Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said late Friday that there is “no question” that Michael Bloomberg would be “the No. 1 threat” to President Trump should the former New York City mayor enter the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
“I think the president would be very intimidated by a guy like Michael Bloomberg,” Scaramucci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “He’s a New Yorker. He could stand the onslaught of the president’s bullying. He’s worth probably five to eight times the president’s net worth. He could spend a fortune defending himself and getting ads up in all areas of the country.”

Avigdor Liberman, chief of Yisrael Beiteinu party, told Channel 12 on Saturday he was willing to back whoever would sign up to President Rivlin’s unity plan, whether it is Likud or Blue and White.
He said he would call on Prime Minister-designate Benny Gantz to accept the compromise on rotation and urge interim Prime Minister Netanyahu break the ties with the religious-right bloc.
Whoever heed his call would have Yisrael Beiteinu’s support, he pledged, which, hypothetically, means that Liberman is ready to side either with charedi parties backing Likud – or a possible center-left bloc led by Gantz.

House Republicans asked for their own impeachment witnesses on Saturday, sending Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a list that includes former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the anonymous whistleblower who filed the initial complaint against President Donald Trump.
Also Saturday, Trump told reporters he’d release on Tuesday the transcript of an April call he made to congratulate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after he won his election.
The impeachment probe moves from closed-door depositions to open hearings next week, which Democrats hope will present a strong case to the American public that bolsters support for impeaching the president.

WeatherBell.com chief meteorologist Joe Bastardi reacts to Tucker’s 2020 tree challenge.
WATCH:

The United States on Thursday called for “serious steps” to be taken after Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant in a new step back from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.
“Iran’s expansion of proliferation-sensitive activities raises concerns that Iran is positioning itself to have the option of a rapid nuclear breakout,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
“It is now time for all nations to reject this regime’s nuclear extortion and take serious steps to increase pressure. The many and ongoing provocations of Iran demand such action.”
Read more at i24NEWS.

New government figures show more than 2,000 people have been diagnosed with vaping illnesses in the still-unsolved U.S. outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said 2,051 confirmed and probable cases have been reported. Illnesses have occurred in every state but Alaska. Forty people in 24 states have died.
The outbreak appears to have started in March. No single ingredient or vaping device has been linked to all the illnesses. Most who got sick said they vaped products containing THC, the high-inducing ingredient in marijuana.
Read more at ABC NEWS.
{Matzav.com}

Less than three weeks after publicly announcing her endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid at a massive New York City rally, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will hit the campaign trail this weekend, joining Sanders for three events across Iowa.
The stops, in Council Bluffs, Des Moines and Coralville, are Ocasio-Cortez’s first appearances outside of her home state on behalf of Sanders, I-Vt., for whom she worked as a volunteer organizer during his 2016 campaign, and are likely to be viewed as a test of her ability to draw crowds away from traditionally liberal strongholds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu urged the international community on Thursday to “pressure Iran until it changes its ways,” as tensions surrounding the Tehran regime’s disputed nuclear program spiked again.
“A year ago, speaking at the UN, I exposed Iran’s secret nuclear warehouse in Turkuzabad,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “This morning, a special board meeting of the IAEA published its findings on Iran’s activities in the no-longer secret facility. The IAEA now confirms that Iran lied. And that Iran continues to lie.”

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said on Wednesday that following the U.S. pullout from northern Syria last month and the subsequent Turkish invasion, Israel has been helping the Syrian Kurds in “a range of ways.”
“Israel has received many requests for assistance, mainly in the diplomatic and humanitarian realm,” Hotovely told the Knesset on Wednesday, according to Reuters. “We identify with the deep distress of the Kurds, and we are assisting them through a range of channels,” she added.
Hotovely provided no further details on the nature of the assistance, saying only that in “dialogue with the Americans … we state our truth regarding the Kurds … and we are proud of taking a stand alongside the Kurdish people.”

An expert opinion submitted to an Israeli court claims Israel’s Bank Leumi is hoarding between NIS 172 million (approximately $50 million) and NIS 414 million (approximately $118.5 million) belonging to Holocaust survivors, victims, and their heirs.
On the eve of the Second World War, many European Jews deposited money with the Anglo-Palestine Company, founded in 1902 as a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, renamed Bank Leumi in 1950 following the establishment of Israel. In 2007, after a parliamentary committee on the rights of Holocaust survivors produced its findings and a legal amendment was passed regarding the assets of Holocaust victims, the bank was accused of holding on to much of that money.