memeorandum: Facebook Manipulated the News You See to Appease Republicans, Insiders Say (Mother Jones)

7:05 PM ET, October 21, 2020

Top Items:

Catherine Shoard / The Guardian:

Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film — Trump's personal attorney has indiscreet encounter with actor playing Borat's daughter in hotel room during pandemic — • This article contains spoilers about Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:

How Rudy Giuliani Got Caught Red-Handed With Borat's Daughter — When Rudy Giuliani first revealed his run-in with Sacha Baron Cohen, he didn't mention the compromised position he was in when Borat burst into the room. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.) — When the trailer for Borat Subsequent …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, National File and One America News Network

Matt Wilstein / The Daily Beast:

Rudy Giuliani Claims Borat ‘Hit Job’ Is Retaliation for Hunter Biden Attack — Rudy Giuliani is defending himself against allegations of inappropriate behavior in the new ‘Borat’ sequel by claiming he was just tucking his shirt in. — Rudy Giuliani issued his first public defense …

Discussion: Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Nikki Schwab / Daily Mail:

Rudy Giuliani was tricked by Sacha Baron Cohen into going to hotel room with 'Borat's daughter' and is shown lying back with his hand down his pants before actor bursts in on them — President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani appears in the forthcoming ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’

Discussion: New York Post, Vanity Fair, GameSpot, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

Sonia Saraiya / Vanity Fair:
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Brings Back Borat, With His Daughter in Tow

Discussion: The Week, The Daily Beast, Mediaite and GameSpot

QU Poll:

Texas In Play: Biden And Trump In A Dead Heat, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; In Pennsylvania, Biden's Lead Returns To Single Digits — In the home stretch of the 2020 presidential election campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden is in a tied race with President Donald Trump in the reliably red state …

Discussion: The Hill, Fox News, USA Today, Beaver County Times …, Rasmussen Reports, POLITICUSUSA, The Daily Caller and KXAN-TV

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Biden Takes Likely Voter Lead; Greenfield Maintains Narrow Senate Edge — Senior voters prefer the Democrat — West Long Branch, NJ - Joe Biden has taken a small likely voter lead in the presidential race in Iowa, after Donald Trump had the edge in prior polls.

Discussion: courthousenews.com, Iowa Starting Line, Siena College Research …, Politico, Washington Post and New York Times

CNN:
CNN Polls: Biden leads in Pennsylvania and tight race remains in Florida

Discussion: WISH-TV

The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Biden leads by 8% in new Pennsylvania poll

Discussion: The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Vox, POLITICUSUSA and USA Today

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Biden Has Narrow Lead in Iowa, and Senate Race Is Tight, Poll Shows

Discussion: The Hill, The Nation and The Daily Caller

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
Polls show Biden and Trump deadlocked in Texas, Biden up by 8 in Pennsylvania

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Post

Aaron Rupar / Vox:

The stunning hypocrisy of the Trump family's attacks on Hunter Biden — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump in London in June 2019. Manden Ngan/AFP via Getty Images — If there's any family that should sit out attacking others for alleged corruption, it's the Trumps.

Discussion: Fox News, Forbes, Fortune and Popular Information

James Freeman / Wall Street Journal:

Meet the Bidens — What happens after the world's most expensive introduction? — What kind of meetings can a Chinese tycoon buy for $10 million a year? A full seven days after the New York Post began publishing emails showing Biden family influence peddling, former Vice President Joe Biden still isn't saying the emails are fake.

