memeorandum: Aftab Pureval's secret poll obtained by Enquirer (Sharon Coolidge/Cincinnati.com)

3:35 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: TIME, New Republic, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Balloon Juice, KTLA, twitchy.com and KTVQ-TV

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.”

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.

Paige Lavender / HuffPost:

Judicial Crisis Network On Kavanaugh Allegations: ‘We Have To Look Into This Further’ — The group's chief counsel made the comments after a third woman accused the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct. — Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network …

Discussion: The Atlantic, AOL and Refinery29

Elana Schor / Politico:

Merkley seeks injunction to stop Kavanaugh vote — Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Wednesday announced 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, Political Wire, Breitbart, The Week, Weekly Standard, The Gateway Pundit, AOL, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh and Daily Kos

New York Times:

Kavanaugh Is Accused by a Third Woman of Sexual Misconduct — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh was accused Wednesday by another woman of having engaged in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s. — The allegation came from Julie Swetnick …

Discussion: National Review, Fox News, CNBC, CBS News, Shareblue Media, ThinkProgress, New Republic, RedState, Breitbart, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and Hot Air

Erick Erickson / The Resurgent:

Brett Kavanaugh, the Child Drug Runner and Gang Rape Organizer, Is Not This Guy — To believe all the accusations about Kavanaugh is to disregard everything we intuitively know about human behavior. — Fact check: true. — Brett Kavanaugh, the left would have you believe …

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: Washington Monthly, Essence, NPR, Townhall, Breitbart, Conservative News Today, Shareblue Media, Patterico's Pontifications, twitchy.com and Daily Kos

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: Townhall, RedState and CNBC

Cristina / Media Matters for America:

Conservative media figures won't listen to multiple women about Brett Kavanaugh, but they did take an anonymous 4chan post at face value — Right-wing media pushed 4chan-sourced claim that the latest Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick wasn't real — Right-wing media figures spread a hoax …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mother Jones and National Review

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: Snopes.com, Vox, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, BloombergQuint, United States Senate Committee …, New York Times, Washington Times and HuffPost

Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review:
Against the ‘Choir Boy’ Straw Man

Discussion: Washington Post, The Right Scoop and CNBC

New York Times:
In Yale's Culture of Privilege and Alcohol, Her World Converged With Kavanaugh's

Discussion: The Federalist, Sara A. Carter, CBS News, The Week, CBS Los Angeles, Politico and TheBlaze

Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:
Avenatti Client Emerges With New Allegations Against Kavanaugh

Discussion: Power Line, National Review and Balloon Juice

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Feinstein: Kavanaugh misled about grand jury secrecy in Vince Foster probe

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

Jia Tolentino / New Yorker:
Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, and the Things Men Do for Other Men

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, American Prospect and New York Magazine

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

Discussion: Townhall

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

Discussion: CNN, Above the Law, HuffPost and Law & Crime

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Avenatti: New Kavanaugh accuser ‘100 percent’ prepared to testify before Senate Judiciary Committee

Discussion: Political Wire and Politico

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

Discussion: Mother Jones, Townhall, Washington Monthly and Morning Consult

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

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

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

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

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

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell is GOP choice to question Kavanaugh and accuser at hearing

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

Discussion: ABC News and Associated Press

Antonia Noori Farzan / Washington Post:
Who is Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor chosen to question Kavanaugh and his accuser?

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Arizona Republic, twitchy.com, The Gateway Pundit and The Week

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

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

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

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Vox, HuffPost, Washington Post and New York Times

Hayley Miller / HuffPost:

Nikki Haley: United Nations Laughter Not A Diss But A Sign Of Respect For Trump's ‘Honesty’ — World leaders were “falling over themselves to get a picture with him,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said. — U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Wednesday claimed …

Discussion: Townhall, Queerty, The Week, IJR and Mashable

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, HuffPost and ThinkProgress

Haaretz: Nikki Haley to Fox News: World Leaders Laughed at Trump Out of ‘Respect’

Emily Tamkin / BuzzFeed News:
Diplomats Say They Were Definitely Laughing At Trump At The UN

Discussion: Raw Story and Mashable

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: The Atlantic, 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: Shakesville and Raw Story

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.

Discussion: The Guardian

Hayley Dixon / Telegraph:
Skripal ‘hitman’ unmasked as GRU colonel awarded Russia's highest military honour by Vladimir Putin

Discussion: Politico

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 …

Matt Dixon / Politico:

Former GOP rainmaker gives $200K to Gillum — TALLAHASSEE — Mike Fernandez, a longtime Republican megadonor who has left the party, gave $200,000 to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum last week. — The health care billionaire has long been one of Florida Republicans' biggest rainmakers …

Adam Smith / Tampa Bay Times: Ron DeSantis' wobbly campaign is running out of time to show he's ready for big leagues

Sharon Coolidge / Cincinnati.com:

Aftab Pureval's secret poll obtained by Enquirer — Here's what you need to know about Steve Chabot and Aftab Pureval in 30 seconds Wochit — The Enquirer has obtained the poll at the center of a campaign finance spending complaint against Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval …