memeorandum @ 2:30 PM ET, March 4, 2017

2:30 PM ET, March 4, 2017

Top Items:

Trump, citing no evidence, accuses Obama of ‘Nixon/Watergate’ plot to wiretap Trump Tower — President Trump on Saturday angrily accused former president Barack Obama of orchestrating a “Nixon/Watergate” plot to tap the phones at his Trump Tower headquarters last fall in the run-up to the election.

Tim Hains / RealClearPolitics:

Mark Levin: Was Obama Using NSA Against Trump During 2016 Campaign? — Radio host Mark Levin spent most of his Thursday evening show discussing the alleged scandal surrounding Attorney General Jeff Sessions and what he says is the real scandal: A “silent coup” by the former Obama administration against President Trump.

Discussion: RedState, The Guardian, Western Journalism, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, Liberty Unyielding, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, The Last Tradition, Instapundit and Doug Ross

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:

Top Obama adviser to Trump: ‘No president can order a wiretap’ — A former policy adviser to President Obama is firing back at President Trump's claim that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, saying it didn't happen — at least not under Obama's orders. — “No President can order a wiretap.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politico, RedState, Raw Story, New York Magazine, Fox 59, KTLA, Politicus USA, Joe.My.God., BizPac Review, Towleroad and WHNT-TV

New York Times:

Trump, Offering No Evidence, Says Obama Tapped His Phones — WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump on Saturday accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of having tapped his phones at Trump Tower the month before the election, calling Mr. Obama on Twitter a “bad (or sick) guy.”

Mallory Shelbourne / The Hill:

Graham: 'I'm very worried' about Trump's wiretapping accusation — (R-S.C.) on Saturday said he is “very worried” about President Trump's accusation that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. — “I'm very worried that our president is suggesting the former president has done something illegal …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Week

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he's a conspiracy-theory president. — Donald Trump's political career was born amid the fever swamps of the far right. He seized on a favorite conspiracy theories bubbling there — that then President Obama was not, in fact …

Discussion: Associated Press, FOX6Now.com and BizPac Review

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Trump Goes Nuclear With Claim Obama Wiretapped Him During Election [Updated] — Early this morning, President Trump unleashed a barrage of tweets accusing then-President Barack Obama of wiretapping his office in Trump Tower during the presidential election:

Discussion: Washington Post and CBS Philly

New York Times:

Trump Team's Links to Russia Crisscross in Washington — WASHINGTON — During the 2016 campaign, Donald J. Trump's second campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had regular communications with his longtime associate — a former Russian military translator in Kiev who has been investigated in Ukraine …

Discussion: Chicago Boyz, Washington Post, Politico, LifeZette, CNBC, Balloon Juice and Politicus USA

David Shepardson / Reuters:

Obama denies Trump claim he wiretapped him during campaign — A spokesman for Barack Obama on Saturday rejected claims from U.S. President Donald Trump that the former president had wiretapped him in October during the late stages of the presidential election campaign.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Alicia Melville-Smith / BuzzFeed:
Trump Repeats Talk Radio Rumor That Obama Wiretapped Him During Election

Discussion: Politicus USA, Business Insider, Lawyers, Guns & Money, JONATHAN TURLEY, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and MARK-CM

Steven Shepard / Politico:
Russia investigations a ‘witch hunt’? Not according to polls

Discussion: Political Wire

Javier E. David / CNBC:
Trump accuses predecessor of ‘McCarthyism,’ wire-tapping during general election; Obama camp denies

Discussion: Raw Story, IJR and Political Wire

New York Times:

Trump Inherits a Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles — WASHINGTON — Three years ago, President Barack Obama ordered Pentagon officials to step up their cyber and electronic strikes against North Korea's missile program in hopes of sabotaging test launches in their opening seconds.

Discussion: RedState, The Daily Caller and Axios

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

A Special Prosecutor . . . For What? — There is no crime to probe in the matter of the Trump campaign's contact with Russians. — S — o, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself. Great! — Just one question: From what? — Yes, yes, Sessions is a good and decent man.

Discussion: Infowars, twitchy.com, Daily Wire, The Daily Signal, Fox News and The Daily Caller

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Sessions Controversy Heightens Trump's Feeling of Being Under Siege

Discussion: Axios

NewsBusters:
HYPOCRISY: 7X More Coverage for Sessions Debacle than Holder Contempt

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Daily Caller, IJR, RedState, The Resurgent and Fox News

Eli Watkins / CNN:
Grassley denies calls for Sessions to testify on Russian ambassador meetings

Discussion: WGBH News, Mediaite and RedState

Wall Street Journal:

The Mob at Middlebury — A mob tries to silence Charles Murray and sends a prof to the ER. — Once again a scholar invited to speak at a university has been shouted down by an angry mob clearly unable to challenge him intellectually. On Thursday at Middlebury College …

Addison / Addison County Independent:
Middlebury College professor injured by protesters as she escorted controversial speaker

Discussion: New York Times, BizPac Review, Middlebury, Power Line, Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, twitchy.com, Hot Air, Hit & Run, Daily Wire, Vox Popoli and Seven Days

Scott Jaschik / Inside Higher Ed:
Shouting Down a Lecture — Middlebury students chant and shout …

Discussion: Washington Post, JONATHAN TURLEY, Washington Times, Althouse, National Review, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Daily Wire and American Power

Adolfo Flores / BuzzFeed:

A 13-Year-Old Girl Sobbed While Recording Her Immigrant Father Get Arrested By ICE Agents — Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez was arrested this week while dropping off his daughter at a school in Los Angeles. — A sobbing 13-year-old girl recorded the arrest of her undocumented immigrant father …

Discussion: The Root

Fred Barbash / Washington Post:

Decades-old mass grave of children of unwed mothers confirmed in Ireland — Between 1925 and the 1960s, in a tiny town called Tuam in western Ireland's County Galway, thousands of “fallen women” and their “illegitimate” children passed through the Mother and Baby Home operated by the Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours.

Discussion: The Week and NPR

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:

White House split on import tax puts Congress in limbo — A major split among senior White House officials over whether to effectively create a new tax on imported goods has stalled the broader tax overhaul effort on Capitol Hill, with Republicans looking to the Trump administration …

Elias Groll / Foreign Policy:
Trump White House Shopping For Technology to Plug Leaks

Discussion: Raw Story and AOL, more at Mediagazer »

Ted Johnson / Variety:

Arnold Schwarzenegger Says He's Done With ‘Apprentice,’ Blames Poor Ratings on Trump Involvement — Arnold Schwarzenegger says that he will not do another season of “Celebrity Apprentice,” and he's blaming Donald Trump's continued involvement in the show as a factor for turning people off.