memeorandum: What is the secret of Hillary Clinton's strangely plumped-up-cheeks? Fillers could be behind more youthful look (Hayley Richardson/Daily Mail)

8:45 AM ET, December 14, 2019

Top Items:

On impeachment, Democrats can put Republicans on defense. Here's how. — When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blithely suggested on Fox News that he will conduct the Senate impeachment trial in full collusion with President Trump's legal team, he handed Democrats a big opening.

Discussion: Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA, Spectator USA, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Occupy Democrats and Fox News

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
McConnell, Coordinating With White House, Lays Plans for Impeachment Trial

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post and Talking Points Memo

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner: Hidden by impeachment: One of Trump's ‘best weeks yet’

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Melania Trump's indefensible defense of her bully husband — There is a classic dodge that bullies can be relied to fall back on when they abuse someone who is smaller and weaker than they are. — He (or she) asked for it. — First lady Melania Trump, it appears, subscribes to that defense of the indefensible as well.

Discussion: The Guardian, Sputnik News, HuffPost, Townhall, New York Times, The Wrap and Vanity Fair

James Mills / Daily Mail:

Greta Thunberg tells cheering crowd ‘we will make sure we put world leaders against the wall’ if they do not tackle global warming as she attends climate protest in Turin — Greta Thunberg told cheering protesters today ‘we will make sure we put world leaders against the wall’ if they fail to take urgent action on climate change.

Bess Levin / Vanity Fair:
Melania Trump Thinks Greta Thunberg Had POTUS Attack Coming

Discussion: The Boondocks Gazette, Occupy Democrats and Associated Press

Pete Williams / NBC News:

Supreme Court agrees to consider whether Trump's tax records should be released — By granting review of these cases now, the justices made it possible for them to be heard during the current court term. — WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear President Donald Trump's appeal …

Discussion: Redstate, Politico, Associated Press, his vorpal sword, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, DNyuz and Disrn

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Supreme Court to Rule on Release of Trump's Financial Records — The court's ruling, expected by June, could release information the president has tried to protect. Or the justices could rule that his financial affairs are not legitimate subjects of inquiry so long as he remains in office.

Discussion: HotAir, Bloomberg, Axios and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Supreme Court will take up Trump's broad claims of protection from investigation

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Sputnik News, Slate and Mediaite

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Judge orders state to purge more than 200,000 Wisconsin voters from the rolls … (Photo: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) — PORT WASHINGTON - An Ozaukee County judge on Friday ordered the state to remove hundreds of thousands of people from Wisconsin's voter rolls because they may have moved.

Discussion: New York Times, Tallahassee Democrat and Real Clear Politics

Scott Bauer / Associated Press:

Wisconsin judge: 234K voter registrations should be tossed — MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered that the registration of up to 234,000 voters be tossed out because they may have moved, a victory for conservatives that could make it more difficult for people to vote next year in the key swing state.

Discussion: The Hill

Andrew Sullivan / New York Magazine:

Boris Johnson Is Showing Western Politicians How to Win — The sea of Tory blue seats that now envelop Labour's heartlands on the electoral map of Britain is one kind of future for Western democracies. Unleashed by a revolt by ordinary people to take back control of their own laws …

Discussion: alicublog, New York Times, Mother Jones and Marginal REVOLUTION

John Hinderaker / Power Line: It's Only Democracy If They Win

Rick Noack / Washington Post:
If Britain had Germany's electoral system, Boris Johnson may have lost the election

Discussion: Vanity Fair, American Greatness and The Guardian

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Populist nationalism is on the march. No one seems to know how to stop it.

Discussion: thedailychrenk.com

New York Times:

A Great Big Gift Not on Trump's Disclosure Form: Giuliani's Legal Advice — For the past 20 months, President Trump has received free personal legal services from one of America's highest-paid lawyers, who has traveled around the country and across the ocean to defend him in the special counsel's inquiry …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE

Hayley Richardson / Daily Mail:

What is the secret of Hillary Clinton's strangely plumped-up-cheeks? Fillers could be behind more youthful look — Hillary Clinton looked wonderfully youthful at an event on Broadway in New York last night - and aesthetic experts suggest it could be down to regular ‘tweakments’ and cosmetic procedures.

Discussion: Althouse, PJ Media Home, The Gateway Pundit and Instapundit

Dave Goldiner / New York Daily News:

Staten Island Rep. Max Rose backs impeachment of Trump — Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island) announced Friday he will vote to impeach President Trump. — The moderate first-term Democrat, who had resisted backing the impeachment investigation, said he has seen enough evidence to support impeaching Trump.

Dareh Gregorian / NBC News:
One House Democrat goes on record opposing Trump impeachment

Discussion: U.S. Congressman Max Rose, Breitbart and MSNBC

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

The Breach Widens as Congress Nears a Partisan Impeachment — Fleeting efforts at persuasion by members of the Judiciary Committee gave way to disputes over basic facts during a marathon debate over articles of impeachment. — WASHINGTON — It was the rarest of moments in the nation's capital …

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post: Fact-based impeachment can't penetrate the pro-Trump Web

CNN:

Former Breitbart Editor: Stephen Miller is a white supremacist. I know, I was one too. — (CNN)She was already a racist when she took a publishing job in Washington, DC. But when she became a reporter for Breitbart News, Katie McHugh says she was taken to new depths of hate with the help of Stephen Miller.

Tampa Bay Times:

The case for impeachment — The House has enough reason to justify the impeachment of President Donald Trump. — With reluctance, we conclude the U.S. House of Representatives has enough reason to justify the impeachment of President Donald Trump. We harbor no illusions …

Alexandra Hutzler / Newsweek:
Ethics Experts Slam Trump For Promoting Mar-A-Lago Resort As The ‘Southern White House’: 'It's An Abuse of Power'

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Dan Cobb / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Precinct closures harm voter turnout in Georgia, AJC analysis finds — Closures accelerated after Supreme Court invalidated Voting Rights Act provision, putting thousands farther from the polls. — Until her old concrete-block precinct shut down, Maggie Coleman lived about a mile from a place to cast her ballot in rural Georgia.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: High court fallout

Jennifer Medina / New York Times:

Bernie Sanders Retracts Endorsement of Cenk Uygur After Criticism — Mr. Sanders had said Mr. Uygur was “a voice we desperately need in Congress.” But many Democrats condemned the endorsement, citing Mr. Uygur's history of offensive comments. — LOS ANGELES — Can an endorsement be put back in the bottle?

Discussion: HuffPost, Politico, Redstate, CNN, Los Angeles Times and The Daily Caller

Noah Rothman / Commentary:
Bernie Sanders Has a Big Jeremy Corbyn Problem

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, DNyuz, The National Interest and The Sun

Laurie Kellman / Associated Press:

Icy silence, frayed connections: Impeachment takes a toll — WASHINGTON (AP) — The most raucous committee in Congress sat stone-faced, barely speaking. — One by one, the members around the Judiciary Committee dais voted on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

Discussion: The Hill

Keith Griffith / Daily Mail:

Shocking moment school bus bullies pummel 14-year-old boy leaving him hospitalized with head injuries 'because he'd worn a Trump 2020 hat' — Shocking video has emerged showing a 14-year-old boy being attacked on a school bus, allegedly because he'd previously worn a hat supporting President Donald Trump.

Discussion: BizPac Review and Disrn

Associated Press:

AP Exclusive: China tightens up on info after Xinjiang leaks — The Xinjiang regional government in China's far west is deleting data, destroying documents, tightening controls on information and has held high-level meetings in response to leaks of classified papers on its mass detention camps …

Ryan Parry West / Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden to be a daddy for the FIFTH time! New South African wife of VP's son is seen with a baby bump amid his messy paternity case and concerns over barrage of attacks from Trump loyalists — Hunter Biden's new wife Melissa Cohen Biden, 32, is pregnant and in her second trimester, DailyMailTV can reveal

Discussion: Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit and New York Post

Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox News Host Jesse Watters Called Out by Women's Groups Over ‘Richard Jewell’ Remarks — On ‘The Five,’ the host claimed that female journalists sleep with their sources to get stories “all the time.” — As co-host of the sometimes-rowdy daily talk show The Five on Fox News …

Danielle Wallace / Fox News:

Biden confronted on Ukraine but doesn't answer, later links Trump to El Paso massacre — Joe Biden performed his own version of a Texas two-step at a campaign stop in San Antonio on Friday night, letting a crowd of supporters drown out a protester who confronted him on Ukraine …

Discussion: Politico

Alexandra Petri / Washington Post:

Dear Mitch, here is how the president's impeachment trial should go — Thank you so much for being so extremely willing to coordinate with us here at the President's Team! Whatever it is that has made you entirely alter your position about how much power the Senate has to check the president since, uh, 2016, we appreciate you!

Barbara Rodriguez / Des Moines Register:

DOJ investigating allegations of ‘sexual arousal studies’ at Iowa facility for people with disabilities — The federal government is investigating allegations of “sexual arousal studies” and other human subject experiments being conducted at a state institution where people …

Discussion: New York Times and The Hill

Dale Kasler / Sacramento Bee:

Gavin Newsom rejects PG&E bankruptcy plan, demands ‘radically restructured’ CA utility — In a stunning rebuke to PG&E Corp., Gov. Gavin Newsom late Friday rejected the utility's plan to pay Northern California wildfire victims and exit bankruptcy. — In a letter to PG&E Chief Executive Bill Johnson …

Discussion: The Hill

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

‘The story stands’: McClatchy won't back off its Michael Cohen-Prague reporting — McClatchy isn't relenting on Cohen-Prague. “Until we have new reporting that tells us our old reporting is wrong, the story stands,” notes Jeanne Segal, a spokeswoman for the newspaper chain, in an email to the Erik Wemple Blog.