New Mexico's top election official met with federal prosecutors for 2020 special counsel probe — Christina A Cassidy, Eric Tucker, Associated Press
The top state election official in New Mexico has spoken with federal prosecutors as part of the special counsel's probe into the 2020 election, the official's spokesman said Friday.
The meeting with New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver occurred sometime in the past few months, according to spokesman Alex Curtas, who declined further comment.
The Justice Department has spent months examining pressure campaigns by Trump associates aimed at getting battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to undo the results of their elections. Special counsel Jack Smith and his team have issued subpoenas to election officials in states that Trump disputed, seeking correspondence from Trump associates and campaign aides, and have also lined up interviews in recent months with state officials.
The communications with state officials are one prong of a much bigger probe by Smith and his team into efforts to block the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. It is not clear when Smith's investigation into the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot might end or whether anyone might be charged.
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment on Friday.
It's unknown what questions were asked of Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat in her second term, about the 2020 election in New Mexico.
After Biden won the state by nearly 11 percentage points, Trump's campaign briefly challenged the results in court before dropping the lawsuit. Republicans in the state submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner – though the fake electors added a caveat saying the certificates were submitted in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors.
Although Democrats control every statewide elected office in New Mexico, with majorities in the Statehouse, false claims of fraud and manipulation of voting machines in 2020 have resonated in some politically conservative communities, including Otero County, where commissioners in June 2022 initially refused to certify election results.
Former Otero County commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin was barred last year from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson have also spoken with officials from Smith's office in recent months, according to their staffs.
Kathy Boockvar, the chief state election official in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election, said Friday she has not been asked for an interview.
It was not currently clear whether state officials overseeing elections in 2020 in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin – other states disputed by Trump -- have been interviewed. Claire Woodall-Vogg, the head of Milwaukee's election commission, said in an email that she met virtually with investigators a month or two ago.
"I'm not sure what if any details I can divulge, so not much more to say," she said.
Efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss in Georgia are also the subject of a separate investigation in Atlanta's Fulton County with local prosecutors saying they expect a decision later this summer on next steps. It was in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call that Trump suggested Raffensperger could help "find" the votes necessary to reverse Biden's win.
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Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
As many of 20,000 New Mexicans experience homelessness over the course of the year - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
The most commonly cited data point for tracking how many New Mexicans do not have homes is underestimating the actual number of unhoused people in the state.
By a lot.
At the beginning of 2023, there were an estimated 3,842 unhoused people in the state, according to a point-in-time count conducted each year by the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.
According to a presentation to lawmakers from the Coalition, the more accurate figure is likely to be between 19,000 and 20,000 — almost five times higher than the point-in-time estimates.
The 20,000 figure is higher than the point-in-time count because it includes everyone at risk of or experiencing homelessness through the course of the year, said Sonja Unrau, senior research and development manager at MFA.
The point-in-time count is typically done over the course of one or two nights, with volunteers canvassing neighborhoods, alleys, parks, places like the Bosque in Albuquerque, meal service sites, and general service sites.
And it is an underestimate, MFA Community Relations Manager Justin Carmona said at a meeting of the Mortgage Finance Authority Act Oversight Committee on July 7.
The larger estimate captures what the report calls “hidden homelessness”: people who may be sleeping in their cars, overcrowded homes, or other unsafe housing conditions.
The data was included in the 2023 New Mexico Affordable Housing Needs Assessment presented to the committee at the MFA’s headquarters in Albuquerque.
The report is a snapshot in time of the state’s economic, demographic and housing situation for 2023, Carmona said. A summary of the report can be found here, and the entire 63-page report can be found here.
In general, the number of unhoused people in the state has declined from a peak in 2020, Carmona said.
“While this figure is down from previous years, we know that homelessness persists as a serious problem,” Unrau said.
MOST RENTERS UNABLE TO AFFORD HOMES
State legislative analysts have used the point-in-time counts to estimate how much housing is needed to meet the unmet needs of New Mexicans.
