Top Items:
Miami Herald:
New victims come forward as Epstein asks to be released from jail to his Manhattan mansion — At least a dozen new victims have come forward to claim they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein even as the multimillionaire money manager tries to convince a federal judge to allow him to await …
Discussion:
Florida Politics, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New York Post, Slate, CBC News, New York Times and Crooks and Liars, more at Mediagazer »
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New York Times:
Acosta Resigns as Trump's Labor Secretary After Epstein Plea Deal — WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday morning that R. Alexander Acosta, his embattled secretary of labor, will resign following controversy over his handling of a sex crimes case involving the financier, Jeffrey Epstein, when he was a prosecutor in Florida.
Discussion:
BostonGlobe.com, Political Wire, New York Post, Mediaite, Althouse, The Slot, Slate, Washington Post and Fox News
Michelle Celarier / New York Magazine:
Real Hedge-Fund Managers Have Some Thoughts on What Epstein Was Actually Doing — Long before Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in Florida more than a decade ago, his fellow Palm Beach resident and hedge-fund manager Douglas Kass was intrigued by the local gossip about his neighbor.
Discussion:
New York Times and Instapundit
Anita Kumar / Politico:
Alexander Acosta stepping down as Labor secretary — Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is stepping down from his post, just two days after he held a news conference to defend a plea deal that he brokered for wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as a U.S. attorney in Florida more than a decade ago.
Discussion:
CNN, The Federalist, Vox, Power Line, Mother Jones, Slate, NPR, Outside the Beltway, fox5sandiego.com, Florida Politics, Associated Press, The Federalist Papers and Shareblue Media
Laura Bassett / GQ:
When Does America Reckon with the Gravity of Donald Trump's Alleged Rapes?
When Does America Reckon with the Gravity of Donald Trump's Alleged Rapes?
Discussion:
Page Six
Ryan Devereaux / The Intercept:
Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost Was a Member of Secret Facebook Group — When news broke that thousands of current and former Border Patrol agents were members of a secret Facebook group filled with racist, vulgar, and sexist content, Carla Provost, chief of the agency, was quick to respond.
Discussion:
Splinter, Shareblue Media, VICE, The Outline and GovExec.com
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Quartz:
This framed photo of Tomi Lahren hangs in US Border Patrol headquarters — A large, framed photo of far-right commentator Tomi Lahren posing with US Border Patrol officials hangs prominently on the wall of the agency's headquarters in Washington, DC. A person with access to the area described …
Dara Lind / ProPublica:
Border Patrol Agents Are Passing Around A Commemorative Coin Mocking Care for Migrant Kids — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump's cave on Census stuns allies — Top figures in the conservative legal community are stunned and depressed by President Trump's cave in his fight for a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. — The state of play: Sources say Leonard Leo and other Federalist Society stalwarts …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The White House, The Week, Political Wire, Mediaite, The Last Refuge and Associated Press
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Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Barr does his best to spin Trump's census loss
Barr does his best to spin Trump's census loss
Discussion:
Slate, electionlawblog.org and Dispatches From the …
Salvador Rizzo / Washington Post:
Kellyanne Conway's flushable claims about the census citizenship question
Kellyanne Conway's flushable claims about the census citizenship question
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Fortune
New York Times:
‘This Is Not a Find-a-Friend Contest’: Bernie Sanders's Resolute Campaign Style — WASHINGTON — When Senator Bernie Sanders brought his presidential campaign to Pittsburgh earlier this year, he quietly added a poignant stop to his schedule: a visit to the Tree of Life synagogue …
Discussion:
NBC News and Wall Street Journal
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Holly Otterbein / Politico:
Sanders and Warren voters have astonishingly little in common
Sanders and Warren voters have astonishingly little in common
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
President Trump Says Only Trump Supporters Deserve Free Speech — President Trump held a confab at the White House Thursday to promote his Orwellian notion of “free speech” online. It confirmed yet again the president's implacable hostility to basic liberal freedoms.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
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Caleb Howe / Mediaite:
Trump Says It's Not Free Speech to ‘Write Bad’ About ‘Something Good’: That's ‘Dangerous Speech’
Trump Says It's Not Free Speech to ‘Write Bad’ About ‘Something Good’: That's ‘Dangerous Speech’
Discussion:
Slate, No More Mister Nice Blog, Patterico's Pontifications and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »
Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
Trump Praises Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorists at White House: ‘The Crap You Think of Is Unbelievable’
Trump Praises Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorists at White House: ‘The Crap You Think of Is Unbelievable’
Discussion:
Vox, Axios, Breitbart, Mediaite, New York Times, Politico and Hullabaloo
Natasha Bertrand / Politico:
'This wasn't just a briefing': Pompeo grilled CIA analysts on Russia findings — Attorney General Bill Barr has ordered an investigation into whether the CIA was correct to determine that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
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Scott Wong / The Hill:
CBC lawmakers rip Justice Democrats for targeting black lawmakers for primaries — Congressional Black Caucus members are furious at Justice Democrats, accusing the outside progressive group aligned with firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) of trying to oust lawmakers of color, specifically African-American lawmakers.
