Top Items:
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
“Obamagate” Is Niche Programming for Trump Superfans — Donald Trump will not shut up about Barack Obama—not now, not ever. On Thursday morning, amid the gravest economic crisis in a century and a deadly pandemic that will have killed more than a hundred thousand Americans by the end of this month …
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Washington Post:
How a Flynn theory became central to the Trump reelection campaign — On the day Attorney General William P. Barr moved to drop criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, again winning the adulation of President Trump, he was paid a special visit.
Discussion:
Vox, The Daily Beast, Redstate, American Greatness, Daily Kos, IJR and The Guardian
NBC News:
Trump allies push ‘Obamagate,’ but record fails to back them up
Trump allies push ‘Obamagate,’ but record fails to back them up
Discussion:
New Republic, Breitbart and CNBC
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
An ‘Unmasking’ Q&A — U.S. intelligence gathering and the case of Michael Flynn
An ‘Unmasking’ Q&A — U.S. intelligence gathering and the case of Michael Flynn
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
Natasha Bertrand / Politico:
Trump exults in his Mueller revenge play
Trump exults in his Mueller revenge play
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and Crooked Media
Ed Mazza / HuffPost:
Barack Obama Speaks Out After Mitch McConnell Tells Him To Keep His ‘Mouth Shut’ — The former president calls for “better policy decisions” on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. — Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged a better government response to the coronavirus pandemic …
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Jordain Carney / The Hill:
McConnell says Obama administration ‘did leave behind’ pandemic plan — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday walked back comments made earlier this week, where he said the Obama administration didn't leave behind a “game plan” for a pandemic.
Discussion:
Washington Post
Paul LeBlanc / CNN:
McConnell admits he was wrong to say Obama administration failed to leave a pandemic playbook — (CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded Thursday night that he was wrong to claim that the Obama administration had not left behind a plan to deal with a pandemic in the US. — “I was wrong.
Discussion:
Politico, The American Independent, The Daily Beast and Washington Post
Politico:
How Burr's stock scandal shocked the Senate — The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday met as usual in a classified room in the Capitol. During the meeting, Chairman Richard Burr discussed the next time the secretive panel would gather. — Less than 24 hours later …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Hill, NBC News and Los Angeles Times
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Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:
Loeffler Turns Over Coronavirus Stock Sale Docs to Feds
Loeffler Turns Over Coronavirus Stock Sale Docs to Feds
Discussion:
Fox News, Raw Story and Washington Post
Tia Mitchell / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Loeffler supplies documents to DOJ, SEC, Ethics regarding stock sales
Loeffler supplies documents to DOJ, SEC, Ethics regarding stock sales
Discussion:
CNN, Politico, Vox and San Francisco Chronicle
Jerry Lambe / Law & Crime:
Michael Flynn's Fired Lawyers Just Filed Court Papers to Reappear in His Case — The federal judge overseeing Michael Flynn's criminal prosecution has directed the law firm that Flynn fired to reappear as an interested party in the controversial proceeding. On Thursday, that firm complied by filing a notice of appearance.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Power Line
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Mara Gay / New York Times:
Coronavirus Is Making Young People Very Sick. I Was One of Them. — Young, healthy people like me are getting very, very sick from the disease caused by the coronavirus. — Ms. Gay is a member of the editorial board. — The day before I got sick, I ran three miles, walked 10 more …
New York Times:
De Blasio Relies on Aide Who Saw ‘No Proof’ Closures Curb Virus — The head of New York City's public hospitals pushed to keep the city open in early March. Now Mayor de Blasio has put him in charge of contact tracing, deepening a rift with the Health Department.
Discussion:
New York Post, Redstate, Fox News, American Military News and Twitchy
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Top health officials vanish from national TV interviews as White House refocuses messaging — New York (CNN Business)The nation's top physicians have stopped appearing on national television for interviews as the White House exerts increased control over communications during the coronavirus pandemic …
Discussion:
VICE
Brian Klaas / Washington Post:
We need to prepare for the possibility of Trump rejecting election results — Since 2017, so many events in U.S. politics that were previously unthinkable have come to pass. Don't believe me? A few days ago, the president of the United States baselessly accused a cable television host …
Politico:
‘They are angry’: Pandemic and economic collapse slam Trump across Rust Belt — The Industrial Midwest was always going to be a battleground in November. — The region is now becoming a new front line for Americans' lives and livelihoods as coronavirus hot spots proliferate and jobless rates spiral.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and IJR
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Coronavirus is now invading Trump counties in the swing states — The novel coronavirus continues to shift our political geography. The latest development: It's now penetrating counties in the battleground states that were carried by President Trump, which raises the possibility …
Politico:
Florida man beats Covid, for now — Presented by The Mortgage Bankers Association — FROM THE NON-FRONTLINES — Good evening, and greetings from Florida, where we feel the need to inform you that it's not a post-apocalyptic hellscape of coronavirus infection and cadavers stacked like cordwood.
Discussion:
Breitbart
Washington Post:
Postal Services launches review of package delivery fees as Trump influence grows — Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman will leave before new agency head Louis DeJoy takes the helm — Weeks before a Republican donor and top White House ally becomes postmaster general …
Discussion:
The Verge and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
Washington Post:
CDC offers brief checklists to guide businesses, schools and others on reopening — With hundreds of millions of people still seeking advice on resuming their lives safely, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a scant six pages of recommendations Thursday to guide schools …
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, Associated Press and Talking Points Memo
Erik Ortiz / Yahoo News:
ACLU sues Betsy DeVos over new campus sexual assault rules — revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses is the target of a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, claiming the changes would “inflict significant harm” on victims and “dramatically undermine” their civil rights.
Discussion:
Twitchy
Cathy Young / Quillette:
Tara Reade's Dubious Claims and Shifting Stories Show the Limits of #BelieveWomen — Last year, a then-56-year-old California woman named Tara Reade publicly accused Joe Biden of sexual assaulting her in 1993. The issue caused an awkward rift among Democrats, one that has only widened since Biden became …
Discussion:
The Atlantic and New York Times
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
A sweeping setback for Trump's foreign business dealings — President Trump's decision not to divest himself of his businesses, in particular his foreign holdings or holdings that derive income from foreign governments, was a fateful error that flew in the face of precedent, clean government and the Constitution.
Discussion:
Raw Story
RELATED:
Jordan Libowitz / CREW:
CREW Statement on Emoluments Ruling
Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:
Biden says he doesn't remember Tara Reade, tells women they 'probably shouldn't vote for me' if they believe her claims — Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed on Thursday that he does not remember Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who came forward in March with a 1993 sexual assault allegation …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Washington Post and Breitbart
Michael Laris / Washington Post:
Battered by upheaval, novelist Yu Lihua told raw stories from a speckled blue desk — Years before Yu Lihua was spurned by the English literature department at Taiwan's top university, before she was rejected by English professors at graduate school in Los Angeles, she overheard her mother longing for her to be dead.
Politico:
A metrics-obsessed White House struggles to define success on coronavirus — President Donald Trump stepped into the Rose Garden for a news conference Monday and stood between two enormous signs that graced the West Wing colonnade. — “AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TESTING,” the signs read.
Discussion:
Raw Story
CNN:
Nursing home workers warned government about safety violations before Covid-19 outbreaks and deaths — (CNN)A flu shot will protect you from coronavirus, a worker reported being told by supervisors at a Rhode Island nursing home, where at least 60 residents were diagnosed with Covid-19 and at least one died.
Discussion:
American Prospect
David Welch / Bloomberg:
Michigan Cancels Legislative Session to Avoid Armed Protesters — Michigan closed down its capitol in Lansing on Thursday and canceled its legislative session rather than face the possibility of an armed protest and death threats against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Discussion:
MLive.com, detroitnews, Daily Kos and The Mahablog
Salena Zito / Washington Examiner:
Trump to Salena Zito: 'Joe has absolutely no idea what's happening' — ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania — President Trump, speaking to the Washington Examiner ahead of an event at a medical supply facility in this key swing state, took aim at Joe Biden's mental faculties, at one point claiming …
Emily Smith / Page Six:
Law firm hackers double ransom demand, threaten Donald Trump — The ransom demand for the secret files of a cyber-attacked lawyer to A-list stars has doubled to $42 million — as the hackers now threaten to reveal “dirty laundry” on President Donald Trump in just a week if they are not paid in full.
Colby Itkowitz / Washington Post:
Obama's former aides angry, hurt over Ronny Jackson's embrace of Trump's conspiracy theories — Former Obama officials expressed anger and a sense of betrayal after onetime White House doctor Ronny L. Jackson echoed President Trump's baseless conspiracy theories about their former boss, President Barack Obama.
CDC:
Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) Associated with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) — Distributed via the CDC Health Alert Network — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is providing 1) background information on several cases of a recently reported …
Discussion:
The Hill and New York Post
William Mersey / New York Daily News:
Congratulations, Paulie: An ex-cellmate wishes the best to Paul Manafort — It was just about this time last year that I was lying in my cell's upper bunk and asking my bunky if he ever entertained the fantasy that the president would somehow engineer a pardon and get him released early.
John Hudson / Washington Post:
Democrats scrutinize State Department plan to overhaul Social Security — The Democratic chairmen of two House panels are scrutinizing a State Department plan to overhaul Social Security that they say unfairly takes away Americans' entitlement benefits in exchange for a quick cash payment.