memeorandum: Texas deputy accused of sexually assaulting 4-year-old threatened her mother with deportation, sheriff says (Dana Branham/Dallas Morning News)

12:40 PM ET, June 18, 2018

Top Items:

Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart’ — Laura Bush is a former first lady of the United States. — On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents.

Discussion: New York Post, Politico, Axios, Vox, Townhall, CNN, The Guardian, VICE News, Raw Story, New Republic, Daily Kos, Towleroad, NPR, NTK Network, Conservative News Today, Bangor Daily News, Al Jazeera English, AOL, New York Magazine, HuffPost, KTLA, France 24 and The Right Scoop

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Poll: Republicans Approve of Trump's Family Separation Policy … Nearly every day, voters have been confronted with heart wrenching stories about immigrant children being separated from their parents upon crossing the border into the United States. — The president incorrectly blames …

Jill Colvin / Associated Press:

Family separation policy starts dividing Republicans — WASHINGTON (AP) — The emotional policy of separating children from their parents is also starting to divide Republicans and their allies as Democrats turn up the pressure. — Former first lady Laura Bush called the policy “cruel” …

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, CNN, New York Times and Breitbart

Nick Visser / HuffPost:

DHS Secretary Says There's No Family Separation Policy ‘Period’ — Last week, DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month. — Department of Homeland Security Secretary , Kirstjen Nielsen defended her agency's role …

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Vox, USA Today and Roll Call

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Trump and the Baby Snatchers — This was the lead paragraph of a New York Times report last week: — “The Trump administration said on Friday that it had separated 1,995 children from parents facing criminal prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border over a six-week period that ended last month …

Discussion: AOL, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Beast, Boing Boing, HuffPost and Econlib

Nick Cumming-Bruce / New York Times:
U.N. Rights Chief Tells U.S. to Stop Taking Migrant Children From Parents

Discussion: RedState, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media, Axios, KTLA, Balloon Juice, Washington Press, twitchy.com and Bangor Daily News

Mark Osborne / ABC News:
Homeland Security chief slams ‘irresponsible’ reports on separation of migrant families

Discussion: National Review, IJR, Washington Post, VICE News and Conservative News Today

James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Trump team cannot get its story straight on separating migrant families

Discussion: ABC News, AOL and MSNBC

Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:

Trump Attacks Germany's Refugee Policy, Saying U.S. Must Avoid Europe's Immigration Problems — WASHINGTON — President Trump warned on Monday that the United States must avoid the immigration problems facing Europe and attacked the policies of Germany, one of America's closest allies.

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress, ABC News, Mother Jones, Politico and CNN

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Trump just tweeted that “crime in Germany is way up.” It's actually at its lowest level since 1992.

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, Talking Points Memo and MSNBC

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Supreme Court sidesteps decision on partisan gerrymandering in rulings on Wisconsin, Maryland cases — The Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a decision on when partisan gerrymandering goes too far, ruling against the challengers of a Republican-drawn map in Wisconsin and a Democratic redistricting in Maryland.

Discussion: ABC News and Political Wire

David Siders / Politico:

Shell-shocked Democrats regroup in Wisconsin — Donald Trump's stunning 2016 victory in the state sparked an urgent recovery mission. — OSHKOSH, Wis. — Donald Trump's romp through white, working class America in 2016 was nowhere more traumatic for Democrats than in Wisconsin …

CNN:
Supreme Court sidesteps partisan gerrymandering cases, let maps stand for now

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Stephanie Ebbs / ABC News:
Supreme Court cases to watch as term nears end

Discussion: Facebook and Politico

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Kim Jong Un More Popular Than Pelosi Among Republicans: Exclusive Poll Results … Self-identified Republicans now have a marginally more favorable view of Kim Jong Un than they do for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), according to a new Ipsos poll done exclusively for The Daily Beast.

Discussion: Mediaite, Hot Air, Political Wire and Patterico's Pontifications

Jim Norman / Gallup:

Satisfaction With U.S. Direction Reaches 12-Year High — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thirty-eight percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today, similar to last month's 37% satisfaction rate but marking the numerical high since a 39% reading in September 2005.

Discussion: RedState and NTK Network

Senator Ben Sasse:

Many Nebraskans this weekend asked me about the kids at the border. Here's a short version of what I told them. This is a bit over-simplified, but these are broad brushstrokes of how I understand the situation at present: — 1) Family separation is wicked.

Discussion: Breitbart, CNBC, The Right Scoop, KTLA, twitchy.com and New York Magazine

Dana Branham / Dallas Morning News:

Texas deputy accused of sexually assaulting 4-year-old threatened her mother with deportation, sheriff says — A Texas sheriff's deputy accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl threatened the victim's mother into staying quiet about the assaults, authorities said Sunday.

Discussion: Law & Crime and Raw Story

Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post: Deputy accused of sexually assaulting girl, 4, threatening to have mother deported if she spoke up

Erik Ortiz / NBC News: Texas deputy sexually assaulted undocumented immigrant's child, sheriff says

Dan Alexander / Forbes:

Lies, China And Putin: Solving The Mystery Of Wilbur Ross' Missing Fortune — Amid President Trump's headaches confirming cabinet secretaries, from neophyte Rex Tillerson to conflict-prone Scott Pruitt to unprepared Betsy DeVos, all of whom squeezed through, Wilbur Ross was a tonic.

Nomaan Merchant / Associated Press:

Hundreds of children wait in Border Patrol facility in Texas — McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water …

Discussion: The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, Splinter, AOL, Axios, Hullabaloo and POLITICUSUSA

NBC News:
McAllen, Texas, immigration processing center is largest in U.S.

Discussion: CNN and Daily Kos

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart:
Associated Press Uses ‘Cages’ to Describe Chain-Link Partitions in Border Patrol Center

Discussion: Splinter and Los Angeles Times

Jack Crowe / National Review:

SPLC Apologizes, Pays Settlement to Islamic Reformer It Wrongly Labeled ‘Anti-Muslim Extremist’ — The Southern Poverty Law Center has reached a settlement with liberal Islamic reformer Maajid Nawaz and his organization, the Quilliam Foundation, for wrongly including them on its now-defunct list of “anti-Muslim extremists.”

Discussion: Jihad Watch

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

Discussion: Daily Wire

Washington Examiner:

Don't become the party of Trump — “Complacency is our enemy,” Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning. “ Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.”

Stanley B. Greenberg / New York Times: Riling Up the Base May Backfire on Trump

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

What do Republicans suspect really happened in the FBI Trump-Russia investigation? — The struggle to uncover the FBI's conduct in the Trump-Russia probe has made some congressional investigators deeply suspicious of the bureau. But what do those investigators think the FBI actually …

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News, ABC News, Towleroad and MSNBC

Trent Baker / Breitbart:

Coulter Warns Trump on Immigration, Border: 'Don't Fall for the Actor Children' — Sunday on Fox News Channel's “The Next Revolution,” conservative commentator and author Ann Coulter advised President Donald Trump not to “fall for the actor children” at the border and cited …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Right Wing Watch and Mediaite

Michael Hawthorne / Chicago Tribune:

Trump Tower, one of largest users of Chicago River water, has never met EPA rules for protecting fish, records show — A view of Trump International Hotel & Tower from across the Chicago River on June 6, 2018. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) — Fishing piers and floating gardens welcome anglers …

Discussion: Raw Story

Elise Young / Bloomberg:

Murphy Says He'll Veto N.J. Budget If It Omits His Tax Increases — New governor is seeking higher levies on millionaires, sales — Democratic legislative leaders are seeking corporate surcharge — New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he'll veto the state budget if it's sent …

Chris Perez / New York Post:

Trump supporter disrupts De Niro's musical with ‘Keep America Great’ flag — A Trump supporter tried disrupting a performance of the Robert De Niro-directed “A Bronx Tale: The Musical” on Saturday — standing up during the curtain call and displaying a “Keep America Great!” flag toward the audience.

Discussion: Breitbart, Daily Wire, Gothamist, The Gateway Pundit and The Last Tradition

Olivia Goldhill / Quartz:

A new study ranks US states in order of psychopathy — Sometimes, it can feel like there are psychopaths everywhere. If you live in the United States, it's now possible to move to less psychopathic environs, thanks to new research ranking 48 contiguous states by psychopathy.

Angela Moon / Yahoo:

Americans grapple with recognizing facts in news stories: Pew survey — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Only a quarter of U.S. adults in a recent survey could fully identify factual statements - as opposed to opinion - in news stories, the Pew Research Center found in a study released on Monday.