Black Friday men This Black Friday, four adult men found themselves plastered all over the internet after they kicked off Black Friday this year by shamelessly fighting each other over a toy car at Walmart — and it was all caught on camera.
Police in St. Louis shut down a large shopping mall on "Black Friday" to arrest activists protesting police violence. The arrests included a state Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. (D), a black lawmaker who could be heard screaming in pain in video that shows multiple officers on top of the handcuffed lawmaker, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Dozens of people waited outside the St. Louis County Jail for the release of the one woman and six men arrested during the peaceful protest.
“When they come out the door, we want them to know we’re here for them,” said the Rev. Darryl Gray outside the jail.
Early in November, black clergy announced targeted economic boycotts that included the St. Louis Galleria in Richmond Heights, the scene of today's police altercation.
The boycott followed the September 15 acquittal of white former police officer Jason Stockley, who had been charged for a 2011 shooting death of black suspect Anthony Lamar Smith.
Early in the day, Representative Franks had posted about the protest on Twitter.
Watch St. Louis Post-Dispatch disturbing video of the controversial arrests:
During a panel discussion on the sexual harassment allegations popping up on both sides of the political aisle, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle couldn't help but call out Geraldo Rivera on his own excusal of sexual misconduct.
Rivera mentioned the allegations facing Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), that he grabbed the buttocks of a woman while taking a photo of her.
"What about the allegation that's gaining quite a bit of legitimacy and currency that George H.W. Bush -- Bush 41 -- from his wheelchair, tells a joke when women stand along side him, 'Who's your favorite comedian? Mine is David Cop-a-feel,'" Rivera recalled. "You know, and he pats the ladies on the butt. I mean, if it's outrageous for Franken it's outrageous for George H.W. Bush and you talk about senior citizens, he's, uh, what, 93-years-old."
Guilfoyle quickly cut in wondering then why Rivera was making excuses for the elder Bush.
"You were the one who was making some kind of exception for those that are elderly or infirm, that after a certain age they get some kind of 'get out of sexual harassment jail free' card," she said.
Rivera laughed uncomfortably.
"Well, maybe I was speaking, you know, as a senior citizen myself," he replied.
A stunned Guilfoyle gasped audibly at the comment, presumably understanding that Rivera seemed to be giving himself a pass as a senior citizen.
Rivera stepped into it once again at the close of the interview where he brought up Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) caught sending photos of his genitalia to women he was dating. The women then attempted to blackmail him with the photos in a kind of "revenge porn" scam. Barton was dating a "mature adult woman," and the photos were exchanged as part of their relationship, CNN reported. Rivera seemed to think there was was some sort of impropriety and compared Barton to former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who is now serving time for sending sexually explicit photos to a minor.
Rivera then demanded a standardization of repercussions for bad behavior. Rivera himself came under scrutiny and mockery when with his genitals barely covered with a towel outside of a shower. His tweet claimed "70 is the new 50."
Watch the full exchange below:
Former career U.S. intelligence officer Malcolm Nance explained to MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes on Friday his prediction that Donald Trump, Jr. would eventually be revealed to be involved in all 2016 campaign dirty tricks.
"The stolen documents of the DNC, I think a lot of people forget, was an intelligence operation that began one year before Donald Trump's nomination," Nance reminded. "Which means that the Russians had this operation in play for a very long time."
"That's a good point," Hayes replied.
"I think Donald Trump, Jr.'s going to turn out to be the nexus of all dirty tricks," Nance predicted.
"He has now shown up in three separate data points that show he was his father's executive officer and Flynn was most likely the intelligence and operations officer to get the multiple dirty-trick contacts done," Nance explained.
Watch:
During a panel discussion about Colin Kaepernick's participation in a protest on Alcatraz Island commemorating the 19-month occupation of the prison by Native American activists from 1969-1971, a Fox News host seemed a bit confused.
Host Trish Regan seemed to think that the event was a new protest of Thanksgiving rather than an event that has gone on each year for 42 years.
"For goodness sake! We're not supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving anymore?" she exclaimed. "First it starts with kneeling during the Anthem, now you can't have Thanksgiving. You've got to celebrate an 'Unthanksgiving' instead?"
While the event was called "Unthanksgiving Day," it is reminiscent of a protest 45 years ago, in which 89 Native American activists and leaders occupied the island demanding that it be turned into a cultural center and school. In 1968 The United Council of the Bay Area Indian community began efforts through channels to have the island redesigned. Instead, activists went another route. "Five Sioux even landed on Alcatraz in March 1964 and tried to seize it under an 1868 treaty that allowed Indians to appropriate surplus federal land," The History Channel wrote.
Long before the first Thanksgiving in 1621, Europeans landed in what became the San Francisco Bay Area in 1542. However, 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier, Indigenous people made their way to the area. According to the National Park's Service, "over 10,000 indigenous people, later to be called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people"), lived in the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay."
The settlers and eventually the American government took over the island and built the prison. They ultimately began sending members of the Moqui Hopi to the prison in 1895.
Kaepernick's message was a unifying one, telling protesters that he stands with them as he fights for equality for all people.
Watch the confused Fox News host below:
Former Watergate prosecutors Jill Wine-Banks and Nick Akerman joined MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Friday night to discuss the latest revelations about Michael Flynn potentially flipping and testifying against President Donald Trump.
Acknowledging her history, Hayes asked Wine-Banks whether there was enough evidence for an obstruction of justice charge against President Trump.
"There is absolutely enough for an obstruction case, I'd be happy to prosecute that one," Wine-Banks concluded. "I think what people need to know is that putting a case together is like putting a puzzle together and you don't have all of the pieces at once. You build them one at a time and circumstantial evidence is often more persuasive than direct testimony -- if I see someone come into the room dripping wet with an open wet umbrella, I can circumstantially conclude that it is raining outside and I will be convinced that it's raining."
"We returned the indictments that led to the convictions before we had the smoking gun tape," Wine-Banks reminded. "That was a very dramatic piece of evidence, but it's not necessary."
"I agree with Jill totally. There is enough evidence right now to indict Donald Trump," Akerman agreed.
Watch:
Former CIA agent Phil Mudd explained to CNN's Jim Acosta that the timing of revelations from special counsel Robert Mueller has been sequenced to increase pressure during each subsequent phase of the investigation.
'Let's focus on not only what he can offer but the timing," Mudd suggested. "The timing to me, this is better than the 'Game of Thrones,' if you're from Washington, D.C.," Mudd suggested.
"We're going into key interviews in the White House, those interviewees, people like Jared Kushner, now know a couple things. Number one, it's not just about Russia, if you lie, Robert Mueller has already shown he'll indict you. Number two, if you've got financial irregularities, it's not just about Russia, he'll indict you," Mudd explained. "Now we have a number three...if you sort of shuck and jive about what happened during the campaign, there's somebody who was there, was sitting beside you, who's going to say Director Mueller that guy is not telling the truth."
"This is interesting, the timing, because now these people know they're in trouble," Mudd concluded.
Watch:
Speaking with CNN's Jim Acosta Friday evening, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that from what he's seen, President Trump's disgraced adviser Michael Flynn may incur multiple charges.
News that Flynn has cut off contact with the White House has "all the makings of a major development," Blumenthal, who sits on the Senate's Judiciary Committee, said.
"Is there enough evidence, at this point, to indict Michael Flynn?" Acosta asked the senator.
"Based on what I've seen," Blumenthal responded, "Michael Flynn is in deep trouble."
He then listed off the potential charges the former general may soon be slapped with: perjury for lying to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence about contacts with Russians, failing to register as a foreign agent for his work with Turkey and "possible tax criminal violations" for taking payments from Russia and Turkey.
"There are a series of potential charges here," the Connecticut senator concluded. "And I think that he faces some serious exposure."
Watch Blumenthal outline how deep Flynn is in below, via CNN.
Sen. Blumenthal: "Based on what I've seen Michael Flynn is in deep trouble" https://t.co/rBbccnUCt4 https://t.co/l9QiMTPYht
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) November 24, 2017
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is declining to send high-level State Department staffers with Ivanka Trump to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India next week, CNN reports.
According to a senior State Department official, staffers are being directed not to attend the annual event, which willf focus on supporting women entrepreneurs. As CNN notes, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Ivanka personally.
"No one higher than the deputy assistant secretary is allowed to participate,” the official said. “The secretary and his top staff have insisted on approving all travel-- even the most minute details.”
The official added Tillerson’s staff “won't send someone senior because they don't want to bolster Ivanka.”
“It's now another rift between the White House and State at a time when Rex Tillerson doesn't need any more problems with the President," the official told CNN.
The move is seen as a snub by many in the White House, according to a source close to the White House.
"Rex doesn't like the fact that he's supposed to be our nation's top diplomat, and Jared and now Ivanka have stepped all over Rex Tillerson for a long time," the White House confidant told CNN. "So now, he's not sending senior people from the State Department to support this issue. He's not supporting Ivanka Trump."
On Friday evening, CNN's Jim Sciutto found common ground with a Republican congressman when he asserted that President Donald Trump has a propensity for capitalizing on terrorist attacks to further his agenda. Today, Trump did exactly that after he used the attack on a Sufi mosque in Sinai, Egypt to further his call for building a border wall.
"You're well aware than every time there's a terror attack anywhere, even in the UK, a country that's certainly not on the list and that a travel ban wouldn't protect the US from, the president will glom onto whatever the attack is and say 'here you go, this is why we need to ban from these seven or eight countries,'" Sciutto told Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) of the House's Foreign Affairs Committee. "Why is that a relevant argument to that other debate?"
"I don't necessarily think it is," Kinzinger responded. "There is not a lot of defending of the president's Twitter, which I think is a good tool but I think a lot of the times he doesn't use it in the way that I would use Twitter."
"I think it's important in a time when you have a terrorist attack in Egypt or a terrorist attack in England or anywhere to actually be bigger and say we will stand with our ally and we will defeat this cancer where it exists," the congressman continued.
Kinzinger went on to say that he would push the travel ban or border wall argument "at a different time," and that Trump is "injecting domestic politics into an issue where, frankly, Americans should be unified, which is defeating terror."
Watch the Republican criticize the president's Twitter usage below, via CNN.
President Donald Trump famously told supporters that he might never see his precious properties and golf courses ever again, because he'd be too busy working for Americans. He even pitched to Americans that he would use his golfing to get to know world leaders.
Friday afternoon, CNN couldn't help but collect a montage of all of the times Trump has spent doing exactly the opposite. This morning, Trump tweeted that he would be heading over "to play golf (quickly) with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson." That "quickly" turned into four hours.
The backlash on Twitter was swift. Perhaps because Trump previously has been caught claiming he was working on one thing via Twitter, only to be found on the golf course doing anything but. The golfing problems have been so acute, a computer science student created the Golf With Donald tracker website, which calculates the number of times Trump has gone golfing and the overall cost incurred.
Throughout the course of President Barack Obama's first year in office, he 24 rounds of golf from January 20 until November 13. In that same time, Trump has played 80 times over the course of 100 days at his own properties. That doesn't count this week. The cost of Trump's golfing has ended up costing significantly more than Obama's because Mar-a-Lago requires both land and sea security from the Secret Service. Obama played primarily at military bases, where security was already in place.
"Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter," Trump tweeted in 2014.
In a later panel discussion on the same issue, political corespondent Chris Cillizza noted that it isn't a problem that a president plays golf, it's that he mocked Obama for doing it. Symone Sanders agreed, saying that it's difficult to be this hypocritical when there are so many pressing issues facing the nation.
Watch CNN's reports on the president's half-day work and an interview with George Bennett from the Palm Beach Post.
Part 2:
Retired U.S. Navy admiral and NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis on Friday slammed Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving speech to U.S. troops, during which the president thanked himself for “letting” the military win—unlike his predecessors.
“Everybody's talking about the progress you've made in the last few months since I opened it up,” Trump said Thursday. “We opened it up. We said, ‘Go ahead. We're going to fight to win. We're not fighting anymore to just walk around. We're fighting to win.’”
“We have to let you win,” Trump continued. “They weren't letting you win before. They were letting you play even. We're letting you win.”
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi seemed dumbfounded by Trump’s remarks, telling Stavridis, “I don't know how to say it. That's just weird. It's insulting to the men and women who have been in Afghanistan for close on 17 years in different rotations. I don't know how that goes over with military people.”
“It doesn't go over well at all, Ali,” Stavridis replied. “Frankly, I commanded that mission, as the NATO commander, that's a NATO mission. i had 150,000 nato troops, about 100,000 americans. I assure you, they were fighting to win every minute of every moment under previous presidents.”
“I think this is just an example of our current president trying to score cheap political points by mis-messaging what is happening,” Stavridis continued. “In fairness, there is an uptick—small uptick—in tactical activity, but to impugn the desire of our troops to win throughout this 17-year journey we've had in Afghanistan is unsettling to any active duty military or those like me who served previously.”
Watch below, via MSNBC:
Former Watergate prosecutor and General Counsel of the Army Jill Wine-Banks explained why Michael Flynn is reported to be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of President Donald Trump.
"I think that we can look at, 'why is Flynn now possibly cooperating?' One would be to protect himself and his son, and the other is that he doesn't trust the president to be able to pardon him, because otherwise, he could rely on that, instead of cooperation," Wine-Banks explained to MSNBC anchor Katy Tur on Friday.
"I think the reason for that may be the state charges are possible on the talking about kidnapping Gulen, the Muslim cleric," Wine-Banks suggested. "That could explain why he's cooperating instead of waiting for a pardon, is the need for protection you can't get pardoned from a state crime."
Wine-Banks explained a "proffer of evidence" and what that would have needed to document for Flynn to get a deal.
"I think he's taking the right steps and I'm sure that he will have had a proffer of evidence from Flynn before he would engage in conversations [about a deal]," Wine-Banks noted. "Unless Flynn can give him Jared Kushner, Don Jr, or the president, he's not of value to him and he would prosecute him for the numerous crimes that he's being investigated for."
"I'm suspecting that because Donald Trump protected him so much, he knows something really significant about the president or his son or his son-in-law, and that's the only reason that the president would have been so concerned about him in particular," Wine-Banks concluded.
Watch:
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