memeorandum: Michelle Obama partners with MTV for national virtual prom (Lisa Respers France/CNN)

3:10 PM ET, May 17, 2020

Top Items:

Talia Kaplan / Fox News:

President Trump discusses bombshell revelations in Flynn case in exclusive interview with Maria Bartiromo — President Trump called the Russia probe “the greatest political crime in the history of our country, ” and labeled his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn a hero …

Discussion: ABC News, The Gateway Pundit, Fox Business and Redstate

Michael Morell / Washington Post:

The only culprit in the Flynn ‘unmasking’ scandal is the Trump administration — There was no wrongdoing on the part of Obama administration officials who, during the presidential transition in 2016 and 2017, “unmasked” the identity of Michael Flynn, who was set to become national security adviser.

Discussion: Law & Crime

Axios:

Eric Trump accuses Democrats of “milking” coronavirus lockdowns to win the election — Eric Trump suggested on Fox News Saturday that Democrats are “milking” coronavirus lockdowns in order to “deprive” his father President Trump of campaign rallies and hurt him in November's election.

Discussion: Raw Story and House Foreign Affairs …

USA Today:
The Trump administration has recently removed 4 inspectors general. Here are the ousted watchdogs

Discussion: Axios

Bob Brigham / Raw Story: Eric Trump predicts COVID-19 is a conspiracy against his dad that will ‘magically’ disappear in November

New York Times:
Trump Ousted State Dept. Watchdog at Pompeo's Urging; Democrats Open Inquiry

Discussion: Bloomberg, Politico, Daily Kos, Axios, Vanity Fair, The Hill, Mediaite, Raw Story and The Gateway Pundit

Washington Post:
Trump ramps up retaliatory purge with firing of State Department inspector general

Discussion: Breitbart and Outside the Beltway

Sara Dorn / New York Post:

People flock to NYC-area bars, beaches as ‘quarantine fatigue’ intensifies — They're partying like it's 2019. — Lockdown-weary New Yorkers ditched the distancing to get social instead this weekend — transforming parts of the Big Apple into a raucous, late-season Mardi Gras.

Discussion: Gothamist

New York Times:

Where New Yorkers Moved to Escape Coronavirus — Top 50 metropolitan destinations outside New York City — Top 50 metropolitan destinations outside New York City — Top 50 metropolitan destinations — outside New York City — New York City has long been a cheek-to-jowl town with cramped apartments and determined strivers.

Discussion: Instapundit and New York Post

Harry Enten / CNN:

State polls suggest Biden has a clear national lead — (CNN)Poll of the week: A new Marquette Law School poll finds former Vice President Joe Biden with a 46% to 43% lead over President Donald Trump in Wisconsin. — The poll matches the last poll from Marquette, which also had Biden up by 3 points in Wisconsin.

Discussion: The Guardian

Harry Enten / CNN: Trump is winning on the economy. That may not matter

USA Today:

Wisconsin's economy is reopening and it's a hot coronavirus mess. Don't do what we did. — Some curious photos began rocketing around social media sites Wednesday night —pictures of people in Wisconsin once again in their natural habitat, crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in bars.

John Harwood / CNN:

Trump's turn to the economy leaves a vacuum when it comes to controlling the pandemic — (CNN)Publicly and privately, Sen. Angus King spent weeks seeking a national coronavirus testing plan. Sen. Lamar Alexander held a hearing where President Donald Trump's testing czar Brett Giroir acknowledged …

The Daily Beast:

Billionaire MAGA Fan Peter Thiel Has Had It With Trump's COVID-19 Response — More than a dozen sources in Trump's orbit said they could not say whether the Silicon Valley luminary was going to play any meaningful role in the re-elect, like he did in 2016. — During the last presidential campaign …

Discussion: Raw Story

Alexander Burns / New York Times:

Seeking: Big Democratic Ideas That Make Everything Better — By the end of primary season, the Democratic Party had all but settled on a conventional center-left agenda. But the pandemic is forcing the Biden campaign and other leaders to redraw plans for 2021. — More than 36 million Americans are suddenly unemployed.

Discussion: Associated Press

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

I'll Take Biden's Confusion Over Trump's Corruption — Let's not repeat the false equivalence of 2016. — Please tell me why I should care whether Joe Biden is declining mentally when Donald Trump bottomed out morally long ago. — I'm serious. I'd rather drink milk past its expiration date than arsenic.

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Donald Trump Jr. Smears Biden With Baseless Instagram Post

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Slate, Fox News and Raw Story

Associated Press:

European leaders are blunt: A vaccine won't come soon enough — SOAVE, Italy (AP) — In separate, stark warnings, two major European leaders have bluntly told their citizens that the world needs to adapt to living with the coronavirus and cannot wait to be saved by the development of a vaccine.

Lee Brown / New York Post:

Nevada congressman admits to affair with intern after podcast exposé — A married Nevada congressman has admitted having a longstanding affair with a former intern calling herself “Love Jones” — after she exposed him in an explosive series of podcasts.

Discussion: Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Nevada Independent and The Hill

jsonline:

No masks. No gloves. No problem. As coronavirus cases soar, carefree day-trippers from Illinois pour in — On the first weekend without any statewide stay-at-home orders, Wisconsin was open for business, and at least along the southern border, people from Illinois poured in.

Elizabeth Warren / The Atlantic:

My Brother's Death Didn't Have to Happen — Senator Elizabeth Warren's oldest brother, Donald Reed Herring, died of COVID-19 in late April, and I heard that she sometimes mentioned this in conversations about policy, though she was reluctant to talk about it publicly.

Discussion: Mother Jones and Axios

Josh Chin / Wall Street Journal:

China Told Labs to Destroy Coronavirus Samples to Reduce Biosafety Risks — A Chinese senior official says domestic law has clear rules for the handling of highly pathogenic samples — A senior Chinese official appeared to confirm Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's allegation that Beijing …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and New York Times

Salena Zito / Washington Examiner: Pompeo tells Salena Zito the world must ‘impose costs on China’ for coronavirus

Jacob Knutson / Axios:

Navarro claims lockdowns will kill “many more” Americans than coronavirus — White House economic adviser Peter Navarro claimed on NBC's “Meet the Press” Sunday that lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus will “indirectly” kill more people than the virus itself.

Discussion: The Hill and Breitbart

The Texas Observer:

Is Texas Inflating Its COVID-19 Testing Numbers by Including Antibody Tests? — Texas health officials are combining some antibody tests along with more common viral tests in statewide COVID-19 tracking data. Experts say this muddies the data and potentially helps pad testing numbers …

Ronn Blitzer / Fox News:

Colorado Gov Polis pushes back against CDC's coronavirus death counts — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis pushed back against recent coronavirus death counts, including those conducted by the CDC, days after his own state's health department acknowledged that their numbers had been inflated …

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit and FOX31 Denver

Washington Post:

In next phase of pandemic, Trump appears poised to let others take the lead — President Trump has proclaimed the latest phase of pandemic response the “transition to greatness.” But Trump appears poised to preside over the eventual transition more as a salesman and marketer than a decider.