memeorandum: Flake: If Trump fired Mueller, it would be a ‘big problem’ (Brent D. Griffiths/Politico)

11:20 AM ET, December 24, 2017

Top Items:

Justin Jouvenal / Washington Post:

A teen is charged with killing his girlfriend's parents. They had worried he was a neo-Nazi. — Buckley Kuhn-Fricker was so disturbed by what she discovered about her teenage daughter's boyfriend that she spent a tumultuous week pushing for a breakup. By Thursday, she texted a friend saying the …

Discussion: Raw Story and AOL

CBS News:

President Trump finishes out the year at Mar-a-Lago, tax reform accomplished — President Trump kicked off his holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago Friday night at a dinner where he told friends, “You all just got a lot richer,” referencing the sweeping tax overhaul he signed into law hours earlier.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, Politicus USA, Political Wire, Mediaite and Raw Story

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Trump ratchets up feud with FBI

Discussion: Scared Monkeys

Zack Beauchamp / Vox:
Trump's angry tweets about FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, explained

Discussion: ABC News, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Raw Story, Law & Crime and Balloon Juice

Adam Goldman / New York Times:
Andrew McCabe, F.B.I.'s Embattled Deputy, Is Expected to Retire

Discussion: The Week, AOL, KTLA, NPR, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller and Axios

Washington Post:
Facing Republican attacks, FBI's deputy director plans to retire early next year

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
McCabe to leave FBI in coming months: report

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, IJR, AOL, Axios and twitchy.com

The Daily Beast:

Bomb Squad Responds After Gift-Wrapped Horse Manure Sent to Steve Mnuchin's Home — A gift-wrapped package of horse manure was found near Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's Bel Air home on Saturday night, prompting a visit from the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad, ABC 7 reports.

Discussion: Mediaite

Mwenzke / KTLA:
LAPD Confirms Someone Sent Horse Manure in Holiday Gift Wrap to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

Discussion: New York Post and The Week

abc7.com:
Manure-filled package sent to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin sends bomb squad to Bel Air

Discussion: ABC News

Justin Baragona / Mediaite:

Trump Retweets Meme Showing Him With CNN-Labeled Blood Spot on Sole of Shoe — Well, here we go again. — President Donald Trump began his Christmas Eve morning on Twitter, firing off tweets about FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (again) and “Fake News.”

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Flake on chaos of Trump campaign: ‘Was that campaign even capable of colluding with anybody?’ … Frequent Trump administration critic Sen. Jeff Flake — (R-Ariz.) on Sunday said he's unsure if the Trump campaign was “capable of colluding with anybody.” — “I mean, I look at that last campaign …

Brent D. Griffiths / Politico:

Flake: If Trump fired Mueller, it would be a ‘big problem’ — Sen. Jeff Flake said Sunday that if President Donald Trump were to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, it would be a “big problem” for the president. — “I don't think that would go over well at all here in the Senate,” the Arizona Republican said on ABC's “This Week.”

Discussion: Axios

Susan Carroll / Houston Chronicle:

Woman accuses United of giving her seat to Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee — A passenger on a flight from Houston to Washington D.C. has accused United Airlines of giving her first-class seat to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. D-Houston, and then threatening to remove her from the plane …

Discussion: Althouse

John Sharp / al.com:

The color purple: How millennials and Gen X after electing Doug Jones could change a red state — Beth Clayton believes that she saw her home state's political future in the exit polls from the Dec. 12 Senate election. And it's not an Alabama that anyone has known lately.

Matt Vespa / Townhall.com:

WSJ: The Democratic Party Is Rooting Against The American Worker And Our Country's Success — We all know the left wing lurch the Democratic Party has taken over the past for years. You saw that with the energized progressive cohorts that flocked to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the 2016 Democratic primaries.

Raw Story:

Christians in Holy Land say Trump and Pence have killed tourism and put their lives at risk — Bethlehem. A week before Christmas, there was only a handful of tourists snapping photos of the huge decorated tree in Manger Square, with its strings of red and white lights.

The Guardian:

FBI investigates Russian-linked Cyprus bank accused of money laundering — Request for financial information may be connected to inquiries into possible conspiracy between Trump and Kremlin … The FBI has asked officials in Cyprus for financial information about a defunct bank that was used …

Todd C. Frankel / Washington Post:

Charities fear tax bill could turn philanthropy into a pursuit only for the rich — Many U.S. charities are worried the tax overhaul bill signed by President Trump on Friday could spur a landmark shift in philanthropy, speeding along the decline of middle-class donors and transforming charitable gift-giving …

Discussion: Althouse