memeorandum: Centrist Democrats: We can work with President Trump (Seung Min Kim/Politico)

3:35 PM ET, May 16, 2016

Top Items:

Grassley's court maneuver threatens his legacy, reputation — In late February, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley was taking increasing fire for his refusal to hold hearings to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He dismissed questions about the impact the public uproar might have on his legacy.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Media Matters for America

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:

BREAKING: SCOTUS Punts On Obamacare Contraceptive Case — In a surprise move Monday, the Supreme Court punted on a major Obamacare case challenging the law's contraceptive mandate, and specifically, how it accommodates religious nonprofits that object to birth control.

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Week

Lawrence Hurley / Reuters:
U.S. top court tosses rulings backing Obamacare contraception coverage

Discussion: Infowars and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Supreme Court asks for Obamacare birth control compromise

Discussion: Mother Jones, ABC News and Washington Post

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:
Supreme Court calls for compromise on contraceptive mandate

Discussion: RedState

Patrick Healy / New York Times:

Little Is Off Limits as Donald Trump Plans Attacks on Hillary Clinton's Character — Donald J. Trump plans to throw Bill Clinton's infidelities in Hillary Clinton's face on live television during the presidential debates this fall, questioning whether she enabled his behavior and sought to discredit the women involved.

Discussion: Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite, Blue Nation Review, NBC News, The Week and Washington Monthly

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

How the Clinton team will go after Donald Trump — Can Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in part by laying out a programmatic economic agenda that is designed to make a concrete difference in Americans' lives? Or does that risk being too conventional an approach that fails to reckon with the unpredictable nature of Trump's appeal?

Discussion: The Daily Beast, CBS News and Althouse

New York Times:
Inside Donald Trump's Plans to Attack the Clintons, and Why They Might Fail

Discussion: Daily Kos

Jessie Hellmann / The Hill:
Clinton: I'd put Bill ‘in charge of revitalizing the economy’

Discussion: RedState, Forbes, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Hot Air, New York Times, TPNN, ABC News, BizPac Review and Politico

CNN:

Trump: London mayor made ‘very rude statements’ about me — (CNN)Donald Trump said Monday London's new mayor made “very rude statements” about him — and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee warned he won't have a good relationship with British Prime Minister David Cameron if he's elected.

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

Reuters: Donald Trump Slams Cameron And Khan On Islam Comments: 'Don't Pretend It's Not A Problem'

Donald Trump / ITV:
Trump warns of poor relationship with Cameron over PM's refusal to withdraw ‘divisive, stupid and wrong’ comment

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Times, Politico, Guardian, Washington Times and Mashable

Ruth Davidson / The ITV Hub:
It can't be good if Donald Trump is US President

Discussion: NBC News, Reuters, Politico, Guardian, Washington Post, Washington Times and The Daily Caller

Mirror.co.uk:
Donald Trump slams Sadiq Khan and warns he may not have ‘good relationship’ with David Cameron

Discussion: alan.com

People.com:

Inside Donald Trump's '91 Apology for Pretending to Be His Own Spokesman - How Marla Maples Shamed Him Into Fessing Up — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump flatly denied Friday that he posed as his own spokesman during a June 26, 1991, phone call to then-PEOPLE reporter Sue Carswell …

Discussion: WhoWhatWhy

Nathan McDermott / BuzzFeed:

Trump Ally Roger Stone Admits That Trump Posed As His Own PR Man — Roger Stone, a longtime political ally and former campaign adviser to Donald Trump, admitted on Saturday that Trump posed as his own publicist in the early 1990s, likening Trump's actions to the Founding Fathers.

Discussion: Political Wire, Washington Post and American Prospect

Michael Falcone / ABC News:
The Note: More Troubles for Trump

Discussion: Politico and FiveThirtyEight

Jillian Kay Melchior / Heat Street:

BREAKING: Burlington College Closes Due To “Crushing Weight of Debt” Acquired By Jane Sanders — Burlington College announced today that it will close on May 27 after it found itself unable to recover from “the crushing weight of the debt” incurred under Jane O'Meara Sanders, the college's former president and wife of Bernie Sanders.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Zach Despart / Burlington Free Press:

Burlington College to shut down programs — After years of financial trouble, Burlington College announced Monday the school will shut down its academic programs. — “It is with great sense of loss to the educational community that Burlington College's progressive and unique educational model …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post and The Week

David Horowitz / Breitbart:

Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew — While millions of Republican primary voters have chosen Donald Trump as the party's nominee, Bill Kristol and a small but well-heeled group of Washington insiders are preparing a third party effort to block Trump's path to the White House.

