“Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James says that neither the Cleveland Cavaliers nor the Golden State Warriors want to visit the White House, if they win the NBA Finals,” Sports Illustrated reports.
James added that he was still digesting the news of Trump’s disinviting of the Philadelphia Eagles: “That’s typical of him. I know no matter who wins this series, no one wants to go anyway.”
“The evening before the Super Bowl champion Eagles were to visit the White House, President Trump released a statement: the trip is off,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Said a statement: “The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow. They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.”
Samantha Bee told the Daily Beast that she “deeply regrets” calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt” on her show.
Meanwhile, Deadline reports that the White House called on TBS to cancel the show.
Said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious. The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling. Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.”
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that President Trump told him that criticism of NFL players who protest during the national anthem is “a very winning, strong issue for me,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Trump told Jones: “Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me.”
Roseanne Barr said she was “Ambien tweeting” when she wrote racist remarks on Twitter that compared a black former Obama administration official to an ape, but the makers of Ambien “were having none of it,” the New York Times reports.
Said the company: “People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
President Trump finally weighed in on ABC’s firing of Roseanne Barr for a racist tweet:
Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that “ABC does not tolerate comments like those” made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?
New York Daily News: “The former New York City mayor was at The Stadium to celebrate his 74th birthday on Memorial Day, with the PA announcer sharing the news with the crowd and wishing him a happy birthday. The fans, however, greeted him with hearty boos.”
New York Jets chairman Christopher Johnson told Newsday that he will pay the fines for players on his team who protest during the national anthem, hours after the NFL announced a new policy penalizing players who do so.
Johnson said that he never wants “to put restrictions on the speech of our players.”
“NFL players will be allowed to stay in the locker room during the national anthem, but their teams will be fined by the league if they go onto the field and kneel, according to new rules adopted by owners on Wednesday in an effort to defuse an issue that escalated last season into a national debate catalyzed by President Trump,” the New York Times reports.
Former White House communication director Anthony Scaramucci has set a high standard for interesting interviews, but this lunchtime exchange with Edward Luce raises the bar.
Since I am at Scaramucci’s special booth, the staff is highly attentive. “I can tell this is going to be a bloody nightmare,” Scaramucci says as he strides in. He is dressed casually in green slacks and a dark sweater. Not at all, I protest. We will have a conversation and I will write it up. “Which part of England are you from?” Scaramucci asks me. Originally from near Brighton, I reply. “Are you gay?” he asks. Somewhat thrown by the question, I start to mumble that I am not but that some of my best friends are, and . . . “I don’t give a shit,” he interrupts. “I’m just curious. There are a lot of gays in Brighton, right?” I have little chance to weigh up Brighton’s sexual demographics before he interrupts again: “That’s something I get no credit for, by the way,” he says. “I have been for equal opportunity in gay marriage for the last 12 or 13 years.”
We haven’t even ordered, but I am already losing control over the conversation.
“If Republicans hold then I think there’s an opportunity for somebody to run as an independent.”
— Mark Cuban, in an interview with Axios, saying that if Democrats lose in the midterm elections he’s more likely to run for president in 2020.
“I’m afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul.”
— Ted Nugent, interviewed by Newsmax, on the Parkland students’ demands for new gun control laws.
“President Trump made a personal phone call to a political supporter with a huge megaphone — Roseanne Barr,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the revival of her comedy, Roseanne, and to thank her for her support.”
“The revival of the vintage ABC sitcom got off to an enormously strong start on Tuesday night, drawing 18.2 million viewers and a 5.1 rating among adults under 50, according to Nielsen.”
“Stormy Daniels’ attorney asked a federal judge this morning for permission to depose President Trump about his knowledge of an agreement to pay the porn star $130,000 a week and a half before the 2016 election,” CBS News reports.
“In a motion filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, requested a deposition ‘of no greater than two hours’ of the President. Avenatti also asked for a court order to depose the President’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who has said he made the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels with his own funds and without Mr. Trump’s knowledge.”
Daily Beast: “First, it’s chiefly concerned with ‘certain still images and/or text messages.’ Yes, later in the agreement, the ‘confidential information’ at issue is expansively defined, to include absolutely anything, tangible or intangible, that Daniels might know about Trump, including, of course, whether she spanked him with a magazine or not.”
“But far more ink is spilled discussing what Daniels is supposed to do with those texts and images: give copies to Cohen and destroy the originals.”
“Now the strategy starts to make sense. This dispute isn’t about the affair: it’s about those pictures or texts. As viewers of Daniels’ 60 Minutes interview surely noticed, the only question Daniels refused to answer was about whether she’s got more evidence of the affair. Avenatti suggested the answer is yes: he tweeted a photo of a DVD inside a safe.”
Trump attorney Michael Cohen accused Stormy Daniels of violating her nondisclosure agreement 20 times and claimed the right to seek $20 million in damages, the Washington Post reports.
”Cohen, through his limited liability corporation Essential Consultants, made the claim in papers his lawyer filed in federal court Friday. He also indicated in the filing that he would seek to force the dispute with Daniels, who alleges she was secretly paid to keep quiet about her affair with the president, out of the public eye and back into private arbitration.”
The New York Times notes that President Trump “formally joined his legal team’s response” to Daniels’ suit in a motion, filed to move the case from state court in Los Angeles to federal court.
The lawyer representing Stormy Daniels claimed that she has faced physical threats, CNN reports.
Said Michael Avenatti: “My client was physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about Donald Trump.”
He said more details would be forthcoming in Daniels’ upcoming interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which is scheduled to air later this month.
Washington Post: “The segment is slated to run later this month, according to people involved in the show. Networks go to great lengths to secure interviews like this — with its promise of salacious new insights into an alleged affair between a president and a porn star, set against the roiling #MeToo movement — and promote them heavily.”
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.
"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."
-- Chuck Todd, host of "Meet the Press"
"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."
-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"
-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.