Sponsors flee New York City theater company over Trump-killing scene

Delta Air Lines and Bank of America became the first companies to announce that they are pulling their sponsorships of a Manhattan-based theater company’s portrayal of Julius Caesar as a Donald Trump look-alike in a business suit who gets stabbed to death on stage.
Delta and Bank of America both announced their intentions on Sunday.
"No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of Julius Caesar at this summer's Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines' values," the company’s statement said. "Their artistic and creative direction crossed the line on the standards of good taste."
Bank of America added it was withdrawing funding for the production.
"The Public Theater chose to present Julius Caesar in such a way that was intended to provoke and offend," the bank said in a tweet. "Had this intention been made known to us, we would have decided not to sponsor it."
Performances at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater began in late May, just days before comedian Kathy Griffin was condemned for posing for a photograph with a bloodied rendering of Trump’s head.
Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater's artistic director who also directed the play, said earlier in a statement that "anyone seeing our production of 'Julius Caesar' will realize it in no way advocates violence towards anyone."
"Julius Caesar" tells a fictionalized story of a powerful, popular Roman leader who is assassinated by senators who fear he is becoming a tyrant. It is set in ancient Rome, but many productions have costumed the characters in modern dress to give it a present-day connection.

Republicans seek to clear air on whether Trump has Comey tapes

Republicans on Sunday urged President Trump to clear the air on whether he has tapes of private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey and provide them to Congress if he does.
The latest remarks was a sign of escalating fallout from the highly-anticipated testimony given by Comey last week of pressure from Trump, which drew an angry response from the president on Friday that Comey was lying.
"I don't understand why the president just doesn't clear this matter up once and for all," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Intelligence committee. She added that she would support a subpoena for the tapes if needed.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who is also on the committee, agreed the panel needed to hear any tapes that exist. "We've obviously pressed the White House," he said.
Trump's aides have dodged questions about whether conversations relevant to the Russia investigation have been recorded, and so has the president. Pressed on the issue Friday, Trump said "I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future."
Lankford added that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony Tuesday will help flesh out the truth of Comey’s allegations, including Sessions' presence at the White House in February when Trump asked to speak to Comey alone. Comey alleges that Trump then privately asked him to drop a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia.
Comey also has said Sessions did not respond when he complained he didn't "want to get time alone with the president again." The Justice Department has denied that, saying Sessions stressed to Comey the need to be careful about following appropriate policies.
"We want to be able to get his side of it," Lankford said.
Trump on Sunday accused Comey of "cowardly" leaks and predicted many more from him. "Totally illegal?" he asked in a tweet. "Very 'cowardly!'"
Several Republican lawmakers also criticized Comey for disclosing memos he had written in the aftermath of his private conversations with Trump, calling that action "inappropriate." But, added Lankford "releasing his memos is not damaging to national security."

The Comey Conundrum: Liberal critics embrace him now that he's attacking Trump

James Comey has gone from hero to zero and back more times than seems humanly possible.
He’s become a walking Rorschach test on which partisans project their passionate feelings.
At the moment, the fired FBI director is being hailed by the left and drawing applause from much of the mainstream media.
Comey is a “Shakespearean character,” the New York Times says, with “a theatrical swagger to match the moment.”
He is “blunt and folksy,” says the Washington Post, both a “prototypical G-man” and “the aggrieved victim of an undisciplined, line-crossing president.”
But Comey is being pilloried on the right for not having much of a legal case against President Trump, and for being a leaker to boot. The latter is not a crime in leak-crazed Washington, but it does tarnish Comey’s halo, since he scolds journalists for inaccurate leaked stories while slipping his memos through a friend to the New York Times.
Somehow, it often seems all about Comey. He infuriated the right by declining to seek an indictment against Hillary Clinton in the email investigation, while also upsetting the left by castigating her at a news conference for negligent conduct. Then he infuriated the left for reopening the case in late October for what turned out to be nothing. To this day, Clinton blames Comey for costing her the election.
This goes back to 2004, when Comey was Attorney General John Ashcroft’s deputy, got an urgent call and rushed to the bedside of his hospitalized boss. Comey was able to block other Bush administration officials from having Ashcroft sign a reauthorization of the president’s domestic surveillance program. And who did Comey take with him? FBI Director Robert Mueller, who’s now investigating Comey’s charges as special counsel in the Russia investigation.
The liberals treated him as a saint.
Trump has now called Comey a liar, and with his “100 percent” offer to testify under oath—if indeed that ever happens—the two men are on a legal collision course.
With the absence of a White House war room—and with officials under orders not to comment on the investigation—Corey Lewandowski is leading the rapid response.
The president’s first campaign manager was all over the airwaves late last week, defending his former boss and saying that Comey might potentially have to be prosecuted for leaking. Dave Bossie, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager and now a Fox News contributor, has been defending him as well.
Trump has explored bringing them into the White House, but that is apparently not happening, at least for now. And both men are more free to speak their mind on the outside than if they were part of the administration.
Whether Comey lays low now or not, he has become the president’s chief antagonist. And whether he is praised or pilloried depends heavily on whether you support Trump, just as it did when Comey was investigating Hillary.
Not long ago, Comey was resented by both sides. But now that he’s testified at a hearing watched by 20 million people, the ground has shifted once again.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Oscar Lopez Rivera gets place of honor at NYC Puerto Rican Day Parade

