memeorandum: Trump fires top aide (Marc Caputo/Politico)

8:55 AM ET, May 26, 2016

Top Items:

Clinton's inexcusable, willful disregard for the rules — HILLARY CLINTON'S use of a private email server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 has been justifiably criticized as an error of judgment. What the new report from the State Department inspector general makes clear is that it also was not a casual oversight.

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico and Guardian

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill:

Clouds loom for Clinton — Things could be worse for Hillary Clinton — 's presidential candidacy, perhaps an indictment pending in her email scandal, but these are still awful days in her campaign. While there are many threats to her prospects she cannot control, like an FBI investigation …

Associated Press:
Clinton email use broke federal rules: inspector's report

Discussion: New York Times, The Week, TheBlaze.com, USA Today, The BRAD BLOG, AOL, Speaker.gov and Politicus USA

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Wasserman Schultz fights to keep her job

Discussion: Slantpoint, ABC News, Politico, Washington Free Beacon and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Amy Chozick / New York Times:
Emails Add to Hillary Clinton's Central Problem: Voters Just Don't Trust Her

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Vox, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
What does the new Inspector General report actually tell us about Hillary Clinton's emails?

Discussion: Forbes, Politico, Washington Monthly, The Mahablog, Shakesville and JustOneMinute

Nick Gass / Politico:
The 9 biggest revelations in the State IG report on Clinton's emails

Discussion: Breitbart, Hot Air, Washington Post, MichelleMalkin.com, Viking Pundit, Washington Free Beacon, The American Spectator, The Verge and Daily Kos

Nick Gass / Politico:
State Dept. watchdog: Clinton violated email rules

Marc Caputo / Politico:

Trump fires top aide — Donald Trump's presidential campaign on Wednesday night announced it had parted ways with its national political director, Rick Wiley — a move that appears to stem in part from an ongoing turf war atop the campaign. — Wiley was the first high-profile hire by Paul Manafort …

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, CNN, NBC News, Guardian, The Last Refuge, New York Magazine, RedState and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Bloomberg:

Donald Trump Parts Ways With National Political Director — Rick Wiley's duties in the Sunshine State have been shifted to another staffer. — michaelcbender — Rick Wiley, Donald Trump's national political director, has left the Republican's presidential campaign following a decision …

Discussion: New York Times and Washington Post

Bloomberg:
Donald Trump and Paul Ryan to Speak by Phone Tonight

Discussion: Politico, Slantpoint, New York Times, Heat Street, Business Insider, Daily Kos, ABC News, New York Magazine, Daily Mail, AOL, Slate, Mediaite and Daily Wire

John Santucci / ABC News:

Donald Trump to Jimmy Kimmel: My Past Pro-Clinton Comments Were “A Little Bit” Insincere — During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Wednesday night, Donald Trump admitted that he wasn't sincere when he made glowing comments about Bill and Hillary Clinton prior to his bid for the presidency.

Discussion: Politico, No More Mister Nice Blog, Political Wire, The Week, Prntly, Politicus USA and Clash Daily

Bernie Sanders / CBS News:

Trump tells Kimmel he'd be willing to debate Sanders for charity — Before hitting a private fundraiser in Los Angeles, Donald Trump taped a guest appearance on ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” where he fielded questions from the late-night host on a range of topics — including transgender bathrooms, and whether he'd debate Bernie Sanders.

Discussion: The Atlantic

Arlette Saenz / ABC News:
World Leaders ‘Rattled’ by Donald Trump as the Presumptive GOP Nominee, Obama Says

Discussion: Politico

Los Angeles Times:
Trump's backers and critics square off in Anaheim; tense moments but no major violence

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, KRQE-TV, Daily Mail, New York Magazine, The Week and CBS Philly

Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:

Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War With Gawker — A billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur was outed as being gay by a media organization. His friends suffered at the hands of the same gossip site. Nearly a decade later, the entrepreneur secretly financed a lawsuit to try to put the media company out of business.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The American Interest, Washington Post, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, The Verge, Mediaite, Marginal REVOLUTION, NBC News and Engadget, more at Mediagazer »

Felix Salmon / Fusion:

Peter Thiel just gave other billionaires a dangerous blueprint for perverting philanthropy — Funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker? That's not cool. Actively going out to find potential plaintiffs who might have cases against Gawker and then giving them the money to bring those cases?

