Kim Kardashian West, the Reality TV superstar, has been talking about her recent highly publicised visit to White House, which resulted in the pardon of Alice Marie Johnson.
A few days ago, she told Van Jones in an interview, partially aired on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon that she was “starstruck over the Oval Office.”
Kim’s involvement in the pardon of Alice Marie Jones is no longer news.
She reportedly went to the White House to speak to President Trump about commuting the sentence of the 63-year-old, who was convicted on federal drug and money-laundering charges in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison.
But Kim said her involvement didn’t start with the president: “I reached out to Ivanka and I said … ‘I know that you have compassion for women like this.’ And I explained to her her story, and she immediately got it.”
Over the following months, Kim was said to remain in contact with Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, until she finally got her invite to the executive mansion.
Once she was there, it became clear that she and the president were on the same page.
“He was compassionate,” Kim said of Trump. “He was sympathetic to her. He said … ‘This is a really long time that she’s been in here. This just isn’t fair.’ He knew that this was the right thing to do.”
After Trump called Kim to let her know he was signing the papers to commute Alice’s sentence, Kim called Alice with the good news.
“I was a little bit shocked because she was very calm, and I had assumed she knew,” she told Van.
“So I just was like, ‘Wait, she doesn’t know?’ And Alice was like, ‘Know what?’ And I was like, ‘You’re going home.’
‘She’s achieved nothing!’ The Project’s Waleed Aly Slams Kim Kardashian
While Kim Kardashian West is still basking in the euphoria over the pardon of Alice Marie Johnson, her detractors are still bent on discrediting her efforts.
Waleed Aly of The Project has slammed her after she pleaded with Donald Trump to get a drug offending grandmother freed, Daily Star reports.
The US reality sensation met with Trump last week to ask him to give Alice Marie Johnson, 64, a presidential pardon – which he granted.
The Project’s Waleed fumed that Kim had ‘achieved nothing’ with her involvement – claiming her actions only made the President believe he can “do things by pardons.”
“She’s actually achieved nothing. She’s achieved something for one person in one case. I reckon this is awful,” Waleed said on Thursday’s episode of The Project.
“You now have a president who effectively thinks he can do things by pardons. That’s the way he operates.”
He continued: “Everything goes through him. ‘I’ll just make a decision, you’re saved, you’re not. You’re free, you go to hell.’
“That’s the way it works [but] that’s the opposite of the way it’s supposed to work.”
His co-host, Carrie Bickmore, was equally unimpressed with Kim’s involvement, claiming it showed the President’s “attachment to celebrity.”
She said: “I feel for all the people who have been advocating on behalf of people for years… Kim just walks in, [and they decide] ‘OK, let her out.’”
Alice was jailed for life in 1996 for being part of a cocaine ring, despite having an otherwise clean record and violence not featuring in the case.
She had applied for clemency during Obama’s 2014 push to free non-violent drug offenders from jail, but her application was denied.
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Christiane Amanpour mourns celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain
Christiane Amanpour has expressed her condolences and paid tribute to Anthony Bourdain who was found dead in his hotel room Friday in Strasbourg, France, where he had been working on an upcoming episode of his programme.
He was 61.
In an emotional message, which she released via her Twitter handle, Amanpour expressed deep sympathies to his family, saying Bourdain was a family.
She said: “My heart breaks for Tony Bourdain. May he rest in peace now. He was a friend, a collaborator, and family. A huge personality, a giant talent, a unique voice, and deeply, deeply human. My heart goes out to his daughter and family, and his longtime partners and friends at ZPZ.”
Amanpour also recalled the role he played in the #MeToo campaign, saying that Bourdain strongly defended the rights of women, among others.
“Anthony was a major MeToo supporter. He strongly defended our rights; he spoke up publicly for us. He was that vital male partner. I am humbled and forever grateful that one of his last major projects was believing in and becoming EP of my recent CNN series on the lives of women.”
According to reports, Bourdain’s death came three days after American designer Kate Spade, who built a fashion empire on her signature handbags, was found dead in her New York apartment of suicide on Tuesday.
Bourdain’s profile began to soar in 1999, when the New Yorker magazine published his article “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” which he developed into the 2000 book, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.”
He went on to host television programmes, first on the Food Network and the Travel Channel, before joining CNN in 2013.
Don’t ban Shisha, ban SARS, Paul Okoye tells FG
The federal government should attend to the problem created by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, instead of the ban on Shisha and other alcoholic products.
This is the position of popular singer, Paul Okoye.
He was reacting to the call by the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole on the police to ban anyone caught violating the ban on Shisha and other alcoholic products.
He said the excesses of the police were too much to bear and the government should do something on it.
