memeorandum: This Is the Moment Rachel Maddow Has Been Waiting For (Amanda Hess/New York Times)

3:20 PM ET, October 1, 2019

Top Items:

Pompeo says State Dept. officials won't show up for scheduled impeachment depositions this week — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired a broadside at House Democrats on Tuesday, saying State Department officials scheduled to appear this week before committees conducting the impeachment inquiry …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Townhall, Politico, Talking Points Memo, GovExec.com, The Guardian, Axios, Palmer Report, Lawfare, Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit

Associated Press:
The Latest: Pompeo says impeachment depositions not feasible

Discussion: Raw Story

Zachary Warmbrodt / Politico:
Maxine Waters: Trump should be in ‘solitary confinement’

Discussion: Townhall, twitchy.com, Political Wire and The Daily Caller

Alex Pappas / Fox News:
Pompeo accuses Dems of ‘bullying’ State employees with deposition demand: ‘I will not tolerate such tactics’

Discussion: One America News Network

Wall Street Journal:

Tense Relationship Between Barr and Giuliani Complicates Trump Impeachment Defense — The president's two highest-profile lawyers are struggling to get on the same page — WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr called President Trump in April with a question: What was Rudy Giuliani doing?

Discussion: twitchy.com and Political Wire

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: Report: Trump Bullies Giuliani in Private, but Rudy Can't Quit Him

Andrew Desiderio / Politico:
Trump may have lied to Mueller, House Democrats say

Discussion: Daily Kos, Occupy Democrats, Talking Points Memo, Splinter, NBC News, Washington Times, Axios, The Moderate Voice, Viking Pundit, Fox News, The Root, Law & Crime, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Casey Newton / The Verge:

In leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook against critics and the US government — In two hours of leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook employees against critics, competitors, and the US government. — July should have been a relief for Facebook.

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Read the full transcript of Mark Zuckerberg's leaked internal Facebook meetings

Discussion: Axios, Common Dreams, CBS Boston, HuffPost, Fox News, The Guardian and Balloon Juice

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Intelligence Inspector General to GOP: You Know Nothing of My Work — Last Thursday, Sean Davis of the conservative news site The Federalist broke an explosive revelation. The Intelligence Community had secretly changed a requirement in its whistle-blower statute to allow whistle-blowers …

Discussion: The Guardian, HuffPost, NBC News, The Federalist and Fox News

David Remnick / New Yorker:

The Floodgates Open on Trump — Shortly after eight this morning, the President of the United States, making maximal use of his “executive time,” wielded his smartphone to issue a legal threat against the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. It is worth reading the missive from @realDonaldTrump in full:

Discussion: Althouse, Washington Post, Political Wire, IJR, Daily Kos, The Guardian, Raw Story, Common Dreams, Slate and Denver Post

Sean Davis / The Federalist:
Intel Community Admission Of Whistleblower Changes Raises Explosive New Questions

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and American Greatness

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Barr's enabling of Trump's corruption just got more dangerous — We are now learning extraordinary new details about the lengths to which William P. Barr is going in service of President Trump's corrupt and all-consuming goal of making core truths about his 2016 election victory disappear.

Discussion: Townhall, The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway

The Guardian:
William Barr discussed FBI Russia inquiry with UK intelligence

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Townhall and CNN

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Government-by-conspiracy-theory rides again

Discussion: Hullabaloo and The Federalist

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Grassley breaks with Trump over protecting whistleblower — As President Donald Trump and his allies attack the whistleblower that kicked off the House's impeachment inquiry, the still unidentified person gained a powerful ally on Tuesday: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Discussion: Breitbart and Political Wire

Chuck Grassley:
Grassley Statement Regarding Intel Community Whistleblower

Discussion: HuffPost, Talking Points Memo and Axios

Bill Hutchinson / ABC News:

Amber Guyger convicted of murder in wrong-apartment killing of innocent man — A Texas jury rejected former Dallas police officer Amber Guyer's self-defense claims and convicted her on Tuesday of murder in the fatal 2018 shooting of an innocent man eating ice cream in his own home after mistaking his apartment for her own.

Discussion: NBC News, RedState, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

Amanda Hess / New York Times:

This Is the Moment Rachel Maddow Has Been Waiting For — How the MSNBC host staked her show on Trump — and won the largest and most obsessive audience of her career. — Rachel Maddow was trying to get to work. She only had to get from the glass door of her doctor's office …

Discussion: Politico

YouTube:

Fights For Us — Bernie Sanders - we know he'll fight for us as president because he always has. Contribute at www.berniesanders.com

Discussion: CNN and Washington Times

Julie Bykowicz / Wall Street Journal:
Bernie Sanders's Campaign Gets Summer Funding Boost

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Splinter and Political Wire

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Impeachment Support Up Slightly But Trump Job Rating Steady — Most say request for investigation of political foe is inappropriate — West Long Branch, NJ - President Donald Trump's approval rating has remained steady in the wake of an official impeachment inquiry launched last week …

Discussion: Townhall, Fox News, Hot Air, New York Times and Political Wire

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The Ukraine story appears to be hurting Trump — and possibly Biden, too

Discussion: Big League Politics and Fortune

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Giuliani hires Watergate prosecutor to represent him in House impeachment probe — Rudy Giuliani, the outspoken personal attorney for Donald Trump, has hired his own lawyer to represent him in the House's fast-moving impeachment investigation into the president.

