The Calm Before the Stormy?

In an exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes last night, adult film actress Stormy Daniels reveled select details of an affair with President Donald Trump that she claims took place in 2006, and said she was threatened to keep quiet about it.

Daniels said she and Trump only had sex once — not long after she playfully spanked his butt with a magazine — and that the president had compared her to his daughter Ivanka.

She also said she was threatened in a parking lot in Las Vegas in 2011 after she tried to sell the story of the affair to a tabloid. 

She told Cooper that “a guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’ Daniels said. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

The president’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent Daniels and her lawyer a cease and desist letter immediately after the interview aired, claiming that he was defamed and that any tales of her being threatened were false.

More details are available in CMN’s report.

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March for Our Lives Gun Control Protests Sweep D.C., Nation Over the Weekend

A crowd estimated at nearly three-quarters of a million protesters gathered in Washington, D.C. on Saturday — and were joined in solidarity at hundred of rallies across the nation — to call for stricter gun control laws.

The main event took place on the National Mall and is was highlighted by high school students hoping to enact stronger gun legislation. Some students as young as 11 spoke at the rallies — Martin Luther King Jr.’s  9-year-old granddaughter Yolanda Renee King made a moving appearance — and organizers claim hundreds of thousands registered to vote.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus all performed in D.C., where students and young activists took center stage over politicians. There was an emotional rally at a park about a half mile from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, scene of the killings that have sparked this unprecedented wave of activism.

Today in a Tweet 

The times they are a-changin’ for gun manufacturers.

64 People, Including Many Children, Killed in Russian Shopping Mall Fire

A fire at a shopping mall filled with children and their parents taking advantage of the first weekend of a school recess, killed 64 people in Kemerovo, a city about 1,900 miles east of Moscow.

It is unclear how many of the dead are children, but reports indicate many of the exit doors at the mall were locked and no fire alarms went off during the blaze. At least 200 animals from the mall’s petting zoo are also believed to have perished.

Loyola-Chicago Headlines Final Four

The Loyola-Chicago Ramblers continued their stunning run in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, advancing to this weekend’s Final Four, where they will face third-seeded Michigan.

In the other semi-final, #1 seeds Kansas and Villanova will battle in what should be a classic heavyweight matchup. But it’s Loyola, with their 98-year-old team chaplain and good luck charm Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who have best embodied the upset spirit of the tournament. But, as ESPN points out, the team can play, calling the #11 seed Ramblers “a believe-at-all-costs outfit filled with high school state champions, pinpoint shooters and relentless defenders.”

In the women’s tournament, UConn and South Carolina face off tonight in the Elite Eight game everyone has been waiting for, while #1 Notre Dame and #2 Oregon will play late for the right to join Mississippi State and Louisville in the Final Four.

Last But Not Least: Starbucks Reveals Limited Time Frappuccino

Starbucks revealed a new drink last week, The Crystal Ball Frappuccino, which consists of ice, milk, peach-infused syrup, peach-flavored whipped cream and candy gems on top that “reveal your fortune.”

Like other Starbucks drinks, the Crystal Ball Frappuccino is customizable, so you can change the type of milk or syrup that it has. The candy gems on top of the drink reveal your “fortune,” depending on their color. Blue reveals adventure. Purple reveals magic. Green reveals luck.

Read more in Audrey Bower’s tasty report for CMN. 

The Monday Morning Scoop was compiled by Natalia Kolenko, Roxanneh Mousavi, Audrey Bowers, and the CMN Staff. Hey Monday, why you gotta be like this?