memeorandum: No, Bernie's Taxes Don't Show That He's a Hypocrite (Kevin Drum/Mother Jones)

2:20 PM ET, April 19, 2016

Top Items:

Donald Trump reorganizes campaign just before big state primaries — Two senior Trump sources confirmed an extensive reorganization of the Trump campaign to CBS News on Monday. — Paul Manafort, hired last week to be the convention manager, will now run the Trump campaign …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Atlantic, RedState, Washington Examiner, Mediaite, New York Magazine, The Resurgent and Politico

Shane Goldmacher / Politico:
Donald Trump hires top GOP lawyer for delegate fight

Discussion: Salon, Above the Law and electionlawblog.org

Ben Schreckinger / Politico:
Trump orders new campaign hierarchy, spending plan

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, New York Times, Sky Dancing, Independent Journal …, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Times, Mediaite, FOX40, Patterico's Pontifications, RedState and The Right Scoop

New York Times:
Top Donald Trump Campaign Aide Quits in Shakeup

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and Washington Times

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Trump Jr. On Delegate System: “I Feel Like We're Living In Communist China”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:

Rep. Pete King: ‘I hate Ted Cruz’ — New York Rep. Pete King (R) on Tuesday offered his harshest words yet for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz — , slamming the Texas senator on the day of his state's primary. — “Well, first of all, in case anybody gets confused …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:

Peter King: I hate Ted Cruz and I voted for John Kasich — Peter King hates Ted Cruz and thinks Donald Trump will win big in New York's Republican primary Tuesday, but he cast his ballot for John Kasich. — “I hate Ted Cruz, and I think I'll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination,” …

Discussion: Washington Post and ABC News

Alex Griswold / Mediaite: GOP Rep Peter King on Ted Cruz: 'I'll Take Cyanide If He Got the Nomination'

Jose A. DelReal / Washington Post:
Clinton and Trump look to N.Y. primary to cement front-runner status

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and Prairie Weather

CNN:
Romney: 3-man race throws Trump the nomination

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Post, Mediaite and Washington Times

New York Post:

Nervous Hillary downplays potential of New York landslide — Less than 24 hours before the polls open in New York, Hillary Clinton's campaign tried to downgrade expectations of a huge victory by predicting a less-than-overwhelming margin in Tuesday's presidential primary.

Discussion: The Nation, Political Insider blog, NY State of Politics, New York Times and Washington Post

Dante Chinni / Wall Street Journal:

New York Primaries: 5 Things to Watch — New York is one of the most diverse states to vote so far in 2016, a complicated mix of races and occupations spread across a state that holds big cities and farmlands - from New York City to Niagara Falls. Here's a cheat sheet for what and where to watch Tuesday night.

Discussion: FOX News Radio

JOHN HODGMAN:
Hillary Clinton for President

Discussion: Politico and Boing Boing

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Sanders: Clinton will have to court my supporters

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Joshua David Stein / Guardian:

When the New York Observer endorsed Donald Trump, I had to resign — I was the restaurant critic. I could have carried on writing about crudités and borscht. But taking money from a shill for Trump implicated me in his hate — or the last three years, I've been the restaurant critic …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Politico and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

James Oliphant / Reuters: Trump candidacy: Where some fear to tread others see a path to victory

Hanna Trudo / Politico:
Giuliani explains why he won't endorse Trump

Discussion: Mediaite, Hot Air and Raw Story

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

No, Bernie's Taxes Don't Show That He's a Hypocrite — This argument was tiresome a decade ago, and it's still tiresome: … This isn't even close to hypocrisy. If you don't like the designated hitter rule in baseball, does that mean you should send your pitcher to the plate just to prove how sincere you are?

Jim Geraghty / National Review:

Bernie's Tax Hypocrisy — Bernie Sanders released his 2014 tax return this weekend, revealing that he and his wife took $60,208 in deductions from their taxable income. These deductions are all perfectly legal and permitted under the U.S. tax code, but they present a morally inconvenient …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

John Harwood / CNBC:

Biden to critics: We had 8 atom bombs land on our desk — Vice President Joe Biden says politicians need to stop questioning each other's motives and question their judgments and decisions instead. — ABOARD AMTRAK ACELA #2166 — Joe Biden, 73, has been an influential figure in American politics for more than four decades.

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Politico and Washington Free Beacon

New York Times:

Debunking Republican Health Care Myths — “Disaster.” “Incredible economic burden.” “The biggest job-killer in this country.” — Central to the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has been the claim that the Affordable Care Act has been a complete failure …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Media Matters for America and Washington Monthly

Cynthia Cox / kff.org:
Analysis of UnitedHealth Group's Premiums and Participation in ACA Marketplaces

Discussion: The Atlantic, USA Today, New York Times, naked capitalism, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The CT Mirror, Hot Air, NPR and Morning Consult

Tom Murphy / Associated Press:
UNITEDHEALTH TO TRIM ACA EXCHANGES TO ‘HANDFUL’ OF STATES

Discussion: Hot Air and Washington Free Beacon

benjerry.com:

Why Ben and Jerry Just Got Arrested — Earlier today, our cofounders, Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen, along with hundreds of other activists, were arrested as part of Democracy Awakening's direct action on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building. — JUST BEFORE THEY WERE ARRESTED

Discussion: Vox, CNN, Red Alert Politics, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Guardian, AOL, Mashable, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Eater and New York Times

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Donald Trump: I ‘helped a little bit’ with clearing rubble at Ground Zero … Donald Trump has gotten a lot of attention over the past 12 hours for referring to the Sept. 11 terror attacks as “7/11” during a speech in Buffalo. It's an awkward, amusing slip-up — but it's just a slip-up.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

Theodore Schleifer / CNN:
Donald Trump mixes up ‘9/11’ with ‘7/11’

Discussion: KTLA, Business Insider and Towleroad

Steven Shepard / Politico:

How New York will be won — Two New Yorks are voting on Tuesday. — In the Democratic presidential primary, about half the vote will come from New York City's five boroughs — a percentage that increases to nearly three-quarters of the vote when the entire New York media market is included.

Discussion: New York Times

Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:
A New Yorker's Guide To The GOP Primary — District By District

Discussion: Vox, The Resurgent and The Atlantic

Spencer Kornhaber / The Atlantic:

Better Call Saul and the Edge of Boredom — “We want to make a show that stands on its own,” Better Call Saul's co-creator Peter Gould has said about his and Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad spinoff. Two seasons in, Saul has achieved many things, but this particular goal isn't one of them.

Discussion: Scripting News and Slate

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Pat Boone Accuses ‘SNL’ of Anti-Christian Bias After 'God's Not Dead 2' Parody — EMAIL ME — “This skit was outright sacrilege. They know if they did this to Muslims they'd have to be put into the witness protection program,” the singer-actor said. — Pat Boone is calling out NBC …

Discussion: Mediaite, PinkNews and The Daily Caller

Neal Gabler / The Atlantic:

The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans — Since 2013, the Federal Reserve Board has conducted a survey to “monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers.” Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The American Conservative

Dustin Volz / Reuters:

Apple refused China request for source code in last two years: lawyer — Apple has been asked by Chinese authorities within the last two years to hand over its source code but refused to do so, the company's top lawyer told U.S. lawmakers at a hearing on Tuesday.

Discussion: Infowars

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Protections For Transgender People In Landmark Ruling — WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Department of Education's interpretation of existing federal civil rights laws to protect transgender people against discrimination in education.