memeorandum: Trump Supports Improving Background Checks, But Will That Mean Action? (Arnie Seipel/NPR)

11:35 AM ET, February 19, 2018

Top Items:

A non-alarmist reading of the Mueller Russia indictment … There's been no shortage of breathless reaction to Trump-Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for their efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

David Willman / Los Angeles Times:

Former Trump aide Rick Gates to plead guilty; agrees to testify against Manafort, sources say … A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days - and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul J. Manafort Jr. …

Discussion: The Guardian, TheBlaze, Outside the Beltway, Business Insider, Daily Wire, VICE News, Talking Points Memo, The Right Scoop, Politicus USA, CBS News, The Hill, Mother Jones, CNN, New York Magazine, Axios, RedState, KTLA, Law & Crime, AOL, Political Wire, Vox and twitchy.com

Blake Hounshell / Politico:

Confessions of a Russiagate Skeptic — If, like me, you've been following every twist and turn of the Russia investigations, you've probably wrestled with the same question that has been gnawing at me for more than a year now: What if there's nothing there?

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones

Eli Watkins / CNN:

Trump tweet angers survivors of Parkland shooting — Washington (CNN)Students who survived the Parkland, Florida, shooting laid into President Donald Trump after he linked the FBI's failure to follow up on a report about the school shooter and the resources expended on the Russia investigation.

Discussion: CBS Miami, Sun-Sentinel, KTLA, The Gateway Pundit, RT, The FADER and NPR

Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Fact-Checking a Facebook Executive's Comments on Russian Interference

Discussion: Washington Post, RT, Lawfare, AOL, Front Page Magazine, Raw Story and Breitbart, more at Mediagazer »

Charles M. Blow / New York Times: Attacking the ‘Woke’ Black Vote

Scott Shane / New York Times:
How Unwitting Americans Encountered Russian Operatives Online

Discussion: National Review, Vox, Front Page Magazine, Business Insider, VICE News and The Federalist, more at Mediagazer »

Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Podesta: Trump a ‘draft dodger’ in war for democracy

Discussion: Washington Post, Political Wire, CNN, Power Line, myfox8.com, The Guardian, Breitbart, ThinkProgress, AOL, CBS New York, Shareblue Media, The Root, USA Today and CNBC

Washington Post:

Trump lashes out over Russia probe in angry and error-laden tweetstorm … WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump lashed out with fresh anger about the intensifying Russia probe over the weekend, accusing Democrats of enabling a foreign adversary to interfere in the 2016 election and attacking …

Washington Post:

Top U.S. officials tell the world to ignore Trump's tweets … MUNICH — Amid global anxiety about President Trump's approach to world affairs, U.S. officials had a message for a gathering of Europe's foreign policy elite this weekend: Pay no attention to the man tweeting behind the curtain.

Discussion: The Atlantic and Outside the Beltway

Max Boot / Washington Post:

Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America since 9/11 — Imagine if, after 9/11, the president had said that the World Trade Center and Pentagon could have been attacked by “China” or “lots of other people.” Imagine if he had dismissed claims of al-Qaeda's responsibility as a “hoax” …

Discussion: Breitbart, RT, CNBC, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:

Trump surveyed Mar-a-Lago members over gun control in wake of school shooting: report — asked members at his Mar-a-Lago Club about gun-control issues in the wake of the shooting at a nearby Florida high school, The Washington Post reported Sunday. — Trump during the holiday weekend reportedly asked …

Discussion: RedState

New York Times:
Trump's Evolution From Relief to Fury Over the Russia Indictment

Discussion: Althouse, New York Magazine, Vox, Politico and Washington Post

New York Times:

How Does Trump Stack Up Against the Best — and Worst — Presidents? — Where does Donald Trump rank on the list of American presidents? — We surveyed presidential politics experts to sketch out a first draft of Trump's place in presidential history. — Since our previous survey in 2014 …

Discussion: Raw Story and Althouse

Dan Merica / CNN:

Trump open to improving background checks, spokesman says — West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN)President Donald Trump “is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system” for gun purchases, less than a week after the Florida school shooting that killed 17 people.

Discussion: Political Wire, theGrio, KTLA and CBS Miami

David Edwards / Raw Story: Rush Limbaugh attacks Parkland students for marching and ‘bashing’ NRA: ‘This is totally political’

Christine Yared / New York Times:
Don't Let My Classmates' Deaths Be in Vain

Discussion: Washington Post

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
NRA defends grant to Parkland shooting suspect's rifle team, lashes out at critics

Discussion: IJR, RT, WPLG-TV and twitchy.com

Washington Post:
Florida students plead with Congress: It's about the guns

Discussion: ProPublica, IJR, TheBlaze, Daily Kos, Raw Story, The Root, Balloon Juice, NBC News, Mediaite, Politico, Business Insider and Politicus USA

CBS News:

Oprah follows up with the partisan voters in Michigan — Last fall, Oprah Winfrey spoke with 14 Michigan voters, seven of whom voted for Donald Trump. Winfrey sat down with the voters again to get their thoughts on Trump's first year in office — Oprah Winfrey

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, IndieWire, IJR, Breitbart, CNBC, The Right Scoop, The Gateway Pundit, Deadline, RedState, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, KTLA, Axios, Washington Times and Mother Jones

New York Times:

Tools of Trump's Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids — As accounts of past sexual indiscretions threatened to surface during Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign, the job of stifling potentially damaging stories fell to his longtime lawyer and all-around fixer, Michael D. Cohen.

Discussion: Axios and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Page Six:
Ronan Farrow banned from NBC?

Discussion: Mediaite and AOL

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Conservatives urge Trump to grant pardons in Russia probe — After months of criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, President Donald Trump's supporters are issuing increasingly bold calls for presidential pardons to limit the investigation's impact.

Discussion: Axios and Raw Story

Jill Abramson / New York Magazine:

Do You Believe Her Now? — With new evidence that Clarence Thomas lied to get onto the Supreme Court, it's time to talk seriously about impeachment. — Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas testifying before the Senate in 1991. Paul Hosefros/The New York Times/Redux (Hill); Jose R. Lopez/The New York Times/Redux (Rhomas)

Discussion: National Review and thecut

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now — Our democracy is in serious danger. — President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.

Discussion: Politico

Abigail Tracy / Vanity Fair:

“The Canaries Are Dying”: How Trump Is Making Republicans Pick Their 2018 Poison — Caught between the president's rabid, loyal base and suburban women, Republican candidates may not survive a blue wave election. — “These races are like canaries in the coal mine,” Steve Israel …

Discussion: Raw Story