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Donald Trump, walking the red carpet Wednesday for the opening-night performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, again insisted that were it not for his federalizing of the National Guard, “Los Angeles right now, if we didn’t do what we did, would be burning to the ground.”

“These are radical left lunatics that you’re dealing with, and they’re tough, they’re smart, they probably have paid, many of them as you know. They’re professionals,” Trump told reporters. “… They’re chopping up concrete and using it as a weapon. That’s pretty bad.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom opposed the National Guard order, and in a Tuesday evening speech said that Trump has only inflamed the situation.

The evening was Trump’s first visit to a Kennedy Center performance of this term, and the first since he engineered a takeover the the arts institution just weeks after returning to the White House.

A jury convicted Hunter Biden of three felony counts in Delaware on Tuesday, marking the first time the child of a sitting president has been convicted of a crime.

Biden was found guilty of lying on gun paperwork and possessing a gun while battling an addiction to illegal drugs, all in violation of federal laws. The jury only deliberated for three hours before returning the guilty verdict.

Because they are federal crimes, his father, President Joe Biden, has the authority to offer him a pardon or at least commute his sentence to a lesser punishment.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts is releasing a documentary film in the days before he pursues his third World Series title that goes behind the baseball diamond to explore the home life and career of the legendary Jackie Robinson. And like Robinson, Betts hopes that with this film he’s able to demonstrate that there’s so much more to him than just being a ball player.

“I’m an athlete in this same space like he was, and I want to be known as more than an athlete,” Betts told TheWrap. “I don’t want to be just the athlete. I don’t want to be in just this little box. I know I’m more than that. Yes, I may be good at hitting the baseball, but I’m also good at being an entrepreneur and running companies and doing these things with my best friends.”

Betts...

Today in Wisconsin, President Joe Biden responded to the latest in a string of hecklers interrupting his public appearances.

“As I said last week,” Biden told the crowd in an appearance broadcast on MSNBC, “we remain in the battle for the soul of America.”

The heckler then began shouting out something unintelligible.

Hollywood Democrats Pour Money Into Midterms With A Tinge Of Hope And A Lot Of Caution

“All right. God love ya,” replied Biden directly to the man, who was then booed by other attendees and likely set upon by security. Biden was more magnanimous.

“No, no, no … don’t — let him go. He’s, look, everybody’s entitled to be an idiot,” said the president. The man eventually was escorted out, per video from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Biden responds to heckler: Let him go. Everyone is entitled to be an idiot pic.twitter.com/fFbeiHcMAt

— Acyn (@Acyn...

After weeks of not taking questions from reporters, Trump decided to take out his election loss anger on a reporter who was simply doing his job on Thanksgiving.

First, Trump spoke with a gaggle of reporters following a holiday call with U.S. service members stationed around the world. After thanking them for their service and wishing them a happy Thanksgiving the president whined about the election results while falsely insisting there was “massive fraud.”

When asked whether he would concede after the electoral college votes for Joe Biden, Trump responded,...

President Donald Trump spent much of his Labor Day tweeting about an article in The Atlantic that painted him as dismissive of American soldiers who died in battle and unwilling to visit their graves. The most explosive claim in the piece is that Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” something that he denies.

It’s not a surprise, then, that he seemed piqued when asked about the article in a news conference on Monday.

As Reuters’ White House reporter Jeff Mason, who was wearing a mask, began to ask his question, Trump interrupted.

“You’re going to have to take that off. Just take it off,” said Trump as he pointed to Mason’s mask.

“How many feet are you away?” asked a seemingly irritated president. “If you don’t take it off, you’re very muffled. So if you take it off, it would be a lot easier.

Donald Trump scheduled a last-minute press conference at his Bedminster, NJ, golf club on Friday evening, in part to threaten to sign an executive order if Democrats don’t give in on demands for Covid-19 relief.

But when members of the White House pool traveling with the president showed up, standing in the back of the room were members and guests at the country club, many of them not wearing masks.

Aside from the clear public health issues, the optics of Potus addressing his country club members who pay at up to $350,000 to join while millions of Americans don't know how they'll cover rent this month as expanded unemployment benefits have expired is—an interesting choice. https://t.co/0Fl9ihm9do

— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) August 7, 2020

Masks were handed out to the members just before the president arrived, but one reporter queried Trump on the scene.

“You said that the pandemic is disappearing,...

As President Donald Trump was about to take the stage at his much publicized rally in an indoor arena in Tulsa, Ok, the pre-media focus turned to empty seats and the cancellation plans for an outdoor speech for an overflow crowd.

“Smaller than expected crowd trickles into Tulsa rally,” CNN’s chyron read on Saturday evening, as anchor Wolf Blitzer focused on the empty seats in the upper deck of the Bok Center, which holds 19,199 people.

The crowd was still large for a campaign event, but it was no where near what had been billed. The campaign had boasted of more than 1 million ticket requests — knowing that the venue could never hold that many people — and that raised anticipation that the event would fill the arena.

Campaign manager Brad Parscale also tweeted out images of a stage being built for the president to address an overflow crowd. But Just before...

President Donald Trump took issue with a reporter who asked him a question yet declined to remove his mask during a press availability at the White House, accusing him of wanting to be “political correct.”

The reporter, Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason, began to ask a question before the president, seeing him in a mask, said, “Can you take it off, because I cannot hear you.”

“I will just speak louder,” Mason said.

“Ok, because you want to be politically correct,” Trump said.

