Donald Trump Warns There Will Be a Civil War If He Is Impeached

Donald Trump is shook.

Read more...

from The Root https://ift.tt/2oBTFRs

The Original Cookout Invite? Pee-wee Herman Was an Honorary Member of the Black Pack

Pee-wee Herman (born Paul Reubens) had a big adventure in 1985, but the blackest adventure happened in 1988.

Read more...

from The Root https://ift.tt/2nXGRnV

Oprah Winfrey gifts HBCUs with $1.15 million at United Negro College Fund event

Oprah Winfrey surprised attendees at a Charlotte fundraiser by announcing that she would match the $1.15 million it had already raised.

During the 17^th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon, when the billionaire media executive got up to speak, she asked how much money the fundraiser had brought in.

READ MORE: Oprah Winfrey launching wellness arena tour in early 2020

“We do want to make this the world record-breaking event,” Winfrey told the crowd of 1,120 people. “I believe in the power of education, there is nothing better than to open the door for someone.”

The annual event was held to raise funds for deserving college students at HBCUs to bolster their success rates, The Charlotte Observer reports.

The United Negro College event’s fundraising goal was to raise $1.15 when Winfrey blessed them with a matching gift totaling 2.3 million.

“Oprah Winfrey inspires us to live a purposeful life,” said Tiffany Jones, area development director for the UNCF.

Boom! The awesomeness that is @oprah just matched the $1million dollars that was raised during the #UNCFCharlotte Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon. Yes, so now over $2million was raised to support #HBCUs this afternoon! Peep this👇🏾#UNCF #blackgirlmagic ❤️🙏🏿 @ Oprah pic.twitter.com/lYeceynhFC

— UNCF (@UNCF) September 28, 2019

Winfrey was close friends with Angelou, who diedin 2014. She shared with the audience the importance of leaving an indelible legacy.

“‘You have no idea what your legacy is going to be, because your legacy will be every life you touch,’” Winfrey said Angelou told her. “Your legacy is how you treat everybody.”

READ MORE: Oprah says Ta-Nehisi Coates new book moved her like ‘Beloved’ did

“Listen to the whisperer,” she continues. “Your job is to figure out the pattern of your life, the flow.”

But she joked, “Some need bricks.”

The post Oprah Winfrey gifts HBCUs with $1.15 million at United Negro College Fund event appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2mhnzcL

GOP split over impeachment pushback as Democrats plow ahead

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The president’s lawyer insists the real story is a debunked conspiracy theory. A senior White House adviser blames the “deep state.” And a Republican congressman is pointing at Joe Biden’s son.

As the Democrats drive an impeachment inquiry toward a potential vote by the end of the year, President Donald Trump’s allies are struggling over how he should manage the starkest threat to his presidency. The jockeying broke into the open Sunday on the talk show circuit, with a parade of Republicans erupting into a surge of second-guessing.

At the top of the list: Rudy Giuliani’s false charge that it was Ukraine that meddled in the 2016 elections. The former New York mayor has been encouraging Ukraine to investigate both Biden and Hillary Clinton.

“I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again,” said Tom Bossert, Trump’s former homeland security adviser. “That conspiracy theory has got to go, they have to stop with that, it cannot continue to be repeated.”
Not only did Giuliani repeat it Sunday, he brandished pieces of paper he said were affidavits supporting his story.

“Tom Bossert doesn’t know what’s he’s talking about,” Guiliani said. He added that Trump was framed by the Democrats.

Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, meanwhile, noted that he’s worked in the federal government “for nearly three years.”

“I know the difference between whistleblower and a deep state operative,” Miller said. “This is a deep state operative, pure and simple.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, heatedly said Trump was merely asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to root out corruption. That, Jordan said, includes Hunter Biden’s membership on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either of the Bidens.

Mixed messaging reflects the difficulty Republicans are having defending the president against documents released by the White House that feature Trump’s own words and actions. A partial transcript and a whistleblower complaint form the heart of the House impeachment inquiry and describe Trump pressuring a foreign president to investigate Biden’s family.

In a series of tweets Sunday night, Trump said he deserved to meet “my accuser” as well as whoever provided the whistleblower with what the president called “largely incorrect” information. He also accused Democrats of “doing great harm to our Country” in an effort to destabilize the nation and the 2020 election.

Trump has insisted the call was “perfect” and pushed to release both documents.
“He didn’t even know that it was wrong,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, describing a phone call from Trump in which the president suggested the documents would exonerate him.

But Democrats seized on them as evidence that Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” by asking for a foreign leader’s help undermining a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden. Pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry and on Sunday told other Democrats that public sentiment had swung behind the probe.

By all accounts, the Democratic impeachment effort was speeding ahead with a fair amount of coordination between Pelosi, Democratic messaging experts and its political operation.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that he expects the whistleblower to testify “very soon,” though details were still being worked out and no date had been set. Hearings and depositions were starting this week. Many Democrats are pushing for a vote on articles of impeachment before the end of the year, mindful of the looming 2020 elections.

