memeorandum: Meghan McCain Defends Mike Pompeo's NPR Meltdown, Compares Him to Adam Driver (Justin Baragona/The Daily Beast)

2:55 PM ET, January 27, 2020

Top Items:

Republicans fear “floodgates” if Bolton testifies — There may be enough new pressure on Senate Republicans to allow witnesses at President Trump's impeachment trial, after the leak from a forthcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton that contradicts what the White House has been telling the country.

Discussion: Vox, HuffPost, Washington Post, The Hill, CNN, The Week, New York Post, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Gateway Pundit, Politico, Fox News, Deadline, Law & Crime, Daily Kos, Florida Politics, IJR and Breitbart

New York Times:

John Roberts Can Call Witnesses to Trump's Trial. Will He? — Democratic House managers should ask the chief justice to issue subpoenas for John Bolton and others. — Mr. Katyal and Mr. Geltzer are law professors at Georgetown. Mr. Edwards is a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Politico, Raw Story, Just Security, Fox News, National Review, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Hill, CNN, The Daily Caller, Axios, The Week, New York Post, NPR, Balloon Juice and POLITICUSUSA

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

Bolton Blows Up Trump Team's Foolhardy Quid Pro Quo Defense — They advanced an argument they didn't need to make, and now it will cost them. — D — on't build your fortress on quicksand. — That's been my unsolicited advice for President Trump and his legal team.

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Inquiries He Sought, Bolton Book Says — Drafts of the book outline the potential testimony of the former national security adviser if he were called as a witness in the president's impeachment trial. — WASHINGTON — President Trump told his national security adviser …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Monthly, New York Post, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Vox, Townhall, BuzzFeed News, Mother Jones, Washington Post, HuffPost, NBC News, National Review, Breitbart, Raw Story, Reason, Fox News, UPI, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Editorial Board, Tangle, The Hill, The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera, Contemptor, Law & Crime, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, KTLA, The Gateway Pundit, PJ Media Home, The American Independent, Lawfare, Associated Press, Daily Kos, The Nation, emptywheel, Foreign Policy, The Root, Scripting News, Twitchy, The Week, Florida Politics, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, FOX 61, Redstate, IJR, The Daily Caller, VICE, ABC News, Althouse, NPR, KFOR-TV, Washington Times, Common Dreams, Letters from an American, The Guardian, Balloon Juice, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Patterico's Pontifications, Eschaton, Bloomberg and Financial Times

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

Claiming John Bolton is just another ‘deep state’ James Comey is absurd — The idea that John Bolton, a lifelong conservative and loyal Republican, is some sort of deep state James Comey clone out to sell books by making up stories to damage President Trump, is patently absurd.

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, Washington Post, Raw Story and Politico

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Republican senators privately complain they were blindsided by Bolton. — President Trump's legal team's second day of oral arguments in the Senate impeachment trial opens with fresh uncertainty on Monday, after The New York Times reported that the White House has for weeks had an unpublished manuscript …

Discussion: The American Independent, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, New York Post and Washington Post

George Conway / Washington Post:

Bolton's testimony would be devastating. Not even Republicans could look away. — Search the transcript of Saturday's impeachment trial, as President Trump's lawyers began their opening arguments, and you'll see there's a name nowhere to be found: John Bolton, the former national security adviser.

Discussion: CNN, NB Blog, The Week, New York Post, Fox News and Raw Story

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Four big takeaways from the explosive John Bolton revelations — We have now learned precisely what John Bolton is prepared to tell us about President Trump's Ukraine extortion scheme. This is terribly inconvenient for Republican senators who are frantically searching for ways to vote …

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, Raw Story, The Hill and CNN

Brad Reed / Raw Story:

Lindsey Graham abruptly cancels planned press conference in wake of John Bolton bombshell — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) abruptly canceled a planned press conference that had been scheduled for Monday morning after a bombshell report claimed that former national security adviser John Bolton …

Discussion: Contemptor and Daily Kos

Fred Fleitz / Fox News:

Ambassador Bolton, withdraw your book — “Tune in to see Fred's exclusive interview with Laura Ingraham on ‘The Ingraham Angle’ at 10 PM ET on Fox News Channel.” — It was crushing to read weekend press reports that my friend and former boss John Bolton plans to publish a tell-all book …

Wall Street Journal:

Trump Defense Team to Present Arguments Following Bolton's ‘800-Pound Gorilla’ — Democrats reiterate demand for former national security adviser to testify at impeachment trial, as president's attorneys consider retooling arguments — WASHINGTON—President Trump's defense team will seek …

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times and Daily Kos

Emily Singer / The American Independent:
GOP senators angry new leaked details support case against Trump

Discussion: New York Times, Law & Crime and NBC News

John Bolton / Amazon.com:
The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

Discussion: The Federalist, New York Times, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, The Hill and The Week

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: What Bolton means for impeachment

