“North Korea says nuclear negotiations with the United States will never resume unless the Trump administration moves away from what the North describes as unilateral demands for disarmament,” the AP reports.
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Theresa May Will Resign as British Prime Minister
Theresa May has said she will quit as Conservative leader on June 7, paving the way for a contest to decide a new prime minister, the BBC reports.
In an emotional statement in Downing Street, Mrs May said she had “done my best” to honour the 2016 EU referendum result.
It would remain a matter of “deep regret” that she had been unable to deliver Brexit, she added. But a new PM was “in the best interests of the country”.
Mueller Wants to Testify In Private
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told MSNBC that special counsel Robert Mueller wants to testify before his committee, but only in private.
Mueller would give a public opening statement and agree to allow a transcript of his private testimony to be released publicly.
Nadler said Mueller doesn’t want to participate in a televised open hearing that could be a spectacle.
Trump Orders Agencies to Assist Review of Russia Probe
“President Trump ordered all intelligence agencies late Thursday evening to assist Attorney General William Barr in his review of surveillance issues surrounding Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, delegating significant authority to Barr to declassify intelligence documents as the attorney general sees fit,” CNN reports.
“Barr is working closely with the heads of the CIA, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review the origins of the Russia investigation — an effort the President had long demanded.”
Washington Post: “Barr requested the authority to make his own declassification decisions in the course of that review.”
Trump Tried to Steer Border Wall Contract
“President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News,” the Washington Post reports.
Weld Turns Up Heat on Trump
President Trump’s lone Republican primary challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, ratcheted up his attacks on the president, ABC News reports.
Said Weld: “I celebrate that America has always been a melting pot. It seems he would prefer an Aryan nation.”
Trump Asks Staff to Vouch for His Temperament
Politico: “In a remarkable scene, the president proceeded to name-check senior White House staff and advisers in the Roosevelt Room who he said had attended Wednesday’s scuttled session on infrastructure initiatives with Democratic congressional leaders — which Trump abandoned after declaring that the lawmakers could not simultaneously negotiate legislation while investigating and threatening to impeach him.”
Trump asked adviser Kellyanne Conway: “Kellyanne, what was my temperament yesterday?”
She replied: “Very calm. No tamper tantrum.”
Buttigieg Says Trump Dodged Draft with ‘Fake’ Disability
Pete Buttigieg accused President Trump of using his “privileged status to fake a disability” to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War, CBS News reports.
Said Buttigieg: “This is somebody, who I think it is fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place.”
Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act
“Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks leader, has been indicted on 17 new counts of violating the Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday — a novel case that raises profound First Amendment issues,” the New York Times reports.
“The new charges were part of a superseding indictment obtained by the Trump administration that significantly expanded the legal case against Mr. Assange, who is already fighting extradition proceedings in London based on an earlier hacking-related count brought by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia.”
The Daily Beast called it a “stunning escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the press.”
Fake Pelosi Videos Spread Across Social Media
“Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), altered to make her sound as if she’s drunkenly slurring her words, are spreading rapidly across social media, highlighting how political disinformation that clouds public understanding can now spread at the speed of the Web,” the Washington Post reports.
“The video of Pelosi’s onstage speech Wednesday at a Center for American Progress event, in which she said President Trump’s refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations was tantamount to a “coverup,” was subtly edited to make her voice sound garbled and warped. It was then circulated widely across Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.”
Facebook Sees Sharp Rise In Fake Accounts
CBS News: “Facebook said it saw a ‘steep increase’ in the creation of abusive, fake accounts in the past six months. The company took down more than 3 billion fake accounts from October to March, twice as many as it did in the previous six months.”
Kushner Offered to Help Indicted Banker
“Shortly after Donald Trump’s 2016 election, Paul Manafort wrote to Jared Kushner to ask the incoming administration to consider giving a ‘major appointment’’ to Manafort’s banker,” Bloomberg reports.
Replied Kushner: “On it!”
“That email exchange, which was admitted as evidence during Manafort’s tax-fraud trial last year, gained new significance Thursday with the unsealing of a federal indictment in New York. The new filing accused the banker, Stephen Calk, of extending loans to Manafort as part of an effort to bribe his way into a plum administration job.”
Trump Steps Up Prosecution of Journalist Sources
“With its latest leak indictment last week, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump is now on pace to break the previous record for prosecutions of journalists’ sources, just two and a half years into its administration,” the Columbia Journalism Review reports.
“A new report, released for the first time today, shows just how dangerous such cases can be to journalists.”
Pelosi Says Trump Needs an ‘Intervention’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Donald Trump needs “an intervention” after his latest “temper tantum” at the White House, ratcheting up her criticism of a president she says is not fit for office, Politico reports.
Said Pelosi: “I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”
She added: “What goes on there? Who’s in charge? And he says he’s in charge. And I suspect that he may be. And I suspect he may be even more since yesterday, because I don’t think that any responsible assistant to the president of the United States would have advised him to do what he did yesterday.”
Democrats Would Prefer a Candidate In Their 50s
When asked about the ideal age for a president, a new Pew Research poll finds most Democrats say they prefer someone in their 40s through their 60s, with 47% saying the best age for a president is “in their 50s.”
Conway Says Pelosi Treated Her Like a Maid
“Kellyanne Conway escalated a feud with Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, accusing the House speaker of treating her like “her maid” following the previous day’s disastrous meeting on infrastructure,” Politico reports.
Said Conway: “When she was finished I said, respectfully, ‘Madam Speaker, would you like to address some of the specifics the president talked about.'”
According to Conway, Pelosi shot back: “I don’t — I talk to the president, I don’t talk to staff.”
Biden Maintains Big Lead In Democratic Race
A new Monmouth poll finds Joe Biden currently has the support of 33% in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s followed by Bernie Sanders at 15%, Kamala Harris at 11%, Elizabeth Warren at 10%, Pete Buttigieig at 6%, Beto O’Rourke at 4% and Amy Klobuchar at 3%.
Candidates who receive 1% support include Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, and Marianne Williamson. The remaining 11 candidates included in the poll receive less than 1% or were not selected by any respondents.
How Trump Could Win Without Pennsylvania
Henry Olsen: “President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Monday has rekindled speculation that in order to retain the White House, Trump must win the Keystone State in 2020. Former vice president Joe Biden, who was born in the state, has emphasized his ability to win it back for the Democrats, going so far as to locate his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia. There’s only one problem with this narrative: It’s wrong.”
“Trump would surely benefit from Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, but he doesn’t need them to win. Arizona, Wisconsin and Maine are the states to watch; if Trump wins there, he’s highly likely to win a second term.”
Test it yourself on our interactive Electoral Vote Map.
