memeorandum: Rasmussen poll shows Trump with lowest approval in a year (Michael Burke/The Hill)

6:20 PM ET, January 14, 2019

Top Items:

McConnell rebukes Rep. King for racial remarks as House Democrats ponder sanctions — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell became the highest-ranking Republican to speak out against Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) following his racially charged comments, saying that there is 'no place in the Republican Party …

Discussion: National Review, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Mediaite

Congressman Bobby Rush:

Rush Responds to Steve King's Rabid Racism with Censure Resolution — WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) released the following statement announcing that he will be introducing a resolution to formally censure U.S. Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) for his pattern of racist and xenophobic statements:

Discussion: VICE News, Axios, Joe.My.God., The Week, IJR, Daily Kos and Des Moines Register

Kristina Peterson / Wall Street Journal:

Shutdown Has Been a Year in the Making — Trump rejected several offers on border security, immigration — President Trump on Monday said it is up to Congress to end the government shutdown and the impasse over his request for border-wall funding. Yet Mr. Trump has three times rejected offers …

Sarah Ferris / Politico:

House Democrats move to censure Steve King over ‘white supremacy’ remarks — House Democrats are rushing to formally punish Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for controversial remarks he made last week that seemingly embraced racist terms, including “white supremacy.”

Discussion: Associated Press, Breitbart and Talking Points Memo

Noah Rothman / NBC News:

Trump's shutdown gamble now hinges on a wall many Republicans were never truly sold on — For two years, the GOP had many opportunities to fund Trump's wall both in part or in whole and it declined on every occasion. — On Friday, January 11, a dubious milestone was reached.

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
What's the Difference Between Steve King and Donald Trump?

Discussion: Washington Post, HuffPost, CNN, Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, Axios and NPR

Courier-Journal:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is going to Canada for surgery — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the fiercest political critics of socialized medicine, will travel to Canada later this month to get hernia surgery. — Paul, an ophthalmologist, said the operation is related to an injury in 2017 when his neighbor …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Townhall, Hit & Run, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Common Dreams, Joe.My.God., Splinter and The Daily Caller

CNN:

Transcripts detail how FBI debated whether Trump was ‘following directions’ of Russia — (CNN)In the chaotic aftermath at the FBI following Director James Comey's firing, a half-dozen senior FBI officials huddled to set in motion the momentous move to open an investigation into President Donald Trump …

Eric Tucker / Associated Press:

Trump's AG nominee: ‘Vitally important’ Mueller finish work — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general will tell senators at his confirmation hearing “it is vitally important” that special counsel Robert Mueller be allowed to complete his Russia investigation …

Discussion: Feeds, The Daily Caller, ABC News and Axios

Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
NYT Reveals FBI Retaliated Against Trump For Comey Firing

Discussion: New Republic, Lawfare, twitchy.com and The Atlantic

Senior Trump Official / The Daily Caller:

I'm A Senior Trump Official, And I Hope A Long Shutdown Smokes Out The Resistance — The Daily Caller is taking the rare step of publishing this anonymous op-ed at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose career would be jeopardized by its disclosure.

Discussion: Daily Wire

Matt Shuham / Talking Points Memo:
‘Senior Trump Official’ On Shutdown: ‘We Do Not Want Most Employees To Return’

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Michael Burke / The Hill:

Rasmussen poll shows Trump with lowest approval in a year — A conservative-leaning poll released Monday showed President Trump with his lowest approval ratings in almost a year. — The Rasmussen poll found that 43 percent of likely voters polled approve of Trump's job performance …

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Rasmussen Reports, Daily Kos and illegal immigration …

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Trump's shutdown strategy continues to show all the signs of failure

Discussion: HuffPost, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo and Shareblue Media

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Both parties aim to woo defectors as shutdown drags on — The White House and Democrats are each targeting defectors in the other party as they push dueling strategies to reopen the government. — House Democrats plan to take up a pair of stopgap funding bills this week …

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Washington Post:
Bipartisan Senate group forming in search of shutdown deal amid impasse between Trump, party leaders

Discussion: Political Wire

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg:
Trump Took Responsibility for the Shutdown, and Voters Say It's His

Discussion: Salon, Shareblue Media, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Washington Post and CNN

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is freaking out the news media. And it's working for her. — She's been on the job for less than two weeks and already has generated more national press coverage than some members of Congress get in their whole careers. — Not that it's been all positive, of course.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Yahoo News and RedState, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Knowles / Fox News:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the voice of an ignorant generation

Discussion: twitchy.com

Holly Otterbein / Politico:
Bernie Sanders staffs up for 2020

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Washington Post

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

P&G Challenges Men to Shave Their ‘Toxic Masculinity’ in Gillette Ad — Spot pegged to #MeToo asks ‘Is this the best a man can get?’ — Gillette is embracing the #MeToo movement in a new digital ad campaign aimed at men, the latest message from an advertiser attempting to change societal norms.

Discussion: Daily Wire, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Front Page Magazine, Seeking Alpha and Althouse

Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:

Second federal court blocks Trump's contraception rule — A federal judge in Pennsylvania put a nationwide block on Trump administration rules allowing virtually any employer to deny workers' birth control coverage, one day after a federal judge halted the rules in a smaller group of states.

David French / National Review: Lawless Federal Judges Are Winning Their War against the Trump Administration

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

GOP's John Kasich is looking to join CNN or MSNBC amid speculation he could run for president in 2020 — Republican John Kasich, who is thinking about running for president in 2020, is likely to announce this week that he will join a major cable news network.

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air, Associated Press, Axios, Joe.My.God., Front Page Magazine and The Daily Caller

John R. Kasich / USA Today: Republican Party is mired in the 1950s and ignores today's America at its peril

Wall Street Journal:

Ivanka Trump to Help Select Nominee for World Bank President — President Trump's daughter will assist Mnuchin, Mulvaney in the U.S. nomination process — President Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, will help Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney lead …

Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
White House: Ivanka Trump not under consideration for World Bank chief

Discussion: Political Wire

Richard L. Hasen / Slate:

The House Democrats' Colossal Election Reform Bill Could Save American Democracy — The Democrats' first order of business as they took control of the 116th Congress was introducing H.R. 1, the colossal “For the People Act.” This 571-page behemoth of a bill covering voting rights …

Ari Berman / Mother Jones: New York Has Some of the Worst Voting Laws in the Country. That's About to Change.

David Dayen / The Intercept:

Shuttered IRS Is Sending Automated Warnings of Asset Seizures, With Nobody to Call to Stop Them — The letter from the IRS is dated December 24, 2018, the Monday after the start of the government shutdown. The headline reads, “Notice of intent to seize (levy) your property or rights to property.”

Discussion: Boing Boing

Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:

Trump's DC Circuit Nominee — And Reported Supreme Court Contender — Wrote Inflammatory Op-Eds In College — WASHINGTON — Neomi Rao — President Donald Trump's pick for a powerful federal judgeship and a reported US Supreme Court contender — wrote a string of op-eds in college …

Discussion: Common Dreams, Daily Kos, Law & Crime, Mother Jones and Daily Wire

Bloomberg:

The Next American Car Recession Has Already Started — These should be boom times for Detroit. Unemployment is at a half-century low, gasoline is cheap and auto sales in the U.S. were near record levels last year. Yet American automakers are closing factories, cutting shifts and laying off thousands of workers.

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed News:

Bernie Sanders Will Meet With Former Female Staffers About 2016 Campaign Sexism And Harassment — Bernie Sanders will meet on Wednesday with women who have said they experienced sexual harassment and gender discrimination while working on his 2016 presidential campaign …

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, Shakesville, Talking Points Memo, Daily Wire, The Daily Beast, Axios, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

Nika Shakhnazarova / The Sun:

SPIDERS OF MARS Skin-crawling moment hundreds of spiders ‘rain’ from the sky in Brazil leaving terrified residents running for cover — The 14-year-old who filmed the incredible moment said it left him ‘stunned and scared’ as the arachnids floated in the air

Discussion: Mashable

Anna Staver / Denver Post:

Shutdown could cut flights out of Denver International Airport, air traffic controllers say — “At this point the federal government is starting to become an unreliable employer.” — Show Caption — of … Coloradans could be waiting in longer lines for fewer flights …

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib photographed with pro-Hezbollah activist who says Israel has no right to exist — Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was photographed with a Palestinian activist who praised the terrorist group Hezbollah, said Israel did not have the right to exist …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Washington Times, Hot Air, Mediaite, Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and twitchy.com

New York Times:

It's Time for T.S.A. Workers to Strike — The shutdown is painful, but it is also an opportunity for labor to take a stand. — Ms. Ehrenreich is the author of “Nickel and Dimed” and the founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Mr. Stevenson is a former labor organizer.

Discussion: National Review

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

No Coincidence Here: Trump's Bezos Attack Was a Valentine to The Enquirer — Even by the tweeting habits of the 45th president of the United States, it was a puzzler. — Until you examined it. Then it started to make sense. — A Twitter post on Sunday night showed Mr. Trump …

Discussion: Breitbart, Mediaite and Joe.My.God., more at Mediagazer »

Lyz Lenz / HuffPost:

You Should Care That Richard Spencer's Wife Says He Abused Her — Despite the so-called alt-right's attempt to be respectable, violence seems to follow it everywhere — even, allegedly, into Spencer's own home. — Nina Kouprianova and Richard Spencer were married during a small ceremony in Niagara Falls in August 2010.

Discussion: Splinter

Judith Kohler / Denver Post:

Big win for oil and gas industry: Colorado Supreme Court reverses Appeals Court ruling in Martinez case — Ruling says state regulators correct to balance development with public health, environmental impacts … In a big win for the oil and gas industry, the Colorado Supreme Court …