memeorandum: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Aims to Strengthen Business Ties With China (Bob Davis/Wall Street Journal)

2:35 PM ET, September 24, 2021

Top Items:

Hand count in audit affirms Biden beat Trump, as Maricopa County said in November — Jen Fifield Robert AnglenArizona Republic — A monthslong hand recount of Maricopa County's 2020 vote confirmed that President Joe Biden won and the election was not “stolen” from former President Donald Trump …

New York Times:

Republican Review of Arizona Vote Fails to Show Stolen Election — The much criticized review showed much the same results as in November, with 99 more Biden votes and 261 fewer Trump ones. — PHOENIX — After months of delays and blistering criticism, a review of the 2020 election …

Max Greenwood / The Hill:

Trump blames media after Arizona audit finds Biden won — Former President Trump on Friday laid into the news media after a draft report of the 2020 election audit in Arizona reaffirmed President Biden's victory in the state's largest county and showed Trump with fewer votes than previously counted.

Discussion: HillReporter.com, Al Jazeera, Arizona Agenda, Mediaite, Raw Story, Washington Times, Insider and Joe.My.God.

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
The Arizona ‘audit’ just destroyed a big GOP lie — in more ways than one

Discussion: The Hill, Axios, NPR, KJZZ, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, The Moderate Voice and Fox 8 Cleveland WJW

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Not even Arizona's sham audit can dispel reality of Trump's election loss

Discussion: Washington Post, Reuters, The Hill, NBC News, American Oversight, Right Side Broadcasting …, The Guardian, Crooks and Liars, Ace of Spades HQ, Raw Story, Missouri Independent, Talking Points Memo, HotAir and Forbes

Neelam Bohra / The Texas Tribune:
Texas secretary of state's office auditing four counties' 2020 elections months after an official called the statewide process “smooth and secure”

Discussion: HotAir, Bloomberg, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, sos.state.tx.us, KXAN-TV, Austin American-Statesman, The Western Journal, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, Washington Examiner, Washington Times and The Hill

Natassia Paloma / KTSM-TV:

Photographer behind controversial photos speaks exclusively to KTSM — EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) - The photographer behind images depicting Border Patrol agents on horseback told KTSM things are not exactly what they seem when it comes to the photos. — The photographs, which were taken Sunday …

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
Biden: Those mounted Border Patrol agents will pay for, er, doing their job

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, Townhall, BizPac Review, The Federalist and Twitchy

Shelley Ross / New York Times:

Chris Cuomo Sexually Harassed Me. I Hope He'll Use His Power to Make Change. — Ms. Ross is a veteran television journalist and former executive producer at ABC and CBS. — I was Chris Cuomo's boss at ABC News nearly two decades ago, and I am a regular viewer of CNN today …

Emily Crane / New York Post:
Chris Cuomo accused of sexually harassing ex-boss Shelley Ross at 2005 party

Discussion: Insider, Newsbusters and New York Times

C. Ryan Barber / Insider:

Meet the Trump lawyer who wanted Pence to overturn the 2020 election — John Eastman authored a memo to convince Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election. — Known as an unorthodox legal scholar, he retired amid scrutiny of his role in Trump election fights.

Discussion: Reason, Angry Bear and New Republic

Politico:

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas 4 from Trump's inner circle — The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is issuing subpoenas to four current and former top aides to President Donald Trump, including his most recent chief of staff Mark Meadows. — The committee issued its first subpoenas …

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The White House might give up the goods on what Trump did Jan. 6. What would that mean?

Discussion: Raw Story

Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
The Jan. 6 Plotters Had a Mob. They Also Had a Plan.

Discussion: VICE and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Hunter Walker / Rolling Stone:
The Bannon Subpoena Is Just the Beginning. Congress's Jan. 6 Investigation Is Going Big

Discussion: Raw Story, Letters from an American, Washington Post, Just Security and Angry Bear

CNN:
White House moving to release information on Trump to congressional investigators

Discussion: Southern Poverty Law Center, Select Committee …, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, globalnews.ca and The Daily Caller

Ben Collins / NBC News:

‘Vigilante treatments’: Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs — Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don't go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units. — Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors …

Tara Palmeri / Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Scoop: Fox to Rudy: You're banned — DRIVING THE DAY — BREAKING OVERNIGHT: The Arizona Republic scooped the results of the Maricopa County “audit” paid for by “Stop the Steal” and DONALD TRUMP allies: It found that Trump lost the key county by a wider margin than the official election results.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, The Hill, Deadline, The Guardian, POLITICUSUSA, HillReporter.com, Crooks and Liars, Mediaite, Townhall, Joe.My.God., Insider, Raw Story, Florida Politics and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Ryan Bort / Rolling Stone:

Fox News Bans Rudy Giuliani — The network is not allowing the former Trump lawyer on the air for at least three months, a move one of his allies described as “cowering to the far left” — It turns out there's a limit to just how far from reality you can stray and still be welcome on Fox News.

Discussion: HotAir

New York Times:

C.D.C. Chief Overrules Agency Panel and Recommends Pfizer-BioNTech Boosters for Workers at Risk — In a highly unusual decision, the C.D.C. director, Rochelle Walensky, reversed a move by agency advisers and endorsed additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for health care workers, teachers and other workers at risk.

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, Vox, NBC News, Politico, New York Post, Metro.co.uk, New York Times, Fox News, Reason, The Atlantic, STAT, Reuters, Al Jazeera, MyNorthwest.com, The Daily Caller, Forbes, Algemeiner.com, Washington Examiner, Townhall, UPI and HotAir

Marc Caputo / Politico:

DeSantis pulls ahead of 2024 GOP pack as Florida's Covid cases fall — Florida's coronavirus caseloads are dropping fast. And Gov. Ron DeSantis is again rising above other possible 2024 GOP presidential candidates in a new poll. — In a theoretical primary without Donald Trump on the ballot …

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:

Paper of un-Record: NYT stealth edits out blaming “influential lobbyists and rabbis” for AOC's vote switch on Iron Dome — A funny thing happened on the way to the accountability forum for the New York Times. In attempting to explain why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke out in tears …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Twitchy, The Western Journal, New York Post and BizPac Review

Khaled Elgindy / Middle East Institute: No, Iron Dome doesn't save Palestinian lives

Catie Edmondson / New York Times:
House approves $1 billion for the Iron Dome as Democrats feud over Israel.

Discussion: Algemeiner.com, Mediaite, Haaretz, Breitbart, Why Evolution Is True, Twitchy and HotAir

Daniel D'Addario / Variety:

‘The View’ Pulls Two Hosts Mid-Show for Positive COVID Tests Before Kamala Harris Interview … A planned interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on “The View” was derailed Friday when two of the show's co-hosts were asked to exit mid-broadcast because they tested positive for COVID.

Discussion: Associated Press, UPI, The Root, Mercury News, Deadline and ABC7

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

Trump Organization Warned by Judge to Obey N.Y. Subpoenas — Former President Donald Trump's company will have to hire an outside firm to search its documents if it doesn't soon fully comply with subpoenas issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a judge warned.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, CNN and Raw Story

The Daily Beast:
Prosecutors Pit Trump Org Dynasties Against Each Other

Discussion: Raw Story

Burgess Everett / Politico:

McConnell warms to Herschel Walker as primary war with Trump fizzles — Republicans are hand-wringing over former President Donald Trump's hand-picked candidate Herschel Walker entering a critical Senate race. Surprisingly, Mitch McConnell isn't one of them.

Discussion: Washington Post and HuffPost

Alex Gangitano / The Hill:

Biden: Negotiations over economic agenda at a ‘stalemate’ — President Biden on Friday acknowledged it is going to take time to pass his economic agenda following meetings with key Democratic lawmakers this week to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure package and the Democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

Discussion: CNN

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:
Fall Guys — President Joe Biden practically begged a group of moderate Democrats visiting …

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, Fox News, Bloomberg, Associated Press, CBS News, Florida Politics, Daily Kos, FOX News Radio, The Federalist, Raw Story, CNN and Slate

Washington Post:

Rep. Karen Bass plans to announce run for mayor of Los Angeles — Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) is planning to announce that she will run for mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, joining a high-stakes race to run the second-most populous city in the country.

Discussion: CNN, Politico, The Hill and Los Angeles Times

Robert Kagan / Washington Post:

Our constitutional crisis is already here — “Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation.” — The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years …

Discussion: Commentary Magazine, The Hill, The Signorile Report, Hackwhackers, Blue Virginia, Digby's Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Homeless on the High Desert and Daily Kos

Washington Post:

House passes legislation to create statutory right to abortion as battle over Texas law heats up — The House on Friday passed legislation that would create a statutory right for health-care professionals to provide abortions, amid an intensifying legal battle over a Texas law that is the most restrictive in the nation.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Hill, USA Today, ABC News, CNN, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, UPI, Roll Call, Raw Story, National Review, Fox News, The Texas Tribune, KION546, Los Angeles Times and NBC4 Washington

Politico:

'You've disgraced this country': Judge rips Capitol riot defendant — A federal judge tore into a low-level defendant in the Capitol Riot Friday, moments after the man entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the Jan. 6 unrest. — “You've disgraced this country in the eyes …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Raw Story

Kerry Breen / TODAY.com:

NBC News correspondent Monica Alba announces she is pregnant with her 1st child — NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba is expecting her first child. — The mom-to-be, who is married to CNN national political reporter Dan Merica, told TODAY Parents that the couple is expecting a boy, due on Feb. 2, 2022 (or 2/2/22!).

BBC:

Huawei's Meng Wanzhou ‘to be freed’ in US deal — A Chinese technology executive held in Canada on US fraud charges could be freed as early as Friday after the US government said it would submit a “resolution” to the case against her. — Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei …