内容摘要：“This journey is not easy, and it’s not meant to be easy,” Williams said. “These experiences will make us better. Down the stretch, you’ve got to know the score, obviously, but you can’t let that affect the game. They’re going to score. They’re a really good team. ... I think a lot of it is we just stayed with it.”

“This journey is not easy, and it’s not meant to be easy,” Williams said. “These experiences will make us better. Down the stretch, you’ve got to know the score, obviously, but you can’t let that affect the game. They’re going to score. They’re a really good team. ... I think a lot of it is we just stayed with it.”

The Kennedy Center did not respond to a request from the AP for comment.The move comes on the heels of massive changes at the Kennedy Center, with President Donald Trump

in early February. Trump replaced most of the board with loyalists, who then elected him the new Kennedy Center chairman.The World Pride event, held every two years, starts in just under a month — running from May 17 through June 8 with performances and celebrations planned across the capital city. But Trump administration policies on transgender rights and comments about Kennedy Center drag performances have sparked concern about what kind of reception attendees will receive.“I know that D.C. as a community will be very excited to be hosting World Pride, but I know the community is a little bit different than the government,” said Michael Roest, founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra, which had its June 5 performance at the Kennedy Center abruptly canceled within days of

Roest told the AP he was in the final stages of planning the Kennedy Center performance after months of emails and Zoom calls. He was waiting on a final contract when TrumpFeb. 7 of the leadership changes and his intention to transform the Kennedy Center’s programming.

Immediately the Kennedy Center became nonresponsive, Roest said. On Feb. 12, he said, he received a one-sentence email from a Kennedy Center staffer stating, “We are no longer able to advance your contract at this time.”

“They went from very eager to host to nothing,” he said. “We have not since heard a word from anybody at the Kennedy Center, but that’s not going to stop us.”There also were some awkward moments alongside Trump, scorn from those who would like Whitmer to more vehemently oppose the Republican president and disagreement among top Democrats about how best to approach him.

, sharing a surprising embrace. The president praised her as doing an “excellent job” — a departure from his criticism of her during his first term. Whitmer also had an awkwardin the Oval Office earlier this year, something Whitmer made light of during her address by jokingly holding a binder in front of her face, emulating a photo taken that day in April.

“And that’s why I don’t care much about headlines. What I care about is making headway,” she said in an address given to Michigan’s political elites and business leaders at a policy conference.“Over the past six and a half years, I have found that leadership is about fighting hard, often quietly, for your big goals,” she said. “Your tolerance for taking a few punches to win the fight.”