memeorandum: Poll Shows Tight Race for Control of Congress as Class Divide Widens (Nate Cohn/New York Times)

1:40 PM ET, July 13, 2022

Top Items:

Arrest made in rape of Ohio girl that led to Indiana abortion drawing international attention — Bethany Bruner Monroe Trombly Tony CookThe Columbus Dispatch — A Columbus man has been charged with impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl, whose travel to Indiana to seek an abortion led …

Discussion: Twitchy and Political Wire

Wall Street Journal:
An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY, Washington Examiner, From Inside the Turret, New York Post, The Western Journal, The Daily Caller and Washington Times

John McCormack / National Review: Indiana Abortionist Dodges Questions about Story of Alleged Ten-Year-Old Rape Victim

Rolling Stone:

Exclusive: Trump's Lawyers Think Mark Meadows Is Going Down — The Jan. 6 Committee is probing the former chief of staff's finances, Rolling Stone has learned, adding to a long list of legal headaches — As she opened the House Jan. 6 committee hearing Tuesday, Republican …

Discussion: Words & Deeds, Raw Story and Balloon Juice

Alan Feuer / New York Times:

'It's Just Been Hell:' Life as the Victim of a Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory — Ray Epps became the unwitting face of an attempt by pro-Trump forces to promote the baseless idea that the F.B.I. was behind the attack on the Capitol. — IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS — Up a winding country road …

Meridith McGraw / Politico:

The secret support system for former aides taking on Trump: The other women — As Cassidy Hutchinson sat alone at a long wooden table inside a Capitol Hill hearing room, her one-time Trump White House colleague Alyssa Farah Griffin, watched from the CNN green room. — Griffin felt nervous.

Discussion: Insider, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Townhall and Washington Post

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:

Four takeaways from the latest hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee. — The seventh public hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot focused on how Donald J. Trump and his allies turned their efforts toward summoning a mob of his supporters to Washington to protest …

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Washington Post, The Dispatch, Lucian Truscott Newsletter, Mother Jones, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, Slate, The Hill, Bloomberg, FOX31 Denver, Robert Reich and Gizmodo

Amanda Carpenter / The Bulwark:
Proof: Trump Planned the Mob's March to the Capitol

Discussion: RedState, Morning Shots, Axios, Washington Post, New Yorker, Outside the Beltway, Iowa Starting Line, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, littlegreenfootballs.com, HuffPost and New York Times

Mike Allen / Axios:

1 big thing: Seismic shift … - Democrats are becoming the party of upscale voters concerned more about issues like gun control and abortion rights. — Republicans are quietly building a multiracial coalition of working-class voters, with inflation as an accelerant.

Discussion: HotAir

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Poll Shows Tight Race for Control of Congress as Class Divide Widens — Nonwhite and working-class Democrats worry more about the economy, while white college graduates focus more on cultural issues like abortion rights and guns. — With President Biden's approval rating mired in the 30s …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir, The Hill, Washington Post, Forbes, H.E.'s Newsletter, The Guardian, Big League Politics, Townhall, IJR, Althouse, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

The White House:

President Biden Statement on CPI Inflation in June — While today's headline inflation reading is unacceptably high, it is also out-of-date. Energy alone comprised nearly half of the monthly increase in inflation. Today's data does not reflect the full impact of nearly 30 days of decreases in gas prices …

Discussion: The Hill, Fortune, Ian Haworth, John Locke Foundation, The Daily Caller, UPI and The Daily Wire

Greg Ip / Wall Street Journal: Beware Wishful Thinking About Inflation and Recession

Tiana Lowe / Washington Examiner:
Inflation continues to blow past expectations because interest rates are still negative

Discussion: Politico and Associated Press

Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Inflation rose 9.1% in June, even more than expected, as price pressures intensify

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, HotAir, Reason, Deadline, New York Post, NRCC and Power Line

Gabriel T. Rubin / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Inflation Reached Highest Rate in Nearly 41 Years in June

Discussion: New York Post, The RL Report, Outside the Beltway, Forbes and Twitchy

Rachel Siegel / Washington Post:
June inflation soared 9.1 percent amid high gas prices

Discussion: Vox, HotAir, The Hill, Chalkboard Review and New York Times

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Josh Gottheimer Is on a Mission to Destroy Joe Biden's Presidency — Joe Manchin has absorbed most of the heat from liberals angry that the Senate has often blocked President Biden's proposals. But Manchin represents an overwhelmingly Republican state, and he has been willing to negotiate a meaningful …

Hans Nichols / Axios:

House centrists mull Manchin counteroffer: No new taxes — Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) is gauging support among House centrists for a counteroffer to the emerging Senate reconciliation package, with one big clause: No new taxes. … That could deprive President Biden — and vulnerable lawmakers …

Discussion: Insider, The Daily Caller and Eschaton

Ella Nilsen / CNN:
More than 200 congressional staffers urge Pelosi and Schumer to act on climate or risk dooming younger generations

Discussion: E&E, Common Dreams and Political Wire

Washington Post:

‘Unhinged’: The White House meeting that preceded Trump's ‘will be wild’ tweet — Gift Article — Late on a Friday night about six weeks after Donald Trump lost his reelection, a fistfight nearly broke out in the White House between the president's fired national security adviser and a top White House aide.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, NBC News, USA Today, CNN and Reuters, more at Techmeme »

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Tears, Screaming and Insults: Inside an ‘Unhinged’ Meeting to Keep Trump in Power

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Mediaite, Digby's Hullabaloo, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone and Election Law Blog

Kate Ahlborn / Fox News:

Exclusive: Read the private email Obama sent his former doc after he questioned Biden's cognitive health — Obama told Jackson, who was the doctor for three presidents, that criticizing Biden's mental state was ‘unprofessional’ — Hegseth on media, Democrats turning on President Biden: He is ‘persona non grata’

Discussion: The Hill, Insider, The Western Journal, RedState, BizPac Review and IJR

Washington Post:

Dramatic moments from deprogrammed right-wingers indict the whole GOP — Listen — Gift Article — Amid the parade of awful revelations unearthed by the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection, one area of immense culpability still needs further fleshing out.

Discussion: ABC13 and PoliticusUSA

Anders Hagstrom / Fox News:

Trump lashes out at Elon Musk, says he could have made the billionaire ‘beg’ — Musk previously said the former president should ‘sail into the sunset’ — Coming up on Wednesday, July 13 edition of ‘Special Report’ — Former President Donald Trump continued his war of words …

Discussion: Axios, Conservative Brief, Protocol, The Arizona Sun Times, Twitchy, New York Post, Bloomberg, The Hill, Townhall and Crooks and Liars, more at Mediagazer »

Spencer Brown / Townhall:

Starbucks Went Woke and Now It's Paying the Price for Allowing Its Stores to Become Drug Dens — Just how bad are America's cities doing under the watch of their Democrat leaders? Even ultra-woke Starbucks is pulling up stakes in Democrat-run cities where drug use, homelessness, and crime have made staying in business untenable.

Discussion: Insider and National Review

David Wasserman / Cook Political Report:

Introducing the 2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠) — Now that all 50 states have finalized new lines for the 2022 elections, the Cook Political Report is pleased to introduce the 25th Anniversary edition of the Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠) …

Discussion: Capitol Fax.com

Bloomberg:

Biden's Fist Bump in Israel Muddles Bid to Avoid MBS Handshake — A glowing orb, a back-slapping embrace, a formal handshake, or a cool, Covid-appropriate fist bump? For all the talk of oil, the most pressing decision for President Joe Biden this week could come down to choosing …

Discussion: Associated Press, CNBC, Al Jazeera, The Times of Israel and USA Today

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Biden Adopts ‘No Handshake’ Covid Policy, but Not For Long

Discussion: The Daily Wire, Politico and BizPac Review

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Urges Pharmacists to Fill Prescriptions for Drugs That Can Be Used in Abortions — New federal health guidelines cite possible antidiscrimination violation if patient is refused drugs used for medication abortion and other medical conditions — The Biden administration is warning pharmacists …

Discussion: Politico

Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:

Allegations of Manosphere Pastor's Gay Past Roil Macho Men — Jesse Lee Peterson has emerged as one of the right's most vocal anti-gay figures, but his one-time friends now allege that the pastor has had many same-sex relationships. — In the hyper-masculine right-wing internet community known as the …

Craig Mauger / Detroit News:

Whitmer's leads over GOP rivals raising doubts about red wave, poll finds — Lansing — Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has leads over all five of her potential GOP challengers less than four months before Election Day, raising doubts about whether a Republican wave will make landfall in Michigan.

Discussion: Political Wire

Whitney Wild / CNN:

Secret Service member returns to US following altercation in Israel — Washington (CNN)A member of the US Secret Service Counter Assault Team was detained by the Israeli national police in Jerusalem this week after he allegedly assaulted a woman outside of a bar, a source tells CNN …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, CBS News, The Times of Israel, Associated Press, The Daily Caller and Just The News

CBS News:

Charges: Man lit his camper on fire, defaced own garage to appear targeted due to Trump flag — MINNEAPOLIS - A Brooklyn Center man faces federal charges after he lit his own camper on fire to make it look like a politically-motivated crime, and then allegedly filed several fraudulent insurance claims.

Discussion: Washington Post, KARE-TV, The Daily Beast, Occupy Democrats, Digby's Hullabaloo, Insider, Outside the Beltway, Patch and Raw Story

Henry Rodgers / The Daily Caller:

EXCLUSIVE: Cassidy Hutchinson Begged Senior Trump Officials For ‘Financial Assistance’ After Being Subpoenaed By J6 Committee — The Jan. 6 Committee's key witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, asked former Senior Trump officials for financial assistance and legal help in February after she was subpoenaed …

Center for American Progress Action:

Guns and Political Violence Play Central Role in MAGA Republican Campaign Ads — At least 104 MAGA Republican ads this cycle display and feature firearms or weapons, blowtorches, and even “Tommy” gun auctions, with many including threats against opponents on both the left and right.

Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times:

Former Rep. Katie Hill, who lost revenge porn lawsuit, files for bankruptcy — Democrat Katie Hill, a former California congresswoman who owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to media parties she unsuccessfully sued over the publication of salacious pictures while she was in office, has filed for bankruptcy.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, RADAR, Outside the Beltway, Breitbart and The Daily Caller

Andrew Romano / Yahoo News:

Poll: Just 18% of Americans say Biden should run for reelection in 2024 — a new low — 46th president of the United States since 2021 — Just 18% of Americans say President Biden should run for reelection in 2024, according to the latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll — the lowest number to date.

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Post