memeorandum: A Belarusian battalion fights in Ukraine ‘for both countries’ freedom' (Max Bearak/Washington Post)

1:00 PM ET, April 1, 2022

Top Items:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Scoop: Jen Psaki planning to leave White House this spring for MSNBC gig — White House press secretary Jen Psaki is in exclusive talks with MSNBC to join the network after she leaves the White House around May, according to a source close to the matter.

Axios:

Scoop: New clue on Trump gap — On Jan. 6, 2021, during an apparent seven-hour gap in White House call logs that the House select committee investigating the attack is now trying to piece together, then-President Trump's executive assistant, Molly Michael, was absent for most of the day, three sources with direct knowledge tell Axios.

Discussion: VICE, HuffPost, Joe.My.God., CBS News, NBC News, Insider, Raw Story and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

CNN:

Official review of Trump phone logs from January 6 finds record is complete — Washington (CNN)In the seven hours during which White House records show no phone calls to or from then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, among the calls that are conspicuously absent is one Trump …

Discussion: Washington Post, HotAir, Who the Heck Is Jim Treacher?, Klaus Report, Raw Story, Breitbart, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Wire, Twitchy, Townhall, TheBlaze, New Republic, The Racket News, Power Line, YouTube, The Times of Israel, The Hill and Todd Starnes

Natalie Allison / Politico:

‘The baggage is too heavy’: GOP foes tee up last-ditch effort to sink Herschel Walker — Herschel Walker, the former football star who's armed with former President Donald Trump's enthusiastic endorsement, has been on a glide path to the GOP nomination since announcing his Senate bid in Georgia.

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Raw Story

CNN:

GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker has been overstating his academic achievements for years — (CNN)For years, Herschel Walker has told the same inspiring story: that he graduated in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia. He's told the story, according to a review …

Stephen Fowler / NPR:
Trump is struggling again in Georgia, with 2022 endorsements driven by his 2020 loss

Discussion: Washington Post and Raw Story

The Daily Beast:

Inside Ginni Thomas' ‘Insane’ Hiring Memos for Trump — Ginni Thomas' suggested hires included known bigots and at least one suspected foreign spy, sources say. — Years before she became one of then-President Donald Trump's most prominent coup supporters, Ginni Thomas was already notorious …

Discussion: Insider, Rolling Stone, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

Joseph Klein / Front Page Magazine:
The Left Smears Virginia Thomas to Delegitimize Justice Thomas

Discussion: Streams of Crunchiness, Rolling Stone and TMZ.com

Libby Cathey / ABC News:

Biden on jobs report: ‘Americans are back to work’ — March marks the 11th consecutive month of job growth above 400,000. — President Joe Biden touted the nation's economic recovery on Friday while also acknowledging the financial hardships currently intensified by the war in Ukraine.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Mediaite

Abha Bhattarai / Washington Post:
U.S. economy adds 431,000 jobs in March

Discussion: New York Times, MSNBC, Associated Press, CBS News, Joe.My.God. and Outside the Beltway

Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Economy added 431,000 jobs in March despite worries over slowing growth

Discussion: Florida Politics, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, TheStreet and Deadline

Sarah Chaney Cambon / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. March Jobs Report Shows Strong Hiring Momentum

Discussion: UrduPoint News, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Associated Press and Forbes

Mike Allen / Axios:

Peter Baker, Susan Glasser to publish sweeping history of Trump presidency — Peter Baker and Susan Glasser will be out Sept. 20 with a sweeping history of the Trump presidency, “The Divider,” billed as “an ambitious first cut at this historical moment.” — The backdrop: Baker …

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:
Trump ripped off his White House photographer because he rips off everyone who gets close to him

Discussion: The Guardian, IJR and YouTube, more at Mediagazer »

Matt Labash / Slack Tide:

Slap Happy: Who Needs Punched In The Mouth? — Generally speaking, I don't wish to burden you with my problems. Just look at you, you poor bastards - you have enough of your own. Life is hard. And it only gets easier when you get six feet under it, which brings a whole new set of complications.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Raw Story and Salon

Jonathan Capehart / Washington Post:
Will Smith didn't slap just Chris Rock

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

New York Times:

Russia's War Lacks a Battlefield Commander, U.S. Officials Say — WASHINGTON — Russia is running its military campaign against Ukraine out of Moscow, with no central war commander on the ground to call the shots, according to American officials who have studied the five-week-old war.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, New York Post, HotAir, Hennessy's View, CBS News and The Star News Network

David Rothkopf / The Daily Beast:
How Russia's War Revealed a Blindspot in U.S. Intelligence

Discussion: Bloomberg, UPI, Associated Press, Ag Data News, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, Aearnur's Newsletter and Daily Briefing

Associated Press:
Live updates | Australia sending armored vehicles to Ukraine

Discussion: Hellenica, New York Times and New York Times

Michael Ames / New Yorker:

A New Video Shows a Missing American Hostage Pleading for Help in Taliban Custody — Senator Tammy Duckworth called for the Biden Administration to free an Afghan drug trafficker in exchange for the release of the American engineer Mark Frerichs, who was kidnapped in Afghanistan.

