memeorandum: Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates and the Birth of GOP Paranoia (John Boehner/Politico)

1:55 PM ET, April 2, 2021

Top Items:

Justice Dept. Inquiry Into Matt Gaetz Said to Be Focused on Cash Paid to Women — The congressman and a former official in Florida sent money to the women using cash apps, receipts showed. — WASHINGTON — A Justice Department investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz …

Jose Pagliery / The Daily Beast:

These Text Messages Pointed the Feds to Matt Gaetz — Rep. Matt Gaetz, now facing a reported probe into a pay-for-sex scheme, came to investigators' attention after an alleged off-hours visit to a Florida tax agency. — In late January 2020, U.S. Secret Service agents received information …

Discussion: Politico, How To Live BULLSHIT-FREE, New York Post, The Daily Dot, Raw Story, Balloon Juice, Insider, HotAir, POLITICUSUSA, Talking Points Memo, The Hill and Political Wire

CNN:

Gaetz showed nude photos of women he said he'd slept with to lawmakers, sources tell CNN — (CNN)Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican being investigated by the Justice Department over sex trafficking allegations, made a name for himself when he arrived on Capitol Hill as a conservative firebrand …

Juliegrace Brufke / The Hill:
Gaetz says he won't resign — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told The Hill on Friday he has no plans …

Discussion: Associated Press

Colby Hall / Mediaite:
CNN's Dana Bash 'Can't Repeat' on TV All the Nasty Things GOP Members of Congress Are Privately Texting Her About Matt Gaetz

Discussion: The Daily Caller and HillReporter.com

Orlando Sentinel:
Joel Greenberg, Matt Gaetz visited closed Seminole tax office together on weekend, source says

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Daily Beast and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Bob Brigham / Raw Story:
Matt Gaetz paid prostitutes using Cash App and Apple Pay — and there are receipts: NYT bombshell

Discussion: New York Times, The Intellectualist, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, New York Post and Insider

ABC News:
Feds looking at alleged payments Rep. Matt Gaetz made to women and online solicitation: Sources

Discussion: Discourse Blog, The Intellectualist and Daily Kos

John Boehner / Politico:

Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates and the Birth of GOP Paranoia — In the 2010 midterm election, voters from all over the place gave President Obama what he himself called “a shellacking.” And oh boy, was it ever. You could be a total moron and get elected just by having an R next to your name …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Hill, Insider, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Kevin Drum, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, CNN and Forbes

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Boehner unloads — DRIVING THE DAY — The absolute must-read of the day is POLITICO Mag's 2,300-word exclusive excerpt of JOHN BOEHNER'S scorching new book, “ON THE HOUSE,” which will be out April 13 from St. Martin's Press. — We knew this was going to be juicy ever since we saw the cover last month.

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, Washington Post and Associated Press

Axios:
John Boehner unloads on Republican “crazy caucus” in new book excerpt

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Insider, The Hill, Raw Story, Washington Post and Mediaite

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:
John Boehner's I-Was-Just-a-Feather-in-the-Gales-of- Crazy Act Doesn't Work on Those of Us Who Were There

Discussion: Insider, The Hill and Talking Points Memo

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:

Border crossings in March jumped to highest level in 15 years, data show — More than 171,000 migrants were taken into custody along the U.S. southern border in March, the highest monthly total since 2006, according to preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data reviewed by The Washington Post.

Discussion: The Hill, CNN, New York Times, NBC News, National Review and The Daily Caller

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:
Border officials say more people are sneaking past them as crossings soar and agents are overwhelmed

Discussion: Fox News, Townhall, The Federalist and The Daily Caller

Patricia Cohen / New York Times:

No Federal Taxes for Dozens of Big, Profitable Companies — FedEx and Nike are among those found to have avoided U.S. tax liability for three straight years. — Just as the Biden administration is pushing to raise taxes on corporations, a new study finds that at least 55 of America's largest paid …

Discussion: Washington Post, Mock Paper Scissors, ITEP and Just The News

Stephanie Clegg / ITEP:
55 Corporations Paid $0 in Federal Taxes on 2020 Profits

Discussion: Insider and Common Dreams

Emily Jacobs / New York Post:

Hunter Biden says laptop at center of Post exposé could ‘absolutely’ belong to him — Hunter Biden said the laptop at the center of The Post's explosive exposé last year “absolutely” could belong to him, he revealed in an interview Friday. — In a sit-down with CBS This Morning …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, HotAir, RedState, Sean Hannity, JONATHAN TURLEY, Breitbart and Twitchy

CBS News:

Hunter Biden opens up about family intervention and addresses laptop reports — President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is opening up in his first TV interviews since making headlines over his work in Ukraine, his finances and his struggle with addiction. In separate interviews with …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, New York Post, The Federalist, JONATHAN TURLEY, IJR, The Gateway Pundit, Deadline and Breitbart

Ruth Bloomfield / Wall Street Journal:

Scottish Castles Are Rare, Huge and Very Expensive — Owners share the ups and downs of living in, and selling, these pieces of history — PORTRAITS OF James Ramsay's forebears line the walls of his Scottish castle, and although it is 36 times the size of a typical British home, there are plenty of ancestors to fill the space.

