memeorandum: Trump Meeting With Johnson Is Meant to Quell House GOP Disarray (Wall Street Journal)

8:25 AM ET, April 12, 2024

Top Items:

Kaitlan Collins / CNN:

Trump attorney who became a crucial witness against him has departed legal team — Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Donald Trump who became a critical witness in the classified documents case against the former president, no longer represents him, CNN has learned.

Discussion: Politico and Raw Story

Politico:

Playbook: Harris takes the gloves off in Arizona — With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine — DRIVING THE DAY — BIG PRETRIAL READ — “How Donald Trump Gets Special Treatment in the Legal System,” by James Romoser in POLITICO Magazine: “He denigrates prosecutors.

Discussion: Fox News, ABC News, NBC News and New York Times

James Romoser / Politico:

How Donald Trump Gets Special Treatment in the Legal System — The former president rails against a “two-tiered system of justice.” But he's the one benefiting from it. — A firebrand politician named Donald is about to stand trial. Just a few days before jury selection, he goes on TV to slam the charges as baseless and biased.

Discussion: Raw Story, Robert Reich, Digby's Hullabaloo, PolitiFact, New York Times, The Guardian and Washington Post

Tobi Raji / Washington Post:

Leo rejects Senate subpoena from panel probing gifts to Supreme Court justices — The conservative judicial activist called the move ‘politically motivated,’ and the committee chair said Leo had left them ‘no other choice’ but to move forward with the compulsory process

Discussion: Reuters, The Guardian, CNN, Breitbart, The Hill and BizPac Review

Kaelan Deese / Washington Examiner:
Leonard Leo says he's ‘not capitulating’ after Durbin subpoena

Discussion: Rolling Stone and Fox News

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senate Republicans furious over Trump trying to derail FISA bill — Senate Republicans vented their frustration after former President Trump helped derail a compromise House bill to extend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authority, sending lawmakers scrambling to find a Plan B …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Federalist, The Daily Signal, Washington Examiner, CBS News, American Greatness and Fox News

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Jeffries: Democrats won't help Johnson break FISA impasse

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

A Trump raising money off election lies? Now we've seen everything. — A phone call on behalf of the overhauled Republican National Committee again turns false claims about 2020 into a sales pitch — Donald Trump managed to vacuum up hundreds of millions of dollars of donations as a lame-duck president.

Discussion: NBC News, PolitiFact, Raw Story and Strangely Blogged

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
Lara Trump's RNC robocall falsely claims ‘massive fraud’ in 2020 election

Discussion: Civil Discourse …, The Hill, Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, Rolling Stone and CNN

USA Today:
Mike Johnson and Donald Trump will propose bill to prevent non-citizens from voting

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Times, Letters from an American, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Hill, The Guardian, New Republic, WGN-TV, Washington Examiner, One America News Network, CNN and PoliticusUSA

NBC News:

Republicans say a late convention could keep Biden off some ballots. It hasn't mattered before. — Technical conflicts between ballot deadlines and convention dates have been handled quietly in the past. Some GOP officials are taking a different tack this year.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, al.com, ABC News and Alabama Reflector

Patrick Svitek / Washington Post:
States warn Biden could miss ballot. Dems say exceptions have been made for GOP.

Discussion: Plain Dealer and al.com

President U-licious S Grant / The Big Picture:

Trump's Brain Is Not Okay — An expert's view of Trump's mental slide into dementia. — The Big Picture and Jay Kuo … When Duty to Warn began in 2017, our mission as mental health professionals was to warn the world that Trump was dangerously unfit and a malignant narcissist.

Discussion: Hackwhackers

Jesse Paul / The Colorado Sun:

Republican state representative left a loaded handgun in Colorado Capitol bathroom — A Republican state representative left a loaded, semiautomatic handgun in a bathroom at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday night, an incident that comes as Democrats are trying to ban firearm possession in the building — and the GOP is fighting them.

Discussion: Denver Post, NBC News, Raw Story, The Hill, Colorado Newsline, New York Daily News, CO House Democrats and FOX31 Denver

Shawna Mizelle / CBS News:

Colorado group says it has enough signatures for abortion rights ballot measure this fall — A Colorado campaign that's trying to enshrine abortion rights into the state's constitution has gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot this November, CBS News has learned.

Discussion: ABC News

New York Times:

Harvard and Caltech Will Require Test Scores for Admission — The universities are the latest highly selective schools to end their policies that made submitting SAT or ACT scores optional. — Harvard will reinstate standardized testing as a requirement of admission, the university announced Thursday …

Discussion: The Harvard Crimson, Mercury News, Harvard Magazine, Washington Post, Harvard University Gazette, HotAir, Forbes, RedState, Fox News, Axios, UPI, ABC22 & FOX44, The Post Millennial, Fortune, Daily Caller News Foundation and Reason

Washington Post:

What Donald Trump wants in his next vice president — and who he's considering — Donald Trump's perfect vice president looks the part: attractive and telegenic. They are ideally Black or a woman, though that's not required. And they are most certainly not taller than Trump himself.

Discussion: New Republic

New Republic:

An Honest Assessment of Rural White Resentment Is Long Overdue … Something remarkable happened among rural whites between the 2016 and 2020 elections: According to the Pew Research Center's validated voter study, as the rest of the country moved away from Donald Trump …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Cardinal News

U.S. Embassy in Israel:

Security Alert:  U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (April 11, 2024) — Location:  Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza — The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem reminds U.S. citizens of the continued need for caution and increased personal security awareness as security incidents often …

Discussion: CBS News, The Daily Beast, The Daily Caller, UPI and Reuters

Wall Street Journal:

Trump Meeting With Johnson Is Meant to Quell House GOP Disarray — Speaker's job is on the line amid revolt by conservatives. 'We don't need any more reason to be polarized.' — WASHINGTON—House Speaker Mike Johnson, with no shortage of problems at the Capitol, is taking a quick spring break to Florida.

Discussion: CNN, USA Today, NewsNation and Daily Kos

Berkeley Lovelace Jr / NBC News:

Covid vaccines not linked to fatal heart problems in young people, CDC finds — The new report debunks widespread misinformation that the mRNA shots were connected to sudden cardiac death in young athletes. — There is no evidence that mRNA Covid vaccines cause fatal cardiac arrest …

Discussion: Quartz, Orlando Sentinel and Outside the Beltway

Beth Mole / Ars Technica:

Measles could once again become endemic in the US, the CDC warns — This year's measles cases are over 17x higher than cases seen in the first quarters of 2000 to 2023. — In 2000, after a decadeslong public health battle and a Herculean vaccination program, the US won a coveted status: measles elimination.

Discussion: Centers for Disease Control …, scientificamerican.com, CNN, UPI, The Daily Caller, The Hill, Fox News and American Greatness

Lauren Irwin / The Hill:

Third South Dakota tribal nation bans Noem from reservation — The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has become the third tribal nation to ban South Dakota Kristi Noem (R) from its reservation land. — On Wednesday, the Standing Rock Tribal Council voted to ban Noem from its land for “racially charged” …

Discussion: CNN, Standing Rock, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, New Republic, The Daily Beast and Washington Examiner

Filip Timotija / The Hill:

Former Obama adviser: Kushner engaged in 'level of corruption that we've just never seen' with foreign relations — Former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner engaged in a “level of corruption that we've just never seen” …

Discussion: HuffPost and Mediaite

Alex Thompson / Axios:

Scoop: DNC covered Biden legal bills in special counsel probe … - In January 2023, special counsel Robert Hur began investigating Biden's handling of classified documents after papers from Biden's vice presidency were found at his office and home. — From July 2023 to February 2024 …

Sherman Smith / Kansas Reflector:

Facebook's AI failure wiped out Kansas Reflector links. Even Facebook may not know what went wrong. — When Kansas Reflector tried to share Dave Kendall's opinion column about a climate change movie, Facebook responded with a cascade of failures. Facebook apologized for blocking Kansas Reflector …

Greg Sargent / New Republic:

Trump's Big Lie About Biden Implodes After MAGA Ally Admits Truth — Steve Bannon no doubt thought he was being deviously clever. Speaking with The New York Times this week, he elaborated on a sophisticated plan that Donald Trump's allies have developed for boosting third-party candidates, so they siphon votes from President Biden.

Discussion: Raw Story

NBC News:

Man on terror watchlist was released by Border Patrol — With border security funding blocked in Congress, the case illustrates the challenges U.S. officials face in identifying migrants who may pose national security threats. — SAN ANTONIO — An Afghan migrant on the terrorist watchlist spent nearly …

Discussion: New York Post, RedState, NBC 7 San Diego, Twitchy and Breitbart

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:

House Speaker Mike Johnson is negotiating with White House to advance Ukraine aid — House Speaker Mike Johnson is negotiating with the White House as he prepares for the treacherous task of advancing wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel through the House, a top House Republican said Thursday.

Discussion: Mercury News

Edith Olmsted / The Daily Beast:

Maine Reps Ruled Out of Order for Blaming Mass Shooting on Abortion Bill — ‘EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE’ — The House Democratic office called the comments “as asinine as they are reprehensible.” — A pair of Republican lawmakers in Maine were ruled out of order on Thursday after one of them tried …

Discussion: Bangor Daily News, NBC News, Raw Story, HuffPost, WTOP News, The Hill, Forbes and Maine Morning Star

Lindsay Ryan / New York Times:

Many Patients Don't Survive End-Stage Poverty — He has an easy smile, blue eyes and a life-threatening bone infection in one arm. Grateful for treatment, he jokes with the medical intern each morning. A friend, a fellow doctor, is supervising the man's care.