memeorandum: Time for Democrats to get much tougher with William Barr (Greg Sargent/Washington Post)

7:35 AM ET, February 12, 2020

Top Items:

Scoop: Trump pulls nomination for former U.S. attorney for D.C. to Treasury post — President Trump is withdrawing his nomination for former U.S. attorney for D.C. Jessie Liu to serve as the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, a top position overseeing economic sanctions …

Discussion: The Hill, The Daily Beast, Redstate, Fox News, POLITICUSUSA, The Week, Law & Crime, Joe.My.God., Daily Kos and Balloon Juice

NBC News:

Barr takes control of legal matters of interest to Trump, including Stone sentencing — Barr's intervention in Roger Stone's case wasn't the first time senior political appointees reached into a case involving ab ex-Trump aide, officials say. — WASHINGTON — The U.S. attorney who had presided …

Discussion: The Week, HuffPost, Common Dreams, Palmer Report, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, MSNBC, Axios, Raw Story and The Hill

Washington Post:

Justice Dept. to reduce sentencing recommendation for Trump associate Roger Stone, official says, after president calls it ‘unfair’ — The Justice Department plans to reduce its sentencing recommendation for longtime President Trump confidant Roger Stone, after top officials were apparently blindsided …

Washington Post:

Trump withdraws Treasury nomination of former U.S. attorney for D.C. Jessie K. Liu after criticism of her oversight of Mueller prosecutions — President Trump on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of former U.S. attorney Jessie K. Liu of Washington, D.C., to a high-ranking Treasury Department post …

Discussion: Vox and The Hill

New York Times:

Prosecutors Quit Roger Stone Case After Justice Dept. Intervenes on Sentencing … Breaking2093 comments — New Hampshire Democrats Head to the Polls in 2020 Primary … Live — Polls will start to close at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Here's what to watch for. — 6:20 a.m. — Manchester, N.H.

Discussion: The Hill, The Week, Patterico's Pontifications and BuzzFeed News

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Time for Democrats to get much tougher with William Barr — Only hours ago, President Trump tweeted out his rage over the “very unfair” sentencing that prosecutors were thought to be seeking for Roger Stone, his longtime confidant. — Trump fumed that a long sentence for Stone …

Discussion: Politico, The Last Refuge, CNN, New York Magazine, Daily Kos and Raw Story

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
The Justice Department becomes a political hit squad for an unleashed president

Discussion: The Bulwark, Common Dreams, The Guardian and CNN

Harry Litman / Washington Post:
The Justice Department's reputation is on life support

Discussion: Letters from an American, Sputnik News, The Gateway Pundit, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story and Bloomberg

NBC News:
Roger Stone prosecutor resigns from case after DOJ backpedals on sentencing recommendation

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The American Independent, Axios, UPI, The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Balloon Juice, IJR, Reuters and CNN

Politico:
Trump takes post-impeachment reckoning to next level

Discussion: Sputnik News, Law & Crime, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, CNBC, The Week, The Last Refuge and Axios

Fox News:
DOJ expected to scale back Roger Stone's ‘extreme’ sentencing recommendation: official

CBS News:

New Hampshire primary: Sanders leads, Buttigieg and Klobuchar fight for second — Polls are closed in New Hampshire, and as of 8:30 p.m. ET, the primary is leaning toward Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg is in second place and Amy Klobuchar in third. CBS News projects Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren are not on pace to win any delegates.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Spectator USA and The Week

Edward-Isaac Dovere / The Atlantic:

Andrew Yang Is Dropping Out. Here's Why. — KEENE, N.H.— Even after Donald Trump broke all the rules of politics, there shouldn't have been room in this presidential race for Andrew Yang. Yet here he was yesterday, just before midnight on the last event of a six-event day …

Discussion: Big League Politics and Balloon Juice

New York Times:

Elizabeth Warren, in New Memo, Outlines Her Path and Rivals' Flaws — Seeking a revival, Ms. Warren's campaign manager sent a letter to supporters expressing optimism about her path forward while taking a skeptical view of her leading opponents. — MANCHESTER, N.H. …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Vanity Fair, Team Warren and Politico

Washington Post:

Andrew Yang drops out of presidential race — MANCHESTER, N.H. — Andrew Yang, a Democratic businessman who campaigned on giving every adult American a monthly check for $1,000, will end his campaign for president after a disappointing showing in the New Hampshire primary.

Discussion: The Week, Outside the Beltway, New York Times, The Independent, The Federalist, Reason, HuffPost, PBS NewsHour, The Daily Beast, Breitbart, Joe.My.God., Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Atlantic, Slate and UPI

Michael Scherer / Washington Post:

Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath endorses Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign — Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), a gun regulation activist whose son was shot and killed, endorsed Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign Wednesday, joining a growing coterie of House members to support the former New York mayor …

Ebony Bowden / New York Post:
The spectacular collapse of Joe Biden as Democratic frontrunner

Discussion: Althouse

ABC News:
Sanders projected to eke out narrow win in New Hampshire primary. Buttigieg and Klobuchar were close on his heels.

Discussion: Axios, NB Blog, Mother Jones, Star Tribune, CANNONFIRE, UPI, Mediaite, Breitbart, The Week, Washington Post and The Hill

Ryan Lizza / Politico:
Sanders ekes one out, but the revolution has yet to arrive

Discussion: The Nation, Washington Post, CNN, WHDH-TV and Progress Pond

Jane C. Timm / NBC News:
Klobuchar nabs third place in New Hampshire, exclaims, ‘Hello, America!’

Discussion: The Daily Beast, MSNBC and VTDigger

Catherine Garcia / The Week:
In Twitter rampage, Trump attacks federal judge set to sentence Roger Stone

Discussion: ABC News, Reason, HuffPost and The Hill

Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine: 'They've Both Taken on the Stench of Death.' Are Biden and Warren Making It Out of N.H. Alive?

New York Times:
Bernie Sanders Scores Narrow Victory in New Hampshire Primary

Discussion: The Wrap and Full Feed

Sam Stein / The Daily Beast:
Bernie Sanders Has Built The Most Powerful Machine In Democratic Politics—And It May Be Unstoppable

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Hill, Politico, Associated Press, Newsweek, Vox, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart and WPRI-TV

Washington Post:
Michael Bennet drops out of presidential race

Discussion: New York Times and IJR

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump Fires Defense Official for Refusing to Break the Law on His Behalf — Two days after Senate Republicans acquitted President Trump on both counts of impeachment, the Trump administration fired a number of national-security officials: European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland …

Discussion: Washington Post, American Oversight, Joe.My.God. and The Week

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Trump suggests military should consider additional discipline for Vindman — President Trump on Tuesday suggested the military should consider additional disciplinary action against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who provided damaging testimony against Trump in the impeachment inquiry and was reassigned from his White House job last week.

Discussion: Bloomberg and Vanity Fair

Washington Post: Trump escalates campaign of retribution as Republican senators shrug

Natasha Bertrand / Politico:
‘We are not a banana republic’: National security adviser defends Vindman dismissals

Discussion: Fox News and Raw Story

Steven Nelson / New York Post:
White House expected to drop Pentagon nominee Elaine McCusker amid Ukraine fallout

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, Just Security, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Law & Crime and The Week

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Paging Michael Bloomberg — Democrats need to nominate the right person to prevent Trump from winning a second term. — My fellow Americans, we face a national emergency. Never before have we had a president so utterly lacking in personal integrity, so able to lie and abuse his powers …

Discussion: Althouse

Kaylie Piecuch / Fox News:

Meet the New Hampshire voter who made $12G from Andrew Yang's ‘Freedom Dividend’ — Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has famously called for implementing a universal basic income (UBI) where every American adult gets $1,000 a month from the government — but one New Hampshire family already cashed in on the idea.

Discussion: Politico, Vox, The Daily Caller and New York Post

NBC News:
Andrew Yang drops out of presidential race

Discussion: Redstate and Axios

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed News:
Andrew Yang Is Dropping Out. He Thinks His Campaign Has Two Big Legacies.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Fox News, Business Insider and Politico

Nihar Kabinittal / ABC News: Entrepreneur Andrew Yang ends his bid for the presidency

CNN:
Andrew Yang ends 2020 presidential campaign

Discussion: KTLA, WHDH-TV and Washington Times

Charlie Mahtesian / Politico:

Live analysis of the 2020 New Hampshire Primary — Hey folks, good evening and welcome to POLITICO's New Hampshire primary live chat. — Senior politics editor12:01 a.m. — We've got a great cast of reporters here tonight, many of them in the New Hampshire, ready to talk about tonight's big vote.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Axios, The Week, The Root and CNN

NBC News:
NBC News Exit Poll: No jump in independents or first-time voters in New Hampshire Democratic primary

Discussion: Breitbart

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Trump Jr. says Sanders won't be ‘real competition’ if he's the nominee

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Hannah Fingerhut / Associated Press:
AP VoteCast: NH Democrats angry, seek alternative to Trump

Discussion: NBC News, One America News Network, Fox News and Washington Post

Megan Messerly / The Nevada Independent:

In new flyer, Culinary Union warns members Sanders would ‘end’ their health care if elected president — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a Culinary Union town hall in Las Vegas on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would …

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story, VICE and The Intercept

Becket Adams / Washington Examiner:

Four major journalistic errors in just 10 hours — If you think the news industry's credibility problem is bad now, you haven't seen anything yet. — It is going to get much, much worse the closer we get to Election Day, if Tuesday's slipshod news reporting and commentary is any indication.

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, NB Blog, Redstate and NPR

Election Results:

Featured Races — Here you can find recent or upcoming elections that we think are important. You can also use the nav-menu in the upper left and explore our archives, dashboards, and interactive tools by election year or search for a specific election using our search tool in the upper right if you signup for a FREE account.

Discussion: The Dispatch and Twitchy

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Senate GOP blocks three election security bills — Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to unanimously pass three election security-related bills on Tuesday, marking the latest attempt to clear legislation ahead of the November elections — Democrats tried to get consent …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and Daily Kos