memeorandum: Exclusive — Discussion About GOP Replacement to Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House Intensifies in White House, Congress (Matthew Boyle/Breitbart)

12:25 AM ET, March 25, 2017

Top Items:

In Spectacular Defeat for Trump, Push to Repeal Health Law Fails — WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders, facing a revolt among conservatives and moderates in their ranks, pulled legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act from consideration on the House floor Friday afternoon …

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

‘Hello, Bob’: President Trump called my cellphone to say that the health-care bill was dead — President Trump called me on my cellphone Friday afternoon at 3:31 p.m. At first I thought it was a reader with a complaint since it was a blocked number. — Instead, it was the president calling from the Oval Office.

Discussion: Business Insider, The Atlantic, Hot Air, TVNewser, Lawyers, Guns & Money, AOL, ACASignups.net and TheBlaze

Matthew Boyle / Breitbart:

Exclusive — Discussion About GOP Replacement to Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House Intensifies in White House, Congress — Republican officials in Congress and the White House are now openly discussing finding a GOP replacement to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as Speaker of the House …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politico, IJR, Vox, CNBC, ABC News, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, RT, Raw Story, Politicus USA and Axios

Washington Post:

‘The closer’? The inside story of how Trump tried — and failed — to make a deal on health care — Shortly after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled the Republican health-care plan on March 6, President Trump sat in the Oval Office and queried his advisers: “Is this really a good bill?”

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Political Wire, Politico and Hullabaloo

Kate Bennett / CNN:

Trump unhappy Jared Kushner took a powder on the ski slopes as health care bill floundered — Aides in Washington toiled all week trying to get the health care reform bill over the finish line — Washington (CNN)While the rest of his senior staff scrambled to squeeze votes …

Discussion: Politico and RedState

Marielturnerktla / KTLA:

Trump Upset Jared Kushner Took Aspen Ski Vacation as Health Care Bill Faltered — While the rest of his senior staff scrambled all day Thursday and Friday morning to squeeze votes for President Trump's flailing health care package, one person remained notably absent: Jared Kushner.

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Why Obamacare Defeated Trumpcare — With the collapse of the House health-care bill, the cause of repealing Obamacare, a right-wing obsession for seven years and a day, has died. The flame will never be fully extinguished in the hearts of the true believers — after all …

Discussion: The Nation, Politico, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Times, ABC News, The American Conservative and TheBlaze

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Republicans Land a Punch on Health Care, to Their Own Face — WASHINGTON — At the end of the long day, the alliance of conservative ideologues who once shut down the government over President Barack Obama's health care law could not find the will to repeal it.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Aaron Lorenzo / Politico:

Tax reform next? Maybe not. — Republicans' spectacular failure to repeal and replace Obamacare threatens to sabotage another cornerstone of their agenda, tax reform — because of simple math. — The GOP was counting on wiping out nearly $1 trillion in Obamacare taxes to help finance …

Discussion: Political Wire and ABC News

Tim Alberta / Politico:
Inside the GOP's Health Care Debacle

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, The Resurgent, Occupy Democrats, Talking Points Memo, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Business Insider and Political Wire

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart:
Health Care Bill's Failure: Just Part of the ‘Art of the Deal’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Ezra Klein / Vox:
The failure of the Republican health care bill reveals a party unready to govern

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress and TheBlaze

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
In a Call to The Times, Trump Blames Democrats for the Failure of the Health Bill

Discussion: Media Matters for America and Politico

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Trump: I never said repeal and replace would come in 64 days

Discussion: ABC News and Mother Jones

Bloomberg:
White House Preparing to Blame Ryan If Health Bill Fails, Official Says

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, New York Times, The Atlantic, TheBlaze, Daily Kos, Townhall.com, Investor's Business Daily, Axios and Hot Air

Ezra Klein / Vox:
How Paul Ryan played Donald Trump

Discussion: Hit & Run, NPR, Politicus USA, bradford-delong.com, BillMoyers.com, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Salon, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air, New York Magazine, Lawyers, Guns & Money and rubber hose, more at Mediagazer »

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
Why Steve Bannon Might Be the Winner of the GOP's Health-Care Civil War

Discussion: Vox, Breitbart, The Atlantic, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog and Axios

CNN:
Ryan visiting Trump, not delivering good news on health care

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Atlantic, MichelleMalkin.com, IJR, Hot Air, Mediaite and Joe.My.God.

