memeorandum: Democratic Party's liberal insurgency hits a wall in Midwest primaries (David Weigel/Washington Post)

2:10 PM ET, August 8, 2018

Top Items:

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins arrested over insider trading charges — Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., has been arrested on insider trading charges lodged by the Justice Department, law enforcement officials said Wednesday morning. — The indictment obtained from a federal grand jury …

Discussion: Congressman Chris Collins, Breitbart, twitchy.com, CBS New York, Splinter, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

New York Times:

New York Congressman Chris Collins Is Charged With Insider Trading — Representative Chris Collins, a New York Republican who was one of President Trump's earliest and most vocal supporters, was charged with insider trading on Wednesday. He was accused of having sold his stock …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Above the Law and Jamie Dupree - AJC

NBC News:

New York Rep. Chris Collins indicted on insider trading charges — The case is related to Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech company, on which the elder Collins served on the board. — Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from upstate New York, surrendered to the FBI …

Discussion: Vox, USA Today, Mother Jones, Raw Story, TheBlaze, Shareblue Media, MSNBC, Speaker.gov, Second Nexus, Chicks On The Right, Gothamist and Balloon Juice

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
GOP Rep. Collins indicted, charged with securities fraud

Discussion: U.S. Securities …, ABC News, RedState and The Daily Beast

Rich Schapiro / New York Daily News: Upstate New York Congressman Chris Collins arrested on federal insider trading charges

New York Times:

5 Takeaways From Tuesday's Election Results — Republicans had a brush with trouble in Ohio, where a result had still not been declared in a special election to fill a House vacancy. Elsewhere, an activist sweep on the left failed to materialize. — Suburbanites are more fired up than rural voters

Discussion: Washington Post, New Republic, Washington Monthly, ABC News, Washington Free Beacon, Taylor Marsh, Power Line and The Daily Beast

David Weigel / Washington Post:
Democratic Party's liberal insurgency hits a wall in Midwest primaries

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Shareblue Media, Politico, Breitbart, Chicks On The Right, Althouse, The Week, Hullabaloo, HuffPost, CNN and The Daily Beast

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Republicans' dueling political pictures

Discussion: New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Associated Press

Astead W. Herndon / New York Times:
Rashida Tlaib, With Primary Win, Is Poised to Become First Muslim Woman in Congress

Discussion: The American Mirror, ThinkProgress, Broadly, The Daily Caller, MSNBC, Splinter, Common Dreams, The Week and Conservative Review

Bill Scher / Politico: Down Goes Socialism — The Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic …

Sean Trende / Real Clear Politics:

Tuesday Night Is a Bad Sign for GOP Chances in the House — On its face, Tuesday night seemed uneventful, or even good news for the Republican Party. Aside from a few primaries here and there, the main event was the House special election in Ohio's 12th Congressional District.

Discussion: Washington Post

New York Times:
Ohio Special Election Results: 12th Congressional District

Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Troy Balderson claims victory in Ohio special election

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, NPR, WOSU Radio, ABC News, Breitbart and Politico

Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:
The Ohio Results Point to Democratic Strength in 2018—and a Showdown in 2020

Discussion: BuzzFeed News, Mediaite and Daily Kos

New York Times:
Ohio Special Election Too Close to Call, as Republican Holds Slim Lead

Discussion: Washington Post, Conservative Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Outside the Beltway, Vox, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Kos

Wall Street Journal:

'It's Fantastic!' Trump Warms to Rosenstein — Nearly fired by the president, the No. 2 Justice official—the man in charge of the Mueller probe—builds a rapport — Before President Trump headed to meet Vladimir Putin last month, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein requested a meeting in the Oval Office.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Political Wire

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:

Why it's time for Trump to play his ace in the hole — You return from a great vacation and POW — reality hits like a punch in the nose. And that's not counting the hassle of New York airports and traffic. — The pain begins when you remember that the hapless Jeff Sessions is still the attorney general of the United States.

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
Christopher Steele Was ‘Concerned’ About Senate Inquiries Into Dossier, Text Messages Show

Discussion: The Hill, Conservative News Today and The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:

Trump's Lawyers Counter Mueller's Interview Offer, Seeking Narrower Scope — WASHINGTON — President Trump's lawyers rejected the special counsel's latest terms for an interview in the Russia investigation, countering on Wednesday with an offer that suggested a narrow path for answering questions, people familiar with the matter said.

