memeorandum: Trump attacks ‘socialists’ at home, but in Hong Kong he just sided with the Communists (Washington Post)

1:30 PM ET, July 23, 2019

Top Items:

Trump Relies on Populist Language, but He Mostly Sides With Corporate Interests — WASHINGTON — History will record last week as a moment when President Trump turned to raw racial appeals to attack a group of nonwhite lawmakers, but his attacks also underscored a remarkable fact of his first term …

Discussion: Politico

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

With budget deal, Trump drains the swamp — of the Tea Party — President Trump once vowed to drain the swamp, but by joining with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the latest budget deal, he has merely drained it of the Tea Party. — There are many ways in which the Trump presidency has been disruptive to the status quo.

Discussion: The Resurgent and Manhattan Institute

Issues & Insights:
A Budget Disaster of Epic Proportions

Discussion: Instapundit

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Deficit Don? Red ink gushes in Trump era

Discussion: Washington Post

New York Times:
Federal Budget Would Raise Spending by $320 Billion

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Deal or no deal?

Discussion: Detroit Free Press, Washington Post and Associated Press

Obed Manuel / Dallas Morning News:

A Dallas-born citizen picked up by the Border Patrol has been detained for three weeks — An 18-year-old Dallas-born U.S. citizen has been in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than three weeks, his attorney says.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Independent, Slate, Daily Kos, The Week, Daily Wire, twitchy.com, TheBlaze and Splinter

Meagan Flynn / Washington Post:
A U.S. citizen has been in immigration custody for nearly a month due to a paperwork snafu, attorney says

Discussion: VICE

NBC News: Abner, 17, describes 11 days of hunger and thirst at Yuma's border station

Anna Kaplan / The Daily Beast: 18-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Has Been in CBP and ICE Custody for Three Weeks

Maxwell Strachan / HuffPost:

The Fall Of Mic Was A Warning — “I don't need a pair of Nikes. I need a 401(k)” — and other lessons from the death of a venture-backed, Facebook-dependent, millennial-focused news site. — Esther Bergdahl felt invigorated. How could she not? It was 2014, and she had just joined …

more at Mediagazer »

Morgan Phillips / Mediaite:

MSNBC Guests Keep Repeating False Claim That Fox News Isn't Covering the Mueller Hearings — Former Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards, appearing on MSNBC Tuesday morning, repeated the false claim that Fox News will not be airing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's hearing before Congress this week.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, NB Blog and Deadline

Eric Felten / RealClearInvestigations:

The Shaky Standing of Mueller's Footnotes — Jule 23, 2019 — The Mueller report. Top photo: Its author, left, with his successor as FBI boss, James Comey, who looms large not just in height but in the report's footnotes. — Who knew that the humble footnote would loom so large …

Discussion: Power Line, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, TheBlaze, PJ Media Home, CNN, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Wire

The Daily Beast:
Can Mueller Cut Through Barr's ‘Fog of Propaganda’?

Discussion: Washington Post

Tom Polansek / Reuters:

Trump administration pursues rule that would remove 3.1 million people from food stamps — CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday will propose a rule to tighten food stamp restrictions that would cut about 3.1 million people from the program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said.

Discussion: Progress Pond and Fox News

Mike Dorning / Bloomberg:
Trump Administration Moves to End Food Stamps for 3 Million People

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Fortune, Eduwonk, Law & Crime and The Root

Tami Luhby / CNN:
Trump administration proposal could kick 3 million off food stamps

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, USDA and UPI

Laura Reiley / Washington Post:
Trump administration proposal would push 3 million Americans off food stamps

Discussion: Reuters, Axios, Common Dreams and Slate

Neal K. Katyal / New York Times:

With Three Simple Answers, Mueller Can Speak Volumes — For those who have read it, the special counsel's report speaks for itself. For those who haven't, he can speak for it in Congress. — Mr. Katyal was an acting solicitor general in the Obama administration.

Discussion: Washington Post and Law & Crime

Josh Campbell / CNN:

Robert Mueller will frustrate the hell out of Congress — Josh Campbell is a CNN analyst covering national security issues. He previously served as a Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI, special assistant to the bureau's director and is the author of a forthcoming book on the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation.

