memeorandum: Republicans ready for a Trump loss (Heather Digby Parton/Salon)

8:10 PM ET, May 13, 2024

Top Items:

Trump Leads in 5 Key States, as Young and Nonwhite Voters Express Discontent With Biden — A new set of Times/Siena polls, including one with The Philadelphia Inquirer, reveal an erosion of support for the president among young and nonwhite voters upset about the economy and Gaza.

New York Times:

Cross-Tabs: May 2024 Times/Siena Poll of the Presidential Battlegrounds — Donald Trump leads Joe Biden in five of six states polled by The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College from April 28 to May 9, 2024. — View toplines for the full set of polls and cross-tabs for: all registered voters |

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Guardian, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Axios, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, The Hill, New Jersey Online and IJR

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

No, Your Pet Issue Is Not Making Biden Lose … The American political landscape in 2024 seems like a very simple story that people continue to overcomplicate. There was a large, global surge in prices in 2021 and 2022 as the economy restarted following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discussion: HuffPost, The Hill and Mediaite

Rolling Stone:
Progressives Prep $10 Million Campaign to Expose ‘MAGA Supreme Court’

Discussion: Raw Story

Financial Times:
FT-Michigan Ross poll: Biden's election hopes fall as prices rise again

Discussion: Breitbart, Washington Examiner and Bloomberg

New York Times:
Democrats Hold Leads in 4 Crucial Races That Could Decide Senate Control

Discussion: The Dispatch, No More Mister Nice Blog, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, The Hill and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:

In His First Day of Testimony, Cohen Testifies Trump Authorized Hush-Money Payment — During nearly six hours on the stand Monday, Michael D. Cohen testified that Donald J. Trump urged him to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels late in the 2016 campaign and approved the plan to repay him.

Tom Ozimek / The Epoch Times:
Alvin Bragg's Office Deleted Phone Call Records of Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels' Lawyer

Discussion: New Republic, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, The Federalist and CBS News

Heather Digby Parton / Salon:

Republicans ready for a Trump loss — This time, Trump has the GOP bought in earlier on his Big Lie — What happens if he loses? — The mainstream press has finally turned its focus to what a second Donald Trump administration will look like should he win the White House in 2024.

Discussion: Above the Law, Raw Story and HuffPost

Sareen Habeshian / Axios:

Louisiana bill would place abortion pills on same list as opiates … - Abortion, both via medication and surgery, is already completely banned in the state with very limited exceptions, per the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, The Federalist and Issues in Law & Medicine

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux / Washington Post:
Louisiana moves to make abortion pills ‘controlled dangerous substances’

Discussion: Bloomberg, Pluribus News, Mock Paper Scissors, Crooks and Liars and Raw Story

Raleigh News & Observer:

UNC-Chapel Hill trustees move to divert DEI funds to police and public safety — The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to divert millions of dollars spent on diversity, equity and inclusion programs into public safety instead, ahead of an expected policy change statewide to restrict DEI.

Discussion: WUNC, USA Today, Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon, One America News Network, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Twitchy and Ordinary Times

Russell Berman / The Atlantic:

Attack a Democrat Charged With Corruption? Republicans Wouldn't Dare. — Earlier this month, federal prosecutors bestowed on Republicans what seemed like an election-year gift: charging a senior House Democrat in a competitive district with accepting $600,000 in bribes and acting as a foreign agent.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
State Republican parties are going rogue

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Ari Blaff / National Post:

United Nations halves estimate of women and children killed in Gaza — Without any announcement, the United Nations (UN) significantly lowers its previously stated casualty list in the Gaza Strip — The United Nations has significantly adjusted Palestinian casualty figures for the ongoing war …

Discussion: Breitbart, RedState, Why Evolution Is True, HotAir, Twitchy, USA Today, Council on Foreign Relations and Power Line

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Trump is gagged. So his surrogates say the forbidden stuff for him. — Three GOP senators have appeared with Trump in court and conveniently proceeded to say precisely what he can't. — Donald Trump's mouth and keyboard fingers have been relatively disciplined — by his own standards …

NPR:

They're called perennials: You plant them once and they come back after each winter if they're given the right environment to survive. Think things like trees, shrubs and woody plants. — And for predicting winter plant survival, knowing an area's hardiness zone is a big help to gardeners …

Brad Plumer / New York Times:

New Rules to Overhaul Electric Grids Could Boost Wind and Solar Power — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the biggest changes in more than a decade to the way U.S. power lines are planned and funded. — Federal regulators on Monday approved sweeping changes …

Discussion: Federal Energy Regulatory …, Heatmap News, Courthouse News Service and Washington Examiner

Steve Benen / MSNBC:

The biggest flaw in Justice Clarence Thomas' newest complaints — Justice Clarence Thomas wants the public to believe the serious accusations he's faced are “lies.” He's going to have to be far more specific. — As a matter of jurisprudence, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reason to be pleased.

Discussion: Raw Story and Washington Times

Chris Geidner / Law Dork: Justice Thomas has used this “hideous place” to amass the power he now exploits

Jose Pagliery / The Daily Beast:

Melania Came Up With Trump's ‘Locker Room Talk’ Excuse, Michael Cohen Says — BY HIS SIDE — The former Trump fixer dropped the surprising revelation as an aside while testifying Monday in his former boss' hush-money trial. — Among the weirdest revelations at Donald Trump's ongoing criminal trial …

Discussion: Bloomberg, NBC News, Salon, Fox News, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, MSNBC, Associated Press, The Guardian, HuffPost, ABC7, Slate, Politico and Kennebec Journal …

Alex Thompson / Axios:

Psaki's new book falsely recounts Biden's watch check in troop ceremony — Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki claims in her new book that President Biden never looked at his watch during the ceremony for soldiers killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 …

Discussion: Townhall, Shana Chappell, National Review, HotAir, One America News Network, The Spectator World, RedState, New York Post, Washington Free Beacon, Fox News, Instapundit, The Daily Beast, PJ Media, IJR, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and The Hill

CBS News:

Harris drops “F-bomb” while encouraging Asian Americans to break down barriers — Vice President Kamala Harris let a profanity slip Monday as she emphasized the importance of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders breaking through the barriers they face.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Metro.co.uk, Breitbart, Associated Press, New York Post, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, Fox News, Deadline, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and IJR

Julianne McShane / Mother Jones:

Trump Wants to Deport Pro-Palestine Protesters—and GOP Lawmakers Are Filing Bills to Make It Happen — Republicans continue their push to punish dissent. — At a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey on Saturday, former President Donald Trump made many questionable comments.

Denise Chow / NBC News:

Canadian wildfires trigger air quality alerts across 4 U.S. states — Winds have carried plumes of smoke over Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. — Hazy conditions blanketed parts of four U.S. states Monday, as smoke from wildfires in western Canada triggered air quality alerts and warnings.

Discussion: Global News, New York Times, WGRZ-TV, Lawyers, Guns & Money, WNYW-TV, Los Angeles Times, South Dakota Searchlight, WWLP-TV, KCLO-TV, KSLNewsRadio and CBS News

Michael Tomasky / New Republic:

How on Earth Is Donald Trump Getting Credit for Joe Biden's Economy? — Joe Biden's trip to Wisconsin last week would, in normal political times, have been a grand slam. He went to the very spot in Racine County where, in 2018, Donald Trump showed up literally holding a golden shovel …

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo