACA vote this week, probably averting shutdown — Democrats are backing away from a pledge to force a vote this month over the fate of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, angering activists but likely averting the threat …

Discussion: RedState, Axios and Political Wire

Adam Cancryn / Politico:

Collins decries coverage of her tax bill support as ‘unbelievably sexist’ — The Maine Republican decried the media coverage as premature and unfair. — Sen. Susan Collins on Tuesday blasted coverage of her support for the GOP tax bill as “extremely discouraging” and “unbelievably sexist.”

Discussion: Political Wire and Vox

Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:

‘Silicon Valley’ Star T.J. Miller Accused of Sexually Assaulting and Punching a Woman … Warning: This story includes graphic content. — An alleged victim of former Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller is coming forward with accusations that Miller hit and sexually assaulted her while in college.

Discussion: The Verge, Deadline, Business Insider, Paste, Mashable, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, IndieWire, The Week and twitchy.com

John R. Schindler / The New York Observer:

Jim Clapper Just Nuked the Trump Presidency — Spy bosses are by nature the most tight-lipped of people. Those who head our intelligence agencies got there in no small part by knowing precisely what to say to whom, when. In recent decades, as the heads of Western intelligence have emerged …

Discussion: Raw Story, Booman Tribune, CANNONFIRE and Washington Monthly

CNN:

Amtrak train was speeding significantly before crash — Amtrak train derails, dangles onto highway — DuPont, Washington (CNN)Careening around a curve at almost three times the speed limit, an Amtrak train derailed and hurled passenger cars off an overpass — and onto rush hour traffic below.

Discussion: CityLab, Q13 FOX News, The Seattle Times, IJR, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, NPR, The Daily Beast, ABC News, The Atlantic, RedState and The Guardian

NBC News:
Amtrak derailment: Train was traveling at 80 mph in 30-mph zone

Mark Murray / NBC News:

Poll: Public sours on GOP tax plan as Democrats regain lead on economy — WASHINGTON — The tax plan that Republicans are soon expected to pass has grown more unpopular in the last two months, with nearly two-thirds of Americans believing it's designed mostly to help corporations and the wealthy …

Discussion: Political Wire, CNBC, Business Insider, The Atlantic, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones, The Week and New York Magazine

Sally Q. Yates / USA Today:

Who are we as a country? Time to decide: Sally Yates — Stand up and speak out on America's core founding values. We are not living in ordinary times, and it's not enough to admire them from afar. — Over the course of our nation's history, we have faced inflection points …

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Philly.com, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and twitchy.com

David Frum / The Atlantic:

Conservatism Can't Survive Donald Trump Intact — On Monday morning the conservative-media world woke up to a savagely personal attack in National Review on the Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. The outburst might seem a textbook case of the narcissism of petty differences within the conservative world.

Discussion: National Review, twitchy.com, Mediaite, The American Conservative and Power Line

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Hillary Clinton Favorable Rating at New Low — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hillary Clinton's image has declined since June and is now the worst Gallup has measured for her to date. Her favorable rating has fallen five percentage points since June to a new low of 36%, while her unfavorable rating has hit a new high of 61%.

Discussion: The Hill and RedState

Burlington Free Press:

Leahy regrets calling for Franken to resign — Minnesota Gov. Dayton names Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to fill Franken seat until November election. Smith will run in that election to complete Franken's term through 2020. (Dec. 13) AP — CONNECT — Sen. Patrick Leahy now says he was too hasty …

Discussion: Political Wire and Axios

Michael Biesecker / Associated Press:

EPA chief sweeps office for bugs, installs high-tech locks — WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security.

Discussion: IJR, The Hill and Gizmodo

Brady Dennis / Washington Post:
EPA to end controversial contract with conservative ‘media monitoring’ firm

Discussion: Daily Kos, Mother Jones, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Politico, American Oversight and Axios

Media Matters for America:

Fox contributor floats conspiracy theory that the FBI might have planned to assassinate Donald Trump — HARRIS FAULKNER (CO-HOST): Senate Judiciary Committee chair [Sen.] Chuck Grassley [(R-IA)] reportedly says he wants the FBI to replace Andrew McCabe. All right, so we got to get to the bottom …

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

John Cassidy / New Yorker:

The G.O.P. Tax Bill Is Unworkable — With the House of Representatives set to pass the final version of the Republican tax bill on Tuesday, and a vote in the Senate expected later in the week, here is a prediction: no matter which party controls Congress after next year's midterms …

Discussion: New York Times, SSRN, NBC News and Hullabaloo

Lydia Wheeler / The Hill:

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to prevent detainee from having abortion — The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and stop one of two undocumented immigrants in federal custody from having an abortion. — A federal district court judge issued …

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, IJR and Washington Post

Kati Weis / WALA-TV:

Secretary of State launches investigation into voter fraud concerns in Senate special election — Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is investigating a concern over potential voter fraud in last Tuesday's special Senate election. — It all stems from a brief interview FOX10 News …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Law & Crime

Bill Keveney / USA Today:

Exclusive First Look: Hulu's ‘Looming Tower’ charts fateful path to 9/11 — Here's a look at Hulu's upcoming title ‘The Looming Tower.’ — Viewers should be fully aware of where The Looming Tower leads — the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — but Hulu's 10-episode miniseries explains the heroic …

Discussion: Paste

Ronald Brownstein / CNN:

Democrats have a new Southern strategy — MAGIC WALL: Jones' big Alabama win & its impact on 2018 — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)With Doug Jones' upset victory in last week's Alabama US Senate race, Democrats are solidifying a new model for rebuilding their tattered competitiveness in the South.

Discussion: The Atlantic and Politico

Alaena Hostetter / Eater Dallas:

Le Bilboquet Owner Speaks Out About Donald Trump Jr.'s ‘Offensive’ Obama Cake — He expressed shock that Trump Jr. and Ted Cruz used his restaurant as a “platform to spread hatred” — What the... ? Over the weekend, the French eatery Le Bilboquet played host to Donald Trump Jr., Ted Cruz …

Discussion: Dallas Observer, Business Insider, bizpacreview.com and The Gateway Pundit

John Bowden / The Hill:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Dems should have been ‘begging’ to participate in tax reform — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders criticized Democrats early Tuesday for refusing to participate in the GOP's effort to reform the tax code, saying that President Trump — would have “welcomed” their input.

Discussion: Business Insider and Washington Free Beacon

Michelle Nichols / Reuters:

After U.S. veto, U.N. General Assembly to meet on Jerusalem status — UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-member United Nations General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states on U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, IJR and Jewish Telegraphic Agency