After a July 20 meeting in a secure room at the Pentagon, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called President Trump a "moron," shocking the handful of senior administration officials at the meeting, NBC News reports, citing three officials "present or briefed on the incident." The previous day, Trump had threatened to fire the U.S. general commanding the Afghanistan war and compared troop deployment decisions to the renovation of the 21 Club restaurant in New York, but Tillerson was also reportedly upset about being undercut by the president on U.S. policy on Qatar and Iran, among other places.
Then, after Trump gave an overly partisan campaign-style talk to the Boy Scouts, Tillerson — an Eagle Scout and former president of the Boy Scouts of America — threatened to quit, NBC reports, citing "multiple senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time." Tillerson, in Texas for his son's wedding, threatened not to return, but was strongly urged to stay on by his closest allies in the administration, Defense Secretary James Mattis and soon-to-be Chief of Staff James Kelly, NBC News says. When he returned, Vice President Mike Pence reportedly arranged a meeting to defuse the tensions and counsel Tillerson to work within Trump's policy framework.
The tensions flared again last weekend when Trump tweeted that Tillerson should stop trying to use diplomacy on North Korea, right after Tillerson had announced direct contact with Pyongyang. The White House declined NBC News' request for comment, and Tillerson's top State Department spokesman, R.C. Hammond, denied that Tillerson called Trump a "moron," was angry over Trump's Boy Scouts speech, or had any policy differences with Trump. You can read more at NBC News. Peter Weber
Protests took place in Pittsburgh on Saturday after a jury acquitted a former East Pittsburgh police officer who was tried for the killing of Antwon Rose, an unarmed black 17-year-old, last June.
The officer, Michael Rosfield, who is white, shot Rose three times after the teenager ran from a traffic stop. Rosfield said that Rose was in a car that matched the description of one involved in a drive-by shooting 20 minutes prior to the traffic stop. Another person in the vehicle, 18-year-old Zaijuan Hester, pleaded guilty last week to the drive-by shooting. He said that he, not Rose, fired the shots.
Crowds gathered in protest over the jury's decision outside of the Allegheny County Courthouse on Friday evening and continued throughout the city on Saturday. Shots were reportedly fired at the window of one of Rosfield's attorney's offices on Saturday morning in what was an apparent retaliation. No one was hurt. But Rose's father urged people to refrain from violence, and Pittsburgh police described the protests as peaceful. Tim O'Donnell
British Prime Minister Theresa May said earlier this week that she did not believe the British people did not support a second Brexit referendum. A massive anti-Brexit demonstration held in London on Saturday poked some holes in that theory.
The Guardian reports that the protest's organizers estimate that 1 million people took to the streets for the "Put it to the People" march, which demanded that Parliament grant a second EU withdrawal referendum. It is being considered one of the biggest protests in British history, per BBC, although specific attendance numbers have not been confirmed. Protesters carried EU flags and donned blue and yellow garb to signify their support for remaining in the Union.
The march took place just days after the EU agreed to an extension of Article 50, which will now trigger the U.K.'s exodus from the EU on April 12 — with or without a deal. May, who has so far been unable to secure a withdrawal agreement, has faced renewed calls for her resignation. Tim O'Donnell
Attorney General William Barr is reviewing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on whether President Trump's campaign colluded with Russian election interference, a source familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday. Barr is expected to reveal the principle conclusions of the report soon. Meanwhile, per AP, House Democrats have scheduled a conference call for Saturday to strategize over how they will proceed. As everything winds down, here are three pressing questions that remain about the Mueller investigation.
How much will Barr reveal? To state the obvious, it remains unclear just how much information the attorney general will make available to the public. Barr is under no obligation to provide any aspect of the report, but there are also no laws that prevent him from doing so. Earlier in March, Congress voted unanimously to make the report public.
Will Mueller testify? Congressional investigations into the Trump administration will continue regardless of the Mueller report's conclusions. But how much will Congress rely on Mueller going forward? Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee chair, said on Friday that his committee could call on Mueller to testify before them if the report is not made fully available to Congress.
Is this really the last major legal threat to Trump's presidency? The White House was reportedly feeling very confident about the conclusion of Mueller's investigation. But an undisclosed number of federal and state investigations grew out of Mueller's work that will continue to lurk behind the Trump presidency. These include the prosecution of Trump political adviser Roger Stone, as well as inquiries into the business dealings of close Trump associates like Elliott Broidy and Thomas J. Barrack. No matter how it shakes out, it is therefore unlikely that Trump will be fully in the clear. Tim O'Donnell
Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to Congress on Friday, informing lawmakers that the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller had reached its conclusion and the final report is now under Barr's review.
The letter did not divulge much — indeed, Barr announced that he would brief Congress more thoroughly "as soon as this weekend." But one of the key pieces information about the process came to light precisely because it was not mentioned in the letter. Per special counsel investigation regulations, The Washington Post reports, Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were required to, first and foremost, alert Congress when the investigation was complete. Beyond that, the only requirement is to "provide a description and explanation" of any action by the special counsel that the Attorney General deemed "inappropriate or unwarranted."
Barr's initial letter, therefore, would indicate that the Department of Justice did not, over the course of the last two years, block Mueller and his team from investigating anyone. In other words, there does not appear to have been any executive interference.
"There were no such instances during the Special Counsel's Investigation," Barr wrote in the letter. Read the full analysis at The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell
The king will get some extra rest this year.
For the first time since 2005, the NBA playoffs will not feature LeBron James, whose teams had appeared in 13 straight postseasons, including eight straight trips to the NBA Finals.
James' Los Angeles Lakers were officially eliminated from contention following Friday evening's 111-106 loss to the Brooklyn Nets. Los Angeles dropped to 31-41 overall with 10 games remaining in the regular season.
It's the sixth year in a row that the Lakers, who signed James during the offseason, have missed the postseason. Before the current streak of futility, the storied franchise missed the playoffs only five times during its first 65 seasons in the league, Per ESPN.
Despite the lack of team success and having to deal with a mid-season injury, James still put up his usual prolific numbers, averaging 27.4 points, 8.1 assists, and 8.5 rebounds per game on the year.
"I'm probably going to have a conversation with the coaching staff and my trainer and go from there," James said. "But I love to hoop. S---, I'm going to have five months and not play the game." Tim O'Donnell
A former Justice Department lawyer who helped write the regulations for special counsel investigations in 1998 and 1999 has added his name to the list of those calling for Attorney General William Barr to make Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, which was handed over to Barr on Friday, available to the public.
Neal Kumar Katyal, who is now a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in The Washington Post that he and his colleagues drafted regulations for special counsel investigations following independent counsel Ken Starr's investigation into former President Bill Clinton. They wanted to avoid similar investigations in the future which might "produce a lurid document going unnecessarily into detail about someone's intimate conduct."
But he also wrote that the regulations serve as "a floor, not a ceiling" on the amount of transparency that the attorney general can provide to Congress and the public after the special counsel completes an investigation.
"The canard that some Trump allies are floating, that a public release would violate the special counsel regulations, is false," Katyal wrote. "They require transparency and an 'explanation of each action' at the end of the special counsel investigation, but they don't forbid more transparency on top of that."
Katyal argued that Barr "has all the latitude in the world" to make the Mueller public and that he should, indeed, do so. Read the full article at The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell