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Jan 01, 2050
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
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Jan 01, 2050
Kevin Lamarque/ReutersJohn S. McCain III, an American hero who served as a Navy captain and a member of Congress for 57 years, died on TKTKTK DAY. He was 81.
McCain was a giant of the United States Senate and a lifelong public servant who won respect and admiration from his colleagues on Capitol Hill and world leaders for his staunch advocacy of democratic principles and his defiant policy positions, particularly on issues relating to the military and national security.
He was a tough and, at times, feisty and brash legislator, but he forged friendships and bonds that cemented his place in history as a dealmaker. His political opponents sometimes branded him a war-monger and a reactionary at worst but never doubted his unwavering adherence to his principles, his tireless support for American troops, and his enduring commitment to public service.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Marco Bello/ReutersDonald Trump pulled out of another mainstream interview Thursday-this time nixing a sit-down with NBC News.
The interview, CNN reported, would be in Philadelphia with NBC News' senior business correspondent, Christine Romans. CNN's Brian Stelter said one source suggested that it had only been "postponed."
It was the second time in a week that he had canceled a scheduled appearance outside the conservative news sphere, CNN's Reliable Sources reported Thursday. He had canceled an in-studio appearance on the CNBC flagship show, Squawk Box, which was due on Friday.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Saul Loeb, Mandel Ngan/AFP/GettySenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his party's presidential nominee, Donald Trump, a "stupid," "ill-tempered," and "despicable human being," according to his own records.
McConnell made the withering assessments in a series of private "personal oral histories" that he gave to Michael Tackett, the deputy Washington bureau chief of the Associated Press, who has a forthcoming biography about the Kentucky senator called The Price of Power. The AP conveniently reported the book's juicy details.
McConnell's remarks were made after the 2020 election that Trump lost, and the senator was apparently elated to see the backside of the former president, musing, "it's not just the Democrats who are counting the days" until he leaves office.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
BSIP/Universal Images Group via GettyDisaster was averted at a Kentucky hospital when an ostensibly deceased organ donor began "thrashing" around in the operating theater, a preservationist tells NPR.
"He was moving around," Natasha Miller recalled of the patient, whom NPR identified as Anthony Thomas "TJ" Hoover II. "He was crying visibly."
The two surgeons assigned to the transplant naturally refused to go through with the procedure, which was reportedly scheduled to take place at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in October 2021. But when her colleague called Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, which coordinated the harvest, Miller said the supervisor told them they "were going to do the case" and needed to "find another doctor."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty ImagesRelatives of Lyle and Erik Menendez spoke in an interview Wednesday about their long-running fears that the brothers had been abused for years before they killed their parents.
After a press conference in which they'd called for the imprisoned siblings' freedom, the family members told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation about how their suspicions only deepened as time passed.
"Over the years we really did know that there was abuse at gut-level. But as time goes on and we all talked to each other more and more, it validates the fears and the gut-level reactions that we had," the brothers' cousin Karen VanderMolen-Copley told Cuomo. "That solidified the knowledge that the sexual abuse actually did occur, because that's not something you want to believe, and then once you talk to each other it becomes more and more obvious."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Ian West/PA Images via GettyA hotel worker called 911 to request urgent assistance before musician Liam Payne fell to his death from the third floor of the building in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old British singer and former member of the boy band One Direction died after he "jumped from the balcony of his room," Buenos Aires Security Ministry Communications Director Pablo Policicchio told the Associated Press. He added that police had been called to the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital after receiving an emergency call shortly after 5 p.m. local time about an "aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol."
A transcript of a 911 call published by the BBC shows a worker at the hotel telling the operator that they have "a guest who is high on drugs and who is trashing the room" and the staff therefore "need someone to come."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Phillip Faraone/Getty ImagesIt appears Donald Trump is once again attempting to silence Stormy Daniels, despite his recent convictions in that category.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reports that Trump's lawyers tried to "get another hush money deal" with the adult film star, to keep her from making any "public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions" with the former president. In exchange for her written agreement, Trump's team reportedly offered to adjust the debt she owes Trump for the unsuccessful defamation case her lawyer brought against him in 2018.
Daniels still needs to pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in legal fees, Maddow explained, and in hammering out the exact amount, Trump's lawyers allegedly offered to "pretend" she owed their client "less than they actually believed" she did. Whereas they first estimated Daniels' debt at $650,000, Maddow reported, they said they would settle her tab for $620,000, if she promised not to make any "defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his business, and/or any affiliates, or his suitability as a candidate for president." They then adjusted the fee, asking $635,000 if she refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Daniels reportedly turned them down, pay
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Oct 17, 2024
Marco Bello/ReutersFormer President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Jan. 6, 2021— the day his supporters occupied Congress in a failed insurrection to try to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden's election victory—was a "day of love."
Trump made the baffling claim during a televised election town hall hosted by Univision.
Ramiro González, a construction worker from Tampa, told the meeting he deregistered as a Republican because he found Trump's "inaction" during both Jan. 6 and the COVID-19 pandemic "disturbing." He asked Trump to square his controversial behavior during the attack on the U.S. Capitol—and the fact that many of his own former administration officials don't support him any longer—with why he should be re-elected.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/HuluOnline interactions are based on trust, since there are few definitive ways to certify the identity of the person with whom one is communicating. Naturally, this situation can lead to deception and manipulation, as it has—to tormenting effect—for Tegan and Sara, the popular indie rock duo whose lives have been turned upside down by a mysterious bad faith actor who, for more than a decade, has impersonated Tegan with fans, friends, and business partners.
Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara is an investigation into the myriad means by which the internet can be wielded to nefarious ends. More than that, though, it's an anatomy of a crime and the complicated wreckage wrought by it, not just for the famous artists but also for the innocent admirers who were tricked into believing that fiction was reality.
Premiering on Hulu on Oct. 18, following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Erin Lee Carr's documentary is a chilling snapshot of the unholy marriage of corrosive fandom and online duplicity. At its center are Tegan and Sara, the identical twin songstresses who began making a name for themselves in the early 2000s both for their talent and for being openly gay. This earned them a loyal fanbase of queer women and men who saw themselves reflected in Tegan and Sara, and that bond was strengthened by the siblings' active interest in interacting with fans in person—Tegan would chat with show attendees in line and at the merch
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Oct 17, 2024
NEONMovies can't, by definition, be all things to all people, and yet Anora—winner of the Cannes Film Festival's highest honor, the Palme d'Or—manages to vacillate between assorted registers with stunning, and ultimately affecting, aplomb.
Another of The Florida Project and Red Rocket writer/director Sean Baker's tales of marginalized individuals struggling to survive and find themselves in an often-unforgiving world, the film is a character study, romance, crime saga, screwball comedy, and vérité drama all wrapped into one unique and dexterous package. More impressive than its nimbleness, however, is its poise and empathy, the latter of which is chiefly bestowed upon its protagonist, whose life is thrown for a rollercoaster-grade loop-di-loop thanks to a chance introduction.
Ani (Mikey Madison, in a star-making turn) is a Brighton Beach 23-year-old who lives with her sister and earns a living stripping at a local club. Anora, which hits theaters Oct. 18, introduces her at the end of a long pan along a bench where men are receiving lap dances from erotic professionals. Fixating on Ani's face as she flashes the fake smile that her customers crave and her superiors demand, Baker's camera creates immediate, intimate engagement with the young woman, and that continues as it presents snapsh
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Oct 17, 2024
ABCIn his monologue Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel played a montage of Fox News anchors praising Bret Baier for his interview with Kamala Harris, where they described Baier's performance as "incredible" and "a masterful job."
Kimmel responded, "Alright, save it for the post-show orgy, everybody! Come on now."
The late night host was skeptical that the Fox News pundits' praise came from a genuine place of journalistic integrity. "They all sit there in fear, imagining Donald Trump on the toilet watching them," he said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 17, 2024
Fox News/Marco Bello via ReutersDonald Trump praised Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier for a "great job" surrounding his interview with Democratic 2024 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris on Wednesday night, claiming Baier "showed how totally incompetent Kamala is" while demanding she undergo a cognitive ability test.
Trump joined his campaign in calling the interview a total disaster for Harris. During the interview, Harris and Baier engaged in multiple back-and-forths; at one point, on the topic of immigration, Harris clapped back at Baier as he interrupted her: "May I finish responding to you?"
Immediately after the interview aired, the campaign-notably advisers Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung-took to X to decry Harris' responses.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
CNNCNN anchor Anderson Cooper was flabbergasted Wednesday by a surrogate's defense of Donald Trump, calling his explanation for the former president's bombastic statements literal "bulls---."
On AC360, former California Lieutenant Gov. Abel Maldonado, a Republican, said that Trump's recent comments calling for the military to "handle" Democrats were simply his way of expressing his inner New Yorker. "He's a fighter," Maldonado added.
The conversation began when Cooper brought up Trump's former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, who, alongside other military leaders, have begun to warn of the dangers of re-electing the former president. Milley has called Trump a "fascist to his core."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesLiam Payne was seemingly having a "lovely day in Argentina" just hours before his death on Wednesday, according to what appear to be a series of final posts made to his Snapchat account.
The former One Direction member was found dead in the courtyard of a Buenos Aires hotel, having apparently plunged 13 to 14 meters from his balcony, according to local police. A cause of death has not officially been determined, and it was unclear whether the fall was accidental or intentional.
On his Snapchat Story, however, it would have appeared to any fan that Payne was having a relaxing vacation. In since-deleted posts in the hours before his death, he posted a front-facing video in which he told followers, "It's a lovely day here in Argentina. This is the breakfast table. Just enjoying coffee and breakfast even though it's 1 p.m."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
MSNBCMSNBC's Chris Hayes called out Fox News for not showing the full context of Donald Trump's "enemy within" comments during Vice President Kamala Harris' interview on the network earlier Wednesday.
The anchor of All In opened his broadcast by calling attention to something that Harris herself did in the sit-down with Fox's Bret Baier. The clip that the right-wing network showed to Harris as part of Baier's question was of Trump during his all-female town hall event in Georgia—the one where Trump bizarrely argued he was the "father of IVF."
In the clip that Fox aired directly to Harris during her interview, Trump wasn't heard talking about how former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Rep. Adam Schiff are the "enemy within." Instead, Fox made it so Harris had to react to him talking more mildly about "phony investigations." The network omitted Trump's line about "the enemy within."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/BravoThe Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is TV's best soap opera, week after week offering twists more shocking than secret twins and characters returning from the dead. That's because it's all real, happening in the most haunted suburb in the continental United States.
Where else do two women connect over knowing the long lost birth father of one's child? Is there another city where women squabble over body positivity in a parking lot off the side of a snowy mountain? Surely, there's no other place on Earth where Lisa Barlow could come across anywhere near a voice of reason.
But that all happens here in Salt Lake City. Five episodes in, Season 5 has continued to evolve into the most captivating season in modern Real Housewives history, carried by the ever-changing bonds between our OGs and a team of wonderfully bizarre newbies.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Julieta CervantesIt doesn't matter how long a play is: sometimes 75 minutes can feel like 3 hours if the play is bad, while a three-hour play may first elicit an inner groan, then flow pleasurably by if the writing and performances are in well-oiled tandem.
Kenneth Lonergan's Hold on to Me Darling (Lucille Lortel Theatre, to Dec. 22) belongs, mostly, to the latter category: it is long, and it feels long, but that's OK; not gold-standard wow, but far more than pleasant. This is down to Lonergan's engaging writing and a collection of differently distinctive, carefully drawn performances, led by Adam Driver as a famous country star called Strings (real name Clarence), wondering if he could/should give up all the trappings of fame for a simpler life after his mother's death.
It is an off-Broadway treat to see Driver, most recently seen on the big screen as the star of Francis Ford Coppola's polarizing epic Megalopolis, here bestriding—he is so tall, he is really bestriding—the compact Lucille Lortel stage. Theater fans last saw him on Broadway in Burn This, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He is renowned for playing powder-keg personas. With characters like Adam in Girls, Charlie in Marriage Story, and Pale in Burn T
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Oct 16, 2024
Fox NewsFox News host Bret Baier recapped his Wednesday night interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, telling his colleagues that he got a sense early on that Harris "was going to be tough to redirect without me trying to interrupt."
The interview, Harris' first on the right-wing network since becoming the Democratic nominee, was broadcast on Special Report after being filmed in the previous hour. According to Baier, the interview had been scheduled for 5 p.m., but Harris showed up 15 minutes late. This, he complained, was like "icing the kicker" in football.
"We were supposed to start at 5 p.m. This was the time they gave us. Originally, we were going to do 25 or 30 minutes. They came in and said, ‘Well, maybe 20.' So, it's already getting whittled down. And then the vice president showed up at about 5:15 p.m. We were pushing the envelope to be able to turn it around for the top of the 6 p.m.. So that's how it started," Baier said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Fox NewsFox News host Bret Baier recapped his Wednesday night interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, telling his colleagues that he got a sense early on that Harris "was going to be tough to redirect without me trying to interrupt."
The interview, Harris' first on the right-wing network since becoming the Democratic nominee, was broadcast on Special Report after being filmed in the previous hour. According to Baier, the interview had been scheduled for 5 p.m., but Harris showed up 15 minutes late. This, he complained, was like "icing the kicker" in football.
"We were supposed to start at 5 p.m. This was the time they gave us. Originally, we were going to do 25 or 30 minutes. They came in and said, ‘Well, maybe 20.' So, it's already getting whittled down. And then the vice president showed up at about 5:15 p.m. We were pushing the envelope to be able to turn it around for the top of the 6:00 p.m.. So that's how it started," Baier said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
C-SPANRepublican vice presidential candidate JD Vance boldly said "no," Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election, when pressed on the issue at a campaign event Wednesday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The Ohio senator has avoided directly denying the results over the past few weeks.
When quizzed by The New York Times about the results over the weekend, for example, he refused to multiple times to answer the question, on one occasion claiming he was "focused on the future"—echoing an answer he gave to Democratic opponent Tim Walz at the vice presidential debate.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Michael Kovac/GettyPrior to his untimely death in Argentina on Wednesday, One Direction's Liam Payne, 31, was in the middle of a legal spat with his ex-fiancée Maya Henry.
On Monday, The Sun reported that Henry, 23, had lawyered up in an attempt to stop Payne from constantly messaging her family and friends.
"Maya Henry issued a cease and desist last week to Liam Payne following the emergence of new and concerning information…She has retained attorneys Marco Crawford and Daniel Cerna to represent her. At this time, that is her only comment on the matter," a spokesperson for Henry told the tabloid.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Fox NewsIn a contentious interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, Fox News host Bret Baier spent no time going after the vice president with a laundry list of the subjects often highlighted by former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail.
Immediately after the interview kicked off, Baier opened by asking: "How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?"
Harris began a carefully worded answer, but Baier consistently interrupted her before she could finish a sentence.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
YouTube ScreenshotA collective gasp echoed like a thunderclap in a valley in our Daily Beast newsroom late Wednesday afternoon at the news that singer Liam Payne, who became famous as a member of the group One Direction, died at age 31.
TMZ reports that Payne fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina, where he had reunited with bandmates at 1D-er Niall Horan's concert. He had, according to the site, been behaving "erratically," earlier in the day, and was spotted smashing a laptop in the hotel lobby and having to be carried back to his room. He had been in headlines on gossip blogs over tension with his ex-fiancée Maya Henry, who, TMZ says, alleged "he'd left her after asking her to get an abortion."
In the shock of his death, fans couldn't ignore the eerie nature that Payne had just connected with his One Direction bandmates. Dark questions emerge when a celebrity dies so young: What role did the often horrific toll of fame have on a person like Payne, who has been open about addiction and suicidal ideation? But there's also an impulse to go back to the roots of a person's talent, to revisit what it was that we all fell in love with—and was their passion—in the first place.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via GettyBillionaire Bill Ackman spent days after the ABC presidential debate promoting false claims that a network "whistleblower" had allegedly uncovered collusion between ABC and Kamala Harris' campaign. Now, a month and multiple denials later, he sees the claims differently.
"It seems pretty clear that the alleged @abc whistleblower debate story claiming that @KamalaHarris was given questions in advance and other advantages was a fake," Ackman posted on X alongside a blog post by Megyn Kelly discussing the dubious claims.
What Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, did not acknowledge, however, is that he was one of falsehood's early boosters. After an X account named "Black Insurrectionist" claimed it had been in touch with a whistleblower who alleged the Harris campaign had been given debate topics ahead of the showdown with Donald Trump and had demanded Trump—and Trump alone—be fact-checked.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Lucas Jackson/ReutersJournalists at CNN, including some of the network's biggest personalities, are living in fear of "inevitable" layoffs and pay cuts as its new CEO looks to shore up finances amid declining ratings.
That's according to The Ankler, which reported Wednesday that 77-year-old Chris Wallace—whose already been relegated to a weekend program—is among the network's most well-known names whose future is in limbo.
Wallace's $8.5 million contract, signed by the ex-CNN boss Jeff Zucker to recruit him away from Fox News three years ago, is reportedly up and he was spotted in CEO Mark Thompson's office on Tuesday.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Marc Piasecki/GC Images via Getty ImagesLiam Payne, a former member of the boy band One Direction, was found dead in a hotel courtyard in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday evening, according to CNN and La Nacion, both of which cited local police.
The singer died after an apparent fall from the balcony of his third-floor hotel room. Argentinian authorities told Good Morning America that Payne had been staying at the hotel CasaSur in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo.
He was 31.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Evelyn Hockstein /ReutersWASHINGTON CROSSING, Pennsylvania—At a campaign rally in the most important swing state in the country, anti-Trump activist George Conway told the Daily Beast why he thinks Kamala Harris can win over Republicans.
"She's kind of done it already," he said. "Look at all those people who voted for [Nikki] Haley when she was already done. I actually think there's kind of a hidden Harris vote for Republicans who are just exhausted by Donald Trump."
Turnout is another factor that plays to Democrat's advantage, Conway predicted. "I also think that even the people who are still for Trump and won't vote for Harris, I don't think the turnout's going to be great for him."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Lee Celano/ReutersErik and Lyle Menendez's family made a tearful plea Wednesday for their freedom, insisting the imprisoned brothers protected themselves "the only way they knew how" when they blasted their parents to death in 1989.
Nearly two dozen family members made a show of unity at a press conference ahead of L.A. prosecutors' anticipated recommendation next month on whether to re-sentence the brothers, who have been behind bars for nearly 35 years.
"The truth is, Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them—by their parents, by the system and by society at large," said Joan VanderMolen, sister of the brothers' mother, Kitty Menendez, outside of L.A. Country criminal courthouse.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Megan Varner/Getty ImagesIt was heaven on earth for Donald Trump. A Fox News town hall with an all-women audience of mostly fans applauding his lunatic ideas. He alone can fix their problems, whatever they are, from the "worst inflation in our country's history" to the high cost of childcare, which his daughter Ivanka schooled him about.
The pesky issue of abortion didn't come up until almost fifty minutes into the hour, and then he spooled out his usual spiel about how six justices had the "courage" to send the issue to the states, where "some are going much more liberal."
"Some are not," injected interviewer Harris Faulkner, to which Trump agreed, "some are too tough," but it's "working its way through the system."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
LawsuitA Tennessee company and its CEO are being sued by the family of a worker who was killed after the factory stayed open in devastating flooding conditions during Hurricane Helene, according to court papers.
The lawsuit, filed by the family of Impact Plastics employee Johnny Peterson, said that the factory denied requests by workers to leave and insisted they stay "to meet order deadlines" despite flash flood warnings and other businesses shutting their doors.
The suit called the deaths of six workers that occurred due to the Sept. 27 flood in Erwin "entirely preventable."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters/GettyWelcome to October Surprise, the Daily Beast's daily countdown to the biggest election of our lifetime. It's only 20 days until Election Day and here's what's happening in the race to the White House between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
THE DOWNLOADMore than 100 Republican officials who support Kamala Harris for president planned to join the vice president in Pennsylvania on Wednesday for a stunning public rebuke of Donald Trump, their own party's presidential candidate.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Briarcliff Entertainment/YouTubeFox News rejected an ad for the controversial Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice that its distributor tried to purchase to run during the network's interview with Vice President Kamala Harris set to air Wednesday evening, a source close to the film's production team told The Daily Beast.
A source at Fox News, however, said that's wildly misleading. They said, because of the high profile nature of the interview with Harris, the network chose to enact a policy to show no campaign, political, or political action committee ads, or ads that depict likenesses of any candidates, during the broadcast.
That final criteria, they noted, is what ruled out the ad for The Apprentice, which stars Sebastian Stan as Trump.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
YouTube/screengrabCapitoAndrew Schulz, the comedian who laughed in Donald Trump's face during their 90-minute podcast sit-down last week, now says he thinks Trump is "winning by a landslide," adding, "it's not close anymore," as his podcast co-hosts cracked up at his big takeaway from meeting the Republican candidate.
"Before he came on, I was like ‘He ain't got a chance! He's coming on here? He's gotta be down bad,'" Schulz said in a newly posted recap of the interview's aftermath. Trump's appearance on Schulz's Flagrant podcast brought in 3 million YouTube views in under 48 hours.
But since the interview was uploaded online, Schulz said he's gotten a peak into just how many people still support the divisive ex-president. "It was the looks on the street," Schulz said on the podcast. "It was like, you know when someone who's trying to sell you drugs, they give you this nod," he explained, implying that supporters of Trump's were silently expressing their approval of the sit-down. "That's all I've been getting for the last week."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Reuters The billionaires are having their say this election cycle.
A Forbes report revealed Wednesday that more than 100 billionaires have publicly thrown their support—and, for many, their cash—behind either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.
A majority of these deep-pocketed donors quietly favor Harris, Forbes reported, while some of Trump's billionaire backers—like Elon Musk, the richest man in the world—are incredibly vocal about where their loyalty lies.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
HBOHaving just survived the brutality of Hurricane Milton, the Sunshine State now gets battered—this time with good-natured blows—by It's Florida, Man, a six-part HBO comedy that highlights the types of weird and wild stories that first gave birth to the "Florida Man" meme.
Produced by The Righteous Gemstones' Danny McBride and featuring a cast of comedians in absurd vignettes about crime, deviance, and general insanity, it's a crazy companion piece to Drunk History, employing non-fiction interviews and over-the-top recreations to recount some of most moronic chapters in America's recent past.
(Warning: Some spoilers ahead.)
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Peter Casey/REUTERSA financial policy adviser for JD Vance made a series of shocking online posts detailing his affinity for "gas station heroin" and other drug concoctions — and referred to the Republican vice presidential nominee as "a Trump boot licker."
Aaron Kofsky, who has worked in the Ohio senator's office since May, ran a Reddit account by the name of PsychoticMammal, sharing his addiction to drugs like kratom and advising others how to sneak drugs through airport security, according to an investigation by WIRED.
The posts go back over 11 years, with reports tying the account to Vance's adviser through data breaches, social media accounts, past posts matching up to his personal life, and more.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesWho will prevail in the Kamala Harris/Bret Baier face-off tonight on Fox News? Baier has petitioned hard to get Harris on to Fox News. But with his first interview with Harris set, he's also invited a torrent of critics—on both sides of the aisle—to point their pitchforks and spears in his direction.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are wondering why Harris, even if she is in search of any and all votes, is putting herself so squarely in enemy territory.
Harris' choice to do the interview at all indicates she's aware her coalition needs to broaden beyond the Democrats who've bought into her campaign into the undecided and persuadable voters who call Fox News their media home, even as Democrats cautioned she's venturing into unsafe—and dangerous—waters.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesWho will prevail in the Kamala Harris/Bret Baier face-off tonight on Fox News? Baier has petitioned hard to get Harris on to Fox News. But with his first interview with Harris set, he's also invited a torrent of critics—on both sides of the aisle—to point their pitchforks and spears in his direction.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are wondering why Harris, even if she is in search of any and all votes, is putting herself so squarely in enemy territory.
Harris' choice to do the interview at all indicates she's aware her coalition needs to broaden beyond the Democrats who've bought into her campaign into the undecided and persuadable voters who call Fox News their media home, even as Democrats cautioned she's venturing into unsafe—and dangerous—waters.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesWho will prevail in the Kamala Harris/Bret Baier face-off tonight on Fox News? Baier has petitioned hard to get Harris on to Fox News. But with his first interview with Harris set, he's also invited a torrent of critics—on both sides of the aisle—to point their pitchforks and spears in his direction.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are wondering why Harris, even if she is in search of any and all votes, is putting herself so squarely in enemy territory.
Harris' choice to do the interview at all indicates she's aware her coalition needs to broaden beyond the Democrats who've bought into her campaign into the undecided and persuadable voters who call Fox News their media home, even as Democrats cautioned she's venturing into unsafe—and dangerous—waters.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Scouted/The Daily Beast/Athena Club/Juicy Couture. —Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.
The early aughts brought us so many gifts—the going-out top, monogrammed bags, Myspace, rom-coms with a magazine editor as the main character, and the Juicy Couture tracksuit. The fashion label, founded by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, had been around for a few years, but its hero garment, the velour tracksuit, took the brand to legendary status. There wasn't a day that went by when 2000s icons like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan weren't photographed by paparazzi in these colorful two-piece suits.
In the past several years, Juicy Couture has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts, and I (and my own personal Juicy tracksuit collection) are here for it. Aside from its iconic tracksuits, the brand has been releasing some pretty interesting collabs, from Ganni and Reebok to Kraft Mayo and Red Robin (yes, the burger restaurant). Juicy Couture's latest collaboration is with bodycare and wellness brand Athena Club, known for its sleek razors, ultra-hydrating shaving creams, an
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Oct 16, 2024
Screenshot/Morning JoeIs Donald Trump "microdosing" like his new "Dark MAGA" best friend Elon Musk? The Daily Beast's chief content officer Joanna Coles thought as much during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe following Trump's bizarre dancing at a town hall in Pennsylvania on Monday.
With South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem serving as moderator, Trump accused Democrats of being communists and fascists in his address with virtually no pushback.
"This is the most important election in the history of our country," said Trump, closing out the event by requesting that Village People's Y.M.C.A. be played—instead of taking more questions from the audience.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe man who wrote Project 2025 has warned his own side to tone down "violent rhetoric" and attacked his old boss as one of the perpetrators.
Paul Dans, who led Project 2025 until July and was behind some of its most radical policy plans, called out remarks from Kevin Roberts, the organization's president, that appeared to threaten political violence.
"If we're going to ask the left to tone it down, we have to do our part as well," Dans told the the Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday. "There's no place for this sort of violent rhetoric and bellicose taunting, especially in light of the fact that President Trump has now been subject to not one but two assassination attempts."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe former director of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 has slammed the organization's president for his "violent rhetoric" — and urged GOP vice presidential pick J.D. Vance to distance himself from his former collaborator.
Paul Dans, who led Project 2025 until July and was behind some of its most radical policy plans, called out remarks from Kevin Roberts, the organization's president, that appeared to threaten political violence.
"If we're going to ask the left to tone it down, we have to do our part as well," Dans told the the Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday. "There's no place for this sort of violent rhetoric and bellicose taunting, especially in light of the fact that President Trump has now been subject to not one but two assassination attempts."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Prada/Axiom SpaceThe first batch of NASA astronauts to go to the moon since 1972-a crew which will include the first woman and first person of color to visit the lunar body—will be outfitted in high-fashion Prada spacesuits for the occasion. In other words, their moonwalks will also be catwalks.
The designer brand announced its collaboration with the space exploration and infrastructure company Axiom Space Inc. In 2023, Axiom Space was assigned to create the suits for the mission by NASA, its second such contract with the agency. Axiom Space is also one of three NASA-funded commercial space station partners.
Unveiled in Milan, Italy, on Wednesday, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit will be worn by the four astronauts on NASA's Artemis III mission. These space—and style—pioneers will wear the suit while exploring the lunar South Pole area, on a mission set to launch no earlier than Sept. 2026.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Prada/Axiom SpaceThe first batch of NASA astronauts to go to the moon since 1972-a crew which will include the first woman and first person of color to visit the lunar body—will be outfitted in high-fashion Prada spacesuits for the occasion. In other words, their moonwalks will also be catwalks.
The designer brand announced its collaboration with the space exploration and infrastructure company Axiom Space Inc. In 2023, Axiom Space was assigned to create the suits for the mission by NASA, its second such contract with the agency. Axiom Space is also one of three NASA-funded commercial space station partners.
Unveiled in Milan, Italy, on Wednesday, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit will be worn by the four astronauts on NASA's Artemis III mission. These space—and style—pioneers will wear the suit while exploring the lunar South Pole area, on a mission set to launch no earlier than Sept. 2026.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Antony Jones/Getty Images for SpotifyThere was one guest on Call Her Daddy who was so bad host Alex Cooper decided to kill the episode altogether.
Fresh off her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on the mega-popular podcast, Cooper told The Hollywood Reporter that she had a truly terrible sit down with a male actor who was "just was giving nothing" in response to her questions.
"You could tell he was on a press run," she said. "I didn't want to blow his butt up, but I was like, ‘Bro, you don't want to be here. You aren't answering any of these questions. Someone put you in this chair you didn't even know.'"
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Megan Varner/Getty ImagesDonald Trump told an all-woman town hall in Georgia on Wednesday that he's not "unhinged" as he doubled down, identifying the "enemy from within" as Nancy Pelosi and her husband who was nearly killed.
He aimed his fire at the former House Speaker, who nearly single-handedly snatched an easy election victory from Trump when she led the charge to oust President Joe Biden from the race, leaving Trump running dead even against a more formidable opponent.
"I wasn't unhinged. You know what they are?" he said, winding up to respond to Kamala Harris' assessment of him as "increasingly unstable and unhinged" for suggesting he would turn the U.S military against everyday American citizens. "They are a party of sound bites."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Megan Varner/Getty ImagesDonald Trump would like you ladies to know that he's not "unhinged." And when he spoke recently about his biggest adversaries being the "enemy from within"—rather than, say, Russia, China, or Iran, whose leaders want him dead—he intended his attacks on Americans with kindness.
"I thought it was a nice presentation," Trump said at the all-women town hall hosted by Fox News in Georgia. His audience laughed.
He aimed his so-called niceties at former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who nearly single-handedly snatched an easy election victory from Trump when she led the charge to oust President Joe Biden from the race, leaving Trump running dead even against a more formidable opponent.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Jim Watson/AFP via GettySpaceX is suing regulators in California, alleging that officials rejected a request to carry out more rocket launches due to bias against the political views of CEO Elon Musk.
The suit against the California Coastal Commission, filed Tuesday, comes after the state agency declined a request last Thursday from the U.S. Space Force to allow SpaceX to launch up to 50 rockets annually from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
"The Commissioners expressly stated that this decision was not based on concerns about impacts to coastal resources, but instead on the political views held by SpaceX's largest shareholder and CEO, Elon Musk," the lawsuit claims, adding that the "public hearing record indisputably shows overt, and shocking, political bias."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesThe Victoria's Secret Fashion Show returned for the first time in six years on Tuesday, with Alex Consani and Valentina Sampaio making history as the first transgender models to walk to VS runway.
"I'm so excited. It's my first ever Victoria's Secret show," Consani said backstage to Paper Magazine. "I can't believe it. I can't believe I'm here."
Consani wore a blue lingerie set with Victoria Secret's signature angel wings, while Sampaio donned black lingerie with fishnet tights, along with a black bow on her back.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Elevation PicturesWithin the first 15 minutes of Rumours, the newest off-kilter fantasia from Canadian director Guy Maddin and his collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson, the ensemble of main characters stumble upon a dead body. A bog body, specifically—a preserved human from the Iron Age whose flesh has been mummified by the underground peat while the passing millennia melted their bones away.
Bog bodies are often the remains of tribal leaders, the local archaeologist explains, killed by their subordinates in ritual sacrifice when their leadership proved unsatisfactory. It's a groaningly obvious dig at the movie's themes: Rumours takes place at a near-future version of the G7 summit, and its cast are seven of the world's most powerful heads of state, gathered together to solve an unnamed crisis—or die trying.
