memeorandum: The Unburdened Believer (Olivia Nuzzi/New York Magazine)

10:00 AM ET, July 10, 2020

Top Items:

CNN:

‘Never Trump’ movement returns for Act II, armed with President's own words and record — (CNN)The Never Trump movement failed four years ago. But a small band of Republicans still bucking their party are back with a new game plan for their second act: turning President Donald Trump's words and record against him.

Sarah Longwell / The Bulwark:

What Women Want — Here's what women who voted for Trump in 2016 are saying about him now. — One of the great mysteries of 2016 was why so many women voted for Donald Trump. — Despite being caught on a hot mic talking about grabbing women “by the pu**y,” nearly 20 sexual assault allegations …

Discussion: The American Independent, Reason and Raw Story

CNN:

Trump implies he's ready to grant clemency to Roger Stone — (CNN)President Donald Trump implied in a pair of interviews Thursday that he was ready to grant clemency to Roger Stone, his friend and ally who was convicted of, among other things, lying to Congress and is set to go to prison this month.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Contemptor

Kendall Karson / ABC News:

Broad disapproval for Trump's handling of coronavirus, race relations: POLL — Evaluation of Trump's oversight of the COVID-19 crisis reached a new low. — President Donald Trump is facing broad disapproval for his management of the two major crises gripping the nation …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, HillReporter.com, The Week, Mediaite, Contemptor and Eschaton

NBC News:
Trump could still bounce back, but it looks less likely than ever

Discussion: New York Times, One America News Network and Daily Kos

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Poll shows Trump's coronavirus approval at all-time low

Discussion: ABC News, POLITICUSUSA and The Daily Beast

Hannah Kuchler / Financial Times:

Anthony Fauci: ‘We are living in the perfect storm’ — The straight-talking scientist on keeping the peace with Trump and the hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine — I hear Anthony Fauci before I see him. Out of view of our video call, he asks his tech assistant: “Have you wiped down the table?”

Discussion: NBC News, CNBC, POLITICUSUSA, The Week and Political Wire

Carlos Lozada / Washington Post:

The real villain of Mary Trump's family tell-all isn't Donald. It's Fred. — Review of “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man” by Mary L. Trump — TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man — Simon & Schuster.

Discussion: New Republic

Washington Post:
Presidents don't usually lose as badly at the Supreme Court as Trump did

Discussion: The White House and Raw Story

Josh Chafetz / New York Times:
Don't Be Fooled, Trump Is a Winner in the Supreme Court Tax Case

Discussion: SCOTUSblog, Vox, No More Mister Nice Blog, Lawfare, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Nation, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Mahablog, The Moderate Voice and The Week

Sean Colarossi / POLITICUSUSA: Ex-Watergate Prosecutor Says SCOTUS Ruling Opens Door To Trump Being Indicted For Tax Fraud

George Conway / Washington Post:
What Mary Trump's book and the ‘Trump v. Vance’ case have in common

Discussion: Raw Story, Vanity Fair, Dorf on Law, The Atlantic and LGBTQ Nation

Tammy Duckworth / New York Times:

Tucker Carlson Doesn't Know What Patriotism Is — Neither does President Trump. — Ms. Duckworth is a Democratic senator from Illinois. — A little over 240 years ago, two of my ancestors put on the uniform of George Washington's Continental Army and marched into battle …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, The Wrap, Mediaite, Chicago Sun-Times, The Hill, The Week and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

David Weigel / Washington Post: Rep. Dan Crenshaw questions Sen. Tammy Duckworth's values in Trump campaign meetup

Matthew Stokes / The Bulwark:
Tammy Duckworth and the Trump Trap

Discussion: The Federalist

Apoorva Mandavilli / New York Times:

The Coronavirus Can Be Airborne Indoors, W.H.O. Says — The agency also explained more directly that people without symptoms may spread the virus. The acknowledgments should have come sooner, some experts said. — The coronavirus may linger in the air in crowded indoor spaces …

