memeorandum: More Sanders staffers exit campaign (Gabriel Debenedetti/Politico)

9:10 PM ET, May 17, 2016

Top Items:

Sanders Statement on Nevada — FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday issued the following statement: — “It is imperative that the Democratic leadership, both nationally and in the states, understand that the political world is changing and that millions of Americans …

Discussion: LasVegasSun.com, Washington Post, Mother Jones, New York Times, CBS New York, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, Common Dreams, Shadowproof, Towleroad, The New Civil Rights Movement, Washington Free Beacon and Ralston Reports

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

More Sanders staffers exit campaign — A handful of high-level staffers have left Bernie Sanders' campaign in recent days, including his director of technology and three of the four members of his original senior leadership team in California — a state his team has said is critical to his bid for the Democratic nomination.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Grandiosity As Addictive As Smack — With this new blow-up over whatever happened over the weekend in Nevada we see the pretty real and even dire consequences of lying to your supporters. The Sanders campaign, especially campaign manager Jeff Weaver, has been saying for weeks that Sanders …

Steven Yaccino / Bloomberg:
A Small Group of Superdelegates Could Close the Deal for Hillary—But Won't

Discussion: Politico, Infowars, Mediaite and National Review

Manu Raju / CNN:
Dems' new fear: Sanders revolt could upend Democratic convention

Discussion: Vox, The American Spectator, RedState and WHNT-TV

Jon Ralston / Ralston Reports:
NV Democrats file complaint against Sanders campaign to DNC

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The New Civil Rights Movement, New York Times and Let's Talk Nevada

Jon Ralston / Ralston Reports:
Sample of voicemails left for state Democratic Chairwoman Roberta Lange

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Roll Call, The Hill, Hot Air, Guardian, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Let's Talk Nevada, Talking Points Memo, Politico, The Week and New York Times

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard: Sanders: ‘Shots Were Fired Into My Campaign Office in Nevada’

Harper Neidig / The Hill: Defiant Sanders says campaign was denied fairness in Nevada

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:
With two more primaries at stake, tensions erupt between Bernie Sanders and Democratic leaders

Discussion: Mediaite, naked capitalism and Common Dreams

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
Harry Reid: Nevada unrest is ‘test of leadership’ for Bernie Sanders

Discussion: NV Dems, Mediaite, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Shakesville, Guardian, The Nation and LawNewz

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid urges Sanders to condemn violence in Nevada

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Jonathan Easley / The Hill: Nevada Dem chairwoman gets obscene death threats after convention chaos

Mickey Rapkin / DuJour:

Lady and the Trump — Donald and Melania Trump live in a 30,000-square-foot triplex at the top of his namesake tower on Fifth Avenue, and as the race toward the presidency gets shorter and more frenzied, the ratings-hungry cable news networks have started coming to them.

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Melania Trump: ‘Unbelievable’ Chris Matthews commented on me — Melania Trump says she is shocked by Chris Matthews's recent remarks about her physical appearance. — “Unbelievable,” she said in an interview with Du Jour published on Tuesday. “That's what I'm saying — I'm not only a beauty, I'm smart.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and Hullabaloo

Al Weaver / Washington Examiner: Melania Trump: My husband is ‘not Hitler’

NBC News:

Hillary Clinton Holds Slim National Lead Over Donald Trump: Poll — Race between Clinton, Trump narrows 5:50 — Over the past couple of weeks, Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton has continued to inch closer to the magic number of delegates she needs to lock up the Democratic contest.

Discussion: Liberal Values, Daily Mail, FiveThirtyEight, FOX News Radio, TPNN, Infowars, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, National Review and AOL

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
McCain In Deep Trouble in GOP Primary; Trump, Clinton Close in AZ

Discussion: Politicus USA

Dan Nowicki / Arizona Republic:
Sen. John McCain attacks Ann Kirkpatrick over ‘Obamacare’ vote

Discussion: Daily Kos

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Poll: Trump narrows Clinton's lead nationally to 3 points

Discussion: Morning Consult, Common Dreams, Scared Monkeys, Shakesville, Hot Air, Political Wire and The Week

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Jeb Bush Has Some Thoughts On Trump's Cinco De Mayo Tweet — He also thinks the Republican Party may no longer be relevant. — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush hasn't been coy about the scars he bears from the Republican primary. He won't be voting for his bete noire, Donald Trump …

Discussion: USA Today, RedState, Talking Points Memo, The Ring of Fire Network, AOL, Politico, Mediaite, BizPac Review, The Week and Hot Air

Scott Wong / The Hill:
Speaker Ryan: Voters are right to trust Trump more than me

Discussion: Independent Journal …, CNNMoney, Fox News Insider, Hullabaloo, RedState, USA Today, First Draft, Page Six, LawNewz, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Grant Stinchfield / The Federalist:
The Never Trump Movement Is Anti-American And Hypocritical

Discussion: RedState

Reuters:

Exclusive: Trump willing to talk to North Korea's Kim, wants to renegotiate climate accord — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program, proposing a major shift in U.S. policy toward the isolated nation.

Discussion: New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Politico, Washington Times, Mediaite, HYPELINE and Hullabaloo

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

NOLAND, MARY ANNE — NOLAND, Mary Anne Alfriend. Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at the age of 68. Born in Danville, Va. …

Discussion: Raw Story, WWBT-TV, AOL, Daily Mail, Heat Street, The Daily Caller, Washingtonian, Mashable, Mediaite, The Week and Washington Times

Tim Murphy / Mother Jones:

Bernie Sanders Is Poised to Make a Very Weird Kind of History Tonight — Bernie Sanders can make history in Tuesday night's Kentucky Democratic primary. No, he can't clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, nor is he likely to score a big win that convinces superdelegates to switch their allegiances en masse.

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Trump's plan to rehabilitate his image: Explain past controversies — NEW YORK — In the face of a brutal new Democratic advertising assault, Donald Trump said he plans to rehabilitate his battered image in the coming weeks by publicly addressing head-on some of the most controversial episodes of his campaign.

Discussion: Vox, Politico, New York Magazine, Raw Story, Washington Times, ThinkProgress, AOL and FiveThirtyEight

Scott Adams Blog:

Scott Adams' Blog — Here's a good summary on Business Insider of the top 14 likely VP picks for Trump. See if you can predict who Trump will choose. — Few things are harder to predict than a VP choice because the situation stays fluid until the actual selection.

Discussion: Althouse

Washington Post:

U.S. judge strikes down D.C. concealed-carry gun law as likely unconstitutional — For the second time in as many years, a federal judge in Washington ordered the city to halt enforcement of its new, concealed-carry law that requires applicants to state “good reason” to carry a weapon in order to obtain a permit from police.

Discussion: Townhall.com, Infowars, RedState, The Federalist Papers, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Liberty Unyielding and Independent Journal …

Lindsey Ellefson / Mediaite:

Audio of Donald Trump Saying Model ‘Looks Like a Third-Rate Hooker’ Resurfaces — Back in 2004, a model named Victoria Zdrok gave an interview to a guy named Chaunce Hayden. In it, she detailed the way that Donald Trump had called up her bosses at Playboy and requested to meet her under …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and RedState

Shane Goldmacher / Politico:

Donald Trump Is Not Expanding the GOP — Donald Trump likes to say he has created a political movement that has drawn “millions and millions” of new voters into the Republican Party. “It's the biggest thing happening in politics,” Trump has said. “All over the world, they're talking about it,” he's bragged.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, ABC News, Washington Post, neo-neocon, RedState, Hot Air, New York Magazine, Daily Kos and The Resurgent

Matt Coughlin / Morning Call:

Substitute teacher at Easton High arrested for sex with teen in cemetery, police say — Of The Morning Call … EASTON — A married 49-year-old substitute teacher was interrupted by Easton police while she was having sex with a 17-year-old boy in the Easton Cemetery earlier this month, police said.

Discussion: WNEP-TV

Ari Rabin-Havt / Right Wing Watch:

Trey Gowdy Concedes: The Military Could Not Have Gotten To Benghazi In Time To Save Lives — A central element of conservative conspiracy theories spread in the aftermath of the September 11, 2012 attack on our diplomatic facility and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, has been the myth …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Alex Jones: ‘Michelle Obama Is A Man’ Who Murdered Joan Rivers To Cover It Up — InfoWars broadcaster and Donald Trump ally Alex Jones is back to claiming that First Lady Michelle Obama is secretly a transgender woman, but this time he's adding a new twist to his conspiracy theory …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Raw Story

David Wasserman / FiveThirtyEight:

Why Pennsylvania Could Decide The 2016 Election — When most people think of battleground America, they think of Florida and Ohio, two of only three states (along with Nevada) that have voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1996. They tend not to think of Pennsylvania as a classic …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Sir Elton John / The Hill:

North Carolina governor's ignorance of trans identity — North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has doubled down on his support for H.B. 2, the discriminatory bill requiring public school students to use restrooms for the gender they were assigned at birth. Recently, he filed a lawsuit …

Discussion: Human Rights Campaign, Heat Street, Advocate and Towleroad

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Is Traditional Polling Underselling Donald Trump's True Strength? — Hillary Clinton's lead in general election polls has faded over the last few weeks. One reason might be that a growing number of Republicans are coalescing around Donald Trump's candidacy. — Another part of the explanation?

Discussion: Althouse

Rebecca R. Ruiz / New York Times:

Justice Department Opens Investigation Into Russian Doping Scandal — The United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into state-sponsored doping by dozens of Russia's top athletes, according to two people familiar with the case. The inquiry escalates …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NPR, FiveThirtyEight and The Verge