memeorandum: Trump's ‘big, beautiful wall’ will require him to take big swaths of other people's land (Tracy Jan/Washington Post)

9:45 AM ET, March 22, 2017

Top Items:

AP Exclusive: Manafort had plan to benefit Putin government — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Atlantic and Towleroad

Wall Street Journal:

A President's Credibility — Trump's falsehoods are eroding public trust, at home and abroad. — If President Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him? Would the rest of the world?

Discussion: CNN, CNBC, NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, Towleroad, Mediaite, Raw Story, Daily Wire, Business Insider, Axios and The Daily Caller

Glenn Thrush / New York Times:

'I'll Criticize Judges,' Trump Says, Hours After a Scolding for Doing Just That — WASHINGTON — Not even a public scolding from Judge Neil M. Gorsuch could get President Trump to stop bashing federal judges. — Hours after Mr. Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court declared during Senate …

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo and SCOTUSblog

New York Times:

Trump Warns House Republicans: Repeal Health Law or Lose Your Seats — WASHINGTON — President Trump offered a closing argument on Tuesday to on-the-fence lawmakers, warning House Republicans that they risked losing re-election next year if they failed to get behind legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Discussion: DCReport, Axios, rubber hose, USA Today, Occupy Democrats, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune and Washington Post

Scott Wong / The Hill:

Trump, GOP struggle to find healthcare votes — House Republican leaders on Tuesday struggled to pick up votes for their ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill, even after President Trump visited Capitol Hill to sell the plan. — With only a day before a scheduled vote on the House floor, the White House and Speaker Paul Ryan

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Hot Air and Balloon Juice

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump, GOP leaders lack votes to pass Obamacare repeal

Discussion: Axios, Hit & Run, twitchy.com and Mediaite

Kristina Peterson / Wall Street Journal: Ryan's Leadership Is Tested by GOP's Civil War on Health Bill

Veronica Stracqualursi / ABC News:

The Note: Trump puts the pressure on his party — THE BIG STORY: This is set up for something big - bigger even than the actual stakes. The Trump White House team has put everything it has into making the health care vote in the House a defining moment, for President Trump and the GOP …

Discussion: New York Times, NBC News and USA Today

Jed Handelsman Shugerman / Slate:
Neil Gorsuch and the “Frozen Trucker”

Elana Schor / Politico:
Schumer calls for delaying Gorsuch vote because of Trump-Russia probe

Discussion: The Hill, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, Politicus USA, Occupy Democrats, ABC News, SARAH PALIN and MichelleMalkin.com

Paul Callan / CNN:
Judge Gorsuch and the frozen truck driver

Discussion: Raw Story and electionlawblog.org

Erin McPike / IJR:

Trump's Diplomat — “I didn't want this job. I didn't seek this job.”

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, RedState, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Just Security, Reuters, Towleroad, RT and Business Insider

Axios:

Why deductibles would rise under the GOP health care plan — Health care is complicated, as the president has discovered. But here is one thing that is not so complicated: if people have modest means and limited tax credits, and coverage is expensive, they will mostly buy health plans with lower premiums — and high deductibles.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Olga Khazan / The Atlantic:
What Hardcore Conservatives Really Want for Health Care

Discussion: New York Times

Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Didn't Sign Trump's Ethics Pledge — The White House's former top national security official did not sign an ethics pledge ostensibly required of all Trump administration appointees barring them from ethically questionable lobbying activities, The Daily Beast has learned.

Discussion: Political Wire

Blair Miller / TheDenverChannel.com:

Former Colorado GOP chairman Steven Curtis charged with voter fraud — WELD COUNTY, Colo. - The former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party is charged with forgery and voter fraud for allegedly forging his wife's mail-in ballot from last year's election, according to court records and sources.

Discussion: Political Wire

Rob Low / FOX31 Denver:
Former Colorado GOP chairman charged with voter fraud, forgery

Discussion: Raw Story

Leah McElrath / Shareblue:

Republicans find themselves damned by 2016 attacks on Hillary Clinton — Donald Trump and the GOP repeatedly declared that Hillary Clinton should not be president because of an FBI investigation into her email practices. Now that James Comey has revealed an investigation exists …

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:
The Russians Did Not ‘Hack The Election.’ Repeat. The Russians Did Not ‘Hack The Election’

Discussion: Vox, Commentary Magazine, New York Times, Washington Examiner, Booman Tribune, The National Interest, NBC News, Washington Post and Hullabaloo

Lawrence Richard / SARAH PALIN:
CONTROVERSY: Check Which Major Foundation FBI Director Has Connections To..

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Raw Story, AOL and Sarah Palin

Susan E. Rice / Washington Post:

Susan Rice: When the White House twists the truth, we are all less safe — Susan E. Rice was national security adviser from 2013 to 2017 and U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. — Last week, the British intelligence agency GCHQ took the rare step of debunking as …

Discussion: Power Line, Politico, CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CNBC, Instapundit and Telegraph

Pat Saperstein / Variety:

Chuck Barris, ‘Gong Show’ Host, Dies at 87 — Chuck Barris, who hosted “The Gong Show” and created “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game,” died Tuesday of natural causes in Palisades, N.Y., his publicist confirmed. He was 87. — His autobiography, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller and NPR

Neil Genzlinger / New York Times:
Chuck Barris, Eclectic Entertainer of ‘Gong Show’ Fame, Dies at 87

Discussion: Althouse

New York Times:

Why Letting Go, for Trump, Is No Small or Simple Task — WASHINGTON — President Trump is a man seriously susceptible to snagging himself in the nettles of obsession. In the last three weeks, no compulsion has so consumed his psyche, and his Twitter account, as the deeply held …

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Axios

Elizabeth Cohen / CNN:

Grieving father: 'I don't play Trump songs anymore' — Man who attended 45 rallies now opposes Trump — GOP health care bill would end the requirement that addiction, mental health treatment be covered under Medicaid — (CNN)Last year, Kraig Moss sold the equipment for his construction business …

Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:

House Obamacare repeal DOA in the Senate — Forget the House GOP's troubles passing a health care bill. The party's bigger problem looms in the Senate. — Mitch McConnell is being tasked with fixing what GOP senators and House members say is a flawed Obamacare repeal proposal …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Democrats gripped by special election performance anxiety — Money is flooding into Democrat Jon Ossoff's campaign. The national party has started running focus groups on his behalf. Thousands of volunteers have flocked to his team to help him win his April special election for a vacant Atlanta-area congressional seat.

Discussion: Political Insider blog

Alexander Burns / New York Times:

Eyeing Trump's Budget Plan, Republican Governors Say ‘No, Thanks’ — Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky was unrestrained in his praise for President Trump: Opening for him at a rally on Monday, Mr. Bevin, a conservative Republican, echoed Mr. Trump's “America First” slogan and only gently noted the nagging divisions in their party.

Discussion: Raw Story

Stephanie Nebehay / Reuters:

Exclusive: North Korea has no fear of U.S. sanctions move, will pursue nuclear arms - envoy — North Korea has nothing to fear from any U.S. move to broaden sanctions aimed at cutting it off from the global financial system and will pursue “acceleration” of its nuclear and missile programs, a North Korean envoy told Reuters on Tuesday.

Discussion: New York Times, CNBC, Sputnik International, The Daily Caller, RedState, Axios and AOL

Ju-min Park / Reuters:
North Korea missile test fails, U.S. and South say, as tensions simmer

Discussion: Infowars, Associated Press, Breaking News USA, Mirror.co.uk, Japan Times, The Daily Caller and Yonhap News Agency

Anne Barnard / New York Times:

U.S. Airstrike in Syria Is Said to Kill Dozens of Civilians — BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 30 civilians have been killed in an airstrike by the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in a rural area of Raqqa Province in northern Syria, according to residents, activists and Syrian state television.

Washington Post:

New poll: only 3% of Trump voters regret their vote — Within weeks of the November 2016 U.S. presidential election, social media posts expressing voters' second thoughts began trending. While some Donald Trump voters felt he was backtracking on initial hard-line positions …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg:

Warren to Speak at Emily's List Gala as She Considers Campaigns — The Massachusetts senator is seen as potential Trump opponent — Poll shows plurality of voters opposed to her re-election — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren will raise her profile as a leader among President …

Dylan Byers / CNNMoney:

How Sean Spicer lost his credibility — Sean Spicer's credibility problem — The White House press secretary has always been a spin artist. — Spinning is not lying, Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers once said, but rather “marshaling the facts in service of an argument.”

Discussion: Refinery29, Daily Wire, Mediaite, CNN, IJR and New York Magazine

Ryan Lizza / New Yorker:

How the White House Got James Comey Wrong — Early on Monday morning, a couple of hours before the start of the first House Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia's involvement in the Presidential election, one of Donald Trump's closest White House advisers made a startling …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Balloon Juice