memeorandum: Fox News poll shows Trump losing to Biden, Warren, Sanders and Harris (John Bowden/The Hill)

12:15 PM ET, August 16, 2019

Top Items:

Rep. Tlaib says she will not go to Israel after the country initially rejected her request for a visit, then reversed course — BREAKING:Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said in a statement she will not visit Israel “under these oppressive conditions,” even though her humanitarian request to visit …

Discussion: National Review, Talking Points Memo, The Times of Israel, The Atlantic, The Root, Political Wire, Pirate's Cove and New York Times

Bari Weiss / New York Times:

King Bibi Bows Before a Tweet — After Trump cowed the Israeli leader into reversing course on Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the biggest loser was Israel itself. — Ms. Weiss is an Op-Ed staff editor and writer. Her first book, “How to Fight Anti-Semitism,” will be published in September.

Discussion: VICE, Jewish Insider and Tablet Magazine

David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:

Rashida Tlaib Says She Won't Visit West Bank Under Israel's Conditions — JERUSALEM — A day after barring Representative Rashida Tlaib under pressure from President Trump, Israel said on Friday that she could visit her 90-year-old grandmother, who lives in the occupied West Bank …

Discussion: Power Line, Jacobin, ThinkProgress, Bloomberg, Townhall, The Independent, WDEF-TV, VICE, Mediaite and Washington Free Beacon

Emily Tamkin / New Republic:
Ilhan Omar Is Already Changing Washington

Discussion: VICE, Front Page Magazine, Big League Politics, The Hill and Splinter

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Tlaib turns down family visit to West Bank after Israel grants request

Discussion: Telegraph, RedState, NBC News, One America News Network and Breitbart

Yossi Klein Halevi: The day Israel humiliated its US friends in Congress

CNN:
Rep. Rashida Tlaib says she won't visit Israel after being allowed to enter on humanitarian grounds

Discussion: BizPac Review, Washington Free Beacon, The Gateway Pundit and Reason

Tasmiha Khan / The Independent:
No politician in living memory has been treated as badly as Ilhan Omar

Discussion: RedState and VICE

Peter Beinart / The Forward:
Netanyahu Banned Omar And Tlaib Because The Occupation Must Be Hidden To Survive

Discussion: Politico, UPI, NPR and Townhall

Noa Landau / Haaretz:
Israel Approves Rashida Tlaib Petition to Enter ‘On Humanitarian Grounds’ to Visit Grandmother

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze, Conservative Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Balloon Juice

Wall Street Journal:

Trump Eyes a New Real-Estate Purchase: Greenland — In conversations with aides, the president has—with varying degrees of seriousness—floated the idea of buying the autonomous Danish territory — WASHINGTON—President Trump made his name on the world's most famous island.

Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen / Reuters:

Greenland tells Trump it is open for business but not for sale — COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Greenland on Friday dismissed the notion that it might be up for sale after reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had privately discussed with his advisers the idea of buying the world's biggest island.

Discussion: Vox, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Telegraph, CNBC, CNN and Vanity Fair

The Irish Times:

Donald Trump's interest in buying Greenland stuns Denmark — ‘The idea that Denmark should sell 50,000 citizens to the US is completely insane’ — Danes woke on Friday wondering if the calendar had been turned back to April 1st. News that US president Donald Trump had floated the idea …

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: The newest purity test for Democrats is whether to mandate assault weapons buybacks — THE BIG IDEA: The debate among Democratic presidential candidates is no longer over whether to ban assault weapons. That's become the consensus position in the 2020 field after the recent string of mass shootings.

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:
Trump aides look into U.S. purchasing Greenland after directives from president

Discussion: New York Times and The Week

New York Times:

Citing Economy, Trump Says That ‘You Have No Choice but to Vote for Me’ — MANCHESTER, N.H. — President Trump doubled down on his economic argument for re-election on Thursday night amid increasing concerns about a recession, declaring that even Americans who hate him “have no choice” …

Discussion: VICE, Politico, Daily Kos, Vanity Fair and The Week

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:

Trump has a dream team for mismanaging a recession — President Trump inherited a good economy, and for roughly 2½ years managed (mostly) not to mess it up. As with his business empire, he also somehow convinced much of the public that this windfall was due to his personal talents rather than luck.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, MarketWatch, Spectator USA, Fox News, Wall Street Journal and POLITICUSUSA

Washington Post:
Trump, banking on strong economy to win reelection, frets over a possible downturn

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Week

Paul Krugman / New York Times:
From Trump Boom to Trump Gloom

Discussion: NBC News, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, GovExec.com, Daily Kos and Washington Post

Elizabeth Warren / Team Warren:

Honoring and Empowering Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples — In 2003, the United States Commission on Civil Rights released a report on the state of federal support for Indian Country. The report detailed the chronic failure of the federal government to provide the resources necessary …

Discussion: New York Times and Washington Free Beacon

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost: Elizabeth Warren Unveils Detailed Plan For Empowering Tribal Nations

Alex Thompson / Politico:
Warren pushes tribal plan amid new Trump attacks on Native American claims

Discussion: Washington Post

Ann E. Marimow / Washington Post:

A federal judge in D.C. hit ‘reply all,’ and now there's a formal question about his decorum — A clash between judges on two important federal courts in Washington has created an early, unusual test of new rules intended to make sure courthouses across the country are civil, harassment-free workplaces.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

NRA Spent Tens of Thousands on Hair and Makeup for CEO's Wife — The gun group used donor funds to fly Susan LaPierre's favorite stylists around the country and put them up in style. — The NRA spent tens of thousands of dollars bringing hair and makeup artists around the country for the wife of its CEO …

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

Trump met his commitments to LGBTQ Americans. He has our endorsement. — Robert Kabel is chairman of Log Cabin Republicans. Jill Homan is the vice chairwoman of Log Cabin Republicans. — While the chasm between left and right in this nation continues to grow, and even the definition …

Discussion: The Hill, Towleroad Gay News, LGBTQ Nation, Patterico's Pontifications, PinkNews, Breitbart, Raw Story and Washington Blade

New York Post:

Jeffrey Epstein's gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell spotted at In-N-Out Burger in first photos since his death — Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam and former lover Ghislaine Maxwell has been discovered — at In-N-Out Burger. — The 57-year-old was photographed alive and well Monday by an eagle-eyed diner …

Discussion: Breitbart, The Guardian, Fox News, Boston Globe, CANNONFIRE, The Week, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, The Independent, VICE, Law & Crime and Mediaite

Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal: A Tabloid Legend on Jeffrey Epstein's Death

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

Inspector general finds politically motivated harassment at State Department — A report by the State Department's inspector general concludes that leadership of a leading department bureau mistreated and harassed staffers, accused them of political disloyalty to the Trump administration, and retaliated against them.

Foreign Policy: State Department Watchdog Censures Two Trump Appointees for Harassing Career Staffers

Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:

CNN Appears to Have Benched Two Pro-Trump Contributors — Steve Cortes hasn't been seen on the network in more than a month and Ben Ferguson hasn't been on since April, but both are still paid contributors. — CNN president Jeff Zucker is famously committed to ideological diversity.

James Pasley / Business Insider:

35 vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what American cities looked like before pollution was regulated — Before President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, water and air pollution weren't federally regulated. — Between 1971 and 1977 …

William D. Cohan / Vanity Fair:

Anthony Scaramucci Calls Trump “Crazy” and “Narcissistic,” — A few days into his jihad against his former boss, Anthony Scaramucci discusses his view of Trump's increasing mental problems, his racist tactics, and why he hopes an Arya Stark will rise up to kick him out of office.

Discussion: The Week

Bill Scher / Politico:

The Real Reason Obama Didn't Pass Gun Control — After every mass shooting, there's a new ritual: sharing an old Twitter post from a British columnist that says: “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”

Charlie Warzel / New York Times:

How an Online Mob Created a Playbook for a Culture War — On August 15, 2014, an angry 20-something ex-boyfriend published a 9,425-word screed and set in motion a series of vile events that changed the way we fight online. The post, which exhaustively documented the last weeks of his breakup …

Discussion: We Hunted The Mammoth

CNN:

Fact check: No evidence for Trump's claim he was once named Michigan's ‘Man of the Year’ — (CNN)At a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday, President Donald Trump made a handful of false claims, including returning to a claim he's made since the final days of the 2016 campaign.

Discussion: Political Wire

David Byler / Washington Post:

What early polls can — and can't — tell you about who will be the Democratic nominee — Presidential primaries are notoriously hard to forecast. Candidates often announce their runs months (or even years — looking at you, John Delaney) before primary voters make up their minds.

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Trump mocks appearance of rally protester: 'That guy's got a serious weight problem' — President Trump on Thursday mocked the weight of a protester who briefly interrupted his rally in Manchester, N.H. — “That guy's got a serious weight problem. Go home, start exercising,” …

Discussion: Breitbart, Washington Post, PJ Media Home and CBS Boston

Richard Behar / Forbes:

Jeffrey Epstein Spent Time Alone With Young Female Prison Visitor — Contributing Editor of Investigations, Forbes magazine — The day after he was taken off suicide watch, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein spent at least two hours locked up alone with a young woman …

Discussion: The Sun, New York Post, TMZ.com and Big League Politics

Washington Post:

Trump plans Friday meeting to make arrangements for withdrawal from Afghanistan — President Trump plans to meet Friday with Cabinet officials and other senior national security advisers to begin making arrangements for a step-by-step U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a White House official familiar with his plans said.

Discussion: Political Wire