memeorandum: Sneaky, Leaky James Comey (Kimberley A. Strassel/Wall Street Journal)

9:45 AM ET, August 30, 2019

Top Items:

Trump's Personal Assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, Steps Down — President Trump's personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, whose office sits in front of the Oval Office and who has served as the president's gatekeeper since Day 1 of his administration, resigned on Thursday, two people familiar with her exit said.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire, Axios, Raw Story, Mercury News, Splinter, The Wrap, Breitbart, KTLA, The Sun, The Gateway Pundit, The New Civil Rights Movement, The Week, MARK HALPERIN'S WIDE WORLD …, Mediaite, New York Post and Washington Times

Nancy Cook / Politico:

Trump's executive assistant resigns from White House — President Donald Trump's longtime executive assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, abruptly resigned from the White House on Thursday, after coming under scrutiny for sharing intimate details about the president's family with reporters, according to two sources familiar with the move.

Discussion: Fox News and The Daily Caller

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Trump heads into buzzsaw in North Carolina — DRIVING THE DAY — SIREN ... NEW PARTY POLLING ... NEXT MONTH'S special election in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District is truly a squeaker. Internal Republican polling has shown GOP candidate DAN BISHOP anywhere …

Discussion: The Week, Raw Story and Reuters

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:

Sneaky, Leaky James Comey — The inspector general takes apart the former FBI director's excuses for his actions. — Of all the tall tales James Comey has told, none compare to the line he fed President Trump at their infamous January 2017 dinner. As recounted in the former Federal Bureau …

Discussion: Power Line and The Gateway Pundit

Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare:

What That Comey Email Report Really Says — The inspector general of the Justice Department has determined that it is misconduct for a law enforcement officer to publicly disclose an effort to shut down his investigation. — Michael Horowitz would probably not describe his findings that way.

Discussion: CNN, Law & Crime, Front Page Magazine, RedState, Breitbart and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Turley / The Hill:

James Comey wants an apology? This is myth becoming madness — Two years ago, former FBI Director James Comey came out with a book that celebrated himself as a paragon of “ethical leadership,” a subject that he later taught at the College of William and Mary.

Discussion: Politico, PJ Media Home and New York Times

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Comey IG report exposes the hypocrisy of the ‘Russia hoax’ crowd

Discussion: Right Wing Watch

New York Sun: It Seems Trump Was Right To Fire James Comey

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
New report details Comey plan to ambush Trump with Moscow sex allegation

Discussion: BizPac Review, Fox News, RedState and twitchy.com

Wall Street Journal: Jim Comey's Higher Virtue

Brianne Pfannenstiel / Des Moines Register:

DNC will reject Iowa's virtual caucus plan, sources say, throwing the state's first-in-the-nation status into question — The Iowa caucuses are not first because they're important, they're important because they're first. Register opinion editor Kathie Obradovich gives a brief history lesson on the Iowa caucus.

Discussion: Just Security and Splinter

Associated Press:

DNC to recommend scrapping Iowa, Nevada virtual caucus plans — DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Democratic National Committee will recommend scrapping state plans to offer virtual, telephone-based caucuses in 2020 due to security concerns, sources tell The Associated Press.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Week

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios: DNC to tell Iowa and Nevada to dump virtual caucus plan for 2020

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:
Fearing Hackers, D.N.C. Plans to Block Iowa's ‘Virtual’ Caucuses

Discussion: CNN, Politico and Slate

Sonam Sheth / Business Insider:

US spies say Trump's G7 performance suggests he's either a ‘Russian asset’ or a ‘useful idiot’ for Putin — Current and former spies are floored by President Donald Trump's fervent defense of Russia at this year's G7 summit in Biarritz, France. — “It's hard to see the bar anymore since it's …

Discussion: Washington Press

Ryan Teague Beckwith / Bloomberg:

Elizabeth Warren Once Wrote a Book on How to Get Rich — ‘All Your Worth’ came out in 2005, when she was a professor — It discusses many of the same economic issues she's running on — A few years out of college, Sarah Sparkman was struggling with debt.

Discussion: Political Wire

Natasha Korecki / Politico: Warren lovefest ending as 2020 competitors fear her rise

Jamie Lovegrove / Post and Courier: ‘All in for Joe’: Biden looks to create firewall in SC as he maintains 2020 lead

Tess Bonn / The Hill:
Top Sanders adviser: Warren isn't competing for ‘same pool of voters’

Discussion: Washington Post

Joe Concha / The Hill:

Fox's Cavuto roasts Trump over criticism of network — Fox News host Neil Cavuto tore into President Trump during his closing monologue on Thursday, defending his network from the president's criticism earlier this week that Fox “isn't working for us anymore.” — “Well I think the president watches Fox,” Cavuto began.

Discussion: Washington Times, HuffPost, Kennebec Journal … and Raw Story

Allyson Chiu / Washington Post:
'We don't work for you': Fox News's Neil Cavuto rebukes Trump for slamming network

Discussion: The Week, Deadline and BizPac Review

Jessica Campisi / The Hill:
Fox News's Shepard Smith pushes back on Trump: 'There's no new wall ... not true'

Discussion: Fox News

Tina Nguyen / Vanity Fair:

Aides Admit Trump Was Faking Those “Phone Calls” With China — The president was reportedly “eager to project optimism that might boost markets,” which should hearten the Chinese. — At last week's G7 summit in Biarritz, Donald Trump gave an entire network of world leaders whiplash when he declared …

Discussion: CNN, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

Washington Post:

Emerging from his silence, Mattis faces criticism for trying to take the ‘middle road’ on Trump — Former defense secretary Jim Mattis has broken months of silence with an indirect critique of President Trump's leadership in a new book and interview. But Mattis's effort to distance himself …

Discussion: Raw Story, Splinter, CNN, Breitbart, Slate and Washington Times

USA Today:
James Mattis promotes a book that's silent about Donald Trump. It's a disservice.

Discussion: Big League Politics, Hullabaloo and The Atlantic

NBC News:
Ex-aide to James Mattis claims Pentagon is holding up his memoir

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Raw Story and Vanity Fair

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Women voters spell trouble for Trump in 2020 — Polls show President Trump losing women voters by huge margins, presenting his reelection campaign with a massive hurdle to overcome as he seeks a second term in office. — Perhaps most alarmingly for Trump, the president is losing support …

bellingcat:

Suspected Assassin in the Berlin Killing Used Fake Identity Documents — What we know so far … A joint investigation between Bellingcat, the German newspaper Der Spiegel, and The Insider (Russia), has established that the assassin travelled to Berlin via France under a validly issued …

Brian Niemietz / New York Daily News:

Mugshots show White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham after drunk driving arrests in 2013 and 2015 — Being Donald Trump's spokeswoman can drive a person to drink, but Stephanie Grisham had a record of drunk driving long before she got the job in June.

Discussion: The Big Lead

New York Times:

How a Ring of Women Allegedly Recruited Girls for Jeffrey Epstein — After Mr. Epstein's suicide, his inner circle of girlfriends, employees and other associates is now under scrutiny by prosecutors. — Haley Robson was a 16-year-old South Florida high school student when an acquaintance …

Discussion: The Sun, New York Post and Gothamist

Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:

Trump cancels trip to Poland, says he is staying in the U.S. to monitor Hurricane Dorian — President Trump announced Thursday that he is canceling a planned trip to Poland and will remain in the United States to monitor Hurricane Dorian, which is headed toward a potential landfall in Florida …

Discussion: One America News Network, Politico, The Week, Townhall and VICE

Steve Contorno / Tampa Bay Times:
Trump's Mar-a-Lago is in the projected path of Hurricane Dorian

Discussion: Bloomberg, France 24 and Florida Politics

Gerry Shih / Washington Post:

China expels Wall Street Journal reporter over coverage of Xi's family — BEIJING — China effectively expelled a Wall Street Journal reporter from the country, one month after the newspaper published a report detailing allegations that a cousin of Chinese leader Xi Jinping was involved …

Discussion: New York Times, RAPPLER and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Here Are 7 ‘Left Wing’ Ideas (Almost) All Americans Can Get Behind — The Democrats' 2020 primary fight has featured many pitched battles over policy questions. But every debate over Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tuition-free college, or any other intraparty wedge issue has been colored …

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Why white evangelicals should panic — Much white evangelical support for President Trump is based on a bargain or transaction: political loyalty (and political cover for the president's moral flaws) in return for protection from a hostile culture. Many evangelicals are fearful that courts …

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Frauding of America's Farmers — Trump's biggest supporters are his biggest victims. — Donald Trump is unpopular, but he retains the loyalty of some important groups. Among the most loyal are America's farmers, who are a tiny minority of the population but exert disproportionate political influence …

Reis Thebault / Washington Post:

Alabama's Republican governor apologizes for wearing blackface in college, refuses to resign — The skit was called “cigar butts,” and a couple of the university students who starred in it thought the performance was hilarious. — Then an Auburn University senior, Ben LaRavia, recounted the act on a campus radio show.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Mike Cason / al.com:
Gov. Kay Ivey apologizes for racist skit from time at Auburn

Discussion: New York Post, The Montgomery Advertiser, NPR, CNN, Politico, The Auburn Plainsman, Fox News, Alabama Political Reporter, The Root, VICE, Slate, ThinkProgress and Splinter

Ray Sanchez / CNN:

A top federal prosecutor in Ohio just sent a harsh message to white supremacists — US attorney delivers harsh message to white supremacists — (CNN)A federal prosecutor used a routine press conference announcing criminal charges on Thursday to deliver a harsh message to those who advocate white supremacy and white nationalism.

Discussion: Raw Story

Justin Fox / Bloomberg:

Most Canadians Are Now Better Off Than Most Americans — Middle-class people in the U.S. are losing ground to their peers in other rich countries. — Everybody knows that the U.S. version of capitalism is rougher and tougher than is the norm in other affluent countries.

Hannah Gais / Splinter:

Leaked Emails Show How White Nationalists Have Infiltrated Conservative Media — Conservative institutions in the Donald Trump era have often sought to portray themselves as shocked and appalled by the so-called “alt-right.” White nationalists have also engaged in their own efforts …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, more at Mediagazer »

Will Wright / Lexington Herald-Leader:

Donald Trump Jr. touts Bevin to a mostly-empty arena in Kentucky coal country — Donald Trump Jr. spoke to a mostly-empty arena in Pikeville Thursday afternoon, hoping to muster support within a historically Democratic county for the reelection of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.