TV News LIES

A group of Democratic senators and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller are hosting a Pride celebration at the Kennedy Center Monday evening. But the Kennedy Center has nothing to do with programming it.

Senators John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin have rented the Justice Forum, a small theater at the REACH, an expansion to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that opened in 2019.

While the group of senators booked the space a few weeks ago, the Pride event, called Love Is Love, was only announced on Monday. A statement from Sen. Hickenlooper's office says the event is "about standing up for the arts and the progress the LGBTQ community has made. The performance reminds us that our fight for equality — and for democracy — isn't over. It's happening right now." Directed by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, the show will include songs celebrating gay culture.

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A truck carrying one of the Army M1 Abrams tanks that participated in President Donald Trump's parade in honor of the service's 250th birthday struck and killed a woman in Washington.

The accident occurred on the evening of June 16 – two days after the parade – on New York Avenue while a contract truck driver was hauling the tank from the West Potomac Park staging area to a railyard in Jessup, Maryland, according to an internal Army document obtained by USA TODAY. The truck was part of a larger convoy of vehicles.

The woman, whose name was not included in the document, was alone at the time of her death.

Officers with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department responding to a call in the city's Northeast area just after 9:30 p.m. found "an adult female, unconscious and not breathing, suffering from life-threatening injuries," according to police spokesman Freddie Talbert.

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A 12ft-tall statue of John Lewis was unveiled in Georgia on Saturday morning, honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader and congressman who died in 2020.

The statue stands in Decatur Square outside the historic Decatur courthouse in outer Atlanta, in a district Lewis represented in Congress from 1987 to his death. Lewis was 80 when he died due to complications related to pancreatic cancer.

The statue replaces a Confederate obelisk that was originally erected in 1908 and was taken down in June 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter protests that spread across the country after the murder of George Floyd.

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Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) announced Friday that he is retiring at the end of this year, adding to a wave of congressional retirements.

“It has been the greatest honor of Katie’s and my life to represent you in Congress,” Posey said in a statement. “And, polls suggest that because of YOUR support, I could remain in the job forever, and we were looking forward to another spirited campaign for a final term in office.”

Mike Gallagher has suggested that he is resigning from his seat in Congress because of death threats and swatting targeted at his family.

The Republican US representative for Wisconsin shared more insight into his decision to vacate his seat while talking with reporters on Tuesday, the NBC affiliate WLUK reported.

Gallagher, 40, said: “This is more just me wanting to prioritize being with my family ... I signed up for the death threats and the late-night swatting, but they did not. And for a young family, I would say this job is really hard.”

The Republican majority in the US House of Representatives is set to dwindle further with the early exit of Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, once a rising star of the party.

A former US marine who twice deployed to Iraq, Gallagher, 40, is a relatively moderate voice in party at the mercy of the far right.

He had already announced his decision to retire but in a statement on Friday he said: “After conversations with my family, I have made the decision to resign my position … effective 19 April. I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline.”

The announcement came shortly after Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, an extremist even in a party held hostage by its far right, responded to the passage of a Democrat-backed funding bill by filing a motion to remove Mike Johnson, the speaker from Louisiana.

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