memeorandum: Powell Says Washington Will Need to Spend More to Battle Downturn (Nick Timiraos/Wall Street Journal)

11:25 AM ET, May 13, 2020

Top Items:

Team Trump Pushes CDC to Revise Down Its COVID Death Counts — The president and members of his task force are skeptical of the numbers and want the methodology changed. — President Donald Trump and members of his coronavirus task force are pushing officials at the Centers for Disease Control …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA and IJR

ABC News:

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort released to home confinement amid coronavirus concerns — Manafort's lawyers had requested release, citing age, pre-existing conditions. — President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been released from prison to serve the remainder …

Discussion: Associated Press, VICE, Raw Story, Breitbart, CBS News, The Daily Caller, CNBC, POLITICUSUSA, Just The News, The Daily Beast and New York Post

Washington Post: Paul Manafort granted home confinement due to coronavirus fears

NBC News: Paul Manafort released from prison to home confinement amid coronavirus concerns

David Sherfinski / Washington Times:
Former Trump campaign chairman Manafort released from prison amid COVID-19 crisis

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
Manafort released to home confinement amid coronavirus threat: lawyer

Discussion: Townhall

New York Times:

Kushner, Law Aside, Doesn't Rule Out Delaying 2020 Election — The opinion of a White House staff member has no bearing on when the election is held, but his comment played into the concerns of President Trump's detractors. — WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law …

Discussion: Raw Story and The Hill

TIME:

Jared Kushner Admits There's ‘Risk’ in Reopening the Country Too Soon — The same day that the nation's top infectious-disease expert warned that reopening the economy too quickly could bring serious consequences, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner acknowledged that there is inherent …

Discussion: Slate, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, The American Independent, IJR, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Political Flare, Vanity Fair, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast: Jared Kushner Non-Committal When Asked if 2020 Election Could Be Delayed

Washington Post:

U.S. judge puts on hold Justice Dept. move to dismiss Michael Flynn's guilty plea to hear outside groups' challenges — A U.S. judge on Tuesday put on hold the Justice Department's move to drop charges against Michael Flynn, saying he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue …

Discussion: Redstate, Power Line and New York Post

Gregg Jarrett / Fox News:

Flynn judge wrong to allow anti-Trump former Watergate prosecutors to interfere in case — It's a sure sign of desperation whenever lawyers try to raise President Richard Milhous Nixon from the dead. — And so it is that a group of former Watergate special prosecutors this week resurrected …

Discussion: Redstate

Sharon LaFraniere / New York Times: Judge Hesitates to Accept Justice Dept. Move to Drop Flynn Charge

Laurence H. Tribe / The Boston Globe:
Judge Sullivan must reject Barr's usurpation of judicial power

Discussion: Washington Post

Jeffery C. Mays / New York Times:

Ocasio-Cortez Commits Re-election Gaffe, Losing a Progressive Ballot Line — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needed 15 signatures to secure a Working Families Party ballot spot, but a court challenge left her short of the mark. — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez …

Discussion: National Review

Annie Linskey / Washington Post:
Ocasio-Cortez is working with the Biden campaign on climate policy

Discussion: Reuters, Fox News, Associated Press, Breitbart, NBC News, The Hill, Axios and New Republic

ABC News: Biden, Sanders announce AOC, Kerry, Jayapal as co-chairs of unity task forces

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Biden, Sanders name leaders of their ‘unity task forces’ — including AOC

Discussion: Raw Story

Michael Isikoff / Yahoo News:

EXCLUSIVE: In court filing, FBI accidentally reveals name of Saudi official suspected of directing support for 9/11 hijackers — WASHINGTON — The FBI inadvertently revealed one of the U.S. government's most sensitive secrets about the Sept. 11 terror attacks: the identity …

Discussion: National Review, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera, New York Post and Raw Story

CNN:

Joe Biden's running mate list is shorter than you might think — for now, at least — Washington (CNN)Joe Biden says he has his eye on a dozen women as potential running mates, but those close to him believe the list of top prospects is likely far shorter as a deep vetting process gets underway …

Jamelle Bouie / New York Times: Elizabeth Warren Knows What Joe Biden Needs in a Vice President

Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:
Trump's racism will bring his party down with him

Discussion: USA Today, Raw Story, HBCU Digest and CNN

Brian Niemietz / New York Daily News:

Howard Stern to Trump supporters: He hates you and so do I — Howard Stern says he and President Trump are both showmen who love a good time — and they both hate Trump supporters. — “One thing Donald loves is celebrities, he loves the famous,” Stern said on his SiriusXM show Tuesday. “He loves it.

Discussion: Breitbart, Political Flare, The Week and Washington Times

Tina Nguyen / Politico:

With Obamagate, Trump returns to a favorite distraction tactic — Donald Trump launched his political career turbocharging the conspiratorial birther movement. Now Trump is trying to keep his presidency afloat with another theory about his predecessor: Obamagate.

Discussion: National Review, Unprecedented, The Gateway Pundit and Vox

John Daniel Davidson / The Federalist:
‘Obamagate’ Isn't A Conspiracy Theory, It's The Biggest Political Scandal Of Our Time

Discussion: Politico, emptywheel and The American Spectator, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Goodwin / New York Post: Get ready for ‘Obamagate’ to become ‘ObamaBidengate’

Nick Timiraos / Wall Street Journal:

Powell Says Washington Will Need to Spend More to Battle Downturn — ‘Reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words,’ says Fed leader — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Congress and the White House will need to spend more money …

Discussion: Mother Jones and Raw Story

Peter Hamby / Vanity Fair:

Who You Calling Sleepy Joe?: Biden on His Youth Agenda, Internet Memes, and Fighting Trump From His House — “Young people want the truth,” says the presumptive Democratic nominee. And “I sometimes say more than I mean, but no one doubts I mean what I say.”

Discussion: Politico and POLITICUSUSA

Charles Sykes / The Bulwark:

The Cruelty of Conspiracy: A Personal Story — “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” ― Mark Twain — I know that I should really be writing about the clash between Anthony Fauci and Rand Paul, the arguments in the Supreme Court …

Discussion: The Bulwark Podcast

Toluse Olorunnipa / Washington Post:
As coronavirus roils the nation, Trump reverts to tactic of accusing foes of felonies

Discussion: Politico, Political Flare, Mother Jones, The Wrap, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Raw Story, New York Post, POLITICUSUSA, Damian J. Penny, The American Independent and The Week

Josh Campbell / CNN:

FBI arrests researcher for NASA who allegedly failed to report ties to China — (CNN)Federal agents have arrested an Arkansas professor who allegedly failed to disclose his ties to Chinese entities during the course of securing funding for a NASA research project, the Justice Department announced.

Discussion: National Review, The Hill and Breitbart

Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
It's time to take off the gloves against Chinese cybercrime

Discussion: Breitbart, Sara A. Carter and Just The News

Nurith Aizenman / NPR:

Different Coronavirus Models Are Starting To Agree: 110,000 Dead In U.S. By June 6 — Toggle more options — More than 82,000 people in the United States have died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday. How many more lives will be lost? Scientists have built dozens of computational models to answer that question.

Bob Herman / Axios:

Coronavirus likely forced 27 million off their health insurance — Roughly 27 million people have likely have lost job-based health coverage since the coronavirus shocked the economy, according to new estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation. — Why it matters: Most of these people …

Discussion: The Henry J. Kaiser … and The Hill

Wall Street Journal:

Chinese, Iranian Hacking May Be Hampering Search for Coronavirus Vaccine, Officials Say — In a possible escalation, U.S. to accuse China of actions some officials consider attacks on American public health — WASHINGTON—Chinese and Iranian hackers are aggressively targeting American universities …

Discussion: National Review

New York Times:

As Coronavirus Restrictions Lift, Millions in U.S. Are Leaving Home Again — Where people started leaving home again — Percentage point change in the share of people staying home — Note: The map shows the change in the average share of people sheltering at home from May 1 to May 8 …

Discussion: Althouse

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A new internal GOP poll suggests tight prez, Senate races in Georgia — An internal poll conducted by a group backing Gov. Brian Kemp showed a deadlocked presidential race in Georgia and tight contests for both U.S. Senate seats, underscoring the challenges Republicans face keeping the state in the GOP column.

Discussion: National Journal, The Hill, The American Independent and Vox

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

Think we have military primacy over China? Think again. — Here's a fact that ought to startle every American who assumes that because we spend nearly $1 trillion each year on defense, we have primacy over our emerging rival, China. — “Over the past decade, in U.S. war games against China …

Discussion: Political Wire

Moriah Balingit / Washington Post:

Armed militia helped a Michigan barbershop open, a coronavirus defiance that puts Republican lawmakers in a bind — OWOSSO, Mich. — Armed members of the Michigan Home Guard stood outside Karl Manke's barber shop, ready to blockade the door if police arrived.

Discussion: Althouse and Raw Story

Pete Williams / NBC News:

‘Faithless elector’: Supreme Court hears cases that could change presidential contests — If presidential electors are determined to be free agents, a handful — or even one in a close election — could change the outcome. — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday takes up a …

Discussion: The Week and The Hill

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Trump has a major vulnerability. Democrats should keep pounding it. — It may seem like grotesque malpractice — both from a political and a public health standpoint. But it's true: Amid a pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 Americans, President Trump and many Republicans …

Robby Soave / Reason:

No, 68 Percent of Americans Did Not Say They Would Avoid ‘Normal Life’ Until There's a Coronavirus Vaccine — Two-thirds of Americans said they would not return to “normal life” until a vaccine becomes available for COVID-19, according to CNN. — The ramifications of this finding …

Discussion: Mediaite, Arc Digital and Redstate

Ann Limpert / Washingtonian:

Inn at Little Washington Chef Will Fill His Socially Distanced Dining Room With Midcentury Mannequins — The three Michelin-starred destination will also have Marilyn Monroe masks. — A few weeks ago, the Inn at Little Washington sent out an email blast announcing that the luxury Rappahannock …

Discussion: New York Post

Michael R. Pompeo / US Department of State:

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Before Their Meeting — PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Good morning. Mr. Secretary, Mike, welcome once again to Jerusalem. This visit comes a few days after the loss of your late father, Wayne.