memeorandum: Trump backs off government shutdown threat ahead of elections: report (Susan Heavey/Reuters)

11:55 AM ET, September 5, 2018

Top Items:

Furious Trump trapped by hundreds of Woodward tapes — President Trump is livid at the betrayal and stunning allegations in Bob Woodward's forthcoming “Fear,” but limited in his ability to fight back because most of the interviews were caught on hundreds of hours of tape, officials tell Axios.

Discussion: RedState, Vox, Washington Post, Hot Air, Fox News Insider, MSNBC, Deadline, Shakesville, Shareblue Media, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Free Beacon, New York Times, HuffPost, Daily Kos, CNNMoney, Reuters, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Political Wire

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Trump Unleashes on Woodward, Accuses Him of Making Up Quotes and Being a ‘Dem Operative’ — President Donald Trump is accusing veteran journalist Bob Woodward of running a “con” and being a “Dem operative.” — Earlier tonight, Trump tweeted out the statements from the White House …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review, Politico and Townhall

Dwight Garner / New York Times:

In ‘Fear,’ Bob Woodward Pulls Back the Curtain on President Trump's ‘Crazytown’ — Nothing in Bob Woodward's sober and grainy new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” is especially surprising. This is a White House that has leaked from Day 1. We knew things were bad.

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

White House unprepared for Woodward firestorm — The White House was caught flat-footed by the explosive content in “Fear,” Bob Woodward's new book on the Trump administration, as nobody on senior staff had seen a copy when the Washington Post published the explosive excerpts yesterday, according to sources with direct knowledge.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Washington Post, CNBC, The Hill and The Guardian

Gabriel Pogrund / Washington Post:

Southern Republican senators reject Trump's criticism of Sessions — Southern Republican senators defended Jeff Sessions after an explosive new book by Bob Woodward recounted how President Trump called his attorney general a “dumb Southerner” and mocked his accent.

Discussion: Splinter, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, Mediaite, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, HuffPost and AOL, more at Mediagazer »

Saagar Enjeti / The Daily Caller:
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Says Bob Woodward Has ‘A Lot Of Credibility Problems’

Emily Birnbaum / The Hill:
Bernstein calls on Kelly to resign following Woodward book

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Washington Post, TIME and POLITICUSUSA, more at Mediagazer »

Axios:
In Woodward's book, Trump erupts over Mueller

Discussion: Washington Post and Foreign Policy

Kalhan Rosenblatt / NBC News:

Parkland victim's father and Kavanaugh: The handshake that wasn't — “I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence,” Fred Guttenberg, father of slain Parkland student Jaime Guttenberg, wrote on Twitter. — The father of a student killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas …

Discussion: Vox, The Federalist and RedState

Politico:
Schumer, Democrats wrestled over staging mass Kavanaugh walkout

Discussion: Power Line, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Breitbart, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, ABC News and Political Wire

Elizabeth Price Foley / The Hill:
Dems can't ‘Bork’ Kavanaugh, and have only themselves to blame

Discussion: Politico, The New Neo, JONATHAN TURLEY, One America News Network, Axios, NTK Network and CNN

Politico:
Liberal groups knock Schumer's handling of Kavanaugh nomination

Discussion: Power Line, Breitbart, NTK Network and Axios

Matthew Continetti / The Daily Beast:
The 40-Year Plan That Allowed Trump to Reshape the Courts

Discussion: Politico

Hot Air:
Today's “Controversy”: Kavanaugh Declines Handshake From Father Of Murdered Parkland Student

Discussion: CBS News, New York Times, Hit & Run, IJR and Townhall

Irin Carmon / The Cut:
What Did Brett Kavanaugh Know About His Former Boss's Sexual Misconduct?

Discussion: Mother Jones

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
The Democrats Are Crazy — I was working today and couldn't watch …

Discussion: TIME, The American Spectator, Althouse and CNN

KDFW:

Man arrested after crashing truck into FOX4 building in downtown Dallas — Image Gallery — A man was arrested Wednesday morning after crashing a truck into the side of the FOX4 building in downtown Dallas. — The man, after repeatedly crashing his vehicle into a side of the building …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, WFAA-TV, IJR, Breitbart, Raw Story, abc7chicago.com, twitchy.com, Splinter, FOX31 Denver, Mediaite and FOX 4 News, more at Mediagazer »

Matthew Haag / New York Times:
Man Repeatedly Crashes Truck Into Dallas TV Station's Building

Discussion: Dallas Morning News

Travis Fedschun / Fox News:
Man intentionally crashes truck into FOX 4 studios in Dallas, starts ‘ranting’ before arrest, officials say

Discussion: NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and The Daily Caller

BBC:

Salisbury Novichok poisoning: Two Russian nationals named as suspects — Two Russian nationals have been named as suspects in the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. — The men, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Vikram Dodd / The Guardian:
Salisbury poisonings: police name two Russian suspects

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Times and NPR

Associated Press: The Latest: UK's May: poisoning suspects were Russian agents

Jill Lawless / Associated Press:
Britain charges 2 Russians over Novichok poisoning

Discussion: National Review

Alexander Burns / New York Times:

Obama to Join Midterm Battle, Starting in California and Ohio — Former President Barack Obama is poised to plunge into the fray of the midterm campaign, returning to electoral politics with a frontal attack on Republican power in two states that are prime Democratic targets this fall: California and Ohio.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Guardian, The Daily Beast and Roll Call

Christine Mai-Duc / Los Angeles Times:
Obama coming to Southern California to campaign for Democrats in key House races

Discussion: Breitbart

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg:
Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit Puts GOP on Defensive Before Elections

Discussion: Political Wire

Reid J. Epstein / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Gives $10 Million to Super PAC in First Major Political Contribution — Bezos and wife are supporting With Honor, a super PAC aiming to elect military veterans from both parties to Congress — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife are making their first major foray …

Discussion: One America News Network, The Daily Caller, Political Wire and Axios

Susan Heavey / Reuters:

Trump backs off government shutdown threat ahead of elections: report — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he was unlikely to shut down the federal government ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections over funding the construction of a southern border wall as part …

Discussion: Political Wire

Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:
Trump suggests protesting should be illegal

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and Daily Kos

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:

Ayanna Pressley Upsets Capuano in Massachusetts House Race — BOSTON — Ayanna Pressley upended the Massachusetts political order on Tuesday, scoring a stunning upset of 10-term Representative Michael Capuano and positioning herself to become the first African-American woman to represent the state in Congress.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Vox, Daily Kos, Politico, CBS News, Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Outside the Beltway, The Nation, Breitbart, Althouse, Axios, ABC News and New Republic

Rosie Gray / The Atlantic:

A Daily Caller Editor Wrote for an ‘Alt-Right’ Website Using a Pseudonym — The former Daily Caller writer and editor Scott Greer has severed all ties with the conservative website after acknowledging that he had written under a pseudonym for the white-supremacist Radix Journal.

Discussion: Splinter, American Greatness and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

James Estrin / New York Times:

Photographing an Indelicate but Deadly Subject — PERPIGNAN, FRANCE: After years covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Andrea Bruce was asked by National Geographic in 2016 to undertake one of the most difficult assignments of her career. — The subject? Open defecation.

Steven Shepard / Politico:

POLITICO race ratings: 60 GOP House seats in danger — The Senate is a tightrope walk for Democrats. — Roughly 100 of the 240 Republican-controlled House seats are currently within Democratic reach, posing the most serious threat to the GOP majority since the party won control in 2010.

Discussion: Political Wire

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Obama to launch midterm campaigning this weekend

Discussion: ABC News

New York Times:

Mueller Will Accept Some Written Answers From Trump — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will accept written answers from President Trump on questions about whether his campaign conspired with Russia's election interference, Mr. Mueller's office told Mr. Trump's lawyers in a letter, two people briefed on it said on Tuesday.

Discussion: emptywheel, Talking Points Memo, NPR, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, The Guardian, CNBC, POLITICUSUSA, Axios, Washington Times and Mediaite

The Daily Caller:

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Critical, But Says Nike's Kaepernick Deal ‘Is What This Country Is All About’ — WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Nike sent a “terrible message” this week by making former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick one of the faces representing the 30th anniversary of the company's “Just Do It” campaign.

TMZ.com:

Kim Kardashian Meets Donald Trump On Prison Reform, Freeing Another Prisoner — Kim Kardashian West has just entered the White House to meet with President Trump Wednesday morning to talk prison reform and also lobby the Prez to free another person who has been sentenced to life in prison for drug-related charges.

Discussion: Fox News, Hollywood Life, Washington Times and The Daily Caller

Salena Zito / New York Post:

The Twitter trolls attacking my work are all wrong — “Dad, it's not true,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady through tears. — My 81-year-old father had just seen a Huffington Post headline — “Take Salena Zito Neither Seriously Nor Literally On Trump Voters” — with a picture of me next to it.

Discussion: twitchy.com, more at Mediagazer »

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Now Twitter Edits The New Yorker — The venerable magazine hands the reins to the digital mob. — A common complaint of liberal journalists about conservative politicians is that the latter lack for courage. As in: Paul Ryan knows that Donald Trump is a bigot and a danger …

Discussion: New Republic, No More Mister Nice Blog, Politico, The American Conservative, The Hill, NBC News, Coffee House, Pitchfork, Economist, Vox, POLITICUSUSA, CBS News and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Gregg Kilday / Hollywood Reporter:

Michael Moore Plays His Trump Card: A New Movie, Modern Fascism and a 2020 Prediction — He's America's most successful documentarian and one of the few on the left who predicted the 2016 election upset. Now, as Moore readies his anticipated polemic ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ for its Toronto film festival debut …

Discussion: Raw Story

Tal Kopan / CNN:

Nielsen calls out Putin for election interference — Washington (CNN)Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday called out Russian President Vladimir Putin by name for interfering in the 2016 US election, calling it a “direct attack” on US democracy.