The Hill reports: Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Howard Dean said Friday an agreement between Hillary Clinton and the DNC was “standard operating procedure.” Brazile said this week in an excerpt from her upcoming book that an agreement between Clinton and the DNC was “unethical” and harmed Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) chances against Clinton in the Democratic primary. More …

CNN reports: Former President George H.W. Bush has a blunt assessment of Donald Trump: “He’s a blowhard.” And his son, former President George W. Bush, has harsh words for his Republican successor as well: “This guy doesn’t know what it means to be president.” Those stinging comments mark the first time the former presidents are speaking out about Trump in …

The New York Times reports: Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee. Shortly after the trip, Mr. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he …

The BBC reports: Entertainment company Netflix has severed ties with Kevin Spacey, star of its House of Cards show, amid a number of sex assault allegations against him. Netflix said it would hold talks with the producers to see if production, which was suspended this week, could resume without Spacey. Netflix also said it would not release Spacey’s film about …

Newsweek reports: Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock was quite the fan of President Donald Trump before he killed 58 people and left another 500 injured—the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. Paddock, a millionaire who reportedly would gamble up to $1 million a night in casinos, was attracted to the president’s politics because of the boost the stock market …

The New York Daily News reports: Two male lions photographed while seemingly having sex has fur flying in Kenya, where a local moral leader and censor blames the same-sex behavior on gays who’ve visited the area. “These animals need counseling, because probably they have been influenced by gays who have gone to the national parks and behaved badly,” Ezekiel Mutua, …

The Wall Street Journal reports: CNN president Jeff Zucker, a veteran TV executive who once warned that the TV business couldn’t afford to trade “analog dollars for digital pennies,” is now embracing online publishing as central to CNN’s model. After investing in digital verticals focused on business and politics and acquiring an online-video startup, CNN is gearing up for another …

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports: Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council (FRC), joined a group of evangelical leaders from the United States to meet with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been criticized as a dictator responsible for Egypt’s harshest political repression in the country’s history. The el-Sisi government is also responsible for …

Just out from Pew Research: As Donald Trump sets off on his visit to Asia, the public has become increasingly concerned over North Korea’s capability and its willingness to use nuclear weapons against the United States. About seven-in-ten Americans (71%) say the U.S. should take North Korea’s nuclear threats “very seriously,” up from 56% in 2013. And more say North …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration released a dire scientific report Friday detailing the growing threats of climate change. The report stands in stark contrast to the administration’s efforts to downplay humans’ role in global warming, withdraw from an international climate accord and reverse Obama-era policies aimed at curbing U.S. greenhouse-gas output. The White House did not seek to …

According to scamvangelist Mary Colbert, Trump’s use of “rough language” only proves how much he’s totally like Jesus. Seriously. Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: Colbert said that Christians who oppose Trump because of his use of “rough language” must also “have a problem with Jesus because he spoke to the Pharisees and Sadducees and said, ‘You vipers, you …

The New York Post reports: Robert Mueller says his prosecutors will need three weeks in court to lay out their case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. The special counsel filed papers Friday estimating a 15-day timeline for presenting his case against the former campaign manager and his business partner, Rick Gates, to a jury. The pair are accused …

The New York Times reports: Twitter blamed the deletion of President Trump’s Twitter account on Thursday night on a rogue customer support employee. That employee has since been hailed in social media as a hero and as a scourge for acting against the president, who said the move reflected the impact his Twitter messages have had. Yet it turns out …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump called the news that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will not be facing any prison time a “complete disgrace” today, but that’s far from the harshest comment he’s had on the issue. His most recent previous remark came on Oct. 16, when Trump declined to comment on the Bergdahl case, saying, “They’re setting up sentencing, …

“It’s amazing, here we are, so much news and the news is so big and the news is so frequent that the biggest news every day becomes a back-page story the next day. The Las Vegas massacre cover-up, nothing. The JFK files being declassified, Hitler still alive. All the history textbooks lied to us. I was lied to my entire …

The Peoria Journal-Star reports: Attorneys for former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock have appealed an order last week that threw out two but not all of the charges against him. The move could place the Jan. 22 trial date in the Urbana courtroom of U.S. District Judge Colin Bruce in jeopardy as such appeals can freeze the proceedings until they are …

CNN reports: US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has received a dishonorable discharge but will avoid prison time for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after abandoning his outpost in 2009, a military judge ruled Friday. He originally faced the possibility of life in prison, but the prosecution asked the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance, for a 14-year sentence. Bergdahl’s …

Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network is weighing on Australia’s marriage battle in typical fashion, giving voice to the extremist Party For Freedom, which typically rails against blacks, Muslims, refugees, and immigrants. Australia’s Party For Freedom is an offshoot of Dutch extremist Geert Wilders’ party of the same name and their stunts included “storming” Muslim-friendly Christian churches while dressed as Muslim …

Esquire reports: President Trump cannot be thrilled with the news this morning. The New York Times reported there is increasingly clear evidence that both Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, experimented with the truth when they said they knew of no one in the Trump campaign who was in contact with Russian officials during the election. It looks more …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump embarked on the longest trip of his presidency Friday — a five-country, 10-day tour of Asia designed to strengthen diplomatic and economic partnerships while contending with North Korea’s nuclear threat. The president heads overseas during a time of what some experts see as a decline of U.S. influence in the region and they suggest …