memeorandum: Useful idiots, Kristof edition (Scott Johnson/Power Line)

2:30 PM ET, January 19, 2019

Top Items:

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Exclusive: Trump expected to propose DACA-TPS immigration compromise — President Trump plans to use remarks from the Diplomatic Reception Room on Saturday afternoon to propose a notable immigration compromise, according to sources familiar with the speech.

Discussion: Townhall, Politico, Vox, CNN, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze, Breitbart, Joe.My.God., Mediaite, Political Wire, Outside the Beltway, The Nevada Independent, Raw Story, The Right Scoop, PJ Media Home and Althouse

CNN:

Trump plans to make Democrats an offer to end shutdown, not declare national emergency, in Saturday speech, official says — (CNN)President Donald Trump plans to offer Democrats another proposal to end the shutdown when he addresses the nation from the White House on Saturday afternoon …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Vox, The Mahablog, Associated Press, Denver Post, The Week, CBS News, CNBC, Raw Story and New York Times

Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal: Trump to Support DACA Protections for More Wall Funding

Katie Zezima / Washington Post:
Trump to offer temporary protections for undocumented ‘dreamers’ …

Discussion: The Guardian, CNN and The Daily Caller

Nancy Cook / Politico:
‘Theater of the absurd’: How the shutdown's bleakest week unfolded for Trump

Discussion: Raw Story

Dallas Morning News: Protect Dreamers and build the wall, and we can all win

Axios:

Mueller's BuzzFeed statement is a reckoning for journalism in the age of Trump — Last night's rare on-the-record statement from the Mueller team is a reckoning that journalism had coming: Amid some of the most impressive reporting of our lifetimes, there's plenty of questionable coverage in this shock-a-minute era.

Discussion: National Review, The New Neo and Talking Points Memo

Washington Post:

In a rare move, Mueller's office denies BuzzFeed report that Trump told Cohen to lie about Moscow project — Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's office on Friday denied an explosive report by BuzzFeed News that his investigators had gathered evidence showing President Trump directed his former lawyer …

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Inside Trump's immigration play — DRIVING THE DAY — THE PRESIDENT will make a “major announcement,” in his words, at 3 p.m. today from the Diplomatic Reception Room. The speech is being closely held at the White House. But here are some broad strokes we've picked …

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Politico and Liberty Unyielding

emptywheel:

Peter Carr Speaks — Yesterday, Mueller's spox Peter Carr issued a statement vaguely denying Thursday's Buzzfeed story claiming that Trump ordered Michael Cohen to lie. … Clearly, there are parts of the story that are correct, in that they provide specific details that match the vague ones Mueller himself has released.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Washington Post, Hullabaloo and Fox News Insider

Reuters:
Trump says grateful to Mueller for BuzzFeed statement

Discussion: Political Wire

Amber Athey / The Daily Caller:
CNN And MSNBC Repeatedly Floated Impeachment Over Disputed BuzzFeed Report

Discussion: Sputnik International, Mueller's Office … and NB Blog

Laurel Wamsley / NPR:
Mueller's Office Disputes BuzzFeed Report That Trump Told Cohen To Lie To Congress

Discussion: Chicks On The Right, Breitbart, POLITICUSUSA, Al Jazeera and Fox News

Washington Post:
Michael Hayden and Neal Katyal: The House should investigate impeaching Trump

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, Daily Kos, The Gateway Pundit and Splinter

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
A Republican Challenge to Trump?

Discussion: BuzzFeed News, The Resurgent, The Economist and Fox News Insider

Vincent Schilling / Indian Country Today:

Outrage as non-Native youth wearing #MAGA hats taunt and disrespect Native elder — Native Twitter has gone ablaze as a Native American elder singing the AIM Song in Washington DC during the Indigenous Peoples March was ridiculed, taunted and mocked by a group of non-Native youth.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Splinter, Mediaite and Boing Boing

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

“Would you like to speak to the president?” — PARIS — “Would you like to speak to the president?” — That was about the last question I expected from a stranger on a Friday night in Paris. — I was at a brasserie in the Latin Quarter, enjoying dinner with James McAuley, the Post's Paris correspondent.

Discussion: Raw Story

Beto O'Rourke:

I had been to Ulysses, Kansas once before, briefly. — Mike and I were driving back to Texas from New York in the summer of 1998. I had bought a used truck in Long Island for a thousand dollars, put my worldly possessions in the back and we drove the 2,200 miles to El Paso. One of the funnest times in my life.

New York Times:

As Beto O'Rourke Weighs 2020 Run, Democrats Chafe at His Go-It-Alone Style — For a moment in August, an event hall in Texas teemed with hope, taquitos and unity. — It was a border-town stop for Beto O'Rourke's Senate campaign, but another Democratic politician commanded particular attention …

Jon Ward / Yahoo News: Why was Beto O'Rourke a national phenomenon while Stacey Abrams wasn't?

David Siders / Politico: Beto O'Rourke's road trip drives home his message

Cleve R. Wootson Jr / Washington Post:

A black R&B artist hoped singing for Trump would build ‘a bridge.’ It derailed her career instead. — Chrisette Michele is singing to nearly empty concert halls. She says she's finding a new path to happiness. — GLENSIDE, Pa. — Chrisette Michele held hands with her band members during a final prayer …

Discussion: Raw Story

Kevin Sieff / Washington Post:

Attempts to steal fuel from Mexican pipeline set off massive fireball, killing at least 66 — MEXICO CITY — At least 66 people were killed when a fuel pipeline exploded outside Mexico City, unleashing a massive fireball after residents tapped into the duct to steal buckets of gasoline, officials said Saturday.

Discussion: New York Times and Gizmodo

Mark Stevenson / Associated Press:
Horrifying fireball at ruptured Mexico oil pipeline kills 21

Discussion: The Week

Scott Johnson / Power Line:

Useful idiots, Kristof edition — Lo these many years since the Russian Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the New York Times is still doing public relations for Communism. The most recent example — I find it almost unbelievable — is Nicholas Kristof's January 18 Times column …

Discussion: Babalú Blog, National Review and New York Times

PBS NewsHour:

Why many stores can't accept food stamps during the shutdown — While so far there have been no major lapses in benefits for the nearly 39 million people who depend on food stamps amid the partial government shutdown, 2,500 retailers around the country are unable to take any form of SNAP EBT payments.

Harry Enten / CNN:

More Americans pessimistic about Trump's presidency than any presidency in last 25 years — (CNN)First things first: The theme song of the week is John Tesh's “Roundball Rock” from the NBA on NBC. — Poll of the week: A Pew Research Center poll released this week finds that 29% of Americans …

Discussion: Pew Research Center, IJR and Townhall

Brad Slager / RedState:

The Latest Company Social Fiasco: Johnnie Walker Stepping on a Rake for Women's March — One day corporations may learn how social activism is bottom line averse. — Hot on the heels of the toxic masculinity razor commercial debacle another corporate political decision has reared up.

Discussion: Instapundit and twitchy.com

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

Virginia's lone black statewide official sits out Robert E. Lee tribute — RICHMOND — Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, only the second African American elected to statewide office in Virginia, briefly bowed out of his duties in the state Senate on Friday in protest of a tribute to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Discussion: theGrio

Max Londberg / Cincinnati.com:

CovCath faces backlash after video of incident at Indigenous Peoples March surfaces — Covington Catholic High School faced backlash on social media Saturday morning after video was posted and widely shared showing a tense incident involving indigenous marchers and a group of young men in Washington, D.C.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Wall Street Journal:

Justice Department's Reversal on Online Gambling Tracked Memo From Adelson Lobbyists — Analysis sent to Justice Department argued that 2011 opinion that helped online gambling was wrong — The legal reasoning behind the Justice Department's unusual reversal this week of an opinion …

Chris Joyner / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Ga. lawmaker who defended Klan named to House post on eve of King Day — House Speaker David Ralston Friday named as one of his committee chairs a state representative who opposed the erection of a statue to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the grounds of the State Capitol and said the Ku Klux Klan made “people straighten up.”

Discussion: Political Wire