memeorandum: A majority of Americans think the Trump probes are about 2024 (Philip Bump/Washington Post)

4:40 PM ET, August 7, 2023

Top Items:

Amanda Terkel / NBC News:

‘Of course he lost’: Ron DeSantis rejects Trump's 2020 election claims — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday rejected Donald Trump's claim that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election in his most forceful comments to date on the matter. — “Whoever puts their hand …

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Trump and his new lawyer are not on the same page about judge's recusal — The former president's public statements are already diverging from the advice of his newest lawyer, John Lauro. — Donald Trump blared Sunday morning that his legal team would be “immediately asking for recusal” …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Raw Story, Boston.com, Political Wire and The Hill

Washington Post:

‘Fake’ elector plot raised concerns over legal peril, indictment shows — A contingency plan, a crime or a ‘donkey show’? Doubts across seven states and within the Trump campaign. — Six weeks after the 2020 election, senior campaign officials for Donald Trump called a group …

Ankush Khardori / New York Magazine:

The Pelosi Factor … If you were going to draw up a list of the people most responsible for the latest indictment of Donald Trump, the former president himself would be at the top, followed by the prosecutors who have brought the case. Republicans in Congress perversely deserve a great deal of credit …

Discussion: The Messenger, The Hill, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, New York Post, BizPac Review, Insider, Political Wire and The Gateway Pundit

Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Beast:

There's a Good Reason Trump Aides Don't Think the New Indictment Is a Joke — A number of Donald Trump's current aides are involved in the latest case against their boss. That could put them in some very difficult positions. … Donald Trump has publicly joked about the four latest felony charges brought against him.

Discussion: Raw Story

CNN:

Exclusive: Trump ally Bernie Kerik meets with special counsel investigators — Donald Trump ally Bernie Kerik met Monday with special counsel Jack Smith's investigators who are handling the probe related to the 2020 election aftermath and the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Discussion: The Messenger, Political Wire and The Daily Beast

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

A majority of Americans think the Trump probes are about 2024 — The lawyer leading former president Donald Trump's defense against the indictment brought by a D.C. grand jury appeared on CNN's “State of the Union” on Sunday. In short order, the attorney, John Lauro, got into a debate …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Political Wire, HuffPost, Washington Examiner, CBS News and The Hill

Jack Birle / Washington Examiner:
Pelosi says Trump winning in 2024 would put a ‘criminal enterprise in the White House’

Discussion: The Messenger, Twitchy, The Hill and Fox News

Dawn White / WXIA-TV:
Fulton County insiders expect former President Donald Trump to be indicted this week in Georgia

Discussion: The Hill, The Western Journal, Political Wire and Fox News

Jill Martin / TODAY.com:
Exclusive: DeSantis talks Trump, 2024, pro-life policies

Discussion: National Review, Raw Story, Florida Politics and Washington Examiner

Betsy McCaughey / New York Post:
Trump prosecutor Jack Smith would rip up Americans' right to free speech

Discussion: New York Daily News, Showbiz411 and CNN

CNN:
State of the Union — DANA BASH, CNN HOST (voice-over): Trial on the trail?

Discussion: The Messenger, RedState and The Daily Caller

Politico:
Playbook: Welcome to the courtroom campaign

Discussion: Raw Story, NBC News, The Hill and Forbes

Zolan Kanno-Youngs / New York Times:
Kamala Harris Takes on a Forceful New Role in the 2024 Campaign

Discussion: NBC News, RedState, The Daily Caller, Althouse, National Review and CNN

Adam Edelman / NBC News:
If Trump committed ‘a technical violation of the Constitution,’ it's not a crime, his lawyer says

Discussion: Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, Semafor, PJ Media, New York Daily News, CBS News, Washington Examiner, CNN, Financial Times, USA Today, Reuters, Breitbart, Washington Times, Politico and New York Times

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

John Eastman, awaiting potential indictment, asks judge to postpone his disbarment proceedings — The lawyer who advised Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 is known as “co-conspirator 2” in the special counsel's newest case. — Attorney John Eastman, an architect of Donald Trump's …

Discussion: The Hill, The Messenger, Raw Story, Political Wire and PoliticusUSA

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Trump counterclaim against E. Jean Carroll dismissed, DA can get deposition — A federal judge dismissed a counterclaim by Donald Trump against the writer E. Jean Carroll in her pending lawsuit that accuses him of defaming her after she wrote that he had raped her.

Hillary Rodham Clinton / The Atlantic:

The Weaponization of Loneliness — To defend America against those who would exploit our social disconnection, we need to rebuild our communities. — The question that preoccupied me and many others over much of the past eight years is how our democracy became so susceptible to a would-be strongman and demagogue.

Discussion: National Review, PJ Media, KXAN-TV, Balloon Juice, Law & Liberty and Orlando Sentinel

CNN:

Officer who held back crowd during George Floyd's murder sentenced to over 4 years in prison — Tou Thao, the former Minneapolis police officer who held back a crowd of bystanders during George Floyd's fatal arrest in May 2020, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison Monday …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, ABC News, Washington Post, Raw Story, One America News Network, UPI, New York Daily News, Associated Press, National Review, Just The News, Al Jazeera, The Messenger, New York Times, The Root, Law & Crime and Fox News

N'dea Yancey-Bragg / USA Today:
Former Minneapolis officer sentenced to nearly 5 years for role in George Floyd's killing

Discussion: Associated Press and The Messenger

Washington Post:

Most disapprove of Biden's handling of climate change, Post-UMD poll finds — Less than 3 in 10 Americans say they know a good or great deal about the Inflation Reduction Act, though many voters in both parties support some of its key climate programs — Nearly one year after President Biden enacted …

Discussion: The Hill and The Messenger

Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
The White House plays it cool as ‘Bidenomics’ struggles to catch on

Discussion: Vox, Washington Examiner, The Dispatch and Washington Post

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

The Secret Hand Behind the Women Who Stood by Cuomo? His Sister. — For nearly two years, Madeline Cuomo back channeled with grass-roots activists to help smear her brother's accusers. He was “seeing everything,” she told his defenders. — The menacing posts began cropping up on Twitter …

Insider:

Rudy Giuliani puts luxury Manhattan apartment on the block for $6.5 million — Rudy Giuliani's 3-bedroom Upper East Side co-op apartment just hit the market. — The unit, in a landmarked Madison Avenue building, has extensive wood paneling and a library.

Discussion: The Messenger and Raw Story

Brianna Herlihy / Fox News:

Some conservatives have surprising ‘Barbie’ take despite criticisms of liberal agenda — ‘Barbie’ surpassed $1 billion in global box office sales, despite ‘woke’ claims — Some conservatives are standing by the film “Barbie,” despite criticisms and reviews that blasted the blockbuster film for an allegedly liberal agenda.

Discussion: Raw Story, CBS News and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »