memeorandum: This HBO footage of Ben Rhodes on election night is as bad as people said it was (Becket Adams/Washington Examiner)

10:10 AM ET, May 31, 2018

Top Items:

F.B.I. Official Wrote Secret Memo Fearing Trump Got a Cover Story for Comey Firing — WASHINGTON — The former acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, wrote a confidential memo last spring recounting a conversation that offered significant behind-the-scenes details on the firing …

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Politico, Axios, CNBC, The Guardian, IJR, Daily Kos, Law & Crime, The Week, NBC News, Washington Press, New York Magazine, ABC News, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and MSNBC

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

Playbook: Trump flubs endorsement of N.Y. congressman — DRIVING THE DAY — AT 4:46 P.M. yesterday afternoon, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP delivered REP. DAN DONOVAN (R-N.Y.) an endorsement the lawmaker had long been waiting for. Donovan is running against MICHAEL GRIMM, a former House Republican who was recently in prison.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN and Political Wire

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Yes, the FBI Was Investigating the Trump Campaign When It Spied

Discussion: Power Line and Townhall

Peter Baker / New York Times:

How Trump's Election Shook Obama: ‘What if We Were Wrong?’ — WASHINGTON — Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump's victory. — “What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine.

Discussion: RedState, Power Line, Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Mediaite, Washington Press, Washington Free Beacon, Law & Crime, Breitbart, Daily Wire, The Week, twitchy.com and The Daily Caller

Becket Adams / Washington Examiner:

This HBO footage of Ben Rhodes on election night is as bad as people said it was — They said it was sad. They weren't kidding. — HBO released a documentary this year, titled “The Final Year,” tracking the last days of the Obama administration. The documentary specifically follow …

Discussion: Daily Wire

CNBC:

Trump will pardon conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza, who was convicted for campaign finance violation — D'Souza pleaded guilty in 2014 to reimbursing two of his associates after directing them to contribute $10,000 each to the 2012 Senate campaign of Wendy Long.

Discussion: New Republic

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Right About Roseanne — Of course ABC and its parent company Disney were right to cancel the sitcom “Roseanne” after its eponymous star, Roseanne Barr, wrote a racist tweet. There are necessary taboos and essential decencies in every morally healthy society.

Tyler McCarthy / Fox News:
Roseanne Barr says she may fight ABC firing, retweets claim Michelle Obama was behind ouster

Discussion: Closer Weekly, Joe.My.God. and Breitbart

Annie Karni / Politico:

Email snafu reveals White House outreach to Obama and Clinton alumni — Recipients of a blast email were asked to ‘amplify’ Trump's policy on Iran — baffling some who have sharply disagreed with the president in public. — President Donald Trump is better known for speaking directly to his base than trying to win over his critics.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump ‘spygate’ offensive loses steam

Discussion: The Week, Booman Tribune and Washington Monthly

Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
Trey Gowdy Didn't Even See Documents He Claims Exonerate FBI On Spygate: Reports

Discussion: Power Line, ABC News, twitchy.com and CNN

Dennis Romboy / Deseret News:

Mitt Romney reveals his 2016 presidential vote — SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney revealed Wednesday who he voted for in the 2016 presidential election. — His wife, Ann Romney. — “I wrote in the name of a person who I admire deeply, who I think would be an excellent president,” …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Times, IJR, HuffPost, CBS Boston, fox13now.com and Shakesville

Associated Press:

Trump plans to go ahead with steel, aluminum tariffs on EU — President Donald Trump's administration is planning to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports after failing to win concessions from the European Union, a move that could provoke retaliatory tariffs and inflame trans-Atlantic trade tensions.

Discussion: Politico, One America News Network and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:

Trump imposes steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico — By Washington Post Staff May 31 at 9:43 AM — The move is certain to trigger retaliation by the E.U. against a range of American products, including Kentucky bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles …

Discussion: New York Times and Political Wire

Matt Stevens / New York Times:

Jury Leaves $4 to Family of Man Killed by Sheriff's Deputy, Along With Many Questions — For more than four years, questions swirled about the shooting death of Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr. at his home in Fort Pierce, Fla. After all, there were only three witnesses to how the entire episode unfolded …

Discussion: Raw Story, Splinter and Althouse

Emily Nussbaum / New Yorker:

“The Americans” Finale Was Elegant, Potent, and Unforgettable — Were you craving a bit more bloodshed from the finale of FX's “The Americans”? Some tooth-pulling ultraviolence, or maybe another corpse crunched into a briefcase, on the long road to Moscow? If so, you were clearly watching the wrong show.

Sonny Bunch / Washington Free Beacon: 'They'll Remember Us'

Abigail Hauslohner / Washington Post:

New NSC chief of staff is from group that believes Muslims are plotting to take over U.S. — The White House has named a new National Security Council chief of staff from a group that propagates the conspiracy theory that Islamists have infiltrated the U.S. government in a plot to take over the country.

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:
Bolton Installs Anti-Muslim Wingnut As NSC Chief of Staff

Discussion: The National Interest, Booman Tribune, Washington Monthly, CAIR, Shareblue Media, The American Conservative and Splinter

BuzzFeed:

Joy Reid Promoted An Infamous 9/11 Conspiracy Documentary On Her Old Blog — The MSNBC host, who has recently come under fire for claiming her blog was hacked, encouraged her readers to watch “Loose Change.” — MSNBC host Joy Reid encouraged readers of her now-defunct blog to watch …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, National Review, The Daily Caller, NewsBusters, Axios, twitchy.com and Mediaite

Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:

California Democrats Don't Have a Reliable Farm Team — Preemptive finger-pointing is already starting among Democrats as they grow increasingly concerned that Tuesday's California primary could deal a painful blow to their hopes of recapturing the House of Representatives.

Discussion: Politico

David Weigel / Washington Post: In Southern California, Democrats play the blame game as House races loom

Carla Marinucci / Politico:
California Republicans hit rock bottom

Discussion: Axios

Chicago Tribune:

Illinois approves Equal Rights Amendment, 36 years after deadline — The Illinois House voted on the federal Equal Rights Amendment, more than 35 years after the deadline to ratify it passed. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune) — Privacy Policy — The Illinois House voted Wednesday night …

Discussion: State Journal Register, Shareblue Media, HuffPost and Reuters

Tina Sfondeles / Chicago Sun-Times:
Dawn of an ERA? State House passes Equal Rights Amendment — 95 years later

Discussion: The Week

JONATHAN LEMIRE, ERIC TUCKER and LISA MASCARO / Asso …:

Saving Sessions: Inside the GOP effort to protect the AG — WASHINGTON (AP) — Days after President Donald Trump deemed Jeff Sessions “beleaguered” and threatened to fire him last July, members of the president's inner circle made a desperate case to save the attorney general's job.

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: Why Virginia's Medicaid expansion is a big deal — THE BIG IDEA: As Joe Biden put it a little differently when Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act eight years ago, Virginia's expansion of Medicaid on Wednesday is a big dang deal. And not just because 400,000 low-income citizens …

Discussion: New York Times, Political Wire, ACA Signups and Splinter

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:
Virginia General Assembly approves Medicaid expansion to 400,000 low-income residents

Discussion: MSNBC and HuffPost

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Mitch McConnell's record-breaking reign — The 76-year-old senator has made clear he plans to run again in 2020 and keep leading the Republican conference. — One of Mitch McConnell's toughest tasks is the daily head count he conducts of his 50-member caucus.

George F. Will / Washington Post: Mitch McConnell is winning the long game

Tom Winter / NBC News:

Prosecutors in Michael Cohen case piecing together shredded documents from raid — Federal prosecutors sorting through materials seized from Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, said Wednesday they needed more time to piece together the contents of a shredder taken in an FBI raid.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Eschaton and MSNBC

Kara Scannell / CNN:
Avenatti drops request to participate in Cohen case after warning to ‘stop your publicity tour’

Discussion: The Hill, Bloomberg, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Caitlin Dewey / Washington Post:

White America's racial resentment is the real impetus for welfare cuts, study says — White Americans are increasingly critical of the country's social safety net, a new study suggests, thanks in part to a rising tide of racial resentment. — The study, conducted by researchers …

Discussion: Berkeley News and Hullabaloo

Washington Post:

Pompeo and North Korean official will try to salvage nuclear summit with New York skyline below them — NEW YORK — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will hold a crucial meeting Thursday morning with the right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to see if they can salvage …

Discussion: The American Conservative and Cyberscoop

Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast:
Satellite Images Show North Korea Scrubbed Nuclear Test Site Before Unilaterally Destroying It

Discussion: Politico, ABC News and One America News Network

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Publishers From Rolling Stone to PopSugar Pool Ad Sales Efforts to Combat Tech Giants — The partnership aims to give publishers greater scale to help compete with Google and Facebook — As Facebook Inc. FB 1.08% and Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL 1.93% Google continue to dominate digital ad sales …

Danny Hakim / New York Times:

Cambridge Analytica's Parent Company Helped Shape Saudi Arabia's Reform Movement — The price of oil was in free fall and a youthful population restive. — So the government of Saudi Arabia turned in recent years to the parent company of the political data firm Cambridge Analytica for help …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

‘I Will Never Roll on Donald Trump,’ Promises Definitely Innocent Adviser Roger Stone — Roger Stone, a longtime confidante to Donald Trump, appeared on the Alex Jones show to ask listeners to fund his legal defense. Stone's associates have been questioned by Robert Mueller's investigators …

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Axios:

Trump will pardon Dinesh D'Souza — President Trump announced in a Thursday morning tweet that he would issue a full pardon to controversial conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who pled guilty in 2014 to a felony charge of illegally making contributions to a California Senate campaign.

Discussion: Townhall, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Politico and Jamie Dupree - AJC

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:

Trump Immigration Policy Veers From Abhorrent to Evil — We as a nation have crossed so many ugly lines recently, yet one new policy of President Trump's particularly haunts me. I'm speaking of the administration's tactic of seizing children from desperate refugees at the border.

Discussion: Raw Story

Carrie Levine / Center for Public Integrity:

How a sanctioned Russian bank wooed Washington — New documents show gala invites, a charismatic CEO and high-powered lobbyists burnished VTB's image — VTB Chairman Andrey Kostin with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the bank's annual “Russia Calling” conference in 2016. VTB — likes

Charles Davis / The Daily Beast:

What Happened to Jill Stein's Recount Millions? … Shortly after the 2016 election, Jill Stein raised more than $7 million from shell-shocked liberals eager to pursue a swing-state recount. Nearly two years later, the U.S. Green Party's last candidate for president is still spending that money.

Discussion: The Week, Front Page Magazine and Balloon Juice