memeorandum: As Pence Tours Mideast, Tension Lingers Over Trump's Jerusalem Decision (Chris Benderev/NPR)

8:50 AM ET, January 22, 2018

Top Items:

A President Not Sure of What He Wants Complicates the Shutdown Impasse — WASHINGTON — When President Trump mused last year about protecting immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, calling them “these incredible kids,” aides implored him privately to stop talking about them so sympathetically.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, No More Mister Nice Blog, Raw Story, Politico, Mediaite and The Week

CNN:

Senate to vote on Monday on ending shutdown — Washington (CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged Sunday to take up legislation to address the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program if enough Democrats vote to re-open the government, and scheduled a key vote for noon Monday.

Discussion: KTLA, Breitbart, TheBlaze, Outside the Beltway, Hit & Run, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, CBS New York, Joe.My.God., Roll Call, The Hill and Mediaite

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Graham: Stephen Miller makes immigration deal impossible — (S.C.) warned on Sunday that the White House staff is undercutting President Trump — and Congress's ability to get a deal on immigration. — “Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members.

Discussion: Breitbart and RedState

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:

Stephen Miller: Immigration agitator and White House survivor — Stephen Miller, one of the few remaining original advisers to President Trump, invited a small group of writers and editors from Breitbart News to the White House last fall for a conversation on immigration.

CNN:

‘Dealmaker in chief’ largely absent in weekend shutdown negotiations — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — “I had to stay here in DC, which I'm becoming pretty proficient at,” Trump told donors by video on Saturday — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump may be presiding over the first government shutdown ever …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, AOL, CNBC, Vox, TheBlaze and Media Matters for America

CNN:
Senate to vote at noon on whether to end government shutdown

Discussion: The Verge, bizpacreview.com, USA Today, WTVR-TV, The Atlantic, NPR, France 24, AOL, Vox, Hullabaloo, ImmigrationProf Blog, LifeZette, IJR, CNBC, Politicus USA and Shareblue Media

Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Shutdown's Crux: Democrats' Deep-Rooted Distrust of G.O.P. on Immigration

Discussion: NBC News, Raw Story, bizpacreview.com and ThinkProgress

Bloomberg:
White House, Graham Trade Barbs Amid Stalemate (7:27 p.m.)

Discussion: Reuters and Geller Report

New York Times:
Government Shutdown Goes Into Monday as Senate Inches Toward Deal

Discussion: The Daily Caller, CBS News, IJR, Breitbart and Talking Points Memo

Elana Schor / Politico:
Senate to vote Monday on plan to reopen government

Discussion: Splinter and Business Insider

Washington Post:
Trump keeps low public profile during shutdown, but is ‘itching’ to be involved

Discussion: Politico, New York Magazine and Raw Story

Scott Clement / Washington Post:

Women and independents drive advantage for Democrats ahead of midterm elections, Post-ABC poll finds — Strong support from women and independents is fueling Democrats' large early advantage ahead of this year's congressional elections, a sign that two groups that have recoiled …

Discussion: Political Wire

Sofi Sinozich / ABC News:

Democrats solidify their lead in midterm elections matchup (POLL) — Democrats have solidified their position in the November midterm elections in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, maintaining a 12-point lead among registered voters while improving to a wide 14-point advantage among likely voters in congressional preference.

Samuel Chamberlain / Fox News:

Newly released texts between ex-Mueller team members suggest they knew outcome of Clinton email probe in advance — The Justice Department has given various congressional committees nearly 400 pages of additional text messages between two FBI officials who were removed from Special Counsel …

Discussion: bizpacreview.com, The Daily Caller, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit, TheBlaze and IJR

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post: FBI did not save officials' texts during key period in Trump probe, senator says

The Daily Caller:
FBI ‘Failed To Preserve’ Five Months Of Text Messages Between Anti-Trump FBI Agents

Discussion: bizpacreview.com, Tyler Durden, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Politico, Instapundit, TheBlaze, Power Line, Associated Press and IJR

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:

‘Defiance Disorder’: Another new book describes chaos in Trump's White House — In late July, the White House had just finished an official policy review on transgender individuals serving in the military and President Trump and his then-chief of staff, Reince Priebus, had agreed to meet …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and ABC News

Elana Schor / Politico:
Graham tees off on Stephen Miller over immigration

Discussion: Mediaite

Dean Balsamini / New York Post:

Police union slashes number of ‘get out of jail free’ cards issued — The city's police-officers union is cracking down on the number of “get out of jail free” courtesy cards distributed to cops to give to family and friends. — Patrolmen's Benevolent Association boss Pat Lynch slashed …

Discussion: Marginal REVOLUTION and Business Insider

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Chief Justice John Roberts Has Changed A Little Bit. And That Could Be A Big Deal. — Chief Justice John Roberts last year. — Win Mcnamee / Getty Images — WASHINGTON — Thirteen years into the job, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. remains a conservative — but he has shifted …

Simon van Zuylen-Wood / New York Magazine:

Does This Man Know More Than Robert Mueller? — It's 10:45 p.m. Rio de Janeiro time. Glenn Greenwald and I are finishing dinner at a deserted bistro in Ipanema. The restaurant, which serves its sweating beer bottles in metal buckets and goes heavy on the protein, is almost aggressively unremarkable …

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:

China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials — U.S. scientists helped devise the Crispr biotechnology tool. First to test it in humans are Chinese doctors — HANGZHOU, China—In a hospital west of Shanghai, Wu Shixiu since March has been trying to treat cancer patients using a promising new gene-editing tool.

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:

Team Trump Bypassed DHS Analysts to Produce Bogus Terror Report … The document didn't mince words. It claimed three-quarters of “international terrorism” convicts were immigrants, an assertion meant to bolster Donald Trump's cherished Muslim-focused ban on entering the country.

Discussion: Raw Story

Gordon G. Chang / The Daily Beast:

‘The Seoul Syndrome’ and the ‘Pyongyang Olympics’? South Korea on Thin Ice … On Sunday, North Korean singer Hyon Song Wol crossed into South Korea with six other members of her advance team, which will spend two days planning cultural performances at the Winter Olympics by the North's singers, dancers, and pop musicians.

Discussion: One America News Network and New York Times

Derek Hawkins / Washington Post:

'It's about time': Ruth Bader Ginsburg praises #MeToo, recounts harassment in Sundance talk — Long before she donned a black judge's robe, before she led a decades-long legal fight for gender equality, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a young, studious college kid taking a chemistry class at Cornell University.

Discussion: Althouse and Joe.My.God.

The Daily Beast:

FBI: Devin Nunes Won't Show Us Memo Alleging Surveillance Abuses — The FBI has yet to see a controversial memo alleging the intelligence community engaged in grave abuses. And that could make friction between the Hill and the bureau even worse. — BETSY WOODRUFF1.21.18 4:17 PM ET

Discussion: The Hill, RedState and Balloon Juice