• Declaring that his red "MAGA" hat makes him "feel like Superman," rapper Kanye West made a free-styling appearance Thursday in the Oval Office. Ahead of a private lunch, President Donald Trump and West spoke with reporters as they sat across from each other at the Resolute desk. West is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who pushed Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender this year. On Thursday, West dominated the conversation with a series of monologues that touched on social policy, mental health, endorsement deals and his support for the president. "Trump is on his hero's journey right now," West said, tossing out an expletive to describe himself. West said that many people believe that, if you're black, you have to be a Democrat and said he was pressured not to wear his red "Make America Great Again" hat. But he said "this hat, it gives me power." West credited Trump with preventing a war with North Korea and encouraged Trump to swap his usual Air Force One for a hydrogen-powered plane. West also argued that Trump deserved more respect, saying: "if he don't look good, we don't look good." When the rapper also spoke against stop-and-frisk policing policies which Trump recently expressed support for, the president said he was open to other ideas. During a pause in West's comments, Trump said: "I tell you what that was pretty impressive." He also described West as a "smart cookie."
• Prosecutors in New York City abandoned part of their sexual-assault case against Harvey Weinstein on Thursday after evidence surfaced that a police detective coached a witness to stay silent about evidence that cast doubt on the account of one of his earliest accusers. With Weinstein looking on, a judge agreed to dismiss the lone charge in the case related to Lucia Evans, who helped spark the #MeToo movement when she told The New Yorker in an expose published a year ago Wednesday that the film producer had forced her to perform oral sex in his office in 2004 when she was a college student and aspiring actress. Weinstein, 66, still faces charges over allegations that he raped an unidentified woman in his hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. He has pleaded innocent and denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon insisted the rest of the case is strong and said the district attorney's office was looking into the possibility of filing additional charges. "In short, your honor, we are moving full steam ahead," she said. Evans' lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, said outside court that her client had been abandoned by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for no reason. The dismissal "only speaks volumes about the Manhattan DA's office and its mishandling of my client's case."
A Section on 10/12/2018