Curtains for the Kennedy Center?

0:00When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's fall drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy to layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon fall lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in store at on Lululemon.com now. It's Wednesday, September 16th, and it only took a couple of hours for this curtain to come down. We start here. After learning Donald Trump's name won't go up on the Kennedy Center, his allies on the board announced the Kennedy Center's shutting down to opponents. This is a hostage ticket. Is this about construction or a tribute? What's worse, letting a Russian oligarch pay for your wedding or a complete stranger? President doesn't know who this person is. I think other members of the family don't know who this person is. The new denials from the Trump family.

1:02And this is not what the FBI director wanted to be debating. Why don't you all leave with my chin and get in to beach theality? That was my initial response center. The latest concern about the Bureau's recruiting problem. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky. I have been to Washington a bunch of times. I have never been to the Kennedy Center for the performing arts. I'm not uniqueness, right? Most Americans have never, will never go to a play or an opera or a concert at this marble building on the shores of the Potomac. So why has been on the headlines so much since President Trump came into office last year? Why do we care? Well, first of all, it's this nation's preeminent government-funded art space. More importantly, though, it is run the way any high-level government project is run. Like the Smithsonian or our monuments or our scientific laboratories, the government may pay for the upkeep of the facility, but it doesn't impose an ideology on it. Like if you hire world-class museum directors and they say this stuff is worth exhibiting,

2:06you exhibit it. If the artistic director says this is art, we're showing. You show it. Under President Trump, that precept has been tossed out the window. Political appointees made it clear that if the Kennedy Center is not showing work that they feel will personally reflect well on Donald Trump's vision of America, they won't have a job much longer. Trump supporters were named to the Board of Directors. Trump himself was personally named Chairman, and all this came to a head when he announced the building would no longer just bear John F. Kennedy's name, but his own. Some people refer to this the Trump Kennedy Center. To many in Washington, this fight over a building's name has come to symbolize something more. A fight over whether a president can declare himself the face and arbiter of American governance. Like, is the U.S. government him or is the U.S. government all of us? This question has been posed to several judges. Trump's name went up, it's come down, it's been covered by scaffolding. Yesterday, a judge seemed to issue a pretty conclusive ruling against him, but within an hour, the Kennedy Center Board had declared it was shutting down.

3:07Washington's most lauded arts venue is shuttered. ABC's National Correspondent Stephen Portnoy starts us off in Washington. Stephen, I mean, you've been to this venue many times, right? Walk me through what's been happening here. Yeah, I'm married to a music major. I won't say drag to the symphony, but pleasantly attending the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. Look, what happened yesterday was remarkable in so many different ways, Brad, because you had a federal judge, Judge Christopher Cooper, issuing that order, saying that the board is essentially trying to thumb its nose at his own decision and at a statute that's been on the books for more than four decades, which said that the Kennedy Center is DC's only memorial to the late John F. Kennedy and that there can be no other memorial in the public areas of the Kennedy Center. And what the judge said is that after he issued a ruling in May to take President Trump's name off the side of the building, the board basically thumbed its nose and decided to, in his words, buck a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted by passing another resolution last month that would add President Trump's name back on the side of the building

4:10as the man who renovated and restored the Kennedy Center. It would also have possibly added a line about it being endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center fund, like the like the John F. Kennedy Center brought to you by Donald Trump, that kind of vibe, right? Sort of like a sponsorship message, but also they were going to rename the grounds as the Donald J. Trump Plaza. I see. And that the judge also said could not move forward. But what was really striking yesterday was that hours after that ruling came down, the board met in private to close the center, citing what a Kennedy Center official called exacerbated structural emergencies. Now Monday night, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik posted a video that he says was security footage of a relatively small piece of the ceiling of the Kennedy Center, just outside the concert hall falling to the red carpet floor. Now the building was empty at the time, but you see the debris scattered over a pretty wide field. And Lutnik said in his social media post on Monday night that someone could have been killed and that no one should be able to enter the building anymore and it's time to close

5:11it for good. Brad, this has been a fight that's been leading to this point for the better part of a year. Take it down, take it down. It was last December. The board voted to change the name of the Kennedy Center. President Trump said he wanted it to be closed for renovations. Congress had already put $257 million on the table and approved that funding for renovations. And now we're at this point where the president says if he doesn't get his name on the side of the building, the building will be closed and not renovated at all. Well, this is my question, Stephen. Yeah, the decision by the board to shut it down. Are they saying that was just like a timing coincidence? Like we've really been hurting with construction. We actually just have to shut it down and devote ourselves to construction. Or is it a response to this judges ruling kind of being like if people aren't going into the Trump Center, then no one's going into any center. It's hard to know exactly what is driving the timing of this, but let's just put it in sequence. You had the judges ruling in May that when the board voted months earlier to close at the president's insistence that the board had not properly acted as fiduciaries that they

6:14hadn't considered the impact on the programming and the finances of the Kennedy Center that they needed to basically look at it more carefully. So since late May, the board has been looking at various options. And last month, the board accepted a recommendation from an outside consulting group to close the Kennedy Center for two years for a renovation that would cost something on the order of $280 million. Now attached to that vote was another resolution honoring the president. This is where things get really sticky. It's not just about closing the center and renovating it. It's about how they're going to honor President Trump as they do it. And what they've said in court documents and what administration officials have said out loud is that this idea of honoring the president is so personally important to him that if it isn't undertaken, the work can't go forward. And that is something that official Washington that the courts are really going to have to grapple with because the president reiterated it on social media yesterday. He said in his post, the closing will take place immediately.

7:16However, the renovation and reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the DC circuit, that's the appellate court, rules on the board's approved name. Now, the president goes on to say if the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the US Supreme Court. The reconstruction and renovation of the Kennedy Center will not take place. Right. This sounds very much like no name, no center to opponents. This is a hostage taking. That's wild. So what does that mean in the meantime, then, Stephen? I mean, do we just witness the death of the Kennedy Center? Is that too broad? Is that a temporary death? What is this? Well, it's really hard to know what's going to happen next. I mean, the president has very much made his position clear. I was honored by it. It's a board. It's a very distinguished board. Most distinguished people in the country. In the broader totality you have the president, obviously building a ballroom, which also had been challenged in court, the hella pad on the south lawn of the White House, beautification of National Parkland here in DC.

8:16He wants to remake a golf course, a public golf course, so it can be PGA tour ready. And obviously the Kennedy Center. Every time there's an issue that comes up, it has been connected. We will consider it to do this. Or unless it has Donald Trump's name on the building today. Why it's so important that the president's name go on the side is hard to explain. The president himself has not been asked that question directly. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik did tell reporters some weeks ago that he sees it as akin to any large donor giving money for a hospital or a university that benefactor might expect some sort of an honor. This is just an acknowledgement of renovated and restored. We should have been able to work this out. But I have to say it again, Brad. The money that's on the table to renovate the Kennedy Center has not been put up personally by Donald Trump. It's not even been raised by him. It's been passed by the People's Elected Representatives in Congress. $257 million is already on the table.

9:19And that's taxpayer money. That's not something that Donald Trump personally raised or came out of his pocket. Yet he's saying if he doesn't get his name on the side of the building, that work won't happen at all. And if we're talking about President Trump being upset with judges, I mean, I should mention yesterday, President Trump publicly castigated members of the Supreme Court, the voted against him on this mail ballot initiative. The Supreme Court basically said, no, everyone, you're voting by mail the same way as you ever have. No changes before November, despite what the president wanted. He laid into specifically the conservatives he appointed to the court, Gorsuch Kavanaugh, Barrett, he said, quote, these are not the people I interview to serve on the United States Supreme Court. And quote, so a lot of anger for the judiciary after another sort of defeat for the White House. Stephen Portinoi, thank you so much. Hey, you bet, Brad. Next up on Start here, it's one thing to owe the new in-laws a favor. It's another to owe Vladimir Putin's buddy. We're back in a bit. This show is sponsored by Trust and Will.

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12:24Get yourself the bedding of your dreams. Right now go to abcsecretsavings.com slash start here for 50% off the best bedding you will ever sleep on that's abcsecretsavings.com slash start here. Yesterday, federal prosecutors accused Russian officials of plotting acts of violence around the world, including in the United States. In the southern dish of New York, an indictment was returned that's in charging multiple Russian individuals. This goes beyond the sabotage in terror attacks we've heard about in Europe. Russian intelligence services allegedly worked with guys tasked with tracking down and killing dissidents, including allegedly one man who was believed to be working in Washington. That's the president's attorney general Todd Blanche leading the charge on this case. But at the same time, a bombshell report this week said other allies of Vladimir Putin have been curing favor with people close to the president, including by bankrolling the wedding party of Donald Trump, Jr.

13:27In oligarch of a country we oppose, it's paying for the wedding of the president's son. Have you ever heard anything like this so corrupt? This comes from the investigative outlet pro-publica and if it's true, the obvious question would be what do people like this expect in return? Several members of the Trump family are now going to great lengths to say they barely cross paths with this guy. Let's check in with abc's chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl John. First up, what can you tell us about this wedding and what is pro-publica reporting about it? The pro-publica broke the story that this Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who is extremely close to Vladimir Putin. I mean, you can just Google the name and you will see all kinds of images of him and Putin together. He traveled to China this year with Putin as a matter of fact that he bankrolled the incredibly lavish wedding party that Donald Trump Jr. had when he married his new wife, Bettina, in the Bahamas. It was a wedding party spread across two, not one, two private islands, huge fireworks

14:29display. The party was all bankrolled by this Russian oligarch. That's the story from pro-publica. The incredible thing is once it popped, not only were they're not denials, but Don Jr. and his new wife put out an Instagram post with lots more pictures of the celebrations and thanked their dear friend Umar for the generous wedding gift. And what did Donald Trump Jr. say in his defense? Well, sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift, not in this case, baby. The distinction he was saying is he didn't pay for our wedding. We got married in a church, very private, small ceremony with just family. This was just the after party. It was an after party. It was an after party, meaning the reception, like the wedding wedding that we all think of. You know, I don't know how much you paid when you got married for the ceremony. It's usually the reception, it's the big deal. And this was one heck of a reception. I mean, this estimated to have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I mean, professional dancers, a whole big thing, the fireworks, we're not the kind of fireworks

15:32that you might see at a private event, more like a fourth of July event. But this was all bankrolled by this Russian oligarch. But what we know he was really buying was not to have a good time at a wedding, but access to the Trump family. The corruption could not get any more shameless. The oligarch had his office had put out a statement saying that they never talk politics. He's never talked politics with Donald Trump Jr. And they've been friends for a couple of years. So this is a guy that he's known for just a couple of years, a whose bank rolling a phenomenally lavish a wedding celebration that takes place not just after the ceremony, but an entire weekend's worth. Like and basically when his dad is running for reelection, that's when they become close, apparently. What is the response then from President Trump and the rest of the family for that matter? Well, President Trump, through the White House, issued a statement saying that he doesn't know who Umar Kremlev is, but that this was just an after party. So there's no big deal.

16:33President doesn't know who this person is. I think other members of the family don't know who this person is. But what was interesting is some of the other Trump's, Eric Trump also said that he has no idea who Umar Kremlev is. And the most interesting response, which was fairly lengthy, came from Melania Trump, who doesn't really issue statements on much of anything. But she put out a statement saying that she doesn't know who this guy is and that she had nothing to do with the planning of the wedding and nothing to do with the financial arrangements behind the wedding. I don't know who was asking because nobody suggested she had. She wasn't there. You know, President Trump wasn't there. I think all the relevant people involved, the president and his kids have already addressed it. I don't have any information. I don't know this person either. But she put out the statement effectively saying, look, I had nothing to do with this, nothing at all and certainly nothing with the financial arrangements. I guess I'm trying to figure out how big is this because is this like rich people being rich? Is this something that happens? Is the Kremlin whizzling into the Trump family?

17:34Is this something in between? Brad, it's a big deal. I mean, make no mistake. This is a big deal. It spoke to a former senior official and another Republican administration, not a Trump administration. Very senior official who just said this is, in the words we're used, criminally insane. Now, I don't know if that's true, but it gives you an sense that the concerns that any foreigner giving a gift of this size to the son of a president of the United States, let alone a foreigner who is a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. When you say, am I investigating what? And when you say this person is a friend of Putin, I don't even know if that's true or not. And I mentioned that this guy had traveled this year with Putin to China. That trip actually took place just a few days before the wedding that he bankrolled. So this is certainly something that's concerned. And critics are like, this is how you do a back channel.

18:37You talk to one guy, then you go and talk to the other guy. And Kremlin is the head of an international boxing association that has been banned by the Olympic committee. And he wrote an open letter to President Trump saying that he, let's make boxing, Olympic boxing great again. So he definitely has something that he wants personally, which is helping in getting boxing back into the Olympics, which would put his organization front and center. And that the Trumps really need a few hundred thousand more dollars. Is that what it takes for them to sell out to America to the Russians? We've certainly been hearing from Democrats. They think this is clearly something that needs to be investigated. Yeah, a lot of news out of this wedding a few months after the fact. All right, Jonathan Carl. Thank you so much. Thanks Brad. Meanwhile, another member of the Trump administration was in the spotlight yesterday. As FBI director Cash Patel appeared in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He's expected he faced some pointed questions, particularly from Democrats, but I was not expecting all of these questions. Forget detours.

19:38This was more like a safari, including more talk of wildlife than I ever need to hear again. ABC's Alex Malin covered the Justice Department. Alex, what were your takeaways from this oversight hearing? Yeah, I mean, it is just every time that we see FBI director Cash Patel come before the Senate or the House. It is unlike any questioning of an FBI director you've ever seen because he's unlike any FBI director we've ever had before. Usually these oversight hearings are for questions about what the FBI is doing about terrorism, national security investigations, crime. But the FBI director was peppered with questions over and over again on issues like his potential misuse of FBI funds for his personal travel. And how about your trip to the Boondoggle Ranch? How many days off do you take? Because I took four this year. How about your trip to the United States? I want to go after delivering the most prolific crime reduction in US history. The video of him traveling over to the Olympics where he was chugging beers with the US Olympic hockey team. Can't you let the players enjoy the joy of their own victory?

20:43What you'll never understand is the players who are my friends invited me into the locker room. We've also heard of potential misuse of FBI resources dedicated to his girlfriend and her personal protection use of FBI assets to personally protect her. Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times reported that you used a full-time FBI SWAT detail to protect and drive your girlfriend. Your agent's interview your girlfriend about Miss Williamson's reporting, is that true? Why are you talking about my loved ones who have been threatened? And also the other controversies, whether the FBI's firing of scores of national security officials has potentially put the country in greater danger or the rooting out of anybody who was involved in past investigations of President Trump. Do you think firing the president's political opponents is more important than retaining the decades of experience and expertise monitoring intelligent threats from Iran? I think what's most important is not have a weaponized FBI. So he was asked about all of that, Brad, but one of the most striking moments of the entire

21:47hearing was when he was pressed on the FBI's hiring practices. Yeah, tell me about this because I'm going to say it. The word bestiality was uttered multiple times in a Senate hearing. Why? So Brad, this relates to a recent series of reports that the FBI recently revised its standards for hiring new FBI agents and removed requirements that FBI officials who admitted in the past to engaging in prostitution or bestiality that that would not necessarily disqualify them from becoming FBI agents. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. So that used to be a deal breaker. Now, bestiality load longer a deal breaker. Am I getting this straight? And this is something that would be asked presumably of FBI agents when they're getting polygraph tests before they are onboarded onto the FBI. And so if you're asked, did you ever engage in prostitution? If the polygraph would go up or if you were asked if you'd ever engage in a sex act with an animal, and that would tick the polygraph, that would obviously raise a lot of concerns.

22:53But this was something that was recently clarified. And yesterday we heard the FBI director's explanation as to why. The person who recommended it, why didn't you just say what planet did you parachute in from? Why do I want to leave? Well, that was my initial thought. Why do I want to leave with my chin and get into bestiality? That was my initial response, Senator. But they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI. And so I thought they should be considered. People who may have been victims, he said, of bestiality. People who may have been sex traffic and forced into potential sex acts with animals that he did not want to disqualify them per se from becoming FBI agents just because they were victimized. But seriously though, Alex, I guess the question is, is there a changing recruiting standard for FBI agents? And if so, why? And yeah, that's the big question that it relates to what we've seen at the FBI under

23:54this administration and the Justice Department is this rooting out of the career workforce and this reorienting from issues like national security and terrorism over towards immigration enforcement. And we've seen a dramatic shift, unlike we've seen in the recent history of any of our national federal law enforcement of this reorienting, which has included thousands of agents, thousands of lion agents being either removed or resigning, choosing to leave the FBI as a result of this administration's enforcement priorities. That is one of the reasons that we've actually seen the administration try and surge hiring because they want to effectuate the administration's deportation agenda so much more aggressively than what we've seen both on the DHS and FBI fronts that they're really scrambling. We've seen this also over the Department of Homeland Security, these laxing of hiring standards over at ICE as well in order to try and onboard as many agents to basically show the president and show his supporters that they are carrying out his agenda.

24:54Really interesting. Again, aside just the bizarre back and forth earlier in the hearing, Alex Mellon covering the FBI and the DOJ. Thank you so much. Thanks, Brad. Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, this is not the issue where you want to be thinking out loud. Ed Sheeran's got the shivers. One last thing is next. Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year I've been layering in some styles from the new Louis Le Mans fall drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Louis Le Mans fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at LouisLe Mans.com. Ed Sheeran's live concerts are famously long.

26:18After a couple hours of openers, he will then start his own headlining act. So by the time he's doing a shape of you on core, his own performance has gone past two and a half hours. Well, now his shows might have to be two and a half hours total because his openers are dropping left and right. Earlier this week, the rapper Maclamore revealed he had been dropped as Sheeran's opening act for his North and South American tour after he performed his protest song Hines Hall at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Song explicitly accuses the US government of supporting a genocide in Gaza and calls Israel an apartheid state. In a statement, Maclamore said he had been performing this song for years, everyone knows his politics, but here he was performing in one of the highest profile tours on Earth in an NFL stadium. And the promoter of this tour is an NFL owner, Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

27:19Kraft is Jewish, he's unabashedly pro-Israel, and says Maclamore has a quote, broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery. He quickly rallied several fellow team owners to say Maclamore is no longer welcome in their stadiums. Even though one of them, the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas is still set to host the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who's expressed praise for Hitler, but there were also questions for the artists here, what would other musicians do? Sheeran put out a statement that to many of his fans seemed to do more harm than good. He said he was appalled by the war and hoped for peace in the region, while also making it clear he would not address the conflict itself. He said he had nothing to do with this firing, but then also said he would not be pressuring financiers by threatening to quit, quote, I would never let down the fans who have made plans nor would I abandon the touring crew and other support acts and musicians who rely on me to make a living. Well, the other musicians do not seem to rely on him at all here, because by the end of the day, the other opening acts on this tour, including Billy Eilish's brother and collaborator

28:23Phineas, the Danish pop band Lucas Graham, and myrish singer-songwriter Aaron Row, had all dropped out of the tour voluntarily. Row, in particular, invoked Ireland's history of oppression, saying billionaires should not be allowed to silence artists. Then the dagger, Sheeran's own band, has now quit this tour, meaning if he plans to continue performing to support musicians, he'll have to get an entire new roster of musicians. What a turn. I'm kind of curious now to see if this tour is still on, like if it can last through the end of the morning. Hey, by the way, programming now, I am off for a couple days as I move into a new apartment that also means a new Brooklyn Bureau for ABC News, who knows where I'll be speaking to you from next week, but we got Mike Debusky in the chair filling in. Always a great time with him. I'm Brad Milky. I'll see you later.

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