memeorandum: How the Delta variant bottlenecked Biden's presidency (Politico)

9:15 AM ET, September 9, 2021

Top Items:

Scoop: The most dangerous Trump exposé — Stephanie Grisham has quietly written a top-secret memoir of her four years in Donald Trump's White House, and a publishing source says she'll reveal “surprising new scandals.” — What to watch: The book — “I'll Take Your Questions Now …

Discussion: Insider, Mediaite and Raw Story

Judy Kurtz / The Hill: Does Pence really call his wife ‘mother’? Aide says it's ‘a myth that drives me crazy’

Kate Bennett / CNN: Melania Trump's closest White House adviser to release book

Sadie Gurman / Wall Street Journal:

Biden Administration Prepares to Sue Texas Over Abortion Law — Lawsuit challenging law limiting procedure to first six weeks of pregnancy set to be filed in coming days — WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is preparing to sue Texas over its new law banning most abortions …

Discussion: Politico, NBC News, Associated Press, Reason, New York Post, ABC News, Mediaite, Raw Story, Insider, Alternet.org and 6abc

Washington Post:

White House to withdraw nomination of David Chipman to head ATF in face of bipartisan pushback over his gun-control advocacy — The White House is planning to withdraw David Chipman's nomination to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this week amid bipartisan pushback …

Marianne LeVine / Politico:

White House planning to withdraw ATF nominee — The White House is planning to withdraw David Chipman's nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, according to three sources close to the process. — Chipman is currently a senior policy advisor to Giffords …

Discussion: Breitbart

Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Proponents of Post-Trump Curbs on Executive Power Prepare New Push

Discussion: One America News Network

Politico:

How the Delta variant bottlenecked Biden's presidency — The resurgence of Covid-19 is rapidly dominating Joe Biden's administration, putting into question the future of his broader legislative agenda and increasingly steering Democrats into treacherous political territory.

Discussion: New York Times, ABC News, USA Today, Gizmodo and Liberty Nation

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:

What Biden can learn from FDR, JFK and LBJ — With the nation continuing to be bitterly divided, attacks against voting rights reaching epic proportions, Roe v. Wade endangered by a new plan to turn tens of millions of Americans into private police and compensated vigilantes against fellow Americans …

Manu Raju / CNN:
Manchin lays out long list of demands as key Senate chairs move to win his vote

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Slow Boring, Daily Kos, Political Wire and Politico

Kathy Frankovic / YouGov:
More Americans than ever before disapprove of Joe Biden's performance as president

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Townhall, The Daily Caller, HotAir, TheBlaze, Breitbart and RedState

Washington Post:

Trump reaches out to families of U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan — When Darin Hoover traveled to Dover Air Force Base to receive the casket of his 31-year-old Marine son, who was killed in Afghanistan, he, like several other families, declined an offer to meet with President Biden.

Discussion: Insider, Politico, New York Post, Trending Politics, The Floridian, Washington Examiner and Raw Story

New York Times: As Taliban Crush Dissent, New Leaders Face Cascading Challenges

James Laporta / Associated Press: A U.S. Marine, a curious Afghan boy, an unfathomable moment

Los Angeles Times:
Taliban beats protesters and arrests journalists at women's rally in Kabul

Discussion: Human Rights Watch, Financial Times, HotAir and CNN, more at Mediagazer »

Jeremy Beaman / Washington Examiner:
Flags memorializing 13 troops killed in Kabul taken down after being vandalized

Discussion: Riverside Police Department, Breitbart and National Review

Amy Klobuchar:

Statement from Senator Amy Klobuchar — I wanted to share an update about my health. — In February of this year, doctors at Mayo Clinic found small white spots called calcifications during a routine mammogram. After this was discovered, I had a biopsy at Piper Breast Center in Minneapolis …

Discussion: NBC News, Washington Post, CNBC, Associated Press, USA Today and The Hill

Erin Coulehan / KTSM-TV:

Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds — EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The effects of Ivermectin therapy on human males can have an effect on men's reproductive health. — Researchers at three universities in Nigeria studied the effects of Ivermectin …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, PolitiFact, Israpundit and The Gateway Pundit

Dana Goldstein / New York Times:
L.A. is poised to become the first major U.S. school district to mandate vaccinations for students.

Discussion: HotAir, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, Fox News, HuffPost, Politico, The Federalist and National Review

Buzz Hollander / RealClearScience:
Lessons From the Ivermectin Debacle

Discussion: Raw Story, Twitchy, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze, Insider and Real Clear Politics

CNN:

Biden administration tells ex-Trump officials to resign from military academy advisory boards or be dismissed — (CNN)The Biden administration has told 11 officials appointed to military service academy advisory boards by former President Donald Trump to resign or be dismissed, a source familiar with the situation tells CNN's KFile.

