00:05:23.180We also know that Democrats have explicitly promised that they will pack the United States
00:05:27.600Supreme Court if they're given additional power.
00:05:29.400And again, this is why I think that the choice in this election is not between this set of policies that are good and this set of policies that are not so good.
00:05:39.240The choice in the election really is between crazy people who are trying to rig the game and common sense people that you may have disagreements with from time to time, but at least they're rooted in common sense.
00:05:49.800The Democrats are saying, they're actively bragging that they don't like the rules of the game.
00:05:55.120Mr. Vance also facing another creatively worded question about his potential presidential
00:06:18.720First of all, I'd encourage any Republican, if you care about the country, and I think
00:06:23.480all of us do, you should be focused not on a job a few years from now, you should be focused on the
00:06:29.020midterms. And that's the approach that I've taken. I think people sometimes don't believe me because
00:06:33.260they assume you're the vice president. You must think about this all the time. What I'm focused
00:06:36.120on, man, is trying to get as many Republicans as elected as possible so that we can do as much
00:06:41.300good as possible for the second two years of the Trump administration. That's a long time. I mean,
00:06:46.040Pete is a great guy. And yeah, I could see myself supporting a whole host of people.
00:06:51.100And on Ted Cruz, I mean, look, man, he's just clearly Ted is a very authentic and likable guy, and I'm sure he'll do great.
00:06:59.480With the midterms now roughly two months away, Mr. Vance then asked to give voters his elevator pitch for electing a Republican Congress.
00:07:07.600My elevator pitch is actually, it's very simple.
00:07:10.920Do you want to live in a country that has safety and security and prosperity?
00:07:15.640If the answer is yes, and I think most Americans do, then vote for congressional Republicans over congressional Democrats.
00:07:22.740On every single issue, the Democrats have taken the side of fraudsters, of criminals, and of far-left interest groups over the side of the American people.
00:07:33.820The Lindsay Clancy murder trial now entering a seventh day of jury deliberations after her attorney unsuccessfully tried to have one juror removed from the panel.
00:07:43.660The jury already telling Judge William Sullivan twice this week that it could not reach a
00:07:47.800unanimous decision, prompting the judge Wednesday to deliver a so-called dynamite charge and
00:07:54.840Yesterday afternoon, the foreperson reporting that one member of the panel was not following
00:07:59.640the court's instructions on reasonable doubt.
00:08:02.580Judge Sullivan immediately calling the attorneys to the bench, defense attorney Kevin Reddington
00:08:06.800reportedly appearing visibly frustrated during the private discussion.
00:08:10.860The judge then privately questioning each juror one by one.
00:08:14.580After 20 minutes, the sidebar ending, the judge bringing the full panel back into the courtroom,
00:08:19.600reminding jurors that they are required to follow his instructions on the law,
00:08:23.340and again explaining the prosecution's burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:08:28.760Judge Sullivan then sending the jury back to continue deliberating,
00:08:32.160the judge immediately calling the attorneys to another sidebar,
00:08:35.520where Reddington could be seen shaking his head and arguing animatedly.
00:08:39.960Once that discussion ended, Reddington formally moving to remove one juror,
00:08:43.840saying the foreperson had reported that the person, quote,
00:08:46.300refuses to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.
00:08:49.920Prosecutors opposing the request, Judge Sullivan declining to remove the juror,
00:08:54.360saying he had already asked each member of the panel whether they could follow his instructions
00:08:58.040and did not believe it was proper for him to take either side in the jury's internal disagreement.
00:09:02.920The juror soon thereafter, dismissed for the day, scheduled to return at 9 this morning.
00:09:08.280Reddington later telling reporters the juror has now been identified
00:09:11.100and that he expects the judge to question that person further this morning.
00:09:16.160Coming up, the NBA uncovering an alleged scheme to funnel extra money to Kawhi Leonard
00:09:21.700through outside companies now hitting the Clippers with major penalties.
00:09:25.320And feminist activist Gloria Steinem dead at 92 after a public career spanning more than six decades.
00:09:31.940Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, says Washington politicians are always getting
00:09:41.980in your wallet and that now they're messing with your credit card. They say your credit card and
00:09:47.080security it offers are under attack and that Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall want
00:09:52.120to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target
00:09:57.180at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your payments secure and provide
00:10:02.860rewards that families use and rely on to help make everyday purchases more affordable.
00:10:08.140The Electronic Payments Coalition says the Durbin Marshall mandates would let corporate
00:10:12.340megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested
00:10:17.440networks with weaker security and fewer protections. Find out more at guardyourcard.com
00:10:23.120and consider telling Congress to guard your card.
00:10:27.180The NBA handing the Los Angeles Clippers a massive punishment over what the league says was an effort to funnel extra compensation to star player Kawhi Leonard outside his official contract in violation of the league's salary cap.
00:10:40.760The Clippers now losing five first-round draft picks, one in every draft from 2029 through 2033, while also paying a record $30 million fine.
00:10:51.640Team owner Steve Ballmer suspended from all NBA and Clippers activities for one year.
