memeorandum: FBI investigates Woodson Terrace police in wake of video of department K-9 biting a man (Katie Kull/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

10:10 PM ET, September 26, 2021

Top Items:

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

For Schumer and Pelosi, the Challenge of a Career With No Margin for Error — The top two Democrats in Congress face a daunting pile of legislative imperatives. With President Biden's agenda hanging in the balance and few votes to spare, can they get it done?

Discussion: The Intercept, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Insider, Common Dreams and CNN

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Scoop: Centrists back $3.5T package — Two of the nine House centrists who demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bring the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor by Monday are now publicly promising to vote for the separate $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, Axios has learned.

Discussion: The Hill, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, Forbes, Raw Story and Political Wire

ABC News:
Pelosi may delay vote on Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill

Discussion: New York Post, CNN, Insider, RedState, Fox News, The Hill, Politico, CBS News, HuffPost, Washington Times, UPI, Progress Pond, Washington Post and Breitbart

Wall Street Journal: Kyrsten Sinema Is Enigma at Center of Democrats' Spending Talks

Sasha Pezenik / ABC News:
Pfizer CEO says it's possible to distribute both boosters and primary doses

Discussion: Politico, Forbes and The Hill

Yahoo News:

Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks — In 2017, as Julian Assange began his fifth year holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, the CIA plotted to kidnap the WikiLeaks founder, spurring heated debate among Trump administration officials …

Discussion: emptywheel, Page Array, Mediaite, Common Dreams and Rolling Stone

Jim Tankersley / New York Times:

U.S. Debt-Limit Brinksmanship Has Become a Political Game — Republicans and Democrats have long sparred over raising the debt ceiling. But this time, the odds are growing that the U.S. could default. — WASHINGTON — For nearly two decades, lawmakers in Washington have waged …

Discussion: Vox, RedState, Mother Jones and NBC4 Washington

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:
As Treasury scrambles to pay bills, pandemic fuels uncertainty over calamitous ‘X Date’

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Douglas E. Schoen / The Hill:
Budget impasses mark a critical turning point in Biden's presidency

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, Associated Press and Wall Street Journal

Ben Smith / New York Times:

Goldman Sachs, Ozy Media and a $40 Million Conference Call Gone Wrong — The digital media company has raised eyebrows for its claims about its audience size for years. Then came the strange voice on the phone. — This past winter, Goldman Sachs was closing in on a $40 million investment in Ozy …

Yacob Reyes / Axios:

Abbott says he'll hire Border Patrol agents who whipped at migrants — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Sunday defended the actions of U.S. Border Patrol agents who charged at Haitian migrants on horseback, blaming the Biden administration for not preventing them from crossing the border.

Discussion: The Hill and TheBlaze

Mark Moore / New York Post:
Mayorkas admits 12,000 Haitians released in US — and more could follow

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Power Line, Fox News, TheBlaze, Washington Examiner, NBC News, Deadline, Mediaite and Breitbart

Tyler Olson / Fox News:
Abbott vows to hire horseback border agents if Biden fires them, says president ‘in dereliction of duty’

Discussion: HotAir, Breitbart and Insider

Ronn Blitzer / Fox News:
Mayorkas says as many as 12K out of 17K migrants have been released into U.S., and ‘it could be higher’ as DHS

Discussion: HotAir, New York Post, Washington Examiner, RedState and National Review

Alayna Treene / Axios:

Shutdown Plan B — The Senate will hold a futile vote Monday night — just 72 hours before a potential shutdown — on a House-passed bill to fund the government through Dec. 3 and raise the debt limit. — Why it matters: The bill is going to fail. Period.

Washington Post:
Democrats outside D.C. worry party will blow its chance of enacting historic agenda — a failure with grave political consequences

Discussion: CNN

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

The survival of U.S. democracy may hinge on this decision by Pa.'s next governor — To millions of Americans, what just happened in Arizona's largest county was a laughingstock, a bad joke that blew up in the face of Donald Trump and his cultists like some exploding cigar from a 1940s cartoon.

Discussion: The National, Forbes, The Stream, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, Washington Times and The Gateway Pundit

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Loses Arizona—Again

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, HuffPost and Washington Post

Emma Brown / Washington Post:

An elections supervisor embraced conspiracy theories. Officials say she has become an insider threat. — In April, employees in the office that runs elections in western Colorado's Mesa County received an unusual calendar invitation for an after-hours work event, a gathering at a hotel in Grand Junction.

Sarah Mucha / Axios:

Glenn Youngkin's play: Forever- and Never-Trumpers — Standing on a flatbed hitched to a John Deere tractor in red Rockingham County, Virginia, Glenn Youngkin decried California liberalism and bashed his rival, Terry McAuliffe. He also encouraged early voting. Two words he avoided: Donald Trump.

Discussion: Washington Post

Zack Stanton / Politico:

What If 2020 Was Just a Rehearsal? — Rick Hasen isn't getting much sleep these days. — One of the nation's foremost experts on the laws that hold together democracy in America, Hasen used to be concerned about highly speculative election “nightmare scenarios”: the electrical grid …

Discussion: Morning Shots and Election Law Blog

David Meyer / New York Post:

Group opposing indoor vaccine mandate storms food court on Staten Island … MORE ON: — A group opposed to New York City's vaccine requirement for restaurants and other indoor activities stormed a Staten Island food court over the weekend — refusing to show proof-of-inoculation before sitting down to eat.

Discussion: RedState, Joe.My.God. and TMZ.com

Wall Street Journal:

Cargo Piles Up as California Ports Jostle Over How to Resolve Delays — U.S. shipping operations remain clogged as ports, truckers and warehouses can't find enough workers or agree on 24/7 operations — Nike Inc. doesn't have enough sneakers to sell for the holidays.

Paul Egan / Detroit Free Press:

At Mackinac, Betsy DeVos offers veiled criticism of GOP's ongoing passion for Trump — MACKINAC ISLAND — Michigan businesswoman, political megadonor and former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos implicitly criticized the GOP's ongoing capture by former President Donald Trump in a Saturday address …

Discussion: HuffPost, Detroit News, Insider, The Hill and Raw Story

Lauren Hepler / San Francisco Chronicle:

As more Californians head to Texas, how do the states really stack up? — After the pandemic shut down all of his construction sites last year, San Jose homebuilder Dan Dang decided to start a new kind of real estate venture. — First came a YouTube channel, then a Facebook group with the same name …

CBS News:

Liz Cheney on being a Republican while opposing Donald Trump — Liz Cheney tells Lesley Stahl about running for re-election as an anti-Trump Republican in Wyoming, as her own party there has called for her resignation, and joining the House Select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, CNN, The Hill, Political Wire and Associated Press

Sarah Maslin Nir / New York Times:

She Bought Her Dream Home. Then a ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Changed the Locks. — A New Jersey woman was preyed upon by a fast-growing extremist group that claims its members are sovereign Moors, not bound by U.S. laws. — The official-looking letters started arriving soon after Shanetta Little bought …

Discussion: Althouse

Joseph Choi / The Hill:

Graham told Trump he 'f'd up' the presidency: book — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reportedly told former President Trump, “You f'd up your presidency” earlier this year when attempting to advise him to accept that he lost the 2020 presidential election. — This apparent bit of hard truth …

Discussion: New York Post and NBC News

Financial Times:

Johnson prepares to call in army as panic buying drains UK petrol pumps — Competition rules eased with more than half of garages outside motorway network estimated to have no fuel — Boris Johnson is preparing to draft in hundreds of soldiers to tackle the UK's fuel crisis as at least half …

Politico:

These Republicans helped craft the infrastructure bill. They might not vote for it. — A motley gang of deal-making House Republicans took partial credit for pushing through President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan this summer. That doesn't mean they'll all vote for it.