TV News LIES

Federal prosecutors dropped the last of their cases against people charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in DC had filed charges of vandalism in connection with damage to the iconic DC pond against David Hearn, Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Cameron Thiers. President Donald Trump had previously described the supposed pool-damaging culprits as "SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE."

The office for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, however, decided to drop the cases against all four people after concluding that contractors, not vandals, were to blame for the pool’s deteriorated state. Court records obtained by USA TODAY show that prosecutors filed paperwork to drop all of the cases on Friday, July 31.

USA TODAY has reached out to Pirro for comment. The move to drop the last of the Reflecting Pool cases comes after Trump has repeatedly alleged the pool was vandalized.

"To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," the president said as late as Saturday, Aug. 1, in a statement on an official Trump social media account. "There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"

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Capital One Financial hit back on Friday against a lawsuit over its ⁠decision to close the Trump ⁠Organization’s bank accounts ​years ago, stating that it did so after a review by anti-money-laundering experts.

The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money-laundering concerns to Donald Trump’s family business. Capital One is seeking to dismiss the case by casting doubt on claims of illegally debanking – or denying services on religious or political grounds – the Trump Organization.

The Trump Organization and ⁠Capital One did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Capital One has never accused the Trump Organization of money laundering. ​But Friday’s filing argues that “documents and Plaintiffs’ own ‌allegations make clear that Capital One closed ‌Plaintiffs’ accounts for anti-money laundering (‘AML’) reasons.

“The closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by ‌Capital One’s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance.”

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One of Scouting America’s biggest gatherings has eliminated dedicated spaces for gay youth, women and scouts of color as the organization faces pressure from the Pentagon to pull back diversity efforts.

The changes at the National Jamboree, which ends Friday, reflect shifts made by Scouting America since the organization became a target of Defense SecretaryHegseth threatened to end the Pentagon’s century-old partnership with Scouting America if it did not make changes including refocusing away from diversity initiatives. The organization, previously known as Boy Scouts of America, rebranded in 2024 to emphasize inclusion and the growing number of girls in the scouting ranks. Pete Hegseth over what he calls “woke” policies. Some scouts who had planned to attend the event in West Virginia said they backed out because Scouting America scrapped the inclusion initiatives it previously celebrated.

Hegseth threatened to end the Pentagon’s century-old partnership with Scouting America if it did not make changes including refocusing away from diversity initiatives. The organization, previously known as Boy Scouts of America, rebranded in 2024 to emphasize inclusion and the growing number of girls in the scouting ranks.

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Progressive Abdul El-Sayed is leading Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) by 15 points ahead of next week’s Democratic primary for Michigan’s open Senate seat, according to a new poll.

An Emerson College Polling/WLNS/WOODTV survey released Thursday showed El-Sayed handily defeating Stevens in the primary with 54 percent support to Stevens’s 39 percent. A separate 6 percent of respondents said they were undecided while about 2 percent backed state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D), who dropped out of the race earlier this summer.

When factoring in undecided Democratic voters who were asked who they lean toward, El-Sayed rose to 57 percent support while Stevens sat at 41 percent. A separate 2 percent of respondents supported McMorrow.

El-Sayed and Stevens are running for the Democratic Senate nomination next Tuesday to take on former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). Although Peters, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) have backed Stevens, El-Sayed, a former Wayne County public health official, has held is own in the toss-up race.

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Only a day after Quinnipiac’s poll, an AP-NORC poll showed similar numbers, as only 33% of respondents approved of Trump’s performance, a drop of 4 percentage points from the last AP-NORC poll. Trump’s approval rating in the July 30 AP-NORC poll is the lowest recorded by the pollster since his return to the White House in 2025.

Quinnipiac University’s poll was conducted from July 23 to July 27 with 963 responses and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. AP-NORC’s poll was also taken from July 23 to 27, but with 1,165 responses and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

This week has been historic for the president, but for all the wrong reasons.

Apart from reaching record lows in both Quinnipiac University and AP-NORC’s polls, the president has hit similar lows in two other surveys released earlier this week.

On July 28, a new Economist/YouGov poll found that 34% of Americans approved of Trump’s job performance, marking the president's lowest approval rating in YouGov’s tracking since he returned to the White House.

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Just one in three Americans approve of how Supreme Court justices are doing their job, according to a new Gallup poll that shows Republicans are particularly dissatisfied with the court.

The July 2026 poll revealed that 33% of Americans approve of the high court, a record low for the 26-year poll. Previously, the lowest bar was at 39% from Gallup data collected in July 2025.

Low ratings from Democrats and independents likely reflect their unhappiness with the ideological tilt of the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, Jeffrey M. Jones wrote for Gallup. But Republicans may be disappointed that the conservative court hasn’t gone far enough – and, in fact, thwarted key Trump administration policy goals, Jones said.

Only 58% of Republicans approved of the court's performance in July 2026 compared with 79% in September 2025 and 75% in July 2025. Democrats' approval rating of the court remained in similarly low range in that time period, only spanning 11% to 14%. The total approval rating during those three time periods was 39% in July 2025, 42% in September 2025 and 33% – the record low, in July 2026.

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Of all the Democratic primaries between a progressive populist and establishment liberal this year, the Michigan Senate contest Aug. 4 could be the most consequential in mapping the party's future.

The race between Abdul El-Sayed, a Detroit-based public health officer, and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a former Obama administration official, has touched almost every nerve on the political left leading up to the 2026 midterms.

Whether it's who is to blame for the 2024 election outcome, what type of candidate is best to defeat Republicans in a general election or the U.S. relationship with Israel and its prosecution of the war in Gaza, centrist and left-leaning factions agree that the stakes are higher than in any other primary battle.

"The crux of the race is between two competing visions for where the Democratic Party should go," said Ravi Mangla, spokesman for Working Families Party, a progressive political party that supports El-Sayed.

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Democratic Majority for Israel is behind a million-dollar effort to slow the momentum of populist candidate William Lawrence in the closing days of a three-way primary in mid-Michigan’s 7th congressional district, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.

Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is running primarily against data center buildouts in the district, but has also made opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war in Iran core parts of his campaign. He has two well-funded centrist challengers. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Tom Barrett.

DMFI is using a vehicle called Rolling Sea Action Fund PAC to move money into the race. It is unclear if DMFI is funding the ad buy with a transfer or whether DMFI donors were being directed to Rolling Sea, but Joel Wanger, DMFI’s chief political officer, is organizing the effort.

It’s a PAC affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus, but it is regularly used by big money interests as a pass-through to cloak the true source of spending. “Rolling Sea exists as a place to wash money,” as one consultant working on the race put it to Drop Site. The ad buy began with $899,000 being put behind it.

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