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
Obstruction questions still on table for Mueller-Trump interview, Giuliani says

Discussion: ABC News, POLITICUSUSA, IJR and Talking Points Memo

Joseph A. Wulfsohn / Mediaite: Colbert Refers to National Review's Jonah Goldberg as One of 'Trump's Allies' (He's Not)

Kansas City Star:

No law prevents Kris Kobach from overseeing the likely recount in his own race — No law requires Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to recuse himself from a recount in the governor's race, but legal and political experts say that he should to maintain trust in the election.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Raw Story and Washington Post

Kansas City Star: 'I'm embarrassed for our county.' Johnson County election commissioner explains delay

Wichita Eagle:
Kobach leads Colyer by 191 votes after Johnson County finishes counting

Discussion: Vox and Mother Jones

Politico:

Manafort Trial Day 7: Gates wraps testimony amid more affair claims — Rick Gates wrapped up his testimony against former boss Paul Manafort Wednesday without a dramatic courtroom showdown, but the defense got in an attention-grabbing parting shot at the government's star witness …

Discussion: ABC News, Vox and The Atlantic

Emily Cochrane / New York Times: A Guide to Covering the Manafort Trial

New York Times: Paul Manafort's Defense Team Accuses Rick Gates of Multiple Affairs

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico: Trump surges to fore of Manafort trial

New York Times: Top Trump Campaign Aides Are Portrayed as Corrupt at Manafort Trial

CNN:

Corey Stewart praised southern secession in 2017 campaign appearance — Senate candidate takes personal shot at Cuomo — (CNN)Corey Stewart, the Republican nominee for a US Senate seat for Virginia, praised in a speech last year Virginia's decision in 1861 to secede from the Union …

Discussion: New Republic, Political Wire and Blue Virginia

Isaac Arnsdorf / ProPublica:

The Shadow Rulers of the VA — Last February, shortly after Peter O'Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O'Rourke replied.

Discussion: Politico, New Republic, Axios, Shareblue Media, Jezebel, Talking Points Memo, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Splinter, Washington Post, The Week and CNBC

Kansas City Star:

Kansas Dems choose Sharice Davids to challenge Rep. Kevin Yoder for seat in Congress — Sharice Davids could make history in November after Kansas Democrats selected the Johnson County attorney as their nominee for a race that could help decide control of the U.S. House.

Discussion: Vox, Towleroad Gay News and Balloon Juice

John Hanna / Associated Press: Democrats pick gay, Native American nominee in Kansas 3rd

NBC News:

Sen. Rand Paul says he delivered letter from Trump to Putin — Paul's trip to Moscow during the Senate's recess this week also included a meeting with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev. — WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday that he was “honored” …

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Rand Paul delivers Putin letter from Trump

Discussion: CNBC, Washington Times and RT

Alvin Chang / Vox:

We analyzed every QAnon post on Reddit. Here's who QAnon supporters actually are. — The QAnon subreddit, analyzed with data. — Late on a recent Thursday night, a Reddit user posted a comment in a forum (or subreddit) devoted to the game Magic: The Gathering about how the company …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Alex Pareene / The Daily Beast:

Donald Trump Talks About a War on the Press. Andrew Cuomo Is Waging One. … On July 19, Zack Fink, the Albany reporter for New York City's local cable news channel, NY1, asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the glaring lack of legitimate small donors to his reelection campaign.

Sharon Coolidge / Cincinnati.com:

Chief ‘extremely concerned’ after officer uses Taser on 11-year-old girl at Kroger — A Cincinnati police officer used a Taser to stun an 11-year-old girl suspected of stealing from a Kroger on Monday, according to police. — Police Chief Eliot Isaac has opened an investigation …

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Root

Sharon Coolidge / USA Today:
Police use Taser on 11-year-old girl accused of stealing from supermarket

Discussion: Raw Story

Abbas Al Lawati / BloombergQuint:

Saudi Arabia Carries Out Rare Crucifixion for Murder, Theft — (Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia executed and crucified a Myanmar man in the holy city of Mecca on Wednesday in a rare form of punishment reserved for the most egregious crimes. — Elias Abulkalaam Jamaleddeen was accused of breaking …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Simeon Kerr / Financial Times:
Saudi Arabia sells off Canadian assets as dispute escalates

Discussion: The Guardian

Alex Ward / Vox:

Exclusive: Pompeo told North Korea to cut its nuclear arsenal by 60 to 70 percent — But North Korea has consistently rejected the secretary of state's proposal. — The Trump administration has presented North Korea with a formal timeline for starting the process of denuclearization — and Pyongyang has rejected it several times.

Discussion: Mother Jones, The American Conservative, CNN, Washington Free Beacon and Washington Post

NBC News:

Trump's D.C. hotel, a clubhouse for his fans, may also be a 5-star conflict of interest — An NBC News analysis of FEC filings and social media shows GOP groups, foreign countries and federal agencies have spent big at the luxury hotel. — WASHINGTON — The Trump International Hotel …

Henry Olsen / American Greatness:

Ohio Squeaker Shows GOP Has A Lot To Learn About Winning — Republicans and Trump supporters needed some good political news, and they got it Tuesday night in the special election for Ohio's 12th Congressional District. — Republican Troy Balderson's narrow, one-point win doesn't mean a “red wave” is swelling.

Discussion: naked capitalism