<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12361691" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kandi-burruss" source="Orion">Kandi Burruss</keyword> recently told Insider that her husband <keyword id="13535348" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="todd-tucker" source="Orion">Todd Tucker</keyword> and <keyword id="13535349" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mama-joyce" source="Orion">Mama Joyce</keyword> have "made up."</li><li>Burruss said that their relationship had gotten "back to being a little weird."</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/category/kandi-burruss">Kandi Burruss</a> recently said that the relationship between her husband Todd Tucker and Mama Joyce has improved after the two were "being a little weird with each other."</p><p>"It's gotten much better in the last couple of weeks," she told Insider while promoting <a href="https://www.insider.com/kandi-and-the-gang-kandi-burruss-surprised-some-staff-romances-2022-3">her spinoff "Kandi and The Gang."</a> "They had gotten back to being a little weird with each other, but recently they made up again for the hundredth time. So hopefully, we'll keep them on the right track."</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.insider.com/real-housewives-of-atlanta-season-14-trailer-apollo-nida-sheree-whitfield">newly-released trailer</a> for the highly anticipated 14th season of "<a href="https://www.insider.com/category/real-housewives-of-atlanta">Real Housewives of Atlanta</a>," which premieres May 14, Burruss and Tucker are seen having a quarrel about finances.</p><p>In one scene, Tucker tells Burruss: "My name ain't on this house." In another scene, Mama Joyce is seen telling Burruss, in a private conversation, that Tucker "doesn't have the money to pay" off a condo. The drama seems to heighten with Tucker confronting Burruss in front of their daughters saying: "Her, your mama, and your family, y'all so disrespectful."</p><p>The "<keyword id="13507713" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="rhoa" source="Orion">RHOA</keyword>" star met Tucker on set while he was working as a producer of the long-running Bravo series. The rift between her husband and mother has been at the center of Burruss' storyline since the two began dating in 2011's season four. </p><h2>Despite her mother's doubts, Burruss said she and Tucker 'are never like disrespectful to each other'</h2><div type="image" title="KANDI &amp; THE GANG -- Premiere Event -- Pictured: (l-r) Todd Tucker, Aunt Bertha Jones, Aunt Nora Wilcox, Mama Joyce Jones, Kandi Burruss" height="1196" width="1595" msid="90626704" hostid="261"></div><p>Though their marriage has come with ups and downs, the two still manage to keep going strong after nearly eight years. The two wed on April 4, 2014, with cameras rolling for Burruss' spinoff, "Kandi's Wedding." </p><p>In 2016, Burruss and Tucker started working to open OLG, a family-run eatery inspired by Mama Joyce and her sisters. Four years later, the two opened Blaze Steak and Seafood in Atlanta, named after their youngest daughter whom they welcomed in 2019 via surrogate.</p><p>The secret sauce to the couple's partnership, both in running restaurants and their household, is "communication" said Burruss.</p><p>"We are never disrespectful to each other — even when we're angry, it's only so far the conversation is going to go," she added. "So, I think we know how to give each other that moment to cool down and then come back to it and try to compromise."</p><p><em>"<keyword id="13479016" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kandi-and-the-gang" source="Orion">Kandi and the Gang</keyword>" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. Season 14 of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" premieres Sunday, May 1 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.</em></p>

Kandi Burruss says husband Todd Tucker and Mama Joyce 'made up' again after 'being a little weird with each other'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Carlson's recent visit to <keyword id="15799" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hungary">Hungary</keyword> sparked alarm among democracy watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers.</li><li>But some Republican senators endorsed Carlson's embrace of Viktor Orbán and his authoritarian model.</li><li>Romney, however, denounced Orbán as an autocrat who's "only a few clicks away from Vladimir Putin."</li></ul><p>The host of America's most-watched cable <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> show recently spent a week in Budapest extolling the virtues of a small European country sliding into autocracy, triggering alarm among democracy experts and Democratic lawmakers. </p><p>Insider approached nearly a dozen Republican senators this week to ask them whether they endorse Fox host <keyword id="1100092" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tucker-Carlson">Tucker Carlson</keyword>'s promotion of Hungary's right-wing populist leader. Their answers - and nonanswers - underscore the ongoing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-has-become-even-greater-threat-democracy-than-trump-2021-6">erosion of support for democracy</a> on the American right. </p><p>Some Republican lawmakers either tacitly or explicitly portrayed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government as a model for US conservatives. Others insisted they weren't well-informed enough to answer questions about Hungary, which has attracted widespread condemnation, while <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-orban/hungary-will-remain-part-of-the-european-union-pm-orban-says-idUSKBN1WE0GT">putting its European Union membership in question</a>.</p><p>"The only thing I know about [Orbán] is what I heard right there on [Carlson's] program," Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who's served in the Senate for 40 years, told Insider at the Capitol on Tuesday. "I saw enough snippets that I thought that he was a rational person."</p><p>"I haven't been tracking what's happening," Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, who served as Trump's ambassador to Japan and sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, told Insider.</p><p>"Call our press office," Sen. Ted Cruz, who also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, told Insider. Cruz's spokespeople declined to comment when Insider reached them by email. </p><p>The only GOP senator who said he was very familiar with Hungary's government was Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and close ally of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Orbán's leadership as a model for the US. He called Carlson's glowing portrayal of the autocrat "pretty accurate."</p><p>"I recognize the liberal left doesn't like Hungary, but there are so many positive things about what they're doing in that country," Johnson told Insider. </p><div type="image" title="Tucker Carlson on the cover page of the Hungarian weekly magazine Mandiner at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) Feszt on August 7, 2021 in Esztergom, Hungary." height="640" width="1280" msid="85312111" hostid="261"></div><h2>Hungary's democratic backslide</h2><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tucker-carlson-hungary-touts-authoritarian-orbn-as-model-for-west-2021-8">Orbán</a> has spent the <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/08/29/how-viktor-orban-hollowed-out-hungarys-democracy">past 11 years in power</a> asserting control <a href="https://www.amnesty.eu/news/hungary-fraudulent-fear-rules-among-judges/">over the judiciary</a>, enriching his loyalists, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/europe/hungary-orban-media.html">eliminating the free press</a>, while remaking his country's laws to benefit his far-right Fidesz party.</p><p>After winning two-thirds of the seats in parliament in 2010, Orbán wasted no time in overhauling the nation's constitution. Foundational laws were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/world/europe/19iht-hungary19.html">promptly rewritten</a> without the approval of any lawmakers outside Fidesz, with the EU and UN raising concerns, and critics warning that Hungary was "<a href="https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/hungarys-constitutional-revolution/">sliding into authoritarianism</a>." This set the tone for Orbán's rule.</p><p>Fidesz has since remade Hungary's electoral system - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/world/europe/hungary-election-viktor-orban.html">gerrymandering parliamentary districts</a> and nearly halving the number of seats in parliament - to give it an advantage. The party has consistently won a two-thirds majority in parliament since 2010, despite not always winning a majority of the national vote. And Orbán granted dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians outside the country's borders, who <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-courts-voters-in-transylvania-romania-hungarian-election-2018/">vote overwhelmingly for Fidesz</a>.</p><p>In his domestic policy, Orbán has taken particularly aggressive stances against immigration - including erecting a 180-mile border wall - and LGBTQ rights in his efforts to keep the country of nearly 10 million white, Christian, and conservative. He's forced Central Europe's premier university out of the country, and he's funneled billions of dollars in government money into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/world/europe/hungary-orban-university.html">conservative institutions run by his loyalists</a> as part of an effort "to turn Hungary into the intellectual capital of the nationalist conservative movement," Dalibor Rohac, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Insider. </p><p>Orbán's close ties to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/vladimir-putin-and-viktor-orbans-special-relationship/a-45512712" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russia</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/viktor-orban-censored-question-tucker-carlson-asked-about-xi-jinping-2021-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">China</a> have also been a <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/orban-taunts-germany-by-doubling-down-on-support-for-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">source of tension with the EU</a>, which has frequently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/08/eu-parliament-condemns-hungary-anti-lgbt-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">condemned the Hungarian leader</a> on issues like human rights. </p><p><a href="https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/f9/08/f908eb53-c0e2-40f0-9294-e067537d8f0b/v-dem_policybrief_5_2016.pdf">Varieties of Democracy</a> (V-Dem), a project that monitors the health of democracy worldwide, said in its 2021 report that Hungary <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/74/8c/748c68ad-f224-4cd7-87f9-8794add5c60f/dr_2021_updated.pdf">lost its status as a democracy</a> in 2018 and ranked among the top 10 autocratizing countries. </p><p>"Over the past decade, the Orbán government has undermined the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary, and freedom of the press; impeded Ukraine's cooperation with NATO; and cozied up to Russia, among many other acts inconsistent with a modern European liberal democracy," James Kirchick, a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, told Insider. </p><h2>'Everybody's got different views' on Hungary</h2><p>Multiple GOP senators declined to comment or said they didn't know enough about Orbán's leadership to have an opinion on the state of Hungarian democracy or the US right's affinity for it. Others took the opportunity to criticize American democracy.</p><p>Grassley said he didn't have "the slightest idea" what Orbán had done in Hungary but had a favorable opinion of the leader after watching clips of Carlson's show last week. He went on to suggest that it wouldn't be out of character for <keyword id="66537" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Republicans">Republicans</keyword> to look abroad for political inspiration.</p><p>"Have you ever heard of Mrs. Thatcher?" he said, referring to the former conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. "A lot of things that Republicans started to do in the 1980s was because of what Thatcher was successful doing in Great Britain."</p><p>An aide to the senator interjected to say Grassley didn't condone what Orbán has done in Hungary, but the senator insisted the Hungarian leader appeared "rational."</p><p>Sen. Rick Scott of Florida insisted that "everybody's got different views" on Hungary's leadership and pivoted to criticizing American democracy. He said he had a Hungarian friend who's considering moving back to his home country if the US "keeps going down this path of systemic socialism." </p><div type="image" title="Victor Orban Donald Trump" height="600" width="1200" msid="85312112" hostid="261"></div><p>Johnson, the Wisconsin senator who said he felt Hungary was a model for the US, was asked if he thought Orbán's restrictions on free speech and civic society were still problematic. He replied by turning the question around.</p><p>"I think what's problematic is what's happening in this country in terms of the media censorship and the media bias," he said.</p><p>Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, declined to comment on Hungary and Carlson and instead emphasized American exceptionalism.</p><p>"I think the US model should serve as a model for the world, one in which we continuously improve each generation upon the previous generation's handiwork and we leave a more perfect union for our children and grandchildren," Young told Insider. "I've got nothing else to say."</p><h2>Why Hungarian autocracy appeals to the American right</h2><p>Carlson's full-throated embrace of Orbán and his populist-nationalist Fidesz party didn't surprise many observers of conservatism. Orbán has become a hero to the far-right across Europe and the US, who've applauded his efforts to create a conservative ethnostate through strict anti-immigration policies, incentives for Hungarian parents, and censorship of progressive civic and educational institutions.</p><p>After years of criticism from US administrations, Orbán has found admirers in Trumpian Republicans. Right-wing commentators and operators, including the former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and writers at conservative outlets like National Review and American Conservative, are big fans.</p><p>Johnson told Insider he'd met "repeatedly" with Hungarian parliamentarians and called them "family-oriented." He added that Orbán's anti-immigration policies had shown "you actually can defend your border and represent the people of your country, as opposed to an open border and chaos that we're seeing here." </p><p>Experts on <keyword id="1126795" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="authoritarianism">authoritarianism</keyword> say that Trump's embrace of autocratic leaders and his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election have deepened <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-authoritarianism-trump-competitive">the American right's disdain for democracy</a>.</p><p>Staffan Lindberg, a Swedish political scientist and the director of V-Dem, said that embracing Orbán and his <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> "means espousing authoritarianism and anti-pluralism."</p><p>"The suggestion that the GOP should emulate Fidesz and Orbán's politics is nothing short of saying that democracy is no longer the system for the US: Democracy should be dismantled, die," he told Insider. </p><p>Democrats are outspoken in their condemnation of Orbán, who President Joe Biden <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/read-full-transcript-joe-bidens-abc-news-town/story?id=73643517">last year</a> suggested was a totalitarian "thug," and say they're increasingly worried about the US right's embrace of authoritarianism. </p><p>"Orbán is trying to model a kind of repressive, pseudo-democracy where free speech is virtually nonexistent," Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, told Insider this week.</p><p>"There's obviously a lot of sympathy in the Republican Party for authoritarianism and there's a lot of Republicans who are giving up on democracy," he added. "That's what January 6 was all about. ... The Republican Party right now presents a real threat to American democracy."</p><p>Many European conservatives and experts on the right are also increasingly critical of the Hungarian ruling party. </p><p>Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, said conservative respect for Orbán "reflects the continued deterioration of the American Right." </p><p>"Supposed conservatives are sacrificing once strongly held commitments to liberty and the rule of law," Bandow told Insider. "Support for the family and tradition are important but are secure only when nestled within a democratic system and based on a liberal constitutional order."