memeorandum: Kanye West Delivers Pro-Trump Rant on ‘SNL,’ Gets Booed By Audience (Marlow Stern/The Daily Beast)

1:50 PM ET, September 30, 2018

Top Items:

The fight over the scope of the Kavanaugh probe — DRIVING THE DAY — FIRST LOOK ... TRUMP'S WEEK ... Monday: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE and present the Medal of Honor. The president will travel to Johnson City, Tennessee, where he'll hold a roundtable with supporters and then a political rally.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Vox and HuffPost

Associated Press:

3rd Kavanaugh accuser has history of legal disputes — WASHINGTON (AP) — Julie Swetnick, one of the women who has publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, has an extensive history of involvement in legal disputes, including a lawsuit in which an ex-employer accused …

Discussion: Chicks On The Right

Kris Schneider / ABC News:

If Kavanaugh confirmed, ‘House will have to’ investigate if Senate doesn't: Democratic rep — The leading Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said that if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, “the House will have to investigate” allegations of sexual assault and perjury if the Senate doesn't “properly” do so.

Discussion: Political Wire, One America News Network, Breitbart and Politico

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Sen. Chuck Grassley asks FBI to probe false allegation against Kavanaugh — The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the FBI Saturday to investigate a man who made an unfounded rape claim against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and then later recanted, saying the man had acted in bad faith.

Discussion: Louder With Crowder and Associated Press

NBC News:

White House limits scope of the FBI's investigation into the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh — The FBI has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, a White House official confirmed to NBC News. — WASHINGTON — The White House is limiting the scope …

NBC News:

Trump: No limits on FBI's investigation into allegations against Brett Kavanaugh — The FBI has not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, a White House official confirmed to NBC News. — FBI begins new Brett Kavanaugh background investigation

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politico, Law & Crime, Axios, POLITICUSUSA and Splinter

Alexandra Hutzler / Newsweek:

Kavanaugh Confirmation: Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy Says We're Seeing The ‘Death and Decline of Democracy’ — Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned high schoolers, as the toxic fight over confirming Brett Kavanaugh to replace him on the court continues …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Wall Street Journal:
White House Questioned on Its Role in Kavanaugh FBI Probe

Discussion: The Week

ABC News:
Graham suggests no need for FBI to talk to Kavanaugh classmates on drinking: He's not a ‘stumbling, bumbling drunk’

Discussion: Washington Post, Joe.My.God. and Breitbart

Victoria McGrane / BostonGlobe.com:
Warren says she will ‘take a hard look at running for president’

Discussion: CBS News, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Big League Politics, Joe.My.God., Splinter, Mediaite and Axios

New York Times:
Details of F.B.I.'s Kavanaugh Inquiry Show Its Restricted Range

Jacqueline Klimas / Politico:
White House not ‘micromanaging’ FBI, Sarah Sanders says

Discussion: Axios and The Daily Beast

New York Times:
Kavanaugh Borrows From Trump's Playbook on White Male Anger

Discussion: Washington Post and Media Matters for America

CNN:
Classmate: Kavanaugh drank heavily - CNN Video

Discussion: The Hill, The Independent, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, ABC News and Washington Post

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
White House Directs FBI to Interview First Two Kavanaugh Accusers, But Not the Third

Discussion: Daily Wire, HuffPost, Mediaite, Big League Politics, CNN and USA Today

Alexander Burns / New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren Says 2020 Presidential Run Is On the Table

Discussion: Politico, Balloon Juice and The Week

Caitlin Dickerson / New York Times:

Hundreds of Migrant Children Quietly Moved to a Tent Camp on the Texas Border — In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Splinter and Common Dreams

Nathan J. Robinson / Current Affairs:

How We Know Kavanaugh Is Lying — This man should not serve another day as any kind of judge... On Thursday morning, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford detailed under oath her claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attacked her and sexually violated her when he was 17.

Discussion: CNN

Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast:

Kanye West Delivers Pro-Trump Rant on ‘SNL,’ Gets Booed By Audience — The rapper/entrepreneur delivered a pro-Trump speech in a red MAGA hat after his final performance—one that didn't make it to air. — Following his performance of “Ghost Town” during the 44th season premiere of Saturday Night Live …

Discussion: Axios, Spectator USA, The Week, The Guardian, Press Association and USA Today

Jacqueline Klimas / Politico:

Cotton: Feinstein to be investigated over leaked letter from Ford — Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office will be investigated to determine if it leaked a confidential letter from one of Brett Kavanaugh's accusers, Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday. — Cotton, an Arkansas Republican …

Discussion: Political Wire

Lauren Egan / NBC News:
Trump asks if Feinstein leaked allegation against Kavanaugh, says FBI probe may be ‘blessing in disguise’

Discussion: RedState and The Guardian

Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:

The Republican Party Abandons Conservatism — The conservative virtues remain real virtues, the conservative insights real insights, and the conservative temperament an indispensable internal gyro keeping a country stable and sane. — Ignoring the dictum that if one is not of the left …

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

Brett Kavanaugh Loves His Beer — The Supreme Court nominee paired a frothy beverage with identity politics. — At one point during Brett Kavanaugh's testimony, desperate for some comic relief, I messaged a friend to ask if this were a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing or an Anheuser-Busch commercial.

Discussion: Raw Story and ABC News

Maureen Dowd / New York Times: Capitol Hill Ralph Club

Elena Schneider / Politico:

Democrats find their answer to the Koch brothers — Democratic House candidates raised nearly $36 million online in August, giving many the resources to air early TV ads. — Hundreds of thousands of online donors are pouring gobs of cash into Democratic House campaigns at an accelerating clip …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Rick Montgomery / Stars & Stripes:

Judge's ruling may force Kansas Army officer's adopted Korean daughter to leave US — A retired Kansas Army officer has lost his fight in federal court over his adopted daughter's citizenship status, meaning she may have to return to her native South Korea.

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

An Age Divided by Sex — The Kavanaugh nightmare shows how the competing moralisms of conservatism and feminism are tearing us apart. — The Year of Our Lord 1982, upon whose disputed summertime events a Supreme Court nomination now hinges, was part of the Reagan era but not a particularly conservative year.

Salena Zito / Washington Examiner:

The politicians we deserve — In the spring of 2011, then-governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana announced he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination, ending months of excitement among conservatives around his possible run. His family's reservations under the spotlight far outweighed …