Discussion: The Week, FOX 2 and NPR

Lazaro Gamio / New York Times: How Coronavirus Cases Have Risen Since States Reopened

New York Times: Coronavirus Live Updates: The Surge in U.S. Cases Is Driven Largely by States That Reopened Early

Washington Post:

Trump the victim: President complains in private about the pandemic hurting himself — Callers on President Trump in recent weeks have come to expect what several allies and advisers describe as a “woe-is-me” preamble. — The president rants about the deadly coronavirus destroying …

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog and One America News Network

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

Will “Cancel Culture” Stop Democratic Momentum? — As we have seen over the past week, the president is eager to frame this election as a war over the symbols, monuments and statues that celebrate America's historic figures. As a White House aide told the Wall Street Journal the other day …

Discussion: The Resurgent, Twitchy and TheBlaze

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:

An interview with President Trump: ‘The real hate is the hate from the other side’ — This column is the first of two I'm writing based on my interview with President Trump on Wednesday. — As I walked into to the Oval Office, President Trump was going over new polls — some internal …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine:

The Unburdened Believer — On the morning of May 19, Larry Kudlow was booked as a guest on the Fox Business channel. This in itself wasn't unusual. As the National Economic Council director, the former CNBC host is a natural show pony in the stable of officials whose duties entail regular appearances …

Zachary Cohen / CNN:

Pentagon chief confirms he was briefed on intelligence about Russian payments to the Taliban — (CNN)Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed Thursday that he had been briefed on information regarding Russian payments to the Taliban, seemingly acknowledging that Russia's support …

Discussion: The Week, Raw Story and Associated Press

Nandini Jammi:

I'm leaving Sleeping Giants, but not because I want to — How my white male co-founder gaslighted me out of the movement we built together. — Nearly four years after I began building Sleeping Giants, the campaign to make bigotry and sexism unprofitable, I'm leaving — but not because I want to.

more at Mediagazer »

Patricia Sullivan / Washington Post:

A small, mostly white Virginia town put up a ‘Black Lives Matter’ banner. Ginni Thomas denounced it. — The banner says “Welcome to Clifton where Black Lives Matter.” — It was posted over the tiny Northern Virginia town's Main Street, in a space mostly used to advertise community events …

Discussion: The Week

Betsy Woodruff Swan / Politico:

A top terrorism fighter's dire warning — America's intelligence agencies risk slipping back into dangerous pre-9/11 habits, a recently departed top counterterrorism official is warning in his first public remarks on the matter. — Russell Travers, the former head of the U.S. government's hub …

New York Times:

Michael Cohen Returned to Jail in Dispute Over Trump Book — President Trump's former personal lawyer balked at signing an agreement not to publish a book while serving his sentence at home, his legal adviser said. — Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's onetime lawyer and fixer …

Discussion: Washington Post, Sputnik News, New York Post, Breitbart, CNBC, JONATHAN TURLEY, National Review, The Hill, TalkLeft and Law & Crime

New York Daily News: Michael Cohen arrested after refusing gov't demand to not publish Trump book during sentence: friend

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

President Winning-by-Losing Is, in Fact, Losing — Donald Trump has made a career of turning bad news into good, but the virus has already defeated him. — Soon after the Supreme Court ruled, on Thursday morning, against Donald Trump's effort to stop a Manhattan prosecutor from obtaining his tax returns …

The Daily Beast:

‘Worse Than New York’: How Coronavirus Exploded in South Carolina — South Carolina is besieged by the coronavirus, reporting more cases per capita than most countries. “We've completely lost control of the situation,” one doctor told the Beast. — At one hospital in Charleston …

Discussion: Fox News

Robin Wright / New Yorker:

Trump's Impeachment Revenge: Alexander Vindman Is Bullied Into Retiring — Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, in full-dress Army uniform and with a Purple Heart pinned to his chest, ended his opening statement during the impeachment hearings on President Trump last fall by addressing his father.

