memeorandum: Grenell to join Trump campaign (Politico)

9:05 PM ET, May 26, 2020

Top Items:

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:

Twitter labels Trump's tweets with a fact-check for the first time — The action comes after years of criticism that social media companies have allowed the president to push misinformation unchecked — Twitter on Tuesday slapped a fact-check label on President Trump's tweets for the first time …

Discussion: Axios, Townhall, Mother Jones, NBC News, UPI, MIT Technology Review, Financial Times, Breitbart, New York Post, Variety, The Daily Caller, The Root, Raw Story, Twitchy, KDFX-TV, IJR, archive.fo and CNN, more at Mediagazer »

Peter Wehner / The Atlantic:

The Malignant Cruelty of Donald Trump — “I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him—the memory of my dead wife—and perverted it for perceived political gain.” — There may be a more damning thing that's …

Discussion: New York Times, Patterico's Pontifications and Raw Story

Kara Swisher / New York Times:

Twitter Must Cleanse the Trump Stain — The president is spreading a vile conspiracy theory on the platform. Maybe Twitter should finally hold him to its rules. — Ms. Swisher covers technology and is a contributing opinion writer. — “Please delete those tweets,” …

Makena Kelly / The Verge:

Twitter labels Trump tweets as ‘potentially misleading’ for the first time — Only two tweets about California have received the label — On Tuesday, Twitter labeled two tweets from President Donald Trump making false statements about mail-in voting as “potentially misleading.”

Discussion: Vox, BuzzFeed News, NBC News and Talking Points Memo

New York Times:
Twitter Refutes Inaccuracies in Trump's Tweets for First Time

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios and Mediaite

National Review: Trump's Grotesque Tweets

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Trump has no decency. It's time for Twitter to show some.

Discussion: Vox, The Wrap, Jezebel and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
Trump doubles down on conspiracy theory about woman's death, ignoring grieving widower's plea for peace

Discussion: NPR, New York Times and Bloomberg

Jacob Knutson / Axios:
Husband of deceased Scarborough staffer asks Twitter to delete baseless Trump claims

Discussion: Discourse Blog, Associated Press, POLITICUSUSA, Breitbart, Florida Politics, New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, Mediaite, The Wrap, One America News Network and The Daily Caller

Aruna Viswanatha / Wall Street Journal:

Justice Department Closing Insider-Trading Investigations Into Three U.S. Senators — Probe into trading earlier this year by Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina continues — The Justice Department is closing investigations into three U.S. senators for stocks trades made shortly …

Discussion: Associated Press, ABC News, Fox News, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Townhall, Breitbart, The Sun, KDFX-TV, Roll Call, New York Post, The Week, CNBC, Law & Crime, IJR, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

Ursula Perano / Axios:
DOJ closes insider trading probes of 3 senators, but not Richard Burr

Discussion: The Hill

Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:
DOJ Drops Insider Trading Investigation Into Kelly Loeffler: Report

Discussion: Raw Story

Timothy Bella / Washington Post:

‘I cannot breathe!’: FBI investigates death of a black man in Minneapolis after video shows police officer kneeling on his neck — In a video shared on social media early Tuesday, a Minneapolis police officer pins his knee against the neck of a black man who appears to be struggling to breathe on the ground.

Discussion: HuffPost, Minneapolis Police, CBS News, The Sun, PBS NewsHour, NPR, VICE, Common Dreams, The Guardian, Law & Crime, The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, The Root and New York Post

Christine Hauser / New York Times:

4 Minneapolis Officers Fired After Black Man Dies in Custody — A bystander's video in Minneapolis shows a police officer with his knee on a man's neck during an arrest. The man died a “short time” later, the police said. — Arrested man: [moaning] “What you trying to say?” Police officer: “Relax.”

Discussion: Twitchy

Libor Jany / Star Tribune:
FBI, BCA investigating in-custody death of man in south Minneapolis

Discussion: KARE-TV, NBC News, Associated Press, Redstate and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Politico:

Grenell to join Trump campaign — U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell is set to join President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign amid a broader shakeup that saw the promotion of two other campaign officials on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: New York Post

Christian Datoc / The Daily Caller:
EXCLUSIVE: Here's The ‘Unclassified’ List Of Actions Ric Grenell Took As DNI To ‘Break’ The ‘Deep State’

Discussion: Twitchy

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
Grenell declassifies slew of Russia probe files, as Ratcliffe takes helm as DNI

Discussion: Associated Press, Redstate, KDFX-TV, Townhall, Conservative News Today and The Gateway Pundit

Sarah Maslin Nir / New York Times:

White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park — Video of the incident touched off intense discussions about the history of black people being falsely reported to the police. — The encounter appears to have begun as one of those banal and brusque dust-ups between two New Yorkers.

Discussion: NBC New York, KDFX-TV, Raw Story, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Law & Crime, Mediaite and Jezebel

CNN:
White woman who called police on a black man bird-watching in Central Park has been fired

Discussion: Washington Post, Wealth Management, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, CityLab, TheBlaze, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, Spectator USA, New York Times, The Daily Beast, CBS New York, VICE and Quiz Category

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“This Is So Unfair to Me”: Trump Whines About His COVID-19 Victimhood as Campaign Flails — Raging at campaign manager Brad Parscale and Joe Scarborough, Trump attempts a campaign reset. But “Trump can't pivot to a different strategy,” says an adviser. Because he's the problem.

