memeorandum: READ: New Democratic letter to Barr on Mueller report (CNN)

1:40 PM ET, May 3, 2019

Top Items:

CNN:

Nadler threatens to hold Barr in contempt if DOJ doesn't comply with new Democratic offer on Mueller report — Sarah Sanders: Nadler ‘incapable’ of asking Barr questions — Washington (CNN)House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on Friday sent his latest offer Attorney General William Barr …

Discussion: Raw Story, Slate and Joe.My.God.

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:

For Fear of William Barr — The attorney general gets attacked because his probe endangers many powerful people. — The only thing uglier than an angry Washington is a fearful Washington. And fear is what's driving this week's blitzkrieg of Attorney General William Barr.

Discussion: Power Line and twitchy.com

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Trump, Wrecker of Reputations — On Attorney General William Barr's testimony and the coming constitutional crisis. — In the first year of the Trump Presidency, White House advisers often promised reporters that this would be the week when they would unveil Trump's plans for a massive investment in American infrastructure.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Resurgent, Mother Jones, NB Blog and IJR

House Judiciary Dems / House Committee …:

House Judiciary Chairman Sends DOJ Detailed Counter Offer for Mueller Report Redactions and Underlying Evidence — Nadler Sets 9 a.m. Monday Deadline — Washington, D.C. — Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr …

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
Trump is already set to use the government to destroy the Democratic nominee

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Salon, The Week, Bloomberg, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Balloon Juice and RedState

Adam Schiff / USA Today:
William Barr lied to Congress about the Mueller report. He should resign

Discussion: Fox News, Shakesville and NBC News

CNN:
READ: New Democratic letter to Barr on Mueller report

Discussion: Daily Kos and Shareblue Media

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
William Barr's 2 strangest defenses of Trump haven't gotten enough attention

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
In Barr, Trump has found someone who licks his boots out of principle

Discussion: New Republic

Kimberley A. Strassel / Fox News:
Kimberly Strassel: AG Barr gets attacked because his probe endangers powerful people

Discussion: Hot Air, RedState, The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Hill

Justin Wise / The Hill:
Biden says Barr ‘should’ resign: 'He's lost the confidence of the American people'

Discussion: Politico, The Guardian, Daily Wire, Washingtonian, CNN and The Daily Dot

Dartunorro Clark / NBC News:

Trump, Putin discussed Mueller report and agreed no collusion, White House says — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the two leaders spoke by phone for an hour on Friday. — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Friday and both agreed …

Discussion: Mediaite

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:

Trump and Putin Discuss Venezuela, Mueller Report — The two leaders spoke for more than an hour, according to the White House — WASHINGTON—President Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for more than an hour on Friday morning and discussed the special counsel's report …

Discussion: Political Wire

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
White House: Trump, Putin spoke for more than an hour

Discussion: Axios and New York Times

Barbara Allen / Poynter:

Letter from the Editor — Dear readers: — On Tuesday, April 30, Poynter posted a list of 515 “unreliable” news websites, built from pre-existing databases compiled by journalists, fact-checkers and researchers around the country. Our aim was to provide a useful tool for readers to gauge …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, RedState, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, NB Blog, Washington Free Beacon, TheBlaze, Daily Wire, twitchy.com, The Daily Caller and The Daily Signal

Holly Otterbein / Politico:

‘Anyone Ever Seen Cocaine?’ What We Found in the Archives of Bernie Sanders's Long-Lost TV Show. — Dozens of children scurry on the screen across Ethan Allen Park in Burlington, Vermont, bobbing for apples and running three-legged races. It is a beaming July day, and they're at a summer camp …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Splinter and The Week

Michael Kranish / Washington Post:

Inside Bernie Sanders's 1988 10-day ‘honeymoon’ in the Soviet Union — Bernie Sanders was bare-chested, towel-draped, sitting at a table lined with vodka bottles, as he sang “This Land Is Your Land” to his hosts in the Soviet Union in the spring of 1988. — The just-married socialist mayor …

Discussion: Front Page Magazine, Washington Free Beacon, Shakesville, Althouse and Dispatches

Fedor Indutny / BostonGlobe.com:

Remarkably unremarkable: Pete Buttigieg rises in the polls as the first major openly gay candidate for president — SOMERVILLE — It was both a remarkable and entirely unremarkable sight: Pete Buttigieg's husband shaking hands with voters who had lined up outside the Somerville Theatre to hear …

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
Pete Buttigieg Is Exposing Tensions In The LGBTQ Movement

Discussion: Friendly Atheist

Associated Press:

U.S. jobless rate drops to 49-year low — U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and now anticipate strong customer demand. — The unemployment rate fell to a five-decade low …

Discussion: Breitbart and One America News Network

Ben Casselman / New York Times: Why Wages Are Finally Rising, 10 Years After the Recession

Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Jobs surge in April, unemployment rate falls to the lowest since 1969

Discussion: CNSNews, JustOneMinute, The Rush Limbaugh Show, IJR, Breitbart, Daily Wire, Da Tech Guy Blog, Instapundit and The Week

Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:
U.S. Added 263,000 Jobs in April; Unemployment Rate at 3.6%

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Political Wire

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Watergate had the Nixon tapes. Mueller had Annie Donaldson's notes. — The notes, scribbled rapidly on a legal pad, captured the fear inside the White House when President Trump raged over the Russia investigation and decreed he was firing the FBI director who led it: “Is this the beginning of the end?”

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos and Raw Story

Alex Thompson / Politico:

‘Lock her up’ redux? Biden's son becomes the right's new target — President Donald Trump's political allies and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have begun mobilizing to cast a legal cloud over Joe Biden and demanding that the Justice Department should open an investigation that could ensnare …

Discussion: Breitbart, Townhall, Washington Monthly and Page Six

Jessica Kwong / Newsweek:
Kellyanne Conway Broke the Law Attacking Joe Biden in White House Driveway and Should Be Fired: Bush Ethics Chief

Discussion: Raw Story and Washington Press

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
‘Bigger than WATERGATE’: Trump hails NYT report on FBI meeting with Papadopoulos

Discussion: Townhall, Fox News and Political Wire

Media Matters for America:

Study: Major media outlets' Twitter accounts amplify false Trump claims on average 19 times a day — Major media outlets failed to rebut President Donald Trump's misinformation 65% of the time in their tweets about his false or misleading comments, according to a Media Matters review.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Political Wire

Alexandria Neason / Columbia Journalism Review: On Twitter, news outlets amplify Trump's false statements: study

Matthew Cole / The Intercept:

How Erik Prince Used the Rise of Trump to Make an Improbable Comeback — When Erik Prince arrived at the Four Seasons resort in the Seychelles in January 2017 for his now-famous meetings with a Russian banker and UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed, he was in the middle of an unexpected comeback.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Raw Story

The Daily Beast:

Mark Halperin Enlists Pals Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Michael Smerconish to Rehab His Career After Sexual Misconduct Scandal — The disgraced pundit has re-emerged from #MeToo hiding and has met with media friends for new punditry work—including a scrapped gig with the hosts of MSNBC's ‘Morning Joe.’

Discussion: Washington Times, Outside the Beltway, Fox News and Mediaite

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

The 2019 governor's race that has Trump's team sweating — Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is a presidential phone-buddy and White House regular who's become one of President Donald Trump's loudest surrogates. — He's also one of the most unpopular governors in the country, facing a treacherous reelection in November.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media and Raw Story

Sasha Pezenik / ABC News:

Gov. Jay Inslee unveils sweeping initiative to combat climate change — The rising tide of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls calling for environmental reform now includes Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, a politician who has made climate change the crux of his campaign.

Alexander C. Kaufman / HuffPost:
Jay Inslee Unveils Ambitious Green New Deal-Style Climate Proposal As 2020 Race Heats Up

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Gizmodo and The Daily Beast

Fedor Indutny / BostonGlobe.com:

Joe Biden's surprising early strength — Joe Biden is emerging as a human Treasury bond in a time of turmoil. That is, the favored instrument for nervous political investors searching for safety in an electorally uncertain era. — Almost every Democratic presidential candidate has gotten …

Matt Dixon / Politico:
Biden wins endorsement of Florida Democrats in early show of force

Discussion: Florida Politics

Associated Press:

Cohen's prison reality: ‘The Situation’ and Shabbat services — NEW YORK (AP) — “The Situation” and the Fyre Festival fraudster are already there. President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, is up next. — It's not reality TV. It's a federal prison 70 miles …

Discussion: Political Wire and Mediaite

The New York Times Company:

Sarah Kliff of Vox to Join Investigations — Sarah Kliff, a versatile journalist who has used a variety of media to explain complex health legislation, will be based in Washington. Read more in this note from Rebecca Corbett, Dean Murphy and Carolyn Ryan.

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

The Economy and the Election — For as long as I've covered politics, the conventional wisdom has been that presidents win re-election in good economic times and they lose when the economy stinks. Ronald Reagan won re-election when the economy was booming. Jimmy Carter lost when we sunk into economic “malaise.”