Top Items:
Meagan Flynn / Washington Post:
Texas secretary of state resigns after leading botched voter purge that questioned the citizenship of almost 100,000 people — Texas's acting secretary of state David Whitley (R) resigned Monday just months after leading the botched voter purge of nearly 100,000 suspected noncitizens …
Discussion:
CBS News, Political Wire and Off the Kuff
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Chuck Lindell / Austin American-Statesman:
David Whitley resigns as end-of-session deadline nears — Shortly before the Senate's closing gavel ended his term as Texas secretary of state, David Whitley delivered his letter of resignation, “effective immediately,” to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday afternoon.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Dallas Morning News, Raw Story, Bipartisan Report and The Week
Wall Street Journal:
Transportation Secretary Still Owns Stock She Pledged to Divest — Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has retained shares in a construction-materials company more than a year after the date she promised to relinquish them, federal disclosure forms show.
Discussion:
Political Wire
Edward Helmore / The Guardian:
Mueller drew up obstruction indictment against Trump, Michael Wolff book claims — A new book from Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff says special counsel Robert Mueller drew up a three-count obstruction of justice indictment against Donald Trump before deciding to shelve it …
Discussion:
Political Wire, twitchy.com, Raw Story, Mediaite and The Daily Beast
New York Times:
Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science — WASHINGTON — President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, brushed aside dire predictions about the effects of climate change, and turned the term “global warming” …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Axios, Washington Post, Splinter, Raw Story, The Week, Common Dreams and Vanity Fair
Hillel Italie / Associated Press:
Ex-defense secretary Jim Mattis has book coming this summer — NEW YORK (AP) — Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has a book coming out this summer, but he warns that it will not be a “tell-all” about President Donald Trump. — “Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead” will be published July 16, Random House announced Tuesday.
Discussion:
Axios, Political Wire and The Daily Caller
New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren Gains Ground in 2020 Field, One Plan at a Time — NEWTON, Iowa — To the crowd of Iowans gathered in a school gym on Saturday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren made a request: They should pose a question to the other presidential candidates who come to Iowa seeking their vote.
Annie Karni / New York Times:
Japan Rolled Out the Red Carpet. Trump Veered Off Into Personal Fixations. — TOKYO — It was just after 6 a.m. on the final day of a state visit to Japan designed to flatter and entertain him, and President Trump was in his comfort space: Twitter. — Hours earlier, he had been the honored guest …
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate GOP vows to quickly quash any impeachment charges — GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial.
Discussion:
RedState, Fox News, No More Mister Nice Blog, IJR and Raw Story
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Bernie's Pro-Sandinista Past Is a Problem, and His Response Is Not Good — A week ago, the New York Times reported on Bernie Sanders's 1980s-vintage foreign-policy stands, which at times crossed over from mere opposition to American policy to outright support for communist governments.
Discussion:
New Republic and RedState
Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
‘My Rudy’: Trump's lawyer wants to be the campaign's No. 1 hatchet man — Get ready for more Rudy. — Done sparring with Robert Mueller, Donald Trump's personal attorney is now training his attacks on the president's reelection rivals. Giuliani plans to meet with the president …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Splinter and Raw Story
Daniel Moritz-Rabson / Newsweek:
Trump HUD official Lynne Patton says she doesn't care if she broke the law — A Regional Housing and Urban Development official wrote on Wednesday that she did not care if she had broken a federal law intended to stop government officials from acting in a partisan manner.
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Matt Stieb / New York Magazine:
Trump HUD Appointee: 'I Honestly Don't Care' About Violating Federal Hatch Act
Trump HUD Appointee: 'I Honestly Don't Care' About Violating Federal Hatch Act
Discussion:
Washington Times, ThinkProgress and The Root
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
Joe Biden is the front-runner by every measure — except big crowds — He's dominating in the polls, his fundraising is going gangbusters and he's showing broad support from key political players in the early presidential states. — So where are the big energetic crowds, the lines around the block to get into Joe Biden's events?
Discussion:
NBC News
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CNN:
A private group says it's started building its own border wall using millions donated in GoFundMe campaign — Sunland Park, New Mexico (CNN)A group that raised millions of dollars in a GoFundMe campaign says it has broken ground on a project to build its own stretch of border wall on private property.
Discussion:
Washington Times, PJ Media Home and The Daily Caller
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Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Trump Embraces Right-Wing One America News Network to Make Fox News Jealous — The network praises the president, courts him in public, and has even tried to hire his former aides. It's finally getting his attention. — One evening last week, Neil McCabe, a Breitbart veteran who now works …
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Bill Barr's Declassification Kerfuffle — The media panic notwithstanding, the buck still stops with the president. — Last week, President Trump conferred on Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify documents relevant to his inquiry into what we can collectively call “the Russia investigation.”
Denis Slattery / New York Daily News:
AOC returning to her bartending roots to advocate for raising minimum wage for restaurant employees and other tipped workers — ALBANY — AOC will be waiting tables once again. — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is returning to her restaurant roots this week to show support for the federal Raise …
Katie Mettler / Washington Post:
A Nazi sympathizer pleaded guilty to defacing a synagogue. His lawyer says conservatives helped radicalize him. — After Nolan Brewer pleaded guilty to charges in connection with painting swastikas on an Indiana synagogue's property and setting the yard ablaze, his attorney argued …
Discussion:
Breitbart, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and BuzzFeed News
Kevin M. Kruse / USA Today:
Democrats need to get past impeachment jitters. It's not 1998 and Trump is no Clinton. — If Democrats think Trump committed impeachable acts, launch the process and stop assuming it will be a political loser. That misreads history. — CONNECT — As House Democrats consider impeaching …
Discussion:
Washington Post
Kalina Oroschakoff / Politico:
EU top job horse race goes green — Young voters in the EU's west went green — although that wasn't mirrored in the east. — Aggressive policies on tackling climate change turned out to be a vote-winner in the European election — at least in the west of the Continent.
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Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:
Trump's narrative is nonsense. So why is the media buying it? — Yes, Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time. The problem right now is that all anyone ever asks about is the gum-chewing. — President Trump is steadily advancing a narrative that Democrats are unable to focus …
Ben Schreckinger / Politico:
Amid censorship fears, Trump campaign ‘checking out’ alternative social network — Parler is like Twitter, but for Trump fans. — They've been banned from Facebook, purged from Twitter and blocked from Instagram. Some of them have been barred from setting foot on the continent of Australia.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Washington Post:
There's nothing progressive about strangling charter schools — THE MOST enduring — and unforgivable — civil rights offense in our country today is the consigning of so many poor, often minority children to failing schools. Among the more promising efforts to deal with this urgent issue …
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
In opposing Harriet Tubman, Trump has messed with the wrong woman — When President Trump invites historical comparisons, it is usually to his detriment. This is the risk of being even more corrupt than Warren G. Harding and even less articulate than, well, Warren G. Harding …
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