memeorandum: Celebrities Forced to Evacuate Homes as Fires Threaten Malibu, Calabasas (Gene Maddaus/Variety)

2:30 PM ET, November 10, 2018

Top Items:

Matthew Whitaker: An Attack Dog With Ambition Beyond Protecting Trump — WASHINGTON — President Trump first noticed Matthew G. Whitaker on CNN in the summer of 2017 and liked what he saw — a partisan defender who insisted there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Vox, Hullabaloo, Hill Reporter, The Week, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, CNN and BloombergQuint

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Even for This President, It Was a Remarkable Week of Attacks on American Institutions — WASHINGTON — In the three days after the Democrats captured the House, President Trump fired his attorney general and replaced him with a loyalist critical of both the courts and the Russia investigation.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

April Ryan / Washington Post:

I'm a black woman. Trump loves insulting people like me. — The type of comments he makes, over and over, leaves little doubt about what he really thinks of us. — April Ryan is White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, Mediaite, Daily Wire, Washington Free Beacon and TMZ.com

CNN:

Sessions realized too late that Whitaker was auditioning for his job — Washington (CNN)When things were particularly bad between President Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions, the attorney general's chief of staff, Matt Whitaker, would attend White House meetings in his place.

Discussion: emptywheel, Political Wire, Raw Story, Hot Air, Law & Crime and The Guardian

Cristina Cabrera / Associated Press:
Whitaker May Have Violated Group's Tax-Exempt Status By Criticizing Clinton

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:
Whitaker said he supports state's rights to nullify federal law

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Washington Post and Vox

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Sneak peek of House Dems' agenda

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Washington Post

Washington Post:
There is no way this man should be running the Justice Department

Discussion: Raw Story, BloombergQuint and Lawfare

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
A Trump Hack Hacks Justice

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, The Guardian, Politico and HuffPost, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

‘Real low energy’: Critics pile on after Trump cancels visit to U.S. military cemetery outside Paris — PARIS — President Trump flew 3,800 miles to this French capital city for ceremonies to honor the military sacrifice in World War I, hoping to take part in the kind of powerful ode …

Discussion: IJR, Associated Press and Splinter

Henry Austin / The Independent:

Trump cancels First World War memorial visit to US cemetery because of ‘poor weather’ — Heavy rain prevented him from arriving via helicopter to the site that looms large in the history of the US Marine Corps — {{#singleComment}}{{total}} comment{{/singleComment}}{{^singleComme nt}}{{total}} comments{{/singleComment}}

Discussion: One America News Network

Haley Britzky / Axios:

Trump cancels WWI cemetery visit over bad weather — President Trump and first lady Melania Trump cancelled their trip to the Ainse-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in France on Saturday due to “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather.”

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and Balloon Juice

Politico:
Truce in Paris after Trump's offense at Macron's EU army pledge

Discussion: New York Times, Breitbart, Al Jazeera English and One America News Network

Associated Press:
Leaders laud fallen soldiers on eve of armistice centennial

Discussion: Mother Jones, RTÉ and Bloomberg

BBC: Armistice Day: Trump-Macron smooth over defence spat

Alex Harris / miamiherald:

Whoops! Brenda Snipes' office mixed bad provisional ballots with good ones — Broward's elections supervisor accidentally mixed more than a dozen rejected ballots with nearly 200 valid ones, a circumstance that is unlikely to help Brenda Snipes push back against Republican allegations of incompetence.

Discussion: Townhall, TheBlaze, Chicks On The Right, IJR, The Capitolist, twitchy.com and Associated Press

Luke Rosiak / The Daily Caller:

Gillum, Nelson Lawyers Fight To Include Non-Citizen's Vote in Florida — Lawyers for Florida Democratic candidates Andrew Gillum and Bill Nelson both fought to prevent a non-citizen's vote from being excluded Friday night, according to a transcript of a Palm Beach County Canvassing Board proceeding obtained …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

miamiherald:

State elections observers have seen no evidence of criminal activity in Broward County — Election monitors from the Florida Department of Elections stationed in Broward County have seen no evidence of criminal activity in the administration of Tuesday's election, a DOE staffer told the Miami Herald early Saturday.

