memeorandum: Help is at hand for Palestinians. It's all up to Hamas. (Washington Post)

12:30 PM ET, July 20, 2018

Top Items:

Michael Cohen Secretly Taped Trump Discussing Payment to Playboy Model — WASHINGTON — President Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, secretly recorded a conversation with Mr. Trump two months before the presidential election in which they discussed payments to a former Playboy model …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, CNN, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Axios, Raw Story, Mediaite, Splinter, The Daily Caller and The Guardian

ABC News:

Cohen taped Trump discussing making hush payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal: Sources — Investigators discovered recordings made by Michael Cohen that include then-candidate Donald Trump talking about making a payment to a former Playboy model, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

Discussion: One America News Network

Will Hurd / New York Times:

Trump Is Being Manipulated by Putin. What Should We Do? — Lawmakers must keep the American people informed of the current danger, writes a Republican congressman from Texas. — Mr. Hurd, a former C.I.A. officer, is a congressman from the 23rd District of Texas.

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Raw Story, Shareblue Media, IJR, NBC News, BloombergQuint, Axios, Roll Call, Political Wire, The Week, Bloomberg and Mediaite

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Are Republicans Covering for Trump, or for Themselves? — If the N.R.A. was compromised by Russia, the whole party's in trouble. — Of all the interlocking mysteries of the Trump-Russia scandal, one that I've found particularly perplexing is the utter servility of congressional Republicans …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, USA Today, CNN and Mother Jones

Adam Davidson / New Yorker:

A Theory of Trump Kompromat — Why the President is so nice to Putin, even when Putin might not want him to be. — The former C.I.A. operative Jack Devine watched Donald Trump's performance standing next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, and his first thought was, “There is no way Trump is a Russian agent.”

Discussion: CANNONFIRE

Eliana Johnson / Politico:

White House morale tanks amid Helsinki fallout — Staffers are considering accelerating their departures in the wake of the president's equivocations on Russian meddling in the 2016 election. — President Donald Trump's disastrous performance since his news conference alongside Russian …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, NewsBusters, BloombergQuint, Raw Story and Breitbart

Scott Bixby / The Daily Beast:

Poll: Half of Americans Think Trump Acted ‘Treasonous’ in Helsinki … President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended his extraordinary performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki, dismissing the “many haters” who wanted to see “a boxing match.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, Daily Kos, NBC News and Media Matters for America

Ilya Arkhipov / Bloomberg:
Putin Tells Diplomats He Made Trump a New Offer on Ukraine at Their Summit

Discussion: Politico, Salon, Hullabaloo, CNN, IJR, Outside the Beltway, Raw Story, The Guardian, News Agency UNIAN, New York Times, The Hill, Breitbart, Joe.My.God., Boing Boing, Hot Air, Axios, Washington Post, Vox, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Contemptor, Mediaite, Political Wire and The Daily Caller

Media Matters for America: Study: NY Times, Wash. Post quote more than twice as many Republicans as Democrats in political coverage

The Hill:
Trump demoralizes his own team with dizzying Russian moves

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Washington Monthly

Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:
Republicans should be repulsed

Discussion: CNN and Mediaite

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
God bless the ‘deep state’

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, twitchy.com, CNBC, Vox and FOX2now.com

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
“No Way to Run a Superpower”: the Trump-Putin Summit and the Death of American Foreign Policy

Discussion: Just Security, Balloon Juice and Wall Street Journal

Blake Hounshell / Politico:

Why I'm No Longer a Russiagate Skeptic — Facts are piling up, and it's getting harder to deny what's staring us in the face. — When I wrote, back in February, that I was skeptical that President Donald Trump would ever be proved to have secretly colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election in his favor, I mistyped.

Discussion: Raw Story and CNN

Jeff Cox / CNBC:

Trump says he's ‘ready’ to put tariffs on all $505 billion of Chinese goods imported to the US — President Donald Trump has indicated he is willing to put tariffs on all $505 billion of Chinese goods the U.S. imports. — The rhetoric marks ramps up the U.S-China trade war another step …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, NPR, TheBlaze, Washington Free Beacon, Sarah Palin, Wall Street Journal, Political Wire, Axios, Raw Story, The Guardian and The Week

Caitlin Owens / Axios:
Trade war shakes up Senate races in Trump states

Discussion: CNBC

CNBC:
Stock futures fall after Trump says he's ‘ready to go’ to $500 billion in tariffs on China

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and Axios

Edward Luce / Financial Times:

Henry Kissinger: ‘We are in a very, very grave period’ — It was not hard to entice Henry Kissinger to meet for lunch. Though he is 95, and moves very slowly, the grand consigliere of American diplomacy is keen to talk. He hops on and off planes to see the likes of Russia's Vladimir Putin …

Discussion: Washington Post, Political Wire and Althouse

New York Times:

Bill Shine, Trump's Top Communicator, Was Questioned by Federal Prosecutors — WASHINGTON — Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News hired this month as President Trump's communications chief, brought conservative credentials and heavy baggage with him into the White House.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Week, CNNMoney and Mediaite

NBC 6 South Florida:

Father of Parkland School Shooting Survivors Killed in North Lauderdale Armed Robbery — North Lauderdale Robbery Surveillance Video — The father of two Parkland school shooting survivors was fatally shot at his own North Lauderdale convenience store during a robbery, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Bustle, VICE News, Townhall and TheBlaze

Politico:

McConnell issues Supreme Court ultimatum — The Senate GOP leader is vowing to squeeze Democrats with a vote on Brett Kavanaugh right before the midterms if they don't back down on their demand for documents. — Mitch McConnell has a warning for Democrats demanding copious documents …

Discussion: Sarah Palin, Talking Points Memo, Above the Law, SCOTUSblog and The Week

Robert Barnes / Washington Post: Russian firm indicted in special counsel probe cites Kavanaugh decision to argue that charge should be dismissed

Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:

Fox News' Kimberly Guilfoyle leaving the network to hit campaign trail with Donald Trump Jr. — Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Fox News host and longtime network personality, plans to leave her role at the cable news channel, two people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Conservative News Today, Contemptor, AOL, TheBlaze, Mediaite, twitchy.com and The Daily Caller

Scott Johnson / Power Line:

The Brennan factor revisited — Following former Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan on Twitter, we see his animus nakedly on display. He is demented by hatred. Is this really the public role a former Director of the CIA is to be playing? Below is his most recent effusion on Twitter.

Discussion: The Federalist, Front Page Magazine, Breitbart and Slate

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal: Brennan and the 2016 Spy Scandal

Jon Levine / The Wrap:

USA Today Drops Columnist Cheri Jacobus After Tweet About Convicted Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein (Exclusive) — “Our editors let Jacobus know that she would no longer be writing for USA TODAY,” a spokesperson for the paper tells TheWrap — USA has dropped columnist Cheri Jacobus …

Discussion: Conservative News Today, Washington Times, twitchy.com, Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit

Gabriel Debenedetti / New York Magazine:

The Progressive Hawaii Senator Reshaping the 2020 Race, Without Even Running — As young, Twitter-friendly Democrats in the Senate go, Brian Schatz is slightly unusual: He really, seriously, definitely has no interest in running for president in 2020. But, slowly and beneath the radar …

Molly Hensley-Clancy / BuzzFeed News: Centrist Democrats Want A Presidential Candidate To Take On Bernie. They Just Don't Know Who It Is.

Jessica Sager / Page Six:

Roseanne Barr on Valerie Jarrett tweet: ‘I thought the b—h was white’ — Roseanne Barr spoke out relatively unapologetically about the vile Valerie Jarrett tweet that got her “Roseanne” reboot canceled: “I thought the b—h was white!” — In a video posted to Barr's YouTube page …

Discussion: The Root and Althouse

Robin Pogrebin / New York Times:

She Gave Millions to Artists Without Credit. Until Now. — The artist Carrie Mae Weems recalls sitting at her desk in Syracuse in 2014 “feeling very anonymous and misunderstood and trying to figure out how to make some new work” when she got the call. — “I was offered this extraordinary gift,” she said.

Bloomberg:

Where the Super-Rich Go to Buy Their Second Passport — Cheaper than a Gulfstream, nimbler than a superyacht, a second passport—or a third or fourth—has become another trophy for the ultra-wealthy. — Even self-styled citizens of the world, it seems, need a Plan B. Plus, that gold Maltese coat of arms looks classy.

Jay Nordlinger / National Review:

Tiny, Faraway Countries and Us — Montenegro is in the news, much to its discomfort. President Trump cast doubt on collective security, which is the crux of NATO: “You know, Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. . . . They are very aggressive people.

Predrag Milic / Associated Press: Montenegro more puzzled than affronted by Trump's attention

U.S. Department of Justice:

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein Delivers Remarks at the Aspen Security Forum — It is a privilege to join you this afternoon at one of the world's premier security conferences. — We meet at a fraught moment. For too long, along with other nations, we enjoyed the extraordinary benefits …

Discussion: HuffPost and Politico

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Justice Department plans to alert public to foreign operations targeting U.S. democracy

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Engadget, Vox and The Week

Joyce Cohen / New York Times:

Graduating to Their First Big City Rental — For two young newcomers, having “the full New York City experience” meant finding a happy medium between uptown gloss and downtown grit. — Two years ago, Alexi Stathakis and Lauren Witonsky met as summer interns at a public relations firm.

Scott Waldman / E&E News:

GOP candidate calls woman ‘naive’ for asking about climate — Body heat is making Earth warmer, and climate change is caused by the planet's movement toward the sun. — Those are the claims of Pennsylvania's Republican gubernatorial candidate, former state Sen. Scott Wagner.

Tim Ryan / CNN:

Rep. Tim Ryan: Marijuana should be legal in all 50 states — Tim Ryan, a Democrat, is the US Representative for Ohio's 13th congressional district. The views expressed are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN. — (CNN)The year Donald Trump was elected President …

Hollywood Reporter:

Paramount TV President Amy Powell Fired Over Inappropriate Comments — She was tapped to oversee the division in 2013 and has delivered hits including ‘13 Reasons Why’ and ‘The Alienist.’ — Five years after being tapped to lead the newly relaunched Paramount Television banner, Amy Powell is out.

Discussion: AOL, BloombergQuint, New York Times, theGrio and KTLA, more at Mediagazer »

Ricochet:

The Left Gives Up on Comedy — Jon Gabriel, Ed. — Four years ago, progressives were riding high. Obama was president, healthcare was fixed forever, and the reset-button Ruskies were our best pals. But even in that golden age, there was a growing sense that comedy was ... well ... problematic.

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Dems plan longshot gambit to force action on Mueller protection bill — House Democrats are moving Friday to force Republicans to hold a hearing on a measure that would prevent President Donald Trump from unilaterally removing special counsel Robert Mueller.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Terry Gross / NPR:

Reporter Shows The Links Between The Men Behind Brexit And The Trump Campaign — Carole Cadwalladr's investigation into Cambridge Analytica's role in Brexit led her to Russian connections and the Trump campaign. She says British investigators are working “closely with the FBI.” — TERRY GROSS, HOST:

BuzzFeed News:

Congratulations, Mr. President: Zuckerberg Secretly Called Trump After The Election — In the days following Donald Trump's election victory over Hillary Clinton, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg placed a secret, previously unreported call to the president-elect during which, sources tell BuzzFeed News …

Discussion: The Ringer, BloombergQuint and Bustle, more at Techmeme »

Ryan P. Williams / RealClearPolicy:

Do We Really Need a New Conservatism? — EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second essay of a RealClearPolicy series centered on the American Project, an initiative of the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. The project looks to the country's founding principles to respond to our current cultural and political upheaval.

Discussion: Real Clear Politics