memeorandum: The U.S. Isn't Really Leaving Syria and Afghanistan (Dominic Tierney/The Atlantic)

2:50 PM ET, January 8, 2019

Top Items:

Trump Invites TV Representatives to Lunch Ahead of His Prime-Time Speech — WASHINGTON — President Trump has invited representatives from cable and broadcast news channels to an off-the-record lunch at the White House ahead of his prime time speech Tuesday night, an address in which he is expected …

Discussion: Joe.My.God., more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

As shutdown effects loom for normal Americans, Trump is feeling pressure to solve the stalemate — White House officials are increasingly concerned that the impending real-world effects of the shutdown could swamp Republicans if they don't find a way to make a deal fast.

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, NBC News, Hot Air, Daily Wire, Washington Post and Fortune

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:

Why Mike Pence Couldn't End the Shutdown — Mike Pence was set up to fail. — It seemed that way a lot over the past three weeks. In the days ahead of the federal funding deadline in December, it was the vice president who told Senate Republicans that the president would back a short-term spending bill to keep the government open.

Discussion: Raw Story and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Mike Allen / Axios:
The next juicy White House memoir comes out in 3 weeks, and ABC scored the first interview with its author

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Undecided on Emergency Declaration for Border Wall, Officials Say

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Patterico's Pontifications

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook PM: Trump vs. Schumer and Pelosi

Discussion: Washington Post and Political Wire

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

Veselnitskaya, Russian in Trump Tower Meeting, Is Charged in Case That Shows Kremlin Ties — [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] — Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who in 2016 met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower …

Discussion: RedState, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Axios, The Daily Beast, CNN, The Week, Daily Kos, Political Wire and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Russian lawyer at Trump Tower meeting charged in separate case — A Russian lawyer whose role at a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday in a separate case with obstructing justice in a money-laundering investigation.

Discussion: Raw Story

Brad Plumer / New York Times:

U.S. Carbon Emissions Surged in 2018 Even as Coal Plants Closed — WASHINGTON — America's carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4 percent in 2018, the biggest increase in eight years, according to a preliminary estimate published Tuesday. — Strikingly, the sharp uptick in emissions occurred …

Discussion: Washington Post, Rhodium Group, Motherboard, Gizmodo, CNN, KTLA, The Guardian, Common Dreams, Mashable, The Daily Caller and The Week

Steven Erlanger / New York Times:

U.S. Downgraded E.U.'s Diplomatic Status (but Didn't Say Anything) — BRUSSELS — The Trump administration downgraded the diplomatic status of the European Union's delegation to the United States last year without making a formal announcement or informing the bloc about the change, a European official said on Tuesday.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

DW.COM:
Trump administration downgrades EU mission to US

Discussion: Washington Post, The Guardian and Splinter

DailySabah:

A soft coup against Donald Trump — If U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton thought yesterday's visit was going to be a walk in the park, he must have had a rude awakening thanks to the lukewarm reception in the Turkish capital Ankara. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea …

Discussion: The Right Scoop and New York Times

New York Times:
Bolton Walked Back Syria Statement. His Disdain for Debate Helped Produce It.

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Post, Just Security, The Week, Al-Monitor, Talking Points Memo, Fox News, Hit & Run and TheBlaze

Kareem Fahim / Washington Post:
Turkish leader Erdogan scolds and snubs Bolton over Kurdish fighters

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, NPR, Al Jazeera, Hit & Run, TheBlaze and The American Conservative

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

Kellyanne Conway Corrects Sarah Sanders' Border Terrorist Claim: ‘Unfortunate Misstatement’ — Kellyanne Conway said her colleague, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, made an “unfortunate misstatement” on illegal immigration at the border on Fox News.

Discussion: Vox, Splinter, Los Angeles Times and Politico

Nicholas Rasmussen / Just Security:
Terrorists and the Southern Border: Myth and Reality

Discussion: Washington Post and Defense One

Joe Bruno / WSOC-TV:

Emergency Exit: Mark Harris trips alarm trying to evade Channel 9 in uptown — CHARLOTTE, N.C. - After Republican 9th Congressional District candidate Mark Harris finished addressing Mecklenburg County Republicans at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center Monday night, reporters …

Discussion: Political Wire, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Joe.My.God.

Andrea Pitzer / Washington Post:

If Trump declares a state of emergency, he might actually cause one — President Trump recently announced that he could “call a national emergency” to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Despite his assertions to the contrary, no national security crisis exists at the border.

Discussion: Raw Story

Ilya Somin / Reason:
Eminent Domain, Emergency Powers, and Trump's Wall

Discussion: NBC News, New York Times, Just Security, Conservative Review, HuffPost, Washington Post, American Prospect, NPR, Patterico's Pontifications and Hot Air

Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:
Can Trump Build a Wall Under a National Emergency?

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Breitbart, Raw Story and Washington Post

Ryan Struyk / CNN:
Trump's wall would be the 32nd active national emergency

Discussion: twitchy.com, Raw Story, Washington Post and Mediaite

Joseph Cox / Motherboard:

I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone — T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers' location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to posses it, letting them track most phones in the country.

