memeorandum: J.D. Vance Is a Dangerous Authoritarian (Jonathan Chait/New York Magazine)

2:10 PM ET, May 4, 2022

Top Items:

J.D. Vance's Trump-like effect — If J.D. Vance follows his Tuesday night victory in Ohio's Senate primary with a general election win in November he'll arrive in a Washington filled with enemies and be seen as arguably the hardest-edged populist nationalist in the Senate GOP.

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

J.D. Vance Is a Dangerous Authoritarian … The GOP Establishment is shocked and appalled that J.D. Vance won the race to the bottom that was the Ohio Republican Senate primary. A Senate Republican leadership source had previously said “that of all the Ohio Senate candidates …

Discussion: Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Shot in the Dark, The Hill, CBS News and Fox News

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

A mole hunt, a secret website and Peter Thiel's big risk: How J.D. Vance won his primary — Tech billionaire Peter Thiel had already donated a record-breaking amount of money to support J.D. Vance in the Ohio Republican Senate primary — but last week, the Silicon Valley tycoon decided he wanted to give even more.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Bulwark+, CNN, Vanity Fair, New Republic, Slate, Daily Kos, National Review and Power Line

Sarah Longwell / New York Times:

J.D. Vance Is More Proof That Trump Is King of the Republican Party — J.D. Vance's come-from-behind victory in the Ohio Republican primary was the first test of Donald Trump's influence in 2022 election cycle as well as the future of the Republican Party. Spoiler alert: He's influential.

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart, New York Times, Associated Press, MSNBC, The Daily Beast, Fox News, Al Jazeera, CBS News, Althouse, NPR, USA Today, Associated Press, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, Insider, HuffPost, Washington Examiner, Townhall, Bloomberg, NBC News and 1A

Brittany Shepherd / ABC News:
3 key takeaways from the Ohio, Indiana primaries

Discussion: Fox News, Washington Post, Washington Times and The Racket News

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The key to Vance's primary win: Uniformity

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Examiner

Politico:
Trump flexes and the center shrinks: 5 takeaways from a key primary night

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Ohio Capital Journal, Washington Post, NPR, RedState, Mother Jones, The Western Journal, Los Angeles Times and Vox

Rebecca Traister / The Cut:

Democratic Leaders Are Getting the Abortion Story Wrong — Again — With Roe at death's door, will the party finally change its tune? — The news of Samuel Alito's draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade on Monday didn't just break — it shattered. It was the unexpected timing, yes.

Discussion: Mediaite, American Prospect, BizPac Review, Breitbart and Washington Post

NBC News:

Rep. Cuellar attacked on his anti-abortion stance by opponent Cisneros in Texas Democratic run-off — WASHINGTON — Texas Democratic House candidate Jessica Cisneros is demanding her party's congressional leaders drop their support of her primary opponent, Rep. Henry Cuellar, over his opposition to abortion.

Discussion: The Hill, VICE, Bloomberg and CNN

Popular Information:

These 13 corporations have spent $15 million supporting anti-abortion politicians since 2016 — A draft Supreme Court opinion, published by Politico on Monday evening, would strike down Roe v. Wade — eliminating the constitutional protections for abortion that have been in place for 48 years.

Discussion: New York Times, The Cut and WGAL-TV

Alexandra DeSanctis / National Review:
What Americans Really Think about Abortion — Americans are far more supportive of pro-life policy …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Tangle, The Root, The Banter and The Wrap

Jordan Weissmann / Slate:
Actually, It's Perfectly Rational for Republicans to Be Furious About That Supreme Court Leak

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:
With Roe at risk, GOP faces pressure to support families after birth

Discussion: Daily Kos, Culturcidal, The Hill, Sacramento Bee, Insider, Townhall and WINK NEWS

Victoria Balara / Fox News:
Fox News Poll: Just over half favor banning abortions after 15 weeks

