memeorandum: Antony Blinken Defends Lone U.S. Veto On UN Cease-Fire Resolution For Gaza (Sanjana Karanth/HuffPost)

6:25 PM ET, December 10, 2023

Top Items:

Jason Beeferman / Politico:

Trump defends dictator comments amid NYC soiree filled with MAGA diehards — At an event with key figures within the MAGA movement, the former president repeated comments that he wants to be a dictator on “day one.” — NEW YORK — The chairman of an Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Hill and Wall Street Journal

Politico:

Playbook: Trump doubles down on ‘dictator’ desire — With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine — DRIVING THE DAY — At an event last night sponsored by the New York Young Republican Club, DONALD TRUMP unsurprisingly defended his comments at a Fox News town hall …

Discussion: NBC News and Rolling Stone

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Talk of a Trump Dictatorship Charges the American Political Debate

Discussion: The Messenger, The Hill and New York Post

Kelly Garrity / Politico:

Trump the ‘human gumball machine’ will ‘impose his will’ on the nation if elected, Romney says — “A thought or a notion comes in and it comes out of his mouth. There's not a lot of filter that goes on,” he said of Trump. — Some Republicans have read former President Donald Trump's comment …

Discussion: The Hill, NBC News, RedState, The Guardian, Washington Times, Axios and Breitbart

Quinn Scanlan / ABC News:
Liz Cheney's plea: ‘Our focus has got to be on defeating Donald Trump’ in 2024

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, USA Today, Axios, Breitbart and HuffPost

Eva Surovell / The Messenger:
Mitt Romney Says Joe Manchin Is the 'Joe I'd Like to Vote For' in 2024

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, NBC News and Political Wire

The Guardian:

Republicans to meet allies of Hungary's Viktor Orbán on ending Ukraine aid — Hungarian appearance at two-day event part of Orbán's transatlantic attempt to bolster Russia's war — Allies of Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting …

Discussion: The Messenger, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Kyiv Independent, Saywhat Politics and Political Wire

George Packer / The Atlantic:
‘We Only Need Some Metal Things’

Discussion: TASS and The Hill

NBC News:

In a reversal, Donald Trump says he will not testify in his own defense in New York fraud trial — Trump was scheduled to take the stand Monday as the months-long $250 million civil fraud trial against him and his company enters its final week. — In an 11th hour reversal …

Discussion: CBS News, CNBC, HuffPost, Fox News, Business Insider, USA Today, The Hill, Washington Examiner, New York Times, Associated Press, RedState, Rolling Stone, Raw Story, UPI, KEYT-TV, New York Post, TASS, KNWA FOX24 and Mediaite

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

As Fury Erupts Over Campus Antisemitism, Conservatives Seize the Moment — Republicans have been attacking elite universities for years. After a tense congressional hearing last week, many on the left are joining them. — For years, conservatives have struggled to persuade American voters …

Discussion: Twitchy and Why Evolution Is True

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:
University of Pennsylvania president steps down amid criticism of antisemitism testimony

New York Times:
Penn's President Resigns After Her Responses About Antisemitism

Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost:

Antony Blinken Defends Lone U.S. Veto On UN Cease-Fire Resolution For Gaza — The secretary of state also claimed the U.S. cares about protecting Palestinian civilians, but just bypassed Congress to approve more arms sales to Israel. — LOADING — Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico, RedState, Associated Press, USA Today, New York Times, UPI, The Hill, Al Jazeera, NBC News, Reuters, NPR and Voice of America

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Giuliani spread lies about Georgia election workers. A jury will decide what he owes them. — A damages trial begins Monday in a case in which a judge has already ruled that Rudy Giuliani is liable for defamation. — When Rudy Giuliani steps into federal court on Monday …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, emptywheel, The Guardian, New York Times and USA Today

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Jack Smith reveals sweeping scope of bid to debunk Trump election machine claims — In a new filing, his team described interviewing more than a dozen of the top intelligence officials in Trump's administration. — Special counsel Jack Smith on Saturday sharply rejected Donald Trump's contention …

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Less appetite — and opportunity — to serve as fake Trump electors in 2024 — Amid a growing number of criminal investigations into the 2020 election, some who once cast electoral college votes for the former president say they would not do it again — Republican Party activist Ken Carroll thought …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Nation

NBC News:

She's with him: Hillary Clinton steps out as a key player in Biden's re-election effort — Clinton hosted a $1 million fundraiser at her Georgetown home. — WASHINGTON — On the final Monday in November, in a Washington home stately enough to have a name — Whitehaven …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, Politico and HotAir

Robert Costa / CBS News:

Kevin McCarthy on Trump: America doesn't want “retribution” — California Republican Kevin McCarthy holds a place in history as the first-ever Speaker of the House to be voted out of that position. Historic, but looking at how his tenure began, hardly a shock.

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Mercury News and Mediaite

Ry Rivard / Politico:

I Covered Joe Manchin for Years. He Might Not Care If He Sinks Joe Biden. — The senator's brand of centrism helped him survive West Virginia's rapid transformation from blue to red. But it also helped sow the seeds of the Democratic Party's demise back home.

Discussion: Associated Press and The Messenger

The Hill:

‘Morally, this is obscene’: GOP divided over stripping compensation for radiation victims from NDAA — The exclusion of a measure to extend compensation for people exposed to radiation from U.S. nuclear testing from the annual defense bill this week marked yet another fracture in the Republican conference.

Discussion: Business Insider