Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”
Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Welcome everyone to the Morning Run on this Monday, November eighteenth, I'm Amy.
Roboch and I'm TJ. Holmes. And on this jam packed Monday Morning Run, President Biden makes a major change in US policy that raises fears of an escalation of the war in Ukraine.
And Diddy is breaking all kinds of jail house rules, which prosecutors say makes clear he should not be granted bail.
Also this morning, Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary pay it a woman after she accused him of sexual assault, but he says that doesn't mean he did anything wrong. Plus another deadly E Coli outbreak in the US. This one involves.
Carrots, and the woman behind that dubious pre election Iowa poll that was so very wrong has decided that polling might not be her calling. Plus perhaps the most famous, consequential and controversial gymnas his coach of all time, Bellakaroli, has died.
Also in this jam packed morning, the Pope wants Israel investigated. Trump makes history with his new Press secretary, Betty White is on a stamp. Conan gets the toughest gig in Hollywood, some old NFL guys, pop Champagne, and those escaped monkeys aren't the only animals on the run in South Carolina, so we weren't kidding. This is a very busy Monday morning run.
Well, Hello Monday everyone, Yes, and we begin our run today with a major shift in US policy. President Biden is now allowing Ukraine to use US made weapons to strike further and deeper into Russia with longer range missiles.
And Ukraine reportedly plans to use those powerful, long range US made missiles on Russia within days. President Biden's move is a significant reversal of US policy and has, according to sources, divided his advisors.
It also comes just months before President elect Trump comes into office, and Trump has vowed to limit further support to Ukraine. The weapons will likely be used against Russian and North Korean troops that are in western Russia right now.
Speaking of those North Korean troops, Russia made the surprise move to bring them into the fight with the Ukraine, which might have contributed to the shift in US thinking. Officials, however, don't expect this change to fundamentally alter the course of the war, but they hope it sends a message to North Korea that they'll be vulnerable if they send more troops to the region.
Yes, and certainly we'll be waiting from reaction, but certainly we're expecting reaction from Putin, who is likely not going to be appreciative of this shift in US policy.
Some people may have noticed, and I certainly did. I think it's what triggered me to go take a look at what's going on. But on social media yesterday the top trend was world War IIE. So people were hearing this move of thinking about an immediate escalation and what this could lead to. So it has a lot of people on edge, But like you say, the officials don't necessarily think there's going to be a fundamental shift.
All Right, we're going to stay overseas. On the Morning Run with news from the Vatican, Pope Francis is making headlines with direct criticism of Israel's conduct in its war with Gaza.
In his upcoming book, at least the excerpts that have been released so far, the Pope writes that Israel's military campaign in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide of the Palestinian people.
He writes that the international community and I'm going to quote the Pope here should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition of genocide formulated by international jurists and organizations. Now, this is somewhat unusual for the Pope, who typically does not take sides in international conflicts.
Now, Israel says accusations of genocide and Gaza are baseless and that it is strictly hunting down Hamas and other armed groups. In direct response to Pope France's statement, coming from Israel said that it's exercised its rights of self defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens. Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in October of twenty twenty three, almost exactly a year ago, after Hamas led that assault that killed more than twelve hundred people and another two hundred and fifty were taken hostage. Since then, Israel has killed more than forty three thousand Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
All right, we're going to continue our Monday morning. Ron will turn to more selections by President elect Trump, and he has made a historic pick for White House Press Secretary. Caroline Levitt will be the youngest to ever serve in that role. She's just twenty seven years old.
In making the announcement, Trump said that he had the utmost confidence that she'll excel at the podium and helped deliver our message to the American people as we make America great again. Now, she previously served as Trump's campaign press secretary.
Now. Prior to that, she was spokesperson for a representative Elise Sephonic, who is now, of course, the UN ambassador pick for Trump. She also worked in the press office during the Trump administration the first time around, and then she ran for Congress in New Hampshire but lost to the Democratic incumbent. But she is somebody who has been sparring on TV and is happy to do so against a lot of mainstream media folks. But she is in Trump's camp and a loyalist. I think some wo hoarcky.
