memeorandum: US spies say Trump's G7 performance suggests he's either a ‘Russian asset’ or a ‘useful idiot’ for Putin (Sonam Sheth/Business Insider)

11:40 AM ET, August 30, 2019

Top Items:

Trump's Personal Assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, Steps Down — President Trump's personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, whose office sits in front of the Oval Office and who has served as the president's gatekeeper since Day 1 of his administration, resigned on Thursday, two people familiar with her exit said.

Nancy Cook / Politico:

Trump's executive assistant resigns from White House — President Donald Trump's longtime executive assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, abruptly resigned from the White House on Thursday, after coming under scrutiny for sharing intimate details about the president's family with reporters, according to two sources familiar with the move.

Discussion: Fox News, The Root and The Daily Caller

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Trump heads into buzzsaw in North Carolina — DRIVING THE DAY — SIREN ... NEW PARTY POLLING ... NEXT MONTH'S special election in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District is truly a squeaker. Internal Republican polling has shown GOP candidate DAN BISHOP anywhere …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Reuters and The Week

Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare:

What That Comey Email Report Really Says — The inspector general of the Justice Department has determined that it is misconduct for a law enforcement officer to publicly disclose an effort to shut down his investigation. — Michael Horowitz would probably not describe his findings that way.

Discussion: Mother Jones, CNN, New York Times, BizPac Review, Law & Crime, Front Page Magazine, RedState, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Slate, The Gateway Pundit and Raw Story

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Comey IG report exposes the hypocrisy of the ‘Russia hoax’ crowd — To hear the Trump team tell it, the media's biggest sin was reporting on potential collusion and obstruction of justice. When special counsel Robert S. Mueller III concluded there was no criminal conspiracy and punted on obstruction …

Discussion: Right Wing Watch

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:

Sneaky, Leaky James Comey — The inspector general takes apart the former FBI director's excuses for his actions. — Of all the tall tales James Comey has told, none compare to the line he fed President Trump at their infamous January 2017 dinner. As recounted in the former Federal Bureau …

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Examiner and The Gateway Pundit

Jonathan Turley / The Hill:
James Comey wants an apology? This is myth becoming madness

Discussion: Politico, New York Times and PJ Media Home

New York Sun: It Seems Trump Was Right To Fire James Comey

Wall Street Journal: Jim Comey's Higher Virtue

Allyson Chiu / Washington Post:

'We don't work for you': Fox News's Neil Cavuto rebukes Trump for slamming network — Fox News host Neil Cavuto delivered a scorching rebuke on Thursday to President Trump's recent criticism that the cable network “isn't working for us anymore,” and called out his tenuous relationship with the media.

Discussion: The Week, The Wrap, Splinter, BizPac Review and The Hill

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

A Fox host's tirade against Trump exposes depths of his corruption — The impunity is the point. — For days now, President Trump has been embroiled in a public feud of sorts with Fox News, because he's angry that the network isn't functioning dutifully enough as his 24/7 propaganda channel.

Discussion: USA Today, Deadline, Washington Press and ThinkProgress

Joe Concha / The Hill:

Fox's Cavuto roasts Trump over criticism of network — Fox News host Neil Cavuto tore into President Trump during his closing monologue on Thursday, defending his network from the president's criticism earlier this week that Fox “isn't working for us anymore.” — “Well I think the president watches Fox,” Cavuto began.

Discussion: Washington Times, HuffPost, Kennebec Journal …, Splinter and Raw Story

Sonam Sheth / Business Insider:

US spies say Trump's G7 performance suggests he's either a ‘Russian asset’ or a ‘useful idiot’ for Putin — Current and former spies are floored by President Donald Trump's fervent defense of Russia at this year's G7 summit in Biarritz, France. — “It's hard to see the bar anymore since it's …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Raw Story and Washington Press

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:

DNC will reject Iowa's virtual caucus plan, sources say, throwing the state's first-in-the-nation status into question — The Iowa caucuses are not first because they're important, they're important because they're first. Register opinion editor Kathie Obradovich gives a brief history lesson on the Iowa caucus.

Discussion: Just Security, CNN, Daily Kos and Splinter

Associated Press:
DNC to recommend scrapping Iowa, Nevada virtual caucus plans

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios and The Week

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:
Fearing Hackers, D.N.C. Plans to Block Iowa's ‘Virtual’ Caucuses

Discussion: Vox, CNN, Politico, Balloon Juice and Slate

Brad McElhinny / WV MetroNews:

West Virginia Poll: If Manchin gets in, right now he would beat Justice — CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If Senator Joe Manchin were to enter the race for governor, right now he would beat incumbent Gov. Jim Justice, according to the latest version of the MetroNews Dominion Post West Virginia Poll.

Discussion: Political Wire

David Harrison / Wall Street Journal:

Historic Asset Boom Passes by Half of Families — Scant wealth leaves families vulnerable if recession hits, economists say — The decadelong economic expansion has showered the U.S. with staggering new wealth driven by a booming stock market and rising house prices. — But that windfall has passed by many Americans.

CBS News:

“So what?”: South Carolina Democrats not bothered by Joe Biden's gaffes — Gaffney, South Carolina — In the past month alone, Joe Biden has confused New Hampshire for Vermont, compared poor kids to white kids, and said he met with students from the 2018 Parkland shooting while he was vice president.

Discussion: CNN, BizPac Review and twitchy.com

Jamie Lovegrove / Post and Courier: ‘All in for Joe’: Biden looks to create firewall in SC as he maintains 2020 lead

Katie Glueck / New York Times:
Joe Biden Dismisses Report That He Told False War Story

Discussion: National Review, RedState, IJR, American Greatness, Washington Times and Splinter

Tina Nguyen / Vanity Fair:

Aides Admit Trump Was Faking Those “Phone Calls” With China — The president was reportedly “eager to project optimism that might boost markets,” which should hearten the Chinese. — At last week's G7 summit in Biarritz, Donald Trump gave an entire network of world leaders whiplash when he declared …

Discussion: CNN, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

bellingcat:

Suspected Assassin In The Berlin Killing Used Fake Identity Documents — What we know so far … A joint investigation between Bellingcat, the German newspaper Der Spiegel, and The Insider (Russia), has established that the assassin travelled to Berlin via France under a validly issued …

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Man Trump Wishes He Were — Jim Mattis and the formation of character. — In the first few months of his presidency, Donald Trump surrounded himself with a certain sort of ramrod military man: John Kelly, Michael Flynn, H.R. McMaster and Jim Mattis. These men had or appeared …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Penguin Random House

Washington Post:
Emerging from his silence, Mattis faces criticism for trying to take the ‘middle road’ on Trump

Discussion: Raw Story, USA Today, NBC News, Big League Politics, The Atlantic and Breitbart

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Women voters spell trouble for Trump in 2020 — Polls show President Trump losing women voters by huge margins, presenting his reelection campaign with a massive hurdle to overcome as he seeks a second term in office. — Perhaps most alarmingly for Trump, the president is losing support …

Gerry Shih / Washington Post:

China expels Wall Street Journal reporter over coverage of Xi's family — BEIJING — China effectively expelled a Wall Street Journal reporter from the country, one month after the newspaper published a report detailing allegations that a cousin of Chinese leader Xi Jinping was involved …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN, RAPPLER and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Why white evangelicals should panic — Much white evangelical support for President Trump is based on a bargain or transaction: political loyalty (and political cover for the president's moral flaws) in return for protection from a hostile culture. Many evangelicals are fearful that courts …

Kate Irby / Sacramento Bee:

Judge wants real name of fake cow before acting on Devin Nunes' Twitter lawsuit — A Virginia judge has asked Twitter to provide more information about the authors of two anonymous parody accounts that heckle California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes before deciding whether to dismiss …

Natasha Korecki / Politico:

Warren lovefest ending as 2020 competitors fear her rise — The Elizabeth Warren honeymoon may be coming to an end. — Warren's weak fundraising and Native American controversy out of the gate gave her the look of a second-rate candidate, and her rivals have treated her as such, even as she's rebounded from those early troubles.

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Post

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Here Are 7 ‘Left Wing’ Ideas (Almost) All Americans Can Get Behind — The Democrats' 2020 primary fight has featured many pitched battles over policy questions. But every debate over Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tuition-free college, or any other intraparty wedge issue has been colored …

Kevin Freking / Associated Press:

Trump eyes mental institutions as answer to gun violence — WASHINGTON (AP) — When shots rang out last year at a high school in Parkland, Florida, leaving 17 people dead, President Donald Trump quickly turned his thoughts to creating more mental institutions.

Discussion: Daily Kos

New York Times:

How a Ring of Women Allegedly Recruited Girls for Jeffrey Epstein — After Mr. Epstein's suicide, his inner circle of girlfriends, employees and other associates is now under scrutiny by prosecutors. — Haley Robson was a 16-year-old South Florida high school student when an acquaintance …

Discussion: The Sun, New York Post and Gothamist

Ryan Teague Beckwith / Bloomberg:

Elizabeth Warren Once Wrote a Book on How to Get Rich — ‘All Your Worth’ came out in 2005, when she was a professor — It discusses many of the same economic issues she's running on — A few years out of college, Sarah Sparkman was struggling with debt.

Discussion: The Week and Political Wire

Reuters:

Exclusive: Amid crisis, China rejected Hong Kong plan to appease protesters - sources — HONG KONG (Reuters) - Earlier this summer, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, submitted a report to Beijing that assessed protesters' five key demands and found that withdrawing …

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, The Diplomat, Bloomberg, VICE, Fox News and Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Meghan Keneally / ABC News:

Man who spent 36 years in prison for stealing $50 from a bakery is now set to be freed — A man in Alabama just had his sentence changed so that he'll be getting out of prison in the next few days. — His crime: Stealing $50.75 from a bakery 36 years ago.

Brian Niemietz / New York Daily News:

Mugshots show White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham after drunk driving arrests in 2013 and 2015 — Being Donald Trump's spokeswoman can drive a person to drink, but Stephanie Grisham had a record of drunk driving long before she got the job in June.

Discussion: The Intellectualist and The Big Lead

Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:

Trump cancels trip to Poland, says he is staying in the U.S. to monitor Hurricane Dorian — President Trump announced Thursday that he is canceling a planned trip to Poland and will remain in the United States to monitor Hurricane Dorian, which is headed toward a potential landfall in Florida …

Discussion: Orlando Weekly, One America News Network, Politico, The Week, Townhall and VICE

Steve Contorno / Tampa Bay Times:
Trump's Mar-a-Lago is in the projected path of Hurricane Dorian

Discussion: DC Clothesline, Bloomberg and Florida Politics

Ray Sanchez / CNN:

A top federal prosecutor in Ohio just sent a harsh message to white supremacists — US attorney delivers harsh message to white supremacists — (CNN)A federal prosecutor used a routine press conference announcing criminal charges on Thursday to deliver a harsh message to those who advocate white supremacy and white nationalism.

Discussion: Raw Story

Justin Fox / Bloomberg:

Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans — Middle-class people in the U.S. are losing ground to their peers in other rich countries. — Everybody knows that the U.S. version of capitalism is rougher and tougher than is the norm in other affluent countries.