TV News LIES

The Kennedy Center was ordered this week to pay thousands of dollars to an artist who pulled out of his annual performance when the center was renamed after President Donald Trump.

A judge ruled Monday that musician Chuck Redd was owed more than $250,000 by the center to cover attorney fees and other costs. Redd, who has performed at the center’s annual Christmas Eve jazz show for nearly two decades, canceled his scheduled appearance last December in protest of the center’s name change.

Lawyers for Redd wrote in a statement Tuesday that they found the judgment “appropriate as no citizen should have to spend time and money fending off baseless and politically motivated lawsuits filed by the Trump Administration.”

The Kennedy Center plans to appeal the ruling.

The center previously attempted to sue Redd earlier this year for violating his contract, but the suit was dismissed in June.

Richard Grenell, the center’s former president, wrote in a letter to Redd “that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” despite the artist not having a signed contract

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Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday took a swipe at President Trump over a post the president made targeting El-Sayed and his wife.

On Saturday, Trump posted to Truth Social a photo of himself and first lady Melania Trump with the caption “Donald J. Trump,” alongside a photo of El-Sayed and his wife with the caption “Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed,” which is El-Sayed’s full name.

The text above the two photos reads “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s.”

During the Michigan Democrat’s appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked El-Sayed about the social media post.

“Yeah, he’s right,” El-Sayed said. “One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family, and know that that family is going to have the good things.”

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Hawaiian voters go to the polls today to select the Democratic and Republican candidates in the Aloha State’s congressional races this November.

Both Democratic incumbents are seeking reelection, but one faces a progressive challenger who’s hoping left-wing candidates’ success across the country this year comes to the Aloha State. Meanwhile, Republicans already have presumptive nominees in both races, with only one candidate running in each race.

In the First Congressional District, four-term Rep. Ed Case, a Blue Dog Democrat backed by AIPAC, is hoping to fend off a primary challenge from state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who has the backing of progressive groups such as Our Revolution and internet personality Ms. Rachel.

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The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general in a vote early Saturday morning, cementing President Donald Trump's former personal attorney's command of a Justice Department the Republican president has sought to bend to his will.

The Republican-led Senate voted 50-49 to make Blanche the second confirmed attorney general since Trump returned to the White House last year with a stated desire to use the law enforcement agency to investigate his political enemies. While Blanche has already been leading the department in an acting capacity, his confirmation could free him to pursue the Trump administration's agenda even more aggressively.

Blanche said on social media that he was "deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me," adding that he was "grateful" to senators for working late to confirm him.

The vote followed a tumultuous confirmation fight that exposed deep concerns — from some Republicans as well as Democrats — about installing Trump's close ally atop a Justice Department that historically prided itself on its independence from the White House.

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A federal prosecutor fired last year over critical comments he had written as a private citizen about Donald Trump sued the justice department on Friday, saying his termination violated his first amendment rights.

Will Rosenzweig was two weeks away from trying a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud case when a blog he had written years earlier covering a broad range of topics was publicized online by a conservative political commentator who also included a screenshot of Rosenzweig’s LinkedIn account and tagged senior justice department officials for their awareness.

Less than three hours after the post, the lawsuit says, Rosenzweig received an email signed by then attorney general Pam Bondi informing him that he had been fired. The news came as Rosenzweig was out of town with his family observing the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana.

The September 2025 termination was part of a sweeping personnel purge over the last year and a half inside the justice department, which has fired prosecutors who worked on investigations into Trump and others seen as being against the administration’s efforts.

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A US federal appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to halt construction of the US president’s $400m White House ballroom, in a fresh blow to the controversial project.

Donald Trump, who demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last year to make way for planned ballroom, has repeatedly touted it as “a gift” to the US people.

But in a major setback in a case testing ⁠his presidential authority, the Washington-based US ⁠court of ​appeals for the District of Columbia circuit upheld a preliminary injunction in a divided 2-1 order on Friday.

The appeals court put ⁠its ruling on hold for two weeks, allowing the administration to appeal to the ​US supreme court. Writing on social media, Trump described the ruling as “totally wrong” and said an appeal would be filed.

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