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
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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:
Washington Post, CNN, Axios, The Week, Power Line, emptywheel, Raw Story, CNBC and Vox
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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:
Analysis: Mueller report might not mean the end of Trump's woes
Discussion:
Washington Post, KBZK, The Daily Caller, Raw Story and NB Blog
Washington Post:
Justice Department preparing for Mueller report in coming days
Discussion:
National Review, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story
Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
Trump butters up Barr amid signs of Mueller conclusion
Discussion:
Daily Wire, Shakesville, Washington Post, emptywheel and Breitbart
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.
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 …
Discussion:
Splinter, Raw Story and BuzzFeed News
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 Root, Gothamist, The Trace, Shakesville, Lawyers, Guns & Money, AOL, Hot Air, Daily Wire, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Resurgent, TheBlaze, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo
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Dave Philipps / New York Times:
Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
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 …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The Week and Splinter
RELATED:
Natalie Allison / The Tennessean:
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he regrets participating in ‘Old South’ parties at Auburn University
Discussion:
Political Wire
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:
Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, Shareblue Media and Splinter
Nina dos Santos / CNN:
This man could shed light on Trump mystery, Senate witness says — 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, Raw Story and Political Wire
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.
Discussion:
Variety, abc7chicago.com, Deadline, The Daily Beast, TMZ.com, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, PinkNews, TheBlaze, Daily Wire, The Source, NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Okayplayer, The FADER, The Last Refuge and CBS Los Angeles
RELATED:
Alan Gomez / USA Today:
The Trump administration keeps breaking up migrant families. Here's how they do it — Amid public outcry over the thousands of migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep families together.
RELATED:
Fox News:
Former FBI general counsel thought Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted until ‘pretty late’ in email investigation — The FBI's top lawyer in 2016 thought Hillary Clinton and her team should have immediately realized they were mishandling “highly classified” information based …
Discussion:
RedState
RELATED:
John Solomon / The Hill:
FBI's top lawyer believed Hillary Clinton should face charges, but was talked out of it
Discussion:
The Resurgent
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
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.
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:
Alan Blinder / New York Times:
Inside a Fly-by-Night Operation to Harvest Ballots in North Carolina — RALEIGH, N.C. — Kelly Hendrix was recruited into an illicit effort to sway a congressional race by a customer at the fast-food restaurant where she worked. — One day, Ms. Hendrix was serving burgers and biscuits at a Hardee's in Bladen County.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media
RELATED:
Amy Gardner / Washington Post:
Candidate's son warned father of N.C. political operative's alleged tactics
Discussion:
Politico, ThinkProgress, Durham Herald-Sun, Law & Crime and Splinter
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:
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.
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:
Advocate and ThinkProgress
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 …
Screengrab / Nogales International:
Town says it's ‘taken action’ after marshal's encounter with young journalist — The Town of Patagonia says it has taken unspecified action after Marshal Joseph Patterson was video-recorded telling a pre-teen journalist that it was against the law for her to put his image on the internet during …
Nick Bilton / Vanity Fair:
“She Never Looks Back”: Inside Elizabeth Holmes's Chilling Final Months at Theranos — At the end, Theranos was overrun by a dog defecating in the boardroom, nearly a dozen law firms on retainer, and a C.E.O. grinning through her teeth about an implausible turnaround.
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.
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