memeorandum: Inside the Russian Troll Factory: Zombies and a Breakneck Pace (Neil MacFarquhar/New York Times)

1:45 PM ET, February 19, 2018

Top Items:

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, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

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 …

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

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now

Discussion: Politico

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:
Trump surveyed Mar-a-Lago members over gun control in wake of school shooting: report

Discussion: RedState and The Week

Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
Trump-Russia inquiry: Manafort under pressure after reports that Gates has flipped

Discussion: Washington Post, The Mahablog, TheBlaze and Outside the Beltway

Alice Ollstein / Talking Points Memo:
White House: Trump Supports Gun Background Check Bill

Discussion: Washington Post, USA Today, New York Magazine, Politicus USA and The Week

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: Mother Jones, Mediaite, Raw Story and Althouse

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

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

Anne Applebaum / Washington Post:
Why Facebook is afraid of Robert Mueller

Discussion: Breitbart and Front Page Magazine

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America since 9/11

Discussion: twitchy.com, RT, CBS New York, CNBC, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Townhall.com, RT, Lawfare, AOL, Raw Story, Front Page Magazine, Breitbart, Power Line, Vox, TheBlaze, The American Spectator, Business Insider, New York Post and Gizmodo, more at Mediagazer »

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

Discussion: National Review and VICE News

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, Breitbart, IJR, The Right Scoop, CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, Axios, The Daily Caller, Deadline, KTLA, RedState, Washington Times and Mother Jones

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Trump hits golf course 3 days after visiting shooting victims

Discussion: Shareblue Media and Joe.My.God.

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
The ‘Oprah 2020’ story isn't going away. Trump just made sure of it

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, RT, NewsBusters and IndieWire

Annie Gowen / Washington Post:

Trump Jr. to give foreign policy speech while on ‘unofficial’ business trip to India … NEW DELHI — The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is making what's been dubbed an unofficial visit to India to promote his family's real estate projects. But he's also planning to deliver …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Joe.My.God.

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? — There is an internal war brewing after it was claimed that Ronan Farrow has been banned by NBC News' top exec Andy Lack. — Farrow was booked on Rachel Maddow's prime-time MSNBC show on Friday to discuss his story about Donald Trump's alleged affair with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.

Discussion: Mediaite and AOL

Madison Park / CNN:

Florida school shooter obtained 10 firearms — CNN will hold a town hall with the victims' classmates, parents and community members. “Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action” will air live Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. — School shooter Nikolas Cruz will attend a 1 p.m. ET hearing …

Discussion: KTLA, IJR, The Right Scoop, myfox8.com, CBS Miami, FOX 61 and FOX6Now.com

Dan Merica / CNN:
Trump open to improving background checks, spokesman says

Discussion: The Guardian, KTLA, Political Wire, theGrio and CBS Miami

Eli Watkins / CNN:
Trump tweet angers survivors of Parkland shooting

Discussion: NPR, Politico, Daily Kos, KTLA, Sun-Sentinel, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, TheBlaze and RT

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

Trump's Miss Universe Gambit — For years, he used his beauty pageants to boost business interests abroad. A 2013 contest, in Moscow, may also have helped give him the Presidency. — The first-round results of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant seem to have come as a surprise …

Discussion: Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

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: Daily Wire and National Review

New York Times:

Texas Democrat Writes Giant-Killer Narrative One Livestream at a Time — By Michael TackettPhotographs by Tamir Kalifa Feb. 19, 2018 — BEAUMONT, Texas — Operating on two hours' sleep, Beto O'Rourke was 20 hours into his day and looked it. His white shirt and gray slacks were an accordion of wrinkles.

Nina Burleigh / Newsweek:

HOW AN ALT-RIGHT BOT NETWORK TOOK DOWN AL FRANKEN — White nationalist provocateurs, a pair of fake news sites, an army of Twitter bots and other cyber tricks helped derail Democratic Senator Al Franken last year, new research shows. — While everyone has been focused on Russian meddling …

Discussion: Raw Story

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

Bill Hutchinson / ABC News:

Couple who took in alleged Fla. school shooter says he texted their son that he was ‘going to the movies’ — In an eerie text message to a friend just three minutes before he allegedly started his Valentine's Day killing spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Nikolas Cruz wrote …

Discussion: TheBlaze