</p><div type="image" title="Tucker Carlson discussing Viktor Orban." height="1000" width="2000" msid="85312115" hostid="261"></div><p>There used to be stronger opposition to Orbán's leadership in the GOP's ranks. In 2019, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/05-10-19%20Letter-Orban.pdf">sent a letter to Trump</a> expressing its concern with Hungary's "downward democratic trajectory." The lawmakers, including Republican Sens. James Risch and Marco Rubio, urged Trump to press Orbán on Hungary's embrace of China and Russia and its authoritarian slide. </p><p>Rohac said the right's criticism of Orbán had mostly dried up since then and "pro-Orbán and anti-anti-Orbán voices are dominating the conversation."</p><p>"It wasn't taken as a given that Viktor Orbán is a friend of conservative values, of the conservative movement," Rohac said. "I think those scruples have just disappeared. It's very hard to find anybody who would be critical of Orbán among politically active Republicans."</p><p>Still, a few GOP elected officials remain willing to speak out against Hungarian authoritarianism. </p><p>"I think Viktor Orbán and Hungary are far from a model for any other nation," Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and former GOP presidential nominee, told Insider on Tuesday. "Mr. Orbán is only a few clicks away from Vladimir Putin, and autocracy is antithetical to the American experience."</p><p>Spokespeople for Risch and Rubio didn't reply to Insider's multiple requests for comment. </p><p>Rohac said Orbán's appeal to Republicans came down to his success in crushing progressive culture and politics.</p><p>"The best explanation was provided by Tucker Carlson himself at this dinner with Orbán last week when he said that you are hated by the right sort of people," Rohac said, referring to <a href="https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1423000728776286210">Carlson's comment last week</a> to Hungarian right-wingers.</p><p>"I'm afraid that's where we are with intellectual conservatism - that it's no longer about policy. It's no longer about principles. It's no longer about having some sort of coherent worldview that reflects conservative principles.</p><p>"It's squarely about owning the libs. It's squarely about just doing things that the other side will hate. And for that, Orbán is your man."</p>

We asked Republican senators about Tucker Carlson's favorite authoritarian leader. Their praise and dodges underscore the danger to the US.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Prosecutors and Donald Trump's lawyers sparred over potential jury questions in his hush-money case.</li><li>Trump lawyers don't want prospective jurors asked if they think Trump won the 2020 election.</li></ul><p>Lawyers for former President Donald Trump tried to shape the questions prospective jurors would be asked in advance of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-hush-money-case-no-delay-no-dismissal-2024-2">his Manhattan criminal case next month</a>, asking a judge Thursday to omit questions about whether they believe the 2020 election was rigged and if they watch programs from far-right commentators including Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson.</p><p>Todd Blanche, the lead attorney representing Trump in the case, said that jurors should not be asked whether they believe the 2020 election — which Trump lost to now-President Joe Biden — was "stolen."</p><p>"Over half the population of this country believes the election was stolen," Blanche complained.</p><p>(A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/tablet/2024/01/01/dec-14-18-2023-washington-post-university-maryland-poll/">December 2023 poll</a> found that about 30% of voters believe Trump really won the 2020 election.)</p><p>Joshua Steinglass, a lawyer at the Manhattan district attorney's office, said any prospective jurors who believe Biden didn't actually win the 2020 election should be excluded from serving on the jury.</p><p>Anyone who believes that Steinglass said, might "blindly follow" whatever Trump says in the case and may not follow the judge's instructions.</p><p>"An affirmative answer here demonstrates an unwillingness to follow the facts and kind of blindly follow statements that have been made by the defendant," Steinglass said.</p><p>New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge who will preside over the trial, did not immediately say which questions jurors would ultimately be asked. He stressed that jurors couldn't be dismissed for cause because of their political affiliation.</p><p>"The issue is if the juror can be impartial and can reach a verdict consistent with the facts and the law," Merchan said.</p><p>The grand jury indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges Trump falsified business records related to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Ahead of the 2016 election, Trump sought to keep Daniels — an adult film actor whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — quiet about an affair she says she had with him.</p><p>Thursday's hearing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-hush-money-appearance-will-shape-his-first-felony-trial-2024-2">establishes the hush-money case</a> as the first of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-hush-money-appearance-will-shape-his-first-felony-trial-2024-2">Trump's four criminal cases</a> to go to trial, with jury selection beginning on March 25. It will also be the first time a former president has ever sat for a criminal trial.</p><p>Blanche made a last-ditch attempt to push the trial back. He complained that Trump had a busy campaign schedule and too many other criminal trials to deal with. He also said that the media was "saturated" with reports following a jury verdict in Manhattan federal court last month ordering Trump to pay more than $80 million to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her when he called her a liar after she accused him of sexual abuse.</p><p>Merchan refused to move the trial date.</p><p>Some of the Manhattan district attorney's office proposals for juror questions were adapted from US District Judge Lewis Kaplan's questions in E. Jean Carroll's trial, Steinglass said, which would help eliminate unfair juror bias. Blanche asked Merchan to take a fresh look at the questions jurors should be asked.</p><p>"We do think the court should indeed reinvent the wheel to the extent that Judge Kaplan asked certain questions that we object to," Blanche said.</p><div type="image" title="Former Pres. Donald Trump attends a hearing in his felony hush money case in Manhattan on Feb. 15, 2024." height="1786" width="2694" msid="107732154" hostid="261" sizebytes="80708"></div><h2><strong>Donald Trump winked at Jeffrey Toobin for some reason</strong></h2><p>Blanche and Steinglass wrestled over questions about the jurors' media diets as well. One draft of a question posed to jurors would ask them to identify which media outlets they watch, read, or listen to on a long list of publications and shows that span a wide ideological spectrum. Prosecutors wanted to include specific programs from Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, and Sean Hannity on the list. Blanche said prosecutors were just trying to add "some extraordinarily conservative shows" just to identify jurors who may be pro-Trump.</p><p>Steinglass also said prospective jurors should be asked if they were members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Antifa, or another extremist group to eliminate anyone who opposed "the system" on "one side or the other," while Blanche said there was "no need to inject these names" into the proceedings.</p><p>In court Thursday, Trump addressed members of the media before hallway cameras, decrying the proceedings as politically motivated and illegitimate.</p><p>Walking into the courtroom, he seemed relatively upbeat. He wagged his finger at legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin — who left his jobs at the New Yorker and CNN after reportedly masturbating on camera during a Zoom call — who was sitting in an aisle seat.</p><p>During the two-hour hearing, Trump appealed calm, talking quietly to his lawyers Blanche and Susan Necheles as they made various arguments in the hearing. He didn't interrupt, make any loud declarations about unfairness, or mutter audibly as he did during the Carroll trial in January.</p><p>As he left the courtroom, Trump gave Toobin a wink. Toobin laughed.</p><p>Aside from the Manhattan indictment, Trump has three other pending criminal cases.</p><p>The Washington, DC-based case from Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, over Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was initially scheduled to go to trial in early March. Trump has argued that he is immune to prosecution, and the trial has been put on hold as the US Supreme Court weighs the question.</p><p>Trump's two other criminal cases — one from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, also over election interference, and another one from Smith, in Florida, over his handling of government records — are expected to go to trial later in 2024 or in 2025.</p><p>Last year, Trump went through <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-fraud-trial-weisselberg-perjury-hardly-surprising-ny-says-2024-2">a three-month civil trial</a> in Manhattan for a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Her office had alleged that the Trump Organization misrepresented its property values to fraudulently obtain beneficial tax, loan, and insurance rates. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw the bench trial, is expected to render a verdict in the case on Friday.</p>

