U.S. News

One of President Donald Trump's friends and legal allies is spending Christmas evening spreading conspiracy theories about Chief Justice John Roberts.

Taking to Twitter Friday evening, Lin Wood demanded to know why Roberts had a black eye in a photo from June when Roberts revealed he fell at his country club, which resulted in the cut above his eye, which caused bruising.

An eye-witness to the Nashville bombing said that the recording on the RV wasn't what woke her up before the bomb went off, it was gunshots.

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Betsy Williams said that she and her husband, who live about a block from the blast site, heard what she said sounded like automatic weapon fire. Cooper said that there were reports that the gunfire could have been part of the recording warning people to leave the area, but Williams said that she couldn't hear the recording and it was the gunshots that woke her family up.

The blast in Nashville, Tennessee was said not to have caused any fatalities and minor injuries, but police have found what could be human remains at the exposition sight, Anderson Cooper announced on CNN.

The explosion was not large enough to take down any buildings but it damaged the building it was nearest to and blew out windows for blocks.

The Associated Press reported that the Nashville, Tennessee bomb severely impacted telecommunications networks in downtown because the RV exploded outside of an AT&T network that housed 911 equipment. The 911 services have been knocked out for 180 miles away.

Services are expected to resume by 3 p.m. local time, said the report.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) celebrates the 65th year of the Santa Tracker, which allows children to call into the service to check on the status of Santa's arrival in the U.S. and Canada.

An Air Force general spoke to CNN.com about the gift-giving Christmas hero's status, revealing that he was over Europe during the interview on Thursday afternoon in the U.S.

The White House released the president's schedule for Christmas Eve saying that he would be working "tirelessly for the American people." But what that has actually turned into is something else.

After vetoing the defense spending bill, which included a raise for military service members, and threatening to veto the COVID-19 stimulus and 2021 budget, Trump fled to Florida to golf. For months, the White House has negotiated the stimulus bill and Trump's budget, but at the last minute, the president decided he wanted to throw it all out the window.

In the wake of President Trump's rejection of Congress' bipartisan $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, lawmakers are scrambling to avoid a disastrous government shutdown one day before Christmas, POLITICO reports. But aides secretly wonder if Trump is actually serious about vetoing the stimulus bill at all.

"The scramble on Capitol Hill — which has largely emptied out for the holidays — includes a last-minute bid by House Democrats to roughly triple the size of Americans' stimulus checks to meet Trump's demands. House Republicans on Thursday morning blocked the effort, setting up a dramatic showdown in Congress next week that could put the president at odds with members of his own party," writes POLITICO's Sarah Ferris, Marianne Levine, and Anita Kumar.

On Wednesday, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) issued a statement slamming outgoing President Donald Trump's latest batch of pardons for former associates, calling it "rotten to the core."

Many commenters on social media, however, were unimpressed with Sasse's lack of concrete action — with many pointing out that Sasse did nothing when he had a chance to convict the president in the Senate for his corrupt behavior.

A furious Chris Cuomo opened his Wednesday show by unleashing on President Donald Trump for the latest round of pardons that the president ushered in for friends and allies.

"Just the past 24 hours, this president has vetoed pay for the military, stalled relief for millions of you, and issued the most toxic tally of pardons we have ever seen," said Cuomo. The "26 new Trump pardons tonight, gifts to many convicted criminals that you know well who did horrible things. Many admitted it. And then [Trump]left to go golf in Florida. After vetoing pay for the military, after leaving relief in limbo, millions of Americans don't have food for Christmas, let alone money for heat or gifts. And he knows it. And he doesn't sign the relief bill. And he doesn't veto it. So, he knows nothing will happen."

New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi spoke with MSNBC host Chris Hayes Wednesday about her recent piece that follows the wild ride to the Four Seasons Total Landscaping company and how it became a press conference location for President Donald Trump's legal team. She never fully gets to the bottom of it but, Hayes noted it was quite the story.

But when asked about the Trump team and their future plans and plots, Nuzzi explained that it isn't a genius, Lex Luther-style, criminal enterprise.

On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," senior justice correspondent Evan Perez tore into outgoing President Donald Trump's new batch of pardons.

"One of the things, when you step back and look, especially at the two Russia investigation figures here, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, the president is essentially rewarding these two men for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors," said Perez. "In the case of Paul Manafort, according to the Mueller report, he spoke to another witness, Rick Gates, and said he had conversations with the president's lawyers and had been told that they were going to be taken care of. In the end, that's one of the reasons why prosecutors said that, even though he signed a plea agreement, he ended up not providing full cooperation during that."

President Donald Trump announced another slate of pardons on Wednesday night, this time including what some consider to be Russia scandal conspirators, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. Both men already got the VIP treatment from the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr.

Manafort, in particular, was slated to be sent to Rikers Island Prison, when the Justice Department stepped in to ensure he could be imprisoned at home with his expensive and fancy carpets.