memeorandum: Trump Returns to Crisis Over Kushner as White House Tries to Contain It (New York Times)

6:50 PM ET, May 27, 2017

Top Items:

Trump Returns to Crisis Over Kushner as White House Tries to Contain It — President Trump headed home on Saturday to confront a growing political and legal threat, as his top aides tried to contain the fallout from reports that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is a focus of investigations …

Discussion: Daily Mail

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Trump family members met with GOP leaders to discuss strategy — Amid mounting questions at the White House about Russia, three prominent members of President Trump's family — his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and Eric's wife, Lara — have ramped up their engagement …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Political Wire, Raw Story and Hullabaloo

John Wagner / Washington Post:

Trump considers major changes amid escalating Russia crisis — President Trump and his advisers, seeking to contain the escalating Russia crisis that threatens to consume his presidency, are considering a retooling of his senior staff and the creation of a “war room” within the White House …

Discussion: Political Wire, Mediaite and Raw Story

Mike Allen / Axios:

Jared's Jam has White House on edge — The hottest topic among top White House officials is the FBI's interest in Jared Kushner, the closest adviser and son-in-law of the President. The Washington Post report that Kushner discussed “a secret and secure communications channel between Trump's transition team …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Raw Story, Political Wire, The Hill, ABC News and RedState

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Trump adviser: ‘I would not be concerned’ about a Russia back channel, irrespective of Kushner — TAORMINA, Italy — President Trump's National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Saturday he “would not be concerned” about having a back-channel communications system with Russia …

NBC News:

Kushner Met With Russian Banker Who Is Putin Crony, Spy School Grad — The Russian banker Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner met with in December is viewed by U.S. intelligence as a “Putin crony” and a graduate of a “finishing school” for spies who was often tasked with sensitive financial operations by Putin …

Discussion: RedState, Raw Story, Mediaite and Politicus USA

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:
Ex-CIA Director: CIA would consider Kushner actions ‘espionage’

Josh Dawsey / Politico: Russia scandal casts uncertainty over Kushner's future role

CNN:
Two top Trump advisers dodge Kushner questions

Discussion: Washington Post, Mother Jones, Business Insider, New York Times, Fusion, Raw Story, ABC News, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Washington Times

Natasha Bertrand / Business Insider:
‘This is off the map’: Former intelligence officials say the reported Kushner-Russia plan …

Discussion: Hot Air, twitchy.com, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and CANNONFIRE

Reuters:
Trump son-in-law had undisclosed contacts with Russian envoy - sources

Discussion: The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, The Mahablog, Business Insider, The Guardian, Fox News, Political Wire, The Hill, Mediaite, Axios, emptywheel, New Yorker and Washington Post

Bob Brigham / Raw Story:
‘Game-changer’: MSNBC panelists explain magnitude of ‘devastating’ Kushner revelations

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Doug Brown / Portland Mercury:

Suspect in Portland Hate Crime Murders is a Known White Supremacist — Jeremy Christian, now accused of hate crime murders, at the right-wing “March for Free Speech” on April 29 — The man accused of the brutal hate crime slayings of two people at the Hollywood Transit Center on Friday afternoon is a known local white supremacist.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, WREG-TV, Raw Story, Mediaite, Refinery29, IJR, The Guardian and Patterico's Pontifications

Jim Ryan / Oregonian:

2 killed in stabbing on MAX train in Northeast Portland as man directs slurs at Muslim women, police say — Gallery: Deadly MAX stabbing, May 26, 2017 — Update, 3:30 a.m., May 27: Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated murder …

Discussion: Washington Post, Southern Poverty Law Center, NPR, Business Insider, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Portland Mercury, The Right Scoop, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Last Tradition, Daily Mail and FOX6Now.com

Corey Pein / Willamette Week:

I know because I interviewed him last month. — I shook the alleged killer's filthy hand 28 days ago. Mine feels tainted now, as though I somehow sanctioned his reported act, though I was only trying to get some information out of him. — He had just marched through Montavilla Park chanting …

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Post and American Power

Matthew Haag / New York Times:
Two Killed in Portland After Trying to Stop Anti-Muslim Rant, Police Say

Discussion: Willamette Week, KATU-TV, Fusion and Balloon Juice

CNN:
Man shouting ‘anti-everything slurs’ kills 2 in Portland, police say

Discussion: RT, CBS Pittsburgh, ThinkProgress and The Week

Tina Nguyen / Vanity Fair:

As Trump's Problems Mount, Breitbart's Numbers Are Cratering — A media business based on attack has been much less successful when forced to defend. — With its former chairman Steve Bannon as White House chief strategist and plans for an ambitious international expansion …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Tom Kington Taormina / The Times & The Sunday Times:

Out of step: G7 leaders take a stroll, Trump takes a golf cart — The distance between Donald Trump and his G7 partners was spelled out dramatically today when Theresa May and the leaders of Italy, France, Germany, Japan and Canada strolled the streets of Taormina, Sicily — while he followed in a golf cart.

Discussion: Politicus USA and Business Insider

Tyler Durden / zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml …:

Merkel Furious With Trump After “Unprecedented” G-7 Failure To Reach Consensus On Climate Change — In the end it was not mean to be. As discussed on Friday, during Trump's first G-7 summit, world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron …

Discussion: CNN, The Atlantic, CBS Miami, New York Times, The Guardian, Common Dreams, Hot Air and Mediaite

Bloomberg: Trump Goes His Own Way as G-7 Cobbles Together an Awkward Truce

Al Jazeera English:
G7 summit ends deadlocked on climate change

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Axios and Political Wire

Paul Mirengoff / Power Line:

When Al Franken body-slammed a demonstrator — When I wrote about Fightin' Greg Gianforte's assault (as it seems to me) on a reporter, I believed that Al Franken had a history of physical aggression against folks who annoyed him. However, the only incident I recalled (and only vaguely) …

Discussion: CBS News

Paul Sperry / New York Post:

How Team Obama tried to hack the election — MORE FROM: … New revelations have surfaced that the Obama administration abused intelligence during the election by launching a massive domestic-spy campaign that included snooping on Trump officials. — The irony is mind-boggling …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Last Tradition, neo-neocon, Instapundit and Conservative News Today

Jazz Shaw / Hot Air:

With all that farmland, why are Venezuelans starving? — With all of the unrest, riots and murders in Venezuela these days, it's easy to overlook one very basic question about the abysmal conditions its citizens are enduring. Venezuela has some of the richest farmland in the western hemisphere …

Discussion: Instapundit

Eli Rosenberg / New York Times:

A Muslim-American Activist's Speech Raises Ire Even Before It's Delivered — Linda Sarsour, one of the most prominent Muslim-American activists in New York, says the messages have been arriving by the hour recently. — “Your time is coming.” — “A good Arab is a dead Arab.”

Discussion: Geller Report

The Intercept:

LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL COUNTERTERRORISM TACTICS USED AT STANDING ROCK TO “DEFEAT PIPELINE INSURGENCIES” — A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures …

Discussion: Fusion, Common Dreams and Raw Story

Dr. Susan Berry / Breitbart:

Former Navy SEAL to Katy Perry: ‘Hold One of Your Concerts in Syria and See How That Goes’ — Former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie urged pop singer Katy Perry to try holding a concert in Syria if she wants to “hug it out” with Islamic terrorists. — Higbie, appearing as a guest on Fox News Thursday, said, “Go to hell, Katy Perry.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Suit against Hillary Clinton over Benghazi deaths and emails is dismissed — A federal judge in Washington has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Hillary Clinton's lax security surrounding her emails led to the deaths of two of the Americans killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Discussion: Politicus USA and Hullabaloo