It was a night of surprises at the 55th Annual CMA Awards Wednesday night. While Chris Stapleton was the night’s big winner, taking home Single, Song and Album of the Year — not to mention Male Vocalist — many of the artists taking home trophies were unexpected… and some even made history.
Let’s start with Luke Combs, who was named Entertainer of the Year for the first time, beating long-established stars like Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. “I’m really kind of at a loss,” said the shocked hitmaker, adding, “Every single person that was nominated for this award this year, and every year before, deserves to win this. I don’t deserve to win it, but I’m sure as hell glad that I did!”
—Carly Pearce won her first-ever Female Vocalist of the Year trophy and was so emotional that her friend Ashley McBryde got onstage and spoke for her. “What she meant to say was, ‘There’s a lot of love, respect and admiration in this category,'” laughed Ashley, before nudging Carly forward.
“I’ve had just, had, like a crazy year,” Carly sobbed. “And I just want you guys to know that this means everything to me. Country music saved me at a time that I needed it and I just hope you guys know that this is all I’ve ever wanted in the entire world.”
—Jimmie Allen was named New Artist of the Year, becoming only the second Black performer ever to do so. Darius Rucker was the first, back in 2009. Jimmie recalled how, five years ago, he spent his last $100 to attend the CMA Awards so he could watch the late Charley Pride perform, and how, last year, he and Pride got to perform on the show together.
—Brothers Osborne were named Vocal Duo of the Year, a category they last won in 2018. TJ Osborne, who came out this year, kissed his boyfriend before taking the stage with brother John. “It’s been a crazy roller coaster of a year for us in so many ways, especially for me emotionally,” TJ said. “And to have you all support me, it really does feel like love wins tonight.”
Later, Brothers Osborne sang their powerful song “Younger Me,” which TJ introduced by explaining that while growing up watching the CMAs, he never thought he could be a part of it because of his sexuality.
Another powerful moment came when a young Black girl named Faith Fennidy introduced Mickey Guyton‘s performance of the song “Love My Hair,” explaining that she had inspired Mickey to write the song after she was sent home from school because her braids were “distracting.” Mickey sang the song with Brittney Spencer and Madeline Edwards; all three women wore big, natural hair styles.
And in a moment reminiscent of the 2015 CMAs, when Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake brought down the house, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Stapleton did it again with their soulful duet of “You Are My Sunshine,” which Chris and his wife Morgane originally cut for the 2016 compilation album Southern Family. Stapleton also played guitar as Hudson sang Aretha Franklin‘s arrangement of Willie Nelson‘s “Night Life.”
Other highlights of the night included Luke Combs debuting his new song “Doin’ It;” Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce duetting on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl;” Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean singing “If I Didn’t Love You” and Deana Carter and Lainey Wilson leading the entire Bridgestone Arena in a singalong of Deana’s classic “Strawberry Wine.”
(WASHINGTON) — In a memo never before made public, the Presidential Personnel Office under the direction of John McEntee, a favorite aide of former President Donald Trump, made a case for firing then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper three weeks before Esper was terminated, according to reporting in a new book by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
The contents were first reported by Karl in The Atlantic for an article adapted from his forthcoming book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.”
The memo from McEntee’s office, dated Oct. 19, 2020, provides what Karl calls a remarkable window inside the thinking of the Trump White House during the final months of his presidency and the power held by the then-29-year-old director of the Presidential Personnel Office.
It includes bullet points outlining what Karl calls Esper’s “sins against Trumpism,” including that he “barred the Confederate flag” on military bases, “opposed the President’s direction to utilize American forces to put down riots,” “focused the Department on Russia,” and was “actively pushing for ‘diversity and inclusion.'”
Three weeks later on Nov. 9, 2020, Karl says, Trump fired Esper in precisely the way McEntee recommended and replaced, as recommended, by Christopher Miller. The firing also came two days after Trump lost reelection and as the former president was expected to purge top members of his administration with whom he had long been unhappy.
Obtained by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan KarlObtained by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl
Esper’s termination was made official with a terse two-sentence letter dated Nov. 9 and signed by McEntee that has also, until now, never been made public.
The Presidential Personnel Office, what Karl describes as a normally under-the-radar group responsible for the hiring and firing of the roughly 4,000 executive branch appointees, transformed into an internal police force in the final year of the Trump administration, with employees scouring for acts of dissidence in their ranks.
“Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show” is scheduled to be released on Nov. 16, 2021.
The outing, which the “Lit Up” rockers will co-headline with country rap rock duo The Lacs, will kick off January 7 in Kyle, Texas. Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 12.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Buckcherry.com.
Buckcherry will be touring in continued support of their new album, Hellbound, which dropped this past June. They still have three dates left on their current 2021 tour, which concludes November 13 in South Carolina.
Green Day and Nine Inch Nails are among the headliners for the 2022 Shaky Knees festival, which will take place from April 29 to May 1 in Atlanta.
Billy Idol also is part of the bill, as are My Morning Jacket, Spoon, Travis, CHVRCHES, Death Cab for Cutie and Guided by Voices, among many others.
Green Day and Idol will perform on April 29, while NIN and My Morning Jacket will headline the festival on April 30 and May 1, respectively.
Tickets go on sale Thursday, November 11, at 10 a.m. ET. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit ShakyKneesFestival.com.
Shaky Knees returned this past October after being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Headliners this year included Foo Fighters and The Strokes.
(KENOSHA COUNTY, Wisc.) — Kyle Rittenhouse took the witness stand on Wednesday to testify in his own defense and broke down in sobs as he began to describe shooting three men, two fatally, in what he claimed was an act of self-defense.
Rittenhouse began testifying in a Kenosha County courtroom after telling a judge that he made the decision to do so after consulting with his lawyers.
In his hourslong testimony, the 18-year-old spoke of his background as a trained lifeguard, a fire department EMT cadet and a student studying nursing at Arizona State University.
“Did you come to downtown Kenosha to look for trouble?” his attorney, Mark Richards asked.
Rittenhouse, wearing a blue suit and matching tie, answered, “No.”
Rittenhouse said he went to Kenosha with his sister and friends on Aug. 25, 2020, after seeing online pleas for people to come to the city to help protect it after looting and vandalism broke out over a police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was left paralyzed.
“I went down there to provide first aid,” Rittenhouse testified, adding that he brought along his medical supplies as well as his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. He claimed he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, in self-defense.
“I didn’t intend to kill them. I intended to stop the people who were attacking me,” Rittenhouse repeatedly testified during his testimony.
‘I hear somebody yell, ‘Burn in hell”
Richards directed Rittenhouse to the event of the Aug. 25, 2020, shooting. He testified that he had witnessed a police officer being hit with a brick, another man getting his jaw broken and had been allegedly threatened by Rosenbaum.
He said he got separated from his friends who were guarding three car lots that had been vandalized. He said he was rushing to put out a fire at one of the car lots when he again encountered Rosenbaum and a man named identified by prosecutors as Joshua Ziminski.
“I hear somebody scream ‘Burn in hell,” said Rittenhouse of when he reached the car lot that was being vandalized. “I reply with ‘Friendly, friendly, friendly to let them know hey, I’m just here to help. I don’t want any problems. I just want to put out the fires if there are any.”
Rittenhouse testified that Ziminski pulled a gun and pointed it at him when he approached the car lot with a fire extinguisher.
“As I’m walking towards to put out the fire, I dropped the fire extinguisher and I take a step back (from Ziminski),” Rittenhouse said. “My plan was to get out of that situation.”
But he said before he could get away, Rosenbaum was allegedly bearing down on him and Ziminski and three other people were blocking his path.
Rittenhouse breaks into sobs
“Once I take that step back, I look over my shoulder and Mr. Rosenbaum was now running from my right side, and I was cornered from in front of me with Mr. Ziminski,” Rittenhouse said.
Rittenhouse then began to break down in sobs on the witness stand, prompting Judge Bruce Schroeder to call a recess.
Following the recess, Rittenhouse returned to the witness stand.
He picked his testimony back up at when he saw Rosenbaum charging toward him.
“Mr. Ziminski stepped towards me. I went to go run south,” Rittenhouse said.
‘I shot him’
He said as Rosenbaum began to chase him, he heard Ziminski allegedly tell Rosenbaum “to get him and kill him.”
“As I’m running in that southwest direction, Mr. Rosenbaum throws, at the time I know it’s a bag now,” Rittenhouse said, adding that he initially thought it was a heavy chain Rosenbaum had been seen carrying earlier in the evening.
“I turn around for about a second while continuing to run and I point my gun at Mr. Rosenbaum,” Rittenhouse said.
Richards asked, “Does that stop him from chasing you?”
Rittenhouse replied, “It does not.”
He said Rosenbaum continued to “gain speed” on him and then he heard a gunshot from behind him.
Rittenhouse said Rosenbaum lunged at him.
“I remember his hand on the barrel of my gun,” Rittenhouse said.
Richards asked, “As you see him lunging for your gun, what do you do?”
Rittenhouse answered, “I shot him.”
‘I was defending myself’
He said people in the car lot quickly scattered when he fired four shots at Rosenbaum. He said he tried to go and help Rosenbaum, but as people started to surround them again, he heard individuals screaming, “Get his a–, get his a–. Get him, get him, get him.”
He said he immediately called a friend, Dominick Black, who came with him to Kenosha and told him that he had just shot someone.
“I had to shoot him,” Rittenhouse said he told Black.
He said he started to run in the direction he thought the police were positioned.
Richards asked, “Why were you trying to get to the police?”
Rittenhouse responded, “Because I didn’t do anything wrong. I was defending myself.”
Shooting of Huber and Grosskreutz
Rittenhouse said that as he continued to run, Huber came up behind him and hit him in the back of the head with a skateboard. He also said a concrete rock hit him in the back of the head.
“I get lightheaded. I almost pass out and I stumble and hit the ground,” Rittenhouse said.
He said people quickly surrounded him and he pointed his gun at them and they backed off, except from one unidentified man who kicked him in the face. He said he fired two shots at the man and missed.
“I thought if I were to be knocked out … he would have stomped my face in if I didn’t fire,” Rittenhouse said.
He testified that Huber allegedly ran up to him as he was trying to sit up and struck him in the neck with his skateboard.
“He grabs my gun, and I can feel it pulling away from me, and I could feel the strap starting to come off my body,” Rittenhouse said. “I fire one shot.”
Rosenbaum was struck in the chest and died at the scene, prosecutors said.
He said he lowered his weapon and then saw Grosskreutz in front of him with his hands up.
“As I’m lowering my weapon, I look down and then Mr. Grosskreutz, he lunges at me with his pistol pointed directly at my head,” Rittenhouse said, adding they were so close that their feet were touching.
He said Grosskreutz held his hands in the air and looked at him.
“And that’s when Mr. Grosskreutz brings his arm down. … His pistol is pointed at me and that’s when I shoot him.”
Grosskreutz testified that he was shot in the bicep, causing him to retreat and yell for a medic.
Rittenhouse surrenders
Rittenhouse said he climbed to his feet and proceeded to walk toward a line of police vehicles to turn himself in. He said he approached the window of a squad car and said, “I just shot somebody. I just shot somebody.”
He said the officer responded by telling him to get back and threatened to use pepper spray on him.
The teenager said he then went back to one of the Car Source car lots he had been helping to guard and spoke to the group of allies who were locked inside.
“I’m in shock. I was freaking out. I was just attacked. My head was spinning,” Rittenhouse said.
He said his friend, Dominick Black, drove him to his home in Antioch, Illinois, where he told his mother and two sisters what happened to him. He said his mother drove him to the local police station, where he surrendered.
He said when he arrived at the police station, “I had to tell them that I was involved in a shooting in Kenosha and I needed the Kenosha detectives.”
‘I didn’t intend to kill them’
Prosecutor Thomas Binger then began cross-examining Rittenhouse by asking, “Everybody that you shot that night, you intended to kill, correct?”
Rittenhouse answered, “I didn’t intend to kill them. I intended to stop the people who were attacking me.”
“By killing them?” Binger pressed Rittenhouse.
The teenager responded, “I did what I had to do to stop the person who was attacking me.”
Binger began to ask Rittenhouse about sitting in court for the eight days of trial and having heard all of the 30 sum odd witnesses and view multiple videos that captured the shootings.
“And after all of that, you are telling us your side of the story, correct?” Binger asked.
Schroeder then stopped the questioning and after sending the jury out of the courtroom, Richards objected to Binger’s questioning, telling the judge, “He’s commenting on my client’s right to remain silent.”
Schroeder agreed, telling Binger, “You need to account for this.”
Binger responded, “No, your honor, I am making the point that after hearing everything in the case, now he’s tailoring his story to what has already been introduced.”
Schroeder warned Binger that it was a “grave constitutional violation” to talk about Rittenhouse’s silence until now.
“You’re right on the borderline and you may be over it,” Schroeder said. “But it better stop. This is not permitted.”
When Binger’s cross-examination resumed, he began to ask Rittenhouse about his use of deadly force.
“You’d agree with me that we’re not allowed to use deadly force to protect that Car Source building?” Binger asked.
Rittenhouse answered, “I wasn’t using deadly force to protect the property. I was using deadly force to protect myself.”
Blistering rebuke from judge
Binger then asked Rittenhouse about an incident 10 days before the shooting.
“But yet you have previously indicated that you wished you had your AR-15 to protect someone’s property?” Binger asked.
Richards immediately objected, saying Schroeder had not ruled on the admissibility of the previous act.
When the judge sent the jury out of the courtroom again, Richards suggested that Binger was “attempting to provoke a mistrial.”
“I ask the court to strongly admonish him (Binger) and the next time it happens I’ll be asking for a mistrial with prejudice,” Richards said.
Binger claimed that he believed the “court left the door open” on the matter, prompting an angry and loud response from the judge.
“For me, not for you,” Schroeder shouted. “You should have come and asked for reconsideration.”
Schroeder continued, “I was astonished when you began your examination by commenting on the defendant’s post-arrest silence. That’s basic law. It’s been basic law in this country for 40 years, 50 years.”
Why didn’t you just go home?
Following a lunch break, Binger continued his cross-examination of Rittenhouse, questioning him about his actions before the shootings and whether he would describe the protesters on the streets that night as hostile.
Rittenhouse said he didn’t believe the crowd was hostile toward him or his group. But after Binger played a video of the crowd setting a Dumpster on fire and chanting to Rittenhouse and others protecting the car lots to “protect the property, not the street.”
But Rittenhouse said that he once went into the street to retrieve a dumpster that had been taken from one of the Car Source properties and set on fire.
“Would you agree that the crowd was reacting to members of your group going out in the street and trying to interfere with what was going on off your property?” Binger asked.
Rittenhouse answered, “I didn’t think they were happy about it, no.”
Binger noted that police moved the crowd south past the Car Source lot where Rittenhouse and his group were and set up a demarcation line at 60th Street in Kenosha.
Rittenhouse agreed with Binger that once the police moved the crowd south there appeared to be no more threat to the Car Source location.
“So why not go home at that point?” Binger asked.
Rittenhouse said he stayed to help provide first aid to anyone in need.
Binger noted that despite the threat being apparently eliminated from the business he was protecting by police moving the crowd south, Rittenhouse ventured south of the demarcation line at 60th St. armed with his rifle and accompanied by another man, Ryan Balch, an armed military veteran.
Rittenhouse said he was looking for people who needed first aid when he and Balch got separated, leaving him isolated in the crowd Binger said appeared hostile.
“You are now entering a crowd of whatever you want to call them, protesters, demonstrators. Your attorneys called them rioters, or looters, or whatever. That’s who you’re now going to be part of. You’re going to be in that crowd, right?”
Rittenhouse responded, “I was walking through. I announced myself as friendly and that I was there to help them.”
The defense has three more witnesses to call before they will rest their case. Closing arguments could come Friday or Monday.
