Former House Speaker Paul Ryan sat down for a rare interview with WISN’s Kent Wainscott and denounced Donald Trump’s continued false claims about the 2020 election.

Wisconsin is one of the states where Republicans are pushing for an election audit. Governor Tony Evers called it “outrageous” that Republicans plan on spending over $600,000 on an investigation, saying, “Apparently they’re all drinking the Kool-Aid.”

Trump tried to contest the results in Wisconsin, but a recount confirmed he lost and the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected his legal team’s challenge.

Ryan bluntly told Wainscott, “President Trump lost the election, Joe Biden won the election.”

“It was not rigged, it was not stolen. Donald Trump lost the election. Joe Biden won the election. It’s really clear,” Ryan continued. “He exhausted the court challenges. None of them went his direction, and so he legitimately lost. Is there mischief and shenanigans in elections? Sure. Is there fraud? Yes. Was it organized to the extent that it would have swung the electoral college and the presidential election? Absolutely not.”

He’s also concerned that the GOP is becoming “a party about a person and a personality.”

Ryan, who sits on the Fox Corporation board of directors, has been criticized for not being more vocal about the former president, and after he retired from Congress in 2019, a book by Tim Alberta reported Ryan saw the move as an “escape hatch” from having to work with Trump for another two years.

You can watch above, via WISN.

Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios was knocked out of the US Open in a decisive three-set loss to Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut Monday night, but not before frequent tantrums over towels.

Kyrgios cursed and feuded with the chair umpire because the bin was too far away for him to walk and discard used, sweaty towels. Because of Covid protocols, tennis players are required to place used towels in the bin without assistance from a ball boy or girl.

Kyrgios could be seen arguing with chair umpire Carlos Bernardes over the towel dispute. Although it was hard to hear what was said on the broadcast, tennis journalist Tumaini Carayol of The Guardian shared one of the exchanges.

After being told by Bernardes, “it’s part of the game,” Kyrgios quickly fired back and disagreed.

“It’s not part of the game,” Kyrgios ranted. “So texting someone’s part of the game, too? Taking 20-minute bathroom breaks is part of the game? That’s part of the game. Everything’s part of the game. I need to take a sh*t. Ah, part of the game. It’s f*cking stupid.”

“It’s a f*cking joke, mate,” Kyrgios said, complaining because he had to walk “20 extra steps,” to put his towel in the bin. One of the announcers on the broadcast blasted Kyrgios for his constant bickering with Bernardes, saying the dispute was “almost like a parent talking to a spoiled child.”

Following the loss, the 26-year-old tennis player continued his towel rant to reporters. “Look, the towel situation for me is incredibly stupid,” Kyrgios said. “I’m one of the players on Tour that is fully vaccinated.”

“As of now, I’m getting treated exactly the same as a player that is not vaccinated,” he continued. “I feel like if I want my towel around the court, if it’s not disturbing Bautista Agut’s vision, if he doesn’t see the towel, I don’t see anything wrong with having my towel on the side or on the ground. And it’s just absurd for me.”

Watch above via ESPN

President Joe Biden is set to deliver an address on Afghanistan at 2:45 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in an early afternoon statement that Biden intended to use the address to “express his thanks to the commanders and service members who executed a dangerous mission in Kabul and airlifted more than 124,000 people to safety” and “offer thanks to the veterans and volunteers who supported this effort.”

In the event the president takes questions, reporters are likely to press for answers on issues including the Americans still trapped in the Afghanistan — who number in the “hundreds,” according to a Monday estimate by Central Command leader Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie — and his administration’s response to Thursday’s attack by the Islamic State that killed 13 American service members at Kabul’s international airport. The Pentagon said it killed two “high-profile” targets behind the attack in a Saturday airstrike, but has declined to identify them.

Watch live above via the White House.

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White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain retweeted a post on Monday by Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin mentioning that the Obama administration, which Klain served under, didn’t evacuate Americans from Yemen in 2015.

Rubin tweeted a piece she wrote on Monday headlined “The State Department deserves more credit for its effort to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan.”

“It is interesting, however, to compare the Afghanistan effort with prior evacuations of Americans. In 2015, the United States did not evacuate Americans as Yemen descended into chaos,” tweeted Rubin.

It is interesting, however, to compare the Afghanistan effort with prior evacuations of Americans. In 2015, the United States did not evacuate Americans as Yemen descended into chaos.https://t.co/ozUGbLkNdU

— Jennifer ‘pro-voting’ Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) August 30, 2021

The tweet comes as the United States wraps up operations evacuating Americans and Afghan allies from Afghanistan as the U.S. military is scheduled to leave the country on Tuesday in accordance with the Aug. 31 deadline set by President Joe Biden. During presidency of former President Barack Obama, Klain was then-Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff and served as the White House Ebola response coordinator.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Former President Donald Trump took a break from sending statements that make false and baseless claims of a rigged election, and instead called for military intervention in Afghanistan despite previous negotiations of a complete withdrawal with the Taliban.

The withdrawal of US military personnel under the Biden administration has objectively not gone according to plan, and reasonable people would likely agree that it has been disastrous, at the very least from a public relations perspective, if not more. 300,000 Afghan troops appeared to literally roll over to Taliban forces in less than two weeks, giving up control of the entire wartorn nation, along with $85 billion in high-grade arms provided to them over the course of two decades.

Trump and his administration had negotiated with the Taliban to take over the country but failed to withdraw all troops during his four years in office. However, President Joe Biden fulfilled that promise but did so in a manner that appears to have made an already unstable political situation impossibly worse, an issue which has been seized upon by critics of this administration.

Trump hit this note in a statement released Monday morning, writing “Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Trump then went on to demand that all equipment be returned, and if not, “we should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it or at least bomb the hell out of it. ”

Read Trump’s statement:

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In addition to the obvious, ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost. If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it. Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!

Trump had long campaigned on the benefits of removing US troops from Afghanistan and even led a similar operation in Syria, which left Kurdish allies to the American effort in the region exposed to bad actors. It is not clear how Trump squares his previous policy of ending intervention in war-torn areas with little strategic benefit and returning US military forces to the very region from which he previously negotiated a withdrawal.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller hit back at the “detestable and execrable lies” from critics who accused him of being a White nationalist.

Miller spoke to Megyn Kelly on her podcast, where the conversation turned toward Jean Guerrero, an LA Times columnist who made Miller the leading subject of her recently-released book: Hatemonger. The book delves into Miller’s history and argues that he fueled the most inflammatory, racially-charged elements of former President Donald Trump’s tenure in office.

Responding to Guerrero’s claims of repeatedly advancing White nationalism, Miller said he would file a defamation lawsuit against her, only he’s “too busy actually trying to do positive things for my country.” Miller continued by referring to the “hit pieces” written about him in recent years as he asked “have you ever seen one quote, ever, one statement ever produced from me…that has been objectionable?”

“There is not a single, solitary quote anywhere, in any of these segments, ever saying ‘Aha, here’s the quote from Stephen’…because it doesn’t exist,” Miller said. Kelly, who was fired from NBC for excusing blackface, briefly questioned Miller’s forwarding of White nationalist websites, but then she chuckled as she said “I don’t pay that close attention when they’re calling everybody in the Trump White House ‘White nationalists,’ because that’s what they say about everybody.”

“I see the citation to the websites, but you’re talking about immigration policy,” Kelly went on. “The quotes themselves, I don’t think are as much of the issue as the citation of the sources.”

“The statement, the accusation from a handful of insane people that I am a White nationalist or other various smears are detestable and execrable lies that are repeatedly rebutted,” Miller said. He continued by referring to his critics as “psychos” and “delusional conspiracy theorists.”

During his work with the Trump White House, Miller was a leading proponent of the policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, and leaked emails showed him promoting anti-immigrant rhetoric and pro-White nationalist websites. Miller kept his anti-immigration streak going beyond the Trump administration, calling for a complete shutdown of legal and illegal immigration, plus he recently suggested that the U.S. shouldn’t welcome Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban into America.

Listen above, via The Megyn Kelly Show.

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Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is doubling down on his call for President Joe Biden to be impeached over his handling of the Afghanistan situation.

Graham called for Biden’s impeachment last week as he argued that the president “abandoned thousands of Afghans who fought with us and he’s going to abandon some American citizens because he capitulated to the Taliban.” On Sunday, Graham spoke to CBS’ Ed O’Keefe on Face The Nation, and he warned that “the parade of horribles are about to unfold” as the U.S. nears the August 31st withdrawal deadline.

The chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof. These drone attacks will not degrade ISIS. The number of ISIS fighters have doubled. We’ve turned our back on our allies who’s going to help us in the future. And we set the conditions for another 9/11. I’ve never been more worried about an attack on our homeland than I am right now. And we did not end this war. President Biden said that he wanted to take Afghanistan off the plate for future presidents. He’s done the exact opposite.

The conversation went on with Graham calling for the Biden administration to not grant the Taliban any recognition of legitimacy. He mostly went on, however, by rejecting Biden’s rationale for ending the Afghanistan campaign, warning that the country will once again be a hotbed for terroristic threats against the U.S.

Eventually, O’Keefe asked Graham if he still thinks Biden ought to be impeached over Afghanistan.

The senator’s answer:

Yeah, I think it’s dereliction of duty to leave hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines, turn them into hostages, to abandon thousands of Afghans who fought honorably along our side, to create conditions for another 9/11 that are now through the roof. Yeah, I think he’s been derelict in his duties as commander-in-chief.

In the United States, removing a president from office through impeachment requires a majority vote from the House, plus a supermajority of votes in the Senate. While Republicans have been calling for Biden’s impeachment over Afghanistan, Democrats currently hold the majority in both branches of Congress, making impeachment highly unlikely to succeed right now.

Watch above, via CBS.

Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Ed Asner has passed away at age 91.

Asner’s family announced that he passed away peacefully on Sunday morning. “Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.”

We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully. Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.

— Ed Asner (@TheOnlyEdAsner) August 29, 2021

The iconic actor famously played Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the spinoff follow-up series Lou Grant. In more recent years he received acclaim for roles in films like Elf and Pixar’s Up.

Just last week The Hollywood Reporter released an interview Asner recently did reflecting on his life and career. When asked what he was called at home and by friends, Asner deadpanned, “Schmeckel.” (It’s a Yiddish word that means penis.)

Asked what’s left on his bucket list, Asner said, “I think just ensuring that I’ve left enough for the family.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that it is unlikely the United States will have an “on-the-ground diplomatic presence” in Afghanistan after withdrawing on August 31st.

Last week Blinken said that efforts to help evacuations would “continue every day” past the deadline. That August 31st deadline is this week.

Chuck Todd spoke with Blinken on Meet the Press and asked if the United States will have a diplomatic presence on the ground on September 1st.

“In terms of having an on-the-ground diplomatic presence on September 1st, that’s not likely to happen,” Blinken responded.

He added that “our commitment to continue to help people leave Afghanistan who want to leave and who are not out by September 1st — that endures, there’s no deadline on that effort.”

Blinken pointed to public comments from a Taliban official about people being able to travel after August 31st.

“Now, of course, we don’t take the Taliban at their word, we take them by their deed. And that’s what we’re going to be looking to.”

He brought up a joint statement from over 100 countries, the United States included, saying they’ll hold the Taliban to their promises.

You can watch above, via NBC.

ABC News’ Jon Karl called out the Biden administration’s attempts to frame the situation in Afghanistan as anything less than a “disaster.”

Karl was on This Week for Martha Raddatz’s Sunday discussion panel. Raddatz asked Karl for his thoughts on Afghanistan as she noted that President Joe Biden and his team were “making this sound like a smashing success” before the Hamid Karzai International Airport bombing, which killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans.

“They have been describing something that isn’t reality,” Karl said. “This has been an incredible airlift, more than 100,000 people evacuated, but what a disaster. Clearly, Thursday was the worst day of the Biden presidency, and we don’t really know, Martha, how bad it really is.”

Prior to the president’s remarks on Thursday, CBS News’ Nancy Cordes similarly said it was the worst day of Biden’s presidency. During her Thursday briefing White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “Any day where you lose service members may be the worst day of your presidency, and hopefully there’s not more.”

Karl went on by saying the question now remains whether Afghanistan will once again be a safe haven for terrorists under the Taliban’s rule.

“Maybe part of the reason why Afghanistan had not been such is there was a military presence in Afghanistan,” said Karl, “but now we will have this over the horizon capability. But the bottom line is the terror threat has increased and our ability to combat it has decreased.”

Watch above, via abc.