memeorandum: Trump: First lady had ‘big operation,’ can't fly for a month (Darlene Superville/Associated Press)

3:20 PM ET, June 8, 2018

Top Items:

A note to readers — I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I'm afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me. — In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in my abdomen.

Discussion: New Republic, Townhall, CNNMoney, Fox News Insider, Mediaite, HuffPost, FOX31 Denver, AOL, Conservative Review, Washington Free Beacon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NTK Network and The American Conservative

Greg Wilson / Fox News:

Fox News star Charles Krauthammer reveals he has weeks to live in heartbreaking letter — Charles Krauthammer, the beloved and brilliant Fox News Channel personality who gave up a pioneering career in psychiatry to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning political analyst, on Friday revealed …

Discussion: RedState, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Outside the Beltway, Conservative News Today, The Gateway Pundit, Power Line, TVNewser, Washington Times, myfox8.com, Patterico's Pontifications, TheBlaze and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

Fridays without Charles — FRIDAY HAS always been Charles's day. Since long ago, before digital news, when space meant just a strip across the top of a printed page, we knew to save space on Friday's page for Charles Krauthammer. Charles always filled the space, with just the right number of words, and the most acute words, too.

Discussion: Political Wire

Ben Shapiro / Daily Wire:
Charles Krauthammer Announces He Has Weeks To Live In Tragic Letter

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Brian Stelter / CNN:

CNN's Anthony Bourdain dead at 61 — New York (CNN)Anthony Bourdain, a gifted storyteller and writer who took CNN viewers around the world, has died. He was 61. — CNN confirmed Bourdain's death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide. — “It is with extraordinary sadness …

Matthew Haag / New York Times:

Anthony Bourdain, Travel Host and Author, Is Dead at 61 — The travel host Anthony Bourdain, whose memoir “Kitchen Confidential” about the dark corners of New York's restaurants started a career in television, died on Friday at 61. — For the past several years, Mr. Bourdain hosted the show …

Discussion: Politico, PinkNews, CityLab, CBS Dallas, Althouse, CBS New York, AOL, NBC News and Unfogged

Patrick Radden Keefe / New Yorker:
Travels with Anthony Bourdain

Discussion: NPR, CityLab and East Bay Times

Anna Silman / The Cut:
Anthony Bourdain Spoke Out Where Other Men Wouldn't

Discussion: New York Times, ThinkProgress, Vox and Eater

Ben Shapiro / Daily Wire:
What Can We Do To Stop Suicide?

Discussion: neo-neocon, Centers for Disease Control … and Washington Post

Benedict Carey / New York Times:
Defying Prevention Efforts, Suicide Rates Are Climbing Across the Nation

Discussion: The Federalist, ThinkProgress, The American Conservative, BuzzFeed, CBS Boston and National Review

Corby Kummer / The Atlantic:
Remembering Anthony Bourdain

Discussion: WTVR-TV, KTLA and New Republic

Wesley J. Smith / National Review:
On Bourdain and the American Suicide Crisis

Discussion: naked capitalism, Eater and CBS Chicago

New York Times:

Justice Dept. Seizes Times Reporter's Email and Phone Records in Leak Investigation — WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement officials secretly seized years' worth of a New York Times reporter's phone and email records this year in an investigation of classified information leaks.

Joe Simonson / The Daily Caller:
EXCLUSIVE: BuzzFeed Confirms It Knew About Ali Watkins' Relationship With Indicted Senate Official

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

Nicholas Bagley / The Incidental Economist:
Texas Fold 'Em

Discussion: The Atlantic, National Review, Vox, New York Times, HuffPost, Take Care Blog, CNN, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine and Washington Post

Sam Baker / Axios:
Trump's Justice Department says the ACA is unconstitutional

Discussion: Power Line, Shareblue Media, What The Fuck …, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo, Splinter and Politico

U.S. Department of Justice:
Former U.S. Senate Employee Indicted on False Statements Charges

Discussion: CNN, The Daily Beast, Conservative News Today and Politico

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
Senate Select Intel Staffer Targeted Trump Campaign Adviser In Aggressive Leak Campaign

Discussion: RedState, New York Times and Common Dreams, more at Mediagazer »

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:

Mueller Adds Obstruction Charge on Manafort and Indicts His Right-Hand Man — WASHINGTON — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, brought new obstruction charges on Friday against President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and added allegations against a close associate …

Discussion: Axios and Joe.My.God.

Andrew M Harris / Bloomberg:

Mueller Indicts Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort's Ukraine Fixer — Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on a U.S. lobbying effort on Ukraine's behalf, was indicted on federal charges Friday by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Discussion: Raw Story

CNBC:

Special counsel Robert Mueller files witness tampering indictment against Paul Manafort and Russian citizen Konstantin Kilimnik — Special counsel Robert Mueller filed new witness tampering charges against ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:
With Mueller Closing In, Manafort's Allies Abandon Him

Discussion: New Republic, ThinkProgress, Boing Boing and Raw Story

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Under Trump, “America First” Really Is Turning Out to Be America Alone — From trade to the Iran deal to NAFTA, the President has created the highest level of tension between the U.S. and its allies in decades. — The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was less than forty-eight hours away …

Discussion: Politico and New York Magazine

Susan E. Rice / New York Times:

How Trump Helps Putin — Traditionally, the outgoing president writes a personal letter to his successor, offering wisdom and best wishes. President Obama duly left such a letter for President Trump, as President Bush did eight years earlier. — Imagine if Vladimir Putin, the Russian president …

Discussion: Politico

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
We've Got a Problem. A Big Problem.

Discussion: Mother Jones

Peter Navarro / New York Times:
The Era of American Complacency on Trade Is Over

Discussion: The Atlantic and The Diplomat

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Is Fulfilling Russia's Dream of Splitting the Western Alliance

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Toronto Star, Washington Post, Washington Press and Sputnik International

Kaitlan Collins / CNN:

Trump will ask athletes who kneel during anthem to recommend people for pardoning — (CNN)President Donald Trump says he wants to meet with NFL players and athletes who kneel during the National Anthem so they can recommend people they think should be pardoned because they were treated unfairly by the justice system.

Discussion: theGrio, The Gateway Pundit, Louder With Crowder and Daily Wire

Darlene Superville / Associated Press:

Trump: First lady had ‘big operation,’ can't fly for a month — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said his wife, Melania, had a “big operation” to treat a kidney condition that lasted close to four hours, but that the first lady is “doing great” although she did not accompany him to Canada on Friday, per her doctors' orders.

Discussion: Townhall, The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump's bedtime story: “The Book” — It's not true President Trump doesn't read. It's just exceptionally hard to get him to do it. — So the workarounds by savvy aides have become legendary in the West Wing. Many of them revolve around the briefing binder that goes …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Raw Story, Splinter and Talking Points Memo

Washington Post:

China hacked a Navy contractor and secured a trove of highly sensitive data on submarine warfare — Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare — including secret plans to develop …

Washington Post:
France's Macron threatens rare rebuke of U.S. at G-7, Trump fires back

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, iPolitics, Wall Street Journal, WSVN-TV, The Week and Vox

Alexander Mallin / ABC News:
Trump's call for Russia to join G7 faces swift backlash

Discussion: The Atlantic, Sputnik International and One America News Network

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Democratic donors push Mark Warner to enter 2020 race as moderate alternative to Warren, Sanders — Mark Warner, the Democratic Senator from Virginia, is getting pushed by some the party's biggest financiers to run for president in 2020, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Guy Benson / Townhall: Manchin: Come to Think of It, Endorsing Hillary in 2016 Was Actually a Mistake

Politico: ‘Cryin’ Chuck' might just get the last laugh

Sam Stein / The Daily Beast:

Roger Stone Encouraged Trump to Pardon Marcus Garvey … One of Donald Trump's longest and closest associates has encouraged the president to grant a posthumous pardon to Marcus Garvey, the pan-African advocate and black nationalist who became a forebearer of the modern civil rights movement.

Discussion: NBC News, Insider Louisville and JONATHAN TURLEY

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Trump says he may pardon Muhammad Ali — a move the late boxer's attorney calls unnecessary

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Mediaite, The Root, New York Magazine and Deadspin

Des Moines Register:

Des Moines DREAMer dies within weeks after being sent back to Mexico's violence — Editor's note: This column has been updated from the original online version with a statement from ICE. — Manuel Antonio Cano Pacheco should have graduated high school in Des Moines last month.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Hollywood Life, The Hill, Splinter, East Bay Times, Shakesville, Daily Kos, HuffPost, The Week and Washington Press

Rachael Bade / Politico:
House GOP leaders craft framework to break immigration impasse

Discussion: Axios

NBC News:

U.S. officials prepare to thwart Chinese spying at Singapore summit — WASHINGTON — China may not have a seat at the table during President Donald Trump's upcoming nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but U.S. officials say they are preparing to counter the Chinese spies …

Discussion: The Week and Vox

Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:
Dennis Rodman traveling to Singapore for North Korea summit

Discussion: National Review

Fenit Nirappil / Washington Post:

When's the Caps parade? Tuesday morning, on Constitution Avenue — Washington, D.C., which is no stranger to pomp and circumstance, will be celebrating a major sports victory for the first time in 26 years after the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup victory in Las Vegas Thursday night.

Discussion: CNN, smokeroom.com, CBS Baltimore and USA Today

Axios:

Inside the State Department's hunt for leakers — Mike Pompeo's senior aides are hunting for leakers inside the State Department after the new secretary of state became infuriated about several recent news stories. — Behind the scenes: One of the officials leading the crackdown …

Discussion: Raw Story

Maria Curi / Politico:
U.S. Embassy in China warns Americans amid possible sonic attacks

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Mike Allen / Axios:

Scoop: Michael Wolff is back with “Fire and Fury” II — After torching the White House with “Fire and Fury,” Michael Wolff is coming back for more: — Wolff tells me he has signed with the same publisher, Henry Holt, for a sequel — although he says it's unclear what that means …