George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, revealed during his closed-door testimony before House impeachment investigators last month that there was a lot of lying going when it came to Ukraine.
The House released a transcript of Kent's deposition on Thursday. He testified that President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was behind a smear campaign against Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Giuliani wanted Yovanovitch out, and his "assertions and allegations" against her "were without basis, untrue, period." Giuliani went on to attack Kent by name, and Kent said he was told to "keep my head down."
Kent also said that Fiona Hill, Trump's former top adviser on Russia, revealed she was concerned about U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's ability to tell the truth about what he talked about with the president. "I think she may have been as direct as saying that Gordon Sondland lies about conversations that occur in the Oval Office," he said.
After the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, Kent received a brief readout of the call from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's expert on Ukraine. "It was different than any readout call that I had received," Kent testified. Vindman "felt — I could hear it in his voice and his hesitancy that he felt uncomfortable. He actually said that he could not share the majority of what was discussed because of the very sensitive nature of what was discussed." Catherine Garcia
President Trump delivered a briefing on the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday evening, telling Americans that the "risk remains really low" and "we're very, very ready for this."
Trump also announced that Vice President Mike Pence will lead the government's response to the coronavirus. During Pence's time as governor of Indiana, the state reported the first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the United States, and Trump said he has "a certain talent" for dealing with health emergencies.
The White House has asked Congress for $1.8 billion to fight coronavirus, with Democrats saying more is needed. Trump said he hopes "we're not going to have to spend so much," and he'll be "satisfied" with whatever amount is received. He also brought up the flu, saying he was surprised to learn that "the flu in our country kills from 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year. That was shocking to me, and so far if you look at what we have with the 15 people, they're recovering. One is pretty sick but will hopefully recover, but the others are in great shape."
There are 81,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, with 15 in the United States. Nearly 3,000 people have died from the virus. Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to prepare for an outbreak in the United States. Catherine Garcia
Several people were killed on Wednesday during a shooting at the Molson Coors campus in Milwaukee, the city's mayor said.
"There are multiple people who have died, I believe including the shooter, and we will have more information in the next several hours," Mayor Tom Barrett said. Police are asking people to stay away from the area, but there is no longer an active threat. During the incident, schools and businesses in the area were on lockdown.
About 600 people work on the campus, which has offices and brewing facilities. Molson Coors owns the Miller and Coors brands of beer. Catherine Garcia
Israel on Wednesday became the first country to officially warn its citizens to avoid any international travel amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak.
Several airlines have canceled flights to China, where the respiratory virus originated, and governments have issued warnings about travel to certain countries, but no country has actively urged their citizens avoid traveling abroad at large until now. "If you don't genuinely have to fly — don't do so," Israel's health ministry said in a statement.
Although the majority of cases remain in China, the virus has spread to several other countries. In response to criticism that the country was stoking panic and could cause both economic and diplomatic damage, the health ministry said they'd rather deal with the inconveniences now than be sorry later, The Times of Israel reports.
The only confirmed Israeli cases so far involve people who were on a cruise ship that was quarantined in Japan, although South Korea — which is experiencing one of the larger outbreaks beyond China — reportedly informed Israel over the weekend that a members from a group of pilgrims returned to South Korea from Israel and tested positive for the disease. Read more at The Times of Israel. Tim O'Donnell
In today's edition of this is why we can't have nice things, the Federal Communications Commission reported Wednesday that it received a whopping 1,312 complaints over Jennifer Lopez and Shakira's halftime show at the Super Bowl earlier this month, per Fox Business.
The performance — which paid homage to the women's Latina roots — was described as "completely inappropriate," "obscene," and a "strip club act" by irate viewers, with objections arriving from every state except Vermont.
The most baffling news of all, though, was that somehow only around 50 people filed complains when Maroon 5's frontman, Adam Levine, performed topless at Super Bowl LIII in 2019 and subjected all of us to his unfortunate tattoo collection. Jeva Lange
No Time to Die should have been called No Time for a Bathroom Break, because rumor has it the film is going to be the longest James Bond movie ever made.
According to unofficial run times posted on AMC and Regal Cinemas' websites, Daniel Craig's fifth and final installment in the 007 franchise will take 163 minutes, or nearly three hours, to watch, reports Esquire.
If that turns out to be the case, it would make No Time to Die an entire quarter of an hour longer than the next-longest Bond movie, Spectre, and almost a full hour longer than the shortest (but still also somehow the longest?) Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Jeva Lange
Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg twice compared Social Security to a Ponzi scheme when he was in office, CNN reports, which is a far cry from his current stance as a Democratic presidential candidate.
Nowadays, Bloomberg has vowed to to strengthen entitlement programs, but he used to see them as a major hurdle in the effort to shrink the United States' deficit. During appearances on his old radio program "Live from City Hall," which were reviewed by CNN's KFile, Bloomberg made the Ponzi scheme comparison once in 2006 and again in 2009. The latter instance was in relation to Bernie Madoff, who was arrested in December 2008 and later pleaded guilty to a massive Ponzi scheme.
"I don't know if Bernie Madoff got his idea from there, but if there's ever a Ponzi Scheme, people say Madoff was the biggest? Wrong," Bloomberg said. "Social Security is, far and away."
Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Bloomberg, attempted to explain Bloomberg's comments to CNN. "The Social Security Administration itself gives out detailed actuarial tables on when and how payments will exceed income, and the issue needs attention because we're running the cushion between them down," he said. "Mike believes that between now and that time, we will need to boost receipts by raising contributions from those who can best afford it, which is what he'll do as president." Read more at CNN. Tim O'Donnell