memeorandum: CIA director pushes back on claim in Wolff book: Trump reads (Julia Manchester/The Hill)

4:00 PM ET, January 7, 2018

Top Items:

Mike Allen / Axios:

Exclusive: Bannon apologizes — Battered by the backlash from Michael Wolff's book, Steve Bannon is trying to make amends with the Trump family, providing a statement to Axios that expresses “regret” to President Trump and praises his son, Donald Trump Jr. Show less “Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man.

CNN:

Tapper cuts off interview with Trump adviser — In a heated interview, White House adviser Stephen Miller talks with CNN's Jake Tapper about Michael Wolff's book “Fire and Fury” and its revelations about life inside the Trump campaign and White House.

Discussion: Vox, Politico, New York Magazine, Mashable, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, RedState, New York Times, twitchy.com, NBC News, The Week and The Last Tradition

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

CIA director pushes back on claim in Wolff book: Trump reads — pushed back Sunday on a claim that President Trump — does not read, calling the assertions made in author Michael Wolff's explosive new book on the White House “absurd.” — “This president reads material that we provide to him.

Discussion: Washington Post and Breitbart

Brent D. Griffiths / Politico:

Trump: ‘Now I have to put up with a Fake Book’ — President Donald Trump on Sunday continued to express his dismay with a blockbuster new book that portrays a commander-in-chief who is mentally unstable. — “I've had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced …

Discussion: ABC News, Breitbart and Outside the Beltway

Shaun King / New York Daily News:

KING: Stephen Miller is the latest insufferable liar and bigot on Team Trump — Over the past few months, the nation has come to know Stephen Bannon, who serves as the Chief Strategist of Donald Trump's White House, as a conniving, crass bigot who made a single hop from the leader of Breitbart …

Discussion: Raw Story

Joseph Weber / Fox News:

Pompeo, Lewandowski vehemently defend Trump, slam ‘Fire and Fury’ book as fiction — CIA Director Mike Pompeo and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski both defended President Trump on Sunday against accusations in a new tell-all book. — The director dismissed claims in Michael Wolff's book …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Last Tradition and Mediaite

The Daily Beast:
Jake Tapper Cuts Off WH Adviser Stephen Miller in Tense Interview

Discussion: Breitbart, CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Press, Hullabaloo, TheBlaze, AOL, The Guardian, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Politicus USA, IJR, No More Mister Nice Blog, Business Insider and Washington Free Beacon

Julia Manchester / The Hill:
Breitbart editor fires back at Trump over Bannon attack: ‘Outrageous’

Discussion: KQED News, Fox News Insider, Politico, AOL and British GQ

Alex Horton / Washington Post:

‘Learn his name first’: The politicizing of military widows is touching a nerve — In a way, Jenn Budenz lies with him, her right hand resting on their infant, with a gaze fixed on a framed photo of Maj. Andrew Budenz in a sharp Marine Corps uniform. — His face is everywhere at the grave …

Eddie Scarry / Washington Examiner:

Why hasn't Michael Wolff's dementia-Trump ever been seen in public? — President Trump is on TV and in newspapers more than any human on earth, and yet Michael Wolff, based on his time gossiping, has convinced the national media that grandpa got away and is now drooling in the Oval Office.

Discussion: The Mahablog and alicublog

San Francisco Chronicle:

Pelosi's son hobnobs with the Trumps at Mar-a-Lago — Paul Pelosi Jr., son of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, appears to be quite the nonpartisan partyer. — At least judging by the pair of Instagram photos of himself arm-in-arm with first daughter Ivanka Trump …

Discussion: Mediaite

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:

Why 2017 Was the Best Year in Human History — We all know that the world is going to hell. Given the rising risk of nuclear war with North Korea, the paralysis in Congress, warfare in Yemen and Syria, atrocities in Myanmar and a president who may be going cuckoo, you might think 2017 was the worst year ever.

Katie Bo Williams / The Hill:

House GOP intensifies assault on Mueller probe — House Republicans are intensifying a multipronged assault to chip away at special counsel Robert Mueller — 's investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election. — A vocal group of conservative members has for weeks blitzed …

Discussion: RedState

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
Donald Trump and the Rule of Law

Discussion: NBC News, NPR and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Ruth Eglash / Washington Post:

20 groups that advocate boycotting Israel will now be denied entry — JERUSALEM — Members of 20 international organizations that promote a boycott campaign of Israel, many of them affiliated with the BDS movement, will be banned from entering the country, according to a list published Sunday by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

Matt Arco / New Jersey Online:

You'll miss me, Jersey! And with that, Chris Christie's just getting warmed up — Gallery: Governor Christie reflects on his time in office — The first time I asked Gov. Chris Christie a question we were 2,000 miles from New Jersey. I was a year into my first newspaper job in southeast New Mexico.

Discussion: IJR and Mediaite