Putin Pals Unreal Cash for Trump Kid Exposed | Edit ShortsCars

Good morning and welcome to the Daily Beast’s Cheat Sheet on Substack, where we’re bringing you the stories you need to know now—and that we’re not afraid to publish.

Imagine if Malia Obama or Hunter Biden got a sanctioned Russian oligarch to pay for their luxurious wedding, and the oligarch, who once got an honor from Putin, brought a load of pals who whispered in Russian. Imagine that the Democratic president’s Ukraine-Russia peace envoy was at the wedding. Would we ever hear the end of it from the MAGA chorus of Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, Elon Musk, Jim Jordan et al? Well, wonder no more. Because this morning we are learning exactly what such a man did for one of Donald Trump’s children, not years ago, but this year. We’ve got every detail of this jaw-dropping story, including what the Trump in question did to their own jaw. That’s not the only crisis for the family this morning: One of Trump Sr.’s own judges has bashed his latest election power grab. We’ll explain what Judge Carl J. Nichols ruled, and why it matters. And we’ve got what happened when 60 Minutes returned after a MAGA takeover; an astonishing extortion attempt on the Kennedy Center; and how this is D-Day for Mitch McConnell. We’ve got the latest, 91 days since he vanished.

How Kremlin Bro Picked Up Vast Bill for Don Jr.

Nobody has complained more volubly than Donald Trump Jr. about “the Russia hoax,” in which “the deep state” went after his father Donald Trump in a targeted campaign of persecution based on nothing. So how exactly does Don Jr. explain why Umar Kremlev, a man to whom Putin gave the Order of Friendship, whose sister-in-law runs a Russian group sanctioned by Ukraine for allegedly abducting children from territories invaded by Putin, and who got handed Russia’s biggest nationalized car dealership by Putin, paid for his wedding? How exactly does Don Jr., a one-time ski bum turned crypto fortune-seeker, who rants about Democrats being “Communists,” explain that a Russian who boasts about loving Stalin paid for a private island and fireworks for the wedding?

Yes, Jr.’s wedding. His second wedding, more precisely, which took place earlier this year, rather famously without his own father or stepmother Melania Trump, on an island in the Bahamas. (Dad couldn’t leave because, he said, of Iran. He stayed home and tweeted. Since then, he has golfed almost every weekend of his presidency, apparently unaffected by the war he started.) Kremlev was there, of course, with an entourage that spoke to each other in Russian. And also there, Jared Kushner, who is supposed to be making peace in Europe. The story only gets more scandalous. Ewan Palmer has everything you need to know.

Read more: Putin Pal Secretly Paid for Donald Trump Jr’s Bahamas Wedding

An embarrassing subplot to this Russian pay-to-marry? The blushing bride, Palm Beach heiress Bettina Anderson, pulled a very thirsty move. She got a load of cosmetic treatments, which the plastic surgeon then boasted about on their Instagram, suggesting she got some sort of discount. And then the surgeon busted open what he’d also done for her beloved.

Read more: Vain Trump Son’s Secret Pre-Wedding Makeover Revealed

Trump’s Own Judge Savages Nov. 3 Power Grab

Donald Trump was so determined to make Carl J. Nichols a federal judge that he nominated him twice to the bench, the second time after the Senate declined to vote on him the first time. Nichols has declared independence from Trump with a truly searing ruling on Trump’s brazen power grab aimed at the Nov. 3 elections. Nichols ruled against Trump’s feverish attempt to get the United States Postal Service to enforce his bogus claims that postal ballots are “corrupt” (and it’s worth remembering this is how he votes himself) by making it almost impossible to use them. Janna Brancolini reveals a damning verdict on Trump himself.

Read more: Trump Judge Delivers Massive Blow to President

‘60 Minutes’ Stahl Ignores MAGA-Curious Bosses

All summer, it had been unclear whether 60 Minutes could even make it back to the air on Sunday night after CBS News’ MAGA-curious culture warrior leader Bari Weiss gutted the show. But last night, it returned, with mixed results. The result to celebrate, however, was that the legendary Lesley Stahl was, as she had promised, ferocious in her pursuit of a story which is highly damaging to Trump and his cronies. She delivered a fearless grilling of Ed Martin, who left his post as Trump’s pardon attorney last month, which showed that even if the rest of the show is falling in line, Stahl remains independent. Erkki Forster reveals how she hauled Martin over the coals for the crooks who have swarmed in to offer to get felons pardoned.

Read more: ‘60 Minutes’ Star Defies MAGA Bosses With Brutal Grilling

Not everyone was declaring independence from the Weiss regime this summer. She also brought in the religious fanatic Ross Douthat (a 46-year-old television news virgin) from The New York Times as a 60 Minutes correspondent. This is what he had to say for himself on his debut.

Read more: Right-Wing ‘60 Minutes’ Hire Debuts With Startling TV Message

Kennedy Center’s New Bosses Try to Extort Us All

The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., it is worth pointing out, belongs to all of us. It is the capital’s only memorial to the assassinated John F. Kennedy, and has been seen by countless millions on school trips, tourist visits, and of course on television. But this morning, the Trump takeover of the capital’s premier cultural institution has taken an even darker turn. Because the people he has installed to run it, among them the ousted Fox News election denier Maria Bartiromo, just told a court that...