Discussion: Front Page Magazine, Slate, New Republic, neo-neocon, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller, The Federalist Papers, The American Spectator and The Week

Heidi M Przybyla / USA Today:

Clinton team looking for a VP who will be fighter, excite Sanders supporters — Hillary Clinton is considering a running mate who could make a direct appeal to supporters of Bernie Sanders, bridging a generational and political divide, according to four people close to the campaign.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Week and Los Angeles Times

Goldie Taylor / The Daily Beast:
Wendell Pierce of ‘The Wire’ Arrested After Fight Over Bernie Sanders

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Radio and TV Talk, Chicago Tribune, Heat Street, AOL, New York Magazine, Truth Revolt, Independent Journal …, TMZ.com, ABC News, Drudge Retort, Raw Story, Liberty Unyielding and LawNewz

Maria Puente / USA Today:

Police in Chicago suburb looking for missing Sinead O'Connor — Sinead O'Connor, the Irish singer with a history of mental illness, is missing in a Chicago suburb, according to police. — A check-for-well-being alert, sent out by police Sgt. Michael Robinson in the village of Wilmette …

Discussion: The Week and The Daily Caller

Sinead O'Connor / TMZ.com:
Missing, Possibly ‘Suicidal’

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Mediaite, AOL, WREG-TV, Fox 59 and KFOR-TV

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. / Breitbart:

Princeton Prof: Transgenderism Not Scientific, ‘Superstitious Belief’ — A noted Princeton University professor has attacked the very notion of transgenderism, saying that the belief “that a woman can be trapped inside a man's body” is ludicrous and superstitious, with no basis in medical fact.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Federalist Papers and The Daily Caller

National Review:

Exclusive: In Koch World ‘Realignment,’ Less National Politics — On a frigid Tuesday in February, a team of top political operatives from the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group that controls political activities for the sprawling donor network led by billionaire industrialists Charles …

Denise Grady / New York Times:

Man Receives First Penis Transplant in the United States — A man whose penis was removed because of cancer has received the first penis transplant in the United States, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. — Thomas Manning, 64, a bank courier from Halifax, Mass., underwent the 15-hour transplant operation on May 8 and 9.

Discussion: The Atlantic, USA Today, CNN, The Week, Mental Floss, Independent Journal …, KFOR-TV, Gizmodo, STAT, The Verge, Washington Post, CBS New York and Clash Daily

Nick Gass / Politico:

Former Trump girlfriend hits back at ‘upsetting’ NYT cover story — The New York Times' article published Saturday with the headline “Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private” begins with an anecdote from a woman named Rowanne Brewer Lane, who as a 26-year-old model …

Caitlin Yilek / The Hill:

Trump on Warren: ‘You mean Pocahontas?’ — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — is not reining in his attacks against Sen. Elizabeth Warren — (D-Mass.). — When New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asked Trump if “he had been chided by any Republicans” …

Discussion: Daily Kos and RedState

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Trump's Asymmetric Warfare — It has been somewhat fascinating and sometimes fun to watch Elizabeth Warren do battle with Donald Trump in alternating salvos of tweets, but in the end I fear that this approach of trying to “beat a bully,” as Warren put it in one of her tweets, is a futile effort.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Rich Calder / New York Post:

Business scored lucrative contract after donating to de Blasio — A businessman whose dealings with the de Blasio administration are already under federal investigation used a middleman to profit from a nearly $6 million city contract for rat-repellent trash bags, The Post has learned.

Discussion: Hit & Run and Hot Air

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

Homeland Security Official: ISIS Training Terrorists South of Border With Help from Mexican Drug Cartels — A top ranking Homeland Security official says Mexican drug cartels are helping ISIS sneak across the southern border to scope out targets for terrorist attacks.

Discussion: WND and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

The Intercept Is Broadening Access to the Snowden Archive. Here's Why — From the time we began reporting on the archive provided to us in Hong Kong by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, we sought to fulfill his two principal requests for how the materials should be handled …

Discussion: Common Dreams and Balloon Juice

Nate Eaton / East Idaho News:

Yellowstone tourists put bison calf in car because they're worried it's cold — YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — We've heard a lot about tourists trying to touch wildlife at Yellowstone National Park but this story takes personal encounters with animals a bit further.