memeorandum: Judiciary Committee poised to vote on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch (Erin Dooley/ABC News)

12:10 PM ET, April 3, 2017

Top Items:

Eli Lake / Bloomberg:

Top Obama Adviser Sought Names of Trump Associates in Intel — White House lawyers last month discovered that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign …

Discussion: Vox, Axios, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Daily Wire, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Balloon Juice, Instapundit and twitchy.com

Juan Williams / The Hill:

Trump's risk of impeachment rises — Liberal Democrats could yet see their dreams come true. — Last week, a new poll from the liberal outfit Public Policy Polling (PPP) asked Americans if President Trump should resign if evidence emerges that his campaign worked with Russia to help defeat Hillary Clinton

Discussion: Washington Times

Jonathan Allen / Roll Call:

Opinion: The S.S. Trump Is Sinking — Find a Lifeboat — An open letter to House Republicans — Opinion: The GOP's Big Health Care Winner — Mitch McConnell Opinion: This Budget Isn't Dead on Arrival Opinion: Put Up Your Own Plan, Democrats — If they're smart, House Republicans …

Mike Cernovich / Medium:

Susan Rice Requested Unmasking of Incoming Trump Administration Officials — Susan Rice, who served as the National Security Adviser under President Obama, has been identified as the official who requested unmasking of incoming Trump officials, Cernovich Media can exclusively report.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, The Gateway Pundit and Vox Popoli

Adam Jentleson / New York Times:

Mitch McConnell's Nuclear Trigger Finger — In the 1944 noir film “Gaslight,” a villain hides his crimes by convincing his innocent wife she's insane, feeding her barely perceptible lies and altering small aspects of her environment until she doubts her own instincts and observations.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Ari Berman / The Nation: Democrats Should Do Everything They Can To Block Neil Gorsuch

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senators fear fallout of nuclear option

Discussion: zerohedge.com/fullrss2 … and Hot Air

USA Today:
Gorsuch merits confirmation: Our view

Discussion: Washington Post and Hot Air

Erin Dooley / ABC News:
Judiciary Committee poised to vote on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch

Discussion: Hot Air and Associated Press

Ted Barrett / CNN:
Senate faces nuclear showdown over Neil Gorsuch nomination

Discussion: Washington Post and Politico

NBC News:

North Korean Defector Tells Lester Holt ‘World Should be Ready’ — SEOUL, South Korea — A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country's “desperate” dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies. — Thae Yong Ho is the most high …

Discussion: Business Insider, Financial Times, CNBC and The Daily Caller

Financial Times:

Trump ready to tackle North Korea alone — FT exclusive — President says US will act unilaterally if China does not pressure Pyongyang … Donald Trump has warned that the US will take unilateral action to eliminate the nuclear threat from North Korea unless China increases pressure on the regime in Pyongyang.

Discussion: Breitbart, The Sun, The Hill, Business Insider, CNBC, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Mediaite, KTLA, Just Security, Reuters, Political Wire, RT, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, BizPac Review, The Guardian, Politico, NBC News, Raw Story, The Daily Beast and Axios

Financial Times:
Trump on Merkel, Twitter and Republican infighting — FT interview

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, Business Insider and The Hill

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

How to Lose a Majority — The very public intra-party fight between President Trump and the Freedom Caucus is just the latest twist in the ongoing fight over the philosophical, strategic and ideological direction of the Republican party. As has been his mode of operation since his candidate days …

Kelly McParland / Raw Story:
Trump allies in short supply as DC finds out trusting him is ‘like putting your faith in a human IED’

Discussion: The Hill

Axios: A possible Trumpcare comeback

Daily Mail:

BREAKING NEWS: Two nail bombs on St Petersburg metro rip through carriages, killing at least 10 as Putin visits city for meeting — Two nail bombs on the metro in St Petersburg ripped through train carriages killing at least 10 people today. — The incident occurred at two separate locations …

Discussion: RT, The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Shira Rubin / Vocativ:
ISIS Celebrates St. Petersburg Metro Blast That Killed 9

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, AOL, The Daily Caller, Instapundit and Mediaite

New York Times:
Explosion in St. Petersburg Metro Kills 10

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Danny Boyle / Telegraph:
Watch | Aftermath of Saint Petersburg train ‘bombing’

Discussion: Politico, Vocativ and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

CNN:
St. Petersburg metro explosion: 10 dead in Russia blasts

Discussion: CBS News, Associated Press, Common Dreams, Faithwire, Hot Air, KTLA and TheBlaze

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Jared Kushner Visits Iraq on Invitation From Joint Chiefs Chairman — Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, made a trip to Iraq over the weekend, visiting the country as the American military is aiding Iraqi forces in their brutal fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State.

Discussion: Reuters, Politico, Common Dreams, New York Daily News, Washington Post, KTLA, New York Magazine, RedState, Political Wire and Mediaite

Reuters:

ADVISORY: Story on Kushner visiting Iraq withdrawn — The story “Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner visits Iraq, U.S. official says”, the accompanying alert and subsequent update are wrong and are withdrawn. — CARACAS Venezuela's opposition lawmakers said on Sunday they will push for the removal …

Discussion: Associated Press, Hot Air, IJR and The Week

CNN:
Jared Kushner travels to Iraq

Discussion: Gizmodo, Reuters and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

ProPublica:

Trump Can Pull Money From His Businesses Whenever He Wants — Without Ever Telling Us — When President Donald Trump placed his businesses in a trust upon entering the White House, he put his sons in charge and claimed to distance himself from his sprawling empire.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios, Daily Kos, Political Wire and The Week

Los Angeles Times:

Our Dishonest President … It was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a “catastrophe.”

Discussion: Breitbart, Vox Popoli, AOL, Heat Street, The Week, Fox News Insider, The Hill, Occupy Democrats, Business Insider, Mother Jones and Political Wire

Kelefa Sanneh / New Yorker:

Tucker Carlson's Fighting Words — On Fox News, an unlikely star thrives in the tumult of Trump-era politics. — Tucker Carlson started wearing a bow tie in 1984, when he was in tenth grade at St. George's, a Rhode Island prep school with a dress code. He stopped wearing a bow tie on April 11 …

Discussion: Axios and The Week

Susan Bordo / The Guardian:

The destruction of Hillary Clinton: sexism, Sanders and the millennial feminists — In this extract from her book, Susan Bordo asks how the most qualified candidate ever to run for president lost the seemingly unloseable election — any books have been written about the way racial differences …

Discussion: Red Alert Politics and Shakesville

Victor Davis Hanson / American Greatness: What is the “Alt” Left?

Noam Scheiber / New York Times:

How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers' Buttons — The secretive ride-hailing giant Uber rarely discusses internal matters in public. But in March, facing crises on multiple fronts, top officials convened a call for reporters to insist that Uber was changing its culture and would no longer tolerate “brilliant jerks.”