memeorandum: Mitch McConnell, the man who broke America (Dana Milbank/Washington Post)

1:30 PM ET, April 8, 2017

Top Items:

Nikita Vladimirov / The Hill:

Tulsi Gabbard ‘skeptical’ Assad regime behind gas attack … (D-Hawaii) said Friday she was “skeptical” that Syrian leader Bashar Assad's regime was behind this week's chemical weapons attack in northern Syria. — “There are a number of theories that are out there,” Gabbard said during …

Discussion: CNN, Political Wire, Hot Air, Business Insider, Lawfire and Breitbart

CNN:

Syria strikes: Site of chemical attack hit again — (CNN)New airstrikes have targeted a town in northwest Syria that was hit by a deadly chemical attack earlier this week, activists said. — It wasn't immediately clear who conducted the strikes on Khan Sheikhoun, which hit on Friday and Saturday …

Discussion: Fox News, New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, IJR, Gothamist, TheBlaze, The Week, Vocativ, RedState, Raw Story, Mashable, Washington Post, Defense One and The Hill

Washington Post:

Warplanes return to Syrian town devastated by chemical attack — BEIRUT — Residents of the Syrian town devastated by a chemical-weapons attack last week said that warplanes had returned to bomb them Saturday as Turkey described a retaliatory U.S. assault as “cosmetic” unless it removed President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, ABC News and IJR

Mark Hemingway / Weekly Standard:
Obama Administration Knew Syria Still Had Chemical Weapons, Despite Saying Otherwise

Discussion: The American Interest, Power Line, The Daily Caller and IJR

New York Times:
Which Countries Support and Which Oppose the U.S. Missile Strikes in Syria

Discussion: Just Security, Towleroad, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, NPR, Business Insider, Al Jazeera English and The Intercept

Ezra Klein / Vox:
Trump's foreign policy is dangerously impulsive

Discussion: The Atlantic, Shareblue, Telegraph, Politico, IJR, The Diplomat, Washington Post, The Guardian and NBC News

Joan Walsh / The Nation:
TOO MANY OF TRUMP'S LIBERAL CRITICS ARE PRAISING HIS STRIKE ON SYRIA

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, Althouse and The Guardian

Susan B. Glasser / Politico:
President Not-Obama — Is this the week Donald Trump found a foreign policy?

Discussion: New York Times, vice, Eschaton, IJR and Weekly Standard

Morgan Winsor / ABC News:
Nikki Haley warns the US is ‘prepared to do more’ in Syria

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Washington Free Beacon, The Last Tradition, CNN, Balloon Juice, Politico and Red Alert Politics

New York Times:

Trump Fires Warning Shot in Battle Between Bannon and Kushner — WASHINGTON — As he grappled on Thursday with his first major decision involving military action, a fed-up and frustrated President Trump turned to his two top aides and told them he had had enough of their incessant knife-fights in the media.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and The Week

Josh Dawsey / Politico:

Bannon and Kushner hold sit-down in attempt to bury the hatchet — Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, two warring senior White House aides, had a bury-the-hatchet meeting ordered by President Donald Trump, after arriving at Mar-a-Lago this week. — The sit-down, which was confirmed …

Discussion: RedState, CNN, The Root, Joe.My.God., The Week, Balloon Juice and Axios

Axios:

Bannon's allies are scrambling to save him — Steve Bannon's allies both inside and outside the White House are worried Trump is going to fire him. They're scrambling this afternoon to figure out a way to persuade the president he'd be making a grave mistake.

David Ferguson / Raw Story: DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — Even as the White …

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
White House frustrated by palace intrigue

Discussion: RedState, CNN and Raw Story

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:
Alex Jones brands Jared and Ivanka ‘enemies of the republic’ after Trump ally blames them for Syria strike

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Washington Times

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

The media loved Trump's show of military might. Are we really doing this again? — The cruise missiles struck, and many in the mainstream media fawned. — “I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night,” declared Fareed Zakaria on CNN, after firing of 59 missiles …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and New York Magazine

Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:
Trump Badly Wants Pundits' Approval. TV Loves His Syria Strike. So What Comes Next?

Discussion: AOL, Crooked Timber, Daily Kos, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Mediaite and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:

Trump's Options for North Korea Include Placing Nukes in South Korea — The National Security Council has presented President Trump with options to respond to North Korea's nuclear program — including putting American nukes in South Korea or killing dictator Kim Jong-un …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Hot Air, The Last Tradition and RedState

Alyssa Madruga / Fox News:
Expert: Watch to see if Kim Jong-Un goes into hiding after Syria strike

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, BizPac Review and The Daily Caller

Reuters:
Chinese state media cheer Xi-Trump meeting, say confrontation not inevitable

Discussion: The Week

CNN:
Trump, Xi have ‘candid,’ ‘positive’ talks in Florida

Discussion: The Daily Caller

David Nakamura / Washington Post:
U.S. and China end summit with 100-day plan to boost trade and cooperation

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

John Sharp / al.com:

Rebekah Mason suggested closure of DMV offices in majority black counties, report shows — Governor Robert Bentley's former top advisor and secret paramour Rebekah Mason led a politically-motivated effort in 2015 to close 31 driver's license offices in mostly black counties, a move that embarrassed the state and was later reversed.

Discussion: Political Wire, WTVM-TV, NPR and WHNT-TV

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

Inside the failed secret mission to save the filibuster — A week before Republicans gutted the filibuster to put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, nine senators gathered in John McCain's office to see whether they could save the Senate from spiraling further into disrepair.

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Mitch McConnell, the man who broke America

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Atlantic

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Bannon's Views Can Be Traced to a Book That Warns, ‘Winter Is Coming’ — WASHINGTON — Stephen K. Bannon has read the book three times. He still keeps a copy of it — one that's creased and copiously underlined — in a library with the rest of his favorites at his father's house in Richmond, Va.

Reed Abelson / New York Times:

No ‘Death Spiral’: Insurers May Soon Profit From Obamacare Plans, Analysis Finds — In contrast to the dire pronouncements from President Trump and other Republicans, the demise of the individual insurance market seems greatly exaggerated, according to a new financial analysis released Friday.

NBC4 Washington:

Man Accidentally Shoots Himself at NRA Headquarters: Police — The employee suffered a minor wound to his lower body and was taken to a hospital for treatment, according to Fairfax county police — A National Rifle Association employee accidentally shot himself while doing firearms training …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Hill and Talking Points Memo

Jack Shafer / Politico:

Cable News Loves War — Nothing engorges the cable news id quite like a war waged by the United States, even when the war is only a one-off retaliatory Tomahawk strike, like Thursday's missile attack on an airbase in Syria. From inside their command posts in Washington and New York …