memeorandum: An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person? (Murtaza Hussain/The Intercept)

6:20 PM ET, June 9, 2019

Top Items:

Reid Wilson / The Hill:

Biden slumps, Buttigieg soars: 6 takeaways from benchmark Iowa poll — Just hours before presidential candidates will pitch themselves to Iowa Democratic activists in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, a new poll of likely caucusgoers is rattling the race — and hinting that a formidable front-runner …

Discussion: Politico, Des Moines Register, Breitbart, Townhall and CNN

Dan Guild / Bleeding Heartland:

Joe Biden will probably lose Iowa — Dan Guild examines what history tells us about how to interpret the latest Iowa Democratic caucus poll by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register, Mediacom, and CNN. -promoted by Laura Belin — It has been two months since the last good Iowa caucus poll.

Discussion: Washington Post, Iowa Starting Line, Daily Wire and The Guardian

Des Moines Register:
How proposed Democratic caucus rules make polling even harder, and how we crafted our best shot

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Newsweek, POLITICUSUSA and Breitbart

John Verhovek / ABC News:
Beto O'Rourke shrugs off early polls, says importance of Trump's trade deal with Mexico ‘overblown’

Discussion: New Republic, Slate, Breitbart, Washington Times, Florida Politics, IJR and Washington Monthly

Murtaza Hussain / The Intercept:

An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person? — In 2018, President Donald Trump was seeking to jettison the landmark nuclear deal that his predecessor had signed with Iran in 2015, and he was looking for ways to win over a skeptical press.

more at Mediagazer »

Peter Baker / New York Times:

A Drama of Trump's Own Making Ends With a Familiar Hero — WASHINGTON — For nine days, he had his finger on the trigger and threatened to pull. For nine days, he put two countries, entire multinational industries, vast swaths of consumers and workers and even his own advisers and Republican allies …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and New York Post

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux / Washington Post:

In Alabama — where lawmakers banned abortion for rape victims — rapists' parental rights are protected — When a young woman came to the Family Services of North Alabama office last year for help with trauma, saying she had been raped by her step-uncle when she was 15 …

Discussion: Progress Pond

Austin Ramzy / New York Times:

A Million March in Hong Kong Over Eroding Freedoms, Organizers Say — HONG KONG — Hundreds of thousands of people filled the sweltering streets of Hong Kong on Sunday in an immense protest against fraying freedoms that culminated after midnight with the police firing pepper spray and striking participants with batons.

Discussion: Vox, Mother Jones, Reuters, CNN, UPI, Outside the Beltway and Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Jennifer Creery / Hong Kong Free Press HKFP: Over a million attend Hong Kong demo against controversial extradition law, organisers say

BBC:
Hong Kong protesters demonstrate against extradition bill

Discussion: The Week

Ben LaBolt / The Atlantic:

I Helped Obama Win in 2012. Now Trump Is Using the Same Playbook. — The general-election campaign is happening today. And Donald Trump is running unopposed. — Presidents who have recently won reelection seeded their victories not in the final sprint before Election Day …

Peter Hermann / Washington Post:

A Foreign Service couple's contentious divorce ends in deadly violence — They were scheduled to be in D.C. Superior Court Friday morning to work out the final details of a fiercely contested divorce. — But Lola Gulomova and Jason Rieff never made it. — Shortly before the 10 a.m. hearing …

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

Journalists can't repeat their Watergate-hero act. The reasons should make us grieve. — The question from an audience member made the three network chiefs bristle: — Why aren't the news media holding the White House accountable like they did during the Nixon/Watergate era?

David Cohen / Politico:

Trump says there's more in Mexico deal but doesn't say what — There's more to the U.S.-Mexico tariff agreement than meets the eye, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, as critics continued to suggest that the deal didn't accomplish much. — “Importantly, some things. …

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Andrew O'Reilly / Fox News:
Acting DHS secretary praises White House deal with Mexico on immigration, defends Trump's tariff threat

Discussion: Washington Times and Breitbart

Virginia Heffernan / Los Angeles Times:

The cheater in the Oval Office should be banished from the tribe — The Mueller report amply chronicles President Trump's staggering, decades-long crime spree. Like an iron skillet to the head, the extent of Trump's corruption seems to have stupefied voters, legal scholars and, of course …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Jonathan M. Katz / Los Angeles Times:

Call immigrant detention centers what they really are: concentration camps — If you were paying close attention last week, you might have spotted a pattern in the news. Peeking out from behind the breathless coverage of the Trump family's tuxedoed trip to London was a spate of deaths …

Mary Clare Jalonick / Associated Press:

Case opened: Democrats begin public airing of Mueller report — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says it's “case closed .” But Democrats are just getting started with Robert Mueller . — House Democrats have scheduled a series of hearings this coming week on the special counsel's report …

Discussion: Fox News

Washington Post: For Democrats, Trump impeachment question is a personal struggle transcending politics

Marc Tracy / New York Times:

Google Made $4.7 Billion From the News Industry in 2018, Study Says — $4,700,000,000. — It's more than the combined ticket sales of the last two “Avengers” movies. It's more than what virtually any professional sports team is worth. And it's the amount that Google made from the work …

Tom McCarthy / The Guardian:

Can Trump win in 2020? This Pennsylvania county may hold the key — Northampton county, Pennsylvania voted twice for Barack Obama before flipping for Trump - and could decide whether Trump gets a second term — Can Trump really make America great again?

Nick Valencia / CNN:

A veteran died in police custody. His body was returned to his family with some organs missing — (CNN)Two days before he died, Everett Palmer Jr. called his brother, Dwayne, to tell him he was on his way from Delaware to New York to visit him and their sick mother.

Discussion: The Root

Jonathan Cohn / HuffPost:

Elizabeth Warren Has A Plan — And A Story — Campaigning on policy doesn't work for every Democrat. Here's why it seems to be working for her. — DETROIT ― Elizabeth Warren took her presidential campaign to the Midwest this week, starting with two stops in Michigan where she unveiled …

Discussion: Yahoo News, The Week and The Guardian

Astead W. Herndon / New York Times:

Kamala Harris, Seeking a Campaign Jolt, Defends Record as Prosecutor — WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — Senator Kamala Harris of California has, for months, faced criticism from activist Democrats who have said her record as California attorney general was at odds with her progressive reputation.