memeorandum: ‘It could have been worse’ is the foundation of Trump's presidency (Fred Hiatt/Washington Post)

7:00 AM ET, April 8, 2019

Top Items:

Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns as Trump's Homeland Security Secretary — WASHINGTON — Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, resigned on Sunday after meeting with President Trump, ending a tumultuous tenure in charge of the border security agency that had made her the target of the president's criticism.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Al Jazeera, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Week and National Review

Paula Reid / CBS News:

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigning after clashing with Trump on immigration — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is resigning, President Trump announced in a tweet Sunday. CBS News first reported Nielsen's impending departure, which Mr. Trump announced after a 5 p.m. meeting at the White House.

Axios:

Scoop: Former White House counsel Don McGahn off the record — Don McGahn, who has kept his head down since leaving as White House counsel, shared some off-the-record thoughts on Thursday in a lunch with about 40 senior Republican Senate aides. — Details: “I spent the last couple …

Discussion: Politico and Raw Story

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

Stephen Miller pressuring Trump officials amid immigration shakeups — As President Donald Trump roils the capital over illegal immigration, his influential aide Stephen Miller is playing a more aggressive behind-the-scenes role in a wider administration shakeup.

Discussion: Axios and Raw Story

Dara Lind / Vox:

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigns as Trump rage continues — Nielsen was the most aggressive DHS secretary in history. It wasn't enough for Trump. — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump Sunday night …

Discussion: Crooked Timber and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Wall Street Journal: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns

CNN:
Trump says DHS Secretary Nielsen leaving

Discussion: ABC News, Fox News, The Sun, Raw Story, Deadline, FITSNews and Townhall

Associated Press:
Homeland Security Sec. Nielsen resigns amid border turmoil

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Washington Press and The Resurgent

Victoria Albert / The Daily Beast:
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to Resign Immediately: Report

Discussion: Politico, CBS News, New York Daily News and Splinter

Maureen Groppe / USA Today:

Buttigieg to Pence: If you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is with my creator — Here are a few facts about ‘Mayor Pete.’ — WASHINGTON - Pete Buttigieg got a hero's welcome as he took the stage Sunday at a fundraising brunch for a group that supports LGBTQ candidates.

Discussion: The Guardian, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mercury News and Conservative News Today

Josh Lederman / NBC News:

‘A kind of war’: Buttigieg describes struggle with sexual orientation in emotional speech — “If you could have offered me a pill that could make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you could give me a swig of water,” Buttigieg said. — WASHINGTON — Pete Buttigieg …

Jeremy Herb / CNN:

Nunes sending eight criminal referrals to Attorney General William Barr — (CNN)California Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he was planning to send eight criminal referrals to Attorney General William Barr as soon as this week.

Discussion: Splinter, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Rick Moran / Trending Home: Nunes to Make Eight Criminal Referrals to Justice Department This Week

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post: Scrutiny and suspicion as Mueller report undergoes redaction

Gregg Re / Fox News:
Nunes to send eight criminal referrals to DOJ concerning leaks, conspiracy amid Russia probe

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, RedState and Mediaite

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
William Barr's Choices

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and The New Civil Rights Movement

Zack Budryk / The Hill:

O'Rourke: US-Israel relationship must transcend ‘a prime minister who is racist’ — Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D), in an apparent reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Sunday that the relationship between the U.S. and Israel must transcend “a prime minister who is racist.”

Discussion: Splinter, Breitbart, middleeastmonitor.com and Reuters

Holly Bailey / Washington Post:
Beto O'Rourke on Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Racist’

Discussion: The Week

David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
As Netanyahu Seeks Re-election, the Future of the West Bank Is Now on the Ballot

Discussion: Haaretz

Emily Shugerman / The Daily Beast:
Republican Jewish Coalition Has to Remind Trump: We Didn't Support Obama

Discussion: One America News Network and Axios

David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
Netanyahu Vows to Start Annexing West Bank, in Bid to Rally the Right

Discussion: New York Post, Slate and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republicans are Trashing the Law to Keep Trump's Taxes Secret — This week, the House Ways and Means Committee formally moved to obtain President Trump's federal tax forms. This move, which ought to be a mere formality, has slipped immediately into a political and legal conflict.

Discussion: CNN and RedState

Lucien Bruggeman / ABC News:
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow accuses Democrats of playing politics, 'The president has not asked …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, Daily Kos, IJR and The Hill

politicallyshort.com:

Flynn Leaks and Ignatius Hypocrisy — David Ignatius of the Washington Post poses the interesting question of what responsibility, if any, a journalist has to avoid blowing secrets. While this question was once posed by Ignatius in a Washington Post article written back in 2000 …

Tom Elliott / Grabien News:

New Record: Obama Mentions Himself 392 Times During Berlin Townhall [Montage] — ‘I worked out every morning; I mean, I was pretty religious about it, I was in the gym’ — President Obama was in Germany on Saturday, ostensibly to speak about “community leadership and civic engagement” …

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

A Pelosi-shaped cloud over Trump's NAFTA 2.0 chances — Nancy Pelosi has more power than anybody to decide whether Trump gets Congress' approval to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with his renegotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. And the signs Republicans are seeing …

Thomas Fuller / New York Times:

In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor's Trash — SAN FRANCISCO — Three blocks from Mark Zuckerberg's $10 million Tudor home in San Francisco, Jake Orta lives in a small, single-window studio apartment filled with trash. — There's a child's pink bicycle helmet …

Christopher Mele / New York Times:

Rhino Poacher Killed by Elephant and Eaten by Lions, Officials Say — A man suspected of being a rhino poacher was killed last week by an elephant and his remains devoured by a pride of lions at a South African park, officials said. — Rangers at Kruger National Park and other searchers found …

Discussion: USA Today, NPR, Daily Wire, The Week, Quartz and Slate