memeorandum: Rose and Eliza — I was recently given documents showing … (Beto O'Rourke/Medium)

9:00 AM ET, July 15, 2019

Top Items:

Trump Fans the Flames of a Racial Fire — WASHINGTON — President Trump woke up on Sunday morning, gazed out at the nation he leads, saw the dry kindling of race relations and decided to throw a match on it. It was not the first time, nor is it likely to be the last.

Discussion: The Week, CNN, Washington Post, Associated Press, Breitbart, Mediaite, Al Jazeera, Slate, FOX31 Denver, POLITICUSUSA, fox5sandiego.com, UPI and The Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:

Trump weighs ousting Commerce chief Wilbur Ross after census defeat — Some White House officials expect the Cabinet secretary, who has known the president for years, to depart as soon as this summer. — WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has told aides and allies that he is considering …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, The Week and Wall Street Journal

Mike Allen / Axios:

A tough time to be a Trump supporter — Conservatives who reluctantly support President Trump often try to pretend the daily outrage didn't happen, but yesterday's “go back” tweets were like his “both sides” comment on Charlottesville — a transgression that won't instantly fade, and can't be laughed off.

Discussion: Power Line, Townhall, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Trump to up the ante on asylum rules

Discussion: Bloomberg, Axios and Gizmodo

Goldie Taylor / The Daily Beast:

Trump Is a Racist. If You Still Support Him, So Are You. — The president keeps baring his ass, and the people talking about his clothing as he does are part of the problem. — The president is a racist, in his words and his actions. — Before you go clutching your pearls and extolling the virtues of …

Discussion: American Prospect, Townhall, Mashable, CBS Boston, FOX2now.com, The Gateway Pundit, The Guardian, Breitbart, The Resurgent and Washington Times

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:

Republicans are quiet as Trump urges minority congresswomen to leave the country — A day has passed without prominent Republicans stepping forward to disagree with President Trump's notion that four minority congresswomen who have been critical of his approach to immigration enforcement should …

Discussion: The Guardian, Newsweek, ImmigrationProf Blog, Crooks and Liars and Mediaite

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Trump's Tweets Prove That He Is a Raging Racist — It is undeniably true that America's president opposes diversity. — Donald Trump keeps trying to convince any disbelieving holdouts that he is a raging racist. At least, that's how I imagine his motives.

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Roll Call, USA Today, twitchy.com, Washington Post, New York Daily News and ABC News

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

A Blunder of Epic Proportions — Regular readers know that I am a fan of President Trump, and more often than not, a fan of his use of social media. But today he committed the worst unforced error of his presidency, one that we will hear about from the Democrats from now until November 2020.

Discussion: The Bulwark, The Hill, Washington Post and Althouse

Adrian Walker / BostonGlobe.com:
Ayanna Pressley brushes off Trump's tweets — but not his treatment of refugees

Discussion: Splinter

Kirby Wilson / Tampa Bay Times:
Donald Trump told U.S.-born congressional Reps. to ‘go back’ to their home countries. Florida's response?

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Popular Information and Axios

Bonchie / RedState:
As Democrats Fight a Civil War, Trump Strips Naked and Runs Onto the Battlefield

Discussion: Politico, The Resurgent and Instapundit

Dan Diamond / Politico:

Biden unveils health care plan: Affordable Care Act 2.0 — Democratic front-runner Joe Biden today will unveil a health plan that's intended to preserve the most popular parts of Obamacare — from Medicaid expansion to protections for patients with pre-existing conditions …

Discussion: Washington Post and YouTube

Sam Baker / Axios:

The GOP isn't worried about its Affordable Care Act lawsuit — Senate Republicans aren't sweating the prospect of the courts striking down the entire Affordable Care Act, insisting they'd be able to act quickly to repair the damage — despite their inability to coalesce around a replacement plan at any point over the past decade.

Discussion: Political Wire, Hullabaloo and The Week

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
Biden unveils health plan, sharpening fight among Democrats

Discussion: Splinter

Averi Harper / ABC News: Former Vice President Joe Biden rolls out expanded Affordable Care Act health plan

Katie Glueck / New York Times:
Joe Biden Decides He Doesn't Need to Stay Above the Fray After All

Discussion: Common Dreams

Beto O'Rourke / Medium:

Rose and Eliza — I was recently given documents showing that both Amy and I are descended from people who owned slaves. Along with other possessions listed in their property log were two human beings, Rose and Eliza. — A paternal great-great-great grandfather of mine, Andrew Cowan Jasper, owned these two women in the 1850s.

Discussion: CNN, RedState, Townhall, The Guardian, Bloomberg, NBC News, The Daily Caller, Politico, The Hill, Splinter, Fox News, twitchy.com, Daily Wire, Axios and Mediaite

Barbara Bradley Hagerty / The Atlantic:

An Epidemic of Disbelief — Robert Spada walked into the decrepit warehouse in Detroit and surveyed the chaos: Thousands of cardboard boxes and large plastic bags were piled haphazardly throughout the cavernous space. The air inside was hot and musty. Spada, an assistant prosecutor …

Craig Gilbert / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Former Gov. Scott Walker to take the helm of conservative group, says he won't run for office in 2022 — Former Gov. Scott Walker has accepted a full-time position running a national conservative youth organization based in northern Virginia. — Walker said the move rules out a run …

Discussion: Political Wire

New York Post:

The Post says: de Blasio must be removed as mayor — The lights went out on Broadway Saturday night, and Bill de Blasio was a thousand miles away in Iowa. It was the moment that perfectly captured his distracted, ego-driven failure of a mayoralty. — Bill de Blasio does not care about New York City.

New York Daily News: Bill's power failure: A blackout hits, and de Blasio is busy in the campaign spotlight

Washington Post:

‘His own fiefdom’: Mulvaney builds ‘an empire for the right wing’ as Trump's chief of staff — Mick Mulvaney's battles with Alexander Acosta began almost immediately. — Weeks after he was named acting White House chief of staff, Mulvaney summoned the labor secretary for a tense January encounter …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Garrett M. Graff / Politico:

The Border Patrol Hits a Breaking Point — Vice President Pence's Friday visit to a Border Patrol detention facility in Texas didn't go according to plan. Meant to pressure Democrats to address the migrant crisis at the southern border, the visit instead appeared to horrify those who accompanied Pence …

Discussion: New York Times and Lawyers, Guns & Money

New York Times:

How Joe Biden Became the Democrats' Anti-Busing Crusader — With a school desegregation lawsuit roiling Delaware in the 1970s, Mr. Biden led an effort in the Senate to end court-ordered busing. — NEWPORT, Del. — In July 1974, with a federal court in Delaware on the verge of ordering busing …

Kaly Soto / New York Times: Have You Been Told to ‘Go Back’ to Your Country Even Though You Are American? Tell Us About It.

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Huge Turnout Is Expected in 2020. So Which Party Would Benefit? — Democrats typically gain from a broader electorate in presidential races, but that pattern is not assured in the Trump era. — The 2020 presidential election is poised to have the highest turnout in a century …

Bloomberg:

May Says Trump Tweets on Democrats ‘Completely Unacceptable’ — Spokesman briefs reporters on U.K. prime minister's views — President criticized over tweets about four female lawmakers — U.S. President Donald Trump used “completely unacceptable” language to describe four female …

Discussion: Political Wire

Dina Nayeri / Slate:

Why They Fear Ilhan Omar — Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson don't think she's dangerous. They hate that she's full of potential. — On Wednesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for her ingratitude. “After everything America has done for Omar and for her family …

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

Trump Is Undoing Jimmy Carter's Greatest Accomplishment — President Jimmy Carter's diversification of the judiciary is one of the most important and least acknowledged achievements in presidential history. And it's in danger. — In December 1976, one month before beginning his single term as president …

Reuters:

Trump may face more court battles over giving citizenship data to states — (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's order that all federal agencies provide citizenship data to the Commerce Department could open a new legal front over whether states can redraw their voting maps based on citizenship status.

Dana Goodyear / New Yorker:

Kamala Harris Makes Her Case — The Presidential candidate has been criticized as a defender of the status quo. Can she prove that she's a force for change? — One day in early June, Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California, tapped the glass of the bakery case at a Blue Bottle coffee shop …

Victor Davis Hanson / American Greatness:

Of Progressive Carnivores and Cannibals — The Obama-era Democratic Party bears little resemblance to the themes embraced just 11 years ago by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries. — The parameters of marriage, in Obama's words “between a man and woman,” …