memeorandum: The black unemployment rate has never been closer to the white unemployment rate (Philip Bump/Washington Post)

4:55 PM ET, June 1, 2018

Top Items:

I will speak out until integrity returns to the White House — John Brennan served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2013 to January 2017. — My first visit to the Oval Office came in October 1990, when I was a 35-year-old CIA officer.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Mediaite, Daily Wire, Sean Hannity, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Politico, CNN, twitchy.com and Washington Times

David Frum / The Atlantic:

The Antidote to Trump Is Decency — Start with what you already know: It's hypocritical in the extreme for President Trump to denounce entertainers for using language demeaning to women. When he complains that Samantha Bee has spoken insultingly of his favorite daughter …

Naomi Fry / New Yorker:

Kim Kardashian Meeting Donald Trump in the Oval Office Is a Nightmare We Can't Wake Up From … The image appears before us like something out of a bad dream. He is seated behind the Resolute desk, his Chiclet teeth exposed in a rictus of extreme jollity. She is standing slightly behind him, considerably more sombre.

Discussion: Glamour, Althouse, theGrio, The Daily Caller and Mic

Washington Post:

EPA's Pruitt spent $1,560 on 12 customized fountain pens from Washington jewelry store — The account manager at the Tiny Jewel Box, which calls itself Washington's “premier destination for fine jewelry and watches,” had promised to expedite the order of a dozen customized silver fountain pens …

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, HuffPost, Washington Press, VICE News, Splinter, Boing Boing, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., The Week, WJLA-TV and VICE

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:

Trump breaks protocol, sends markets a clear signal on jobs report before numbers are released — President Trump on Friday broke with decades of protocol and commented publicly about the highly anticipated jobs report data 69 minutes before they were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Discussion: Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times, New Republic, Business Insider, NPR, ThinkProgress, Crooked Media, USA Today, Talking Points Memo, CNBC, RedState, IJR, Outside the Beltway, CNNMoney, The Week, Mediaite and Daily Kos

Neil Irwin / New York Times:

We Ran Out of Words to Describe How Good the Jobs Numbers Are — The economy is in a sweet spot, with steady growth and broad improvement in the labor market. — The real question in analyzing the May jobs numbers released Friday is whether there are enough synonyms for “good” in an online thesaurus to describe them adequately.

Discussion: Townhall, Wall Street Journal, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Outside the Beltway, Washington Free Beacon and The Week

Russell Berman / The Atlantic:
The Outrage Over Trump's Market-Shaking Tweet

Discussion: Axios, New York Times and Vox

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The black unemployment rate has never been closer to the white unemployment rate

Discussion: Townhall, Breitbart, IJR and Instapundit

Wall Street Journal:

Kim's Letter to Trump Expresses Interest in Nuclear Summit — North Korean official aims to hand-deliver the letter to Trump on Friday — WASHINGTON—One of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's top lieutenants is expected to hand-deliver a letter to President Donald Trump in the White House …

Discussion: The Atlantic, ABC News, CNN, The Guardian, Vox, Washington Post, Paste, The Week, Jamie Dupree - AJC, US Department of State, Common Dreams, Mediaite, CNBC and Yonhap News Agency

David Nakamura / Washington Post:
Trump reinstates summit with Kim Jong Un for June 12 in Singapore

Discussion: New Republic, ABC News, Politico, HeraldScotland, One America News Network, Breitbart, Townhall, CNBC and Roll Call

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Trump Announces Summit Meeting With Kim Jong-un Is Back On

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Shareblue Media, Joe.My.God. and Political Wire

Axios:
Trump announces North Korea summit is back on for June 12

Discussion: Althouse

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Billionaire Koch brothers' network launches digital ad blitz supporting Democrat Heidi Heitkamp as midterms near — Americans for Prosperity is unleashing a digital advertising campaign on Friday thanking North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp for cosponsoring the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protect Act.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Roll Call and Washington Times

Seth A. Richardson / Plain Dealer:

New poll shows Sherrod Brown leading Senate race, Mike DeWine on top in governor's — CLEVELAND, Ohio - A new poll released Friday shows U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, up big in his race against GOP U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci while Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine leads Democratic …

Discussion: Political Wire

Erin Gloria Ryan / The Daily Beast:

The Tiff Over Samantha Bee Has Made C*nts of Us All … I love the word “cunt.” It's so direct, sharp, and mean, with an acrid finish like a lick of whisky that leaves the roof of one's mouth feeling disinfected and the eyes watering. In my mind, I use “cunt” on everything—men, women …

Discussion: HuffPost, ThinkProgress, Politico, The Week and The Daily Beast

Peggy Drexler / CNN:
Samantha Bee's message was right even if her word wasn't

Discussion: The Wrap, Fox News, The Federalist and Daily Wire

Michael Schneider / IndieWire:
Samantha Bee Addresses Controversy: ‘We Spent the Day Wrestling With the Repercussions of One Bad Word’

Discussion: Deadline, Los Angeles Times, Gothamist, CNNMoney, The Week, Breitbart, Conservative News Today, Daily Wire, Hot Air, twitchy.com, The Last Tradition, NewsBusters, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

The Daily Beast:

Maria Bartiromo's Strange Trip From ‘Money Honey’ to One of Trump's Top Boosters … “President Obama politicized all of his agencies: the DOJ, the FBI, the IRS, the CIA—they were all involved in trying to take down Donald Trump.” — That was what Fox News and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo …

more at Mediagazer »

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:
Joy Reid Responds to Latest Blog Posts: Al Qaeda Did 9/11

Discussion: RedState, BuzzFeed and USA Today, more at Mediagazer »

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say — A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Joe.My.God.

Scott Gilmore / Macleans.ca:

Trade sanctions against America won't work. Sanctioning Trump himself might. — Scott Gilmore: Instead of taxing American goods, Canada and the western allies should collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this President: his family and their assets

Discussion: Daily Kos and CNNMoney

John Harwood / CNBC:
Trump's tariffs on US allies will shrink the savings Americans gained from tax cuts

Discussion: Washington Post, NTK Network and Hit & Run

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:
Trudeau says NAFTA talks broke down after Pence made ultimatum

Discussion: Shareblue Media, New Yorker, New York Times, Power Line, Politico, IJR, CNBC, The Week, NBC News, Axios, Talking Points Memo and The Mahablog

Jennifer A Dlouhy / Bloomberg:

Trump Prepares Lifeline for Money-Losing Coal Plants — Energy Department is weighing emergency electricity reserve — Move would be unprecedented intervention in energy markets — Trump administration officials are making plans to order grid operators to buy electricity …

Discussion: Mother Jones, New York Magazine, CNBC, Daily Kos, New Republic, Washington Post, MSNBC, The Week, ThinkProgress, Common Dreams, The Daily Caller, Shareblue Media, BloombergQuint and HuffPost

Stef W. Kight / Axios:
White House prepares bailout of coal and nuclear plants

Discussion: Politico

Brian Contreras / Stanford Daily:

Leaked emails show Hoover academic conspiring with College Republicans to conduct ‘opposition research’ on student — Emails between the Hoover Institution's Niall Ferguson and well-known Republican student activists John Rice-Cameron '20 and Max Minshull '20 reveal coordination on …

Discussion: Vox, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, bradford-delong.com, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Roll Call

Jeet Heer / New Republic:
Niall Ferguson wanted opposition research on a student.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, CNBC, The Week and Splinter

HuffPost:

Congressional Candidate In Virginia Admits He's A Pedophile — Nathan Larson also ran online forums for pedophiles and misogynists. — Nathan Larson, a 37-year-old accountant from Charlottesville, Virginia, is running for Congress as an independent candidate in his native state.

Discussion: VICE News, The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog, Joe.My.God., Snopes.com, The Root, Splinter and The Week

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:

Stormy Daniels's Lawyer Sought Help From Democrats in Fight With Trump — WASHINGTON — Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress who says she had a sexual encounter with President Trump, has sought help for his legal battle against Mr. Trump from leading Democratic operatives.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Law & Crime, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, IJR, Axios, Politico and NPR, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times:
Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti tested legal boundaries as his firm maneuvered into bankruptcy

Discussion: New York Magazine

NBC News:

Jared Kushner close friend Rick Gerson now under scrutiny from Mueller — WASHINGTON — A close friend of Jared Kushner has come under scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for his proximity to some key meetings between Trump associates and foreign officials, according to five people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Talking Points Memo

Bridget Bowman / Roll Call:

Democratic Poll: Mike Levin Ahead in California's 49th District — A Democratic poll shows a tight contest in the crowded race for California's 49th District, with Democrat Mike Levin narrowly ahead of Republican Diane Harkey . — The district is one of three in Southern California …

Sam Biddle / The Intercept:

Here's the Email Russian Hackers Used to Try to Break Into State Voting Systems — Just days before the 2016 presidential election, hackers identified by the National Security Agency as working for Russia attempted to breach American voting systems. Among their specific targets were the computers …

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Raw Story

John Solomon / The Hill:

London ‘bridges’ falling down: Curious origins of FBI's Trump-Russia probe — The bridge to the Russia investigation wasn't erected in Moscow during the summer of the 2016 election. — It originated earlier, 1,700 miles away in London, where foreign figures contacted Trump campaign advisers …

Discussion: Sara A. Carter, The Gateway Pundit and Conservative News Today

Alexander Stern / Attorney IO:

BREAKING: Trump May Already Be Indicted Under Seal — There is perhaps no investigation more closely scrutinized than special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into President Donald Trump and his inner circle. Many, probably including the President himself, anxiously await news of a possible presidential indictment.

Discussion: Raw Story

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Trump Ran as a Renegade. Now He's Trying to Keep Them at Bay. — IUKA, Miss. — When Chris McDaniel first ran for Senate four years ago, his campaign became a cause for disaffected and restless Republicans across the country. Activists waving “Don't Tread on Me” flags flooded Mississippi.

Discussion: National Review, Hot Air, Mediaite and CNN

The Real Deal New York:

Kushner, unfiltered — In an extensive interview, the Kushner Companies boss gets candid about 666 Fifth, federal investigations, tenant-harassment allegations and his son in the White House — Charlie Kushner has a few things he wants to get off his chest.

Chicago Tribune:

Why Trump should leave Blagojevich in prison — Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, with his wife, Patti, waves at the end of his statement to reporters and supporters gathered outside his home on his last full day of freedom March 14, 2012. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post and Politico

Stephen L. Miller / Fox News: President Trump, cut the celebrity shenanigans and commute the sentences that actually matter

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:

The World As It Wasn't — Column: Barack Obama's revealing reaction to Donald Trump's victory — Maybe you can help me out. I'm puzzling over a line in a New York Times story on The World As It Is, the forthcoming memoir from Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, infowars.com, The Week, AOL and Fox News

Robert Samuels / Washington Post:

How it feels to be called a monkey — About US is a new initiative by The Washington Post to cover issues of identity in the United States. Sign up for the newsletter. — The first time I was called a monkey was in high school. I was groggily emerging from a nap in the auditorium during …

Michael Kruse / Politico:

‘He Pretty Much Gave In to Whatever They Asked For’ — Trump says he's a master negotiator. Those who've actually dealt with him beg to differ. — In 1985, Tony Schwartz, a writer for New York magazine, was sitting in Donald Trump's office in Trump Tower interviewing him for a story.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Week and Mediaite