Ukrainians react after Zelenskyy signs controversial bill
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Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Colbert fails to ask Harris about Biden decline, avoids her involvement in Trump's '60 Minutes' lawsuit
Outgoing CBS "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert failed to address the hottest topics with former Vice President Kamala Harris during his fawning interview on Thursday. Colbert rolled out the red carpet for Harris, who granted him her first interview since leaving office and took the opportunity to plug her forthcoming book "107 Days" about her failed presidential bid. However, Colbert avoided asking Harris anything about the controversy surrounding her ex-boss, former President Joe Biden, and the growing questions about his cognitive decline while in office. Multiple Biden aides, including his White House physician Kevin O'Connor, pleaded the Fifth when brought before Congress and several tell-all books have shed light on the former president's difficulty behind the scenes. Notably, Colbert emceed a star-studded fundraiser for Biden in March 2024. The closest Colbert got to broaching the subject was a couple of softball questions about Harris' experience after Biden's disastrous presidential debate in June 2024 and the moment he ended his reelection bid weeks later. Another giant elephant in the room was her involvement in President Donald Trump's "election interference" lawsuit against CBS News and parent company Paramount, which cascaded to a series of events that liberal critics say connect Paramount's settlement and its forthcoming merger with Skydance Media with the cancellation of "The Late Show." Colbert has been outspoken with his criticism of his corporate bosses. The interview Harris gave to "60 Minutes" last October was at the center of Trump's lawsuit, which accused CBS News of deceptively editing her comments to aid her campaign. Critics at the time pointed out that her "word salad" response to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aired in a preview clip on "Face the Nation," while a more concise answer aired during the "60 Minutes" primetime special the following night. Raw transcripts released by the FCC after it ordered CBS News to hand them over earlier this year revealed that the first portion of her response aired in the preview clip, while the latter part of that same response aired in primetime. Both Colbert and Harris seemed to tiptoe around the CBS drama. At the top of the interview, after he pointed out that Harris "looked rested," Colbert joked he'll get "plenty of rest in June," which is the month after "The Late Show" will officially be off the air in 2026. Harris later called out the "capitulation" that has taken place since Trump took office, though not mentioning Paramount by name. There was very little substance throughout the roughly 30-minute interview as Harris repeatedly either dodged various questions or teased that the answers would be in her book. One question Harris refused to answer was who she thought was currently leading the Democratic Party. "I think there are a lot of – I'm not going to go through names because then I'm going to leave somebody out and then I'm going to hear about it," Harris told Colbert. "But let me say this. I think it is a mistake for us who want us to figure out how to get out and through this and get out of it to put it on the shoulders of any one person. It's really on all of our shoulders. It really is."
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump says he ordered subs repositioned in rare nuclear threat to Russia
Advertisement Because nuclear submarine movements are among the Pentagon's most closely held tactical maneuvers, it will most likely prove impossible to know if Trump is truly repositioning the submarines or just trying to make a point. But in Trump's sudden and escalating confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, it is the first time he has referenced the US nuclear arsenal, much less threatened to reposition it. Trump said Thursday that he intends to impose new sanctions on Russia over its unwillingness to wind down its war in Ukraine, the latest step in his gradual shift toward a more antagonistic stance toward the Kremlin. Still, such public flexing of nuclear muscles is rare even for Trump, who last made explicit nuclear threats to Kim Jong Un of North Korea early in his first term in 2018. At that time, he said his 'nuclear button' was 'much bigger and more powerful' than Kim's. That exchange ultimately led to a diplomatic opening to Kim, three meetings between the two leaders, and a complete failure of the effort to get the North Korean leader to give up his nuclear arsenal, which is now larger than ever. Advertisement But Russia is a different case, and Trump has often talked about the fearsome power of nuclear weapons, something he contends he learned about from an uncle who was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So while Russian President Vladimir Putin has made threats about putting nuclear forces on alert during the opening days of the Ukraine war, and may have been preparing to use a tactical nuclear weapon in fall 2022 against a Ukrainian military base, the US has never responded. Medvedev is a good foil for Trump; he regularly issues threats against the United States but is essentially powerless. Trump has referred to Medvedev's martial-sounding statements several times in the past week. It was not clear what kind of nuclear submarines Trump was referencing. The US has nuclear-powered attack submarines that search for targets, but it also has far larger, nuclear-powered, and nuclear-armed submarines. Those don't need to be repositioned; they can reach targets thousands of miles away. Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, referred all questions about Trump's statement to the White House. This article originally appeared in
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Veteran federal judge T.S. Ellis III, who presided over trial of Trump aide Paul Manafort, has died
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal judge T.S. Ellis III, whose legal scholarship and commanding courtroom presence was evident in numerous high-profile trials, has died after a long illness. He was 85. Ellis oversaw the trials of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and former U.S. Rep. William 'Dollar Bill' Jefferson as well as the plea deal of 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh across a judicial career that lasted more than 35 years. His acerbic wit sometimes drew muted complaints at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, where Ellis was based, but his legal reasoning was unquestioned. Ellis died Wednesday at his home in Keswick, according to the Cremation Society of Virginia. Thomas Selby Ellis III was born in Colombia in 1940 and frequently found ways in court to utilize his Spanish-language skills. He often told Spanish-speaking defendants who relied on interpreters to speak up as they pleaded for leniency, saying he wanted to hear their words for himself. He joined the Navy after receiving an undergraduate degree from Princeton, and completed graduate studies at Oxford. He received his law degree from Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. He was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. In a courthouse known as the 'Rocket Docket' for its speedy disposition of cases, Ellis' courtroom reflected his iconoclastic nature. Rarely did his hearings start on time, though when he presided over jury trials his punctuality improved as he zealously guarded jurors' time commitments. He frequently chastised lawyers to cut short long-winded arguments, in what he called 'a concession to the shortness of life.' But he was easily coaxed or diverted into telling stories from the bench recalling episodes from his long legal career. He snapped at lawyers who annoyed him, but would often adopt a more conciliatory tone later in the same hearing, and apologize for his short temper. His penchant for speaking freely drew raised eyebrows at what was arguably the highest-profile trial over which he presided: the prosecution of Manafort, on charges of tax and bank fraud related to his work advising pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians before managing Trump's campaign. Ellis ultimately delivered a 47-month sentence, and said as an aside that Manafort appeared to have lived 'an otherwise blameless life,' a phrase he often used at criminal sentencings. Critics who found much to blame in Manafort's long career working for clients including the tobacco industry and international despots were outraged by the comment. In 2009, Ellis sentenced Jefferson, a former Louisiana congressman, to 13 years in prison for taking bribes, including $90,000 found hidden in his freezer. The case threw multiple curveballs at Ellis, including a sexual relationship between a key witness and an investigating FBI agent. In 2017, Ellis reduced Jefferson's sentence to time served after a Supreme Court case changed the rules for what constitutes bribery of public officials. He made clear, though, that he believed Jefferson's actions were criminal, and called his conduct 'venal.' 'Public corruption is a cancer,' he said at the time of Jefferson's resentencing. 'It needs to be prosecuted and punished.' Ellis' sentencing hearings often followed a familiar script in which he invited defendants to explain themselves 'by way of extenuation, mitigation, or indeed anything at all' that they wanted to say on their behalf. He invariably told defendants before passing judgment that 'you write the pages to your own life story.'
