memeorandum: Bolton Brings Hawkish Perspective To North Korea, Iran Strategy (Michele Kelemen/NPR)

8:35 PM ET, March 22, 2018

Top Items:

McMaster to Resign as National Security Adviser, and Will Be Replaced by John Bolton — WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer tapped as President Trump's national security adviser last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation …

Scott Bixby / The Daily Beast:
H.R. McMaster Out as National Security Adviser as Trump's Purge Continues

Discussion: Axios and Politico

Michele Kelemen / NPR:
Bolton Brings Hawkish Perspective To North Korea, Iran Strategy

Discussion: Weekly Standard, ThinkProgress, ABC News and 89.3 KPCC

Zack Beauchamp / Vox:
John Bolton, Trump's ultra-hawkish new national security adviser, explained

Discussion: New Republic, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Axios, Hit & Run, Roll Call, Politicus USA, The Week and twitchy.com

New York Times:

John Dowd Resigns as Trump's Lead Lawyer in Special Counsel Inquiry — WASHINGTON — The president's lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the matter, days after the president called for an end to the inquiry.

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“Now I'm F—ing Doing It My Way”: Jubilant and Self-Liberated, the President Prepares for War with Mueller — With John Dowd out, John Kelly and Ty Cobb marginalized, Joseph diGenova on board, and Marc Kasowitz possibly returning, the next battle comes into focus.

Discussion: RedState, New York Times, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog and Raw Story

Brooke Singman / Fox News:

Victoria Toensing joins husband Joseph diGenova on Trump's legal team in Russia probe — President Trump retained the law firm diGenova & Toensing this week to represent him in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates …

Discussion: Fox News Insider

Washington Post:

Trump attorney John Dowd resigns amid shake-up in president's legal team … John Dowd, a personal attorney to President Trump, resigned his position Thursday amid a shake-up in the president's legal team as Trump has sought more firepower to deal with the special counsel's Russia investigation.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Washington Monthly, The Guardian, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Instapundit, Law & Crime, Washingtonian, Common Dreams, The Atlantic, The Week, WSVN-TV, FOX59 and CNN

NBC News:

Trump legal team shake-up clears path for possible Mueller interview — The president appears to be moving toward sitting down with the special counsel after John Dowd's departure — WASHINGTON — The shake-up in President Donald Trump's legal team is part of preparations …

Discussion: Political Wire, AOL, Raw Story, ThinkProgress and Law & Crime

The Daily Beast:

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lone DNC Hacker’ Guccifer 2.0 Slipped Up and Revealed He Was a Russian Intelligence Officer … Guccifer 2.0, the “lone hacker” who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, was in fact an officer of Russia's military intelligence directorate …

Discussion: Mother Jones and Mediaite

Matt Egan / CNNMoney:

Dow plunges 724 points as trade war fears rock Wall Street — U.S. trade moves could spark Chinese retaliation — Trade war fears rocked Wall Street on Thursday after President Trump launched a crackdown on China. — The Dow plummeted 724 points, or 2.9%, underlining mounting concerns among investors …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, The White House, Associated Press, Bloomberg and Hit & Run, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
Trump hits China with tariffs, heightening concerns of global trade war

Discussion: CNNMoney, Investor's Business Daily, Engadget and Mediaite

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump's two-front war

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Breitbart, ABC News, Outside the Beltway, One America News Network and New York Magazine

New York Times:
U.S. Exempts Some Allies From Tariffs, but May Opt for Quotas

Discussion: Gizmodo, Mother Jones and The Daily Caller

Rachel Wolfe / Vox:

How to watch the 60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels — This is the first time Daniels will appear on national television since the story broke. — Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who says she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006 and is currently suing him, is speaking out.

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, twitchy.com and The Week

Eli Watkins / CNN:

Karen McDougal tells CNN Trump tried to pay her after sex — Washington (CNN)Donald Trump once tried to offer Karen McDougal money after they had been intimate, the former Playboy model told Anderson Cooper Thursday in an exclusive interview on CNN. — “After we had been intimate …

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News and TVNewser

CBS News:

60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels to be broadcast Sunday — The adult-film star and director describes the affair she says she had with Donald Trump in her first television interview about the alleged relationship — The 60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Washington Post, Washington Times, Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com and TVNewser

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Rex Tillerson takes an apparent parting shot at Trump … Rex Tillerson is officially done as secretary of state, but he got in what appeared to be one final dig at President Trump before heading out the door. — At the every end of his farewell speech to the State Department on Thursday …

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Tillerson urges ‘kindness’ in a ‘mean-spirited town’ during farewell remarks

Discussion: Politico, ABC News and RedState

Kathryn Watson / CBS News:
“This can be a very mean-spirited town,” Tillerson says in farewell speech that doesn't mention Trump

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Patrick Marley / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Judge orders Gov. Scott Walker to hold special elections for open legislative seats in Eric Holder suit — MADISON - Dealing a setback to Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans, a judge ruled Thursday the governor must call special elections to fill two vacant seats in the Legislature.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Associated Press, Mother Jones, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, The Nation and Political Wire

Tim Mak / NPR:

John Bolton's Curious Appearance In A Russian Gun Rights Video — Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws. — The episode, which has not been previously reported …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Political Wire

Geoffrey Skelley / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

Exit Stage Left or Right: Midterm Retirements and Open Seats in the House From 1974 to 2018 — Republicans already have many abandoned districts to defend this November. Are there more to come? — KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — By multiple measures — such as retirements, “pure” …

Matt Lewis / The Daily Beast:

Joe Biden Could Beat Trump in a Fight—and an Election … Joe Biden is as close as it gets to the real deal for Democrats. I thought of this when, in a speech at the University of Miami this week, Biden said of Donald Trump: “A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said …

Harry Enten / CNN:
Why the Biden-Trump feud of 2018 might be a preview of 2020

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Caller and ABC News

Vivian Yee / New York Times:

He Gambles. He Tips Staff. He Eats Alone. All the While, He's Stocking His Vegas Suite With Guns. — Sometimes we see him as other hotel guests would have seen him: as the tall gambler intent on the video poker machine across the casino floor, or as the customer standing in line in front …

Discussion: RedState, AOL, Fox News, Fox News Insider, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and Raw Story

NBC News:

Bill Murray The Parkland kids remind me of the students who helped end the Vietnam War — Their most powerful asset in their fight to bring change is their idealism — We are living in interesting times, and people are becoming politically activated who weren't previously.

Discussion: Breitbart, RedState, IndieWire, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire and Mediaite

Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:

Jeff Zucker Hits “Propaganda Machine” Fox News: “It Is Really State-Run TV” — The CNN chief said the network does a “disservice to the country.” — CNN President Jeff Zucker lashed out at competitor Fox News at an industry conference on Thursday afternoon, saying that Fox News “is really state-run TV.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Front Page Magazine, Raw Story, Axios and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Bannon: If Kelly leaves White House, Trump won't replace him — Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon on Thursday said he believes if chief of staff John Kelly — leaves the White House, President Trump — will not replace him. — Bannon said at a Financial Times event …

Discussion: Axios and Political Wire

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

Cynthia Nixon and the Degradation of Experience — You wouldn't want to be operated on by a physician with only a few surgeries under his or her belt, and the assurance that this doctor brought a fresh perspective to anesthesia and incisions wouldn't thrill you.

Discussion: New York Post, CNN, Mashable and The Daily Beast

Ryan Saavedra / Daily Wire:

WATCH: In Profanity-Laced Interview, Parkland Student Says NRA Could Have Children's Blood On Their Faces And They'd Still Take No Action — Recently, a left-wing activist at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School accused the NRA of being “pathetic f***ers that want to keep killing our children …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Kelly Mclaughlin / Daily Mail:

The Clintons have ‘at least a one-way open marriage’, pollster says — Mark Penn, who served as a pollster for Bill Clinton in the 1990s and chief strategist for Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign, says that the couple's open marriage was possibly ‘not by choice’.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

CNN:

More anti-Muslim, conspiratorial tweets emerge from Trump's pick for top UN migration job — (CNN)Ken Isaacs, the Trump administration pick to head the international organization that coordinates assistance to migrants worldwide, once wrote on Twitter that Austria and Switzerland …

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Wall Street Journal:

Charges Have Been Dropped Against Most Turkish Officers in D.C. Clash — Case had caused a rift between the U.S. and Turkey — WASHINGTON—Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against 11 of 15 members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security team who were accused in connection …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

Deja Vu All Over Again. Health Care Takes Center Stage in 2018 Campaigns — There's always something of a disconnect between what Washington, DC is obsessed about and what the rest of the country is worried about. In DC, of course, the story is Robert Mueller, Russia and White House chaos.

Discussion: Pew Research Center

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Overlooked No More: Ruth Wakefield, Who Invented the Chocolate Chip Cookie — Legend has it that Wakefield was trying a variation on a butterscotch dessert when she decided to let the chocolate chips fall where they may. … Around the time Ruth Wakefield began making a chocolate chip cookie in the 1930s …

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

Video suggests huge problems with Uber's driverless car program — Video of the fatal driverless car crash in Tempe is damning for Uber. — There's something very wrong with Uber's driverless car program. — On Wednesday night, police released footage of Sunday night's deadly car crash in Tempe …

Discussion: Eschaton

Jonathan Lemire / Associated Press:

Mueller examining Cambridge Analytica, Trump campaign ties — WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller is scrutinizing the connections between President Donald Trump's campaign and the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which has come under fierce criticism over reports that it swiped …

Discussion: Political Wire

The Atlantic:

The Atlantic Announces Ideas Columnists Ibram X. Kendi, Annie Lowrey, Alex Wagner, and Kevin D. Williamson — Washington, D.C. (March 22, 2018)—The Atlantic has named the first four contributors to its forthcoming section for ideas, opinion, and commentary at TheAtlantic.com …

Discussion: National Review

The Guardian:

Facebook gave data about 57bn friendships to academic — Volume of data suggests trusted partnership with Aleksandr Kogan, says analyst … Before Facebook suspended Aleksandr Kogan from its platform for the data harvesting “scam” at the centre of the unfolding Cambridge Analytica scandal …