memeorandum: Biden's mastery of backlash politics takes center stage (Jonathan Allen/NBC News)

10:50 AM ET, July 7, 2019

Top Items:

Jeffrey Epstein Arrested for Sex Trafficking of Minors — Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on Saturday and will appear in New York court on Monday to be charged with sex trafficking, according to multiple law enforcement sources. — Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was arrested …

Julie K. Brown / Miami Herald:

Jeffrey Epstein arrested on sex trafficking charges — More than a decade after receiving one of the most lenient sentences for a serial sex offender in U.S history, multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested outside of New York, sources confirmed to the Miami Herald Saturday night.

Discussion: New York Post and Lawyers, Guns & Money

New York Times:

Jeffrey Epstein, Billionaire Long Accused of Molesting Minors, Is Charged — Mr. Epstein, a financier, was charged by federal prosecutors with sex trafficking in New York. — He avoided federal criminal charges a decade ago in a plea deal after he was accused of paying dozens of underage girls for sexual massages.

Discussion: Townhall, Slate, The Reality-Based Community and The Guardian

Washington Post:

Jeffrey Epstein taken into custody in New York on new charges related to sex crimes involving minors — Jeffrey Epstein, the well-connected multimillionaire who was sentenced to just more than a year in jail to resolve allegations that he molested dozens of young girls …

Discussion: Spectator USA

Chris Spargo / Daily Mail:

Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking bust: Convicted pedophile arrested on the tarmac after he jets in from France as FBI agents break down the door of his NYC mansion to execute search warrant — Federal prosecutors with the US Attorney's office in Manhattan filed sex trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Big League Politics

Christina Zhao / Newsweek: Trump's longtime friend Jeffrey Epstein arrested for sex trafficking minors in Florida, New York

CNN:
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein arrested and accused of sex trafficking minors, sources say

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Jonathan Dienst / NBC New York:
Jeffrey Epstein Arrested in NYC on Sex Trafficking Charges: Sources

Discussion: Breitbart

Daily Mail:

Britain's man in the US says Trump is ‘inept’: Leaked secret cables from ambassador say the President is ‘uniquely dysfunctional and his career could end in disgrace’ — Britain's Ambassador to Washington has described Donald Trump as ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘incompetent’ in a series of explosive memos to Downing Street.

Discussion: Spectator USA, Agence France-Presse, Outside the Beltway, Informed Comment, KTLA, POLITICUSUSA, Politico, Axios, New York Post and Mother Jones

Jack Maidment / Daily Mail:

'Totally unsuitable - the sooner he is gone the better': Farage leads calls for Britain's man in Washington be SACKED after leaked memos reveal how he called Trump's White House ‘inept’ and ‘uniquely dysfunctional’ — Nigel Farage has called for Britain's ambassador to the US to be sacked …

Daily Mail:
Trump's speeches are ‘full of false claims’ …

Discussion: Breitbart

CNN: Cables from UK's ambassador to the US blast Trump as ‘inept,’ ‘incompetent’

Ellen Barry / New York Times: In Leak, U.K. Ambassador Calls Trump Administration ‘Inept’ and ‘Clumsy’

Gary Langer / ABC News:

Trump reaches career-high approval, yet faces a range of reelection risks: Poll — Bolstered by a strong economy, Donald Trump reached the highest job approval rating of his career in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll and runs competitively for reelection against four of five possible Democratic contenders.

Discussion: Political Wire, Outside the Beltway, Fox News and Axios

Washington Post:

Aided by a strong economy, Trump approval rises, but a majority also see him as ‘unpresidential’ — Aided by a strong economy and perceptions that he has dealt with it effectively, President Trump's approval rating has risen to the highest point of his presidency, though a slight majority …

Discussion: NB Blog and IJR

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

It's Nancy Pelosi's Parade — “If the left doesn't think I'm left enough, so be it,” she told me. — SAN FRANCISCO — Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump have a lot in common. — Neither one drinks, yet they have family vineyards. They both love big bowls of ice cream.

Discussion: The Intercept, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Free Beacon, twitchy.com, TheBlaze, Washington Monthly, Fox News, Althouse, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Hullabaloo and Washington Post

Andrew Marra / Palm Beach Post:

Spanish River High's principal refused to call the Holocaust a fact — A mother pushed for a year to address what she described as a school leader's failure to separate truth from myth. — She sent off the email with few expectations — a routine question seeking a routine answer.

Discussion: Yahoo, twitchy.com and Townhall

New York Times:

Iran Announces New Breach of Nuclear Deal Limits, and Threatens Further Violations — Iran said on Sunday that within hours it would breach the limits on uranium enrichment set four years ago in an accord with the United States and other international powers that was designed to keep Tehran from producing a nuclear weapon.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Sally Goldenberg / Politico:

‘Members are looking over their shoulders’: Democrats spooked by new primary threats — Just when it looked like the threat of widespread primary challenges to House Democrats had quieted down, the activist left is agitating again to go after many of the party's longtime incumbents.

Discussion: Political Wire

Heather Caygle / Politico:

Threat of budget disaster rises amid discord in both parties — Washington is deadlocked ahead of a series of fiscal deadlines, time is growing scarce and it's only going to get harder to avoid a debacle. — Congressional leaders and the Trump administration have so far tried in vain …

Discussion: Political Wire

Jeh Charles Johnson / Washington Post:

Trump-era politics are drowning out consensus on immigration. It's time for some straight talk. — Jeh Charles Johnson was homeland security secretary from 2013 to 2017. — Americans are and should be outraged at reports of migrants detained in dirty, overcrowded conditions near the Southern border.

Discussion: Mother Jones

Bianca Quilantan / Politico:

Justin Amash: GOP was broken even before Trump's presidency — Rep. Justin Amash, just days after he announced his departure from the Republican Party, said Sunday he would have left even if Donald Trump weren't the president but insisted that this term in Congress was what “really broke it for me.”

Discussion: Breitbart

Jonathan Allen / NBC News:

Biden's mastery of backlash politics takes center stage — For better and worse, the former vice president's Senate civil rights record is currently central to his presidential campaign. — WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware didn't need to hear any more from the legion of critics lined …

Discussion: The Hill

New York Times:

Warren and Harris Rise in Democratic Primary, Challenging Male Front-Runners — LAS VEGAS — When Beth Krerowicz began reviewing the platoon of Democratic presidential candidates, her first instinct was to back Joseph R. Biden Jr., whom she saw as the strongest opponent to President Trump.

Masha Gessen / New Yorker:

Donald Trump's “Inoffensive” War on Reality — Donald Trump's Fourth of July address was most remarkable for the things it did not contain. Immediately afterward, commentators noted that Trump didn't use the opportunity to attack the Democratic Party, to issue explicit campaign slogans …

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

2019 Belongs to Shirley Chisholm — A feature film. A monument. Tattoos in her honor. People looking for a hero have found one in this one-woman precursor to today's progressive politics. — Ms. Steinhauer is a Times reporter. — July 6, 2019 — Shirley Chisholm stares …

New York Times:

Sound, Fury and Prescription Drugs — Despite talk of reform, drug prices keep climbing. Here's how to change that. — 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.