memeorandum: ‘This Week’ Transcript: Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders (ABC News)

1:00 PM ET, February 28, 2016

Top Items:

Alex Pareene / Gawker:

How We Fooled Donald Trump Into Retweeting Benito Mussolini — Is Donald Trump a fascist? Experts, historians, and pundits have debated the question for months. One thing has been certain for a while now: He tweets like one. That's why, last year, Gawker's Ashley Feinberg created …

Discussion: Washington Post, RedState, Fusion, Business Insider, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, Slantpoint, The Right Scoop, Joe.My.God., New York Times, The Daily Caller and Mashable, more at Mediagazer »

John Cassidy / New Yorker:

Donald Trump's Business Record Demands More Scrutiny — On July 10th of last year, six days before Donald Trump confirmed rumors that he was entering the 2016 Presidential race, David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, published a piece at The National Memo that was headlined “21 Questions For Donald Trump.”

Sara Jerde / Talking Points Memo:
Gawker Takes Credit For Mussolini Account That Trump Retweeted

Discussion: RedState, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Post

Associated Press:
The Latest: Kasich: Romney Did Not Ask Me to Quit

Discussion: ABC News and Politico

William Kristol / Weekly Standard: ‘You Inspire Us All’ — 'You inspire us all.

Brian Faler / Politico:
Rubio, Cruz release partial tax returns

Discussion: ABC News, Business Insider and Washington Post

Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:

With All Eyes On Trump, Clinton Is Winning The Democratic Nomination — UPDATE (Feb. 27, 9:12 p.m.): We've updated the numbers below to reflect the latest exit poll data and precinct returns. — In South Carolina today, Hillary Clinton scored her biggest victory yet in the Democratic presidential primary.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Infowars, Common Dreams, ABC News, Guardian, CNN, New York Magazine, The Week and New Jersey News …

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Super Tuesday Scorecard: Big night possible for Donald Trump — is poised to grow his delegate lead over the Republican field with a strong showing on Super Tuesday. — The long-time GOP front-runner leads in the latest polls in eight of the 11 states that will vote on March 1 …

Discussion: Hot Air

New York Times:
South Carolina Democrats | Republicans

Discussion: CNN, Christian Science Monitor, Front Page Magazine and Vox

ABC News:
Black Voters Boost Clinton in South Carolina

Discussion: Politico, Slantpoint, Salon, Slate, CANNONFIRE, Fusion, Los Angeles Times, The Week, Associated Press, The Atlantic, Politicus USA, ThinkProgressPage Array, Balloon Juice and Hot Air

New York Times:
Hillary Clinton Wins South Carolina Primary

Discussion: Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Politico, Raw Story, The Moderate Voice, Mother Jones, Vox, Pitchfork, The Week, Towleroad, ThinkProgressPage Array, Robert Reich and Common Dreams

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
South Carolina Democratic primary results 2016: An overwhelming win for Clinton

Discussion: BloombergView.com, Washington Post, Yahoo Politics and The Week

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Sanders on South Carolina results: ‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose’

Discussion: Washington Post and The Week

Molly Ball / The Atlantic:
Barack Obama's Heir

Discussion: New York Times and The Week

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Hillary Clinton wins big in South Carolina, CNN projects

Discussion: The National Interest, Talking Points Memo, WCBD News 2, Business Insider, Mashable, Al Jazeera English, The Right Scoop and fox8.com

Nick Gass / Politico:
Clinton wallops Sanders in South Carolina

Discussion: Power Line

ABC News:

‘This Week’ Transcript: Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR ‘THIS WEEK’ ON February 28, 2016 and it will be updated. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANNOUNCER: Starting right now on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Trump takes command.

Discussion: Politicus USA

Politico:

CLINTON'S ROMP ‘dramatically narrows’ Sanders path - MARCO'S VOICE MAIL infuriates Christie; Jeb call is brief — 2 DAYS to Turning Point Tuesday: Can Rubio eke out enough delegates to go on? — By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; mallen@politico.com) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; dlippman@politico.com)

Discussion: us3.campaign-archive1.com and New York Times

Nicki Rossoll / ABC News: Despite Endorsement, Chris Christie Still Disagrees With Some of Donald Trump's Policies

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
As Trump rolls into ‘Super Tuesday,’ Rubio hopes to hang on

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, NBC News and Princeton Election Consortium

Dan McLaughlin / RedState:
Marco Rubio Gives Democratic Strategists The Vapors

Discussion: MSNBC and JustOneMinute

Sara Jerde / Talking Points Memo:

Trump Criticizes The Republican Party: It's ‘Not Being Run Properly’ — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized the Republican party on Sunday, and said that it was not “being run properly.” — Trump told CNN host Jake Tapper that he was representing “a lot of anger out there” …

Ross Douthat / New York Times:
From Obama to Trump — THE spectacle of the Republican Party's …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

David Atkins / Washington Monthly:
End the Superdelegates. End the Caucuses. For Democracy's Sake.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Eric Bradner / CNN:

Trump won't disavow support from KKK, David Duke — Washington (CNN)Donald Trump wouldn't disavow former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke's support for his presidential bid, saying Sunday that he knows nothing about the white supremacist leader. — “Just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke, OK?”

Discussion: The Atlantic, Trail Blazers Blog, Guardian, Hit & Run, Mashable, NPR and WTVR-TV

James Queally / Los Angeles Times:
Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupts in violence; three stabbed

Discussion: KTLA, Associated Press, BizPac Review, Mediaite, Fusion, Independent Journal Review, Boing Boing, The Right Scoop, Booman Tribune and Clayton Cramer

NBC News:

Christie Campaign's Finance Co-Chair Calls on Donors to Reject Trump — Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard who had an official role with Gov. Chris Christie's now-suspended presidential campaign, called his endorsement of Trump, “an astonishing display of political opportunism.”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Independent Journal Review and Mondoweiss

Sylvan Lane / The Hill:

Ex-CIA chief: Armed forces would have to disobey Trump — The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency said Friday that if the military would have to disobey Donald Trump — if he followed through on certain campaign promises as president.

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Politico, bradford-delong.com, Political Wire, Instapundit and Raw Story

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

MSNBC to sever ties with Melissa Harris-Perry after host's critical email — MSNBC intends to part ways with host Melissa Harris-Perry after she complained about preemptions of her weekend program and implied that there was a racial aspect to the cable-news network's treatment, insiders at MSNBC said.

Discussion: CNNMoney, New York Times, Hot Air, The Week, The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review, Washington Free Beacon, theGrio, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Hillary Clinton, ‘Smart Power’ and a Dictator's Fall … By the time Mahmoud Jibril cleared customs at Le Bourget airport and sped into Paris, the American secretary of state had been waiting for hours. But this was not a meeting Hillary Clinton could cancel. Their encounter could decide whether America was again going to war.

Discussion: JustOneMinute and Hit & Run

Jason Horowitz / New York Times:

Marco Rubio Pushed for Immigration Reform With Conservative Media — A few weeks after Senator Marco Rubio joined a bipartisan push for an immigration overhaul in 2013, he arrived alongside Senator Chuck Schumer at the executive dining room of News Corporation's Manhattan headquarters for dinner.

Discussion: Vox Popoli, The Last Refuge, The Daily Caller, National Review and The Gateway Pundit