memeorandum: ABC's George Stephanopoulos was repeatedly warned not to use word ‘rape’ by producer — but said it anyway: sources (New York Post)

11:40 AM ET, December 19, 2024

Top Items:

William Kristol / The Bulwark:

The World's Richest Man Wants to Burn It All Down — Per NBC News, the Republicans who welcomed Elon Musk into their tent as a key decision-maker and thought leader are having an excellent time: … Happy Thursday. — The Kent Brockman Republicans — by William Kristol

Discussion: NBC News and WSVN-TV

Axios:

Behind the Curtain: Musk's America … - A Trump source told us this is the new playbook: Republican lawmakers got “instant and overwhelming feedback. … You should never bet against Trump or Elon.” — Now, the two are a combined force blanketing culture, media and governance.

Discussion: New Jersey Online, New York Times, Mediaite and Twitchy

Politico:

Johnson and Trump team floating stopgap plan with disaster aid, debt limit, farm bill — Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump's team are circling a new federal funding stopgap plan that includes disaster aid, pushing off a debt limit fight for two years and a one-year farm bill extension …

Discussion: Washington Times, The Hill, The Federalist and Bloomberg

Brooke Singman / Fox News:

Trump says Mike Johnson will ‘easily remain speaker’ if he acts ‘decisively and tough’ on spending bill — Trump told Fox News Digital anyone who supports a bill that doesn't take care of debt ceiling should be ‘primaried and disposed of’ — EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Donald Trump told Fox News Digital …

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Examiner, The Hill, CBS News, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit, New Jersey Online, Mediaite, New York Post, RedState, Daily Mail, Washington Post, Joe.My.God., Politico, Bloomberg, HuffPost, Reuters and The Federalist

Garrett Haake / NBC News:

Trump calls for abolishing the debt ceiling — In a phone interview with NBC News, Trump said getting rid of the debt ceiling entirely would be the “smartest thing [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely.” — President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that Congress should get rid …

Discussion: Axios, The Hill, New York Post, The Guardian, Alternet.org, Mediaite, Breitbart, Raw Story, Townhall, Politico, Joe.My.God., USA Today and acecomments.mu.nu

Stef W. Kight / Axios:

Rand Paul floats Elon Musk for House Speaker … - Musk has already emerged as one of the most powerful voices in politics, and has become one of President-elect Trump's closest confidants. … - “[T]hink about it . . . nothing's impossible. … - Non-representative names have been floated over the years during Speaker elections.

Discussion: The Hill, Mock Paper Scissors, Twitchy, New Republic, Raw Story, Mediaite, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, American Thinker and Townhall

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Trump's Trump — As you've likely seen, things kind of went off the rails today on Capitol Hill. Speaker Mike Johnson had assembled one of those big spending packages to avoid a government shutdown. Then Elon Musk went off on the bill and started a stampede for the exits among House Republicans.

Discussion: CNN, The Hill and Political Wire

Juliann Ventura / The Hill:

Bernie Sanders blasts ‘President Elon Musk’ for derailing spending deal — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took aim at tech mogul Elon Musk for saying that any lawmaker supporting the continuing resolution for the newly unveiled end-of-the-year funding deal should be voted out of office.

Discussion: New York Times, HuffPost, The Independent, IJR, Alternet.org, The Daily Signal, Washington Times, RedState, NOTUS and Raw Story

Punchbowl News:

12/19/24 ☀️ AM: … At first, the House Republican Conference was aghast — truly aghast — at the size and scope of the bill. And then Elon Musk, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance put the final nails in the coffin, saying the mammoth package was absurd …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Associated Press, Blaze Media, BizPac Review, Washington Times and The Hill, more at Techmeme »

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Hawley: “We need to have a serious look at who is leading this Congress”

Discussion: Breitbart, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, Alternet.org and Washington Examiner

Politico:
What Elon got wrong about the CR

Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
House Democrat: ‘Unelected oligarch’ Musk ‘governing by tweet’

Discussion: New Republic, Axios, Robert Reich, Daily Caller News Foundation, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and House Majority PAC

Miles Klee / Rolling Stone:
Musk Kills Government Funding Deal, Demands Shutdown Until Trump Is Sworn In

Politico:
Elon Musk fueled backlash to spending plan with false and misleading claims

Discussion: Krugman wonks out, Vanity Fair, Daily Kos and Diane Ravitch's blog

NOTUS:
Senate Republicans Suggest Trump's Call to Renegotiate the Government Funding Deal Is Unrealistic

Discussion: Washington Post, HuffPost, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, Daily Mail, ABC News, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Semafor, New York Times and The Hill

Politico:
Playbook: How Musk and Trump killed the CR

Discussion: Daily Mail, The Hill and Alternet.org

The Hill:
Johnson spending deal throws Speakership into question as floor vote approaches

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Axios, Raw Story and The Federalist

Washington Post:
Government shutdown nears after Trump and Musk kill compromise

Discussion: Unfogged

MSNBC:
‘Unelected President Musk’: Elon posts 70 times trashing GOP bill, Trump caves

Discussion: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Joe.My.God.

