Sep 26, 2018

Trump says he would "prefer not" firing Rod Rosenstein

President Trump speaks during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump said during a news conference Wednesday that he would much rather keep his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who offered his resignation to chief of staff John Kelly on Monday following reports that he had discussed secretly recording Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment, than fire him.

“He said he never said it. He said he doesn’t believe it. He said he has a lot of respect for me. And he was very nice, and we’ll see ... I would certainly prefer not [firing him]."

Trump added that he might ask Rosenstein to delay their Thursday meeting so that he can watch Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary committee.

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Kenan Thompson and Hasan Minhaj to headline White House Correspondents' Dinner

Kenan Thompson on "SNL" in 2018. Photo: Rosalind O'Connor/NBC via Getty Images

Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured "Saturday Night Live" cast member, will host the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 25.

And Hasan Minhaj — host of Netflix’s "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," and the entertainer at the 2017 dinner — will return as featured entertainer.

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"Billions": Season 2020

Mike Bloomberg speaks at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, Va., on Saturday. Photo: James H. Wallace/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP

Money alone can’t buy a presidential election, but it surely gets you VIP access.

Why it matters: Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is duking it out with Billionaire Donald Trump, often on Billionaire Jack Dorsey’s Twitter and in ads on Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, all chronicled in Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post.

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Jennifer A. Kingson

Biometrics invade banking and retail

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Banks have been quietly rolling out biometrics to identify customers — verifying them by their fingerprint, voice or eye scan — and retailers like Amazon are getting into the game.

Why it matters: These companies are amassing giant databases of our most personal information — including our gait, how we hold our cellphones, our typing patterns — that raise knotty questions about data security and privacy.

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