Top Items:
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Conservative Lawyers Say Trump Has Undermined the Rule of Law — WASHINGTON — The annual convention of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, has long been a glittering and bustling affair. In the Trump era, though, the group has become more powerful than ever …
Haley Britzky / Axios:
Fox News backs CNN in lawsuit against Trump White House — Fox News is supporting CNN's lawsuit against the Trump administration over the White House's revocation of Jim Acosta's press pass and plans to file an amicus brief in the case, according to a statement from the network's president Jay Wallace.
Discussion:
Politico, Townhall, Washington Examiner, Washington Times and TMZ.com, more at Mediagazer »
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Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:
Five days of fury: Inside Trump's Paris temper, election woes and staff upheaval — The president's post-election outbursts during his Paris trip include a testy call with the British prime minister and threats to fire aides. — Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker - · - 1 hour ago - ·
Associated Press:
Trump to back major rewrite of sentencing laws — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning to support the first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation. — That's according to a senior White House official familiar with the president's plans …
David R. Lurie / Slate:
CNN Will Win Its Lawsuit to Have Jim Acosta's White House Press Pass Restored
CNN Will Win Its Lawsuit to Have Jim Acosta's White House Press Pass Restored
Discussion:
Vox, IJR, Daily Wire, Axios, Bloomberg and The Atlantic
The Daily Beast:
Melania Trump Exploits the John Kelly Power Vacuum
Melania Trump Exploits the John Kelly Power Vacuum
Discussion:
Raw Story, Reuters, Boing Boing, Political Wire, Bloomberg and Vox
Nancy Cook / Politico:
Staff anger spills over at White House
Staff anger spills over at White House
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Washington Post, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, Salon, The Week, Axios, Raw Story, Mashable, AOL, ABC News, POLITICUSUSA, The Gateway Pundit, Task & Purpose and The Last Refuge, more at Mediagazer »
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump's post-election rage, and what it suggests about his alternate reality
Trump's post-election rage, and what it suggests about his alternate reality
Discussion:
Mediaite
Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Melania Trump leads new round of White House firing and fury
Melania Trump leads new round of White House firing and fury
Discussion:
Raw Story, KAJ-TV, Washington Post, National Review, Breitbart, Washington Post and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:
Top Dems Launch Investigation of Acting Attorney General's Involvement in Company Charged with Bilking Consumers of Millions of Dollars — “On November 7, 2018, President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and put in his place Matthew G. Whitaker to serve as Acting Attorney General,” the Members wrote.
Discussion:
Mother Jones and The Daily Signal
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Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:
Justice Department OLC Opinion Claims Matt Whitaker's Attorney General Appointment Is Legit — The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel was consulted before Jeff Sessions resigned. — WASHINGTON The Justice Department's quasi-judicial Office of Legal Counsel told President Donald Trump …
Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:
Justice Department Memo Declares Matt Whitaker Appointment Is Legal
Justice Department Memo Declares Matt Whitaker Appointment Is Legal
Discussion:
checkyourfact.com, Politico, Weekly Standard, Washington Free Beacon and Dan Froomkin's White …
Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
How Trump's move to put a loyalist over Mueller is already backfiring
How Trump's move to put a loyalist over Mueller is already backfiring
Discussion:
New Republic, Wall Street Journal, One America News Network, ELLE, CNN and Townhall
Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed News:
The Justice Department Says That Trump's Acting Attorney General Appointment Is Legal
The Justice Department Says That Trump's Acting Attorney General Appointment Is Legal
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Washington Post:
Scientists acknowledge key errors in study of how fast the oceans are warming — A major study claimed the oceans were warming much faster than previously thought. But researchers now say they can't necessarily make that claim. — Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth's oceans …
Discussion:
CNN, Watts Up With That?, Patterico's Pontifications and Althouse
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Joshua Emerson Smith / sandiegouniontribune.com:
Climate contrarian uncovers scientific error, upends major ocean warming study — Scripps Pier at after sunset in La Jolla on Wednesday (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) — Researchers with UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Princeton University recently walked …
Discussion:
Power Line, Hit & Run and Burn More Coal
Michel Rose / Reuters:
France says Trump should have shown ‘decency’ on Paris attacks anniversary — PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, who attacked his French counterpart in a series of tweets on Tuesday, should have shown “common decency” instead since the country was mourning the anniversary …
Discussion:
Politico, Political Wire and The Daily Caller
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump meddles in McCarthy-Jordan leadership brawl — On the eve of Kevin McCarthy's long-awaited defeat of his nemesis, Rep. Jim Jordan, President Donald Trump is jumping into the fray to play peacemaker. — Trump has privately urged the House majority leader to strike a deal …
Discussion:
National Review, Talking Points Memo and CNN
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Marco Rubio, Trumpified — The Florida senator is promoting false conspiracy theories for partisan gain. — Senator Marco Rubio wasn't very pleased with yesterday's edition of this newsletter. — “Left wing commentators have no shame just making things up,” he tweeted, along with a link to the newsletter.
Discussion:
Mother Jones and Florida Politics
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Des Bieler / Washington Post:
Marco Rubio roasted for ‘3 pt kick’ tweet about Florida election
Marco Rubio roasted for ‘3 pt kick’ tweet about Florida election
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Sasha Issenberg / New York Magazine:
Divided We Stand The country is hopelessly split. So why not make it official and break up? — The year is 2019. California's new governor, Gavin Newsom, recently elected on a platform that included support for the creation of a single-payer health-care system, now must figure out how to enact it.
Discussion:
Splinter
HuffPost:
DC Neo-Nazi Who Called Pittsburgh Murders A ‘Dry Run’ Arrested; Has Deep Ties To ‘Alt Right’ — Jeffrey Clark wasn't shy about being a white supremacist. But it was only after his family reported him that authorities arrested him on gun charges. — WASHINGTON Jeffrey Clark …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Idavox, Talking Points Memo and Splinter
Scott McCartney / Wall Street Journal:
The Best of the Biggest U.S. Airports — The first WSJ U.S. Airport Rankings uses 15 metrics to determine which of the 20 largest airports treat travelers better — Call it the Mile-High Miracle: Denver International Airport is the best airport in the U.S. in the first-ever Wall Street Journal U.S. Airport Rankings.
Associated Press:
The Latest: Palm Beach machines overheat, miss recount votes — FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Florida's election recount (all times local): — The Palm Beach County elections supervisor says aging equipment has overheated, causing mismatched results in the recount of ballots in Florida's U.S. Senate race.
Discussion:
New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Political Wire
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Los Angeles Times:
Democrat Katie Porter overtakes GOP Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange County House ballot count — After clinging for a week to a slim lead in her run for reelection, Republican Rep. Mimi Walters fell 261 votes behind her Democratic challenger, Katie Porter, as Orange County's latest ballot count …
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Week and Political Wire
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Rachael Bade / Politico:
Pelosi swats at Moulton and guarantees she'll be speaker — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi swiped at her critics Wednesday, vowing in no uncertain terms to vanquish her opponents and become speaker in the next Congress. — The California Democrat brushed aside Rep. Seth Moulton's …
Discussion:
Political Wire
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Monmouth University Polling Institute:
Public Wants Congress to be a Check on Trump — Few support re-electing the president in 2020; not too keen on Pelosi, McConnell as leaders — West Long Branch, NJ - Nearly 6-in-10 Americans say they would like to see someone other than Donald Trump elected president in 2020 …
Discussion:
Politico and Political Wire
Russ Choma / Mother Jones:
Trump Campaign Paid Millions to Trump Businesses During Midterms — The president's fundraising was unprecedented. — Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign raised and spent an unprecedented sum of money during the midterm elections. But much of that cash wasn't used …
Discussion:
New Republic
Matt Dixon / Politico:
Federal prosecutors reviewing altered election documents tied to Florida Democrats — TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of State last week asked federal prosecutors to investigate dates that were changed on official state election documents, the first voting “irregularities” it has flagged in the wake of the 2018 elections.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Washington Free Beacon and twitchy.com
BBC:
Israel Defence Minister Lieberman resigns over Gaza ceasefire — Israel's defence minister has resigned over the cabinet's decision to accept a ceasefire ending two days of fighting with Palestinian militants in Gaza. — Avigdor Lieberman denounced the move as “surrendering to terror”.
Discussion:
TheBlaze
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Julie Kelly / American Greatness:
NeverTrump's Billionaire Leftist Benefactors — Just hours after Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general last Wednesday at the president's behest, #TheResistance found its newest target for destruction: Sessions' interim replacement, Matthew Whitaker. — Negative coverage …
Discussion:
Washington Post and New York Times
Nigel Jaquiss / Willamette Week:
Oregon's junior senator wants to be able to run for president without giving up his U.S. Senate seat. — U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is openly mulling a run for president. But a bid for the White House carries risks: By state law, he would have to give up his Senate seat to run.
Discussion:
The Guardian
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Forget Impeachment. Mueller's Real Threat to Trump Is in 2020. — Even before the new Democratic House arrives in Washington, the narrative has already been set: Angry Trump-hating Democrats are going to risk their party's standing by forcing their leaders to impeach President Trump.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Popular Information:
After lynching comments, Google donates $5000 to Cindy Hyde-Smith — U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) was caught on tape “joking” about her willingness to attend a lynching at a campaign event in November. “If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row,” Hyde-Smith said on November 2.
New York Times:
A Week After the Midterms, Trump Seems to Forget the Caravan — WASHINGTON — For weeks before the midterm elections, President Trump warned ominously about the threat from a caravan of migrants streaming from Central America toward Mexico's border with the United States.
Maggie Astor / New York Times:
Meet the Native American Woman Who Beat the Sponsor of North Dakota's ID Law — In the end, the Native American tribes of North Dakota could not save their preferred candidate, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, from a double-digit loss. — But, galvanized by anger over the state's voter ID law …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Balloon Juice
Dan Crenshaw / Washington Post:
SNL mocked my appearance. Here's why I didn't demand an apology. — Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, is a Republican representative-elect from Texas. — The past couple of weeks have been unusual for me, to say the least. After a year of hard campaigning for Congress in Texas …
Discussion:
HuffPost
Laura Meckler / Washington Post:
Betsy DeVos set to bolster rights of accused in rewrite of sexual assault rules — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is set to release a sweeping overhaul of how colleges and universities must handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment, giving new rights to the accused including …
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Morale Takes a Tumble Along With Stock Price — Employee surveys show weaker optimism about future, confidence in platform's mission — Facebook Inc.'s FB .43% difficult year is taking a toll on employee morale, with several key measures of internal sentiment taking a sharp turn …
Discussion:
Gizmodo and Hot Air, more at Techmeme »
Sam Levine / HuffPost:
Top Census Scientist's Testimony Casts Doubt On Motives For Study On Citizenship Question — The researcher says he outlined the cost and harm of adding the question. It didn't matter. — NEW YORK The Census Bureau's top scientist testified Tuesday that neither he nor …