Lachlan Markay / Axios:
Biden cans Trump military academy holdovers

Discussion: ABC News

Josh Haskell / ABC7:

Larry Elder tours homeless encampment in Venice, but leaves due to angry crowd … Larry Elder's Venice event cut short due to angry crowd — Larry Elder had to cut his campaign event short in Venice after he encountered an angry crowd and had an egg thrown at him.

Dan Merica / CNN:
Larry Elder baselessly raises possibility of election ‘shenanigans’ in California recall

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Townhall, USA Today, The Hill, RedState and New York Post

RealClearInvestigations:

Introducing RealClearInvestigations' Jan. 6-BLM Riots Dataset — AP Photo/John Minchillo; AP Photo/Julio Cortez; YouTube/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — Many in the political and media establishment have cast the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as one of the darkest episodes in American history …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
What should the Jan. 6 probe examine? A veteran Sept. 11 investigator weighs in.

Discussion: Raw Story and Politico

Associated Press:
Police planning to reinstall Capitol fence ahead of rally

Discussion: The Hill, KTLA, Politico, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, CNN, Insider and Raw Story

Wall Street Journal:

Taliban to Allow 200 Americans, Other Foreigners to Fly Out of Kabul — No Afghans without foreign citizenship are expected to be allowed on the flight to Qatar — KABUL—Afghanistan's Taliban authorities are allowing some 200 Americans and other foreign citizens to leave the country …

Discussion: Reuters, CNN, CBS News, HotAir, New York Post, Bloomberg, Associated Press, National Review and New York Times

Associated Press:

The Latest: US says al-Qaida could regenerate in Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday the al-Qaida extremist group that used Afghanistan as a staging base to attack United States 20 years ago may attempt to regenerate there following an American withdrawal that has left the Taliban in power.

Discussion: The Hill and HotAir

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Wealth Lobby Is Buying Up Democrats to Defeat Biden's Tax Reform “One of the biggest scams in the history of forever.” — Last week, Democratic senator turned anti-tax lobbyist Heidi Heitkamp, who represented North Dakota for one term before losing in 2018, appeared on CNBC …

Discussion: New Republic, Washington Post, Alternet.org, HuffPost and Talking Points Memo

Lily Kuo / Washington Post:

Xi Jinping's crackdown on everything is remaking Chinese society — The orders have been sudden, dramatic and often baffling. Last week, “American Idol”-style competitions and shows featuring men deemed too effeminate were banned by Chinese authorities. Days earlier, one of China's …

Discussion: New York Times and UnHerd

Federal Bureau of Investigation:

FBI Washington Field Office Releases Video and Additional Information Regarding the Pipe Bomb Investigation — The FBI's Washington Field Office has released new information and video regarding the suspect who placed pipe bombs in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, YouTube, NBC News, The Daily Caller, CBS News, myfox8.com, UPI, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington Examiner, HuffPost and Fox News

Rep. Ron Kind / The Hill:

When it comes to reconciliation, let's learn from our past mistakes — The health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have been devastating for millions of Americans. Although Congress took action to help provide relief to families across the nation, the pandemic …

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Virginia GOP lt. gov. nominee lays off campaign staff ahead of election — Winsome Sears, the GOP candidate in Virginia's lieutenant governor race, laid off her entire campaign staff 55 days out from Election Day in the commonwealth. — A former Sears campaign staffer, who was laid off …

Discussion: The Dispatch, New Republic and Political Wire

Jesselyn Cook / HuffPost:

Trump Insiders Are Quietly Paying Teen Memers For Posts — Documents show that meme accounts rife with disinformation have also become shadowy advertising tools for some notable Republicans. — In the fever swamps of Instagram, a network of right-wing meme accounts run by teenage boys …

Discussion: Raw Story

Tess Owen / VICE:

Oath Keeper Snitched on Himself to FBI Agent During Tattoo Session, Docs Say — An Oath Keeper and accused Capitol rioter who owns a tattoo parlor in upstate New York unwittingly poured his heart out to an off-duty FBI agent who'd stopped by his business for an appointment.

Discussion: HuffPost

Caroline Vakil / The Hill:

Trump rips removal of Robert E. Lee statue: ‘Complete desecration’ — Former President Trump on Wednesday blasted the decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va., saying the taking down would result in a “complete desecration.”

Discussion: Fox News, Rolling Stone and New York Post