memeorandum: Speaker Mike Johnson is still dealing with Kevin McCarthy's baggage (NBC News)

6:10 PM ET, March 13, 2024

Top Items:

Judge dismisses some charges against Trump in the Georgia 2020 election interference case — The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case has dismissed some of the charges against ex-President Donald Trump, but others remain — The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 …

Max Burns / The Hill:

Trump's GOP is already dying — For Donald Trump, last week must have seemed like a final, crowning victory over his lingering Republican critics. On Friday the Republican National Committee made official what Trump had already decreed weeks ago, electing Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as party co-chair.

Discussion: Mediaite, CLAYTOONZ, The Dispatch, New York Magazine, Axios, The Daily Beast, DNyuz, Democrats, HuffPost, Forbes, LGBTQ Nation, MeidasTouch and Raw Story

Lee Moran / HuffPost:

Donald Trump Flips Out At Democrats' Mocking Montages With Massive Self-Own … Video

Discussion: Gizmodo, Decider, Salon, Mediaite, New Republic, Crooks and Liars, IJR, MeidasTouch and Political Wire

Caroline Vakil / The Hill:

Cheney fuels speculation about her next move — Speculation is growing about the role former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) will play in the 2024 election as President Biden and former President Trump barrel toward a rematch. — Cheney has vowed that she'll do whatever it takes to keep Trump from returning to the White House.

Discussion: NaturalNews.com, RedState, WFLA-TV, BizPac Review, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, The Federalist and New Jersey Online

Dan Ladden-Hall / The Daily Beast:

Haley Shaved 77K Votes Off Trump's Georgia Win Despite Dropping Out — The haul is substantially more than the number of votes by which Trump lost the state in 2020. — Donald Trump's overwhelming victory in the Georgia Republican primary Tuesday locked up the 2024 GOP nomination for him …

Discussion: MeidasTouch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Semafor, Newsweek, The American Conservative, The Hill, Fox News, Georgia Recorder, The Gateway Pundit, The Guardian, Political Wire and RedState

Allison Quinn / The Daily Beast:

Putin Recalls Trump Acting Like Jealous GF in Private — According to him, Trump made no attempt to hide his own insecurities about Joe Biden. — Russia's Vladimir Putin has revealed an apparently previously unreported conversation with Donald Trump in which he claims the then-American president …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Daily Caller, ABC News, Reuters and Washington Examiner

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Trump demonstrates why ‘Artificial Intelligence’ will be so useful to him — It is perfectly fitting that Donald Trump used his social media platform Truth Social to allege that he'd been the target of artificial-intelligence nefariousness. — “The Hur Report was revealed today!

Discussion: Raw Story, Outside the Beltway and IJR

ABC News:
Criminal referrals emerge as possible ‘exit strategy’ of struggling Biden impeachment inquiry, sources say

Discussion: New Republic, Raw Story, Fox News, The Maine Wire, Punchbowl News and Washington Examiner

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:
Trailing Trump in Polls, Biden Can Be More Bullish in One Battleground

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, BizPac Review and Associated Press

USA Today:
Trump shows slight lead over Biden in new exclusive poll even as views of economy brighten

Discussion: American Greatness, The Guardian, New York Daily News, The Bulwark, Reason, The Hill, Fox News, New York Post, HotAir, CBS News, WAGA-TV and Emerson Polling

Sarah Fielding / Engadget:

Tesla paid no federal income taxes while paying executives $2.5 billion over five years — Spoiler: The company actually received $1 million in refunds. — In case you need another reason to shout “tax the rich” from the rooftops, it's here, and it's going to make you angry.

Discussion: The Guardian and Institute for Policy Studies

Averyr / Institute for Policy Studies:
More for Them, Less for Us — Corporations That Pay Their Executives More Than Uncle Sam

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, HuffPost, DNyuz and Washington Times

Nathaniel Meyersohn / CNN:

Family Dollar and Dollar Tree will close 1,000 stores — New York CNN — Family Dollar, the struggling discount chain that caters to low-income customers predominantly in cities, said Wednesday it will close nearly 1,000 stores. — Years of mismanagement and poor conditions in stores have hurt Family Dollar's brand.

Farnoush Amiri / Associated Press:

Hunter Biden rebuffs Republicans' invitation to appear for a public hearing — Hunter Biden on Wednesday rejected an invitation from House Republicans to appear for a public hearing next week alongside former business associates, an inquiry his attorney dismissed as a “carnival side show.”

Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post:
Hunter Biden declines House committee invitation to testify publicly

Discussion: Breitbart

HotAir:

Fani's Case Flops, Ben Shapiro Under Fire — On this full episode of LARRY, we discuss the BREAKING NEWS for Donald Trump out of Fulton County, the internet's RAGE at Ben Shapiro, Democrat INSANITY about voter ID, the RARE sanity coming out of the UK, and MUCH, much more!

Shannon Vavra / The Daily Beast:

Russians Warned to Flee Border Cities While They Still Can — Anti-Putin militants urged citizens to evacuate on Wednesday after launching a military offensive aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. — Anti-Kremlin Russian fighters have begun urging their fellow citizens to abandon their homes …

Discussion: The Moscow Times and Metro.co.uk

US Department of Justice:

Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Wildlife Trafficking Charges as Part of Yearslong Effort to Create Giant Hybrid Sheep for Captive Hunting — For Immediate Release — Defendant Worked to Traffic Marco Polo Sheep Parts from Kyrgyzstan, Clone Sheep, Illegally Inseminate Ewes to Create Hybrids …

Discussion: CBS News, RedState, The Daily Beast, Interesting Engineering, The Daily Caller and Gizmodo

Lauren Sforza / The Hill: Man pleads guilty to scheme to create giant sheep hybrids for captive hunting

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Chubb CEO defends backing Trump appeal bond in E. Jean Carroll case — The CEO of the Chubb insurance company defended a subsidiary providing former President Donald Trump with a $91.6 million appeals bond in the case where he was found liable for defaming E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of rape.

Discussion: The Hill, ABC News, NBC News, Raw Story and The Moderate Voice

Dasha Burns / NBC News:

Abortion is a top concern for Trump as he considers his VP pick — Former President Donald Trump has been laser-focused on the abortion views of his potential running mates, viewing the issue as a potential vulnerability for Republicans. — PALM BEACH, Fla. — Last month at Mar-a-Lago …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Daily Caller News Foundation, Fox News and Iowa Starting Line

Josh Fiallo / The Daily Beast:

DeSantis Accuses Libs of TikTok of Spreading Lies For ‘Clicks’ — Libs of TikTok claimed Florida provides drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, despite the state having some of the country's harshest anti-immigrant laws. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis skewered the right-wing social media account Libs …

Discussion: MeidasTouch, DNyuz, New Republic, Mediaite and Florida Politics

NBC News:

Speaker Mike Johnson is still dealing with Kevin McCarthy's baggage — Johnson is grappling with issues inherited from his predecessor: an unfunded government, a Rules panel stacked with conservatives and an impeachment inquiry that's losing steam. — WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia …

Jesse Paul / The Colorado Sun:

Lauren Boebert won't pursue special election nomination to replace Ken Buck after his abrupt resignation — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert said Wednesday that she will not pursue the Republican special election nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Ken Buck in Colorado's 4th Congressional District after he departs Congress at the end of next week.

Kati Perry / Washington Post:

Republicans' House majority is their smallest in decades, and shrinking — Republicans are entering a months-long stretch of legislating with their smallest House majority in decades. And the margin is about to tighten even more. — Jan. 200120032005200720092011201320152017201 9202120230170190230250Number …

Discussion: New Republic, NBC News, Reuters, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, KXAN-TV, Washington Examiner, PoliticusUSA and IJR

Washington Post:

On popular online platforms, predatory groups coerce children into self-harm — Vulnerable teens are blackmailed into degrading and violent acts by abusers who then boast about it — Editor's note: This story describes extremely disturbing events that may be upsetting for some people.

Discussion: Wired, more at Techmeme »

Beege Welborn / HotAir:

Everything's Fine: West Point Drops ‘Duty, Honor, and Country’ From Its Mission Statement — I have been pretty hard on clueless Army Secretary Christine Wormuth during the year and a half I've been scribbling here. When you see her as the ballerina atop the melting, gooey …

Discussion: Newsmax, RedState, The Western Journal and Breitbart

Kate Santaliz / NBC News:

Sen. Katie Britt has told her misleading anecdote about sex trafficking multiple times — An NBC News analysis shows Britt has brought up the same victim, who was trafficked under the Bush administration, at least five times this year to criticize Biden's border policies.

Discussion: Axios, HuffPost and Political Wire

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

Brett Kavanaugh knows truth of alleged sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford says in book — In memoir, professor whose accusation rocked 2018 supreme court hearings says rightwing justice not ‘consummately honest person’ — The US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh is not a …

Discussion: Forbes and Raw Story

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:

Don't Be Lulled Into Thinking Trump II Will Just Be A Repeat Of Trump I — INSIDE: Robert Hur ... Ron Klain ... Kristi Noem … We Have More Than An Inkling Of What's To Come — After many months of very explicit promises from Donald Trump about what a second term as president would look like …

Lauren White / CREW:

DHS officials' texts show unfiltered reaction to January 6 — Internal text messages from the Federal Protective Service obtained by CREW give a never before seen look at how senior government law enforcement officials prepared for and responded to the insurrection on January 6th.

Discussion: Raw Story

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Now at 7.6% — More than one in five Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+ — WASHINGTON, D.C. — LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual.

Discussion: RedState, LGBTQ Nation, NPR, UPI, New York Daily News, PinkNews, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Hill, New York Post, Advocate, NBC News and Axios

Filip Timotija / The Hill:

Democrats plead with Johnson to put Ukraine bill on floor: ‘Lead, follow or get out of the way’ — A bicameral group of Democrats pleaded to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to put the Senate's foreign aid bill, which includes Ukraine aid, to a floor vote, emphasizing that the war-torn …

Discussion: Raw Story, Democrats, The Guardian, MeidasTouch, New York Post, Fox News, Axios, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, Washington Examiner, Washington Times and Wall Street Journal

Roger Sollenberger / The Daily Beast:

‘Make the RNC White Again’: GOP Ends Minority Outreach Program — With Trump allies taking over the RNC and cleaning house, one of the casualties was a minority outreach program that seemed to be working for Republicans. … After years of accusations of financial mismanagement …

Discussion: MeidasTouch, Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, Washington Examiner and Vanity Fair