Top Items:
Caroline Kelly / CNN:
Rudy Giuliani says Trump didn't collude with Russia but can't say if campaign aides did — (CNN)Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he never denied President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign, only that the President himself was not involved in collusion.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Washington Post, POLITICUSUSA, Joe.My.God. and Lawyers, Guns & Money
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Michael Burke / The Hill:
Giuliani: ‘I never said there was no collusion’ between the Trump campaign and Russia — President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday that he “never said there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. — “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign.
Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
Trump Must Be a Russian Agent; the Alternative Is Too Awful — IT WOULD BE rather embarrassing for Donald Trump at this point if Robert Mueller were to declare that the president isn't an agent of Russian intelligence. — THE PATTERN OF his pro-Putin, pro-Russia, anti-FBI …
Discussion:
Raw Story, American Greatness, Law & Crime, The Nation and Washington Free Beacon
Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Crisis
POLITICO Playbook: Crisis
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Raw Story and New York Times, more at Techmeme »
Michael McFaul / Washington Post:
Sorry, but Trump is not ‘tough on Russia’
New York Times:
In a West Wing in Transition, Trump Tries to Stand Firm on the Shutdown — WASHINGTON — President Trump has insisted that he is not going to compromise with Democrats to end the government shutdown, and that he is comfortable in his unbendable position. But privately, it's sometimes a different story.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, The Atlantic and Joe.My.God.
Domenico Montanaro / NPR:
Poll: Trump Approval Down, Slips With Base — While the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, President Trump's approval rating is down, and there are cracks showing with his base. — A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds Trump's approval rating down and his disapproval rating up from a month ago.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Political Wire
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PBS NewsHour:
57 percent of voters say they won't support Trump in 2020 — With the 2020 presidential election already underway, 57 percent of registered voters said they would definitely vote against President Donald Trump, according to the latest poll from the PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist.
Discussion:
Political Wire
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The Shutdown Is Hurting Trump's Approval Rating. But Will It Hurt Him in 2020?
The Shutdown Is Hurting Trump's Approval Rating. But Will It Hurt Him in 2020?
Discussion:
Raw Story
Washington Post:
‘She wields the knife’: Pelosi moves to belittle and undercut Trump in shutdown fight — House Democrats on Wednesday were making plans to undermine President Trump at his Jan. 29 “State of the Union” address. Just past 8:30 a.m., the leadership's communications arm sent an email …
Discussion:
Politico
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Jeff Greenfield / Politico:
Nancy Pelosi Might Have Just Blown Up the State of the Union. And That's OK.
Nancy Pelosi Might Have Just Blown Up the State of the Union. And That's OK.
Discussion:
Vox, Breitbart, Hullabaloo, National Review and ThinkProgress
Eliza Relman / Business Insider:
‘#WheresMitch?’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other freshman Democrats are moving blame for the shutdown from Trump to Mitch McConnell — Freshman House Democrats marched through the halls of Congress on Wednesday to deliver a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demanding that he hold a vote to reopen the government.
Discussion:
Hot Air, twitchy.com and Shareblue Media
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Eliza Collins / USA Today:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a social media star, to school House Democrats on Twitter use
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a social media star, to school House Democrats on Twitter use
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Onion, abc7ny.com, The Verge, Splinter, TheBlaze, Billboard and Talking Points Memo
Juliegrace Brufke / The Hill:
House passes disaster relief bill to fund government through Feb. 8
Wall Street Journal:
Poll-Rigging for Trump and Creating @WomenForCohen: One IT Firm's Work Order — Behind the scenes, Michael Cohen hired RedFinch Solutions, then allegedly stiffed it—and his boss — In early 2015, a man who runs a small technology company showed up at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, The Week, Joe.My.God., Contemptor, Raw Story and The New Civil Rights Movement
Washington Post:
Top HUD official's departure follows disagreements over housing policy and Puerto Rico disaster funds — A top Department of Housing and Urban Development official is leaving the agency Thursday following disagreements with other members of the Trump administration over housing policy …
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
BREAKING: Cumming man threatened to attack White House, authorities say — Federal authorities on Wednesday announced a terrorist case against a metro Atlanta resident accused of plotting to destroy the White House and other Washington D.C. government buildings.
Discussion:
Townhall, Associated Press, RT, USA Today, Instapundit, Washington Free Beacon, Jihad Watch, WXIA-TV, Mediaite, TheBlaze, Daily Wire and Breitbart
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John Solomon / The Hill:
FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased — When the annals of mistakes and abuses in the FBI's Russia investigation are finally written, Bruce Ohr almost certainly will be the No. 1 witness, according to my sources.
Discussion:
Politico, The Gateway Pundit and Front Page Magazine
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Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter:
Stunning: Ohr Testimony Reveals Top DOJ Officials Briefed About Steele Before FISA
Stunning: Ohr Testimony Reveals Top DOJ Officials Briefed About Steele Before FISA
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Senate Democrats fail to stop Trump administration from lifting sanctions on firms linked to Putin friend — Senate Democrats come up short in a vote to stop the Trump administration from easing sanctions on companies linked to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with ties to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.