Discussion: Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Talking Points Memo

Noah Weiland / New York Times:
5 Takeaways on Trump and Ukraine From John Bolton's Book

Discussion: Washington Post, Financial Times, CNN, National Review, Raw Story, Fox News, UPI, NBC News, Mother Jones, Daily Kos and The Week

ABC News:
Trump impeachment trial live updates: Bolton bombshell rocks Senate on witness question

Discussion: CNN, Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, New York Times and Breitbart

Politico:
Romney and Collins say Bolton may upend Republican fight against witnesses

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, IJR, The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump plots a flashy series finale for impeachment

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite and Daily Kos

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
John Bolton's bombshell gives the GOP a glimpse of its nightmare scenario

Discussion: Slate, The Hill, The American Independent and Contemptor

Associated Press:
Trump dismisses Bolton book revelations as patently ‘false’

Discussion: KTLA, FOX 61 and Breitbart

William Kristol / The Bulwark: Speak for America, John!

Just Security:
Executive Privilege Cannot Block Bolton's Testimony

Discussion: Raw Story, NBC News, Mediaite and The Hill

Allan Smith / NBC News:
GOP senators under pressure for witness testimony at Trump trial after Bolton revelations

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, New York Post, Roll Call and Breitbart

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:

Read the Kobe Bryant-Related Tweets That Led Washington Post to Suspend Reporter Felicia Sonmez — Washington Post national political reporter Felicia Sonmez was suspended by the paper over the weekend over tweets she sent out after the news broke of Kobe Bryant's death.

Discussion: CNN, The Root, Reason, The Daily Caller, Raw Story and The Spun

Ariel Zilber / Daily Mail:

Journalist who linked to story about Kobe Bryant rape case suspended — Felicia Sonmez (right), who covers national politics for The Washington Post, posted a link to a story about the Kobe Bryant rape case from 2003 on Sunday - hours after he died.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, New York Post, PJ Media Home, Althouse, The Outline and TMZ.com, more at Mediagazer »

Brian Flood / Fox News:
Washington Post political reporter suspended over Kobe Bryant tweets

Discussion: Townhall, New York Times and Los Angeles Times

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Washington Post reporter suspended following Kobe Bryant tweet backlash

Discussion: Breitbart, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy and Mediaite

Associated Press:
Kobe Bryant and daughter among those killed in chopper crash

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News, KTLA, The Atlantic, The Stranger, Outsports, KNX 1070, KFOR-TV, Associated Press, Florida Politics and WFLA-TV

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to proceed with immigration rules — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to begin implementing new rules making it easier to deny immigrants residency or admission to the country because they have or might use public-assistance programs.

Discussion: Fox News, Associated Press, Politico, Axios and The Week

Harper Neidig / The Hill:
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to move forward with ‘public charge’ rule

Discussion: ImmigrationProf Blog

Brent Kendall / Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Allows Trump Rules Denying Immigrants Residency Over Public Assistance

Nicole Hong / New York Times:

Prince Andrew Offers ‘Zero Cooperation’ in Epstein Case, F.B.I. Says — The United States attorney in Manhattan said the prince had not responded to their requests for an interview. — Federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. have sought to interview Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Week

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook PM: Bolton just tore up the impeachment script

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and The Guardian

The Guardian:
Prince Andrew giving ‘zero’ cooperation to Epstein inquiry, say US prosecutors

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Meghan McCain Defends Mike Pompeo's NPR Meltdown, Compares Him to Adam Driver — “I don't know what's going on over at NPR,” the conservative co-host said. “I also think journalists are supposed to be unbiased in their questioning.” — Meghan McCain on Monday rallied to Secretary …

Discussion: HuffPost, Contemptor, One America News Network and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

William B. Taylor / New York Times:
Yes, Secretary Pompeo, Americans Should Care About Ukraine

Discussion: CNN and HuffPost

Shay Khatiri / The Bulwark:
Mike Pompeo Is The Worst

Discussion: VICE and Washington Post

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

Bernie Sanders's Trump-like campaign is a disaster for Democrats — Former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg is the youngest Democratic presidential candidate; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the oldest (roughly double Buttigieg's age). Buttigieg consistently demonstrates a mature understanding …

Discussion: Washington Examiner

New York Times: Bernie Sanders and His Internet Army

Alexa Pavliuc / Medium:

Watch six decade-long disinformation operations unfold in six minutes — Here's a bird's eye view of six state-backed information operations on Twitter, and how they evolved over the last decade. This research was funded by the Mozilla Foundation by an Open Source Support Award.

Ben Taub / New Yorker:

The Evidence that Could Save Omar Ameen's Life — Last week, I wrote about the extradition case for Omar Ameen, an Iraqi refugee whom the United States government has accused of being an isis commander. Ameen has spent the past seventeen months in the Sacramento County Jail while his lawyers have sought to …