Yeah, And clearly he was impressed with how she handled the press in those interviews. We should mention though, Trump has had four press secretaries, so it'll be interesting to see if love at six.
So pray for it is what we're trying to say because he likes the microphone, and he likes to be the center of attention and likes to be in control of his own message. We said she's going to be the youngest. Before that, the youngest was Nixon's press secretary Ron Ziegler, who was twenty nine here old years all the time. That is so impressive. She is going to be the face of the administration and maybe the most recognizable person in the United States government besides Trump here starting in just a few months. So it's a big responsibility.
Twenty seven years old, all right, We'll look forward to see how she handles that position. Next up on our run, we're going to go back to the campaign trail for an update. A renowned Iowa pollster announces her retirement, but she says it has nothing to do with how wrong her polling actually was.
And we're going to continue with our sarcasm by saying the polling she says it was so wrong only because it was so right. Okay, we're going to try to explain what's happening here. The name is jay Ann Seltzer. She is retiring from the Des Moines Registers, famed Iowa poll that poll, you'll remember, had a sixteen point miss in this past election.
Its final poll before lucchen Day showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by three points among likely voters in that state, when Trump ultimately, as we know, swept Harris in Iowa by a thirteen point margin. So Seltzer acknowledged her poll was, yes, a big miss, but she suggested her pole might have actually energized and activated Republican voters to turn out.
So what she's saying is my poll might have actually been right, and it was so right that it scared the Republicans into coming out in droves and voting. Is that what she's saying.
That is what she's saying.
Okay, just to make sure I had it right. Now. She began working on the poll back in nineteen eighty seven, and prior to this past election had been considered the gold standard in polling. It's only missed picking the winner once. That's when George W. Bush ultimately won the state by less than a point against John Kerry. Now she may clear that her decision to resign predated the erroneous polling of this year's election, had nothing to do with the results. I will take her at her work. Yeah.
Sure, And here's what she said. I'm going to use her own words about what happened with the polling. She says, polling is a science of estimation, and science has a way of periodically humbling the scientist. So I'm humbled, yet always willing to learn from unexpected findings. My integrity means a lot to me. To those who have questioned it, there are likely no words to dissuade.
This is a tough one. I mean, obviously, I always say in those polls, you hear at the end of all of them, plus or minus two or three points margin arra that there is no plus or minus fifteen to sixty points.
No, not at all. So yes, she can have her explanation. Other people can have theirs, and we'll leave it at that.
We will continue our run. Now we will head back here to New York, where Diddy is trying to obstruct justice from his jail sale. Prosecutors made that acquisition in a new court filing that says Sean Combs has broken jail rules, attempted to contact potential victims and try to tank the jury pool, among other things.
Did He is facing federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges and was denied bail already several times since his arrest back in September. Was it just September? It feels like longer? In response to this latest bail request, prosecutor say Combs has paid at least eight other inmates for use of their telephone accounts to try an evade law enforcement monitoring of his phone calls.
This is wild. The court filing also states that Combs has used three way calling to contact people who are not on his approved contact lists, and has instructed his family members to contact potential witnesses and victims in the case. He's also instructed his family members to use social media to put out positive narratives about him. This all, according to the prosecutors.
Yes. They also included an excerpt of some of Ditty's phone calls from jail, in which they say there was clear inference that the defendant's goal is to blackmail victims and witnesses either into silence or providing testimony helpful to his defense. So another hearing is scheduled in the case this week. His trial is scheduled for May of next year, and just it seems like daily, weekly there are just new accusations that are kind of mind blowing.
This is what the prosecutors and now all the judges have been arguing about why he should be denied bail. He was willing to put up fifty million dollars, do round the clock monitoring with the security company. All of these things he was willing to put up. They all said no, this, if any of this is true, makes the point. They're saying, this guy is going to find a way and has the resources to try to obstruct justice. Some of this stuff I'm hearing we only see in movies. I'm like, oh, they do this to think he's paying other people. Let me use your accounts so I can call from your phone account and then they won't be monitoring me. And this is wild.
And then the person I call will put another person who I'm not supposed to talk to on the phone. And the crazy thing is it's either to have certain content be put out on social media using his own children to they believe, influence or sway potential jurors out there to see him in a positive life.
You remember that one right that social media post. It was his birthday, His kids were around the phone. There was a cake and saying the prosecutor say he orchestrated that whole thing, told them what to do, and even monitored the analytics of the dang gum thing on social media. That's wild.
It is wild.
So he has another hearing. We'll see. He's been denied bail at least three times, I believe, and this is his fourth at himp.
Probably gonna happen again.
Get yea, we'll folks, stay with us here on this morning morning Monday Morning run. When we come back, Trump's pick for Defense secretary says, yes, he paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault, that that doesn't mean he's guilty of anything. Stay with us, all right, folks, Let's continue our Monday morning run with Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. He admits he paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault, but he insists she lied. The former Fox News host was a head scratching and controversial choice for the top Pentagon job in many circles based on his lack of experience.
But soon after his nomination came reports that he'd been investigated for sexual assault at a hotel in California back in twenty seventeen, No charges were ever filed, and Hegseth didn't any wrongdoing. The Washington Post reported over the weekend, however, that Hexath entered into a non disclosure agreement with the accuser and settled with her for an undisclosed amount.
Hex's attorney said in a statement that the accuser lied in order to keep her marriage in tact, saying, and I'm going to quote here, this is a situation where a consensual encounter occurred, and unfortunately the woman had to come up with a lie to explain why the woman had not come back to her husband's room that night.
Now, the statement goes on to say that the alleged incident wasn't reported until days later until there was pressure from her husband. It was fully investigated by police, and video surveillance as well as multiple eyewitness statements show that she was the aggressor. The interesting thing is that he should have known, or I would think would have potentially known that this could have come up. It's whether or not he warned or told the Trump camp before beforehand, before they nominated him, before they announced him, that this was a possible headline that could come out.
They say they were blond sided.
Which is crazy to me to think that, especially being in the news business in boxing, that he wouldn't assume or at least say, you know what, I've probably got to give them a heads up, because these kinds of things have a way of rearing their heads.
Even if you didn't come out and say anything publicly, you would have told them, hey, during the interview, heads up, just so you know, just in case what we shall see. But his picks continued controversy between this winning gates. There will be more that comes out. We will continue our run now with the infamous gymnastics coach who helped make Mary lou Redden the first American to win an all around Olympic gold medal in gymnastics has died. Bella Coroli was eighty two, had a long and successful, storied career, but he also during that career had a number of accusations about emotional abuse and turning a blind eye to more serious abuses at his training facility.
Coroli initially made headlines as the Romanian coach to fourteen year old Nadiya Komenich, who became the first gymnast to receive that perfect score of ten at an Olympic event, and went on to do that several more times. He and his wife Detect defected to the US five years later and eventually became Retin's personal coach.
Now he mented a number of famous gymnast Kerrie Strugg ultimately became a national coordinator of the US women's Olympic team as well. And his wife were in a gym in Texas where the US women's team trained and went on to incredible successes. They produced stars for decades, and among them yes, Simone Biles.
Right, but there had been accusations of emotional abuse. Even though no charges were ever filed against Coroly or his wife, none of them stuck at least they retired at the top of the gymnastics world after the twenty sixteen Rio Games. But in August of that same year we all remember the story doctor Larry Nasser, who had been a coach at the Corolis training facility, was accused of molesting athletes there.
Four years yeah, other accounts came as well that the Corols forced athletes to train even when they were seriously injured and restricted their eating. USA Gymnastics stopped using the facility once Biled and other gymnasts refused to train at that center anymore. The Corolis denied knowing about Nassar's behavior and denied all of the abuse allegations against them. You put this in here. I completely forgot about the Koma Each and connection.
Completely forgot about the I mean, when I was young a competitive gymnast and Bellacarole was one of my idols, and I got to meet him on multiple occasions while serving as a runner during some of these athletic events, and he was just beloved. But yes, the Nadia Komen Each Connection was his big rise to fame, and then he continued his success here in the States. All right. Next up on our run, another deadly E. Coli outbreak. This time the cluport appears to be bagged organic carrots. At least thirty nine people have been sickened, eighteen hospitalized, and one person has died.
The cases were reported in eighteen states, but it's all over the map. It's spread across the country from California to New York, number of states in between. To CDC says those sickened a bagged organic whole and baby carrots produced by grim Way Farms in Bakersfield, California.
Yeah, you might not know the name Grimway Farms, but you'll know a lot of the brand names the carrots were sold under, like three sixty five, which is the Whole Foods brand, Wegman's Trader, Joe's, Bunny Love, and cal Organic, just to name a few. And health officials say the carrots have been recalled and are not in stores, but it is still possible that they could be in your refrigerator.
So you need to take them back and get a refund, or you need to toss them immediately. A lot of carrots and a lot of brands and a lot of grocery stores are impacted here. It's hard to list them to tell you about them right here on audio. But you need to check if you have organic carrots in your refrigerator. You need to go to the CDC or FDA websites. They have it all laid out for you there. And I could not believe you mentioned to me, I think over the weekend this e COLI. I thought it was going to be related to McDonald's again, right, and the onions again. I said, Oh, I thought they nipped that in the book. This is totally different thing.
Unrelated, unrelated, all right, So yeah, heads up, toss those bagged carrots in your refrigerator. Next up on our run, we are heading to Hollywood. Conan O'Brien has been named as the host for the ninety seventh Oscars. It will be a first for Conan.
In the past two years, we had Jimmy Kimmel and so some big shoes to fill here for Conan. Because last year's show actually won an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special and it had a pretty good number. We report year after year after year how the numbers have been going down, and they had about twenty million viewers and it was seen as a huge success.
Yeah. So Conan was humble in his response to the announcement of his new role. I'll quote him. He said, America demanded it, and now it's happening. Taco Bell's new cheesy chelupa supreme. In other news, I'm hosting the Oscars. The Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March second.
Pretty perfect response by Conan. He's always liked Conan. He's just kind of a silly goofy. He doesn't care being self deprecating. He's just a funky, kind of tall, awkward and still cool dude. I love coming.
You were surprised that he hadn't hosted the Oscars before I double checked it. I was like, no, I'm pretty sure this is his first.
And they say a lot of people turn this gig down, like a lot of people were approached.
Yeah, because body wants this gig and the Monday morning quarterbacking ain't fun.
But good luck to He's gonna be fine, gonna be a rooting for him. We need to find a way to get back to the Oscars.
Yes we do.
We love the Oscars. That red copper. Well, we'll continue with our run now with Betty White. Betty White is getting her own posterage stamp. The beloved actress is seen on the stamp smiling with a purple background. It's an image based on a twenty ten photograph of her.
It really is the perfect shot at her if you can check it out. The US Postal Service says the stamp exudes her sprightly sense of fun and that the background befits her sparkling personality. It's so true, but yeah, the US Postal Service. I love the they're describing it. White died at the age of ninety nine on New Year's Eve. Back in twenty twenty one, just weeks before her one hundredth birthday. But during her dodible career, white one five Primetime Emmy Awards, twenty one nominations for her many memorable roles from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to The Golden Girls and one of my favorites, Hot in Cleveland. Her career spanned nearly seven decades. She has missed and she.
