Bloodsport on the White House lawn

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is quite green this morning. For @Bloomberg photos. gettyimages.com/search/2/ima…

"USA! USA! USA!" Chants erupted throughout Madison Square Garden during Game 3 of the NBA Finals with President Trump in attendance.

"Do you have evidence?" "That's not evidence." "There is no evidence." @kwelkernbc kept rebutting Trump's lies about January 6 and about election fraud, and he eventually wrapped up the interview, calling her "crooked." Here's the transcript of the astonishing final few minutes: WELKER: Do you think anyone who attacked police officers on January 6th should get taxpayer money? TRUMP: I wouldn't be inclined to say so, but I have to see it. I can tell you this: 97% of those people, you look at them, the FBI or whoever it was, cause you had a lot of crooked cops, you had dirty cops. Comey was a dirty cop. WELKER: Well, there is no evidence to – TRUMP: A guy like Bolton was a dirty cop – WELKER: But there is no evidence that-- but there's no evidence that people who – TRUMP: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Oh, you think Comey was a straight cop? WELKER: We had 170 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. TRUMP: Comey was a dirty cop. WELKER: No, no, but the people who assaulted police officers. TRUMP: They had FBI – listen to me. They had FBI agents ushering them into the building. They had FBI "Go into the building." Those people are walking around, they're looking, "Oh, isn't this nice?" They weren't in-- they were being ushered into the building. WELKER: There's no evidence of that, sir. There's no evidence of that. TRUMP: You had a bunch of dirty cops, and frankly, what they did was weaponization of our government. WELKER: But sir, there-- there's no evidence of that. More than a thousand people pleaded guilty to crimes – TRUMP: No, well, yeah, no, there's none. You know what they do? WELKER: Would you – TRUMP: Try looking at the tapes one time. WELKER: Would you take it off the table? TRUMP: Look at the tapes one time. WELKER: Okay, but 172 people did plead guilty to assaulting police officers. TRUMP: You know why they pled guilty? WELKER: Should they be exempt – TRUMP: Because they told they were going to jail for 15 years – WELKER: – from receiving funds? TRUMP: – if they didn't. WELKER: Should they – TRUMP: They pled guilty because they were frightened. They went down. They were ushered into a building. Many of them were arrested without even going into the building. WELKER: You'd be okay with them receiving taxpayer dollars? TRUMP: The people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated. Now, with that being said, the, as I understand it, the weaponization fund was going to set up a group of people, people that could be picked by anybody, fair people, smart people, and they will go on an individual case basis. WELKER: Okay. TRUMP: Now, I don't know what's going to happen with the weaponization fund. I love the idea, because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden, he's not smart enough to know what's going on, but people that surrounded him, surrounded his beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, what they did to the lives of people, they destroyed people. They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong. WELKER: All right, this is, just to be very clear, there's no evidence of what you're saying, but let me ask about Todd Blanche. TRUMP: There's a lot of evidence. WELKER: Let me ask about Todd Blanche. TRUMP: Listen – listen to me – listen to me. WELKER: Let's talk about Todd Blanche. TRUMP: There's tremendous evidence. There's nothing but evidence. WELKER: Well, it’s not been presented in a court of a law. TRUMP: The election was rigged. It was a dirty election. WELKER: Mr. President – TRUMP: And it's happening again right now in California. WELKER:  – you've never presented evidence – TRUMP: It’s happening right now in California WELKER: – that the 2020 election was rigged. TRUMP: Right now, it's look at what's happening in California. WELKER: Where's the evidence to that? TRUMP: It's four days – WELKER: The Republicans are doing well in California. TRUMP: In California, it's, no they're not. They're dropping fast because it's a rigged election. Let me tell you, it's four days and they aren't even close to coming up with the – WELKER: That's how they count the votes in California. TRUMP: Do you know why they're doing that? Because they're cheating on the election. WELKER: There's – What? Do you have evidence to support that? TRUMP: It's-- all I have to do is look. All I have to do is look. WELKER: But that's not evidence. TRUMP: And I listen. And I listen to people. And let's see what happens. WELKER: But sir, that's not evidence, and that's how they count the votes in California-- TRUMP: Do you think it's appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they're nowhere close to picking a winner? WELKER: State and local officials acknowledge they are slow. They're urging– TRUMP: No, they're crooked. WELKER: – they're urging the votes to be counted quickly. That's how they vote in California. TRUMP: They're crooked just like you're crooked, your press is crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked. WELKER: To be fair, I'm not crooked. But let's continue. TRUMP: Really? Well, you play right into their hands then. WELKER: Let's continue. TRUMP: You're either crooked or you're stupid. WELKER: Let's continue. TRUMP: You play right into their hands with this stuff. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they're rigged. Do you know that I won an election in a landslide and I got 94% bad press. WELKER: But Mr. President – TRUMP: You know why I got that? WELKER: – you've never presented – TRUMP: Because you have no credibility. WELKER: -evidence. But you've never presented evidence it was rigged. Let's keep talking about, I want to talk about Todd Blanche. TRUMP: You have more evidence, there's more evidence than ever presented. WELKER: Let's talk about-- TRUMP: Your elections in this country – WELKER: – you went to court. TRUMP: We're like a third world country. WELKER: But sir – TRUMP: Your elections are crooked and you're crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked. WELKER: But Mr. President– TRUMP: And so is ABC and CBS and CNN. WELKER: But Mr. President-- TRUMP: You're a one-sided crooked network. Sorry. Let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time. WELKER: Mr. President, let's – please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin. TRUMP: I've sat in the rain with you-- WELKER: I traveled all –  I know. I traveled all the way-- TRUMP: I sat in the rain with you for an hour. WELKER: --to Wisconsin. TRUMP: On and off in the rain, and I've given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what? WELKER: Mr. President-- TRUMP: A country can never be great with a dishonest press. WELKER: – we traveled all – listen. We traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.

Here is Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, fervently supporting the January 6 rally and promoting false election claims at the Ellipse—the very rally that incited the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (2021)

Yesterday 274 people pushed for the summit of Mount Everest just to give their LinkedIn profile the edge. Horrendous. Video by Lakpa Tenjen Sherpa facebook.com/share/r/1CuoKUw…

The president is currently scheduled to maintain a closed schedule today. Besides weekend glimpses of him playing golf, and a taped TV interview with his daughter-in-law that aired Saturday, he has not held a public event in a week.

Today, I signed an Executive Order temporarily repealing bedtimes in the City of New York so that kids of all ages can watch our team in the NBA Finals. As Mayor, you’re forced to make many difficult decisions. This was not one of them. Go Knicks.

SCOOP: Trump admin is paying millions to quickly cover four enormous bronze horses with extra-thick 23.75 karat gold leaf. The money for the rush job is coming from National Park Service. In total, I found ~$100 mil spent on new DC beautification projects notus.org/trump-white-house/…

Ex-US government official arrested after $40 million in gold bars found in home bbc.in/4x9PKcq