Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Sgt. 1st Class Michael Goble: “A U.S. Special Forces soldier who died in Afghanistan this week was seizing a Taliban weapons cache when he was killed, the U.S. military said Friday.”
* North Carolina: “Republican attempts to require photo identification to vote in North Carolina are being thwarted again by judges hearing arguments that the mandate is tainted by bias that would deter black and Latino residents.”
* Trump draws attention to the alleged whistleblower’s name: “President Trump isn’t done with his crusade to expose the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint detailing the Ukraine pressure campaign sparked the impeachment inquiry. On Thursday night, the President retweeted an article from the Washington Examiner that names the person that Trump’s allies allege to be the whistleblower.”
* A brutal report on accused war criminal Navy SEAL Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher: “Video interviews and documents leaked to The New York Times reveal how Navy SEALs turned against their own platoon leader with allegations that he killed for the sake of killing.”
* This unfolded faster than expected: “The Food and Drug Administration officially raised the age to buy tobacco in the U.S. from 18 to 21, fulfilling a key portion of the federal spending package that President Trump signed into law last week.” * Congress doesn’t necessarily need Trump on this: “In a rare show of bipartisan unity, Republicans and Democrats are planning to try to force President Trump to take a more active stand on human rights in China, preparing veto-proof legislation that would punish top Chinese officials for detaining more than one million Muslims in internment camps.” * His work won’t soon be forgotten: “William Greider, a reporter, editor and popular author who examined the United States, its politics and its position in the world through an economic lens for four decades for The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Nation and other media outlets, died on Wednesday at his home in Washington. He was 83.” Enjoy the weekend.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