Had a resurgens that felt like the past decade or so? What would the super Bowl commercial? Was it a Snickers commercial that she was in that I don't know? She became once again a pop culture icon at the age of ninety. I was reintroduced to a whole new segment of our population, kids that didn't grow up with her. It was so cool to see her still hot at ninety.
Yeah. I had the privilege of interviewing her when she was in her like ninety two ninety three, and I couldn't believe the life force that she still carried. And she would joke and say, ah, all my friends are dead. Well, no one wants to live to be this age, and yet she did. She had this zest for life. So it's cool to see her immortalized, so to speak, on a postage stamp.
You're going to continue our run here on this Monday with the kandad the City Chiefs. They lost, so you know what that means part of time and was become an annual tradition. Champagne celebration immediately ensued after the Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bills yesterday. But it wasn't the Bills who were popping the champagne yesterday, TJ.
You had to explain this one to me. It was the nineteen seventy two Miami Dolphins. That team is the only one in NFL history to go undefeated and then win the Super Bowl, and they will remain so the only one for now. The Fighting Taylor Swifts for the last remaining undefeated team in the league this season, which means they were the only ones who had that chance of matching the seventy two Dolphins feed so now we.
Know that ain't gonna happen. So each year, members of that legendary seventy two team celebrate when the last undefeated team loses, knowing that their record is going to remain safe for at least one more year. There was a social media post of at least two of the teammates Champagne in hand, smiling big. They're just a part of history, and their history continues, and of course a lot of those guys are older now, but it's still it'll be nice for them to continue with the rest of their lives knowing that thing never got touched.
I love this story that I had no idea existed.
All.
Right, final leg of our run on this Monday. This is perfect. Turns out those escape monkeys in South Carolina drew inspiration from a couple of other animals in the very same state that have been on the run for the past three months. We're not making this up. Authorities in South Carolina are also on the hunt for Thelma and Louise. These were their names before they escaped, but they are two escaped EMUs.
Hey, these two big birds got out of their enclosure earlier this summer from their owner's home, which is just north of Charleston. But in the past week there have been a lot of sightings, some people going to social media saying they've seen these EMUs. So that's why now the owner and the authorities.
I've spoken at and it's quite the sight because they are indigenous to Australia. They're not really supposed to be or you don't typically see them here in the United States. The owner who calls the animals feral and untrained, says Thelma and Louise hop defense months ago when they've been unable to recapture them. Authorities point out Thelma and Louise pose no risk to the public. Meanwhile, last check, there are still eight of those forty three escape monkeys still on the loose. So apparently it is a jungle out there in South Carolina. What do you do?
I would love in my mind, I just see the EMUs and the monkeys like collaborating and working together.
Why not, right? And by the way, EMUs, I know they said they're not dangerous, but they can be five feet tall and one hundred pounds and the owner like actually tried to get or grab a hold on to them when they were running out and they threw him. So he was no match for these EMUs. No risk, no risks, no risk, no risk to the public. But please everyone call nine one one.
And stay away and lock your door. Monkey warning. Yeah, okay, all right, folks. Well, on this Monday on a jam pack, very busy Monday. Hope you're getting off to a good start. But as you go about your day, here is something we like for you to consider and take this quote with you.
All right, here's the quote of the day. Intelligent individuals learn from everything and everyone. Average people from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers. This is from Socrates.
But folks, that's a good one to ask yourself today. Are you intelligent? Are you average? Or are you stupid? Nobody wants to be stupid. No, but stupid people. You can't teach them anything you can't learn. They're not willing because they have the answer already. I don't need the experience.
That is such a great quot and one to remember. So you know, everyone be willing to learn from everything and everyone that happens to you today.
I'm the great one today, folks. We hope you're off to a good start. We sure our aunt is one day. We will see you back here tomorrow, of course. Well now, I'm T. J.
Holts and I'm Amy Roebuck. Thanks for running with us. Everyone,