Discussion: CNN and WTOP News

Moriah Balingit / Washington Post:

‘A cry for help’: CDC warns of a steep decline in teen mental health … The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of an accelerating mental health crisis among adolescents, with more than 4 in 10 teens reporting that they feel “persistently sad or hopeless,” …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Reuters, Centers for Disease Control … and Political Wire

Washington Post:

Amazon workers vote to join a union in New York in historic move … NEW YORK — Workers voted Friday to unionize an Amazon Staten Island warehouse, a historic decision that marks the first successful U.S. effort at the e-commerce giant and a major victory for the domestic labor movement.

Discussion: New York Times, CNBC, The Verge, Bloomberg, The Hill, NPR, Raw Story and Kevin Drum, more at Techmeme »

BBC:

Gerard Depardieu: Kremlin responds to actor's Putin criticism — The Kremlin has hit back after French actor Gerard Depardieu accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “crazy, unacceptable excesses” in Ukraine. — Depardieu said the Russian people were not responsible for their president's behaviour.

Discussion: Reuters, Washington Examiner, Politico and Raw Story

Catherine Lucey / Wall Street Journal:

Support for 15-Week Abortion Ban Outweighs Opposition, WSJ Poll Finds — Majority think abortion should be legal in most cases, but many back 15-week ban being considered by Supreme Court — WASHINGTON—More American voters favor the idea of a 15-week abortion ban than oppose it …

Discussion: Forbes and Power Line

NPS.gov:

100 year-old National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin retires after remarkable career — WASHINGTON - Betty Reid Soskin, the National Park Service's (NPS) oldest active ranger, retired today after a decade and a half of sharing her personal experiences and the efforts of women …

Discussion: The Hill, Hill Heat and Fox 8 Cleveland WJW

Todd C. Frankel / Washington Post:

How Disney fell flat in fight over LGBTQ talk in Florida's schools … Disney employs 38 lobbyists to press its interests inside Florida's state capitol complex in Tallahassee. With its Orlando theme park empire and roughly 80,000 workers, the company already wields considerable influence in a state closely tied to tourism.

Discussion: HuffPost and Salon

Steve Contorno / CNN:

Ron DeSantis signals support for stripping Disney of special self-governing status as feud escalates — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signaled support for stripping Disney of its 55-year-old special status that allows the entertainment company to operate as an independent government around its Orlando-area theme park.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze, New York Post, Morning Shots, Joe.My.God., CBS Miami, FEN and Florida Politics

Julia Terruso / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Conor Lamb says John Fetterman's afraid to debate, calling shotgun incident ‘a huge problem’ — U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb issued a direct attack, not yet seen in the Democratic primary.Lamb accused frontrunner, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, of dodging scrutiny on a controversial incident from his past …

Kimberly Wehle / The Bulwark:

A Federal Judge Found That Trump “Likely” Committed Serious Crimes—Now What? — “A coup in search of a legal theory.” — According to an order issued on Monday by a federal judge, Donald Trump “likely” committed multiple crimes in connection with the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Raw Story

Ari Shapiro / NPR:

The far-right and environmentalism overlap is bigger than you think — and growing — At first glance, the modern environmental movement and the far-right movement - including anti-immigrant and white supremacist groups - might appear to be on opposing sides of the political ideology spectrum.

Discussion: Raw Story

Max Bearak / Washington Post:

A Belarusian battalion fights in Ukraine ‘for both countries’ freedom' — KYIV — For more than a decade, Pavel Kulazhanka has sought to overthrow the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko in his native Belarus. — First, it was simple street protests. Then, sabotaging train lines and bombing military outposts.

Discussion: Vox

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Last Defense of DeSantis's Anti-Vaccine Campaign Goes Poof … This week, Chris Persaud of the Palm Beach Post reported out a devastating revelation about the impact of Ron DeSantis's war on vaccines. The story has received barely any attention in the national press …

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

D.C. attorney general expands Jan. 6 lawsuit — The suit is one of a handful of major efforts by those affected by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to seek damages from its most prominent participants. — The attorney general of Washington D.C. has expanded his lawsuit against members of the Jan. 6 …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, WTOP News and Raw Story