memeorandum: Forget Tax Cuts. Trump Wants to Rally G.O.P. Base Over Immigration (New York Times)

8:20 AM ET, June 19, 2018

Top Items:

Ginger Thompson / ProPublica:

Listen to Children Who've Just Been Separated From Their Parents at the Border — Leer en Español. — The desperate sobbing of 10 Central American children, separated from their parents one day last week by immigration authorities at the border, makes for excruciating listening.

Politico:

Nielsen becomes face of Trump's border separations — The Homeland Security secretary has been seen as weak on enforcement, but on Monday she defended decisions that have left kids warehoused on the border. — Kirstjen Nielsen, President Donald Trump's secretary of Homeland Security …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Washington Post, The Week and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Trump defiant as crisis grows over family separation at the border — The Trump administration's move to separate immigrant families at the border and detain children apart from their parents spiraled into a humanitarian and political crisis Monday as the White House struggled to contain the growing public outcry.

Discussion: Althouse, HuffPost, Breitbart, POLITICUSUSA, Vox, CNBC, Daily Kos, NBC News, The Week and Politico

Salvador Rizzo / Washington Post:

The facts about Trump's policy of separating families at the border — “I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. That's their law.” — “We have the worst immigration laws in the entire world. Nobody has such sad, such bad and actually, in many cases …

Discussion: HuffPost, RealClearPolitics and New York Magazine

Avi Selk / Washington Post:
‘I wanted to stop her crying’: The image of a migrant child that broke a photographer's heart

Discussion: Macleans.ca, HuffPost and NPR

New York Times:
When Did Caging Kids Become the Art of the Deal?

Discussion: The Hill, Roll Call and RedState

CNN:
What's happening at the US border

Discussion: Politico, Axios, USA Today, Gizmodo, Raw Story, ABC News, GeekWire and Breitbart, more at Techmeme »

CNN:
The sound of children crying for their parents at the border

Discussion: New York Times, HuffPost and Raw Story

Tal Kopan / CNN:
‘We will not apologize’: Trump DHS chief defends immigration policy

Discussion: IJR, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris …, WGN-TV, KTLA and Law & Crime

New York Times:

Forget Tax Cuts. Trump Wants to Rally G.O.P. Base Over Immigration — WASHINGTON — As Republicans try to keep their midterm election strategy focused on the economy, tax cuts and falling unemployment, President Trump sent his clearest signal yet on Monday that he intends to make divisive …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and New Republic

Wall Street Journal:

The GOP's Immigration Meltdown — Restrictionists may cost Republicans their majorities in Congress. — Are Republicans trying to lose their majorities in Congress this November? We assume not, but you can't tell from the party's internal feuding over immigration that is fast becoming …

Discussion: The Week

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

Republicans fret about what family separations will cost them — Senior Republicans on Monday warned President Trump that forcibly separating migrant children from their illegal-immigrant parents was a political loser that could cost the party control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story and Bloomberg

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
From ‘I Alone Can Fix It’ to ‘Change the Laws!’

Discussion: Slate, The Guardian and Washington Examiner

Grace Sparks / CNN:
Majority oppose policy that causes family separation, but Republicans approve

Discussion: Washington Post, MSNBC, The Week, Real Clear Politics, KTLA, Political Wire, Gallup, HuffPost, No More Mister Nice Blog, CBS Sacramento and New York Times

Harry Enten / CNN: Moderate GOP voices on immigration are at risk of a November wipeout in the House

U.S. Department of Justice:

Joshua Adam Schulte Charged With The Unauthorized Disclosure Of Classified Information And Other Offenses Relating To The Theft Of Classified Material From The Central Intelligence Agency — Geoffrey S. Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, John C. Demers …

Discussion: Reuters, The Daily Beast, Law & Crime and Axios

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Ex-CIA engineer charged with massive leak to WikiLeaks — A former CIA computer engineer has been indicted on charges he masterminded what appears to be the largest leak of classified information in the spy agency's history. — Joshua Schulte, 29, was charged in a new grand jury indictment …

Discussion: CNN

Adam Goldman / New York Times: New Charges in Huge C.I.A. Breach Known as Vault 7

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:
Ex-CIA employee charged in major leak of agency hacking tools

Discussion: The Daily Caller, more at Techmeme »

Wichita Eagle:

Judge strikes down Kansas voter law, orders Kobach to take classes — TOPEKA — A federal judge has struck down a Kansas voter citizenship law that Secretary of State Kris Kobach had personally defended. — Judge Julie Robinson also ordered Kobach, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor …

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Sam Levine / HuffPost:
Federal Judge Strikes Down Kansas Proof Of Citizenship Law

Discussion: Mother Jones and Splinter

Former U.S. Attorneys:

Bipartisan Group of Former United States Attorneys Call on Sessions to End Family Separation — Dear Attorney General Jefferson B. Sessions: — We write as former United States Attorneys who have served under both Republican and Democratic Presidents. Like the majority of Americans …

Discussion: Politico and Talking Points Memo

Adolfo Flores / BuzzFeed:
US Isn't Just Separating Children From Their Parents. It Also Has No Plan For Reuniting Them.

Discussion: The Week, CNN, The Daily Signal, America's Voice, Law & Crime and KTLA

Jonathan Blitzer / New Yorker:
The Government Has No Plan for Reuniting the Immigrant Families It Is Tearing Apart

Discussion: Daily Kos, HuffPost and First Draft

Huileng Tan / CNBC:

China says the US ‘has initiated a trade war,’ and Beijing isn't afraid to fight back — China's Commerce Ministry said Tuesday morning that it will take counter measures if the U.S. publishes an additional tariffs list. — China's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said the country …

Discussion: Reuters and HuffPost

Alayna Treene / Axios:
Trump threatens additional tariffs on $200b worth of Chinese goods

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Beast, One America News Network and Breitbart

Jane Perlez / New York Times:
Kim Jong-un Returns to China, This Time With Leverage

Discussion: Political Wire and Washington Post

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

Erik Prince: I ‘Cooperated’ With Mueller … Erik Prince, the founder of private security company Blackwater, has found himself embroiled in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. — During the campaign …

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

How Anti-Immigration Passion Was Inflamed From the Fringe — WASHINGTON — Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller spent years on the political fringe in the nation's capital as high-decibel immigration hard-liners, always warning about the dangers of open borders but rarely in a position to affect law or policy.

Discussion: Political Wire

Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump aides plan fresh immigration crackdowns before midterms

Discussion: Raw Story, Boing Boing, Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money, POLITICUSUSA, New York Magazine and Townhall

William Wan / Washington Post:

What separation from parents does to children: ‘The effect is catastrophic’ — This is what happens inside children when they are forcibly separated from their parents. — Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

Wall Street Journal:

U.S., South Korea Cancel Major War Game Planned for August — Move comes after President Trump's promise at Singapore summit to halt maneuvers on Korean Peninsula — WASHINGTON—The Pentagon said Monday that it had agreed with South Korea to cancel an important military exercise …

Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press:
Pentagon suspends August military drills with South Korea

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Call to suspend Mueller probe was just posturing, Giuliani says — President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Monday that he was actually just bluffing last week when he called for Justice Department leaders to suspend special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation within 24 hours.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and HuffPost

John Hendel / Politico:

Senate rejects Trump's rescue of Chinese firm ZTE — The Senate voted Monday to reimpose the U.S. ban on Chinese telecom giant ZTE, in a rebuke to President Donald Trump and his efforts to keep the company in business. — The provision targeting ZTE was part of the National Defense Authorization Act …

Discussion: ABC News, The Week, POLITICUSUSA and The American Conservative, more at Techmeme »

Mike Morken / valleynewslive.com:

New poll shows close race for U.S. Senate Race in North Dakota — (Valley News Live) Fargo An exclusive statewide poll by Valley News Live and Mason-Dixon Polling shows, that not even a week after North Dakota's primary, the race for the U.S. Senate is tightening.

Sohrab Ahmari / Commentary Magazine:

The SPLC Has Its Nose Rubbed in the Dirt — Belated justice. — Few left-wing pressure groups are as vicious and mendacious as the Southern Poverty Law Center. Founded in 1971, the SPLC today mainly exists to smear opponents of full-spectrum progressivism as “bigots” and “extremists.”

Quilliam:
Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. Admits It Was Wrong, Apologizes to Quilliam and Maajid Nawaz …

Discussion: Southern Poverty Law Center, The Atlantic, Louder With Crowder, Shot in the Dark, Weasel Zippers, National Review, Conservative News Today, Hit & Run, Breitbart, Townhall, Daily Wire, The Daily Beast, Law & Crime, Popehat, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and Power Line

Lora Kolodny / CNBC:

Elon Musk emails employees about ‘extensive and damaging sabotage’ by employee — Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an e-mail to all employees on Sunday night alleging there was a saboteur within the company's ranks. — Musk alleged this employee tweaked code on internal products and sent company data out without authorization.

Discussion: CleanTechnica, Gizmodo, The Verge, BuzzFeed, BloombergQuint, BGR and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

Victor Balta / The Guardian:

‘Homophobic and not very clever’: why puto chants haunt Mexican football — El Tri's victory over Germany on Sunday was marred by alleged homophobic chanting. It's a common trend across stadiums in the Americas — You can say this for Mexican soccer fans: they've managed to turn …

Discussion: BBC, Daily Wire, NPR and Reuters