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politico, CNNMoney, Breakingviews, Mashable, Alison Frankel, Guardian, Balloon Juice, NPR, ThinkProgress, Towleroad and CBS San Francisco, more at Mediagazer »

Joshua Green / Bloomberg:

How to Get Trump Elected When He's Wrecking Everything You Built — A day in the life of Reince Priebus, reluctant GOP peacemaker. … When Donald Trump wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination on May 3 by winning Indiana and forcing Ted Cruz from the race, it fell to Reince Priebus …

Discussion: Politico and Political Wire

Ben Kamisar / The Hill:
Trump: Romney ‘walks like a penguin’

Discussion: Washington Post

Ben Schreckinger / Politico:
Trump returns to campaign trail with new taunts, big promises

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Magazine, Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

Howard Fineman / The Huffington Post:

Donald Trump's Top Adviser: ‘This Is Not A Hard Race’ — Paul Manafort explains why his boss is “gonna win,” no prob. — Global Editorial Director, The Huffington Post — Donald Trump “sees himself more as the chairman of the board” of the country. — ALEXANDRIA, Va. …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Politico and Slantpoint

Stephen Gutowski / Washington Free Beacon:

Audio Shows Katie Couric Documentary Deceptively Edited Interview with Pro-Gun Activists — The makers of a new Katie Couric documentary on gun violence deceptively edited an interview between Couric and a group of gun rights activists in an apparent attempt to embarrass the activists, an audio recording of the full interview shows.

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Audiotape: Katie Couric documentary falsely depicts gun supporters as ‘idiots’

Discussion: Instapundit, Bearing Arms, RedState, Hot Air and National Review, more at Mediagazer »

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:

Bill Clinton Gets Into 30-Minute Debate With A 24-Year-Old Bernie Fan — SANTA FE, N.M. — Five different times, aides tried to drag him away from the booth where Josh Brody, a 24-year-old supporter of Bernie Sanders, was holding forth about all that had gone wrong in the 1990s: welfare, NAFTA, Wall Street.

Discussion: The Week and Talking Points Memo

David Weigel / Washington Post:
Why so many Sanders supporters don't want to be Democrats

Discussion: The Atlantic, Politico, ABC News and The Hill

Nell Frizzell / Guardian:

The men who live as dogs: 'We're just the same as any person on the high street' — Ahead of a new documentary, Spot, Bootbrush and Kaz open up about their community — t's easy to laugh at a grown man in a rubber dog suit chewing on a squeaky toy. Maybe too easy, in fact …

Discussion: Hot Air, Power LinePower Line, Mediaite, Mashable and WCDC-TV

Michael Scherer / TIME:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe Invited Chinese Donor to Hillary Clinton's Home — A donation to the Clinton Foundation followed weeks later — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe invited the Chinese businessman whose donations to him have been named as a focus of Justice Department investigators …

Discussion: 105.9 FM and AM 630, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

John McCormick / Bloomberg:

Clinton Beats Trump With Middle-Income Rust Belt Voters: Bloomberg Poll — Donald Trump trails Hillary Clinton by 7 percentage points among middle-income voters in the Rust Belt, a key demographic he almost certainly needs to become president. — Likely voters with annual family incomes …

Discussion: Political Wire

New York Times:

States Sue Obama Administration Over Transgender Bathroom Policy — AUSTIN, Tex. — The Obama administration on Wednesday faced the first major court challenge to its guidance about the civil rights of transgender students in public schools, as officials from 11 states filed a lawsuit testing …

Discussion: NBC News, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Common Dreams, Daily Wire, Mediaite and WOAI

Jeannie Suk / New Yorker:
The Transgender Bathroom Debate and the Looming Title IX Crisis

Discussion: National Review and Power LinePower Line

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

‘Roots’ Reborn: How a Slave Saga Was Remade for the Black Lives Matter Era — Forty years after the original gripped half the nation (literally), a more violent and more accurate remake is here, gambling on big stars including Forest Whitaker and Anna Paquin and the unresolved emotional core …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Bloomberg:

Google Steps Up Pressure on Partners Tardy in Updating Android — Web giant creates rankings that could shame ecosystem laggards — Friendly tactics also used to unify top phone operating system — Getting phone makers and carriers to update to the latest version of Android …