memeorandum: Republicans face an identity crisis (Douglas Schoen/The Hill)

9:35 AM ET, February 23, 2021

Top Items:

‘A double standard going on’: Democrats accuse GOP and Manchin of bias on Biden nominations — Women's rights activists and allied Democrats are growing increasingly vocal about what they call the unfair targeting of women and people of color nominated by Joe Biden to top posts in his administration.

Discussion: Washington Post, Associated Press, Raw Story, Instapundit and Political Wire

Olivia Beavers / Politico:

Manchin'd — FOR JOE MANCHIN, IT'S ‘NOT PERSONAL’: The Democratic Senate has hit its first roadblock in its path to confirming President Joe Biden's nominees. But if you ask the West Virginia Democrat who seemed to have delivered the kiss of death to Neera Tanden, he professes no villainous intent toward his party.

Discussion: Washington Post

Hans Nichols / Axios:
Scoop: Biden's OMB Plan B

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Washington Post:
Now Republicans are offended by mean tweets?

Discussion: Forbes, Vox, Talking Points Memo and National Review

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Scoop: Anti-Big Tech crusader poised to join Biden admin

Discussion: Bloomberg and Rolling Stone, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:
Biden faces first potential Cabinet defeat as opposition grows to budget pick

Discussion: Deseret News, The Hill, CNBC, New York Post, CNN and The Daily Beast

New York Times:

Slate Suspends Podcast Host After Debate Over Racial Slur — Mike Pesca of “The Gist” said he was suspended after defending, in a Slack discussion with colleagues, the use of the slur in some contexts. — The online publication Slate has suspended a well-known podcast host after he debated …

Discussion: Althouse

Kelsey McKinney / Defector:

Slate Podcast Host Mike Pesca Suspended Following Internal Discussion About Use Of Racial Slur — Mike Pesca, host of Slate's daily podcast, The Gist, has been suspended from the company indefinitely according to an internal memo sent to staffers late last night that has been obtained by Defector.

Discussion: HotAir, Fox News and Twitchy, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:

Key Capitol security officials to be grilled about what went wrong on Jan. 6 — Six weeks after an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, some of the key figures who were in charge of keeping the building secure on Jan. 6 will answer questions under oath about how the highly secure facility …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Washington Post, New York Times, IJR, The Dispatch, Hackwhackers, Fox 8 Cleveland Closings … and Bloomberg

Politico:
Congress finally gets first chance for answers about the Jan. 6 insurrection

Discussion: Washington Examiner, ABC News, New York Times, NPR and NBC 6 South Florida

CNN:
Law enforcement officials to break silence about security failures during US Capitol attack

Discussion: WISC-TV

Douglas Schoen / The Hill:

Republicans face an identity crisis — Republicans are divided into two factions over the role that Donald Trump should have in the party moving forward. After a second impeachment in which his acquittal was by all measures determined before the trial even started, Republicans have now diverged …

Discussion: The Guardian, National Review and Liberty Unyielding

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Trump taunts don't shake McConnell's hold on Senate GOP

Discussion: The Hill

Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:
No amount of disaster can shake the GOP loose from Trump

Discussion: The Week, Real Clear Politics, Esquire, The Hill, Raw Story and Florida Politics

Santi Ruiz / Washington Free Beacon:

Amazon Pulls Bestseller on Transgender Issues From Store Without Explanation — Amazon steps up censorship campaign against conservative content — Amazon pulled a bestseller on transgender issues from its online store on Sunday without explanation. — Author Ryan T. Anderson tweeted …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Signal, Townhall and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal: Tech Censorship Is Accelerating

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:

Oath Keeper now says she didn't meet with Secret Service around the January 6 rally — (CNN)Jessica Watkins, a leader in an alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy in the US Capitol insurrection, changed her story Monday about meeting with Secret Service agents in describing her actions on January 6.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Insider:

We identified the 125 people and institutions most responsible for Donald Trump's rise to power and his norm-busting behavior that tested the boundaries of the US government and its institutions … - Insider compiled this database of the 125 people and institutions essential to Donald Trump's rise …

Taylor Goldenstein / Houston Chronicle:

AG Ken Paxton and wife Sen. Angela Paxton went to Utah during Texas freeze — While millions of Texans languished in their homes last week without heat, many of them racking up astronomical electricity bills, the state official in charge of consumer protection left to take an out-of-state trip.

Discussion: Dallas Morning News, The Hill, HuffPost, Insider, Off the Kuff, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Examiner, The Texas Tribune, San Antonio Current, Talking Points Memo, Forbes, The Intellectualist, Houston Public Media, Texas Democratic Party, Raw Story and KXAN-TV

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Donald Trump Is Extremely Mad Prosecutors Will See His Tax Returns — Donald Trump's yearslong quest to prevent the public, Congress, or law-enforcement officials from seeing his tax statements came to a resounding end with a unanimous Supreme Court ruling. He did not take the defeat in stride.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Bloomberg, Digby's Hullabaloo, Wall Street Journal, Crooks and Liars, IJR and Politico

New York Times:
Supreme Court Denies Trump's Final Bid to Block Release of Tax Returns

Discussion: The Economist, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Week, Wall Street Journal, The Intellectualist, Talking Points Memo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Insider, Louder With Crowder, Bloomberg, CBS New York, Liberty Unyielding, BuzzFeed News and Washington Post

Julia Wick / Los Angeles Times:

Vaccine access codes for Black, Latino communities improperly used in affluent L.A. areas — A California program intended to improve COVID-19 vaccine availability to people in hard-hit communities of color is being misused by outsiders who are grabbing appointments reserved for residents of underserved Black and Latino areas.

David Harsanyi / National Review:

Fauci Is Not Your God — His job is to relay information to the public, not threaten doom, or coax or trick us into doing things. — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief pandemic adviser to President Joe Biden, is a bureaucrat. He's not our parent, or our personal physician, or a shaman, or our life coach.

Discussion: AIER, The Federalist and MarketWatch

Julie Steenhuysen / Reuters:
Fauci says U.S. political divisions contributed to 500,000 dead from COVID-19

Discussion: TheBlaze and Grand Forks Herald

Christopher Cadelago / Politico:

Bloomberg's 2020 aides got an unwelcome surprise in their tax forms — Nearly a year after Mike Bloomberg's $1 billion presidential campaign crashed into Super Tuesday, his staffers are still dealing with the aftershocks. — In recent weeks, aides to the former Democratic candidate started …

Discussion: HotAir

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

The battle over climate change is boiling over on the home front — Municipalities want new buildings to go all electric, spurning gas-fired stoves and heating systems. The gas industry disagrees — A new front has opened in the battle over climate change: The kitchen.

Discussion: NPR

Silvia Foster-Frau / Washington Post:

First migrant facility for children opens under Biden — CARRIZO SPRINGS, Tex. — Dozens of migrant teens boarded vans Monday for the trip down a dusty road to a former man camp for oil field workers here, the first migrant child facility opened under the Biden administration.

Discussion: BizPac Review, Townhall, Fox News and Althouse

Mike Allen / Axios:

CDC meets “Deadliest Catch” — CDC partnered with Discovery Channel for a spot shot in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, using trusted voices to encourage mask use among skeptical men. — Why it matters: The PSA features the stars of “Deadliest Catch,” one of cable's top shows, with a big audience of white, conservative adults.

Don Van Natta Jr / ESPN:

Inside the dual legacies of NFL players' union boss DeMaurice Smith — TWO OPTIONS FOR extending the NFL season were in play in fall 2019, and DeMaurice Smith seemed defiant in the face of one of them. Smith, the veteran executive director of the NFL Players Association …

Morgan Pehme / New York Post:

Cuomo's office terrorized me for doing my job as a journalist — It was 4:30 a.m., so I pulled the bathroom door shut in my one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment to answer the phone without waking my then-5-year-old. On the line was Melissa DeRosa, Gov. Cuomo's then-communications director, now his second-in-command.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Gothamist

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Allies worried Biden shaky on Putin's pipeline — Russia's adversaries in central and Eastern Europe are worried President Biden isn't willing to fight hard to stop the Russia-Germany gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 — one of Vladimir Putin's core priorities.

Discussion: Politico, New York Post, United States Department … and Townhall

Sarah Mucha / Axios:

Missing Marine sparks White House questions — The absence of a Marine sentry outside the West Wing on Monday raised questions about whether President Biden was keeping the schedule publicly outlined by his aides. — Why it matters: A sure way to tell if the president is inside the Oval Office …

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

Clarence Thomas Promotes Trump's Voter Fraud Lies in Alarming Dissent — Justice Clarence Thomas is not backing down from the fight to legitimize Donald Trump's claims that the 2020 election was rife with fraud. On Monday morning, Thomas issued a startling opinion ranting against the alleged dangers …

Discussion: Law & Crime, USA Today, Disrn, Bangor Daily News, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, CNN, Sara A. Carter, Vox, Bloomberg, Washington Free Beacon, UPI and Townhall

Eric Hananoki / Media Matters for America:

Featured CPAC speaker said Judaism is a “complete lie” and referred to Jewish people as “thieving fake Jews” — Leading Republican officials are set to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week along with a virulently anti-Semitic speaker named Young Pharaoh.

Jacob Shamsian / Insider:

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he's losing $65 million over election-fraud claims and it proves he's not pushing conspiracy theories for the money — Dominion Voting Systems sued MyPillow and its CEO, Mike Lindell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. — The defamation lawsuit claims …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Sun-Sentinel, CBS News, New York Times, CBS Miami, Mic, Above the Law and Raw Story

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Former Trump officials eye bids for political office — Former Trump administration officials are testing the waters for political office, underscoring the former president's lasting influence on the Republican Party as it searches for a post-Trump identity.

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Woke Me When It's Over — In the humorless world of Woke, the satire is never funny and the statute of limitations never expires, even when it comes to hamantaschen. — In 2015, Bon Appétit ran an article by the food writer Dawn Perry about hamantaschen, the triangular cookies …

Andrew Kerr / The Daily Caller:

Media Matters Study On Fox News ‘Misinformation’ Is Riddled With Misrepresentations, Flagged Objectively True Statements — A Media Matters study claiming Fox News pushed coronavirus misinformation an estimated 13,551 times during the pandemic is riddled with misrepresentations.

Jordan Weissmann / Slate:

Democrats Are Waltzing Toward an Easily Avoidable Political Disaster With Their COVID Bill — At the moment, Democrats in Washington appear to be in danger of sleepwalking their way toward a major policy and public relations debacle. — The problem? With tax season underway …

Washington Post:

Lawmakers vote to make Virginia first Southern state to abolish death penalty — RICHMOND — Two bills to abolish the death penalty in Virginia won final approval in the state General Assembly on Monday and were headed to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign them.

Discussion: Sara A. Carter, Virginia Governor Ralph …, The Week, UPI and The Hill

New York Times:

Facebook Strikes Deal to Restore News Sharing in Australia — The agreement means users and publishers in Australia can once again share links to news articles, after Facebook had blocked the practice last week. — SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Monday that it had struck a deal …

Discussion: The Guardian, Wired, Foreign Policy, The Verge, TechCrunch and Variety, more at Techmeme »

CREW:

Trump reported making more than $1.6 billion while president … Donald Trump reported making more than $1.6 billion in outside revenue and income during his four years as President of the United States, according to a review of his financial disclosures by CREW.

Discussion: Insider

William McGurn / Wall Street Journal:

The Woke ‘Model Minority’ Myth — For progressives, Asian-American achievement is an embarrassment. — The North Thurston Public Schools in Lacey, Wash., made headlines in November when their “equity report” classified Asian-Americans along with whites instead of as “students of color.”