memeorandum: S.E. Cupp: ‘Idiots’ Are Attacking Paul Ryan Because ‘Thinking’ Is Elitist Now (Ken Meyer/Mediaite)

1:20 AM ET, May 11, 2016

Top Items:

Josh Harkinson / Mother Jones:

Trump Selects a White Nationalist Leader as a Delegate in California — On Monday evening, California's secretary of state published a list of delegates chosen by the Trump campaign for the upcoming Republican presidential primary in the state. Trump's slate includes William Johnson …

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will oversee the vice-presidential search — Political adviser Beth Myers headed up the process for Mitt Romney. Washington lawyer A.B. Culvahouse managed the selection for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Now, Corey Lewandowski will have that responsibility for Donald Trump.

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, The Hill, Vox, Shakesville, The Gateway Pundit, Independent Journal …, Talking Points Memo and Hullabaloo

Michelle Moons / Breitbart:
Trump Surprises with Celebrities on California Delegates List

Discussion: Right Wing Watch

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:
Ben Carson Is Off Trump's VP Vetting Team

Discussion: CNN and Talking Points Memo

CNN:
Trump campaign approves white nationalist as GOP delegate after ‘database error’

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, New York Times, Independent Political Report, Guardian and Mother Jones

Josh Harkinson / Mother Jones:
Trump Campaign Corresponded With Its White Nationalist Delegate Long After “Database Error”

Discussion: Media Matters for America and Guardian

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
Donald Trump's delegate ineptitude stumbles into white nationalism

Discussion: Hot Air

Allegra Kirkland / Talking Points Memo: Trump Camp: ‘Database Error’ Led To White Nationalist On CA Delegate Slate

U.S. ELECTIONS:
AP Interview: Donald Trump says he's narrowed VP shortlist

Discussion: Associated Press, Politico, ABC News, Fox News and CNN

ABC News:

West Virginia Democratic Primary Exit Poll Results — Who turned out in Tuesday's West Virginia Primary and what motivated their votes? — The following is reportable as “preliminary” exit poll results from the West Virginia Democratic primary. Please note that exit poll results …

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, The Atlantic, Power Line, Guardian, Washington Post, Charleston Gazette-Mail and New York Times

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:

Clinton Faces Hard Reality Of Unity In Trump Country — Protesters outside Clinton's event in Williamson, W.Va. last week. — Candice Branham likes Donald Trump. But that wasn't the reason she stood for hours last week in the rain, waiting to protest Hillary Clinton in Williamson, a small coal town in West Virginia.

Carrie Dann / NBC News:
Sanders Wins in West Virginia Democratic Primary; Trump Cruises

Discussion: Vox, Common Dreams, CBS New York, Towleroad and American Power

CBS News:
Over four in 10 Sanders voters in West Virginia would vote for Trump

Discussion: RedState, CBS New York and BizPac Review

Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:
Bernie Sanders May Win Big In West Virginia

Discussion: Mother Jones, Slantpoint, KRQE-TV, Common Dreams, Political Insider blog and CBS News

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:
Sanders, Trump easily win West Virginia primary; Trump picks up Nebraska too

Discussion: ABC News, Liberal Values, Politico and The Atlantic

Kyle Mantyla / Right Wing Watch:

'They're Only Using Us For Their Own Power': Glenn Beck Unloads On The GOP — On his radio program last week, Glenn Beck revealed that before Ted Cruz had ended his race for the GOP presidential nomination, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus had contacted Beck about setting …

Discussion: Mediaite

Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:

Heidi Cruz Likens Husband's Campaign to Efforts to End Slavery … Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout. — Drawing a parallel between the long-term efforts of her husband's supporters and the fight to end slavery, Heidi Cruz said Tuesday that it took “a lot longer than four years” …

Discussion: Boing Boing, AOL, Trail Blazers Blog, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Duck Dynasty’ patriarch Phil Robertson says he'll back Donald Trump despite endorsing …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Right Scoop, The Daily Caller and The Hayride

Francis Wilkinson / Bloomberg:
Clinton Has a Weakness. That's Trump's Only Hope.

Discussion: Washington Post and AOL

Mark Wilson / Co.Design:

Budweiser Renames Its Beer “America” — Until the November election, Budweiser is swapping out everything on its can—including its own name—to be as patriotic as possible. — With the backdrop of the Olympics and a comically botched election, this summer is bound to be what Ricardo Marques …

Discussion: The Verge, Washington Post, Hot Air, AOL, The Daily Caller, WCBD News 2 and Mashable

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:
Budweiser Will Call Its Beer ‘America’ Through the Election

Discussion: Raw Story, NPR and The Daily Caller

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:

S.E. Cupp: ‘Idiots’ Are Attacking Paul Ryan Because ‘Thinking’ Is Elitist Now — In a new column, CNN contributor S.E. Cupp writes that the attacks on Paul Ryan are the inevitable conclusion of Donald Trump's determination to purge America of “elitist establishment types.”

Michael Nunez / Gizmodo:

Senate GOP Launches Inquiry Into Facebook's News Curation — The US Senate Commerce Committee—which has jurisdiction over media issues, consumer protection issues, and internet communication—has sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg requesting answers to questions it has on its trending topics section.

Steerpike / Coffee House:

Revealed: Emma Watson named in latest Panama Papers leak — Of late, Emma Watson has been taking a more active role in both UK and American politics. The Harry Potter actress recently attended the White House correspondents' dinner, and just yesterday called on London's new mayor Sadiq Khan …

Discussion: USA Today, AOL and Washington Free Beacon

Miranda Blue / Right Wing Watch:

Religious Right Activists Demand Disney Heroine Get A Boyfriend, Stop ‘Homosexualizing Kids’ — In response to a Twitter campaign urging Disney to “give Elsa a girlfriend” in the sequel to the popular children's movie “Frozen,” the social conservative group CitizenGo is circulating …

Discussion: OneNewsNow.com and Recent broadcasts …

Ben Kamisar / The Hill:

Cruz floats restarting campaign if he wins Nebraska primary — on Tuesday floated the possibility of restarting his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraska's GOP primary, as he avoided saying whether he supports Donald Trump — 's bid for president. — Cruz, who ended his White House run …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Advocate, Independent Journal …, AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog …, Washington Monthly, RedState, The Hayride, Mediaite and New York Times

Media Matters for America:

NRA's Ted Nugent Promotes Fake Video Of Hillary Clinton Being Shot — National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, who will deliver a speech at the NRA's annual meeting this month, shared a fake video that depicts Hillary Clinton being graphically murdered by Bernie Sanders with a handgun during a presidential debate.

Discussion: Mediaite

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

North Carolina GOP Reps To The Feds: Don't You Dare Defund The Tarheels! — In a Monday letter to the Department of Education, all 10 GOP members of North Carolina's congressional delegation sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary John King demanding that he not cut off education funding …

Discussion: Raleigh News & Observer and Daily Kos

David French / National Review:
The Obama Administration Provokes a Legal Crisis — the War against North Carolina

Discussion: Media Matters for America, New York Times, Washington Post, ThinkProgress and CNN

Stuart Rothenberg / Roll Call:

Clinton Starts with a Decisive Advantage — Working-class whites aren't enough to carry Trump to victory — Ryan Rides to the Rescue — But Not Until 2020 GOP's Troubles Just Beginning How Many Might Defect from Trump or Cruz? — Hillary Clinton, shown here campaigning last week in Ashland …

Discussion: Independent Journal …

Rush Limbaugh:

This Ad Won't Hurt Trump — RUSH: There's couple sound bites here. One of them is an ad. A Hillary super PAC has released an ad attacking Trump on women using Trump's own words. Now, obviously we only have the audio here. It's a minute long. I want to run this by you …

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, Vox, Althouse and The Daily Caller

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:

Clinton aide Cheryl Mills leaves FBI interview briefly after being asked about emails — Near the beginning of a recent interview, an FBI investigator broached a topic with longtime Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills that her lawyer and the Justice Department had agreed would be off limits …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Last Tradition and Washington Free Beacon

AJ Willingham / CNN:

World's Oldest Cat dethroned by even older cat Scooter — (CNN)Gaze into the eyes of Scooter, the new World's Oldest Living Cat. — Scooter and his wise old eyes have been around for 30 years, and his achievements in extreme elderliness have now been recognized by Guinness World Records.

Discussion: Associated Press and Mashable

Cathy Young / The Daily Beast:

Ann Coulter's Anti-Semitism Runs Deeper Than You Know — The Trump cheerleader shares his habit of promoting ethnic nationalists and their ugly ideas. — The white nationalists of the so-called alternative right, an extremist movement that rejects mainstream conservatism as too gutless …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Trump In 2006: Clinton Should Be Forgiven For Iraq Vote “Based On Lies Given To Her” — “She's very smart and has a major chance to be our next president,” Trump said. — Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images — Donald Trump is already going after Hillary Clinton for her vote to authorize …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Right Scoop