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

New York Times:

After Crowding at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri Officials Urge Quarantine — “It's irresponsible and dangerous to engage in such high risk behavior just to have some fun over the extended holiday weekend,” said the mayor of St. Louis. — After large crowds gathered at the Lake of the Ozarks …

Discussion: NBC News, Jezebel, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill and Talking Points Memo

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:

Ex-Pompeo staffers asked to sign letter against ‘smear campaign’ — Former House staffers to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are being asked to sign a letter offering him support after a “smear campaign” that he and his wife asked staffers to carry out trivial tasks such as bringing him lunch or getting his dry cleaning.

Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Knows It Encourages Division. Top Executives Nixed Solutions. — The social-media giant internally studied how it polarizes users, then largely shelved the research — A Facebook Inc. FB 0.15% team had a blunt message for senior executives. The company's algorithms weren't bringing people together.

Discussion: The Week and Common Dreams, more at Techmeme »

Colby Itkowitz / Washington Post:

Trump calls mask wearing ‘politically correct,’ Biden calls him a ‘fool’ — President Trump dismissed a mask-wearing reporter as being “politically correct” on Tuesday while the presumptive Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, called him a “fool” for mocking their use.

Discussion: Axios and Vox

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Biden blasts Trump for mocking face masks

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Fox News and New York Times

CNN:

Pentagon deputy inspector general resigns, becomes latest watchdog to exit administration — Washington (CNN)Defense Department Principal Deputy Inspector General, Glenn Fine, submitted his resignation Tuesday, more than a month after President Donald Trump effectively removed him as chairman …

Discussion: Raw Story, Axios, UPI and Talking Points Memo

Brian Mann / NPR:

Trump Team Killed Rule Designed To Protect Health Workers From Pandemic Like COVID-19 — When President Trump took office in 2017, his team stopped work on new federal regulations that would have forced the healthcare industry to prepare for an airborne infectious disease pandemic like COVID-19.

Kat Stafford / Associated Press:

Biden campaign names national voter protection director — DETROIT (AP) — Joe Biden has hired a national director for voter protection, a role his campaign says will focus broadly on voter rights, including the disenfranchisement of people of color amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discussion: The Hill

CNN:

Trump's threat to pull GOP convention came as surprise to Republicans working on event — (CNN)Top Republicans had been working closely with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and other state Democratic officials as recently as Friday to plan the upcoming GOP national convention amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, ABC News, KDFX-TV, WSOC-TV and Talking Points Memo

Dareh Gregorian / NBC News:
States are trying to lure the Republican National Convention away from North Carolina

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Hill, Talking Points Memo and Vox

Tim Burke / COURIER:

WATCH: 11 Local TV Stations Pushed the Same Amazon-Scripted Segment — The package was produced by Amazon spokesperson Todd Walker. — Amazon is taking proactive action ahead of Wednesday's annual shareholders meeting—at which investors plan on demanding the company address worker safety issues …

Discussion: The Verge, VICE, TVNewser, New York Post and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:

The general election scenario that Democrats are dreading — In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down …

Discussion: Power Line, New York Post, Townhall, Redstate, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, National Review, Fox News, TheBlaze, Twitchy, The Week, Breitbart and Eschaton

Bryan Schott / utahpolicy.com:

Poll: Donald Trump leads Biden by just 3 points in Utah — The last time Utah voted for a Democrat for president was Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. The Beehive State's 56-year streak of voting for Republicans for president may be in real danger according to a new poll.

Discussion: The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite and Patterico's Pontifications

Axios:

House Republicans to sue Nancy Pelosi in effort to block proxy voting — House Republicans plan to file a lawsuit Tuesday against Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an effort to block the chamber's new proxy voting system amid the coronavirus pandemic, three congressional sources tell Axios.

Discussion: Fox News and The Hill

Wall Street Journal:
House Republicans Move to Block Proxy Voting

Discussion: The Hill

James Vincent / The Verge:

YouTube is deleting comments with two phrases that insult China's Communist Party — These Chinese language phrases are removed within seconds — YouTube is automatically deleting comments that contain certain Chinese-language phrases related to criticism of the country's ruling Communist Party (CCP).

Discussion: National Review, Washington Free Beacon, Louder With Crowder, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, WND, Mediaite, Bloomberg, Fox News, TheBlaze and NB Blog, more at Mediagazer »

Stuart Rothenberg / Roll Call:

Memorial Day 2020: Presidential race still leaning Biden — ANALYSIS — More than two months ago, even before COVID-19 became all-consuming in our lives, I wrote a column arguing that the presidential race had changed from a toss-up/tilting Democratic to leaning Democratic.

Joe Heim / Washington Post:

America's response to coronavirus pandemic is ‘incomprehensibly incoherent,’ says historian who studied the 1918 flu — John M. Barry, 74, is a historian and author of several books, including “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,” about the 1918 flu pandemic.

Discussion: Raw Story