Discussion: Roll Call, New York Times, Chicks On The Right, The Daily Signal and TheBlaze

Daniel Molina / The Floridian:
More Provisional Ballots Found in Broward

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Lulu Ramadan / Palm Beach Post:
Palm Beach elections supervisor bans cameras from public ballot-counting

Discussion: Townhall, Conservative News Today, Daily Wire, Instapundit, twitchy.com and The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:

See How the Close the Results Are in Florida, Georgia and Arizona — Two races for governor and two for Senate have margins so slim that they might trigger a recount. We're tracking the votes as they are tallied. — Senate Forecast — U.S. Senate in Florida› — Candidate Party Votes Pct.

Washington Post:

Recount to begin in Florida Senate and governor's races, in echo of 2000 presidential election — As heavily Democratic counties in South Florida scrambled to meet a Saturday deadline to report election returns, Republican Rick Scott's lead over Democrat Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate race shrunk …

Discussion: Political Wire and Rick Scott for Florida

New York Times:

Deployed Inside the United States: The Military Waits for the Migrant Caravan — With little electricity, no combat pay and holidays away from home, the 5,600 American troops on the southwest border are on a mission ordered by a politically determined commander in chief and a Pentagon unable to convince him of its perils.

Quint Forgey / Politico:

Wife of GOP megadonor to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom — President Donald Trump is set to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation's highest civilian honor — to the wife of one of the Republican Party's most prominent patrons, the White House announced Saturday.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Washington Post:

Tape of Khashoggi's killing has been given to U.S., Saudi, Europeans, Erdogan says — ANKARA — An audio recording tracking the dying moments of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul has been shared with Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and Germany in addition to the United States …

Discussion: The Week

New York Times: Turkey's President Says Recording of Khashoggi's Killing Was Given to U.S.

Lucy Middleton / Metro.co.uk:
Twitter ‘gave Saudi Arabia information about journalist who ended up dead’

Discussion: Jihad Watch

Wall Street Journal:

California Bar Shooter Posted on Social Media Shortly Before and During Massacre — Ian Long reached out to former Marine comrades in days before shooting — The gunman who killed 12 people at a Southern California bar was posting on Facebook and Instagram immediately before and during the massacre …

Discussion: LifeZette and Clayton Cramer

Arizona Republic:

Kyrsten Sinema's lead over Martha McSally widens in roller-coaster U.S. Senate race to replace Jeff Flake — Republican Martha McSally's path to the U.S. Senate narrowed with Friday's latest tabulation of votes from Tuesday's election, which showed Democrat Kyrsten Sinema widening her lead in a race that remains in a tortuous limbo.

Discussion: VICE News, Raw Story, Roll Call, Outside the Beltway and National Review

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Sinema expands lead in Arizona Senate race

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Hill, Political Wire, Joe.My.God. and Arizona Republic

Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press: Nothing unusual about vote count in Arizona dragging on

New York Times:

Democrats Have Two Paths for 2020: Daring or Defensive. Can They Settle on Either? — WASHINGTON — For Democrats, the victories, near wins and stinging losses on Tuesday have intensified a debate in the party about how to retake the White House, with moderates arguing they must find …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Los Angeles Times:

GOP Rep. Denham falls behind Democrat as 3 other Republicans lose ground in Friday's ballot tally — Republican Rep. Jeff Denham lost his lead over Democrat Josh Harder on Friday in one of California's four unresolved congressional races as updated ballot counts showed the GOP in growing danger …

Marisa Schultz / New York Post:

James Comey discussed sensitive FBI business on his private email … Fired FBI chief James Comey used his private Gmail account hundreds of times to conduct government business — and at least seven of those messages were deemed so sensitive by the Justice Department that they declined to release them.