memeorandum: Kuwait Celebration At Trump Hotel Raises Conflict Of Interest Questions (NPR.org)

3:18 AM ET, February 26, 2017

Top Items:

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:

Perez fires back at Trump: I'll be your worst nightmare — Tom Perez fired back at President Trump on Saturday after the president offered the newly elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman a mock-congratulatory tweet. — “Call me Tom. And don't get too happy,” tweeted Perez …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, NBC News, Fox News, Politicus USA, Mediaite, CBS New York, Business Insider and Balloon Juice

David Weigel / Washington Post:

Thomas Perez elected the first Latino leader of Democratic Party — ATLANTA — Former labor secretary Thomas Perez was elected the first Latino chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, narrowly defeating Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) at the end of a contentious battle over the fate …

Discussion: CNN, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Slot, Western Journalism, ABC News, The Root, Hot Air and Business Insider

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Democrats Elect Thomas Perez, Establishment Favorite, as Party Chairman

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Nation and Power Line

Daily Mail:
‘Keep fighting, I will be with you every step of the way’: Hillary surfaces in extraordinary …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Western Journalism and RedState

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
DNC chair vote: live coverage

Discussion: Washington Post, Vox, ABC News, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, Mother Jones, Townhall.com, IJR, Fox News Insider, The Week, Western Journalism and Althouse

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Perez appoints Ellison deputy DNC chair

Discussion: Raw Story

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Perez elected DNC chairman

Discussion: NPR, FiveThirtyEight and New York Magazine

Ryan Struyk / ABC News:
Top Democrats poised to choose next party chair

Discussion: Associated Press and twitchy.com

Jonathan Easley / The Hill: Perez wins bid to lead Democratic Party

Daniel Strauss / Politico:
Buttigieg drops out of DNC chair race

Discussion: IJR

Arlene Washington / Hollywood Reporter:

Donald Trump Says He Will Not Attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner — The president tweeted his announcement on Saturday. — Donald Trump will be skipping the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 29. — “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year.

Discussion: Deadline, Raw Story and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Maquita Peters / NPR:

Trump Will Be First President In 36 Years To Skip White House Correspondents Dinner — President Trump announced Saturday afternoon that he would break from a decades-old tradition and skip the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner scheduled for April 29.

Discussion: The Resurgent, IJR and BizPac Review

The Hill:
Trump: I won't attend White House correspondents' dinner

Erik Hayden / Hollywood Reporter:
Bloomberg Cancels White House Correspondents' Dinner Party

Discussion: The Slot, RedState, Raw Story and Business Insider

NEWS.com.au:

Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: ‘I sobbed like a baby’ — BEST-SELLING Australian author Mem Fox may never return to the United States after being detained by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport, saying she has never been “treated with such disdain”.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Bonnie Malkin / The Guardian:
Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: ‘I sobbed like a baby’

Discussion: Raw Story and ABC

Sarah Kliff / Vox:

Leaked report suggests millions could lose coverage under GOP health proposal — Republican replacement plans for Obamacare would lead to significant declines in the number of Americans with health insurance coverage, according to an analysis presented Saturday at the National Governors Association and obtained by Vox.

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico and Political Wire

Julia Harte / Reuters:

Kuwait could pay up to $60,000 for party at Trump Hotel in Washington — The Kuwaiti government could pay up to $60,000 to President Donald Trump's hotel in Washington for a party on Saturday that will be an early test of Trump's promise to turn over profits from such events to the U.S. Treasury.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

NPR.org:

Kuwait Celebration At Trump Hotel Raises Conflict Of Interest Questions — For more than a decade, Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S., Salem al-Sabah, has held a gala event every Feb. 25 to celebrate his country's national day. The annual holiday commemorates the tiny Gulf state's independence from British rule in 1961.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

New York Times:

Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington Is a Different Story. — WASHINGTON — The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has taken to slapping journalists who write unflattering stories with an epithet he sees as the epitome of low-road, New York Post-style gossip: “Page Six reporter.”

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and RedState, more at Mediagazer »

Dnexon / Lawyers, Guns & Money:

The Gorka Dissertation, Part II — In my prior post, I tried to make clear that you don't need to get very far—less than twenty pages, in fact—into Gorka's dissertation to recognize its academic shoddiness. Something like 7% of it is a cut-and-paste job from an earlier article.

Eliana Johnson / Politico:

Sources: U.S. considers quitting U.N. Human Rights Council — The Trump administration is considering pulling the United States out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body that has been accused of being biased against Israel and criticized for including abusive governments …

Discussion: American Thinker

Reuters:

France's Hollande fires back at Trump over Paris comments — French President Francois Hollande fired back at Donald Trump on Saturday after the U.S. president remarked in a speech that a friend thought “Paris is no longer Paris” after attacks by Islamist militants.

Heather Caygle / Politico:

House Democrats plan to troll Trump at big speech — House Democrats are seizing on President Donald Trump's first major speech to Congress Tuesday as an opportunity to troll the new president in prime time. — Many of the same Democrats who boycotted Trump's inauguration are choosing …

Discussion: BizPac Review and The Daily Caller

DN.SE:

Fake Sweden expert on Fox News - has criminal convictions in US, no connection to Swedish security — Fox News continues to focus on the debate about how immigration is breaking Sweden. One guest last night, described as a “Swedish defense and national security advisor” …

Discussion: Raw Story, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Little Green Footballs

Adam Taylor / Washington Post:
Who is Nils Bildt? Swedish ‘national security advisor’ interviewed by Fox News is a mystery to Swedes

Discussion: The Hill, The Local and The Guardian

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

Lynne F. Stewart, Lawyer for Omar Abdel Rahman, Unexpectedly Outlives Him — When Omar Abdel Rahman died last Saturday while serving a life sentence for a 1995 conviction in a plot to blow up New York City landmarks, it came as little surprise that the nearly universal view of him as a dangerous terrorist …

Discussion: twitchy.com