memeorandum: Secret tapes show neo-Nazi group The Base recruiting former members of the military (Samantha Springer/NBC News)

11:40 AM ET, October 15, 2020

Top Items:

Emails reveal how Hunter Biden tried to cash in big on behalf of family with Chinese firm — Hunter Biden pursued lucrative deals involving China's largest private energy company — including one that he said would be “interesting for me and my family,” emails obtained by The Post show.

Discussion: National Review, Townhall, Hotair, Redstate, Fox News, The Right Scoop, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, Conservative News Today, Outside the Beltway and War Room: Pandemic

Lachlan Cartwright / The Daily Beast:

Rupert Murdoch Predicts a Landslide Win for Biden — The Australian mogul is disgusted by Trump's handling of COVID-19, remarking that the president is his own worst enemy and telling associates, ‘people are ready for Sleepy Joe.’ … President Trump's influential supporter Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Other McCain, The Federalist, Newsbusters, New York Post, Political Wire, Spectator USA, Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Bulwark, Raw Story and Morning Consult

New York Times:

Allegation on Biden Prompts Pushback From Social Media Companies — Joe Biden's campaign rejected assertions made in a published report that were based on unverified material from Trump allies. Facebook and Twitter found the story dubious enough to limit access to it on their platform.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Vox, Alternet.org, Althouse, The Week, Asia Times, KVIA-TV and Fox News, more at Mediagazer »

Rod Dreher:

Shhh! Don't Talk About Hunter Biden — The New York Post had a big scoop today: … Read it all — there are screenshots, and a louche photo of a shirtless Hunter taken from the hard drive. — The story might have been a one-day affair — except for Twitter and Facebook interfered to keep people from sharing it.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Federalist, New York Post and spiked

The Daily Beast:
Trump Knew for Days That Rudy's Hit on Hunter Biden Was Coming

Discussion: Bulwark+, Breitbart, Scroll.in, Townhall, Liberty Unyielding, Fox News, The Federalist, SFist, OutKick and Slate, more at Mediagazer »

Sonam Sheth / Business Insider:
US intelligence analysts feared Russia would dump hacked and forged Burisma emails targeting Biden as an ‘October surprise,’ report says

Discussion: DemCast, New York Times, Mother Jones and Fox News

Patrick Tucker / Defense One:
Anti-Biden Disinformation Decried by Disinfo Experts, Social-Media Giants

Discussion: Axios, Redstate, Breitbart, Fox Business, The Right Scoop, The Wrap, The Federalist, Deadline, Variety and Bloomberg

Russel Dye / House Judiciary Committee Republicans:
Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad

Politico:
Biden campaign lashes out at New York Post

The Daily Beast:
Man Who Reportedly Gave Hunter's Laptop to Rudy Speaks Out in Bizarre Interview

Discussion: Alternet.org, TheBlaze, Yahoo News, Raw Story, Fox News, TechCrunch, CANNONFIRE, Slate, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, New Republic and The Verge

Tucker Carlson / Fox News:
The Joe Biden story Twitter and Facebook don't want you to read

Discussion: Redstate, Cyprus Mail, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Townhall and Twitchy

CNN:

Notre Dame calendars show more events not listed on Amy Coney Barrett's Senate paperwork — (CNN)Public calendars from the University of Notre Dame's law school show at least seven additional talks not listed on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Senate paperwork, including one with the law school's …

Discussion: Vox, USA Today, Daily Kos, The Week, New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, The College Fix, Liberty Unyielding, Raw Story, The Hill, Reason, Washington Post and Althouse

Bloomberg:
McConnell Says Barrett Has Enough Votes for Senate Confirmation

Discussion: Axios, Political Wire, Duluth News Tribune, New York Post, WHDH-TV, KVIA-TV, NBC Chicago and UPI

Hannah Jones / City Pages:
Garrison Keillor says Roe v. Wade not ‘worth fighting for anymore’

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Barrett seeks refuge in ignorance and evasion

Discussion: Business Insider, Raw Story, Vox and DSCC

Politico:
McConnell plots out preelection endgame with Barrett, Covid relief

Discussion: The Hill, ABC News, Fox News, Washington Post, Forbes, LifeNews.com, The Daily Caller, POLITICUSUSA and WHYY

Samantha Raphelson / NPR:
Booker Doubles Down On Barrett In Continued Exchange About Racism

Discussion: Slate and Washington Post

Tyler Olson / Fox News:
Barrett on track as Senate panel brings in experts for final day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNN and The Hill

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:

Harris cancels travel after Biden campaign announces positive Covid tests — Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled all campaign travel through this weekend “out of an abundance of caution” after a flight crew member and her communications director tested positive for coronavirus, the Biden campaign announced Thursday.

Discussion: Townhall, The Hill, The Week and POLITICUSUSA

Axios:
Harris pauses campaign travel after aide tests positive for coronavirus

Discussion: Associated Press, Joe Biden for President, Reuters, Breitbart, CBS Philly, Bangor Daily News, Raw Story, CBS Los Angeles, NBC Los Angeles and KRQE-TV

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Biden campaign halts Kamala Harris' travel after two people in campaign's orbit test positive for coronavirus

Discussion: ABC News, BuzzFeed News, NPR, The Daily Caller, The Wrap, Washingtonian, Deadline, Daily Kos, The Guardian, New York Post, UPI and TheBlaze

Jason DeParle / New York Times:

8 Million Have Slipped Into Poverty Since May as Federal Aid Has Dried Up — Two new studies show the effect of the emergency $2 trillion package known as the Cares Act and what happened when the money ran out. — WASHINGTON — After an ambitious expansion of the safety net …

Discussion: The American Independent

Lauren Leatherby / New York Times:

U.S. Virus Cases Climb Toward a Third Peak — The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states …

Discussion: Political Wire

Eliza Collins / Wall Street Journal:

Biden Has 11-Point Lead Over Trump Less Than Three Weeks to Election Day — A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of registered voters shows Joe Biden leading the president 53% to 42% — Joe Biden holds a double-digit lead over President Trump less than three weeks from Election Day …

Discussion: Slate, Florida Politics and Politico

Mark Murray / NBC News:

Biden continues to hold double-digit national lead over Trump in NBC News/WSJ poll — WASHINGTON — Less than three weeks before Election Day, Joe Biden maintains a double-digit national lead over President Donald Trump, with 6 in 10 voters saying that the country is on the wrong track …

Discussion: Reuters, The Hill, CNBC, Bloomberg, Washington Times, The Week and NBC4 Washington

The Daily Beast:

Rudy Giuliani Posts Footage of Himself Mocking Asians to YouTube — The president's personal lawyer gleefully pantomimed a bow while putting on a stereotypical Chinese accent in footage he apparently posted accidentally. — Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was caught mocking Asians …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mashable, Mediaite and Raw Story

Phillip Halpern / San Diego Union-Tribune:

Commentary: I won't work in Attorney General William Barr's Justice Department any longer — After 36 years, I'm fleeing what was the U.S. Department of Justice — where I proudly served 19 different attorneys general and six different presidents. For the last three-plus decades …

New York Times:

As Virus Spread, Reports of Trump Administration's Private Briefings Fueled Sell-Off — A hedge fund consultant's summary of private presentations by White House economic advisers fanned investor worries.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

New York Times:
As Virus Spread, Reports of Trump Administration's Private Briefings Fueled Sell-Off

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Alternet.org, The Week, Mediaite and Raw Story

Tom Phillips / The Guardian:

Police find cash hidden between Bolsonaro ally's buttocks — Brazilian senator Chico Rodrigues is caught with notes during a search of his home — Jair Bolsonaro's efforts to portray himself as an anti-corruption crusader have suffered another blow after police reportedly seized a wad …

Politico:

'He's getting a bit desperate': Trump tramples government boundaries as election nears — The farther behind Donald Trump has fallen in the competition for campaign dollars, the more he's milked government resources to make up the difference. — Millions of boxes of food doled out to needy families …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, Reuters, Raw Story, Florida Politics, MyNorthwest.com, The Bulwark, ABC News and Blue Virginia

Graeme Wood / The Atlantic:

He Won't Concede, but He'll Pack His Bags — The day after the 2016 election, I ran into a journalist who'd covered Donald Trump in the 1980s and once knew the man well. “Trump will be a one-term president—maximum,” he said, with what seemed unwarranted confidence, given the previous day's result.

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

As Trump's Language Grows More Heated, Fears Rise of Political Violence — The plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan is only the latest in a growing list of election-related threats. Some experts say the president is emboldening extremists. — The arrest of more than a dozen right-wing extremists …

Discussion: Political Wire, Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

Alex Thompson / Politico:

Bidenworld fires warning shot against Cabinet jockeying — Joe Biden's transition team has a message for anyone publicly jockeying for a job in a potential Biden administration: Knock it off. — Members of the transition team have been fuming at the recent flood of stories listing people …

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

QAnon-promoting candidate Greene set to endorse Loeffler's Senate bid — U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is set to accept the endorsement on Thursday of congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, a controversial fellow Republican who has spread baseless QAnon conspiracy theories and posted racist and xenophobic videos on social media.

Discussion: wabe.org and The American Independent

Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:

Top Democratic super PAC boosts MJ Hegar in Texas' U.S. Senate race with $8.6 million TV blitz — The group is jumping into the contest with an ad campaign targeting Republican incumbent John Cornyn on health care. — Copy link — Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic super PAC in U.S. Senate races …

Discussion: Fox News, DSCC and Daily Kos

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

Fox News veterans face a hurdle in the job market: Having Fox on the résumé — When Eboni Williams was first exploring leaving her job at Fox News in 2018, she kept hearing the same thing in her conversations with news executives at rival networks.

John F. Harris / Politico:

Trump Is Suffering From Trump Derangement Syndrome — One of the familiar taunts that supporters of the president hurl at opponents is that they are suffering from TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome. — TDS is marked by neurotic obsession with the president and his provocations …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Elena Schneider / Politico:

ActBlue's stunning third quarter: $1.5 billion in donations — Democratic candidates and left-leaning groups raised $1.5 billion through ActBlue over the last three months — a record-smashing total that reveals the overwhelming financial power small-dollar donors have unleashed up and down the ballot ahead of the 2020 election.

Discussion: ActBlue Blog, Breitbart and Political Wire

Mike Allen / Axios:

Why Democrats remain nervous about Biden's chances — In private, some top Democrats remain nervous about the presidential race, despite Joe Biden's lead in swing state after swing state — and strength in states that had looked out of reach (including Georgia, Ohio and Iowa).

Discussion: The Week, The Hill, Political Wire and Mediaite

Bonchie / Redstate:

Dr. Fauci Has a New Demand of You, as His Shameless Media Tour Continues — Dr. Anthony Fauci is now more popular than ever among media elites. All it took was for him to take an adversarial approach to President Trump over the coronavirus. Who could have guessed?

Discussion: Washington Post and The Week

The Boston Globe:

Governor Baker reaffirms he won't vote for Trump — Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday reaffirmed that he will not vote for President Trump, a fellow Republican, though he declined to discuss how he might cast his ballot. — Asked by a reporter during a State House news conference …

Discussion: Fox News, Axios, Political Wire and WHDH-TV