memeorandum: A private letter from Ronald Reagan to his dying father-in-law shows the president's faith (Karen Tumulty/Washington Post)

9:10 AM ET, September 15, 2018

Top Items:

Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:

Michael Cohen Is the Latest Former Trump Ally to Talk to Mueller — In the wake of Manafort's plea deal, sources confirm that it is now common knowledge among Cohen's inner circle that Trump's former lawyer has been in contact with the special counsel's office. — BY - EMILY JANE FOXSeptember 14, 2018,

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Beast, Taylor Marsh, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Shareblue Media, Splinter, Daily Kos, emptywheel, CANNONFIRE, Lawfare, Politico and Washington Post

CNN:

Federal prosecutors weigh charges against Democratic powerbroker in Manafort-linked probe — (CNN)Federal prosecutors in New York are weighing criminal charges against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig as part of an investigation into whether he failed to register as a foreign agent …

Discussion: HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com, Roll Call and Balloon Juice

Lawfare:

The Manafort Guilty Plea, the Mueller Investigation, and the President — Paul Manafort, his wife, and his lawyer Kevin Downing arriving at court for a status update hearing on Feb. 14, 2018. (Flickr/Victoria Pickering) — Only three weeks ago, the president of the United States lauded Paul Manafort …

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart and New Republic

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Manafort's surrender shows Mueller probe's overwhelming force — A surprise guilty plea from Trump's former campaign chairman shows that Mueller's high-powered probe has been nearly impossible to resist. — Paul Manafort vowed he'd never flip on Donald Trump.

Discussion: USA Today, Washington Post, Fox News, The Guardian and The Daily Beast

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Manafort's deal reins in a pardon's impact — Several aspects of the Mueller Russia probe's latest bombshell plea deal could stymie any pardon granted by the president. But Trump may not care. — The plea deal special counsel Robert Mueller granted to Paul Manafort on Friday appears built to be pardon-proof.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, The Moderate Voice, New Yorker, National Review and Vox

Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:
What Paul Manafort Knows

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Hullabaloo, Raw Story, Mother Jones, Washington Post, Test Feed Using Fields, emptywheel and Vox

Griffin Connolly / Roll Call:
3 Key Takeaways from Paul Manafort's Plea Deal With Mueller

Discussion: VICE News, HuffPost and thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

New York Times:
Manafort Folds. Now What?

Discussion: Raw Story

Aaron Rupar / ThinkProgress:
Trump's lawyer gives up the game by revising statement about Manafort's Mueller deal

Discussion: ABC News, CNN, New York Magazine, Booman Tribune and Washington Monthly

Tucker Higgins / CNBC:
‘Paul Manafort will tell the truth,’ Trump's legal team said. Minutes later, they took it back

Discussion: Politico and Vox

Washington Post:
Trump cannot use a pardon to stop Manafort's cooperation

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Weekly Standard, Vox and POLITICUSUSA

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Robert Mueller may have just eliminated one of Trump's biggest complaints

Discussion: Raw Story, USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN and emptywheel

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:

Our System Is Too Broken to Assess the Sexual Assault Claim Against Kavanaugh — This, then, was the fatal flaw of #MeToo: We thought that patriarchal systems, based in entrenched power, and supported by others in power, could be brought down by individual, brave women. — Why don't women come forward?

Discussion: New York Daily News, VICE News, Stupid Girl, Daily Kos and Vox

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Kavanaugh Classmate Named in Letter Strongly Denies Allegations of Misconduct

Discussion: Fox News, Power Line, Politico, Balloon Juice, TheBlaze, CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, Bustle, Washington Post and Conservative Review

Virginia Hume / Weekly Standard:
About That Letter From Women in Support of Brett Kavanaugh

Discussion: Power Line, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Gateway Pundit

BuzzFeed News:
Here's How That Letter From 65 Women Supporting Brett Kavanaugh Came Together So Quickly

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Vox, The Daily Beast, National Law Journal, twitchy.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Daily Wire, The Slot, Deadspin, Common Dreams and TheBlaze

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:
Anita Hill responds to sexual misconduct allegation against Brett Kavanaugh

Discussion: HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit, Townhall and twitchy.com

Amanda Terkel / HuffPost:
How Little Has Changed Since Anita Hill Spoke Out Against Clarence Thomas

Discussion: Clayton Cramer, Palo Alto Daily Post, Vox and Daily Wire

Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal:

White House Considered Replacing FEMA Chief as Florence Was Gathering Steam — Internal investigation is looking into Brock Long's use of federal resources during frequent travel to his North Carolina home — WASHINGTON—As Hurricane Florence was barreling toward the East Coast …

Emily Shapiro / ABC News:
Florence by the numbers: 7 dead, more than 900K without power, strongest wind gust in 60 years hits Wilmington

Discussion: Grist and The Guardian

Christopher Cadelago / Politico: ‘There never is a strategy’: Trump confronts twin Manafort and Kavanaugh crises

Suzanne Goldsmith / The Columbus Dispatch:

Les Wexner renounces Republican Party affiliation after Obama stops in Columbus — After former Democratic President Barack Obama made a quiet stop in Columbus on Thursday night, the wealthiest Republican supporter in the state told a small audience at a Downtown event that he is fed up and has quit the Republican Party.

Ryan Young / Yahoo Sports:

Report: Men penalized significantly more than women in tennis — Following her controversial loss at the U.S. Open last week, — Serena Williams has sparked a conversation about equality in tennis. — Williams was — fined $17,000 for three code violations in the final match.

Christopher Clarey / New York Times:

Are Women Penalized More Than Men in Tennis? Data Says No — Serena Williams argued that she was subject to a double standard when she was cited for verbal abuse by the chair umpire Carlos Ramos during the United States Open women's final last Saturday. — “There are men out here who do a lot worse …

Discussion: Althouse

Isaac Chotiner / Slate:

Why Did the New York Review of Books Publish That Jian Ghomeshi Essay? — Well before the world associated the phrase #MeToo with sexual assault, Jian Ghomeshi was a popular Canadian radio host and musician. In 2014 and 2015, however, he became the subject of numerous allegations of sexual assault …

Discussion: The New York Review of Books, New Republic, Jezebel and Lawyers, Guns & Money, more at Mediagazer »

Lauren McGaughy / Dallas Morning News:

Texas board votes to eliminate Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller from history curriculum — Updated at 11:30 a.m. to include the board's vote, at 1:20 p.m. with comment from board member Barbara Cargill and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner and at 4:10 p.m. with comment from a Christian advocacy organization.

Discussion: HuffPost, RedState, Bustle and thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

Bari Weiss / New York Times:

Julia Salazar, the Left's Post-Truth Politician — The democratic socialist lied. And lied. And lied. Then she won handily in Brooklyn. — Ms. Weiss is a staff writer and editor for the Opinion section. — Sept. 14, 2018 — According to The Washington Post's running count …

Discussion: The Intercept, Washington Post, BuzzFeed News and Hullabaloo

Jaya Saxena / GQ:

Men, Please Brush Your Teeth — Teeth, teeth, TEETH, TEETH. — The other day, I saw a familiar lament on Reddit r/relationships. “My husband does not brush his teeth,” a 41-year-old woman wrote, “and I'm at my wits end.” She describes his horrible breath, how she has told …

Discussion: Jezebel

Stephen Young / Dallas Observer:

Check Out What Appears To Be Amber Guyger's Pinterest Account … In the hours and days between shooting Botham Jean and her name being made public, Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger appeared to scrub as much of her life as possible from the internet. By the time Guyger's name was widely known …

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

A private letter from Ronald Reagan to his dying father-in-law shows the president's faith — Something tugged at Ronald Reagan on that otherwise slow August weekend in 1982. — “Again at the W.H.,” the president noted in his diary. “More of Saturdays work plus a long letter I have to write to Loyal.

Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:

Former Trump Lawyer Says President's Legal Team Erred in Cohen Reversal — Goldberg says barrage of criticism weighs on president, legal team erred in Cohen reversal — NEW YORK—President Trump on Friday disputed one of his longtime lawyer's criticisms of his behavior and questioned whether …

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Washington Post:

A solar observatory in New Mexico is evacuated for a week and the FBI is investigating. No one will say why. — SUNSPOT, N.M. — At a small solar observatory tucked away in the woods of a national forest here, scientists and other personnel were commanded last week to leave at once.

Discussion: TheDrive

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Deficit hawks are dead, and few in Washington can muster any outrage — The deficit hawks are dead. — Their demise technically came Tuesday when the Congressional Budget Office calculated the federal deficit at $895 billion for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 — a stunning gap …

Discussion: Political Wire

Kai-Fu Lee / Wall Street Journal:

The Human Promise of the AI Revolution — Artificial intelligence will radically disrupt the world of work, but the right policy choices can make it a force for a more compassionate social contract. — Artificial intelligence is a technology that sparks the human imagination.

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

BREAKING: James O'Keefe Teases Next Week's Hit — DEEP STATE SHOULD BE WORRIED! — Phyllis Schlafly's Gateway Eagle Council XLVIIstarts today in St. Louis, Missouri, Sept. 13-16. — This year The Gateway Pundit, one of the most influential conservative websites in US politics …

Discussion: Washington Times

Steve Contorno / Tampa Bay Times:

Rick Scott says Democrats should forego pay while campaigning — Be more like DeSantis, the governor said while campaigning for Senate. — CLEARWATER — Gov. Rick Scott said Friday that Democrats running for statewide office should follow the lead of Ron DeSantis and forgo their taxpayer salaries while campaigning.