Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Inaugural Committee Challenged Vendor Requests and Budgeting, Documents Show — In the weeks before his inauguration, top officials on President Trump's inaugural committee repeatedly sounded alarms about the budgets submitted by several vendors, according to correspondence, committee records and draft budgets.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
RELATED:
Trump, Inc.:
Trump Inauguration Chief Tom Barrack's ‘Rules for Success’ — Last year, our Trump, Inc. podcast with WNYC explored the mystery of how Donald Trump's inaugural managed to raise and spend $107 million. A lot has happened since then. — We now know the inaugural committee is the subject of a wide-ranging criminal investigation.
Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
7 Scenarios for How the Mueller Probe Might ‘Wrap Up’ — THE BREAKING NEWS hit a snowy Washington on Wednesday: Newly installed attorney general William Barr appears to be preparing to announce the end of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. — But what would “Mueller wrapping up” actually mean?
Discussion:
CNN, Axios, The Week, emptywheel, Power Line, Raw Story, CNBC and Vox
RELATED:
Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:
Power Up: ‘By the Book Bob:’ Prosecutors say Mueller will tightly hug Justice guidelines in report
Discussion:
New York Times and Vox
Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Bombshell Mueller report may never be fully revealed
Discussion:
Washington Post, KBZK, The Daily Caller, Raw Story and NB Blog
Washington Post:
Justice Department preparing for Mueller report in coming days
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Politico, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story
Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
Trump butters up Barr amid signs of Mueller conclusion
Discussion:
Daily Wire, Shakesville, emptywheel, Washington Post and Breitbart
Lynh Bui / Washington Post:
Self-proclaimed white nationalist planned mass terror attack, government says. ‘I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth.’ — A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist has been arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons …
Discussion:
The Trace, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Shakesville, AOL, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Mediaite, The Resurgent, TheBlaze, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo
RELATED:
Dave Philipps / New York Times:
Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
PRRI:
American Democracy in Crisis: The Fate of Pluralism in a Divided Nation — The 2018 Election — Views of President Trump — After two years in office, the public's view of President Trump remains negative. As of late December 2018, when this survey was conducted …
Discussion:
The Atlantic and Political Wire
RELATED:
Emma Green / The Atlantic:
These Are the Americans Who Live in a Bubble — Most Americans do not live in a totalizing bubble. They regularly encounter people of different races, ideologies, and religions. For the most part, they view these interactions as positive, or at least neutral.
Brett Murphy / USA Today:
Blackface, KKK hoods and mock lynchings: Review of 900 yearbooks finds blatant racism — In one of the most extensive searches of college yearbooks ever, we found blackface and Ku Klux Klan photos like Ralph Northam's far beyond Virginia. — The old yearbook photos capture the lighthearted moments …
RELATED:
Natalie Allison / The Tennessean:
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he regrets participating in ‘Old South’ parties at Auburn University — Governor Bill Lee addresses audience at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 30th Commemorative Convocation at Tennessee State University's Gentry Center — Four decades removed from his time as a student …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Trump White House Is Forcing Interns to Sign NDAs and Threatening Them With Financial Ruin — Not even the interns are exempt from the legally dubious rite of passage practiced by the Trump White House. — Asawin Suebsaeng — When the Trump White House welcomed its newest batch …
Washington Post:
Allies decline request to stay in Syria after U.S. troops withdraw — As the deadline approaches for the withdrawal of U.S. forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria, America's closest European allies have turned down a Trump administration request to fill the gap with their own troops, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
RELATED:
BuzzFeed News:
Trump Said He Ordered His Administration To Withhold Wildfire Aid To California. FEMA Says He Never Did. — The president tweeted that he was cutting off disaster assistance to wildfire survivors to punish California officials. But no record of such an order exists.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Splinter and Bloomberg
CBS Chicago:
Video Shows Brothers Linked To Jussie Smollett Attack Buying Items Allegedly Worn In Assault — CHICAGO (CBS) - CBS 2 has obtained video of two men linked to the attack on “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett buying a red hat and ski masks from a store the day before the assault.
