memeorandum: Joe Biden has a few (actually many) things on his mind (Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times)

12:30 PM ET, February 9, 2020

Top Items:

Exclusive NH Tracking Poll: Sanders And Buttigieg Lead Amid Signs Of Momentum For Klobuchar — BOSTON (CBS) — This wild, fluid New Hampshire primary just got a little wilder. — All week long, the story has been the rise of Pete Buttigieg to co-frontrunner status with Bernie Sanders.

Discussion: The Hill

CNN:

Bernie Sanders holds lead in second release of CNN's New Hampshire tracking poll — Bernie Sanders holds lead in CNN's New Hampshire poll — (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' lead in New Hampshire continues to hold, according to the second release from a tracking poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire for CNN.

Discussion: Axios, The Hill, The Week, New York Post and KTLA

CBS News:

CBS News Battleground Tracker poll: In New Hampshire, Sanders' support v. Buttigieg bounce — In New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders is trying to hold onto his lead against Pete Buttigieg, who has made gains coming off of the Iowa caucuses. Here, we present three of the possible scenarios …

Michael Graham / InsideSources:

EXCLUSIVE: NeverTrump-Funded Phone Calls Push GOP-Leaning Independents to Vote in NH Dems Primary — GOP-leaning independent voters in New Hampshire are receiving phone calls and texts from anti-Trump Republicans urging them to cross the aisle and vote in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, NHJournal has learned.

Sam Stein / The Daily Beast:

Joe Biden Is Running Out Of Gas — The former VP has lost the plot, voters say. And they're wondering if he will ever get it back. — Forty-five minutes before Joe Biden's first campaign event was supposed to start on Saturday, his crowd had grown restless.

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Breitbart and Talking Points Memo

Blair Guild / Washington Post:

The 2020 Fix — This is your 2020 fix. — Voters across the country turn to Iowa as the litmus test for what's to come from future primaries and caucuses, and who may be the eventual party nominee in the presidential election. If Monday's contest taught us anything, it's that 2020 will be a bit bumpy.

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill, Politico, Associated Press and The Dispatch

Axios:

Sanders: There's a difference between “my socialism and Trump's socialism” — More voters than ever oppose capitalism. That fact has profound implications for the 2020 presidential election, but also for the future of the entire U.S. and global economy. — By the numbers: A Harris poll for …

Discussion: The Hill

New York Times:
Biden Slashes Into Buttigieg: 'This Guy's Not a Barack Obama!'

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ABC News and JONATHAN TURLEY

ABC News:
Biden doubles down on warning of Sanders nomination, concedes New Hampshire an ‘uphill battle’

Discussion: Politico, University of New … and The Hill

The Boston Globe:
Sanders, Buttigieg lead; debate performance appears to lift Klobuchar

Discussion: WHDH-TV and Political Wire

Washington Post: No, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden are not ‘centrists’

Regina Zilbermints / The Hill:
Biden defends performance in Iowa, cites support from African Americans

Discussion: ABC News, Politico and Contemptor

Amanda Terkel / HuffPost: Joe Biden Frustrates Supporters With Debate Comment Writing Off New Hampshire

New York Times:

Republican Senators Tried to Stop Trump From Firing Impeachment Witness — A handful of senators reached out to the White House to warn the president not to dismiss Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union who testified in the House hearings. But Mr. Trump went ahead anyway.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic, The Week, Slate, Washington Post, Mediaite, The Hill, CNN, Raw Story, Politico, The Daily Caller, POLITICUSUSA, The Guardian and New York Post

Washington Post:

‘Not just chilling but frightening’: Inside Vindman's ouster amid fears of further retaliation by Trump — He had been publicly vilified by President Trump, marched out of his national security office across from the White House, so Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman wanted only to get his mind off politics …

Discussion: The Hill

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Trump's ‘Friday night massacre’ is just the beginning. I fear what's to come.

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, BizPac Review, New York Daily News and Mediaite

CNN:
Major cuts to National Security Council staff expected as soon as next week, sources say

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Outside the Beltway

Nihar Kabinittal / ABC News:

Man arrested after allegedly driving van into GOP registration tent — “Be careful tough guys who you play with!,” President Donald Trump tweeted. — A man has been arrested after allegedly deliberately driving a van into a tent full of Trump supporters who were working to register new voters at a shopping center parking lot.

Discussion: NB Blog

Ryan Saavedra / The Daily Wire:
BREAKING: Man Deliberately Rams Vehicle Into GOP Tent Full Of Volunteers, Trump Responds

Discussion: WJAX, PJ Media Home, Law & Crime and Redstate

WJXT-TV:
Police: Van drives through Republican's voter registration tent in Jacksonville

Discussion: The Hill, BizPac Review, JONATHAN TURLEY, CNN and The Daily Caller

Joseph Brean / National Post:

Jordan Peterson's year of ‘absolute hell’: Professor forced to retreat from public life because of addiction — The controversial author and professor is recovering from addiction to tranquilizers and near-death in Russia, his family says — SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK — We want to improve your reading experience

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Dave Goldiner / New York Daily News:

Lev Parnas says he's got plenty of dirt that goes ‘well beyond’ Trump impeachment — Lev Parnas says he has plenty more dirt to reveal — and it's not all moot now that President Trump has been acquitted by the US Senate on impeachment charges. — The estranged onetime associate …

Michelle Hackman / Wall Street Journal:

White House to Reduce Budget Request for Border Wall — Trump administration plans to ask for $2 billion, significantly less than last year's figure, following transfers of money from the military — WASHINGTON—The Trump administration plans to request $2 billion in new funding …

Discussion: CNN

Audrey McNamara / CBS News:
Arizona national monument, home to sacred Native American burial sites, is being blown up for the border wall

Discussion: Vox and Associated Press

New York Times:

What Happens When QAnon Seeps From the Web to the Offline World — A city council member in California took the dais and quoted from QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory about “deep state” traitors plotting against the president, concluding her remarks, “God bless Q.”

Discussion: Associated Press

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:

Iowa caucus 2020: Inside the Iowa Democratic Party's ‘boiler room,’ where ‘hell’ preceded the results catastrophe — At a brief training the Sunday before the Iowa caucuses, Iowa Democratic Party officials told the volunteers tasked with staffing a telephone hotline system to arrive Monday morning …

Megan Messerly / The Nevada Independent:

Nevada Democrats debut to volunteers new iPad-based ‘tool’ to calculate math on Caucus Day in the wake of Iowa fiasco — Democratic supporters cheer at the the Nevada Democratic Party election night event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Daniel Clark/The Nevada Independent)

Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story

Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times:

Joe Biden has a few (actually many) things on his mind — For 20 minutes it was Joe Biden, live and unplugged. — Standing with a hand-held microphone, before a dozen TV cameras and scores of reporters, the former vice president held forth Saturday. Not as someone whose decades-long political career …

TMZ.com:

Trump's ‘Orange Face’ Photo Appears Edited to Show Stark Contrast … DT took to Twitter Saturday, writing ... “More Fake News. This was photoshopped, obviously, but the wind was strong and the hair looks good? Anything to demean!” The black and white rendition of the pic was also posted by this Moon guy.