memeorandum: California Senate passes bill that would keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns (Rachel Frazin/The Hill)

9:00 AM ET, May 3, 2019

Top Items:

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:

For Fear of William Barr — The attorney general gets attacked because his probe endangers many powerful people. — The only thing uglier than an angry Washington is a fearful Washington. And fear is what's driving this week's blitzkrieg of Attorney General William Barr.

Discussion: Power Line

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Trump, Wrecker of Reputations — On Attorney General William Barr's testimony and the coming constitutional crisis. — In the first year of the Trump Presidency, White House advisers often promised reporters that this would be the week when they would unveil Trump's plans for a massive investment in American infrastructure.

Discussion: The Resurgent, NB Blog, IJR, Slate and PJ Media Home

Washington Post:

Trump finds in Barr the attorney general — and shield — he long sought — For a time, President Trump was reluctant to select William P. Barr as his attorney general. The veteran Justice Department official from the George H.W. Bush administration was not a longtime Trump loyalist …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, The Atlantic, The National Interest, Denver Post and New York Times

Grant Stern / Washington Press:

A Democratic Congressman just brutally mocked the cowardice of Trump's attorney general with a hilarious stunt — A member of the House Judiciary Committee just sent #ChickenBarr trending on Twitter when Trump's Attorney General William Barr refused to appear for fear of being questioned by the panel's lawyers.

Discussion: Townhall, Fortune and The Daily Caller

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
In Barr, Trump has found someone who licks his boots out of principle

Discussion: USA Today, New Republic and Washington Monthly

Justin Wise / The Hill:
Biden says Barr ‘should’ resign: 'He's lost the confidence of the American people'

Discussion: Daily Wire, Washingtonian and Joe.My.God.

CNN:
Mueller's silence let Trump supporters fill the void

Discussion: Power Line, Fox News and Mashable

Quin Hillyer / Washington Examiner:
Barr's theory would create a tyrannical presidency

Discussion: Washington Post and Vox

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
Trump is already set to use the government to destroy the Democratic nominee

Discussion: Fox News, The Week, Daily Kos and RedState

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
At least one person came out smelling like a rose

Discussion: NPR, Crooked Media, Shakesville and Raw Story

The Daily Beast:

Mark Halperin Enlists Pals Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Michael Smerconish to Rehab His Career After Sexual Misconduct Scandal — The disgraced pundit has re-emerged from #MeToo hiding and has met with media friends for new punditry work—including a scrapped gig with the hosts of MSNBC's ‘Morning Joe.’

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Fox News and Mediaite

Rachel Frazin / The Hill:

California Senate passes bill that would keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns — The California state Senate on Thursday approved a bill to require candidates appearing on the presidential primary ballot — including President Trump — to release five years' worth of income tax returns.

Greg Farrell / Bloomberg:
Someone Did Get to Look at Trump's Tax Returns: Deutsche Bankers

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Adam Beam / Associated Press:
California renews bid to get presidential candidates' taxes

Discussion: Townhall, Joe.My.God. and Axios

Bloomberg:

Trump Hails Steel Tariffs in Defiance of GOP Request to End Them — Republican senators urged him not to impose new auto tariffs — Grassley says USMCA can't get a vote if metals tariffs remain — Republican senators said they warned President Donald Trump Thursday against imposing tariffs …

Discussion: The Last Refuge and Politico

CNN:
Bernie Sanders personally spearheaded campaign strategy to take on Joe Biden

Discussion: NBC News, Splinter, Reuters and Politico

Fox News:
Trump tells Dems 'it's over,' says McGahn won't testify, hits Biden's ‘very dumb statement’ in Fox News interview

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios, swampdrain.com and Breitbart

Eric Beech / Reuters:
Trump says he's not inclined to let former counsel McGahn testify to Congress

Discussion: Political Wire

Katie Galioto / Politico:
Trump says he leaned on God to survive Mueller probe

Discussion: Political Wire and ABC News

Daily Mail:

Grim-faced Obama with president-elect Trump as they depart of White House for the inauguration. — Obama was cordial to the president elect in their face-to-face meeting in the Oval Office, but in private Obama called Trump a conman straight out of Huckleberry Finn.

Discussion: Daily Wire and The Gateway Pundit

John Gage / Washington Examiner:
Obama saw the 2016 loss of Hillary Clinton as a ‘personal insult’

Discussion: TheBlaze

BuzzFeed News:
Joe Biden Wants To Make Donald Trump Deplorable Again

Discussion: Eschaton, twitchy.com, CNN and The Daily Caller

New York Times:

F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016 — WASHINGTON — The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

William Barr's Justice Department Just Filed the Most Nakedly Political Brief in the Agency's History — On Wednesday afternoon, after Attorney General William Barr finished his truculent and mendacious testimony before the Senate, the Department of Justice filed perhaps the most embarrassing …

Discussion: The Atlantic and ThinkProgress

Charlie Savage / New York Times: The Coming Subpoena Fights Between Trump and Congress, Explained

John Solomon / The Hill:

Ukrainian embassy confirms DNC contractor solicited Trump dirt in 2016 — The boomerang from the Democratic Party's failed attempt to connect Donald Trump to Russia's 2016 election meddling is picking up speed, and its flight path crosses right through Moscow's pesky neighbor, Ukraine.

Discussion: Fox News, twitchy.com, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Wire

Holly Otterbein / Politico:

‘Anyone Ever Seen Cocaine?’ What We Found in the Archives of Bernie Sanders's Long-Lost TV Show. — Dozens of children scurry on the screen across Ethan Allen Park in Burlington, Vermont, bobbing for apples and running three-legged races. It is a beaming July day, and they're at a summer camp …

Michael Kranish / Washington Post:
Inside Bernie Sanders's 1988 10-day ‘honeymoon’ in the Soviet Union

Discussion: Dispatches

Andy Borowitz / New Yorker:

Barr Unable to Give Honest Answer to Drive-Thru Window at Arby's — BETHESDA, Maryland (The Borowitz Report)—Attorney General William Barr on Thursday proved unable to give honest answers to a drive-thru window at a Bethesda, Maryland, Arby's restaurant. — Barr, who drove up to the window …

Mark Maremont / Wall Street Journal:

NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Questioned on Travel Expenses — Lawyer for the gun-rights organization says vast majority of the money was spent on donor outreach, fundraising and other business

Discussion: Fox News and The Week

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:

Facebook bans far-right leaders including Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos for being “dangerous” — The bans are a sign that the social network is more aggressively enforcing its hate speech policies under pressure from civil rights groups. — Facebook said on Thursday …

Discussion: Right Wing Watch, twitchy.com, Hot Air, New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Resurgent, Instapundit, The Daily Beast, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jewish Journal, Breitbart, Mediaite, RedState and New York Post

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook bans Alex Jones and Laura Loomer for violating its policies against dangerous individuals

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Watergate had the Nixon tapes. Mueller had Annie Donaldson's notes. — The notes, scribbled rapidly on a legal pad, captured the fear inside the White House when President Trump raged over the Russia investigation and decreed he was firing the FBI director who led it: “Is this the beginning of the end?”

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

The 2019 governor's race that has Trump's team sweating — Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is a presidential phone-buddy and White House regular who's become one of President Donald Trump's loudest surrogates. — He's also one of the most unpopular governors in the country, facing a treacherous reelection in November.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Alexandria Neason / Columbia Journalism Review:

On Twitter, news outlets amplify Trump's false statements: study — When a president speaks, what he says is, by journalistic norms, inherently newsworthy. But when a president lies—on social media, at press conferences, and in speeches—news organizations have to reconsider old rules …

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Ishaan Tharoor / Washington Post:

The White House wants Maduro gone. But it may be helping him stay in power. — Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter. — In baseball parlance, you could say (and some already have) that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó may have struck out.

Michelle Ye Hee Lee / Washington Post:

She's Asian and female. But she's not me. — I'm often mistaken for other Asian American journalists. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's awkward. It took me years to realize that it also stings. … We're both Korean American, 5-foot-8, and our last name is Lee. That's about all we have in common.

Associated Press:

Cohen's prison reality: ‘The Situation’ and Shabbat services — NEW YORK (AP) — “The Situation” and the Fyre Festival fraudster are already there. President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, is up next. — It's not reality TV. It's a federal prison 70 miles …

HuffPost:

Are House Democrats Running Out The Clock On Impeachment? — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is certainly not in a rush. — WASHINGTON ― Despite the evidence of obstruction of justice outlined in the Mueller report, House Democrats are showing very little interest …

Discussion: Lawfare and The Ringer

CNN:

Allegations remain in forefront for Kavanaugh, 7 months after his confirmation — Washington (CNN)Seven months after he joined the US Supreme Court, the cloud of Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations still hangs over Justice Brett Kavanaugh, recalled in media reports across …