memeorandum: Kamala Harris, Seeking a Campaign Jolt, Defends Record as Prosecutor (Astead W. Herndon/New York Times)

11:30 AM ET, June 9, 2019

Top Items:

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:

Iowa Poll: Joe Biden leads, followed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg — The field of Democratic presidential candidates is starting to settle into tiers: Joe Biden leads the pack, and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg are in close competition for second place …

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Monthly, Bloomberg, Mediaite and Political Wire

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: Des Moines Register

John Verhovek / ABC News:

Beto O'Rourke shrugs off early polls, says importance of Trump's trade deal with Mexico ‘overblown’ — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke joined ABC's “This Week” on Sunday and pushed backed against poll numbers that show him behind some of the race's top contenders.

Discussion: Breitbart and IJR

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

Discussion: The Hill, CNN, Axios and WHOTV

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:
At Pride Fest in Des Moines, politics are in the spotlight

Discussion: Politico and One America News Network

David Cohen / Politico:

Trump says there's more in Mexico deal but doesn't say what — As critics continued to suggest the U.S. deal with Mexico didn't accomplish much, President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning there is more to the agreement than meets the eye. — “Importantly, some things. …

Bloomberg:
Trump Hints at More Details; Mexico Still Baffled by Farm Claim

Discussion: Forbes, The Resurgent, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Deadline, ThinkProgress, Politico, Fox News, POLITICUSUSA, Patterico's Pontifications, RedState and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Connor Mannion / Mediaite:
Mexico Reportedly Didn't Agree to New Farm Deal Despite Trump Tweeting About One

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post and Axios

New York Times:

Mexico Agreed to Take Border Actions Months Before Trump Announced Tariff Deal — WASHINGTON — The deal to avert tariffs that President Trump announced with great fanfare on Friday night consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the United States …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Week, The Daily Beast, KTLA, CNBC, One America News Network, Washington Monthly, Slate, Talking Points Memo, CNN, The Guardian, Mother Jones, WHOTV and Vanity Fair

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 …

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.

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.

Meg Kinnard / Associated Press:
Kamala Harris says prosecutor past will help defeat Trump

Discussion: Axios and Los Angeles Times

Christopher Cadelago / Politico:
Kamala Harris leans into prosecutor record in South Carolina

Discussion: TalkLeft

Alex Horton / Washington Post:

ICE deported veterans while ‘unaware’ it was required to carefully screen them, report says — On the same day the White House heralded veterans on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a federal watchdog said the government had violated its own rules on deporting former service members …

Benjy Sarlin / NBC News:

DeVos, unions drive Democratic candidates to back away from charter schools — The party's presidential hopefuls are improving their grades with labor groups representing teachers by looking to other education ideas. — WASHINGTON — In 2009, a newly-elected President Barack Obama called …

Mary Papenfuss / HuffPost:

Former White House Ethics Chief Proposes ‘Golf On Your Own Damn Dime Act’ — Walter Shaub thinks Donald Trump's nearly $106 million golf tab is getting way out of hand. — The former White House ethics chief is sarcastically proposing a “Golf on Your Own Damn Dime Act of 2019.”

Discussion: Splinter

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 …

Carol Morello / Washington Post:

Some U.S. embassies still hoisting rainbow flags, despite advisory from Washington — Since the State Department began rejecting all embassy requests to hoist rainbow flags outside the mission buildings during LGBTQ Pride Month this year, some U.S. diplomats have been finding ways to defy, or at least get around, the new policy.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Axios

Alexi McCammond / Axios:

The 2020 circular firing squad is here — The niceties have ended: 2020 Democrats are breaking their own pledge not to go after one another. The attacks of the past week show what a long primary they're in for. — Why it matters: These jabs and skirmishes show a fracturing Democratic Party …

Jonathan S. Tobin / National Review:

The Stacey Abrams Myth Becomes the Democratic Catechism — Democratic presidential candidates continue to swear her race was stolen. — Stacey Abrams's refusal to lose the Georgia gubernatorial election graciously was one of the low points of the 2018 midterms.

NBC News:

‘Whitey’ Bulger prison letters: Love for Trump, disdain for Mueller — The Boston gangster raved about the president, and railed against ex-special counsel Robert Mueller, in a series of letters to an unlikely pen pal. — In the final months of his life, James “Whitey” …