memeorandum: The Police Have Shown Their True Colors (Amanda Terkel/HuffPost)

12:00 PM ET, June 5, 2020

Top Items:

Garrett M. Graff / Politico:

The Story Behind Bill Barr's Unmarked Federal Agents — Few sights from the nation's protests in recent days have seemed more dystopian than the appearance of rows of heavily armed riot police around Washington in drab military-style uniforms with no insignia, identifying emblems or name badges.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post and Talking Points Memo

Washington Post:

How Mattis reached his breaking point — and decided to speak out against Trump — For former defense secretary Jim Mattis, it was the last straw: the sight of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, walking the streets of downtown Washington in battle-ready camouflage amid a show of brute federal force.

Discussion: Business Insider, Fox News, Just The News and Politico

Steve Inskeep / NPR:

Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Condemns Trump's Threat To Use Military At Protests — In rare public comments, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Ret. Gen. Martin Dempsey condemned Trump's threat to use military force to suppress nationwide protests as “dangerous” and “very troubling,” in an interview with NPR on Thursday.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, Brookings, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Wall Street Journal and Axios

New York Times:
Trump Agrees to Send Home Troops From Washington, Easing Tensions With the Pentagon

Discussion: ABC News, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, Defense One, New York Post, Politico, fox8.com, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA and No More Mister Nice Blog

Paul LeBlanc / CNN:
Trump shares letter that calls peaceful protesters ‘terrorists’

Discussion: Defense One and Daily Kos

CNN:
DC mayor says she wants out-of-state troops ‘out of Washington’

Discussion: Redstate, Fox News and The Daily Dot

Deroy Murdock / Fox News:
Mattis wrongly criticizes Trump - ignores facts about rioting and president's accomplishments

Discussion: Anchorage Daily News, One America News Network and Washington Post

Matthew Choi / Politico:
Protesters sue Trump and Barr over ousting from Lafayette Square

Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Crime Report

Anthony Capaccio / Bloomberg:
Federal Plan to Control D.C. Protests Taps 7,600 Personnel

Discussion: Raw Story and The Hill

New York Times:

New York Times Says Senator's Op-Ed Did Not Meet Standards — After a staff uproar, The Times says the editing process was “rushed.” Senator Tom Cotton's “Send In the Troops” essay is now under review. — Executives at The New York Times scrambled on Thursday to address the concerns …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, National Review, Associated Press, The Daily Wire, Vanity Fair, Columbia Journalism Review, Althouse, The Guardian, Townhall, Breitbart, Mediaite, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Free Beacon, Politico, New York Post, Washington Post and Patterico's Pontifications, more at Mediagazer »

Rich Lowry / National Review:

The Inside Story of the Tom Cotton Op-Ed that Rocked the New York Times — The Cotton team explains how the explosive piece got accepted and edited. — When a newspaper publishes a bombshell op-ed, it doesn't want the chief casualty to be its own credibility.

more at Mediagazer »

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Tom Cotton's Fascist Op-Ed — How should opinion pages respond to the right's authoritarian turn? — Before Donald Trump became president, most newspaper op-ed pages sought to present a spectrum of politically significant opinion and argument, which they could largely do while walling off extremist propaganda and incitement.

Discussion: Washington Post, Power Line, Just The News, Real Clear Politics, Twitchy, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Gateway Pundit, Slate, Breitbart, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg and Mediaite

Matt Welch / Reason:
New York Times Journalists Scared To Have an Op-Ed Page

Discussion: The American Spectator, Politico, Fox News, Damian J. Penny, Instapundit, Talking Points Memo, The Root, Redstate, New York Times, The Federalist, The Daily Dot, The Hill and Commentary Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Press Herald:

Our View: To President Trump: You should resign now — He lacks the character, maturity and judgment to lead the country in a perilous time.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and The American Independent

Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:

Law Enforcement Seizes Masks Meant To Protect Anti-Racist Protesters From COVID-19 — The masks, reading “Stop killing Black people,” were meant to quell the spread of the coronavirus, which has disproportionately affected Black Americans. — WASHINGTON ― Law enforcement agents …

Amanda Terkel / HuffPost:

The Police Have Shown Their True Colors — When they say they don't have too much power and don't act with impunity, will you still believe them? — Over the past week, protests have broken out nationwide over police brutality, the targeting of Black people and the lack of accountability for these actions.

Discussion: Associated Press, KTLA, Washington Post and The Verge

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:

Biden Says About ‘10 to 15 Percent’ of Americans Are ‘Not Very Good People’ — Mr. Biden, speaking to black supporters about the need to improve the country, accused President Trump of dividing the nation and pledged to unite it. — WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told …

Discussion: Mediaite

Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:
Biden claims ‘10 to 15 percent’ of Americans are ‘just not very good people’

Discussion: Washington Post, RealClearPolitics, Althouse and The Hill

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:

People are sawing through and climbing over Trump's border wall. Now contractors are being asked for ideas to make it less vulnerable. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors for help making President Trump's border wall more difficult to climb over and cut through …

David A. Hopkins / Honest Graft:

Trump, the Floyd Protests, and the End of Confident Conservatism — After Richard Nixon's 1968 election, many conservatives came to believe that their movement naturally represented the political views of most Americans. This conservative faith in the wisdom of the average citizen was cemented …

Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Donald Trump Is No Richard Nixon

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, courthousenews.com and Foreign Policy, more at Mediagazer »

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Trump's Approval Slips Where He Can't Afford to Lose It: Among Evangelicals — Polls and private concerns from top social conservatives show the president's standing with the cornerstone of his base isn't what it used to be. A photo op with the Bible was supposed to help fix that.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, americamagazine.org, PRRI and Washington Post

Jeff Cox / CNBC:

May sees biggest jobs increase ever of 2.5 million as economy starts to recover from coronavirus — Nonfarm payrolls rose by 2.5 million in May and the unemployment rate fell to 13.3%. — Wall Street estimates had been for a decline of 8.3 million and a jobless level of 19.5% …

Discussion: Fox Business, The Daily Caller and Disrn

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:

American Civilization and Its Discontents — In 1969, Irving Kristol was appointed Henry R. Luce professor of urban values at New York University's Stern School of Business. He delivered his inaugural lecture the following spring. Its title, “Urban Civilization and Its Discontents,” …

Peninsula Daily News:

Family harassed in Forks after being accused of being members of Antifa — FORKS —A multi-racial family of four from Spokane was accused of being members of Antifa, followed and prevented from leaving their campsite by trees felled to block the road, Clallam County Sheriff's deputies said.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Craig Bannister / CNSNews:

Pelosi Suffers 10-Second Mental Lapse On-Camera During Press Conference — House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appeared to experience a ten-second mental lapse Thursday during an on-camera press conference. — Pelosi was reading from a letter she had sent to President Donald Trump earlier …

Discussion: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and UPI

Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:

Unemployment rate drops to 13 percent, as the economy picked up jobs as states reopened — The economy added 2.5 million jobs as economy shows signs of stabilizing — The federal unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent in May from 14.7 percent in April, the Department of Labor said Friday …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Twitter removes Trump campaign tribute to George Floyd claiming copyright complaint — Twitter on Thursday removed a video tribute to George Floyd posted by President Trump's reelection campaign, claiming it had run afoul of the website's policy on copyrighted material.

Discussion: The Wrap, Washington Times, Politico, IJR, Al Jazeera, Variety, Associated Press, The Guardian and Just The News, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

The Revenge of Jim Mattis — Trump's ill treatment of former advisers is coming back to haunt. — By The Editorial Board — Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's denunciation of President Trump on Wednesday isn't surprising, but it still looks like an important political moment.

Katelyn Caralle / Daily Mail:
Is John Kelly joining the generals' mutiny? …

Discussion: Washington Post

Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:

What Happens When It Is the Police Who Riot in the Streets? — It is an attack on civil society and democratic accountability. — If we're going to speak of rioting protesters, then we need to speak of rioting police as well. No, they aren't destroying property.

Yeganeh Torbati / ProPublica:

New Trump Appointee to Foreign Aid Agency Has Denounced Liberal Democracy and “Our Homo-Empire” — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — A new Trump appointee to the United States' foreign aid agency …

Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:

Four Texas GOP county leaders share racist Facebook posts, including one juxtaposing an MLK quote with a banana — Gov. Greg Abbott called on two Republican county chairs to resign after they shared a racist conspiracy theory about George Floyd's death. — Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, The Sun, KXAN-TV, The Hill and New York Post

detroitnews:

With little social distancing, Whitmer marches with protesters — Highland Park — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who's voiced concerns about other demonstrations potentially spreading COVID-19 in recent weeks, participated Thursday in a civil rights march in Highland Park with hundreds of people who did not follow social distancing rules.

Discussion: National Review, Townhall, Washington Times, The Daily Caller and Breitbart

Bloomberg:

Estee Lauder Workers Demand Heir Ouster Over Trump Support — Employees of Estee Lauder Cos., one of the world's largest beauty businesses, called for the ouster of a board member and family heir over his support for President Donald Trump and criticism of the company's response to the protests against police violence.

ABC News:

Questions arise over Special Forces guarding Donald Trump from protests — “I hate the optics of it,” retired Army Special Forces Col. Robert Wilson said. — On Wednesday night, after five days of at-times violent confrontations between police and thousands joining protests near the White House …

Paul Szoldra / Task & Purpose:

Former Marine commandant on nationwide protests: ‘The time for being silent has passed’ — “We are better than this. Stand up for what is right.” — Former Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has written an open letter urging all Americans to “stand up for what is right” …

Discussion: LinkedIn and Digby's Hullabaloo

Alyssa Rosenberg / Washington Post:

Shut down all police movies and TV shows. Now. — Police procedurals have a long, fraught history. I don't know if it's possible for them to find a way forward.

Washington Post:

With White House effectively a fortress, some see Trump's strength — but others see weakness — The security perimeter around the White House keeps expanding. Tall black fencing is going up seemingly by the hour. Armed guards and sharpshooters and combat troops are omnipresent.

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Dot:

James O'Keefe's infiltrated ‘antifa headquarters’ is a bookstore from ‘Portlandia’ — It's also closed. — Undercover video trickster James O'Keefe appears to be back at it with another “timely” video from his group of well-known fraudsters at Project Veritas.

Discussion: Mediaite