Top Items:
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
US envoy to anti-IS coalition quits over Trump's Syria move — WASHINGTON (AP) — Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned in protest to President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
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Margaret Brennan / CBS News:
Brett McGurk, top U.S. envoy in ISIS fight, resigns — Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019. But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate …
Discussion:
Axios and Task & Purpose
The Daily Beast:
Bolton's Hawkish Syria Plan Backfired, Pushing Trump to Get Out — The national security adviser expanded U.S. goals in Syria to challenge Iran. But Trump wasn't on board, senior officials say, and Turkey took an opportunity to push the U.S. out. — A fateful decision by national security …
Discussion:
One America News Network, The Guardian, Washington Monthly, New York Times, Hot Air, Hill Reporter, National Review and The Mahablog
Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Dear Anonymous Inside the Trump Administration — The problem with the president isn't that he's an empty vessel. It's that he's a malignant one. — Dear Anonymous, — It's time we revisit that famous op-ed of yours. — In September, you acknowledged that you were a member of the …
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Magazine, Vox and Politico
Washington Post:
A tumultuous week began with a phone call between Trump and the Turkish president — When he spoke to President Trump on the telephone a week ago Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's agenda had not changed from when they met two weeks earlier at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina.
Discussion:
CNBC and Task & Purpose
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
The Syria Fairy Tale Lives! — Americans will no longer support Washington's incoherent Middle East adventurism. — Unlike my colleagues, I've been a bemused spectator during this week's Syria follies. As readers of these columns know (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here) …
Discussion:
Breitbart
Washington Post:
Trump's shutdown stunt is an act of needless stupidity — “IT'S ACTUALLY part of what you do when you sign up for any public service position.” So said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) when asked about the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who will have to work without pay …
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA, Vox, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller, Patterico's Pontifications, ThinkProgress and New York Daily News
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The Daily Beast:
Trump Plan to Win the Shutdown: A Noun, a Verb, and ‘Caravan’ — The White House intends to send surrogates on television to hammer Democrats and to accuse them of wanting drugs, terror, and ‘trafficking’ pouring over the southern border. — With the latest government shutdown …
Jessica Taylor / NPR:
Government Shuts Down Ahead Of Holiday Over Stalemate On Border Wall Funding
Discussion:
Knoxville News-Sentinel, CNN and Roll Call
John Bresnahan / Politico:
Inside the frantic negotiations that failed to avert a shutdown
Discussion:
Raw Story, Politico and Wall Street Journal
David Nakamura / Washington Post:
'He takes no ownership — that's just Trump': President eschews responsibility for a shutdown he once craved
Discussion:
Axios, Political Wire, New York Times, Shareblue Media, Hill Reporter, Breitbart, Townhall and Raw Story
New York Times:
Government Shuts Down as Talks Fail to Break Impasse
Discussion:
CBS Los Angeles, The Guardian, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, Chicks On The Right, POLITICUSUSA, Hit & Run, The Hill, Dan Bongino, ABC News, Vox and Althouse
Bloomberg:
Trump Discusses Firing Fed's Powell After Latest Rate Hike, Sources Say — Advisers warn ousting Fed chairman would lead to market rout — President's legal authority to remove Powell is unclear — President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell …
Discussion:
CNBC, CNN, Townhall, Axios, The Daily Beast, POLITICUSUSA, Hill Reporter, One America News Network and Raw Story
New York Times:
Trump Policy Gyrations Threaten Fragile Republican Coalition — WASHINGTON — President Trump's near-simultaneous decisions this week to force a government shutdown over his demand to fund a border wall and withdraw American troops from Syria and Afghanistan have imperiled the fragile Republican coalition …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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Burgess Everett / Politico:
Trump sees dangerous cracks in Hill GOP support — President Donald Trump faces a dangerous erosion of support among rank-and-file Republicans thanks to a series of jarring recent moves that have alienated even some close GOP allies. — From his defense of Saudi Arabia's crown prince …
Discussion:
Raw Story, One America News Network, Breitbart and Hot Air
Andrew Desiderio / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Abrupt Syria Withdrawal Thwarted ‘Major’ Operation Targeting ISIS, Sen. Bob Corker Says
Discussion:
One America News Network
New York Times:
Reliable Allies Refuse to Defend a President Content With Chaos
Discussion:
Politico, Hit & Run, Washington Post and The Guardian
Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:
Mick Mulvaney in 2015: Trump's views on border wall ‘simplistic,’ ‘absurd and almost childish’
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, Hullabaloo, HuffPost, Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Axios, Mediaite and Political Wire
CNN:
Trump lashed out at Whitaker after explosive Cohen revelations — Cohen says he lied about project in Moscow — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has at least twice in the past few weeks vented to his acting attorney general, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced …
Discussion:
Hill Reporter, The Week, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite
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Marty Lederman / Just Security:
What's Noticeably Missing from the Whitaker Nonrecusal Explanation
Discussion:
Washington Post
Robert Windrem / NBC News:
Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say — Building support for Stein was one of a “roster of themes” the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls “turned to repeatedly,” report says. — Two days before the 2016 presidential election …
Discussion:
Hill Reporter, Raw Story and Contemptor
Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
You Can't Serve Both Trump and America — The story is told of Jim Mattis, when he was the commanding general at Quantico, relieving a young lance corporal on Christmas. The rest of that wintry day, those entering the front gate of the Marine base were startled to see that the sentry was a general …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Karen Zraick / New York Times:
Student Targeted by ‘Troll Storm’ Hopes Settlement Will Send Message to White Supremacists — An African-American student leader who was targeted by a racist “troll storm” says she hopes an unusual legal settlement with one of her harassers will send a strong message to white supremacists …
Amy B Wang / Washington Post:
A girl in Mexico attached her Christmas list to a balloon. A man across the border found it. — The spot of red was what first caught Randy Heiss's attention last Sunday as he hiked the remote expanse of land behind his ranch in Patagonia, Ariz., a town near the U.S.-Mexico border.
John Bowden / The Hill:
Supreme Court refuses to restore Trump's temporary asylum restrictions — The Supreme Court on Friday refused a request from the Trump administration to restore newly implemented restrictions that would prevent some migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally from applying for asylum.
Discussion:
RedState, POLITICUSUSA, The New Civil Rights Movement and NY State of Politics
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Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Won't Revive Trump Policy Limiting Asylum
Discussion:
Power Line, Associated Press, The Week, Bloomberg, Mother Jones, Townhall, Daily Wire, Joe.My.God. and twitchy.com
Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“Some Reverse Wag-the-Dog Bulls—t": Boxed in and Fighting for Survival, Trump Is Flailing, Fuming, and Wondering Why Jared Is Getting All the Good Press — His base is revolting, his staff are rolling their eyes, and Ann Coulter called him “a joke.” But, says a self-pitying president, Macron is worse.
Discussion:
Raw Story and Washington Monthly
Paul Demko / Politico:
Mississippi's Republican governor quietly considering Medicaid expansion — JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi's Republican governor is considering Medicaid expansion, the first sign that long-held GOP opposition could be wilting in the Deep South after an election that was a big winner for the Obamacare program.
Discussion:
Political Wire
Lili Loofbourow / Slate:
The Year of the Old Boys — It's hard to overstate the extent to which childish masculinity revealed itself in 2018 as the engine of power in America. — Many of us have spent 2018 trying to wrap our heads around how, exactly, the country whose slightly priggish brand was once meritocracy …
David Goldman / CNN:
Dow's worst week since 2008 financial crisis; Nasdaq closes in bear market — New York (CNN Business)The Dow just suffered its deepest weekly plunge since 2008 and the Nasdaq is officially in a bear market. — The miserable performance reflects deepening fears on Wall Street of an economic slowdown …
Discussion:
Investor's Business Daily, FOX31 Denver, WGNO and Splinter
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