Top Items:
Politico:
Trump ousts State Department watchdog — President Donald Trump has removed State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence — the latest in a series of moves against independent government watchdogs in recent months.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, The Hill, NBC News, IJR, The Guardian, Breitbart, Raw Story, Axios and Mediaite
RELATED:
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump's slow-moving Friday night massacre of inspectors general — The Friday news dump — also known as the Friday night news dump — is a political trick with plenty of precedent. Wait till the vast majority of the news business clocks out for on the week, and announce something you'd rather they not cover as much.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
CNN:
State Department inspector general becomes the latest watchdog fired by Trump — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Friday fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government watchdogs that have come in the wake …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money
Conor Finnegan / ABC News:
Trump fires IG said to be investigating Pompeo, involved in impeachment probe — Inspector General Steve Linick will be replaced by a Trump appointee. — The White House fired the State Department Inspector General late Friday, according to a State Department spokesperson …
House Foreign Affairs Committee:
Engel Statement on the Firing of Inspector General Linick — Washington—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, this evening made the following statement on the President's removal of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick:
Discussion:
Letters from an American and Balloon Juice
New York Times:
Trump Removes State Dept. Inspector General — Steve A. Linick will be replaced by an ambassador with close ties to Vice President Mike Pence, the department said Friday night. — WASHINGTON — President Trump continued his purge of inspectors general late Friday, moving to oust Steve A. Linick …
Michele Kelemen / NPR:
Trump Removes State Department Inspector General Steve Linick
Trump Removes State Department Inspector General Steve Linick
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story
Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
Pelosi Statement on Late-Night Firing of State Department Inspector General
Pelosi Statement on Late-Night Firing of State Department Inspector General
Discussion:
The Hill
Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
State Department inspector general fired; Democrats decry ‘dangerous pattern of retaliation’
State Department inspector general fired; Democrats decry ‘dangerous pattern of retaliation’
Discussion:
Politico
ProPublica:
Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California. — California's governor and San Francisco's mayor worked together to act early in confronting the COVID threat. For Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, it was a different story, and 27,000 New Yorkers have died so far.
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
‘Manipulative, deceitful, user’: Tara Reade left a trail of aggrieved acquaintances — Harriet Wrye did a double take the first time she saw Tara Reade on television lodging sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden. — “Jim, that's Tara,” the 79-year-old author and psychologist called …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, NB Blog, Law & Crime and Spectator USA
RELATED:
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
New Reporting Increases Doubts on Tara Reade's Allegation Against Joe Biden — When Tara Reade first made her assault allegation against Joe Biden, I thought the charge was more likely to be true than false. To be clear, I had no intention of changing my vote.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Mediaite, Washington Times, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, PBS NewsHour, Quillette, Law & Crime and Washington Monthly
Katie Glueck / New York Times:
How the Biden Campaign Aims to Win Battleground States
New York Times:
A Sitting President, Riling the Nation During a Crisis — By smearing his opponents, championing conspiracy theories and pursuing vendettas, President Trump has reverted to his darkest political tactics in spite of a pandemic hurting millions of Americans.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Washington Post:
We could stop the pandemic by July 4 if the government took these steps — A $74 billion investment in testing, tracing and isolation could rescue the economy — quickly — With the unemployment rate at its highest level since the Great Depression — 14.7 percent and climbing …
Discussion:
Marginal REVOLUTION
Sister Toldjah / Redstate:
Reporter Asks Kayleigh McEnany to Explain Obamagate and the Crimes Allegedly Committed, Immediately Regrets It — White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany continues to impress. — During today's White House press briefing, McEnany was asked by CBS News Radio correspondent Steven Portnoy …
Discussion:
Power Line, RealClearPolitics, Althouse and MRCTV
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Jack Shafer / Politico:
How Not to Listen to Donald Trump
How Not to Listen to Donald Trump
Discussion:
Business Insider Nederland, New York Times and Breitbart
Brooke Singman / Fox News:
McEnany, pressed on Trump's accusations of Obama administration crimes, points to Flynn leaks
McEnany, pressed on Trump's accusations of Obama administration crimes, points to Flynn leaks
Discussion:
Associated Press, Breitbart and Jacobin
Washington Post:
Drug promoted by Trump as coronavirus ‘game changer’ increasingly linked to deaths — For two months, President Trump repeatedly pitched hydroxychloroquine as a safe and effective treatment for coronavirus, asking would-be patients “What the hell do you have to lose?”
Discussion:
Houston Chronicle
Carrie Campbell Severino / National Review:
The Woke Left's Assault on the Rule of Law — Ever since Donald Trump's election, liberal judges have aligned themselves with the political “resistance,” holding this administration to a different standard from its predecessors. As I have written before, we have seen this trend …
RELATED:
Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Trump's emergency powers worry some senators, legal experts — FILE - In this March 12, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. On March 12, during the meeting …
Washington Post:
Trump sets goal of hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses by January, but scientists doubt it — Some warn it's dangerous to set a timetable, given the scientific unknowns and the danger of rushing testing. — President Trump formally unveiled an initiative Friday afternoon aimed …
RELATED:
Peter Nicholas / The Atlantic:
Trump's Cordon Un-sanitaire — No White House reporter I've ever known was looking to harm anyone, much less the president of the United States, but the federal government never took chances. Covering Barack Obama and now Donald Trump, I can't recall a single instance when the security cordon surrounding the president frayed.
Associated Press:
Wisconsin again? Swing state a hotbed of virus politics — MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin has been the battleground for political proxy wars for nearly a decade, the backdrop for bruising feuds over labor unions, executive power, redistricting and President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
Axios
New York Times:
Intelligence Chief Reduces Size of Counterterrorism Office — The cuts to the National Counterterrorism Center were smaller than some former officials feared. The changes will allow intelligence agencies to shift personnel to other threats. — WASHINGTON — The acting intelligence chief announced …
Discussion:
ODNI Newsroom and Axios
RELATED:
Victoria F. Piccoli / ODNI Newsroom:
Director of National Intelligence Announces Changes to Election Security Briefings
Director of National Intelligence Announces Changes to Election Security Briefings
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit
Koh Gui Qing / Reuters:
Exclusive: U.S. Justice Dept. subpoenas Wall Street banks for small business loans info - sources — Koh Gui Qing, Pete Schroeder — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has sent grand jury subpoenas to big banks seeking records as part of a broader investigation …
Discussion:
The Hill
RELATED:
New York Times:
Now More Than Ever, Facebook Is a ‘Mark Zuckerberg Production’ — For years, he was an obsessive C.E.O. in some ways, distant in others. Then Facebook's problems became too acute to leave to anyone else. — SAN FRANCISCO — On Jan. 27, at a regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting …
Stephanie M. Lee / BuzzFeed News:
JetBlue's Founder Helped Fund A Stanford Study That Said The Coronavirus Wasn't That Deadly — A highly influential coronavirus antibody study was funded in part by David Neeleman, the JetBlue Airways founder and a vocal proponent of the idea that the pandemic isn't deadly enough to justify continued lockdowns.
Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Dan Abrams: Based on All We Know Right Now, ‘This Obamagate Theory Is 100 Percent Bullsh*t’ — Mediaite founder and ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams went on a tear during his SiriusXM show Friday calling the idea of the “Obamagate' scandal “100 percent bullshit.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
CNN:
‘He lied on national television’: Trump says truckers protesting industry problems are actually honking to support him — This is what brings out Trump's inner child — Washington (CNN)When blaring truck horns intruded on President Donald Trump's Friday speech in the White House Rose Garden …
Discussion:
IJR