The film, which hits theaters in the U.S. Oct. 18, is led by an international cast, each playing fictional presidents and prime ministers of the seven nations of the G7. As Charles de Gaulle once decreed that the leader of a country ought to embody l'esprit de la nation, the characters in Rumours exhibit stereotypes particular to their home country, each more absurd than the last.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
David Muse/ ReutersFormer President Donald Trump told an all-female audience he was the "father of IVF" on Tuesday at a Fox News town hall in Georgia.
"Oh, I want to talk about IVF. I'm the father of IVF, so I want to hear this question," Trump said to a town hall attendee with a question about the procedure.
When asked what he would say to women who are concerned that Republican abortion bans will affect their ability to access IVF and other fertility treatments, Trump recalled his conversation with Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, whom he said explained the procedure to him.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Getty Images/cynthiaerivo/InstagramCynthia Erivo is "deeply hurt" by a fan-made poster of Wicked that covers her eyes, calling the photoshopped image "equal to people posting the question, ‘Is your ***** green?'"
Erivo, who stars alongside Ariana Grande in the film adaptation of the book and Broadway show set to release in November, plays Elphaba to Grande's Belinda. The Tony, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning actress posted the fan-made image to her Instagram stories Wednesday and wrote, "This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen." The image in question, however, seems to be a recreation of the film poster to make it more akin to the Broadway version, which shows Elphaba with her hat covering her eyes as Belinda whispers into her ear. Erivo wrote that it makes no difference to her, as she was still "deeply hurt" by the fan-made poster.
"The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION," she wrote, "I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer, because without words we communicate with our eyes," she continued, explaining her choice in the film version of the poster to have her eyes exposed. "Our poster is an homage, not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me."
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Oct 16, 2024
Smithsonian Zoo/Getty Images Washington welcomed two new VIPs—giant pandas Qing Bao and Bao Li— to the National Zoo Tuesday under the shadow of fresh allegations that China has been exploiting the panda-lending program for its own gain.
The bears arrived from China aboard special FedEx "Panda Express" plane, jetting 8,000 miles to become the newest stars in the zoo's 52-year panda program.
"It's been a long year without pandas," Laurie Thompson, a veteran panda keeper at the zoo who was part of a team that traveled with the bears, told The Washington Post. "We're excited to see the new guys, and we'll fall in love with them just like before."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Konstantinos Zilos/ NurPhoto via Getty ImagesA famed British photojournalist was allegedly stabbed by his 19-year-old son after rushing to Los Angeles to try to help the troubled teen with his mental health struggles, according to his wife.
Paul Lowe, an award-winning war photographer, had grown concerned about his son Emir Abadzic Lowe, who has history of mental illness and been hospitalized several times over the past year for psychosis, when he didn't return from a trip to the U.S. that was only supposed to last days.
"We were obviously very nervous about the whole situation," Amra Abadzic Lowe, Emir's mother and Paul's widow, told the New York Times.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Fox NewsFox & Friends host and resident white guy Brian Kilmeade said Wednesday that he believes it is an insult that Vice President Kamala Harris proposed to legalize recreational marijuana as part of a policy slate aimed at Black male voters.
When the issue came up on the popular Fox News morning chat show, Kilmeade claimed "the generalization is that the Black community smokes pot."
"I treat it as an insult," he added. Co-host Lawrence Jones, who is Black, noted that Black Americans are "not even the number one consumer of weed."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Vince Bucci/AFP via GettyLos Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón mysteriously deleted a social media post he made sharing one of the new pieces of evidence his office is considering in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers who earned national intrigue and horror after they shot their wealthy parents to death in 1989, CNN reported.
On Sunday, Gascón had posted a photo of a handwritten letter Erik had sent to his cousin Andy Cano which the brothers' lawyer argues backs up their claim that they were sexually abused by their father, and in turn that the brutal slaying was out of fear for their safety.
"I've been trying to avoid dad. Its still happening Andy but its worse for me now," the letter reads. "I never know when its going to happen and its driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Shareif Ziyadat/GettyThis article contains graphic descriptions of an alleged gang rape that some readers may find upsetting.
Shamed music mogul Diddy may have spiked some of his 1,000 bottles of baby oil to incapacitate his victims, an attorney for alleged rape victim Ashley Parham told The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast spoke to Ariel Mitchell, a Miami litigator who filed a disturbing new complaint on behalf of Parham on Tuesday. The complaint alleges that Diddy and other men violently raped her with a TV remote after she dissed the mogul, telling his friend she wasn't interested in meeting him because she believed he may have had something to do with the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersThis is the week Donald Trump's fitness for office finally became an issue.
It wasn't, as we all have been shocked to discover, the treason or the rape or the 34 felony counts or the impeachments that did it though. In fact, the moment Trump crossed the line from extremist maniac to extremist maniac who appears to need round-the-clock care, soft foods and an early bedtime, was not caused by any of his traditional acts of recklessness or mayhem.
Perversely, in fact, what ultimately did him in may turn out to have been the fact that most Americans didn't think he could get any worse as a dancer than he has been all his adult life…and then he did.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersThe world is on fire and Mark Zuckerberg is dressed like a Hillsong youth pastor. Yes, as Brat Summer wanes into Christian Girl Autumn, change is naturally in the air. Many have already taken this transformative time upon themselves—perhaps most disconcertingly, the Facebook founder, with a sudden pivot to streetwear.
On stage in San Francisco in late September, Zuckerberg sat down with Acquired podcast hosts David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert to chat about his career. But many could only fixate on his outfit: an oversize black tee with large Greek letters (they read "learning through suffering") and a thick gold chain peeking out from underneath. It's part of a new aesthetic that our social feed-fried eyes are adjusting to; Zuckerberg is laid back, wears loose clothing, grows out his hair. He reeks less of Silicon Valley and increasingly more of Dior Sauvage.
"When did he start dressing like this," one commenter wrote in response to a viral video of Zuckerberg in similar on-trend ensembles. "From mr. steal your data to mr. steal your girl," another user tweeted.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesUntil Wednesday, former first lady Michelle Obama had yet to schedule an official appearance on the campaign trail since her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.
That has all changed. Obama will headline a rally focused on turnout among young and first-time voters in Atlanta, the capitol and most populous city of swing state Georgia, on Oct. 29.
The rally will take place days before early voting ends in the state, and is expected to be one of many appearances Obama holds in the lead-up to Election Day.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty ImagesThere are so many lessons a viewer could and should take away from a show like Apple TV 's Shrinking. The series centers on a group of therapists, their close friends, and their family. It is a show about mental health and how we navigate—and sometimes struggle to survive—trauma. Soak it all up! It's good for you!
Yet I'm not sure if the part of the series that I've decided to incorporate into my life ranks among the its most valuable tools for coping with the world: Every time Michael Urie's character, Brian, walks into a room, he announces himself by trumpeting, "Ba-ba-bummm!" Yes, like he's being heralded in medieval times. I want to start doing the same.
The flamboyance and fanfare is appealing. Why not demand that people's attention should be paid to you because of your very presence, whenever you enter a space? You deserve to be that exalted. There's a confidence to the action that pairs nicely with a made-up song that Brian used to sing in the show— "Everything Always Goes My Way"—when things would…well, inevitably go his way.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty ImagesIn a twist that feels almost ripped from Grey's Anatomy itself, a writer who formerly worked on the Shonda Rhimes series has apologized for faking the cancer diagnosis that reportedly clinched her the job.
Staring down yet another exposé on her long con, Elisabeth Finch addressed the scam—in which she claimed to have advanced chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer for which she underwent sham chemotherapy—in an Instagram post.
"I've given no one any reason to believe a word I say," she began. "I lied about so much; things so many people have been devastated by in real life. ‘I'm sorry' feels like the smallest words compared to what I've done, yet they are the truest. I trapped myself in an addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends, and colleagues."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Kevin Jairaj/ USA Today Sports via ReutersNFL owners unanimously approved retired quarterback Tom Brady's bid to become a 5 percent owner in the Las Vegas Raiders, renewing questions about how team ownership will affect his nascent broadcasting career.