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
GOP health-care bill: House Republican leaders abruptly pull their rewrite of the nation's health-care law

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Politicus USA, Power Line, Occupy Democrats, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Times, The Daily Caller, Political Wire, Mediaite and Booman Tribune

Ema O'Connor / BuzzFeed:
Planned Parenthood's President: “It's Time For Ivanka To Stand For Women”

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Fox News, CNBC, Daily Wire, ABC News, Mediaite, Bloomberg, Raw Story, Refinery29, AOL and TheBlaze

McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:

Nobody Knew Governing Could Be So Complicated — The Republican Party's marquee legislative initiative had just imploded in spectacular, and humiliating, fashion Friday afternoon when Paul Ryan stepped up to a podium on Capitol Hill. The beleaguered house speaker wasted no time in diagnosing the failure of his caucus.

Discussion: Washington Times and Talking Points Memo

Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Bannon Tells Trump: ‘Keep a S**t List’ of Republicans Who Opposed You

Discussion: Raw Story and Politico

Joe Concha / The Hill:
Fox's Stuart Varney: ‘The Republican Party is a disgrace’

Discussion: RedState and Viking Pundit

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
FBI Director Comey visits White House

Discussion: Mediaite and The Gateway Pundit

Axios:
Health care bill might get yanked from House floor

Discussion: Hot Air and Mother Jones

Tim Mak / The Daily Beast:

Devin Nunes Vanished the Night Before He Made Trump Surveillance Claims — Hours before the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced his shocking claims about the Trump transition team on Wednesday morning, he practically disappeared. — Rep. Devin Nunes was traveling …

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Nunes (Kind of) Confesses He Went Off Half-Cocked

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Common Dreams and CNN

CNN:
Rick Gates out at America First Policies over Manafort ties to Russia

Discussion: Politico

Katie Bo Williams / The Hill:
Nunes: Manafort volunteered to interview with Intel panel

Discussion: Infowars, Occupy Democrats, CANNONFIRE, Fox News Insider, CNN, Towleroad, ABC News, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, TalkLeft and TheBlaze

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

GOP cave on Obamacare repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history — Broken promises are as old as politics itself, and there are many famous examples of them in modern history. President George H.W. Bush's “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge comes immediately to mind …

Discussion: National Review

Wall Street Journal:

Ex-CIA Director: Mike Flynn and Turkish Officials Discussed Removal of Erdogan Foe From U.S. — James Woolsey says he attended a September meeting where other participants, including then-Trump adviser Mike Flynn, talked of moving Fethullah Gulen back to Turkey without going through U.S. extradition process

Discussion: Daily Wire, Raw Story, Mediaite, Balloon Juice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Business Insider

Darla Mercado / CNBC:

The holiday is over: Amazon will collect sales taxes nationwide on April 1 — Amazon, the online merchandise juggernaut, will collect sales taxes from all states with a sales tax starting April 1. — Tax-free shopping will be over as of next month in Hawaii, Idaho, Maine and New Mexico, the four remaining holdouts.

Discussion: Engadget, GeekWire, The Verge and Axios, more at Techmeme »

David Frum / The Atlantic:

The Republican Waterloo — Seven years and three days ago, the House of Representatives grumblingly voted to approve the Senate's version of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats in the House were displeased by many of the changes introduced by Senate Democrats.

Discussion: bradford-delong.com

The Daily Beast:

Russia's Putin Picks Le Pen to Rule France — MOSCOW — Russian interference in the American elections last year was downright subtle compared to what we've seen this week in the run-up to French presidential elections. — The two-round vote on April 23 and May 7 could change politics …

Dan Alexander / Forbes:

After Promising Not To Talk Business With Father, Eric Trump Says He'll Give Him Financial Reports — Eric Trump sits behind a desk on the 25th floor of Trump Tower in New York City, dressed in a slightly less formal version of his father's go-to power uniform—blue suit, white buttoned-down shirt, no tie.

Discussion: New York Times, Hullabaloo, The Guardian, CNBC, Occupy Democrats, TheBlaze, Business Insider, Political Wire, Talking Points Memo, Axios and Politico

Media Matters for America:

Alex Jones Apologizes For Pizzagate Coverage, Blames Other Media Outlets — Conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones was pressured to air an apology for his role in spreading the false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which led to a Jones listener firing a gun inside a Washington, D.C. pizzeria.