memeorandum: Joe Manchin's Dumb Budget Idea Already Failed Before (Ryan Cooper/American Prospect)

1:25 PM ET, February 1, 2023

Top Items:

The College Board Strips Down Its A.P. Curriculum for African American Studies — After criticism from Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, the official course looks different: No more critical race theory, and the study of contemporary topics — like Black Lives Matter — is optional.

Jack Stripling / Washington Post:
DeSantis aims to cut college diversity efforts; New College ousts president

New York Times:
DeSantis Takes On the Education Establishment, and Builds His Brand

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Nation, The Daily Caller, Law Dork with Chris Geidner, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, USA Today, Talking Points Memo, Fox News, The Capitolist and Raw Story

Zac Howard / The Florida Standard:
Democrat Politician Agrees with DeSantis, Calls Rejected AP Course “Trash”

Discussion: The American Conservative and Fox News

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

GOP senators rally to defend DeSantis from Trump attacks — Republican senators are rallying to defend Ron DeSantis from former President Trump's attempt to keep the popular Florida governor out of the 2024 presidential race. — At the same time, Trump is picking up more formal endorsements within …

Discussion: Fox News, HuffPost, Washington Examiner, Vanity Fair and Politico

David Frum / The Atlantic:

The GOP Is Just Obnoxious — This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. — Let's say you're a politician in a close race and your opponent suffers a stroke.

Discussion: The Boston Globe

Henry J. Gomez / NBC News:

Michigan Republicans are in turmoil as their leaders navigate tricky Trump terrain — After a shellacking that wiped them out of power in every branch of state government for the first time in 40 years, Michigan Republicans are discordantly wrestling with an uncertain future.

Discussion: Slate

The Hill:

DeSantis bets on Trump being his own worst enemy — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is keeping quiet on Donald Trump, betting that the controversial former president may just be his own worst enemy when it comes to his 2024 prospects. — The longtime alliance between Trump and DeSantis …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Raw Story, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, New York Post, The Florida Standard, Fox News, Just The News, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and RedState

Zach Montellaro / Politico:
Election officials ready themselves for the next wave of Trump followers

Discussion: Raw Story

Amy Gardner / Washington Post:
GOP report shows plan to ramp up focus on disproven election fraud claims

Discussion: Raw Story

Mother Jones:

George Santos Relative Says They Never Gave $5,800 Reported by the Campaign: “I'm Dumbfounded” — Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. — Last week, Mother Jones reported that more than a dozen top donors to Rep. George Santos …

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:
George Santos's Treasurer Has Resigned, Leaving a Trail of Questions

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Daily News, New York Post, Raw Story, The Hill, The Daily Beast and Politico

Politico:

‘They come to me’: Jane Roberts' legal recruiting work involved officials whose agencies had cases before the Supreme Court — Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, acknowledges having represented a wide variety of public officials — including senior Justice Department officials …

Discussion: Today's Edition Newsletter, ABC News, The Hill and Washington Examiner

David Badash / Raw Story:
Another SCOTUS scandal: Chief justice's spouse makes millions placing attorneys at top law firms that argue before the court

Discussion: Erick Erickson's Show Notes, New York Times and The Mahablog

Ryan Cooper / American Prospect:

Joe Manchin's Dumb Budget Idea Already Failed Before — In 2011, Congress created a ‘super committee’ to come to a bipartisan compromise on austerity. It didn't work. — The congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, aka the “super committee,” meets on Capitol Hill …

Discussion: New Republic, Eschaton and New York Times

Mike Lillis / The Hill: House Dems eye discharge petition as escape hatch on debt ceiling

Punchbowl News:
2/1/23 ☀️ Punchbowl News AM

Discussion: Semafor, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Townhall, New York Post, Roll Call, Politico, CNN, New York Times, The Hill and ABC News

Max Tani / Semafor:

Justice Department arrests former ABC News journalist on child pornography charges — The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced the arrest of an award-winning investigative reporter on charges related to child pornography. — In a statement, the DOJ said that it was charging James Gordon Meek …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Associated Press, Variety, The Gateway Pundit, Rolling Stone and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

Steve Benen / MSNBC:

