memeorandum: Whistleblower Allegations Surfaced Just Before DNI Pick John Ratcliffe Withdrew (The Daily Beast)

3:40 PM ET, August 3, 2019

Top Items:

Andra Litton / KTSM-TV:

Police source: 18 killed, multiple injured in El Paso Walmart shooting — UPDATE: 1:06 p.m. - An officers on the scene tell KTSM that 18 people are dead at the scene. An updated number of injured has not been given by EPPD. We are waiting to confirm from an El Paso Police spokesperson.

Discussion: El Paso Times, NBC News, WTVR-TV, New York Times, Breitbart, Mother Jones, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, The Sun, WPIX 11 New York, KTLA, fox8.com, The Guardian, Mediaite, CNN, KAMR, KDFW, UPI and KFOX-TV

CBS News:

El Paso police say multiple people killed in shooting at shopping mall — Multiple people were killed and one person was in custody after a shooter went on a rampage Saturday at a shopping mall, police in the Texas border town of El Paso said. Police responded in the early afternoon …

Discussion: USA Today, ABC News, The Texas Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Townhall, KVIA-TV, Al Jazeera, CBS Denver, twitchy.com and New York Post

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Michael Avenatti is mulling a run for president again after declaring he would not seek nomination — KEY POINTS — Michael Avenatti, who in the past represented porn star Stormy Daniels against the likes of President Donald Trump and his then fixer Michael Cohen, told CNBC late on Friday …

Discussion: Political Wire and The Daily Caller

New York Times:

Trump Fuels Racial Disharmony. Will It Motivate or Discourage Black Voters? — DETROIT — Mark Greer is a black Detroiter so outraged by President Trump's regular stream of invective toward people of color that he does his best to avoid exposure to him. — So when he clicked on a YouTube link …

Nancy Cook / Politico:

Trump prepares a push to woo black voters — President Donald Trump is looking to woo black voters — if he can make them forget about his tweets. — The Trump 2020 campaign has been quietly reaching out to prominent African Americans about joining its latest coalition, intended to boost Republican support in the black community.

Discussion: The Week and Mediaite

Lee Moran / HuffPost:

Baltimore Sun Torches Donald Trump: ‘Dancing On Graves’ Of City's Dead — “This is the behavior of a jerk, a clod, a dolt, a schmuck.” — The Baltimore Sun's editorial board on Friday published yet another blistering opinion piece about President Donald Trump, in which it took him to task …

Discussion: The Crime Report and Washington Post

Eli Stokols / Los Angeles Times:
It's not just Baltimore; Trump is running against America's cities

Discussion: Baltimore Sun, NPR and USA Today

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Nikki Haley hits Trump's ‘unnecessary’ response to Cummings break-in

Discussion: Big League Politics, Breitbart, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, IJR, USA Today and No More Mister Nice Blog

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:

The Reverend Bill Owens Stands Behind Trump — During the past several weeks, President Trump has been ramping up his racist and inflammatory attacks on nonwhite lawmakers and activists. After telling four lawmakers of color to “go back” to where they came from, he targeted Representative Elijah Cummings …

Discussion: Althouse

Becket Adams / Washington Examiner:
CNN's Don Lemon ambushes black pastor over his meeting with President Trump

Discussion: Fox News

Julie Hirschfeld Davis / New York Times:

Deprived of Power, House Republicans Head for the Exits — WASHINGTON — Imagine being swept out of power in Congress and relegated to the role of spectator and naysayer as your political opponents dictate the terms of legislative debate. Add in the specter of a painful slog to re-election …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

The Hill:

Hurd retirement leaves GOP gloomy on 2020 — Republicans are growing more pessimistic about their odds of taking back the House majority after the surprise news Thursday that Rep. Will Hurd (Texas), the only African American GOP lawmaker in the House, is retiring.

Dan Balz / Washington Post: For Democrats, and for Republicans, a summer of discontent

The Daily Beast:

Whistleblower Allegations Surfaced Just Before DNI Pick John Ratcliffe Withdrew — Trump blamed the media for his nominee's withdrawal, but it may have to do with his proximity to a company accused of being instrumental in reprisal against a whistleblower. — An email disclosing …

Discussion: Axios, One America News Network, Slate, Associated Press, Daily Kos, The Last Refuge and Spectator USA

Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:

John Ratcliffe (R-Loser) Gets the Full Trump Treatment — The resume-padding backbencher raved at Mueller on camera and found himself at the peak of Trump's regard. But like a gram of pure coke, there are consequences when the fun stops. — By RICK WILSON8.2.19 8:31 PM ET

Christopher Caldwell / New York Times:

The Problem With Greta Thunberg's Climate Activism — Her radical approach is at odds with democracy. — Mr. Caldwell is the author of “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West.” — Climate activists in Western Europe had already been radicalizing …

Lee Moran / HuffPost:

Fox News Host: 'I Don't Know Where To Begin' Debunking Donald Trump's Latest Lie — Neil Cavuto fact-checked Trump's latest false claims about U.S. tariffs on products imported from China. — Fox News' Neil Cavuto wasted no time in fact-checking President Donald Trump's latest claims …

Laurence H. Tribe / NBC News:

Should the age of sexual consent be lowered? — Consent laws exist for a reason. But that hasn't stopped lawyers and pundits from making demonstrably flawed arguments as “devil's advocates.” — The devil is a notoriously misleading advocate. Lawyers and pundits who revel in advancing arguments …

Discussion: The Sun

Washington Post:

GOP senator held up Trump nominee, demanding to see border wall contracts after Army Corps panned construction firm he prefers — A Republican senator held up the confirmation of a White House budget official this week in an attempt to obtain sensitive information about border wall contracts he's …

Anna Kusmer / wgbh.org:

Artist Cages ‘Make Way for Ducklings’ Statue To Protest Child Detention Centers — Early Friday morning, local artist Karyn Alzayer went to work at the Boston public gardens. She put chicken wire cages around the iconic “Make Way for Ducklings” statue, separating the baby ducklings …

Discussion: Boston Globe and ImmigrationProf Blog

Hannah Natanson / Washington Post:

An elite D.C. girls' school thought its founding nuns taught slaves to read. Instead, they sold them off for as much as they could. — The cash-strapped nuns were desperate to sell their slaves. — It was the 1820s, and debt was piling up for Mother Agnes Brent, superior of the Georgetown Visitation Convent in Washington.

Discussion: New York Times

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Excellence — A former dean of the Yale Law School sounds a warning. — Anyone who has followed the news from college campuses over the past few years knows they are experiencing forms of unrest unseen since the late 1960s. — Now, as then, campuses have become an arena for political combat.

The Economist:

The Amazon is approaching an irreversible tipping point — The results would be disastrous, for Brazil and for the world — The amazon basin, most of which sits within the borders of Brazil, contains 40% of the world's tropical forests and accounts for 10-15% of the biodiversity of Earth's continents.

Matthew Boyle / Breitbart:

Exclusive — Kevin McCarthy Details GOP Plan to Retake House Majority: 31 Democrats Sit in Districts Donald Trump Won — Republicans only need to net win back 20 seats from Democrats to retake their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy broke …

Evan A. Davis / The Hill:

An impeachment inquiry has begun — Those eager for the start of an official inquiry by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee into the possible impeachment of President Trump need wait no longer. — A memorandum, submitted by the committee on July 26 to the U.S. District Court for the District …

Discussion: National Review

Mensah M. Dean / Inquirer.com:

‘It was terrifying’: Black Chadds Ford couple left shaken by white Pa. trooper's alleged misconduct — Rodney and Angela Gillespie were excited when they returned July 1 to the United States, to the home they'd built in 2007 on a 2.7-acre parcel in a leafy section of upscale Chadds Ford.

Washington Post:

Ohio's Hamilton County may test whether Trump's divisiveness will help or hurt him in 2020 — CINCINNATI — When President Trump railed against Baltimore and other diverse American cities as dangerous and “broken” during a campaign rally here this week, supporters cheered Trump's assessment.

Discussion: Politico

CNN:

Elizabeth Warren is running a brilliant campaign — David Axelrod, a senior CNN political commentator and host of “The Axe Files,” was senior adviser to President Barack Obama and chief strategist for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

Discussion: The Hill, Breitbart and Viking Pundit

Julia Arciga / The Daily Beast:

Rep. Devin Nunes Sues Group Calling Him a ‘Fake Farmer’ — Rep. Devin Nunes' (R-CA) campaign is suing a group of people who called him a “fake farmer”, claiming the defendants were coordinating with “dark money” groups to hurt his campaign. The Fresno Bee reports that the campaign sued …

Discussion: Law & Crime

Michael Brice-Saddler / Washington Post:

A reporter says the White House suspended his credentials in an ‘attempt to stifle the free press’ — Brian Karem, the chief White House correspondent for Playboy magazine, said Friday that his press pass is being suspended for 30 days in what he called an “anti-First Amendment move.”

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Splinter and Townhall, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

A smart way to keep Putin out of the next U.S. election — THERE IS a lot Congress could do to better protect U.S. elections, and a lot Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not allowed lawmakers to achieve. Now, two senators are offering one more opportunity.