memeorandum: Herschel Walker, other candidates test skipping debates (Sudhin Thanawala/Associated Press)

3:30 PM 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: Washington Examiner, HuffPost, Raw Story, Mediaite, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Truth and Consequences, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, USA Today, CNN, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Insider, Rolling Stone, The Moderate Voice, Uniic Media, Washington Times and Mock Paper Scissors

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: ABC News, HotAir, Townhall, Washington Post, Fox News, RedState, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, The Status Kuo, American Greatness, Political Currents, Wide World of News, Opinion Today, Associated Press and CNN

Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:

Holy Crap, Look at All These Fancy Nerds (PHOTOS) — Over the weekend, America's journalists toasted themselves at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and at numerous afterparties and brunches in our nation's capital. They dressed up, mingled with celebs, and posed for the cameras like a bunch of fancy nerds.

Discussion: Politico

Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:

Judge rejects RNC bid to block email, fundraising data from Jan. 6 panel — House probes whether Trump, RNC profited from and stoked violence through false, inflammatory claims of election fraud — A federal judge late Sunday rejected the Republican National Committee's bid to block …

Discussion: CNN, Politico, RedState, Raw Story, Rolling Stone and Election Law Blog

Scott Dworkin / Newsweek:
There's No Choice in the Midterms. The Democrats Are the Only Side Defending Democracy

Discussion: Salon, BizPac Review, Washington Post, Axios and New Yorker

Cami Mondeaux / Washington Examiner:
Judge rejects RNC lawsuit seeking to block Jan. 6 committee subpoena

Discussion: Politico, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, NBC News, Bloomberg, HotAir, Human Events, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, UPI, Reuters, Law & Crime, The Hill, CBS News and Washington Times

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook PM: Jan. 6 committee looking into potential Trump pardons — PARDON US, BUT WE WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU — The Jan. 6 select committee today requested testimony from three more House Republicans who are connected to former President DONALD TRUMP's push to overturn …

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, Bloomberg and Breitbart

BBC:
Israel outrage at Sergei Lavrov's claim that Hitler was part Jewish

Andrew Solender / Axios:
Jan. 6 panel seeks info from three GOP House members

Discussion: Washington Post, CBS News, Associated Press, CNN, Raw Story and NPR

New York Times:
Russian Tycoon Criticized Putin's War. Retribution Was Swift.

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, The Hill, Today's Edition Newsletter, Forbes, New York Post, Washington Times and Wall Street Journal

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

Discussion: New York Times, Yahoo News, The Atlantic, ABC News, The Hill, The Guardian, Stars & Stripes, New York Times and Reuters

CNN:
Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine — to find they've been remotely disabled

Discussion: The Dispatch, Boing Boing, ABC News, Washington Examiner, Ace of Spades HQ, New York Post and The Times of Israel

Rebecca Beitsch / The Hill:
Jan. 6 panel wants testimony from GOP lawmakers Brooks, Biggs, Jackson

Discussion: NBC News, Kansas Reflector, Insider, USA Today, CNBC, Roll Call, Rolling Stone, Talking Points Memo and Political Wire

NBC News:

A note to our readers — To our readers: — A review by NBC News has found 11 articles written by a reporter over the last year that did not meet our standards for original material. The articles contained passages from other news organizations that were used without attribution.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill and Twitchy, more at Mediagazer »

Devin Dwyer / ABC News:

Supreme Court rules for group in dispute with Boston over flying Christian Flag — The court ruled the city of Boston violated the group's First Amendment rights. — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the city of Boston violated the First Amendment when it denied a civic group …

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, UPI, CNBC, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, SCOTUSblog, NBC News, RedState and CNN

Andrew Chung / Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court backs Christian group in Boston flag flap

Discussion: CBS News, The Daily Caller, The Western Journal and National Review

Associated Press:
Supreme Court rules against Boston in Christian flag case

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Daily Wire, New York Post, New York Times and Bloomberg

John Fritze / USA Today: Supreme Court: Boston can't deny Christian flag if it flies other flags on City Hall flagpole

Natalie Allison / Politico:

Arizona GOP Senate frontrunner loses lead amid air assault — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has fallen out of first place in the state's Republican Senate primary, a slide that corresponds with aggressive advertising spending by his opponents — and Donald Trump's ire.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Arizona Republic

David Siders / Politico:
Trumpworld braces for ‘a couple of ugly nights’ in May

Discussion: Bloomberg, Punchbowl News, Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, No Tribe, The Entermation Age, Fox News, Raw Story, The Hill, Breitbart, Mock Paper Scissors and WKBN-TV

Adam Wren / Politico: The GOP senator who faulted Trump for Jan. 6 — and lived to tell about it

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

This Is How America's Culture War Death Spirals — 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: Vanity Fair and Based and Reformed

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

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, BizPac Review and Raw Story

CNN:

Georgia official 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: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CNBC, Peach State Politics …, Raw Story and New York Times

Tamar Hallerman / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Fulton prosecutors to begin jury selection for Trump probe

Discussion: Washington Examiner, POLITICUSUSA, CBS News, Raw Story and Wall Street Journal

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Tucker Carlson Is a White Nationalist, and Conservatives Are Okay With It … Ten years ago, National Review fired longtime contributor John Derbyshire over a column urging white and Asian American parents to warn their children that Black people posed a danger to them.

Discussion: HuffPost, more at Mediagazer »

Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
If you are in business with Fox News, you are on the hook for its white nationalism

Discussion: Morning Shots, The Hill, Political Junkie and Eschaton, more at Mediagazer »

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: New York Magazine, HotAir, Breitbart and Political Wire

Trafalgar Group: OH Gov GOP April 29 - May 1, 2022

Caroline Kitchener / Washington Post:

The next frontier for the antiabortion movement: A nationwide ban — Advocates and some GOP lawmakers have started mobilizing around potential federal legislation to outlaw abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — Leading antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress have been meeting behind …

Discussion: Jezebel and Activate

Alan Feuer / New York Times:

Former N.Y.P.D. Officer Convicted of Assault in Jan. 6 Case — Thomas Webster was found guilty in federal court after assaulting a Washington, D.C., police officer with a metal flagpole during the riot at the Capitol last year. — Give this article- - - Read in app

Discussion: CBS News, Washington Post, USA Today, NBC News, BuzzFeed News, Associated Press, Insider, CNN, UPI, New York Post, Al Jazeera, Balloon Juice, NBC New York and Political Wire

Sudhin Thanawala / Associated Press:

Herschel Walker, other candidates test skipping debates — ATLANTA (AP) — Herschel Walker is expected to skip a second debate against his Republican rivals for a crucial U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday after missing the first one. — Ted Budd has skipped four Republican primary debates …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir, Georgia Recorder, POLITICUSUSA and WPRI-TV

Shawn McCreesh / New York Magazine:

Everybody Used to Be In On the Same Joke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner — I was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night — pushing rubbery food around my plate while President Biden admonished that “American democracy is not a reality show.”

Discussion: Power Line

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.

Discussion: HuffPost, The Hill and New York Post

Joseph Zeballos-Roig / Insider:

Kyrsten Sinema nearly walked out on Biden last year during a heated exchange over his economic agenda, book says — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema almost walked out on Biden last year in a tense exchange over Build Back Better. — The Arizona Democrat was angry with Biden for disclosing her spending demands in a White House meeting.

Discussion: National Review

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