| Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman wrote in her forthcoming book that the Trump campaign offered her hush money after she was fired, The Washington Post reports. In the new book, Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House, Manigault Newman wrote that Trump’s daughter-in-law and campaign adviser Lara Trump offered her a job and a $15,000 monthly contract to keep quiet—but she refused the deal. The nondisclosure agreement would have prohibited her from speaking out about Trump, Pence, and their families and making any remark that could hurt the president, Manigault Newman said. “The NDA attached to the email was as harsh and restrictive as any I’d seen in all my years of television,” she wrote. The former Apprentice contestant said that if she had accepted the job, she would have handled the campaign’s “diversity outreach.” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that the book “is riddled with lies and false accusations. It’s sad that a disgruntled former White House employee is trying to profit off these false attacks, and even worse that the media would now give her a platform, after not taking her seriously when she had only positive things to say about the President during her time in the administration.” |
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| Former Maricopa County Sheriff and Arizona Senate candidate Joe Arpaio said that his interview with undercover comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was “bad mistake” riddled with simple misunderstandings. Arpaio told The Washington Examiner that he “couldn’t understand” Cohen while the comedian feigned a Finnish accent for his Who Is America? program. “He’s talking about golden showers. I thought he was talking about—he president has gold [in his shower],” he said. He also referenced Cohen asking him about handjobs, saying he thought the comedian “was talking about illegals coming over working with their hands on their job.” Arpaio then addressed Cohen asking him if he would receive a blowjob from the president, saying he thought Cohen was saying he would “would offer me a job. I didn’t hear that little thing before that.” Cohen, when interviewing Arpaio, was posing as a Finnish “unboxing” video star OMGWhizzBoyOMG. Arpaio appeared to tell him in the segment that he would accept oral sex from the president and that it “it wouldn't surprise” him if the president had a “golden shower” (from Russian prostitutes, as was alleged in the infamous Steele dossier). Arpaio is currently running for Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) seat, and was the recipient of a controversial presidential pardon from Trump. |
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| Andrew Miller, who once worked as an aide to Trump ally Roger Stone, has been held in contempt of court for refusing to testify before a grand jury in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Miller attempted to quash his subpoena, but a judge ruled this month that he would have to testify. Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Washington Post that Miller refused to testify and is currently in Missouri. Miller’s attorney Paul Kamenar told the Washington Post that his client was “held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge’s decision to the court of appeals.” Mueller is investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Stone has appeared to suggest that he knew about hacked Democratic Party emails before they were posted by WikiLeaks, making him an object of Mueller’s scrutiny. |
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| A suspected arsonist who was arrested in connection with one of California’s many raging wildfires promoted Alex Jones theories and a series of other right-wing conspiracies on his personal Facebook page, according to a Friday report from ThinkProgress. The Facebook posts, initially discovered and posted by a Forbes reporter, reveal 51-year-old Forrest Gordon Clark’s fascination with conspiracy theories including the now-infamous QAnon, and the lesser-known Agenda 21. None of the theories, however, connected directly to Clark’s alleged crime. He stands accused of starting California’s Holy Fire, which has burned through more than 18,000 acres and displaced 20,000 residents since it began on Monday. According to The Washington Post, Clark texted a local firefighter in the days before the blaze began, allegedly threatening that the region would “burn just like we planned.” After his Wednesday arrest, Clark is being held on $1 million bond. |
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| As if you need a reason, today is National Spoil Your Dog Day. Break out the bowties and peanut butter treats to give your good boy or girl a reason to celebrate! There’s never been a better time to be a dog owner (or a pampered pup). Book your next trip through Orbitz and bring your pooch along, choosing among a bevy of dog-friendly destinations and hotels! |
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| Donald Trump is a “racist,” says Omarosa Manigault-Newman, the former White House staffer and former Apprentice contestant. She claims three unnamed sources told her there are tapes from the president’sNBC days that record him using the “N-word” repeatedly. In her new memoir, obtained ahead of its release by The Guardian, she says she believes the rumors, but never heard him say the word herself. She claims that she did witness Trump using other racial slurs about George Conway, the half-Filipino husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. “Would you look at this George Conway article?” she quotes the president as saying. “F**ing FLIP! Disloyal! Fucking Goo-goo.” She writes that, during her time in the White House, she felt a “growing realization that Donald Trump was indeed a racist, a bigot, and a misogynist. My certainty about the N-word tape and his frequent uses of that word were the top of a high mountain of truly appalling things I’d experienced with him, during the last two years in particular.” The Daily Beast reported this week that the former reality-TV villain has secret recordings of Trump that she made during her time at the White House. |
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| The New York City Police Department wants to question actress Sean Young, best known for her starring role in Blade Runner, after she was allegedly caught on surveillance footage stealing two Apple laptops and video-production software from a Queens store, the New York Post reports. In the video, Young, 58, can allegedly be seen swiping $12,000 worth of goods with a man in his thirties around noon Thursday. Young starred in several major ’80s films, including No Way Out and Wall Street. She’s been no stranger to controversy over the years: In 2012, she was arrested at an Oscars party after allegedly slapping a security guard. |
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| The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said Friday that members have received “credible reports” that 1 million ethnic Muslim Uighurs are being held in a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy” in China, Reuters reports. The committee also estimates that 2 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the western Xinjiang autonomous region are being held in “political camps for indoctrination” in order to combat “religious extremism” and maintain “social stability.” The reports are coming from activist groups like the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. China claims that the province faces a “serious threat” from Islamic extremists, and has accused them of trying to stoke tensions between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese majority. However, the U.N. committee pushed back and said China has been treating the Uighurs as “enemies of the state” solely on ethno-religious grounds. |
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| Donald Trump announced early Friday morning that he was doubling tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, raising them to 50 percent and 20 percent, respectively, as international markets were scrambling to deal with that country’s currency meltdown. The lira has taken a hammering over recent days, down 18 percent this week and hitting record lows against the U.S. dollar. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged calm and has brushed off the plunging value of the lira, telling Turks: “If they have their dollars, we have our people, our God.” Trump’s move is likely to make the situation significantly worse. As Trump tweeted, Erdogan’s son-in-law/finance minister was reportedly delivering a speech to say the economy is doing well, unaware what the U.S. president had just declared. “I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump wrote. “Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!” Trump and Erdogan are in the middle of a feud over jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson. |
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| A Florida man shot another man after they got into a fight while commenting on a Facebook post about President Donald Trump, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Brian Sebring, 44, is facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed firearm after allegedly shooting Alex Stephens, 46. Before the incident, the pair had been arguing on Facebook about whether felons should have voting rights. A user who witnessed their exchange said Sebring was “badmouthing felons who couldn’t vote.” Stephens, a felon, then took the conversation to Facebook Messenger, according to Sebring, who said Stephens threatened him during the private conversation. A screenshot obtained by the Times shows that Sebring threatened Stephens, as well. “Dude I’m going to empty a full 5.56 magazine into your head,” Sebring, a Democrat, wrote before driving to Stephens’ home. Sebring told police that Stephens charged him outside the home while holding a steak knife, so he shot him. Stephens was shot in the thigh and buttocks, and taken to the hospital. “This guy threatened to hurt my family, and I went off the deep end. I wasn’t thinking right,” Sebring told the Times. “You know, after this I’m going to go see a therapist or something.” |
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