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

10:35 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

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
An Unexpected Struggle for Trump: Defining an Elusive Biden

Discussion: Political Wire

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, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, HillReporter.com, The Week, Contemptor, Mediaite and Eschaton

Quint Forgey / Politico:

Poll shows Trump's coronavirus approval at all-time low — Support for President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has hit an all-time low, according to a new survey, with a similarly substantial majority of Americans also disapproving of his response to widespread racial unrest.

Discussion: ABC News, POLITICUSUSA and The Daily Beast

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

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: The Week, CNBC and Political Wire

Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
Trump says Fauci ‘made a lot of mistakes’

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and MSNBC

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

Matthew Stokes / The Bulwark:

Tammy Duckworth and the Trump Trap — What her clash with Tucker Carlson over statue removal can teach us about our new ‘culture war’ moment. — In case you, like me, had better things to do over the Independence Day weekend than to watch President Trump's two big speeches …

Discussion: The Federalist

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

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, NPR and Fox News

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

David Goldman / CNN:

Goya Foods boycott takes off after its CEO praises Trump — New York (CNN Business)The hashtag #Goyaway was trending on social media Friday after Robert Unanue, CEO of Goya Foods, appeared in the White House Rose Garden Thursday afternoon and praised President Donald Trump.

Discussion: NBC News, Twitchy and The Gateway Pundit

Jake Sherman / Politico: White House liaison to Hill out amid allegations of contacts with lobbyists

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’

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

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, WHDH-TV and Contemptor

Marc Caputo / Politico:
Trump advisers fracture over Roger Stone pardon

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

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 …

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 and Vanity Fair

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 »

Arizona Republic:

As COVID-19 surge persists, Ducey takes little action — Gov. Doug Ducey did not announce significant new measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Arizona on Thursday despite pleas for aggressive action from doctors, mayors and some state lawmakers. — The Republican leader acknowledged …

New York Times: Like ‘A Bus Accident a Day’: Hospitals Strain Under New Flood of Covid-19 Patients

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 …

Washington Post:

Presidents don't usually lose as badly at the Supreme Court as Trump did — The justices rejected all of his outlandish arguments — and the next steps could be worse for him — Presidents sometimes lose at the Supreme Court. But rarely do they lose as fundamentally — or as personally — as President Trump lost Thursday.

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: Bloomberg, 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

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

New York Daily News:

Michael Cohen arrested after refusing gov't demand to not publish Trump book during sentence: friend — The fixer is back behind bars. — Michael Cohen was thrown back in prison on Thursday after refusing to sign a home confinement agreement requiring him to not publish a tell-all book …

New York Times:
Michael Cohen Returned to Jail in Dispute Over Trump Book

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

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

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

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 …

Financial Times:

From payments to armaments: the double life of Wirecard's Jan Marsalek — A suspect in one of Germany's biggest financial frauds talked of assembling a Libyan militia and bragged of adventures with Russian troops — It was early 2018 when Jan Marsalek, the young chief operating officer …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Catherine Valentine / CNN:

Retired two-star Army general pleads guilty to sexually abusing his daughter — (CNN)Retired Army Maj. Gen. James Grazioplene on Wednesday admitted to sexually abusing his then-teenage daughter in the 1980s, in exchange for a suspension of his sentence. — His daughter, Jennifer Elmore, turned 49 on Wednesday.

Discussion: Task & Purpose

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.”

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 …

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 …

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.

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.