Top Items:
Michael Isikoff / Yahoo! Finance:
Mueller probe outgrows its ‘witch hunt’ phase — Steve Bannon's eyes lit up. Several months before he left his job as a senior White House adviser last August, Bannon was talking to President Trump about the brewing political storm over the Justice Department investigation into his campaign's alleged ties to the Kremlin.
Discussion:
CNBC, Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice, The Week, The Gateway Pundit and Raw Story
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Carla Herreria / HuffPost:
Vanity Fair Gets Called Out For Suggesting Hillary Clinton Take Up Knitting
Vanity Fair Gets Called Out For Suggesting Hillary Clinton Take Up Knitting
Caroline Orr / Shareblue Media:
Mueller hauls in RNC staffers in Russia probe while Trump fumes over investigation
Mueller hauls in RNC staffers in Russia probe while Trump fumes over investigation
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:
Bannon adviser: Ryan challenger Paul Nehlen is ‘dead to us’ after inflammatory tweets — What you need to know about Steve Bannon — Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon has cut ties with Paul Nehlen, the far-right activist who is challenging Paul Ryan for his congressional seat …
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, IJR and twitchy.com
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Matthew Boyle / Breitbart:
Fake Tapper: ‘Very Fake News’ Anchor Leads Re-Ignition of CNN Scandal — CNN, the network that has fared the absolute worst all year in terms of credibility problems, has had its own very fake news scandal reignited right before the end of the year by two of the worst perpetrators of fake news at CNN.
The Guardian:
Steve Bannon cuts ties with far-right candidate trying to unseat Paul Ryan … Paul Nehlen, the far-right activist who is challenging House speaker Paul Ryan for his congressional seat, will not get the backing of Breitbart News and Steve Bannon. — Obama tells Prince Harry: leaders must stop corroding civil discourse
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Bannon cuts ties with Ryan challenger after inflammatory tweets
Bannon cuts ties with Ryan challenger after inflammatory tweets
Discussion:
RedState
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton Retain Most Admired Titles — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans once again are most likely to name Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most, as they have for the past 10 years.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Raw Story, Deadline, The Hill, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, Advocate, IJR, Mother Jones, AOL, Politico, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Joe.My.God., Politicus USA and The Week
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BBC:
Prince Harry interviews Barack Obama
Prince Harry interviews Barack Obama
Discussion:
The Atlantic, CNBC, ABC News, thecut, Axios, The Guardian, IJR, Deadline, New York Times, Washington Times, TVNewser, bizpacreview.com, NPR, The Daily Beast, Politico, The Root, Talking Points Memo, Towleroad, New Republic, The Week, RedState, Washington Monthly, twitchy.com and Mashable
Brad Reed / Raw Story:
‘Here comes an orange meltdown’: Internet cheers as Obama beats Trump for ‘Most Admired Man in America’ title
Laura Smith-Spark / CNN:
Prince Harry sidesteps Obama-Trump wedding guest list controversy
Prince Harry sidesteps Obama-Trump wedding guest list controversy
Discussion:
Power Line, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and AOL
Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Trump legal team readies attack on Flynn's credibility — President Trump's legal team plans to cast former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn as a liar seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or his senior aides of any wrongdoing, according to three people familiar with the strategy.
Max Boot / Foreign Policy:
2017 Was the Year I Learned About My White Privilege — I used to be a smart-alecky conservative who scoffed at “political correctness.” The Trump era has opened my eyes. — In college — this was in the late 1980s and early 1990s at the University of California, Berkeley …
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs
Maxwell Tani / Business Insider:
BuzzFeed has fired its White House correspondent after allegations of inappropriate comments to a colleague — BuzzFeed News' White House correspondent Adrian Carrasquillo has been let go following an investigation into inappropriate comments to a colleague.
Discussion:
Axios, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, thecut and Splinter, more at Mediagazer »
Life & Style:
Melania Trump's Darkest Secrets Will Be Revealed in Omarosa Manigault's Tell All … From the moment President Donald Trump gave Omarosa Manigault Newman a job in his administration last January, she treated 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue like her own playground. The polarizing reality TV personality brought …
Discussion:
RedState, The Daily Caller and CANNONFIRE
Internal Revenue Service:
IRS Advisory: Prepaid Real Property Taxes May Be Deductible in 2017 if Assessed and Paid in 2017 — WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service advised tax professionals and taxpayers today that pre-paying 2018 state and local real property taxes in 2017 may be tax deductible under certain circumstances.
