memeorandum: First Ladies Obama and Bush Urge Next President to Prioritize Veterans (Erica Scott/ABC News)

4:40 PM ET, September 16, 2016

Top Items:

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Network pools refuse to cover Trump hotel tour — In a show of joint defiance, the major television networks collectively voted to pull a camera and erase video of Donald Trump giving a tour of his hotel, a protest of the campaign preventing any editorial presence on the tour.

Discussion: alan.com, TVNewser, Talking Points Memo, Washington Times and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Trump Outsmarts the Press — Sometimes you really have to hand it to Donald Trump. The press has been after him recently about whether he believes the Hillary Clinton campaign's claim that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. For years, the press has obsessed on “birtherism,” …

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Hot Air and The American Spectator

NBC News:

First Read: Why Trump Can't Escape His ‘Birther’ Past — Donald Trump's campaign - but not the candidate - says Obama was born in US 3:00 — First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, Mediaite, alan.com, New York Magazine, ABC News, Vox, heave-ho.org, The Times of Israel, Hot Air and Independent Journal Review

New York Times:

Trump Drops False ‘Birther’ Theory, but Floats a New One: Clinton Started It — Donald J. Trump publicly retreated from his “birther” campaign on Friday, tersely acknowledging that President Obama was born in the United States and saying that he wanted to move on from the conspiracy theory that he has been clinging to for years.

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart:

Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager Admits 2008 Birther Link — Patti Solis Doyle, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign manager in 2008 until the Iowa caucuses, admitted on Friday that a Clinton campaign staffer had, in fact, circulated the Birther conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was born outside …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Politico and Mediaite

Donald J Trump for President:
TRUMP CAMPAIGN STATEMENT

Media Matters for America:
Seven Reasons The Media Shouldn't Let Trump Move On From Birtherism

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Little Green Footballs, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Mother Jones, BuzzFeed, WND, heave-ho.org and Hullabaloo

Andrew Prokop / Vox:
Trump fanned a conspiracy about Obama's birthplace for years. Now he pretends Clinton started it.

Discussion: The Atlantic, Politico, Slate, The Week, heave-ho.org, Correct The Record, Mediaite, Raw Story, Business Insider and Politicus USA

Erica Scott / ABC News:
First Ladies Obama and Bush Urge Next President to Prioritize Veterans

Discussion: Politico

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
Trump is trying to rewrite his history of birtherism. This is what really happened.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, NBC News, Independent Journal Review, The Week, The Atlantic, ABC News and heave-ho.org

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:
Media Outraged After Trump Tricks Them To Cover Endorsements From Military Heroes

Discussion: alan.com

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:
So Will Trump Follow Through On His $5 Million Birther Charity Promise?

Discussion: TheStreet.com, Forbes, USA Today, Political Wire and Joe.My.God.

Libby Nelson / Vox:
Donald Trump fooled cable news into airing a 25-minute infomercial for his campaign

Discussion: Shareblue, Independent Journal Review, Shakesville, The Gateway Pundit and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Robert Costa / Washington Post:
Trump defiant as polls rise, won't say Obama was born in United States

Libby Nelson / Vox:
Donald Trump's birther speech is a commercial for his new hotel

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hit & Run and alan.com

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Trump Preps New Round of Racist Agitation

Discussion: Mother Jones, twitchy.com, Business Insider, NPR and The Week

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Kasich: ‘Very unlikely’ I'll vote for Trump

Discussion: Politico, Macleans.ca, CNN, ABC News, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams, Hot Air, BizPac Review and Business Insider

Media Matters for America:
As Trump Prepares To Discuss His Birtherism, Top Adviser Roger Stone Says Trump Still Has …

Discussion: Mediaite

Nick Gass / Politico:
Trump concedes Obama was born in the U.S.

