memeorandum: GOP's midterm health care strategy: Rally the base (Caitlin Owens/Axios)

10:00 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: Washington Post, National Review, NBC News, Politico, CNN, Talking Points Memo, The Dworkin Report, BuzzFeed News, ABC News, Townhall, Breitbart, HuffPost, Weekly Standard, Axios, TVNewser, The Daily Beast, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, twitchy.com, Political Wire, Above the Law, LifeZette, Daily Kos, Conservative News Today, Splinter, Roll Call, Grabien News, Media Matters for America, KTVQ-TV, The Moderate Voice, Full Feed, Spectator USA, Informed Comment, The New Neo, Booman Tribune, Washington Times, AOL, Taylor Marsh, Mashable, Althouse, Hit & Run, thenewcivilrightsmovement.com, The American Spectator, NPR, The American Conservative, The Guardian, Vox, RedState, The Resurgent, The Daily Caller, FOX 61, Jezebel, abc13.com, Chicago Sun-Times, TMZ.com, Deadline, Power Line, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mother Jones, The Colorado Sun, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Boing Boing, WPIX 11 New York, France 24, Hullabaloo, NWLC, ThinkProgress, Associated Press, Liberty Unyielding, Fox News 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, Political Wire, Conservative News Today, The Week, Talking Points Memo, LifeZette, The Gateway Pundit, 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 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, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Breitbart and Liberty Unyielding

Axios:

The GOP plan to fight “foggy memories” around Kavanaugh — Brett Kavanaugh's allies plan to aggressively contest what they call the “foggy memories” of his accusers — an approach that's likely to lead to nasty confrontations at Thursday's showdown hearing on his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, The Week, Townhall, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos and Breitbart

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 …

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

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Christine Blasey Ford Reaches Deal to Testify at Kavanaugh Hearing — The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers has reached a final agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on Thursday, her lawyers said on Sunday.

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: American Prospect, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, ABC News, VICE News, Hullabaloo, HuffPost, The Week, Raw Story, KTVQ-TV and New Republic

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

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

Discussion: twitchy.com, Conservative News Today and Townhall

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, CNBC, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Wire and HuffPost

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

Discussion: Townhall

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

Discussion: National Review, Townhall, Washington Post and The Daily Caller

Alyssa Milano / Vox:
I was sexually assaulted as a teen. Here's why I didn't report.

Discussion: IJR, Daily Wire, Deadline, KTVQ-TV and Mashable

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Ed Whelan taking ‘leave of absence’ after posting Kavanaugh theory

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Week and Splinter

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

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, LifeZette and Front Page Magazine

NBC News:
Second woman alleges sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, this time in college

Discussion: National Review, CNN, Vox, KTVQ-TV, CNBC and Common Dreams

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 …

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 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

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

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

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.

New York Times:

Trump at the U.N.: Undiplomatic? This Time, Aides Fear the Opposite — WASHINGTON — When President Trump made his first visit to the United Nations last year, he ridiculed North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, as a suicidal “rocket man” and threatened to “totally destroy” his country.

Discussion: Bloomberg, UN Dispatch and ABC News

Associated Press:
At UN, unrepentant Trump set to rattle foes, friends alike

Discussion: One America News Network, Axios and Politico

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.

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.

Luz Moreno-Lozano / mystatesman:

3D gun advocate Cody Wilson posts $150,000 bail, released in Houston — 6:30 p.m. update: The Austin man at the center of the national debate around 3D-printed guns has been released from the Harris County jail on bail, jail records show. — Cody Wilson was brought back to the country …

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.