memeorandum: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting (Casey Newton/The Verge)

9:40 AM ET, May 4, 2021

Top Items:

CNN:

Cheney: What Trump did ‘is a line that cannot be crossed’ — Liz Cheney hits back at Trump: 2020 election was not stolen — Washington (CNN)Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Monday her party cannot accept the “poison” of the idea that the 2020 election was stolen and should not …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, NBC News, The Hill, Associated Press, Raw Story, The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, HuffPost, HotAir, USA Today and Insider

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Elected Republicans are lying with open eyes. Their excuses are disgraceful. — “Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!” — “Henry IV,” Part 1, Act 5 — For the activist base of the Republican Party, affirming that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential contest has become …

Discussion: HuffPost, Piecebusiness, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Townhall, CNN, Daily Kos and Outside the Beltway

Alayna Treene / Axios:

Scoop: GOP wants to replace Cheney with another woman — House Republicans are moving closer to ousting Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership, and are already considering replacements — including Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), congressional aides tell Axios.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Insider, IJR, Balloon Juice, CNN, New York Post, Breitbart, The Moderate Voice, New York Times and Politico

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Tucker Carlson has a new GOP target — DRIVING THE DAY — BREAKING THIS MORNING — The NRCC announced a few minutes ago that it added 10 House Democrats to its list of takeover targets, bringing the total to 57. It's a show of confidence that the 2022 environment …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill and New York Times

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

When will Liz Cheney and the GOP break up? — Republican lawmakers can remain in good standing these days and not care about deficits. They can retain their Republican bona fides even if they wear a mask and encourage vaccination (or not). They can be for free trade or tariffs …

Discussion: CNN, New Republic, LifeZette, Bloomberg and Mediaite

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Why Has Fox News Completely Ignored Trump and Liz Cheney's Battle Over ‘The Big Lie’? — The biggest political story in the past 24 hours has been the back and forth between former President Donald Trump and Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking member of the House Republicans, over the meaning of …

Discussion: LifeZette

Melanie Zanona / Politico:
The pro-Trump Republican trying to upstage Cheney

Discussion: Raw Story, Fox News, Slate, NBC News and Vanity Fair

The Hill:
Allies of GOP leader vow to oust Liz Cheney

Discussion: Mediaite, Breitbart, TheBlaze, Newsbusters, Talking Points Memo and The Guardian

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

How three major news organizations all got a story about Rudy Giuliani wrong — Incorrect information from government sources apparently led three separate news organizations to publish the same erroneous claim about Rudolph W. Giuliani last week that all three later corrected.

Discussion: The Federalist, Twitchy, New York Post, NewsHounds blog and The Western Journal

Glenn Greenwald:

Corporate News Outlets Again “Confirm” the Same False Story, While Many Refuse to Correct it — Journalists with major outlets know they spread a false, retracted story about the FBI and Giuliani but refuse to remove it, because their real job is spreading disinformation.

Discussion: Twitchy

Eric Boehlert / PRESS RUN:
The Washington Post owes Biden an apology

Discussion: Blue Virginia and CNN

Robert Mendick / Telegraph:

MI6 spy Christopher Steele ‘produced second dossier on Donald Trump for FBI’ — The dossier is believed to be raw intelligence that makes claims of Russian meddling and sex tapes — The former MI6 spy Christopher Steele produced a second dossier for the FBI on Donald Trump while he was in the White House, sources told The Telegraph.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Raw Story

BuzzFeed News: Flynn, Bannon, Manafort, Ivanka: Private Emails From Inside The Mueller Investigation

Sinéad Baker / Insider:
Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele produced a 2nd dossier on Trump while he was president, report says

Discussion: HotAir

Jaclyn Peiser / Washington Post:

Pennsylvania man admits he voted for Trump with his dead mom's name: ‘I listened to too much propaganda’ — Weeks before Election Day, Bruce Bartman mailed his mother's absentee ballot with a check mark next to President Donald Trump's name. — The problem was, his mother had been dead since 2008.

Colin Kalmbacher / Law & Crime: ‘I Listened to Too Much Propaganda’: Trump Voter Gets Probation After Casting Ballot on Dead Mom's Behalf and Registering Another Dead Woman as a Republican in Pa.

CNN:
Pennsylvania man sentenced to 5-year probation after voting in name of dead mother

Discussion: Raw Story and Political Wire

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting … I. — At 8AM PT on Friday, a bleary-eyed Basecamp CEO Jason Fried gathered his remote workforce together on Zoom to apologize. Four days earlier, he had thrown the company into turmoil by announcing that …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Breitbart, more at Techmeme »

CNN:

CIA briefing to lawmakers on suspected energy attacks turned contentious — A briefing on suspected energy attacks on US intelligence officers turned contentious last week, two sources told CNN, as senators demanded more information about the mysterious incidents from the CIA and accountability for how the agency has handled them.

Discussion: Politico

Gregg Re / Fox News:
Samantha Power appears on Flynn unmasking list seven times, despite testifying she had ‘no recollection’ of doing so

Discussion: Breitbart

Noga Tarnopolsky / Washington Post:

Netanyahu is desperate, unhinged and totally uninterested in governing — Unable to claim a mandate, the Israeli prime minister is trying to cling to power anyway — In the end, it took only four days to settle a matter that has hovered over Israel for years: How far would Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

Danny Hakim / New York Times:

NRA Leadership and Bankruptcy Assailed by U.S. Trustee — In a rare move, the trustee, part of the Justice Department, called for the dismissal of the N.R.A.'s bankruptcy filing or the appointment of an outside monitor. — The National Rifle Association's hopes of end-running a legal challenge …

Discussion: Raw Story

Tom Hamburger / Washington Post:
U.S. trustee opposes NRA bankruptcy petition in blow to gun rights group

Discussion: CNN, Al Jazeera and Political Wire

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Yamiche Alcindor Is Named Host of ‘Washington Week’ on PBS — She succeeds Robert Costa at a program best known as the longtime home of the anchor Gwen Ifill. — Last month, when Yamiche Alcindor learned she would become the next moderator of the PBS current-affairs show “Washington Week …

Discussion: The Hill

Jack Shafer / Politico:

Facebook Can't Cure Trump's Chronic Low Energy — This Wednesday morning, an internal tribunal at Facebook will render its verdict of whether the social media site's January eviction of Donald Trump from its electronic premises will stand or if he will be allowed to resume posting there.

Discussion: Washington Post, Althouse, Associated Press, Raw Story and Vanity Fair

Libby Cathey / ABC News:

Caitlyn Jenner brands herself a ‘compassionate disrupter’ in 1st ad seeking to recall Gov. Newsom — The political newcomer has distanced herself from former President Donald Trump. — Caitlyn Jenner releases first ad in bid for California governor — Caitlyn Jenner releases …

Discussion: USA Today, Mother Jones, Fox News, Washington Examiner and CNN

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

What the Republican Party Needs vs. What It Wants — A failed congressional candidate in Texas told Republicans truths they needed to hear, but didn't want to. — Welcome to the Tuesday, a weekly newsletter about thus and such and whatnot, language and politics and culture, and other things.

Hayes Brown / MSNBC:

How Democrats can get a voting rights bill through the Senate — Senate Democrats have their marching orders: The caucus leadership has vowed to pass a national voting rights bill that will curb changes Republicans have made in the states that will make it harder to vote for too many Americans.

Discussion: Vox, Washington Monthly and Washington Post

New York Times:

The F.D.A. is set to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those 12-15 years old by early next week. — The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorize use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in adolescents 12 to 15 years old by early next week, according to federal officials familiar …

Carolyn Y. Johnson / Washington Post:
FDA appears poised to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adolescents by next week

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Forbes, Outside the Beltway and KTVX-TV

Tim Graham / Newsbusters:

STUDY: PolitiFact's 8 Times as Likely to Defend Biden Than Check His Facts — Text to Speech Font Size — PolitiFact insists that they are nonpartisan fact checkers. “The PolitiFact agenda is - don't take sides with any politician or party,” claimed editor Angie Drobnic Holan.

The American Mind:

The Civics War — The Biden Administration holds up illiberal icon Kendi as a model of civic education — The Biden administration wants to turn civics education into something wholly at odds with the American tradition. As observers Max Eden and Stanley Kurtz have noted …

Washington Post:

Redistricting might gain Republicans a few seats in Congress. Their real gains will be in state legislatures. — In some states, GOP supermajorities may allow them to ignore Democratic governors — The U.S. Census Bureau has released the long-awaited results of the 2020 Census …

Discussion: Democracy Docket

Max Greenwood / The Hill:

Democrats confront difficult prospects for midterms — Share to Facebook Share to Twitter — House Democrats are beginning to confront the challenging reality awaiting them in the 2022 midterm elections amid a spate of retirements and dim redistricting prospects.

Discussion: Politico, The Dispatch, CNN, Daily Kos, LifeZette, The Week, Bloomberg and Breitbart

John Nichols / The Nation:

Expand the US House of Representatives — Rigidly sticking with a membership of 435 diminishes representation, decreases diversity, and undermines democracy. — With every decennial Census for the past century, the United States has become less of a representative democracy.

Haley BeMiller / Green Bay Press-Gazette:

Radisson gunman threatened former boss before deadly shooting but allowed by court to possess firearms — ASHWAUBENON - A gunman who killed two people and injured a third at Duck Creek Kitchen + Bar was under a restraining order, but still allowed to possess firearms, after he threatened his former boss.

Discussion: The Hill and New York Post

Stephen Fowler / Georgia Public Broadcasting:

Democrat Bee Nguyen Announces Run For Secretary Of State — Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen is running for Georgia Secretary of State. — Democratic State Rep. Bee Nguyen is running for Secretary of State, the first Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Brad Raffensperger …

Discussion: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Rachel Nuwer / New York Times:

MDMA Reaches Next Step Toward Approval for Treatment — A new study shows that MDMA, known as Ecstasy or Molly, can bring relief when paired with talk therapy to those with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. — In an important step toward medical approval, MDMA, the illegal drug popularly known …

Discussion: The Week

Dan Diamond / Washington Post:

The coronavirus vaccine skeptics who changed their minds — The White House and public health experts study the Americans who went from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ on shots — Kim Simmons, a 61-year-old small-business owner in Illinois, vividly remembers the moment she went from vaccine skeptic to vaccine-ready …

Discussion: Mediaite

Amanda Macias / CNBC:

Florida Gov. DeSantis suspends all remaining Covid restrictions: ‘We are no longer in a state of emergency’ — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order on Monday that immediately suspends the state's remaining Covid-19 public health restrictions.