New York Times:

What Georgia's Voting Law Really Does — The New York Times analyzed the state's new 98-page voting law and identified 16 key provisions that will limit ballot access, potentially confuse voters and give more power to Republican lawmakers. — Go page by page through Georgia's new voting law …

Discussion: CBS News, CNN, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Letters from an American and Election Law Blog

Charles Sykes / MSNBC:

Trump immigration architect Stephen Miller wants the media to rehab his image — Stephen Miller, the arch-white nationalist of the Trump administration, has launched his post-White House career with a flurry of media interviews, cable television hits and what amounts to a full-fledged shadow war against the Biden administration.

Phil Mattingly / CNN:
White House tells Democratic investigators it no longer has Trump White House Capitol attack documents

Discussion: Political Wire and KRDO

Roni Caryn Rabin / New York Times:

Vaccinated Americans are free to travel but should still take precautions, the C.D.C. says. — Americans who are fully vaccinated can travel “at low risk to themselves,” both within the United States and internationally, but they must continue to take precautions like wearing a mask in public …

Discussion: Washington Post, Bloomberg, ABC News, Fox News, National Review, TheBlaze, Boston Herald, CNN, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, UPI, HotAir and Political Wire

Apoorva Mandavilli / New York Times:
Can Vaccinated People Spread the Virus? We Don't Know, Scientists Say.

Discussion: RedState, Commentary Magazine, Mediaite, HotAir, New York Post, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller and Washington Examiner

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Exclusive: Fresh data reveal how Trump made inroads with Latinos — A new analysis of U.S. voters suggests — counterintuitively — that the coronavirus pandemic may have helped drive former President Donald Trump's surprising increase in support from Latinos last November.

Discussion: Washington Post

Wall Street Journal:

Iran Nuclear Deal Participants to Meet in Vienna Next Week — President Biden has said he wants the U.S. to return to the deal that U.S. exited in 2018 — Negotiations to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will take place among all parties in Vienna next week, senior western diplomats said Friday …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Reuters, Defense One, Sean Hannity, Common Dreams, CNN, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, KRDO and The Week

Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
U.S. and Iran Agree to Indirect Talks on Returning to Nuclear Deal

Discussion: Responsible Statecraft, The Times of Israel, UPI and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:

The U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs in March as recovery gains steam again — The U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs in March, the highest level in months, as vaccine distribution and declining caseloads helped accelerate a recovery in the labor market. — The unemployment rate edged …

Discussion: New York Times, Kevin Drum, Eater NY and CBS News

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:

GOP lawmaker's own family wants him investigated for Capitol riot ties and then charged — Working in conjunction with the conservative Republican Accountability Project, the sibling of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) are calling upon the U.S. government to investigate their brother …

Discussion: HuffPost

Eric Umansky / ProPublica:

My Kids' School Closed Again. So I Started Calling Experts. — Many New York City public schools have been repeatedly closed because of two positive COVID-19 tests, even without evidence of in-school spread. Experts call it “crazy.” And it's driving me nuts. … Coronavirus

Wall Street Journal:

Woke and Weak CEOs — They're denouncing Georgia's election law, but have they read it? — By The Editorial Board — The public debate on Georgia's new voting law has become a stew of falsehood, propaganda and panic. Part of the blame lies with the partisan distortion of Democrats …

Discussion: Fox News, Talking Points Memo, Daily Mail, Grabien News and CBS News

Scott McKay / The American Spectator:
Ed Bastian Keeps Digging

Discussion: RedState, TheBlaze and The Western Journal

Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz / The Cut:

Catching Up With NYC's “Vaccine Daddy” Huge Ma helped thousands of New Yorkers get vaccinated. Now he's using his platform to combat anti-Asian racism. — It's the first warm day of the year in New York, one of those where the air smells of daffodils and everything feels stickier and a bit sexier than it ought to.

Discussion: VTDigger

Glenn Thrush / New York Times:

A global aid program championed by Ivanka Trump has serious problems, a report finds. — One of Ivanka Trump's top initiatives — a legislative overhaul of programs assisting small businesses run by women around the world — was so haphazardly managed by a federal agency that an independent watchdog …

Discussion: Breitbart, Daily Kos, Insider and Vanity Fair

San Diego Union-Tribune:

A USD law professor is under investigation. Instead, his right to free speech must be protected. — Volokh is a professor of law at UCLA School of Law. He lives in Los Angeles. Goldstein is a lawyer at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. He lives in Virginia.

Discussion: Instapundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, TaxProf Blog, FIRE and Reason

Joshua Tait / The Bulwark:

The Long History of Fighting Over the Term ‘Conservative’ — The postwar circle of New Conservatives tried to claim the word—but they lost and were largely forgotten. — Late in 1953 Clinton Rossiter cycled through his rolodex. The Cornell political scientist, known for his books …

Josefa Velasquez / THE CITY:

Embattled Cuomo Pushes Skyline-Altering Penn Station Real Estate Plan as Critics Mobilize — Even amid multiple scandals, a weakened Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to railroad through a city-changing land deal that would reshape Manhattan's skyline. And the project's detractors, until very recently, were few and relatively muted.