Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, speaks with protesters outside a Friday fundraiser (Screen capture)
Senate Judiciary Committee co-chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) held an impromptu question-and-answer session on Friday with protesters who gathered outside a fundraiser she held in Los Angeles.
According to Mediaite.com, when a protester asked Feinstein how to get Trump out of office, Feinstein replied, "I think he's going to get himself out" -- hinting that Trump might resign in the months ahead.
Los Angeles Times reporter Javier Panzar tweeted reports from the scene.
"You looked white as a ghost after that meeting yesterday," one person said to Feinstein -- referring to Feinstein and Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)'s briefings with FBI Dir. James Comey on Wednesday. Comey declined to comply with a Senate Intelligence Committee request that he go on the record by Wednesday confirming or denying whether the FBI is currently investigating Pres. Donald Trump's campaign and its connections to the Russian government.
"There are so many things [Trump] is doing that are unconstitutional," a protester said. "How are we going to get him out?"
"We have a lot of people looking at this," Feinstein said. "I think he's going to get himself out... I think that sending his sons to another country to make a financial deal for his company and then have that covered with government expenses. I believe that should not be allowed."
"We're working on a bill that would do that now," she said. "We're working on a couple of bills that would deal with conflicts of interest."
Former President Donald Trump wished his wife Melania a happy birthday Friday outside the courtroom where he faces criminal charges linked to hush money paid to an adult movie star he's accused of having sex with — and it went about as well as could be expected.
Trump's best birthday wishes — delivered outside the Manhattan criminal courtroom where key witnesses include disgraced tabloid publishers, imprisoned former fixers, and alleged mistress Stormy Daniels — were roundly ridiculed after video of the press conference hit social media.
"Happy birthday to Melania, who I'd like to be with," wrote X user "Really American" in a satirical quote mockingly attributed to Trump, "but I'm at this trial because I had sex with a porn star while she was pregnant with our son and I paid $130K to hide it so voters wouldn't find out."
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid ahead of the 2016 presidential election and denies having an affair with Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
On Friday, Trump said he was unable to spend time with Melania on her birthday because he faced a "rigged" trial.
"I want to start by wishing my wife Melania a very happy birthday," Trump said. "It would be nice to be with her but I'm in a courthouse for a rigged trial."
"Trump says he would rather spend the day with Melania for her birthday but he has to be in court," replied Alex Cole. "Trump is literally in court because he enjoyed cheating on Melania."
"He is literally in court because he chose to bang a porn star rather than be with his wife and their newborn son," added Marlene Robertson.
Added X user Liam Nissan, "If he'd just spent more time with Melania he wouldn't even be in this situation."
Anti-Trump conservative group the Lincoln Project also took the opportunity to wish Melania Trump a happy birthday, along with a video montage that shows the former First Lady appearing pulling her hand away from her husband's.
"Hoping Melania is spending her birthday in her favorite place to be," the group wrote, "far away from Donald Trump."
President Joe Biden gave a nearly-unannounced, last-minute, live exclusive interview Friday morning to Howard Stern, the SiriusXM radio host who for decades, from the mid-1990s to about 2015, was a top Trump friend, fan and aficionado.
But the impetus behind the president's move appears to be a rare and unsigned statement from The New York Times Company, defending the "paper of record" after months of anger from the public over what some say is biased negative coverage of the Biden presidency and, especially, a Thursday report by Politico claiming Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger is furious the president has refused to give the "Grey Lady" an in-person interview.
"The Times’ desire for a sit-down interview with Biden by the newspaper’s White House team is no secret around the West Wing or within the D.C. bureau," Politico reported.
"Getting the president on the record with the paper of record is a top priority for publisher A.G. Sulzberger. So much so that last May, when Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the newspaper’s Midtown headquarters for an off-the-record meeting with around 40 Times journalists, Sulzberger devoted several minutes to asking her why Biden was still refusing to grant the paper — or any major newspaper — an interview."
"In Sulzberger’s view," Politico explained, "only an interview with a paper like the Times can verify that the 81-year-old Biden is still fit to hold the presidency."
But it was this statement that made Politico's scoop go viral.
“'All these Biden people think that the problem is Peter Baker or whatever reporter they’re mad at that day,' one Times journalist said. 'It’s A.G. He’s the one who is pi--ed [that] Biden hasn’t done any interviews and quietly encourages all the tough reporting on his age.'"
Popular Information founder Judd Legum in March documented The New York Times' (and other top papers') obsession with Biden's age after the Hur Report.
Thursday evening the Times put out a "scorching" statement, as Politico later reported, not on the newspaper's website but on the company's corporate website, not addressing the Politico piece directly but calling it “troubling” that Biden “has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term.”
Media watchers and critics pushed back on the Times' statement.
"NYT issues an unprecedented statement slamming Biden for 'actively and effectively avoid[ing] questions from independent journalists during his term' and claiming it's their 'independence' that Biden dislikes, when it's actually that they're dying to trip him up," wrote media critic Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch.
Froomkin also pointed to a 2017 report from Poynter, a top journalism site published by The Poynter Institute, that pointed out the poor job the Times did of interviewing then-President Trump.
Others, including former Biden Deputy Secretary of State Brian McKeon, debunked the Times' claim Biden hasn't given interviews to independent journalists by pointing to Biden's interviews with CBS News' "60 Minutes" and a 20-minute sit-down interview with veteran journalist John Harwood for ProPublica.
Former Chicago Sun-Times editor Mark Jacob, now a media critics who publishes Stop the Presses, offered a more colorful take of Biden's decision to go on Howard Stern.
Some investors who have been shorting the stock offering from Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the Truth Social platform in which Donald Trump holds a major stake, are admitting they have a secondary motive besides cashing in as its value declines.
In interviews with the Associated Press, more than a few retail investors suggested they hope their bet on the company floundering will severely damage Trump's ability to eventually cash in and use the proceeds to pay his legal fees and maintain his lavish lifestyle.
Last week, NBC News reported that executives at the tech company were taking extraordinary measures to tamp down on short-selling, where investors pay brokerage firms fees to borrow shares on a temporary basis in the belief that the shares will sink in price, and then sell them back later and pocket the difference.
On Friday, some investors told AP that stock in the company continues to spiral down and they are more than willing to help it if it hurts the former president.
Speaking to AP's Bernard Condon, Idaho ad executive Elle Stange claimed she has already made $1,300 betting against the company and stated, "This company makes no money. ... It makes no sense. He’s not as great a businessman as he thinks. A lot of his businesses go belly up, quickly.”
According to the AP report, "Several of these investors interviewed by The Associated Press say their bearish gambles using 'put' options and other trading tools are driven less by their personal feelings about the former president (most don’t like him) than their faith in the woeful underlying financials of a company that made less money last year than the average Wendy’s hamburger franchise."
Investor Jeff Cheung stated, “This is guaranteed to go to zero.”
Taking into account a lock-up contingency that bans the former president from selling off any of his stock before September, these investors are hoping to do as much damage in as short of time as possible while also profiting on the stock's volatility.
"Many who spoke to the AP say knowing their bets have helped slash the value of Trump’s 65% stake in half is an added political benefit. If some of their predictions are right, they may be able to someday push it to zero, making it impossible for him to tap it to pay his hefty legal bills or finance his GOP presidential campaign," Associated Press reported.