(NEW YORK) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in an interview over the summer he “wouldn’t be surprised” if somebody who worked for him at some point sat on his lap.
“I don’t recall anyone specifically. But, you know, I have people who have worked with me 14 years, 10 years,” Cuomo said, according to a newly released transcript of a July interview with attorneys deputized by the New York Attorney General to investigate claims of sexual harassment. “If somebody were to sit on my lap, you know, I wouldn’t push them off.”
Cuomo resigned in August after a monthslong investigation by State Attorney General Letitia James found he sexually harassed 11 women, including current and former state employees.
The interview began just after 8 a.m. on July 17 in the governor’s Manhattan office. The 515-page transcript, which was released Wednesday, depicts Cuomo as standoffish from the start, sparring with attorneys Joon Kim and Anne Clark over their titles and reminding them of his potent political resume.
“I’m a former attorney general,” Cuomo reportedly said in the 11-hour interview. “I’m aware of the attorney general’s power. I’m aware of the special prosecutor power, independent investigator power.”
Cuomo was governor of New York for 10 years and previously served as the state’s attorney general. In all of that time of government service, Cuomo said he only recalled taking sexual harassment training in 2019.
“I don’t remember what years I did or didn’t take sexual harassment training,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo also told the investigators he had come to believe some of the sexual harassment accusations were the work of political opponents who “have been part of orchestrating and resonating the complaints against me.”
“That’s what you think now?” Kim asked. “That’s what I know now,” Cuomo replied.
The investigation included interviews with 165 witnesses, including several of Cuomo’s accusers, including former New York Executive Chamber employee Brittany Commisso.
According to the transcript, Commisso alleged throughout her interview that Cuomo would hug and kiss her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable and that he made “inappropriate comments about her marital status.”
“His hugs definitely got closer and tighter to the point where I knew I could feel him pushing my body against his,” she alleged.
“I definitely noticed that when he would kiss me on the cheek, I took it as OK, he is being friendly,” she said. “Then obviously when he would turn his head and get me on the lips, it startled me. It obviously wasn’t normal.”
When asked about the allegations made by Commisso, Cuomo said they were “not even feasible” because he believed that his conduct was constantly under scrutiny, including by Kim when the lawyer served as acting U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
“You’ve investigated me for six years,” he told Kim, referring to corruption investigations conducted by federal prosecutors during Kim’s tenure. “I would have to lose my mind to do some — such a thing. It would be an act of insanity to touch a woman’s breast and make myself vulnerable to a woman for such an accusation.”
Cuomo cast Commisso as the “initiator” of any intimate conduct.
“She was very affectionate. I would say more she was the initiator of the hugs,” Cuomo said, according to the transcript. “She said that she was Italian and Italians are very affectionate people. But she was a hugger.”
A state trooper on Cuomo’s security detail also said she felt “completely violated” during an encounter at the end of a 2019 groundbreaking ceremony for a new arena for the NHL’s New York Islanders
The trooper told investigators she held open the door when it came time for the governor to leave.
“And while he’s walking and we’re in motion, while he’s walking into the door, he takes his left hand and basically like thumb facing down, I felt the palm of his hand in the center of my stomach on my bellybutton and like pushed back towards my right hip like where my gun is. So he’s walking one way, his hand is running across my stomach in the opposite direction,” the trooper said, according to the transcript.
“And I felt completely violated because to me, like, that’s between my chest and my privates, which, you know, if he was a little bit north or a little bit south, it’s not good.”
When Kim asked Cuomo about the alleged incident in the interview, the former governor said if he did touch her, “It was incidental, and I don’t remember doing that.”
Cuomo also denied asking if he could kiss the trooper as she also alleged.
“Do you remember ever asking her on any occasion, ‘Can I kiss you? May I kiss you?’” Kim asked.
“No, I don’t remember that,” Cuomo replied.
A spokesperson for Cuomo called the investigation a “fraud” in a statement.
“These transcripts include questionable redactions and raise even more questions about key omissions made during this slanted process, which reeks of prosecutorial misconduct,” spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said.
Members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee have been invited to Albany to review the report next week, Assemblymember Charles Lavine, chair of the committee, said in a statement sent to ABC News.
ABC News’ Luc Bruggeman, Celia Darrough and Soorin Kim contributed to this report.
Following a three-week trial, a jury in New York City ruled Wednesday that Jay-Z did not breach his endorsement contract in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed against him by the Parlux perfume company.
“You failed to prove your case, they failed to prove their case,” Justice Andrew Borrok said to an attorney for Parlux after the verdict was read aloud in court, according to Billboard. The Roc Nation founder was accused of failing to properly promote the “Gold Jay-Z” cologne. Parlux had requested $67 million in damages. Jay-Z, born Sean Carter, countersued, seeking $6 million in royalties that he said he was still owed under the deal. No money was awarded in the case.
Parlux argued that Hova breached the terms of their business contract by refusing to make promotional appearances on shows such as Good Morning America. Attorney Anthony J. Viola said Jay-Z had “thrown sand in the gears of what Parlux was trying to do””with his objections over how to promote the product.
Carter testified that he fulfilled his obligations. During a court appearance last week, he blasted Parlux “for crappy, lazy work,” and for allegedly violating their agreement by selling the fragrance at the Superdrug discount drugstore chain in the United Kingdom without his knowledge.
Paul McCartney has posted a video on his Facebook page capturing him sharing an emotional confession during a recent livestreamed Q&A event promoting his new book The Lyrics.
In the segment, Paul says he never told his late Beatles band mate John Lennon that he loved him.
“As 16-year-old, 17-year-old Liverpool kids, you could never say that. It just wasn’t done,” McCartney explains. “So I never did. I never really just said, ‘John, love you, man.’ I just never got ’round to it. So now, it is great to just realize how much I loved this man.”
The event, which took place November 5 at London’s Southbank Centre, is available on demand for streaming through Saturday, November 12, priced at $14.
In other news, McCartney and his daughters Mary and Stella have joined animal-rights organization PETA U.K. and other celebrities in calling for the United Nation’s COP26 climate-change conference, which is taking place now in Glasgow, Scotland, to adopt the Plant Based Treaty initiative, which is designed to focus on food systems as a way to battle the global climate crisis.
The McCartneys, PETA U.K. and others issued a message Tuesday to the COP26 delegates urging them to adopt the treaty, which seeks to encourage the production of more plant-based foods rather than meat, as a companion to the Paris Agreement climate-change treaty adopted in 2015.
Paul, Mary and Stella, who launched the Meat Free Monday campaign in 2009, say in a statement, “We believe in justice for animals, the environment and people. That’s why we support the Plant Based Treaty and urge individuals and governments to sign it.”
Among the other celebs supporting the treaty are Moby, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Game of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn.
“I never really said ‘John I love you man’, I never got round to it. So now it’s great to just realise how much I love this man…”
‘The Lyrics: Paul McCartney in Conversation’ is available to watch on demand till November 12th: https://t.co/yoJhfzbs3o@PenguinLivepic.twitter.com/WdsmwqfzbG
While Ryan Reynolds‘ fake feud with good buddy Hugh Jackman is the stuff of Twitter legend, it seems that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is angling for a piece of the action.
Johnson posted to social media with a photo of an outdoor movie marquee on which he’d had posted the message, “Ryan Reynolds Uses His Mom’s Netfix Account.”
Johnson tweeted to his Red Notice co-star, “Beat that.”
He also added, “For the record, Ryan’s mama is an AMAZING WOMAN. Not sure why Ryan turned out the way he did.”
Reynolds took it in stride, replying, “In fairness, my mom uses my OnlyFans account.”
Red Notice, which also stars Gal Gadot, debuts on the streaming service Friday.
One last heist for the road 🥃
Beat that, @vancityreynolds.
For the record, Ryan’s mama is an AMAZING WOMAN. Not sure why Ryan turned out the way he did. #RedNotice hits @Netflix worldwide THIS FRIDAY!
Enjoy our film 🥃🌍 pic.twitter.com/oYQZWtB3KS
