memeorandum: Bill Clinton earned $5 million from speeches last year (Annie Karni/Politico)

8:30 AM ET, May 18, 2016

Top Items:

Sanders Statement on Nevada — FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday issued the following statement: — “It is imperative that the Democratic leadership, both nationally and in the states, understand that the political world is changing and that millions of Americans …

Discussion: New York Times, The Moderate Voice, CBS New York, The Daily Beast, Shadowproof, Shakesville, Washington Free Beacon, Towleroad, AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog …, Talking Points Memo, Common Dreams, Washington Post, LasVegasSun.com, Drudge Retort, The Atlantic, Washington Monthly, Mother Jones and The New Civil Rights Movement

Margaret Talev / Bloomberg:

Clinton, Democrats Confronting Dangerous Divisions Within Party — Split decision in Kentucky, Oregon shows unity elusive — Eruption by Sanders supporters adds to rancor in campaign — Hillary Clinton's claim of a narrow victory in Kentucky and Bernie Sanders' win in Oregon illustrated …

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

Sanders sticks it to the Democratic Party — In the wake of a chaotic state convention that resulted in death threats for party officials and vandalism to party headquarters, the Democratic establishment asked Bernie Sanders for his help Tuesday in getting some of his overzealous supporters to stand down.

Niall Stanage / The Hill:

Amid Democratic infighting, polls are improving for Trump — appears to be making rapid progress in unifying Republican voters behind his presidential bid even as Democratic discord between backers of Hillary Clinton — reaches new highs. — An NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday …

Manu Raju / CNN:

Dems' new fear: Sanders revolt could upend Democratic convention — (CNN)Sen. Barbara Boxer, a veteran of Democratic politics, says she never saw anything quite like this before. — Loud cursing, shouting, obscene gestures and vile insults, including crude comments about the female anatomy.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Daily Caller, The Hill, The American Spectator, The Atlantic, Vox, Booman Tribune and RedState

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Grandiosity As Addictive As Smack — With this new blow-up over whatever happened over the weekend in Nevada we see the pretty real and even dire consequences of lying to your supporters. The Sanders campaign, especially campaign manager Jeff Weaver, has been saying for weeks that Sanders …

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

Wasserman Schultz on Sanders' response to Nevada chaos: ‘Anything but acceptable’ — Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz panned Bernie Sanders' response to reports of violence at the Nevada Democratic state convention over the weekend, calling it “anything but acceptable.”

Discussion: Raw Story

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

More Sanders staffers exit campaign — A handful of high-level staffers have left Bernie Sanders' campaign in recent days, including his director of technology and three of the four members of his original senior leadership team in California — a state his team has said is critical to his bid for the Democratic nomination.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:

Clinton declares victory in Kentucky primary; Sanders wins in Oregon — Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton declared victory in the Kentucky primary on Tuesday, potentially disrupting a string of expected primary losses this month that had threatened to weaken her even as she turned …

Discussion: CNN, ABC News, Politico, Mediaite, Guardian and Shakesville

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
DNC chairwoman chides Sanders

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico and ABC News

Annie Karni / Politico:
Bill Clinton earned $5 million from speeches last year

Discussion: The Week and Political Wire

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard: Sanders: ‘Shots Were Fired Into My Campaign Office in Nevada’

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
It Comes From the Very Top — For months I'd thought and written …

Discussion: Washington Post, Mother Jones, Daily Kos and Vox

Steven Yaccino / Bloomberg:
A Small Group of Superdelegates Could Close the Deal for Hillary—But Won't

Discussion: Politico, Political Wire, The Hill, ABC News, Mediaite, Infowars and National Review

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Nevada Dem chairwoman gets obscene death threats after convention chaos

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Roll Call, Politico, The Huffington Post, Hot Air, Ralston Reports and The Atlantic

Jon Ralston / Ralston Reports:
NV Democrats file complaint against Sanders campaign to DNC

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, New York Times, Let's Talk Nevada, The New Civil Rights Movement, Associated Press and Washington Post

Anthony Brooks / WBUR:

WBUR Poll Finds It'd Be A Close Clinton-Trump Contest In New Hampshire — If the presidential election were held today between the apparent Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, the outcome would be very close. That's according to a new WBUR poll …

Discussion: Political Wire and Washington Times

Andrew Rafferty / NBC News:

Hillary Moves Within 100 Delegates of Nomination — Sanders: ‘We Are In Until the Last Ballot is Cast’ 2:08 — Hillary Clinton is the apparent winner of the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday night and rival Sen. Bernie Sanders will win in Oregon, NBC News projects.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Politico, Towleroad, AOL and Washington Free Beacon

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Bernie Sanders Wins Oregon; Hillary Clinton Declares Victory in Kentucky

Discussion: Political Wire, Althouse, BuzzFeed, AOL and NPR

Ben Kamisar / The Hill:
Trump: Clinton should drop out if she loses Kentucky

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Politico

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
IT'S OFFICIAL: DONALD TRUMP Breaks Bush Record With Most Votes Ever for Republican Primary Candidate

Discussion: Joe Hoft

Tim Murphy / Mother Jones: Bernie Sanders Is Poised to Make a Very Weird Kind of History Tonight

Mickey Rapkin / DuJour:

Lady and the Trump — Donald and Melania Trump live in a 30,000-square-foot triplex at the top of his namesake tower on Fifth Avenue, and as the race toward the presidency gets shorter and more frenzied, the ratings-hungry cable news networks have started coming to them.

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Melania Trump: ‘Unbelievable’ Chris Matthews commented on me

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and Hullabaloo

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:

Donald Trump, Republicans Finalize Joint Fundraising Deal — Agreement will allow individual donors to write checks of up to $449,400 — Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee finalized a joint fundraising agreement late Tuesday that would allow individual donors to write checks …

Discussion: The Week and Instapundit

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Hillary Might Have Just Made Her Worst Mistake Ever — At a campaign stop in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton told the crowd that if she were president, she would put her husband Bill “in charge of revitalizing the economy.” The impulse is understandable. The economy of the 1990s was good …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Kathleen Parker / Washington Post: Hillary Clinton's viral nightmare: A video of her ‘lying for 13 minutes’

Matthew Boyle / Breitbart: Exclusive — Rand Paul Supports Donald Trump as Nominee: ‘I Stand by That Pledge’

Reuters:

Exclusive: Trump would talk to North Korea's Kim, wants to renegotiate climate accord — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program, proposing a major shift in U.S. policy toward the isolated nation.

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Washington Times, Mediaite, Washington Post, HYPELINE, Politico and Hullabaloo, more at Mediagazer »

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

George Zimmerman Taunts Trayvon Martin's Parents: 'They Didn't Raise Their Son Right' — The man who killed the teenager and ignited the Black Lives Matter movement explains why he's selling the gun, what he thinks of Hillary and Trump, and why he's the real victim.

Discussion: AOL, Raw Story and Mediaite

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:

New Jersey voters don't want Christie to be Trump's VP — An overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters don't want to see Gov. Chris Christie on Donald Trump's ticket, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. — Seventy-two percent of voters in the state are opposed …

Discussion: Political Wire

Paul Gowder:

SSRN has been captured by the enemy of open knowledge. — Elsevier just bought SSRN. Here's why you should be upset, and what we can do about it. — For those of you who aren't familiar with the academic publishing racket, SSRN is (was?) a huge repository of open-access preprint papers …

Discussion: ProfessorBainbridge.com and Techdirt, more at Mediagazer »

Telegraph:

Move over, organic: the Hemsleys say it's all about ‘astrological food’ now — Could astrological eating be the next big food fad? According to the Hemsley sisters, it might be. — On their Channel 4 show, ‘Eating Well with Hemsley and Hemsley’, health food gurus Melissa …