memeorandum: (LEAD) Moon urges Japan to look ‘squarely’ at history for improved ties with S. Korea (Yonhap News Agency)

3:25 AM ET, February 9, 2018

Top Items:

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“He Was F—ing Pissed”: With Rob Porter Gone, the Heat on John Kelly Is Increasing — Trump is not happy with the chaos; Jared and Ivanka are trying to right the ship; and even Hope Hicks, one of the president's closest confidants, is in trouble. — A day after White House Staff Secretary …

Discussion: Esquire, Bloomberg, Shareblue Media, Washington Post, Business Insider, Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Mahablog and Mediaite

The Daily Beast:

Trump White House Fingered Corey Lewandowski in Rob Porter ‘Smear Campaign’ … Late Tuesday night, senior White House officials reached out to Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) office with an urgent request. They needed the Utah Republican to put together a statement praising his former chief …

Discussion: New York Times, ABC News, Daily Kos, The Guardian, Breitbart, Axios, thecut, Mother Jones, The Week, VICE News, NBC News, Political Wire, Splinter, ThinkProgress, AOL, Business Insider, Roll Call, The Root, Washington Post and Shakesville

MJ Lee / CNN:

Email to FBI: Porter's friend ‘actively working to quell’ background check issues — White House aide's ex-wife details alleged abuse — Washington (CNN)The current husband of one of Rob Porter's ex-wives emailed the FBI last January expressing concern that a close friend …

Discussion: The Rush Limbaugh Show, Women in the World and Media Matters for America

New York Times:

Unwelcome Attention for John Kelly, the Man Enlisted to Bring Calm — WASHINGTON — Among the many people agitated this week over John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, was President Trump. And among the people the president called to express dissatisfaction, according to those close to him …

Discussion: The Week, CBS News, NBC News, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Axios, Balloon Juice and Splinter

Washington Post:

Top White House officials knew of abuse allegations against top aide for months — White House Counsel Donald McGahn knew one year ago that Staff Secretary Rob Porter's ex-wives accused him of domestic violence but allowed him to serve as an influential gatekeeper and aide to President Trump …

Discussion: fox13now.com, Mediaite, Political Wire, Boing Boing, Women in the World, Vox and Raw Story

Eliana Johnson / Politico:

Kelly knew before abuse reports that Porter would be denied security clearance — White House chief of staff John Kelly was told several weeks ago that the FBI would deny full security clearances to multiple White House aides who had been working in the West Wing on interim security clearances.

Discussion: Associated Press

Tom Kludt / CNNMoney:
Rob Porter scandal: Everywhere but Fox News

Discussion: Mediaite and Media Matters for America

New York Times:
Top Trump Aides Are Said to Have Long Known About Abuse Accusations

Discussion: Business Insider, Hot Air, Common Dreams, Raw Story and CNBC

Fox News Insider: Jonah Goldberg: John Kelly's Initial Defense of Rob Porter Indicative of ‘Bunker Mentality’ at WH

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
The ‘family values’ crowd is mute on Rob Porter

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Nation, No More Mister Nice Blog and CNN

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
Hope Hicks, elusive Trump aide, in the spotlight amid Rob Porter scandal

Discussion: Business Insider

Heather Caygle / Politico:

Senate passes bill to end government shutdown — Washington stumbled into another federal government shutdown at midnight Thursday, after GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky refused to allow a vote on a bipartisan budget deal before the funding deadline. — It's the second shutdown in three weeks.

Discussion: Washington Post, USA Today, Hit & Run, Forbes, twitchy.com, VICE News, Breitbart, The Week, The Guardian, New York Times, Splinter, The Atlantic, The Hill and thecut

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

The dumbest shutdown ever — Rand Paul and Nancy Pelosi have virtually nothing in common. But on Thursday night, the conservative Kentucky firebrand and San Francisco Democratic leader teamed up to push Washington toward what Capitol Hill dwellers are calling the dumbest shutdown ever.

Burgess Everett / Politico:

GOP rips Rand for shutdown — Rand Paul took a stand, consequences be damned. And Senate Republicans are livid about it. — After driving the government into a brief shutdown over his demand for an amendment to cut government spending, the Kentucky Republican took friendly fire …

Discussion: CNBC, VICE News and The Week

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Senate Passes Budget Bill to Raise Spending and Reopen Government

Discussion: The Daily Signal, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and Hit & Run

CNN:
Federal government shuts down as Rand Paul holds up key vote

Discussion: Q13 FOX News, Mediaite and KTLA

Associated Press:
Used to scuffles, Rand Paul takes on Senate, risks shutdown

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic: The U.S. Government Will Shut Down (and May Reopen) While You Sleep

Reuters:
Fiscal hawk Paul slows budget deal, shutdown looms

Discussion: CNN and Splinter

Ed Henry / Fox News:

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner texted with Russian oligarch lobbyist in effort to contact dossier author Christopher Steele — EXCLUSIVE - Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been leading a congressional investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to Russia …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Front Page Magazine, Shareblue Media, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, The Last Refuge, Media Matters for America, Politicus USA, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

CNN:

Clash with witness shows Nunes' drive to discredit dossier — Nunes' hometown split on FBI memo controversy — Washington (CNN)Last month, an attorney expressed his outrage with leaders of the House Intelligence Committee: He demanded to know why a committee official shared …

CBS News:

House Intel Republicans plan to wall off their aides from Democratic staffers — In a sign of increasing partisan hostilities, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee plan to construct a wall - a physical partition - separating Republican and Democratic staff members in the committee's secure spaces …

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, The Hill, RedState, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, The Week, Mother Jones, Raw Story and Axios

Hollywood Reporter:

Jill Messick's Family Issues Blistering Statement on Harvey Weinstein and Rose McGowan — “Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person's attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey's desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating for her,” the family said.

Discussion: Breitbart, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Jezebel, The Blast and CBS Los Angeles

Carla Marinucci / Politico:

MeToo movement lawmaker investigated for sexual misconduct allegations — SAN FRANCISCO — California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia — whose high-profile advocacy of the #MeToo movement earned her national media notice — is herself the subject of a state legislative investigation in the wake …

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Times, KTLA, KQED News, Press Enterprise, The Daily Caller, AOL, twitchy.com, Front Page Magazine and CBS Los Angeles

Melanie Mason / Los Angeles Times:
Assemblywoman at forefront of #MeToo movement accused of sexual misconduct

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications and Politico

David Ovalle / miamiherald:

Bad info from Spirit Air led me to flush pet hamster down airport toilet, student says — Before Belen Aldecosea flew home from from college to South Florida, she twice called Spirit Airlines to ensure she could bring along a special guest: Pebbles, her pet dwarf hamster. No problem, the airline told her.

Discussion: Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, AOL, NBC News, KRON4.com, Jezebel, JONATHAN TURLEY, fox8.com, KTLA, Mashable, The Stranger …, Gizmodo, Weekly Standard, Mediaite, twitchy.com and VICE

YouTube:

Omarosa Opens Up About Her Time Inside The White House On Tonight's Celebrity Big Brother — Omarosa opens up to Ross Mathews about her time inside the White House, on BIG BROTHER: CELEBRITY EDITION airing tonight, Thursday, Feb. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/...

Discussion: The Guardian, NBC News, AOL, twitchy.com, Washington Post and Hullabaloo

Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:
'It's Bad': Omarosa Cries Through Description of Trump White House on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’

Discussion: Breitbart, Mother Jones, Politico, Jezebel and theGrio

Dara Lind / Vox:

Exclusive: Trump's draft plan to punish legal immigrants for sending US-born kids to Head Start — Or getting insured through the Children's Health Insurance Program, or getting assistance to heat their homes. — The Trump administration is working on new rules that would allow the government …

Yeganeh Torbati / Reuters:
Exclusive: Trump administration may target immigrants who use food aid, other benefits

Discussion: Shareblue Media, KTLA, New York Magazine, Axios, Splinter and ThinkProgress

Media Matters for America:

Fox News executive VP rails against diversity of US Olympians: “Darker, Gayer, Different” — Fox News' John Moody, who serves as the network's executive vice president and an executive editor, criticized the diversity of Team USA in an op-ed a day before the 2018 Winter Olympics were scheduled to open in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

John Moody / Fox News:
In Olympics, let's focus on the winner of the race — not the race of the winner

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Sarah Palin, Washington Monthly and AOL

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

FBI surveillance of Carter Page might have picked up Bannon — The FBI was monitoring Carter Page when the former Trump campaign adviser says he spoke with Trump adviser Steve Bannon about Russia in January 2017, raising the strong possibility that the FBI intercepted a conversation between the two men.

Discussion: Investor's Business Daily and Raw Story

Catherine Herridge / Fox News:

Another longtime Comey aide leaving FBI — The longtime head of public affairs at the FBI — who was a confidant of former director James Comey — is planning to retire, Fox News has learned. — A notice went out this week for a retirement get-together for Michael Kortan scheduled for Feb. 15.

Discussion: The Last Refuge

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Two more officials cited in FBI texts step down

Discussion: Raw Story and twitchy.com

Maggie Severns / Politico:

Former Cato employees describe years of harassment — Three former employees of the famed Cato Institute say they were sexually harassed by Ed Crane, the 73-year-old co-founder and president emeritus of the think tank and one of the most recognizable figures in the libertarian movement.

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Magazine, Jezebel and Economics Job Market Rumors

Philip Wegmann / Washington Examiner:

Sebastian Gorka fully supports Danny Tarkanian (whose campaign paid Gorka $5,000) … Danny Tarkanian made a new friend last year. The insurgent candidate, who is running in the Nevada Republican primary to unseat incumbent Sen. Dean Heller, obtained the endorsement of former deputy assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Hannah Levintova / Mother Jones:

Russian Activist Alleges New Link Between the Kremlin and Paul Manafort — A story involving a Norwegian yacht, an escort, and her Instagram posts featuring a prominent oligarch are capturing Russia's attention—and may represent a new and bizarre twist in the story behind Moscow's links to the Trump campaign.

Discussion: The Moscow Times, Raw Story and Associated Press

Yonhap News Agency:

(LEAD) Moon urges Japan to look ‘squarely’ at history for improved ties with S. Korea … South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday expressed hope to form what he called “true friendship” with Japan but said Japan must first look squarely at the countries' shared history.

Bloomberg:

Trump Administration Is Weighing Emergency Aid for Some Coal Plants — Perry could use emergency authority to aid FirstEnergy plants — Perry has used such orders to keep other power plants online — After failing to win a bailout for cash-strapped coal plants, the Trump administration …