Discussion: Washington Examiner, New Republic, New York Post, Townhall, Washington Post, The Wrap, The Pulse, Mother Jones, Insider, Politico and Opinion Today

The White House:
Remarks by President Biden Before Air Force One Departure

Discussion: Catholic News Agency, Power Line and YouTube

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Journalists from multiple news outlets test positive after White House Correspondents Dinner weekend — New York (CNN Business)A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. — Trevor Noah joked about the event becoming …

Libby Cathey / ABC News:

Biden touts economic growth, debt and deficit reduction ahead of Fed rate hike — He said deficit reduction reduces inflationary pressures on the economy. — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that the federal government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico, U.S. Department … and ABC7

Washington Post: G20 invitation for Putin shows limits of his ‘pariah’ status

Juliette Kayyem / The Atlantic: Biden Is Rightsizing the COVID Crisis

Jazz Shaw / HotAir:
Putin preparing to “officially” declare war on Ukraine

Discussion: Daily Mail, City A.M., Fox News, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Reuters, nationalinterest.org and CNN

Washington Examiner:

Roe will not be missed — The leaked draft opinion that would overturn the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision remains a mystery in some respects. But two things are certain. First, the leak has damaged the court's credibility. Chief Justice John Roberts is right to initiate a full investigation by the marshal of the court.

Discussion: Mother Jones and The Cut

Elise Foley / HuffPost:
Newsmax Host Suggests Ketanji Brown Jackson, Who Isn't On Supreme Court Yet, Leaked Draft

Discussion: The Daily Beast, NC Policy Watch and Political Wire

Edward Whelan / New York Post:
Alito makes masterful argument to ‘overturn’ Roe v. Wade

Discussion: City Journal, Breathe In, Washington Post and Page Six

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Overturning Roe Is a Radical, Not Conservative, Choice

Kara Voght / Rolling Stone:
They're the ‘Last Line of Defense’ to Protect Abortion Rights

Discussion: New York Magazine, Al Jazeera and Florida Phoenix

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
Alito's Plan to Repeal the 20th Century

Ian Millhiser / Vox:
The case against SCOTUS — The Court was the midwife of Jim Crow, the right hand of union busters …

Discussion: Insider, americamagazine.org, Outside the Beltway, Townhall, Mo's Newsletter, INDIGNITY and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Associated Press:

AP evidence points to 600 dead in Mariupol theater airstrike — LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theater, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion. Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and National Review

Reuben Johnson / You searched for:

Russian troops held me captive at gunpoint for two weeks in Ukraine. Here's what I learned. — On March 4, Breaking Defense correspondent Reuben Johnson was captured by Russian soldiers outside of Kyiv and taken prisoner. This is the story of what happened next.

Detroit Free Press:

Democrat upsets candidate who made controversial rape comments in bid for Michigan House — Clara Hendrickson Arpan LoboDetroit Free Press — In an upset win Tuesday, Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert “RJ” Regan in a special election for a Michigan House seat that had only ever been held by a Republican.

Discussion: HuffPost, MLive.com, Progress Pond, Rolling Stone, Detroit News, Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog and Political Wire

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Opinion An upset win over the ‘enjoy rape’ MAGA candidate speaks volumes — “Hate Won't Win.” — That hashtag went viral last month after Mallory McMorrow, an obscure Democratic state senator from Michigan, delivered a blistering takedown of a GOP colleague who'd falsely labeled her a “groomer.”

Discussion: Raw Story and Boing Boing

Natalie L. Kahn / The Harvard Crimson:

I Am a Crimson Editor and I Stand with Israel — On April 29, I woke up to a flurry of messages from students, alumni, and journalists regarding a new piece published by The Crimson's Editorial Board declaring it was “proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and …

Joseph Cox / VICE:

Data Broker SafeGraph Stops Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Planned Parenthood — The move comes after Motherboard found it was possible to buy data showing how many people visited Planned Parenthood locations, where they came from, and where they went afterwards. — Joseph Cox