unbelievable.

A Puerto Rican nationalist who served 35 years in prison for his ties to the FALN terror group stepped off at the head of New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade Sunday, with a top city official by his side.
Oscar Lopez Rivera drew cheers and boos as he stood on the first float of the parade, which moved up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Organizers had offered to honor Lopez Rivera with the parade's "National Freedom Award," but he declined after a backlash that saw sponsors, including AT&T and Jet Blue, and politicians like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pull out.
"I feel good about being here," Lopez Rivera told the New York Post as he pounded his chest and chanting "Que viva Puerto Rico!" "This parade is for the Puerto Rican public."
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito joined Lopez Rivera's float approximately halfway along the parade route.
"I'm here to celebrate," she said. "This is a day of unity and celebration."
As for those who chose to stay away because of Lopez Rivera, she said "that's their decision."
Lopez Rivera's supporters followed, carrying signs that read, "Oscar Lopez Rivera is our Mandela."
Nanchelle Rivera — no relation — was not among them. From the sidelines, the 28-year-old spectator said she refuses to back the man who was convicted for his involvement with the FALN, responsible for bombings that killed and maimed dozens in the 1970s and 1980s.
"He did not represent me," said the young woman visiting from Orlando told the Associated Press.
She said she would not have come to watch the celebration if she'd known Lopez Rivera would be there.
A supporter in the parade heard her booing, and shouted back, "This is your history!"
"This really pisses me off," spectator Mark Rivera told the Post. "This is a day for honoring the republic of Puerto Rico, not honoring a terrorist. This man has no place in our parade. He makes me ashamed to be a Puerto Rican."
Most of the tens of thousands of revelers turned out simply to celebrate Puerto Rico, happily salsa dancing and waving Puerto Rican flags. Some wrapped their bodies in it, others adorned their heads with the red, white and blue colors.
"We don't care that he is here," said Rosa Rosario, a 68-year-old New Yorker.
"I don't support a political movement," she said, explaining that she was at the parade to support "my hometown, Hormigueros" — a municipality in the western region of the island.
The parade has often been a venue to showcase the complicated history of the U.S. territory, now mired in a recession. This year, it comes on the same day Puerto Ricans vote among three choices: independence, statehood or their current territorial status.
Decades ago, FALN claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including a lunchtime blast in 1975 that killed four people at New York's historic Fraunces Tavern.
Lopez Rivera was convicted of seditious conspiracy though he was never charged with any specific bombings and has denied participating in attacks that injured anyone. He was released last month following the commutation of his sentence by then-President Barack Obama.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who for weeks defended his own decision to march, said last week that he was uncomfortable with the idea of honoring Lopez Rivera all along. He showed up for the march, making no comments but shaking hands with people across police barricades.
New York held its first Puerto Rican parade in 1958, when it was barely legal to display the Puerto Rican flag on the island and Puerto Ricans on the mainland faced harsh discrimination.
Congress will ultimately have to approve the outcome of Sunday's referendum. Some Puerto Ricans blame the current recession on the U.S. government, partly because of the elimination of tax credits that many say led to the collapse of the island's manufacturing sector.