Discussion: National Review

Elie Honig / CNN:
Mueller, drop the Yoda act

Discussion: The Week, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

Warplanes from four countries face off in Asian confrontation — Seoul (CNN)Warplanes from four countries faced off Tuesday in a chaotic and unprecedented confrontation above a small, disputed island off the coast of South Korea and Japan. — South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff issued …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Daily Caller and The Week

BBC:

Boris Johnson wins race to be Tory leader and PM — Boris Johnson has been elected new Conservative leader in a ballot of party members and will become the next UK prime minister. — He beat Jeremy Hunt comfortably, winning 92,153 votes to his rival's 46,656.

Discussion: Reason and PJ Media Home

Heather Stewart / The Guardian:
Boris Johnson elected new Tory leader

Discussion: Slate, Financial Times, Agence France-Presse and New York Times

Politico:
Boris Johnson elected Tory leader, set to become UK PM

Discussion: Bloomberg, Breitbart, Washington Post, One America News Network and Politico

Jeffrey Cimmino / Washington Free Beacon:

Gabbard: ‘Kamala Harris is Not Qualified to Serve as Commander in Chief’ — 'She's got no background or experience in foreign policy' — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) argued Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) is not qualified to serve as commander in chief during an appearance on Outkick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Tuesday.

Ben Terris / Washington Post: Who is Kamala Harris, really? Ask her sister Maya.

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Sherrod Brown Is the Only Democrat in America Not Running for President — EL PASO, Tex. — As 20 Democrats debated on national television, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and his wife, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, texted each other a running critique of the candidates.

Nancy A. Youssef / Wall Street Journal:

Senate Votes to Confirm Mark Esper as Defense Secretary — Confirmation ends longest period in Pentagon history without a congressionally approved leader — The Senate voted to confirm former Raytheon Co. executive Mark Esper as U.S. defense secretary, ending the longest period …

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:
Senate confirms Mark Esper as new defense secretary

Discussion: Politico

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

US attorney general William Barr says Americans should accept security risks of encryption backdoors — U.S. attorney general William Barr has said consumers should accept the risks that encryption backdoors pose to their personal cybersecurity to ensure law enforcement can access encrypted communications.

Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:

MAGA Bomber's Lawyers Blame Trump, Sean Hannity for His Radicalization — “In this darkness, Mr. Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump,” his legal team wrote in a new filing. — The “MAGA Bomber” who mailed explosives to President Donald Trump's critics turned violent on a steady diet of Fox News …

Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:

Heritage Blasts ‘Vengeful’ Conservative Critics—Including Its Former President — In a lengthy internal memo, Kay Coles James hammered reporting in the new book “American Carnage” and accused her predecessor of leaking unflattering details about the think tank.

Kera Bolonik / The Cut:

The Most Gullible Man in Cambridge A Harvard Law professor who teaches a class on judgment wouldn't seem like an obvious mark, would he? — It was just supposed to have been a quick Saturday-morning errand to buy picture hooks. On March 7, 2015, Harvard Law professor Bruce Hay, then 52 …

Miriam Jordan / New York Times:

More Than 2,000 Migrants Were Targeted in Raids. 35 Were Arrested. — More than 2,000 migrants who were in the United States illegally were targeted in widely publicized raids that unfolded across the country last week. But figures the government provided to The New York Times on Monday show …

Discussion: National Review, Outside the Beltway, Daily Wire, CNN and The Crime Report

Walter Shapiro / Roll Call:

Moderation in the Trump era? Democrats, it's futile — OPINION — The tone of the letter from the Columnists' Guild I'm expecting any minute now will be as stiff as the old-fashioned stationery it's printed on. It will note that I am “derelict in your duties” and “an embarrassment …

Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:

Lawyers For Trump ‘Super Fan’ Cesar Sayoc Say Trump's Rhetoric Inspired Terrorist Plot On Democrats — “A rational observer may have brushed off Trump's tweets as hyperbole, but Mr. Sayoc took them to heart,” his attorneys wrote. — Cesar Sayoc, the fanatical Donald Trump fan …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and UPI

Josh Lederman / NBC News:

Doctors find differences in brains of U.S. diplomats who alleged mystery attacks in Cuba — Doctors found “significant differences” but couldn't say if they were caused by whatever happened in Cuba or if those differences were tied to symptoms. — WASHINGTON — A group …

Discussion: The Week

Washington Post:

Trump attacks ‘socialists’ at home, but in Hong Kong he just sided with the Communists — CHINESE OFFICIALS and state media were in high dudgeon Monday about minor acts of vandalism following the latest mass demonstration in Hong Kong. Protesters who threw eggs at China's liaison office …

Discussion: Slate and Bloomberg