memeorandum: The ‘Handmaiden of Trump’: How Elise Stefanik Went From Moderate to MAGA (Charlotte Alter/TIME)

1:15 PM ET, May 8, 2021

Top Items:

Liz Cheney's months-long effort to turn Republicans from Trump threatens her reelection and ambitions. She says it's only beginning. — Rep. Liz Cheney had been arguing for months that Republicans had to face the truth about former president Donald Trump — that he had lied …

Discussion: The Hill, The Guardian, The Week, Raw Story, BizPac Review, DJHJ Media and JNS.org

Lisa Lerer / New York Times:

Marooned at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Still Has Iron Grip on Republicans — The vilification of Liz Cheney and a bizarre vote recount in Arizona showed the damage from his assault on a bedrock of democracy: election integrity. — Locked out of Facebook, marooned in Mar-a-Lago and mocked …

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Electoral-vote.com, Hackwhackers, Mother Jones and HuffPost

Brad Bannon / The Hill:

GOP is consumed by Trump conspiracy theories — Share to Facebook Share to Twitter — President Joe Biden's happy 100 days have been a sad time for Republicans. While the new president has unified Americans behind his proposals for building America back better, the Republican Party has been consumed by conspiracy theories.

Discussion: CNN and Morning Shots

Celine Castronuovo / The Hill:
Gaetz, Greene tout push to oust Cheney: 'Maybe we're the leaders'

Discussion: Associated Press, Crooks and Liars, New York Times, Mediaite and BizPac Review

Geoff Earle / Daily Mail:
Final nail in Liz's coffin? Cheney 'secretly orchestrated Washington Post op-ed by all ten living former Defense Secretaries - including her father …

Discussion: Breitbart, Michael-In-Norfolk and Washington Post

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:

Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Post reporters' phone records — The Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists' phone records and tried to obtain their email records over reporting they did in the early months of the Trump administration on Russia's role …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Elizabeth Warren's Book Shows She Has No Idea Why Her Campaign Failed — The 2020 Democratic primary took place in a disorienting atmosphere. The 2016 election, in which the supposedly unelectable candidate had defeated the supposedly safe one, seemed to overturn all the conventional assumptions …

Discussion: Scripting News

Heather Long / Washington Post:

It's not a ‘labor shortage.’ It's a great reassessment of work in America. — Hiring was much weaker than expected in April. Wall Street thinks it's a blip, but there could be much deeper rethinking of what jobs are needed and what workers want to do on a daily basis.

Discussion: Common Dreams, Althouse and CNBC

HuffPost:

Josh Hawley Says He Doesn't Know If He Saluted Any Rioters, So We Checked — The junior senator from Missouri has been saying he waved to peaceful demonstrators who had nothing to do with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. — On Jan. 6, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) walked outside the U.S. Capitol …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Jimmy Vielkind / Wall Street Journal:

Andrew Cuomo Investigation Expands as State Attorney General Looks at Aide's Calls — Inquiry into sexual-harassment allegations looks at whether a top adviser linked access to Covid-19 vaccines to support for the governor — ALBANY, N.Y.—The state attorney general's office has expanded …

Discussion: Bloomberg

Wall Street Journal:

Militants Attack Afghan Schoolgirls, Killing 25 People in Blast — The attack on Shiite area amplifies concerns that Afghanistan will slip into sectarian violence as U.S. withdraws — KABUL—Militants killed at least 25 people in three explosions targeting girls outside a school …

Miguel Bustillo / Wall Street Journal:

Cyberattack Forces Closure of Largest U.S. Refined-Fuel Pipeline — Operator of the Colonial Pipeline, the leading fuel conduit to the East Coast, said it had temporarily halted operations after discovering the threat Friday — The Colonial Pipeline, the main conduit carrying gasoline …

Discussion: National Review, Politico, New York Times, NPR, Forbes, FOX 46 Charlotte and Toledo Blade, more at Techmeme »

Steven Lemongello / Sun-Sentinel:

Controversial U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene find refuge at raucous joint rally in The Villages — By STEPHEN M. DOWELL / ORLANDO SENTINEL “,sourceId: “QPEEXRFYSZCJTHWTR7BW5I2DJE”, shareUrl: “https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sun-sentinel.com%2Fv isuals%2Fos- pictures-gaetz-greene-20210508 …

Yahoo News:

‘Conspiracy is hard’: Inside the Trump administration's secret plan to kill Qassem Soleimani — Three teams of Delta Force operators peered through their scopes from concealed locations at Baghdad International Airport last January, waiting for their target: Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful military commander.

Christopher F. Rufo / City Journal:

On the Ground … The Wokest Place on Earth — Disney mounts an internal campaign against “white privilege” and organizes racially segregated “affinity groups.” — The Social Order — The Walt Disney Corporation famously bills its amusement parks as “the happiest place on Earth,” …

Discussion: TheBlaze and National Review

Thomas Colson / Insider:

Trump's widely-mocked new blog shows he is now just ‘shouting into the void,’ say social media experts — Donald Trump's new blog shows he is now just “shouting into the void,” since being banned by Facebook and Twitter, say experts. — Trump has struggled for attention since the bans announced in January.

Discussion: Raw Story and Townhall

Charlotte Alter / TIME:

The ‘Handmaiden of Trump’: How Elise Stefanik Went From Moderate to MAGA — When Elise Stefanik was elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, she was hailed as the fresh face of the new GOP. Stefanik had run for office in her 20s, determined to modernize the Republican Party to attract …

Discussion: Associated Press, CNN and DJHJ Media

Heather Knight / San Francisco Chronicle:

Alison Collins wants $87 million for damage to her career. These SFUSD employees say she destroyed theirs — When San Francisco school board member Alison Collins sued her colleagues and her own district for $87 million, she described how they “sprinted to judgment” before coming after her …

Zeynep Tufekci / New York Times:

Why Covid's Airborne Transmission Was Acknowledged So Late — Dr. Tufekci is a contributing Opinion writer who has extensively examined the Covid-19 pandemic. — This article has been updated. — A few sentences have shaken a century of science. — A week ago, more than a year …

Discussion: The Week, eVille Times, KIFI-TV and TheBlaze

Olivia Nuzzi / New York Magazine:

How the White House Polices Language in Washington — At Wilmington Country Club recently, after playing his first round of golf as president, Joe Biden engaged in another cherished pastime: He made a gaffe. Speaking to reporters, Biden used the term crisis to refer to the state of the U.S.-Mexico border …

Discussion: Bloomberg and Althouse

JONATHAN TURLEY:

“Keep As Much Money As You Can”: Hunter Biden Disclosures Offer New Details On His Chinese Financial Dealings And Associations — There are new disclosures from Hunter Biden's laptop that offer an added perspective on his dealings with Chinese figures, including Patrick Ho …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Townhall, DJHJ Media and Breitbart

Joyce Vance / MSNBC:

Judge Amy Berman Jackson's Barr rebuke opens the door to DOJ accountability — Good government requires transparency. It's why we have a free press, enshrined in the First Amendment. It's why Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants …

Katrina Manson / Financial Times:

Has America had enough of war? … On a Tuesday evening in March, veterans of America's war in Afghanistan are sitting at an outdoor patio bar in Washington, DC. The presence on the menu of steak tartare, lobster ceviche and truffled chips is the only clue that this is a rarefied hotel in Georgetown …

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

Maryland A.G. To Appoint Panel To Audit Record of Chauvin Expert Witness Dr. David Fowler — Chauvin had two experts who testified — one (Barry Brodd) had his house targeted and the other (Dr. David Fowler) his professional license attacked. This will make it difficult if not impossible …

Detroit News:

James Craig will challenge Whitmer for governor — Detroit — James Craig, one of the longest-serving police chiefs in the city's history, will run in a bid to challenge Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in next year's gubernatorial race, a source close to the chief said Friday.

Discussion: WDIV-TV, Breitbart, WJBK-TV, National Review and Politico

New York Times:

As Republicans Advance Voting Laws, Democrats Scramble to Push Back — Lacking effective legislative or legal ways to stop Republicans from introducing new voting limits, Democrats are applying pressure on their allies in Washington and trying to energize supporters.

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo, Los Angeles Times, The Takeaway, Crooks and Liars and Common Dreams

BuzzFeed News:

The Oath Keepers Are Facing New Obstacles To Recruit And Raise Money Since The Capitol Riot — Despite an apparent surge in membership following the 2020 presidential election, the Oath Keepers are facing significant new obstacles to spreading their message and raising money since …

CNN:

Fact-checking Sen. Ron Johnson's anti-vaccine misinformation — Under the guise of “just asking the questions,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin spread anti-vaccine misinformation on a right-wing radio show Thursday, questioning why efforts were being made to vaccinate the general US population …

Discussion: Raw Story and PolitiFact

Hayes Brown / MSNBC:

Why a Black ‘Superman’ movie could be bigger than ‘Black Panther’ — Superman is an American legend. At this point, it may not be too much of a stretch to call him the American legend, an archetype from which all iterations of the superhero mythos flow. He is a homegrown demigod …

Discussion: Forbes

Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:

McDonald's Workers Will Strike for $15 an Hour in 15 Cities — Striking cashiers and cooks say there's an easy solution to McDonald's labor shortage: a $15 minimum wage. — Lauren Kaori Gurley — McDonald's cashiers and cooks in 15 U.S. cities will strike on May 19 …

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

As Virginia GOP readies for nominating convention, Trump looms large — RICHMOND — Republicans will pick their nominees for Virginia governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general Saturday at a novel and unpredictable convention with just one certainty: former president Donald Trump still dominates …

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, Vox and New York Times