"I grew up on the field, and it's a blessing to know I'll be involved in the greatest league in the world for the rest of my life," the seven-time Super Bowl champion said in a statement posted to X on Tuesday. The approval took 17 months.
"I'm eager to contribute to the organization in any way I can, honoring the Raiders' rich tradition while finding every possible opportunity to improve our offering to fans… and most importantly, WIN football games," Brady added.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
MSNBCMSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday said he was totally flummoxed by Donald Trump's decision to turn a town hall event into an impromptu dance party this week.
On Monday night, the Republican nominee stopped taking questions during an event in Pennsylvania after two attendees separately had medical emergencies. The question-and-answer session moderated by North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem then turned into a kind of spontaneous concert, with Trump and Noem spending the next 39 minutes dancing and singing along to music on the stage.
Trump later claimed attendees "began fainting from the excitement and heat" in the room, explaining the event ended up being "different" but insisted it was nevertheless a "GREAT EVENING." Vice President Kamala Harris took a different view, responding to a video on X of Trump swaying and bobbing his head to the music with: "Hope he's okay."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Paramount PicturesArriving on the heels of Joker Folie à Deux and Terrifier 3, Smile 2 is the third multiplex offering in as many weeks to boast creepily grinning fiends. And while this latest clown-ish sequel is superior to those recent duds, it remains a small step down from its 2023 predecessor.
Once again charting a woman's attempts to stave off insanity and death at the hands of an invisible demon that possesses and feeds on its human hosts, writer/director Parkin Finn's follow-up is technically accomplished and ambitiously unconventional, at least insofar as it sets its action in a milieu—the pop stardom universe—that isn't a natural fit for unholy frights. Alas, that environment as well as a dearth of genuine surprises ultimately handicaps this polished thriller, even if it does reconfirm the filmmaker's standing as a preeminent purveyor of jump scares.
There are two excellent jolts in Smile 2, and the fact that there aren't more is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this supernatural nightmare. Finn is adept at utilizing silence, empty background space, and slow zooms to create anticipation for disturbing shocks, and he's just as skilled at supplying startling payoffs.
Read more at
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Oct 16, 2024
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu/GettyA score of Democratic Party officials and allies in Pennsylvania are alleging that Kamala Harris' operations in the all-important state are "poorly run" and weakening her chances there, according to Politico.
Twenty elected officials, party leaders, and affiliates spoke to the news outlet to express concern that the Democratic nominee's campaign may have "set them back."
Their complaints zeroed in on concerns that the campaign wasn't doing enough to attract voters in metro Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and in the state's Black, Latino, and Asian communities, where Democrats likely need to win large majorities to offset Republican-leaning rural counties.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Dustin Franz/ AFP via Getty ImagesFox News anchor Bret Baier is fending off pre-emptive fire from Donald Trump's fans as he attempts to convince the MAGA-verse that his upcoming interview with Vice President Kamala Harris won't be rigged.
Following their familiar playbook, users on X claimed—without evidence, and this time before even seeing the interview—that the Special Report host planned to edit Wednesday's interview tape to make the Democratic presidential candidate look better.
Baier spent several hours Tuesday assuring MAGA users he hadn't made any concession to Harris to land the interview and wouldn't be giving her the questions in advance, but his explanations didn't seem to get through.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Jerritt Clark/Getty for Epic RecordsFaced with a growing mountain of sex-abuse lawsuits, lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs would very much like to know who's been saying what.
The disgraced mogul's team argues in a new court filing that, because of the "unique" aspects of the case—namely Diddy's "celebrity status" and "wealth," as well as the sheer volume of allegations—they should get to know the names of his accusers, The Guardian reports.
His attorneys say the "torrent" of claims "by unidentified complainants, spanning from false to outright absurd," has created a "pervasive ripple effect." They reportedly gesture toward recent efforts by Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee to sign up alleged victims: Buzbee says at least 120 people have come to him with complaints about the rapper, and on Monday, his clients filed six anonymous sexual assault complaints. Diddy's team wrote that "swirling allegations have created a hysterical media circus that, if left unchecked, will irreparably deprive Mr. Combs of a fair trial, if they haven't already."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Dustin Chambers/ ReutersA Georgia judge on Tuesday paused a last-minute rule adopted by Donald Trump's allies on the State Election Board requiring ballots to be counted by hand.
The judge wrote that introducing an unknown and untested rule at the "11th-and-one-half hour" affecting more than 7,500 poll workers was guaranteed to introduce "administrative chaos" that was "entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the State Election Board) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal and orderly."
The September 20 rule requires that after the polls close on Election Day, three poll officers must unseal and open each scanner ballot box and remove the paper ballots and sort them into stacks of 50 ballots to make sure the ballots match the figures recorded on the precinct poll pads, ballot marking devices, and scanner recap forms.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesMAGA billionaire Elon Musk gave roughly $75 million to his pro-Donald Trump political action committee in just three months, making him one of the Republican movement's biggest bankrollers, filings with the Federal Election Commission showed Tuesday.
Musk's America PAC spent about $72 million in the same July to September reporting period, the filings said.
The cash infusion from the out-and-proud MAGA loving Musk puts him in league with GOP megadonors like Miriam Adelson, who gave $95 million to her own pro-Trump super PAC in the same period.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastWe're almost there, folks. The presidential election is nearly upon us, and not a second too soon. We are a people on edge because, while the specific issues at play are familiar enough, the election's underlying narrative is about something more fundamental than immigration policy, tax policy, foreign policy. The central issue is none of those things. Instead, the unarticulated question at the heart of this election isn't what do we want to do, but who do we want to be?
The U.S. is a strange country, the first nation created around an idea. That idea—self-governance of the people by the people—was a radical one. Could a nation of Calvinists and corporatists somehow figure out how to create a peaceable governance stripped of primogeniture? Could thirteen colonies with disparate customs and cultures forge a union whose legitimacy doesn't rest at the point of a bayonet?
It's also a strange country because of who inhabits it. For the most part, we American citizens are not descended from centuries of native stock. Most of us cannot trace our American ancestry back more than a few generations. We arrived by ship and plane, sometimes by our own free will and sometimes not. We are the sons and daughters of merchants and ministers, sinners and slaves.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Unviersal PicturesFresh off his surprise Emmy Award win for Season 5 of Fargo, actor and comedian Lamorne Morris joins this week's episode of The Last Laugh podcast to break down his scene-stealing performance as the "elder statesman" of the original SNL cast in Jason Reitman's new film Saturday Night.
Morris, who portrays Garrett Morris (no relation) in the movie, discusses what it was like to enter the fictionalized world of SNL more than a decade after he auditioned for the show (and didn't get it). He also reveals how his New Girl character Winston's "kind eyes" helped land him his Emmy-winning role on Fargo, tells the full story about how he almost missed out on the sitcom that has defined his career to date, and explains his running joke with New Girl castmate Jake Johnson about a potential reunion.
When Lamorne Morris got the email from his agent about an audition for the role of Garrett Morris in Saturday Night, he immediately replied, "Oh, this is great, I'm going to put this on tape right now. I mean, he is my grandfather."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Tom Williams//CQ-Roll CallMore than 100 Republican officials who support Kamala Harris for president plan to join the vice president in Pennsylvania on Wednesday for a stunning public rebuke of Donald Trump, their own party's presidential candidate.
"He just cannot be in the Oval Office again," former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) told the Daily Beast Tuesday night during her drive up to the Keystone State for the event. And she predicted: Harris will prevail.
"I think there's a silent majority," she said. "I think there's a silent group of women who will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump and who will quietly vote for Harris."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 16, 2024
Comedy CentralWith only 21 days to go in the neck-and-neck presidential election, The Daily Show correspondent Lewis Black returned Tuesday to deliver a rant to the nation's undecided voters.
"We still have no idea who the f--- is gonna win! And that's all thanks to one very special group of morons," Black said. "Oh yes, undecided voters: the same people you see at the ice cream shop asking for 12 mini spoon samples. It's a $3 cone, a--hole!"
Black asked, "How is anyone still undecided in this election? At this point, choosing a candidate should be easy. Look, it's like a lube salesman deciding if he should swing by P. Diddy's house—he has all the information he needs."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for iHeartMediaIn an "audio town hall" on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris agreed with Charlamagne Tha God when the radio host suggested that former President Donald Trump's vision for the country constituted "fascism."
Predictably, Trump's campaign did not take it well.
A campaign X account reposted a clip of the exchange in question and added, "This is the type of disgusting rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts against President Trump."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for iHeartMediaIn an "audio town hall" on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris agreed with Charlamagne Tha God when the radio host suggested that former President Donald Trump's vision for the country constituted "fascism."
Predictably, Trump's campaign did not take it well.
A campaign X account reposted a clip of the exchange in question and added, "This is the type of disgusting rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts against President Trump."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
C-SPAN 2Democratic Rep. Colin Allred dished out plenty of one-liners Tuesday while debating Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, calling his podcast "angertainment" and labeling Cruz's anti-trans messaging a "hail Mary" to distract from his unpopular opinions on abortion.
In one particularly memorable exchange, Allred told voters that his rival would rather focus on transgender athletes because he "wants you thinking about kids in bathrooms so you're not thinking about women in hospitals."
Allred, representing Texas' 32nd congressional district since 2019, went after Cruz for supporting Roe v. Wade being overturned, and highlighted the consequences of that outcome for Texans.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/BravoHave you ever been on a work retreat with people who you like casually, but don't exactly want to get deep with? That's the vibe on The Real Housewives of New York City Hamptons trip, which goes over about as well as last year's milquetoast moment.
After a stronger start to Season 15, the RHONY growing pains are back in the spotlight now that the ladies have fled the city, its distractions and solo storylines dissipating in favor of more focus on the group dynamic. On a cast where the dynamic shines in chaos—like The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City—cast trips are a great place to let your inner demon out. Yet, over in New York City, the cast are still relative strangers to each other, and that's hard to hide in the Hamptons.
Thank God for Ubah Hassan, the one New York Housewife willing to fight face-to-face while everyone else walks on eggshells.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/GettyPresident Joe Biden went on the offensive against former President Donald Trump at a fundraiser on Tuesday night in Philadelphia—accusing the Republican nominee of "becoming unhinged" and taking aim at his bizarre town hall in a Philadelphia suburb the night before.
"Trump hasn't changed," Biden told the crowd of donors at the Sheet Metal Workers Training Center. "I would argue he's gotten worse."
Biden brought up the town hall Trump held in a Montgomery County suburb the night before, which saw the former president ditch taking questions and instead play music and dance on stage for more than 30 minutes after two separate medical emergencies.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Kevin Lamarque/ReutersVice President Kamala Harris was in Detroit on Tuesday to record an "audio town hall" with Charlamagne Tha God, where she told the radio host with confidence that she would beat former President Donald Trump at the ballot box next month.
"I'm going to win. I'm going to win," she said. "But it's tight. And what is at stake is truly profound and historic."
The presidential nominee's sit-down with Charlamagne, in which she took questions from local callers, is part of her campaign's attempt to shore up support among Black men, a key voting bloc for the Democratic Party.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Bob Riha Jr./GettyThe Beverly Hills mansion where Erik and Lyle Menendez blasted their parents to death with shotguns in 1989 has become all the rage on TikTok, with many users going viral for posts that feature the house's exterior or interior.
One video that has earned 1.3 million views, posted on Oct. 6 by user @manizzle_16, is straightforward drive-by footage of 722 North Elm Drive in Los Angeles—which, before it was forever linked to the gruesome killing, was home to Prince, Elton John, and a Saudi prince.
Another video with over 750,000 views, from a Menendez brothers fan account, shows photos taken of the house in the 1980s, including the cozy family room where the slaughter took place.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
MAREVGENNA/Getty. Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.
I've been seeing influencers with their fancy ice makers on my For You page for what feels like forever. I was honestly skeptical about them. Sure, nugget ice feels fancy, and it's fun to have it when you're at a restaurant—but is a nugget ice machine really worth the investment, especially when my freezer makes ice for free? I wasn't sure until I tried one myself, and now I'm a full-on believer. Nugget ice at home feels fun and luxurious, and I now have major opinions on ice, which I didn't have just mere months ago. Let's break it all down.
I have a Whytner pebbled ice machine, which goes for $349 on Amazon—a fraction of the cost that some of the more popular machines go for. It's available in two colorways, and my silver and white machine looks great on my countertops. Set-up couldn't be simpler, just plug it in, fill it up and turn it on. This machine is quiet—there's no loud, continuous noise that other ice machines make and it makes ice quickly and efficiently. The ice is soft, chewable, and, yes, totally adorable.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
David Muse/ReutersDonald Trump suggested children could do the job of auto plant workers on Tuesday while delivering a head-scratching tangent to the Economic Club of Chicago.
Trump, 78, appeared to oversimplify how international car companies get their vehicles ready-to-be-sold, saying they ship parts stateside that merely require American workers to "take them out of a box" and assemble.
"We could have our child doing it," Trump said before a moderator cut him off.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters/GettyWelcome to October Surprise, the Daily Beast's daily countdown to the biggest election of our lifetime. It's only 21 days until Election Day and here's what's happening in the race to the White House between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
THE DOWNLOADThe co-manager of Donald Trump's White House campaign has raked in $22 million and counting from the Republican nominee's political operation in just two years, the Daily Beast has learned.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/ABCDoctor Odyssey, the latest show in the endless assembly line of Ryan Murphy productions, feels like network TV catnip. The ABC drama focuses on the medical crew of a luxury cruise ship, who are tasked with looking after the many eccentric vacationers and their unique medical emergencies onboard. It's a frothy soap with plenty of melodrama and weird medical showcases. If you ever wanted a cross between Royal Pains, The Love Boat, and the grosser moments in 9-1-1: Lone Star then this is the show for you.
Anchoring this drama is Max Bankman, the easy-going and charismatic doctor who leads the crew on their many voyages. He's played by Joshua Jackson, a man who was practically tailor-made for this kind of character. Jackson has a laid-back but authoritative presence and manages to walk the fine tight-rope between drama, humor, and absolute nonsense that Doctor Odyssey revels in.
It's hard to imagine anyone else pulling this off, especially as the show seems perennially on the edge of total nonsense (and has already inspired some fan theories that the entire thing is a metaphor for purgatory!) It's early days so the series could go anywhere, but whatever happens, it's just a delight to have Jackson front and center on a show. It's a reminder that he is and has long been one of our great TV heartthrobs.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
GARETH CATTERMOLE/GettyFollowing the premiere of the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan, who portrays the controversial reality TV star turned president, is calling Trump out for attempted censorship.
"He's been trying to censor this movie, and at the same time, he claims that he acknowledges free speech … I can't think of anything more hypocritical," Stan told The Hollywood Reporter at the BFI London Film Festival.
In typical Trump form, the presidential hopeful hasn't minced words when it comes to his feelings around the Ali Abbasi-directed film. He called it "FAKE" and "CLASSLESS" in a Sunday Truth Social rant after the film struggled to find an audience in its opening weekend.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesSinger-songwriter Rufus Wainwright may have been disturbed by the images of Donald Trump dancing to songs like "YMCA" and "Ave Maria" on stage during a Pennsylvania town hall Monday night as medical emergencies unfolded around him. But he was "mortified" to hear that list also include his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
"Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy," Wainwright, who recorded a famous cover of the iconic song, wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday. "I in no way condone this and was mortified, but the good in me hopes that perhaps in inhabiting and really listening to the lyrics of Cohen's masterpiece, Donald Trump just might experience a hint of remorse over what he's caused," he also wrote, "I'm not holding my breath." The singer added that he was "all in for Kamala."
Trump made headlines with his strange choice to stand on stage and listen to music while the crowd stared on at him for nearly an hour at the town hall, as two attendees received medical attention. Instead of continuing the Q&
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Oct 15, 2024
Joel Angel Juarez/ReutersDonald Trump appeared worn down by his media schedule with the general election weeks away during a Tuesday appearance on yet-another podcast, even admitting to its hosts he "wasn't in the mood to do this."
The former president and GOP nominee whined about his lack of energy in a wide-ranging interview with the Barstool Sports podcast Bussin' With The Boys, which also touched on the NFL season, his own athletic prowess, and the place of transgender women in professional sports.
Early in the hour-long interview, Trump told his hosts off-handedly that he'd "gone like 36 days in a row with no rest." But it was near the interview's end that he divulged to former NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan his reservations about coming on the show that day after delivering a two-hour speech in Detroit and a Fox News interview.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyJoe Rogan is a bit of an enigma when it comes to his personal politics, but he may soon play a pivotal role on the homestretch of this fall's election.
The hugely popular podcaster, who boasts 14.5 million Spotify followers, said in 2020 he'd vote for Bernie Sanders but has since platformed far-right guests like the conspiracist Alex Jones on his show.
Now with three weeks until Election Day, rumors have swirled that Kamala Harris is in talks to go on The Joe Rogan Experience—an appearance one communications specialist told the Daily Beast would be a "HUGE risk."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Joel Angel Juarez/REUTERSDonald Trump on Tuesday dodged the question of whether he will allow for a peaceful certification of election results if Kamala Harris defeats him in three weeks.
During an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait asked Trump if he would commit "to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power," especially in light of Jan. 6, 2021, which the journalist called "unruly and violent."
Trump didn't answer the question. Instead, he rejected the premise and blamed Micklethwait as "a man that has not been a big Trump fan over the years." He also falsely claimed that he allowed for a peaceful transfer of power in 2020, when Joe Biden defeated him.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Michael Kovac/Getty Images Actor Bethany Joy Lenz said she was in a cult while at the height of her fame as a cast member alongside Chad Michael, Sophia Bush, and Hilarie Burton in the hit 2000s show, One Tree Hill.
"I had always been looking for a place to belong," said Lenz in a People magazine interview to promote her upcoming memoir, Dinner for Vampires Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!), out Oct. 22.
Lenz, who grew up Evangelical Christian and an only child, said her faith became her social anchor when she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting at 20 years old. Then she met a pastor, Les, during bible study who slowly started convincing her and other members to move to a big house in Idaho to live in a commune-like environment.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Prime Video Travis Kelce might be one of our last remaining Renaissance men. He's a football player, a clothes horse, boyfriend to a pop star, brother to a podcast host, and now he's broken through to the silver screen—not on the field, but on the soundstage.
He was one of the high-profile stars cast in Ryan Murphy's latest horror affliction Grotesquerie, but has so far only appeared in one episode. Maybe that's because he was having too much fun shooting Prime Video's Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, a spin-off of the game show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? premiering Oct. 16. Considering all the clapping and cheering going on, that could well be true.
Far from a simple stunt cameo, Kelce is the host of this new iteration of the quiz show, which, in this case, pits one contestant against a "classroom" of famous people—anyone from football players to comedians to football players to the occasional reality star (Vanderpump Rules' Lala Kent bravely attempts a couple of grade-school trivia questions in one episode). The class is presented with 10 questions from grade levels one through five, and the normie contestant picks one celebrity to assist them in each round.
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Oct 15, 2024
Getty ImagesRobert F. Kennedy Jr. told Olivia Nuzzi - his alleged "paramour," 39 years his junior - that he wanted to impregnate her during their "toxic" nearly year-long affair, her ex-fiancé claimed in a bombshell court filing revealed Tuesday.
Journalist Ryan Lizza exposed the remarkable details about Nuzzi's relationship with Kennedy ahead of coming face-to-face with his former fiancé, who is accusing him of blackmail, in a D.C. court.
In mid-August, Lizza wrote in a filing to the court on Oct. 14, "I discovered that Ms. Nuzzi had been cheating on me with a married man [RFK Jr.] for almost a year. She admitted the affair and over the course of weeks of conversations she confided how she fell into what she described as a "toxic" "unhealthy" "stupid" "psychotic" "crazy" "indefensible" relationship with a 70-year-old "sex addict" who told her he wanted to "possess," "control," and "impregnate" her."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Getty ImagesRyan Lizza has responded to Olivia Nuzzi's allegations of blackmail in federal court, following the revelation of Nuzzi's undisclosed "personal relationship" with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which Lizza yesterday claimed was almost a year long.
He has denied Nuzzi's claims (filed in D.C. Superior Court on Sept 30.), in every aspect, providing new alleged details on the collapse of their relationship, and leveling his own accusations.
In mid-August, Lizza wrote in a filing to the court on Oct. 14, "I discovered that Ms. Nuzzi had been cheating on me with a married man [RFK Jr.] for almost a year. She admitted the affair and over the course of weeks of conversations she confided how she fell into what she described as a "toxic" "unhealthy" "stupid" "psychotic" "crazy" "indefensible" relationship with a 70-year-old "sex addict" who told her he wanted to "possess," "control," and "impregnate" her."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Vivian Zink/SyfyIn the winter of January 2020, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a member of the party's informal left-wing House bloc dubbed "The Squad," temporarily backed away from the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses, after enthusiastically supporting him.
Among the reasons she reportedly "grew less interested in helping Sanders' campaign" was Joe Rogan.
Sanders' campaign had touted a quasi-endorsement from the wildly popular podcaster, who has a record of inviting controversial guests on to spew conspiracies and bigotry while dabbling in both himself, apparently unnerving Ocasio-Cortez and her team in the process.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
ABC/screengrabWhoopi Goldberg is never shy about her criticisms of Donald Trump on-air at The View, but on Tuesday her critique of him turned to utter bewilderment, as the hosts reviewed footage of the former president's Pennsylvania town hall Monday.
The footage, which the show cut into a montage, featured several clips of the former president requesting songs and doing a mix of standing silently still and dancing awkwardly to the music as the crowd stared at him. According to the montage, the strange behavior went on for nearly an hour—which Goldberg said, "really upset me."
"This should freak everybody out," Goldberg said, "57 minutes of him playing music, not saying jack-doo about anything that has to do with what's going on in the world. This freaked me out." The other hosts, including former Trump White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin, pointed out that Trump's strange behavior at the rally, during which attendees were supposed to have the opportunity to ask him questions, was a sign of "a real decline" in his mental abilities.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Kevin DietschDonald Trump said rally goers fainted from "excitement and heat" after two separate medical emergencies derailed his town hall into an impromptu concert.
"I had a Town Hall in Pennsylvania last night. It was amazing! The Q and A was almost finished when people began fainting from the excitement and heat," Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday morning. "We started playing music while we waited, and just kept it going. So different, but it ended up being a GREAT EVENING!"
Trump was 30 minutes into his Monday night town hall in Oaks, a Philadelphia suburb, when the crowd alerted the former president and moderator South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to an attendee that needed medical attention. The town hall took a bizarre turn after that.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Oct 15, 2024
Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/CBSI had only seen one episode of NCIS before I watched NCIS: Origins. This is not a brag; normally, as a reviewer, I'd try to conceal my ignorance as best as possible. Ideally, I'd take time to catch up on episodes of the original before attempting to discuss the prequel in order to place the series in its proper context. In this case, that wasn't necessary, because NCIS: Origins is an all-you-can-eat buffet of cop clichés. If you've ever seen a procedural, on film or on TV, you'll be able to follow this one just fine.
Monday night's two-part series premiere, "Enter Sandman," opens with the first of many folksy aphorisms—this series' love language. "My dad used to say, ‘Wherever you go, there you are.' I guess he was right," Mark Harmon, whose return to the series is a huge deal according to the Variety articles I read in anticipation of this review, growls in voiceover over closeup shots of grizzled hands building a fire in the wilderness. This refers to the arc of his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a fan favorite whose backstory as a Marine sniper-turned-Navy cop is explored in NCIS: Origins. He keeps running, but his problems keep catching up with him. Maybe he should try therapy?
He does have a lot to unpack. As NCIS: Origins begins, Gibbs (played here by Austin Stowell) is a young man who has just been assigned to the NIS (Naval Intelligence Service; the "C" for "criminal" was added later) at Camp Pendleton in California after returning home from a tour of duty in Iraq. (The first time around—
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