Clinton Opts Out Of Fox Debate, Trump Unites White Nationalists, And How Taylor Swift Became A Nazi Idol

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May 24, 2016

Top Stories


Clinton Declines To Participate In Fox News Dem Debate

The Gist: Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has reportedly declined to participate in the Fox News debate that her opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has agreed to.

Republicans Are Breaking Obamacare So They Can Declare It Broken

The Gist: Some men just want to watch the world burn, so the famous line in The Dark Knight goes. And some Republicans just want to break Obamacare so they can call it broken.

Great White Hope: Trump Unites Generations Of White Nationalists

The Gist: Tucked away in the woods of middle Tennessee’s Montgomery Bell State Park, 300 “white advocates” gathered over the weekend at the fourteenth annual American Renaissance conference to reflect on just how much fuel Trump has added to their movement this election cycle. 

From The Reporter’s Notebook


While he has called climate change a “hoax” in the past, Donald Trump has applied to build a sea wall to protect an oceanfront golf course he owns from the threat of rising sea levels and extreme weather, TPM’s Allegra Kirkland wrote. Part of the application, reported by Politico, features an environmental impact statement pointing to the threat of coastal erosion due to sea level rise “not just in Doughmore Bay but around much of the coastline of Ireland.” It also warns against erosion caused by more frequent and extreme storms.

Agree or Disagree?


Josh Marshall: “With Trump again making rape accusations against his opponents husband, it’s really incumbent on reporters to bring up the fact that there is sworn testimony from Trump’s then-wife Ivana that he raped her in a fit of rage over a failed baldness remediation surgery. Come on, folks. Get it together.”

BUZZING: Today in the Hive


From TPM Live Chat Guest Wayne Barrett: “Thompson, consider your query a task list (which is what i always gave interns). donald was the second biggest donor to the national youth movement in the 80s, the sharpton organization that preceded the national action network. he did that because don king was practically a father to sharp ton and trump wanted all the tyson and other top fights in his casinos. it was a business decision. that’s when sharpton was doing tawana brawley and the rest of the incendiary cases. then, in 1989, trump did the openly racist ads about the central park jogger. his death penalty call was one of his most shrilly racist moments. when he seriously thought about running for president against obama, his birthed taunts were his calling card. he has understood for a long time how useful an explicit race message could be in a presidential (or in 1989, mayoral) race could be. i did not know about Fred and the KKK until recent stories. i wrote about rhe race discrimination case in the 70s. Nixon’s Justice Department brought it and young Donald’s contempt for it (repped by Roy) was outrageous.”

Related: Steve King went off about the Congressional Black Caucus.

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What We’re Reading


Kris Jenner and the shady crew behind her $105,000-a-year business school. (The Daily Beast)

How Taylor Swift became a Nazi idol. (Broadly)


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