Former GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says he actually did offer WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a presidential pardon — and that he told the Trump administration all about it.

The Trump administration denied Wednesday that it had sent Rohrabacher to offer Assange a pardon, with White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham saying Trump "barely knows Dana Rohrabacher" and has "never spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject." But Rohrabacher provided a different story in a Thursday interview with Yahoo News, saying he floated a pardon if Assange could prove Russia didn't hack the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Rohrabacher met with Assange for three hours in August 2017 at the Ecuardorian embassy where he was claiming asylum. The ex-congressmember was looking to prove his conspiracy theory and claim Russia didn't actually hack DNC emails and provide those emails to WikiLeaks, Rohrabacher told Yahoo News. If Assange could do so, Rohrabacher assured Assange he would get a presidential pardon — "He knew I could get to the president," Rohrabacher said. Rohrabacher called then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly after the meeting and mentioned the possible pardon, though he said Kelly didn't even commit to discussing the matter with Trump.

Rohrabacher was a high-profile representative for 30 years before Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) beat him in the 2018 midterms. Assange was ousted from the embassy about a year ago and has since been charged in the U.S. with illegally publishing government secrets. Kathryn Krawczyk

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, reunited with his old boss, former President Barack Obama in Flint, Michigan, on Saturday as part of a final campaign stretch ahead of Tuesday's Election Day.

Obama spoke first, touting his old running mate's acumen. At one point, he said that he and former first lady Michelle Obama had recently been talking about how a "big benefit" of a possible Biden presidency is the fact that "you're not going to have think about them every day," implying that what many consider to be the over-politicization of daily life will decline if President Trump is no longer in office.

Biden, too, emphasized a lack of dramatics, arguing that the Obama administration enjoyed two scandal-free terms.

The drive-in event was the first of two for the day in the crucial swing state. Obama and Biden will next head to Detroit. Tim O'Donnell

Part of Lyon has been locked down by authorities after a Greek Orthodox priest was shot while closing his church in the French city on Saturday. Police are still searching for the alleged shooter who fled the scene. The priest, a Greek citizen, is being treated for life-threatening injuries in a local hospital, The Associated Press reports.

The motive behind the attack is unclear, and the French anti-terrorist unit is not investigating the shooting, though it does come at a heightened moment in France. Just two days ago, three people were killed at a Catholic Church by a knife-wielding man. French President Emmanuel Macron called that incident an "Islamist terrorist attack." Two weeks before that, a Parisian school teacher was beheaded by an 18-year-old man, who was reportedly angered by the teacher showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in class. Since then, the French government has said it will deploy soldiers to protect several sites across the country, including places of worship. Read more at BBC and The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell

Vice President Mike Pence is not considered a favorite to emerge as the Republican Party's next presidential nominee. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that the suggestion prompted laughter from several sources, while multiple GOP strategists expressed doubt to The Washington Post recently, as well.

Mike Lindell, the Minnesota campaign chair for President Trump, said it will simply just "be harder for a career politician to be president going forward," but Alex Conant, who served as the campaign spokesman during Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) 2016 presidential run, thinks Pence's ties to the Trump administration could mean the vice presidency will remain the apex of his political journey.

"Trump could be our party's Iraq War," Conant told the Post. "I wonder if four years from now we are nominating someone who had nothing to do with the Trump era."

While Conant's larger point may stand, his historical comparison confused some observers, who argued that the Republican Party's "Iraq War" was, in fact, the Iraq War. Read more at The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell

Slovakia has launched a program to test the country's entire population for COVID-19 over the next two days. Around 45,000 medical workers, army, and police are being deployed to collect samples at around 5,000 testing sites. The effort will utilize antigen tests, which give quick results, but are often less accurate than PCR tests, which require lab analysis.

The ambitious plan is not without critics. While Prime Minister Igor Matovic said it would save "hundreds of lives" and "will be our road to freedom," President Zuzana Caputova called it "unfeasible," noting that there are not enough trained health workers to carry it out effectively. And the Slovak Association of General Practitioners warned that the "mass concentration of millions of people" at testing sites could in fact contribute to the coronavirus' spread.

Further, France 24 reports that some citizens are wary, with one man saying the government is "threatening people." Participation is not mandatory, but people who fail to produce a negative test certificate if stopped by police could face heavy fines.

Slovakia's coronavirus infection rate is below the European Union average, but like many of its neighbors numbers are on the upswing. Read more at France 24 and BBC. Tim O'Donnell

President Trump has seemingly made life difficult for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is hoping to see the GOP retain its majority in the upper chamber this election cycle, The Washington Post reports.

The committee's director Kevin McLaughlin, per the Post, explained last week that Trump is "losing Arizona" where "we think that he and [Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.)] are very intrinsically tied together." With Trump down, McSally's Democratic challenger, Mark Kelly, is viewed by both sides as the favorite to take the seat.

In Georgia, another state in which the presidential race and not one, but two Senate races are tightly contested, NRSC strategists believed the Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, was polling at 50 percent at one point, which they reportedly found "terrifying."

Even in a state like Alaska which has reliably voted Republican for president since 1964, the NRSC reportedly found that Trump was actually losing at one point this month. Although that seems to be an unlikely result once the ballots are in, it did force the party's campaign arm to spend more on Sen. Dan Sullivan's (R-Alaska) re-election bid there. "You should've seen those [polls] three weeks ago when we had the president down," McLuaghlin said, explaining that Trump's drop sunk Sullivan, as well. "I mean it's not because of Dan Sullivan. I'm just telling you." Read more at The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell

Sean Connery has died, his family confirmed Saturday. He was 90. A cause of death wasn't immediately known, but Variety notes it was believed the actor had been unwell for some time.

The Scottish-born Connery was well-known for his James Bond portrayal and is considered one of the best actors to take on the iconic role. Indeed, a Radio Times United Kingdom poll revealed Connery as the country's favorite Bond after he took home 56 percent of the vote. But his movie career spanned decades and included several other memorable parts in films like The Name of the Rose and The Untouchables, for which he won a BAFTA and an Oscar, respectively.

In a statement, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said Connery "was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond" and his "gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent ... is undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series." Read more at Variety and CNN. Tim O'Donnell