memeorandum: Pelosi to Endorse Jack Schlossberg, Again Backing a Kennedy for Congress (Andrew Trunsky/New York Times)

1:50 PM ET, February 7, 2026

Top Items:

Congressional Black Caucus chair says Trump's post on the Obamas shows a ‘bigoted and racist regime’ — Ever since a racist video was posted on President Donald Trump's social media account, the White House has offered shifting responses. First it dismissed “fake outrage,” then it deleted the post and blamed a staff member.

Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:

This Is Just Who Trump Is — What motivates President Trump? — Not what motivates Trumpism, whatever that is. Not what motivates his MAGA supporters. Not what motivates the infrequent and marginal voters who delivered him his victories in 2016 and 2024. — No. What specifically motivates Donald J. Trump?

Natalie Allison / Washington Post:
Trump refuses to apologize over video showing the Obamas as apes

Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
Late last night, President Donald J. Trump's social media account posted a video full …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Reuters, NOTUS, NewsMax.com and Los Angeles Times

Adam Klasfeld / All Rise News:
The Big Lie was always a racist project

Discussion: NewsNation, Just Jared, The Daily Caller, Democrats, Grabien, WBUR, New York Times, Politico and Associated Press

Ernesto Londoño / New York Times:

Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good's Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop. — Federal prosecutors had a warrant to collect evidence from Ms. Good's vehicle, but Trump administration leaders said to drop it. About a dozen prosecutors have departed, leaving the Minnesota U.S. attorney's office in turmoil.

Discussion: Newsweek, GV Wire, NewsMax.com and Raw Story

New York Times:

Demanding Support for Trump, Justice Dept. Struggles to Recruit Prosecutors — Some offices are so decimated that the Justice Department has sent in military lawyers. More recently, officials asked for volunteers from other offices who can quickly deploy to places in desperate need.

Cate Brown / The Guardian:

NSA detected phone call between foreign intelligence and a person close to Trump — Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staff — Last spring, the National Security Agency (NSA) detected evidence …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and SpyTalk

Steve Vladeck / One First:

208. The Fifth Circuit Jumps the Immigration Detention Shark — I've written before about the deeply contested (and contestable) reinterpretation of federal immigration law that the Trump administration adopted last summer, under which any non-citizen who was never lawfully admitted …

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Devan Cole / CNN:
Appeals court greenlights Trump admin policy of detaining undocumented immigrants without opportunity to seek release

Discussion: RedState, The Daily Caller, Newsweek and Reuters

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Appeals court backs Trump's mass detention policy

Discussion: CBS News, New York Sun, Washington Times, Breitbart, NewsMax.com, Raw Story and MS NOW

Joe Charpentier / The Portland Press Herald:

ICE detainees from Maine being held under ‘inhumane’ conditions in Mass. facility, attorneys say — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said the allegations of overcrowding and lack of access to lawyers are false. — Communities: — 9 min readFont size +

NPR:

State Department will delete X posts from before Trump returned to office — The State Department is removing all posts on its public accounts on the social media platform X made before President Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, 2025. — The posts will be internally archived …

Discussion: Newsweek and NewsMax.com

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

The Epstein scandal is taking down Europe's political class. In the US, they're getting a pass. … But as Europe's political class moves to clean up its mess and address its shame concerning ties with the convicted sex offender, it's inadvertently highlighting something else — the comparative lack of accountability in the U.S.

Discussion: Politico

Jill Lawless / Associated Press:
Epstein revelations have toppled top figures in Europe while US fallout is more muted

Discussion: Al Jazeera and Reuters

New York Times:

The Real Threat Isn't Trump. It's the MAGA Apparatus. — The round table convenes to debate whether we need to worry about the midterms being free and fair. — Can President Trump really nationalize elections? This week at the round table for “The Opinions,” the Times Opinion national …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Raw Story

Nick Corasaniti / New York Times:
Why Trump's Calls to ‘Nationalize’ Voting Have Raised Midterm Fears

Discussion: Raw Story, Chicago Tribune and The Daily Caller

Samya Kullab / Associated Press:

US gave Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach agreement to end war, Zelenskyy says — The U.S. has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal to end the nearly four‑year war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, as Russian strikes on energy infrastructure …

Discussion: Axios, Washington Examiner, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, France 24, One America News Network, The Guardian, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, Bloomberg, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Reuters, Al Jazeera, The Kyiv Independent and Politico

The Kyiv Independent:
Zelensky warns of ‘risk’ US, Russia could strike bilateral deals on Ukraine without Kyiv

Discussion: France 24

Associated Press:

Immigrant whose skull was broken in eight places during ICE arrest says beating was unprovoked — Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says his memory was so jumbled after a beating by immigration officers that he initially could not remember he had a daughter and still struggles …

Discussion: Scripps News

Molly Jong-Fast / New York Times:

Now We Know What All Those People Got From Epstein — Jeffrey Epstein, as has become clear again with the latest Department of Justice file dump, will go down in history as perhaps this century's most horrifically accomplished social climber. He knew pretty much everybody, name-dropping …

Discussion: Washington Post

Pamela Paul / Wall Street Journal: Truth, Consequences and the Limits of Epstein's Web

Daniel Ruetenik / CBS News:

Lutnick and Epstein were in business together, Epstein files show — Add CBS News on Google — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said he had “limited interactions” with Jeffrey Epstein, but documents show they were in business together as recently as 2014.

Discussion: The Parnas Perspective and Raw Story

Nate Raymond / Reuters:

Trump administration won't let student deported to Honduras return — President Donald Trump's administration on Friday called a judge's proposal that the government issue a student visa to a college student it deported to Honduras in violation of a court order “unfeasible” …

Discussion: ABC News, The Boston Globe and Associated Press

Victoria Craw / Washington Post:

Pentagon cuts academic ties with ‘woke’ Harvard to focus on training ‘warriors’ — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is ending graduate-level programs for military personnel at the school, which he claimed had become a breeding ground for “radical ideologies.”

Discussion: Straight Arrow News, Reuters, Bloomberg, BizPac Review, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Fortune and The Guardian

Chris Cameron / New York Times: Hegseth Says Defense Department Will Cut Ties With Harvard

Jack Revell / The Daily Beast:

Military Pressured to See ‘Melania’ Against Their Will — ‘PEOPLE ARE SCARED’ — A military group has evidence of troops being ordered into theater—the movie theater. — Thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been “pressured” into seeing the Melania documentary at cinemas around the country, a watchdog has warned.

Discussion: Raw Story

NBC News:

What X's $1 million creator contest revealed about Musk's platform — X said it would give $1 million to a user who had previously shared racist posts, including one supporting Hitler. — Listen to this article with a free account — When Elon Musk's social media platform X launched …

Geraldine McKelvie / The Guardian:

Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters — Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism — The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters …

Ryan Mancini / The Hill:

Judge extends block on Trump admin's bid to slash social services funds to 5 states — A New York judge on Friday extended a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from slashing funds to social service programs in five Democrat-led states.

Discussion: NY State Attorney General, State of California, New York Times and The Colorado Sun

Andrew Trunsky / New York Times:

Pelosi to Endorse Jack Schlossberg, Again Backing a Kennedy for Congress — The former speaker, a prodigious fund-raiser and shrewd campaign strategist, seldom intervenes in primaries but has made an exception for a Kennedy before. — Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to endorse Jack Schlossberg …

Eric Niiler / New York Times:

What's Up With This Big Freeze? Some Scientists See Climate Change Link — A warming Arctic can stretch the polar vortex, a high-altitude air ribbon, one says. The “wobble” can disrupt the jet stream, causing extreme cold in the East. — If the planet is getting warmer, why is it so cold this winter?

Discussion: The Watchers

John Hyatt / Forbes:

How Picasso, Van Gogh And Cézanne Helped Finance Epstein Client Leon Black's Billionaire Lifestyle — The Epstein files detail private equity tycoon Leon Black's massive, multi-billion-dollar art collection—and how he leveraged it to grow his wealth.

Peter Walker / The Guardian:

Reform-run Kent council accused of fabricating £40m net zero savings — Disclosures show figures cited by authority's leader rested on unfunded ideas listed briefly in budget papers — Reform UK's flagship council has been accused of telling a “blatant lie” after its claim …

Discussion: The New World

Josh Funk / Associated Press:

Ohio man charged with threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance and possessing child abuse files — An Ohio man has been charged with threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance while he was visiting his home state last month. But the man's lawyer said his health makes it unlikely he would have been able to carry out the threat.

Discussion: The Hill, Fox News, NewsNation, US Department of Justice, The Gateway Pundit, NewsMax.com, Townhall and Plain Dealer

Cory Doctorow / Pluralistic:

Pluralistic: End of the line for video essays (07 Feb 2026) — End of the line for video essays: America's worst copyright law keeps getting even worse. — Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. — Object permanence: Payphone phaseout; Nvidia sock-puppets; Love picking; Fake locksmiths.