Politico:
Johnson weighs spending plan B as Elon Musk stokes opposition

Ari Natter / Bloomberg:
Trump, Musk Threaten Government Shutdown. Here's What That Costs

Discussion: HuffPost, New York Times, CNN, The Daily Signal, New Republic, NBC News, El País, Wall Street Journal, Good Politics/Bad Politics, USA Today, Democrats, Raw Story, driftglass and CNBC

Kate Brumback / Associated Press:

Appeals court removes prosecutor Fani Willis from Georgia election case against Trump and others — A state appeals court on Thursday removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others but did not dismiss the indictment …

Discussion: CNBC, The Guardian, HuffPost, USA Today, Fox News, Politico, Reuters, CBS News, NPR, Forbes, Georgia Recorder, The Post Millennial, Law & Crime, Blaze Media, The Independent, Twitchy, Semafor, Election Law Blog, New Republic, NBC News and Daily Mail

Melissa Quinn / CBS News:

Georgia appeals court removes Fani Willis from Trump 2020 election case — Washington — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must be removed from the 2020 election case against President-elect Donald Trump, reversing a trial judge's decision …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Fox News, Washington Examiner, WHDH-TV, Joe.My.God., Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Daily Caller News Foundation and IJR

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling / New Republic:

In Massive Twist, Trump's Georgia Case Might Not Be Dead Yet — Donald Trump's forthcoming presidency might not hinder the proceedings surrounding his Georgia election interference charges, according to an attorney for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Discussion: Axios, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CNN, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Hill, ABC News, Washington Times, WAGA-TV, New York Post, RedState, Associated Press, Twitchy, Townhall and Raw Story

Wall Street Journal:

How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge — Aides kept meetings short and controlled access, top advisers acted as go-betweens and public interactions became more scripted. The administration denied Biden has declined. — During the 2020 presidential primary …

Discussion: HotAir, Reason, The Post Millennial, Daily Mail, Election Law Blog, Power Line and Breitbart

Stephen Robinson / Public Notice:

Trump's walk back on lowering prices is a media failure — 🍳 Public Notice is made possible by paid subscribers. If you aren't one, please click the button below to sign up and support our independent journalism. 🍳 — 🥚 Subscribe to Public Notice 🥚

New York Post:

ABC's George Stephanopoulos was repeatedly warned not to use word ‘rape’ by producer — but said it anyway: sources — George Stephanopoulos was repeatedly told by his executive producer not to “use the word rape” before going on the air to discuss Donald Trump but the ABC News anchor ignored the warning …

Discussion: HotAir, Variety, Deadline, Townhall, The Independent, The Gateway Pundit, Los Angeles Times, Power Line, BizPac Review, Daily Mail, Breitbart, Puck, The Post Millennial and New York Times

Jonathan Alter / Washington Monthly:
Four Ways to Unbend the Media's Knee

Discussion: RedState, Tangle, Townhall and Chicago Sun Times

Noam Scheiber / New York Times:

Amazon Delivery Drivers at Seven Hubs Walk Out — The retail giant said it expected its operations to be largely unaffected by the strike of some drivers at contracting firms Amazon uses to deliver packages. — Workers who deliver packages from seven Amazon facilities across the country went …

Discussion: Ars Technica, Reuters, CBS News, Alternet.org, Axios, The Information, NPR, UPI, Blaze Media, One America News Network, Truthout, ABC News, WHDH-TV, abc7NY, Fox Business, Al Jazeera and ABC7

Joe Gould / Politico:

In rare move, Republican senators call for Hegseth's FBI report — The Senate Armed Services Committee usually limits who can view these types of background checks. Lawmakers want to see this one. — At least a dozen senators are pushing to see the FBI's background check on Pete Hegseth …

Discussion: Wide World of News and Raw Story

Oliver Darcy / Status:

House of Laz — SpinCo boss Mark Lazarus has indicated in private conversations that he believes the public perception of MSNBC is that Republicans cannot get a fair shake from the network — and he wants to change that. … To be clear, Lazarus has signaled that he wants the channel to retain its core progressive identity.

Discussion: Twitchy and TVLine

William Vaillancourt / The Daily Beast:

Dems Troll ‘Vice President’ Trump as Musk Meddles With Government Funding Bill — WHO'S IN CHARGE? — The term “President Musk” also started trending on X, which he owns.

Discussion: Twitchy

Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:

Trump's transition is happening over private emails. Federal officials are nervous. — Agencies are weighing in-person requirement for sensitive data. — Federal officials say they're worried about sharing documents via e-mail with Donald Trump's transition team because the incoming officials …

Discussion: PJ Media, Bloomberg and Alternet.org

New York Times:

Where Does a ‘Remarkable’ U.S. Economy Go From Here? — America's economy is far outstripping its peers, but there are serious risks, including from the president-elect. — The U.S. economy is pulling ahead of its global peers. Inflation is moderating, and the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates.