memeorandum: Trump's China Deal Yields Plenty of Questions, and Critics (Shawn Donnan/Bloomberg)

3:35 PM ET, October 12, 2019

Top Items:

Giuliani Is Said to Be Under Investigation for Ukraine Work — Prosecutors are investigating whether the president's lawyer broke laws meant to prevent covert foreign influence on the government. — WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump's …

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

‘Stop talking’: Trump advisers want Giuliani dumped — For weeks, prominent Republican advisers have been privately imploring President Donald Trump to sideline Rudy Giuliani after a barrage of inconsistent, combative and occasionally cringe-inducing media interviews, according to three people familiar with the conversations.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Guardian, Hullabaloo, The Week, Raw Story, Sputnik International, CNN and Axios

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

America Exports Its Corruption to Ukraine — Once upon a time, we spread ideals of democracy and rule of law. Now? We send Giuliani. — KIEV, Ukraine — In 2014, Ukraine's wildly corrupt president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled to Russia after mass protests on the Maidan, Kiev's central square.

Discussion: News Agency UNIAN

NBC News:
Lutsenko is unnamed Ukrainian who led plot to oust Yovanovitch, says official

Discussion: The Daily Caller

New York Times:
Ukraine Envoy Says She Was Told Trump Wanted Her Out Over Lack of Trust

Discussion: Vox, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, Deseret News, House Committee …, CNN, Justice News and CANNONFIRE

Aram Roston / Reuters:
Indicted Giuliani associate worked on behalf of Ukrainian oligarch Firtash

Discussion: emptywheel, CANNONFIRE, Mother Jones and New York Post

CNN:

Exclusive: Military leader of Syrian Kurds tells US ‘you are leaving us to be slaughtered’ — (CNN)The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told a senior US diplomat, “You are leaving us to be slaughtered,” demanding to know whether the US is going to do anything …

Discussion: The Week

Kurdistan24:

Senior female Kurdish political leader killed in ambush in Syria — ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Future Syria Party's Secretary-General, Hevrin Khalaf, was killed on Saturday when Turkish-backed groups tried to take control of a point on the international M4 road.

Martin Chulov / The Guardian: Bloodied clothes and body bags: Kurds mourn dead in Syria

Matt Flegenheimer / New York Times:

James Comey Would Like to Help — The former F.B.I. director wants an end to the Trump presidency. And yes, he knows you might think he caused it. — James Comey slumps strategically in restaurants — all 6-foot-8 of him, drooping faux-furtively with his back to the room …

Discussion: TheBlaze

Annie Linskey / Washington Post:

Warren's same-sex marriage quip captures what some find exciting — and others distressing — about her — About 90 minutes into Thursday's forum on LGBTQ issues in Los Angeles, a gay rights leader posed a question to Sen. Elizabeth Warren: How would she respond if a voter approached her and said …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Althouse, The Daily Beast and Instapundit

Tom Nichols / USA Today:

Ex-Republican: Do we still agree on beating Trump? After your LGBTQ forum, I'm not sure. — I'm not asking you to betray your principles, but Republican culture warriors are lying in wait. Why let them divide us where we already agree? — CONNECT — Dear Democrats: — We've been together for a while now.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Stranger and Washington Post

Brian Fung / CNN:
Elizabeth Warren targets Facebook's ad policy — with a Facebook ad

Discussion: Bloomberg, Common Dreams, Daily Kos, HuffPost, Axios, Engadget, Mediaite and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »

The Babylon Bee:
Elizabeth Warren Recalls How She Lost Her Teaching Job When Her Fake Mustache Fell Off Revealing She's A Woman

Discussion: twitchy.com

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:

Harry Reid warns Democrats: Trump is a ‘very, very smart man’ who won't be easily beaten in 2020 — Harry Reid: How Democrats can beat Trump in Nevada — Watch the full interview on “The Axe Files” Saturday at 7 p.m. on CNN. — Washington (CNN)Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …

Discussion: TheBlaze and Washington Times

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
McConnell tightlipped as impeachment furor grows

Discussion: Breitbart and Wall Street Journal

David Priess / Washington Post:
The Senate is likelier to remove Trump after impeachment than you think

Discussion: Liberty Unyielding

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:

Anatomy of the phone call now imperiling Trump's presidency — WASHINGTON (AP) — There were dozens of ears listening to President Donald Trump's 30-minute phone call with the leader of Ukraine that is at the center of a House impeachment inquiry , and as many eyes that saw what he said.

New York Times:

A Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein That Bill Gates Now ‘Regrets’ — Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who committed suicide in prison, managed to lure an astonishing array of rich, powerful and famous men into his orbit. — There were billionaires (Leslie Wexner and Leon Black) …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, more at Techmeme »

The Daily Beast:

Trump's Favorite Impeachment Lawyer Is ...Trump Himself — President Donald Trump has slowly but surely bent the Office of the White House Counsel to his will. — On Tuesday, the Office of the White House Counsel delivered an eight-page letter to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi …

Discussion: emptywheel, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, Boing Boing and Hot Air

Foreign Policy:

Pompeo's State Department Reels as Impeachment Inquiry Sinks Morale — As the investigation grows, so, too, does the foreign service officers' legal defense fund. — The fast-moving impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump has dragged the State Department into the center …

Discussion: The Guardian

Financial Times:

China makes few concessions in trade truce with US — After five months of constant escalations in their long-running trade war with the US, Chinese officials on Friday finally secured a respite. — In return for a series of modest concessions, most of which had been offered …

Discussion: South China Morning Post, Des Moines Register, Fortune and The Guardian

New York Times:

Kevin McAleenan Is Out as Acting Homeland Security Secretary — WASHINGTON — President Trump announced on Friday the departure of Kevin K. McAleenan, the acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security who spent his six-month tenure trying to curb a surge of asylum seekers …

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Raw Story, Blue Virginia, The Week, ABC13, Breitbart, Reuters, Vox, The Guardian, Axios, twitchy.com and Mediaite

Jonathan Blitzer / New Yorker:
Why Trump's Fourth Secretary of Homeland Security Just Resigned

Discussion: Hullabaloo, ImmigrationProf Blog and Politico

Washington Post:
Trump says he is replacing McAleenan as acting homeland security secretary

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, HuffPost, NPR, Townhall, The Daily Caller, Roll Call and The Daily Beast

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

Impeachment has put Trump in a different place. He's showing it every day. — President Trump delivered a characteristic performance Thursday night in Minneapolis. His 100-minute rally speech was complete with scattered vulgarities, caustic attacks on political opponents …

Nancy Amons / WSMV-TV:

News4 talks one-on-one with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — NASHVILLE (WSMV) - The US Secretary of State visited Nashville on Friday and sat down for a one-on-one interview with News4 where he spoke about several issues, but there was one question he refused to answer.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Lisa Lerer / New York Times:

What, Exactly, Is Tulsi Gabbard Up To? — As she injects chaos into the 2020 Democratic primary by accusing her own party of “rigging” the election, an array of alt-right internet stars, white nationalists and Russians have praised her. — WASHINGTON — Stephen K. Bannon …

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

As Impeachment Divide Persists, More Voters Embrace an Inquiry — Americans are as divided over impeachment as they are over President Trump. But support for the Democrats' inquiry is building even in places Mr. Trump won, and among politically crucial independents.

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Goodbye, America. Goodbye, Freedom Man. — Under Trump, the U.S. becomes the world's fair-weather friend. — The time is the early 1980s. The place is the South China Sea. A sailor aboard the U.S.S. Midway, an aircraft carrier, spots a leaky boat jammed with people fleeing tyranny in Indochina.

Discussion: Althouse