memeorandum: Jack Smith reveals sweeping scope of bid to debunk Trump election machine claims (Kyle Cheney/Politico)

12:45 PM ET, December 10, 2023

Top Items:

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Jack Smith reveals sweeping scope of bid to debunk Trump election machine claims — In a new filing, his team described interviewing more than a dozen of the top intelligence officials in Trump's administration. — Special counsel Jack Smith on Saturday sharply rejected Donald Trump's contention …

Discussion: Raw Story

Jason Beeferman / Politico:

Trump defends dictator comments amid NYC soiree filled with MAGA diehards — At an event with key figures within the MAGA movement, the former president repeated comments that he wants to be a dictator on “day one.” — NEW YORK — The chairman of an Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Post and Raw Story

Kelly Garrity / Politico:

Trump the ‘human gumball machine’ will ‘impose his will’ on the nation if elected, Romney says — “A thought or a notion comes in and it comes out of his mouth. There's not a lot of filter that goes on,” he said of Trump. — Some Republicans have read former President Donald Trump's comment …

Discussion: The Hill, NBC News, Axios, Associated Press and Political Wire

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:

University of Pennsylvania president steps down amid criticism of antisemitism testimony — The chair of the Penn Board of Trustees announced that Liz Magill has voluntarily stepped down as president of the Ivy League school. — University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned …

New York Times:

Penn's President Resigns After Her Responses About Antisemitism — At a congressional hearing this week, Elizabeth Magill had appeared to dodge questions of whether she would discipline students if they called for the genocide of Jews. — The president of the University of Pennsylvania …

Dan Primack / Axios:
Exclusive: Wharton board tries to increase pressure on Penn president Liz Magill

Discussion: NewsNation, Fox News, Business Insider and ABC News

Ry Rivard / Politico:

I Covered Joe Manchin for Years. He Might Not Care If He Sinks Joe Biden. — The senator's brand of centrism helped him survive West Virginia's rapid transformation from blue to red. But it also helped sow the seeds of the Democratic Party's demise back home.

Discussion: Associated Press and The Messenger

George Packer / The Atlantic:

‘We Only Need Some Metal Things’ — Will America abandon Ukraine? — In the summer of 1940, when Great Britain was fighting Nazi Germany alone, Winston Churchill asked to borrow a few dozen aging American destroyers to defend the English coast from imminent invasion.

Discussion: The Hill

Andrew Zhang / Politico:

Sheila Jackson Lee loses Houston mayor's race to tough-on-crime state senator — The showdown illuminates the faultlines within the Democratic Party over how to deal with crime on a local level. — Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire defeated Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee …

Discussion: Fox News, The Messenger, New York Times, Raw Story, NPR, Associated Press, The Hill, Twitchy, CBS News, NBC News, The Daily Caller, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Examiner, The Texas Tribune and Political Wire

NBC News:

She's with him: Hillary Clinton steps out as a key player in Biden's re-election effort — Clinton hosted a $1 million fundraiser at her Georgetown home. — WASHINGTON — On the final Monday in November, in a Washington home stately enough to have a name — Whitehaven …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico and HotAir

Maegan Vazquez / Washington Post:

Texas Supreme Court temporarily halts order that allowed pregnant woman to have abortion — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday temporarily halted an order allowing a woman who is 20 weeks pregnant to get an abortion — reversing a lower-court ruling that marks the first case of a pregnant woman seeking …

Discussion: Enough Already, Lucian Truscott Newsletter, Digby's Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Breitbart, The Hill, The Nation, Center for Reproductive Rights, New York Daily News, The Daily Caller, Filosofa's Word, The 19th, Associated Press, CBS News, Politico and KXAN-TV

CNN:
Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocks pregnant woman from emergency abortion

Discussion: New York Daily News, KXAN-TV, KEYT-TV, Mother Jones, CBS News, The Mahablog and Rolling Stone

Eleanor Klibanoff / The Texas Tribune:
Ken Paxton asks Texas Supreme Court to stop abortion for woman with lethal fetal anomaly

Olivia Alafriz / Politico:

Trump hits Casey DeSantis over call for out-of-state backers to ‘be a part of the caucus’ in Iowa — The Florida first lady told Fox News viewers that “you do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus.” — Former president Donald Trump seized on an apparent blunder …

Discussion: USA Today, Washington Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Orlando Sentinel, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Washington Examiner, Mercury News, MAGA Inc, CNN, Florida Politics, The Messenger, Political Wire, Louisiana Illuminator, HuffPost and The Daily Beast

Alexander Burns / Politico:

Her Online Sex Life Was Exposed. She Lost Her Election. Now She's Speaking Out. — Susanna Gibson's campaign was rocked when an opponent exposed her private digital life to the public. She won't be the last. — It is not often that a state legislative campaign in an off-season election seizes the national spotlight.

Discussion: The Messenger, The Daily Caller, Tell Me How This Ends, Twitchy, Fox News, RedState and Outside the Beltway

Rashad Simmons / The Hill:

Trump lawyer says he will take stand in fraud trial regardless of gag order — Former President Trump's attorney Alina Habba claimed Friday that her client would take the stand on Monday in his civil fraud trial, despite the judge's gag order and discouragement from his legal team.

Discussion: Raw Story, Civil Discourse …, Fox News, Political Wire, Reuters, NPR, Wall Street Journal, UPI and Associated Press

Wall Street Journal:

Trump Takes 2024 Lead as Biden Approval Hits New Low, WSJ Poll Finds — Unhappiness with Biden's performance is pervasive, with economic pessimism weighing him down — WASHINGTON—President Biden's political standing is at its weakest point of his presidency, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds …