| Monday Briefing Welcome to a rare afternoon edition of the Green Room.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said this afternoon that President Donald Trump still has not been briefed about a New York Times report that Russia put bounties on American troops.
McEnany echoed similar sentiments from her interview on Fox & Friends Monday morning where she called the report “egregious” with “false information.”
Over the past two days, Trump called it “fake news” and “another phony hit job” on Twitter. The story has dominated the news cycle for the past three days, but McEnany was insistent Trump still had not been briefed on the matter.
Asked again about the story, McEnany said that the New York Times should "hand back their Pulitzers."
Actors
Comic, talk host, and actor Bill Maher went after white people cancelling white people in his new rules on Friday regarding what he called the "guardians of gotcha."
White voice actor Mike Henry announced this weekend that he will be stepping down from his role as Cleveland, a Black character, on Fox’s Family Guy, a role he also played in the spin-off The Cleveland Show, saying that "persons of color should play characters of color.”
Rapper and actor Ice Cube told Jake Tapper to “watch” his “mouth” on Monday after the CNN host called Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan a “vile anti-LGBTQ anti-Semitic misogynist.”
Comic, pundit, activist, and actor Jon Stewart went in on mask truthers during his interview with The View on Monday. Stewart questioned how anyone could think that mandating a mask amid a global pandemic could be a government overreach, pointing out that it’s not a political issue but a health issue. “I would just say, have you been in operating rooms? Surgeons wear masks, not because they listen to NPR and drive Volvos. They wear masks because that’s more sanitary,” he said. EXCLUSIVE
Band of Brothers Writer Makes Anti-Trump Ad The latest anti-Trump video ad from The Lincoln Project — with a tribute to the American veterans who fought during World War II and slam on President Donald Trump‘s handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has put these oldest generations at risk — was created by someone with a deep knowledge and appreciation of WWII veterans: John Orloff, one of the writers of HBO’s critically acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers. The ad, called “Debt,” begins with video footage from the attack on Pearl Harbor, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s voice is heard speaking about the “day that will live in infamy.”
Mediaite's Sarah Rumpf has the whole story.
Fox & Friends Weekend Has a New Co-Host Former ESPN host Will Cain is slated become a weekend co-host of Fox & Friends starting August 15, Fox News announced Monday.
Cain, a fixture on First Take with Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman, was a commentator on CNN before spending five years at ESPN.
Cain was known for his sometimes controversial views as a CNN contributor, where he notably debated former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY). He often made headlines alongside LZ Granderson, who like Cain became a fixture of ESPN talk shows.
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"Turns out NBC loves blackface!"
Journalist Megyn Kelly was first cancelled by NBC and then shown the door back in January of 2019, all (ostensibly) stemming from her comments about Halloween blackface on air in October of 2018. And this weekend she blasted NBC, and a lot of people by name, over their own blackface moments on the network.
"Put a Mask on It"
President Donald Trump has notably refrained from wearing a mask publicly, so Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) took matters into his own hands with a photoshop job on Monday. 6.5.0 | 