Voter fraud at a GOP stronghold leads to another light sentence — Quite a few Republican voters were caught casting illegal ballots in the 2020 elections. In each case, judges didn't exactly throw the book at them. — To the extent that the United States has a retirement community known …

Discussion: WKMG, Washington Post and Political Dictionary

NBC News:

FBI searches Biden's beach house amid classified documents investigation — The FBI searched President Joe Biden's beach house outside Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday morning, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News. — A third source familiar with the matter …

CNN:
FBI finds no classified documents at Biden's Delaware vacation home

New York Times:

Bias and Human Error Played Parts in F.B.I.'s Jan. 6 Failure, Documents Suggest — The F.B.I. appeared to be blinded by a lack of imagination, a narrow focus on “lone wolf” offenders and a misguided belief that the threat from the far left was as great as that from the far right, new congressional documents show.

Discussion: Washington Post

NBC News:
Top Jan. 6 investigator says FBI, other agencies could have done more to repel Capitol mob had they acted on intel

Discussion: The Daily, Raw Story, Newsbusters, Insider, Roll Call and NBC Bay Area

CNN:

‘Go on offense’: Inside Democrats' strategy to try to undercut GOP investigations and protect Biden — Congressional Democrats are betting that a coordinated offense is their best defense against the coming Republican investigative onslaught. — Democrats on Capitol Hill, at the White House …

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
The House GOP's sham hearings are fizzling before they even begin

Discussion: The Triad, Page Array and New Republic

Schuyler Kropf / Post and Courier:

It's official: Nikki Haley running for president. Formal announcement Feb. 15 — Cementing what has been in the works for months, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will formally announce she is running for president and will seek the Republican nomination for her party's 2024 ticket, The Post and Courier has learned.

Jonathan V. Last / The Triad:

Trump Is Losing the Grifter Class to DeSantis — And they matter more than you might think. — 1. Hungry Dogs Have To Eat — There was bad news for the Trump 2024 campaign yesterday and it wasn't Nikki Haley's pre-announcement of her campaign to challenge the former president.1

New York Times:

Trump's Fund-Raising in First Weeks of '24 Race Is Relatively Weak — After announcing presidential runs, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush all raised more per day in their out-of-the-gates fund-raising periods. — Donald J. Trump's knack for generating millions of dollars simply …

Discussion: Insider, Politico, Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, Political Wire, Raw Story and NBC News

Joann Muller / Axios:

Scoop: Biden's EV surprise — The Biden administration's plan to jump-start a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs) is on track to shatter expectations. … - Some experts say the value of those tax credits may be four times higher than Congress' budget experts anticipated.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, Euractiv, Washington Times and IJR

Andrew Solender / Axios:

McCarthy finds escape hatch on Omar vote — The House is preparing to vote on a resolution to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee as soon as Wednesday after Republicans found a way to bring a key GOP holdout on board. … - Republicans had been dragging …

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, HotAir, NBC News, Twitchy, The Hill, Bloomberg, RedState, ABC News, Politico, Washington Examiner and The Forward

Mini Racker / TIME:

Exclusive: John Fetterman Is Using This Assistive Technology in the Senate to Help With His Stroke Recovery — The 164-year-old Senate chamber was not designed for wires and screens. Senators aren't even allowed to use their phones when they're inside. But to help with freshman Senator …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:

How Much Longer Can ‘Vote Blue No Matter Who!’ Last? — Over the past four decades, the percentage of white Democrats who identify themselves as liberal has more than doubled, growing at a much faster pace than Black or Hispanic Democrats. — In 1984, according to American National …

Politico:

Arizona Republicans fear they may blow it again — Kyrsten Sinema's defection from Democrats should be a golden opportunity for the GOP. But two high-profile 2022 election losers in Arizona are eyeing Senate runs in 2024, sparking angst among Republicans that they will blow an increasingly winnable race.

Discussion: PJ Media, Fox News, Raw Story, Newsweek, Political Wire and The Guardian

Lee Zeldin / Newsweek:

Let's Bring Greater Transparency to Foreign Influence on Policy Making — In the corridors of power in our nation's capitol, it's an open secret that the more money foreign governments spend on lobbying and influence peddling, the more they will be able to influence policy decisions that affect their interests.