Washington
Biden compared to George Washington by liberal commentators in rush to support his withdrawal
Political commentators and liberal media hosts are hailing President Biden for choosing to withdraw from the presidential campaign, with multiple broadcasters comparing him to George Washington.
Biden faced increasing pressure from members of the media to step aside as the nominee for the good of the Democratic Party in the weeks after he debated former President Trump.
The president’s announcement on Sunday that he would drop out of the race ended weeks of debate within the Democratic Party, with multiple members of Congress and even actor George Clooney requesting that Biden give up his presidential ambitions.
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Columnists and reporters react to Biden’s Oval Office address
Political commentators and liberal media talking heads called Biden a hero for choosing to withdraw from his campaign, with multiple broadcasters comparing Biden to Founding Father and first president of the U.S., George Washington. (Getty Images)
“If you cannot appreciate the dignity, the grace, the selflessness, the patriotism of that speech – akin to Washington’s farewell – but instead feel compelled to denigrate him, nitpick or return to petty partisan politics I pity you,” Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin wrote Wednesday. “You’re denying yourself the majesty, the inspiration of America and of a great president. Go self-reflect.”
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“A powerful photo,” CBS News correspondent Roberta Costa wrote on Wednesday. “The hand toward his father’s face. The eyes. Put aside politics and everything related for a moment, and viewed simply on a human level, you see two men, father and son, still at each other’s side, more than a half-century since the darkness of Dec. 18, 1972.”
Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi, were both killed in a car accident in 1972, an event that the president has spoken about on multiple occasions in the years since and on the campaign trail.
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MSNBC hosts compare Biden to Washington for his address announcing that he would withdrawal from the race
MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Wednesday that Biden showed the country the extent to which he would sacrifice his own personal ambitions.
“This was selfless on a level, I think, that’s important in a way that we talk about George Washington being selfless,” Reid said. “In saying, ‘I could keep doing this, for me, because I think I can, but I’m going to stop doing it because I think there are choices,” she said.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough read from a guest essay by historian Jon Meacham that was published on Monday in The New York Times.
“His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington, who also stepped away from the presidency,” Meacham wrote.
Meacham was fired as an MSNBC contributor in 2020 for failing to disclose that he served as a speechwriter for Biden during the campaign.
CNN’s Abby Phillip and other commentators say Biden is another Washington
CNN host Abby Phillip said that the president would be a much more “powerful” national figure if he continued to lean into the decision he made by dropping out of his presidential campaign.
“This moment puts [Biden], you know, with a bunch of American greats, you know, the sort of George Washingtons of the world,” Phillip said. “He’s stepping away from power. If he stays in that lane, I think that will be so much powerful and impactful.”
“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Thursday that Biden reminded Americans that presidents were not in power for life, but served as temporary representatives of the people.
“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said that Biden reminded Americans that presidents were not in power for life, but served as temporary representatives of the people. (“The View”)
“Presidents are merely custodians of the White House,” Griffin said. “They’re there as elected representatives of the people. Not to be there forever. Not running because the country is all based around them and their vision. They’re there to serve for a period.”
“George Washington knew when to pass the baton,” she said. “I said a year ago on this show, if [Biden] did pass the baton to a next generation of leadership the history books would remember him very fondly and I believe that deeply.”
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Rep. Dean Phillips compares Biden to Washington
Phillips was one of the few Democratic members of Congress who openly opposed Biden, repeatedly citing the president’s age and criticizing Biden for “not passing the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders before ending his presidential bid in March. (Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I want to celebrate Joe Biden and his remarks last night, giving up power, as you know, almost never happens in Washington,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., said Thursday in response to Biden’s Oval Office address on Wednesday night.
“George Washington led by example. Joe Biden did,” Phillips said. “I want to celebrate him and also recognize what a gift he gave to his country, putting it above his own self-interest.”
Phillips was one of the few Democrats who challenged Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination during the primaries earlier this year, before ending his presidential bid in March. He repeatedly cited the president’s age and criticized Biden for “not passing the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders.
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Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
A man wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a University of Washington student was arrested after photos of him were released to the public, authorities said on Thursday, May 14.
The Seattle Police Department did not name the suspect, but said in a statement that a 31-year-old man had turned himself in to the Bellevue Police Department. In a separate statement, the Bellevue Police Department said the suspect was arrested at about 10:42 p.m. local time on May 13.
The suspect was then transferred to the custody of Seattle Police Department homicide detectives and was booked into the “King County Jail for investigation of Murder,” according to police.
The arrest comes after police released photos taken from security camera footage of the suspect on May 13 and asked for the public’s assistance in the investigation. The photos appeared to show the man inside a laundry room.
On May 10, University of Washington police officers responded to the Nordheim Court apartments, an off-campus housing complex for undergraduate students, and found a woman stabbed to death in the laundry room. The victim, who a local official previously said was a 19-year-old transgender student, was identified by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office as Juniper C. Blessing on May 14.
The incident sparked a law enforcement investigation and prompted authorities to advise Nordheim Court residents to stay in their homes and lock their doors and windows for several hours.
In a statement on May 14, University of Washington President Robert Jones announced an arrest had been made “in connection with the horrific act that took the life of one of our students on Sunday night.”
“I hope the arrest brings some sense of relief to our community,” Jones said. “But this arrest does not lessen the profound shock and grief that the victim’s loved ones and our campus are still experiencing or bring back a beloved, promising and talented member of our university.”
“Much is still unknown about what caused this tragedy, and while this development is important, we will be looking closely at the circumstances in which this event occurred as part of our continued efforts to keep our campus community safe,” he added, noting that the university “remains committed to offering resources for those who need support, including our LGBTQIA+ community, during this difficult time.”
University of Washington student was found dead in laundry room
The University of Washington also confirmed on May 14 that the suspect arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing was the man in the photos shared by police. The Seattle Police Department had described the suspect as a Black man, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with short black hair and a “goatee with ingrown scruff around the jaw.”
Police added that the suspect was wearing rimmed eyeglasses; a long-sleeve, dark blue full zip shirt with a white collared shirt underneath; dirty blue jeans; and “dirty dark, possibly gray shoes with a light sole.”
University of Washington police officers responded to a report of a stabbing at about 10:10 p.m. local time on May 10 at Nordheim Court, according to the Seattle Police Department. Responding officers discovered a victim in a laundry room, the Seattle Police Department said in a statement on May 11.
Responding officers and the Seattle Fire Department “attempted lifesaving treatment,” but the Seattle Police Department said the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. After campus police cordoned off the area, the Seattle Police Department took over the investigation, and detectives arrived to process the scene.
In an emergency campus alert sent at about 10:40 p.m. local time on May 10, the University of Washington said campus police were investigating a death that occurred at the Nordheim Court apartments building. The alert advised residents of Nordheim Court to “stay indoors and lock doors and windows.”
By around 11:05 p.m., the university said the area had been secured but urged residents to remain indoors. Shortly before 1 a.m. on May 11, the university told residents that they no longer needed to remain indoors but noted that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Both police and the university later confirmed on May 11 that a student had been killed in the laundry room at Nordheim Court. The housing complex is privately managed and operated by Greystar, according to the university’s website and Balta.
Nordheim Court offers 454 units ranging in size from studios to four bedrooms, the university’s website states. The housing complex consists of eight buildings, and laundry facilities are located in Building 1 and Building 7.
The university said the student was found dead in Building 7.
‘Juniper was simply the most amazing human being we have ever known’
In a statement shared by the Human Rights Alliance of Santa Fe on behalf of Blessing’s family, the LGBTQ+ advocacy group said the family was “currently in a state of profound shock and heartbreak, processing an unimaginable loss.”
“This loss has devastated not only those closest to their child but also many others throughout the Seattle, Santa Fe, and LGBTQIA2S communities who are mourning as well,” the organization said, adding that Blessing’s family has asked for privacy.
In the statement, the family said Blessing was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Littlebrook School and Princeton Middle School until they moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2018. Blessing’s family described them as a “gifted singer with a transcendent voice,” who studied at the New Mexico School for the Arts from 2020 to 2024.
The family noted that Blessing loved weather since early childhood and intended to study atmospheric science at the University of Washington while also pursuing minors in music and philosophy. They added that Blessing was “courageously living their life as who they were until it was cut tragically short.”
“Our family has been shattered by the loss of our child, Juniper Blessing, to an act of unspeakable violence near the University of Washington campus in Seattle,” according to the statement. “Juniper was simply the most amazing human being we have ever known – highly intelligent, extremely talented, and deeply sensitive to the needs of others. Juniper’s loss not only devastates us but diminishes the world.”
Federal authorities are planning a “summer surge” aimed at reducing crimes committed by young people in D.C. sources tell News4.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro is expected to announce Friday that the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force will do additional enforcement and get more resources, law enforcement sources said.
The move comes about two weeks after the D.C. Council chose not to vote on extending Mayor Muriel Bowser’s emergency youth curfew zones over the summer.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March 2025 that established the task force. He declared a crime emergency and temporarily federalized the locally run Metropolitan Police Department in August 2025.
Trump threatened to seize control of MPD after teens attacked then-Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee Edward Coristine, who was known by the nickname Big Balls.
Pirro has repeatedly railed against youth who commit crimes and told News4 she would like to see children as young as 12 prosecuted as adults.
“The time for coddling young people – 14, 15, 16, 17 – is over. And it’s time that we lowered the age of criminal responsibility,” she said in August.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The owner of a popular Washington Avenue restaurant says he was arrested after a dispute with city health inspectors over whether his business had a valid permit to operate.
Surveillance video recorded May 6 inside Betelgeuse Betelgeuse shows owner Chris Cusack speaking with Houston Health Department officials before he was taken into custody.
“I was pretty dazed, and all I could do is comply until it all got figured out,” Cusack said.
Cusack was charged with failure to comply with local health and sanitary laws after authorities accused the restaurant of operating without a food dealer’s permit.
The Houston Health Department says food dealer permits are valid for one year and must be renewed annually.
Cusack disputes the allegation, saying he has paperwork he believes proves the business had renewed its permit in March.
“I pulled it off the wall and showed it to him,” Cusack said. “He said it wasn’t the right business. I said it has my business’ name and address on it.”
Cusack said inspectors questioned whether the permit was tied to the correct business identification number.
“(The inspector) saw the first ID and said, ‘Ah ha, that’s the one you’re working under, so therefore this isn’t valid,’” Cusack said.
ABC13 reached out to the Houston Health Department with questions about the arrest. The department referred questions to the Houston Police Department.
According to HPD, the health department ordered the business closed in October 2025 for operating without a permit, though officials did not specify which type of permit was involved.
Police said the business was instructed to remain closed until it complied with health regulations. On May 4, inspectors learned the restaurant was open, according to HPD. Inspectors returned two days later, when Cusack was arrested.
Cusack said he was never told to shut down the business and questioned why inspectors waited months before returning.
The restaurant, known for pizza and drinks, reopened following the arrest and was serving customers again on Wednesday.
Cusack also expressed concern about what he described as aggressive enforcement targeting Washington Avenue businesses.
The entertainment district has faced increased law enforcement scrutiny in recent years as city leaders attempted to curb reckless behavior and nightlife-related crime.
“Washington Avenue business owners are just being confused by these intense raids on businesses for what are typically really basic scenarios,” Cusack said.
Court records show Cusack is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday on the charge.
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