memeorandum: Mayorkas admits he ‘could have done a better job’ explaining mission of ‘disinformation’ board (Jessica Chasmar/Fox News)

11:00 AM ET, May 2, 2022

Top Items:

Mike Allen / Axios:

Scoop: Esper says Trump wanted to shoot protesters — Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper charges in a memoir out May 10 that former President Trump said when demonstrators were filling the streets around the White House following the death of George Floyd: “Can't you just shoot them?

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, Insider, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, The Moderate Voice and Washington Times

New York Times:

Russian Tycoon Criticized Putin's War. Retribution Was Swift. — Oleg Y. Tinkov was worth more than $9 billion in November, renowned as one of Russia's few self-made business tycoons after building his fortune outside the energy and minerals industries that were the playgrounds of Russian kleptocracy.

Discussion: Forbes, Today's Edition Newsletter, New York Post, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, UPI, Politico, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hill, Townhall, Breitbart, Associated Press, Washington Examiner and The Guardian

BBC:

Israel outrage at Sergei Lavrov's claim that Hitler was part Jewish — Israel has reacted with fury after Russia's foreign minister claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood”. — Sergei Lavrov made the comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as “Nazi” despite the fact that its president is Jewish.

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Post, The Hill, HotAir, The Times of Israel, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, New York Post, Breitbart, UPI, Radio Free Europe/Radio … and Fox News

Reuters:

Lavrov Compares Ukraine's Zelenskyy to Hitler, Who Also ‘Had Jewish Blood’ — Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview on Italian television on Sunday that the fact Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish does not negate the Nazi elements in his country.

Discussion: Politico, The Times of Israel, National Review, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Washington Post, The Times of Israel, Associated Press, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Insider, Al Jazeera, Mother Jones, ABC News, Forbes and NBC New York

CNN:

Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine — to find they've been remotely disabled — (CNN)Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership — and shipped it to Chechnya, according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area.

Discussion: Boing Boing and Ace of Spades HQ

New York Times:
Russia's top officer visited the front line to change the offensive's course, U.S. and Ukraine officials say.

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantean Glimpse, The Most Revolutionary Act, New York Post, Washington Times, Talking Points Memo, Mercury News, Reuters, The Guardian and CNN

New York Times:
Long lines at Ukrainian gas stations reveal just the tip of a looming crisis.

Discussion: ABC News and Washington Post

Washington Post:
Big majority of Americans back sanctions on Russia, aid to Ukraine, poll finds

Discussion: The Hill and ABC News

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all.

Discussion: Bob's Newsletter, UPI and Breitbart, more at Techmeme »

Peter Pomerantsev / The Atlantic:
‘We Can Only Be Enemies’ — When the Russian army first began shelling Lukashivka …

Discussion: The Dispatch

Jonathan Lemire / Politico:

Bidenworld wants to make the midterms more about Trump and hopes Elon Musk helps — President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats have struggled to overcome historical headwinds and worrisome economic trends in the lead-up to the midterms. — So aides are scheming up something else …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Political Currents, Associated Press and CNN

Scott Dworkin / Newsweek:

There's No Choice in the Midterms. The Democrats Are the Only Side Defending Democracy — , EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE DEMOCRATIC COALITION — As we get closer and closer to November's midterm elections, doomsday predictions about a bloodbath for Democrats have come to dominate the news.

Discussion: Salon

Axios:
Dems punch back against GOP's “culture war” attacks

Discussion: New York Times, American Greatness and RedState

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Opinion Can Democrats knock Republicans off their two-faced midterm strategy?

Discussion: Fox News, Vox, CNN, FiveThirtyEight, The Hill, Townhall, Responsible Statecraft, Supercreator, Washington Times and New Yorker

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

Disney vs. DeSantis Is the Future of Politics — Sign up for Derek's newsletter here. — The drama in Florida between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company has taken so many unusual turns in so little time that providing a truly straightforward account of what's transpired is not easy.

Discussion: Based and Reformed

Marc Caputo / NBC News:
DeSantis eyes big Florida win in November as a White House springboard

Discussion: Washington Post

Wall Street Journal:
Disney's Clash With Florida Has CEOs on Alert

Discussion: The Daily Wire

Washington Free Beacon:

The Nurse Ratched of Disinformation — When we first heard Alejandro Mayorkas announce a Department of Homeland Security “Disinformation Governance Board,” we thought he was trolling. Then he said Nina Jankowicz, best known as TikTok's “Mary Poppins of Disinformation,” would head it.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Townhall and The Gateway Pundit

Victor Davis Hanson / American Greatness: The New Disinformationists — We have seven more months before the midterms.

Jessica Chasmar / Fox News:
Mayorkas admits he ‘could have done a better job’ explaining mission of ‘disinformation’ board

Discussion: HotAir, Power Line and The Bulwark

CNN:

Georgia official frantically texted Mark Meadows as Trump badgered secretary of state to ‘find’ votes — (CNN)As Donald Trump badgered Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on an hour-long call to “find” the votes necessary to flip the battleground state to Trump's column after the 2020 election …

Discussion: Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Raw Story, New York Times, Peach State Politics … and Uniic Media

David Siders / Politico:

Trumpworld braces for ‘a couple of ugly nights’ in May — The first big test of former President Donald Trump's clout comes Tuesday in Ohio's bitterly fought Senate primary, where J.D. Vance surged into the lead after winning Trump's endorsement. — A Vance victory would remind his party that Trump is still king.

Discussion: The Hill, Punchbowl News, Fox News, Breitbart, WKBN-TV, CNN, Raw Story, No Tribe and Associated Press

Trafalgar Group:

OH Sen GOP April 29 - May 1, 2022 — See Report Here — Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discussion: Political Wire

New York Times:

What Democrats Don't Understand About Rural America — Ms. Maxmin, 29, is the youngest female state senator in Maine's history. Mr. Woodward ran her two campaigns. They are the authors of the forthcoming book “Dirt Road Revival,” from which this essay is adapted.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politico, The Federalist and The Hill

Sharyn Alfonsi / CBS News:

Parodying conspiracy theories with the Birds Aren't Real movement — There have always been conspiracy theories: the moon landings were fake, Elvis is alive, Paul is dead. But as disinformation has sprouted across the internet, more malicious conspiracy theories have entered our homes, workplaces and even the halls of Congress.

Discussion: Freddie deBoer

Gizmodo:

We're Publishing the Facebook Papers. Here's What They Say About the Ranking Algorithms That Control Your News Feed. — Facebook employees knew that a computer-curated feed increased the time users spent on the social network—and that it led to unhealthy behaviors. — Alerts

Mike Allen / Axios:

First look: Jared Kushner to publish White House memoir in August — Jared Kushner will be out Aug. 8 with “Breaking History: A White House Memoir,” with the publisher promising never-before-reported tales from the 2016 campaign, the Russia investigation, impeachment and COVID.

The Daily Beast:

Trump Organization Accused of Hiding Witness Who Knew if Trump Lied — There's a new witness in a civil case against the Trump Organization. And this witness could help show that Trump was lying. — Of all Donald Trump's legal problems, the lawsuit over the way his company's security guards beat …

Discussion: Raw Story

John Fritze / USA Today:

Supreme Court: Boston can't deny Christian flag if it flies other flags on City Hall flagpole — WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Boston may not deny a Christian group the ability to raise a flag at City Hall alongside secular organizations that are encouraged to do so to celebrate the city's diversity.