memeorandum: Former Dem considers run against Cuellar (Ally Mutnick/Politico)

11:30 AM ET, February 18, 2025

Top Items:

Sarah N. Lynch / Reuters:

Senior U.S. prosecutor resigns, citing demands to open probe into Biden-era contract — The top federal prosecutor who supervised criminal cases at the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney's office resigned on Tuesday, citing what she described as an improper demand by officials appointed …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

CNN:

Head of Justice Department's Washington, DC, criminal division quits — The head of the criminal division within the DC US Attorney's Office has left her post, according to four sources. — The sudden departure of Justice Department veteran Denise Cheung comes a day after President Donald …

Discussion: New York Times, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, The Guardian, UPI, Associated Press and Washington Examiner

Washington Post:

High-ranking D.C. federal prosecutor resigns in protest — The leader of the criminal division has stepped down following a dispute over freezing Biden-era environmental grants. — The head of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office in D.C. resigned Tuesday morning after declining …

Discussion: Semafor

Washington Post:

Top Social Security official exits after clash with Musk's DOGE over data — Yet another top career staffer is leaving the administration amid a disagreement over a request by Elon Musk's team for sensitive government information.

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Who's in charge of DOGE? Not Elon Musk, White House says — A Trump administration personnel official says Musk has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions.” — Elon Musk is not the leader of DOGE — the mysterious Trump administration operation overseeing an effort to break and remake the federal bureaucracy.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Techdirt, Associated Press, New Republic, The Fucking News, IJR, The Gateway Pundit and UPI

emptywheel:

Why Elon Musk Can't Run DOGE [sic] Anymore — Yesterday, Judge Tanya Chutkan had a Presidents Day hearing on a lawsuit challenging DOGE's actions. While she reportedly seemed inclined not to grant an emergency restraining order, she did order the government to provide her with two pieces of information …

Politico:
GOP flinches at Musk cuts

Discussion: Business Insider and Jacobin

The Bulwark: Staying Patriotic in Trump's America

Andrew Solender / Axios:

Scoop: Dems prep for Trump legal meltdown … Democrats are meeting with state attorneys general, top lawyers, litigation firms, constitutional experts and advocacy organizations, multiple top lawmakers told Axios. — “Looking into all the implications and all the strategies …

Discussion: Washington Examiner and The Nation

Ally Mutnick / Politico:
Former Dem considers run against Cuellar

Discussion: Commentary Magazine

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post: The GOP has somehow backed Democrats into defending the status quo

New York Times:

Under Trump's Mass Deportation Plan, Some Migrants Are Being Sent to Panama — Migrants deported from the United States are being held at the Decapolis Hotel Panama in Panama City. The deportees come from Afghanistan, Iran, China and other nations. — They arrived at the United States border …

Discussion: Reason and New York Post

David Gilbert / Wired:

No, 150-Year-Olds Aren't Collecting Social Security Benefits — Elon Musk claims to have found rampant fraud in the Social Security Administration. There's a much simpler explanation. — Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) …

Discussion: 19FortyFive, Poynter, PolitiFact, New York Post and Washington Examiner

Fatima Hussein / Associated Press:
Social Security head steps down over DOGE access of recipient information, AP sources say

Discussion: MeidasTouch News, ABC News, The Guardian, Fox News, CBS News, IJR, PoliticusUSA, Grabien, Tumblr, David August and Daily Mail

Mark Hertling / The Bulwark:

Marco Rubio Is Walking into a Trap — I'M AN ETERNAL OPTIMIST. But my gut, informed by a career spent studying and implementing American foreign policy, tells me this week will not go well. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Discussion: Newsweek and Washington Examiner

Associated Press:
Russia and the US agree to work towards improving ties and ending the Ukraine war in landmark talks

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, Human Events, The Daily Caller, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, The Hill, CityNews Toronto, RTÉ and CBS News

New York Times:

C.I.A. Expands Secret Drone Flights Over Mexico — The covert program, begun during the Biden administration and stepped up by President Trump, is hunting for the location of fentanyl labs. — The United States has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs …

Discussion: El País and Fox News

CNN:
CIA flying covert drone missions into Mexico to spy on drug cartels

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Daily News:

NYC Mayor Adams calls demands to resign over Trump DOJ indictment dismissal a ‘modern day Mein Kampf,’ sparking outrage — Mayor Adams contended Monday that renewed calls for his resignation over President Trump's Justice Department bid to drop his corruption indictment amounts to …

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Post and The Forward

Jared Gans / The Hill:
New York City Council speaker calls for Adams resignation

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, CNN, New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News and Raw Story

Associated Press:
Governor weighs removing NYC Mayor Adams after his top deputies quit amid criminal case turmoil

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hill, USA Today, New York Post, New York Times, Townhall, The Post Millennial, Fox News, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Daily Kos, ABC News and abc7NY

Remy Tumin / New York Times:

Delta Plane Overturns at Toronto Airport While Landing — The airport said on social media that emergency teams were responding and that all passengers and crew were accounted for. — A Delta Air Lines flight arriving at Toronto Pearson Airport from Minneapolis appears to have overturned …

Lauren Aratani / The Guardian:

A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances — A new poll also found that four in 10 Americans have shifted spending to align with moral views in recent months — Americans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash …

Rebecca Traister / New York Magazine:

Wokeness Is Not to Blame for Trump — How a misdiagnosis of the 2024 election has calcified into self-defeating conventional wisdom. — In the midst of chaos and cataclysm, it's rare to find agreement across partisan divides, but in the months since Donald Trump won his second presidential election …

Reuters:

Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk's Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say — U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees reviewing Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink were fired over the weekend as part of a broader purge of the federal workforce, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Discussion: Raw Story and STAT

Jill Lawrence / The Bulwark:

Seven Myths Shattered by Trump 2.0 (and One True Thing) — THE PAST FEW WEEKS have been a master class in myth-busting, starting with the fantasy that the government should be run like a business and the corollary delusion that winning candidates don't follow through on their campaign agendas.

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:

“His mission is to eradicate ‘woke Jesus’”: How money, lies and religion are abused to gut democracy — Journalist Katherine Stewart's “Money, Lies, and God” takes readers into Trump's movement to end America — Money, God and lies: These are the three pillars of the movement that led …

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

Trump administration fires thousands for ‘performance’ without evidence, in messy rush — Many probationary employees targeted in latest Trump cuts across agencies had excellent ratings; legal challenges are expected. — The first message from her manager on Saturday afternoon misspelled Amanda Mae Downey's name.

Discussion: New Republic, Digby's Hullabaloo, Raw Story and HotAir

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders — A core group of so-called disease detectives, who track outbreaks, was apparently spared. But other young researchers are out of jobs. — The notices came all weekend, landing in the inboxes of federal scientists …

Discussion: WAGA-TV, NOTUS and CNN

Caleb Ecarma / Musk Watch:

Meta removes Facebook ad criticizing Musk — Meta removed an advertisement earlier this month criticizing Elon Musk's use of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to seize Americans' private information. “A single individual now controls sensitive U.S. data, risking our national security.

Discussion: The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

Paul Krugman:

Making Microbes Great Again — The Texas measles outbreak is just the beginning — I'm almost certain that I had measles as a child. My memories are a bit vague, and unfortunately my parents, who would surely have remembered the incident, have passed on.

Discussion: Forbes, Off the Kuff, Raw Story, CBS News and New York Post

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the Right — Research suggests that pandemics are more likely to reduce rather than build trust in scientific and political authorities. — For decades, America's young voters have been deeply—and famously—progressive.

The Daily Beast:

Trump Wants Kennedy Center to Lavish MAGA Artists With Honors — President Donald Trump wants to lavish his personal friends with Kennedy Center Honors, after parachuting himself into the hot seat at the cultural mecca. Earlier this month, Trump, who reportedly also privately railed …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Shannon Najmabadi / Washington Post:

DOGE sued by taxpayer groups and unions over access to IRS files — The plaintiffs expressed concerns about letting the U.S. DOGE Service, led by Elon Musk, see sensitive information such as net worth and income. — Groups advocating for unionized workers, taxpayers and small businesses sued …

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Popular Information:

The whitewashing of military schools — The Department of Defense (DoD) is imposing a comprehensive censorship regime across its network of 161 primary and secondary schools — eliminating content that acknowledges the contributions of women, minorities, and LGBTQ people.

Discussion: The Guardian