“No sir, I just want to wear the mask,” Mason responded.

The exchange was the latest mixed message coming from the White House on wearing masks in public situations.

Most reporters and a number of White House staffers have been wearing masks in recent weeks as coronavirus cases have been reported among staffers who work at the White House.

Trump, though, has not worn a mask in public situations,...

After Donald Trump characterized houses of worship as “essential services” and called upon governors to open them “right now,” Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany faced questions from reporters about what the president’s authority was to force state officials to do so.

But she also drew pushback when she claimed that reporters in the White House briefing room wanted to see churches remain closed.

In some states, churches have been closed amid the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on large gatherings.

At today’s briefing, CBS News’ Ben Tracy asked McEnany, “If a governor does not allow that, does the White House support churches that defy these executive orders?”

She replied: “The president has been very clear. He wants to see churches reopen in accordance with these guidelines.”

“The answer is yes?” Tracy asked.

She responded, “I gave you an answer, and the president would like to do it in accordance with the Cdc guidelines.

Shortly after President Donald Trump took questions from reporters on the South Lawn today, NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander went on air to explain what just happened:

“President Trump is now publicly asking foreign leaders to investigate Joe Biden, in the midst of an impeachment inquiry into whether he privately asked a foreign leader to investigate Joe Biden,” Alexander said. As he was headed off to Florida for an event, Trump told reporters that “China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine. So I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens.” In the nine days since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the launch of an impeachment inquiry against Trump, print and TV journalists have broken story after story that advances the narrative,...

No one asked what country he was from, or whether he could speak English, or what Marsellus Wallace looks like. But President Donald Trump definitely channeled Samuel Jackson’a Pulp Fiction character Jules Winnfield today in his response to a persistent reporter.

Speaking at a press conference with Finland President Sauli Niinistö, Trump went full-on gangsta when he grew tired of fielding the barrage of impeachment questions.

Reporter Jeff Mason of Reuters pressed Trump for an answer on what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do regarding Joe Biden and his son. That’s when Mount Trump erupted. Trevor Noah noted that he then turned into “a spray tanned Samuel Jackson,” as seen in the Pulp Fiction clip above.”Ask the President of Finland a question,” Trump demanded, several times.

“What would have been amazing,” said Noah, “is if the president of Finland threw him under the bus. ‘Actually,...

President Donald Trump amped up his rhetoric against the media at a White House press conference on Tuesday, calling some outlets “corrupt” while having a testy exchange with a reporter for Reuters.

The press conference was with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, but the central questions were naturally focused on the unfolding whistleblower complaint and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s launch of an impeachment inquiry of Trump. The focus of that investigation is on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters, asked Trump what he wanted the Ukrainian president to do about the Bidens.

Trump didn’t initially answer the question, and when Mason tried to ask it again, Trump said, “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes, it is just a followup of what I just asked you, sir.”

Trump replied,...

Pointing to your head and saying “Nobody can quite figure it out” is a set-up that only the sturdiest of sitcom writers could resist, and President Donald Trump made it all the more tempting for wisecracking journalists by framing the comment around irresistible “deadline” bait.

Trump’s retweet-friendly comment came at today’s press conference (see video below) in response to Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason’s question, “What is your deadline, if you have one, for China to make progress on trade before you impose the tariffs on the other $325 billion in goods?”

After some evading – and Mason’s repeat of the question – Trump said, “No, I have no deadline.” Then, pointing to his own head, the president continued, “My deadline is what’s up here. We’ll figure out the deadline. Nobody can quite figure it out.”

The “deadline” comment hit too close to home for journos to resist.

Morning TV news outlets were not kind to President Donald Trump’s lapdog-ish performance at previous day’s Helsinki press conference with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

AP’s Jonathan Lemire and Reuters’ Jeff Mason, the reporters who had asked Trump if he believed his own intel officers or Putin about Russian election meddling, and asked Putin if he had kompromat on Trump, raced around the morning landscape taking questions from dumbfounded on-air talent. Ditto former CIA director Brennan who had described Trump’s performance as treasonous.

Even Trump’s fave morning show, Fox News’ Fox & Friends criticized him this morning, though in the gentlest possible way [Video below].

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stopped by MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss Trump as Putin’s “useful idiot,” warning Republicans of the peril of normalizing Trump’s Helsinki presser behavior. Borrowing a Mussolini gag, she described Trump’s Russia strategy to date:...

Speak up against injustice or be thankful that you're still alive? It's a question that, as a first-generation American, Hasan Minhaj has been dealing with since childhood. Whether it was race-fueled vandalism at his childhood home or a rejected prom date, the 31-year-old comedian has always struggled with paying what he calls the "American Dream tax" — exchanging personal anger at everyday racism for the right to live safely in America. "It's something that I still deal with, and we all deal with in some capacity," he says. "But I've tried...

2017-04-12T11:07:55-07:00'Daily Show''s Hasan Minhaj to Host Correspondents' Dinner

“Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj will perform at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this month, taking on the traditional role of cracking jokes about the president and the fourth estate for a black-tie-clad crowd stuffed into the Washington Hilton.

Association President Jeff Mason said the choice of Minhaj, whose comedy is often laced with social and political satire, underscored the dinner’s more serious tone this year, with President Trump and his aides skipping the dinner and the usual crowd of Hollywood imports staying home.

“We were not looking for someone to roast the president in absentia — that’s not fair and it’s not the message we want to get across,” Mason said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday. Mason said he thought the comic would entertain, but also...