House Speaker Nancy Pelosi snapped at a reporter during a press gaggle at the Capitol on Wednesday after she met with Democratic lawmakers on President Biden’s $4 trillion Build Back Better agenda and on the ongoing battle to raise the US debt limit.
During the heated exchange the California Democrat was asked about why her strategy to raise the debt ceiling involved ‘twisting the arms of moderates’ while Senate Republicans have virtually guaranteed to kill any action on US debt in the upper house.
‘What are you talking about?’ Pelosi retorted amid frantic negotiations between the Biden administration and Democrats to try and reach a deal before a crucial vote on the infrastructure package on Thursday.
With dueling financial battles in Congress, Pelosi must find a way to pass two pieces of legislation – the $3.5 trillion bill that has no Republican support, and a $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure compromise – and avert an economic crisis in the US defaulting on its debts for the first time in history.
‘We have a responsibility to uphold, to lift up the full faith and credit of the United States of America. That’s what we have to do. These members have all voted for that last week,’ Pelosi said, referring to the House passing a measure to suspend the debt ceiling and keep the government open past September 30.
Some moderate Democrats have expressed hesitation at the move, fearful that Republicans will tie it to Biden’s spending bill and bill it as Democrats racking up debt to pay for a spending spree.
Despite the obvious friction, Pelosi relayed that her meeting with fellow Democrats was ‘productive.’
She also repeated President Biden’s debunked claim that his $3.5 trillion Democrat-backed plan would cost ‘zero dollars.’
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) found the proposals in the agenda would require the US to directly borrow $1 trillion, projecting that nearly $3 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next 10 years.
‘We’re hoping we can come to a place. It’s not about a dollar amount. The dollar amount, as the president has said, is zero. This bill will be paid for,’ Pelosi said.
‘It’s about, what are the values that we share, and how we prioritize them. That’s the place we will go. I have calmness because I have confidence in our House Democrats.’
Democrats only hold a slim majority in the House and Senate. In the House, Pelosi can afford to lose no more than three votes to pass Biden’s agenda. The 50-50 Senate makeup means legislators in the upper house need to vote in lock-step to get Biden’s progressive wish list passed.
Moderates in the House want to vote on the bipartisan measure’s framework, which already passed the Senate.
But the 93-member Progressive Caucus are threatening to kill that bill if the House doesn’t first bring the $3.5 trillion measure to the floor, which moderates oppose.
Pelosi expressed confidence that her fractured party would ‘come together’ once they agreed on the legislative language of the bills but said she can’t ‘speak for’ progressives.
‘I don’t speak for them, and I think they’ve spoken beautifully for the priorities that we have in the bill,’ Pelosi said.
During the press gaggle Pelosi was asked if several hang-ups and threats from warring factions would be enough to delay her plans to hold a vote on the $550 billion bill on Thursday.
‘We take it one step at a time,’ she replied. After she was asked again, she said: ‘I said we’ll have the vote tomorrow.’
Pelosi then turned to another member of the press and teased them, ‘I’m not calling you a trouble maker, but instigator, over here.’
‘What we want it to do is to pass tomorrow,’ Pelosi added, again referring to the infrastructure vote.
Pelosi said today that the White House needs to sign off on the $3.5 trillion bill before the House votes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The smaller measure includes funds to repair the country’s roads, bridges, broadband and transit hubs.
Biden’s larger measure is designed to overhaul federal spending priorities, with money for free community college, green initiatives and universal childcare assistance.
Democrats are looking to pass the bill via reconciliation, which would only require a simple majority of 50 Democratic senators and the vice president to succeed and bypass a GOP filibuster attempt.
Supporters of the bill have said they’ll pay for it by raising taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
Biden earned criticism last week when he said the hefty measure would cost ‘zero dollars.’
On Saturday night the president tweeted in support of his Build Back Better plan, claiming it adds nothing to the national debt.
But an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) found the proposals in the agenda would require the US to directly borrow $1 trillion, projecting that nearly $3 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next 10 years.
Nobody pushed back on Pelosi immediately after she repeated the claim.
The other battle brewing in Congress comes as the US Treasury warned the country will run out of cash in mid-October and default on its debts for the first time ever.
After trying to pass a debt ceiling suspension and a stopgap funding measures in the same bill, the House is scheduling them as separate votes.
The stopgap measure could be voted on as early as today. Action is needed to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown at the beginning of the 2022 fiscal year on October 1.
Earlier this week that bill died in the Senate nearly along party lines – 60 votes were needed to pass. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to a ‘no’ in a procedural move to allow him to introduce the measure again.
Pelosi told reporters that the House can’t act based on Senate outcomes.
‘We cannot predicate our actions in the House on what could happen in the Senate,’ she said.
‘We can when we’re coming to agreement on a bill, but in terms of this – I have no patience for people not voting for this.’
Jason Alan Thornburg, 41, is behind bars in Tarrant County Jail for a charge of capital murder of multiple persons, according to jail records.
Thornburg is accused of murdering and dismembering three people at the Mid City Inn in Euless before dumping their bodies in a dumpster he then set on fire, NBCDFW reports. The bodies were found by Fort Worth fire crews last week and belonged to one man, identified as David Lueras, and two women.
Authorities allegedly identified Thornburg through his Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was captured on video surveillance near the dumpster. Detectives then used GPS data to locate Thornburg’s Jeep in Arlington and confirm he had been staying at the Mid City Inn over the summer, authorities said.
When authorities contacted Thornburg and asked him to come in for questioning, he agreed and allegedly admitted to murdering the three victims at the Inn as well as another man in May and his girlfriend in Arizona, KOLD reports.
Thornburg also allegedly told investigators he had “in-depth knowledge of the Bible and believed that he was being called to commit sacrifices,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit, CNN reports.
He allegedly said he believed his previous two other victims were also “sacrifices.”
Speaking to KDFW, a relative of one of the victims found in the dumpster fire, David Lueras, said he had feared for his life in the days leading up to his death.
“I know that he was scared,” Aaron Torres said of his cousin, KDFW reports. “And I know he knew somebody was after him to get him.”
Torres said he hadn’t seen Lueras in years but before his death, the 42-year-old had reached out to relatives to try to hide out of state.
Authorities said Lueras and Thornburg shared a room at the inn the days leading up to Lueras’s death, however, it is unclear how the men knew each other.
Thornburg is currently being held on a $1 million bond. Fort Worth authorities were not able to confirm the alleged two other killings Thornburg allegedly admitted to but say the investigation remains ongoing. Attorney information was not available Wednesday.
The co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles was targeted in a second “swatting” incident in a week on Wednesday after filing a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for a similar incident last year.
Melina Abdullah was not home during the latest incident and was alerted by her neighbors to a large police presence outside her home around 5:45 p.m., according to The Los Angeles Times.
Police are investigating the incident as swatting, or reports of a false emergency in an effort to attract a large police presence to a location, the Times said.
“NO ONE WILL EVER SCARE ME OUT OF THIS WORK,” Abdullah tweeted on Thursday.
According to the Times, six police units and a supervisor were sent to the scene because of the “serious nature” of the crime reported and the caller’s alleged intention to kidnap Abdullah at gunpoint.
Police left the scene after determining that no one was in danger.
“It is the department’s obligation to treat every radio call, especially those threatening violence, seriously until we can determine otherwise,” Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Stacy Spell said to the Times.
Last week, Abdullah filed a lawsuit claiming the LAPD violated her rights and mishandled a swatting incident at her home in August 2020, the Times reported.
“This sure looks like retaliation for her filing a lawsuit,” Abdullah’s attorney Erin Darling told the Times.
Two dogs mauled an alleged intruder to death last week at a home in Georgia, authorities say. The dead man’s body was discovered on the homeowner’s porch after the suspected mauling incident.
According to law enforcement, Alex Binyam Abraha, 21, made his way into the two-bedroom house located in a rural area of Newnan, Ga. on Sept. 24.
Coweta County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived on the scene sometime after 10:30 a.m. in response to a report that someone was dead on the property. That someone was Abraha; his corpse had been found by the resident of the property that same morning.
According to The Newnan Times-Herald, the sheriff’s department worked with homicide investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation — though the case was eventually not ruled a homicide.
On Wednesday, the newspaper reported that a medical examiner with the GBI ruled that Abraha’s cause of death was mauling, citing CCSO Investigator Toby Nix. By definition and practice, a homicide legally cannot occur when a human being is killed by a non-human animal.
According to law enforcement, evidence suggests that the mauled man made entry into the home before quickly encountering the two large dogs.
Doug Evans, a journalist with local Fox affiliate WAGA-TV, shared photos of the canines late Wednesday afternoon via Twitter:
Coweta deputies say two dogs mauled an intruder who the homeowner later discovered dead on the front porch. I will have the latest on the case on FOX 5 News at 5 & 6. pic.twitter.com/ujefZTmZgc
According to Evans’ WAGA-TV report, investigators say that Abraha died outside the home after gaining entry and being attacked. The homeowner told law enforcement that he does not know the man who is said to have entered his home and died there — and that he had no idea why the man gained entry in the first place.
The outlet also reports that authorities do not anticipate filing any criminal charges against the person who lives in the home on Walt Sanders Road in north Coweta County.
Multiple news organizations have reported that the animals believed to have killed the man were seized by authorities as part of their initial investigation. The dogs are currently in the custody of Coweta County Animal Services, which operates under the auspices of the county’s Department of Corrections.
There is currently no word on what fate awaits the two animals. The prospect of the dogs not making their way home, however, has been criticized by a number of people on social media.
Law&Crime reached out to various local and state authorities for additional details on this story, but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
A Colorado man who is deaf and uses sign language to communicate said two Idaho Springs officers slammed him to the ground during an arrest despite his attempts to tell them that he could not understand their commands.
The man, Brady Mistic, said he was wrongfully jailed for four months over the incident on Sept. 17, 2019. He is suing Officers Nicholas Hanning and Ellie Summers, as well as the city of Idaho Springs and the Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners.
The suit, filed this month in U.S. District Court, says the incident began just after 7:30 p.m. Mistic was alleged to have run a stop sign before he pulled into the parking lot of a laundromat. Unaware that police had followed him into the parking lot, Mistic got out of his vehicle and began walking toward the laundromat, according to the lawsuit.
“As Mr. Mistic exited his car and walked past a dumpster in between his vehicle and the police vehicle, toward the laundry door, he was blinded by police vehicle lights and/or a spotlight shone by the officers,” the suit says. “He had no idea what was happening, what the police were doing, or if the officers’ presence had anything to do with him.”
Mistic stopped walking and used his hands in an attempt to communicate with the officers, the lawsuit says. Mistic uses American Sign Language to communicate, is unable to read lips and can vocalize only a few words, according to the suit. He usually writes messages on a piece of paper to communicate with people who do not know sign language, it says.
“Defendant Hanning pinned Mr. Mistic to the ground on his back while Mr. Mistic held his hands out with his palms facing defendant Hanning in an attempt to show that he meant no harm and was doing nothing to threaten the officer,” the lawsuit says. “On the ground, defendant Summers joined in, grabbing Mr. Mistic. … Defendant Summers pulled out her Taser and drive stunned Mr. Mistic.”
Mistic tried to communicate with the officers by saying “no ears” in an attempt to explain that he is deaf, but it did not make a difference, the suit says.
“Defendant Summers ignored Mr. Mistic’s plea and then tased Mr. Mistic a second time,” it says.
Hanning and Summers could not be reached at phone numbers listed for them. The Idaho Springs Police Department defended the officers’ actions, saying Mistic approached a “clearly marked patrol car” that had its emergency lights activated.
“The officers gave verbal commands for Mr. Mistic to get back in his vehicle. It was later determined Mr. Mistic was deaf, but this fact was not known to the officers during the initial encounter,” the police department said in an online statement.
“Officers then directed Mr. Mistic to sit down. At one point officers attempted to gain control of Mr. Mistic by placing him into handcuffs due to his unexplained actions,” the statement continued. “Mr. Mistic resisted the officers, and a physical altercation took place.”
Police said Mistic was taken to the hospital for an evaluation and then transferred to the Clear Creek County jail.
“The incident was reviewed by former Chief Christian Malanka and the officers’ actions were deemed to be appropriate,” according to the department.
Hanning was previously fired by the department following the alleged assault of another man, 75-year-old Michael Clark.
Idaho Springs police said in their statement that Hanning suffered a broken leg because of Mistic’s “resistive actions.” The lawsuit alleges that Hanning caused his own injury.
The suit also claims that at some point Summers realized that Mistic was deaf and relayed the information to responding officers and emergency medical services. Still, Mistic was jailed for four months on charges of second-degree assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, it says. During his time in jail, the suit alleges, Mistic was denied an interpreter and had trouble communicating with jail staff members.
The charges were eventually dismissed, and Mistic was released, the lawsuit says.
A spokesperson for the city of Idaho Springs referred to the police statement. The county Board of Commissioners did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Mistic is seeking compensation for physical and emotional harm, as well as pain and suffering.
A few months after Anthony Bourdain’s death in June 2018 at age 61, his longtime assistant Laurie Woolever started interviewing his friends and family. Woolever first met Bourdain in 2002 when he hired her to help him write a cookbook. After working with him for so long, she thought she knew pretty much all there was to know about him.
But she quickly learned she was wrong.
There were “stories I’d never heard and insights and observations that were new to me,” Woolever told The Post. “I learned something new from every single person that I spoke with.”
Those emotional, sometimes shocking anecdotes and remembrances form her new book, “Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography” (Ecco, Sept. 28). Some 91 people, from journalist Christiane Amanpour to restaurateur David Chang, shared their thoughts on the late writer, whose dark final days were recently recounted in the documentary “Roadrunner.” The revelations include never-before-shared memories and disturbing common themes.
A new book by Anthony Bourdain’s longtime assistant, Laurie Woolever, shares stories from 91 friends and family members about all stages of the late writer’s life. The oral history delves into his junkie days, “darkly vulnerable” relationships with women and strange obsession with tanning.Courtesy of Nancy Bourdain
One surprising thread that kept popping up over and over, Woolever said, was that many of Tony’s friends had the experience of wanting more — and not being able to get close enough to him.
“They always had the sense that he was on his way somewhere,” she said.
“There was this peak period where he seemed happy … and then f–king what’s-her-name enters his life [with] negative energy that fit this weird fantasy character he felt he was.”
“He was a shark, always on the move,” recalls “Parts Unknown” director and editor Nick Brigden. “He had to move to survive.”
Even those who had a fame equal to or greater than Bourdain expressed such sentiments.
“Every time I was with him, I wanted it to go longer,” says Anderson Cooper, who worked with Bourdain at CNN. “And I wanted to be friends with him. I wanted him to really like me.”
Woolever also learned about Bourdain’s strange obsession with suntanning, which started in his early days.
“I remember his joking that he would be competing in the George Hamilton Tanning Olympics,” brother Christopher Bourdain told her.
“He would tan, I think largely to hide the pallor of heroin,” recalls James Graham, who worked with Bourdain in various New York kitchens. “He would play hooky . . . and tan aggressively. He looked like a Versace bag.”
Laurie Woolever is the author of “Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography.” “[The idea] that he kind of sprang fully formed at the age of 44, as this brilliant writer just, you know, it’s a wonderful myth,” Woolever said.
While Woolever served as a producer on “Roadrunner” and her book features several of the same interview subjects, there are several who did not participate in the film, most notably his daughter Ariane and high school sweetheart and first wife, Nancy Bourdain.
Bourdain’s first wife, Nancy, has rarely spoken publicly about him, but she’s featured in Woolever’s book. “When Tony’s dad died, they got some money, and it just went into their veins,” childhood pal Jeff Formosa said.
“I didn’t like the way he looked in the last couple of years,” says Nancy. “He looked like he was being ridden hard and put away wet . . . he seemed to not care about being tan anymore.”
His second wife, Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, expresses similar thoughts. “He was much darker in the last year or so of his life. I stopped watching the shows toward the end, because I could not really recognize him.”
Others note that Bourdain’s romantic dealings with women had always been fraught.
“He had a very nervous relationship with women,” writer Bill Buford says. He alleges that Nancy was almost like his mother.
When he and Ottavia were first dating, Buford recalls Bourdain being overly eager for since-disgraced chef Mario Batali to “see” his new girlfriend. “It was almost adolescent . . . He was profoundly, darkly vulnerable.”
Early in the book, brother Christopher even recalls Bourdain seeing prostitutes after the dissolution of his first marriage.
“He was emotionally immature,” says longtime producer Lydia Tenaglia. “He became this great cultural anthropologist whom everyone so loved, but, fundamentally, he was like a teenage boy with his emotional development.”
Unlike the recent film, which starts at the point Bourdain publishes his memoir “Kitchen Confidential” and rockets to stardom, the book begins in his childhood.
Brother Christopher notes that they didn’t know their mother was Jewish until they were in high school. Details of her Jewish faith were “buried completely,” he says. Only after she died in 2020 did he realize his parents’ wedding photo was in front of a synagogue.
His mom, Gladys, recalls how Tony showed a talent with words very early on. “Tony always had a fabulous vocabulary, and he read early,” she says.
Anthony Bourdain, age 12, at Boy Scout camp in August 1968. “He had a very nervous relationship with women,” writer Bill Buford says. “It was almost adolescent . . . He was profoundly darkly vulnerable.”
In fact, a key myth about Bourdain that the book dispels is that he went from being a humble chef to a hugely successful writer and TV personality overnight, with the publication of “Kitchen Confidential” in 2000. While that book was certainly a smash, Bourdain had always wanted to be a writer. He had previously published two novels, taken a class with editor Gordon Lish, and he was meeting with Robert De Niro’s production company on scripts. “[The idea] that he kind of sprang fully formed at the age of 44, as this brilliant writer just, you know, it’s a wonderful myth,” Woolever said.
Gladys was a copy editor who worked at the New York Times and even went so far as to call her son’s publisher behind his back to make corrections to one of his cookbooks. “For a long time, Tony had his life run by women. I think that’s a big reason he’s done so well,” Nancy says of the incident.
Scott Bryan, an NYC chef who came up around the same time as Bourdain, says that “Tony saw himself as more of a writer than a chef.” He tended to take higher paying jobs at random restaurants rather than opting to earn his stripes at serious fine-dining establishments, something Bourdain himself admitted to in “Kitchen Confidential.” “He never went through the rigors that I did. I worked at f – – king Gotham. I worked at Bouley,” Bryan says.
Others tackle the mystique around Bourdain’s junkie days. “His addiction was always odd to me,” says onetime kitchen colleague Robert Vuolo. “It often felt part of the person that he wanted to portray of himself.”
But childhood friend Jeff Formosa remembers Tony and Nancy getting high and just sitting around their apartment, not answering the phone, spending whatever cash came their way on drugs. “When Tony’s dad died, they got some money, and it just went into their veins.”
Bourdain photographed as a teenager in Paris in 1973. “His addiction was always odd to me,” says former kitchen colleague Robert Vuolo. “It often felt part of the person that he wanted to portray of himself.”
No one disputes that he was an enormously talented writer who required little editing.
“The stories were so good, and they were so polished,” says editor Panio Gianopoulos of “Kitchen Confidential.” “The beats were there, and the moments were all there. The editing was fun.”
David Simon, the legendary creator of “The Wire” and co-creator of New Orleans-based drama “Treme,” talks of having Bourdain in the writers’ room on the post-Hurricane Katrina show.
“He was so good. Prose, dialogue; you know he overwrote scenes. ‘Tony, I can’t do four and a half pages in the kitchen scene. It’s got to be one and a half pages. We got to get there faster.’ But it was always there.”
Laurie Woolever’s “Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography” is out Tuesday, Sept. 28.
There were also lighter, random revelations about Woolever’s friend and former boss.
Director Alex Lowry recalls the making of an episode of “No Reservations” in Prague, Czech Republic. Bourdain hadn’t liked the food or his sidekick in the city and was in a terrible mood. They were shooting the final scene, a meal at some locals’ house. The travel legend was sitting there grumpy, when the hosts’ dog ran up and jumped on him. The pup wasn’t spayed, and she left a huge bloodstain on Bourdain’s pants. “He didn’t storm out; he didn’t get mad,” Lowry says. “He just bursts out laughing.”
Other recollections delight in Bourdain’s quick wit. Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson talks of shooting the cooking-competition show “The Taste” in Los Angeles with Bourdain. He would stay at the infamous Chateau Marmont and often order room service, despite the fact that the food was mediocre and the trays weren’t taken away quickly. When she complained, he told her: “Nigella, you’re getting the Chateau all wrong. Obviously they can’t do room service cleanup, but if you kill someone by accident, they will remove the body, no questions asked.”
Around that time at a speaking engagement, a fan asked why he was doing “The Taste,” which many thought was terrible.
“I have nothing to say except that my daughter is not going to community college,” Bourdain quipped to the crowd.
Some of the city’s most legendary chefs reflect on their close friendships with Bourdain.
Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert touchingly recalls their first lunch together and being glad that he hadn’t been made fun of in “Kitchen Confidential.” They had something of an odd-couple relationship — “he comes from a ship with pirates, and I come from the kitchen of [Joël] Robuchon, which is like the army,” Ripert says — but grew quite close.
Despite contrasting personalities and backgrounds, Bourdain and chef Eric Ripert were close friends.
They were “extremely comfortable” being in silence together, and Bourdain loved competing against him, whether it was in chopping garlic or playing pétanque. One thing he couldn’t compete with Ripert at was skiing, but for an episode of “Parts Unknown” shot in the Alps, Bourdain had footage on the slopes edited to make it look like he was a far better skier than he was.
Chang says some of the best times and best meals of his life were spent with Bourdain. “I think all I wanted was to take from Tony; I never gave to Tony,” he says, but also notes there was a darker side. “There were moments where I should have spoken up, and I didn’t, because he’d cut you right out of his life.”
In his later years, Bourdain contemplated quitting as he struggled with his fame and the rigors of his job. But he just couldn’t seem to stop doing TV, despite his longtime producers telling him it was OK to stop. His second marriage — to Ottavia, with whom he had his daughter, Ariane — couldn’t withstand his intense travel schedule. But things ended amicably, and Bourdain was getting healthy, thanks to a passion for jiu-jitsu.
Bourdain’s marriage to Ottavia Busia-Bourdain couldn’t survive his hectic TV travel schedule.
“There was this peak period where he seemed happy. That addictive personality was just all focused on jiu-jitsu,” says Michael Steed, a director on “Parts Unknown” and “No Reservations.” “And then f – – king what’s-her-name enters his life, and he starts smoking again, and it just sort of got back into that negative energy that fit this weird fantasy character that he felt he was.”
Friends say Bourdain seemed to be in an “peak” place, until actress-director Asia Argento entered his life.
His issues with women and emotional immaturity aside, Bourdain was a doting father to daughter Ariane, now 14. He would sneak out to Papaya King with her, or they’d watch “Ratatouille” and make the French vegetable dish, just as they do in the animated Pixar film. Her reflections close out the book.
“He would always try and show me the world around me, by [helping] me experience new foods and new things,” she says. “I want people to remember my dad as a person who would just open people up to a world outside their apartments.”
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was forced to resign under the cloud of his sexual harassment scandal. But now, his brother Chris Cuomo is facing sexual harassment allegations, too … and the situation is worse than originally thought. On September 24, Chris’ former boss Shelley Ross, penned an op-ed in The New York Times, calling him out for sexual harassment in 2005.
In her brutal Times piece, Ross accused the CNN anchor of grabbing her buttocks at a work gathering in front of her husband and co-workers. Ross said Chris “greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock” when she saw him at an event for one of their former ABC News co-workers.
According to Ross, Chris greeted her, saying, “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss.” Ross responded, “No you can’t,” while “pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left.” Ross wrote that the CNN anchor emailed her an hour later to apologize.
According to People, Ross described the incident as a “hostile act meant to diminish and belittle his female former boss in front of the staff.” Chris denied the interaction 16 years ago was “sexual in nature.” However, according to the latest headlines, the controversy surrounding the CNN anchor seems to be getting worse. Keep reading to find out more.
Chris Cuomo’s former producer Melanie Buck ‘begged’ to leave his show
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
The scandal surrounding CNN anchor Chris Cuomo seems to be going from bad to worse. Page Six reported that Melanie Buck, a former “Cuomo Prime Time” executive producer, “begged” to leave Cuomo’s show and Buck “felt threatened” by Cuomo. According to the outlet, Buck was the show’s executive producer for two years but left the show just before Cuomo returned to the studio after his much-publicized COVID-19 quarantine in 2020.
Buck told Page Six in a statement via CNN, “I spent two years as EP on Chris’ show and I’m proud to have led it to #1 at CNN. We ultimately had significant differences, and I asked to leave the show. I have moved on and am looking forward to my latest role with CNN+.” Buck moved from Cuomo’s show to covering the 2020 presidential campaign and is now working for the news network’s streaming service, which launches in 2022.
A CNN source confirmed to Page Six that Buck asked CNN chief Jeff Zucker to take her off Cuomo’s show and moved to another job. Page Six revealed that multiple sources confirmed Buck “felt threatened” by Cuomo. Fox News reported that a former CNN insider said rumors flew about Buck and Cuomo’s tense relationship. The source told Fox News that Buck perceived a “ruin your career type of threat” from Cuomo.
CNN is standing by Chris Cuomo for now
lev radin/Shutterstock
CNN appears to be standing by Chris Cuomo through this controversy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cuomo did not address the allegations made by former boss Shelley Ross on-air. But the CNN anchor did respond to The New York Times op-ed in a statement: “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
CNN has stood by Cuomo frequently in the last few months. The cable news network supported the “Cuomo Prime Time” star after news broke that Cuomo had been advising his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on how to handle the allegations of sexual harassment against him.
Some called for the CNN anchor to be fired or resign after helping his brother. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chris apologized for advising Andrew, saying, “It was a mistake, because I put my colleagues here, who I believe are the best in the business, in a bad spot. I never intended for that, I would never intend for that, and I’m sorry for that.”
A teenage father in Texas has been charged with the murder of his newborn son after becoming concerned about paying child support, police said.
Caleb Blake Brown, 17, of Carrollton, was arrested and charged over the death of his infant son on Tuesday, September 28.
Emerson Ziesmer was three weeks old when he died in August after suffering injuries to his body.
A statement shared by the Carrollton Police Department on its Facebook page Tuesday said Ziesmer was pronounced dead at a hospital.
It continued: “Brown and the baby’s mother, also 17 years old, brought their three-week-old son to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano on August 9, 2021, when the mother noticed the baby had become pale and had significant bruising around his abdomen.
“The newborn was transferred to Children’s Medical Center of Dallas where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy later revealed that at 24 days old, Emerson Ziesmer suffered multiple displaced ribs and a lacerated liver.”
Detectives also found during their investigation evidence that indicated Brown was “angry at the child’s mother for keeping the baby.”
They found he was also “concerned about having to pay child support.”
The statement continued: “According to the probable cause affidavit for his arrest warrant, Brown stated that while he was alone with the infant on the afternoon of August 9, he squeezed and repeatedly threw him in the air, eventually hitting the ceiling fan.”
Brown is being held at the Denton County Jail where his bond has not yet been set.
Andee Wright, 30, of Tonawanda, New York, was charged following the alleged killing on October 5, 2020, after a nearly year-long investigation.
She was charged earlier this month with two counts of murder in the second degree.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement: “She is accused of hitting the baby at least twice, which fractured the infant’s skull and resulted in his death,” the district attorney’s office said in the press release.”
During a press conference, District Attorney John J, Flynn said “there was a claim that a baby was found dead in a home in the town of Tonawanda and that it was a miscarriage.”
“The circumstances were troubling to me,” Flynn continued. “I quite frankly didn’t believe that it was a miscarriage..it raised my eyebrows and it was a situation where I wanted a full-blown investigation on the matter.”
Former President Donald Trump has suggested he could be inexplicably reinstated as president due to “tremendous voter fraud.”
In remarks to conservative media network Real America’s Voice, Trump seemingly indicated that baseless conspiracy theories that claim he will quickly regain the presidency if it were a possibility. Host Gina Loudon, who has also served as co-chair of the group Women for Trump, asked the former president when the country would “get President Trump back” at his rally in Perry, Georgia on Saturday.
“Well we’re going to see,” Trump replied. “There’s been tremendous voter fraud. And it’s being revealed on a daily basis and we’ll see what happens.”
No credible evidence of substantial voter fraud has been uncovered in the more than 10 months since Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden, while the election results have long since been certified and finalized. Trump has continued to fight the outcome despite there being no legal pathway for him to be declared the winner or return to office without winning another election.
Trump said he was “looking back” to “find out what happened” during his Saturday interview, while also stressing that some states were “making their rules and regulations” for upcoming elections. The former president said that Republican-backed efforts to change voting laws on issues like ballot signature verification and voter identification would have an impact on future elections.
“I think you’re going to be incredibly impressed by what’s happening and I think maybe by the next election,” said Trump, who has repeatedly hinted that he will be a 2024 candidate without making a firm commitment to run.
Despite Trump’s claims that he “won” in 2020, his lawyers failed to convince multiple judges he appointed amid dozens of failed legal challenges in the aftermath of the election. The ex-president has continued to claim that evidence shows massive fraud was a factor in his loss, although no such evidence has been presented and further investigation have only confirmed Biden’s victory.
The results of a controversial audit in Arizona’s Maricopa County, conducted at the behest of the Republican-controlled state Senate, on Friday found that Trump lost the county to Biden by a slightly larger margin than in the official results. Regardless, fact-free assertions that the exercise provided evidence of fraud and calls for the election to be “decertified” persisted. Trump himself presented a wildly inaccurate summary of the results during his Georgia rally.
“We won at the Arizona forensic audit yesterday at a level that you wouldn’t believe,” Trump told the crowd on Saturday. “They had headlines that Biden wins in Arizona, when they know it’s not true. He didn’t win in Arizona. He lost in Arizona based on the forensic audit.”
There has been a fourth arrest after police found a man brutally murdered several months ago. A 17-year-old boy, who authorities did not publicly name, was taken into custody down in McDonough, Georgia on Friday for allegedly helping kill Juan Jose Gotay, 38, all the way up in Chemung County, New York, New York State Police reportedly said.
According to WETM, the teen was arraigned on charges including murder with intent, kidnapping, assault with intent to cause serious physical injury, assault with intent causing disfigurement, and assault with intent to injure with a weapon. Thomas Bovaird, 21, Eddie Marte, 25, and Malik Weems, 18, were previously indicted for Gotay’s horrific death.
UPDATE: WENY News has obtained the mugshots of Malik Weems and Eddie Marte, the two men indicted in the connection of the torture and murder of Juan Jose Gotay. FULL STORY: https://t.co/QopDEJo7RHpic.twitter.com/VRZrKF6hvX
What Gotay allegedly went through was clear torture. He was shot in the shoulder and leg, stuck in his eyes by a pointed instrument, sustained burns to his ears and buttocks, sustained mutilation to his tongue, was kicked and beaten, and sustained broken ribs and fingers, authorities reportedly said. The kidnappers brought him still alive to Potter County, Pennsylvania, where he was found dead along Route 6 in April 2021, authorities said.
Marte and Weems were indicted in New York for charges including first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and first-degree assault. They are also charged separately for allegedly kidnapping a man named Joseph Waters in April 2021, holding him for 12 hours to bilk ransom money.
Bovaird, who is only charged in Gotay’s death, faces counts of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, and second-degree assault.
