Top Items:
McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting — A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump's former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign …
Philip Issa / Associated Press:
Iraqi lawmakers demand US withdrawal after Trump visit — Iraqi lawmakers Thursday demanded U.S. forces leave the country in the wake of a surprise visit by President Donald Trump that politicians denounced as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. — Politicians from both blocs …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, CNN, Joe.My.God., Newsweek, Raw Story and Japan Today
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Wall Street Journal:
The Constant Spin Zone — How one publication reported Trump's trip to see troops in Iraq. — By The Editorial Board — President Trump and his wife Melania made a surprise visit to American soldiers in Iraq on Wednesday, and you would think that would be a straightforward event to write up.
Discussion:
RedState, Splinter, Washington Post and Althouse
Eli Watkins / CNN:
Troops bringing Trump hats to sign may violate military rule … (CNN)President Donald Trump made his first visit to a war zone on Wednesday, receiving an enthusiastic reception from many US troops there — some of whom may have run afoul of military rules. — Video footage and the written report …
Discussion:
Townhall, RedState, Talking Points Memo, Conservative News Today, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Wire, NewsBusters, Breitbart, IJR, POLITICUSUSA, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Louder With Crowder, The Resurgent, Washington Times, The Hill, Mediaite, The Week, The New Civil Rights Movement and Washington Post
John Solomon / The Hill:
Giuliani calls for Mueller to be investigated for destruction of FBI evidence — Rudy Giuliani has an unmistakable New Year's message for special counsel Robert Mueller: It is time for the chief investigator in the Russia case to be investigated in 2019. — In wide-ranging interviews …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God., Washington Times, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and Splinter
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Tara Golshan / Vox:
Trump's approval rating drops to Charlottesville levels during shutdown — Trump's fight for the border wall is tanking his approval rating. — President Donald Trump is getting blamed for the government shutdown, a new poll shows. — The president's popularity has dropped below 40 percent amid …
Discussion:
Roll Call, POLITICUSUSA and The Daily Caller
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Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:
Trump claims without evidence that ‘most of the people not getting paid’ in partial government shutdown are Democrats
Discussion:
Politico
Eli Okun / Politico:
Trump tries to steer shutdown focus to financial impact for Democrats
Discussion:
Vox, Washington Post, One America News Network and Associated Press
Patrick Radden Keefe / New Yorker:
How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success — With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump—then a floundering D-lister—as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency. — “Expedition: Robinson,” a Swedish reality-television program …
Discussion:
AOL, The Daily Beast and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Michelle Obama Ends Hillary Clinton's Run as Most Admired — WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the first time in 17 years, a woman other than Hillary Clinton has been named by Americans as the woman they admire most. Former first lady Michelle Obama, who finished second to Clinton three times …
Discussion:
ABC News, Bloomberg, AOL, CBS Chicago, The New Civil Rights Movement, Talking Points Memo, The Week, CBS Philly, Hill Reporter, IJR, The Daily Caller, FOX31 Denver, WREG-TV, Mediaite and CBS Baltimore
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Stef W. Kight / Axios:
Gallup: The Obamas are America's most admired man and woman
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Allan Smith / NBC News:
Probe of Trump's charity could crash ‘like a Mack Truck’ into his real estate empire — “There seems to be entanglements in terms of people and probably in terms of money,” said Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor and NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst. — The Trump Foundation …
Discussion:
Law & Crime, Raw Story and POLITICUSUSA
Patrick McGreevy / Los Angeles Times:
One year of legal pot sales and California doesn't have the bustling industry it expected. Here's why … When Californians voted in 2016 to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, advocates of the move envisioned thousands of pot shops and cannabis farms obtaining state licenses …
Discussion:
Hit & Run and Instapundit
Paul Sonne / Washington Post:
A Russian bank gave Marine Le Pen's party a loan. Then weird things began happening. — PARIS — When French politician Marine Le Pen needed cash for her far-right party, an obscure Russian bank agreed to help. — Four years later, the bank has gone bust. The owner is facing a warrant for his arrest.
New York Times:
For Bernie Sanders, Holding Onto Support May Be Hard in a 2020 Bid — WASHINGTON — Some of his top congressional supporters won't commit to backing him if he runs for president again — and two may join the 2020 race themselves. A handful of former aides might work for other candidates.
Discussion:
The Week
Washington Post:
Disinformation campaign targeting Roy Moore's Senate bid may have violated law, Alabama attorney general says — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday that his office is exploring whether disinformation tactics deployed against Republican Roy Moore during …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Verge and Axios, more at Techmeme »
Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Mike Bloomberg prepared to spend at least $100 million on a 2020 campaign for president if he decides to run — Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is preparing to spend over his $100 million mayoral campaign budget if he chooses to run for president in 2020.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Front Page Magazine
Dan Zak / Washington Post:
What is Ginni Thomas saying now? The evolution of an unusually outspoken Supreme Court spouse — What is going on with Ginni Thomas? — She still looks and sounds like the Washington wife of yore, with the pearl earrings, the Reagan-red cocktail attire, the sunglasses tiara'd atop her blond bob.
Kate Irby / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
California Republicans fear even bigger trouble ahead for their wounded party — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., leaves the chamber after the Republican-led House approved funding for President Donald Trump's border wall in legislation that pushes the government closer …
Justin Rohrlich / GovExec.com:
The Government May Be Shut Down, But Taxpayers Are Footing The Bill For Mar-a-Lago Party Tents — At loggerheads with Congress over funding his signature border wall, president Donald Trump shut down large swaths of the federal government at midnight on Friday.
Discussion:
Joe.My.God., Law & Crime, IJR, TheStreet and Mediaite
Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press:
Defying pundits, GOP share of Latino vote steady under Trump — LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — Pedro Gonzalez has faith in Donald Trump and his party. — The 55-year-old Colombian immigrant is a pastor at an evangelical church in suburban Denver. Initially repelled by Trump in 2016 …
C.J. Ciaramella / Hit & Run:
EXCLUSIVE: Read Desperate Emails From People Scammed by A.G. Matt Whitaker's Business Associates — When current acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker joined the advisory board of a Florida patent firm in 2014, he was quoted in a company press release saying he “would only align myself with a first class organization.”
Discussion:
Raw Story
The Daily Beast:
$800 Million in Taxpayer Money Went to Private Prisons Where Migrants Work for Pennies — Detention for migrants is big business—and a Daily Beast investigation reveals new details about just how lucrative it's become. — For $3 a day, Yesica works the graveyard shift in the kitchens …
Discussion:
Splinter
Noah Gray / CNN:
How Trump's secret trip to Iraq became not-so-secret — (CNN)It was a crisp winter morning in Sheffield, England, when amateur photographer and plane enthusiast Alan Meloy looked out his kitchen window and noticed a large trail in the sky. He didn't know he was about to accidentally help uncover …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Hill Reporter and Breitbart
Hannah Dreier / New York Times:
How a Crackdown on MS-13 Caught Up Innocent High School Students — The Trump administration went after gang members — and instead destroyed the American dreams of immigrant teenagers around the country. — When Alex walked into school on June 14, 2017, it felt as if summer had already started.
Carla Herreria / HuffPost:
Homeland Security Chief Faults Parents, ‘Open Border’ Supporters In Migrant Kids' Deaths — Kirstjen Nielsen ordered an overhaul of medical screening procedures at the Mexican border after Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8, died on Christmas Eve. — Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen …
Discussion:
Townhall, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Department of Homeland …, Conservative News Today and Axios
Mitch Daniels / Washington Post:
Things really aren't that bad. But we like to think they are. — Mitch Daniels, a Post contributing columnist, is president of Purdue University and a former governor of Indiana. — Human nature being as it is, every decade or two someone has to write a book to set us straight and cheer us up.
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