memeorandum: Is Obstruction an Impeachable Offense? History Says Yes (Adam Liptak/New York Times)

9:50 AM ET, April 24, 2019

Top Items:

In Push for 2020 Election Security, Top Official Was Warned: Don't Tell Trump — WASHINGTON — In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, Raw Story, Mediaite and The Week

Miles Parks / NPR:

FACT CHECK: Russian Interference Went Far Beyond ‘Facebook Ads’ Kushner Described — In a rare public appearance on Tuesday, Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and one of his closest advisers, said that the multiple investigations into Russian election interference have been more harmful …

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo and Joe.My.God.

Natasha Bertrand / Politico:
Justice Department filing contradicts Kushner's view of Russia threat

Discussion: Washington Post

Politico:

‘This is risky’: Trump's thirst for Mueller revenge could land him in trouble — Team Trump's bellicose tweets and public statements in the last few days could expose the president to fresh charges of witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. — Special counsel Robert Mueller may be done …

Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Slate and The Week

Washington Post:

Trump says he is opposed to White House aides testifying to Congress, deepening power struggle with Hill — President Trump on Tuesday said he is opposed to current and former White House aides providing testimony to congressional panels in the wake of the special counsel report …

Washington Post:

White House plans to fight House subpoena of former counsel Donald McGahn for testimony on Mueller report — The White House plans to fight a subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee for former White House counsel Donald McGahn to testify, according to people familiar with the matter …

Discussion: The Atlantic, New York Times, The Week, Raw Story, House Judiciary Dems, CNN, POLITICUSUSA, Vanity Fair, Axios, Slate and Shareblue Media

Joe Light / Bloomberg:

Democrats Weigh Fines for Trump Officials Who Spurn Subpoenas — Judiciary Chairman Nadler suggests jail for ignoring demands — Lawyers say House has power to fine or jail for noncompliance — The Trump administration is fighting House Democrats' investigative inquiries at every turn.

Discussion: The Week and Fortune

Wall Street Journal:

Thank You, Don McGahn — Like so many others, he saved Trump from a major political blunder. — By The Editorial Board — President Trump should be savoring the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation with no charges of collusion or obstruction of justice, but as ever he can't stand prosperity.

Discussion: Politico and Checks and Balances

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump's “run out the clock” legal strategy — Facing a multi-front war in the post-Mueller world, President Trump is turning to litigation strategies that he long used in business — resist, delay and sue. — What they're saying: “Trump can run out the clock by taking a hardline position …

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story, The Week and Washington Post

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“Trump's Furious with Don”: Inside the President's Mar-a-Lago Meltdown — The president is raging against his former staff and wants to sue Don McGahn—but staff think he and his lawyers blew it. “You didn't have to send me in there,” said one witness. But Giuliani says: Nothing to see here!

Discussion: The Week

Tony Romm / Washington Post:

Trump complained about his follower count in White House meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey — President Trump on Tuesday met privately with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, a huddle at the White House between one of the site's most prolific users and an executive who's faced criticism for the way Twitter has handled the president's tweets.

The Daily Beast:

Twitter CEO Gently Tells Trump: Your ‘Lost’ Followers Are Bots and Spam Accounts — Jack Dorsey may have wanted to use Tuesday's meeting to talk up Twitter's efforts to fight the opioid epidemic, but the president had more important things on his mind. — On Tuesday, President Trump hosted …

Discussion: Twitter, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Post, Joe.My.God., New York Post and Mercury News

Motherboard:

Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey Attended Closed-Door Meeting With President Trump — The meeting lasted 30 minutes, and touched on “the health of the public conversation on Twitter,” according to an internal Twitter email obtained by Motherboard. — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey …

Discussion: CNN, Daily Wire, Observer, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, Boing Boing, Mashable, The Guardian, Fox News, Breitbart, The Verge, TechCrunch, KTLA, The Week, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Engadget, Mediaite, Splinter and Gizmodo

David Jesse / Detroit Free Press:

Student slated to attend Western Michigan University beheaded in Saudi Arabia — A Saudi Arabian man who was arrested as a teenager as he was getting ready to fly to America to begin his studies at Western Michigan University was beheaded by the government Tuesday, according to a report from an official press agency.

Kareem Fahim / Washington Post:
Saudi Arabia puts to death 37 people in largest mass execution in past three years

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Associated Press and The American Conservative

Melanie Zanona / Politico:

Mueller fails to detonate for endangered Republicans — DENVER — The Mueller report is no Access Hollywood tape. — While the 2016 bombshell sent Republicans sprinting away from then-candidate Donald Trump, special counsel Robert Mueller's explosive findings that the president …

Discussion: Washington Post

Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News:
President Donald Trump renews threat to close portions of southern border

Discussion: IJR and Joe.My.God.

Lexington Herald-Leader: Mitch McConnell should explain why he obscured Russian interference in our election

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Is Obstruction an Impeachable Offense? History Says Yes — WASHINGTON — President Trump has been consulting the Constitution. In a Twitter post on Monday, he recited part of Article II, Section 4, the provision that allows Congress to remove federal officials who commit “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Mike Lee / National Review:
The Not-So-Incredible Shirking Congress

Discussion: The Bulwark

Steve Vladeck / NBC News:
Trump tweet about impeachment confuses political conclusions with legal ones

Discussion: Mother Jones, Sputnik International and National Review

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

In a Crowded Field, Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke Stake Out Similar Turf — NASHUA, N.H. — The question was the same: Why should you be the Democratic nominee for president? — The answers helped illustrate why Beto O'Rourke is stalling and Pete Buttigieg is surging in the first months of the campaign.

Discussion: Political Wire

Lisa de Moraes / Deadline: FNC Tops CNN's Town Hall Palooza; Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg Score Slot Demo Wins

Liam Stack / New York Times:

A Giant Bird Killed Its Owner. Now It Could Be Yours. — There will be colorful macaws, lithe lemurs and cackling Kookaburras for sale at an event billed by organizers as “the dispersal of the animal estate of Marvin Hajos.” But the animal that is likely to get the most attention is the giant bird that killed Mr. Hajos this month.

Holly Otterbein / Politico:

Trump camp descends on Pennsylvania as alarms grow over 2020 — Senior Trump 2020 advisers are headed to Harrisburg on Wednesday to meet with Pennsylvania GOP officials amid mounting concerns about the president's prospects in the critical battleground state.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Edward McKinley / Kansas City Star:

Lobbyist's crusade to change Title IX in Missouri stems from his son's expulsion — After his son was accused and subsequently expelled from Washington University in St. Louis last year through the school's Title IX process, a leading Jefferson City lobbyist launched a campaign to change the law for every campus in the state.

Discussion: Raw Story

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Trump Is Wasting Our Immigration Crisis — The system needs to be fixed, but “the wall” is only part of the solution. — SAN DIEGO — On April 12, I toured the busiest border crossing between America and Mexico — the San Ysidro Port of Entry, in San Diego — and the walls being built around it.

Discussion: VICE News

Julia Ainsley / NBC News: Border Patrol finds abandoned toddler with phone number on his shoes at border

Faith Karimi / CNN:

Pipe bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc describes Trump rallies as ‘new found drug’ — (CNN)The Florida man who pleaded guilty to mailing explosive devices said in a letter to a federal judge that attending a rally for President Donald Trump “became like a new found drug.”

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Mediaite

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

The Supreme Court Is Poised to Shred Its Credibility to Let Trump Rig the Census — By all indications, the Supreme Court is poised to let the Trump administration add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The consequences of its probable ruling will last longer than Donald Trump's presidency …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and ThinkProgress

Jorge Luis Vasquez Jr. / USA Today:
Don't add Census citizenship question. It would damage all our daily lives for decades.

Discussion: RedState, Issues & Insights and FiveThirtyEight

James P. Pinkerton / The American Conservative:

When Tech Elites Lose Their Religion — If they no longer have faith in the digital empire they've created, who will? — Remember the “digital divide”? That's a media-friendly bit of alliteration, going back to the 1990s, used to describe the unequal distribution of digital access.

Bret Hayworth / Sioux City Journal:

Steve King says he relates to what Christ ‘went through for us’ — CHEROKEE, Iowa - Referencing the recent Easter season, Iowa 4th District Rep. Steve King said Tuesday the criticism he's faced from his “accusers” in the U.S. House has given him “better insight into what (Christ) went through for us.”

Discussion: Raw Story, The Week and Splinter

Kyle Feldscher / CNN:
Steve King says he relates to what Christ ‘went through for us’ after controversies

Discussion: Des Moines Register, Politico and Political Wire

Dave Philipps / New York Times:

Navy SEALs Were Warned Against Reporting Their Chief for War Crimes — Stabbing a defenseless teenage captive to death. Picking off a school-age girl and an old man from a sniper's roost. Indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine-gun fire.

Discussion: Task & Purpose

Errin Haines Whack / Associated Press:

Straight talk on race becoming a must for white candidates — After touring the National Lynching Memorial recently, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper spoke of the “shame” he felt that some white people “kind of looked the other way during these lynching incidents.”

Abigail Disney / Washington Post:

It's time to call out Disney — and anyone else rich off their workers' backs — Abigail Disney is the president of Fork Films, founder of Peace is Loud and co-founder of Level Forward. — This past weekend, I seem to have struck a nerve with a Twitter thread about wage inequality …

Discussion: Financial Times, Vanity Fair, CNN, The Guardian and Daily Wire

Matt Zoller Seitz / Vulture:

Sundown on Deadwood David Milch, battling Alzheimer's, finally finishes his TV Western. — Deadwood creator David Milch says he always had faith that his HBO Western would someday get to wrap up its story, even as more than a dozen years have passed since its surprise cancellation in 2006.

Discussion: Variety, Deadline, The Wrap and Consequence of Sound

NBC News:

Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort is now in federal prison — Sentenced in two separate cases in March, Manafort is serving 7.5 years for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy. — WASHINGTON — Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort is now in federal prison.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

House asks judge to halt Trump border wall funding — The House of Representatives has asked a federal judge to block President Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall using Defense Department funds. — On Tuesday, House lawyers requested that U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden issue …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Did Trump Obstruct Justice? Mueller Didn't Say, but Left a Trail to the Answer — The special counsel stopped short of declaring whether acts by the president were illegal attempts to impede the investigation. But his report is a detailed map to conclusions.

Eric Heisig / Plain Dealer:

Federal judge bars media from court proceeding on upcoming trial on opioid epidemic in Cleveland — CLEVELAND, Ohio — A federal judge on Tuesday barred two reporters from his courtroom in Cleveland, right as he was set to hold a conference on issues pertaining to an upcoming trial for lawsuits …

Washington Post:

Elizabeth Warren has the wrong answer to America's student debt problem — TRAILING IN the polls, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is running ahead of the Democratic presidential pack in terms of policy specifics. We hope other candidates will emulate her willingness to lay out an agenda.

Discussion: Fox News, American Prospect, The Week and Issues & Insights

Steven Perlberg / Politico:

How the Intercept Is Fueling the Democratic Civil War — Captain Mark Kelly, the former astronaut, has a picture-perfect political résumé: the Space Shuttle commander and veteran of the U.S. Navy became a gun control advocate after his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot and suffered a severe brain injury.

Discussion: Forbes

Mark Leibovich / New York Times:

Meet the Other Resistance: The Republican One — President Trump is overwhelmingly popular with his base, but a handful of dissident Republicans think they know how to defeat him in a primary contest. Are they wrong? — William F. Weld is not likely to become our 46th president.

Chris Kahn / Reuters:

Minorities, older adults boost Biden atop 2020 Democratic field: Reuters/Ipsos poll — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Vice President Joe Biden leads all other candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and draws his strongest levels of support from minorities and older adults …

Discussion: Political Wire

Politico:

Months later, Trump closes in on U.N. nomination — Kelly Knight Craft's nomination could come next week, launching a tough confirmation process. — President Donald Trump is expected to formally nominate Kelly Knight Craft next week to be the new United States ambassador to the United Nations …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and ABC News