Top Items:
Rachael Bade / Politico:
Pelosi asks Trump to reschedule SOTU because of the shutdown — Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday asked President Donald Trump to reschedule his State of the Union address — or deliver it in writing — as long as the government remains shut down. — Pelosi said the partial shutdown …
Discussion:
Washington Post
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John Bresnahan / Politico:
Pelosi gets revenge against one of the Dem rebels — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exacted revenge against one of her most outspoken detractors Tuesday night, blocking Rep. Kathleen Rice from landing a seat on the high-profile House Judiciary Committee. — Pelosi lobbied for other members …
Discussion:
Breitbart, ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Townhall and The Daily Caller
David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:
Hoping to keep his seat and wary of angering the base, McConnell defers to Trump on the shutdown
Hoping to keep his seat and wary of angering the base, McConnell defers to Trump on the shutdown
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Emily Stewart / Vox:
Nancy Pelosi uninvites Trump from the State of the Union until the shutdown is over
Nancy Pelosi uninvites Trump from the State of the Union until the shutdown is over
Discussion:
Politico and twitchy.com
Burgess Everett / Politico:
‘The gang concept almost never works’: Senators struggle to end shutdown
‘The gang concept almost never works’: Senators struggle to end shutdown
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and The Week
Reuters:
Four U.S. troops reported among 16 dead in north Syria attack — BEIRUT (Reuters) - A bomb attack claimed by Islamic State killed U.S. troops in northern Syria on Wednesday, weeks after President Donald Trump said group was defeated there and he would pull out all American forces.
Discussion:
Defense One, Task & Purpose, Bloomberg, FDD's Long War Journal, The Right Scoop and NBC News
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Louisa Loveluck / Washington Post:
Islamic State claims blast in U.S.-patrolled city in Syria; monitoring group, local media report casualties
Islamic State claims blast in U.S.-patrolled city in Syria; monitoring group, local media report casualties
Discussion:
Political Wire
Elizabeth McLaughlin / ABC News:
US troops killed in bomb blast in northern Syria
US troops killed in bomb blast in northern Syria
Discussion:
New York Times and NPR
Axios:
Exclusive excerpt: Chris Christie torches Jared — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie settles scores in “Let Me Finish,” a memoir out Jan. 29 from Hachette Books, writing that President Trump “trusts people he shouldn't, including some of the people who are closest to him.”
Discussion:
National Review, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Chicks On The Right, Splinter, Raw Story and Mediaite
Jim Tankersley / New York Times:
Shutdown's Economic Damage Starts to Pile Up, Threatening an End to Growth — WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown is inflicting far greater damage on the United States economy than previously estimated, the White House acknowledged on Tuesday, as President Trump's economists doubled projections …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Splinter, Outside the Beltway, The Week and Mediaite
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Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Republicans Break Ranks Over Move to Lift Sanctions on Russian Oligarch's Firms — WASHINGTON — A group of 11 Republican senators broke ranks with their leadership and the administration on Tuesday to side with Democrats in a showdown over sanctions on Russia, underscoring the political sensitivity …
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Washington Post:
T-Mobile announced a merger needing Trump administration approval. The next day, 9 executives had reservations at Trump's hotel. — Last April, telecom giant T-Mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-Mobile's value and give it a huge new chunk of the cellphone market.
Discussion:
The Verge and Daily Kos, more at Techmeme »
Des Moines Register:
The Register's editorial: Steve King should resign for the good of Iowa — Some may argue that 4th District voters are getting what they deserve. But the entire state needs a healthy rural economy. Low commodity prices and President Trump's tariffs have hit farmers hard. — CONNECT
Discussion:
New York Times, Daily Wire, Decider, Washington Post, Joe.My.God., WORLD, Hot Air, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit, AOL, CNN, Axios, Mediaite, USA Today, WTKR-TV, ThinkProgress, BuzzFeed News, Politico, Splinter, The Atlantic, The Daily Caller, ABC News and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »
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Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Republicans Rebuke Steve King but Face Vexing Question: Why Not Sooner?
Republicans Rebuke Steve King but Face Vexing Question: Why Not Sooner?
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Right Wing Watch, Mediaite, NBC News and Roll Call
Rebecca Klein / HuffPost:
Karen Pence Is Working At A School That Bans LGBTQ Employees And Kids — The school discriminates against LGBTQ people in its job application and says LGBTQ kids aren't welcome. — Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, started at a job this week teaching art at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, VICE News, USA Today, Raw Story, Joe.My.God., Splinter and Boing Boing
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Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:
The school that hired Karen Pence requires applicants to disavow gay marriage, trans identity
The school that hired Karen Pence requires applicants to disavow gay marriage, trans identity
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Mediaite and LGBTQ Nation
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Trump and Putin Have Met Five Times. What Was Said Is a Mystery. — WASHINGTON — The first time they met was in Germany. President Trump took his interpreter's notes afterward and ordered him not to disclose what he heard to anyone. Later that night, at a dinner …
Discussion:
NBC News, The Week, Daily Kos, CNN, Front Page Magazine, Mediaite and The Atlantic
Eliot Brown / Wall Street Journal:
WeWork's CEO Makes Millions as Landlord to WeWork — Adam Neumann has bought properties and leased them to his co-working startup, sparking conflict of interest concerns — For more than two months after employees at International Business Machines Corp. moved into a Manhattan building managed …
Discussion:
The Real Deal New York
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
“He's not a guy who likes a plan”: How Trump takes his strategic cues from Mike Tyson — When a frustrated adviser once tried to convince President Trump to consider a strategic plan, the president launched into a story about his friend Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion.