RELATED:
Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
GOP Congressmen Meet With Holocaust-Denying Troll Chuck Johnson — The two Republican lawmakers say they didn't know about the alt-right troll's past. — Notorious alt-right figure and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson met with two Republican lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Erin Banco / The Daily Beast:
Rick Gates Tells Mueller About Trump Team's Dealings With Israeli Intelligence Firm — Psy Group delivered plans for ‘social media manipulation’ in 2016 and the special counsel is digging in as part of his probe into Mideast influence. — Rick Gates, the former campaign aide to Donald Trump …
Discussion:
Boing Boing, Joe.My.God. and Raw Story
Yoni Appelbaum / The Atlantic:
Impeach Donald Trump — On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol, raised his right hand, and solemnly swore to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Beto O'Rourke:
A lot of big trucks rolling down Pancake Blvd and there aren't any sidewalks. Gloomy early morning sky in Liberal Kansas. Snow melt on the side of the road where I'm running. I find a vacant lot to cut through to another street, also busy and without sidewalks.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, ABC News, Raw Story, CNN, Politico, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Splinter, twitchy.com and National Review
New York Times:
Will We Ever See Mueller's Report on Trump? Maybe. — WASHINGTON — The swirl of speculation surrounding the Russia investigation often assumes that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will release a report of his findings that will serve as the definitive explanation …
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Guardian, emptywheel and Outside the Beltway
FiveThirtyEight:
Most Personality Quizzes Are Junk Science. Take One That Isn't. — Compare your results to those of your friends and family. — What's your personality, and what can it tell you about your true self? Those questions have launched a thousand online personality quizzes.
TASS:
Russian security chief warns Ukraine could lose statehood — “The Kiev authorities are doing everything to split Ukraine, implementing the West's scenario to break Ukraine away from Russia, while ignoring the interests of its own people,” said Nikolai Patrushev — /TASS/.
Ivan Pentchoukov / theepochtimes.com:
EXCLUSIVE: In Closed-Door Testimony, Papadopoulos Identified Alleged Spy in Trump Campaign — Former Trump campaign adviser also told lawmakers FBI asked him to wear a wire to record Maltese professor in London — George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
New York Times:
White House Redefines Who Is Essential to Get Parts of Government Moving Again — WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown stretches into its fourth week, the Trump administration is reinterpreting longstanding rules to open the federal government piece by piece, forcing thousands of workers …
Discussion:
NTEU News Releases
Facebook:
Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia — Today we removed multiple Pages, groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram. The two operations we found originated in Russia, and one was active in a variety of countries while the other was specific to Ukraine.
Discussion:
ABC News, VICE News, Engadget and Gizmodo, more at Mediagazer »
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Have Aliens Found Us? A Harvard Astronomer on the Mysterious Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua — On October 19, 2017, astronomers at the University of Hawaii spotted a strange object travelling through our solar system, which they later described as “a red and extremely elongated asteroid.”
Catherine Thorbecke / ABC News:
Potential 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris shares advice for young women: 'Don't let anybody tell you who you are, you tell them who you are' — Sen. Kamala Harris, who went from being the daughter of immigrants to a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said in an interview with …
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
There's Nothing Wrong With Open Borders — Why a brave Democrat should make the case for vastly expanding immigration. — The internet expands the bounds of acceptable discourse, so ideas considered out of bounds not long ago now rocket toward widespread acceptability.
Discussion:
Mediaite
Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:
A Lawsuit Claims Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Retaliated Against A Staffer Who Planned To Sue The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Over An Alleged Rape — The woman, identified by a pseudonym, claimed in a lawsuit that she was raped by a former employee of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Discussion:
Townhall and Front Page Magazine
Ben White / Politico:
Recession warnings pile up as shutdown wraps up fourth week — The impasse is triggering alarms about an already fragile economic environment. — The partial government shutdown was supposed to be a brief non-event for the economy. Now it's starting to look like a serious crisis …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Philly.com:
John Bogle, who founded Vanguard and revolutionized retirement savings, dies at 89. — John C. Bogle, 89, who revolutionized the way Americans save for the future, championed the interests of the small investor, and railed against corporate greed and the excesses of Wall Street …
Discussion:
The Big Picture
Denis MacShane / American Prospect:
Confidence Game — British Prime Minister Theresa May walks past the EU flag at the conclusion of an EU summit in Brussels. — As the dust settles on one of the House of Commons' un-finest hours, the future of Britain as a European power-player is as unclear as ever.
John Podhoretz / New York Post:
Liberals are reading way too much into Trump news stories — Every now and then, as I read supposedly hot news stories and the social media reaction to them, I feel myself growing a white goatee and having my white hair curl up on the sides of my head as I turn into Mugatu …
Lauren Walsh / WBMA-TV:
Jeff Sessions: Do the right thing everyday and usually things work out, but not always — For the first time since former United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions returned home to Alabama after being fired, he gave ABC 33/40 an exclusive interview. — We talked with Sessions after Monday's inaugural activities in Montgomery.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Mediaite