Discussion: National Review, Daily Kos, The Hill, Washington Post, Raw Story, Townhall, New York Times and Breitbart

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

An Unexpected Struggle for Trump: Defining an Elusive Biden — With only six weeks to the Republican National Convention, President Trump has yet to find a framework for attacking his opponent. — President Trump won the White House in no small part by seizing on Hillary Clinton's missteps …

Discussion: Political Wire

Wall Street Journal:

Trump Casts Wide TV-Ad Net to Shore Up Support — Campaign is advertising in states he easily won in 2016 as aides acknowledge they face a tougher path than they anticipated six months ago — President Trump's re-election campaign is advertising in three states he easily won in 2016 …

Marc Caputo / Politico:

Trump advisers fracture over Roger Stone pardon — Roger Stone is headed to prison next week unless Donald Trump intervenes. And a chorus of outside allies is pressing the president to do just that — over the wishes of White House and campaign aides who don't like Stone and think Trump has nothing to gain by helping him.

Discussion: The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, Real Clear Politics and Raw Story

New York Times:

DeSantis Is Said to Quietly Hinder Fund-Raising for Trump Convention — A personal dispute has prompted Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, to discourage donors from contributing, people familiar with the discussions said. His top fund-raiser denies any attempt to undercut the convention.

Discussion: Politico, Tampa Bay Times, The Week, The Hill, The Capitolist, Raw Story, Florida Politics and Washington Post

Paul Rahe / The Federalist:

America Can't Take Another Lockdown. Protect The Vulnerable And Carry On — Since the media and Democrat governors won't tell the American people the truth about the coronavirus, President Trump should level with the public instead. — Fifty-two years ago, in the summer of 1968 …

Alana Wise / NPR:

Goyaway: Calls To Boycott Goya Foods After CEO Praises President Trump — Twitter users are calling for a boycott of Goya Foods, a brand most known for its Hispanic-staple food offerings, after the CEO of the company lavished praise on President Trump during a Thursday visit to the White House.

Discussion: National Review, American Greatness, Mediaite, NBC News, Twitchy and TheBlaze

Kevin Robillard / HuffPost:

Trolling Trump Isn't The Same Thing As Beating Him — The Lincoln Project's ads go viral. That doesn't mean they work. — The Lincoln Project, a group of “Never Trump” Republicans who have now dedicated themselves to defeating the president in 2020, makes the “the best ads on television …

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:

How the Trump administration is turning legal immigrants into undocumented ones — The Trump administration is turning legal immigrants into undocumented ones. — That is, the “show me your papers” administration has literally switched off printers needed to generate those “papers.”

Betsy Hodges / New York Times:

As Mayor of Minneapolis, I Saw How White Liberals Block Change — But this revolutionary moment is inviting us to be a part of the solution. — Ms. Hodges was the mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018. — Democrats have largely led big and midsize cities for much of the past half-century.

Steve Martin / New York Times:

Carl Reiner, Perfect — The director and funnyman taught Steve Martin about film and comedy, but it's Reiner's advice on a completely different subject that he cherishes. — I've known only two perfect people in my life. One is that son of a bitch Martin Short; the other is Carl Reiner.

Daniel Tilles / Notes From Poland:

Opposition candidate may “fulfil Jewish demands” if he wins presidency, warns Polish state TV — The main evening news broadcast on state television, which is used by the government to broadcast its message and attack opponents, has again sought to suggest that the opposition presidential candidate …

Discussion: Bloomberg

CNN:

Fact check: No, more testing isn't the reason US coronavirus case numbers are getting worse — Washington (CNN)No matter how high the daily number of new coronavirus cases has gotten, President Donald Trump has responded with the argument he repeated on Thursday: the big number is just more evidence …

Discussion: The Dispatch, POLITICUSUSA and WWLP-TV

Joshua T. Katz / Quillette:

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor — In Congress, on July 4th, 1776, came the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Signed by 56 men, many of whom were considered national heroes just a few minutes ago, it opens with a long and elegant sentence whose …

Discussion: Power Line, The College Fix and Reason