Rihanna turned down performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show out of support for Colin Kaepernick, Us Weekly reports.
Said one source: “The NFL and CBS really wanted Rihanna to be next year’s performer in Atlanta. They offered it to her, but she said no because of the kneeling controversy. She doesn’t agree with the NFL’s stance.”
President Trump called Stormy Daniels “Horseface” in a tweet denouncing her legal efforts against him as a “total con!”
The tweet follows a judge’s ruling dismissing Daniels’ defamation lawsuit against Trump.
New York Times: “The president’s use of the term ‘horseface’ was jarring, even though he has previously used similar disparaging language to describe women who challenge him. But it could also prove problematic for Republicans facing female opponents in the upcoming midterm elections, now just weeks away.”
Stormy Daniels tells The Cut that it’s annoying when reporters use her birth name, Stephanie Clifford, in stories about her relationship with Donald Trump.
Said Daniels: “Yeah. And also, they insist upon printing my real name in every fucking story. They don’t do that to Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga or Charlie Sheen — but even the most feminist, evolved journalists, they still think subconsciously that I’m less human and I’m not worth the respect of printing my chosen name.”
“President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are expected to meet with the musician Kanye West on Thursday at the White House,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. West, who has faced a backlash over his vocal support of the president, will meet first with Mr. Kushner and then have lunch with the president.”
“In a stunning turnaround from her refusal to discuss anything related to politics, Taylor Swift revealed whom she’s voting for in the 2018 midterms,” the Washington Post reports.
“The pop megastar, who just wrapped up a 40-date stadium tour across the country, posted a long Instagram caption Sunday night. In it, Swift, who is registered to vote in Tennessee, gave a detailed explanation about why she’s voting for Democrats Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for the House.”
Swift also slammed Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): “Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.”
Track Palin, the oldest son of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, “will spend a year in custody after a judge ruled Wednesday that allegations of hitting a woman on the head disqualified him from a therapeutic program for veterans tied to a separate assault case,” CBS News reports.
“The Department of Corrections will determine if he serves time at the halfway house or behind bars.”
“Sarah Palin’s oldest son has been arrested on new domestic violence charges in Alaska,” TMZ reports.
“Track Palin was busted Friday night after Alaska State Troopers responded to a report of a disturbance at his home in Wasilla. Cops say their investigation revealed he assaulted a female acquaintance at the residence, then took her phone away when she tried to call authorities.”
“Track allegedly resisted the troopers while being placed under arrest as well.”
With her children grown, Sarah Palin told the Daily Mail that she and her husband are ready to leave their home in Wasilla, Alaska and “get outside and do more.”
Said Palin: “We’re not going to be holed up in Wasilla, Alaska the rest of our life.”
She added: “I want to do something that will influence our culture. To really remind people how important a work ethic is and to try to erase a lot of this idea that people have that government owes them anything. Or that anybody owes them anything.”
“That’s like somebody saying I can’t play ball. That doesn’t bother me at all. What bothers me is that he has time to even do that. He has the most powerful job in the world. Like, you really got this much time that you can comment on me?”
— LeBron James, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, on President Trump insulting his intelligence.
“Actor Tom Arnold and Apprentice producer Mark Burnett reportedly got into a physical confrontation at a Hollywood fundraiser Sunday night, with Arnold claiming Burnett tried to choke him and Burnett’s wife posting a photo of a bruise she says she received during the altercation,” The Hill reports.
“Arnold, who is set to launch The Hunt for the Trump Tapes on Viceland Tuesday night, has publicly lambasted Burnett for months. Arnold has claimed the producer is protecting President Trump by refusing to release outtakes from the The Apprentice that the comic alleges contain Trump using racial slurs. Arnold was once a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice with Trump as host.”
Retired boxer Oscar De La Hoya told TMZ he’s considering running for president in 2020.
Said De La Hoya: “I am actually very, very serious, and I strongly feel that if a Kanye West can do it and announce and maybe tease the world that he would maybe one day wanna run for president, why not me?”
Washington Post: “Hollywood’s fervor for this year’s midterm elections rivals that of recent presidential campaigns, according to Democratic donors and strategists in the Los Angeles area who say the energy is driven by a belief that a Democratic-controlled House can serve as a powerful check on President Trump.”
”People who work in the television, movie and music industry in the Los Angeles metro area have given $2.4 million to House candidate committees so far this election, with the vast majority going to support Democrats… That is the largest sum from these donors to House Democratic campaigns since at least 2008, and it’s nearly $1 million more than they gave for the 2016 elections.”
Hollywood Reporter: “Yes, he acknowledges factors like Russian President Vladimir Putin and former FBI head James Comey, but asserts that the person most responsible for the Trump presidency is… Gwen Stefani. ‘You hadn’t heard that before, have you?’ Moore asks, delighted with the audacity of the claim.”
“Moore posits that when Trump realized Stefani’s performance fees as a coach on ‘The Voice’ were larger than his own on ‘The Apprentice’, he staged his now-infamous Trump Tower campaign announcement to prove his popularity to NBC, which aired both shows… After Trump’s accusation that Mexico was sending rapists across the border, NBC cut ties with him. But Trump, suddenly finding himself cheered on by massive crowds and an indulgent media, figured why not make a serious run for the highest office in the land?”
Said Moore: “He’d been talking about running for president since 1988, but he didn’t really want to be president. There’s no penthouse in the White House. And he doesn’t want to live in a black city. He was trying to pit NBC against another network, but it just went off the rails.”
“The police in Sacramento are investigating an allegation that the lead singer of the pop-punk band Social Distortion punched a fan who protested his diatribe against President Trump during a concert last month,” the New York Times reports.
“The fan, Tim Hildebrand, said in an interview that the lead singer, Mike Ness, called the president a bigot and a racist during a concert on July 19 at the Ace of Spades. In response, Mr. Hildebrand said, he protested by holding up his middle finger. He kept it there for two to three songs and Mr. Ness eventually called him forward, Mr. Hildebrand said, adding that Mr. Ness punched him repeatedly in the head.”
Stephen Colbert slammed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) for saying America “was never that great” this week, declaring on the CBS Late Show that the line was “the dumbest thing you could say as a politician.”
Said Colbert: “That is the dumbest thing you could say as a politician. That’s like closing your speech with, ‘Apple pie sucks, I’m lukewarm on the troops, and those stripes make the American flag look fat! Thank you, I hate my mother!’”
Penn Jillette told Vanity Fair that he personally heard Donald Trump make racist remarks on the set of the Apprentice. He wouldn’t, however, quote exactly what he heard Trump say.
Said Jillette: “If Donald Trump had not become president, I would tell you all the stories. But the stakes are now high and I am an unreliable narrator… I can emotionally tell you things that happened racially, sexually, and that showed stupidity and lack of compassion when I was in the room with Donald Trump and I guarantee you that I will get details wrong.”
Jillette did go ahead and characterize some of the things he heard Trump say, including crude small talk in which the then Apprentice host would turn to a cast member and ask “if he’d rather have sex with this woman or that woman.”
For members: Why the ‘Apprentice’ Tapes Would Be a Big Deal
“First lady Melania Trump issued a statement Saturday in support of LeBron James, after President Trump posted a late-night tweet attacking the basketball star,” the Washington Post reports.
President Trump hurled insults at Lebron James in a Friday night tweet after the basketball star criticized him in an interview with CNN.
Said Trump: “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
He concluded with an apparent reference to basketball legend Michael Jordan and the debate of who is the best basketball player of all time, saying: “I like Mike!”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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