memeorandum: The chosen one? The new film that claims Trump's election was an act of God (Harriet Sherwood/The Guardian)

12:05 PM ET, October 3, 2018

Top Items:

Ariane de Vogue / CNN:

FBI expands inquiry into Ford allegations — (CNN)The FBI is expanding its inquiry into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh beyond the initial four interviews that the White House directed to be conducted. — The efforts come as anticipation builds …

Discussion: Hot Air, KRTV-TV and Daily Kos

Margot Cleveland / USA Today:

Christine Blasey Ford's changing Kavanaugh assault story leaves her short on credibility — Put aside Christine Blasey Ford's emotional performance. Her testimony revealed her as a witness whose memories change at her convenience. — CONNECT — When Christine Blasey Ford testified …

Discussion: Power Line, Real Clear Politics, The Last Refuge, Washington Examiner, ThinkProgress and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

NBC News:

Dozens of potential sources of information have not been contacted by the FBI in Kavanaugh investigation — With the investigation winding down, multiple individuals who have tried to contact the bureau have not heard back. — WASHINGTON — More than 40 people with potential information …

Discussion: Political Wire, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze, New York Times and Hot Air

Fox News:

Christine Blasey Ford ex-boyfriend says she helped friend prep for potential polygraph; Grassley sounds alarm — In a letter released Tuesday and obtained by Fox News, an ex-boyfriend of Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault …

Discussion: Townhall, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times, The Other McCain, Above the Law, CANNONFIRE, The Lid, TheBlaze, Breitbart, Louder With Crowder, Front Page Magazine, Washington Post, Real Clear Politics, Instapundit and Joe.My.God.

Wall Street Journal:

Friend Rejects Claim That Ford Helped Her on Polygraph Test — Monica McLean, a friend of Christine Blasey Ford, rejected the assertion that Dr. Ford had coached her on how to take a polygraph test, as alleged by a former boyfriend of Dr. Ford in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo and Joe.My.God.

Burgess Everett / Politico:

GOP senators use Kavanaugh to beat back 2020 primary challengers — Senate Republicans are making an aggressive play to ward off primary challenges in 2020, digging in behind embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and showing the GOP base that they are fighting on behalf of President Donald Trump's court pick.

Discussion: Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, Washington Post, Breitbart, Joe.My.God. and Townhall

Elise Viebeck / Washington Post:

Republicans on Senate panel release explicit statement about Kavanaugh accuser's sex life — In an unprecedented move, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday released an explicit statement that purports to describe the sexual preferences of a woman who has accused Supreme …

Discussion: Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Week, The Hill, Breitbart, Axios and The Intellectualist

Sean Davis / The Federalist:
CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD'S EX-BOYFRIEND TOLD SENATE JUDICIARY HE WITNESSED HER COACH A FRIEND ON POLYGRAPHS

Discussion: The Last Refuge, National Review, twitchy.com, TheBlaze, LifeNews.com, Just Security, Scared Monkeys, Geller Report, Washington Free Beacon, Chicks On The Right, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and Patterico's Pontifications

Morgan Chalfant / The Hill:
FBI in the eye of Senate storm

Discussion: Washington Post

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
FBI navigates political minefield and deadline in Kavanaugh inquiry

Discussion: Just Security, ThinkProgress, Feeds, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, HuffPost, The Week, The Atlantic, The Intercept, Washington Times, The Daily Caller and National Review

Washington Post:
‘Just plain wrong’: Flake, Collins criticize Trump for mocking Kavanaugh accuser at political rally

Discussion: CNN, Media Matters for America, Joe.My.God., news.avclub.com and ABC News

NBC News:
FBI could wrap up Kavanaugh probe as early as Tuesday night

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:
Rachel Mitchell expertly eviscerates the case against Kavanaugh

Discussion: DCReport.org, Right Wing Watch and The Daily Caller

Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo: Flake Reacts To Trump's Mockery Of Blasey Ford: 'It's Kind Of Appalling'

CNN:
Trump mocks Christine Blasey Ford's testimony, tells people to ‘think of your son’

Discussion: The Root, CBS San Francisco, Bangor Daily News, Mediaite, FOX6Now.com, The Week, The Atlantic and TheBlaze

Orrin Hatch / Wall Street Journal: Brett Kavanaugh's Righteous Anger

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:
Does it matter what Kavanaugh did in high school? Well, yes.

Discussion: The Atlantic and Vox

Scott Thistle / Press Herald:
Collins walks a political tightrope with Kavanaugh decision

Discussion: Daily Kos

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
2 Of Brett Kavanaugh's Former Classmates Withdraw Support For Him

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, The Week and The Atlantic

Melina Delkic / New York Times:

How Times Journalists Uncovered the Original Source of the President's Wealth — Three reporters spent over a year digging through more than 100,000 pages of documents and chasing down key sources familiar with President Trump's father and his empire. — Times Insider delivers behind …

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, Mother Jones, CNBC, Mediaite, Unfogged, The Week and The Reality-Based Community

New York Times:

Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father — The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today's dollars from his father's real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Mother Jones, Bloomberg, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, ABC News, Hit & Run, CNNMoney, Townhall, HuffPost, IJR, Raw Story, Politico, Bangor Daily News, Washington Times, Outside the Beltway, CNBC, Hullabaloo, FiveThirtyEight, The Week, POLITICUSUSA, Deadline, Conservative News Today, Joe.My.God., FOX6Now.com, WPIX 11 New York, Spectator USA, Esquire, Mashable, Chicks On The Right, Media Matters for America, FOX News Radio, BloombergQuint, Eschaton, France 24, Mediaite, Law & Crime, KRTV-TV, Vox, Common Dreams, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Free Beacon, Daily Kos, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Shareblue Media, Talking Points Memo, The Intellectualist, Jezebel, The Reality-Based Community, Balloon Juice, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Caller, The Mahablog, Shakesville and Taylor Marsh

Rebecca Morin / Politico:

Trump rips into The New York Times over tax schemes report — President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized a New York Times investigation that alleged the president perpetuated a number of tax schemes and fraud during the 1990s to bolster the inheritance he received from his parents.

Discussion: Political Wire and Mediaite

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:
Trump Even Inherited His Self-Made Myth

Discussion: Raw Story, The Week, New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:
‘Art of the Deal’ writer says New York Times report ends myth of Trump as ‘self-made man’

Discussion: Fox News, Raw Story and CNBC

New York Times:
Donald Trump and the Self-Made Sham

Discussion: Washington Post, CNBC, The Daily Caller and VICE

Daily Mail:
YOU'RE HIRED! Trump earned $200,000 a year at age three, and was a millionaire by eight

Discussion: Chicks On The Right

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
The creation myth of the billionaire businessman Donald Trump just imploded

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times and The Week

New York Times:

Kavanaugh's 1983 Letter Offers Inside Look at High School Clique — The beachfront property was rented, the guests were invited and an ever-organized Brett M. Kavanaugh had some advice for the seven Georgetown Preparatory School classmates who would be joining him for the weeklong escapade.

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:
Key Revelations From Mark Judge's Addiction Memoir, ‘Wasted’

Discussion: Raw Story and The Week

Kevin Collier / BuzzFeed News:

This Ohio Woman's Run-In With The FBI Gives Us A Window Into Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia Probe — WASHINGTON — Cassandra Ford tends to stay online late into the evening and then sleep in. So when two FBI agents dispatched by special counsel Robert Mueller's office pounded on her boyfriend's door …

Discussion: Raw Story

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Small GOP Lead in CD01 — Positive views of incumbent overcome Dem-leaning environment — West Long Branch, NJ - The contest in Pennsylvania's newly drawn 1st Congressional District remains tight, but Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick has inched ahead of Democratic challenger Scott Wallace …

Discussion: Political Wire

Jillian Kay Melchior / Wall Street Journal:

Fake News Comes to Academia — How three scholars gulled academic journals to publish hoax papers on ‘grievance studies.’ — The existence of a monthly journal focused on “feminist geography” is a sign of something gone awry in academia. The journal in question—Gender, Place & Culture …

Discussion: National Review and Eduwonk

Richard Baldwin / Areo:
Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship

Discussion: Mother Jones and National Review

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

The Meritocracy Against Itself — How Ivy League resentments took over the Kavanaugh debate. — A week ago, Elizabeth Bruenig of The Washington Post wrote a column about the dreadful feeling of being yanked back, thanks to the allegations of teenage sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh …

Discussion: The American Conservative

Molly McKew / Wired:

BRETT KAVANAUGH AND THE INFORMATION TERRORISTS TRYING TO RESHAPE AMERICA — The network architecture built in Gamergate helped propel Trump to the presidency and fuel conspiracies like Pizzagate and QAnon. Now it's backing Brett Kavanaugh. — SINCE THE ADVENT of Donald Trump's candidacy …

Harriet Sherwood / The Guardian:

The chosen one? The new film that claims Trump's election was an act of God — More than 1,000 US cinemas are screening The Trump Prophecy - which posits that God chose the philandering billionaire to restore America's moral values — It was, everyone agreed, a miracle.

Discussion: Political Wire

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

GOP gloom: Republicans predict House majority will be swept away by Democratic ‘spending tsunami’ — Five weeks before critical midterm elections, House Republicans are outgunned and outmanned as a constellation of well-resourced Democratic groups dedicated to winning the majority overwhelm GOP defenses.

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Conservative Group Wants You to Believe Iran's President Endorsed Beto O'Rourke — A neoconservative group appears to be behind a listing recruiting voice actors to pretend to be President Rouhani in an effort to portray him as backing the Texas Democrat. — A neoconservative foreign …

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Freedom Caucus Chairman says ‘strong suggestion’ undercover FBI sources taped Trump campaign — House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said on Wednesday it is very likely that undercover FBI sources taped members of the Trump campaign. — “There's a strong suggestion …

Joe Giordano / PRWeb:

Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and ProPublica Win 2018 Barlett & Steele Awards — The Reynolds Center announced the winners of the 12th annual Barlett and Steele Awards. Winners include Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and ProPublica. — Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal …