memeorandum: The Woke Left's Assault on the Rule of Law (Carrie Campbell Severino/National Review)

10:35 AM ET, May 16, 2020

Top Items:

Trump ousts State Department watchdog — President Donald Trump has removed State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence — the latest in a series of moves against independent government watchdogs in recent months.

Discussion: The Hill, NBC News, IJR, The Guardian, Breitbart, Raw Story, Axios and Mediaite

CNN:

State Department inspector general becomes the latest watchdog fired by Trump — (CNN)President Donald Trump on Friday fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government watchdogs that have come in the wake of the President's acquittal …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

House Foreign Affairs Committee:

Engel Statement on the Firing of Inspector General Linick — Washington—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, this evening made the following statement on the President's removal of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick:

Discussion: Letters from an American and Balloon Juice

Michele Kelemen / NPR:

Trump Removes State Department Inspector General Steve Linick — President Trump is ousting State Department Inspector General, Steve Linick, extending a string of administration firings of government watchdogs. — The president sent notice of Linick's removal, effective in 30 days, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday.

Discussion: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Conor Finnegan / ABC News:

Trump fires IG said to be investigating Pompeo, involved in impeachment probe — Inspector General Steve Linick will be replaced by a Trump appointee. — The White House fired the State Department Inspector General late Friday, according to a State Department spokesperson …

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Trump's slow-moving Friday night massacre of inspectors general — The Friday news dump — also known as the Friday night news dump — is a political trick with plenty of precedent. Wait till the vast majority of the news business clocks out for on the week, and announce something you'd rather they not cover as much.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
Pompeo fires State Dept. watchdog critical of Trump moves

Discussion: Raw Story

Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
State Department inspector general fired; Democrats decry ‘dangerous pattern of retaliation’

Discussion: Politico

Natasha Korecki / Politico:

‘Manipulative, deceitful, user’: Tara Reade left a trail of aggrieved acquaintances — Harriet Wrye did a double take the first time she saw Tara Reade on television lodging sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden. — “Jim, that's Tara,” the 79-year-old author and psychologist called …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, NB Blog, Law & Crime and Spectator USA

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

New Reporting Increases Doubts on Tara Reade's Allegation Against Joe Biden — When Tara Reade first made her assault allegation against Joe Biden, I thought the charge was more likely to be true than false. To be clear, I had no intention of changing my vote.

Discussion: The Atlantic, Mediaite, Washington Times, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, Law & Crime, Washington Monthly, PBS NewsHour and Quillette

Katie Glueck / New York Times: How the Biden Campaign Aims to Win Battleground States

New York Times:

A Sitting President, Riling the Nation During a Crisis — By smearing his opponents, championing conspiracy theories and pursuing vendettas, President Trump has reverted to his darkest political tactics in spite of a pandemic hurting millions of Americans.

Discussion: Raw Story

ProPublica:

Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California. — California's governor and San Francisco's mayor worked together to act early in confronting the COVID threat. For Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, it was a different story, and 27,000 New Yorkers have died so far.

Carrie Campbell Severino / National Review:

The Woke Left's Assault on the Rule of Law — Ever since Donald Trump's election, liberal judges have aligned themselves with the political “resistance,” holding this administration to a different standard from its predecessors. As I have written before, we have seen this trend …

CNN: Behind the Justice Department's split over the Flynn dismissal

Washington Post:

Trump sets goal of hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses by January, but scientists doubt it — Some warn it's dangerous to set a timetable, given the scientific unknowns and the danger of rushing testing. — President Trump formally unveiled an initiative Friday afternoon aimed …

CNBC:
Trump downplays the need for coronavirus vaccine: 'It'll go away at some point'

Discussion: NaturalNews.com

Associated Press:
NIH director: Large-scale vaccine testing expected by July

Discussion: New York Times

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:

House changes its rules during pandemic, allowing remote voting for the first time in its 231-year history — The House on Friday approved the most radical change to its rules in generations, allowing its members to cast committee and floor votes from afar — the culmination of a months-long struggle …

Discussion: Roll Call, The Hill, Breitbart and New York Times

Manu Raju / CNN:
GOP congressman on why he's not wearing a mask: 'There's just no need'

Discussion: The Hill and Talking Points Memo

Politico:
As crisis continues, an anxious House returns to Washington

Discussion: Washington Post

Associated Press:
Democrats push new $3T coronavirus relief bill through House

Discussion: WHYY

CNN: House approves $3 trillion Covid aid bill and historic rules change to allow remote voting

Washington Post:

Drug promoted by Trump as coronavirus ‘game changer’ increasingly linked to deaths — For two months, President Trump repeatedly pitched hydroxychloroquine as a safe and effective treatment for coronavirus, asking would-be patients “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Discussion: Houston Chronicle

Jack Shafer / Politico:

How Not to Listen to Donald Trump — It turns out President Donald Trump's status as the most accessible person to ever hold the office is more a curse than a blessing. Day after day, he fills the air with the ack-ack of disinformation and misdirection, needlessly alarming the public …

Discussion: Business Insider Nederland, New York Times and Breitbart

Sister Toldjah / Redstate:
Reporter Asks Kayleigh McEnany to Explain Obamagate and the Crimes Allegedly Committed, Immediately Regrets It

Discussion: Power Line, RealClearPolitics, Althouse and MRCTV

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
McEnany, pressed on Trump's accusations of Obama administration crimes, points to Flynn leaks

Discussion: Associated Press, Breitbart and Jacobin

New York Times:

Intelligence Chief Reduces Size of Counterterrorism Office — The cuts to the National Counterterrorism Center were smaller than some former officials feared. The changes will allow intelligence agencies to shift personnel to other threats. — WASHINGTON — The acting intelligence chief announced …

Discussion: ODNI Newsroom and Axios

Victoria F. Piccoli / ODNI Newsroom:
Director of National Intelligence Announces Changes to Election Security Briefings

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Koh Gui Qing / Reuters:

Exclusive: U.S. Justice Dept. subpoenas Wall Street banks for small business loans info - sources — Koh Gui Qing, Pete Schroeder — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has sent grand jury subpoenas to big banks seeking records as part of a broader investigation …

Discussion: The Hill

Wall Street Journal:
Justice Department, State Attorneys General Likely to Bring Antitrust Lawsuits Against Google

Discussion: archive.is, New York Times, Politico, Breitbart, The Wrap, The Verge and Raw Story, more at Techmeme »

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:

Trump's emergency powers worry some senators, legal experts — FILE - In this March 12, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. On March 12, during the meeting …

CNN:

‘He lied on national television’: Trump says truckers protesting industry problems are actually honking to support him — This is what brings out Trump's inner child — Washington (CNN)When blaring truck horns intruded on President Donald Trump's Friday speech in the White House Rose Garden …

Discussion: IJR

Washington Post:

We could stop the pandemic by July 4 if the government took these steps — A $74 billion investment in testing, tracing and isolation could rescue the economy — quickly — With the unemployment rate at its highest level since the Great Depression — 14.7 percent and climbing …

Discussion: Marginal REVOLUTION

Jeremy Fowler / ESPN:

NFL proposal would improve draft picks for minority hires — The NFL is considering improving draft picks for teams that hire minority candidates as head coaches or general managers, sources confirmed to ESPN. — Under the proposal, aimed at fixing diversity problems leaguewide …

Discussion: NFL.com, Breitbart and The Daily Caller

Associated Press:

Wisconsin again? Swing state a hotbed of virus politics — MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin has been the battleground for political proxy wars for nearly a decade, the backdrop for bruising feuds over labor unions, executive power, redistricting and President Donald Trump.

Discussion: Axios

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Dan Abrams: Based on All We Know Right Now, ‘This Obamagate Theory Is 100 Percent Bullsh*t’ — Mediaite founder and ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams went on a tear during his SiriusXM show Friday calling the idea of the “Obamagate' scandal “100 percent bullshit.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Stephanie M. Lee / BuzzFeed News:

JetBlue's Founder Helped Fund A Stanford Study That Said The Coronavirus Wasn't That Deadly — A highly influential coronavirus antibody study was funded in part by David Neeleman, the JetBlue Airways founder and a vocal proponent of the idea that the pandemic isn't deadly enough to justify continued lockdowns.