memeorandum: In Tiger Woods, Trump Finds a Hero and a Business Opportunity (New York Times)

1:50 PM ET, May 6, 2019

Top Items:

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:

Trump would have been charged with obstruction were he not president, hundreds of former federal prosecutors assert — More than 370 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's findings …

Discussion: Political Wire

James Reston Jr / New York Times:

Trump's Other Impeachable Offense — As Nixon learned, Congress will not abide a president who defies its subpoenas. — Mr. Reston is the author of “The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews.” — On July 30, 1974, nine days before President Richard Nixon resigned …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

DOJ Alumni Statement:

STATEMENT BY FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTORS — We are former federal prosecutors. We served under both Republican and Democratic administrations at different levels of the federal system: as line attorneys, supervisors, special prosecutors, United States Attorneys, and senior officials at the Department of Justice.

Discussion: Axios and Washington Post

CNN:

House panel sets Wednesday vote to hold Barr in contempt after DOJ doesn't turn over Mueller report — Barr gave his version of the report. Then we read it. — Washington (CNN)House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has scheduled a Wednesday vote to hold Attorney General William Barr …

Discussion: Mediaite

Andrew Desiderio / Politico:

Democrats prepare to hold William Barr in contempt — The House Judiciary Committee has taken its first formal step toward holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 election …

Discussion: Breitbart, Daily Wire, The Stranger, The Resurgent, The Root, Daily Kos and CNN

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
House Judiciary Committee to Vote Wednesday to Hold Barr in Contempt

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Jezebel, Daily Kos and NBC News

House Judiciary Dems / House Committee …:
Wednesday: House Judiciary to Markup Contempt Report for AG Barr

Discussion: Axios, Shakesville, POLITICUSUSA, The Gateway Pundit and New York Post

Washington Post:
House Democrats to hold contempt vote Wednesday after Barr misses deadline to provide complete Mueller report

Discussion: The Week, Political Wire, New York Times and Fox News

Henry Rodgers / The Daily Caller:
Nadler Schedules Vote To Hold Barr In Contempt Of Congress

Discussion: Fox News

Brad Plumer / New York Times:

Civilization Is Accelerating Extinction and Altering the Natural World at a Pace ‘Unprecedented in Human History’ — WASHINGTON — Humans are transforming Earth's natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction …

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Monthly, Splinter and Financial Times

Darryl Fears / Washington Post:

One million species face extinction, U.N. panel says. And humans will suffer as a result. — Up to 1 million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with devastating implications for human survival, according to a United Nations report released Monday.

Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:
UN report says nature is in worst shape in human history

Discussion: VICE News and The Week

Alex Conant / FIREHOUSE Strategies:

BREAKING: New early state Democratic primary voter survey results — Key Findings: — The Biden Surge: We asked Democratic primary voters who they favored among the eight highest-profile Democrats who have already announced their candidacies. According to our survey …

Discussion: Political Wire, Axios, Breitbart and Florida Politics

Amber Phillips / Washington Post:
How gender bias is shaping the 2020 Democratic primary

Discussion: Althouse

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
What happens if Donald Trump refuses to admit he lost in 2020?

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story and Daily Wire

Chris Joyner / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Georgia mayor under fire for alleged remarks about black job candidate — The mayor of Hoschton, a nearly all-white community 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, allegedly withheld a job candidate from consideration for city administrator because he was black, an AJC investigation has found.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, theGrio, The Resurgent, Raw Story and Political Wire

NBC News:

Democrats lose their enthusiasm advantage in latest NBC News/WSJ poll — First Read is your briefing from “Meet the Press” and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter. — WASHINGTON — Democrats had two advantages that fueled their midterm victories …

Discussion: Washington Times, National Review, Washington Post and Political Wire

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Bernie Sanders Decides to Play Rough This Time — The senator is playing to win, drawing sharp contrasts with his opponents far more quickly and aggressively than he did four years ago. — Gideon Resnick — In just the last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) unloaded a blistering attack on a leading Democratic think tank.

Discussion: CNN, The Week and ABC News

Lisa Lerer / New York Times:
Some Look at Joe Biden's Campaign and See Hillary Clinton's

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

New York Times:

In Tiger Woods, Trump Finds a Hero and a Business Opportunity — WASHINGTON — Ever since Tiger Woods arrived on the public stage as a golf phenom at the age of 21, Donald J. Trump has been cultivating him as a celebrity who could add a sheen to his properties around the globe.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Fox News and Talking Points Memo

Nancy Cook / Politico:
Mulvaney aims for ‘more proactive, less reactive’ Trump message

Discussion: Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Will Democrats start playing hardball with Trump?

Discussion: The Seattle Times, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

George A. Sorial / Wall Street Journal:

Michael Cohen Was a Bluffer, Not a Fixer — He wasn't involved in the Trump Organization's core business. — Michael Cohen was my friend. I knew his family and he knew mine. But for him to suggest before Congress in February that he was the Trump Organization's top lawyer and deal maker is surreal.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media and Raw Story

Associated Press:
Michael Cohen heads to prison in Trump hush-money scheme

Discussion: Vanity Fair, New York Times, The Week, Hullabaloo and Daily Kos

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
President's former lawyer arrives at prison to serve sentence for tax, campaign finance crimes

Discussion: Political Wire

New York Times:

U.S. Officials Raise Alarm of Iranian Threat Targeting American Troops in Iraq — WASHINGTON — Senior American officials said on Monday that new threats by Iran against United States troops in Iraq were behind the sudden deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to the Persian Gulf.

Discussion: Slate and The Guardian

Susan E. Rice / New York Times:
The Real Trump Foreign Policy: Stoking the G.O.P. Base

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:
On Muslim Brotherhood, Trump Weighs Siding With Autocrats and Roiling Middle East

Discussion: The American Conservative and Front Page Magazine

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

The FBI's Trump-Russia Investigation Was Formally Opened on False Pretenses — The State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos's claims — which were probably false anyway. — Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.

Margot Cleveland / The Federalist:
Major Report Omission Shows Mueller Was Either Incompetent Or A Political Hack

Discussion: Instapundit

Alexis Levinson / BuzzFeed News:

Republicans Think They Know How To Win Back Congress In 2020. Races Like This One Could Screw It Up. — STATEN ISLAND — “I didn't vote for you,” Kevin Smith told Rep. Max Rose, after flagging the freshman Democratic congressman down while walking his dog. “But I gotta give you credit — you worked your ass off.

Jon Gargis / MDJOnline.com:

New NRA president, Cobb native, aiming for higher membership, reclaiming government offices — Carolyn Meadows, an east Cobb resident and new president of the National Rifle Association. — Buy Now — Carolyn Meadows, an east Cobb native and new president of the National Rifle Association …

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media and Raw Story

CNBC:

Dow drops more than 450 points as China considers skipping trade talks after Trump threat — China trade tensions flair as Trump threatens new tariffs — Wall Street kicked off the week with a sharp sell-off on Monday after President Donald Trump said that the U.S. will hike tariffs …

Discussion: Reason, CNN, Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, Reuters, Fortune and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Thomas Heath / Washington Post:
Dow dives 450 points at open after Trump threatens higher tariffs on Chinese imports

Discussion: The Week

Saleha Mohsin / Bloomberg:

Mnuchin Juggles Day Job Alongside Shielding Trump's Tax Returns — Treasury chief hits deadline to hand over president's forms — Mnuchin's policy goals may be undermined by oversight fight — Steven Mnuchin's job as Treasury secretary is to protect the value of the dollar.

Discussion: Raw Story

James Downie / Washington Post:
Mike Pompeo, master of cluelessness

Discussion: Mediaite, Fox News and New York Post

Colleen Long / Associated Press:

US to add 30,000 seasonal worker visas as soon as this week — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to allow 30,000 more foreign workers temporarily into the United States for seasonal work through the end of September, a move that reflects how the booming economy …

Discussion: Politico, New York Times and Political Wire

Center for American ProgressCenter …:

America Adrift — How the U.S. Foreign Policy Debate Misses What Voters Really Want — Introduction and summary — These days, foreign policy and national security publications are filled with stark warnings about the demise of the U.S.-led rules-based international order …

Discussion: Washington Post

Gregory A. Smith / Pew Research Center:

U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians to say Trump favors the Israelis too much — In his more than two years as president, Donald Trump has taken significant steps to support Israel, including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing the Jewish state's sovereignty over the Golan Heights region.

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency