A few weeks ago a close friend of mine posted a job on Facebook that was available in her office that just happened to be a perfect match for a different friend of mine that’s looking for a new job. I passed the info along to friend number two and connected them together.

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Sen. Kamala Harris told MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt that she had been preparing to confront Joe Biden at the Democratic debates over his comments recalling his work with segregationists.

Harris had a much-talked about confrontation with the former vice president at the Thursday debate broadcast by NBC, where she grilled his opposition to busing and his praise of the civility of working with segregationist Democratic senators.

“Clearly you were ready for it. When did you decide that was what you were gonna do?” Hunt asked.

“I have to be obviously candid with you. From the moment that I heard his comments about the segregationists, it was troubling and it was hurtful,” Harris said. “To hear those words from someone I respect in a way that kind of–that suggest a bit of nostalgia about who they are, about segregationists.”

“I felt the need that — to make sure that everyone was remembering or had thought about the real impact,” she continued. “I just felt the need to talk about it not as some academic discussion.”

“Do you think Biden is out of touch?” Hunt asked Harris.

“No, not necessarily,” Harris responded. “I think he and I have a difference of opinion about the significance of who those people were and our perspective on perhaps how we think of them in terms of their reputation.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

Fans of the New York Knicks had a tough Sunday night–somewhat of an understatement as the team apparently missed out on the chance to sign star Kevin Durant and other top players.

Brooklyn is making a clean sweep tonight: Brooklyn will sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan, league sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019

To add insult to injury, multiple star free agents like Durant and Kyrie Irving were locked up by the New York Nets. The Nets play just a borough over from the Knicks in New York City.

To add further insult to injury was the implication that the Knicks could have signed Durant if not for team owner James Dolan’s concern over an injury that led them to not offer a max contract.

The Knicks and owner Jim Dolan were not prepared to offer Kevin Durant a full max contract due to concerns over his recovery from the Achilles injury, league sources tell me and @wojespn. Knicks officials are in Los Angeles tonight, meeting with free agents such as Julius Randle.

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 30, 2019

Perhaps no one was as unhappy as commentator Stephen A. Smith, who took to both television and his personal Twitter to express his frustration.

“I’m done with them right now!”@stephenasmith is NOT happy with the Knicks’ free agency decisions. pic.twitter.com/n530DuOf6w

— ESPN (@espn) July 1, 2019

I just finished crying! pic.twitter.com/KiXjIwQINU

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) June 30, 2019

“I just finished crying!” Smith said in a tweet.

Fans, critics and commentators across Twitter also had plenty to say.

This day can be seen as nothing less than a total indictment of the New York #Knicks. With every imaginable advantage they have failed at each turn and have now been totally one upped and humiliated within their own city limits.

— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) June 30, 2019

Can’t have the Knicks break your heart when you’re already dead inside pic.twitter.com/AGc3VCDNvf

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) June 30, 2019

Whoever has that Knicks voodoo doll, please put it down now. Enough is enough.

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 30, 2019

I know there have been a lot of low points for the Knicks. But this is the lowest.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 30, 2019

The Nets will win a championship before the Knicks. The Mavs will win another championship before the Knicks. Charles Oakley, and the guy with the sign Dolan had thrown out of MSG will win a championship before the Knicks.

— Max Kellerman (@maxkellerman) June 30, 2019

KD didn’t have the heart to save the Knicks and that’s the narrative me and mans dem are running with innit

— Desus Nice (@desusnice) June 30, 2019

Knicks fans deserve better than this. It’s one thing to be terrible for decades. It’s another to get their hopes up about Kyrie and KD and then have them come to NYC, but to the other team.

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) June 30, 2019

They gotta let Spike Lee buy the Knicks.

— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) June 30, 2019

The Knicks figuring out new ways to lose. pic.twitter.com/100zmpiDbi

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) June 30, 2019

As a Knicks fan I humbly request that no one talk about basketball ever again in any context, thanks.

— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 1, 2019

[Image via screengrab]

2020 presidential contender Julián Castro said he was happy he got some exposure from the first Democratic primary debates, saying it was hard when he was polling at 1%.

“I would lie if I said it hadn’t been hard when polls had me at 1%. What in the world is going on here?” Castro told Kasie Hunt on Kasie DC in an interview recorded after the debates in Miami.

“The number one thing people ask me out there on the campaign trail when it comes to why should I vote for you, how are you going to beat Donald Trump?” Castro said. “What they saw in that debate is that I could hold my own. And I could stand up to Donald Trump.”

Hunt also asked Castro about a tense exchange with Beto O’Rourke over border policy during the debate.

“You and Beto O’Rourke got into an extensive back and forth. You seemed to be trying to one-up him on immigration policy,” Hunt said.

Castro said the exchange was a policy issue, as Castro is pushing to repeal the law that criminalizes crossing the border while O’Rourke has not.

“But for some reason Beto has said that he doesn’t want to do that, that he would still criminalize a lot of these people who are coming over,” Castro said.

Watch above, via MSNBC

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) praised Sen. Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) performance on the debate stage, saying “she’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

“And one thing I’ll say about, and I said this before, she’s got game. She is very talented, she’s very smart, and she’ll be a force to be reckoned with,” Graham said.

Graham made the comments to CBS’ Margaret Brennan in a Face The Nation video released Saturday.

Graham also said former vice president Joe Biden “needs to up his game,” talking about Biden’s perceived poor performance in the Thursday debate where Harris attacked the former vice president’s record during the civil rights era.

The narrative is it is not his time and he is not up to the task, Graham said. “But I think you underestimate Joe Biden at your own peril.”

The senator also criticized the policies proposed during the debates as “liberal” and “extreme.”

Watch above, via CBS

Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro went after the field of Democratic presidential candidates during her show opener Saturday, criticizing all of the top candidates including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.

“Biden fell over his clown shoes when he couldn’t distinguish [Barack] Obama’s deportation and separation of families and children at the border just like Trump other than to say Obama did a heck of a job,” Pirro said.

“Elizabeth Warren wants to kick millions of Americans off private health insurance. She won’t even lie and tell you you can keep it,” she continued.

Pirro also brought up Beto O’Rourke speaking Spanish in the first debate. “I believe this is an English-speaking nation and pandering to Spanish-speaking immigrants is over the top. Even Cory Booker was turned off by Beto O’Rourke’s not so subtle attempt to pander to illegals.”

“And speaking of Beto, I couldn’t help but think of Richard Nixon. This guy needs a new makeup artist so he at least appears close to the living,” Pirro said.

Pirro then brought up Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to agree with something she said.

“That genius Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said they looked like high school students who didn’t do their homework. And I agree,” Pirro said.

Watch above, via Fox News

President Donald Trump announced he is not going to increase tariffs on China at the moment, saying he had a productive meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

I had a great meeting with President Xi of China yesterday, far better than expected. I agreed not to increase the already existing Tariffs that we charge China while we continue to negotiate. China has agreed that, during the negotiation, they will begin purchasing large…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2019

….amounts of agricultural product from our great Farmers. At the request of our High Tech companies, and President Xi, I agreed to allow Chinese company Huawei to buy product from them which will not impact our National Security. Importantly, we have opened up negotiations…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2019

….again with China as our relationship with them continues to be a very good one. The quality of the transaction is far more important to me than speed. I am in no hurry, but things look very good! There will be no reduction in the Tariffs currently being charged to China.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2019

“I agreed not to increase the already existing Tariffs that we charge China while we continue to negotiate,” Trump said.

The president also said while he will not be increasing tariffs against China at this time, “there will be no reduction in the Tariffs currently being charged to China.”

[Image via screengrab]

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, Mayor Pete Buttigieg dismissed the idea that the most electable candidate to beat President Donald Trump in 2020 would be an older, white man, not unlike former Vice President Joe Biden.

“This worries me a bit. Democrats always psych ourselves out. We over-think, try to put ourselves in the heads of somebody else,” Buttigieg said, before offering a brief history lesson about the past 40 years of Democratic success and failure at the presidential level.

“The pattern shows that possibly the riskiest thing we can do is play it safe in that way. Think about this, my home state, Indiana. Indiana went blue once in the last 50 years. It wasn’t for Bill Clinton or John Kerry or Jimmy Carter. It was for [Barack] Obama. If we were sitting here in 2007 saying let’s find somebody so electable, so palatable, so easy for swing voters to get comfortable with that he can carry Indiana for Democrats. I’m not sure people would have said Obama. He was able to move people and inspire people. What we have in 2020 is a sense of great urgency. We know what we’re up against. Just how imperative it is for those of us horrified by the behavior of this administration. We’re not going to win by offering a return to normal.”

Buttigieg went on to caution Democrats not to try to mimic Trump’s nostalgic “Make America Great Again” campaign narrative by returning to the world before he became president.

“This idea we can turn back the clock,” he explained. “I feel like some Democrats for whom our answer to the Republicans who say they want to turn back the clock to the 1950s: ‘We want to turn back the clock, just not as far, to the early 2000s.’ That won’t work. We’re in the industrial Midwest, people and all races have been left behind by the so-called normal. That led to the Midwest, places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, supporting the president we have now.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

House and Senate Democrats lobbed accusations of “betrayal” at each other in a bitter dispute over an emergency border funding bill that passed over the objections of many progressives like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal.

“Schumer destroyed all our leverage on Wednesday by not being able to hold his people,” an anonymous senior House Democratic aide told the Washington Post, which offers a blow-by-blow account of the Democratic infighting.

According to the Post, Speaker Nancy Pelosi understood that the House would lead the Democrats’ legislative plan, passing a bill early in the week that would raise detention facility standards and put more constraints on the Trump administration’s border policy. Then, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would use that bill to push Republicans in the Senate to compromise. But things quickly unraveled, prompting House aides to call the debacle a “betrayal” and “broken deal.”

“They’re blaming everyone but themselves,” one senior Senate Democratic aide told the Post, firing back at House Democrats’ complaints. Moderate House Democrats were the ones who unexpectedly revolted, causing Pelosi’s plan to stall and allow the Senate to move on its own version, which passed by a huge bipartisan margin of 84-8.

Democratic progressives lashed out in response at having to accept what they said was a watered-down alternative. Ocasio-Cortez blasted the Senate’s version as a “militarization bill.”

His Senate bill is a militarization bill. McConnell killed the House Bill & dropped this one right before recess to force passage.

Well, too bad. This is our job. Cancel vacation, fly the Senate in. Pass a clean humanitarian bill & stop trying to squeeze crises for more pain.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 27, 2019

Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Jayapal also slammed her fellow Democrats in the upper chamber. “The Senate Democrats did us a huge disservice,” she said. “The benefit to having one chamber controlled by Democrats is you have people who can fight and win. But that requires the people in the minority chamber to also fight, even if they lose.”

Ultimately, Pelosi accepted the Senate’s $4.6 billion emergency border funding bill as “a good bill” although she added that the “our bill is much better.” It passed the House on Thursday, despite failing to get a majority of House Democrats to vote for it.

Perhaps most telling about the legislative snafu was the Post‘s kicker: “Neither spokesman would address questions about the other leader.”

Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images.

Bill Maher opened his panel discussion tonight by listing ten Democrats who he thinks need to “get the fuck out” of the race.

Maher (and pretty much everyone else) thinks there’s too many candidates, and he said half of the candidates who appeared on the stage this week need to go. He told Tulsi Gabbard, one of those 20 candidates and his first guest tonight, the same thing about the large number of candidates, but she avoided his list.

Maher said these 10 Democrats need to go:

• John Hickenlooper
• Michael Bennet
• John Delaney
• Tim Ryan
• Kirsten Gillibrand (featuring a dig about her push for Al Franken to resign)
• Eric Swalwell (who he said came across as too young)
• Marianne Williamson
• Andrew Yang
• Beto O’Rourke
• Bill de Blasio

We will add video of the segment when available.

“When it comes to dictators, President Trump is all praise.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper tonight called out the president for comments he made to Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman while in Osaka for the G-20.

Earlier tonight news broke of the latter, in which the president offered very complimentary words of praise to MBS and did not bring up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, despite being asked by the press.

Cooper also noted the public Twitter message Trump sent to Kim Jong Un before bringing up the president being lighthearted about election interference and teasing the “fake news” with Putin.

“Until today, the president has never actually shared a laugh with Putin about election interference, at least publicly,” Cooper said, adding it doesn’t look like election security is a U.S. interest Trump was looking to push.

Cooper spoke with Dan Rather about all this, remarking he’s still “not used to” Trump genuflecting like that.

At one point Cooper remarked that he thought someone was joking when they recounted what Trump’s North Korea tweet tonight was.

You can watch above, via CNN.

At a breakfast at the G-2o summit between the US and Saudi delegations, President Donald Trump lavished praise upon Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and ignored a reporter’s question about the Saudi leader’s alleged complicity in the assassination and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

JUST IN: President Trump meets with Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman at G-20 in Japan, calls him “a friend of mine” and says that he’s done “really a spectacular job” and that it’s a “great honor” to meet with him. pic.twitter.com/cKvZ8qWFQc

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 29, 2019

Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident highly critical of the country’s ruling family, was invited to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey last October, where he was ambushed, killed, and allegedly dismembered using a bonesaw. Both Turkish and UN officials investigated the murder and identified more than a dozen, high-level Saudi government employees as being involved. The UN probe also found “credible evidence” that bin Salman’s role should be further investigated and that sanctions targeting him specifically should be put in place.

Trump just dodged a reporter’s question about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi during a #G20 meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pic.twitter.com/Du8Skq8LVV

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) June 28, 2019

This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to dodge discussions about the role of MBS in the murder of Khashoggi. In March, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-V) publicly called out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a Congressional hearing for the administration’s failure to hold MBS and the Saudi government accountable for orchestrating a political assassination of a member of the press. Instead of criticizing the Saudis, however, Trump has repeatedly touted Saudi weapons purchases of US military equipment and made false claims about their impact on the economy.

Screengrab via MSNBC Twitter.

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R- FL) is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over his threatening tweet to Michael Cohen a few months ago.

Gaetz said in that now-infamous tweet, “Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…”

Gaetz since apologized and took down the tweet. Tonight he spoke to Fox News’ Martha MacCallum and dismissed the investigation.

“It really highlights the double standard that exists with today’s left,” he said. “We’ve got members of Congress, Maxine Waters actually incite violence against Republicans and supporters of the president. We have Rashida Tlaib, before the ink was even dry on her election certificate, using profanity to talk about how she’s going to impeach the president.”

MacCallum noted that Gaetz received bipartisan criticism over his tweet, showing video of Senator Rick Scott calling it “disgusting.”

Gaetz said at one point the timing suggests a “coordinated effort to go after people like me, people like Kellyanne Conway, who are effective advocates for a transformational president.”

MacCallum asked Gaetz if Trump ever told him to “put something out there on social media about Michael Cohen” at the time. Gaetz said he did not.

“I think that’s really where this is going,” he continued. “Folks think they can get to the president through me because I work with the president a lot, talk to the president a lot.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.