memeorandum: Inside Biden's edge (Jonathan Swan/Axios)

10:20 AM ET, August 31, 2020

Top Items:

Maxine Bernstein / Oregonian:

Man under investigation in fatal shooting after pro-Trump rally allegedly took loaded gun to earlier Portland protest — A 48-year-old man who was accused of carrying a loaded gun at an earlier downtown Portland protest is under investigation in the fatal shooting Saturday night of a right-wing demonstrator after a pro-Trump rally.

Discussion: New York Post, Breitbart, New York Times, The Post Millennial and Redstate

Andy Ngo / The Post Millennial:

‘I am 100% Antifa’: Alleged Portland shooter was previously arrested—and released—for bringing illegal loaded gun to a riot — The man being investigated by police in the fatal shooting of a Trump supporter in Portland identifies as Antifa and is an ardent Black Lives Matter supporter.

Discussion: Big League Politics, Twitchy and The Federalist

Lee Brown / New York Post:

Man suspected in deadly Portland shooting calls himself ‘100% ANTIFA’ — An ex-military man who calls himself “100% ANTIFA” and ready for “war” is being investigated over the death of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a “supporter” of the right-wing Patriot Prayer group who was part of a caravan …

Miranda Devine / New York Post:

BLM ‘activists’ celebrated as Trump supporter was killed — It's spine-chilling to hear activists in Portland cheering about the coldblooded murder of a Trump supporter Saturday night. — “I am not sad that a f-king fascist died tonight,” a woman shouts into a megaphone at a BLM-Antifa gathering after a man was shot dead nearby.

Discussion: Associated Press, The US Sun, Washington Times, Raw Story, WCCO | CBS Minnesota and TheBlaze

Washington Post:

New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials — One of President Trump's top medical advisers is urging the White House to embrace a controversial “herd immunity” strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing …

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Raw Story

Ben Smith / New York Times:

I'm Still Reading Andrew Sullivan. But I Can't Defend Him. — He's one of the most influential journalists of the last three decades, but he's shadowed by a 1994 magazine cover story that claimed to show a link between race and I.Q. — PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — The only restaurant open late …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Swift Boat mastermind to launch massive super PAC to boost Trump — Senior Republicans are launching a massive new super PAC this week to bolster Donald Trump's reelection in the final stretch of the campaign — a move that comes as the president has been pummeled by Joe Biden on TV.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Raw Story and Political Wire

NBC News:

Poll: Third party voters from 2016 are backing Biden 2-to-1 — WASHINGTON — One of the major differences between 2016 and 2020 is that this year's presidential contest features a smaller third-party vote than four years ago, and Gary Johnson/Jill Stein voters from 2016 are breaking more toward Joe Biden than they are Donald Trump.

Discussion: Raw Story, Axios, Slate and The Hill

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Inside Biden's edge — The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter shows, in a piece that's well worth your time, that President Trump is trailing “not because he's losing his 2016 base, but because he has never expanded beyond it.” — By the numbers: Walter dug into the most recent national poll …

Discussion: Raw Story and The Daily Beast

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Trump offered FBI director job to John Kelly, asked for loyalty — The day after President Trump fired FBI boss James Comey, the president phoned John Kelly, who was then secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and offered him Comey's job, the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning …

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story and CANNONFIRE

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump mulled “settling” with Mueller amid Russia investigation — One of the crazy nuggets in a deeply reported book by the N.Y. Times' Michael Schmidt — “Donald Trump v. the United States,” out tomorrow — is that President Trump mulled the idea of “settling” with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Discussion: Political Wire

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Leaked McGahn memo reveals alarms about Kushner's top-secret security clearance — Trump ultimately intervened to ensure Kushner got his top-secret security clearance.

Discussion: Raw Story and The Hill

Leo Shane III / Military Times:

As Trump's popularity slips in latest Military Times poll, more troops say they'll vote for Biden — The latest Military Times poll shows a continued decline in active-duty service members' views of President Donald Trump and a slight but significant preference for former Vice President Joe Biden …

Discussion: The Guardian, Political Wire, Washington Times, POLITICUSUSA and Bloomberg

Jack Davis / The Western Journal:

CDC Now Says 94% of COVID Deaths Had an Underlying Condition — Share on Facebook(100k) Tweet P Share Email Print — A new report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 94 percent of the cases of those who died from COVID-19, another disease was also at work on the victim.

Discussion: HuffPost, Informed Comment, Axios, KCLO-TV and OutKick

CNN:

Twitter removes QAnon supporter's false claim about coronavirus death statistics that Trump had retweeted — Optimism grows for emergency coronavirus vaccine use in 2020 — (CNN)Twitter on Sunday took down a tweet containing a false claim about coronavirus death statistics …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, KOIN-TV, Reason, Townhall, Twitchy and DrElizabeth Hesse DC

Paige Austin / Los Angeles, CA Patch:

Shooting At Pro-Trump Rally Leads To Standoff On Ventura Blvd. — A Los Angeles Police Department SWAT Team has surrounded three suspects in a shooting at a pro-Trump caravan in Woodland Hills. … WOODLAND HILLS, CA — The Los Angeles Police Department SWAT Team has surrounded three suspects holed …

Discussion: Axios, NBC Los Angeles, NPR, Santa Maria Times, CANNONFIRE, Breitbart and Slate

Los Angeles Times:
Confusion after LAPD responds to reports of gunfire at pro-Trump car caravan

Discussion: KTLA, The US Sun, CBS Los Angeles, The Gateway Pundit and Twitchy

Margot Cleveland / The Federalist:

Why Kenosha Police Officers' Use Of Force On Jacob Blake Was Justified — Most people have no understanding of what constitutes ‘reasonable force’ for police. Yes, it sometimes includes shooting a man, in broad daylight, in the back seven times. — A week ago Sunday …

Discussion: NBC Chicago, The Nation and Fox News

Paul LeBlanc / CNN:
White House says Trump still planning to visit Kenosha after governor urges him to reconsider

Discussion: National Review, jsonline, The Hill, The Daily Caller, IJR, NPR, UPI, Washington Post, Fox News, Slate, KTLA, CBS Chicago, Raw Story, WISC-TV, Axios, CNBC and New York Post

Tim Miller / The Bulwark:

The Pathetic Both-Sidesism of Republican Inc. — How to be a Good Republican in the Age of Trump. — On Sunday, President Donald Trump described a vigilante Trump Truck caravan whose purpose was to instigate #war on the streets of Portland through attempted vehicular homicide as GREAT PATRIOTS.

Discussion: National Review, Bloomberg, NBC News, Raw Story, The US Sun, CNN and Forbes

Joe Biden for President:
Statement by Vice President Joe Biden on the Deadly Violence in Portland

Discussion: The Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, Washington Post, Louder With Crowder, Slate, Townhall, Althouse, KOIN-TV and Axios

Globes Online:

Sheldon Adelson set to buy US Ambassador's Herzliya home — The US billionaire is in advanced talks to buy the residence for NIS 300 million, which would make it Israel's most expensive home. — Exclusive: US billionaire Sheldon Adelson is in advanced talks to buy the US Ambassador …

Paul Caron / TaxProf Blog:

Washburn Law School Removes Statues Of Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson — U.S. News & World Report, Statues Of Jefferson, Franklin Removed From Washburn Campus: — Statues of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin have been removed from the Washburn University campus after protests …

Jane Calderwood / Portsmouth Herald:

OPINION/GUEST VIEW: I can no longer support Sen. Susan Collins — I was raised to believe I should cast my vote for the person with the best ideas, regardless of their party. My father took me down to Bangor City Hall when I turned 18 to get me registered to vote.

Discussion: Raw Story and The Hill

Ben White / Politico:

Trump tries to dance around a devastating backdrop — In the nine weeks left in the 2020 campaign, President Donald Trump has an especially daunting task: Convince a skeptical American public that the coronavirus-ravaged U.S. economy is actually roaring back and will soon return to the status …

Discussion: CounterPunch

Sarah Vogelsong / Virginia Mercury:

Virginia officials backed off push to close Shore poultry plants for two weeks to fight pandemic — A legislative attempt to force Virginia to reveal more information about COVID-19 outbreaks in the state's poultry plants and other workplaces, introduced after months of stonewalling …

Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:

The Chaos President Has America in Chaos — Before he fancied himself the LAW & ORDER president, Donald Trump was the chaos candidate. The guy who didn't care about norms. The guy who was going to break a bunch of stuff on purpose and even more stuff on accident.

Discussion: Raw Story, CNN, NBC News and Washington Post

Michael Edison Hayden / Southern Poverty Law Center:

Wisconsin Man Who Says He Marched With Rittenhouse in Kenosha Was Immersed in White Supremacist Propaganda — Ryan Balch, a 31-year-old Wisconsin man who joined Kyle Rittenhouse and a contingent of militia conducting armed patrols in Kenosha, used his social media accounts to link to a Nazi propaganda video …

Wall Street Journal:

New York Trump Investigations Appear to Be at Critical Junctures — Criminal, civil probes push forward with evidentiary disputes; Trump and his company claim investigations are political — New York prosecutors and lawyers for President Trump are set to argue before a federal appeals court Tuesday …

New York Times:

Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic. — Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya's rules on plastics and on imports of American trash. — Confronting a climate crisis …

Ken Paxton / Washington Examiner:

How mail-in ballots threaten democracy — Democrats across the nation are pushing to send mail-in ballots to every voter in November. Not wanting to let the crisis caused by COVID-19 go to waste, they've disguised their plot to manipulate the integrity of our election system by arguing …

Ishaan Tharoor / Washington Post:

In Trump, much of the world sees an act that's wearing thin — Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter. — Last week's Republican National Convention saw a blizzard of misinformation. President Trump's acceptance speech Thursday was itself “a tidal wave of tall tales …

Discussion: NBC News, ABC News, Raw Story and Daily Kos

Elizabeth Ralph / Politico:

What Happens If China Gets the Covid-19 Vaccine First? — David Fidler has a nightmare scenario: In three months, China announces one of its Covid-19 vaccines has successfully completed Phase III trials. The World Health Organization is enthusiastic. Beijing doles out doses to countries …

Discussion: The National Interest and Jacobin

Mike Levine / ABC News:

Melania's ex-friend: Trump family tainted by ‘deceit, deception’ — “It was amateur hour then, and it's amateur hour now.” — A former adviser and close friend of first lady Melania Trump's is now blasting the entire Trump family as a callous clan tainted by “deceit” and “deception,” …

Discussion: Raw Story

Dake Kang / Associated Press:

In China's Xinjiang, forced medication accompanies lockdown — BEIJING (AP) — When police arrested the middle-aged Uighur woman at the height of China's coronavirus outbreak, she was crammed into a cell with dozens of other women in a detention center. — There, she said …

Discussion: National Review and Althouse