memeorandum: Trump admin intends to announce withdrawal of about 4,000 troops from Afghanistan (NBC News)

8:40 AM ET, December 15, 2019

Top Items:

South Jersey Democratic Congressman Jeff Van Drew, impeachment foe, expected to become a Republican — WASHINGTON — Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the conservative South Jersey Democrat who has vocally opposed impeaching President Donald Trump, is expected to switch parties in the coming days …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ally Mutnick / Politico:

Democratic impeachment holdout Jeff Van Drew planning to switch parties — Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a moderate Democrat who is strongly opposed to impeaching President Donald Trump, is expected to switch parties and become a Republican, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Discussion: Big League Politics, Redstate, Slate, CBS Philly, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:

Trump urges Rep. Van Drew, anti-impeachment Democrat, to switch parties — President Trump on Friday personally urged a vocally anti-impeachment Democrat, Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, to switch parties — a request he is now believed to be strongly considering.

Discussion: BizPac Review, The Hill, FOX2now.com, fox8.com, WTVR-TV, New Jersey Globe, Fox News, CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, BuzzFeed News, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and New York Times

New York Times:

Representative Jeff Van Drew, Anti-Impeachment Democrat, Plans to Switch Parties — The freshman Democrat, who represents a New Jersey district where President Trump is popular, told aides he would announce his switch next week. — WASHINGTON — Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey …

Discussion: DNyuz, Vox, Raw Story, Townhall and Mediaite

Nikita Biryukov / New Jersey Globe:
Van Drew party switch imminent

Discussion: NBC News and Breitbart

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:

'I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here': Graham predicts Trump impeachment will ‘die quickly’ in Senate — (CNN)Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a close ally of President Donald Trump, said he will do everything in his power to quickly end …

Discussion: CBS News, The Daily Caller, HuffPost, Hullabaloo, DNyuz, Rolling Stone, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Raw Story and New York Post

New York Times:

Impeach. — The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists — whose views are informed by expertise, It is separate from the newsroom. — In the end, the story told by the two articles of impeachment approved on Friday morning by the House Judiciary Committee is short …

Discussion: Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Axios, The Daily Caller and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

Douglas MacKinnon / The Hill:
Is a trap being set for Trump in the Senate trial?

Discussion: NBC News

John Fritze / USA Today:
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani spotted at White House amid House Judiciary impeachment vote

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Burgess Everett / Politico: Lindsey Graham invites Rudy Giuliani to Judiciary panel to discuss recent Ukraine visit

Colby Itkowitz / Washington Post:
Sen. Graham: ‘Not trying to pretend to be a fair juror’

Discussion: The Hill, The Daily Beast, Breitbart and Outside the Beltway

Tal Axelrod / The Hill:

Booker leads other 2020 Dems in petition urging DNC to change debate qualifications — Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) led several of his fellow 2020 contenders in sending a petition asking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to change its debate qualifications.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit and Townhall

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:
Cory Booker Leads the Charge to Change Debate Rules That Excluded Him

Discussion: NBC News and Axios

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed News:
The Top Democratic Candidates Are Urging The DNC To Change Its Debate Rules

Discussion: The Guardian

Elena Schneider / Politico: DNC balks at effort to alter debate qualifications

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Ex-Trump Aide Is Expected to Return to White House — The aide, John McEntee, had been dismissed in 2018 on the orders of the chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly. — A close aide to President Trump who was dismissed last year by the White House chief of staff at the time is expected …

Discussion: The Hill

Dan Balz / Greenwich Time:

Amid adversity and missteps, Joe Biden's resilience has been one theme of 2019 — For most of the year, former vice president Joe Biden has often been described in negative terms. It has been said he is not as sharp as he should be or once was; that he is well liked but can't excite the base …

Frank Bruni / New York Times:
Is Pete Buttigieg Just Too Young to Be President?

Discussion: LGBTQ Nation

David K. Li / NBC News:
Jill Biden says Trump is a bully and ‘afraid’ to run against her husband

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy and MSNBC

Jeremy Corbyn / The Guardian:

We won the argument, but I regret we didn't convert that into a majority for change — We must now ensure that the working class, in all its diversity, is the driving force within our party — We are living in highly volatile times. Two-and-a-half years ago, in the first general election …

Discussion: Sputnik News and Politico

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker: How Boris Johnson's Brexit Won

Toby Young / Quillette:
Britain's Labour Party Got Woke—And Now It's Broke

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:

Ex-Trump campaign aide Carter Page notches victory after inspector general hammers FBI for surveillance missteps — Carter Page fought the law, and the law lost. — The former Trump campaign adviser was one of the first four suspects identified by the FBI in the early days of its investigation …

Jonathan Turley / The Hill:
An apology to Carter Page

Discussion: Twitchy

NBC News:

Trump admin intends to announce withdrawal of about 4,000 troops from Afghanistan — Trump had made clear to his advisers earlier this year that he wanted to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the November 2020 election. — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration intends to announce …

Discussion: CNN, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos and The Hill

Ben Kesling / Wall Street Journal:

West Point, Annapolis Officials Investigating Possible ‘White Power’ Hand Sign — Army and Navy officials try to determine meaning of hand signs that service academy personnel appeared to use on national TV during Army-Navy football game — West Point and Annapolis officials are trying …

Discussion: BizPac Review, USA Today and DNyuz

Otillia Steadman / BuzzFeed News:

Ivanka Trump Answered Questions From Her Own Spokesperson In An Interview In The Middle East — The announcement that Ivanka Trump would speak at the Doha Forum in Qatar prompted a wave of speculation from the foreign policy community about what the US President's daughter might be doing in the Gulf state.

Discussion: DNyuz, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast and Mother Jones

Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:

US finally giving boot to official foot measurement — WASHINGTON (AP) — Change is afoot for the official measuring stick used to size up big places in America. — The reason? There are actually two different definitions of the 12-inch measurement known as a foot.

Nancy Jo Sales / The Guardian:

Why is the president of the United States cyberbullying a 16-year-old girl? — What it says to girls is: no matter what you do, no matter how much you achieve, powerful men will try to cut you down — The morning after election day 2016, I got a call from a girls' school in New York where I was scheduled to speak.

Discussion: Sputnik News, Breitbart and The Daily Beast

Lydia X. Z. Brown / Washington Post:
Autistic young people deserve serious respect and attention — not dismissal as the pawns of others.

Discussion: Twitchy

Harry Reid / Salt Lake Tribune:

Democrats running for president need a plan for the Supreme Court — When I hear Democrats running for president talk about their ideas to address our country's urgent problems, I always find myself returning to the same question: What will you do to protect the Supreme Court of the United States?

Carolyn Lange / dglobe.com:

Barring new information, Peterson will not vote for impeachment — During an appearance Saturday before dairy producers in west central Minnesota, Rep. Collin Peterson said unless he hears something to change his mind, he will not vote to impeach President Trump on Wednesday.

Discussion: Redstate and Breitbart