Top Items:
New York Times:
Trump's Lawyer Raised Prospect of Pardons for Flynn and Manafort as Special Counsel Closed In — WASHINGTON — A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, The Hill, CNN, Hot Air, Washington Post, Law & Crime, Vox, Raw Story, Crooked Media, CBS Miami, Roll Call, NBC News, The Atlantic, NY State of Politics, CNBC, RedState, IJR, Mediaite, Booman Tribune, Politico, National Review, Outside the Beltway, Towleroad, The Guardian, Washington Times, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, Splinter, The Week, The Daily Caller, Axios, Mother Jones and Little Green Footballs
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Harry Litman / Washington Post:
We may know why Paul Manafort has kept quiet. But his bet is still risky. — Harry Litman practices law at the firm Constantine Cannon and teaches constitutional law at the University of California at San Diego. He served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Miriam Rozen / National Law Journal:
John Dowd Calls Mueller ‘Terrific’ After Passing Trump Baton
John Dowd Calls Mueller ‘Terrific’ After Passing Trump Baton
Discussion:
CNN, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Law & Crime
Alex Whiting / Just Security:
Why Dangling a Pardon Could Be an Obstruction of Justice—Even if the Pardon Power is Absolute
Why Dangling a Pardon Could Be an Obstruction of Justice—Even if the Pardon Power is Absolute
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC, Roll Call, CNN, Vox and Politico
David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
Why Is Trump So Quiet? — It's quiet at the White House.
Why Is Trump So Quiet? — It's quiet at the White House.
Discussion:
Washington Times, New York Times, VICE News, Breitbart, The Daily Signal, Talking Points Memo, National Review and IJR
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Who Ratted Out John Dowd? I Think We Know
New York Times:
Trump Rings Up Roseanne Barr After Her Show Is a Ratings Winner — President Trump made a personal phone call on Wednesday to a political supporter with a huge megaphone — Roseanne Barr. — Mr. Trump called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the revival of her comedy, “Roseanne,” and to thank her for her support.
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Talking Points Memo, Axios, Political Wire, Towleroad, AOL, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, The Week, Mediaite, IJR, Washington Free Beacon, Jezebel, Breitbart, IndieWire and The Federalist
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Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
‘Roseanne’ Revival's Huge Debut Stuns Hollywood, Prompts Soul-Searching — Roseanne made a triumphant return last night, blowing past projections to draw a 5.2 adults 18-49 rating in 18.2 million (Live+same day). — While nostalgia was expected to bring in eyeballs, no one predicted …
Discussion:
The Last Tradition
John Podhoretz / New York Post:
Roseanne revival is a wake-up call for Hollywood
David J. Shulkin / New York Times:
Privatizing the V.A. Will Hurt Veterans — It has been my greatest professional honor to serve our country's more than 20 million veterans. Almost three years ago, I left my private sector job running hospitals and came to Washington to repay my gratitude to the men and women who put their lives on the line for our country.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Politico, Axios, Political Wire, CNBC, NPR, Breitbart, Media Matters for America, The Week, Raw Story and Mediaite
Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine:
Inside the Cutthroat Battle to Be the Next Hope Hicks — Hope Hicks plans to depart Washington by Good Friday, over a month after she resigned as the White House communications director on February 28. She will leave behind a press operation that is inherently broken …
Discussion:
The Week
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James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Loyalty to Trump emerges as a top issue in Republican primary campaign commercials
The Daily 202: Loyalty to Trump emerges as a top issue in Republican primary campaign commercials
Discussion:
BuzzFeed
Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Shake-Up of National-Security Team Remakes Kushner's Role — Arrival of Pompeo and Bolton could curb Mr. Kushner's influence — WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump's shake-up of his national-security team is likely to reshape the role played by Jared Kushner, who has been a key counselor …
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Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
North and South Korea Set a Date for Summit Meeting at Border
North and South Korea Set a Date for Summit Meeting at Border
Discussion:
National Review, Just Security, The Week, The National Interest, Breitbart, The Atlantic, Home Page Rotator and BBC
Jeffrey Lewis / The Daily Beast:
John Bolton to Kim Jong Un: Give Up Your Nukes Like Gaddafi Did—Before We Killed Him
John Bolton to Kim Jong Un: Give Up Your Nukes Like Gaddafi Did—Before We Killed Him
Discussion:
Associated Press and One America News Network
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim / mprnews.org:
Minneapolis FBI agent charged with leaking classified information to reporter — A Minneapolis FBI agent who started his career with the agency as an intern in 2000 has been charged with leaking classified information to the news website The Intercept. — Terry James Albury …
Discussion:
Daily Wire, twitchy.com and Washington Times
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Stephen Montemayor / Star Tribune:
Justice Dept. charges Minnesota FBI agent for leaking secret document to news outlet
Justice Dept. charges Minnesota FBI agent for leaking secret document to news outlet
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, TheBlaze and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »
Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:
Kelly Loses White House Clout as Trump Blazes Own Path — Chief of staff out of loop for several key recent decisions — President and top aide at times now on different wavelengths — White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has lost some of his clout following recent missteps …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Osita Nwanevu / Slate:
It's Time to Stop Yammering About Liberal Bias — We're now several days into a roiling debate over whether liberals ought to be upset that the Atlantic hired a man who once argued that a quarter of American women should be executed. Predictably, both sides have progressed from that specific …
Dominic Gates / The Seattle Times:
Boeing hit by WannaCry virus, but says no impact on jet production — Boeing was hit by the WannaCry computer virus Wednesday, initially raising fears within the company that airplane production could be affected. Later Boeing played down the impact and called it a “limited intrusion” with production unaffected.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Daily Caller, Gizmodo, The Verge and The Week, more at Techmeme »
Brooke Singman / Fox News:
Documents suggest possible coordination between CIA, FBI, Obama WH and Dem officials early in Trump-Russia probe: investigators — The political rhetoric over the FISA abuse memo took a new turn with the ranking Democrat drafting his own version; Catherine Herridge goes in-depth for ‘Special Report.’
Discussion:
The Last Tradition, The Gateway Pundit and Front Page Magazine
Carly Wanna / Yale Daily News:
Jeb fires Trump barbs at Yale talk — Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's psychiatrist wants him to move past the 2016 presidential election. — “I'm not going to talk about the 2016 election,” Bush joked on Tuesday in a talk sponsored by the The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale.
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Washington Post, Politico, Raw Story, Bustle, The Daily Caller, thecut, Splinter, The Week and Mediaite
Glenn Thrush / New York Times:
Under Ben Carson, HUD Scales Back Fair Housing Enforcement — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is attempting to scale back federal efforts to enforce fair housing laws, freezing enforcement actions against local governments and businesses, including Facebook, while sidelining officials …
Discussion:
ABC News, Law & Crime, The Guardian and CityLab
Joanna Rothkopf / Jezebel:
Statistically, at Least 2 Disney Princesses Have Had Abortions — We need many kinds of Disney princesses, according to an extremely fun meme whooshing across the 'net. We need a Disney princess who juuls; we need a Disney princess who is falling asleep/calling a cab/having a smoke/taking a drag …
Carolyn McAtee Cerbin / USA Today:
5 things to know about VA nominee Ronny Jackson — President Donald Trump's overall health “is excellent” and he did “exceedingly well” on cognitive screening. That's according to his White House physician, Navy doctor Ronny Jackson. (Jan. 16) AP — President Trump announced Wednesday …
Discussion:
New York Times, Military Times, Outside the Beltway, Vox, NPR, The Atlantic and Bustle
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Wall Street Journal:
Why Are States So Strapped for Cash? There Are Two Big Reasons — The proportion of state and local tax revenues dedicated to Medicaid and public pensions is the highest since the 1960s — The only speaker standing between state budget officers and the opening cocktail hour …
US News:
European Powers Face Resistance to Iran Sanctions to Save Nuclear Deal — BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - France, Britain and Germany are struggling to persuade their EU partners to back new sanctions on Iran to preserve its nuclear deal, diplomats said, with Italy doubting whether the measures can stop the United States pulling out in May.
Rachael Bade / Politico:
Scalise comeback fuels talk of succeeding Ryan — ATOP THE OLYMPUS TLP OIL RIG IN THE GULF OF MEXICO — With one arm snaked around his crutches and the other gripping a handrail, Steve Scalise climbed gingerly up hundreds of stairs to the peak control room of a hulking oil rig 77 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Discussion:
Washington Post
TMZ.com:
Groupon Apologizes for Using N-Word to Describe Boots — Groupon's got a major mishap to deal with after a racial slur appeared on its site for a listing for women's boots ... and it started by issuing an apology. — Screenshots from outraged customers started making the rounds on social media Wednesday …
Discussion:
Althouse and Hollywood Life
Marwa Eltagouri / Washington Post:
Family of boy in viral police hug photo dies after SUV plunges off cliff. He's still missing. … Five members of a Washington family were killed after their SUV went off a Pacific Coast Highway cliff and crashed into the rocky ocean, authorities said. — The victims were identified …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Salvador Hernandez / BuzzFeed:
Trump Tweeted Pictures Claiming “The Start” Of His Border Wall, But It Was Actually An Old Project — President Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he had been briefed about “the start of our Southern Border WALL” and included pictures depicting construction for the project, but there was one slight problem with the announcement.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Brian M. Rosenthal / New York Times:
Why Does Subway Construction Cost So Much? Congress Wants to Find Out — The astronomical costs of building the Second Avenue subway and other New York public transit projects are now the subject of a federal inquiry. — The Government Accountability Office said on Wednesday …
BBC:
Julian Assange has internet cut at Ecuadorian embassy in London — Ecuador has cut Julian Assange's internet connection at its embassy in London, preventing him from communicating with the outside world. — The move is to prevent the WikiLeaks founder from interfering in other countries' affairs, Ecuador said.
Discussion:
NPR and Daily Wire, more at Mediagazer »