Discussion: ABC News, RedState, CNBC, Mother Jones, Fox News, Talking Points Memo, Independent Journal Review, Business Insider, Infowars, The Frisky, Daily Kos, Guardian, fox8.com, Politicus USA, Joe.My.God., Mediaite and Media Matters for America

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Megyn Kelly Grills Trump Spox On Birtherism: 'That's A Dodge!'

Discussion: The Week and Fox News Insider

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:
Trump admits Obama was born in U.S., but falsely blames Clinton for starting rumors

Discussion: Vox, Townhall.com, Politico, Media Matters for America, Guardian, The Concourse, Capitol View, RedState, Politicus USA, Washington Free Beacon, Refinery29, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Mother Jones, Raw Story and Balloon Juice

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Trump Said In 2015 And 2016 He Didn't Know If Obama Birth Certificate Was Real

Discussion: Mother Jones, The New Civil Rights Movement, Washingtonian and The Week

Commission on Presidential Debates:

CPD Invites Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump to Debate — Washington, D.C. (September 16, 2016) - The nonpartisan, non-profit Commission on Presidential Debates ("CPD") announced today that it has applied its Nonpartisan Candidate Selection Criteria for 2016 General Election Debate participation …

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Hit & Run, NPR, Outside the Beltway, The Week, Business Insider and Courthouse News Service

Harper Neidig / The Hill:

Third-party candidates miss cut for first debate — The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday that Hillary Clinton — and their running mates are the only candidates who will participate in the first debates. — This means Trump and Clinton will take part in the Sept. 26 debate …

Discussion: Political Wire and alan.com

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:

Gary Johnson, Jill Stein Fail to Qualify for First Presidential Debate — Commission rules they lacked sufficient support in the polls — Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and Jill Stein of the Green Party have failed to qualify for the first general election debate …

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Gary Johnson cuts into Clinton's lead

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Monthly and The Week

David Sims / The Atlantic:

The Embarrassment of Jimmy Fallon — The Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, went on NBC's Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon yesterday. Here, in chronological order, is every question Fallon asked his guest. —This is getting real. You still have time, do you still want to do this?

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Daily Caller

Maxwell Strachan / The Huffington Post:
People Are Justifiably Infuriated With How Jimmy Fallon Handled Trump

Discussion: BizPac Review, The New York Observer, Shareblue, Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, Raw Story, Infowars, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone:

Stop Whining About ‘False Balance’ — Everyone wants to blame reporters for the rise of Donald Trump. How about the media consumer? — All Stories » — News media outlets are increasingly coming under fire for the sin of “false balance” or “false equivalency.”

Raf Sanchez / Telegraph:

American commandos ‘forced to run away’ from US-backed Syrian rebels — Video footage appears to show US commandos fleeing a Syrian town under a barrage of abuse and insults hurled at them by fighters from the American-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Pamela Geller, The Counter Jihad Report, Sputnik International, Vocativ, Jihad Watch and Vox Popoli

Allen Abel / Macleans.ca:

Why I'm voting for Donald Trump — These are Donald Trump's “deplorables,” as Hillary Clinton calls them—11 unashamed Trump-train riders from across the United States, writing in their own words. — To Clinton, they—or at least “half of them,” as the Democratic nominee chuckled last weekend …

Sam Wang / Princeton Election Consortium:

Sometimes life comes at you fast — National polls currently show Clinton ahead by only 1.0 ± 0.6 % (median ± estimated SEM, 7 pollsters with at least some post-Phlegmghazi respondents). However, our state poll-based analysis moves more slowly.

Discussion: Vox, Mother Jones and Politico

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Democratic Senator Blasts Clinton Over “Basket Of Deplorables” Remark — Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota criticized Hillary Clinton for saying that half of Donald Trump's supporters could be put into a “basket of deplorables.” — Clinton in recent weeks has argued …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Why the Senate Couldn't Pass a Crime Bill Both Parties Backed — WASHINGTON — A major criminal-justice overhaul bill seemed destined to be the bipartisan success story of the year, consensus legislation that showed lawmakers could still rise above politics and take on a serious societal problem.