Discussion: Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:

ABC's Jon Karl Grills VP Pence on Trump's Lies About Immigration: ‘This is About Credibility!’ — Vice President Mike Pence gave an interview to ABC's Jon Karl on Tuesday, during which, he was pressed hard on President Donald Trump's credibility amid the ongoing immigration debate.

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and ABC News, more at Mediagazer »

Associated Press:
The Latest: Pence says Trump's wall claim was ‘impression’

Discussion: CNN and The Daily Beast

Associated Press:
The Latest: Hoyer says Trump holding government ‘hostage’

Discussion: Breitbart

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:

Supreme Court Receives New Filing in Apparent Mueller Case — A new U.S. Supreme Court filing suggests the public may soon get more information about a mystery case believed to be tied to the criminal investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Discussion: SCOTUSblog, Shakesville, Raw Story and BloombergQuint

Lydia Wheeler / The Hill:
Ginsburg misses second day in a row at Supreme Court

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Daily Wire and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Kurt Bardella / USA Today:

News networks should not air Trump Wall speech without fact-checking first — On the same day Donald Trump asked broadcast networks for air time, he attacked the news media as ‘the enemy of the people.’ — President Donald Trump announced Monday that he “will Address the Nation …

Discussion: Conservative News Today, TMZ.com, Washington Post, Daily Wire, The Nation, IJR, The Daily Caller and fox8.com, more at Mediagazer »

Brian Stelter / CNN:
Trump's border address sparks extraordinary debate inside and outside TV networks

Discussion: Townhall, Washington Post and Vox, more at Mediagazer »

Jim Swift / The Bulwark:

Trolls and Grifters: David Reaboi and Charlie Kirk Edition — “The crazies have started rolling into Kandahar like it's a f—king bathtub drain.” — It is axiomatic that while change creates opportunity, chaotic change creates the most dramatic opportunities for the most unsavory actors.

Discussion: twitchy.com, Mediaite, Conservative News Today, Fox News Insider and Mother Jones

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shouldn't approach her facts the way Trump does

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, IJR, twitchy.com, Tennessee Star, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Daily Wire and Townhall

Hugo Daniel / The Daily Beast:

Protesters Chant ‘Arrest Him Now’ After Second Man Dies Inside Home of Wealthy Democratic Donor — Two men have died in 18 months inside the West Hollywood apartment of a Democratic donor that's been described as a ‘death chamber’ for black men. — By HUGO DANIEL1.8.19 9:16 AM ET

Discussion: RedState, Los Angeles Times, Front Page Magazine and Advocate

Monica Showalter / American Thinker:
Maybe Adam Schiff should investigate his donors before he goes after Trump

Discussion: The Cut, Washington Times, Front Page Magazine and The Gateway Pundit

Margaret Brennan / CBS News:

U.S. envoy working on Qatar dispute resigns from State Department — Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine Corps general and former head of U.S. Central Command who has been working as an envoy for the Trump administration to resolve a dispute with Qatar, has resigned from his position with the State Department.

Discussion: CNN, Task & Purpose, Al Jazeera and The American Conservative

Washington Post:

New plans for Afghanistan would have Trump withdrawing fewer troops — The U.S. military is drafting plans to withdraw a few thousand troops from Afghanistan while continuing all major missions in the longest war in American history, U.S. officials said, three weeks after President Trump sought options for a more drastic pullout.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Dominic Tierney / The Atlantic:
The U.S. Isn't Really Leaving Syria and Afghanistan

Discussion: Washington Post and National Review

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:

Ex-Border Patrol Agent Suggests Trump Admin Lying About Only Six Suspected Terrorists Detained — National Border Patrol Council president and Fox News regular Brandon Judd bashed NBC on Tuesday for their report on how many terrorists U.S. Customs and Border Protection supposedly stopped at the southern border.

Tom Jawetz / Center for American ProgressCenter …: Immigration Priorities in the 116th Congress

Mona Charen / The Bulwark:

The Tired Argument That NeverTrumpers Are to Blame for Trump — Saying it repeatedly doesn't make it any more true. — It has become a common refrain on the left that “NeverTrump” conservatives are all very well, but they refuse to accept responsibility for the incubus they helped to gestate.

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
A bulwark against Trump and Trumpism

Discussion: twitchy.com

Antonio Olivo / Washington Post:

Corey Stewart, the firebrand Virginia Republican, will leave politics in December — Corey A. Stewart, the Republican firebrand whose fights to crack down on illegal immigration and preserve Confederate monuments reflected the nation's increasingly polarized political landscape …

NBC New York:

NYC Mayor Guarantees Comprehensive Health Care for All in Historic Surprise Announcement — It's not health insurance; it's the city paying for direct comprehensive care for those who can't afford it or are undocumented, a spokesman said — NYC Mayor Guarantees Comprehensive Health Care for All

Discussion: abc7ny.com, ABC News, Breitbart, Daily Wire, TheBlaze, IJR, NTK Network and WPIX 11 New York

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

U.S. Still Leans Conservative, but Liberals Keep Recent Gains — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans' assessment of their political ideology was unchanged in 2018 compared with the year prior when 35% on average described themselves as conservative, 35% as moderate and 26% as liberal.

Discussion: CNN and NTK Network