memeorandum: Adam Schiff once wanted to be a screenwriter. Can he give the Trump presidency a Hollywood ending? (Ben Terris/Washington Post)

4:40 PM ET, November 1, 2019

Top Items:

Natasha Bertrand / Politico:

Testimony: White House lawyer told Vindman not to discuss Ukraine call — The senior White House lawyer who placed a record of President Donald Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president in a top-secret system also instructed at least one official who heard the call not to tell anyone about it …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, Alternet.org, CNN and Shareblue Media

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:

Trump Isn't Ready for the Impeachment Hearings — He's always been more comfortable with chaos than teamwork and preparation. — After weeks of damaging testimony from current and former White House advisers and career diplomats, the House of Representatives voted on Thursday to publicly endorse …

Discussion: Just Security, Washington Post, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway and New York Post

Rob Crilly / Washington Examiner:

‘Fireside chat on live television’: Trump says he wants to read Ukraine call transcript to American people — A defiant President Trump signaled he will not cooperate with the Democratic Party's impeachment proceedings, insisting his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was …

Meghann Myers / Military Times:

How the Army officer who testified against Trump could end up in a court-martial — When Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman appeared before members of Congress on Tuesday to discuss what he knew about President Trump's conversations with Ukraine's president, he was violating an order from his commander …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Don Surber, Outside the Beltway and Washington Post

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The GOP defense of Trump is getting more corrupt. Here's what's next. — President Trump, who possesses supreme confidence in his mesmerizing charisma and powers of persuasion, is considering a plan to recite the text of his corrupt call with the Ukrainian president on live national television.

Discussion: Occupy Democrats, The Daily Caller, Breitbart and Raw Story

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Impeachment inquiry focuses on 2 White House lawyers

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, NBC News, Washington Post, Political Wire, ABC News and Florida Politics

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump's allies want to focus the Ukraine scandal on the tree, so you miss the forest

Discussion: CNN, Breitbart and Deseret News

Fox News:

Warren's $52T ‘Medicare-for-all’ plan revealed: Campaign still claims no middle-class tax hikes needed — EXCLUSIVE: Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's long-awaited “Medicare-for-all” funding plan projects the government-run health care system would cost a staggering sum of …

Discussion: Associated Press, Townhall, The Hill, ABC News, The Gateway Pundit, Towleroad Gay News, PJ Media Home, Axios, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Politico, Yahoo News, National Review and Sara A. Carter

Ryan Lizza / Politico:

The issue that Obama alums think could doom Elizabeth Warren — An Elizabeth Warren event is like the candidate herself: well-organized, precise, unpretentious. The candidate, almost always clad in her campaign uniform of black sneakers, black pants and a black camisole covered …

Discussion: Fox News, Mediaite and YouTube

New York Times:

Elizabeth Warren Proposes $20.5 Trillion Health Care Plan — Ms. Warren would impose huge tax increases on businesses and billionaires to pay for “Medicare for all,” but she said she would not raise taxes on the middle class. — WASHINGTON — Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed $20.5 trillion …

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Post and Washington Free Beacon

Kathryn Krawczyk / The Week:
Jeff Bezos would pay nearly $7 billion to Elizabeth Warren's Medicare-for-all tax

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Mother Jones, courthousenews.com, Patterico's Pontifications, Disrn and Rolling Stone

Sean McElwee / Memos: Memo: Polling Medicare for All

Elizabeth Warren / Medium:
Ending the Stranglehold of Health Care Costs on American Families

Matt Bruenig / People's Policy Project:
Warren's Perpetual Medicare Head Tax Is Unworkable and Bad

Discussion: Washington Post

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
Elizabeth Warren may as well have said Mexico is going to pay for ‘Medicare for all’

Discussion: Reason, Vox and Washington Free Beacon

Alexander Burns / New York Times:

Warren Leads Tight Iowa Race as Biden Fades, Poll Finds — Ms. Warren garnered 22 percent in a New York Times/Siena College poll, to 19 percent for Bernie Sanders. Pete Buttigieg has surged, while Mr. Biden's travails have put the race in flux. — Which of these Democrats would be your first choice in the Iowa caucuses?

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, Fox News, PJ Media Home, Washington Post, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, DemCast, National Review, Siena College Research …, New York Post, Axios, Mediaite, Washington Times, Bloomberg, Politico and Breitbart

David Brooks / New York Times:
Impeach Trump. Then Move On.

Discussion: PJ Media Home, Jewish Insider, Axios and Washington Post

Ben Jacobs / Jewish Insider:
Harris laying off campaign staff in New Hampshire

Discussion: The Hill, NBC News and Slate

Washington Post:

As Trump moves to bully witnesses and derail impeachment, Democrats see obstruction — President Trump has sought to intimidate witnesses in the impeachment inquiry, attacking them as “Never Trumpers” and badgering an anonymous whistleblower. He has directed the White House to withhold documents …

Discussion: Hot Air

Gary Langer / ABC News:
Americans divided 49% to 47% on impeachment, with criticism for both sides: POLL

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Disrn, The Hill and Bloomberg

Washington Post:
Americans sharply divided over whether to impeach and remove Trump from office, Post-ABC poll finds

Discussion: Salon, Politico, Vox, New York Times, Mediaite, Daily Kos, The Rush Limbaugh Show, CNN, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, The Hill, NBC News, WTVR-TV and Associated Press

Billy House / Bloomberg:
Pelosi Expects Public Impeachment Hearings to Begin This Month

Discussion: Fox News, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Conservative Review, Washington Post, Изв …, Raw Story, The Hill and Vox

ThinkNow:

Progressive Latino pollster: 98% of Latinos do not identify with “Latinx” label — One of the greatest challenges facing marketing departments and political campaigns today is the inability to discern signals from noise. As a professional market researcher, I see this on a daily basis.

Discussion: The Federalist

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:

Revealed: Trump wanted to build a megachurch — Of all the projects real estate mogul Donald Trump wanted to build, here's one that nobody saw. — According to his long-time personal pastor, Paula White-Cain, Trump, in 2006 was taking steps to build a glass cathedral.

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post, Townhall, The Daily Caller, Alternet.org and New York Times

Marc Tracy / New York Times:

How Deadspin Imploded — The last meeting for many of Deadspin's journalists took place on Wednesday in a conference room adorned with fake black cobwebs, a large spider and bloody handprints beside the words: “HELP US.” — The plea, it seemed, went unanswered.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Variety, The Stranger, Spectator USA and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Bryan Curtis / The Ringer:
The Mavening of Sportswriting — Deadspin staffers resigned …

Discussion: Drew Magary, Vox, New York Post, Nieman Lab and Breitbart, more at Mediagazer »

Ben Terris / Washington Post:

Adam Schiff once wanted to be a screenwriter. Can he give the Trump presidency a Hollywood ending? — When Adam B. Schiff was a young assistant U.S. attorney living in Los Angeles, he did what everyone does when they move to Hollywood. He wrote a screenplay.

PBS NewsHour:
Schiff says House GOP hasn't taken advantage of depositions

Discussion: The Hill and Associated Press

Washington Post:

K Street's newest star built business on dubious claims of Trump ties — Since President Trump took office, the lobbyist Michael Esposito has been wildly successful, turning a family business that once focused on municipal transportation issues into one of the fastest-growing lobbying firms in Washington.

Ed Mazza / HuffPost:

GOP Lawmaker Head-Butts Camera Rather Than Answer A Question About Trump — Rep. Don Young really didn't want to answer this one. — Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) came up with a novel way to avoid a question about President Donald Trump on Thursday. — Instead of ignoring the activists …

Discussion: Townhall, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, The Daily Caller and Contemptor

Zachary Evans / National Review:
GOP Rep Head-Butts Camera of Progressive Activist

Discussion: Washington Post, Alaska Public Media and The Hill

Reuters:

Exclusive: U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok - sources — NEW YORK/BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co's $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly …

Discussion: Axios, Politico, Deseret News, Variety and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

Videos show indicted Giuliani associate standing behind Trump at 2018 rally — (CNN)News footage from an October 20, 2018, midterm election rally in Nevada shows indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas standing behind President Donald Trump. — Parnas and his business partner …

Discussion: Raw Story and Contemptor

Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune:

Texas voters evenly split on impeachment of Donald Trump, UT/TT Poll finds — Texas voters are divided on whether the president should be removed from office, but nearly half think impeachment investigations should proceed, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Ben Makuch / VICE:

Ghislaine Maxwell Was a Guest at Jeff Bezos's Secret Book Retreat — Motherboard has learned Jeffrey Epstein's alleged fixer attended the Amazon CEO's exclusive book retreat ‘Campfire’ last year. — Every fall, the elite of the literary world and Hollywood convene at a highly secretive …

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Post and CNBC

GOP.com:

Internal RNC Polling: More Want Biden Investigated Than Trump — Ahead of Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff driving the Democrat Party off a cliff today, see below for a breakdown of internal RNC polling that should serve as a warning to Democrats as they further politicize their bogus impeachment agenda.

Charlie Warzel / New York Times:

2020 Meme Team, Assemble … A long time ago, on a different internet — where Photoshopped images of “God Emperor” Donald Trump riding atop a velociraptor were just a faint glimmer in a young meme lord's eye — the Republicans were in trouble. Barack Obama's 2008 win over John McCain was heralded as a digital over an analog.

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump: The Soviet Witch Coup Has Found Me Innocent — Republicans have spent weeks calling impeachment proceedings a coup, and then a witch hunt. Confusingly, they appear to believe witch hunts are quasi-judicial proceedings run by actual witches, and accordingly circulated merchandise depicting Democrats as a coven.

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post and UPI

Charles Sykes / USA Today:

The Republican Party must choose between Donald Trump and the party's fundamental values — Trump aims to discredit and delegitimize the impeachment process by turning it into a circus. But circuses need clowns. Is the GOP up for that? — This is the stark political reality …

Discussion: R Street and Washington Post

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:

Trump abandons proposing ideas to curb gun violence after saying he would following mass shootings — President Trump has abandoned the idea of releasing proposals to combat gun violence that his White House debated for months following mass shootings in August, according to White House officials …

Discussion: The Hill, HuffPost, The Week, One America News Network, Daily Kos, Shareblue Media and IJR

Mike Valerio / WUSA:

We now know that Russia specifically targeted Virginia elections in 2016 — A WUSA9 investigation found Russian intelligence scanned Virginia's election websites for weaknesses. Officials say the sites are safe for the upcoming elections. — RICHMOND, Va. — Russian hackers …

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

In His Dealings with Ukraine, Did Donald Trump Commit a Crime? — It's long been clear that Presidents can be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors” that are not actual violations of federal criminal law. In an oft-cited passage from Federalist No. 65, Alexander Hamilton wrote …