Schiff said in one interview that his committee intends to subpoena Giuliani for documents and may eventually want to hear from Giuliani directly. In a separate TV appearance, Giuliani said he would not cooperate with Schiff, but then acknowledged he would do what Trump tells him. The White House did not provide an official response on whether the president would allow Giuliani to cooperate.

Lawyers for the whistleblower expressed concern about that individual’s safety, noting that some have offered a $50,000 “bounty” for the whistleblower’s identity. They said they expect the situation to become even more dangerous for their client and any other whistleblowers, as Congress seeks to investigate this matter.

On a conference call Sunday, Pelosi, traveling in Texas, urged Democrats to proceed “not with negative attitudes towards him, but a positive attitude towards our responsibility,” according to an aide on the call who shared the exchange on condition of anonymity. Polling, Pelosi said, had changed “drastically” in the Democrats’ favor.

A one-day NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted Sept. 25 found that about half of Americans — 49% — approve of the House formally starting an impeachment inquiry into Trump.

There remains a stark partisan divide on the issue, with 88% of Democrats approving and 93% of Republicans disapproving of the inquiry. But the findings suggest some movement in opinions on the issue. Earlier polls conducted throughout Trump’s presidency have consistently found a majority saying he should not be impeached and removed from office.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York urged the caucus to talk about impeachment by repeating the words “betrayal, abuse of power, national security.” The Democrats’ campaign arm swung behind lawmakers to support the impeachment drive as they run for reelection, according to another call participant to spoke on condition of anonymity.

The contrast with the Republicans’ selection of responses was striking.

A combative House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said that nothing in Trump’s phone call rose to the level of an impeachable offense.

“Why would we move forward on impeachment?” the California Republican said. “There’s not something that you have to defend here.”

Bossert, an alumnus of Republican George W. Bush’s administration, offered a theory and some advice to Trump: Move past the fury over the 2016 Russia investigation, in which special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy but plenty of examples of Trump’s obstruction.

“I honestly believe this president has not gotten his pound of flesh yet from past grievances on the 2016 investigation,” Bossert said. “If he continues to focus on that white whale, it’s going to bring him down.”

Two advisers to the Biden campaign sent a letter Sunday urging major news networks to stop booking Giuliani on their shows, accusing Trump’s personal attorney of spreading “false, debunked conspiracy theories” on behalf of the president. The letter to management and anchors of shows at ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News added: “By giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation.”
___
Giuliani appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’ “Face the Nation,” while Schiff was interviewed on ABC and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Bossert spoke on ABC and Miller on “Fox News Sunday.” Jordan appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Pelosi and McCarthy appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington; writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta; and AP Polling Director Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
___
Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman

The post GOP split over impeachment pushback as Democrats plow ahead appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2n6KMid

Tekashi 6ix9ine is optimistic people will forget his ‘snitching’ ways, report says

Troubled rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine has been singing like a canary during his federal racketeering trial and reportedly believes things will be popping post-prison and that his haters will soon forget that he ever blew the whistle on the inner workings of the gang he was once affiliated with.

According to TMZ Tekashi, whose given name is Daniel Hernandez, thinks all will be well once he leaves prison. The rapper cut a plea deal with the feds that required him to give up names of top drug lords and testify against the Nine Trey Bloods gang in exchange for an early release.

Unnamed sources tell the website that he feels anyone angry at him over his testimony is jealous of him and are threatened by him. He also reportedly believes when he’s released his popularity will flourish. Tekashi’s attorney, Dawn Florio, did not comment on the report.

READ MORE: Cardi B denies being a member of Nine Trey Gangster Bloods as claimed by Tekashi 6ix9ine

Tekashi is reportedly turning down witness protection and wants to continue his rap career despite the obvious danger he and his family are in due to a broad perception that he has become a “snitch.”

But Tekashi seems to think people will turn the other cheek and forgive and forget once he’s back on the block doing his music again.

But Tekashi will have to face a skeptical hip hop culture given the sideeye he’s been given by people like 21 Savage and 50 Cent. He reportedly plans to hire his own bodyguards to protect him around the clock so he can continue his rap career.

Tekashi’s deal with the feds earned him a reduced possible 47-year sentence for cooperating with prosecutors.

Celebrities and fans have heavily discussed Tekashi on social media naming many of his friends linked to his former gang, the Nine Trey Bloods while on trial.

The “Gummo” rapper is said to have implicated Trippie Redd, Cardi B, Jim Jones, and Casanova in his testimony in court.

READ MORE: Tekashi 6ix9ine brings “retired rapper” Jim Jones name into his courtroom bombshell

Music executive J. Prince, says Tekashi was rat material from the start. Moreover, the CEO of Houston-based label Rap-A-Lot Records maintains that the Brooklyn rapper is surely going to get what’s coming to him, according to TMZ.

He describes Tekashi as a “clown,” claims that the rapper’s most recent testimony about last year’s robbery was a “complete lie.”

The post Tekashi 6ix9ine is optimistic people will forget his ‘snitching’ ways, report says appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2nRs0vk