TV News LIES

Former CIA Director John Brennan isn’t worried about the Trump administration trying to prosecute him. Nor is he all that concerned about a peaceful transfer of power if President Donald Trump loses the election – particularly if it’s a resounding defeat, as Brennan hopes.

What really has the ex-CIA chief on edge? The social and political havoc Trump may unleash between Election Day and the possible inauguration of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Trump could provoke civil unrest. He could try to declare martial law. He could pardon himself and a rogue’s gallery of his supporters, Brennan said.

He’s so nervous about some of the possibilities – given the president’s powers – that he didn’t even want to say them out loud.

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A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a Kentucky law that requires abortion clinics to have written agreements with a hospital and ambulance service in case of medical emergencies.

The 2-1 ruling from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a 2018 district court ruling that found the law, first passed in 1998, violated constitutionally protected due process rights.

Twitter has suspended a network of accounts claiming to be owned by Black supporters of Donald Trump and his re-election campaign due to spam and platform manipulation, it said Tuesday.

The company is investigating the activity and may suspend additional similar accounts if they are found to be violating its policies, a spokesperson said.

The Washington Post first reported on the investigation, citing more than a dozen accounts using identical, inauthentic language including the phrase: “YES IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!!!”

A review of some of the suspended accounts shows they often used stolen images to appear real. The accounts sometimes claimed to be owned by military veterans or members of law enforcement.

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US-Russian arms control talks have sunk into confusion after the top American negotiator claimed there was “an agreement in principle” between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a claim Moscow quickly rejected as a “delusion”.

Marshall Billingslea, the US special envoy for arms control, said he had flown to Helsinki on Monday to meet the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, on the understanding that there could be an imminent breakthrough in discussions on whether to extend the 2010 New Start treaty, which limits the number of deployed strategic warheads on either side, and which expires in February.

“We believe that there is an agreement in principle at the highest levels of our two governments. That’s why I cut short my trip to Asia and made a beeline for Helsinki when the Russians called and wanted to sit down,” Billingslea told a Washington thinktank, in an apparent suggestion that there had been an informal verbal agreement between Trump and Putin.

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A third of U.S. states are reporting higher coronavirus case counts than they've ever had before.

A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data shows 16 states set records for new cases in a week. But nearly all states are surging: 41 states had worse weeks than they did a week earlier. And an analysis of COVID Tracking Project data shows that in 36 states, a higher rate of people were testing positive than in the week before.

While the data continues to show the virus' reach is not letting up, the head of the World Health Organization said achieving herd immunity by allowing the virus to spread is "scientifically and ethically problematic."

"Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it," WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said Monday, adding that the strategy relies on vaccination.

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Elected officials in Massachusetts are demanding an investigation after a Black man was stopped Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while on a run in Boston.

Bena Apreala, 29, told WBUR he was running a few miles from his home when two SUVs with tinted windows approached him. One of the cars blocked the sidewalk in front of him and the other pulled up beside him, Apreala told the station.

“These guys just hopped out in full camouflage uniforms with masks over their face, and stopped me, and told me to immediately identify (myself)," he said. “I was confused as to whether or not they were even legitimate authority.”

At least three men, who Apreala said were white, did not identify themselves as law enforcement, but Apreala noticed an ICE badge, according to WBUR. He told them that he was a U.S. citizen born in Boston and an officer replied that he matched the description of someone they had been investigating.

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Nick  Luna, one of President Trump’s personal assistants, is the latest White house aide to receive a positive coronavirus diagnosis, Bloomberg reports.

The new outlet noted that Luna works closely with Trump and serves as one of the president’s “body men.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment on the aide’s reported diagnosis, which comes several days after Trump and first lady Melania Trump were confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus.

Here's a running list of people who have tested positive and negative. This is a developing story, not a comprehensive list, which we will keep updated in the days to come:

• President Donald Trump
• First lady Melania Trump
• Hope Hicks, senior advisor to the president
• Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager
• Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel
• Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah
• Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina
• Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin
• Chris Christie
• Three White House reporters
• One White House staffer
• Kellyanne Conway, former White House senior advisor
• The Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame University (Jenkins was at the White House Saturday, when Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee. Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame for 15 years before Trump nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.)