Top Items:
Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Sean Spicer's appalling answer about economic data shows how far we've lowered the bar for Trump — At Friday's press briefing, Sean Spicer told an absurd lie to the assembled members of the White House press corps. But he did it with a smile rather than a snarl, so everyone laughed.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Raw Story, The Week, Political Wire and Axios
RELATED:
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
Sean Spicer's Quick Twitter Reaction to Jobs Report May Break a Rule — The enthusiastic reaction of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was understandable on Friday when the Labor Department reported a gain of 235,000 jobs. “Great news for American workers,” he proclaimed, “in first report for @POTUS Trump.”
Discussion:
Washington Post, USA Today, Talking Points Memo, NBC News, Mashable, TVNewser, Politicus USA, CNBC, NPR, Mediaite, New York Magazine and Washington Free Beacon
Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
Gateway Pundit Reporter ACCOSTED, HARASSED — Screamed At in White House Press Room: “Nazi... White Supremacist!” — The Gateway Pundit White House correspondent Lucian Wintrich was accosted, harassed and abused Friday in the White House Press room. — On Friday Jon Decker …
Discussion:
Mediaite
Cameron Joseph / New York Daily News:
Trump team knew Flynn was possible foreign agent before Inauguration Day
Trump team knew Flynn was possible foreign agent before Inauguration Day
Discussion:
National Review
Lindsey Bever / Washington Post:
Sean Spicer wore an upside-down flag pin. The Internet lost its mind.
Sean Spicer wore an upside-down flag pin. The Internet lost its mind.
Discussion:
Snopes.com, Refinery29, Mashable and Politicus USA
Oliver Darcy / Business Insider:
Drama in White House press room as Fox reporter vehemently denies he assaulted right-wing blogger
Drama in White House press room as Fox reporter vehemently denies he assaulted right-wing blogger
Discussion:
Politico, Joe.My.God. and The Gateway Pundit
Natasha Bertrand / Business Insider:
Top Democrat sent letter to Mike Pence in November warning of Michael Flynn's Turkey lobbying
Top Democrat sent letter to Mike Pence in November warning of Michael Flynn's Turkey lobbying
Discussion:
New York Times, The Atlantic, NBC News, The Daily Caller, RedState, Daily Wire, Daily Kos and IJR
New York Times:
Trump Abruptly Orders 46 Obama-Era Prosecutors to Resign — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday moved to sweep away the remaining vestiges of Obama administration prosecutors at the Justice Department, ordering 46 holdover United States attorneys to tender their resignations immediately …
Discussion:
RedState, Political Wire, The Hill and Politicus USA
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Lydia Wheeler / The Hill:
Sessions asks 46 Obama-era US attorneys to resign — has asked dozens of U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Barack Obama — to submit their resignations, the Department of Justice announced Friday. — U.S. attorneys are normally replaced at the beginning of new administrations.
Nate Cohn / New York Times:
Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose in the G.O.P. Repeal Bill — The people who stand to lose the most in tax credits under the House Republican health plan tended to support Donald J. Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to a new Upshot analysis.
Discussion:
Vox, Hullabaloo, Hot Air, Common Dreams and Daily Kos
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
A Bill So Bad It's Awesome — It has long been obvious to anyone following health policy that Republicans would never devise a workable replacement for Obamacare. But the bill unveiled this week is worse than even the cynics expected; its awfulness is almost surreal.
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos and Washington Post
Katie McHugh / Breitbart:
7 Reasons Why Obamacare 2.0 Is All But Guaranteed to Impose Crushing Costs on Voters, Hurt Trump's Base, And Hand Power Back to the Democrats — If passed in its current form, the GOP's Obamacare 2.0 bill will impose brutal costs Americans still struggling to make it through a great recession …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Daily Beast, American News and Daily Wire
Ezra Klein / Vox:
Is the Republican health plan designed to fail? — There's a theory going around Washington that Republicans don't want their health bill to pass. — There is a line worth noting in David Brooks's column today: “The Republican plan will fuel cynicism. It's being pushed through in an elitist …
Discussion:
The Mahablog, NBC News, The Atlantic and Washington Post
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Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Pelosi: Trump is ‘making fools’ out of GOP
Pelosi: Trump is ‘making fools’ out of GOP
Discussion:
The Week, Daily Wire, CNN and Raw Story
Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Amash cries after missing first vote in Congress — Rep. Justin Amash has long boasted about not missing a single vote since he arrived in Congress in 2011 — 4,289 in a row, give or take a vote, if you're counting. — But on Friday, as he was railing against the GOP's Obamacare replacement bill off …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller and Political Wire
Patricia Laya / Bloomberg:
U.S. Jobs, Wages Show Solid Gains in Trump's First Full Month — U.S. employers added jobs at an above-average pace for a second month on outsized gains in construction and manufacturing, showing the labor market continued its steady growth in the new year.
RELATED:
Toluse Olorunnipa / Bloomberg:
Trump Points to Drudge's ‘Great Again’ Praise of New Jobs Report
Trump Points to Drudge's ‘Great Again’ Praise of New Jobs Report
Discussion:
AOL, Media Matters for America, The Rush Limbaugh Show, New York Times, CNBC, Shot in the Dark and Business Insider
Patricia Laya / Bloomberg:
America's Labor Market Is Getting Better by Almost Any Measure
America's Labor Market Is Getting Better by Almost Any Measure
Discussion:
The Last Refuge, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and New York Magazine
CNN:
The super-secret division in charge of the Russia investigation — Washington (CNN)Somewhere in the halls of the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, a closely held number of FBI agents face the daunting task of determining how the Russian government sought to manipulate the US presidential election.
Discussion:
The Week
Sharon Begley / STAT:
House Republicans would let employers demand workers' genetic test results — little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information.
Discussion:
New York Magazine and Political Wire
Financial Times:
White House civil war breaks out over trade — ‘Fiery meeting’ in Oval Office between economic nationalists and pro-trade moderates — Read next … A civil war has broken out within the White House over trade, leading to what one official called “a fiery meeting” in the Oval Office …
Discussion:
Axios
Bloomberg:
Trump's Leading Candidate for FDA Is Scott Gottlieb, Sources Say — Likely nominee was senior FDA executive under George W. Bush — Choice would represent mainstream pick for drug industry — Scott Gottlieb, a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration …
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Thomas M. Burton / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Expected to Nominate Scott Gottlieb to Lead FDA
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
There Really Was A Liberal Media Bubble — This is the ninth article in a series that reviews news coverage of the 2016 general election, explores how Donald Trump won and why his chances were underrated by most of the American media. — Last summer, the United Kingdom voted to leave …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Washington Times, The Week and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »
Heather Caygle / Politico:
Pelosi: I would have retired had Clinton won — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is publicly declaring what she's been saying privately since after the election: Had Hillary Clinton won the presidency, the longtime Democratic leader was planning to ditch Congress.
Discussion:
BizPac Review, The Daily Caller, The Resurgent, Washington Free Beacon, The American Mirror and Townhall.com
RELATED:
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Pelosi: Comey should publicly reject Trump wiretapping claims
Pelosi: Comey should publicly reject Trump wiretapping claims
Discussion:
ABC News
The Hill:
Right targets Ryan — not Trump — on ObamaCare plan — President Trump has so far managed to avoid becoming a target for the conservative backlash to Speaker Paul Ryan — 's (R-Wis.) ObamaCare repeal and replace plan, even as the White House vigorously whips support for the bill.
Discussion:
MSNBC and No More Mister Nice Blog
RELATED:
John Sexton / Hot Air:
Something good came out of Samantha Bee's attack on ‘Nazi hair’ — Something good came out of Samantha Bee's show this week. Kyle Coddington, who was mocked in a segment about CPAC and described as having “Nazi hair,” has received tens of thousands of dollars to support his treatment for brain cancer.
Discussion:
Townhall.com, Fox News Insider and OUTSET
Associated Press:
GOP rep: Obama stayed in capital to run ‘shadow government’ — A Pennsylvania congressman has accused former President Barack Obama of staying in Washington solely to run a “shadow government” to undermine the GOP agenda. — U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly made the claim to fellow Republicans at an event Saturday north of Pittsburgh.
Discussion:
Political Wire, Daily Kos, Axios and Mediaite
Andrew Blake / Washington Times:
Roger Stone, Trump confidant, acknowledges ‘innocuous’ Twitter conversation with DNC hackers — Roger Stone, President Trump's former campaign advisor, engaged privately last year with a persona involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee, he told The Washington Times Friday …
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
Steady U.S. Job Growth Sets Stage for Fed to Raise Interest Rates — Employers added 235,000 workers to their payrolls in February, the government reported on Friday, a hefty gain that clears the path for the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate when it meets next week.
Discussion:
USA Today, Forbes, Outside the Beltway, NPR, Political Wire and twitchy.com
RELATED:
Ben Casselman / FiveThirtyEight:
Don't Let Trump — Or Any President — Take Credit For Strong Jobs Numbers
Don't Let Trump — Or Any President — Take Credit For Strong Jobs Numbers
Discussion:
Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Signal, Breitbart and The Guardian
Madeline Conway / Politico:
Trump taps private security director for White House job — President-elect Donald Trump has tapped his private security director, Keith Schiller, to be deputy assistant to the president and his director of Oval Office operations, confirming that he'll bring at least one member …
Discussion:
Washington Post and ThinkProgress
Associated Press:
IMMIGRATION AGENT CONVICTED OF ACCEPTING CASH BRIBES, SEX — NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been convicted of accepting cash bribes and sex in exchange for employment authorization documents. — Arnaldo Echevarria, of Somerset, New Jersey …
Discussion:
Daily Wire
Alex Griswold / Mediaite:
Nancy Pelosi: American People Have Right to Know What's in Healthcare Bill Before It Passes — Presented without comment: … [h/t Benny Johnson] — [Image via screengrab]
Discussion:
RedState, MichelleMalkin.com and The Daily Caller
Alexandra Rosenmann / Raw Story:
Trump supporters call for ‘liberal genocide’ and deportation of Jews at Arizona Rally — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — Maricopa County burnished its reputation as the Trumpiest in America last weekend as hundreds of locals, including heavily armed militiamen …
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE and Hullabaloo