memeorandum: POLITICO Playbook: McCarthy filibusters, Biden dithers and Fauci unmasks (Tara Palmeri/Politico)

2:30 PM ET, November 19, 2021

Top Items:

Reconstructing the Rittenhouse Shootings: How Kenosha Echoed America's Polarization — A police officer in Kenosha, Wis., shoots a Black man named Jacob Blake seven times from behind, leaving him partially paralyzed. [gunshots] “Black lives matter!” Crowd: “Black lives matter!”

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Hill, HotAir, National Review, Louder With Crowder, Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Twitchy and Gawker

Nathan Layne / Washington Free Beacon:

Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted of All Charges — KENOSHA, Wis. (Reuters) — A jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on Friday on charges that he murdered two men and attempted to kill a third with his semi-automatic rifle during chaotic 2020 racial justice protests in Wisconsin, determining that the teenager acted in self-defense.

Discussion: RedState, Politico, The Bulwark, The American Independent and National Review

Nathan Layne / Reuters:
Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty of all charges in Wisconsin murder trial

Discussion: Reuters

Laura Collins / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Jump-kick man’ who was filmed kicking Kyle Rittenhouse in the head before the teen shot at him is revealed as a career criminal …

Discussion: NBC Chicago, The Western Journal, The Gateway Pundit, JONATHAN TURLEY, RedState and The New Neo

Washington Post:

‘No one tells me what to do’: Sinema praises infrastructure, questions spending and inflation in wide-ranging interview — Kyrsten Sinema says she is worried about inflation. The U.S. senator from Arizona says new tax hikes could harm businesses still struggling in the wake of the pandemic.

Discussion: HotAir, Insider, NBC News and Florida Politics

Tony Romm / Washington Post:

House passes roughly $2 trillion spending package that would expand social benefits and fight climate change — Republicans delayed the vote but Democrats pushed ahead on one of Biden's key priorities. The battle now moves to the Senate. — More than a year after President Biden clinched …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, NBC News, USA Today, Bloomberg, ArkansasTimes, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

Washington Post:

McCarthy's overnight speech — longest in modern history — underscores rancor in the House — By the time House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) yielded the floor at 5:11 a.m. Friday, completing a speech that began some 8 ½ hours earlier, he had repeatedly taken aim …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, ABC News, The American Independent, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, CNN and Raw Story

Jonathan Bernstein / Bloomberg:

What Disarray? Democrats Are Getting Stuff Done — House approval of the party's big climate and spending bill shows that the messy public squabbling over its particulars has actually been constructive negotiation. — The House of Representatives finally voted Friday morning to approve the …

Discussion: New York Times, Roll Call and Washington Post

Jessica Piper / Bangor Daily News:
Jared Golden to vote no on Democrats' social spending bill, citing tax break for the wealthy

Discussion: HuffPost, CBS News, Grist, New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, STAT, Roll Call, IJR, Raw Story, abc7NY, USA Today and CNBC

The Daily Beast:
Democrats Finally Unite—to Mock Kevin McCarthy All Night as He Breaks Stupid Record

Discussion: NPR, Common Dreams, Associated Press, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, Democrats and CBS News

Tara Palmeri / Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: McCarthy filibusters, Biden dithers and Fauci unmasks — DRIVING THE DAY — If a “New York minute” is a few passing seconds, then the opposite is a “McCarthy minute” — something that drags on and on for hours. — On Thursday night, at 8:38 p.m. …

Discussion: Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire and CNN

Michael Luciano / Mediaite:
House Democrats Roast Kevin McCarthy on Twitter for Marathon Speech: ‘Please Saw Me in Half and Put Me Out of My Misery’

Discussion: HuffPost, Balloon Juice, Breitbart and Townhall

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:
What Does the Future Hold for Kevin McCarthy and Kamala Harris?

Discussion: Red Voice Media, The Daily Wire and Washington Examiner

Politico:
Pennsylvania Republicans baffled by celebrity doctor's Senate bid

Discussion: Raw Story

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
McCarthy's record rant throws wrench in Pelosi's plans ... temporarily

Discussion: New York Times, Yahoo Sports, BuzzFeed News, Washington Examiner, Rolling Stone and CNN

Susan Ferrechio / Washington Examiner:
House passes expensive social spending bill that now faces big Senate hurdles

Discussion: National Review, The Moderate Voice, UPI, CNN, KGET-TV and Deadline

Kate Sullivan / CNN:

For 85 minutes, Kamala Harris became the first woman with presidential power — (CNN)President Joe Biden on Friday temporarily transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris while he was under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy for one hour and 25 minutes, according to the White House.

Discussion: CNBC, Joe.My.God., The Root, National Review, Associated Press, UPI and BNO News

Chris Megerian / Los Angeles Times:
Kamala Harris makes history, again, as first woman with presidential power — for 85 minutes

Discussion: The Western Journal, Raw Story and Political Wire

Molly Nagle / ABC News:
Biden gets first physical as president, power to be transferred to VP Harris

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, The Western Journal, Mercury News and Florida Politics

Reuters:
Harris to be first woman to hold U.S. presidential reins as Biden undergoes colonoscopy

Discussion: The Wrap, Reason, Breitbart, Deadline and Townhall

USA Today:
Biden to undergo ‘routine annual physical’ at Walter Reed Friday morning

Discussion: New York Times, Insider, Associated Press, New York Post, Politico, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Washington Times, Washington Post, Fox News and IJR

Jacob Bogage / Washington Post:

Biden expected to replace Ron Bloom, USPS board chair and key DeJoy ally, on postal board — Bloom, a Democrat, has backed the postmaster general as the agency slowed mail delivery standards and raised prices — President Biden is expected to announce Friday that he will not renominate Ron Bloom …

Discussion: Forbes, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Raw Story and emptywheel

Washington Post:

Fauci's office flooded with attacks over beagle experiments — Covid chief's phone line rings 3,600 times in 36 hours after campaign by little-known animal rights group — Anthony S. Fauci was swamped by so many angry messages and threats that in late October his assistant quit answering the phone for two weeks.

Discussion: Breitbart and Raw Story

Rachel Roubein / Washington Post:
NIH director: ‘Conspiracies are winning here’

Discussion: National Review

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:

Wisconsin Republicans Push to Take Over the State's Elections — Led by Senator Ron Johnson, G.O.P. officials want to eliminate a bipartisan elections agency — and maybe send its members to jail. — Republicans in Wisconsin are engaged in an all-out assault on the state's election infrastructure …

Discussion: Washington Post, Red Voice Media and Politico

CNN:

Peng Shuai: UN calls for proof of Chinese tennis star's whereabouts; WTA chairman willing to pull out of China — Hong Kong (CNN)China is facing pressure from the United Nations over Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai's whereabouts as the organization called for an investigation into her allegations of sexual assault.

Discussion: Townhall, HotAir, Breitbart, Forbes, Insider, The Daily Caller, Wall Street Journal, The Age, Raw Story, ABC, UPI, OutKick, Japan Times, ESPN, Hong Kong Free Press HKFP, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, One America News Network, Associated Press, KTLA and BBC

Sally Jenkins / Washington Post:
The WTA cares enough about Peng Shuai to stand up to China. Does anyone else?

Discussion: Human Rights Watch, Insider, Quartz and The Daily Beast

CNN:

Trump's ire grows as DeSantis' popularity with Republicans takes off — People close to both men first noticed the palpable shift in Trump's posture toward DeSantis earlier this year as enthusiasm for the Florida governor swelled among donors and GOP operatives who praised his laissez-faire response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Discussion: Florida Politics, Raw Story, CBS News and Insider

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

‘Typical Bullsh*t’: Fox News Host Melts Down When Mediaite Asks About Fox's Vaccine Policy and Whether Trump Lost in 2020 — Fox News host Pete Hegseth was my guest on this week's episode of The Interview. Hegseth is the co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Christina Wyman / NBC News:

Schools face parents who want to ban critical race theory — and don't get how teaching works — An educator's top goal is to teach students to think. Parents who dictate curricula with their personal opinions, ideologies and biases hinder that goal. — CRT outrage & the VA governor's race

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Louder With Crowder, OutKick, RedState, The Daily Caller, HotAir and Twitchy

Edward Luce / Financial Times:

‘Tiger mother’ Amy Chua: ‘Boldness is my downfall’ … Owing to my forgetfulness, my lunch with Amy Chua starts awkwardly before it even begins. On the train to New Haven, home of Yale University where Chua has been a tenured professor for 20 years, I realise that I forgot to reserve …

Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:

I Made the World's Blandest Facebook Profile, Just to See What Happens — In 2019, a researcher at Facebook conducted an experiment to see whether the platform really has a tendency to send users down a rabbit hole of extreme and conspiratorial content. The employee set up a pair of fake profiles …

US Food and Drug Administration:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Expands Eligibility for COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters — For Immediate Release: — Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations (EUA) for both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines authorizing use …

Discussion: The Hill, Reason, Moderna, Inc., Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Townhall, Roll Call, Metro.co.uk, CBS Philly, UPI, NBC Chicago, NPR and CBS Boston

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
BREAKING: FDA authorizes mRNA boosters for all adults

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, National Review, NBC10 Philadelphia, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, STAT and ABC7

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:

Scoop: Surprise Trump book, ‘Our Journey Together’ — Former President Donald Trump today shocked the publishing world that has tried to cancel his administration by revealing that he is releasing his first post-White House book in December, titled Our Journey Together.

Discussion: Mediaite, Axios, Rolling Stone and Joe.My.God.

Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:

The Ugly New Charges Against Jan. 6 Rioter ‘Baked Alaska’ — “No more ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ only ‘Merry Christmas,’” racist livestreamer Baked Alaska allegedly said as he tore down a Jewish group's signage. — A notorious U.S. Capitol riot suspect and white supremacist livestreamer who goes by the alias …

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Raw Story

Joe Sneve / Argus Leader:

Gov. Kristi Noem losing another chief of staff, taps attorney Mark Miller to assume position — An attorney advising Gov. Kristi Noem for the last 13 months is taking on a larger role in her administration. — High-ranking state officials and staff in the South Dakota governor's office …