Alex Hardaway, who wrote a song about all of his neighbors in his 15- unit apartment building during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, is seen outside his Andersonville home on April 5, 2023. - Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS
CHICAGO -- When the world was isolating in pandemic bubbles, Alex Hardaway was channeling his inner Bob McGrath — the late “Sesame Street” character who sang the “People in Your Neighborhood” song. Hardaway began a marathon music project — his first solo album, called “Be My Neighborhood,” where he wrote a song for each of his neighbors in his 15-unit Andersonville apartment building. The album debuted Thursday. During the height of the pandemic, Hardaway, a longtime employee at Oiistar Japanese restaurant, had started doing maintenance work around the building to chip some money off his rent....
Reacting to a report that Donald Trump was sharing highly sensitive government documents with visitors at his Bedminster resort, a former national security adviser to ex-vice president Mike Pence said she was very concerned but not overly surprised.
Appearing on MSNBNC with host Alex Witt, Olivia Troye pointed out that in her dealings with the former president who is now facing possible Espionage Act charges, he was very cavalier with sensitive information.
Reflecting on the new revelations that could bolster special counsel Jack Smith's federal investigation of Trump, Troye stated there were always concerns about the former president.
"I think Trump is seriously a very unstable and unfit leader," she told the MSNBC host. "He was very trivial when it came to matters of national security, and he did not have the grasp to understand the gravity of certain situations; the strategic understanding of what it meant internationally and regionally when some of these decisions were being discussed, and potentially being made."
"I'll say this, my own direct boss, Pence's national security advisor, General [Keith] Kellogg, played a significant role at times when talking Trump out of things when it comes to Iran," she added. "So when this reporting surfaced, I just said to myself, you know, colleagues of mine and I have been talking to each other about this when this classified doc situation surfaced. We said, 'What do you think it is?' And this was actually one of our bets, was it was related to possibly Iran because of his fixation with this whole scenario."
Reacting to a report from NBC that a grand jury convened by special counsel Jack Smith looking into possible criminal actions committed by Donald Trumpwill meet this week, former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner issued a warning that the former president could possibly be put on trial after winning re-election which could be very problematic.
Stating that would be uncharted territory, Kirschner raised the specter of a re-elected Trump attempting to get his prosecution shut down.
Speaking with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, Kirschner said the time between a grand jury indictment and a trial can take a year, thus putting a Trump trial uncomfortably close to election day 2024 and beyond.
"I want to ask you something on the timeline as former FBI Director James Comey said, because he indicated that there could be a rush to try to get these indictments out, if indictments are going to be made, in order to finish the trials before the election. Do you think that timeline is possible?" host Psaki asked.
"Yeah, the timing scares me a little bit, Jen," Kirschner admitted. "Because the Speedy Trial Act in federal court says that from the day you are indicted until the day you are supposed to go to trial, 70 days. Do we ever take a federal case to trial in 70 days? The answer is no, never, because the defense asks for continuances and there are motion schedules set."
"The rule of thumb is about a year from the time of indictment to the time of trial, so where does that put us?' he continued. "Summer of 2024, kind of on the cusp of the 2024 election."
"What keeps me up at night is the case is still pending against Donald Trump and hasn't gone to trial; Donald wins the White House and now, what? He orders his own prosecution dismissed. Now courtesy of the Office of Legal Counsel memo we now cannot prosecute a sitting criminal president. That is the stuff of nightmares and fiction novels," he warned.
Fox News host Arthel Neville accused Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) of "squirming" after he was asked if FBI documents requested by Republicans could exonerate President Joe Biden.
In an interview on Sunday, Neville reported the FBI would
present a document on Monday that Republicans suspect will show criminal dealings between Biden and foreign countries.
"You're going to finally get to see this," Neville said. "You've done a lot of work to make sure this happens."
"Conversely, if it disapproves, disproves, or dispels suspicions and allegations, will that exonerate then Vice President Biden?" she wondered.
"Oh, no, not at all, because it's just once," Fallon replied. "It's just one document."
"And Joe Biden could have ensured that this investigation ended years ago if he's done nothing wrong by simply opening up his records and sharing them," the lawmaker remarked. "His bank records, Hunter Biden's bank records."
Neville asked Fallon if the FBI could be trusted to investigate former President Donald Trump as fairly as Biden.
"Of course, you hope so," Fallon answered. "But you also don't want to see a two-tiered justice system where one party is protected, and the other one is exposed and thrown under the bus, if you will."
Neville accused Fallon of "squirming" instead of answering her questions.
"So Congressman, I mean, you're doing a really good job of sort of squirming around my questions," she said. "What I see you setting up, quite frankly, is that if this document doesn't give you the evidence that you're looking for, then you're going to keep digging. Even if it does, you're going to keep digging.
"So it seems like no matter what is in this document, no matter what the FBI does or doesn't do, they're political," the host added. "So it just is going to have this malaise of just confusion that will keep going and going and going. And I think that the American public would like to get some firm answers and not to have this process."
