memeorandum: ‘I Will Not Be Used As a Tool for Their Purposes’: MSNBC Host Unleashes on Network in Brutal Letter (Oliver Darcy/TheBlaze.com)

7:00 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, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog 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

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Inside the GOP Implosion and the War to Stop Trump — Here is a New York Times article you may have seen. It describes the GOP's panicked, hyperbolic and yet utterly ineffectual rush to stop the Donald Trump juggernaut. As I've said before, the GOP's Trump problem reminds of the regional and global powers efforts to destroy ISIS.

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

‘You Inspire Us All’ — 'You inspire us all. " With that fulsome greeting, Pat Robertson welcomed Donald Trump this week to the stage of Regent University. According to the school's catalogue, the university's name invokes the fact that “a regent is one who represents Christ, our Sovereign …

Michael Shepherd / Bangor Daily News:
LePage, Christie endorse Donald Trump for president

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Atlantic

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

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

Jacob Heilbrunn / The National Interest:
Why Trump Is Panicking Robert Kagan

Discussion: Mondoweiss and Slantpoint

New York Times:
Donald Trump and Chris Christie Start a Bully Bromance

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Politico, Da Tech Guy Blog, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Taylor Marsh and Washington Post

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

Discussion: Politico, Red Alert Politics and WMTW-TV

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: Boing Boing, KTLA, SOOPERMEXICAN, SEC Primary and Fusion

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: National Review, Mother Jones and Politico

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

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

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’

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

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:
South Carolina primary: Democrats vote as Clinton, Sanders head out of state

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

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

Discussion: ThinkProgressPage Array, New York Times and Daily Kos

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, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Fusion, BizPac Review, Washington Post, Independent Journal Review, Downtrend and Outside the Beltway, more at Mediagazer »

Joe Concha / Mediaite:
Harris-Perry Throws Away TV Career, Petulantly Plays Race Card From Bottom of the Deck

Discussion: Townhall.com, The Hill, Jezebel, Hot Air and TVNewser, more at Mediagazer »

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: Raw Story, New York's PIX11 and NBC News

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

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, Red Alert Politics and Political Wire

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!”