memeorandum: July 18, 2024 — Paul Manafort walking onto the floor of the Republican National Convention … (Heather Cox Richardson/Letters from an American)

1:35 PM ET, July 19, 2024

Top Items:

Biden's family starts discussing his exit plan from the 2024 race — The president's family members have discussed how he would want to end his re-election bid on his own timing and with a carefully calculated plan in place. — WASHINGTON — Members of President Joe Biden's family …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir, New York Post, TMZ.com, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, The Sun, Breitbart and Raw Story

Sean Casten / Chicago Tribune:

Rep. Sean Casten: It's time for Joe Biden to pass the torch — Our country faces an existential threat this November. — On the one hand, we have Joe Biden. A man who passed the biggest climate and infrastructure bills in our nation's history; expanded NATO; has overseen record-breaking economic growth …

Discussion: Axios, Business Insider, NPR, Politico, Washington Examiner and ABC7

Politico:

Why the big boot-Biden House Dem wave isn't here yet — With assists from POLITICO's Congress team — In the last 24 hours, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and, now, Barack Obama, have essentially given political cover to any congressional Democrat who wishes to speak out against Joe Biden.

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Hartford Courant and CBS News

Eric Bazail-Eimil / Politico:

Top Biden ally says president is weighing options for November — Sen. Chris Coons said Biden is “weighing ... who is the best candidate to win in November.” — One of the national co-chairs of President Joe Biden's reelection campaign acknowledged Friday that the president is evaluating …

Discussion: CNBC

NBC News:
Biden left feeling angry and betrayed by top Democratic leaders wavering on his campaign

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Guardian, New Republic, The Gateway Pundit, Politico, Business Insider, IJR, Instapundit, New York Post and HuffPost

Robert B. Hubbell / Today's Edition Newsletter: Keeping my head down, Part II.

Associated Press:
Biden pushes party unity as he resists calls to step aside, says he'll return to campaign next week

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Detroit News, CNBC, So What, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Plain Dealer, USA Today, Fox News, DNyuz, RedState, Business Insider, al.com, Daily Kos and NBC News

CBS News:
Trump's national lead over Biden grows — CBS News poll

Discussion: Punchbowl News, The Guardian, The Root, Daily Caller News Foundation, modernity, Breitbart, The Hill, New York Post, Power Line, DNyuz and The Atlantic

New York Times:
People Close to Biden Say He Appears to Accept He May Have to Leave the Race

Discussion: The Guardian, The Sun, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Semafor, DNyuz, The Bulwark, Election Law Blog, The National Pulse, Forbes, The Spectator World, NPR, NBC News and The Hill

Washington Post:
Pelosi has told House Democrats that Biden may soon be persuaded to exit race

Discussion: Salon, NOTUS, Wall Street Journal, DNyuz, New York Daily News, RedState, New Jersey Online, Truthout, ABC News, Fox News, Washington Times, Forbes, The Guardian, News18, The National Pulse, Slate, Breitbart and Al Jazeera

NBC News:
Election 2024 live updates: Trump speaks at the RNC; Biden faces growing calls to drop out of the presidential race

Discussion: CBS News and Fox News

Jake Lahut / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Plan to Slam Dems for Their ‘Coup’ Against Biden: Campaign

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Guardian, New Republic, The Federalist, E&E News, Scripps News, The Dossier, NPR and New York Post

Reuters:
Once defiant, Biden is now ‘soul searching’ about dropping out of race, source says

Discussion: The New Bedford Light, New York Post, OutsideTheBeltway, Bloomberg, Fox News, Washington Examiner, New Republic, The Daily Beast and NBC News

Stephen Neukam / Axios:
Sen. Jon Tester calls on Biden to drop 2024 presidential bid

Discussion: Politico, Fox News, New York Post, Business Insider and USA Today

David Frum / The Atlantic:

This Crew Is Totally Beatable — At the climax of the Republican National Convention last night, former President Donald Trump's nomination-acceptance speech was a disheveled mess, endless and boring. He spoke for 93 minutes, the longest such speech on record.

Discussion: Raw Story, ABC30 and The Moderate Voice

S.V. Date / HuffPost:

Excruciating! Trump's Endlessly Long, Wildly Dishonest RNC Speech — Donald Trump briefly tried a “new tone” — before pivoting to Hannibal Lecter, “crazy” Pelosi, insurrection lies and more of his greatest hits. — LOADING — MILWAUKEE — Not four years after Donald Trump's eldest son boasted …

Discussion: The Good in Us, New Yorker, New Republic, Washington Post and New York Times

Zachary Basu / Axios:

Trump tramples unity theme in two-act convention speech … - Inside the Fiserv Forum, the ebullient mood gave way to rapt silence. … - “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he said, echoing a long list of GOP convention speakers who had cited divine intervention for Trump's survival.

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, IJR, DNyuz, New Jersey Online, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, Business Insider, NPR, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Post, New Statesman and ABC News

Marc A. Caputo / The Bulwark: Trump Emerges from Convention a Republican Caesar

Dan Pfeiffer / The Message Box:
Donald Trump Can (and Must) Be Defeated

Discussion: Washington Post, New Republic, UnHerd and Washington Times

CNN:
Fact check: Trump makes more than 20 false claims in RNC acceptance speech

Discussion: Scripps News, New York Times, Roll Call, New Republic, Mediaite, ABC News, WFAA-TV, The Guardian and Baltimore Sun

Molly Ball / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Hasn't Changed, but the GOP Has

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, DNyuz, Boston Herald, Variety, Times Now, News18, Associated Press, USA Today and The Japan Times

Rolling Stone:
The RNC Is Calling This Billionaire Trump Donor an ‘Everyday American’

Discussion: Urban Milwaukee, USA Today, New York Post, Raw Story and WisPolitics

Will Saletan / The Bulwark: What Happens When a Felon Throws a ‘Law-and-Order’ Convention

Associated Press:
Donald Trump will accept Republican nomination again days after surviving an assassination attempt

Associated Press:
Rebranding the brand man, softer Trump vs. fighter Trump, regular mentions of Harris: RNC Takeaways

Discussion: Hollywood Life and Associated Press

Reuters:

Global cyber outage grounds flights, hits banks, telecoms, media — A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems globally on Friday, grounding flights, forcing some broadcasters off air and hitting services from banking to healthcare. — An update to a product offered …

Matt Binder / Mashable:

Elon Musk's X adds pro-Trump icons for Trump hashtags — The move comes after Musk publicly endorsed Trump — Over the weekend, Elon Musk made his support for Donald Trump official by publicly endorsing the former-president shortly after Trump was wounded in the ear by a would-be assassin during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Discussion: One America News Network, The Verge, Forbes and RedState

Griffin Eckstein / Salon: Elon Musk's X pushes Trump tags on all US users

Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:

The Zeal of a Convert — Much of the coverage of JD Vance presents has implied, if not outright stated, that Vance is a hypocrite and opportunist. How else do you explain someone who denounced Trump in a myriad of ways, and then jumped onto Trump bandwagon when struggling in his primary race?

Discussion: Politico and The Spectator World

Jamison Foser / Finding Gravity:

Horny for fascism — You ever have one of those days where nothing surprises you but the sheer volume of things not surprising you is kind of overwhelming? — Here's Politico reporter Natalie Allison with an extremely unsurprising yet deeply stupid bit of not-journalism:

Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:

July 18, 2024 — Paul Manafort walking onto the floor of the Republican National Convention yesterday illustrated that the Republican Party under Trump has become thoroughly corrupted into an authoritarian party aligned with foreign dictators. — Manafort first advised and then managed Trump's 2016 campaign.

Bloomberg:

Zuckerberg Calls Trump's Response to Shooting ‘Badass’ — Meta CEO doesn't endorse Trump or Biden for president — Mark Zuckerberg said that former President Donald Trump's immediate reaction after being shot was “badass” and inspiring, and helps explain his appeal to voters.

Discussion: The Hill, Business Insider, Washington Examiner, RedState, Breitbart, Mediaite, The Verge, Fox Business, One America News Network, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Forbes, The Information, News18 and The Gateway Pundit, more at Techmeme »

Liz Dye / Public Notice:

Rudy Giuliani can't even fall out of bankruptcy right — His tumble at the RNC was bad. His legal problems are even worse. … If Rudy Giuliani simply would've walked into the sunset after his 2008 presidential bid, he'd probably have airports named after him by now.

Discussion: Raw Story

Gustaf Kilander / The Independent:

AOC goes live on Instagram saying many who want Joe Biden to drop out of race also want to remove Kamala — ‘A lot of them are not just interested in removing the president. They are interested in removing the whole ticket,’ congresswoman says … Support truly — independent journalism

Discussion: New Republic, Washington Examiner, USA Today, Breitbart, New York Times, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and DNyuz

Sam Levine / The Guardian:

Election denialism front and center at Republican national convention — Doubts about 2020 and fears of another ‘stolen’ election persist - while Trump has beseeched attendees to ‘protect the vote’ — The fight for democracy is supported by — “Don't fuck us,” Lara Logan, the former CBS News anchor turned to me and said.