memeorandum: The shocking degree of political betrayal from Kevin McCarthy (Daniel Horowitz/TheBlaze)

11:40 PM ET, May 30, 2023

Top Items:

Debt Limit Bill Heads to Key Committee in First Test of G.O.P. Support — Some Republicans on the panel have already come out in opposition to the package, raising early questions about its fate. — Reporting from Washington — Legislation to raise the government debt ceiling …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Axios, National Review, Semafor, NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, CNN, The Hill, Washington Post, Fox News, Raw Story, Politico, Breitbart, Balloon Juice and Daily Kos

Daniel Horowitz / TheBlaze:

The shocking degree of political betrayal from Kevin McCarthy — Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. — Imagine a family facing impending bankruptcy while suddenly hitting their credit limit. Typically, that family would make serious lifestyle changes …

Discussion: The American Spectator, La Prensa Latina Media, Associated Press, GZERO, Wall Street Journal, FiveThirtyEight and Washington Post

Emily Brooks / The Hill:
First Republican publicly supports ousting McCarthy as Speaker

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, Insider, The Messenger, KLFY.com, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Raw Story and Political Wire

Punchbowl News:
⚡️ Punchbowl News Special Edition: Despite opposition, debt limit moves toward floor

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Politico:
House conservatives threaten push to oust McCarthy over debt deal

Discussion: USA Today, Sputnik News, HuffPost, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Progress Pond, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, The Hill, TheBlaze and Political Wire

Tyler Pager / Washington Post:
Shalanda Young emerges as quietly essential figure in debt deal

Discussion: Roll Call and Washington Examiner

NBC News:
Far-right members, unhappy with debt deal, float threatening McCarthy's speakership

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Washington Examiner, PoliticusUSA, The Dispatch, Bulwark+, IJR, Washington Press, Conservative Brief, Mediaite, Daily Kos and Politico

Politico:
McCarthy overcomes Rules rebellion over debt deal

Discussion: New York Post, Talking Points Memo, CNN, GZERO, Breitbart, Roll Call, Reason, Raw Story, ABC News, Washington Examiner, Digby's Hullabaloo, Fox News and Daily Kos

USA Today:
‘Betrayal’: McCarthy faces revolt from GOP conservatives over debt limit deal with Biden

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Sputnik News, Washington Post, Washington Times, Talking Points Memo, National Review, Associated Press, Fox News, Raw Story, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, NPR, PoliticusUSA, NBC News, Mediaite and New York Times

Washington Post:

Mar-a-Lago prosecutors eye July episode with Trump surveillance cameras — Summer interactions inside Trump's home and private club are part of the special counsel's classified documents investigation — A Mar-a-Lago employee who helped move boxes of documents last June has been questioned …

Hugo Lowell / The Guardian:

Trump lawyer said to have been waved off searching office for secret records — Exclusive: Evan Corcoran said he was steered away from Trump's office, where the FBI later found the most sensitive materials — Donald Trump's lawyer tasked with searching for classified documents at Mar …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, PoliticusUSA, New York Daily News, Digby's Hullabaloo, Raw Story, New Republic and Daily Kos

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, defects to Russia — Former Senate staffer who made claim in 2020 appears on Russian media alongside convicted Russian agent in US Maria Butina — Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Tuesday she had defected to Russia.

Discussion: HotAir, The Messenger, New York Post, The Gateway Pundit, Sputnik News and Raw Story

Jacqueline Thomsen / Reuters:

U.S. Senate confirms GOP-backed Biden pick to Louisiana federal court — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed lawyer Darrel Papillion to a federal judgeship in Louisiana, after he was backed by both of the state's Republican senators. Papillion, a former president of the Louisiana State Bar Association, was confirmed on a 59-31 vote.