00:10:57.720The punishment following a nearly year-long investigation conducted by the outside firm
00:11:02.140Wachtall, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz, finding what the NBA describes as a pattern of misconduct
00:11:07.460and repeated efforts to evade the league's salary cap rules, those rules limiting how
00:11:13.060much teams can pay their players, and preventing teams from getting around those limits by
00:11:17.560arranging money or other benefits through outside companies. According to the investigator's report,
00:11:23.760the Clippers helped Leonard obtain endorsement deals with four companies doing business with
00:11:28.160the team, then allegedly offering or providing those companies valuable Clippers business
00:11:32.720as an incentive to make the deals. The allegations first surfacing last September when journalist
00:11:38.700Pablo Torre revealed Leonard's four-year $28 million endorsement agreement with the now
00:11:44.400bankrupt sustainability company, Aspiration. Torre reporting the deal was never publicly
00:11:49.780announced and allegedly paid Leonard millions despite him providing no services. The NBA
00:11:55.360investigation eventually expanding beyond Aspiration, with investigators finding similar
00:12:00.240arrangements involving three other Clippers business partners. The league now accusing
00:12:05.340Mr. Balmer of knowingly helping Leonard pursue outside income and personally approving a
00:12:10.340Clippers business deal he allegedly knew was a condition for aspiration moving forward with
00:12:15.260Leonard's endorsement contract. Leonard's former business manager and uncle, Dennis Robertson,
00:12:20.680also accused of repeatedly pressuring the team to generate outside income for Leonard. The NBA
00:12:26.980finding Leonard responsible for Mr. Robertson's conduct on his behalf, ordering the player to pay
00:12:31.820$700,000 and banning Mr. Robertson from doing business with NBA teams for five years. The
00:12:39.100Punishment also reaching the Clippers' front office, with business operations president Jillian Zucker suspended without pay for one year and basketball operations president Lawrence Frank suspended without pay for six months.
00:12:50.720The entire organization now facing five years of NBA compliance monitoring.
00:12:55.960Mr. Ballmer and the Clippers strongly denying the allegations throughout the investigation, the team now calling the findings heavily biased and promising to pursue every available legal remedy.
00:13:06.400Leonard also denying knowingly participating in any effort to evade the salary cap,
00:13:10.720saying he entered the agreements in good faith while accepting responsibility for what he describes
00:13:15.500as lapses in judgment by members of his inner circle.
00:13:19.220The Clippers promising to fight, though the NBA says an agreement with the players' union
00:13:23.160makes the penalties final and binding.
00:13:26.400Pablo Torre, who's reporting first exposed the alleged scheme,
00:13:29.880explaining yesterday on MS Now why Leonard's decision to accept his own punishment
00:13:34.020may have eliminated the arbitration route Mr. Ballmer had repeatedly threatened to use.
00:13:39.480I will say there's that there's that moment in Christopher Nolan's Batman when Bain says they
00:13:44.920expect one of us in the records brother and Kawhi kind of parachuted out of this. And what's
00:13:50.060fascinating, right, Ballmer initially, when this report came out, said we are going to go to
00:13:54.100arbitration. But what has become clear is that arbitration, this is very in the weeds, but bear
00:13:58.020with me. Arbitration is only activated by the player and the union. And when Kawhi settled
00:14:04.440via the union and said, oh, a slap on the wrist, $700,000, and I can go to Toronto,
00:14:10.360what the Clippers maybe didn't realize, even as of yesterday, was that that arbitration option
00:14:15.020evaporated. And so now all Steve Ballmer has left to do is, if he wants, sue the NBA,
00:14:21.560sue Adam Silver, sue Wachtell Lipton for a wrath now of documentation. And so we will see if he
00:14:28.300does that. But when Kawhi got the slap on the wrist, the thing the Clippers had been threatening
00:14:33.500the entire time went away. And were they aware of that? And who decided to maybe parachute out
00:14:41.500first? The Clippers now reportedly left to decide whether to take their fight outside the league
00:14:46.260and into court. Gloria Steinem, one of the most recognizable leaders of the modern feminist
00:14:53.900movement, has died at 92, Steinem dying yesterday at her home in New York City following a period
00:14:59.780of declining health. A statement posted to her social media account saying she was surrounded
00:15:04.400by loved ones. For more than 60 years, Steinem's serving as an author, journalist, and political
00:15:10.000organizer advocating for women in the workplace, the Equal Rights Amendment, and legal abortion,
00:15:14.860while also supporting a range of other liberal causes, including the anti-war movement.
00:15:20.020Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1934, Steinem going on to graduate from Smith College before moving to New York in the early 1960s,
00:15:27.900entering a journalism industry then dominated almost entirely by men.
00:15:32.280Steinem first attracting widespread attention in 1963 after working undercover as a cocktail waitress at the Playboy Club in New York.
00:15:40.020Her subsequent exposé describing the pay, workplace restrictions, and treatment of the women employed there.
00:15:46.700Steinem later moving increasingly from journalism into political organizing.
00:15:51.120In a widely discussed 1969 essay for New York Magazine,
00:15:54.960she argued that the women's movement should make race and economic class part of its broader political agenda.
00:16:00.860The following year, Steinem testifying before the Senate in support of the Equal Rights Amendment,
00:16:05.020which would prohibit the government and the states from denying equal legal rights on the basis of
00:16:10.500sex. In 1971, she helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created
00:16:17.040to recruit and elect more women to public office. One year later, Steinem co-founding Miss Magazine,
00:16:23.140which became one of the country's most prominent feminist publications and remains in circulation
00:16:27.340today. Steinem also spending decades advocating for legal abortion. She had undergone an abortion
00:16:33.280in London at the age of 22, and later spoke publicly about the experience as part of that
00:16:38.380advocacy. Steinem frequently criticizing marriage as an institution she believed reinforced unequal
00:16:44.140roles for men and women, though she eventually married entrepreneur David Bale, the father of
00:16:48.700actor Christian Bale, well in her 60s. Steinem had also recently completed another memoir,
00:16:54.180which is set to be released this fall. That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Emily Jersinski,