memeorandum: Florida students plead with Congress: It's about the guns (Washington Post)

9:45 AM ET, February 19, 2018

Top Items:

Former Trump aide Rick Gates to plead guilty; agrees to testify against Manafort, sources say … A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days - and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul J. Manafort Jr. …

Discussion: The Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Business Insider, VICE News, Daily Wire, Politicus USA, Talking Points Memo, The Right Scoop, CBS News, The Hill, Mother Jones, CNN, New York Magazine, Axios, KTLA, RedState, Law & Crime, AOL, Political Wire, Vox and twitchy.com

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

A non-alarmist reading of the Mueller Russia indictment … There's been no shortage of breathless reaction to Trump-Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for their efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now — Our democracy is in serious danger. — President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.

Blake Hounshell / Politico:

Confessions of a Russiagate Skeptic — If, like me, you've been following every twist and turn of the Russia investigations, you've probably wrestled with the same question that has been gnawing at me for more than a year now: What if there's nothing there?

Discussion: Mother Jones and Talking Points Memo

Scott Shane / New York Times:
How Unwitting Americans Encountered Russian Operatives Online

Discussion: Vox, Business Insider and Front Page Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Podesta: Trump a ‘draft dodger’ in war for democracy

Discussion: Political Wire, Power Line, myfox8.com, The Guardian, Breitbart, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway and CBS New York

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
CBS Host To Podesta: How Did Russians Know To Focus On Purple States, But Hillary Didn't? [VIDEO]

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Washington Post:

Trump lashes out over Russia probe in angry and error-laden tweetstorm … WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump lashed out with fresh anger about the intensifying Russia probe over the weekend, accusing Democrats of enabling a foreign adversary to interfere in the 2016 election and attacking …

New York Times:

Trump's Evolution From Relief to Fury Over the Russia Indictment — WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump began the weekend believing that something good had just happened to him. An indictment leveled against 13 Russians for interfering with the 2016 election had not accused him or anyone around him of wrongdoing.

Discussion: Althouse, New York Magazine, Politico and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Max Boot / Washington Post:

Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America since 9/11 — Imagine if, after 9/11, the president had said that the World Trade Center and Pentagon could have been attacked by “China” or “lots of other people.” Imagine if he had dismissed claims of al-Qaeda's responsibility as a “hoax” …

Discussion: Breitbart, RT, CNBC, Outside the Beltway, The Federalist, Raw Story, Woke Sloth, The Right Scoop and AOL

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:
Trump surveyed Mar-a-Lago members over gun control in wake of school shooting: report

Discussion: RedState

Josh Feldman / Mediaite: Jill Stein Downplays Russian Meddling: Media and DNC Interfered in 2016 Election Too

CBS News:

Oprah follows up with the partisan voters in Michigan — Last fall, Oprah Winfrey spoke with 14 Michigan voters, seven of whom voted for Donald Trump. Winfrey sat down with the voters again to get their thoughts on Trump's first year in office — Oprah Winfrey

Discussion: IJR, Breitbart, Axios, Deadline, KTLA, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, CNBC, The Right Scoop, RedState, Mediaite, Washington Times and Mother Jones

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Conservatives urge Trump to grant pardons in Russia probe — After months of criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, President Donald Trump's supporters are issuing increasingly bold calls for presidential pardons to limit the investigation's impact.

Discussion: Raw Story

Jill Abramson / New York Magazine:

Do You Believe Her Now? — With new evidence that Clarence Thomas lied to get onto the Supreme Court, it's time to talk seriously about impeachment. — Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas testifying before the Senate in 1991. Paul Hosefros/The New York Times/Redux (Hill); Jose R. Lopez/The New York Times/Redux (Rhomas)

Discussion: National Review and thecut

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Rush Limbaugh attacks Parkland students for marching and ‘bashing’ NRA: ‘This is totally political’ — Radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked a group of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida for organizing marches after 17 were killed in a mass shooting at their school.

Christine Yared / New York Times: Don't Let My Classmates' Deaths Be in Vain

Associated Press: Trump fumes about Russia investigation as nation mourns

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
NRA defends grant to Parkland shooting suspect's rifle team, lashes out at critics

Discussion: twitchy.com, FOX6Now.com, CNN and miamiherald

Washington Post:

Funeral after funeral, an emotional marathon for survivors of the Parkland school shooting — PARKLAND, Fla. — Under vacation-blue Florida skies, the young mourners have emerged from family SUVs and minivans at funeral after funeral, high school girls in black dresses and heels and teen boys in black shirts and pants.

Discussion: The FADER and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:
Florida students plead with Congress: It's about the guns

Discussion: IJR, NPR, Daily Kos, TheBlaze, RT, Raw Story, The Root, Balloon Juice, Politico, NBC News and Mediaite

Wesley Lowery / Washington Post:
He survived the Florida school shooting. He vows not to return to classes until gun laws change.

Discussion: CBS News, The Guardian, RT, NBC News, Fox News, Business Insider, CBS New York, WSVN-TV, thecut and Mashable

New York Times:

Tools of Trump's Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids — As accounts of past sexual indiscretions threatened to surface during Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign, the job of stifling potentially damaging stories fell to his longtime lawyer and all-around fixer, Michael D. Cohen.

Discussion: Axios and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Abigail Tracy / Vanity Fair:

“The Canaries Are Dying”: How Trump Is Making Republicans Pick Their 2018 Poison — Caught between the president's rabid, loyal base and suburban women, Republican candidates may not survive a blue wave election. — “These races are like canaries in the coal mine,” Steve Israel …

Discussion: Raw Story

National Journal:
Democrats Hoping for a Shocker in Trump Country

Discussion: Politico and Political Wire

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Skirmish in Beijing over the nuclear football — On Thursday Nov. 9, when President Trump and his team visited Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chief of Staff John Kelly and a U.S. Secret Service agent skirmished with Chinese security officials over the nuclear football.

Discussion: The Week, CNBC, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, RedState and VICE News

Wall Street Journal:

Russian Curler Fails Drug Test, Authorities Explore Sabotage Possibility — Aleksandr Krushelnitckii, who won a bronze medal in mixed doubles with his wife last week, has tested positive for a high dose of meldonium, the same medication that Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova was suspended in 2016 for using

Discussion: New York Magazine