memeorandum: Paul Pelosi attacker wanted to break Nancy Pelosi's kneecaps to send message to Democrats: DOJ (J.D. Capelouto/Semafor)

7:40 PM ET, October 31, 2022

Top Items:

Musk's inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans — The first round of layoffs, led by his lawyer Alex Spiro, will target 25 percent of the workforce — SAN FRANCISCO — Members of billionaire Elon Musk's inner circle huddled with Twitter's remaining senior executives throughout …

Adam Wren / Politico:

Prominent conservatives share online disinformation about Paul Pelosi assault — Even as Republican leaders condemn the brutal assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, other GOP figures are broadcasting a much different message on social media — at turns downplaying, mocking and trading in disinformation about the attack.

Discussion: Insider, New York Times, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, Samizdata, Yahoo News, RedState, The Daily Caller, The Hill, HuffPost, Gizmodo, Rolling Stone, Twitchy and Morning Shots

Siva Vaidhyanathan / The Guardian:
Like Trump, Elon Musk reveals a vapid mind super-charged by wealth and ego

Discussion: Associated Press, Insider and NBC News

Rebecca Kern / Politico:
Musk's Twitter: ‘This is exactly what many of us were worried about’

Discussion: The Guardian, CNN, NPR, The Atlantic, Politico and KTLA, more at Techmeme »

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump: Attack on Paul Pelosi a ‘terrible thing’

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, Mediaite, Forbes, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, CD Media, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Lucianne and FOX8 WGHP

Lisa Mascaro / Associated Press:
DA dismisses conspiracies in Pelosi attack, charges expected

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Associated Press, Fox News, Raw Story, Just The News, CBS News, NBC Bay Area, KRON4 and DNyuz

Michael Tomasky / New Republic:
Paul Pelosi Almost Died, and Most Republicans Don't Have a Big Problem With That

Discussion: TheBlaze, Newsweek, The Daily Dot and Boing Boing

Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
The right-wing ecosystem that created the Paul Pelosi conspiracy theory

Discussion: Washington Post, New Republic, The Western Journal, Mother Jones, Mediaite, Raw Story, CNN, PinkNews, Yahoo, VICE and CBS News

New York Times:

Senate Control Hinges on Neck-and-Neck Races, Times/Siena Poll Finds — The contests are close in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Many voters want Republicans to flip the Senate, but prefer the Democrat in their state. — Control of the Senate rests on a knife's edge …

Discussion: HotAir, New York Post, National Review, Right Wing Watch, DNyuz, Washington Times, Raw Story, CNBC, PoliticusUSA, WHTM-TV, Bloomberg, The Forward, Outside the Beltway and Politico

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Final AJC midterm poll: Kemp leads Abrams, deadlocked Senate race — Gov. Brian Kemp maintains a solid lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams in the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, while the race between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker remains a neck-and-neck contest that could be headed toward a runoff.

Discussion: Sabato's Crystal Ball, Breitbart, Mediaite, The Hill, HotAir, New York Magazine, The Guardian, FiveThirtyEight, Washington Examiner and Political Wire

Camille Mumford / Emerson Polling:
Utah 2022: Senator Mike Lee Holds 10-Point Lead Over Evan McMullin

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, Just The News, Twitchy and The Guardian

Tabitha Mueller / The Nevada Independent:
Poll: Sisolak, Cortez Masto narrowly lead GOP opponents in days ahead of election

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire

Nate Cohn / New York Times:
Times/Siena Polls Show Democrats Slightly Ahead in Key Senate Races

Discussion: DNyuz, Just The News and Raw Story

U.S. Department of Justice:

Man Charged with Assault and Attempted Kidnapping Following Breaking and Entering of Pelosi Residence — A California man was charged today with assault and attempted kidnapping in violation of federal law in connection with the break-in at the residence of Nancy and Paul Pelosi in San Francisco on Friday.

New York Times:
Suspect in Attack on Pelosi Home Charged With Assault and Attempted Kidnapping

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, New York Post, The Hill, DNyuz, CNN, Al Jazeera, Sacramento Bee, Metro.co.uk, The Daily Caller and NewsNation

J.D. Capelouto / Semafor:
Paul Pelosi attacker wanted to break Nancy Pelosi's kneecaps to send message to Democrats: DOJ

Discussion: The Hill, The Guardian, Insider, Roll Call, Michigan Advance, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, Mercury News, TMZ.com, KARK-TV, Fox News, Washington Times, New York Post, Raw Story and Los Angeles Times

Washington Post:
Feds charge alleged Pelosi attacker with attempted kidnapping

Discussion: CNN, Washington Examiner, NBC News, Insider, Vanity Fair and National Review

The Intercept:

Leaked Documents Outline DHS's Plans to Police Disinformation — The Department of Homeland Security is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents …

Discussion: The Post Millennial, RedState, National Review, The American Stoic's …, TheBlaze, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, HotAir, Newsbusters, Reason, Twitchy, Carrie's Gazebo, Ace of Spades HQ, Washington Examiner, Clandestine's Newsletter and Steve Bannon's War Room, more at Techmeme »

NBC News:

Biden lost temper with Zelenskyy in June phone call when Ukrainian leader asked for more aid — It's become routine since Russia invaded Ukraine: President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak by phone whenever the U.S. announces a new package of military assistance for Kyiv.

Discussion: HotAir, Politico, The Post Millennial, The National Interest, The Daily Caller, New York Post, DNyuz, The Western Journal, Insider, National Review, Breitbart, Mediaite, Washington Examiner and IJR

Associated Press:
AP source: Biden to float windfall tax on energy producers

Discussion: ABC News, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, New York Times, Associated Press, Politico, New York Post, Washington Times, CNN, The Daily Caller, The Hill, USA Today, E&E, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg and Washington Post

Rachel Frazin / The Hill:
Biden threatens oil companies with ‘higher tax’ if they don't increase production

Discussion: Bloomberg, National Review, Just The News, New York Post and One America News Network

Andrew Griffin / The Independent:

Elon Musk dissolves Twitter's board and makes himself ‘sole director’ — Board had previously been made up of nine directors, including ousted chief executive Parag Agrawal — Twitter To Start Charging $20 a Month for Verification … Elon Musk has dissolved Twitter's board and made himself the “sole director” of the company.

Discussion: Daily Mail, Bloomberg, The Hill, Reuters, Just The News, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, TechCrunch, The Wrap, The Post Millennial and Lucianne, more at Techmeme »

Emily Oster / The Atlantic:

Let's Declare a Pandemic Amnesty — We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID. — In April 2020, with nothing else to do, my family took an enormous number of hikes. We all wore cloth masks that I had made myself.

Discussion: HotAir, RedState, Big League Politics, The Post Millennial, Twitchy and The Daily Wire

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

GOP bracing for Trump indictment soon after Election Day — Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after Election Day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Washington Examiner, Raw Story and The Torch Report

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:
GOP 2024 primary set to begin with conference featuring several contenders, but not Trump

Discussion: Raw Story

Ben Mathis-Lilley / Slate:

I Watched J.D. Vance Try to Charm Voters in Ohio. I Finally Get Why He's So Angry. — I watched the Hillbilly Elegy author campaign in Ohio. It has not gone according to plan. — A t — a pancake breakfast in the southwest Ohio city of Loveland in late September, I waited through 90 minutes of speeches for J.D. Vance.

Discussion: Breitbart, Lawyers, Guns & Money and New Statesman

Danny Hakim / New York Times:
Company Backed by J.D. Vance Gives Platform for Russian Propaganda

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Media Matters for America

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Live Updates: Supreme Court Hears Affirmative Action Cases From Harvard and U.N.C. — The justices heard two cases concerning admissions programs that take into account race to foster educational diversity. The conservative supermajority appeared ready to reconsider decades of precedents and to rule that the programs were unlawful.

Discussion: HotAir, Insider, USA Today, Instapundit, Just The News, New York Post, Vanity Fair and Washington Examiner

Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court conservatives lean against race-conscious student admissions

Washington Post:
Supreme Court seems open to ending affirmative action in college admissions

Discussion: The Daily Signal, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, National Review, Breitbart, The Post Millennial, CBS News, New York Times, NPR, Fox News and CNN

Axios:

Scoop: Musk team working to reboot Vine this year — Elon Musk has instructed Twitter engineers to work on a Vine reboot that could be ready by year end, multiple sources tell Axios. … - Twitter reportedly tried to sell Vine shortly after. … - One source says “it needs a lot of work.”

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Verge, DNyuz, The Wrap, The Western Journal, BizPac Review, Hollywood Unlocked, TechCrunch, Washington Examiner, Consequence, The A.V. Club and Mashable, more at Mediagazer »

Lloyd Lee / Insider:

Ohio GOP congressman's niece was among the 154 people killed in a crush of people in South Korea on Halloween weekend — At least 154 people were killed after a crowd surge on Saturday in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul. — Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, The Associated Press reported.

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, Cincinnati.com, Associated Press, U.S. Representative …, The Korea Herald, The Hill, Just The News and Fox 8 Cleveland WJW

Joshua Green / Washington Post:

Democrats Hate Him, But Elon Musk Might Be Their Savior — Elon Musk took control of Twitter on Friday, adding to the growing misery of Democrats heading into the midterm elections, not least because he's made clear he'll probably allow Donald Trump back onto the platform.

Discussion: New York Post

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

Republicans have made violence part of their brand — Political violence is not an unintended consequence of the MAGA movement. Much like Nike's swoosh, it is at the center of the movement's brand. — Remember this when considering the intruder who, hyped up on the conspiracy theories Republicans bandy …

Discussion: New York Times, Power Line and Raw Story

Mike Allen / Axios:

First look: Mike Pence's new book reveals key moment before Jan. 6 — In former Vice President Mike Pence's “So Help Me God” — out Nov. 15 — he describes a scene in November 2020, just after the election, when he and former President Trump met in the Oval Office to review legal challenges with the campaign's lawyers.

Discussion: The Guardian, Mediaite, Raw Story, USA Today, HuffPost, The Hill and Washington Examiner

Nora Mishanec / San Francisco Chronicle:

Ex-girlfriend of suspect in Paul Pelosi attack says he struggled with mental illness, drugs, believed he was ‘Jesus for a year’ — The imprisoned longtime partner of David DePape, the suspect in the attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, said Sunday that mental illness …