Discussion:
Raw Story and Political Wire
Alexander Avilov / The Moscow Times:
Official Data Vastly Underestimates Russian Emigration - Report — At least six times more Russians are leaving the country than officially estimated, a comprehensive study conducted by the Proekt news outlet said on Wednesday. — Proekt's report highlights discrepancies between official data …
Ronald J. Hansen / Arizona Republic:
Kelli Ward's husband accused of spitting on Martha McSally supporter — Former U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward's husband was accused of spitting in the eye of one of her former volunteers because the volunteer subsequently supported her former political foe, Martha McSally, police records obtained Tuesday show.
Discussion:
Joe.My.God. and Raw Story
Kate O'Neill / Wired:
Facebook's ‘10 Year Challenge’ Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right? — If you use social media, you've probably noticed a trend across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter of people posting their then-and-now profile pictures, mostly from 10 years ago and this year. — WIRED OPINION
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Why would William Barr take this job? The answer should alarm Trump. — It was William P. Barr's confirmation hearing. But it was Robert S. Mueller III's affirmation hearing. — President Trump had nominated Barr to be his new attorney general to shield him from Mueller's hoax of a rigged witch hunt.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, New York Times, NBC News, Just Security, Talking Points Memo, The Week and Above the Law, more at Mediagazer »
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Trump Job Approval Sets New Record for Polarization — WASHINGTON, D.C. — The average 79-percentage-point difference between Republicans' and Democrats' job approval ratings of President Donald Trump during his second year in office is the largest Gallup has measured in any presidential year to date.
Discussion:
Washington Post
Pew Research Center:
Most Border Wall Opponents, Supporters Say Shutdown Concessions Are Unacceptable — Partisan divide on whether shutdown is ‘very serious’ problem — With the partial shutdown of the federal government in its third week, both opponents and supporters of expanding the U.S.-Mexico border …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Vox and Politico
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
Is AOC the Future of Politics? Is Trump? — Do these two represent the future of politics? — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Donald Trump could not be more different as people. Old vs. young; glamorous vs. fat; making ends meet vs. ultra-rich; democratic-socialist vs. populist-conservative.
Discussion:
Hot Air, CNN, NBC News, Washington Post, Politico and Common Dreams
Barry Meier / New York Times:
Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate — A filing in a Massachusetts lawsuit contains dozens of internal Purdue Pharma documents suggesting the family was far more involved than the company has long contended. — Members of the Sackler family …
Discussion:
The Week
Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
New court filing indicates prosecutors have extensive details on Manafort actions not yet made public — Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have intensively scrutinized Paul Manafort's activities after President Trump's election — including after Manafort was criminally charged …
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Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
If Only Obama Had Done the Things Obama Actually Did — Matt Stoller, who has repeatedly dismissed the Obama administration as a failure, tells the New York Times that candidates who sound like Obama will face suspicion from voters. “We tried that and it didn't work,” Stoller said.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Politico
Daniel Strauss / Politico:
Abrams and Gillum are likely 2020 kingmakers — Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum — two of the Democratic Party's breakout candidates of 2018, despite losing their elections for governor of Georgia and Florida — are looking to parlay their near-success into the defeat of Donald Trump in 2020.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
James Pindell / BostonGlobe.com:
Seth Moulton to speak in N.H., restarting buzz he may run for president — US Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Salem, will travel to New Hampshire in two weeks, sources familiar with the planning tell The Boston Globe. — The trip to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state …
Pelosi / Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
Pelosi Sends Letter to President Trump Concerning the State of the Union Address — Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following letter today to President Trump suggesting that the delivery of the State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress be delayed until government re-opens.
Discussion:
Townhall, Axios, Conservative Review, POLITICUSUSA, The Gateway Pundit, Chicks On The Right, CBS Boston and Towleroad Gay News
Anton Troianovski / Washington Post:
The Russians know exactly what Putin and Trump talked about, but we probably won't find out for decades — MOSCOW — The United States has no detailed record of President Trump's five face-to-face interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past two years, The Washington Post reported last week.
Discussion:
National Review, Common Dreams and The Week
Daniel Dale / Toronto Star:
Trump's tales about gagged women are misleading Americans about human trafficking, experts say — WASHINGTON—U. S. President Donald Trump has been painting a wildly inaccurate picture of human trafficking in his effort to sell a border wall that would not make a meaningful difference …