memeorandum: Graham: I won't vote for Trump (Jesse Byrnes/The Hill)

3:55 PM ET, May 6, 2016

Top Items:

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:

Graham: I won't vote for Trump … (R-S.C.) on Friday said he would not vote for Donald Trump — Graham, who was slated to appear on CNN at 2 p.m. to discuss his decision, is the highest GOP office holder so far to rule out voting for Trump. — Other Republicans, such as Sen. Ben Sasse …

Discussion: RedState, CNN, USA Today and Wall Street Journal

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

‘Dismayed’ Romney says he doesn't intend to back Trump, worried about ‘demagoguery and populism’ — Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, said at a dinner in Washington on Thursday night that he had no intention of supporting presumtive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, Mediaite, Hot Air, Independent Journal …, Politico, BizPac Review and WHNT-TV

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:

Donald Trump agrees to meet with Paul Ryan ‘before we go our separate ways’ … Likely Republican nominee Donald Trump disagrees with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus's characterization of a conversation they had on Thursday about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) not yet being ready to support Trump.

Tom LoBianco / CNN:

First on CNN: Cheney says he will support Trump — Washington (CNN)Former Vice President Dick Cheney will support Donald Trump, he told CNN Friday, an important move as the presumptive Republican nominee is encountering intense resistance from senior members of his own party.

Discussion: Townhall.com, Political Wire, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Mediaite, The Atlantic, Western Journalism, Fox 59 and Independent Journal …

Nick Gass / Politico:

Trump camp suggests Ryan unfit to be speaker — Donald Trump and his allies are lashing out at House Speaker Paul Ryan for his refusal to back — for now — the presumptive Republican nominee, with Trump's spokeswoman even declaring Ryan unfit for his job. — During a phone interview …

Discussion: Washington Post, Forbes, Sky Dancing and ABC News

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Paul Ryan's primary opponent: I'll support Trump

Discussion: The Last Refuge

Nick Gass / Politico:
Priebus on Trump: 'He's trying'

Discussion: RedState, Washington Post and The Hill

Matea Gold / Washington Post:
Trump turns to general election — and away from past positions

Discussion: Politico, Mother Jones, The Week, New York Times, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, zerohedge.com/fullrss2 …, Vox and CANNONFIRE

Alexander Burns / New York Times:
Donald Trump Seeks Republican Unity but Finds Rejection

Discussion: Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Red Alert Politics, Chicagoist, Western Journalism, Mashable and National Review

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:
Trump tells West Virginians not to vote in Tuesday's primary

Discussion: RedState, New York Magazine, Western Journalism and BuzzFeed

Bloomberg.com:
Why GOP Strategist Mary Matalin Is Registering as a Libertarian

Discussion: Hit & Run, New York Times, Western Journalism, FOX News Radio, AOL, National Review, Politico, BizPac Review and Political Wire

Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg:
Paul Ryan Spoils Trump's Victory by Withholding Endorsement

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Mary Troyan / USA Today:
Sen. Bob Corker says he'll advise Donald Trump on foreign policy

Discussion: RedState

Eric Bradner / CNN:
The GOP resistance to Donald Trump

Discussion: Breitbart, The Last Refuge, The Gateway Pundit, FiveThirtyEight, The Daily Caller, The Hill, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, Power Line, Public Religion Research …, No More Mister Nice Blog, BizPac Review and Daily Kos

Nick Gass / Politico:
Trump rules out Democrat as running mate

Discussion: Breitbart, USA Today, Western Journalism, AOL, Washington Free Beacon, BizPac Review, Wall Street Journal, Independent Journal …, The Week and Joe.My.God.

ABC News:
The Note: Not All Aboard the Trump Train

Discussion: Politico, Red Alert Politics, Washington Free Beacon and The Last Refuge

Hanna Trudo / Politico:
Romney says he won't back Trump — Add Mitt Romney to the list …

Discussion: Media Matters for America, The Federalist, New York Magazine, BizPac Review, Mediaite and ThinkProgress

Alex Pareene / Gawker:

Don't Blow This — It's Trump versus Clinton. It's a well-funded mainstream Democrat against a widely reviled demagogue who will struggle to earn the support of his party's donor base. It's a man whose every public utterance is potential negative ad waiting to be cut, versus the most cautious candidate in modern memory.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Stranger …

Erick Erickson / The Resurgent:

Republicans, Apologize to Bill Clinton — Upon arrival in Washington, DC in January of 1993, Bill and Hillary Clinton found themselves in a never ending independent counsel investigation. The investigation began over a land deal that was known as Whitewater.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

New York Times:

Sheldon Adelson Says He Will Support Donald Trump — The casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson said on Thursday night that he would support Donald J. Trump now that he has become the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. — “Yes, I'm a Republican, he's a Republican,” Mr. Adelson said in a brief interview.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Politico, CNN, New York Magazine, USA Today, Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, Guardian, Hullabaloo, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, JP Updates, Mother Jones, The Week, Wall Street Journal, Donald J. Trump and ABC News

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

Neither Clinton Nor Trump — “Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.” — I have always voted for the Republican presidential candidate. From Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan (twice) and George H. W. Bush (twice) and Bob Dole, from George W. Bush (twice) …

Discussion: National Review

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:
Yo, Hillary: Hit Donald Where It Hurts

Discussion: TIME

Binyamin Appelbaum / New York Times:

Donald Trump's Idea to Cut National Debt: Get Creditors to Accept Less — One day after assuring Americans he is not running for president “to make things unstable for the country,” the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, said in a television interview Thursday that he might seek …

Discussion: RedState, Vox, Hot Air, Zero Hedge, The Week, Business Insider, The Hayride, Western Journalism, rubber hose and Balloon Juice

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

This Is Astounding — So many stories in presidential politics, in all politics, are more sound and fury than substance. This one isn't. It's hard to overstate how big a deal it is. Donald Trump caught a lot of grief during the primaries for putting several of his companies through bankruptcies during his career.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Times and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Here's How the White House Shapes Foreign Affairs Coverage — In the New York Times Magazine this week, David Samuels has a long profile of Ben Rhodes, the chief messaging guru for foreign affairs in the White House. Generally speaking, Rhodes seems like my kind of guy …

Discussion: New York Post, the daily howler, The Daily Caller and Front Page Magazine

John Podhoretz / New York Post:
White House admits it played us for fools to sell Iran deal

Discussion: The Atlantic, Rush Limbaugh, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, The Lid, Mediaite, Front Page Magazine, Israel Matzav, Instapundit and New York Times

Thomas E. Ricks / Foreign Policy:
A stunning profile of Ben Rhodes, the a**hole who is the president's foreign policy guru

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, Heat Street, Unfogged, Israel Matzav, Liberty Unyielding, Washington Free Beacon, Clayton Cramer and EconLog

Lee Smith / Weekly Standard:
Obama's Foreign Policy Guru Boasts of How the Administration Lied to Sell the Iran Deal

Discussion: Ace of Spades HQ, Hot Air, Instapundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Washington Free Beacon

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

Sanders accuses DNC of tipping convention toward Clinton — Bernie Sanders is accusing Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of trying to tip the party convention in Hillary Clinton's favor, saying the chairwoman has packed the committees with Clinton supporters.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ABC News, U.S. Uncut, Mediaite and The Week

Daniel Strauss / Politico:
Sanders poised for May win streak

Discussion: Common Dreams and Althouse

Andrew Prokop / Vox:

The political scientist who saw Trump's rise coming — Norm Ornstein on why the Republican Party was ripe for a takeover, what the media missed, and whether Trump could win the presidency. — In the summer of 2015, most of the political world still thought Donald Trump's candidacy was a joke.

Discussion: New York Times and Balloon Juice

Charles Thompson / PennLive.com:

Child told Paterno of sex abuse in 1976, court papers allege — Court documents state that “in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky.” … A new bombshell dropped in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal Thursday.

Discussion: Daily Kos, CollegeFootballTalk, NBC News, New York Magazine, Independent Journal …, 6, The Week, CBS New York, Balloon Juice, WJHL, Associated Press, The Big Lead, Mashable, Complex, CNN and WCMH-TV

Washington Post:

One killed, others injured in shootings at Md. mall, grocery store … Three people were shot in the parking lot at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda on Friday morning and authorities are investigating whether the assailant is a man believed to have shot and killed his wife outside a Maryland school Thursday evening.

Discussion: Shakesville and Washingtonian

Emily Calandrelli / TechCrunch:

GoPro hitched a ride on a rocket and the video is incredible — Today, GoPro released some pretty incredible footage of a suborbital rocket launch that climbed to 396,405 feet at speeds as high as Mach 5.5. Check out the very real footage below. — The launch in the video took place …