memeorandum: Libertarian ‘dream ticket’ in peril as Weld bombs in Orlando (Shane Goldmacher/Politico)

8:30 AM ET, May 28, 2016

Top Items:

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Tech Company: We Will Put Up $10 Million For Bernie-Trump Debate — WASHINGTON — A technology investment company has offered to put up the $10 million for charity that Donald Trump said on Thursday would be needed to hold a debate with Bernie Sanders. — [Update at 4:38 p.m. …

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Politico, Raw Story, The Last Refuge, Guardian, Politicus USA, Newser, The Week, Talking Points Memo, Joe.My.God., New York Times and USA Today

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Donald Trump backs out of debate with Bernie Sanders — Donald Trump will not participate in a debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said Friday. — In a statement, Trump slammed Sanders, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and the Democratic nominating process …

Discussion: Raw Story and Little Green Footballs

Zeke J Miller / TIME:

Donald Trump Says No, He Won't Debate Bernie Sanders — Ending nearly 48 hours of speculation — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will not debate Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, he announced Friday, as he decided it would be “inappropriate” …

Donald J Trump for President:
DONALD J. TRUMP STATEMENT ON DEBATING BERNIE SANDERS

Discussion: The Atlantic, NBC News, BizPac Review, Raw Story, Common Dreams, CNN, The Daily Caller, Hot Air and The Week

Meghan Keneally / ABC News:
‘Mr. Trump, What Are You Afraid Of?’ Sanders Responds After Donald Backs From Debate

Discussion: The Hill and The American Spectator

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Fellow Liberals, Let's Stop Doing These Things

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Washington Post

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Sanders camp: Maybe Trump is ‘chickening out’ of debate

Discussion: Comedy Central

Mark Plotkin / The Hill: Why Wasserman Schultz must go

New York Times:

Donald Trump's Campaign Stumbles as It Tries to Go Big — BISMARCK, N.D. — A constant stream of changes and scuffles are roiling Donald J. Trump's campaign team, including the abrupt dismissal this week of his national political director. — A sense of paranoia is growing among …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hot Air, Althouse, Hullabaloo, Political Wire and Salon

Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump Raised $6 Million in First Joint Fundraiser With RNC

Discussion: The Hill

Howard Kurtz / Fox News:
Nominee or not, why is Trump still smacking Republicans around?

Discussion: Washington Times, Patterico's Pontifications and Hot Air

Reid J. Epstein / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Attacks Federal Judge in Trump U Case — The presumptive GOP nominee devotes 12 minutes of a 58-minute address to the suit — SAN DIEGO-In one of his most personal attacks against an apolitical figure since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee …

ABC News:
35 Arrested After Pro-Trump and Anti-Trump Groups Clash in San Diego

Discussion: The Week, Politico, Sputnik International, Business Insider and The San Diego Union …

Julian Hattem / The Hill:

Feds fight to prevent Clinton deposition in email case — The Obama administration is trying to prevent former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — from being deposed in an ongoing open records case connected to her use of a private email server. — Late Thursday evening …

Discussion: BizPac Review and Hot Air

Larry O'Connor / Hot Air:

Welp... Hillary doesn't know how to use a computer — We're told that Hillary Clinton is the smartest, most qualified and most capable person to ever run for President. Ever. … Let's face it, we're lucky that she's even lowering herself to the demeaning process of having to earn votes in the presidential election.

Discussion: Truth Revolt, Washington's Blog, Fox News, TPNN, New York Times, Bloomberg, Judicial Watch and The Daily Caller

Shane Goldmacher / Politico:

Libertarian ‘dream ticket’ in peril as Weld bombs in Orlando — ORLANDO, Fla. — It was supposed to be a stroke of genius: Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian nominee for president and the party's leading contender in 2016, announced that William Weld, the two-term former Republican governor of Massachusetts …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hit & Run, Wall Street Journal and Raw Story

CNNMoney:

Donald Trump under oath: Trump University's promises crumble — The ads for his university were classic Donald Trump — Trump stares into the camera and proclaims: — “We're going to have professors and adjunct professors that are absolutely terrific people, terrific brains, successful.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE

Andrew Freedman / Mashable:

Trump on climate: He's even worse than we thought — No one expected Donald Trump to give a single energy speech and suddenly pivot to the left on global warming, after a record of expressing skepticism that global warming exists on several prior occasions.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Jonathan Swan / The Hill:

Carson: Trump starting to believe in ‘greater power’ — is starting to believe in “a greater power” and is praying more often. — Trump's former presidential rival, a key surrogate and possible vice presidential pick, told The Hill on Friday that he believes Trump is becoming more spiritual.

Discussion: RedState and The Right Scoop

Jodi Guglielmi / People.com:

Amber Heard Accuses Johnny Depp of Domestic Violence with Graphic Photo of Bruise: ‘This Was Not an Isolated Event,’ Says Source — Amber Heard has filed a domestic violence restraining order against Johnny Depp, as a source tells PEOPLE “this was not an isolated event.”

Discussion: TMZ.com, The Daily Beast, Fox 59, Los Angeles Times, Independent Journal …, Full Feed, Newser and American Power

bioRxiv:

Report of Partial findings from the National Toxicology Program Carcinogenesis Studies of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Radiation in Hsd: Sprague Dawley® SD rats (Whole Body Exposure) — Abstract — The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has carried out extensive rodent toxicology …

Discussion: ACS Pressroom Blog, ABC News, New York Times, NBC News, Washington Post, STAT, Mashable, Gothamist, Newser, Consumerist, Mother Jones and Wall Street Journal

Tom Holland / New York Times:

When the Barbarous Brits First Quit Europe — London — CLOSE by Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, there stands the statue of a woman brandishing a spear. Erected in 1902, it portrays Boudicca, the warrior queen who, in the words of the inscription on the statue's plinth …

Discussion: Forbes

Reihan Salam / Slate:

The Dark Future of Whitewashing — Asian Americans are increasingly overrepresented among our society's elite. Will the U.S. succumb to anti-Asian prejudice? — Over at ye olde New York Times, Slate alumna Amanda Hess has a new article on the insane difficulties Asian Americans face …

Discussion: The Atlantic

The Intercept:

Hillary Clinton Won't Say How Much Goldman Sachs CEO Invested With Her Son-in-Law — When Hillary Clinton's son-in-law sought funding for his new hedge fund in 2011, he found financial backing from one of the biggest names on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

Tom Phillips / Guardian:

World's scariest school run? Chinese children tackle 800-metre cliff — Children as young as six from Atuler village in Sichuan province have to scale a huge rockface using rickety ladders — Authorities in south-west China have vowed to come to the aid of an isolated mountain village …