Pilar Melendez / The Daily Beast:
Biden Accuser Tara Reade Claims She Fled to Russia Fearing for Her Life

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, New Republic, Washington Press and Mediaite

Bryan Schott / Salt Lake Tribune:

Breaking: Rep. Chris Stewart plans to resign from Congress — The Utah Republican congressman is expected to announce his departure from the House of Representatives soon, several sources told The Salt Lake Tribune. — U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart plans to resign his seat in Congress, possibly as soon as this week.

Discussion: New York Post, Associated Press, Raw Story, Roll Call, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Politico and Political Wire

Jan Hoffman / New York Times:

Sacklers Can Be Shielded From Opioid Liability, Appeals Court Rules — The decision gives the Purdue Pharma owners long-sought protection, but it will release billions of dollars from their fortune to states and communities to help cope with the costs of addiction.

Discussion: Financial Times, The Guardian, Mercury News, Associated Press, KRDO and NPR

Bloomberg:

Twitter Is Now Worth Just 33% of Elon Musk's Purchase Price, Fidelity Says — Twitter is now worth just one-third of what Elon Musk paid for the social-media platform, according to Fidelity, which recently marked down the value of its equity stake in the company.

Discussion: Deadline, Reuters, The Information, RedState, The American Conservative and Breitbart, more at Techmeme »

Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Beast:

Ashli Babbitt's Mother Arrested After Striking Woman at Pro-Jan. 6 Event — Micki Witthoeft, 58, was spotted by The Daily Beast being taken into custody just after 6:45 p.m. — The mother of Ashli Babbitt, Micki Witthoeft, was arrested Tuesday evening after striking a counter-protester …

Discussion: Mediaite and The Gateway Pundit

Dennis Romero / NBC News:

3 young children die in separate hot-car incidents across the U.S. — The deaths happened in Washington state, Texas and Florida between May 24 and Sunday, and doubled the number of hot car fatalities compared to this time last year. — Three young children died in recent days …

Meredith Deliso / ABC News:
11-month-old girl dies after left in car for 3 hours while parents went to church: Police

Discussion: Fox 8 Cleveland WJW

The Carter Center:

Carter Family Statement about Health of First Lady Rosalynn Carter — ATLANTA — The Carter family is sharing that former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia. She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones.

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

It Took Alito Barely a Month to Violate the Supreme Court's New Ethics Rules — On April 25, Chief Justice John Roberts sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a “Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices” signed by all nine justices. Roberts forwarded along the “statement” …

Discussion: Associated Press, HuffPost and KRDO

Politico:

Republican candidate accused of lying about military record ends comeback bid — It's good news for House Republicans, after JR Majewski lost a competitive Ohio seat in 2022. — JR Majewski, a pro-Trump Republican accused of misrepresenting his military record, is ending his comeback bid.

Decca Muldowney / The Daily Beast:

Twitter Fails to Remove Hate Speech By Blue-Check Users: Report — If you pay $8 a month, Twitter will boost your tweets, new research found, even if you post about how ‘Hitler was right.’ — Twitter is failing to remove 99 percent of hate speech posted by Twitter Blue users …

Rolling Stone:

Team Trump Scrambles to Unmask the Feds Investigating Him — The former president wants to “immediately” purge the Justice Department's ranks of the officials and agents who've led the criminal probes into his actions — DONALD TRUMP JUST needs a few names.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Washington Press, Raw Story and Daily Kos

Prem Thakker / New Republic:

Conservatives Are Now Boycotting Chick-fil-A for Not Being Homophobic Enough … Bud Light apparently went too far after influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender, posted an Instagram video promoting a March Madness contest. Target apparently went too far by selling shirts with rainbows.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, New York Post, Raw Story, Rolling Stone and The Messenger

Russell Falcon / The Hill:
Chick-fil-A DEI hire sparks calls for boycott

Discussion: Washington Press, al.com, The Daily Signal, Mediaite, RedState, HuffPost, The Post Millennial, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, IJR, Big League Politics, Twitchy, KTLA, Washington Examiner and The Daily Caller

Kevin Roose / New York Times:

A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn — Leaders from OpenAI, Google Deepmind, Anthropic and other A.I. labs warn that future systems could be as deadly as pandemics and nuclear weapons. — A group of industry leaders warned on Tuesday that the artificial intelligence technology …

Associated Press:

The day has arrived for Elizabeth Holmes to report to a Texas prison — Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes entered Texas prison where she could spend the next 11 years for overseeing a blood-testing hoax that became a parable about greed and hubris in Silicon Valley.

