RAGE. White House rages at Mueller in leaked letter: ‘In the April 19 letter to the Justice Department obtained Thursday by Fox News, White House Counsel Emmet Flood laid out a series of concerns with the Mueller report, specifically on the team’s handling of the investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. “The Special Counsel and his staff failed in their duty to act as prosecutors and only as prosecutors,” Flood wrote, complaining that the report “suffers from an extraordinary legal defect” by failing to comply with the “requirements of governing law.”‘ Grave miscalculation?…
OUTBREAK. Scientology cruise ship quarantined due to measles.
AND THEN THERE WERE 22. Senator Michael Bennet enters presidential race: ‘Michael Bennet, the moderate, studious Democratic senator from Colorado known for his work on education and immigration reform, announced his candidacy for president on Thursday. He joins a field so packed with candidates that it now includes six of his colleagues in the Senate and his former boss, John Hickenlooper, a past governor of Colorado.’
AND ANOTHER. Montana Governor Steve Bullock prepping 2020 announcement. ‘Bullock’s announcement won’t be a big surprise. He formed a political action committee, Big Sky Values PAC, in mid-2017, to fund political travels and activity around the country, and he’s hired political veterans as staffers for the PAC, including an organizing director in Iowa.’
NAME-CALLING. Trump spends much of the day obsessing over evil nicknames for his 2020 rivals. “With Trump, everything is personal. So for Trump, a lot of the day is spent trying to assess the weaknesses of the other candidates. Trump believes that if you can encapsulate someone in a phrase or a nickname, you can own them. Low-energy Jeb, Little Marco — that kind of s— really diminishes people and puts you in control of them, and that’s what Trump is a genius for doing.”
CONVICTED. Florida man threatened to behead Bernie Sanders.
TRUMP CAMPS. 3rd migrant child dies in custody.
JOE BIDEN. Barr should resign.
RUSSIA. Putin wants a separate internet for Russia: “Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law new measures that would enable the creation of a national network, able to operate separately from the rest of the world, according to documents posted on a government portal on Wednesday. For now, the network remains largely theoretical though, with few practical details disclosed.”
CONNECTICUT. State to consider bills to ban ‘gay panic’ defense and to “create an advisory committee to study discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression that occurs in workplaces and schools in the state.”
WASHBOARD. Chris Hemsworth’s post-surfing bod.
SMILE. Tennis pro Andy Murray got new teeth.
VICE. Publication unblocking words such as “gay,” “fat,” “Muslim” and “transgender,” and “calling on advertisers to reconsider the standard brand-safety practice of blacklisting keywords like these in their media buys.”
JULIAN ASSANGE. Wikileaks found will fight extradition to United States: ‘At a court hearing Thursday, Assange said he would not surrender to extradition for doing what he called “journalism that has won many awards.”’
PALO ALTO. Gay man says officers kicked down his door, beat him, and arrested him unlawfully. ‘The lawsuit further alleges that the officers mocked and humiliated Alvarez because of his sexual orientation and were motivated by their “hatred and prejudice” of gay men.’
STEVEN ANDERSON. Homophobic pastor will not be allowed into the Netherlands.
AMERICANS FOR THE EQUALITY ACT. Dustin Lance Black and Karamo Brown.
FASHION ANALYSIS OF THE DAY. Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell and Richard Madden reflect on Elton John’s style.
THIRSTY THURSDAY. Michael Arafat.
