memeorandum: She's Mexican-Born and a New U.S. Citizen. But Can She Run for the Georgia House? (Richard Fausset/New York Times)

1:30 PM ET, July 19, 2018

Top Items:

From the Start, Trump Has Muddied a Clear Message: Putin Interfered — WASHINGTON — Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election.

Washington Post:

As Russians describe ‘verbal agreements’ at summit, U.S. officials scramble for clarity — Two days after President Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian officials offered a string of assertions about what the two leaders had achieved.

Discussion: Just Security, Defense One, The Guardian, Task & Purpose, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, New York Post, MSNBC, Joe.My.God., National Review, Daily Kos, IJR, ABC News, Political Wire, CNN and Associated Press

Erica Werner / Washington Post:

House GOP refuses to renew election security funding as Democrats fume over Russian interference — House Republicans plan to vote Thursday on a spending bill that excludes new money for election security grants to states, provoking a furious reaction from Democrats amid a national controversy over Russian election interference.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Politico, Fox News, Joe.My.God., Hullabaloo, Shareblue Media, Salon, POLITICUSUSA, Splinter, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Brian Bennett / TIME:

Trump Wanted a Summit With Putin. He Got Way More Than He Bargained For — ‘Who do you believe?’ — It was a simple question, asked of President Trump by a seasoned reporter, but it sent a jolt through the assembled media at the July 16 press conference held at an ornate palace in Helsinki.

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite, CNN, Bustle, WGN-TV, TheJournal.ie, abc11.com, The Daily Caller, HuffPost and Mashable

Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:

We should have a debate over whether treason is being committed by the White House. Yes, I just typed those words. — Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to PostEverything.

Discussion: Politico, ThinkProgress, Fox News Insider, Shareblue Media and Talking Points Memo

Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
Trump says he'll have another meeting with Putin, again calls media ‘enemy of the people’

Discussion: Townhall, Washington Post, Political Wire and Jamie Dupree - AJC

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
U.S. Officials ‘at a Fucking Loss’ Over Latest Russia Sellout

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Taylor Marsh, Shareblue Media, HuffPost, The Guardian, Daily Kos, NPR, The Week, Balloon Juice, Mediaite, New York Times, Crime Russia, BloombergQuint, Breitbart, MSNBC, Raw Story, Vox and Foreign Policy

Alexander Mallin / ABC News:
Lawmakers condemn White House suggestion that Kremlin could interrogate former US ambassador

Discussion: CNN, New York Times and Joe.My.God.

Vivian Salama / Wall Street Journal:
White House Weighs Allowing Russia to Question Ex-U.S. Envoy

Discussion: HuffPost, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Outside the Beltway, RedState, POLITICUSUSA and Mother Jones

CBS News:

CBS News poll: Most Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of Putin summit — Only a third of Americans (32 percent) approve of the way Donald Trump handled his summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a CBS News poll shows. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans approve.

Discussion: CNN, Washington Examiner, New Republic, Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight and CNBC

Axios:

Poll: Huge GOP majority backs Trump's Putin performance — Republicans overwhelmingly approve of President Trump's handling of his press conference in Helsinki when he seemed not to side with U.S. intelligence agencies instead of Russian President Vladimir Putin over election meddling, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Times, Sputnik International, The Daily Caller, The Week, Daily Wire, AOL and Mediaite

Joe DePaolo / Mediaite:

Trump Calls Media ‘Real Enemy of the People’ While Revealing ‘Second Meeting’ With Putin — Amid widespread blowback this week over his comments relating to the summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump is declaring the meeting a success …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo and Washington Post

Martin Matishak / Politico:
House Republicans defeat attempt to subpoena Trump interpreter

Discussion: National Review, One America News Network and Breitbart

Associated Press:
The Latest: Putin says US-Russia summit was successful

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart, Raw Story, IJR, The Week and Axios

Kate Irby / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Nunes used political dollars for $15K in Celtics tickets, winery tours and Vegas trips — WASHINGTON — Rep. Devin Nunes used political donations to pay for nearly $15,000 in tickets to Boston Celtics basketball games as well as winery tours and lavish trips to Las Vegas …

Discussion: Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast:

Accused Russian Spy's Boy Toy Is a Serial Fraud: Lawsuits … This isn't the first time Paul Erickson, the Republican political consultant at the center of a Russian espionage probe, has found himself in middle of some drama. — Erickson—who served as a media advisor to a famously-emasculated porn actor …

Discussion: Argus Leader, Boing Boing, CNBC and HuffPost

Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
The investigations and reporting of BuzzFeed News — *not* BuzzFeed — are now at their own BuzzFeedNews.com

Discussion: The Daily Caller and TechCrunch

Vera Bergengruen / BuzzFeed News:
Maria Butina Spent Years Wooing US Conservatives. Here's How She Did It.

Discussion: Vox

New York Times:

A Democratic Blue Wave? Don't Forget the Republicans' Big Hill — One seems like an unstoppable force, but a G.O.P. structural advantage may represent an immovable object. — Democrats are optimistic about riding a so-called blue wave to control of the House this November, and it's easy to see why.

Christopher Mathias / HuffPost:

Steve King Is A White Supremacist, And The GOP Doesn't Care — Among other white supremacist views, the congressman refused to apologize for promoting a neo-Nazi on Twitter. Republicans continue to look the other way. — On June 12, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) tweeted: “Europe is waking up …

Jamelle Bouie / Slate:

Trump's Ties — For the better part of two years now, reporters have been trying to find the issue or offense that could fracture Donald Trump's base of support. They have traveled to “Trump country” for regular updates from working-class whites and other key Trump constituents …

Jeff Cox / CNBC:

Trump lays into the Federal Reserve, says he's ‘not thrilled’ about interest rate hikes — President Donald Trump, in a rare statement for Oval Office holders, criticized the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates. — He said he's “not thrilled” with rate hikes and worries …

ITV:

‘Russian suspects identified’ from CCTV in Skripal poison attack — Police are believed to have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack on Russian former spy Sergei Skripal. — Officers think several Russians were involved in the attempted murder of the former double agent …

Discussion: Sputnik International and Politico

Guy Faulconbridge / Reuters:
Britain has identified Russians suspected of Skripal nerve attack: PA

Discussion: The Guardian and The Daily Caller

Vivian Wang / New York Times:

New York Is Said to Open Tax Inquiry Into Trump Foundation — The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has opened an investigation into whether the Donald J. Trump Foundation violated state tax laws, a move that could lead to a criminal referral for possible prosecution …

Discussion: Law & Crime and Reuters

Dartunorro Clark / NBC News:

Sean Spicer: Mueller's investigation is not a witch hunt — “I think it's very important to be clear that Russia meddled in our election and there's no evidence of collusion,” Spicer said. — Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that he does not believe special counsel …

Discussion: Vox, Bustle, IJR, HuffPost, Contemptor and Joe.My.God.

Kristine Phillips / Washington Post:

Duterte's drug war killed thousands, and Filipinos still loved him. Then he called God ‘stupid.’ — President Rodrigo Duterte slams his hand lightly on the podium, as if to show exasperation. Speaking in his usual casual tone, he unloads an expletive-laden tirade over what he sees as a bizarre story rife with stupidity.

CBS News:

Trump on a 2020 Joe Biden run: “Obama took him out of the garbage heap” — For the first time as president, Donald Trump is holding his Russian counterpart responsible for interfering in the 2016 election. In an exclusive interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor …

Discussion: CNN, Townhall, Bustle, The Gateway Pundit, HuffPost, Washington Post, Daily Wire, Axios, AOL, The Week, USA Today and TheBlaze

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Reporters, Facing a Hostile White House, Try a New Tactic: Solidarity — Reporters, Facing a Hostile White House, Try Solidarity — The Town at the Heart of — Nicaragua's Opposition Movement — Masaya is one of the few places in Nicaragua where President Daniel Ortega's crackdown on protesters has faltered.

more at Mediagazer »

Noam Scheiber / New York Times:

Trump Nominee Is Behind Anti-Union Legal Campaign — Even before the Supreme Court struck down mandatory union fees for government workers last month, the next phase of the conservative legal campaign against public-sector unions was underway. — In March, with the decision looming …

John Parkinson / ABC News:

Republicans block Democrat attempt to subpoena Trump interpreter — Republicans blocked an attempt Thursday morning to subpoena the interpreter who sat in on President Donald Trump's one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland on Monday.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Townhall, Axios, Washington Times and Washington Free Beacon

Ziva Branstetter / Reveal:

Contractor clears out Phoenix office where it held immigrant children — Hours after a Reveal investigation was published, a government defense contractor cleared out the Phoenix office space where it had detained immigrant children, where some were held overnight and others were seen bathing in office sinks.

Monica Hesse / Washington Post:

He thought white men were vanishing from TV. I disagreed. So we conducted an experiment. — I have this friend I'll call Tom, and when we each watch TV, we notice different things. Recently, Tom had been noticing white men like him — or rather, noticing a lack of them.

Coleman Hughes / Quillette:

Black American Culture and the Racial Wealth Gap — There is arguably no racial disparity more striking than the wealth gap. While the median white household earns just 65 percent more income than its black counterpart, its net worth is fully ten times as high.

Geoffrey Skelley / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

Three Republican Governors Face Increasingly Tough Election Contests — Ratings changes in Arizona, Illinois, and Iowa — KEY POINT FROM THIS ARTICLE — The Crystal Ball has three ratings changes in gubernatorial contests, all shifts in the Democrats' direction …

VoxEU.org:

Stable genius: Estimating the ‘Trump effect’ on the US economy — Benjamin Born, Gernot Müller, Moritz Schularick, Petr Sedláek 18 July 2018 — Growth and employment in the US have been robust over the past 18 months, and President Trump frequently takes personal credit for these trends.

Charlotte Graham-McLay / New York Times:

A 4-Day Workweek? A Test Run Shows a Surprising Result — WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A New Zealand firm that let its employees work four days a week while being paid for five says the experiment was so successful that it hoped to make the change permanent.

USA Today:

In bid to impeach Rod Rosenstein, House Republicans are abusing power to protect Trump — Reps. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan are trying to impeach Rod Rosenstein in an effort to protect Donald Trump. That is an abuse of power and trust. — CONNECT — Even as President Donald Trump …

Nick Timiraos / Wall Street Journal:

Deficit Projected to Top $1 Trillion Starting Next Year — Most recent administration estimates show challenge of reducing red ink — WASHINGTON—The Trump administration expects annual budget deficits to rise nearly $100 billion more than previously forecast in each of the next three years …

Discussion: MSNBC

Astead W. Herndon / New York Times:

The Districts Are Mostly White. The Candidates Are Not. — NORTH AURORA, Ill. — Most of the room's occupants looked nothing like Lauren Underwood, but no one seemed to care. — Ms. Underwood, the Democratic congressional nominee in northern Illinois's pivotal 14th District …

France 24:

Weinstein lawyers claim actress Judd made sexual ‘deal’ with disgraced mogul — Harvey Weinstein's lawyers are calling on a US judge to dismiss a lawsuit from actress Ashley Judd — who accuses the disgraced mogul of torpedoing her career — on the grounds that she had made a sexual “deal” with him.

Discussion: Daily Wire

John Allen Gay / The Federalist:

No, Montenegro Is Not Essential To U.S. National Security Interests — Critics suggest it is ridiculous to question the idea that defending Montenegro via the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is necessary to keep America safe. They're wrong. — “Why should my son go to Montenegro …

Discussion: CNN, The American Conservative, TheBlaze and Task & Purpose