In the last four years, the number of building permits has increased by an average of 31% each year, Carmona said.
However, Carmona said most renters are unable to afford to buy a median-priced home because of higher interest rates and not enough single-family homes.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN NM BY THE NUMBERS
An estimated 22% of New Mexicans are “cost-burdened,” meaning between 30% and 50% of their income goes toward paying for housing, according to the report from the Mortgage Finance Authority.
Another 21% of New Mexicans spend more than 50% of their income on housing, making them “severely cost-burdened.”
That leaves about 57% of New Mexicans who can actually afford the average rent, depending on their county.
For homeowners, 78% of people in New Mexico can afford their mortgage payments,meaning they pay less than 30% of their income toward housing.
An estimated 12% of homeowners are cost-burdened, and about 9% of homeowners are severely cost-burdened.
The price of housing has far outpaced income growth, and median home prices in New Mexico are outpacing the U.S. as a whole, Unrau said.
The affordability of home ownership has dramatically declined over the last year, Carmona said, because of a doubling of mortgage interest rates in that period, and home prices in the state staying relatively high.
Three out of every four homes in New Mexico were built before 2000, Carmona said. Older homes, particularly those more than 30 years old, are significantly more likely to need rehabilitation to remain habitable.
In general, urban counties have more recently built homes while more rural counties have older homes, Carmona said.
Homes are being built at the fastest rate in Rio Rancho and Las Cruces, Carmona said.
MFA estimates that the number of eviction cases are higher this year compared to last year because the eviction protections during the public health emergency are over, Carmona said.
While evictions remain low, Carmona said, with more than half of renters being cost-burdened, New Mexico needs more affordable rental housing development.
MFA HEADQUARTERS MOVING
At the end of the committee meeting, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller criticized the decision by the Mortgage Finance Authority to move its headquarters out of downtown to another part of the city.
“We always want to have as many tenants and businesses down here as we can,” Keller said. “MFE has the right to do whatever they want to do. But I think perhaps the strategy might be a little suboptimal.”
He said he wants the mortgage authority to stay downtown, and the city government is willing to provide incentives to keep it there.
Keller suggested MFA could convert its old building into affordable housing, split the agency into two physical locations, or just stay downtown.
Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) suggested that Keller’s first proposal is possible.
“It’s critical we maintain MFA services in an accessible area,” Roybal Caballero said.
The committee will meet four more times in the interim this year, said Isidoro Hernandez, executive director and CEO for the Mortgage Finance Authority.
Lawsuit claims Holtec made “false” statements on proposed New Mexico nuclear storage site - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico The Florida company aiming to put an interim storage site for high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico is facing allegations of retaliating against a former executive, according to a New Jersey lawsuit.
Kevin O’Rourke claims in a civil lawsuit filed in June that he was fired as a vice president and chief financial officer for Holtec International for speaking up against “false and misleading” statements top officials at the company prepared for investors in August 2022.
Those documents included projections about the proposed Consolidated Interim Storage Facility slated for Southern New Mexico that the lawsuit called “materially false and/or completely unattainable and unrealistic.”
O’Rourke filed his suit in June with the Superior Court of New Jersey in Camden County.
Holtec International chief executive officer Krishna Singh wanted to represent that the facility would “break even” in the first five years after opening, and asked O’Rourke to reflect that in the documents to investors, the lawsuit states.
However, internal projections estimated the facility would instead lose $150 million each year over that period – totaling $750 million in losses – according to the lawsuit.
Other allegations included that Holtec International did not disclose a violation of a debt covenant, claimed it self-financed a $300 million manufacturing facility which it raised by “selling state tax credits,” and “grossly overstated” the annual money spent on research and development.
A Politico article, detailed the fight over $300 million in tax breaks in New Jersey to expand the Camden-based manufacturing plant.
According to the lawsuit, the false claims were made in a prospectus (a document to attract investors) to be sent to the Hyundai Engineering and Construction company, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.
Since 2021, Hyundai and Holtec have partnered on building the design for a small nuclear reactor called the SMR-160. They agreed to accelerate the design process in October 2022.
Holtec International denied the allegations in the lawsuit from its former VP and chief financial officer in an emailed statement.
“We have thoroughly investigated these allegations and they are entirely without merit. We look forward to our day in court,” wrote Patrick O’Brien, a Holtec spokesperson.
Emails to Hyundai went unanswered Wednesday. We will update the story if we get a response.
Holtec attorneys were granted an extension to file their response to the lawsuit in August, according to New Jersey court records.
This past legislative session, Senate Bill 53 banned the storage of high level nuclear wastes and stops state agencies from issuing permits to operate. That law could be put to the test since the federal government greenlit Holtec International’s license to operate in May.
John Heaton, chair for the local group Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance which bought the land for the proposed site, defended Holtec in an email to Source NM.
“I would simply like to say that Holtec has been totally honest with the Eddy-Lea Alliance, and never once have they deviated from what they have promised,” Heaton said, adding that the promised investment is $2 billion to $3 billion and hundreds of jobs.
Oil and gas withdrawal around US park stirs debate over economic costs for Native American tribe - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Some Republican members of Congress on Thursday denounced the Biden administration's recent move to withdraw hundreds of square miles of federal land in New Mexico from oil and gas development, offering their support instead to legislation that would unravel the ban.
U.S. Rep. Eli Crane was among those to speak out during a congressional subcommittee hearing on the legislation that he and fellow Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar recently introduced to nullify what they consider overreach by the federal government.
Crane's district includes part of the vast Navajo Nation, which spans portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The eastern side of the reservation is part of a jurisdictional checkerboard that includes federal, state and private lands along with Chaco Cultural National Historical Park.
He acknowledged that the park holds cultural significance for tribes throughout the Southwestern U.S. but that development surrounding Chaco should be determined by the Navajo Nation and the thousands of individual Navajo landowners who are affected.
"The Biden administration did not properly seek out tribal input and have effectively implemented a destructive chokehold on tribal revenue and economic prosperity," Crane said.
Although the Navajo Nation has been among the tribes to seek protections for sacred areas within the Chaco region over the decades, Navajo leaders had proposed a smaller buffer around the park to limit the economic consequences of a federal ban land locking individual Navajo parcels.
Navajo President Buu Nygren contends that the administration gave no weight to the tribe's concerns before imposing the ban.
"The withdrawal was done without meaningful consultation and fails to honor the Navajo Nation's sovereignty," he testified. "Respect for tribal sovereignty must be consistent even when it is not convenient."
Gosar suggested that the administration's decision was predetermined and that the U.S. Interior Department should have waited to make a determination until New Mexico pueblos completed their ethnographic study, which is due later this year.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet member in the U.S., has said previously that her agency consulted with Navajo leadership, and numerous public meetings and comment periods were held over the last two years as part of the process. Her home pueblo of Laguna was among those tribes seeking permanent protections for lands beyond the park.
U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Melanie Stansbury, both New Mexico Democrats, submitted dozens of letters from other Navajos and members of other tribes who support prohibiting drilling in northwestern New Mexico.
Leger Fernández said difficult choices come from balancing competing interests such as cultural preservation and the poverty faced by Navajos.
"What I believe is important is honoring that which is invaluable, that which can never be replaced, that which is spiritual and sacred to those who tell us where the most important places are," she said.
Even though no new leasing has occurred within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Chaco park over the last decade, Nygren said the Biden administration hasn't offered a solution or an alternative for replacing the revenue and jobs that might not be realized with the withdrawal in place.
He said Navajo leadership struggles to figure out how to help people make ends meet, as many tell him about not having enough money for groceries or to wash their clothes at the laundry.
"Before we make harsh decisions, we've got to make sure there's a plan in place," Nygren said, mentioning farming, solar development and other alternatives that have been suggested for transitioning from fossil fuels. "My hope was that we were actually going to put something on paper so that we can use that as a guiding principle before this order was issued. We've got to come back to the table."
