memeorandum: GOP hires female attorney to question Ford, Kavanaugh's accuser (NBC News)

1:40 PM ET, September 26, 2018

Top Items:

CNN:

Increasingly worried, Trump takes over Kavanaugh defense — Trump torches ‘lousy’ Democrats on Kavanaugh — (CNN)President Donald Trump has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the way Brett Kavanaugh has defended himself in wake of sexual assault allegations that have threatened to derail …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, twitchy.com and Political Wire

Aaron C. Davis / Washington Post:

Kavanaugh's ‘choir boy’ image on Fox interview rankles former Yale classmates — On Monday night, Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh said in a nationally televised interview that in his younger years, he was focused on sports, academics and “service projects.”

Discussion: Shareblue Media, National Review, HuffPost, CNBC, Politico, Althouse, Splinter, Daily Kos, RealityChek, BuzzFeed News, The Week, Daily Wire, New Republic, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Balloon Juice, CANNONFIRE, Slate, Law & Crime and Eschaton

Steve Kiggins / USA Today:

Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford offers Senate four people who corroborate her assault claims — The attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford have sworn and signed declarations from four people who corroborate her claims of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Elana Schor / Politico:

Merkley to seek injunction to stop Kavanaugh vote — Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Wednesday will announce that he's seeking an injunction in federal court designed to stop a final vote on Brett Kavanaugh, asserting an obstruction of his constitutional duty to advise and consent on nominees.

Discussion: Common Dreams, Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, The Gateway Pundit, The Week and AOL

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:

Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell is GOP choice to question Kavanaugh and accuser at hearing — Republican senators have selected Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to question Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and the woman who has accused the Supreme Court nominee of sexually assaulting …

CBS News:

Michael Avenatti says new Brett Kavanaugh accuser will come forward before Thursday — Judge Brett Kavanaugh says he's “not going anywhere,” in a very unusual public defense of his fitness to serve on the Supreme Court. He strongly denied allegations of sexual misconduct from Christine Blasey Ford …

Discussion: CNBC, RedState and Townhall

New York Times:

In Yale's Culture of Privilege and Alcohol, Her World Converged With Kavanaugh's — Last week, more than 30 years after they graduated from Yale, Deborah Ramirez contacted her old friend James Roche. — Something bad had happened to her during a night of drinking in the residence hall their freshmen year …

Discussion: The Federalist, CBS News, The Week, Politico, CBS Los Angeles and TheBlaze

Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:

Avenatti Client Emerges With New Allegations Against Kavanaugh — In a Wednesday tweet, lawyer Michael Avenatti released emails with a lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee containing the name of a third woman detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Discussion: CBS News, National Review and Balloon Juice

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Feinstein: Kavanaugh misled about grand jury secrecy in Vince Foster probe — The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of misleading the Senate about his handling of grand jury secrets while working for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr two decades ago.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Political Wire, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Lawyers, Guns & Money, CNBC and HuffPost

Arizona Republic:

Maricopa County prosecutor tapped to lead hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, accuser — Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story had the incorrect last name of Rachel Mitchell. — Rachel Mitchell, a Maricopa County sex crimes prosecutor, will lead questioning …

Discussion: Vox, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, BloombergQuint, Associated Press, New York Times, United States Senate Committee …, Raw Story, Washington Times and HuffPost

John Wagner / Washington Post:

Kavanaugh nomination: Judge says he is victim of ‘character assassination’ as third woman comes forward — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a high-stakes hearing. The committee will hear from Christine Blasey Ford …

Discussion: National Review, Mother Jones, Axios, twitchy.com and Breitbart

Jia Tolentino / New Yorker:

Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, and the Things Men Do for Other Men — One of the most notable qualities of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, leaked to the Washington Post a month before the 2016 Presidential election, was the bizarre, awkward, three-toddlers-in-a-trenchcoat artificiality …

Discussion: Shareblue Media, American Prospect and Los Angeles Times

Christal Hayes / USA Today:
Brett Kavanaugh's 1982 calendar being used as evidence against sexual assault allegations

Discussion: HuffPost, Gothamist, The Guardian, Washington Times, The Week, VICE News, Conservative News Today, CNN and Daily Wire

The Harvard Crimson:
Harvard Law School Refuses to Say Whether Kavanaugh Will Return to Teach in January

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Political Wire and AOL

Politico:
Democrats in the dark on eve of historic Kavanaugh hearing

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Wire, Bustle, The Week, The Resurgent and Althouse

Online NewsHour: Majority of Americans oppose Kavanaugh nomination if Ford's allegation is true, poll says

Associated Press:
The Latest: Trump would prefer faster Kavanaugh confirmation

Discussion: Conservative News Today, The American Conservative and The Right Scoop

Adam J. White / Weekly Standard:
The Democrats' “Flight 93” Nomination

Discussion: Townhall

Politico:
Full transcript: Brett Kavanaugh's opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee

Discussion: ABC News, Associated Press and Washington Post

Paul Sperry / New York Post:
Eight big problems for Christine Blasey Ford's story