RELATED:
Nina dos Santos / CNN:
Senate investigators pursue Moscow-based former Trump associate — London and Moscow (CNN)Senate investigators want to question a Moscow-based American businessman with longstanding ties to President Donald Trump after witnesses told them he could shed light on the President's commercial …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Raw Story
Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
Government report reveals CBO was scandalously off in Obamacare estimates — A new report from government actuaries has revealed that the Congressional Budget Office was scandalously off in its estimates of the impact of Obamacare's individual mandate, a miscalculation that has had significant ramifications …
Discussion:
RedState and twitchy.com
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
“She Was Pitching Her Intimate Knowledge of the Mueller Probe”: Sarah Isgur Flores, Former Trumper, Talked to MSNBC Before Signing with CNN — The former Jeff Sessions spokesperson is now a power player at a network she once called the “Clinton News Network.” How'd she close the deal?
RELATED:
Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:
The Obama Presidential Library That Isn't — The Obama Presidential Center promises to be a presidential library like no other. — The three-building, 19-acre “working center for citizenship,” set to be built in a public park on the South Side of Chicago, will include a 235-foot-high …
Discussion:
Chicago Tribune and AOTUS
Just Security:
Stop Using the Word “Collusion”—How to Frame the Critical Question at the Heart of Trump-Russia — Much of the discussion surrounding the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia in the months leading up to the 2016 election has been mystifying for the American public.
RELATED:
Indianapolis Star:
Road rage, hate crime or both: Shooting death of Muslim man could draw FBI scrutiny — Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana allows Indianapolis residents to share anonymous tips with law enforcement. Here are a few things Crime Stoppers wants you to know before you call. — CONNECT11 — TWEET11
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly — Facebook makes money by charging advertisers to reach just the right audience for their message — even when that audience is made up of people interested in the perpetrators of the Holocaust or explicitly neo-Nazi music.
TIME:
The Biggest Field Yet. No Frontrunner. A Divided Base. Welcome to the 2020 Democratic Primary — Almost a year before the first votes of the 2020 -presidential contest, Democratic candidates are all over the map. There's Elizabeth Warren in a drafty warehouse in Des Moines, Iowa …
Daniella Silva / NBC News:
Migrant families still being separated at the border, report from Texas group says — The report comes roughly eight months since the government formally ended the policy. — Migrant families are still being separated by the Trump administration, sometimes over “uncorroborated allegations” …
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: McConnell recommends Kelly Craft to Trump for UN ambassador — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has spoken to President Trump and recommended U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft as the next UN ambassador, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
John Solomon / The Hill:
FBI's top lawyer believed Hillary Clinton should face charges, but was talked out of it — For most of the past three years, the FBI has tried to portray its top leadership as united behind ex-Director James Comey's decision not to pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton …
Reid Wilson / The Hill:
Obama political arm to merge with Holder-run group — President Obama's political organization is merging with Eric Holder's National Redistricting Action Fund, giving it control of the vaunted list of supporters, donors and volunteers that Obama and his team built over more than a decade.
Discussion:
Political Wire
Sarah Ferris / Politico:
Pelosi: House moving ‘swiftly’ to block Trump's emergency declaration — Speaker Nancy Pelosi is throwing her muscle behind a legislative effort to block President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration, the first formal step to counter Trump and squeeze Republicans on the border wall.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Washington Post, The Hill, Daily Kos, Associated Press, IJR, The Week, Raw Story and Axios
Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:
Why Sean Spicer Joined ‘Extra’ as a TV Correspondent — “The idea is to give people a different angle on some of the people they see on the cable news channels every day,” says the former Trump White House spokesperson. — Surprise, surprise: Sean Spicer is now officially a member of the mainstream media.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »
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