Steve Pond's Blog, page 202

In Praise of Laurene Powell Jobs, Owner of The Atlantic, Superhero of Signalgate

When Laurene Powell Jobs stepped out of the shadow of her late legendary husband Steve Jobs less than a decade ago, she was determined to make her own mark with the vast fortune left to her. She invested broadly in media, most notably in 2017 buying the distinguished magazine of 167 years, The Atlantic. 

Now as the owner of The Atlantic, she is the quiet superhero behind the current Signalgate scandal. Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who in full disclosure I know well enough to have his email, has rightfully been taking a hero’s tour on media everywhere since he broke the story of having been “accidentally” included in a Signal chat group of the top national security officials talking about an imminent attack on the Houthis, in violation of every imaginable security protocol not to mention common sense. 

Goldberg is being praised, correctly, for his handling of this mess: by exiting the chat when he realized it was legitimate; by putting out the story immediately; by releasing the actual “war plans” on the chat when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Congress there was nothing classified about it; and by continuing to calmly tell the truth despite being attacked as a “sleazebag” among other insults by President Trump. 

All true, and worthy of praise. And really hard to do.  

But the person who has gone unnoticed and unsung for her role in this is Powell Jobs. At a time when billionaire owners of cherished publications that hold government accountable are caving — The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong most prominently — Powell is standing behind her editor. 

Oddly, though a billionaire, Powell Jobs has not found a reason to kiss Trump’s ring. She did not show up at the inauguration, she did not pledge to change editorial policy to make it friendlier to Trump’s agenda, she did not object to the magazine endorsing Kamala Harris last November.

None of that. She just continues to stand behind the journalism of her publication. 

Need we remind you that the billionaire tech bros — starting with DOGE maniac Elon Musk, but including Meta’s Jeff Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Bezos, Peter Thiel and say-it-aint-so Participant founder Jeff Skoll — have lined up to publicly kiss Trump’s ring. They have shown their willingness to sacrifice the integrity of the media publications they own, when they do. 

Entertainment companies have similarly caved in the face of Trump’s bullying, whether Disney paying $15 million to make a lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos go away, or Shari Redstone’s Paramount Global negotiating against an absurd $20 billion lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” 

Reminder that Amazon MGM studios paid $40 million to produce a documentary on Melania. Can’t wait to see that marketing and PR campaign. 

By contrast, it is the billionaire tech women who have shown steely spines and higher principles. Rather than poison their own legacies by acting to appease a cruel, lying bully, rather than adopting his craven and chaotic policies that favor their wallets, they have stayed silent and continued their work on behalf of a better society.

Their work continues in the service of fighting disease, poverty, promoting social equity and the new “evil”: diversity. Melinda Gates — ex-wife of Bill Gates — is leading through her organization Pivotal Ventures, dedicated “to accelerate the pace of social progress.” The website says: “We’re working to get more power in the hands of more people — especially women.” Mackenzie Scott — ex-wife of Bezos — continues to pour her billions into philanthropic pursuits. She has given away a stunning $19 billion since 2019 to thousands of non-profits, mostly focused on economic security and education.  

Powell Jobs, with an estimated fortune of $15 billion, has poured her passion into Emerson Collective where she has mostly invested in media and something called “philanthrocapitalism,” aiming to achieve social impact through for-profit approaches. (That’s what Skoll used to do at Participant.) 

Goldberg emailed TheWrap when asked about Powell Jobs.

“Laurene is tough, smart, and brave,” he wrote. “There are a lot of people at the publisher and owner levels who aren’t these things — brave, especially. I couldn’t imagine a better steward for The Atlantic. She honors our journalistic integrity and independence, and stands by us in hard times. What else could you possibly ask for?” 

Among her other media investments are Axios Media, podcaster Gimlet Media and a second podcasting company called WaitWhat. For the record she backed convicted fraudster Carlos Watson in his Ozy Media venture in the late 1990s but nobody’s perfect. 

Since buying The Atlantic from David Bradley in 2017, the magazine has experienced a remarkable renaissance after the rough patch of COVID. Goldberg’s Atlantic has become a true rival to The New Yorker in attracting talent and landing deep investigative works. Indeed, as The Washington Post has bled credibility and talent, Goldberg has scooped up one major journalistic hitter after another, from Ashley Parker to Shane Harris to Michael Scherer. 

Late last year the magazine announced that it had surpassed 1 million subscriptions, and achieved profitability (painful to know that it wasn’t before then).

Throughout, we’ve not heard a word from Powell Jobs. It seems that’s how she likes it. She shuns the spotlight, and “doesn’t get involved” in the running of the magazine, according to a knowledgeable individual.

But at moments like this, she deserves our praise and our gratitude. Our democracy needs superheroes like her to make it through.

The post In Praise of Laurene Powell Jobs, Owner of The Atlantic, Superhero of Signalgate appeared first on TheWrap.

The Atlantic Editor Is ‘Not Intimidated’ by Trump Administration’s Tactics Over Signal Text Scandal | Video

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg is not worried about any potential retaliation by the Trump Administration after he published messages that were sent to him as part of a Signal group chat about “imminent war plans” in Yemen.

“I don’t get bullied. I’m not worried about that. They’re obviously being very, very silly there,” Goldberg told Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “There’s a playbook that — and you know this as a journalist, I’m not the only journalist to be the target of these kind of attacks — when they do something wrong, they go on the attack and they attack the messenger.”

The strange part of the story, the editor noted, is that “I didn’t really actually do anything. I’d like to claim that I was some bold investigative reporter here. All I did was answer a message request from Mike Waltz on Signal, and then the rest of it just came on my phone.”

“So even if I had those terrible character traits that they ascribe to me, all I did was simply print what they said. So I don’t think the tactic is working. Sometimes it works, sometimes people get intimidated. We at The Atlantic are not intimidated by this nonsense. We’re going to keep reporting the truth as we see it. And I just think it’s kind of silly deflection,” Goldberg explained.

At the beginning of the exchange, he disputed Mike Waltz’s assertion that Goldberg’s number was somehow “sucked” into his phone. “Phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones,” Goldberg said. “I don’t know what he’s talking about there. You know, very frequently in journalism, the most obvious explanation is the explanation. My phone number was in his phone because my phone number is in his phone.”

“He’s telling everyone that he’s never met me or spoken to me. That’s simply not true,” he added. “I understand why he’s doing it, but you know, this has become a somewhat farcical situation. There’s no subterfuge here. My number was in his phone. He mistakenly added me to the group chat. There we go.”

The messages were inadvertently sent to Goldberg in the days before the U.S. launched an air and naval attack in Yemen. The strikes were made “in an effort to open international shipping lanes in the Red Sea that the Houthis have disrupted for months with their own attacks,” The New York Times reported on March 15, the day the strikes took place.

A total of 18 people were on the group chat, including Waltz and JD Vance, who noted at the time that he believed the strikes were a “mistake.”

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices,” the vice president wrote.

Both Welker and Goldberg noted that it appeared Vance was openly disagreeing with Trump’s stance on the attacks. “I read it as very fraught, because what JD Vance is saying in the group chat, which included, as you know, much of the Cabinet, much of the president’s Cabinet, he’s saying the president doesn’t even understand what he’s doing here,” Goldberg explained.

“So I found that remarkable, obviously, given that JD Vance has tried very hard to make sure that he’s 100% aligned with what Trump says,” he concluded. You can watch the interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in the video above.

The post The Atlantic Editor Is ‘Not Intimidated’ by Trump Administration’s Tactics Over Signal Text Scandal | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Kara Swisher Says Elon Musk Is Playing ‘Pretend Beta’ for Trump | Video

Elon Musk is “playing beta” for Donald Trump, Kara Swisher told Jen Psaki Sunday Morning. Psaki added that Musk is a “fake beta” to which Swisher agreed and added he “sits down at the table and he becomes more … I don’t know.”

“He’s an alpha, but he’s a pretend beta for him,” she said.

There’s trouble brewing in the Trump administration, Swisher said, and it’s in part due to the president’s relationship with Musk and how others feel about it. “Even if behind the scenes they’re busily knifing each other quietly, I think they’re very frustrated by the closeness of Trump and Musk, but they can’t save anything because Trump really is all in on Musk at this point,” Swisher explained.

Part of the reason Musk has to be tolerated, she added, is that he’s wealthy and can contribute financially and that “Trump could do bad things and blame it on him.”