Discussion:
New York Times and WNYC News
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Byron York / Washington Examiner:
McCain associate subpoenaed in Trump dossier probe … House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued a subpoena to David Kramer, a former State Department official who, in late November 2016, traveled to London to receive a briefing and a copy of the Trump dossier from its author, former British spy Christopher Steele.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, JustOneMinute, Raw Story and The Daily Caller
Yair Rosenberg / New York Times:
Confessions of a Digital Nazi Hunter — Like many Jewish journalists who reported on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, I spent the 2016 election being harassed by a motley crew of internet racists who coalesced around the future president. They sent me threats, photoshopped …
Discussion:
Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »
Kevin G. Hall / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Jailed Russian says he hacked DNC on Kremlin's orders and can prove it — WASHINGTON — A jailed Russian who says he hacked into the Democratic National Committee computers on the Kremlin's orders to steal emails released during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign now claims …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Niall Stanage / The Hill:
The Memo: Five Republicans who could primary Trump in 2020 — face a challenge from within his own party in 2020? — Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake — (R) seems to think so. On Sunday, Flake told ABC's “This Week” that if the president did not change his approach, he “is going to leave a huge swath of voters looking for someone else.”
Ashley Southall / New York Times:
Crime in New York City Plunges to a Level Not Seen Since the 1950s — It would have seemed unbelievable in 1990, when there were 2,245 killings in New York City, but as of Wednesday there have been just 286 in the city this year — the lowest since reliable records have been kept.
Discussion:
thecut
Associated Press:
In the heart of Trump Country, his base's faith is unshaken — SANDY HOOK, Ky. — The regulars amble in before dawn and claim their usual table, the one next to an old box television playing the news on mute. — Steven Whitt fires up the coffee pot and flips on the fluorescent sign …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
WZTV:
PHOTOS: Nathan Bedford Forrest statue along I-65 in Nashville vandalized — The Nathan Bedford Forrest statue along Interstate 65 in Nashville has been vandalized. — FOX 17 News crews took photos Wednesday of the statue, which appeared to be covered in pink paint.
David French / National Review:
Breitbart's Disgrace — When news cycles are crowded with outrage — some of it justified, much of it hysterical — it's easy to lose track of the significant stories. There was one last week that conservatives can't let slide down the memory hole. Breitbart's editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow …
Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
GOP intraparty clash poised to shape U.S. Senate contest in Mississippi — Mississippi's 2018 U.S. Senate race is poised as the next possible front in the fight between rival wings of the Republican Party, a campaign that could test how the GOP's populist and establishment forces engage …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Udi Shaham / Jerusalem Post:
New Western Wall train station to be named after Trump — “The Western Wall is the holiest place for the Jewish people, and I decided to call the train station that leads to it after President Trump.” — A train station that will be built next to the Western Wall will be named after US President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
Reuters, bizpacreview.com, IJR, Towleroad, Associated Press, Politico, Mediaite, Joe.My.God. and Washington Times
The Daily Beast:
Trump, Incorrectly: I've Signed the Most Legislation Ever — President Donald Trump on Wednesday told firefighters that he had signed more legislation at this point in his presidential career than any previous president. “We got a lot of legislation passed,” Trump said Wednesday, according to a pool report.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Colin Kahl / Foreign Policy:
The United States Should Resolve to Avoid War With North Korea in 2018 — The greatest danger to world peace in the coming year is the prospect of war on the Korean Peninsula — and Trump is making matters worse. — It's the season for New Year's resolutions.
John Harwood / CNBC:
Paul Ryan wants to cut entitlements to trim the deficit, but political reality stands in his way — Revenue shortfalls created by the new GOP tax law could make House Speaker Paul Ryan's political goals easier to achieve. — Ryan wants to cut so-called entitlement programs such as Medicare …
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Business Insider and CANNONFIRE