Top Items:
Steve Eder / New York Times:
Did a Queens Podiatrist Help Donald Trump Avoid Vietnam? — In the fall of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam. — For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about …
Discussion:
Spectator USA, Townhall, Little Green Footballs, Conservative News Today, Washington Post, CNN, Gothamist, Law & Crime, The Daily Beast, Hullabaloo, IJR, The Root, AOL, FOX2now.com, POLITICUSUSA, TMZ.com, The Week, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, FOX31 Denver, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, Joe.My.God. and Mediaite
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New York Times:
Trump Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq to See American Troops — President Trump made his first visit to U.S. troops in a combat zone amid a government shutdown and days after his Pentagon chief resigned. — Iraq is the one theater of war where Mr. Trump has not promised a rapid withdrawal.
Discussion:
Quartz, AOL, RedState, BuzzFeed News, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Political Wire
Benjamin Siegel / ABC News:
President Donald Trump makes surprise Christmas visit to troops in Iraq in first trip to combat zone — President Donald Trump went to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on his first visit to U.S. troops in the Middle East as president. — First lady Melania Trump joined him on the unscheduled Wednesday visit.
Darlene Superville / Associated Press:
Trump in Iraq on first visit to troops in troubled region
Trump in Iraq on first visit to troops in troubled region
Discussion:
Task & Purpose
Wesley Morgan / Politico:
Trump makes first trip to Iraq as president
Trump makes first trip to Iraq as president
Discussion:
ABC News, Power Line, One America News Network and twitchy.com
Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner / NBC News:
Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime
Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime
Discussion:
Power Line, Salon, Reuters, HuffPost, Patterico's Pontifications, People.com, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, Joe.My.God., Breitbart, Complex, CNN, IJR, The Week, Daily Wire, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Raw Story
Christian Whiton / Fox News:
After Mattis, Trump needs a very different kind of defense secretary
After Mattis, Trump needs a very different kind of defense secretary
Discussion:
Test Feed Using Fields
Mark Maremont / Wall Street Journal:
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker Incorrectly Claims Academic All-American Honors — Claim from Whitaker's University of Iowa football days listed on résumé and government documents — Matthew Whitaker, the acting U.S. Attorney General, has incorrectly claimed …
Discussion:
Political Wire, Daily Kos, Splinter, Mediaite, Contemptor, POLITICUSUSA and Joe.My.God.
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Josh Kovensky / Talking Points Memo:
WSJ: Whitaker Fudged Academic Honors On Resume, Gov Documents — Acting Attorney General and former hot tub salesman Matthew Whitaker claimed he earned “All-American” academic honors during his University of Iowa football days on his resume and on government applications …
Rachael Bade / Politico:
Federal workforce starts to feel pinch of prolonged shutdown — The partial government shutdown entered its fifth day Wednesday with no signs of a breakthrough and hundreds of thousands of federal workers about to feel the pinch of a protracted standoff. — President Donald Trump …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Splinter, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times
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David Edwards / Raw Story:
C-SPAN caller: I support Trump's shutdown because 'it's getting us closer' to the second coming of Jesus
Annie Grayer / CNN:
Mark Meadows says Trump is still ‘very firm’ on the wall as shutdown drags on
Mark Meadows says Trump is still ‘very firm’ on the wall as shutdown drags on
Discussion:
Joe.My.God. and The Daily Signal
Mariam Khan / ABC News:
Negotiations to end partial government shutdown at a standstill
Negotiations to end partial government shutdown at a standstill
Discussion:
Associated Press
Garrett Ross / Politico:
Trump says he will do ‘whatever it takes’ to secure funding for border wall
Trump says he will do ‘whatever it takes’ to secure funding for border wall
Discussion:
Political Wire
CNBC:
Dow gives back 282-point gain as Wall Street's wild ride continues — Stocks rose sharply in volatile trading on Wednesday as surges in retail and energy shares helped Wall Street regain the steep losses suffered in the previous session. — The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 657 points higher …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and Mediaite
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Thomas Heath / Washington Post:
Dow Jones industrial average rises over 2 percent as U.S. stock markets try to recover from worst Christmas Eve in history — The Dow Jones industrial average rolled past a 600-point gain Wednesday afternoon, nearly 3 percent, as markets attempted to recover from the worst Christmas Eve plunge in history.