Discussion: Political Wire, The Root and Axios

Zachary Basu / Axios:
Giuliani hires attorney to represent him in Ukraine investigation

Discussion: Raw Story

David Enrich / New York Times:

Me and My Whistleblower — Deutsche Bank. North Korea. The Intelligence Committee's investigation of the president. Again and again, one man has taken his trove of secret documents — and uncanny nose for scandal — to the center of the news. — One sunny Wednesday in February …

Discussion: Raw Story and The FADER

Alexi McCammond / Axios:

The GOP's Texas problem — The retirement of six House Republicans from Texas at the end of this term shows their pessimism about winning back the House majority in 2020, GOP strategists tell Axios — and foreshadows bigger Republican fears in the nation's second most populous state.

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Off the Kuff, Raw Story and The Texas Tribune

Miami Herald:

‘He conned us from day one’: Giuliani's Ukraine ally leaves trail of South Florida debts — Over the summer, Dianne and Michael Pues got an ominous phone call from the business partner of a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur who owes the couple more than $500,000 over a movie deal gone bad.

Discussion: CNN, BuzzFeed News, Raw Story and Washington Post

Tony Romm / Washington Post:

Appeals court upholds FCC's cancelling of net neutrality rules — But the 200-page ruling says the FCC was wrong to issue a blanket ban against states considering their own regulations — A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed that the Federal Communications Commission acted lawfully …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Margaret Harding McGill / Politico:
Court mostly OKs FCC's net neutrality repeal but lets states craft their own rules

Discussion: Common Dreams, One America News Network and The Verge

WilmerHale:

Robert S. Mueller III and Other Special Counsel's Office Members Rejoin WilmerHale — Related Solutions — WilmerHale is pleased to announce that Robert S. Mueller III is rejoining the firm as a partner after serving as special counsel for the US Department of Justice.

Washington Post:

Judge to DOJ: Decide on charging Andrew McCabe by Nov. 15, or face release of FBI records — A veteran federal judge on Monday warned U.S. prosecutors either to charge former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe or to drop their investigation into whether he lied to investigators …

Will Bunch / Inquirer.com:

What is Trump trying to cover up about his Saudi phone calls and Jamal Khashoggi's murder? — From the ridiculous — remember that insane photo op with the glowing orb, and President Trump's bizarre line dance with sword-wielding sheikhs? — to the covert, relations between the United States …

Discussion: Slate, Common Dreams, Al Jazeera and Committee to Protect …

Kristina Cahill / ISM:

Institute for Supply Management Home — E-mail: kcahill@instituteforsupplymanagement.or g — September 2019 Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® — New Orders, Production, and Employment Contracting — Supplier Deliveries Slowing at a Slower Rate; Backlog Contracting

Discussion: Mother Jones

John Harwood / CNBC:

GOP defenses for Trump's Ukraine call quickly collapse under scrutiny — Trump, his aides and select allies in Congress have feverishly sought to redirect a whistleblower's complaints toward Democratic adversaries. — Yet even cursory scrutiny of evidence that has emerged so far knocks …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Asma Khalid / NPR:

How White Liberals Became Woke, Radically Changing Their Outlook On Race — Jeromy Brown, a 46-year-old teacher in Iowa, considers President Trump a white supremacist. — “If the shoe fits, then say it, and the shoe fits him,” Brown said, while waiting in a photo line at an Elizabeth Warren rally in August.

Charles Bethea / New Yorker:

Mark Meadows and the Undisclosed Dinosaur Property — A fight among fossil hunters, a dubious documentary, and the conservative congressman from North Carolina. — Three years ago, the North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows sold a hundred-and-thirty-four-acre property in Dinosaur, Colorado.

Discussion: Politico and Raw Story

Jim Morrill / The Charlotte Observer:

Ex-GOP Chair Hayes could testify against others in scheme: ‘They should be worried.’ — Under a deal with federal prosecutors, North Carolina's former state Republican chairman could testify against other defendants in the state's largest-ever case of political bribery.

Steve Liesman / CNBC:

Trump's approval rating drops to low, but Americans still oppose impeachment, survey finds — The latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey found 47% opposing impeachment hearings and 44% approving. The difference is within the poll's 3.5% margin of error.

Discussion: Mediaite

Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Voter registration surges in Georgia ahead of 2020 elections — New voters have registered in droves in Georgia since last year's midterms, expanding the electorate ahead of the 2020 presidential election year when the state is expected to be a key political battleground.

Caitlin Byrd / Post and Courier:

South Carolina Republican Party gets sued for canceling its 2020 presidential primary — Two Republicans, one of them former congressman Bob Inglis, have sued the S.C. Republican Party over its decision to cancel its GOP presidential primary next year. — The lawsuit, filed Tuesday …

Discussion: Political Wire

Emily Baumgaertner / Los Angeles Times:

The FDA tried to ban flavors years before the vaping outbreak. Top Obama officials rejected the plan — Unicorn Vomit. Cotton Candy. Gummy Bear. Skittles. — Some teenagers who tried these playful vaping flavors thought they were just inhaling water vapor — not also nicotine …

Discussion: Law & Crime