memeorandum: White House Counsel: Official Who Cleared Jared Kushner Agrees to Hill Interview (Betsy Woodruff/The Daily Beast)

11:30 AM ET, April 27, 2019

Top Items:

NRA's Wayne LaPierre Says He Is Being Extorted, Pressured to Resign — Group's longtime leader says Oliver North, president of the NRA, wants him out — Longtime National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre has told the group's board he is being extorted and pressured to resign …

Discussion: USA Today, The Week, Talking Points Memo, National Review, POLITICUSUSA, The Trace, Rolling Stone, Washington Times, CNN, New York Post, The Guardian, Politico, Raw Story, Mediaite and TheBlaze

Danny Hakim / New York Times:

In N.R.A. Power Struggle, Insurgents Seek to Oust Wayne LaPierre — INDIANAPOLIS — Turmoil wracking the National Rifle Association is threatening to turn the group's annual convention into outright civil war, as insurgents maneuver to oust Wayne LaPierre, the foremost voice of the American gun rights movement.

Discussion: The Trace and Joe.My.God.

The Daily Beast:

NRA Takes a Shot at Its Own President, Oliver North, in Court — The gun-rights group usually goes after enemies on the left. Now the NRA's lawyers are zeroing in on one of their own: Ollie North. — The National Rifle Association took a shot at its own president just days before the kick-off of its huge national meeting.

Discussion: One America News Network, The Week and Raw Story

Josh Kovensky / Talking Points Memo:
NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Claims NRA President Oliver North Is Extorting Him

Discussion: The Week

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

White House Counsel: Official Who Cleared Jared Kushner Agrees to Hill Interview — After Trump ally Jim Jordan stepped in and said he could be interviewed with White House lawyers present. — Betsy Woodruff — Carl Kline, the official who green-lit Jared Kushner's security clearance …

Discussion: Raw Story

The Daily Beast:

Trump's Stonewalling Pushes House Democrats Towards Impeachment — “Trump's opacity is moving some members into the impeachment camp,” one Democratic lawmaker tells The Daily Beast. “Translation: it's always the cover-up that gets 'em.” — Donald Trump's declaration this week …

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Raw Story

Annie Karni / New York Times:
To Trump, ‘Leakers Are Traitors and Cowards,’ and He Wants to Find Them

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
White House OKs testimony — with limits — from ex-security clearance chief

Discussion: Axios

Mike Barber / Richmond Times-Dispatch:

UVA basketball team will decline to visit White House after winning championship — CHARLOTTESVILLE - After winning the national championship, the Virginia basketball team won't be following the tradition of visiting the White House. — “We have received inquiries about a visit to the White House …

Discussion: Raw Story, the way of improvement … and Townhall

Christian Vasquez / Politico:
Virginia's NCAA-winning basketball team declines White House invitation

Discussion: One America News Network, The Hill and TheBlaze

New York Times:

The Neighborhood Is Mostly Black. The Home Buyers Are Mostly White. — Nationwide, the arrival of white homeowners in places they've long avoided is jolting the economics of the land beneath everyone. — RALEIGH, N.C. — In the African-American neighborhoods near downtown Raleigh, the playfully painted doors signal what's coming.

Edward-Isaac Dovere / The Atlantic:

The Gray Race for the White House — “Joe Biden. He understands what's happening today.” — The newspaper ad ran a few weeks before the 1972 Senate election in Delaware, when the upstart 29-year-old was challenging a 63-year-old incumbent. The ad, which appeared in The News Journal …

Discussion: Washington Post

The Hill: Biden allies launch super PAC

CNN:
Trump defends his Charlottesville comments after Biden slams them

Discussion: Vox, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, The Week, The Root and What The Fuck …

Scott Bland / Politico:
Biden crushes it in first-day fundraising: $6.3 million

Discussion: Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Fortune, Joe.My.God., Breitbart, Fox News and Outside the Beltway

Frances Robles / New York Times:

Russian Hackers Were ‘In a Position’ to Alter Florida Voter Rolls, Rubio Confirms — It was the day before the 2016 presidential election, and at the Volusia County elections office, near Florida's Space Coast, workers were so busy that they had fallen behind on their correspondence.

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times

Washington Post:

Hard-line views made Lou Dobbs a Fox powerhouse. Now he's shaping Trump's border policy. — One day in mid-March, President Trump gathered his top economic team at the White House to get its read on the state of the nation's financial health. — But before the Council of Economic Advisers finished …

Discussion: Politico

Washington Post:

‘I can land the plane’: How Rosenstein tried to mollify Trump, protect Mueller and save his job — Rod J. Rosenstein, again, was in danger of losing his job. The New York Times had just reported that — in the heated days after James B. Comey was fired as FBI director …

Discussion: New York Times, Raw Story, Slate, Contemptor, KTLA, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, CNN, Mediaite, Hullabaloo, Above the Law and U.S. Department of Justice

New York Times:

Donald Trump Shows a New Level of Contempt for Congress — Many presidents have resisted congressional demands for testimony and documents. But not quite like Mr. Trump. — The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

Discussion: Lawfare, Washington Post and Raw Story

Rosalind Adams / BuzzFeed News:

Blackwater Founder Erik Prince's New Company Is Operating In Iraq — HONG KONG — A Hong Kong-based security and logistics company founded by Erik Prince is working in the south of Iraq, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News. — Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother …

Discussion: Raw Story

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

“I felt like it was a betrayal, and we had raised funds on false pretense”: The Correspondent's first U.S. employee speaks out — “They're really good at the PR thing, and it really feels like gaslighting. They were like, ‘Well, we never promised a U.S. newsroom.’ I was like: Wait, did I just imagine all this?”

more at Mediagazer »

Christopher Mathias / HuffPost:

Exposed: Military Investigating 4 More Servicemen For Ties To White Nationalist Group — That's 11 members of Identity Evropa who are under investigation by the U.S. armed forces. — Four more members of the United States armed forces are now under investigation for their ties …

Discussion: Chicago Sun-Times

Bloomberg:

Trump Playing Defense in Rust Belt as He Opens Re-Election Bid — First post-Mueller rally in Michigan aimed at shoring up base — As his 2020 campaign gears up, President Donald Trump is putting an early focus on the three Rust Belt states that sent him to the White House …

Discussion: Raw Story

San Francisco Chronicle:

Sunnyvale crash: Driver targeted victims because he thought they were Muslim, police say — An Army veteran who faces eight counts of attempted murder after plowing his car into a crowd of people in Sunnyvale, critically injuring a 13-year-old girl, targeted the victims because he thought …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Sacramento Bee and CAIR

James Arkin / Politico:

Senate GOP lags Dems in battle for online cash — The GOP has vowed to work harder to appeal to small-dollar donors after getting hit by a “green wave” of Democratic online cash in 2018. But some of the most vulnerable Republican senators up for reelection in 2020 are off to a slow start.

Discussion: Raw Story

Heather Long / Washington Post:

U.S. economy feels like the 1990s, but with more inequality, less readiness for a downturn — The U.S. economy expanded at a strong 3.2 percent annualized rate in the first quarter of 2019, the government reported Friday, blowing past expectations and prompting celebration among President Trump and his advisers.

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

Michael Isikoff: Media Should Have Had ‘More Skepticism’ About Steele Dossier — Veteran reporter Michael Isikoff is acknowledging the press should have had “more skepticism” about the Steele dossier. — Isikoff's remarks are notable because he is one of a small handful of reporters …