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the economic harm and injustice associated with the fight over Chaco can't be ignored. The New York Democrat said Native American communities have been abused and disrespected over generations and that if Navajo families are being affected, they deserve economic restitution.
"In stripping everything away, we now are in an economic hostage situation where people feel like the only opportunity and that the only source is to acquiesce to oil and gas," she said. "And the answer to that is, in my view, not to revert back to that but to invest and reinvest in these communities."
One-third of Americans under heat alerts as blistering weather spreads from Southwest to California - By Eugene Garcia And Janie Har Associated Press
More than a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings Thursday as a blistering heat wave that's been baking the nation spread further into California, forcing residents to seek out air conditioning or find other ways to stay cool in triple-digit temperatures.
The sweltering conditions were expected to build Friday and through the weekend in Central and Southern California, where many residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year, the National Weather Service warned. Highs in inland desert areas could top 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius) during the day, and remain in the 80s (above 26.6 C) overnight, offering little relief.
In the desert city of Palm Springs, many homeless people were left to contend with the heat on their own, with just 20 indoor beds at the lone overnight shelter.
John Summers, a homeless resident, climbed through a dry riverbed Thursday to seek shade at an encampment.
"I basically just use water as much as I can. And hit shade. And, you know, the mall, wherever they'll let you in," he said.
Roman Ruiz, the city's homeless services coordinator, said homeless residents struggle daily just to find a place with enough shade.
"I don't know how anyone can do it really," he said. "I feel so bad, and yet there's not much I can do."
The mercury was expected to near 110 degrees (43.3 Celsius) in the city Thursday.
Elsewhere, officials prepared to repurpose public libraries, senior centers and police department lobbies as cooling centers, especially in desert areas.
The heat wave came as the California State Fair prepared to kick off Friday in Sacramento, forcing organizers to cancel planned horseracing events due to concerns for animal safety.
Forecasters said the long-duration heat wave is extremely dangerous, especially for older people, homeless residents and other vulnerable populations. The heat could persist into next week as a high pressure dome moves west from Texas.
In Las Vegas, regional health officials launched a new database Thursday to report "heat-caused" and "heat-related" deaths in the city and surrounding Clark County from April to October.
The Southern Nevada Health District said seven people have died since April 11, and a total of 152 deaths last year were determined to be heat-related. The tally includes deaths due to heat exposure or hyperthermia and cases with those reasons listed as "significant factors," district spokesperson Jennifer Sizemore said.
Phoenix hit 110 degrees (43 Celsius) for the 14th consecutive day Thursday, putting it on track for a possible new record next week. The longest measured stretch of 110 degree-plus temperatures for the city is 18 days, recorded in 1974.
The overnight low temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday morning was 95 degrees (35 C), which means temperatures may not be dropping far enough to allow people to recover after dark.
While there are some 200 cooling and hydration centers operated at libraries, community centers, churches and other public spaces across metro Phoenix, most close anywhere between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., leaving people with few options for cooling off in the still-sweltering nights.
David Hondula, chief heat officer for the City of Phoenix, said some centers plan to close later over the weekend, including one downtown near a large encampment of homeless people that will stay open 24 hours.
Hondula suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency could play a role in the future to help keep cooling centers open longer.
"We'd certainly be interested to have that conversation," he said.
Meanwhile in California, cooling centers in and around Sacramento planned to offer some extended evening hours. In the small Central Valley city of Galt, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the state capital, the police department planned to open its air-conditioned lobby between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. from Friday until Monday.
"We want to make sure that anybody who does not have the ability to find appropriate shelter, that they can have a place to go to keep themselves in a safe and cool environment," Lt. John Rocha said.
The same lobby served as a warming center during California's unusually wet, cold and snowy winter, demonstrating the weather whiplash the state has experienced this year.
Employers were reminded to adhere to regulations that require outdoor workers are given water, shade and regular breaks to cool off. The state will be performing spot checks at work sites to make sure the rules are being followed, said Jeff Killip with California's Division of Occupational Safety & Health.
