- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Trump's Oval Office meeting with 4 election conspiracy theorists spiraled into a chaotic, multihour screaming match
"Are you out of your f---ing mind?" the White House advisor Eric Herschmann told Sidney Powell at one point, Axios reported.
- EntertainmentCosmopolitan
‘The Bachelorette’ Is No Longer Filming in Canada Next Season
The resort was fancy, so that’s a bummer.
- PoliticsThe Week
Meatballs, f-bombs, vote fraud conspiracies: A Trump Oval Office meeting so insane, Giuliani was 'the voice of reason'
Reports of a contentious Dec. 18 meeting in the Oval Office involving former President Donald Trump, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, and disapproving White House officials were outlined in the news media almost immediately. But Axios provided a detailed recounting of the six-hour meeting Tuesday morning, and the early reports do not do it justice. Former senior White House adviser Eric Herschmann is quoted extensively, frequently reacting incredulously to some voter fraud conspiracy theory put forward by Powell or yelling profanities at Byrne or Flynn. For example, Axios' Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu report: Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell. ... Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the f--k do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down. [Axios] Byrne, in his first face-to-face meeting with Trump, started yelling at Herschmann, too, Axios reports: "Do you even know who the f--k I am, you idiot?" Herschmann snapped back. "Yeah, you're Patrick Cipollone," Byrne said. "Wrong! Wrong, you idiot!" [Axios] Herschmann had called Cipollone, the White House counsel, into the meeting when it became clear Trump was taking seriously Powell's suggestion he claim emergency powers and seize voting machines. When Cipollone walked into the Oval Office, Axios reports, "he looked at Byrne and said, 'Who are you?'" Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was dialed in on speakerphone. As the meeting crept past three hours, Axios says, "the arguments became so heated that even Giuliani — still on the phone — at one point told everyone to calm down. One participant later recalled: 'When Rudy's the voice of reason, you know the meeting's not going well.'" After the Oval Office meeting finally broke up, Herschmann and Cipollone "soon discovered that the Powell entourage had made their way to the president's residence," and "they followed them upstairs," Axios reports. "Byrne wolfed down pigs in a blanket and little meatballs on toothpicks that staff had set on the coffee table. It didn't take long for the yelling to start up again. They were now in hour four of a meeting unprecedented even by the deranged standards of the final days of the Trump presidency." The meeting finally broke up after midnight, with nobody sure what Trump would do. Read more details at Axios. More stories from theweek.comAmerica's parents are not okayBiden's immigration executive orders don't do much. That could be by design.Manchin will support Democrats' reconciliation bill, allowing COVID relief to move forward without GOP
- NewsBusiness Insider
Investigators are recommending no charges against a Capitol Police officer who fatally shot a pro-Trump rioter, reports say
Ashli Babbitt was shot dead by an officer as she tried to climb through a shattered window into the Speaker's Lobby of the Capitol on January 6.
- NewsThe Canadian Press
Hundreds deported under Biden, including witness to massacre
HOUSTON — President Joe Biden's administration has deported hundreds of immigrants in its early days despite his campaign pledge to stop removing most people in the U.S. illegally at the beginning of his term. A federal judge last week ordered the Biden administration not to enforce a 100-day moratorium on deportations, but the ruling did not require the government to schedule them. In recent days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported immigrants to at least three countries: 15 people to Jamaica on Thursday and 269 people to Guatemala and Honduras on Friday. More deportation flights were scheduled Monday. It’s unclear how many of those people are considered national security or public safety threats or had recently crossed the border illegally, the priority under new guidance that the Department of Homeland Security issued to enforcement agencies and that took effect Monday. Some of the people put on the flights may have been expelled — which is a quicker process than deportation — under a public health order that former President Donald Trump invoked during the coronavirus pandemic and that Biden has kept in place. In the border city of El Paso, Texas, immigration authorities on Friday deported a woman who witnessed the 2019 massacre at a Walmart that left 23 people dead. She had agreed to be a witness against the gunman and has met with the local district attorney's office, according to her lawyers. Rosa was pulled over Wednesday for a broken brake light, detained based on previous traffic warrants, then transferred to ICE, which deported her before she could reach her attorney, said Melissa Lopez, executive director of the non-profit Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, which represents her. Rosa is being identified only by her first name because she fears for her safety in Juarez, a city across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso that's known for violence and gang activity. Jail records confirm that Rosa was booked into the El Paso jail on Wednesday for the warrants and left Friday. ICE had issued what's known as a “detainer,” seeking to hold her on immigration violations the day she was arrested, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. The El Paso district attorney's office confirmed in a statement Monday that it had given Rosa's attorneys the documentation needed to request a U.S. visa for crime victims. But the statement also said Rosa “is not a victim of the Walmart shooting case.” The district attorney did not immediately respond to follow-up questions. Her lawyers say Rosa pleaded guilty in 2018 to driving under the influence and ICE later released her, underscoring that authorities under Trump previously found she wasn't a threat to the public, Lopez said. Both Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris vocally opposed the Trump administration's immigration priorities during the presidential campaign. “It’s important that President Biden and Vice-President Harris realize that despite their very clear desires about how immigrants are treated, we continue to see on a local level immigrants being mistreated and disregarded,” Lopez said. ICE said Friday that it had deported people to Jamaica and that it was in compliance with last week's court order. The agency did not respond to several requests for further comment on additional deportation flights or Rosa's case. Officials in Honduras confirmed that 131 people were on a deportation flight that landed Friday. Another flight that landed in Guatemala on Friday had 138 people, with an additional 30 people expected to arrive Monday, officials there said. The White House referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, but a spokesman did not return requests for comment. Democratic U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, whose district includes El Paso, said her office had flagged Rosa's case to the White House. “My concern is that ICE will continue to move quickly before the Biden administration has an opportunity to make assessments and provide further directives,” Escobar said Monday. Two legal experts say that regardless of the judge’s order on the deportation moratorium, ICE could release immigrants with deportation orders, keep people detained or otherwise delay the deportation process. “Scheduling deportations is still a matter of discretion for the agency,” said Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell University. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton last week granted a temporary restraining order sought by Texas that bars enforcement of a 100-day deportation moratorium that had gone into effect Jan. 22. Tipton said the Biden administration had violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act in issuing the moratorium and had not proven why a pause in deportations was necessary. Tipton on Friday said he would extend his order through Feb. 23. The Justice Department has not yet asked Tipton or a federal appeals court to block the order. The White House on Friday reissued a statement saying it believed a moratorium was “wholly appropriate," adding that "President Biden remains committed to taking immediate action to reform our immigration system to ensure it’s upholding American values while keeping our communities safe.” Biden is expected to issue a series of immigration-related executive orders Tuesday amid the expected confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary. Those orders are expected to include the formation of a task force to reunify families separated during the Trump administration. ___ This version corrects that 23 people died in the El Paso massacre, not 22. ___ Associated Press journalists Will Weissert in Washington, María Verza in Mexico City, and Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City contributed to this report. Nomaan Merchant, The Associated Press
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley received nearly $1 million in donations after leading the charge to overturn Biden's victory
Hawley faced backlash from many of his colleagues, corporate donors, and even some allies in Missouri after the deadly Capitol siege.
- EntertainmentPeople
Sam Neill Says Jeff Goldblum Drove Everyone 'Crazy' on Jurassic World 3 Set with Daily Suggestions
Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum reunite with Laura Dern for the third movie in the reboot trilogy
