Top Items:
New York Times:
Trump Says Russia Inquiry Makes U.S. ‘Look Very Bad’ — WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump said Thursday that he believes Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, will treat him fairly, contradicting some members of his party who have waged a weekslong campaign …
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New York Times:
Excerpts From Trump's Interview With The Times — President Trump spoke on Thursday with a reporter from The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt. The interview took place in the Grill Room of his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., whose noise made some portions at times hard to hear.
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Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Vox, Mother Jones, New Republic, Politico, IJR, National Review, Daily Kos, Above the Law, Towleroad, bizpacreview.com, Washington Times, Al Jazeera English, Raw Story, Law & Crime, Mediaite, Balloon Juice, The Reality-Based Community and Joe.My.God.
Mike Allen / Axios:
Trump unchained: staff leaves, hardline ideas rise — If you ask some close to President Trump what worries them most about 2018, it's not Robert Mueller's probe. It's that establishment guardrails of 2017 come down — and Trump's actual instincts take over.
Discussion:
RedState, IJR, NPR, The Week, Raw Story, New York Times, NK News, Business Insider, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Politico, KFOR-TV, Townhall.com, Shareblue Media, Washington Times and CNBC
Daniel Dale / Toronto Star:
Donald Trump made 25 false claims in his latest New York Times interview — Trump made nearly one false claim per minute in the 30-minute interview in Florida on Thursday. — WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump sat down Thursday for a rare interview with a media outlet other than Fox News …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Daily Kos
Dylan Scott / Vox:
Association health plans: Trump's attack on Obamacare, explained
Association health plans: Trump's attack on Obamacare, explained
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Martin Gould / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: White power at the White House - Trump intern flashes ‘alt-right’ symbol used by notorious extremists during group photo with the president — Former White House intern Jack Breuer held up a ‘white power’ sign during a photo-op with President Trump and fellow interns in the East Room in November
Discussion:
Joe.My.God. and AOL
Chris Johnson / Washington Blade:
Trump fires all members of HIV/AIDS council without explanation — With no explanation, the White House has terminated members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS amid widespread discontent with President Trump's approach to the epidemic. — After six members of PACHA resigned in June …
Discussion:
AOL, Daily Kos and Joe.My.God.
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Nichole Manna / Wichita Eagle:
Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in deadly Wichita police shooting — Online gamers have said in multiple Twitter posts that the shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a “swatting” prank involving two gamers. — Swatting is an internet prank …
Discussion:
Raw Story
CNN:
No, Trump's approval rating hasn't caught up to Obama's — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)President Donald Trump claimed Friday that his approval ratings at this point in his presidency rival those of Barack Obama, citing a report from “Fox & Friends.” — “While the Fake News loves to talk …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com, IJR, Politicus USA, CNBC, Axios, Mediaite, Washington Times and bizpacreview.com, more at Techmeme »
Brian M. Rosenthal / New York Times:
The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth … An accountant discovered the discrepancy while reviewing the budget for new train platforms under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. — The budget showed that 900 workers were being paid to dig caverns for the platforms as part …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Instapundit and Marginal REVOLUTION
New York Times:
U.S. to Roll Back Safety Rules Created After Deepwater Horizon Spill — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is poised to roll back offshore drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people …
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Melissa Gray / CNN:
Drexel professor resigns amid threats over controversial tweets — (CNN)A Drexel University professor who received death threats after posting several controversial tweets said Thursday he is resigning because the year-long harassment has made his situation “unsustainable.”
Discussion:
bizpacreview.com, WPMT FOX43, IJR, Althouse, The Daily Caller and twitchy.com
Melissa Quinn / Washington Examiner:
Trump campaign holding contest for the biggest fake news of the year — The Trump campaign wants the president's supporters to help name the “King of Fake News” to close out 2017. — The Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee between President Trump's re-election campaign …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, bizpacreview.com, Front Page Magazine, RedState and The Hill
Makini Brice / Reuters:
Trump targets Amazon in call for postal service to hike prices — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump targeted online retailer Amazon(AMZN.O) on Friday in a call for the country's postal service to raise prices of shipments in order to recoup costs.
Mike Allen / Axios:
A rising White House power: true-believer Stephen Miller — Guess who's likely to stick around for all four or eight years, and will be empowered in 2018? Stephen Miller, the true-believer senior policy adviser, who trumps Trump on hardline immigration views — and may outlast almost everyone.
Jon Levine / The Wrap:
Heckler of Donald Trump Animatronic at Disney World Responds to Haters: ‘Check Your Privilege’ — “I wanted to show their kids what a protest looks like before Trump destroys democracy,” Jay Malsky says after disrupting performance at theme park's Hall of Presidents
Discussion:
RedState
Elizabeth Bruenig / Washington Post:
No, the Vanity Fair staffers behind the Clinton video shouldn't be fired — On the Internet, the logic of road rage reigns supreme: Alone before your screen, without trusted friends and other social mediators to provide context or perspective, and with no relationship between yourself and the offender …
Discussion:
Daily Mail, Business Insider, EW.com, NewsBusters, CBS News, Vox, The Guardian, IJR, bizpacreview.com, CNBC, Politico, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Daily Caller and Joe.My.God., more at Mediagazer »
Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:
‘Star Wars’ Franchise Crosses $4 Billion, Eclipsing Disney's Lucasfilm Price — The feat comes as ‘The Last Jedi’ nears $940 million at the worldwide box office. — From the get-go, Wall Street analysts lauded The Walt Disney Co.'s decision in 2012 to buy Lucasfilm …
Discussion:
Business Insider and The Daily Caller
Washington Examiner:
In 2017, the media flunked the Trump challenge — President Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration was notable for more than just its small crowd sizes. It was notable because it marked the beginning of the worst year of political journalism in modern history. — On the same day that Trump was sworn …
Discussion:
Power Line
David Wasserman / NBC News:
Key races for control of the House as Democrats take slight edge into 2018 — WASHINGTON — Democrats ended 2016 dejected and despondent after Donald Trump shocked Hillary Clinton — and the world — by a tiny combined margin of 77,744 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to win the presidency.
Discussion:
NBC News
Dorsa Derakhshani / New York Times:
Why I Left Iran to Play Chess in America — Right now in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the World Chess Championships are underway. But some world champions are noticeably absent: The Israeli players were blocked from participating when Saudi Arabia denied them visas.
Discussion:
Washington Post
Alexandra Glorioso / Politico:
Billionaire kingmakers swarm Florida governor's race after Trump endorsement — After Donald Trump appeared to endorse Ron DeSantis' campaign for Florida governor last week, a handful of the biggest and most influential billionaires in Republican politics threw their support behind …
Tim Starks / Politico:
The latest 2018 election-hacking threat: 9-month wait for government help — States rushing to guard their 2018 elections against hackers may be on a waiting list for up to nine months for the Department of Homeland Security's most exhaustive security screening, according to government officials familiar with the situation.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Lawrence Bonk / Mediaite:
President Trump Golfs For FOURTH Day in a Row After Tweeting It Was ‘Back to Work’ — After President Donald Trump successfully saved Christmas, he triumphantly tweeted that he would be getting back to work the very next day, pulling up his bootstraps to make America great again “faster than anyone anticipated.”
Discussion:
Joe.My.God., Hullabaloo and bizpacreview.com
Danny Vinik / Politico:
138 things Trump did this year while you weren't looking — In Donald Trump's first act as president, he signed a high-profile executive order intended to dismantle Obamacare, instructing federal agencies to take any measures they could to roll back the Affordable Care Act.
Politico:
Was 2017 the Craziest Year in U.S. Political History? — Imagine how future historians might try to summarize 2017: A U.S. president, his family and his political aides came under investigation by a special counsel for possibly helping a foreign government meddle in the election.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and Raw Story
Heather Mac Donald / National Review:
Don't Take the Wrong Lessons from NYC's Murder Drop — Proactive policing still matters. — Cop critics who assiduously ignored the 20 percent increase in the national homicide rate over the previous two years have suddenly become enthusiastic purveyors of crime statistics.
Discussion:
alicublog, Splinter and ThinkProgress
Fox News:
Bumped United passenger fires back at Rep. Jackson Lee's racism charge, airline — A United passenger whose first-class seat on a recent flight from Houston to D.C. was given to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is firing back at the Democratic congresswoman's accusations of racism - while challenging the airline's account of the incident.
Discussion:
Instapundit, bizpacreview.com, Shot in the Dark, Your Daily Breifing and IJR