Discussion:
Townhall, Wall Street Journal, Political Wire and The Week
James LaPorta / Newsweek:
Donald Trump Twitter Account Video Reveals Covert U.S. Navy SEAL Deployment During Iraq Visit — President Donald Trump and the White House communications team revealed that a U.S. Navy SEAL team was deployed to Iraq after the president secretly traveled to the region to meet …
Department of Homeland Security:
CBP Shares Additional Information about Recent Passing of Guatemalan Child — An eight year-old Guatemalan national, previously apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, died shortly before midnight on December 24 at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
RELATED:
David Beavers / Politico:
Nielsen deflects blame for boy's death in Border Patrol custody
Nielsen deflects blame for boy's death in Border Patrol custody
Discussion:
The Guardian, Conservative News Today, The Daily Caller and Associated Press
Holly Yan / CNN:
Border patrol chief wants more help from Congress after 2nd migrant child dies in custody
Border patrol chief wants more help from Congress after 2nd migrant child dies in custody
Discussion:
KTLA and Daily Wire
Max Read / New York Magazine:
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually. — In late November, the Justice Department unsealed indictments against eight people accused of fleecing advertisers of $36 million in two of the largest digital ad-fraud operations ever uncovered.
Daily Mail:
Ivanka Trump wears a summer dress and a bizarre full straw visor hat — Ivanka Trump rang in the holiday on Tuesday by heading out for a stroll near her family's Palm Beach, Florida estate on Christmas Day with husband Jared Kushner.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite
Washington Post:
Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for funding a group behind disinformation in Alabama race — Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday for funding a group linked to a “highly disturbing” effort that spread disinformation during last year's Alabama special election …
Discussion:
Axios, Gizmodo, The Daily Caller, CNBC and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
How Trump gave away his secret war zone trip — The tweets stopped and soon the jig was up. — President Donald Trump's trip to Iraq this week, his first to a war zone as president, was supposed to be a surprise. But the White House couldn't keep the sensitive trip a secret for long.
Discussion:
Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit
Jamelle Bouie / Slate:
The Path to the Presidency Could Be Harder for White Democrats in 2020 — Before Barack Obama's election in 2008, the relationship between white racial views and partisanship wasn't as clear-cut as one might think. Yes, Republicans won the large majority of white voters who believed black disadvantage …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and New York Times
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Bad headlines for Trump also means ratings slump for Hannity — NEW YORK (AP) — The drumbeat of bad news for President Donald Trump hasn't been good for his most prominent backer in the media. — While Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity will end 2018 as cable news' most popular personality …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Congressman Mark Sanford:
I hope that Christmas Day was great for you, family, and friends. Happy Post-Christmas, and before long, it will be Happy New Year! — I've embedded below text from the genesis of what would have been my farewell address on the House floor. As it turned out, last week was chaotic …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
New York Times:
Donald Trump's Selective Service Records — For many years, Donald J. Trump asserted that it was “ultimately” a high draft lottery number that kept him out of the Vietnam War, rather than a medical condition. But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise.
Discussion:
Washington Post
Angie Leventis Lourgos / Chicago Tribune:
As national Women's March leaders face claims of anti-Semitism, Chicago group says it won't host January march, citing costs — Women's March Inc. co-President Tamika Mallory, shown in 2017, has praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on social media.
Discussion:
RedState, The Daily Caller, Townhall, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Daily Wire
USA Today:
USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll: What do Democrats want in 2020? Someone new - and Biden. But definitely not Hillary — Former Vice President Joe Biden hints at a 2020 run, saying he thinks he's “the most qualified person” in this Country to be president. Veuer's Justin Kircher has the story. — CONNECT
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
David Rutz / Washington Free Beacon:
The Worst of MSNBC in 2018 — The Washington Free Beacon presents its sixth annual look at the worst MSNBC had to offer over the previous year. — In the second year of the Trump administration, there were Russia conspiracies galore (John Heilemann asked if Devin Nunes was a “Russian agent” …
Discussion:
Daily Wire and Power Line
politics.myajc:
‘Deportation bus’ candidate reports to jail following indictment — State senator and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Williams turned himself into Hall County jail Wednesday, days after news broke that he had been indicted on charges that included insurance fraud.
Discussion:
Raw Story