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• David Frum in The Atlantic:

“It is vitally important that a president be able to speak confidentially — and perhaps even more important that foreign leaders understand that they can reply in confidence.”

Mr. Frum, no great defender of President Trump, warns that leaking the transcripts between the president and foreign leaders is wrong and, more important, dangerous. Speculating that these leaks came from the national security establishment, Mr. Frum understands the temptation: “The fear that a Russian mole has burrowed into the Oval Office may justify, to some, the most extreme actions against that suspected mole.” However, he writes, it’s no excuse for “national security establishment overreach.” Read more »

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• David French in National Review:

“Why is it inherently more compassionate to allow a low-skilled, non-English-speaking sibling of a legal immigrant to come to this country at the exact same time that our blue-collar population is struggling to attain economic stability?”

Mr. French takes up the contentious back-and-forth between the CNN reporter Jim Acosta and Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to the president who was sent out this week to defend and explain the administration’s immigration policy in a news briefing. On history and policy, Mr. French argues, Mr. Miller was right. But Mr. Acosta, he notes, was not wrong to evoke poetry and emotion, writing, “In politics, kind versus cruel is a compelling narrative.” There’s a way, according to Mr. French, to see the administration’s immigration proposal as the ultimate act of kindness to America’s working class. Read more »

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From the Left

• Peter Beinart in The Atlantic:

“A decade ago, liberals publicly questioned immigration in ways that would shock many progressives today.”