memeorandum: How Democrats could save Kevin McCarthy (Andrew Solender/Axios)

11:55 AM ET, September 12, 2023

Top Items:

9/12/23 ☀️ Punchbowl News AM — THE TOP … McCarthy and the House Republican leadership scheduled a closed-door session for Thursday morning so that members could get an update on the investigations led by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Oversight Committee Chair Jamie Comer (R-Ky.).

Discussion: NBC News, USA Today, Forbes, RedState, Breitbart, The Hill, The Messenger, Semafor, Talking Points Memo, The Bulwark, Raw Story, National Review, The Moderate Voice, New York Times and Lucianne

CNN:

GOP lawmaker faces blowback from Republicans over anti-impeachment stance — Conservative Rep. Ken Buck is just one of several House Republicans standing in the way of the right's push to impeach President Joe Biden. — But his high-profile seat on the key House Judiciary Committee …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, NBC News, Raw Story, Breitbart, Congressional Integrity …, The Hill, New Republic and HuffPost

Politico:

Playbook: The clash that will set the tone for September — Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — JUST POSTED — WaPo's Ben Terris takes a deep dive into Sen. TIM SCOTT's love life, a subject that has become something of a thing for the 57-year-old bachelor …

Discussion: Michigan Advance, Raw Story, The Hill and Punchbowl News

Ben Terris / Washington Post:

Tim Scott's girlfriend … In June, as Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) began to get a little momentum in the presidential primary, a person working on behalf of one of Scott's Republican opponents messaged me, asking to chat. — “Have you seen the video,” he asked over the phone, conspiratorially, “where he says he has a girlfriend?”

Discussion: Insider, HuffPost and The Bulwark

Andrew Solender / Axios:

How Democrats could save Kevin McCarthy — As Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) publicly floats a plan to team up with Democrats in an effort to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), some House Democrats say they're not interested. … - McCarthy's allies say he can likely count on most of the Republican conference to support him.

Discussion: Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, American Wire News, Washington Examiner and New Republic

Washington Post:

Kevin McCarthy directs House to open impeachment inquiry into Biden — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he is directing House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, amid pressure from some hard-right members of the Republican caucus to do so.

Discussion: ABC News, NBC News, The Hill, HuffPost, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon, PJ Media, Washington Times, Florida Politics, BizPac Review, The Post Millennial, New York Post, NewsNation and Political Wire

Punchbowl News:
McCarthy will endorse impeachment inquiry this week

Discussion: CNN, Bloomberg, NPR, Fox News, The Hill, New York Times, The Guardian, CBS News, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, ZeroHedge News, Rolling Stone, IJR, The Daily Signal and Mediaite

Bloomberg:
McCarthy Launches Impeachment Probe Into President Joe Biden

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, New York Post, Associated Press, PoliticusUSA, The Messenger, Semafor, Wall Street Journal, PolitiFact and Vanity Fair

CNN:
House GOP push to launch Biden impeachment probe runs into Senate Republican skepticism

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, HuffPost, Raw Story, El País, Political Wire, NBC News, Reuters, The Messenger and Associated Press

CNN:
House GOP's government shutdown threat set to collide with demands for Biden impeachment

Discussion: The Hill, Civil Discourse …, ABC News, Washington Examiner, The American Conservative, Raw Story, The Messenger, Mediaite, Insider, Associated Press, Politico and Wall Street Journal

Associated Press:

Virginia election candidate responds after leak of tapes showing her performing sex acts with husband: “It won't silence me” — A candidate in a high-stakes legislative contest in Virginia had sex with her husband in live videos posted on a pornographic website and asked viewers to pay …

Discussion: The Messenger, Heavy.com, New York Times, Instapundit and Political Wire

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

Va. Dem. House candidate performed sex online with husband for tips — Susanna Gibson is running in a competitive district with control of the House at stake. — RICHMOND — A Democrat running for a crucial seat in Virginia's House of Delegates performed sex acts with her husband …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Breitbart, RedState, The Daily Wire, New York Post, BizPac Review, HotAir, The Daily Caller, Political Wire, The Gateway Pundit, The Post Millennial and The Messenger

Andrew Miller / Fox News:
Virginia Democrat candidate posted sex acts with husband online while soliciting tips: report

Discussion: Twitchy

Tami Luhby / CNN:

Poverty rate jumps in 2022 after end of enhanced child tax credit — The share of Americans, particularly children, in poverty rose significantly last year, in large part because Congress did not renew a Covid-19 pandemic enhancement to the child tax credit, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday.

Discussion: Reuters, NPR and The Hill

Census.gov:

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022 — SEPT. 12, 2023 — The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that real median household income in 2022 fell in comparison to 2021. The official poverty rate of 11.5% was not statistically different between 2021 and 2022.

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill and The Messenger

Marshall Cohen / CNN:

Trump faces another 14th Amendment candidacy challenge, this time in Minnesota — A liberal group filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Minnesota, the second major lawsuit in two weeks that hopes to invoke the 14th Amendment's arcane “insurrectionist ban.”

Discussion: The Hill, The Messenger, Talking Points Memo and Boston Herald

Liz Dye / Public Notice:

Mark Meadows lost big on Friday night. And so did Donald Trump. — Back to Fulton County for you! — 🚨 WE'RE OFFERING FREE TRIALS FOR ALL NEW PUBLIC NOTICE SIGNUPS 🚨 Click the button to support this work and unlock full access to everything we publish.

Discussion: The Hill, Slate, UPI, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNBC, Forbes, Washington Examiner, CBS News, Washington Times, NBC News, USA Today, ABC News and Raw Story

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:

Elon Musk shouldn't be calling the shots on how Ukraine fights — I can't feel sympathy for Elon Musk, given the cesspool of antisemitism, hate speech and authoritarian bombast he is creating at X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. But if he prevented Ukrainian forces …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Daily Kos, RedState, Associated Press, New York Post, Balloon Juice, Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic, Mediaite and The American Spectator, more at Mediagazer »

Bruce Einhorn / Bloomberg:
Putin Praises ‘Outstanding’ Musk While Vowing More Moon Missions

Discussion: CNBC

Dan De Luce / NBC News:

Iranian president says Tehran will spend $6 billion released in prisoner exchange ‘wherever we need it’ — Biden administration officials have said that the funds, the proceeds of Iranian oil sales to South Korea, can only be spent for humanitarian purposes. — Iranian president talks prisoner swap, $6 billion deal with US

Discussion: Fox News, The Messenger, ZeroHedge News and Political Wire

Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
The US moves to advance a prisoner swap deal with Iran and release $6 billion in frozen funds

John Hudson / Washington Post:
U.S. advances deal with Iran to swap prisoners, free frozen oil funds

Discussion: FOX8 WGHP, The Daily Caller, NewsNation, The Hill and The Messenger

Camille Mumford / Emerson Polling:

Iowa 2024: Biden and Trump Remain Frontrunners In Caucuses, But Both Losing Ground — Home Polls Iowa 2024: Biden and Trump Remain Frontrunners In Caucuses, But Both Losing Ground — Neither Party with Clear Alternatives to Frontrunners — A new Emerson College Polling survey …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Examiner and Florida Politics

Burgess Everett / Politico:

‘I just had another one’: How McConnell scrambled to protect his job after two freeze-ups — The GOP leader emerged from a tumultuous 10 days with his internal strength intact, according to interviews with more than a dozen senators. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's apparent health problems …

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

Wisconsin Republicans' nuclear option — In April, Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court with more than one million votes, defeating her conservative opponent by a wide margin. Her victory tipped the balance of the court, and the new liberal majority will soon review a case …

Discussion: Journal Sentinel, The Nation and The Guardian

Dan McLaughlin / New York Post:

Senile Joe Biden rambles about pony soldiers, Vietnam and lies about 9/11 — In April 1968, after he had run through five draft deferments, a medical board determined Joe Biden was unfit to go to Vietnam. — Unfortunately, nobody stopped him this time. — The president …

Discussion: New York Times, Forbes, Washington Times, Power Line, Lucianne, RedState, The Post Millennial, Breitbart, American Wire News, Fox News, Althouse, Daily Mail and HotAir

Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:

Ross Douthat's Theories of Persuasion — At a time of distrust and polarization, the conservative Times columnist seeks to bridge the worlds of the Christian right and the secular left. — This summer, Ross Douthat, liberal America's favorite conservative commentator …

Discussion: Althouse

Caitlin O'Kane / CBS News:

River of red wine flows through Portuguese village after storage units burst — A river of red wine flowed through the streets of a small town in Portugal this week after an incident at a local distillery. Video from Anadia, Portugal, shows the wine rushing in the gutters and turning the streets purple.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Insider, NBC News, Plain Dealer, Fox News, The Daily Caller, New York Post, Metro.co.uk, The Messenger and WFLA-TV

Associated Press:

Trump lawyers seek recusal of judge in DC presiding over federal election subversion case — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday asked the federal judge presiding over his election subversion case in Washington to recuse herself, saying her past public statements about the former president …

Stuart Lau / Politico:

‘Spying’ scandal shocks Westminster's China circle — Decoding transatlantic relations with Beijing. — with PHELIM KINE — WELCOME TO CHINA WATCHER. This is Stuart Lau, reporting from Westminster, where a major China spy scandal has erupted over the past 48 hours or so …

Discussion: Semafor, New York Times, Washington Post and Metro.co.uk

Fox News:

Whistleblower alleges CIA offered officials money to change view of COVID origins — FIRST ON FOX: A CIA whistleblower told Congress that the agency offered officials on a team investigating COVID-19 origins “significant monetary incentive” to change their positions, from that it originated …

Discussion: The Messenger, New York Post, The Gateway Pundit and Twitchy