memeorandum: How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump (Jane Mayer/New Yorker)

10:35 AM ET, September 24, 2018

Top Items:

Senate Democrats Investigate a New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct, from Brett Kavanaugh's College Years — As Senate Republicans press for a swift vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.

Discussion: The Wrap, Washington Post, NBC News, Vox, National Review, Politico, ABC News, CNN, The Dworkin Report, Talking Points Memo, BuzzFeed News, Breitbart, The Guardian, Townhall, Washington Free Beacon, Axios, Media Matters for America, TVNewser, HuffPost, Common Dreams, AOL, Shareblue Media, The Daily Beast, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, The Week, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, LifeZette, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, Weekly Standard, twitchy.com, Political Wire, Above the Law, Daily Kos, Conservative News Today, Splinter, Roll Call, KTVQ-TV, The Moderate Voice, Full Feed, Spectator USA, Informed Comment, The New Neo, Booman Tribune, Washington Times, Liberty Unyielding, The Colorado Sun, Althouse, Hit & Run, NPR, The American Conservative, Grabien News, Taylor Marsh, Mashable, thenewcivilrightsmovement.com, RedState, The American Spectator, The Resurgent, CNBC, FOX 61, Jezebel, abc13.com, Chicago Sun-Times, TMZ.com, Deadline, Power Line, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mother Jones, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Front Page Magazine, Boing Boing, WPIX 11 New York, France 24, Hullabaloo, NWLC, ThinkProgress, Associated Press and New York Post

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Trump Stands by ‘Fantastic’ Kavanaugh as He Seeks G.O.P. Votes — WASHINGTON — President Trump called Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh a “fantastic, fantastic man” as he cast doubt on sexual misconduct allegations that have jeopardized the judge's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, Raw Story, The Week, KTVQ-TV, Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit, LifeZette, Political Wire, Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Kavanaugh to Give Senate Calendars From 1982 to Back Up Denial — WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has calendars from the summer of 1982 that he plans to hand over to the Senate Judiciary Committee that do not show a party consistent with the description of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford …

Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:

Trump On Kavanaugh After Second Allegation: ‘I Am With Him All The Way’ — President Donald Trump on Monday affirmed his continuing support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite the second allegation of sexual misconduct against him that surfaced Sunday, saying that it's “unfair,” “unjust” and “totally political.”

Discussion: Political Wire, Balloon Juice and Raw Story

Brian Karem / The Montgomery County Sentinel:

Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh faces more allegations — Montgomery County investigators confirmed Monday they're aware of a potential second sexual assault complaint in the county against former Georgetown Prep student and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Kate Feldman / New York Daily News:

Brett Kavanaugh and pals accused of gang rapes in high school, says lawyer Michael Avenatti — Lawyer Michael Avenatti told the Senate Judiciary Committee late Sunday that he has multiple witnesses who can say Brett Kavanaugh participated in gang rapes of drunken women during high school.

Discussion: RedState, Liberty Unyielding, Althouse, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA and The Week

Quint Forgey / Politico:

Ed Whelan taking ‘leave of absence’ after posting Kavanaugh theory — The Ethics and Public Policy Center announced Sunday that its president, Ed Whelan, “will take a leave of absence” from the conservative Washington think tank after peddling a conspiracy theory on social media last week related …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Week and Splinter

National Review:

Fight for Kavanaugh — The cynics — or, perhaps more precisely, the realists — believed that the Democrats were playing for time in the hopes of finding another accusation against Brett Kavanaugh. The cynics were right. — The New Yorker stooped to publish a shoddy story alleging …

Axios:
The GOP plan to fight “foggy memories” around Kavanaugh

Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, The Week, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Tamar Auber / Mediaite:
Drudge Says Ronan Farrow and Jane Meyer Set to Break Report on Kavanaugh: ‘Another Woman?’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Deadline and RedState

Politico:
Kavanaugh confirmation in renewed peril after second assault claim

Discussion: National Review, American Prospect, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, VICE News, HuffPost, The Week, ABC News, NBC News, Daily Kos, Breitbart, Townhall and New Republic

Colby Hall / Mediaite:
Ronan Farrow: New Kavanaugh Accuser Came Forward Because Democrats ‘Came Looking’

Discussion: Daily Wire

Rebecca Morin / Politico:
Trump calls Kavanaugh accusations ‘totally political’

Discussion: ABC News

Devan Cole / CNN:
Trump says allegations against Kavanaugh ‘totally political’

Discussion: New Republic, KTVQ-TV and Townhall

Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review:
On The New Yorker's Grossly Irresponsible Story

Discussion: Conservative News Today, The Week and KTVQ-TV

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Big open questions to start this crazy week

Discussion: The Week, twitchy.com and Raw Story

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Christine Blasey Ford Reaches Deal to Testify at Kavanaugh Hearing

Steven Hayward / Power Line: I Told You So — I've been saying all week that you could …

Emily Birnbaum / The Hill:
Grassley: Dems ‘withheld information’ on new Kavanaugh allegation

Discussion: Townhall

Julie Hirschfeld Davis / New York Times:
Constrained From Fighting, Trump Is Left a Spectator With Kavanaugh in Peril

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, CNBC, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Wire and HuffPost

Chris Perez / New York Post:
Avenatti says he represents woman with ‘credible information’ about Kavanaugh

Discussion: National Review, Townhall, Hullabaloo and The Daily Caller

Samuel Chamberlain / Fox News:
Kavanaugh denies 2nd accuser's sexual misconduct allegation as Avenatti claims 'evidence …

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Fox News Insider and LifeZette

Jane Mayer / New Yorker:

How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump — A meticulous analysis of online activity during the 2016 campaign makes a powerful case that targeted cyberattacks by hackers and trolls were decisive. — Donald Trump has adopted many contradictory positions since taking office …

Discussion: Raw Story

NBC News:

Rob Goldstone wishes he'd never set up that Trump Tower meeting with the Russians — Goldstone, who arranged the Trump Tower meeting at the request of a pop star, says Mueller's team wanted to know about links between Trump and Russia. — The British-born music publicist who helped arrange …

Discussion: Political Wire, Washington Times and Raw Story

Adam Smith / Tampa Bay Times:

Poll: Andrew Gillum leads DeSantis by 4, Rick Scott and Bill Nelson tied — The UNF poll finds more than seven in 10 likely voters support restoration of voting rights for many ex-felons — 20 poll by the University of Florida shows Florida being Florida, with neck and neck races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Discussion: Florida Politics

Marc Caputo / Politico:
UNF poll: Gillum edging DeSantis, Nelson and Scott tied

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Sam Thielman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Emptywheel's Marcy Wheeler knows more than she tells, but she tells a lot — Photo: Marcy Wheeler, author and editor of national security blog Emptywheel, courtesy of Wheeler. — In the sometimes murky world of national security reporters, few people are wrong less often than Marcy Wheeler.

Dara Lind / Vox:

“Public charge,” Trump's new proposal to restrict legal immigration, explained — Immigrants could be barred from green cards based on use of food stamps or Medicaid. — The Trump administration is proposing a new regulation that would make it extremely difficult for many immigrants to come …

Discussion: thenewcivilrightsmovement.com, ThinkProgress, Breitbart and NPR

Amie Ferris-Rotman / Washington Post:

Why Russia is wooing South Africa's white farmers — KOSYAKOVO, Russia — Leon du Toit slowly inhales the late summer breeze off fields belonging to a dairy farm not far from Moscow. “Smells just like home,” the 72-year-old South African said. — That's just what one Russian political figure hopes to hear.

Discussion: Althouse

Ali Dukakis / ABC News:

Roger Stone sought contact with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, email suggests — As the special counsel's office appears to be focusing in on President Donald Trump's longtime political ally Roger Stone, an email recently obtained by ABC News suggests Stone sought contact with WikiLeaks publisher …

Discussion: Political Wire

Matthew Pritchard / Politico:

Will Democrats Regret Weaponizing the Judiciary? — Using the court system to stymie a president has backfired before. — The year was 1937. Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts had to decide which was more important: his intellectual integrity, or the integrity of the court as an institution.

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

Michigan progressive El-Sayed launches PAC after governor run — Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive physician who was the runner-up in Michigan Democrats' primary for governor last month, is launching a new political action committee to harness the energy from his upstart campaign.

Caitlin Owens / Axios:

GOP's midterm health care strategy: Rally the base — With the midterm elections fast approaching and Democrats riding a clear advantage on health care, many Republicans are nevertheless doubling down on largely unpopular ideas like repealing the Affordable Care Act and cutting Medicare.

Discussion: Washington Post and Splinter