memeorandum: How Government-Run Health Care Worsened The Coronavirus Crisis (Christopher Jacobs/The Federalist)

10:45 AM ET, May 12, 2020

Top Items:

Senate Republicans break with Trump over ‘Obamagate’ — President Donald Trump's aggressive campaign to encourage sweeping investigations of his predecessor Barack Obama met a unanimous response from Senate Republicans: No thanks. — Trump's Senate allies on Monday stopped short …

Discussion: Fox News, PBS NewsHour, Raw Story, Hotair, Letters from an American, American Greatness, Redstate and New York Post

Tim Miller / The Bulwark:

Taking #Obamagate Seriously — President Trump's bonkers theory, explained. — It is easy to overlook some of the everyday corruptions that President Trump has inflicted on the body politic. After all, his unique blend of logorrhea, mendacity, and clownishness creates an atmosphere …

Discussion: Vox, CNSNews, The Gateway Pundit and Vanity Fair

Martha Raddatz / ABC News:

Acting DNI seeks to declassify any Obama officials involved in Flynn ‘unmasking’: Source — Grenell visited the Justice Department last week over the matter. — Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has sought to declassify a list of former Obama administration officials …

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Examiner, Townhall, Breitbart, Washington Times, Washington Post, American Greatness, The Hill, Fox News, Reason, Redstate, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy and emptywheel

Frank Figliuzzi / NBC News:

Trump's ‘Obamagate’ comments and Barr's Flynn meddling suggest troubling new pivot — Trump can't pull off this ruse by himself, of course, but he has a partner. Barr is riding shotgun during this scorched-earth joyride against justice. — In my 25 years as an FBI special agent and …

Discussion: Fox News and The Intercept

New York Post:

It looks like President Obama ordered up phony RussiaGate scandal — RussiaGate is now a complete dead letter — but ObamaGate is taking its place. Just how far did the then-president go to cripple his successor? — It's now clear the Obama-Comey FBI and Justice Department never …

Discussion: The Federalist and American Thinker

Kristina Wong / Breitbart: Sally Yates Hid from Congress that Obama Told Her about Flynn-Kislyak Calls But Confirmed It to Mueller

Ryan Saavedra / The Daily Wire:
BREAKING: U.S. Officials Have Declassified List Of Obama Officials Who Were Involved In ‘Unmasking’ General Flynn

Discussion: Breitbart and Washington Times, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:
Intelligence Chief Declassifies Names of Obama Officials Who ‘Unmasked’ Flynn

Discussion: Fox News

New York Times:

Coronavirus Live Updates: Fauci to Warn Senate of ‘Needless Suffering and Death’ — The risks of reopening the country too soon will be a focus of government hearings on Tuesday. The White House's new mask requirement won't apply to President Trump. — RIGHT NOW Dr. Anthony S. Fauci …

Discussion: VICE, Washington Times, Daily Kos, The Hill, Washington Post, New York Post, Mediaite, Mother Jones and The Week

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Fauci Plans to Use Hearing to Warn of ‘Needless Suffering and Death’

Discussion: Fox News, Talking Points Memo, Rolling Stone and Deadline

CNN:
Video shows food executives removing masks ahead of Pence event

Discussion: The Guardian, Daily Kos and WHOTV

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Trump visit to Pennsylvania factory that produces PPE materials was scuttled after plant officials …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Morning Call, The Hill, The Week, Political Flare, Raw Story, Balloon Juice, The Mahablog and The Root

New York Times:
Coronavirus Live Updates: Senate Hearing Begins, Fauci to Warn of ‘Needless Suffering and Death’ if States Open Too Soon

Discussion: ABC News, NBC News, Political Wire, Raw Story, NPR, The Gateway Pundit, The Wrap and Mediaite

Washington Post: Live updates: Trump claims ‘we have met the moment and prevailed’; U.S. death toll surpasses 80,000

Nick Visser / HuffPost:
Fauci Reportedly To Warn Senate Of ‘Needless Suffering And Death’ If U.S. Reopens Too Soon

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, New York Times and Axios

CNN:

CNN Poll: Negative ratings for government handling of coronavirus persist — Three members of coronavirus task force in quarantine — (CNN)Most Americans (54%) continue to say the US government is doing a poor job preventing the spread of Covid-19, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS.

Discussion: Washington Post and Twitchy

Washington Post:

Many governors win bipartisan support for handling of pandemic, but some Republicans face blowback over reopening efforts — Governors collectively have been winning widespread praise from the public for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak, often with the kind of bipartisan approval that has eluded President Trump.

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite and The Week

NBC News:

Unreleased White House report shows coronavirus rates spiking in heartland communities — President Trump's claim that cases are falling everywhere is contradicted by his own task force's report, obtained by NBC News, showing the virus spreading far from the coasts.

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and ABC News

David Siders / Politico:

Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters — President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both. — Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply …

Peter Nicholas / The Atlantic: How Trump Plans to Weaponize COVID-19 Against Biden

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:
Voters Sour on Biden as Reade Allegations Find Higher Platform

Discussion: Breitbart and Douglas H. Wigdor

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Trump's tweets are a strategy of distraction to obscure a policy of abdication — In the fourth month of the greatest crisis of his presidency, Donald Trump issued 126 tweets or retweets during a single Sunday. — Other than claiming “great marks” for handling the pandemic …

Discussion: The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Vox

Washington Post:
This is Trump's greatest failure of the pandemic

Discussion: Daily Kos, New York Times and Vox

Washington Post:

The Flynn case isn't over until the judge says it's over — John Gleeson served as a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York and chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office in that district. David O'Neil served as the acting assistant attorney general …

Discussion: The Atlantic and Slate

Byron York / Washington Examiner: Byron York's Daily Memo: The big thing we still don't know about the Michael Flynn Case

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“Trump's Feeling Is, ‘Why Are We Losing Everywhere?’”: With Advisers Feuding and Numbers Plummeting, Trump Eyes Campaign Shake-up — Brad Parscale (and his Ferrari) is in the hot seat. Kushner is pushing for Nick Ayers, and against a Corey Lewandowski return. But whose fault are the disastrous swing state numbers?

Discussion: Political Flare

Mark Sherman / Associated Press:

Supreme Court to hear clash over Trump tax, bank records — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up President Donald Trump's bid to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major clash over presidential accountability that could affect the 2020 presidential campaign.

Discussion: Politico

John Kruzel / The Hill:
Supreme Court to hear blockbuster case on Trump financial records

Discussion: New York Times and NBC News

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

McConnell: Obama ‘should have kept his mouth shut’ on Trump's coronavirus response — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday that former President Obama should have held back from criticizing President Trump's handling of the coronavirus, calling the decision “a little bit classless.”

Discussion: Politico, The Guardian and Axios

Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
‘Should have kept his mouth shut’: McConnell slams Obama for criticizing Trump admin

Discussion: CNN, Slate, POLITICUSUSA and MSNBC

CNN:

Trump's jaw-dropping attack on California's voting plan — Trump and Democrats fight over mail-in voting — Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show” and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @DeanObeidallah.

Discussion: The Guardian, Raw Story and NBC News

Eric Felten / RealClearInvestigations:

FBI's Man in Europe Undercut Ohr's Claim of Limited Russiagate Role — Above right, FBI agent Michael Gaeta at a 2016 seminar in Rome. — An FBI agent's newly released testimony undercuts top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr's denial of a conflict of interest between his Trump-Russia efforts …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:

Mitch McConnell Moves to Expand Bill Barr's Surveillance Powers — Welcome to the Trump-era Patriot Act: a law that protects politicians while giving the government greater knowledge of the websites you searched for and visited. — Days after the Justice Department controversially dropped charges …

Discussion: The Digital Void, The American Independent, New York Times, Washington Post and Law & Crime

Barbie Latza Nadeau / The Daily Beast:

American Travelers Are About to Be Pariahs in This New World — SEAT'S TAKEN — As tourist-centric countries begin testing travel corridors and reciprocal quarantine regulations, American travelers might find themselves locked out of the post-pandemic world.

Thomas Franck / CNBC:

US grocery costs jump the most in 46 years, led by rising prices for meat and eggs — The Labor Department reported Tuesday that prices U.S. consumers paid for groceries jumped 2.6% in April, the largest one-month pop since February 1974. — The price of the meats, poultry …

Kanishka Singh / Reuters:

Watchdog Reports Record Number of Anti-Semitic Incidents in U.S. Last Year — (Reuters) - Jews in the United States suffered the largest number of anti-Semitic incidents last year since the Anti-Defamation League began collecting records 40 years ago, the racism watchdog said on Tuesday.

Shannon Vavra / CyberScoop:

FBI, DHS to go public with suspected North Korean hacking tools — The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are preparing to jointly expose North Korean government-backed hacking this week, CyberScoop has learned. — Threat data meant to help companies fend off hackers has already …

USA Today:

Coronavirus economy: We're in for a painful slog, not Trump's fast, ‘spectacular’ recovery — Some people think the Great Depression, which began in 1929 during the presidency of Herbert Hoover, ended shortly after Franklin D. Roosevelt replaced him in 1933. Not so. It went on and on and on — and on.