President Biden will attempt to quiet the detractors calling for him to drop out with an ABC News interview Friday that will also put a spotlight on his interviewer — George Stephanopoulos, the former Democratic operative turned star ABC anchor and host.
Washington
Stephanopoulos shares spotlight with Biden in make-or-break interview
The armchair quarterbacking could start as soon as the first excerpt from the interview airs during ABC’s nightly news broadcast early Friday evening: Did Stephanopoulos go too hard on the president, or too soft? If Biden speaks strongly and coherently through the entire interview, will that silence the calls for him to step down?
A big audience is expected for the interview, which was just arranged three days ago. ABC initially planned to air Stephanopoulos’s full, unedited conversation on Sunday, with only teaser clips on Friday, but moved it to Friday amid heightened public interest following Biden’s halting and unfocused performance in last week’s debate against Donald Trump.
Stephanopoulos rose to prominence in 1992 as one of the top staffers for Bill Clinton as he mounted his first run for president. His political celebrity was heightened after the release of “The War Room,” an award-winning documentary on the campaign that centered on the relationship between Stephanopoulos and fellow Clinton operative James Carville.
During that race, Stephanopoulos experienced the production of another make-or-break television interview from a different vantage. In January 1992, the campaign booked Bill and Hillary Clinton for a “60 Minutes” interview to address the infidelity allegations that were then dogging the candidate. In one crucial exchange, Hillary Clinton feistily declared that she was not “some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette,” helping to salvage her husband’s candidacy at the cost of her own image.
“We bet a whole campaign on a single interview,” Stephanopoulos later wrote in his memoir.
After leaving the administration, Stephanopoulos started working at ABC News in 1997, at a time when he was so famous as a celebrity political operative that the New York Times dubbed him the “thinking woman’s sex symbol.”
Since then, Stephanopoulos has become one of ABC News’s leading journalists. He currently appears as a co-anchor on “Good Morning America” and hosts the channel’s Sunday morning political talk show, “This Week.”
He has presided over some of the network’s biggest nights of political coverage, including presidential primary debates and high-profile town halls with both Biden and Trump in 2020.
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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Metro is not recommending the construction of a new Metrorail station at the Commanders’ future home at the RFK Stadium site, documents released Tuesday reveal.
The transit agency instead recommended the creation of a rapid bus line called the Gold Line that would connect to Metrorail and buses at Union Station.
Metro also recommended major improvements to the Stadium-Armory Metro station. Without these measures, they warned it could take more than two hours to clear crowds after events at the stadium.
Metro said it projects that building a new rail station would cost about $1 billion and not be complete by the time the stadium is set to open in 2030.
More than half of people heading to events at the new stadium are expected to take public transportation.
Metro studied potential locations for a new Metro station, including Oklahoma Avenue and Benning Road NE.
Neighbors have repeatedly said they’re worried about traffic and parking.
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