The relationship and Musk’s strategy within the administration is akin to that of Thanos and the Avengers, Swisher continued: “I’m going to cut everything in half essentially and disappear half of you. And then the world will be a better place and humanity is saved. It’s actually a very good trope to compare it to.”

Psaki brought up the theory that Trump “kind of likes” Musk being around because “he’s more unpopular” than the president. Swisher agreed and pointed to protests against Musk’s company Tesla that have taken place nationwide.

“So if all the attention can be focused not on Trump, but on Musk, at some point if he has to cut him, he will if he has to,” she explained.

Watch the clip from “Inside with Jen Psaki” in the video below:

The post Kara Swisher Says Elon Musk Is Playing ‘Pretend Beta’ for Trump | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Helen Mirren Wants More Movies About Real Women in the Secret Service, as Opposed to a Female 007

Helen Mirren thinks there should be more movies about real women who have operated as Secret Service agents, instead of adding a female James Bond to that particular cinematic universe.

“The whole concept of James Bond is drenched and born out of profound sexism,” she told The Standard in an interview published Thursday.

“Women have always been a major and incredibly important part of the Secret Service, they always have been,” she continued. “And very brave. If you hear about what women did in the French Resistance, they’re amazingly, unbelievably courageous. So I would tell real stories about extraordinary women who’ve worked in that world.”

Mirren plays a mob wife in the Paramount+ series “MobLand” to her husband portrayed by former Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, who knows a thing or two about crime-related stories. The duo previously co-starred in the movie “The Long Good Friday” in 1990.

“I was never a great ward [of Bond],” Mirren noted. “I’m a huge fan of Pierce Brosnan, I mean massive fan. I mean, oh my god. Obviously, he’s gorgeous and everything, and I think he’s fabulous in ‘MobLand,’ but he also happens to be one of the nicest people you’ll ever have the pleasure to work with. And indeed Daniel Craig, who I’ve met and know a little bit. Again, a very lovely gracious person.”

“The whole series of James Bond, it was not my thing. It really wasn’t. I never liked James Bond. I never liked the way women were in James Bond,” she concluded.

Amazon MGM Studios took over the Bond franchise in February, a move that came as a surprise after decades of control by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The franchise had been in the hands of the creative individuals since Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased the rights to Ian Fleming’s novels in 1961. After Broccoli died, his daughter, Barbara, took over alongside his stepson Wilson.

“My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli,” Barbara said in a statement. “I have had the honour of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry. With the conclusion of ‘No Time to Die’ and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.”

More recently, Jen Salke just exited Amazon MGM this past week — in part over the 007 franchise — with the studio still intent on releasing a theatrical movie slate in 2025.

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‘The White Lotus’ Star Sarah Catherine Hook Says Piper Is Too Caught Up in Her Drama to Think About Her Brothers’ Shenanigans

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The White Lotus” Season 3, Episode 6.

While “The White Lotus” Season 3 sent brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) spiraling, after a drunken night led to some incestuous behavior, their sister Piper is too caught up in her own drama to notice their shenanigans, said star Sarah Catherine Hook.

“She’s not really thinking anything of whatever happened,” Hook told TheWrap of the eventful full moon party, adding that Piper “definitely doesn’t know” what happened between the brothers — not yet anyway.

Instead, Hook notes the fallout of the party is a relief for Piper, with Lochlan volunteering to spend the night at the monastery with her — a challenge from her mom, Victoria (Parker Posey) to see if she could really imagine spending a year at the meditation center — as the pair separates off from their parents and Saxon.

“I think she’s more just relieved to have Lochlan with her at the monastery, because it’s probably a pretty intimidating to just randomly decide, ‘okay, I’m gonna just spend the night here,'” Hook said. “I do think Lochlan has always been a bit of a security blanket to Piper and appreciates his comfort and support.”

Below, Hook breaks down how she immersed herself in Buddhist practices ahead of shooting the HBO anthology series and reveals that she thinks Piper’s spiritual quest comes “from a place of fear.”

TheWrap: This is the biggest production of “The White Lotus” yet — what was it like shooting such a large scale production in Thailand?

Hook: This was technically the biggest season budget-wise, but it didn’t feel too overwhelmingly big — I didn’t feel like I was at a theme park or something, which can keep you feeling safer too, when you’re doing your work.

How much research did you do into Buddhism?

In my last job that I did — “Cruel Intentions” — one of my hairdressers was so sweet and gave me a whole book on Buddhism, so I was reading a bit of that. But I had my fair share of reading Eckhart Tolle — I’ve always been very spiritually curious. I grew up in the church — none of this is new to me, and I took a comparative religions course. I feel like I have very similar interests to Piper.

I wanted, honestly, more than anything, not even just having to learn all of facts about Buddhism, just doing the practice. I tried mediating while I was there and did a solitude practice for weeks while I was there as well — just trying to live what she’s experiencing. I think that’s probably best way to do it — practice yourself.

How do you think of Piper’s spirituality? Are you playing it as genuine or as an act of rebellion to her parents?

I think it’s very genuine, but I do think it is coming from a place of fear and not knowing what to do with her life. It’s like, “I’m going to latch onto this thing — I’m super passionate about it — it’s my whole major; is my identity.” She’s learning about identity in the way of like, “no, I shouldn’t have an identity,” but she’s also wearing Buddhism as a keychain almost on herself.

I do think, like I said, it’s out of fear. She doesn’t want to end up like her parents. She doesn’t want to end up in that world. I think she has a shame around it, and I do think plays a major part as to why she pursues this journey for herself.

What was it like being there? Did you film in an actual temple?

Yes, that was a temple in Ko Samui. We went and visited with them in the first couple weeks, I was like, “we need to check out this temple — if we’re going to be filming there and we have to film scenes talking about the temple, we need to go check it out.” And there were monks; it was an active temple.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“The White Lotus” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.

The post ‘The White Lotus’ Star Sarah Catherine Hook Says Piper Is Too Caught Up in Her Drama to Think About Her Brothers’ Shenanigans appeared first on TheWrap.

Donald Trump Insists He’s Not Joking About Seeking 3rd Term in Office: ‘There Are Methods’

President Donald Trump made it clear he’s “not joking” about possibly seeking a third term in office during a Sunday morning phone call with NBC News. After he was asked if anyone had crafted plans to make a third time a reality, Trump answered, “There are methods which you could do it.”

“A lot of people want me to do it,” he told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current.”

“I’m not joking,” Trump insisted when asked for clarification. “But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”

JUST IN: President Trump tells NBC News he's "not joking" about running for a third term

“A lot of people want me to do it" pic.twitter.com/Z1bb32KSMY

— Morning Brew (@MorningBrew) March 30, 2025

The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states at the beginning, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”

The terms of the 22nd Amendment would only be voided if it had not been ratified within seven years of its composition — which, in this case, occurred on Feb. 27, 1951.

Welker asked Trump if one possibility would be to have Vice President Vance run for office in 2028 and then “pass the baton” to Trump. He answered, “Well, that’s one. But there are others, too. There are others.” He declined to detail those apparent possibilities when asked.

“Would you want to serve a third term, sir? That’s – it’s a lot of work. President is the toughest job there is. It’s the toughest job in the country,” Welker then said.

“Well, I like working,” Trump replied. Watch the exchange on NBC News.

The post Donald Trump Insists He’s Not Joking About Seeking 3rd Term in Office: ‘There Are Methods’ appeared first on TheWrap.

‘SNL’ Cold Open Tackles Signalgate With Mikey Madison and Bowen Yang’s JD Vance | Video

“Saturday Night Live” tackled Signalgate in its cold open on Saturday with a sketch involving Vice President JD Vance (Bowen Yang), Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Andrew Dismukes) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) accidentally crashing a group chat run by a trio of high school girls (Sarah Sherman, Ego Nwodim and the episode’s host Mikey Madison).

Dismukes’ Hegseth is the first to crash the chat with a text announcing a forthcoming attack on Yemen accompanied by a string of emojis. When he’s asked by one of the chat’s girls who he is, he proudly writes back, “Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense! Israel better bend over and spread it. Baller! Water squirt emoji. God bless the troops. Eggplant emoji.”

Before long, the girls’ innocuous text chat is further disrupted by Yang’s Vance and Hernández’s Rubio, who share confidential information with them and Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg (Mikey Day), who was yet again accidentally invited to a confidential group chat.

You can catch the full “SNL” cold open below:

Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and the girls in the Signal chat pic.twitter.com/m9mXxxSAZI

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) March 30, 2025

Madison’s Jennabelle reacts with understandable horror when Dismukes’ Hegseth, Yang’s Vance and Hernández’s Rubio share the “updated locations of all our nuclear submarines,” a list of all of America’s “deep cover CIA agents” and “the real JFK files, not those fake ones we released.” The men all brush off the girls’ attempts to make them aware of their mistake, though, and choose to instead keep talking embarrassingly openly about sensitive government matters.

At one point, Dismukes’ Hegseth asks Yang’s Vance, who is standing the whole time in front of a green-screen image of Greenland, how his visit to the Dutch territory is going. “Nobody knows why I’m here, especially me,” Yang’s Vance responds candidly. “But praise Trump! Our work here is mysterious and important. Egypt owes us big time for this Yemen shiz. POTUS is saying we should make them give us the pyramids.”

Eventually, Madison’s Jennabelle has to leave because, as she tells the chat, “Matt’s here to pick me up. We’re going to a movie.” In response, Dismukes’ Hegseth asks, “Who? [Matt] Gaetz?,” and, in the sketch’s cleverest moment, the high-school-aged Jennabelle texts back, “Actually, yeah!”

It is ultimately Hernández’s Rubio who realizes his and his fellow officials’ error. When he does, he texts the girls back, “In that case, we were totally pranking you guys! LOL! … But would you mind emailing your names and home addresses to deportations@ice.gov?”

The post ‘SNL’ Cold Open Tackles Signalgate With Mikey Madison and Bowen Yang’s JD Vance | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Bruce Glover, Character Actor Best Known for ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and Father of Crispin Glover, Dies at 92

Bruce Glover, the actor best known for his memorable role in the 1971 James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever” and as the father of Crispin Glover, died March 12, 2025. He was 91.

His son announced the news on Instagram on Saturday, March 29. A cause of death as not given.

A prolific character actor, Glover appeared as Deputy Grady Coker in 1973’s “Walking Tall” and in the film’s later sequels, as well as “Bless the Beasts and Children’ and Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.” Having started his acting career on television in the 1960s, he was also notable for numerous TV guest roles throughout his career.

In a 2019 interview with The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Glover said his first-ever job was delivering groceries at the age of 6. “I guess this woman had a store. She thought it was cute and decided to offer me a job. Ten cents a day delivering groceries after school and Saturday mornings so I made sixty cents a week,” he recalled.

Glover also served in the military and was drafted into the Korean War in 1953. “I arrived there the last six months of that war. Now when the war finished and I was still in Korea, I was in an engineering company, the University of California sent over teachers. I picked up nine hours of college credits in Korea,” he explained.

It was in Korea that Glover discovered he had dyslexia. “Dyslexics I think, there are probably dumb dyslexics and smart dyslexics. I am one of the smart dyslexics. I think Einstein was considered a Dyslexic he was also very bad in school, but he zoomed way ahead,” Glover said. ” think what a Dyslexic does is they don’t want to learn the rules. They just want to do it and they see something and they just do it and that is what I believe with me as an actor, I had no idea of being an actor.”

He was directed by his son in the 2005 film “It is Fine! Everything is Fine.” In the same interview he described Crispin as “a terrific actor and book writer.”

“Well you know, we are not family when we are acting. I am in the character and the scenes we were in together we are both in character so we are not Crispin and we are not Bruce. We are the characters,” Glover explained. “It is like good and talented actors become the characters and it has nothing to do with father and son.”

Bruce Herber Glover was born on May 2, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout his life he considered careers as a football player or an artist but acting remained a consistent part of his life. He began acting in earnest after returning home from the Korean War, and his first roles included “The Lion in Winter” (1966) and stints on TV shows including “Car 54,” “Where Are You?,” “Route 66,” “Perry Mason,” “My Favorite Martian,” “The Rat Patrol,” “Mod Squad” and “Gunsmoke.”

It was casting director Billy Gordon who suggested him for Mr. Wint in “Diamonds Are Forever.”

Glover is survived by his wife, Betty, and their son Crispin.

The post Bruce Glover, Character Actor Best Known for ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and Father of Crispin Glover, Dies at 92 appeared first on TheWrap.

Gavin Newsom Tells Bill Maher ‘the Democratic Brand Is Toxic Right Now’ Because of ‘Cancel Culture’ | Video

10 days after polls showed that his new podcast kind of backfired, Gavin Newsom told Bill Maher “the Democratic brand is toxic right” — because of cancel culture.

