memeorandum: I was a Republican until Donald Trump hijacked my party (John J. Pitney/USA Today)

11:00 PM ET, May 23, 2017

Top Items:

Statement on coverage of Seth Rich murder investigation — On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting.

Mary Rich / Washington Post:

We're Seth Rich's parents. Stop politicizing our son's murder. — The writers are the parents of Seth Rich, who was killed in the District in 2016. — Imagine living in a nightmare that you can never wake up from. Imagine having to face every single day knowing that your son was murdered.

Discussion: RedState, Little Green Footballs, TheBlaze, Mediaite and Media Matters for America, more at Mediagazer »

John Podhoretz / Commentary Magazine:

The Shame of Defaming Seth Rich — The conspiracy theorizing has to stop. — Seth Rich was 27 when he was killed on a dark street in a sketchy neighborhood in the nation's capital last July. He has become world-famous in the past month because his corpse is being used as a proxy in the war over the reputation of Donald J. Trump.

Discussion: Showbiz411 and Hot Air

Joe Concha / The Hill:

Hannity on Seth Rich coverage: ‘I retracted nothing’ — Fox News's Sean Hannity ripped his critics and the mainstream media on his nationally syndicated radio program Tuesday, saying, “I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com, I retracted nothing.” — His reaction came hours after Fox News retracted …

Discussion: RedState

Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:

Seth Rich's brother pleads with Hannity to stop spreading conspiracy theory — July 2016: DNC staffer Seth Rich fatally shot — The brother of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich wrote a letter on Tuesday to the executive producer of Sean Hannity's Fox News show pleading with him to find …

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Post, Business Insider, RedState, IJR, KTLA, TheBlaze, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air and Media Matters for America, more at Mediagazer »

Elake / The Sun:

FACE OF PURE EVIL Brit-born Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, 22, is pictured for the first time - as Theresa May raises terror threat to ‘critical’ — Cops revealed the identity of the attacker after raiding his house in Manchester today — THIS is the Brit-born suicide bomber …

Discussion: RedState, Infowars and The Gateway Pundit

Jerome Hudson / Breitbart:

Katy Perry on Manchester Bombing: ‘No Barriers, No Borders, We All Just Need to Co-Exist’ — Pop megastar Katy Perry made an impassioned plea for people to “co-exist” and said that “barriers” or “borders” could detract from that goal in an interview following the terrorist bombing …

Mitch Prothero / BuzzFeed:
US Officials Keep Talking About The Manchester Attack And It's Freaking Out European Allies

Discussion: Business Insider, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, IJR, Infowars, Mother Jones, creepingsharia.wordpress.com, AOL, The Daily Caller, The Week and Daily Wire

Martin Evans / Telegraph:
Salman Abedi named as the Manchester suicide bomber - what we know about him

Discussion: The Guardian, BBC, The Gateway Pundit, CNN, USA Today, Media Matters for America, American Greatness, neo-neocon, The Daily Caller and Daily Wire

New York Times:
Terror Alert in Britain Is Raised to Maximum as ISIS Claims Manchester Attack

Discussion: NBC News, Telegraph, ABC News, Daily Mail, Media Matters for America, NPR, The National Interest, The Resurgent, IndieWire, The Guardian, Outside the Beltway, IJR, Gothamist, Business Insider, Conservative News Today and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

NBC News:
Manchester Arena Suicide Bombing: 22 Die at Ariana Grande Concert

The Guardian:
US leak of Manchester attacker's name strikes new blow to intelligence sharing

Discussion: Geller Report, Business Insider, The Atlantic and TheBlaze

CBS News:
Latest on investigation into Manchester concert bombing

Discussion: Mirror.co.uk, CBS Pittsburgh, Daily Wire, Infowars, Friendly Atheist, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Hill, CBS New York, The Daily Caller and Geller Report

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross / The Atlantic:
The Manchester Attack Shows How Terrorists Learn

Discussion: TheBlaze, New York Times, Raw Story, The Resurgent and BBC

Washington Post:
Manchester bombing suspect identified; Islamic State claims responsibility

Discussion: BuzzFeed, CNN, Hit & Run, France 24, Lawfare, IJR, National Review, TheBlaze and Department of Homeland …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump Budget Based on $2 Trillion Math Error [Updated] — One of the ways Donald Trump's budget claims to balance the budget over a decade, without cutting defense or retirement spending, is to assume a $2 trillion increase in revenue through economic growth. This is the magic of the still-to-be-designed Trump tax cuts.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNBC, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Politicus USA, Vox, Mother Jones and Booman Tribune

Lawrence H. Summers / Washington Post:
Larry Summers: Trump's budget is simply ludicrous

Discussion: The Atlantic, Business Insider, Vox, USA Today, Committee for a …, Axios, AOL, The Guardian, CNBC, New York Times and Fusion

Michael Grunwald / Politico:
Trump's Budget Scam

Discussion: Washington Post, CRFB Papers and Blog Posts, New York Times, ThinkProgress, CNBC and Business Insider

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:
Trump's budget proposal slashes spending by $3.6 trillion over 10 years

Dylan Scott / Vox:
Who knew bringing down drug prices could be so complicated

Discussion: Politico and ABC News

David Nakamura / Washington Post:

Trump calls Kim Jong Un a ‘madman with nuclear weapons,’ according to transcript of Duterte call — President Trump labeled North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un a “madman with nuclear weapons” during a private phone conversation with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte last month …

Discussion: Politico, Axios, Political Wire, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

The Intercept:

TRUMP CALLED RODRIGO DUTERTE TO CONGRATULATE HIM ON HIS MURDEROUS DRUG WAR: “YOU ARE DOING AN AMAZING JOB” — Photo Illustration: The Intercept/Getty Images — In a phone call from the White House late last month, U.S. President Donald Trump heaped praise on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte …

Discussion: Political Wire, The Week and ThinkProgress

The Intercept: Read the Full Transcript of Trump's Call With Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

patribotics:

EXCLUSIVE: Marshal of the Supreme Court Warned Trump over ‘Muslim Ban’ — Multiple sources confirm that Pamela Talkin, Marshal of the Supreme Court, was dispatched to the White House by Chief Justice Roberts last Friday. The decision to send her was taken, sources say, when White House Counsel …

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

No, Impeachment Doesn't Work That Way — Despite the fact that most Democratic leaders insist that talk of impeaching President Trump is premature, some liberal corners won't stop talking about it. — On May 17, Rep. Al Green of Texas called for the impeachment of the president in a floor speech.

Discussion: Daily Wire

Sharon Begley / STAT:

Trump wasn't always so linguistically challenged. What could explain the change? — t was the kind of utterance that makes professional transcribers question their career choice: — “ ... there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself — and the Russians, zero.”

Discussion: The Week

Katie Jennings / Politico:

MacArthur resigns as co-chairman of ‘clearly divided’ Tuesday Group — Rep. Tom MacArthur resigned Tuesday as co-chairman of the caucus of GOP moderates known as the Tuesday Group in the wake of deep divisions among its members over the House Obamacare replacement bill he helped craft.

Discussion: Vox, Daily Wire, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Axios, NY State of Politics, Talking Points Memo and Political Wire

Shibani Shah / Washington Post: Q&A: Rep. Tom MacArthur and the agony of GOP moderates in Trump's Washington

Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:

Exclusive: Sources Say Chris Christie Says He Gave Jared Kushner Legal Advice About Trump — The two, whose spokespeople deny this claim, used to be adversaries. But the New Jersey governor knows something about being investigated, and the president's son-in-law knows how Christie investigates.

Discussion: Business Insider, Raw Story and AOL

Scott Adams' Blog:

Scott Adams' Blog — President Trump just gave ISIS its new name: Losers. (Short for Evil Losers). — If you think that's no big deal, you're wrong. It's a big deal. This is - literally - weapons-grade persuasion from the most powerful Master Persuader of our time.

Discussion: Shot in the Dark

John J. Pitney / USA Today:

I was a Republican until Donald Trump hijacked my party — It is painfully evident that Trump's sorry brand will stick to the GOP for years. — Until last year, I was as Republican as you could get. My family had belonged to the GOP since the 1850s, and both my grandfathers labored in local Republican politics.

Austin Wright / Politico:

Brennan: Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides — Former CIA Director John Brennan said on Tuesday that he had concerns that Russian officials may have successfully recruited aides from Donald Trump's campaign to help in the Kremlin's efforts to influence last year's presidential election.

Discussion: New York Times, Talking Points Memo, CNN, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Axios, Hot Air, Townhall.com and The Week

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Republicans Focus on Protecting Trump at Russia Hearing

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post and Daily Kos

Ted Johnson / Variety:

FCC Will Not Take Action Over Stephen Colbert's Trump Remarks — The FCC will not take any action in response to complaints over a May 1 broadcast of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” in which the host quipped during his opening monologue that “the only thing [Trump's] mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c— holster.”

Discussion: Deadline, Mediaite, The Verge, The Daily Caller, The Guardian and twitchy.com

Patricia Zengerle / Reuters:

Senate panel says it will subpoena Michael Flynn businesses — The leaders of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on Tuesday they would subpoena two of former national security adviser Michael Flynn's businesses after Flynn declined to comply with a subpoena for documents in the panel's Russia probe.

Discussion: The Week

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Flynn hit with two new subpoenas by Senate Intelligence Committee

Discussion: The Atlantic, The Gateway Pundit and Hot Air

Tim Devaney / The Hill:

Labor Dept delays Obama-era mine safety rule — The Trump administration is delaying Obama-era workplace safety requirements for miners. — The Labor Department on Monday delayed the agency's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rule, the day before it was set to go into effect.

Discussion: Federal Register and The Daily Caller

Evan Perez / CNN:

Manafort turns over hundreds of pages of documents to Senate intel — (CNN)Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, turned over more than 300 pages of documents to the Senate intelligence committee related to its investigation of Russian election meddling, according to a source familiar with the Senate probe.

Susan Page / USA Today:

Al Franken, comedian-turned-senator, takes on Donald Trump, TV-star-turned-president — WASHINGTON — For Al Franken, it's finally safe to be funny again just at a moment all the news around him has taken a decidedly unfunny turn. — The two-term Minnesota senator and one-time Saturday Night Live comedian …

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite, The Week and Political Wire

Diane Ravitch / New Republic:

Don't Like Betsy DeVos? Blame the Democrats. — The Democratic Party paved the way for the education secretary's efforts to privatize our public schools. — Of all the corrupt, unqualified, and extremist characters Donald Trump has tapped to lead his administration …

Amy B Wang / Washington Post:

A neo-Nazi converted to Islam - and killed 2 roommates for ‘disrespecting’ his faith, police say — A former neo-Nazi who converted to Islam is accused of killing his two roommates because they “disrespected” his new faith, police said. — Last Friday evening, police arrested 18-year-old Devon Arthurs …

Discussion: Friendly Atheist, RT, AOL, Gizmodo and miamiherald