Top Items:
Axios:
The GOP's epic losing streak — First, the 2018 House elections were a disaster for Republicans: Democrats had a net gain of 40 seats to take over the House — their largest gain since the post-Watergate election of 1974. — Then Trump lost the presidency.
Discussion:
Raw Story
RELATED:
Charlie Sykes / Morning Shots:
The Stupidity. It Burns. — We'll get to the rest of the week's worst actors in a moment, but can we talk about what just happened in Tennessee? — In a fit of partisan pique, Republicans used their super majority to expel two young African American state legislators.
Discussion:
Politico and Newsbusters
Washington Post:
Tennessee House expels two Democrats in historic act of partisan retaliation — NASHVILLE — The Republican-led Tennessee House voted Thursday to expel two Democratic lawmakers who halted proceedings last week to join protesters demanding gun-control legislation after a mass killing.
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Hill, Mediaite, Slate, Wall Street Journal, Politico, IJR, NPR, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Vanity Fair, Sputnik News, HuffPost, Breitbart, Insider, Rolling Stone, RedState, Fox News, FOX8 WGHP, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, New York Times, Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, I, Talking Points Memo, MSNBC, Bloomberg, WKRN-TV, ABC News, Politico, New York Post, ABC11, CBS News, Chalkbeat, Alternet.org, Discourse.net, Talking Points Memo, Twitchy, The Hill and PoliticusUSA
The White House:
Statement from President Joe Biden on Expulsion of Tennessee Lawmakers for Acting on Gun Safety — Last week, three more students and three school officials were gunned down in yet another tragic mass shooting in Nashville. On Monday, 7,000 Tennesseans, many of them students …
Melissa Brown / The Tennessean:
GOP expels Democratic Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson from House over gun-control protest — The House failed by one vote to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, from the chamber. Together, the lawmakers had become known as the ‘Tennessee three.’
Discussion:
Oliver Willis Explains, HuffPost, Washington Post, Raw Story, Minnesota Reformer, NBC News, Washington Monthly, Alternet.org, The Dispatch, American Greatness, Tennessee Lookout, Todd Starnes, Daily Kos, Knoxville News Sentinel on YouTube, Mediaite, WKRN-TV, RedState, Raw Story, NPR, Breitbart, The Post Millennial, The Hill, WKRN-TV, Lawyers, Guns & Money, UPI, Just The News and Washington Examiner
Charles Sykes / The Atlantic:
How Wisconsin Republicans Got So Angry — They've lost four major statewide elections since 2018, for starters, and this year's supreme-court election exposed their growing vulnerability. — Wisconsin Republicans are caught in a bind: What the base wants, the majority rejects.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Daily Beast and BizPac Review
Politico:
Playbook: McCarthy searches for a scapegoat — Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — EYES ON NASHVILLE — Yesterday, we watched in real time as a procedural issue in a state legislature blossomed into a national flashpoint on guns, free speech, race and democracy itself.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Examiner and Mediaite
The Tennessean:
Growing list of Nashville Council members vows to reappoint Justin Jones to the state House
Growing list of Nashville Council members vows to reappoint Justin Jones to the state House
Discussion:
Politico, VICE, Pluribus News, The Commercial Appeal, Action News 5, Rolling Stone, Associated Press, One America News Network and WKRN-TV
Joyce Vance / Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance:
Tennessee — In December 1966, the United States Supreme Court unanimously decided a case called Bond v. Floyd.
New York Times:
Tennessee House Expels 2 Democrats Over Gun Control Protest
Tennessee House Expels 2 Democrats Over Gun Control Protest
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Lawyers, Guns & Money, CNN, NBC News, TheBlaze, Washington Times, The Hill, Knoxville News-Sentinel, CNN, The Tennessean, Raw Story, NPR, The Daily Beast, The Hill, Politico, Fox News, BizPac Review, CBS News, Alternet.org, Congressional Black Caucus, CBS News, Associated Press, CNN, Mother Jones, Raw Story, NBC Bay Area, Voice of America, Mashable, National Review, The Hill, The Post Millennial, New Republic, BuzzFeed News, Associated Press, USA Today, Breitbart, NBC News, Associated Press and NBC News
David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles Times reported about Justice Thomas' gifts 20 years ago. After that he stopped disclosing them — It was 2004 when the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips paid for by Harlan Crow …
Discussion:
RADAR, New York Post, Election Law Blog, Fox News, The Guardian, BizPac Review, Daily Montanan and Mother Jones
RELATED:
ProPublica:
Lawmakers Call for Investigation and Ethics Reforms in Response to ProPublica Report on Clarence Thomas — Influential Democratic legislators are pushing for changes at the Supreme Court and a probe into Thomas' undisclosed luxury trips provided by powerful conservative donor Harlan Crow.
Discussion:
Washington Press, Letters from an American, Raw Story, Washington Times, Vox, Fortune, Sputnik News, NBC Chicago, PoliticusUSA, Alternet.org, HotAir, Fox News, Daily Kos, Associated Press, Insider, PBS NewsHour, ABC News, Just The News, The Hill, The Texas Tribune, UPI, New York Daily News and Washington Examiner
Washington Post:
Clarence Thomas has reported receiving only two gifts since 2004 — Eighteen years ago, the Los Angeles Times detailed how Thomas had reported receiving thousands of dollars' worth of gifts — far more than the other justices on the Supreme Court at the time.
Discussion:
New Republic
Zach Montague / New York Times:
Lawmakers Call for Tighter Ethics Code After Revelations About Justice Thomas
Lawmakers Call for Tighter Ethics Code After Revelations About Justice Thomas
Discussion:
Washington Post, Reuters, The Dispatch, NPR, USA Today, Vanity Fair, New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, The Leadership Conference …, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Daily Caller, Slate, Digby's Hullabaloo, Al Jazeera, Washington Times, ABC News, Semafor, The Moderate Voice, CNN and CBS News
Slate:
Clarence Thomas Broke the Law and It Isn't Even Close
Clarence Thomas Broke the Law and It Isn't Even Close
Discussion:
Steady, Raw Story, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, USA Today, Just The News and NBC News
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
The new Clarence Thomas revelations are shocking. Democrats must act.
The new Clarence Thomas revelations are shocking. Democrats must act.
Discussion:
National Review, NBC News, CBS News, Insider, NPR, The Federalist, The Hill and Slate
Amy Walter / Cook Political Report:
Abortion, Trump and Swing Voters — Democrats are happily watching from the sidelines as the Republican Party continues to be defined by two issues that turn off swing voters: Donald Trump and abortion. — The more Trump is in the news, the better for Democrats.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Chicago Sun-Times, New Republic and Resolute Square
RELATED:
Nicole Gaudiano / Insider:
Democrats are betting Republicans' defense of Donald Trump's criminal charges will age like milk on the 2024 campaign trail
The Daily Beast:
The GOP Civil War That's Already Making 2024 Awkward
The GOP Civil War That's Already Making 2024 Awkward
Discussion:
Alternet.org and Raw Story
David Corn / Mother Jones:
Revenge-Obsessed Donald Trump Is Pushing the Right to New Levels of Retribution Rage
Revenge-Obsessed Donald Trump Is Pushing the Right to New Levels of Retribution Rage
Discussion:
The Independent
Susan Ferrechio / Washington Times:
‘Revenge politics’: Trump indictment threatens to ignite a new age of political retribution
‘Revenge politics’: Trump indictment threatens to ignite a new age of political retribution
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Kentucky Lantern, Washington Examiner, RedState, Roll Call, Washington Post and Raw Story
S.V. Date / HuffPost:
Trump Attacks Judge From Afar, But Turned Meek When He Was In The Same Room
Trump Attacks Judge From Afar, But Turned Meek When He Was In The Same Room
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Times, RADAR, Vanity Fair and IJR
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Job growth totals 236,000 in March, near expectations as hiring pace slows — Nonfarm payrolls grew by 236,000 for March, compared to the Dow Jones estimate for 238,000 and below the upwardly revised 326,000 in February. — The unemployment rate ticked lower to 3.5% amid an increase …
Discussion:
UPI, The Ankler, Deadline and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Sarah Chaney Cambon / Wall Street Journal:
March Jobs Report Shows Hiring Gradually Cooled
March Jobs Report Shows Hiring Gradually Cooled
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, RedState, NPR, New York Times, Financial Times, CNN and CBS News
Paul Wiseman / Associated Press:
US adds a healthy 236,000 jobs despite Fed's rate hikes
US adds a healthy 236,000 jobs despite Fed's rate hikes
Discussion:
USA Today, The Hill, Politico, Associated Press, New York Post and NewsNation
New York Times:
Ukraine War Plans Leak Prompts Pentagon Investigation — Classified documents detailing secret American and NATO plans have appeared on Twitter and Telegram. — WASHINGTON — Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead …
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Post, Fox News, Defense One, Financial Times, Washington Examiner, CNBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Sun, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and New York Times
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Twitter cuts off Substack embeds and starts suspending bots … Writers trying to embed tweets in their Substack stories are in for a rude surprise: after pasting a link to the site, a message pops up saying that “Twitter has unexpectedly restricted access to embedding tweets in Substack posts” …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Gizmodo and Pirate Wires, more at Mediagazer »
CNN:
Early struggles of new House Republican majority raise anxiety over high-stakes fights to come — As House Republicans prepared to pass a parental rights bill - a signature plank of their governing agenda - GOP leaders ran into unexpected headwinds. — House Majority Whip Tom Emmer …
RELATED:
Sam Stein / Politico:
The Ultimate Political Shmear Campaign — How D.C. — finally! — became a legitimate center of bagel excellence. — When Rep. Dan Goldman launched the congressional bagel caucus shortly upon entering Congress, it was with the lofty goal of using food to bring comity to an institution severely lacking it.
Patrick Marley / Washington Post:
With liberals in charge, Wisconsin Supreme Court could rule on these issues — MADISON, Wis. — Democrats made clear to voters that the Wisconsin Supreme Court election this week centered on one key issue: giving liberals a majority on the court so they can overturn the state's abortion ban.
Discussion:
Mercury News and Wisconsin State Journal
RELATED:
Edward-Isaac Dovere / CNN:
Democrats push abortion rights to the ballot in 2024, using an old GOP playbook
Democrats push abortion rights to the ballot in 2024, using an old GOP playbook
Discussion:
Raw Story and Alaska Public Media
Institute for the Study of War:
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 6, 2023 — Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report. — Click here to access ISW's archive of interactive time-lapse maps of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Discussion:
Fox News, UPI and Associated Press
Erika Solomon / New York Times:
Nord Stream Sabotage Theories Deepen as Shreds of Evidence Emerge — Intelligence leaks surrounding the sabotage of the pipelines have provided more questions than answers. It may be in no one's interest to reveal more. — Russian and Danish naval vessels that disappear in the Baltic Sea, days before an underwater pipeline blast.
Discussion:
Reuters, UPI, Sputnik News and Politico
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Elon Musk says NPR's ‘state-affiliated media’ label might not have been accurate — Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the platform's recent labeling of NPR as “state-affiliated media” might not have been accurate during a series of email exchanges that provided a glimpse into the billionaire's thought process …
Discussion:
Washington Press, Mediaite, Washington Post, Gizmodo, Twitchy, The Unz Review, Todd Starnes, Chicago Boyz, Deseret News, Oregonian, SGV Tribune, Raw Story, The Guardian and OutKick, more at Mediagazer »
Max Tani / Semafor:
Before meeting with Elon Musk, top advertisers privately debate his “racist rhetoric” — Elon Musk's appearance at a major marketing conference next week has spooked the top advertising executives at some of America's biggest companies. — Musk is slated to speak on Monday in Miami …
Discussion:
WSB-TV, Forbes, Rolling Stone and Fox News
Dean Obeidallah / The Dean's Report:
Tennessee GOP succeeded where MAGA failed on Jan 6: They overturned an election to preserve White Supremacy — This will only get worse — The Tennessee GOP's shocking expulsion of two Black state representatives— Justin Jones and Justin Pearson—from the legislature for simply breaking House rules …
Nick Mordowanec / Newsweek:
Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment — Charlie Kirk, the conservative founder and president of Turning Point USA, said during an organizational event on Wednesday that gun deaths in exchange for the preservation of Second Amendment rights is part of America's reality.
Discussion:
Media Matters for America and Alternet.org
Heather Hamilton / Washington Examiner:
WATCH: Riley Gaines whisked to safety after being assaulted at San Francisco event — Riley Gaines was whisked to safety by police on Thursday night after being assaulted while speaking at a Turning Point USA event held on the campus of San Francisco State University.
Discussion:
New York Post, OutKick, National Review, TMZ.com, TheBlaze, Twitchy, Just The News, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, RedState, JONATHAN TURLEY, Todd Starnes, IJR, NOQ Report and The Post Millennial