Trump lawyers don't want prospective jurors in 'hush-money' case to be asked if 2020 election was stolen

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11899148" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kyle-rittenhouse" source="Orion">Kyle Rittenhouse</keyword>'s lawyer says his client is looking to file "at least 10" <keyword id="11949128" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="defamation" source="Orion">defamation</keyword> lawsuits.</li><li>The lawyer said the cases would be filed against defendants like <keyword id="11892960" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="facebook" source="Orion">Facebook</keyword> and <keyword id="11896062" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mark-zuckerberg" source="Orion">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword>.</li></ul><p>A lawyer representing Kyle Rittenhouse said that their team is gearing up to file "at least 10" defamation lawsuits against large companies and prominent individuals on behalf of Rittenhouse. </p><p>Todd McMurtry, Rittenhouse's new attorney, told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/sandmann-lawyer-rittenhouse-legal-defamation-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News Digital</a> that he had been "hired to head the effort to determine whom to sue, when to sue, where to sue."</p><p>Per the outlet, McMurtry added that he was "assured that there's probably 10 to 15 solid" cases that could be filed against "large defendants." </p><p>McMurtry singled out Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the platform of defaming Rittenhouse, per Fox <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">News</keyword> Digital. The lawyer added that Zuckerberg would be "at the top" of the list of parties to be sued by Rittenhouse, because of his "outsized voice." </p><p>"They said that he was involved in a mass murder incident," McMurtry said, per the outlet, referring to Facebook and Zuckerberg. "This was not a mass murder incident. It was clearly factually false."</p><p>He told Fox News Digital that his team would be looking into everything said about Rittenhouse to determine which comments were "legally actionable."</p><p>"To call somebody a mass murderer is seriously defamatory. And then to use the power of social media to basically … censor any views that would take opposition to that mass murderer statement is a serious effort to destroy his character," the lawyer added, per the outlet.</p><p>McMurtry is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sandmann-attorney-idUSKBN29U2I5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">known for representing Nicholas Sandmann</a> in lawsuits against major media outlets like The Washington Post and CNN.</p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/video-native-american-protestors-mocked-by-catholic-high-school-group-2019-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sandmann</a> was dubbed the "the Covington Catholic kid" after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/20/it-was-getting-ugly-native-american-drummer-speaks-maga-hat-wearing-teens-who-surrounded-him/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a video</a> showing him smirking at activists during a tense standoff near the Lincoln Memorial went viral. He later sued media outlets for defamation, claiming that they had portrayed him as a white nationalist. </p><p>Sandmann has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/nick-sandmann-kyle-rittenhouse-defamation">encouraged Rittenhouse to do the same</a>, citing the success of his legal actions against media organizations.</p><p>Rittenhouse, who fatally <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/profile-kyle-rittenhouse-killed-two-men-became-right-wing-hero-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot two men and injured a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020</a>, was <a href="https://www.insider.com/kyle-rittenhouse-verdict-homicide-trial-2021-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted in November 2021 of five charges, including first-degree homicide</a>. Rittenhouse <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-rittenhouse-mom-says-biden-defamed-son-not-white-supremacist-2021-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and his mother, Wendy Rittenhouse</a>, have accused several parties — from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-rittenhouse-tucker-carlson-biden-defamation-character-2021-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Joe Biden</a> to media outlets and celebrities — of "defaming" him. </p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/kyle-rittenhouse-depp-lawsuit-win-fueling-drive-sue-media-2022-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rittenhouse said on Wednesday</a> that <a href="https://www.insider.com/watch-the-verdict-in-johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial-2022-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Johnny Depp's victory over Amber Heard in court</a> was motivating him to pursue his own defamation lawsuits.</p><p>"<keyword id="12154119" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="johnny-depp" source="Orion">Johnny Depp</keyword> trial is just fueling me, you can fight back against the lies in the media, and you should!" he <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisIsKyleR/status/1532132605696548870?s=20&amp;t=ftdroxX0bZZ2nZM6M8scuw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>.</p><p>In February, Rittenhouse <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-rittenhouse-launches-project-raise-money-sue-media-court-2022-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hinted that he might be looking sue media organizations.</a> He told Fox News' Tucker Carlson that he was launching an initiative called The Media Accountability Project to raise funds to sue politicians, celebrities, and athletes. </p>

Kyle Rittenhouse's lawyer plans to target Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg in a slew of 'at least 10' defamation suits

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star <keyword id="12361691" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kandi-burruss" source="Orion">Kandi Burruss</keyword> welcomed her daughter Blaze through a <keyword id="12102753" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="surrogate" source="Orion">surrogate</keyword>.</li><li>She was going through <keyword id="12102752" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="surrogacy" source="Orion">surrogacy</keyword> at the same time as her boss Andy Cohen and didn't know it.</li></ul><p>Kandi Burruss, a star of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," knows that every pregnancy, conception, and child is a different ball game.</p><p>Burruss - a mom to a 17-year-old daughter, Riley; a 5-year-old son, Ace; and a nearly 2-year-old daughter, Blaze - has experienced motherhood through a conventional pregnancy, <keyword id="12197404" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ivf" source="Orion">IVF</keyword>, <a href="https://www.insider.com/celebrity-parents-who-used-surrogates-2020-5">and surrogacy</a>.</p><p>On the latest episode of People's "<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kandi-burruss/id1586155512?i=1000539271546">Me Becoming Mom</a>" podcast, Burruss, 45, said she'd wanted to have a child with her husband, Todd Tucker, before she turned 40. That's when the couple turned to IVF.</p><p>"We both had daughters coming into our marriage, but this was for the both of us, us together, having a child together," she said.</p><h2>Burruss said IVF was difficult for her</h2><p>Through IVF, the couple welcomed Ace into the world. Burruss describes the process as an emotional roller coaster.</p><p>"This is something physically that you've really got to want to do. This is not anything that you just do on a whim," Burruss said, recalling the toll it took on her body and psyche.</p><p>At points in the process she had multiple viable embryos, and two embryos were implanted. But she said that only one took, and she wouldn't be having the twins she'd expected.</p><p>She said that the moment she held her baby boy, she knew all the angst and heartache she'd experienced through her IVF journey was worth it.</p><p>"It's just like, when you work so hard for something or someone, in this instance, to finally see him, to finally be able to hear his little voice, to see his little fingers and toes, like, that's the best part about having a baby!" she said.</p><h2>After IVF, Burruss and Tucker explored surrogacy</h2><p>When Burruss and her husband were ready to try again, they knew that IVF would be even more difficult, and they turned to surrogacy.</p><p>"Real Housewives" viewers saw this play out on the show. Burruss said she was proud to have played a part in normalizing surrogacy.</p><p>"I feel like it did help a lot of people," she told People. "I had a lot of people reach out to me after that and said that it helped them. And then, you know, it's kind of normalized it for a lot of people who felt like it was something that they wanted to do but they felt scared to try it because of the judgment of others."</p><p>Burruss said that <a href="https://www.insider.com/surrogacy-cost">when she found her surrogate</a>, Shadina Blunt - herself a mom of three - she felt a connection.</p><p>Blunt received two embryos, and Burruss and her husband were expecting twins again. Then only one embryo stayed.</p><p>"You're super happy that you do have a healthy one, but then you're super sad that you lost one," she said.</p><p>Burruss said that she was the first one to touch the baby after she was born and that she was given a room in the hospital for them to bond during those initial hours. She said her surrogate pumped milk to feed Blaze for about a month, until the new parents switched to formula.</p><h2>Andy Cohen kept her calm through the process</h2><p>Waiting to see how the pregnancy would progress was stressful, but Burruss received some advice from the "Real Housewives" boss Andy Cohen - without knowing that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/andy-cohen-welcomes-his-first-child-surrogate-1182786/">he was going through the same process</a> at the same time.</p><p>"He just calmed my nerves about the whole situation," Burruss said. She added that Cohen initially said it was a friend, not him, who was expecting a baby through surrogacy.</p><p>Burruss said that when Blaze was born, she and her family were thrilled. And she said they still kept in touch with their surrogate.</p><p>Burruss also made one thing very clear in the interview: Parents who welcome babies via surrogacy are just as valid as parents who carry, and Blaze is as much a part of her as Ace and Riley are.</p>

Kandi Burruss opened up about her experience having her 3 children via unassisted pregnancy, IVF, and surrogacy

<p>Hello readers, </p><p>Happy Saturday, and welcome to Insider <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance">Finance</keyword>. Here's a rundown of the must-know stories from the past week:</p><ul><li><keyword id="6361649" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword> taps Jemma Wolfe and Stephan Lambert to lead a new consumer and wealth strategy team- <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-jemma-wolfe-stephan-lambert-consumer-strategy-stephanie-cohen-2021-1">see the full memo</a></li><li>Merrill Lynch's pipeline for thousands of new advisors <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/merrill-lynch-wealth-management-financial-advisor-trainee-outreach-pause-violations-2021-1">is in limbo</a></li><li>Carlyle has been on a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carlyle-group-credit-team-lending-pandemic-private-equity-2021-1">hiring spree</a> in credit</li><li>Bloomberg's $100 million alt-data deal <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alt-data-alternative-institutional-shift-industry-outlook-bloomberg-consolidation-2021-1">marks a huge turning point</a> in a once-fringe business </li></ul><p>If this email was forwarded to you, <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/22653302.34602/aHR0cDovL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIuYnVzaW5lc3NpbnNpZGVyLmNvbS9qb2luLzRucC9pbnNpZGVyLWZpbmFuY2U_bnJfZW1haWxfcmVmZXJlcj0xJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9U2FpbHRocnUmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1JbnNpZGVyJTIwRmluYW5jZQ/5cf970723f92a452082ea752B3f5606f6">sign up here to get your daily dose of the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-earnings-update-multi-year-plan-q4-wealth-marcus-2021-1">Goldman Sachs gave an update on its multi-year transformation plan. Here are the 6 big takeaways.</a></h3><div type="image" title="Goldman Sachs org chart 2x1" height="834" width="1668" msid="80424302" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/latest-goldman-sachs-news-2019-5">Goldman Sachs</a> on Tuesday gave an update on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-takeaways-and-targets-from-goldman-sachs-investor-day-2020-1">grand plans that it laid out </a>at its first-ever investor day last year. We broke down <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-earnings-update-multi-year-plan-q4-wealth-marcus-2021-1">what you need to know</a>. </p><p><strong>Other Goldman news this week:</strong></p><ul><li>Tucker York and Stephanie Cohen <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-new-appointments-consumer-wealth-division-product-management-2021-1">announced a new strategy team</a> to help grow consumer and wealth - and the two leaders who will be hunting for acquisitions and partnerships</li><li>Goldman <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-new-appointments-consumer-wealth-division-product-management-2021-1">named six people</a> to lead product development in its consumer and wealth management group - a sign of big innovations to come from the growing division</li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carlyle-group-credit-team-lending-pandemic-private-equity-2021-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carlyle's credit power players</a></h3><div type="image" title="the carlyle group credit professionals 2x1" height="1200" width="2400" msid="80424304" hostid="261"></div><p>Carlyle's credit team has been around since 1999, but over the past four years its investing professionals have assembled as a single global unit. The firm has shifted personnel internally and snapped up outside hires from shops like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/executives-behind-apollo-credit-growth-new-hires-direct-lending-2020-7">Apollo Global Management</a>, BlackRock, and Bain Capital to facilitate an expansion that has enabled the firm to extend a wide variety of loans to companies. </p><h4><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carlyle-group-credit-team-lending-pandemic-private-equity-2021-1">Insider spoke with 14 people on Carlyle's credit team to learn more</a></h4><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/merrill-lynch-wealth-management-financial-advisor-trainee-outreach-pause-violations-2021-1">Merrill Lynch's pipeline for thousands of new advisors is 'in limbo' as the firm overhauls its training program</a></h3><div type="image" title="Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America." height="1175" width="2350" msid="80424305" hostid="261"></div><p>Bank of America's sprawling wealth management arm has maintained its months-long pause on financial advisor trainees' client outreach, a temporary hold that can complicate the business growth that new advisors <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wealth-management-industry-news-next-generation-of-financial-advisers-2020-2">need to thrive</a>.</p><h4><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/merrill-lynch-wealth-management-financial-advisor-trainee-outreach-pause-violations-2021-1">The temporary pause on prospecting has remained in part because novice advisors are still violating do-not-call list restrictions</a></h4><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alt-data-alternative-institutional-shift-industry-outlook-bloomberg-consolidation-2021-1">Bloomberg just paid more than $100 million for an upstart alt-data player</a></h3><div type="image" title="data screen hedge fund alt" height="2750" width="5500" msid="80424306" hostid="261"></div><p>No longer the Wild West, the alternative-data industry is becoming increasingly institutional as big-name companies jump into the space. Bloomberg, for one, ended 2020 with a more than $100 million acquisition, buying alt-data company Second Measure. </p><h4><a style="font-size: 15px;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alt-data-alternative-institutional-shift-industry-outlook-bloomberg-consolidation-2021-1">Here's why that marks a huge turning point for a once-fringe business</a></h4><h2><keyword id="42111" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wall-Street">Wall Street</keyword> people moves:</h2><ul><li>Senior RBC junk-bond trader Todd Bondy has left to join MUFG, which is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rbc-high-yield-credit-trader-todd-bondy-joins-mufg-2021-1">revamping its credit business</a></li><li>A former Blackstone exec <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-michael-whitman-joins-general-atlantic-iron-park-non-compete-2021-1">has resurfaced</a> at General Atlantic's credit-investing venture after an unprecedented non-compete spat</li></ul><h2>Other stories readers loved this week:</h2><div type="image" title="James Gorman Morgan Stanley" height="1082" width="2164" msid="80424307" hostid="261"></div><ul><li>Morgan Stanley CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-ceo-james-gorman-33-million-salary-pay-raise-2021-1">James Gorman</a> is now the highest-paid bank executive in America following a 22% raise amid a record year for the company</li><li>The white-hot wealth management market is set for a year of merger mania. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-acquirers-wealth-management-mergers-acquisitions-registered-investment-advisor-ria-2021-1">Meet 7 firms that are on the hunt.</a></li><li>7 top legal recruiters reveal the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-recruiting-trends-predictions-law-firms-recruiters-2021-1">hottest practice areas</a> and must-know hiring trends for 2021</li><li>Ex-Plaid employees say they're being flooded with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-plaid-employees-get-offers-to-buy-shares-2021-1">'sketchy' bids</a> to buy their shares at $1,200 each from the hidden world of private buyers</li></ul>

Goldman Sachs just tapped 2 people to lead a new consumer and wealth strategy team- see the full memo

10 reality TV stars who wore multiple wedding dresses

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56c1a8f5dd08950f628b45e3-3899-2646/rtx26x6y.jpg" alt="leonardo dicaprio bafta the revenant" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Toby Melville" data-mce-caption="Best director Alejandro Inarritu and best leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio (R) hold their awards at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards at the Royal Opera House in London, February 14, 2016." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Toby Melville</span></p><p class="caption">Best director Alejandro Inarritu and best leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio (R) hold their awards at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards at the Royal Opera House in London, February 14, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Sunday night was Leonardo DiCaprio's night at the BAFTAs. The actor took home his first ever BAFTA for best actor, while his film, "The Revenant," took home a four other awards including the much sought after best film and best director. </p><p>Brie Larson also enjoyed a successful evening. Her chilling performance in "Room" won her the BAFTA for best actress and has also made her one of the favourites to pick up the best actress award at the Oscars later this month.</p><p>Check out a full list of the winners below:</p><h2><strong><strong>Best actor</strong></strong></h2><p>Bryan Cranston in Trumbo<br />Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl<br /><strong>Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant</strong><br />Matt Damon in The Martian<br />Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs</p><h2>Best actress</h2><p>Alicia Vikander in "The Danish Girl"<br /><strong>Brie Larson in "Room"</strong><br />Cate Blanchett <span>in</span> "Carol"<br />Maggie Smith <span>in</span> "The Lady in the Van"<br />Saoirse Ronan in "Brooklyn"</p><h2>Best film</h2><p>The Big Short <em><br /></em>Bridge of Spies<em><br /></em>Carol<em><br /></em><strong>The Revenant</strong><em><br /></em>Spotlight</p><h2><strong><strong>Best director</strong></strong></h2><p>Adam McKay "The Big Short <br />Steven Spielberg "Bridge of Spies"<br />Todd Haynes "Carol"<br />Ridley Scott "The Martian"<br /><strong>Alejandro González Iñárritu "The Revenant"</strong></p><h2>Best <strong><strong>documentary</strong></strong></h2><p><strong>Amy</strong><br />Cartel Land<br />He Named Me Malala<br />Listen to Me Marlon<br />Sherpa</p><h2>Best supporting actor</h2><p>Benicio del Toro in "Sicario"<br />Christian Bale in "The Big Short"<br />Idris Elba in Beasts of "No Nation"<br />Mark Ruffalo in "Spotlight"<br /><strong>Mark Rylance in "Bridge of Spies"</strong></p><h2>Best supporting <strong><strong>actress</strong></strong></h2><p>Alicia Vikander in "Ex Machina"<br />Jennifer Jason Leigh in "The Hateful Eight"<br />Julie Walters in "Brooklyn"<br /><strong>Kate Winslet in "Steve Jobs"</strong><br />Rooney Mara in "Carol" </p><h2><strong><strong>Outstanding British film</strong></strong></h2><p>45 Years<br />Amy <br /><strong>Brooklyn</strong><br />The Danish Girl<br />Ex Machina<br />The Lobster</p><h2>Best makeup and hair</h2><p>Brooklyn<br />Carol<br />The Danish Girl<br /><strong>Mad Max: Fury Road</strong><br />The Revenant</p><h2><strong><strong>Best cinematography</strong></strong></h2><p>Bridge of Spies<br />Carol<br />Mad Max: Fury Road<br /><strong>The Revenant</strong><br />Sicario</p><h2><strong><strong>Best original music</strong></strong></h2><p>Bridge of Spies<br /><strong>The Hateful Eight</strong><br />The Revenant<br />Sicario<br />Star Wars: The Force Awakens</p><h2>Best British short film</h2><p>Elephant <br />Mining Poems or Odes<br /><strong>Operator</strong><br />Over <br />Samuel-613</p><h2>Best British short animation</h2><p><strong>Edmond</strong><br />Manoman<br />Prologue</p><h2>Best editing</h2><p>The Big Short <br />Bridge of Spies<br /><strong>Mad Max: Fury Road</strong><br />The Martian<br />The Revenant</p><h2><strong><strong>Best sound</strong></strong></h2><p>Bridge of Spies<br />Mad Max: Fury Road<br />The Martian<br /><strong>The Revenant</strong><br />Star Wars: The Force Awakens</p><aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded" data-component="rich-link" data-link-name="rich-link-2  2"><div class="rich-link tone-news--item "><h2 class="rich-link__container"><strong><strong>Best special visual effects</strong></strong><br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/12/baftas-2016-peter-bradshaw-predicts-the-winners" class="rich-link__link u-faux-block-link__overlay"></a></h2></div></aside><p>Ant-Man<br />Ex Machina<br />Mad Max: Fury Road<br />The Martian<br /><strong>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</strong></p><h2><strong><strong>EE Rising Star (voted for by the public)</strong></strong></h2><p>Bel Powley<br />Brie Larson<br />Dakota Johnson<br /><strong>John Boyega</strong><br />Taron Egerton</p><h2><strong><strong>Best animated film</strong></strong></h2><p><strong>Inside Out</strong><br />Minions<br />Shaun the Sheep the Movie</p><h2>Best costume design</h2><p>Brooklyn<br />Carol<br />Cinderella<br />The Danish Girl<br /><strong>Mad Max: Fury Road<br /></strong></p><h2>Best production design</h2><p>Bridge of Spies<br />Carol<br /><strong>Mad Max: Fury Road</strong><br />The Martian<br />Star Wars: The Force Awakens</p><h2><strong><strong>Outstanding debut by a British writer, director, or producer</strong></strong></h2><p>Alex Garland (director, Ex Machina)<br />Debbie Tucker Green (writer/director, Second Coming)<br /><strong>Naji Abu Nowar (writer/director, Th</strong><strong>eeb), Rupert Lloyd (producer, Theeb)</strong><br />Sean McAllister (director/producer, A Syrian Love Story), Elhum Shakerifar (producer, A Syrian Love Story)<br />Stephen Fingleton (writer/director, The Survivalist)</p><h2><strong><strong>Best adapted screenplay</strong></strong></h2><p><strong>The Big Short </strong><br />Brooklyn<br />Carol <br />Room<br />Steve Jobs </p><h2><strong><strong>Best original screenplay</strong></strong></h2><p>Bridge of Spies<br />Ex Machina<br />The Hateful Eight<br />Inside Out<br /><strong>Spotlight</strong></p><h2>Best film not in the English language</h2><p>The Assassin<br />Force Majeure<br />Theeb <br />Timbuktu<br /><strong>Wild Tales</strong> </p><h2>Fellowship recipient</h2><p>Sidney Poitier</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trains-planes-cheaper-fares-london-sheffield-berlin-2016-2">This British teen found a brilliant way to save money on a train ticket home - and see Berlin at the same time</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="gyaWdtMDE62EQ8niDkncg-tOGK4H-g_y" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var 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Here's the full list of all the BAFTA winners

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5650b2ad84307665008b4814-800-600/143400389.jpg" alt="chris lehane" data-mce-source="Craig Barritt/Getty Images" /><p class="source"><span>Craig Barritt/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Chris Lehane carries with him the nickname "Master of Disaster."</p><p>Twenty years ago, Lehane was part of a small team that coached the Clinton Administration through the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater scandals. Their political maneuvering <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0096M8PL4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">earned Lehane the nickname and a book deal.</a></p><p>Now three thousand miles away from the White House and two decades removed, Lehane is leading global policy for Airbnb, a $25.5 billion startup that enables people to rent their spare bedrooms.</p><p>His appointment is not the final resting place for his political career, but a new branch of it. Tech companies are gobbling up executives who have the political clout and connections to help build bridges to DC.</p><p>In turn, we're seeing these startups become more politicized too. Last month, L<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-airbnbs-playbook-for-taking-over-every-city-2015-11">ehane revealed a playbook to encourag Airbnb hosts to join "clubs"</a>, which Airbnb will then turn into grassroots lobbying organizations.</p><p>The gulf that once existed between Silicon Valley and DC is growing smaller. The Valley has replaced Detroit as the mandatory campaign stop, Lehane says, and those in <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword> see the draw of the new tech economy.</p><p>"If you could be in Florence during the Renaissance or Paris during the Enlightenment, why wouldn't you?" Lehane questions, although admitting his analogy might be a bit hyperbolic.</p><p>"History will tell us if indeed this is the equivalent or at least close to the equivalent of that, but I do think it is the epicenter of a lot of the big ideas that are driving broader issues that are driving society globally," Lehane continues. "And to be able to have a seat in the bleachers and watch that and maybe at some small levels participate in that was an amazing opportunity."</p><h2>The DC exodus</h2><p>Lehane is just one of the many political movers and shakers to make their way to private tech companies in recent years:</p><ul><li><strong>Ted Ullyot </strong>served as the former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush and chief of staff to the attorney general in the department of justice. He joined Facebook in 2008 as is first general counsel, trying to help the social network educate both DC and Europe about the company. Most recently joined VC firm Andreessen Horowitz as a partner to help its startups negotiate the complicated world of policy and regulation.</li><li><strong>Mark Penn</strong>, the former strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign and a pollster in Bill Clinton's earlier years, joined Microsoft in 2012 to lead special projects, where he came up with the company's anti-Google "Scroogled" campaign. He left <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-penn-pe-fund-backed-by-steve-ballmer-2015-6">in June 2015</a> to start a new private equity fund.</li><li><strong>David</strong> <strong>Plouffe </strong>served as President Obama's campaign manager in the 2008 election and sculpted his campaign of hope and change. In September 2014, Uber brought on the former DC bigwig to be its senior VP of policy and strategy and lead the ride-hailing company, which had been pounded by both the press and regulators, to a more positive message. </li><li><span><strong><strong>Joel Kaplan</strong>, </strong>the former deputy chief of staff to George W. Bush, jumped to Facebook in 2012 to head up their public policy.  </span><strong>Kevin Martin</strong>, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 2005 to 2009, joined Facebook in 2015 as its VP of mobile and global access policy.</li></ul><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5650b84d84307662008b4810-3696-2644/rtr2wu5c.jpg" alt="Carney Plouffe" data-mce-source="Jason Reed/Reuters" data-mce-caption="In this 2012 photo, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (R), U.S. President Barack Obama's political strategist David Plouffe (L) and Obama's chief speechwriter Jon Favreau (C) step off Marine One as they follow Obama. All three have left DC for jobs at Amazon, Uber, and creating their own firm catering towards startups." /><p class="source"><span>Jason Reed/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">In this 2012 photo, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (R), U.S. President Barack Obama's political strategist David Plouffe (L) and Obama's chief speechwriter Jon Favreau (C) step off Marine One as they follow Obama. All three have left DC for jobs at Amazon, Uber, and creating their own firm catering towards startups.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><ul><li><strong><span>Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor,</span></strong><span> a former speech writer and spokesperson for President Barack Obama, opened a firm this year to help teach story telling to startups.</span></li><li><strong>Tucker Bounds</strong>, a former spokesperson for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, made a pit stop at Facebook before launching Sidewire, a political newswire company, in 2014.</li><li><strong>Jill Hazelbaker, Niki Christoff, </strong>and <strong>Samantha Smith </strong>all worked on the McCain campaign before jumping to Google. (Hazelbaker later jumped to Snapchat and is now at Uber.)</li><li><strong>Susan Molinari </strong>is one of the few elected officials to have served in office before they launched into tech. She started her career as a Republican representative from New York where she stayed for seven years. After a tenure as a journalist and lobbyist, Molinari joined Google in 2012 to be its Vice President of Policy and Public Relations.</li><li><strong>Lisa Jackson</strong> joined Apple to be its VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives in 2013 after serving as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2009-2013.</li><li><strong>Al Gore, </strong>the former senator and vice president under Bill Clinton, joined Apple's board of directors in 2003 and became a partner at VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers in 2007.</li></ul><p>In the latest high-profile shift, Amazon hired another Obama executive, former White House press secretary <strong>Jay Carney</strong>, in February 2015. The move was unusual for Amazon since it's known for growing its talent internally rather than hire from the outside, but the company gave Carney the role as senior vice president for corporate affairs.</p><p>In his short tenure, Carney's political background has already shown through. The company that has been notorious for declining to comment for years took 59 days to respond to a New York Times exposé that alleged bad working conditions for Amazon employees. Once unleashed, Carney and the New York Times engaged in public mud-slinging on Medium (another tech company and publication), trading posts back-and-forth over the merits of the story.