Discussion: ABC News, Fox News, Breitbart and New York Post

New York Times:

How Trump and Biden Are Gearing Up for the Last Presidential Debate — The president's advisers want him to present an affirmative vision for the country. Joe Biden's team is bracing for ugly attacks. — Three weeks after a debate spectacle defined by heckling and sharply personal attacks …

Discussion: Associated Press, Rolling Stone and Axios

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Meadows tempers expectations of Hunter Biden probe

Discussion: Associated Press, The Daily Beast, Breitbart, Forbes, POLITICUSUSA and Mediaite

Eric Mack / Newsmax:
Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax TV: I Met Police Over ‘Disgusting’ Hunter Biden Photos

Discussion: RealClearPolitics, Spectator USA, Washington Examiner, Conservative News Today and The Gateway Pundit

Marianne LeVine / Politico:

Senate Democrats to boycott Barrett's Judiciary Committee vote Thursday — Senate Democrats plan to boycott Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett's Judiciary Committee vote Thursday in an act of protest, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Townhall, Washington Monthly, Bloomberg, Breitbart, NPR, Hamodia, The Daily Caller, The Week, Washington Times and Twitchy

American Greatness:
Why On Earth Would You Vote Democrat?

Discussion: The Hill

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:
51% of Voters Now Back Barrett's Confirmation, Most Support Ever for a Trump Supreme Court Nominee

Discussion: The Hill, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Post, Alternet.org, The Daily Caller, Townhall, National Review, Washington Times, GOP.com, New York Post, The Daily Signal, Ohio Capital Journal and Politico

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:
Senate Democrats block GOP's $500 billion coronavirus aid bill as Pelosi-Mnuchin talks continue

Discussion: Vox, Washington Times, UPI, Roll Call, Electronics Ward News, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Zimmerman / New York Daily News:

Jeffrey Toobin and the m-word: Let's be honest about what makes this scandal so scandalous — So let's suppose Jeffrey Toobin had been caught on camera having sex with a partner instead of touching himself. Would he be the most mocked man in the United States right now? — Of course not.

Discussion: The College Fix, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Fox News and Twitchy

Vinay Menon / Toronto Star:
Horrified by Jeffrey Toobin's penis? Put it away, for now

Discussion: Law & Crime and Twitchy

Andrew Griffin / The Independent:

Nasa to make major announcement of ‘exciting news’ about the moon — Flying observatory that made new discovery is able to ‘pick up phenomenon impossible to see with visible light’, space agency notes — Nasa will hold a major event to announce an “exciting new discovery” about the Moon, it has said.

Discussion: Deseret News

Roger Sollenberger / Salon:

Mark Meadows' FEC filings raise questions of unlawful spending, campaign coordination — The White House chief of staff quit Congress in March — but his campaign kept on racking up dubious expenses — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reported spending tens of thousands of dollars through …

Patricia Kelly Yeo / The Daily Beast: Mark Meadows' Campaign Spent $75K on Cupcakes, Jewelry, Meals After He Quit Congress: Report

American Oversight:

Pompeo's Use of Personal Email While CIA Director Highlights State Department's Failure to Produce His Emails as Secretary — Last week, as the president dredged up his favorite accusations about Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to release the former secretary's emails ahead of the November election.

New York Times:

Ex-Spy Was Central to Project Veritas Hiring Effort, Testimony Shows — A British former intelligence officer was said to have recruited and interviewed potential hires as the conservative group sought to have former spies train employees. — WASHINGTON — A British former spy recruited by Erik Prince …

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Graham wants to review ActBlue's source of small-dollar contributions — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has seen a tsunami of Democratic small-dollar donations flood the South Carolina Senate race, says the sources of the massive amounts of money flowing through ActBlue …

Discussion: Fox News, The American Independent, Daily Kos, Forbes and Electronics Ward News

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Wall Street donors keep their distance from cash-strapped Trump in campaign's final days — President Donald Trump is apparently no longer considered a worthy investment for several prominent Republicans and conservatives in the finance community. — People in the industry gave $20 million to back Trump in 2016.

Discussion: Raw Story and New Republic

Mother Jones:

Facebook Manipulated the News You See to Appease Republicans, Insiders Say — For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter. — Near the close of the first year of the Trump presidency, executives at Facebook …

more at Mediagazer »

Elaina Plott / New York Times:

Around Atlanta, Many White Suburbanites Are Sticking With Trump — Nationwide, such voters are tilting toward Biden. But in Georgia, the president's law-and-order message seems to be keeping the bulk of them in his column. — Natalie Pontius is an interior decorator, married with two children and a University of Georgia alumna.

Discussion: Foreign Policy and Boston.com

Washington Post:

After a college town's coronavirus outbreak, deaths at nursing homes mount — ‘The very thing we worried about’: In La Crosse, Wis., students partied in September. Then infections and deaths among the elderly began to rise. — Mayor Tim Kabat was already on edge as thousands …

Discussion: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

George Will / Washington Post:

Trump will end his presidency as he began it: Whining — As the Donald Trump parenthesis in the republic's history closes, he is opening the sluices on his reservoir of invectives and self-pity. A practitioner of crybaby conservatism — no one, he thinks, has suffered so much since Job lost …

Discussion: Raw Story

David Wasserman / The Cook Political Report:

What is The Cook Political Report? — The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends.

Discussion: Florida Politics, Washington Times and The Hill

Annie Gowen / Washington Post:

‘Not a fair fight’: In Kansas, GOP frustrated as money rolls in for Democrat and Senate race tightens — TONGANOXIE, Kan. — In any other year, Rep. Roger Marshall would have been a slam dunk to fill the state's open Senate seat, held by Republicans since 1932.

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, DSCC and The 19th

Paul Szoldra / Task & Purpose:

The Marine Corps is investigating a deployed machine-gunner who seems to be a Nazi fanboy — More than two dozen Marines have been investigated over extremist or racist ties since 2017, including at least one officer. — The Marine Corps is investigating a deployed machine-gunner …

USA Today:

19 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Here's what their stories have in common. — Allegations of women who've accused Trump of non-consensual sexual contact share many details, from forced kisses to where it took place. — Today, writer E. Jean Carroll goes to court in a unique case …

Associated Press:

Barrett was trustee at private school with anti-gay policies — Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren't welcome in the classroom.

Discussion: Out Magazine, The Daily Caller, The American Independent, TheBlaze, Twitchy and Political Wire

Chico Harlan / Washington Post:

Pope Francis calls for civil union laws for same-sex couples — Pope Francis, in a new documentary, has called for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples, in what amounts to his clearest support to date for the issue. — In the documentary, according to the Catholic News Agency …

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, Catholic News Agency, Mediaite, National Review and The Week

Patrick Ruffini / Echelon Indicators:

America is Headed for Record Turnout. Here's What That Looks Like. — U.S. general election turnout is likely to break through 150 million votes for the first time in history. Based on our turnout modeling for the general election, we at Echelon Insights think it will be 157 million.

Hannah Gilberstadt / Pew Research Center:

Large Shares of Voters Plan To Vote a Straight Party Ticket for President, Senate and House — Just 4% of registered voters support Trump or Biden and a Senate candidate from the opposing party. — Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans' voting behavior in the 2020 election.

Discussion: Political Wire, Bloomberg, courthousenews.com, The Daily Caller and The Hill

Nahal Toosi / Politico:

U.S. weighs labeling leading human rights groups ‘anti-Semitic’ — The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam — are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them, two people familiar with the issue said.

Luke Barr / ABC News:

Florida sheriffs, FBI investigating emails threatening voters — The messages appear to have been sent from outside the U.S. — Florida law enforcement and the FBI are investigating threatening emails allegedly sent from outside the United States to registered Democrats.

Discussion: Politico and UPI

Alex Nester / Washington Free Beacon:

Ocasio-Cortez Teams Up With Activist Who Said ‘America Deserved 9/11’ — Hasan Piker, a vlogger who last year said “America deserved 9/11,” organized an online live streaming event last night with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) to energize young people to get out and vote.

Discussion: National Review, TechCrunch and Electronics Ward News

Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post:

DHS led the way on past health crises, but it has been less visible during the coronavirus outbreak — After the U.S. coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 people, acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf called a news conference to announce the arrests of 128 immigrants in California.