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Podcast: US Winter Olympic Team Has Its 1st Out Athlete; Trump’s Homophobic Judicial Nominees; Out Actor Alan Cumming To Star In New CBS Drama “Instinct”

In this week’s podcast:

• The U.S. Winter Olympic team has it’s first openly gay athlete with figure skater Adam Rippon

• Illinois’ ban on the so-called ‘gay panic’ defense has gone into effect

• NYC has its first openly gay and HIV+ City Council Speaker, Corey Johnson

• Newly-elected Alabama Sen. Doug Jones’ hottie gay son served up serious side-eye at his dad’s swearing-in, and the internet loved it

• Another judicial nominee from Donald Trump is severely homophobic – what a shock!

• Ground-breaking TV series “The Fosters” will come to an end after this season

• Alan Cumming will make history starring in a new CBS drama this season

All that and more on this episode of The Randy Report

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Steve Bannon Backtracks On “Fire And Fury” Statements, Regrets Delay In Responding

Axios reports that beleaguered former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has issued a statement of “regret” regarding statements he made that have been quoted in Michael Wolff’s explosive new exposé, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Via Axios:

“Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around.”

“My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda — as I have shown daily in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News and in speeches and appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama.”

“President Trump was the only candidate that could have taken on and defeated the Clinton apparatus. I am the only person to date to conduct a global effort to preach the message of Trump and Trumpism; and remain ready to stand in the breach for this president’s efforts to make America great again.”

“My comments about the meeting with Russian nationals came from my life experiences as a Naval officer stationed aboard a destroyer whose main mission was to hunt Soviet submarines to my time at the Pentagon during the Reagan years when our focus was the defeat of ‘the evil empire’ and to making films about Reagan’s war against the Soviets and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in selling uranium to them.”

“My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don Jr.”

“Everything I have to say about the ridiculous nature of the Russian ‘collusion’ investigation I said on my 60 Minutes interview. There was no collusion and the investigation is a witch hunt.”

“I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president’s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency.”

Not sure how Bannon squares his statements about the Trump Tower/Russian meeting as being about Paul Manafort when he clearly said, according to Wolff, “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.'”

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Skater Adam Rippon Becomes First Openly Gay U.S. Athlete To Qualify For Winter Olympics

After missing out on the 2010 and 2014 Olympic teams, 28-year-old Adam Rippon made history today as he became the first openly gay U.S. athlete to qualify for the Winter Olympics.

But the achievement doesn’t come without some controversey.

After an exceptional short program Thursday night at the U.S. Nationals, Rippon fell on his opening quad jump in the long program and missed two critical triple jumps. Those mistakes landed him in fourth place.

But the U.S. Nationals, while important, don’t dictate the Olympic team.

Due to his strong international resume (2016 U.S. champion, two-time Junior World Champ), he was chosen for the team instead of U.S. Nationals second place finisher Ross  Miner, who clearly had the long skate of his career Saturday night.

Rippon joins 2018 National champion Nathen Chen who won with a 40 point lead over his competitors. The third member of the Men’s U.S. team will be 17-year-old Vincent Zhou who claimed the bronze medal last night and many believe to be the future of American men’s figure skating.

Rippon, who came out in 2015, spoke to reporters this week about how much the moment means to him and the LGBTQ community.

“I think in this day and age, it’s so important for you to be proud of who you are. I can’t believe I am where I am today. I was just a little gay kid in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania,” said Rippon. “Growing up I didn’t have a lot of role models. I said if I was ever given a platform and had a chance I would share my story.”

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CNN’s Jake Tapper Ends Interview Segment As Trump Spox Stephen Miller Becomes Unhinged On-Air

Stephen Miller. the oh-so-condescending pet of Donald Trump, made an appearance this morning on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper thinking he would show the world how he could own Tapper.

But in the end, Miller only confirmed his status as Trump’s petulant postulant for impertinent fool.

From the beginning, Miller almost appears drunk or stoned swaying forward and back as he spoke in an odd, slow cadence using his biggest and bestest hyperbolic adjectives wherever he could fit them in.

While the appearance was meant to discuss Michael Wolff’s explosive new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, clearly Miller came in with the scripted talking points the White House has been pushing of late: conquered 17 Republicans in the primary, brought down the Bush “dynasty” and Clinton “dynasty,” brilliant, brilliant, blah blah blah.

Miller also got in some shots at CNN:

Miller: “You get 24 hours of negative anti-Trump hysterical coverage on this network.”

Tapper: “I think the viewers right now can ascertain who is being hysterical.”

Eventually, Miller became unhinged telling Tapper that HE was condescending. Tapper finally had had enough of Miller and closed the segment while Miller was still talking:

“I get it. There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious and you’re being a factotum in order to please him, okay. And I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time. Thank you, Stephen.”

Annnnnnd, scene.

Bonus points to Tapper for the effortless inclusion of the word “obsequious.”

If you can’t stomach 12 minutes of Miller, here’s the very end as Tapper dismisses him:

I really encourage you to watch the full performance below, though. It’s pretty wild and wooly.

And just to confirm Miller’s boss was watching:

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News Round-Up: January 6, 2018

A furry chest to rest on during frigid temperatures will definitely keep you warm
I got something to keep you warm…

Some news items you might have missed:

• With the northeast freezing in record cold temperatures, I think InstaHunk David Lopez (above) has just what folks need to keep warm 🙂 #FurTrap

• One of four men who used gay dating app Grindr to perpetrate hate crimes in Texas last year has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. His three cohorts are awaiting sentencing.

• According to Michael Wolff’s new blockbuster book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Donald Trump tweeted his ban on transgender military service members just minutes after being presented with four different options to consider in terms of changing the current policy. The briefing was meant to be a preliminary meeting.

• Howard C. Nielson Jr., nominated by Donald Trump to be a judge on the U.S. District Court in Utah, doesn’t think gay judges should be allowed to hear LGBT-centric cases. Following that logic, Nielson shouldn’t be allowed to hear cases involving straight people. Or white people. Or assholes.

• I hate to remind you, but there are simply terrible people in the world that hate the LGBT community. Like virulently anti-gay Linda Harvey who told radio listeners recently that Christians must work to “re-horrify people about the sin of homosexuality.” #Seriously

• You know what else warms up a cold Saturday? Chippendales star James Davis… 🙂

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Out Music: Calum Scott “You Are The Reason”

Out singer Calum Scott, of Britain’s Got Talent fame, just shared the official music video for his single “You Are The Reason” and it’s definitely reason to swoon.

The romantic ballad begins quiet and intimate, but artfully builds to a soaring anthem of love.

The video highlights sensitive expressions of love of all kinds – straight, gay, romantic, parental…

It’s a worthy follow-up to Scott’s gorgeous cover of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.”

“You Are The Reason” will be included on Scott’s upcoming debut album, Only Human.

Watch the video below.

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Trump Twitter Rant: I’m A “Very Stable Genius!”

Donald “Stable Genius” Trump

Hoo-boy! What a way to wake up on a Saturday morning!

As the new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House got an early release yesterday due to Donald Trump’s pumping up the interest in the explosive tome, folks began to focus on the book’s passages relating to possible mental deficiencies.

The Trumpster clearly has had enough of that kind of talk. Taking to Twitter this morning, he wrote:

Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence…..Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star…..to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!

“StableGenius” immediately began trending on social media.

And the crowd goes wild:

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Pulse Shooter’s Wife: I Knew He Was Going To Attack Nightclub

Just hours after the deadly shooting massacre at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman was questioned by the FBI. According to reports, Salman hand-wrote a 12-page statement providing specific details of the attack.

Salman’s statement was quietly released in a batch of records from the case at the end of December 2017.

Via USA Today:

The 12-page statement, quietly released by federal authorities at the end of December in a batch of records in the case, was taken hours after the June 12, 2016 shooting. The attack left 49 dead and dozens of others injured.

Noor Salman was questioned for hours, without a lawyer, after authorities learned her husband was the gunman behind the attack.

She was arrested last year on federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence but has pleaded not guilty, claiming she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said Mateen abused her and claims she did not know of his plot.

But her defense conflicts with the signed statement she gave to the FBI, which details her knowledge of Mateen’s planning and his path to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State.

She told agents multiple times she knew his plans and that he was going to attack the Orlando club when he left their home.

On June 12, 2016, Salman’s husband killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He was eventually shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.

Salman faces charges of aiding a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice.

In her written statement, Salman told investigators:

• Mateen bought a rifle just days before the attack. When she saw it in his car trunk he told her not to say “anything to anybody.”

• Driving by heavily populated areas like Disney World and Pulse Nightclub, he told her, “How upset are people going to be when it gets attacked?”

• Two days before the massacre Salman noticed Mateen looking at the Pulse Nightclub’s website. When she asked what he was doing, he replied, “This is my target.”

• The night before the shooting Mateen was “pumped up” wearing a handgun in a holster and a backpack full of ammunition. “I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub,” she wrote.

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Trump Demands, And Gets, A Renewed Investigation Into The Clinton Foundation

To be clear, this is Attorney General Jeff Sessions looking to save his job.

From The New York Times:

F.B.I. agents have renewed questions about the dealings of the Clinton Foundation amid calls from President Trump and top Republicans for the Justice Department to take a fresh look at politically charged accusations of corruption, people familiar with the investigation said on Friday.

They said that agents have interviewed people connected to the foundation about whether any donations were made in exchange for political favors while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Career prosecutors had shut down the investigation in 2016 for lack of evidence.

During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump branded his rival “Crooked Hillary” and promised to send her to jail if he won. He briefly struck a more magnanimous tone after the election and said he had no interest in pushing for a prosecution.

But as his legal problems have mounted, Mr. Trump has returned to his attacks on his favorite target. With four former aides facing federal charges and the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, investigating him and his campaign, Mr. Trump has openly called for Mrs. Clinton to be investigated and one of her top aides to be imprisoned.

The Clinton Foundation issued this statement:

“Time after time, the Clinton Foundation has been subjected to politically motivated allegations, and time after time these allegations have been proven false. None of this has made us waver in our mission to help people.

“The Clinton Foundation has demonstrably improved the lives of millions of people across America and around the world, while earning top ratings from charity watchdog groups in the process. There are real issues in our society needing attention that the Clinton Foundation works hard to solve every day. So we’re going to stay focused on what really matters.”

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, offered a more direct assessment:

“Let’s call this what it is: a sham. This is a philanthropy that does life-changing work, which Republicans have tried to turn into a political football. It began with a long-debunked project spearheaded by (former Trump adviser) Steve Bannon during the presidential campaign. It continues with Jeff Sessions doing Trump’s bidding by heeding his calls to meddle with a department that is supposed to function independently.

“The goal is to distract from the indictments, guilty pleas, and accusations of treason from Trump’s own people at the expense of our justice system’s integrity. It’s disgraceful, and should be concerning to all Americans.”