Daniel Duane / New York Times:

A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots and My Mother's Berkeley Backyard — Plans to build apartments have sparked a fight between progressive newcomers and nostalgic old-timers — with surprising allegiances in a writer's hometown. — In the late 1960s, in the neighborhood where I grew up …

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Trump Strongest Candidate Say GOP Voters — DeSantis remains well liked but support fades — West Long Branch, NJ - A majority of Republican voters feel former President Donald Trump would be their strongest nominee in the 2024 election. According to the Monmouth ("Mon-muth") …

Discussion: The Hill, The Daily Caller, National Review, Insider, Washington Times, Breitbart, Digby's Hullabaloo, Bloomberg, No More Mister Nice Blog and NBC News

Kasha Patel / Washington Post:

Land around the U.S. is sinking. Here are some of the fastest areas. — Imagine Earth's surface is like a stack of pancakes. The pancakes, or layers of soil and rocks, may appear fairly evenly stacked and fluffy. Over time though, the stack can become compressed, thinner and shorter.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Peter Shamshiri / Balls and Strikes:

The Right's War on Abortion Was Never About Legal Doctrine — The justices in the Dobbs majority promised to return abortion “to the people's elected representatives.” For conservative activists, this was just the beginning. — When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year …

Hannah Getahun / Insider:

Ken Paxton's impeachment revealed how divided far-right and moderate Republicans in Texas have become, political scientist says — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached from office Saturday. — Many of the Texas House members who voted to impeach him were Republicans themselves.

Katherine Long / Politico:

The casualties of the debt limit deal — PAY UP — Millions of Americans are now facing the possible resumption of student loan payments on Aug. 30 — for the first time since the outset of the pandemic — as a result of the debt limit deal cut between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, NBC News, CBS News, One America News Network, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Sacramento Bee and Insider

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

Ron DeSantis says he will ‘destroy leftism’ in US if elected president — Governor makes remark to Fox News and predicts two White House terms should he defeat Trump for Republican nomination — Predicting two terms in the White House should he defeat Donald Trump for the Republican …

Discussion: The American Independent, Twitchy and Breitbart

Guy Faulconbridge / Reuters:

Russia's reaction to the drone attacks on Moscow — Ukraine launched its biggest ever drone attack on Moscow on Tuesday but air defences destroyed all eight of the drones, Russia said, bringing the 15-month war in Ukraine to the heart of the capital. — Here are some Russian reactions to the attacks.

Geraldo Cadava / New Yorker:

The Rise of Latino White Supremacy — At a time of rising racial violence, Latinos are potential perpetrators and potential victims. — On May 6th, a thirty-three-year-old Mexican American man named Mauricio Garcia shot and killed eight people at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Rafael Bernal / The Hill:

Trump pledges to end birthright citizenship on first day in office — Former President Trump is returning to his calls to remove birthright citizenship, with his 2024 White House campaign on Tuesday announcing he will seek to end it via executive order on his first day in office.

Politico:

Ramaswamy fires consultants who worked simultaneously for LIV golf — Recent filings showed just how intertwined foreign entities and U.S. presidential politics can be. — Vivek Ramaswamy has fired one of the firms consulting for his presidential campaign after it was revealed that the firm …

The White House:

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Adam Hodge on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Space Launch — The United States strongly condemns the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its launch using ballistic missile technology, which is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security …

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News and Bloomberg

Associated Press:

Clayton Kershaw disagrees with Dodgers' decision to honor Sisters — LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw says he disagrees with the Los Angeles Dodgers' decision to welcome an LGBTQIA+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the team's annual Pride Night.