In his interview at the top of Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the California governor also called for the party to rebrand.

Newsom has been on the defensive since launching “This Is Gavin Newsom” in late February, the first few episodes of which featured him having friendly conversations with right wing figures like Charlie Kirk and Steve Banon. He was widely criticized (and mocked) for agreeing with Kirk’s views on transgender athletes, and not even bothering to push back when Banon yet again lied that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Since then, polls have shown that the podcast actually did significant damage to Newsom’s popularity, particularly with Democrats he would need to win a hypothetical primary. And even Kirk later dunked on him over that.

Speaking to Maher, Newsom called that reaction “interesting.”

“I mean, this idea that we can’t even have a conversation with the other side — you have to,” he said. “They won.”

“That’s it, the bottom line. And by the way, or the notion we just have to continue to talk to ourselves or we’re in the same damn echo chamber,” he continued. “These guys are crushing us. The Democratic brand is toxic right now.”

During that conversation, both men also agreed with Sen. John Fetterman’s assertion that Democrats will become a “permanent minority” without serious reform.

Newsom took the opportunity to plug his podcast and added that he believes “having the opportunity to dialogue with people I disagree with” is a chance “to try to find common ground and not take cheap shots.” The Democrats, he continued, “tend to be a little more judgmental than we should be.”

“This notion of cancel culture, you’ve been living it, you’ve been on the receiving end of it,” Newsom told Maher. “For years and years and years … Democrats need to own up to that. They’ve got to mature.”

Watch the clip from “Real Time” in the video above.

The post Gavin Newsom Tells Bill Maher ‘the Democratic Brand Is Toxic Right Now’ Because of ‘Cancel Culture’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Young Scooter, Atlanta Rapper, Dies at 39 While Fleeing Police

Atlanta rapper Young Scooter died Friday following a severe leg injury he sustained while fleeing the police. He was 39.

The rapper, born Kenneth Edward Rashaad Bailey, was pronounced dead at Grady Marcus Trauma Center in Atlanta. The City of Atlanta Police Department confirmed Bailey’s death at a press conference late Friday night.

Police Lt. Andrew Smith told reporters authorities responded to a call about a weapon in a home. Police set up a perimeter outside the residence upon arrival. Two men fled from the home soon thereafter — one returned to the house and Bailey jumped two fences in an attempt to evade police.

“When officers located [Bailey] on the other side of the fence, he appeared to have suffered an injury to his leg,” Smith said. He also clarified the nature of Bailey’s death in response to stories that the rapper was shot by police. “Just to be very clear, the injury that was sustained was not via the officers on scene. It was when the male was fleeing,” Smith added.

Bailey was born in South Carolina in 1986. His family moved to Atlanta when he was young, a decision that directly sparked his rap career.

His first local hit was 2012’s “Colombia,” which he followed up with 2014’s “DI$Function” alongside Future, Juicy J and Young Thug.

Bailey spoke to The Fader about his 2017 release, “Trippple Cross,” in 2018. He explained the project was pretty organic in nature and release. “I drop my mixtape off the mood of the streets,” Bailey said, .”I feel like it’s a lot of crazy s–t going on in the streets right now. I just felt like that would be the strongest title to drop, that ‘Trippple Cross.'”

He also defended his authenticity in rap. “My authentic streetness is what got me still going because there’s a lot of rappers that I looked up to, I mean they’re relevant but nobody really listens to them because they ain’t really out here or reppin’ the streets,” Bailey said.

He also reflected on the ever-evolving rap scene in Atlanta, which he said had changed in part because man people “ain’t even making music sometimes, you can go on Instagram and be funny.”

“It’s not even about the music, it’s about social media,” he added. “A lotta folks are bullshittin’ but it still works. Folks my think my music is bullshit, I just say that’s your opinion. This is the city you gotta break in though, if Atlanta’s not listening to your shit, you might not make it. I think it’s good at the end of the day, it don’t matter what you say, this shit all entertainment. It’s a new rapper coming out everyday. There wasn’t that many rappers coming out back then, they coming every week now.”

The post Young Scooter, Atlanta Rapper, Dies at 39 While Fleeing Police appeared first on TheWrap.