memeorandum: Ex-Trump aide Sanders defends critical race theory ban as Arkansas governor (Martin Pengelly/The Guardian)

9:30 PM ET, January 15, 2023

Top Items:

Jessica Levinson / MSNBC:

Investigations into classified docs should leave Trump more worried than Biden — Don't focus on the headlines in the investigations into classified documents held by Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Focus on the details. — There's a line in an old song that goes “Lawyers dwell on small details.”

Discussion: Reuters, Raw Story, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, The Economist, The Hill, Fox News, UPI, Washington Post and New York Magazine

Eugene Daniels / Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Three storylines to watch in Biden's document drama — Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — HAPPENING NOW — “Biden speech at Ebenezer to bring focus to King's legacy, likely to president's as well,"by The Atlanta Journal …

Discussion: CNN, Forbes and CBS News

Tal Axelrod / ABC News:
Biden classified documents could have national security implications, Schiff says

Discussion: RedState, Fox News, New York Post, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, Politico, Newsbusters, PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, Washington Times and Breitbart

United States House Committee on Oversight …:
Comer Calls on White House to Release Biden's Wilmington Residence Visitor Log, Questions Why Biden Aides Continue to Search Properties in Wake of Special Counsel

Discussion: Breitbart, BizPac Review, Vanity Fair, The Hill, Fox News, Townhall, CBS News, Washington Times, RedState, Washington Post, CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, ABC News, New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Daniella Cheslow / Wall Street Journal:
House GOP Seeks Biden Residence Visitor Logs as Classified-Document Saga Continues

Discussion: Washington Times, Bloomberg, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, The Hill, Media Matters for America, The Guardian and Japan Times

Tia Mitchell / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Biden speech at Ebenezer to bring focus to King's legacy, likely to president's as well

Discussion: NPR, USA Today, UPI, The Guardian and CNN

Jeff Mason / Reuters:
Biden documents bungle seen as political black eye before 2024 launch

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Hill, The Truth Patrol and Fox News

Stephanie Saul / New York Times:

What College Admissions Could Look Like Without Affirmative Action — Schools may need to rethink everything, including recruitment, scholarships, standardized testing and alumni preferences. — MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — In 1964, hoping to erase its image as a privileged cloister for white rich families …

Discussion: RedState and WISH-TV

Miles Klee / Rolling Stone:

Far-Right Superstars Are Failing on Rumble. Who's Winning? — The outsider streaming site that just partnered up with Donald Trump Jr. is growing — but not in the way most people think — TO RING IN 2023, the social video site Rumble announced an exclusive partnership with Donald Trump Jr. Beginning …

Josh Kraushaar / Axios:

The GOP's 2024 freeze — Questions about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' political resilience — and fears of going toe-to-toe with former President Trump — have all but frozen the 2024 Republican field, delaying most of the leading prospects' timelines for entering the race.

Discussion: BizPac Review, Insider and Washington Post

JONATHAN TURLEY:

The Importance of Being Biden: How Hunter Reached a New Low in Seeking to Bar Daughter From Using His Name — In Oscar Wilde's “The Importance of Being Ernest,” the main character's search for his true name comes to a head when he finally demands “would you kindly inform me who I am?”

Jacob Geanous / New York Post:
Hunter Biden asks court to stop love child from taking his sullied surname

Discussion: RedState, HotAir, Reason, Trending Politics Conservative, BizPac Review, The Post Millennial, Insider, Just The News, Breitbart, Daily Mail, The Gateway Pundit and Althouse

Benjamin Wallace-Wells / New Yorker:

Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans' Rocky Road Ahead — With members of the House G.O.P. caucus still pulling in all directions, does anyone know where the Party is headed? — The simplest thing, usually, for a new congressional majority to do is elect a Speaker of the House.

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:

Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over social media use — Court documents reveal reasons for Awad Al-Qarni's arrest - even though rulers are major investors in social media platforms — A prominent pro-reform law professor in Saudi Arabia is facing the death penalty …

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:

The House GOP's retread tactics have blown up in Republicans' faces before — Political energy is hard to define but easy to recognize. Attentive citizens can usually tell which side is rising, dominating the public discussion and laying ownership to the future.

Discussion: Raw Story

Bryan Pietsch / Washington Post:

Former Russian president says Japanese leader should disembowel himself — Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a senior security official in President Vladimir Putin's administration, said Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should perform a ritualistic suicide …

Discussion: UPI, Reuters, The Guardian and TASS

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

Ex-Trump aide Sanders defends critical race theory ban as Arkansas governor — Sarah Sanders, a former Trump press secretary, says move is preventative and 'to make sure we're not indoctrinating our kids' — The new Republican governor of Arkansas, Sarah Sanders, said the move …

Discussion: HuffPost and New York Post

Newsday:

Records show George Santos made questionable payments to vendors, experts say — Campaign committees tied to Rep. George Santos paid tens of thousands of dollars to newly formed companies with opaque histories and meager track records of working for other candidates, a Newsday review of state and federal filings shows.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Washington Post:

Harbor City called George Santos a ‘perfect fit.’ The SEC called the company a fraud. — The inside story of the New York congressman and the now-shuttered Florida firm that employed him for more than a year — In July 2020, a small Florida-based investment firm announced …

Discussion: Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, Insider and Wall Street Journal

Holly Otterbein / Politico:

A GOP postmortem: What went so wrong in Pennsylvania? — PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania GOP is trying to figure out what went so horribly wrong in 2022. — After the party's disastrous midterm races, Republicans in the critical battleground state are conducting a postmortem …