memeorandum: ‘A Little Premature’ to Discuss U.S. Exit From WTO, Ross Says (Kasia Klimasinska/Bloomberg)

12:35 PM ET, July 2, 2018

Top Items:

George Stephanopoulos / ABC News:

Michael Cohen says family and country, not President Trump, is his ‘first loyalty’ — Michael Cohen — President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney and a former executive vice president at the Trump Organization — has always insisted he would remain loyal to the president.

Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:
Cohen Won't Declare Loyalty To Trump, Hints At Danger He Could Pose To Prez

Discussion: CNN, New Republic, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Michael Cohen to Trump: I will flip on you if I need to

Discussion: Vox, Conservative News Today and Mediaite

John Wagner / Washington Post: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says his family, not the president, is his first loyalty

Associated Press: Trump's former personal lawyer says he'll put family first

Blair Guild / CBS News:

Two federal judges seen as Trump's leading contenders for Supreme Court — President Trump says he will begin interviewing potential Supreme Court justices today and that he intends to officially nominate his candidate to the nation's highest court in just one week.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, CBS Chicago and The Week

Chuck Schumer / New York Times:

Our Rights Hang in the Balance — Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement has created the most important vacancy on the Supreme Court in our lifetimes. Whoever fills Justice Kennedy's seat will join an evenly divided court with the ability to affect the laws of the United States and the rights of its citizens for generations.

Matthew Nussbaum / Politico:
White House reorganizing staff as Supreme Court fight looms

Discussion: Breitbart and Weekly Standard

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Inside the Democratic strategy to oppose Trump's Supreme Court pick

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, ABC News and Raw Story

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Exclusive: A leaked Trump bill to blow up the WTO — Axios has obtained a leaked draft of a Trump administration bill — ordered by the president himself — that would declare America's abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization rules. — Why it matters: The draft legislation is stunning.

Discussion: CNN, National Review, Washington Post, AOL, Talking Points Memo, BloombergQuint, HuffPost, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, MSNBC, CNBC, VICE News, One America News Network, The Guardian, Breitbart, Splinter and The Week

Kasia Klimasinska / Bloomberg:
‘A Little Premature’ to Discuss U.S. Exit From WTO, Ross Says

Discussion: Axios and CNBC

Matthew J. Belvedere / CNBC:
Trump isn't going to change his mind on trade even if the stock market keeps falling: Wilbur Ross

Discussion: Daily Kos, Political Wire and The Week

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Axios Sneak Peek

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Breitbart

Ginger Gibson / Reuters:

Exclusive: Largest U.S. business group attacks Trump on tariffs — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business group and customarily a close ally of President Donald Trump's Republican Party, is launching a campaign on Monday to oppose Trump's trade tariff policies.

Discussion: Axios, Townhall, The Daily Caller, The Week and Conservative News Today

Reuters:

Iran diplomat among four arrested over suspected plot against Iranian opposition meeting — BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An Iranian diplomat has been arrested along with two people suspected of plotting a bomb attack on a meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group in France, Belgian authorities said on Monday.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Michael Scherer / Washington Post:

A bad week for Democrats gives rise to a big problem: Outrage could become an obstacle in midterms — Growing liberal agitation over a pivotal Supreme Court retirement and a simmering crisis about immigrant child separation have left Democratic leaders scrambling to keep the political outrage …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review, New York Times and Fox News

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Keep the focus on Trump's cruelty and incompetence

Discussion: TIME, AOL and CNN

Rick Klein / ABC News:
The Note: Trump, Republicans pounce on progressives' new movement

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Matthew Schmitz / New York Times:

Trump's ‘Purple’ Family Values — In the months leading up to Donald Trump's election, I noticed a divide in how my acquaintances spoke about his family values — or lack thereof. — People I knew from college or had met in New York expressed distaste for Mr. Trump's behavior.

Discussion: New Republic and Lawyers, Guns & Money

McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Russia investigators likely got access to NRA's tax filings, secret donors — WASHINGTON — For months, the National Rifle Association has had a stock answer to queries about an investigation into whether Russian money was funneled to the gun rights group to aid Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Avery Anapol / The Hill:

Legal experts say Mueller team likely gained access to NRA tax filings: report — Legal experts say it's likely special counsel Robert Mueller — secretly gained access to the National Rifle Association's (NRA) tax returns as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to a McClatchy report.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

New York Times:

In Denmark, Harsh New Laws for Immigrant ‘Ghettos’ — COPENHAGEN — When Rokhaia Naassan gives birth in the coming days, she and her baby boy will enter a new category in the eyes of Danish law. Because she lives in a low-income immigrant neighborhood described by the government as a …

Discussion: Marginal REVOLUTION and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Barbara Starr / CNN:

US intel agency believes Kim won't fully denuclearize — Satellite images show missile plant construction — (CNN)The Defense Intelligence Agency believes that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has no intention of engaging in a full denuclearization program, at least for now …

Discussion: Washington Post, MSNBC and POLITICUSUSA

Mike Allen / Axios:
Scoop: Trump may hold Round 2 with Kim Jong-un in NYC

Discussion: Raw Story, AOL, VICE News, The Week and Mediaite

Jonathan Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
North Korea Expands Key Missile-Manufacturing Plant

Discussion: New Republic, The Diplomat, Daily Kos, New York Times, Defense One, Politico, Salon, Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, CNN, Mediaite and Reuters

Peter Whoriskey / Washington Post:

‘A way of monetizing poor people’: How private equity firms make money offering loans to cash-strapped Americans — The check arrived out of the blue, issued in his name for $1,200, a mailing from a consumer finance company. Stephen Huggins eyed it carefully. — A loan, it said.

Discussion: Splinter

Richard Johnson / Page Six:

Ex co-worker no fan of Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being hailed as the new face of the Democratic party after vanquishing Queens party boss Joe Crowley in Tuesday's primary, but one former co-worker isn't jumping on her bandwagon.

Discussion: Splinter, Jezebel and Washington Monthly

The Intercept:
Data Suggest That Gentrifying Neighborhoods Powered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Victory

Discussion: New York Post and NY State of Politics

Deborah Yetter / Courier-Journal:

Bevin cuts dental, vision benefits to nearly 500K Medicaid recipients — Gov. Matt Bevin's administration has abruptly cut Medicaid dental and vision benefits to nearly half a million Kentuckians, prompting an outcry from Democrats who called the Republican governor's decision “rash.”

Discussion: Rewire.News, Joe.My.God. and The American Spectator

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:

FBI arrests man it says was plotting July 4 attack in downtown Cleveland — The FBI in Cleveland has arrested a 48-year-old man it says was planning a July 4 attack in the city's downtown, authorities said. — The man — who lived in Maple Heights, a southeastern suburb of Cleveland …

Discussion: Fox News and Daily Wire

Brad Wilmouth / NewsBusters:

Rubin: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Should Be Harassed Publicly as a ‘Life Sentence’ — On Sunday's AM Joy, MSNBC contributor and Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin declared that Sarah Huckabee Sanders deserves a “life sentence” of being harassed publicly as she asserted that the White House press secretary …

Discussion: Daily Wire and twitchy.com

Bloomberg:

A Morgan Stanley Star Wants You to Back His Political Movement — Eric Grossman doesn't look like he would want to do anything drastic. The top lawyer at Morgan Stanley is a 51-year-old homeowner in the New York suburbs with twin sons and a seat on the firm's management committee.

Avi Selk / Washington Post:

Man arrested after shouting ‘womp, womp’ and pulling a gun on immigration protesters … The gathering at a park gazebo in Huntsville, Ala., was by no means the largest of Saturday's nationwide protests against President Trump's “zero tolerance” border policies, though it was memorable for other reasons.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Trace, VICE News, Splinter, Shakesville, Politico, WAFF-TV, The Root, Joe.My.God. and POLITICUSUSA

Fred Hiatt / Washington Post:

The Trump administration's extraordinary cruelty will always find opponents — In March, as The Post was publishing a series of editorials criticizing the Trump administration for separating a Congolese asylum seeker from her 7-year-old daughter, administration officials contacted me to complain.

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:

Eric Trump rushes into NYC traffic to save ailing woman — An ordinary morning in New York City last week for President Trump's son Eric Trump abruptly turned frantic when he rushed to the aid of a woman who passed out near a train station, dodging rush-hour traffic to chase down a passing ambulance.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Patterico's Pontifications:

Would a Justice Amy Barrett Recuse Herself in Abortion Cases? — Judge Amy Barrett seems to be the new hotness among conservatives. She is being seriously discussed as a credible candidate to replace Anthony Kennedy despite a mighty thin track record as a judge. Why? Let's look at a couple of representative pieces.

Discussion: The Week

Danielle Kurtzleben / NPR:

Life As A Young Woman Candidate: Fending Off ‘Older Men’ And Being An Outsider — Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's has electrified Democratic party activists not only by pulling off a major political upset in New York's 14th District primary this week, but with her progressive politics, working class roots, and status as a Latina.