memeorandum: The winner of this Congress? Joe Biden (Punchbowl News)

6:55 PM ET, April 22, 2024

Top Items:

Live Updates: Jurors in Trump Criminal Case Told That He Lied ‘Over and Over and Over’ — Donald J. Trump is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 campaign. A lawyer for Mr. Trump insisted that the former president “did not commit any crimes.”

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Unpacking the alleged crime that made Trump's alleged crime a felony — Attorneys offered opening arguments in the criminal trial of Donald Trump on Monday in Manhattan, beginning the process of presenting to the jury the state's case against the former president.

Discussion: NBC News, Washington Examiner, Just Security, Progress Pond, New York Times and Forbes

Chauncey DeVega / Salon:

“The alternate reality Trump lives in is crumbling” with first criminal trial: ex-federal prosecutor — “I think that Donald Trump is probably trying to get himself thrown into prison” — With a jury now impaneled, Donald Trump's hush-money trial can finally begin in earnest.

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times and PoliticusUSA

David Axelrod / The Atlantic:

What Donald Trump Fears Most — Donald Trump's biographers all seem to agree that he didn't get a lot of love from his father. But what Fred Trump did impart to his son was an indelible lesson: There are two kinds of people in the world—killers and losers—and like his father, Donald had to be a killer.

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

Live updates Opening statements expected in Trump hush money trial — NEW YORK — Opening statements are expected Monday morning in Donald Trump's trial for allegedly falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Discussion: Business Insider, CBS News, WHDH-TV, USA Today, NPR, Semafor, Washington Times, Forbes, KSNT-TV, The Hill, Alternet.org and Fox News

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:
Trump's Trial Is the Reality Show He Never Wanted

Discussion: Salon, Forbes, Axios, New York Post and New York Times

Minouche Shafik / president.columbia.edu:

Statement from Columbia University President Minouche Shafik — Dear Members of the Columbia Community, — I am deeply saddened by what is happening on our campus. Our bonds as a community have been severely tested in ways that will take a great deal of time and effort to reaffirm.

CNN:

Tensions are so high at Columbia ahead of Passover that all classes will be virtual today — Officials at Columbia University, facing surging tensions on campus that raised safety concerns, have announced all classes will be virtual on Monday as Passover begins.

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, Fox News, Washington Examiner, New York Times, Boston Herald, USA Today, IJR, UPI, Axios, Politico and New York Daily News

Yale Daily News:

LIVE: Pro-Palestine protesters disperse from blocking intersection, move to Cross Campus — The incoming first-year counselors of all 14 residential colleges have released a “Letter of Support” for student protesters. The letter is addressed to Dean Lewis, Dean Lafargue …

Discussion: YaleNews, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The College Fix, CNN, The Guardian, The Michigan Daily, The Harvard Crimson, Vanity Fair, Boston Herald, Breitbart, UPI, The Daily Caller, Hartford Courant, Axios, RedState, Washington Examiner and WHDH-TV

CNN:
Columbia University faces full-blown crisis as rabbi calls for Jewish students to ‘return home’

The White House:
Statement from President Joe Biden on Passover

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Guardian, HotAir, Breitbart, Reuters, The Times of Israel, The Daily Caller, New York Daily News, New York Times, The Daily Signal, ABC7, The Hill, New York Post and CBS News

Elaina Plott Calabro / The Atlantic:

The Accidental Speaker — This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. — You could be forgiven for thinking it was Mike Johnson's idea to host the House Republicans' annual policy retreat at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia …

Discussion: Business Insider, RedState, CNN and The Guardian

Washington Post:

House Republican infighting getting worse after foreign aid vote — One GOP lawmaker said he serves with “some real scumbags,” while others fought over Speaker Mike Johnson's strategy for bringing up the aid package — The House came together Saturday to pass a sweeping $95 billion foreign aid package …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Texas Tribune, American Greatness, Washington Times, The Daily Beast, USA Today, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, New York Post, Raw Story, Politico and Breitbart

Brian Beutler / Off Message:
No Strange New Respect For Mike Johnson

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Dworkin Report, The Hill, Media Matters for America, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Mediaite, Rick Wilson's Substack, Axios and Alternet.org

Naomi Hartono / NASA Blogs:

NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth — For the first time since November, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again.

Walter Shapiro / New Republic:

The GOP's Worst Fears About the End of Roe v. Wade Have Come True — Nearly two years after the leak of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade, abortion refuses to step out of the spotlight on center stage in American politics.

Discussion: HuffPost and The Hill

Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post:
Newsom proposes law to help Arizonans get abortions in California

Discussion: Breitbart, The Daily Caller, NPR, The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review, Washington Times, MSNBC, The Hill, Axios, Politico, Washington Examiner, Sacramento Bee, New York Times and al.com

Marist Poll:

Biden Edges Trump in Two-Way Presidential Contest; Opens Up Lead Among Definite Voters — Despite a still close contest between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Trump's support among white voters and independents has splintered. Biden is doing better …

Discussion: Washington Post, nationalinterest.org, Raw Story and NBC News

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The next president may be chosen by indifference

Discussion: NBC News, Digby's Hullabaloo, New Jersey Online and PJ Media

Liz Cheney / New York Times:

The Supreme Court Should Rule Swiftly on Trump's Immunity Claim — On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Donald Trump's arguments that he is immune from prosecution for his efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election. It is likely that all — or nearly all …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Guardian, New Jersey Online, Plain Dealer, The Hill, Raw Story, WHDH-TV, Washington Examiner, HuffPost and Bloomberg

Punchbowl News:

The winner of this Congress? Joe Biden — House Republicans came into the 118th Congress with big plans. They were going to cut taxes and spending, impeach President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet and use their leverage to force Democrats to accept stringent new border security and immigration policies.

Discussion: Breitbart, The Federalist, American Greatness, Daily Kos and Los Angeles Times

Hanna Trudo / The Hill:

Abortion-rights group launches ad in Michigan, Wisconsin warning about RFK Jr. — An abortion-rights group is attacking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as extreme and unfit to serve over abortion rights, as the health issue takes focus in the presidential election. — Reproductive Freedom …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Democrats, Washington Post and The Michigan Daily

Angela Dewan / CNN:

The world dumps 2,000 truckloads of plastic into the ocean each day. Here's where a lot of it ends up — Photographs and video by Edu Ponces/RUIDO Photo — The western coast of Java in Indonesia is popular with surfers for its world-famous breaks. There's a majestic underwater world to explore, too.

Discussion: The Hill, New Jersey Online and Sun-Sentinel

Politico:

Next Ukraine package to be larger than normal, include armored vehicles — The Senate could approved more than $60 billion for Kyiv as soon as Tuesday. — The Biden administration is preparing a larger-than-normal package of military aid for Ukraine that will include armored vehicles …

Discussion: Breaking Defense, Daily Caller News Foundation, PJ Media and Business Insider

New York Post:

Ilhan Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi, says she's homeless, cries poverty after suspension from $90K-per-year college over anti-Israel protests — The privileged daughter of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar amazingly claims she's homeless and can't get food after being kicked out of her prestigious $90 …

Discussion: RedState, Washington Examiner, dailytarheel.com, Townhall, PJ Media, DC News Now, The Gateway Pundit, American Greatness, Breitbart, Mediaite, One America News Network, HotAir, Fox News, Exposing the role …, BizPac Review, Twitchy, The Daily Beast and Teen Vogue

US EPA:

Solar for All — Under the $7 billion Solar for All program, the 60 selected applicants will create new or expand existing low-income solar programs, which will enable over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities to benefit from distributed solar energy.

Discussion: Associated Press, Copper Courier, Houston Public Media, BizPac Review, The Daily Caller and IJR

Marc Elias / Democracy Docket:

Republicans Are Suing for the Right To Harass Election Workers — You might think that even in today's highly polarized election environment there would be a bipartisan consensus to protect election workers from intimidation and harassment. If you thought so, you would be wrong.

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

‘Civil War’ is terrifying not for what it says about America, but about journalism — Around 2 p.m. on Friday, I opened my laptop and bought a ticket on Fandango for that night's showing of Civil War, the No. 1 movie in America that depicts a not-too-distant U.S. future of killing fields, refugee camps and bombed-out shopping malls.

Discussion: Scripting News and Variety

Ana Ceballos / Miami Herald:

Some migrants flown by DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard qualify for victim visas, feds say — Some of the 49 migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard by the state of Florida are now able to legally work in the United States and have temporary protections from deportation — because they are considered victims …

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Breitbart, Orlando Sentinel and Sacramento Bee

Brandi Buchman / Law & Crime:

Unite the Right tiki torch man pleads guilty to assaulting cops on Jan. 6 — A man convicted of burning a tiki torch while chanting white supremacist slogans at the Unite the Right rally in 2017 has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors and has admitted to assaulting two police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Discussion: NBC News

Cheyanne M. Daniels / The Hill:

John Legend says Trump believes ‘to his core’ that ‘Black people are inferior’ — Singer John Legend says former President Trump is a racist down “to his core.” — Speaking to MSNBC's Jen Psaki on Sunday, Legend spoke of Trump's response to the Black Lives Matter protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Discussion: MSNBC and The Daily Beast

Hugh Jackson / Nevada Current:

Trump, RNC promise ‘aggressive’ election interference in battleground states — Workers at the Washoe County Registrar of Voters counting early ballots in 2020. The process was live-streamed online. (Screengrab via YouTube) — Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Discussion: BizPac Review and Associated Press