memeorandum: Trump is the one with the ‘electability’ problem (Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post)

4:10 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: The Times of Israel, The Atlantic, National Review, Talking Points Memo, Pirate's Cove, twitchy.com and The Root

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: LGBTQ Nation, Jewish Insider and VICE

Washington Post:

Meet Rashida Tlaib's grandma: 'Who wouldn't be proud of a granddaughter like that?' — BEIT UR AL-FAUQA, WEST BANK — Rashida Tlaib's grandmother does not understand why her granddaughter, a sitting U.S. congresswoman, could not visit her as originally planned.

Discussion: Politico, New York Post, twitchy.com, Talking Points Memo and The New Arab

Aiden Pink / The Forward:
The Palestinian Group That Arranged Tlaib And Omar's West Bank Trip Once Claimed Jews Put Christian Blood In Matzah

Discussion: Tennessee Star and NB Blog

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

David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Rashida Tlaib Says She Won't Visit West Bank Under Israel's Conditions

Discussion: National Review, Politico, Vox, Haaretz, The Atlantic, Telegraph, NBC News, CNN, RedState, Mediaite, The National Interest, Quartz, Power Line, VICE and Washington Free Beacon

Aaron David Miller / USA Today:
Trump, Netanyahu relationship erodes core values of U.S.-Israeli bond: Today's talker

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Fortune and New York Times

Andrew McCarthy / Fox News:
Israel Is right to bar entry of ‘Squad’ mates Omar and Tlaib

Discussion: American Military News and Los Angeles Times

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

Discussion: VICE, Front Page Magazine and Big League Politics

Steve Contorno / Tampa Bay Times:

Memo reveals a House Republican strategy on shootings: downplay white nationalism, blame left — The GOP memo falsely pinned the El Paso massacre and other notable mass shootings on the left. — Congressional Republicans recently circulated talking points on gun violence that falsely described …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Little Green Footballs, Splinter and Daily Kos

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: The Moderate Voice, Slate, Hullabaloo, Vox, The Week, Washington Post, Politico, Telegraph, CNBC, Talking Points Memo, Vanity Fair, BizPac Review, Outside the Beltway, New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press

Paul Musgrave / Foreign Policy:

American Imperialists Have Always Dreamed of Greenland — Trump's reported hopes of buying the Danish island exemplify his 19th-century values. — From his love of tariffs to his racial view of the world, Donald Trump is the nineteenth-century president America never had.

Discussion: New Republic, National Review, The Atlantic, ThinkProgress and New York Times

Andy Borowitz / New Yorker:

Denmark Offers to Buy U.S. — COPENHAGEN (The Borowitz Report)—After rebuffing Donald J. Trump's hypothetical proposal to purchase Greenland, the government of Denmark has announced that it would be interested in buying the United States instead. — “As we have stated, Greenland is not for sale …

The Irish Times: Donald Trump's interest in buying Greenland stuns Denmark

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

The man Trump mocked as heavyset at his New Hampshire rally was a Trump supporter — About half an hour into his lengthy campaign rally in Manchester, N.H., on Thursday, President Trump was interrupted by a protester. — The commotion unfolded on the balcony behind him and to his left …

Discussion: Raw Story and The Daily Beast

Morgan Chalfant / The Hill:
Trump phones supporter he mocked for having a ‘weight problem’

Discussion: New York Times and Talking Points Memo

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump mocks appearance of rally protester: 'That guy's got a serious weight problem'

Discussion: Political Wire, Breitbart and PJ Media Home

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, Daily Kos, Politico, Vanity Fair and The Week

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: Mediaite and Raw Story

Ed Whelan / National Review:

Rachel Maddow's Racial Smear of Second Circuit Nominee Steven Menashi — In a 2010 law-review article titled “Ethnonationalism and Liberal Democracy,” Second Circuit nominee Steven Menashi argues that “ethnonationalism remains a common and accepted feature of liberal democracy that is consistent …

Discussion: MSNBC, Townhall and Washington Free Beacon

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

Bloomberg:

Trump Held Call With Dimon, Moynihan, Corbat as Markets Plunged — Stocks dropped and bond markets signaled recession that day — Call came as executives held pre-scheduled meeting at Treasury — President Donald Trump held a conference call Wednesday amid a plunge in the stock market …

Discussion: Political Wire

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:
Trump has a dream team for mismanaging a recession

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo, New York Times, MarketWatch, Fox News, Spectator USA and Bloomberg

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

Trump is the one with the ‘electability’ problem — The latest Fox News poll has some hair-raising news for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and for Republicans. Beginning with the Democratic race, “[Joe] Biden continues to lead the nomination race with the support of 31 percent of Democratic primary voters.

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air and NBC News

David Byler / Washington Post: What early polls can — and can't — tell you about who will be the Democratic nominee

Associated Press:

Migrant kids separated at border faced abuse in foster homes — SANTA ANA, California (AP) — This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children, which includes an upcoming film. — ___

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Daily Kos and The Week

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: NBC News, The Hill, Towleroad Gay News, Out Magazine, Political Wire, Washington Times, LGBTQ Nation, PinkNews, Raw Story, Patterico's Pontifications, Washington Blade and Breitbart

John Harwood / CNBC:

Trump's tax cut isn't giving the US economy the boost it needs — KEY POINTS — Benefits from what President Trump called “the biggest reform of all time” to the tax code have dwindled to a faint breeze just 20 months after its enactment. — Half of corporate chief financial officers surveyed …

Discussion: Political Wire

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: HuffPost, Politico, New York Times, National Review, Weasel Zippers, UPI, Washington Free Beacon and Bloomberg

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

With Trump as President, the World Is Spiraling Into Chaos — Trump torched America's foreign policy infrastructure. The results are becoming clear. — Earlier this week, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, visited The New York Times editorial board …

Discussion: The Mahablog, The Week, Al Jazeera and 1A

Glenn Thrush / New York Times:

Obama and Biden's Relationship Looks Rosy. It Wasn't Always That Simple. — WASHINGTON — Barack Obama was riding his call for generational change to the Democratic presidential nomination in the spring of 2008 when he began musing about potential running mates with aides traveling with him on the trail.

Discussion: Fox News, Townhall, Political Wire, The Week, Vanity Fair, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Times, The Hill and Politico

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:

Sometimes Winning Gets Old — MANCHESTER, N.H.—During a rally in the nation's first primary state last night, President Donald Trump delivered two hours' worth of musings on his favorite topics, including, in the order mused: the 2016 election, “fake polls,” the “fake news media,” crowd size …

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.

Discussion: Contemptor

NBC News:

Ed Smart, father of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart, announces he is gay — The father of five says he is leaving the Mormon church and has divorced his wife as he is “finally acknowledging a part of me that I have struggled with most of my life and never wanted to accept.”

Discussion: RedState, Page Six, New York Post, Salt Lake Tribune, Law & Crime, RADAR and Deseret News

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 …

CNN:

How Elizabeth Warren went from a regulation critic to Wall Street watchdog — Warren used to be a conservative. This changed her mind — Washington (CNN)Long before Elizabeth Warren became one of the nation's leading progressive voices, she was an academic who articulated a conservative worldview on the economy.

Hollywood Reporter:

Hong Kong Protestors Call for Disney Boycott After ‘Mulan’ Star Voices Support for Police Crackdown — Chinese-American actress Crystal Liu has pulled Disney into the heated political fray surrounding Hong Kong's pro-democracy and anti-police brutality protests.

Discussion: CNN, Sputnik International, NB Blog, Fox News, Deseret News, New York Post, WDEF-TV, The Daily Caller and The Wrap

Elena Schneider / Politico:

Buttigieg lags behind rivals in Iowa after big national splash — TIPTON, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg burst into the 2020 presidential race by building national excitement on social media and cable news shows. Now, pork chop in hand, he's playing catch-up in the all-important first caucus state.

Discussion: Fox News and Towleroad Gay News

Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News:

The Trump Administration Lost The Fight Over The Census Citizenship Question. Now They Have To Pay The Challengers. — The administration already agreed to pay $2.7 million to the ACLU and others. It is now facing requests for as much as $12 million from challengers in Maryland. — Reporting From

Ian Kullgren / Politico:

Construction workers prepare to battle former ally Trump — One of the nation's largest labor groups embraced Donald Trump at the start of his presidency, in hopes he would create construction jobs and retreat from proposals that might reduce workers' wages.

Discussion: Mother Jones

New York Post:

Artist who painted Bill Clinton in dress had ‘no idea’ it was hanging in Jeffrey Epstein's mansion — The artist behind Jeffrey Epstein's now-viral portrait of Bill Clinton in a blue dress says she sold the painting at a Tribecca Ball fundraiser several years ago — and had “no idea” that he was the one who had purchased it.

Discussion: Fox News, Sara A. Carter, The Daily Caller, Hot Air and The American Spectator