Top Items:
Mark Maremont / Wall Street Journal:
Leaked Letters Reveal Details of NRA Chief's Alleged Spending — Wayne LaPierre expensed $39,000 in clothes in one day, $18,300 for car and driver, ad agency says; NRA says board has ‘full confidence’ in him — National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre billed the group's ad agency $39,000 …
Discussion:
Political Wire and Raw Story
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Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:
Leaked Documents: NRA Racked Up $24 Million in Legal Bills — The NRA has racked up huge legal bills over the last year that threaten to debilitate the organization, according to documents posted anonymously online that appear to be written by the group's ex-president Oliver North.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Rudy Giuliani Cancels His Trip to Ukraine, Blaming Democrats' ‘Spin’ — WASHINGTON — Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump's re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned …
Discussion:
RedState, Vox, CBS News, Politico, Vanity Fair, Splinter, Joe.My.God., PJ Media Home, Axios, The Week, The Guardian, New York Post, CNN, Big League Politics and Mediaite
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Washington Post:
Trump's interest in stirring Ukraine investigations sows confusion in Kiev — MOSCOW — As President Trump and his inner circle appear increasingly focused on Ukraine as a potential tripwire for Joe Biden and Democrats, officials about to take power in Kiev are pushing their own message: Leave us out of it.
Associated Press:
Beto O'Rourke plans ‘reintroduction’ as 2020 buzz fizzles — NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Beto O'Rourke barreled into the 2020 presidential race with breakneck energy and a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants campaign style that saw him leap atop tables to address overflow crowds with the organic …
Discussion:
Townhall and twitchy.com
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Harry Enten / CNN:
Beto O'Rourke is polling worse than ever
Beto O'Rourke is polling worse than ever
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Axios and American Prospect
New York Times:
Trump's Tariffs Are a New Tax on Americans — President Trump is undermining the credibility of his trade policies by falsely claiming that China is paying the bill. — The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
Discussion:
Des Moines Register, Fox News, Politico, Slate, Daily Kos, Sputnik International and CNN
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Killing the Pax Americana — Trump's trade war is about more than economics. — O.K., they weren't supposed to start the trade war until I got back from vacation. And I really have too many kilometers to cover and hills to climb to weigh in on a regular basis or at great length.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Mitch Smith / New York Times:
Frustration Mounts Among Farmers as China Trade Talks Break Down
Frustration Mounts Among Farmers as China Trade Talks Break Down
Discussion:
Axios
Benjy Sarlin / NBC News:
Sanders to join Ocasio-Cortez at rally as climate fight heats up — The Vermont senator's appearance comes as he criticized a reported plan by Joe Biden to seek a “middle ground” climate policy. — WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders will speak at a Green New Deal rally at Howard University …
Discussion:
RedState, Conservative News Today and twitchy.com
RELATED:
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Michael Oren Doesn't Want To Talk About Israel — Michael Oren, born Michael Bornstein in New York in 1955, emigrated to Israel forty years ago and served in the Israeli Defense Forces. After returning to the U.S. to receive a Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton …
Anne Barnard / New York Times:
Inside Syria's Secret Torture Prisons: How Bashar al-Assad Crushed Dissent — GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian security officers hung Muhannad Ghabbash from his wrists for hours, beat him bloody, shocked him with electricity and stuck a gun in his mouth. — Mr. Ghabbash, a law student from Aleppo …
Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:
Trump seeks to limit judges' powers on injunctions after legal blows — President Trump is looking to stop lower courts from being able to issue wide-ranging injunctions in a move that could dramatically limit the authority of judges. — The plan comes as groups opposed to Trump have been able …
Discussion:
Political Wire
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Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The GOP's increasing embrace of Trump's Russia conspiracy theory — On Friday, the former general counsel of the FBI, Jim Baker, decided to speak out. Frustrated by the burgeoning Republican narrative about how the Russia investigation might have been launched under false pretenses …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and Raw Story
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Andrew McCarthy / Fox News:
Politics is front and center for Russiagate probe — and the farce has reached new heights
Politics is front and center for Russiagate probe — and the farce has reached new heights
Discussion:
Power Line
Michael Brice-Saddler / Washington Post:
A group raised over $20 million to ‘build the wall.’ Now its supporters want answers. — A December fundraising campaign brought in more than $20 million over the course of a few weeks, its thousands of donors united by a common goal: the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, oft-promised by President Trump.
Discussion:
Axios, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos and The Daily Beast
Eliza Collins / USA Today:
Firestorm erupts around Sen. Richard Burr, man behind Donald Trump Jr. subpoena. He's not backing down — WASHINGTON — North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr is not one to make a splash. — So when the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Burr chairs, issued a subpoena to Donald Trump Jr., it didn't leak out for a couple of weeks.
Discussion:
HillReporter.com, Raw Story, The National Interest and ThinkProgress
Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: The Mexican father of alleged Colorado school shooter Alec McKinney, 16, was jailed for domestic violence and deported TWICE, with his son posting how he missed him just days before the atrocity — Jose Evis Quintana, 33, was jailed for 15 months for domestic violence …
Discussion:
TheBlaze, The Gateway Pundit, Big League Politics and The Daily Caller
CNN:
Washington is flirting with a debt crisis. No one has a plan to stop it — President Trump: 'It's time to stop this nonsense' — Washington (CNN)The US government is hurtling toward a potential financial crisis, and no one in Washington seems to know how to stop it.
Discussion:
WQAD-TV
Lee Fang / The Intercept:
Lobbyists Working to Undermine Medicare For All Host Congressional Staff at Luxury Resort — At a luxury resort just outside of the nation's capital last month, around four dozen senior congressional staffers decamped for a weekend of relaxation and discussion at Salamander Resort & Spa.
Discussion:
Common Dreams
Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:
Pentagon will shift an additional $1.5 billion to help fund Trump's border wall — The Defense Department will reprogram an additional $1.5 billion originally designated for other U.S. military projects to help fund President Trump's border wall, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said Friday …
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Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Pentagon Shifts $1.5 Billion to Border Wall From Afghan War Budget and Other Military Projects
Pentagon Shifts $1.5 Billion to Border Wall From Afghan War Budget and Other Military Projects
Discussion:
Common Dreams, Politico, Joe.My.God. and Townhall