Meanwhile the wildfire season is ramping up amid the hot, dry conditions with a series of blazes erupting across the state this week, Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, said at a media briefing this week.
Global climate change is "supercharging" heat waves, Crowfoot added. California has instituted a $400 million extreme heat action plan to protect workers, help vulnerable communities and assist local communities in opening cooling centers.
People looking to cool down in California's many rivers should be wary, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said, noting that waterways swollen from the epic Sierra Nevada snowpack remain dangerous as there is still snow left to melt.
"Be aware that the water will still be icy cold despite how hot the air will be and could be flowing very fast, much faster than usual for mid-July," he said.
Man, young son die in fire deliberately set at Albuquerque home. But spouse survives - Associated Press
A 7-year-old boy and his father both died after a fire at their Albuquerque home that the man started following a fight with his wife, authorities said Thursday.
Albuquerque police said officers were called to the house Monday morning after city firefighters found two people dead in the charred home.
They said Luis Barraza-Robles, 42, and his wife were fighting, and the man allegedly threatened her with a knife.
"Based upon the evidence at this time, Luis was responsible for lighting the fire that took his life and the life of the juvenile male," police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said. "Luis attempted to leave the residence with his son, but both succumbed to the effects of smoke inhalation prior to exiting the home."
Police say Robles' injured wife, who was the boy's mother, survived the fire by taking refuge in a bathroom of the home until she was rescued by firefighters.
Virgin Galactic plans its next commercial flight to the edge of space for August - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Virgin Galactic is aiming for early August for its next flight to the edge of space, a trip that is expected to include the first of many ticket holders who have been waiting years for their chance at weightlessness aboard the company's rocket-powered plane.
The company announced Thursday that the window for the commercial flight from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico will open Aug. 10. The short up-and-down flight will be streamed live on Virgin Galactic's website.
Virgin Galactic confirmed that three private passengers will be on the flight. The plane has room for six — two Virgin Galactic pilots and four passengers.
Hundreds of people have purchased tickets over the years, including celebrities, scientists and entrepreneurs. The company is expected to release more details about the crew and three passengers next week.
The flight will mark Virgin Galactic's third this year. The most recent was in June — a research flight during which two Italian Air Force officers and an engineer with the National Research Council of Italy conducted a series of microgravity experiments during their moments of weightlessness.
Virgin Galactic has been working for more than a decade to send paying passengers on short space hops and in 2021 finally won the federal government's approval. Founder Richard Branson joined Virgin Galactic employees for the first flight that summer.
It usually takes about an hour for the mother ship to carry the plane to an altitude where it is released and fires its rocket motor to make the final push to the edge of space.
Once they reach their highest point, passengers can unstrap from their seats, float around the cabin for a few minutes and take in views of the Earth. Then they strap in for the glide back down to the runway.
Virgin Galactic plans to fly monthly from its outpost in the New Mexico desert.
Cillian Murphy, playing Oppenheimer, finally gets to lead a Christopher Nolan film - By Lindsey Bahr Ap Film Writer
The day Christopher Nolan called Cillian Murphy about his new film, "Oppenheimer," Murphy hung up the phone in disbelief.
The Irish actor, though a regular presence in Nolan films going back almost two decades, had always been a supporting player. This time, Nolan wanted him to lead.
"He's so understated and self-deprecating and, in his very English manner, just said, 'Listen, I've written this script, it's about Oppenheimer. I'd like you to be my Oppenheimer,'" Murphy, 47, told The Associated Press earlier this year. "It was a great day."
For Murphy, it is never not exciting to get a call from Nolan. It's just hard to predict if he's going to. He knows there are some movies he's right for and some movies he isn't.
"I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I'm available and you want me to be in a movie, I'm there. I don't really care about the size of the part," he said. "But deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him."
Murphy first met Nolan in 2003. He was brought in to screen test for Batman — not just the movie, the character. Murphy knew he wasn't right for the Dark Knight, but he wanted to meet the man who'd directed "Insomnia" and "Memento." They hit it off and Murphy got to tap into a sinister intensity to play the corrupt psychiatrist Dr. Crane/Scarecrow, who would go on to appear in all three films. Nolan would also call on Murphy to be the conflicted heir to a business empire in "Inception" and a traumatized soldier in "Dunkirk."
"We have this long-standing understanding and trust and shorthand and respect," Murphy said. "It felt like the right time to take on a bigger responsibility. And it just so happened that it was a f---ing huge one."
Soon after the phone call, Nolan flew to Dublin to meet Murphy and hand him a physical copy of the script, which he devoured right there in Nolan's hotel room. It was, he said, the best he'd ever read.
Then the scale of it started to sink in.
This would be a film about the charismatic and controversial theoretical physicist who helped create the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer and his peers at Los Alamos would test it on July 16, 1945, not knowing what was going to happen. There was a non-zero chance that the heat from the explosion could set off a chain reaction that would ignite the atmosphere and literally set the world on fire.
It didn't, but several weeks later the United States would drop those bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving many with lifelong injuries. Soon, the United States was at work to strengthen its nuclear arsenal, developing plans to work on an even more catastrophic weapon: the hydrogen bomb.
As Nolan has said, "Like it or not J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived."
"Oppenheimer," which opens in theaters on July 21, features a starry cast including Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife Kitty, Matt Damon as the man who hired Oppenheimer for the job at Los Alamos, Robert Downey Jr. as a founder of the Atomic Energy Commission and many more rounding out the pivotal players in and around this tense moment in history.
"You realize this is a huge responsibility. He was complicated and contradictory and so iconic," Murphy said. "But you know you're with one of the great directors of all time. I felt confident going into it with Chris. He's had a profound impact on my life, creatively and professionally. He's offered me very interesting roles over and I've found all of them really challenging. And I just love being on his sets."
Murphy continued: "Any actor would want to be on a Chris Nolan set, just to see how it works and to witness his command of the language of film and the mechanics of film and how he's able to use that broad canvas within the mainstream studio system to make these very challenging human stories."
Over the years, Murphy has come to appreciate that with Nolan there's always something deeper to discover than what's literally on the page. "Dunkirk," he recalled, was only 70 pages and there wasn't much to his character, not even a name.
"He said, 'Look, let's figure it out together and you and me can find an emotional journey for the character.' And we did it. We did it out in the water on that boat. That comes from trust and respect," Murphy said. "I'm really proud of that performance."
As with all Nolan endeavors, secrecy around "Oppenheimer" is vitally important. Murphy loves the "old-fashioned approach" that builds interest and anticipation.
"There's an awful lot to talk about when we can talk freely," Murphy said with a smile.
The difference from other Nolan originals, even "Dunkirk," is that "Oppenheimer" is rooted in historical fact and actual transcripts. You can read the book it's based on, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer." You can watch the 1981 documentary "The Day After Trinity" on The Criterion Channel.
And you can try to parse Nolan's words for clues. He's talked about recreating the Trinity test, the fascinating paradoxes, the twists, turns and ethical dilemmas; for him, the story is cinematic and both dream and nightmare. But ultimately, it's something that just needs to be seen.
"The question will be how Chris presents it," Murphy said. "I think people will be very surprised and wowed by what he does. Anything I say will just seem a bit lame as compared to seeing this in an IMAX theater."
The time for discussions will be after the movie comes out. But Murphy did offer up that they worked hard to get Oppenheimer's look right, from the narrow silhouette to the pipe and the porkpie hat. Oppenheimer, he said, "seemed aware of his own potential mythology." But, again, those conversations will have to wait.
"I'm really proud of the movie and I'm really proud of what Chris has achieved. This was, for sure, a special one, certainly because of the history with me and Chris. We were not walking around the set high-fiving, but it did feel special." Murphy said. "It's an event every time he releases a film, and rightly so. Whether I'm in them or not, I always go to see his movies."
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A version of this story first moved on May 3, 2023. It's being sent again in advance of the film's release next week.