Discussion: New Republic, Weekly Standard, Vox, ThinkProgress and HuffPost, more at Mediagazer »

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:
The anatomy of a smear — Senate Democrats seeking …

Discussion: New York Times, ThinkProgress and The Federalist

Domenico Montanaro / NPR:
New Poll Finds Americans Deeply Divided By Gender On Kavanaugh Nomination

Discussion: Raw Story, The Daily Caller, 89.3 KPCC and The Week

Elise Viebeck / Washington Post:
Three Yale Law School classmates who endorsed Kavanaugh call for investigation into sexual misconduct claims

NBC News:
GOP hires female attorney to question Ford, Kavanaugh's accuser

Discussion: Slate, The Daily Caller, Washington Monthly, Liberty Unyielding, Denver Post and AOL

Jocelyn Noveck / Associated Press:
AP Interview: Hill says Kavanaugh isn't a #MeToo referendum

Discussion: theGrio and NTK Network

Axios: Kavanaugh's second accuser willing to testify before Congress

BostonGlobe.com:
Republicans are adopting Trump's tactics in Kavanaugh battle

Discussion: Washington Post

David Barden / HuffPost: Tucker Carlson Criticizes Rape Victims Who Don't Report: 'You're Part Of The Problem'

Willa Frej / HuffPost:
Judiciary Committee Republicans Are Dodging Deborah Ramirez, Attorney Says

Discussion: Townhall, The Hill, Hot Air and Splinter

Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball:

New Polls: Democrats in Decent Shape Across the Frost Belt — Democratic Senate incumbents with big leads in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin; very close races in Indiana Senate and Ohio governor; Scott Walker behind in Wisconsin — A series of new Reuters/Ipsos/University …

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Axios

David Lauter / Los Angeles Times:
With growing support from women, Democrats poised for major gains in midterm, new poll shows

Discussion: Mother Jones and POLITICUSUSA

Ben Kamisar / NBC News:
NBC News poll: Ohio gubernatorial race tied, Brown leads big in Senate race

Discussion: Reuters and NTK Network

The Daily Beast:

Revealed: What Erik Prince and Moscow's Money Man Discussed in That Infamous Seychelles Meeting — Mueller's team and Congressional investigators have looked into a meeting in the Seychelles between allies of Trump and Putin. Now we have the Russian read-out of what was said.

Discussion: Raw Story

Haley Britzky / Axios:

Trump says China has been “attempting” to influence midterms — President Trump said that China has been “attempting” to influence the upcoming midterm elections while chairing a United Nations Security Council meeting on Wednesday. — What we don't know: How they've been interfering — if at all — or for how long.

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

Ramsen Shamon / Politico:
Trump at UN accuses China of meddling in US elections

Discussion: One America News Network and Axios

Farai Mutsaka / Associated Press: Zimbabwe's leader says he offers Trump land for golf course

Daniel Chaitin / Washington Examiner:

H.R. McMaster: ‘Wholly appropriate’ for Gary Cohn to remove letter from Trump's desk — Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Tuesday defended his ex-White House colleague Gary Cohn for removing a trade-related document from President's Trump. — “I know about that incident …

Michael Schwirtz / New York Times:

Deliberate or Not, Trump's Speech Draws Laughter at the U.N. — UNITED NATIONS — They laughed. — Not even a minute into the speech. They laughed. — On the planet's biggest stage, with more than 100 world leaders gathered with their ministers, ambassadors and dignitaries of every stripe …

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart, Outside the Beltway, IJR, Daily Kos, Quartz and HuffPost

Hayley Miller / HuffPost:
Nikki Haley: United Nations Laughter Not A Diss But A Sign Of Respect For Trump's ‘Honesty’

Discussion: Townhall, IJR, The Week and Mashable

Jon Henley / The Guardian:

Distracted Boyfriend meme is sexist, rules Swedish ad watchdog — Popular image of man ogling another woman deemed degrading and discriminatory — The popular Distracted Boyfriend meme, based on a photo of a man turning away from his outraged girlfriend to stare admiringly at another woman …

Discussion: TheBlaze, Front Page Magazine, RT and The Local

Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:

Website Revs Up, With New York Magazine's Help, to Cover More Local News — With the once robust metropolitan news coverage in New York dwindling, a new nonprofit website called The City is teaming up with New York magazine in hopes of replacing some of that lost local accountability and investigative journalism.

more at Mediagazer »

Melanie Zanona / The Hill:

Republicans start to pull plug on members — Republicans are performing critical triage to their midterm spending strategy as they seek to hold on to their House majority in a difficult midterm year. — The House GOP's campaign arm pulled the plug on its remaining ad buys last week …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Ben Jacobs / The Guardian:
Tennessee debate highlights uphill battle as Democrats eye Senate majority

Discussion: CNN

bellingcat:

Skripal Suspect Boshirov Identified as GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga — Bellingcat and its investigative partner The Insider - Russia have established conclusively the identity of one of the suspects in the poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal, and in the homicide of British citizen Dawn Sturgess.