memeorandum: The ‘new normal’ for S. Fla. pilots: keeping president's airspace clear on weekends (Lisa J. Huriash/Sun-Sentinel)

3:50 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: Power Line, The Last Refuge, RedState, BBC, The Hill, Scared Monkeys, Western Journalism, Hot Air, Liberty Unyielding, IJR, The Gateway Pundit, The Last Tradition, Doug Ross and Instapundit

Jonathan Karl / ABC News:

Trump flashes anger over Sessions recusal, Russia stories in tense Oval Office meeting — Before heading off to his so-called “winter White House” in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, President Donald Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went “ballistic,” senior White House sources told ABC News.

Discussion: Politico, Political Wire and Associated Press

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.”

Discussion: Power Line, Gizmodo, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Politico, TheBlaze, Western Journalism, France 24, Raw Story, Political Wire, BizPac Review, WHNT-TV, CBS Denver and Eschaton

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

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, BizPac Review, Raw Story, CBS Philly, The Gateway Pundit, KTLA, Politicus USA, twitchy.com, CBS Dallas, Joe.My.God. and Towleroad

Alicia Melville-Smith / BuzzFeed:

Trump Repeats Talk Radio Rumor That Obama Wiretapped Him During Election — Trump provided no evidence to back up his claim. — Without offering a scintilla of evidence, President Donald Trump on Saturday accused former President Barack Obama of spying on him by wiretapping the phones …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ABC News, Raw Story, Common Dreams, Politicus USA, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Business Insider, Balloon Juice, twitchy.com and MARK-CM

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: Associated Press and Infowars

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Donald Trump was a conspiracy-theory candidate. Now he's on the edge of being 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 theory bubbling there — that then-President Barack Obama was not …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Raw Story, The Guardian, BizPac Review, Mediaite, CBS New York and Fox 59

Fox News:
Trump accuses Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower phones

Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump expected to sign new executive order on travel ban on Monday

Discussion: Axios

David Shepardson / Reuters:
Obama denies Trump claim he wiretapped him during campaign

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

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

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico and The Last Refuge

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, Mashable, The Daily Caller and Axios

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

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

Lisa J. Huriash / Sun-Sentinel:

The ‘new normal’ for S. Fla. pilots: keeping president's airspace clear on weekends — CBS4's Weijia Jiang Reports — Sun Sentinel — Some pilots just aren't getting the message: They can't come and go as they please across South Florida's skies this weekend or any other time the president is in town.

Discussion: CBS Pittsburgh

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

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

Discussion: Political Wire

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
Despite early denials, growing list of Trump camp contacts with Russians haunts White House

Discussion: The Guardian, The Strident Conservative, The Moderate Voice, WGBH News, Axios, ProPublica, Mother Jones, Politico and New York Times

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

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

Donald Trump vs. the Food Snobs — Donald Trump's riches, rages and romance with Russia all demand scrutiny. They shape our fates. — His meals don't, so leave the man to his supper. Let him eat steak. — Let him order it as he wishes and slather it with whatever he pleases.

Discussion: Vox

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