memeorandum: Hundreds of IRS employees are skipping work. That could delay tax refunds. (Washington Post)

9:15 AM ET, January 23, 2019

Top Items:

Azeen Ghorayshi / BuzzFeed News:

Trump's Lawyer Said There Were “No Plans” For Trump Tower Moscow. Here They Are. — Trump's lawyer claims the Moscow tower was barely more than a notion. “There were no drafts. Nothing in the file.” Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News tell a different story.

Discussion: Raw Story, FiveThirtyEight, Toronto Star, Washington Press, ThinkProgress, Hullabaloo, Feeds, Pacific Standard, Mediaite, CNN, Vox and Talking Points Memo

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Trump exasperated by gaffe-prone Giuliani — Rudy Giuliani has a growing list of enemies in the White House — which now includes his boss, President Donald Trump. — Trump was apoplectic after a pair of weekend media interviews by his personal lawyer, in which Giuliani said that the president …

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, New York Times and Mediaite

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“Trump Is Screaming. He's So Mad at Rudy”: Giuliani's Fate Is Uncertain After Botched Interviews — As Giuliani's unforced errors pile up, former West Wing officials and 2016 campaign veterans are privately debating what's gone wrong with Rudy. — Every time Rudy Giuliani opens his mouth …

Discussion: Above the Law, Contemptor, Raw Story, CNN, ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

USA Today:

Trump pursued a deal in Russia and hid it from voters — Rudy Giuliani vs Chris Cuomo again on CNN...this time it's over collusion. Veuer's Nick Cardona has that story. — Candidate misled voters about ‘nothing to do with Russia.’ He signed a Trump Tower Moscow letter on the day of a presidential debate: Our view

Discussion: Washington Post

Associated Press:

Giuliani's media blitz draws ire of Trump and some allies — NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani's latest media blitz, which was filled with a dizzying array of misstatements and hurried clarifications, agitated President Donald Trump and some of his allies, who have raised the possibility …

Discussion: Political Wire, The Week and Mediaite

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Understanding the Senate's vote plan — DRIVING THE DAY — NEW ... POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL ... “Poll: Shutdown, Russia drive Trump to all-time high disapproval,” by Rebecca Morin: “Nearly 6-in-10 voters — 57 percent — disapprove of Trump's job performance, compared to the 40 percent that approve.

Discussion: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Breitbart

Washington Post:
Trump's lies on his business dealings in Russia were a profound betrayal of voters

Discussion: Daily Wire and CNN

CBS News:

Pelosi has edge over Trump on budget negotiations, CBS News poll shows — Seven in 10 Americans don't think the issue of a border wall is worth a government shutdown, which they say is now having a negative impact on the country. But partisans don't want their own side to budge …

Discussion: Political Wire

Rebecca Morin / Politico:

Poll: Shutdown, Russia drive Trump to all-time high disapproval — President Donald Trump's disapproval rating is at an all-time high amid a historically long partial government shutdown and concerns about the president's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Discussion: The Hill, Axios, Political Wire, The Week, POLITICUSUSA and Mediaite

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:
Trump's Disapproval Hits Record High Amid Government Shutdown

Discussion: The Guardian

Ben Kesslen / NBC News:

Gay valedictorian banned from speaking at Covington graduation ‘not surprised’ by D.C. controversy — A gay student who was barred by the Covington diocese from speaking at his 2018 graduation, is “not surprised” by the Covington Catholic High School video.

Discussion: Splinter, Friendly Atheist, PinkNews, The Daily Beast, AOL, Cincinnati.com and USA Today

Jason Williams / Cincinnati.com:

Who knew? Trump's top White House attorney is Covington Catholic High School graduate — The nationwide firestorm surrounding Covington Catholic has brought to light that one of the Greater Cincinnati high school's most prominent graduates happens to be President Trump's top White House attorney.

Washington Post:
A viral story spread. The mainstream media rushed to keep up. The Trump Internet pounced.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Resurgent, Front Page Magazine, TheBlaze and Daily Wire

David French / National Review:
Nathan Phillips's Interview with CNN Is Full of Falsehoods, Inconsistencies, and Nonsense

Discussion: Detroit Free Press, Hot Air, Conservative News Today and myfox8.com

Nick Robins-Early / HuffPost:
House Intelligence Committee Looking Into Tweet About Viral MAGA Hat Teen Video

Discussion: Washington Post, The Guardian and The Stranger, more at Mediagazer »

Nicole Goodkind / Newsweek:

Federal Employees Going Through ‘a Little Bit of Pain’ but Border Wall Is ‘Bigger Than’ Them Says Lara Trump — The 800,000 furloughed federal employees and 400,000 working without pay due to the government shutdown over $5 billion dollars in funding for a wall on the U.S. southern border are going through …

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Washington Post:

Hundreds of IRS employees are skipping work. That could delay tax refunds. — Hundreds of Internal Revenue Service employees have received permission to skip work during the partial government shutdown due to financial hardship, and union leaders said Tuesday they expected absences to surge …

Discussion: CNN, The Week and Axios

Cathleen Decker / Washington Post:

Pete Buttigieg joins the Democratic race for the 2020 presidential nomination — South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has signaled for months that he would try to leap from local to presidential politics, announced Wednesday that he will join the burgeoning cast of Democratic candidates in the 2020 race.

Discussion: Politico, CBS News and Political Wire

Edward-Isaac Dovere / The Atlantic:

Pete Buttigieg Thinks All the 2020 Democrats Are Too Old — Pete Buttigieg, the Millennial mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will formally launch an exploratory committee on Wednesday and make official the presidential run he's been not-so-subtly edging toward for the last year and a half.

Discussion: Axios

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

A “go big” idea to end the shutdown — A new immigration idea has been circulating over the past 24 hours at senior levels inside the White House and on Capitol Hill: Give a path to green cards to the 700,000 current DACA recipients, three sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.

Discussion: Raw Story

Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump's liaison to Congress eyeing exit

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:

‘Unacceptable’: Coast Guard's top officer criticizes lack of payment in government shutdown — The Coast Guard's top admiral said Tuesday that members of the armed forces should not be expected to shoulder the burden of the partial government shutdown, citing the “anxiety and stress” …

Discussion: Indian Country Today, The Week, CNN and Mediaite

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post: Here's a better chant for Trump's base than ‘build the wall’

Politico:

Ocasio-Cortez and liberal freshmen join Oversight Committee — The House Oversight Committee is adding a group of progressive flamethrowers to its ranks. — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios, RT, Hot Air, WPIX 11 New York, Splinter, Daily Wire, National Review and twitchy.com

Tom Rogan / Washington Examiner: No, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this ain't World War II

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Russell Baker, Times Columnist and Celebrated Humorist, Dies at 93 — Russell Baker, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose whimsical, irreverent “Observer” column appeared in The New York Times and hundreds of other newspapers for 36 years and turned a backwoods-born Virginian …

Discussion: WTKR-TV and KTLA, more at Mediagazer »

Colin Campbell / Baltimore Sun:
Baltimore-raised Pulitzer Prize winner Russell Baker dies at 93

Discussion: NPR

Washington Post:

‘Knock them in the teeth.’ How Trump turns crises into leverage. — The 800,000 federal workers who are expected to miss their second paycheck in the coming days are the most extreme example yet of a negotiating tactic President Trump has used repeatedly since taking office.

Discussion: The Week

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:
Trump is being the adult in the room on the shutdown

Discussion: IJR, Inside Higher Ed and CNBC

Sara Murray / CNN:

Mueller wants to know about 2016 Trump campaign's ties to NRA — Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has expressed interest in the Trump campaign's relationship with the National Rifle Association during the 2016 campaign. — “When I was interviewed by the special counsel's office …

Discussion: The Week, Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and Talking Points Memo

Alex French / The Atlantic:

‘Nobody Is Going to Believe You’ — Over the past two decades, Bryan Singer's films—The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, Superman Returns, four of the X-Men movies—have earned more than $3 billion at the box office, putting him in the top tier of Hollywood directors.

Discussion: IndieWire, Daily Kos, Towleroad Gay News and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

Audrey McNamara / The Daily Beast:

Four Accused of Plotting to Attack Muslim Community — Police in Greece, New York, have arrested and charged four suspects who allegedly planned to attack a nearby Muslim community. The four men were each charged with three counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of conspiracy.

Jeff Pegues / CBS News: 4 arrested in plot to attack Muslim community in New York

Ben Terris / Washington Post:

Love a candidate but don't think she can win? You've been infected with Pundititis. — The night Elizabeth Warren won reelection, Krista Magnuson started showing symptoms. — Magnuson, a 41-year-old political junkie, had come to Warren's victory party in downtown Boston that November evening to celebrate the swelling blue wave.

McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Campaign workers demand minimum wage, progressive culture from 2020 Dems — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, accompanied by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, to unveil their Medicare for All legislation to reform health care.

Washington Post:
Sen. Bernie Sanders changes his message to black voters: ‘Racism is alive’

Discussion: Politico

Nicole Lafond / Talking Points Memo:

WH Bashes Media: 'Never Seen People So Happy To Destroy A Kid's Life' — During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubled down on the White House's support for the Covington Catholic student by slamming the media for its coverage of the incident.

New York Times:

Senate Leaders Plan Competing Bills to End Shutdown — Senate Leaders Plan Competing Bills on Shutdown — With dueling votes planned for Thursday, the Senate will finally move off the sidelines a month into the partial government shutdown. — Both measures face long odds …

Discussion: The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Shareblue Media, Joe.My.God. and New Republic

Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine:

How Trump Offered NASA Unlimited Funding to Go to Mars in His First Term — Donald Trump nearly derailed a televised call to the International Space Station after he got distracted, first by a sudden fantasy of going to Mars before the end of his first term in the White House …

Discussion: Splinter, The Week and Joe.My.God.

Scott Stedman:

IC Expert CEO Andrey Rozov behind mysterious purchase of NY building tied to Felix Sater and Aras Agalarov — Scott StedmanBlockedUnblockFollowFollowing — The CEO of the developer of Trump Tower Moscow was behind a mysterious New York real estate transaction in late 2015 …

Discussion: The Guardian

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation:

KFF Health Tracking Poll - January 2019: The Public On Next Steps For The ACA And Proposals To Expand Coverage — Ashley Kirzinger , Cailey Muñana, and Mollyann Brodie — Key Findings: — Half of the public disapproves of the recent decision in Texas v. United States …

Discussion: Washington Post and CNN

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court Revives Transgender Ban for Military Service — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Trump administration's request to allow it to bar most transgender people from serving in the military while cases challenging the policy make their way to the court.

Discussion: Just Security, CNBC, Shareblue Media, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones, Ed Martin Live, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hullabaloo and Washington Post

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

Covington and the Pundit Apocalypse — Our hasty condemnation of these teenagers reveals the cold truth about hot takes. — There's no shame and much honor in the job of coming to judgments about news events. — But we don't have to rush there. — That's what too many of us pundits …

Discussion: The Minnesota Sun, Washington Post and Courier-Journal

Lili Bayer / Politico:

Commission raises concerns about ‘golden’ visa, passport schemes — The European Commission on Wednesday published a report criticizing schemes that allow foreign citizens to “buy” EU residency or citizenship through investment. — The schemes — dubbed “golden visas” and “golden passports” …

Discussion: Cyprus Mail and One America News Network