memeorandum: 5 key takeaways from the Democratic debate: The major battle lines of night 1 (John Verhovek/ABC News)

1:05 PM ET, July 31, 2019

Top Items:

Axelrod: “Large Numbers Of People” Oppose Medicare For All, Healthcare For Illegals, Decriminalizing Border — Former chief strategist for former President Obama's presidential campaign and advisor to the president David Axelrod said the agenda presented by Democratic presidential candidates …

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Here's Who Won (and Lost) the Second Democratic Debate, Night One — Days after a heavily armed sociopath unleashed hell on yet another American community — and the president directed yet another racist tantrum at his nonwhite constituents — ten of the Democratic Party's top 2020 hopefuls gathered …

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: The realists attacked the revolutionaries, and the revolutionaries won, in the Democratic debate — THE BIG IDEA: CNN treated Bernie Sanders like a front-runner and took the senator's policy proposals seriously during Tuesday night's debate in Detroit.

Discussion: Mediaite

New York Times:

Sanders and Warren Battle Accusations of ‘Fairy Tale’ Promises as Intraparty Rift Flares — DETROIT — The leading liberals in the Democratic presidential primary, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, strenuously fought back on Tuesday against accusations of making fanciful promises …

Discussion: Washington Post, Progress Pond, The Week, New Republic, Politico and The Daily Beast

Katherine Miller / BuzzFeed News:

Why People Like Marianne Williamson — On some level, we all seem to know that Marianne Williamson shouldn't exactly be on the debate stage. Even she seems to know it, because she operates like she's performing a commentary on the rest of the stage, speaking from a different stage about the debate taking place.

Discussion: Reason and Spectator USA

Jonathan Merritt / Washington Post:

I've worked for Marianne Williamson. She is no kook. — In a surprise twist on the first evening of the second Democratic debate, spiritual writer and presidential candidate Marianne Williamson received some of the night's largest applause lines. She ably argued for paying financial reparations …

Discussion: Mediaite and Quartz

John Podhoretz / New York Post:
New Age Marianne Williamson is breakout winner of Democratic debate

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Post, Fox News and Wall Street Journal

Eric Bradner / CNN:
7 takeaways from the Democratic debate's first night

Discussion: The Wrap and ImmigrationProf Blog

John F. Harris / Politico:
It's a center-left party after all

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios, The Hill and NY State of Politics

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
Winners and losers from the first night of the CNN debate

Discussion: Mediaite, Vox, Washington Post and Splinter

Rachel Frazin / The Hill:
Marianne Williamson supporters organize ‘occult task force’

Discussion: The Guardian, Breitbart and The Stranger

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Delaney says Warren's put-down of him on the debate stage was ‘dishonest’ and ‘lazy’

Discussion: The Hill and Breitbart

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
Elizabeth Warren's Big Night

Discussion: National Review, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Guardian and Daily Kos

John Verhovek / ABC News:
5 key takeaways from the Democratic debate: The major battle lines of night 1

Discussion: Breitbart, Politico, The Daily Caller and PJ Media Home

Avi Selk / Washington Post:
Marianne Williamson's fans made her the ‘orb queen’ of the 2020 campaign

Discussion: Townhall, Breitbart, Political Wire, Washington Times and The Federalist

Bhaskar Sunkara / The Guardian:
It's Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren v the 'No We Can't' Democrats

Discussion: KTLA and Washington Post

Axios:
A progressive win: Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders own the first Democratic debate

Discussion: Political Wire and Townhall

Eugene Scott / Washington Post:
Marianne Williamson makes the case for reparations in her breakout debate moment

Discussion: Breitbart, Althouse and The Federalist

Olga Khazan / The Atlantic:
John Delaney Had One Good Point on Medicare for All

Discussion: Spectator USA and Quartz

Washington Post:
In contentious Democratic debate, deep divisions on health care separate liberals and moderates

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Noah Berlatsky / NBC News:
Marianne Williamson's Democratic debate performance raised eyebrows. But she's no friend of the left.

Discussion: Grist, Vanity Fair and Quartz

Cary Aspinwall / Dallas Morning News:

'You're gonna kill me!': Dallas police body cam footage reveals the final minutes of Tony Timpa's life — Tony Timpa wailed and pleaded for help more than 30 times as Dallas police officers pinned his shoulders, knees and neck to the ground. — “You're gonna kill me! You're gonna kill me!

Jeremy Herb / CNN:

Ratcliffe questioned intelligence community's role in Russia investigation — CNN security analyst sounds the alarm on Trump's pick 03:47 — (CNN) — President Donald Trump's pick to be the next director of national intelligence, which has oversight over the CIA, has pushed …

New York Times:

Trump's Pick for Top Intelligence Post Overstated Parts of His Biography — Aides revised old claims about Representative John Ratcliffe's role in prosecuting a prominent terrorism case. — WASHINGTON — Aides to the congressman chosen by President Trump to lead the nation's intelligence agencies …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Intercept and VICE

Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
The Danger of John Ratcliffe

Discussion: The American Conservative, CNN, emptywheel and Axios

Ramesh Ponnuru / Bloomberg:

How Long Can Real Conservatives Make Excuses for Trump? — Republicans who made the so-called transactional case for Trump didn't anticipate the full cost. — During each week of the Donald Trump presidency, but especially the last few, liberals and conservatives have been splitting further apart on race.

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

Nunes Ally Kash Patel Who Fought Russia Probe Gets Senior White House National Security Job — Patel was one of the leading staffers pushing back against FBI investigations of Trump-Russia. He's now senior director of the National Security Council's terrorism directorate.

John Archibald / al.com:

George Wallace's daughter: 'I've never seen anything like it' — This is an opinion column. — Peggy Wallace Kennedy went to political rallies with her dad - George Wallace - as he ran for president in the '60s and '70s. — She saw hate and anger that a child should not have to see.

Discussion: Political Wire

Morgan Gstalter / The Hill:

North Carolina gun shop puts up ‘4 Horsemen’ billboard to slam progressive congresswomen — A gun shop in western North Carolina is facing backlash for using a billboard to insult “the Squad,” four progressive minority congresswomen, as “idiots,” calling them the “four horsemen” of the apocalypse.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Boston Globe, Fox News, VICE, Big League Politics and Associated Press

Richard Gonzales / NPR:
North Carolina GOP Operative Faces New Felony Charges That Allege Ballot Fraud

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Times, Axios and Associated Press

Alan Blinder / New York Times:
Election Fraud in North Carolina Leads to New Charges for Republican Operative

Discussion: Shareblue Media

Associated Press:

Trump ‘rodent’ tweets ring true at Kushner-owned apartments — BALTIMORE (AP) — Davon Jones doesn't have to look far to see the irony in President Donald Trump's tweets that Baltimore is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” His apartment owned by the president's son-in-law has been invaded by mice since he moved in a year ago.

Discussion: New York Times, The Resurgent, The Minnesota Sun, CNN and PJ Media Home

Tim Naftali / The Atlantic:

Ronald Reagan's Long-Hidden Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon — The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People's Republic of China, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States.

Discussion: RedState, Washington Post, Slate, CNN, VICE, The Independent, Washington Times, The Root, Mediaite, Splinter, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Boing Boing

Washington Examiner:

Democrats just purged white party staffers, and it's a bigger deal than anyone wants to admit — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats' powerful campaign arm, has just abruptly purged half a dozen staffers. Why? Because they are white.

Discussion: Instapundit

Jonathan S. Tobin / New York Post: Why The Squad is setting the House's agenda

San Francisco Chronicle:

Search of Gilroy gunman's home finds items suggesting massive attack, white supremacy materials — Investigators who searched the Nevada home of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter found the makings of a massive attack, including a gas mask, bulletproof vest and empty boxes of ammunition …

Discussion: American Greatness and UPI

Associated Press:

More than 900 children separated from families at U.S.-Mexico border despite judge's order that the practice be curtailed, ACLU says … More than 900 children, including babies and toddlers, were separated from their parents at the border in the year after a judge ordered the practice be sharply curtailed …

Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post:
ACLU: U.S. has taken nearly 1,000 child migrants from their parents since judge ordered stop to border separations

Discussion: Latino Rebels, ACLU, Daily Kos, Splinter, Axios, Common Dreams, New York Times, The Week and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Washington Post:

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partied together. Then an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion came between them. — For the better part of two decades starting in the late 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump swam in the same social pool. They were neighbors in Florida.

New York Times:

Trump Administration Is Divided Over Tax Cut for Investors — WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are divided over whether to give investors a big tax cut that would primarily benefit the rich before the 2020 election heats up in earnest. — Republican senators and conservative anti-tax groups …

Discussion: Washington Post and Common Dreams

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:
Column: Incredibly, GOP senators are demanding billions more in tax cuts for the rich

Discussion: Shareblue Media and Mother Jones

Washington National Cathedral:

have we no decency? a response to president trump — The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses from all sides of the political spectrum. On one side, African American leaders have led the way in rightfully expressing outrage.

Discussion: Washingtonian, Bloomberg, Axios and POLITICUSUSA