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2:20 PM ET, December 9, 2022

Top Items:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: Why I'm registering as an independent — The Arizona senator explains why she has left the Democratic Party. — There's a disconnect between what everyday Americans want and deserve from our politics, and what political parties are offering.

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Sinema switches to independent, shaking up the Senate — Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is changing her party affiliation to independent, delivering a jolt to Democrats' narrow majority and Washington along with it. — In a 45-minute interview, the first-term senator told POLITICO …

Jeremy Herb / CNN:

Sinema leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent — Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as a political independent, she told CNN's Jake Tapper in an exclusive TV interview. — “I've registered as an Arizona independent.

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Kyrsten Sinema Is Playing Chicken … The biggest loser of the 2022 election other than Donald Trump was Kyrsten Sinema. The Arizona senator and now-former Democrat desperately needed Democrats, especially fellow senator Mark Kelly, to lose. Only such a setback would make the party desperate enough …

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

The politics of Kyrsten Sinema's party switch — Four days ago, we wrote about a few reasons the Georgia Senate runoff — and whether Democrats' majority would grow to 51-49 — mattered, practically speaking. One of those reasons? The possibility of a party switch.

Discussion: Arizona Republic, Washington Examiner, Fox News, One America News Network, Balkinization, CNBC, Inside Elections, New Republic, The Guardian, Bloomberg and PoliticusUSA

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Schumer says Sinema can keep committee assignments after leaving Democratic Party — Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday announced he will let Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) keep her Senate committee assignments after she dropped her affiliation with the Democratic Party and said she would identify as an Independent.

Discussion: Washington Post, E&E, PoliticusUSA, Just Security and Washington Blade

Hailey Fuchs / Politico:

Top progressive firm drops Sinema as a client — The leading progressive digital firm Authentic has dropped Kyrsten Sinema as a client, after the Arizona senator announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, according to a person close to the firm. — Sinema announced Friday …

Discussion: Fox News and Political Wire

New York Times:
Kyrsten Sinema Says She Will Leave the Democratic Party

Discussion: Bloomberg, Insider, NBC Bay Area, Ace of Spades HQ, Louder With Crowder, The Dispatch and The Hill

Axios:
Kyrsten Sinema goes independent, scrambles Senate

Discussion: NBC News, The Hill, New Republic, The Wrap, Human Events, CBS News, Raw Story, Washington Times, Morning Shots, Insider, HuffPost and CNN

NBC News:
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves Democratic Party and registers as an independent

Discussion: New York Post, The Liberty Loft, The Wrap, The Daily, Mediaite, Raw Story, IJR, NPR and The 90 Degrees

Marianne LeVine / Politico:
White House, Senate Dem leader: Our relationship with Sinema won't change

Discussion: Insider, Semafor, Breitbart, The Hill, The Daily Caller and Twitchy

CNN:

House Republicans brace for doomsday scenario if McCarthy falls short of 218 votes for speaker — As a right-wing faction threatens to tank his speakership ambitions, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy delivered a promise: “I'll never leave,” making clear he has no plans to drop out of the race …

Discussion: Raw Story and American Greatness

Nathaniel Rakich / FiveThirtyEight:
How Kevin McCarthy Could Lose The Election For Speaker Of The House

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Slate, RealClearFlorida and Fox News

Associated Press:

Brittney Griner back home in US after Russian prisoner swap — Brittney Griner returned to the United States early Friday, nearly 10 months after the basketball star's detention in Russia made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad and set off a political firestorm.

Julia Ioffe / Puck:

Inside the Griner Prisoner Swap — Behind the scenes, the White House has alternated between pessimism and fury over Russia's bad-faith negotiations, which is just how the Kremlin likes it. In the end, Biden had to settle for what he could get: a partial political victory.

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, The American Conservative, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, The Wrap and HotAir

Shauntel Lowe / New York Times:
Griner's Detention Showed the Strength and the Struggle in Women's Sports

Discussion: Insider, Wall Street Journal, Metro Weekly, New York Post, The Daily Caller, ESPN, Mother Jones, The Times of Israel and Front Office Sports

Alex Gangitano / The Hill:
White House responds to criticism of Griner prisoner deal

Washington Examiner:
Joe Biden made a bad, deadly deal to free Brittney Griner

Discussion: Tangle, Fox News, Twitchy, The Liberty Loft, The Daily Caller, The Full Belmonte, The Dossier, CNN, New York Post, Associated Press, Breitbart, The Western Journal, The Hill, Politico, Raw Story, Voice of America, The Post Millennial and Insider

Meridith McGraw / Politico:

Private RNC member emails reveal anger at Trump, frustration with McDaniel's response to him — A handful of Republican National Committee members denounced former President Donald Trump, with one pushing for fellow members and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to forcefully condemn his decision …

Discussion: Raw Story and Just The News

NBC News:
Ronna McDaniel locked down votes for RNC chair despite the midterm debacle. Here's how she did it.

Discussion: IJR and RedState

Bryan Curtis / The Ringer:

This Secret Society in Washington, D.C., Has One Agenda: Fly, Eagles, Fly — The most passionate fan base in D.C. political media belongs to the NFL's league-leading team — Last Sunday, while Washington, D.C., was wondering about the composition of the Senate or watching the Commanders, a dozen emails flew back and forth.

New York Times:

Judge to Hear Justice Dept. Contempt Request in Trump Documents Case — The department wants the court to force a representative of Donald J. Trump to swear under oath that there are no more classified documents at any of his properties. — A federal judge in Washington was set to hear arguments …

Discussion: CNN, PoliticusUSA, Raw Story, Washington Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Guardian, Just The News, The Daily, Fox News, Metro.co.uk, UPI and The Post Millennial

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:

Why Conservatives Invented a ‘Right to Post’ — Early December might have marked the first time anyone ever asserted a First Amendment right to see the president's son's penis, an argument that the Framers likely did not anticipate. — In November, the billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter …

Washington Post:

War has tamed Ukraine's oligarchs, creating space for democratic change — Ukraine may have the opportunity to rebuild a postwar society that is more democratic, less corrupt and more economically diversified — BURSHTYN, Ukraine — Over two days in October, eight Russian cruise missiles screamed …

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Trump's 2024 Campaign So Far Is an Epic Act of Self-Sabotage — But is this really the end of an error? — The official campaign for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination is barely three weeks old, but there is one clear takeaway so far: Donald Trump is running against himself—and losing.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Raw Story and The Hill

Allie Griffin / New York Post:

Non-binary Biden nuclear official Sam Brinton accused in second luggage heist — A Biden energy department official who allegedly stole a woman's suitcase from a Minneapolis airport in September has been accused of another luggage heist at a Las Vegas airport.

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:

Tim Scott Is Fundraising By Emailing People That Their Heat Will Be Cut Off — “Emergency Notice,” reads an incredibly misleading December message sent out by the South Carolina Republican's campaign. — A week into December, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is emailing residents that their heat …

Discussion: Political Wire

NBC News:

Russia is providing ‘unprecedented’ military support to Iran in exchange for drones, officials say — Russia is now providing an “unprecedented level” of military and technical support to Iran in exchange for Tehran supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine, senior Biden administration officials say.

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Bloomberg

CNN:

CNN Poll: Views of the state of the country are slightly improved, but Americans' economic concerns remain — Americans' views of the state of the nation have bounced back slightly since earlier this year, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, but public perception of the economy remains grim.

Shawn McCreesh / New York Magazine:

Just What Did the Times Walkout Change? — As they have been threatening to do for months now, the New York Times newsroom went on a one-day strike today. — As a reader, you might not have noticed. The paper got its Brittney Griner-is-free scoop out on a push notification before the Washington Post did.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and TheBlaze, more at Mediagazer »

Claudia Irizarry Aponte / The City:
The Other New York Times Workers On Strike

Discussion: Algemeiner.com, FiveThirtyEight, The Peoples Voice, Vanity Fair, Magic + Loss, National Review, Slate, The Wrap, American Greatness, Twitchy, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:

Biden earned political capital this fall. He's quietly spending it. — White House officials and senior Democrats believe the party's better-than-expected fall has relieved considerable pressure on Joe Biden to act quickly on a reelection bid. — But they're still making moves.

Discussion: Associated Press