Discussion:
Hot Air, RedState, The Daily Caller and Eschaton
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John Bresnahan / Politico:
Mueller testimony delayed by one week — Former special counsel Robert Mueller's highly-anticipated Capitol Hill testimony will be delayed one week under a tentative arrangement he reached with House Democrats, according to multiple sources briefed on the discussions.
Discussion:
CNN, Vox and Talking Points Memo
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
“Congratulations Again, Mr. President”: Trump and the Co-opting of the G.O.P. — He is a Twitter cry baby, but it's more calculated than it looks. — Donald Trump hates criticism but loves to criticize. As President, he's done more of it than perhaps any of his predecessors.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
NBC New York:
R. Kelly Arrested on Federal Sex Trafficking Charges: Law Enforcement Officials — The 52-year-old was arrested by NYPD detectives and Homeland Security Investigators on sex trafficking charges — Singer R. Kelly has been arrested in Chicago on federal sex crime charges, according two law enforcement sources.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Federalist Papers, Fox News, CNBC, Essence, Chicago Sun-Times, Rolling Stone, The Daily Caller, Consequence of Sound and The Root
Eliana Johnson / Politico:
Why Pence spiked a Trump judge — In January 2018, Judge Michael Kanne received an unexpected call from the White House. Kanne, an Indiana native who sits on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, was then 79 years old. — Under leadership of Don McGahn, the White House counsel's office …
ABC7:
CA lawmakers pass bill requiring Trump, presidential candidates to release tax returns — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KABC) — California legislation that would require presidential and state gubernatorial candidates to release their tax returns in order to appear on the state's ballot cleared a significant hurdle …
Yashar Ali / HuffPost:
Fox News Host Tyrus Sent Lewd Text Messages To Colleague: ‘Pull Your Boobs Out’ — Fox News split up Tyrus and his former Fox Nation co-host, Britt McHenry, after he sent her the messages. But he still works at the network. — Tyrus, a Fox News contributor and a host on the network's digital channel …
Robert Burns / Associated Press:
Pentagon in its longest-ever stretch of leadership limbo — WASHINGTON (AP) — When he resigned as defense secretary last December, Jim Mattis thought it might take two months to install a successor. That seemed terribly long at the time. — Seven months later, the U.S. still …
Discussion:
The Week
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
The ‘Billy Graham rule’ doesn't honor your wife. It demeans her — and all women. — It's charitable to first assume our fellow humans are acting in good faith, so let's first assume that Robert Foster genuinely believes he is the hero of this story. Let's assume that when the Mississippi …
Discussion:
RedState, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, The Slot, New York Post and ThinkProgress
Eric Schmitt / New York Times:
American Commandos Gear Up for New Shadow War With Russia — SZOLNOK, Hungary — Secretive, behind-the-lines mission rehearsals and other operations by 1,400 American and allied commandos to combat shifting Russian threats have laid bare a fundamental tension in the Trump administration …
Sean Wilentz / New Yorker:
Nancy Pelosi, Impeachment, and Places in History — Crises make and break historical reputations. In our current constitutional emergency, a few unlikely figures, above all the former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have upheld the rule of law, possibly redeeming their places in history.
Hunter Walker / Yahoo News:
Sebastian Gorka at the center of Rose Garden ruckus following Trump event — WASHINGTON — It was an unusual spectacle, even by the unconventional standards of the Trump administration. After President Trump invited a group of right-wing and fringe media figures to the White House for a …
Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost:
Chicago Mayor Permanently Bans ICE From Accessing Police Databases Ahead Of Raids — Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to protect Chicago's immigrant enclaves by halting any police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday …
Marianne LeVine / Politico:
Trump's big deal gets battered by 2020 Dems and Pelosi — The Democratic presidential primary is becoming a big problem for what would be President Donald Trump's premier bipartisan achievement. — The leading White House contenders are amping up their opposition to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Mona Charen / Mona Charen from Creators Syndicate:
Claremont Would Make Founders Weep — The Claremont Institute was part of the flowering of intellectual conservatism that graced America in the 1970s and '80s. Founded by students of Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa, the California think tank was devoted to teaching “the principles …