memeorandum: Florida social services investigated alleged school shooter Nikolas Cruz before rampage, knew he wanted to buy gun (Mark Berman/Washington Post)

11:30 AM ET, February 18, 2018

Top Items:

Matthew Nussbaum / Politico:

Trump attacks everyone but Russia — President Donald Trump railed against the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election Saturday night into Sunday, sending off a stream of tweets attacking the FBI, CNN, the Democratic Party, his own national security adviser …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Axios, Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, Vox, ThinkProgress, RedState, Politico, New York Times, CNBC, USA Today, Political Wire, Business Insider and KTLA, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:

‘They are laughing their asses off in Moscow’: Trump takes on the FBI, Russia probe and 2016 election … West Palm Beach, Fla. — President Trump questioned the intensifying special counsel's investigation of his campaign and administration while attacking his own national security adviser …

Discussion: Axios, Fox News Insider, The Week, AOL, Raw Story, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Washington Free Beacon, Shareblue Media, Political Wire, New York Magazine, NBC News and Outside the Beltway

Amy Held / NPR:

Trump Chides McMaster For Saying Evidence Of Russian Interference ‘Incontrovertible’ — Updated at 9 a.m. ET Sunday — President Trump chided his national security adviser on Sunday, tweeting H.R. McMaster “forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians.”

Associated Press:
Trump vents frustration over Russia probe, rails against FBI

Discussion: Politico

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Trump's National Security Chief Calls Russian Interference ‘Incontrovertible’

Discussion: Mediaite, The Right Scoop, The Gateway Pundit, KQED News, 89.3 KPCC, RealClearPolitics and Mother Jones

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:
Russian indictments prove Trump won fair and square

Discussion: Mediaite and The Daily Caller

Quinn Scanlan / ABC News:

Florida teen shooting survivors announce ‘March for Our Lives’ demonstration in Washington — Teen survivors of the school shooting massacre in Florida last week are calling for a march on Washington to demand action on gun control. — Student organizers of the protest told ABC News' …

Discussion: Politico

CNN:

Florida student Emma Gonzalez to lawmakers and gun advocates: ‘We call BS’ — Florida student to NRA and Trump: ‘We call BS’ — (CNN)Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, addressed a gun control rally on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida …

Discussion: miamiherald, Hullabaloo, thecut, Splinter, FOX 61, KNXV and KTLA

Alexander Burns / New York Times:

Prominent Republican Donor Issues Ultimatum on Assault Weapons — A prominent Republican political donor demanded on Saturday that the party pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, Breitbart, Business Insider, Axios, Politicus USA, TheBlaze, Mediaite, Raw Story and Political Wire

Caroline Orr / Shareblue Media:
Florida GOP in crisis as major donor threatens to pull money over guns

Discussion: Business Insider

Caleb Parke / Fox News:
Florida Teacher of the Year's gun violence post goes viral after school shooting

Discussion: The Right Scoop and TheBlaze

Washington Post:

The 21st-century Russian sleeper agent is a troll with an American accent … Not long after Marat Mindiyarov started working at the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll factory indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, he began hearing about the coveted “Facebook Department.”

Discussion: Front Page Magazine, New York Times, Law & Crime and Des Moines Register

Anton Troianovski / Washington Post:

A former Russian troll speaks: 'It was like being in Orwell's world' … The indictment by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III of 13 Russians associated with a St. Petersburg online “troll factory” that allegedly interfered with the U.S. election has brought a sense of vindication to the handful …

Discussion: Althouse

Evan Osnos / New Yorker:

Reading the Mueller Indictment: A Russian-American Fraud — In his first indictments for Russian interference in the 2016 election, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has revealed the inner workings of a shadow campaign—conceived in Moscow and deployed in the United States …

Discussion: Eschaton

Paula McMahon / Sun-Sentinel:

Nikolas Cruz: 'We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know.' — Sun Sentinel — Nikolas Cruz was immature, quirky and depressed when James and Kimberly Snead took him into their Parkland home. But he was pleasant and seemed to be growing happier, they said.

Discussion: WHNT-TV and IJR

Mark Berman / Washington Post:

Florida social services investigated alleged school shooter Nikolas Cruz before rampage, knew he wanted to buy gun — Florida's state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz's home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school …

Paula McMahon / Sun-Sentinel:
Nikolas Cruz was investigated after cutting himself on Snapchat, state report shows

Discussion: RedState, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, RT, Business Insider, Washington Times, WPIX 11 New York and IJR

New York Times:
Florida Agency Investigated Nikolas Cruz After Violent Social Media Posts

Discussion: RedState and Mother Jones

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:

Joe Biden, in public and private, tiptoes toward a 2020 run — WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden is tiptoeing toward a potential run in 2020, even broaching the possibility during a recent gathering of longtime foreign policy aides. — Huddled in his newly opened office steps …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Outside the Beltway

Shaun Walker / The Guardian:

Putin's quest for lost glory — As our correspondent prepares to leave Russia, he argues that the Russian leader's rule has been dedicated to restoring pride lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union … Working on one of my final stories as the Guardian and Observer's Moscow correspondent …

New York Times:

‘An Endless War’: Why 4 U.S. Soldiers Died in a Remote African Desert — Reporting from the desert of Niger to a small town in Georgia, The New York Times reconstructed how four American soldiers lost their lives — and why they were in Africa to begin with.

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Republicans race to reverse midterm recruitment failures — For months, Republican leaders watched in horror as hordes of their most sought-after midterm recruits passed on running, spooked by what increasingly looked like an electoral beatdown in the making.

Discussion: Political Wire

Christine Brennan / USA Today:

Adam Rippon will work for NBC as a correspondent for remainder of 2018 Winter Olympics — PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon, the openly gay Olympic team bronze medalist who has become one of the best-known names at these Games, has been hired by NBC to work …

Discussion: AOL

Stephanie Towers / WYFF-TV:

Greenville County teacher found partially undressed in SUV with student, charged with sex crimes, deputies say — Elizabeth Heaton Taylor was Greer High track coach — GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. — A Greenville County teacher and track coach at Greer High School has been charged …

Discussion: Greenville News, New York Post and Breitbart

David Badash / Raw Story:

'You're here celebrating the death of 17 children': Gun reform protesters booted out of Paul Ryan Florida fundraiser — Two activists were removed from Paul Ryan's weekend fundraiser in Key Biscayne, Florida for confronting the Speaker of the House about gun reform.