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Bipartisan Senate committee strongly implies Trump lied to Mueller

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MenuSee More Speed ReadsThe Senate Intelligence Committee's on Russian interference in the 2016 hinted pretty strongly at the possibility that President Trump lied to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his own investigation, which ended last year.The bipartisan Senate investigation did not find any evidence that Trump or his presidential campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election, but there is some language in the report implying the president may have twisted the truth.In a written response to questions from Mueller, Trump said he didn't "recall discussing WikiLeaks" — which published Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence — with his adviser Roger Stone. Stone was convicted for lying to Congress (only to have his sentence commuted by Trump). Trump also said he did not "recall being aware" that Stone discussed WikiLeaks with members of his campaign.The committee, however, came away with a different view, saying its investigation assessed that Trump actually spoke with Stone and other campaign staffers about Stone's access to WikiLeaks "on multiple occasions." Trump, for what it's worth, did not technically say he didn't speak with Stone or others about WikiLeaks, just that he didn't recall, but some observers are already wondering if this could come back to haunt him.Feel like this is a crime someone who's no longer President could be indicted for— Karen Schwartz (@pithywidow)New York Times security guard Jacquelyn Brittany has escorted some big names into the newsroom, but she's only professed her love to one of them: former Vice President Joe Biden.Cameras for the Times' show The Weekly caught their encounter last December, and the video quickly went viral. On Tuesday night, Jacquelyn, who has not shared her last name, will be the first person to officially nominate Biden for president ahead of the roll call vote, In an interview, she told the Post she "never thought I would be in a position to do this. I never thought I was worthy enough to do this."The 31-year-old said the way Biden has persevered through tragedies, like his first wife and daughter dying in a car accident, has inspired her. "He's been through so much, and he doesn't show it on the outside," she said. "He may feel it on the inside — and I'm that type of person."Jacquelyn told the Post she only speaks to guests at work if they talk to her first, and she wanted to say something to Biden while she had the opportunity. When a Biden aide encouraged her to talk to him, Jacquelyn jumped at the chance, blurting out, "I love you. I do. You're like my favorite." Biden thanked her and asked if she'd like to take a selfie with him. He was "just genuinely, genuinely nice to people," Jacquelyn said. "We don't get that from everybody." Biden didn't end up receiving the Times' endorsement, but during an appearance in Iowa, told the crowd, "I got something better. I got to meet Jacquelyn."This beautiful moment between Biden and a security guard is why he will win.The love that America has for Joe Biden is bigger than any New York Times endorsement.— Lindy Li (@lindyli)Democratic leaders are sending a very deliberate message about the future of the party with their DNC keynote speaker — or lack thereof.Tuesday, the second night of the Democratic National Convention, marks the first time the party hasn't closed out its night with a keynote speaker. Instead, it'll air a montage of 17 "next generation" party leaders to round out the night — and none of them endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), .The selection of 17 Democrats, 11 of whom are people of color, is meant to represent "the deep bench Democrats have across the country from the ground up," Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic operative running the convention program, told the Times. These are "young, up-and-coming leaders representing a diverse group of ideas and perspectives from across the country," Cutter continued. Stacey Abrams, who lost 2018's Georgia gubernatorial race, and Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez are on that list, though they're only a year or two younger than former President Barack Obama was when he was elected president.Meanwhile some high-profile faces who would fit Cutter's description won't be in the mash-up, such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), who endorsed Sanders and want to take the party in a more progressive direction. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), the undeniable rising star of the Democratic party right now, will meanwhile speak on her own to nominate Sanders for the presidency.The University of Notre Dame has canceled all its classes amid an outbreak of coronavirus just a week after students returned to class.In-person classes will be shut down for the next two weeks, and possibly for the rest of the semester, the university's President Rev. John Jenkins . The abrupt change came after 80 students tested positive for COVID-19, and after Jenkins in May insisting it was "worth the risk" to bring them all back in the first place.Before classes restarted Aug. 10 at the South Bend, Indiana, school, all of its 12,000 students were tested for COVID-19. Just 33 of them tested positive. But as of Monday, another 418 were tested for coronavirus, and 80 tested positive, with many of the new cases linked to an off-campus party. The school kept testing students with coronavirus symptoms, and of the 927 who were tested through the end of Monday, 147 had tested positive.That led Jenkins to shut down classes temporarily with the hopes "that we can get back to in-person instruction." But if the outbreak doesn't clear up in two weeks, students will have to go home and learn remotely for the rest of the semester. That possibility will mark a defeat for Jenkins, who insisted in his New York Times op-ed that students would be returning to campus in the fall. "The good of educating students and continuing vital research is very much worth the remaining risk" of the coronavirus pandemic, Jenkins wrote, a belief he stuck by even though the pandemic after the article was published.The Lincoln Project is using its latest ad to remind Spanish-speaking voters of how President Trump responded when Puerto Rico was devastated by two back-to-back hurricanes in September 2017.A U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is home to more than 3.5 million American citizens. In Spanish, the ad's narrator says the island is different now, due to the destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which left thousands dead and even more without electricity, food, or clean water.Trump's response to the humanitarian crisis was "lies and disrespect," the narrator says. "During his short trip to the island, all Trump thought to do was and hand out cans of fish to our people. Real help? No way. And when 10 killer earthquakes in six days rocked Puerto Rico and left 8,000 homeless, Trump stopped billions of dollars in emergency relief to our island."The ad includes several clips of Trump praising his response, saying he did a "fantastic job," as well as telling the people of Puerto Rico that the natural disasters have "thrown our budget a little out of whack." Some think Trump's actions were caused by "a lack of empathy," the narrator intones. "Others say it's racism. We know it's disrespect, and Puerto Rican voters are saying, 'Hasta la vista, Trump, you will not be back.'" Watch the ad below.Major broadcasters only offered the Democratic National Convention an hour of airtime for a different reason than they usually do, .Most presidential election years, TV networks limit the parties' conventions' airtime to an hour, saying viewers would lose interest if they were longer. But this year, they told Democrats they could only have an hour of airtime because they feared giving Republicans more time than that, multiple sources told The Daily Beast.Democratic officials recently met with broadcast executives to discuss their plans for airing this year's DNC. "The executives stressed that they could not broadcast two hours each night in part because they then would have to give the same airtime to [President] Trump," The Daily Beast writes. "We don't know what that content is going to be," one executive reportedly told the Democrats.At the time of the meetings, Democrats were able to show executives exactly who would be speaking each night at their virtual convention. Meanwhile the Republican National Convention schedule is still up in the air, at least publicly.Regardless of the time limit, the first night of this year's DNC had a far lower viewership than 2016's. About 26 million people tuned in last election, while just 18.7 million did Monday night, .Cuba Gooding Jr. has been accused of rape after he was previously hit with charges for alleged groping.An unnamed woman in a civil lawsuit filed on Tuesday alleges that the Oscar-winning Jerry Maguire star raped her twice after inviting her from a Manhattan bar back to his hotel room in August 2013, . The women says that Gooding blocked her way out of the hotel room when she tried to leave and pushed her onto the bed, .This comes after Gooding pleaded to charges of forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse for allegedly groping three women, and New York prosecutors last week said a total of 30 women have come forward to accuse the actor of unwanted touching, .Gooding on Tuesday denied the rape allegation through his attorney, who told Reuters, "The allegations are false. It's an event that took place seven years ago. No complaint was ever lodged. We believe the allegations and the complaint will be dismissed."Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing the role of mediator between European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron and embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom protesters have called on to step down after 26 years in power. As things stand, it seems like Putin is hedging toward a diplomatic solution, rather than unequivocally backing his old ally.Putin spoke with Merkel, Macron, and Charles Michel, the president of the European Council on the phone Tuesday. Each side had some conditions for the other — Merkel Putin that Lukashenko must refrain from violence against protesters, release political detainees, and engage with the opposition, while Putin that European interference in internal Belarusian affairs was unacceptable. But still, the discussions suggest there's some semblance of diplomatic plan , and Putin seems willing to participate; he reportedly followed up those conversations with another with Lukashenko.Putin's apparent interest in the multilateral dialogue lends credence to the theory that he's to let the situation turn bloody for Lukashenko's sake. That said, not everyone is thrilled about Moscow's role in the talks, even if it ultimately leads to a peaceful solution.The string of European leaders (Merkel, Macron, Michel) reaching out to Putin about Belarus feeds the false idea that Moscow can/should determine Belarus’s political future, rather than Minsk. That sends exactly the wrong signal.— Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder)I have some concerns about negotiations with Putin regarding Belarus. It sends the wrong message to Belarusians, disorient nomenklatura and demotivate activists. Better discuss how to organize the evacuation of Lukashenka &amp; hold new elections under the international patronage— Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka)2020 The Week Publications Inc., All rights reserved.

MenuSee More Speed ReadsThe Senate Intelligence Committee's on Russian interference in the 2016 hinted pretty strongly at the possibility that President Trump lied to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his own investigation, which ended last year.The bipartisan Senate investigation did not find any evidence that Trump or his presidential campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election, but there is some language in the report implying the president may have twisted the truth.In a written response to questions from Mueller, Trump said he didn't "recall discussing WikiLeaks"...

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Bipartisan Senate committee strongly implies Trump lied to Mueller

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