| | | | | Washington Capitals fans watch Game 5 of the Stanley Cups finals Thursday night at a watch party at Capital One Arena. The Capitals beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3, becoming the first Washington team since 1992 to win a major sports title. Credit: Alex Edelman/Getty Images | | | D.C. is Popping, in Many Ways: Caps win Stanley Cup
Kim Gives Play-by-Play: Reality TV star says her Oval Office meeting with Trump started with a hug and joke about Khloé
Oprah Opens the Smithsonian's New Exhibit All About Oprah: It opens today | | | | Kate Bennett is off. Her section will return next week. | | What Washington Is Talking About:
The Washington Capitals are Stanley Cup champions. President Donald Trump congratulated the team, tweeting that "D.C. is popping, in many ways. What a time!" And this weekend is Capital Pride.
What America Is Talking About:
The death of Anthony Bourdain at age 61. If you or someone you know needs help, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is free and open 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255.
Poll of the Day:
A Fox News poll released Thursday found which party American voters trust most on various issues. Republicans lead Democrats on border security, and Democrats lead Republicans on climate change. | | Credit: @foxnewspoll/Twitter
The Trump Administration Is Going After a Journalist:
Trump usually does the opposite of what former President Barack Obama did, but when it comes to press freedom, he's continuing his predecessor's aggressive tactics. The Justice Department seized email and phone records from New York Times national security reporter Ali Watkins, even going back to her college email address and her time as a reporter at BuzzFeed and Politico. It's the first known instance of the Trump administration taking data from a journalist.
The FBI asked Watkins about her three-year relationship with James Wolfe, a former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee. Wolfe was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to federal investigators as part of a leak investigation.
"Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and communications between journalists and their sources demand protection," Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said. BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith said, "We are deeply troubled by what looks like a case of law enforcement interfering with a reporter's constitutional right to gather information about her own government."
Kim Gives Play-by-Play of Alice Johnson Commutation:
Kim Kardashian West appeared in the first part of an interview about Johnson with CNN's Van Jones on Thursday night. She said she reached out to Ivanka Trump after hearing about Johnson, telling the first daughter, "I know that you have compassion for women like this," and asking for a meeting with the President. When West finally got a meeting months later, she said she greeted Trump, whom she had met before, with a hug and joked, "I'm here because I really want to know why did you kick Khloé off 'The Apprentice.' " | | Credit: CNN
The reality TV star said she was "literally on pins and needles waiting" to hear what Trump would decide on Johnson. She was on the phone with her husband, Kanye West, when she got a call from an unknown number. It was Trump, who told her the news and said he was signing the commutation papers as they spoke. "He's really investigated this case and spoke to her warden," she said, and he "felt her heart."
She said she called Johnson to tell her the news. "We cried, maybe, on the phone for like three minutes straight," she said. "Everyone was just crying"
She denied the move was a PR stunt. "I knew there would be tons of backlash," she said, calling it a "risky move." "I had to make the decision that this was bigger than me. So, I'm worried about my brand and a woman's been in jail for 22 years almost? It wasn't even a question. I would have taken the backlash, no matter what the outcome would have been, just to try for her."
She also denied she gave Trump legitimacy, because "Kanye's already given him legitimacy in that way." "Kanye, you know, co-signed and said he loves his personality and loves him." She said her husband knew what she was doing but it was "very, very separate" from him.
Oprah Opens the Smithsonian's New Exhibit All About Oprah:
Oprah Winfrey toured the National Museum of African American History & Culture's new exhibit about her, "Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show And American Culture" on Thursday. The exhibit opens today and runs through June 2019. You can watch the trailer for the exhibit here. Winfrey said at the opening event that the museum helps black women be heard. "It's been difficult for us to be heard but not anymore," she said. "(The museum's) very existence, it being here screams, 'Hear me, hear me now.' " | | Credit: Shannon Finney/Getty Images
6 Things That Show What Politics Was Like Last Time Washington Won a Major Sports Title:
The last time one of Washington's pro sports teams won a major championship was in January 1992 when the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills 37-24 to take Super Bowl XXVI. Gloria Estefan was the halftime performer. Here's what was happening in politics back then: | | Credit: Rick Stewart/Getty Images
1. Presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was accused of having an affair with former TV news reporter Gennifer Flowers. In an interview with "60 Minutes" on January 26, 1992, Clinton denied the affair, and Hillary Clinton defended her husband, saying, "I'm not sitting here, some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette." | | Credit: CBS
2. President George H.W. Bush met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at Camp David, Maryland, on February 2, 1992, and said it was the "dawn of a new era" and that the US-Russian relationship would be "based on trust." The two leaders reviewed arms control proposals and said their countries no longer viewed each other as "potential adversaries" and would work to end Cold War tensions. | | Credit: C-SPAN
3. Mike Pence began "The Mike Pence Show," a syndicated weekend radio show on Indianapolis' WNDE station. He said he was inspired by Rush Limbaugh, who "captured my imagination." | | Pence on the set of his radio show in 1997. Credit: Max/YouTube
4. Barack Obama was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, a position he held from 1992 until he was elected to the US Senate in 2004. | | Credit: via University of Chicago
5. Joe Biden was a US senator from Delaware, and he argued on the Senate floor on February 22, 1992, that presidents shouldn't fill Supreme Court vacancies during election years. | | Credit: C-SPAN
6. Donald Trump was a year away from marrying his second wife, Marla Maples, and had recently generated speculation he could run for president when he visited New Hampshire. But he told Charlie Rose in a November 1992 interview he had "no intention of running." | | Credit: Ron Galella Ltd./WireImage
Trump Said He'll Ask Kneeling Athletes Whom He Should Pardon:
"I'm going to ask them to recommend to me people who were unfairly treated," he told reporters at the White House before leaving to attend the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec.
Dennis Rodman Is Going to Singapore:
Rodman posted on Instagram today that he's heading to Singapore for the Trump-Kim Jong Un summit, thanks to sponsorship from marijuana industry cryptocurrency company PotCoin. The company sponsored Rodman's trip to North Korea in June 2017. "I'll give whatever support is needed to my friends, President Trump and Marshall Kim Jong Un," Rodman wrote.
If Tomi Were a Baker, She'd Bake Your Wedding Cake No Matter Who You Were Marrying:
Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren tweeted Thursday, "Legality and courts aside, I wish we could get to the place where we look at customers, neighbors and people for who they are and not deny services. Just seems rather sad. You don't have to agree with someone's lifestyle or politics to treat them like a human." She also tweeted a photo of a drag queen named Venus Envy and said, "This was probably intended as an insult but I still like it!" | | Credit: @TomiLahren/Twitter
Street Art Sighting:
It's one of Washington's most popular photo spots. This rainbow "LOVE" mural is in Blagden Alley near M and Ninth streets NW. Every time I'm there, even in the rain, there's at least one photo shoot going on. I snapped this photo Saturday. | | Credit: Hunter Schwarz
If you spot political street art, tweet me @hunterschwarz, tag me on Instagram @hunterschwarz or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com with your sighting so I can feature it in COVER/LINE.
P.S.:
This year's Capital Pride is packed with performers, including Troye Sivan, Alessia Cara and Keri Hilson. And Kanye West released his new album with Kid Cudi today called "Kids See Ghosts." It's available on Tidal, Apple Music and Google Play.
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Have a good weekend and be good to each other. Next week could be big, with the Trump-Kim summit (and who knows what else might pop up). See you back here Monday. Schwarz out. | | | | | | |
