memeorandum: California Highway Patrol needed nearly four hours to catch a runaway ‘unicorn’ (Brittny Mejia/Los Angeles Times)

5:55 PM ET, February 27, 2016

Top Items:

Inside the Republican Party's Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump — The scenario Karl Rove outlined was bleak. — Addressing a luncheon of Republican governors and donors in Washington on Feb. 19, he warned that Donald J. Trump's increasingly likely nomination would be catastrophic, dooming the party in November.

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Will Conservatives Abandon Donald Trump in the General Election? — The New York Times has a big story this morning about the trials and tribulations of the Republican Party establishment in their efforts to stop Donald Trump. I would like to draw your attention to two things. First this:

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air and Gothamist

Kristen East / Politico:

Jan Brewer endorses Donald Trump — Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Saturday endorsed Donald Trump for president. — Trump has made immigration a central issue in his campaign for president, vowing to build a wall along the southern border of the United States and promising to have Mexico pay for it.

Discussion: RedState, Outside the Beltway and CNN

New York Daily News:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorses Donald Trump for president

Discussion: Joe.My.God., The Week, CNN and Mediaite

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg Business:
Chris Christie Delivers Major Blow to Party Elites Resisting Trump

Discussion: Politico, Red Alert Politics and WMTW-TV

David Weigel / Washington Post:

Rubio's verbal assault on Trump continues, joined by seven-figure ad buys — OKLAHOMA CITY — It was the biggest crowd Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) had gotten in this state, perhaps a thousand voters filling the floor of a downtown event center to hear him. And for 10 minutes …

Discussion: Mother Jones and Politico

Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:
Trump faces wave of big-money attacks

Discussion: The Hill, Princeton Election Consortium, Political Wire, NBC News, New York Times, Trail Blazers Blog, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Ian Tuttle / National Review:
Yes, Trump University Was a Massive Scam

Discussion: Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Yahoo Politics, Patterico's Pontifications, LawNewz, BloombergView.com and New York Times

Kerry Picket / The Daily Caller:

Bill Clinton Loses It Over Benghazi Hecklers At Campaign Rally [VIDEO] — Former president Bill Clinton became angry when he was heckled by protesters during a campaign event in Bluffton, South Carolina on Friday. — The protesters demanded to know if his wife Hillary Clinton lied …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Gateway Pundit and The Last Tradition

Olaf Ekberg / The American Mirror:

VIDEO: Bill Clinton snaps at veteran during speech: ‘Shut up and listen to my answer’ — The long hours and grueling pace of the presidential campaign may be finally catching up with a rapidly aging Bill Clinton. — During an appearance in Bluffton, South Carolina on Friday …

Discussion: RedState

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Sanders puts South Carolina in rear-view mirror — AUSTIN — South Carolina is holding its Democratic primary today, but you wouldn't know it just by listening to Bernie Sanders. — Jetting off to Austin from Columbia, S.C. this morning — before stops in Dallas and Rochester, Minnesota …

Discussion: Washington Post and Political Wire

Ari Berman / The Nation:
63,756 Reasons Racism Is Still Alive in South Carolina

Discussion: ThinkProgressPage Array, Daily Kos and New York Times

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:
S.C. Democrats head to the polls; Clinton, Sanders head out of state

Discussion: Politico, New Jersey News …, Outside the Beltway and Common Dreams

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:
What happens when Hillary Clinton crashes a bachelor party? She's in the photos.

Discussion: Politico, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Taylor Marsh, PAPERMAG, BizPac Review and Tennessean.com

James Queally / Los Angeles Times:

Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupts in violence; three stabbed — A protester was stabbed at the site of a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim on Saturday. — Three people were stabbed and several arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupted in violence Saturday, police said.

Discussion: KTLA, Fusion and The Right Scoop

Justin Fox / BloombergView.com:

Stuff Keeps Getting Cheaper — Since 1995, durable goods (cars, televisions, computers and the like) have been getting cheaper in the U.S. That's even as the prices of services and nondurables have mostly kept rising. — In the chart above, prices are viewed using 2009 as the base year.

Discussion: Equitable Growth

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Founder Of French Far Right Party Endorses Trump — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the larger-than-life founder of France's far-right Front National party, endorsed Donald Trump on his Twitter feed on Saturday. — “If I was American I would vote for Donald Trump,” Le Pen tweeted. “May God protect him!”

Elliot Smilowitz / The Hill:

Rubio mocks Trump for spelling, ‘spray tan,’ ‘Hair Force One’ plane — is running for president, but it sounds like he would settle for a Comedy Central special. — Rubio on Saturday continued his mockery of rival Donald Trump — , going after the businessman's spelling errors and “spray tan” at a campaign event in Kennesaw, Ga.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Red Alert Politics

Orlando Sentinel:

Seventh graders arrested, accused of putting pepper flakes in teacher's soda … Three seventh-graders at Deltona Middle School are facing criminal charges after allegedly putting crushed red pepper flakes in their teacher's can of Mountain Dew, a Volusia County sheriff's spokesman said.

Discussion: New York's PIX11 and NBC News

Oliver Darcy / TheBlaze.com:

‘I Will Not Be Used As a Tool for Their Purposes’: MSNBC Host Unleashes on Network in Brutal Letter — MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry blasted network executives in an email sent to colleagues and published online Friday, writing that recent decisions to substitute her weekend show …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNNMoney, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Moderate Voice, theGrio and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, more at Mediagazer »

Brittny Mejia / Los Angeles Times:

California Highway Patrol needed nearly four hours to catch a runaway ‘unicorn’ — A California Highway Patrol helicopter tracked down an escaped unicorn on Wednesday in Madera Ranchos. — When a caller reported a “unicorn-like” animal galloping down an open Central Valley road …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion