memeorandum: How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud (Miles Parks/NPR)

7:05 PM ET, June 4, 2023

Top Items:

Chuck Todd to leave NBC's ‘Meet the Press’; Welker will become host — The transition will happen in September, a major change at one of broadcast television oldest institutions — Chuck Todd, who has served as moderator of NBC's Sunday-morning talk show “Meet the Press” since 2014 …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, RedState, NBC News, Joe.My.God., Crooks and Liars and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

David Bauder / Associated Press:

Chuck Todd leaving NBC political panel show ‘Meet the Press’ and being replaced by Kristen Welker — Chuck Todd said on Sunday that he'll be leaving “Meet the Press” after a tumultuous near-decade of moderating the NBC political panel show, to be replaced in the coming months by Kristen Welker.

Discussion: New York Times, Axios, HotAir, Variety, The Daily Beast, Politico, Rolling Stone, Newsbusters, PoliticusUSA, The Gateway Pundit, National Review, Deadline, The Hill, Bloomberg, TheBlaze, Vanity Fair, Fox News, Just The News and The Daily Caller

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:

Chuck Todd will depart NBC's ‘Meet the Press’; Kristen Welker to become host — Chuck Todd, a mainstay in Washington as moderator of “Meet the Press,” will step down from the show in the coming months. NBC News' co-chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker will take his place.

Discussion: Politico, Twitchy, Raw Story, The US Sun, Trending Politics Conservative, UPI, Breitbart, Washington Press, New York Daily News, The Messenger, Mediaite and NPR

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Biden has a theory of MAGA that just might be working — Now that Congress has passed the debt limit deal, explanations for President Biden's success in negotiating the outcome are abounding. Among them: Biden drew on his long experience in Washington to achieve bipartisan compromise …

Discussion: Raw Story, Voice of America and CBS News

New York Times:

Inside the Complicated Reality of Being America's Oldest President — President Biden is asking voters to keep him in the White House until age 86, renewing attention to an issue that polls show troubles most Americans. — There was the time last winter when President Biden was awakened …

Discussion: RedState, Fox News, National Review, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post

Michael Goodwin / New York Post:
Kamala Harris is a Biden fall away from being in the Oval Office

Discussion: RedState, Oregonian, Digby's Hullabaloo and Bloomberg

Washington Post:

Sonic boom heard across D.C. region caused by military flight, officials say — An authorized Defense Department plane caused a sonic boom heard across the D.C. region Sunday afternoon, officials in Maryland said. — The sonic boom was related to an incident involving a Cessna that crashed in Virginia …

Discussion: New York Post, Reuters, Task & Purpose, Joe.My.God., CNN, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, WRIC-TV, Raw Story, Hartford Courant and The Post Millennial

Reuters:

Jet fighters chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia — U.S. officials scrambled jet fighters in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft that violated airspace in the Washington D.C. area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia, officials said.

Discussion: Raw Story, abc7NY, TheBlaze and NewsNation

Mirna Alsharif / NBC News:
Sonic boom from Department of Defense aircraft jars residents in DMV area; DoD confirms no threat to public

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Just The News and WFLA-TV

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Could Jeff Zucker Fix CNN? He Seems to Think So. — It's been more than a year since he was forced from the top job at the network. Since then, he has made no secret of his frustrations with his exit — or his low regard for the man who replaced him, Chris Licht.

Discussion: Axios, Mother Jones and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Nijzel Dotson / KSBW:

Gov. Gavin Newsom investigating after migrants from Texas left in front of California church without warning — Hide Transcript Show Transcript — California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement on Saturday regarding a group of migrants from Texas who were dropped off in front of a church in Sacramento without warning.

Discussion: Associated Press, Politico, Joe.My.God., The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, Fox News, Sacramento Bee and The Messenger

CNN:
California is investigating after a private jet carrying migrants arrived in Sacramento, officials say

Discussion: Washington Press, Joe.My.God., One America News Network, Washington Examiner and lawprofessors.typepad.com

Isabel Keane / New York Post:
Mystery private jet of migrants arrives in Sacramento, prompting investigation

Discussion: New York Times, The Pulse of NH, Los Angeles Times, The Gateway Pundit, TheBlaze, Oregonian, KTLA and Raw Story

Miles Parks / NPR:

How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud — On a night in January 2022, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin stepped on stage in a former airbase in Houma, La. — With American flags draped from the stage, the topic of the night was democracy.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

David Jackson / USA Today:

Donald Trump's GOP rivals pounce after he congratulated Kim Jong Un: ‘Not something to play with’ — WASHINGTON − Republican presidential candidates and other GOP leaders shed their reluctance to criticize Donald Trump this weekend after the ex-president served up an unusual political issue: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Discussion: NBC News, PoliticusUSA, The Daily Caller, HotAir, Joe.My.God., Fox News, Mediaite, NewsNation, Raw Story, The Hill, Politico and New York Post

Craig Simpson / Telegraph:

Anglo-Saxons aren't real, Cambridge tells students in effort to fight ‘nationalism’ — University aims to ‘dismantle the myths’ around British and English identities as it seeks to make its teaching more ‘anti-racist’ — Cambridge is teaching students that Anglo-Saxons did not exist …

Discussion: The Mahablog and Breitbart

David Mchugh / Associated Press:

With oil prices slumping, OPEC+ producers weigh more production cuts — Saudi Arabia will reduce how much oil it sends to the global economy, taking a unilateral step to prop up the sagging price of crude after two previous cuts to supply by major producing countries in the OPEC+ alliance failed to push oil higher.

Discussion: Reuters, GZERO, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Sputnik News, Financial Times, The Messenger, One America News Network, The Daily Caller, TASS and Bloomberg

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:

Want a model on how to govern, Democrats? Look to Minnesota's miracle. — You could be forgiven for imagining that state legislatures around the country are lurching rightward, thanks to the media spotlight given to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's culture warring in his state. Other deep-red states are not far behind.

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo

Reuters:

Exclusive: World's spy chiefs meet in secret conclave in Singapore — Senior officials from about two dozen of the world's major intelligence agencies held a secret meeting on the fringes of the Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore this weekend, five people told Reuters.

Julia Mueller / The Hill:

Comey: Trump ‘could be wearing an ankle bracelet’ while accepting GOP nomination — Former FBI Director James Comey predicted on Sunday that former President Trump “could be wearing an ankle bracelet” when accepting the GOP nomination if he wins it in 2024, as the former president faces a number of legal challenges.

Discussion: Fox News, Joe.My.God., The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Pence readies for Trump showdown as 2024 launch approaches

Discussion: NewsNation, Financial Times and USA Today

Emily Feng / NPR:

China and U.S. defense chiefs compete for influence in the Asia Pacific — SINGAPORE - China's new defense minister made his first international appearance on Sunday at an annual defense summit, where he delivered a speech full of thinly-veiled barbs at the U.S., calling on it to …

Discussion: Military Times, France 24, CNN, Global News, Politico, Bloomberg, Sputnik News, Financial Times and RedState

Washington Post:

Target gets caught in cultural crossfire over Pride Month items — Some shoppers have become more emboldened to engage in confrontational, even threatening, behavior over polarizing social issues. — Brandishing her own scissors in front of guest services in a Target store in south Florida …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and No More Mister Nice Blog

Bloomberg:

Mystery Trader's Debt-Ceiling Windfall Sparks Insider Concerns — The US government's move to greenlight a 300-mile natural gas pipeline as part of legislation to stave off a Treasury default shocked just about everyone, except for a mystery trader who somehow appears to have seen it coming.

Discussion: Insider

Benjamin Dodman / France 24:

Le Pen's far right served as mouthpiece for the Kremlin, says French parliamentary report — Dogged by accusations of proximity to the Kremlin, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party had hoped to clear its name by setting up a parliamentary inquiry to investigate foreign interference in French politics.

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Maya Yang / The Guardian:

Florida taxpayers pick up bill for Ron DeSantis's culture war lawsuits — Governor's Disney battle and extremist policies are met with costly lawsuits covered by ‘blank check’ from Republican legislature — Since Florida's governor Ron DeSantis took office in 2019 and embarked on his culture wars …

Tal Axelrod / ABC News:

US must ‘stand strong’ in face of ‘unbelievable aggression from China’: Turner — The intel chair also talked Ukraine and the source of recent attacks in Russia. — Rep. Mike Turner, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday lambasted what he called increased military hostility …

Discussion: IJR