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54ef3b135afbd325068b4567-800-555/amazon-hires-former-obama-press-secretary-carney-politico.jpg" alt="White House Press Secretary Jay Carney waves goodbye after giving his final briefing at the White House in Washington June 18, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque " data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Jay Carney gives his final briefing at the White House in Washington" /><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Jay Carney gives his final briefing at the White House in Washington</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Why they make the jump</h2><p>When Ted Ullyot was working in DC in the early 2000s, the conversation around tech was still all about Microsoft and the antitrust regulation the company was facing. Technology was still considered more of a service and less of the innovation and economic driver it's seen as today, says Ullyot.</p><p>In 2008, Ullyot jumped to Facebook - a move he says his friends questioned at the time. Facebook was still a young social network, and Ullyot was only the second person the company had hired based in DC. </p><p>"I remember in the early days, the reaction for when I went to Facebook was 'Why would you do that? That sounds crazy. Why would you leave DC and all this and go out to fledgling social network company, whatever that is?'" Ullyot told Business Insider. "And now people say 'Oh I get it. I see that's pretty interesting. There's some real issues you're working on.'"</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5650bb6584307617008b4827-819-614" alt="Ted Ullyot" data-mce-source="Andreessen Horowitz" /><p class="source"><span>Andreessen Horowitz</span></p><p class="caption">Ted Ullyot, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz</p></div><p></p></div></div>To Ullyot, Sheryl Sandberg was exhibit A of that. Before she joined the tech sector, Sandberg spent a year at McKinsey and then left to work for Larry Summers, her former thesis adviser at Harvard, who was serving at the US Treasury Department in 1995.</p><p>She spent five years in government before joining Google in 2001 as its VP of Global Online Sales and Operations. It wasn't until 2008 that she joined the nascent social network, Facebook.</p><p>"There's a long history of people in public service that then go to public sector. Maybe a decade ago they would go to Carlisle, they would go to McKinsey or maybe TPG. They would just go to some other place where it was important for them to have access," said Semil Shah, an <a href="http://blog.semilshah.com/about/">investor-writer who created and invests out of the Haystack Fund</a>.</p><p>Those jobs still exist, but the tech sector gives these political figures another shining moment in the tech sector.</p><p>"David Plouffe, can he go create another Obama? No. So he's like 'OK this is an interesting challenge.' And if he doesn't do well in it, then he can go to Carlisle," Shah said. </p><p>Lehane thinks some of the most recent job changes - and the desire for new challenges - could be attributed to the state of Washington politics. Compared to DC, he says the Valley is optimistic and full of ideas are changing the world. "It's a place where the first instinct is to say 'yes we can do it,' not 'no we can't do it,'" Lehane said. </p><p>The draw of high tech salaries and great benefits packages pitted against a lack of forward movement in the government, it's not surprising to Lehane that more DC types have moved into the tech sector.</p><p>"You have paralysis in Washington DC and you have action in Silicon Valley. So for people who from a life perspective want to contribute in ways to move society forward, this is just a natural place to be," Lehane said. </p><h2>Why startups need political handlers</h2><p>While the early movers like Lehane used to be more like translators than negotiators,  startups are now learning early how to deal with regulation.</p><p>"I think these companies realize that their very existence is not just a market battle but a political battle. The way that our regulatory systems are set up they're just not designed to handle them well," said Edward Walker, a professor specializing in grassroots campaigning at UCLA. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5650bbe38430765c008b480e-4304-3228/ap295469568532.jpg" alt="Uber Protest" data-mce-source="Seth Wenig/AP" /><p class="source"><span>Seth Wenig/AP</span></p><p class="caption">The movement into new sectors also clashes with incumbents, leading to riots and lobbying from industries like taxi or hotels who have seen their profits wilt&#xa0;due to Uber and Airbnb.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The need for political acumen is increasing because software and technology is only increasingly intersecting with every day life. Startups are now targeting sectors like transportation, water, and energy, all closely-regulated areas. It gets particularly complicated when companies have to deal with a patchwork of local regulations. </p><p>Lehane blames the DC paralysis for also pushing many of these decisions about new technology to the city and state level.</p><p>"The other issue is [startups] have a wildly varying regulation environment across cities, so you need an incredibly amount of acumen and skill to be able to navigate those wildly varying terrains across cities," Walker said. "I think the hiring of highly skilled political strategists says a lot about how much knowledge one needs about how these processes work across incredibly varying environments."</p><p>Now startups are starting to poach former political players from other tech companies.</p><p>Uber, for example, nabbed Plouffe from the Obama campaign, but soon thereafter, moved Plouffe to an advisory role. The company snagged Rachel Whetsone away from Google to be its new SVP of communications and policy, a position she held at the search giant after her career in British politics. Whetstone, in turn, brought on Jill Hazelbaker, another ex-Googler and former John McCain staffer, who was leading up communications and public policy at Snapchat. </p><h2>Not a one way street</h2><p>Startups aren't doing the only poaching, though.</p><p>In 2009, President Obama created the role of US CTO, first hiring people from within government to fill the role, before naming Megan Smith CTO in September 2014.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5650ce03c28144b3018b4839-817-613/5186176039_b44787ae23_b.jpg" alt="Megan Smith" data-mce-source="Flickr/joi" data-mce-caption="New U.S. CTO Megan Smith" /><p class="source"><span>Flickr/joi</span></p><p class="caption">New U.S. CTO Megan Smith</p></div><p></p></div></div>The former VP of Google's special project lab, Google X, was in Africa a year ago when she got an email from Todd Park, the US CTO at the time. 33 days later, Barack Obama called and asked her to come to serve in DC, Smith said during an October appearance in San Francisco. </p><p>"I said, 'It'd be an honor, Mr. President,'" Smith told the audience.</p><p>She doesn't condemn tech workers who move to Silicon Valley and dream of building apps - after all, that's where she came from too. But she does think tech workers should consider spending some time in government because the issues on the horizon for the United States are only going to become more technical. </p><p>"In order to form a more perfect union, it includes us and we need to show up," Smith said.</p><p>Smith's not alone in the government. Facebook's lead open source guy, David Recordon, left the company in March to become Director of White House Information Technology and bring the executive branch into 21st century technology.</p><p>To Andreessen Horowitz's Ullyot, tech workers need to see the role model for success, like a Recordon or a Smith, before they go to the other side. </p><p>"Sometimes you need a model. You need to see somebody do that and be successful at it and come back with stories about how interesting it was," Ullyot said. "Due to the nature of things, it is harder to make that kind of immediate impact in Washington given the size of the federal government and bureaucracy out there than it is to come this way and be involved in a company and be immediately impact."</p><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/candidates-spending-politics-money-ben-carson-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-jeb-bush-2015-10">Here's what the leading presidential candidates are actually spending their money on</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JvNDNmeDqH0VsrEr7G3HVsrd0suGMq32" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'JvNDNmeDqH0VsrEr7G3HVsrd0suGMq32',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

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