memeorandum: Johnson and Stein fail to make cut for first presidential debate (Daniel Strauss/Politico)

5:15 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: Liberty Unyielding, Infowars 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, Mediaite, Washington Post, Fox News, Breitbart, ABC News, New York Times, NBC News, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, alan.com and Hot Air

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Trump is trying to rewrite his history of birtherism. This is what really happened. — ‘We have to keep the suspense going’ — Since 2011, Donald Trump has been the most prominent spokesperson for birtherism—the racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, Mother Jones, Vox, heave-ho.org, NBC News, Talking Points Memo and Right Wing Watch

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.

Andrew Prokop / Vox:

Trump fanned a conspiracy about Obama's birthplace for years. Now he pretends Clinton started it. — The GOP nominee was the highest-profile figure to question President Obama's birthplace. — One of the oddest features of the 2016 presidential race is that the Republican nominee …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Politico, heave-ho.org, Slate, The Week, Talking Points Memo, Independent Journal Review, Correct The Record, Politicus USA and Mediaite

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

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

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart:
Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager Admits 2008 Birther Link

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Politico and Mediaite

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

Discussion: Politico

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: New Yorker, TheStreet.com, Forbes, USA Today and Joe.My.God.

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue, Independent Journal Review, The Gateway Pundit, Shakesville and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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

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

Donald J Trump for President:
TRUMP CAMPAIGN STATEMENT

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, Vox, Business Insider, NPR and twitchy.com

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

Discussion: Mediaite

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

Discussion: The Week and Fox News Insider

David Jackson / USA Today:
Trump finally says Obama born in U.S., blames Clinton for controversy

Discussion: whorunsGov

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

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

Discussion: Mother Jones, BuzzFeed, RedState, ABC News, CNBC, Fox News, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Independent Journal Review, Business Insider, Infowars, The Frisky, Daily Kos, The Times of Israel, Guardian and Joe.My.God.

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: The Atlantic, New York Times, 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

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Gary Johnson cuts into Clinton's lead — NEW YORK — Gary Johnson was never supposed to be a problem for Hillary Clinton. — The low-profile Libertarian's presence on the ballot would serve as an easy out for #NeverTrump Republicans, Democrats aligned with the nominee have long figured, and that could only hurt Donald Trump.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Monthly and The Week

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal: Gary Johnson, Jill Stein Fail to Qualify for First Presidential Debate

Daniel Strauss / Politico:
Johnson and Stein fail to make cut for first presidential debate

Discussion: RedState, Gary Johnson for President and Outside the Beltway

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, The Daily Caller and Hollywood Reporter

Maxwell Strachan / The Huffington Post:

People Are Justifiably Infuriated With How Jimmy Fallon Handled Trump — “The Tonight Show” host humanized a dangerous man on Thursday night. — Jimmy Fallon had Donald Trump on “The Tonight Show” Thursday night, and all some people could talk about afterward was a head rub.

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

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: Pamela Geller, Shadowproof, The Counter Jihad Report, Sputnik International, Vocativ, Jihad Watch, Vox Popoli and France 24

Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Special Forces to Aid Turkish Troops in Syria

Discussion: New York Times, The Nation, Moon of Alabama and RT

Marc Caputo / Politico:

Rubio leads by 2 in internal Murphy campaign poll — MIAMI — Sen. Marco Rubio is ahead of Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy by 2 points in the U.S. Senate race, according to an internal poll of likely Florida voters that the challenger's campaign paid for and sent to donors.

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Senate Democrats go big in red states

Discussion: Naked Politics, Daily Kos, The Missouri Times and Moms Demand Action …

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.”

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