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Hunter Biden accuses George Clooney of undermining his father in 2024 presidential election

Hunter Biden accuses George Clooney of undermining his father in 2024 presidential election

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden's son Hunter isn't hiding his feelings about actor and Democratic Party donor George Clooney's decision to call on the elder Biden to abandon his 2024 reelection bid.
In a rare online interview, Hunter Biden used a string of expletives to describe Clooney when discussing the actor with Andrew Gallagher of Channel 5.
Clooney supported Democrat Joe Biden's bid for a second term and even headlined a record-setting fundraiser for the then-president. But the actor changed his stance after Biden turned in a disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump in June 2024 and added his voice to mounting calls for the then-81-year-old president to leave the race.
Clooney made his feelings known in an opinion piece in The New York Times. Biden ended up leaving the race a few weeks later and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. She lost to Trump.
In the lengthy and wide-ranging interview, Hunter Biden questioned why anyone should listen to Clooney and said the 'Ocean's Eleven' actor had no right to 'undermine' his father.
'What right do you have to step on a man who's given 52 years of his f——— life to the services of this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full page ad in the f——— New York Times to undermine the president,' Hunter Biden said before he trailed off to talk about how Republicans are more unified than Democrats.
Joe Biden served 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as Barack Obama's vice president before he was elected president in 2020.
Los Angeles-based representatives for Clooney did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday.
___
Follow the AP's coverage of Hunter Biden at https://apnews.com/hub/hunter-biden.
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ELDER: Why the Democrats are railing against Colbert's cancellation
ELDER: Why the Democrats are railing against Colbert's cancellation

Toronto Sun

time6 minutes ago

  • Toronto Sun

ELDER: Why the Democrats are railing against Colbert's cancellation

Stephen Colbert arrives at a screening of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," during PaleyFest, April 21, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Photo by Richard Shotwell / Invision/AP CBS cancelled Stephen Colbert's late-night show. Democrat Minnesota Gov. and failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who recently appeared on the show, said, 'Stephen Colbert is the best in the business. He always told truth to power and pulled no punches. We need more of that, not less.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account You might be forgiven for thinking Colbert's job is to tell jokes. Some Democrats in full meltdown mode call the left-wing show's cancellation a casualty of CBS's attempt to curry favour with the Trump administration. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said, 'If Paramount and CBS ended The Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.' The show's writers demand that New York Attorney General Letitia James launch an investigation. For those who long ago stopped engaging in the nightly pleasure of watching late-night comedy when Johnny Carson retired and who stopped watching altogether post-Jay Leno-David Letterman, here's what just happened. CBS's parent company, Paramount, is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for a merger. CBS called the cancellation 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night … not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Colbert reportedly lost $40 million last year, despite posting the highest late-night ratings of any show not hosted by Fox's Greg Gutfeld. Forty million dollars in annual losses is a lot of money, whether for Colbert or the WNBA. But in the WNBA's defence, its loss took an entire league. Colbert dropped $40 million all by himself. Since the Carson-Leno-Letterman era, late-night comedy viewership no longer prints money. 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Media Research Center found during the fall 2024 presidential campaign between Trump and Kamala Harrist hat 'hosts of the late-night 'comedy' shows (Comedy Central's The Daily Show, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers) told a total of 1,463 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris — but 1,428 of them were about Trump and only 35 about Harris. That's a whopping 40:1 ratio or almost 98% to 2%.' As for jokes about vice-presidential candidates Tim Walz and J.D. Vance, MRC found that 'comedians told 302 jokes about the vice-presidential candidates. Of these, 236 were directed at J.D. Vance compared to 66 at Tim Walz. That equates to a 4:1 ratio with 78% aimed at Vance.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As for guests during the fall campaign, MRC found 'the comedians also welcomed 44 liberal celebrities, journalists and political guests compared to zero conservatives. Those included one Colbert interview with Harris, two — one Kimmel and one Daily Show — with Walz and one Kimmel with (Harris' spouse) Doug Emhoff.' Any questions? Heeeere's Timmy! Read More Sports Columnists Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA

Syria to hold first parliamentary elections since Assad's fall in September
Syria to hold first parliamentary elections since Assad's fall in September

Toronto Sun

timean hour ago

  • Toronto Sun

Syria to hold first parliamentary elections since Assad's fall in September

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Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97
Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97

Winnipeg Free Press

time2 hours ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Lehrer, the popular song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97. Longtime friend David Herder said Lehrer died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He did not specify a cause of death. Lehrer had remained on the math faculty of the University of California at Santa Cruz well into his late 70s. In 2020, he even turned away from his own copyright, granting the public permission to use his lyrics in any format, without any fee in return. A Harvard prodigy (he had earned a math degree from the institution at age 18), Lehrer soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. His songs included 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,' 'The Old Dope Peddler' (set to a tune reminiscent of 'The Old Lamplighter'), 'Be Prepared' (in which he mocked the Boy Scouts) and 'The Vatican Rag,' in which Lehrer, an atheist, poked at the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. (Sample lyrics: 'Get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries. Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect.') Accompanying himself on piano, he performed the songs in a colorful style reminiscent of such musical heroes as Gilbert and Sullivan and Stephen Sondheim, the latter a lifelong friend. Lehrer was often likened to such contemporaries as Allen Sherman and Stan Freberg for his comic riffs on culture and politics and he was cited by Randy Newman and 'Weird Al' Jankovic among others as an influence. He mocked the forms of music he didn't like (modern folk songs, rock 'n' roll and modern jazz), laughed at the threat of nuclear annihilation and denounced discrimination. But he attacked in such an erudite, even polite, manner that almost no one objected. 'Tom Lehrer is the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded,' musicologist Barry Hansen once said. Hansen co-produced the 2000 boxed set of Lehrer's songs, 'The Remains of Tom Lehrer,' and had featured Lehrer's music for decades on his syndicated 'Dr. Demento' radio show. Lehrer's body of work was actually quite small, amounting to about three dozen songs. 'When I got a funny idea for a song, I wrote it. And if I didn't, I didn't,' Lehrer told The Associated Press in 2000 during a rare interview. 'I wasn't like a real writer who would sit down and put a piece of paper in the typewriter. And when I quit writing, I just quit. … It wasn't like I had writer's block.' He'd gotten into performing accidentally when he began to compose songs in the early 1950s to amuse his friends. Soon he was performing them at coffeehouses around Cambridge, Massachusetts, while he remained at Harvard to teach and obtain a master's degree in math. He cut his first record in 1953, 'Songs by Tom Lehrer,' which included 'I Wanna Go Back to Dixie,' lampooning the attitudes of the Old South, and the 'Fight Fiercely, Harvard,' suggesting how a prissy Harvard blueblood might sing a football fight song. After a two-year stint in the Army, Lehrer began to perform concerts of his material in venues around the world. In 1959, he released another LP called 'More of Tom Lehrer' and a live recording called 'An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer,' nominated for a Grammy for best comedy performance (musical) in 1960. But around the same time, he largely quit touring and returned to teaching math, though he did some writing and performing on the side. Lehrer said he was never comfortable appearing in public. 'I enjoyed it up to a point,' he told The AP in 2000. 'But to me, going out and performing the concert every night when it was all available on record would be like a novelist going out and reading his novel every night.' He did produce a political satire song each week for the 1964 television show 'That Was the Week That Was,' a groundbreaking topical comedy show that anticipated 'Saturday Night Live' a decade later. He released the songs the following year in an album titled 'That Was the Year That Was.' The material included 'Who's Next?' ponders which government will be the next to get the nuclear bomb … perhaps Alabama? (He didn't need to tell his listeners that it was a bastion of segregation at the time.) 'Pollution' takes a look at the then-new concept that perhaps rivers and lakes should be cleaned up. He also wrote songs for the 1970s educational children's show 'The Electric Company.' He told AP in 2000 that hearing from people who had benefited from them gave him far more satisfaction than praise for any of his satirical works. His songs were revived in the 1980 musical revue 'Tomfoolery' and he made a rare public appearance in London in 1998 at a celebration honoring that musical's producer, Cameron Mackintosh. Lehrer was born in 1928, in New York City, the son of a successful necktie designer. He recalled an idyllic childhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side that included attending Broadway shows with his family and walking through Central Park day or night. After skipping two grades in school, he entered Harvard at 15 and, after receiving his master's degree, he spent several years unsuccessfully pursuing a doctorate. 'I spent many, many years satisfying all the requirements, as many years as possible, and I started on the thesis,' he once said. 'But I just wanted to be a grad student, it's a wonderful life. That's what I wanted to be, and unfortunately, you can't be a Ph.D. and a grad student at the same time.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. He began to teach part-time at Santa Cruz in the 1970s, mainly to escape the harsh New England winters. From time to time, he acknowledged, a student would enroll in one of his classes based on knowledge of his songs. 'But it's a real math class,' he said at the time. 'I don't do any funny theorems. So those people go away pretty quickly.' ___ Former Associated Press writer John Rogers contributed to this story. Rogrers retired from The AP in 2021.

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