memeorandum: Scoop: House Dems attend Trump's holiday party amid impeachment (Axios)

4:40 PM ET, December 13, 2019

Top Items:

‘Just Having Fun’: Giuliani Doubles Down on Ukraine Probes — Trump's personal attorney escalates his push for investigations—the effort that helped spark impeachment inquiry — Some of Rudy Giuliani's friends told him to keep a low profile. — Instead, Mr. Giuliani is escalating …

Discussion: Vox, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, POLITICUSUSA, The Hill, Law & Crime, Raw Story, The American Independent and Daily Kos

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Talking Impeachment to Death — A report from the House Judiciary Committee's epic markup. — The House Judiciary Committee approved House Resolution 755, a measure “impeaching Donald John Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors,” on Friday morning. After a long, acrimonious Republican defense …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Matt Gaetz proves there is no bottom

Discussion: New Yorker, PJ Media Home, NBC News, Reason, Althouse, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, Vox and Daily Kos

Ryan Parry West / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden to be a daddy for the FIFTH time! …

Discussion: New York Post

Kyle Cheney / Politico: Trump tears up the Clinton impeachment playbook

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
Donald Trump keeps making history — but not how he wants to

Discussion: NBC News, FOX31 Denver and Raw Story

Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:

Corbynism Can't Happen Here — Even though the polls always suggested the likelihood of Jeremy Corbyn's defeat in yesterday's British elections, his continued presence as the head of the Labour Party filled me with a great sense of foreboding. The local press excavated from Corbyn's …

Discussion: National Review, New York Magazine, Jacobin and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

NBC News:
Corbyn's UK defeat was bad news for Sanders, Warren and America's left

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, Fox News, ABC News, The Sun, National Review and The Hill

Yascha Mounk / The Atlantic:
How Labour Lost the Culture War

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post and DNyuz

Sadiq Khan / Sadiq Khan: This general election result is nothing short of a catastrophe …

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

Discussion: New York Times, The National Interest and The Dispatch

Charles Sykes / The Bulwark: All Shall Gaze Upon the Future—and Despair

Holly Bailey / Washington Post:
‘I really like you’: Iowa voters give Amy Klobuchar another look

Discussion: New York Times, ABC News and Associated Press

Max Boot / Washington Post:

Populist nationalism is on the march. No one seems to know how to stop it. — Once upon a time — in the days of Margaret Thatcher and John Major — I would have rejoiced in a Conservative Party landslide in Britain. But now, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's victory fills me with fear and foreboding.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway, Marginal REVOLUTION and New York Times

Jonathan Freedland / The Guardian:

This is a repudiation of Corbynism. Labour needs to ditch the politics of the sect — A 1970s hard-left clique led the party into a dead end - and it's the poor and vulnerable who will pay the price — We can skip the first stage of grief. A result like this leaves no room for denial.

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Biden warns that Boris Johnson's victory shows dangers of parties leaning too far left

Discussion: Common Dreams, DNyuz, The Guardian, CNN, The Hill and Breitbart

BBC:
Election results 2019: Boris Johnson returns to power with big majority

Discussion: Townhall, The Guardian, Politico, The Sun, IJR, The Moderate Voice, CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Sputnik News, National Review, Power Line, BBC, PJ Media Home, UPI, NPR, Redstate, The Gateway Pundit, DNyuz, CNBC and Patterico's Pontifications

Tom McTague / The Atlantic:
It's Boris Johnson's Britain Now

Discussion: BBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Politico and Vox

Cristina Gallardo / Politico:
What Boris Johnson's victory means for Brexit

Discussion: Redstate, Washington Post, Breitbart, The Hill, New York Times, One America News Network, The Guardian, Brookings, NBC News and Axios

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

McConnell's awful Hannity interview shows power of Fox News's disinformation — It has often been observed that one of President Trump's biggest allies in the impeachment battle is Fox News — that if Richard Nixon had enjoyed the benefit of such a powerful purveyor of propaganda, he wouldn't have been driven from office.

Discussion: ABC News, Breitbart, Occupy Democrats, Fox News, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Common Dreams

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
McConnell indicates he'll let Trump's lawyers dictate Trump's impeachment trial

Discussion: New York Times, Salon, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, The American Independent, CNN and Politico

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
McConnell's vow of ‘total coordination’ with White House on Senate impeachment trial angers Democrats

Discussion: HuffPost and Balloon Juice

Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times:

Bernie Sanders endorses a Californian who defends crude sex ratings of women — Bernie Sanders endorsed a California congressional candidate Thursday with a long history of making crude and degrading comments about women and provocative statements about Jews, Muslims and other groups.

Discussion: The Slot, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, Fortune and Twitchy

Washington Post:
Facing blowback, Bernie Sanders retracts endorsement of controversial candidate

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Beast, CNN and Washington Free Beacon

JM Rieger / Washington Post:

Trump has described the same conversation about Israel four times. Each time, the name of his Jewish friend changed. — Touting his accomplishments during a second Hanukkah reception at the White House on Wednesday, President Trump recalled a conversation he said he had with real estate developer Charles Kushner.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Quint Forgey / Politico:

Democratic candidates threaten to skip debate amid labor fight — All seven Democratic candidates who have qualified for the PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Debate at Loyola Marymount University next week threatened on Friday to skip the event, asserting they would not cross the picket line of campus workers locked in a labor dispute.

Discussion: ABC News, Los Angeles Times and New York Times

Amanda Terkel / HuffPost:
Democratic Candidates May Skip Presidential Debate Over Labor Dispute

Discussion: Vox, NBC News, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Townhall and The Daily Caller

Alexander Nazaryan / Yahoo News:

Judge's decision may shine light on secret Trump-Putin meeting notes — WASHINGTON — A district court judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered administration lawyers to explain why, for more than two years, the White House has refused to turn over to the State Department an interpreter's notes …

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.

Axios:

Scoop: House Dems attend Trump's holiday party amid impeachment — Half a dozen House Democrats attended the White House Congressional Ball last night while their colleagues on the Judiciary Committee worked late into the night on articles of impeachment, according to two sources familiar with the event.

Discussion: The Nevada Independent, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Rolling Stone and The Hill

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Democracy Grief Is Real — Seeing what Trump is doing to America, many find it hard to fight off despair. — The despair felt by climate scientists and environmentalists watching helplessly as something precious and irreplaceable is destroyed is sometimes described as “climate grief.”

Discussion: Hullabaloo and DemCast

Daniel Desrochers / Lexington Herald-Leader:

Bevin pardons a KY man convicted of beheading a woman and stuffing her in a barrel — It's not clear if Betty Carnes was killed by asphyxiation or by the eight blows to her head that Delmar Partin delivered with a metal pipe. The coroner couldn't tell which killed the mother of three first …

Discussion: Raw Story and Law & Crime

Wall Street Journal:

FBI's Wray Acts Fast to Make Changes After Scathing Report — Move comes in response to Justice Department inspector general's criticism of how surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser was handled — WASHINGTON—FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered more than 40 changes …

Paul Sperry / RealClearInvestigations: The Carter Page/Ukraine Lie That Kept On Lying for Mueller and the FBI

CNN:

White House further limits officials on Trump's foreign leader calls in wake of Ukraine scandal — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's senior aides have further restricted the number of administration officials allowed to listen to the President's phone calls with foreign leaders since …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Raw Story and Mediaite

New York Times:

‘Bombshell’ Raises a Question: What's Megyn Kelly Up to Anyway? — A year after the anchor was ousted from NBC, Charlize Theron brings her back as someone who helped take on Fox News from the inside. — Megyn Kelly last appeared on NBC more than a year ago, trying to contain an uproar …

New York Times:

China Announces Initial Trade Agreement With U.S. — The agreement includes a commitment by China to buy more agriculture products and to strengthen laws protecting foreign companies operating there. — BEIJING — China announced on Friday that it had agreed on an initial trade deal …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Vox, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, ustr.gov, UPI and Mediaite

Tom Benning / Dallas Morning News:

Dallas Rep. Colin Allred, a Democrat facing tough 2020 race, will vote to impeach Trump — The freshman Democrat had been one of the few Texas Democrats to not yet announce their position on impeachment — WASHINGTON - Dallas Rep. Colin Allred on Friday announced that he will vote …

Discussion: Greensburg Tribune-Review and Politico

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:

Facing catastrophic climate change, they still can't quit Big Oil — NUIQSUT, Alaska — The varnished wooden cross stands amid a cluster of grave markers tilted at odd angles in the cemetery, because the ground beneath them is sinking. Rising temperatures are thawing the once-frozen earth …

Severin Carrell / The Guardian:

Sturgeon demands Scottish independence referendum powers after SNP landslide — First minister tells Boris Johnson she has renewed mandate after winning 47 of Scotland's 59 seats — Play Video — Nicola Sturgeon has challenged Boris Johnson to give Scotland the powers to hold …

Discussion: Common Dreams and Politico

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Judge hits Trump administration over census docs fight — The House Oversight Committee filed suit last month to try to force the administration to turn over the subpoenaed records. — President Donald Trump. Tasos Katopodis-Pool via Getty Images — A federal judge slammed …

Discussion: Law & Crime, UPI and The Hill

New York Times:

Ukraine's Leader, Wiser to Washington, Seeks New Outreach to Trump — President Volodymyr Zelensky still needs backing from the administration. He is proposing a new ambassador and weighing hiring lobbyists to build better ties. — WASHINGTON — Eager to repair their country's fraught relationship …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Raw Story and Hullabaloo