It is said that before Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, a group of Republicans got together and vowed to oppose everything that he would do, or rather, try to do. Did the Trump loyalists on the hill and Mitch McConnell’s Republicans huddle together last night and make a similar vow, this time for President-Elect Joe Biden? It’s a possibility, says Michael Tomasky, special guest on today’s […]
The Daily Beast
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As leaders come and go, The Beast remains steadfast in our commitment to uncovering the truth. On the cusp of a new administration touting a return to “normal,” it would be easy to breathe a sigh of relief and tune out for the next four years. But that’s not what The Beast is about. Since our earliest days, we’ve made it our mission to hold power […]
How will we bring the Trump supporters who live in an alternate reality back to the real world? A recent Pew poll asked who respondents thought was to blame for the Capitol riot—and an “astounding” number said President Donald Trump bears no responsibility, Rick Wilson told his co-host Molly Jong-Fast on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers “really want to close their […]
Trump did a lot to roll back women’s health care—from enacting a global gag rule, which prevents non-American health organizations from receiving monetary aid from the U.S., to stacking the courts with anti-choice judges all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. Add the threat of losing Roe to the mix and Biden will have his work cut out for him after he […]
Thankfully 2020 is finally drawing to a close. On this episode of the award-winning podcast Life Behind Bars, co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum discuss what they are planning to drink during the rest of the year and the appeal of starting the new year out with a run. They are also joined by Knob Creek® ambassadors Amanda Gunderson and Tim Heuisler to chat about a […]
Rudy Giuliani tried really hard this year soil himself: the hair-in-the-can, the Russian agent pal, the presser by the sex shop, the buckets of conspiracy drool. But it wasn’t until he got caught red handed with Borat’s daughter that his reputation was smeared fully, finally, and forever. The hand-down-Rudy’s-pants incident was one of a whole bunch of different ways that political comedians rammed into Trumpworld in […]
This year spent mostly in quarantine produced some of the strangest (and let’s be real, cringiest) content this side of Priyanka Chopra clapping for essential workers from her mega-mansion’s balcony. Creaky Zoom jokes and saccharine storylines invaded our TVs. And then there’s the curiosity of Law & Order: SVU’s, uh, loose understanding of how masks work. But life in quarantine also pushed creators to new levels […]
We have all certainly earned a decadent treat this holiday season. While you could whip up a big bowl of Eggnog, there’s another traditional (and no-less rich) concoction we recommend: Hot Buttered Rum. This delicious mix of dark rum, hot water and—you guessed it—butter is historic and delightfully appropriate for the season. On this episode of the podcast Life Behind Bars, co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah […]
Scotland has claimed ownership of single malt whiskey for years. But the spirit is now made around the world, including in the U.S., which boasts a thriving industry of its own. Can Scotland maintain its supremacy in the face of ever more competition? On this episode of the award-winning podcast Life Behind Bars, co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum are joined by Matt Hoffman, co-founder, managing […]
Political pundit and author Zerlina Maxwell was booed and hissed at during a Politicon a few years ago (which is “a ComicCon for political nerds”) because she said that if Bernie Sanders ran in 2020, which he did, he’d have to improve his messaging toward communities of color. Fast-forward to this year and Maxwell has a book out on the subject and stands by her statement. […]
They’re the two most important women in Donald Trump’s life. And they absolutely loathe one another. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former Melania Trump confidant, spills the tea on the latest episode of The New Abnormal, starting with the very first days of the administration. “Melania didn’t come to D.C. that week, but Ivanka stayed and Donald stayed there. And all of a sudden, that’s the weekend, […]
What gift will arrive before the holidays, requires no wrapping, and supports independent journalism? A subscription to Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. With a few clicks, you can gift a year of Beast Inside for only $35. Just enter the email of your giftee and select when you’d like them to be notified of your generous present (so you can pay now, but keep […]
It’s getting near closing time for the Trumps at the White House—Monday’s electoral college vote made that official. Which means folks like Ivanka Trump have to GTFO and find themselves new careers. It might be a bit tricky, Daily Beast contributor and Hysteria host Erin Gloria Ryan explains. Just about everybody hates Ivanka these days—well, except for a handful of Fox-addled octogenarian creepers. That corporate feminism […]
COVID whistleblower Rebekah Jones always thought that having a gun pointed in her face would be terrifying. But she says when the Florida state police raided her home and held a gun inches from her face after she told them her two children were present, she felt “nothing.” She even let them enter peacefully, she says. “I was prepared to be arrested,” she tells Molly Jong-Fast […]
It takes courage to create cocktails with older whiskies, but it’s more than worth the effort. To help you overcome your fears of ruining a dram, on this episode of the award-winning podcast Life Behind Bars, co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum share some tips and advice for using mature spirits in mixed drinks along with a chaser of spirited history. They are also joined by […]
You’d think they’d have learned by now, just a few weeks from the end of the Trump presidency. But people are still falling for the same head fakes and tricks. Take, Molly Jong-Fast says on the latest episode of The New Abnormal, Trump’s recent trip down to Georgia. “It was one of those many Trump’s speeches where you saw on Twitter for the first 15 minutes […]
The gods of comedy have heard your prayers—and just might make them come true. “Veep,” the greatest political comedy of all time, could return, somehow, some way, in some form, if only for a short while. “We’ve certainly discussed it,” star Julia-Louis Dreyfus tells Molly Jong-Fast on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. “Everybody’s sort of gone off now and everybody’s doing other projects and […]
Trump is headed to Georgia this week, where there’s about to be a pair of special elections to decide the balance of the senate. But don’t expect the president to really talk up his Republican, MAGA AF buds, George Conway says. “It’s better for him and better for his ego if they lose.” Trump has a problem, George explains to Molly-Jong Fast and Rick Wilson on […]
Alec Baldwin has given serious thought to running for office. He already knows what it’s like for people to hate his guts, for things like playing the president on Saturday Night Live—“They say things like, ‘I don’t know who we want to get rid of first, Alec Baldwin or Trump.’” He has considered diving head-first into the political world, and there is a chance he still […]
Team Biden has made his incoming style of presidency very clear: Keep the peace. Or in his aides’ words, “move the country forward.” Unfortunately, moving forward doesn’t include prosecuting Trump and his band of thieves, er, White House staffers and campaign confidants. In this bonus episode of The New Abnormal, which happened LIVE on Zoom, The Daily Beast’s DC Bureau Chief Jackie Kucinich confirms this to […]
Molly Jong-Fast and Congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, an avowed QAnon supporter, fell out on Twitter over different interpretations of government interference in a woman’s health. On the latest episode of The New Abnormal, Molly explains to Rick Wilson why she got into a brouhaha with the Congresswoman from the First District of QAnon. “I did make fun of her because she used the phrase ‘My body, […]
“It’s all over but the crying,” says Rick Wilson in the second-ever The New Abnormal LIVE, alongside co-host Molly Jong-Fast, The Beast’s legal columnist Jay Michaelson and Daily Beast Politics Director Sam Stein. While the official results won’t be verified for a few days, especially given these extremely close swing state races and runoffs happening in Georgia, there is strong reason to believe that Joe Biden […]
This isn’t your typical election in any way. We may know who wins today, or at least this week, says Rick Wilson, but as far as getting those results certified? That can take a lot longer. Like, more than two weeks longer. In this special recorded episode of The New Abnormal LIVE, which took place today on Zoom, as things do in 2020, Rick and co-host […]
Trump’s hype men like to say that he’s so smart. A tactical genius. Always 14 moves ahead of you libtards. Surely, the Trumpkins say, there’s a deep logic to the president spending the waning days of his campaign attacking America’s most respected public-health expert. Under no circumstance is Trump just blurting out a bunch of… Oh, who are we kidding. The guy has the emotional control […]
Crooked politicians, Russian spies, and Fox News knife-fighters—those are just some of the folks The Daily Beast exposed in 2018. From the White House to the courthouse, from scientific triumphs to unspeakable tragedies, The Beast was there. Thanks to the support of our members, we were able to dive deep into exclusive investigations, gripping yarns, and saucy stories from inside the halls of power. Here are […]
Molly Jong-Fast, like many of us, is nervous about the election. Sure, the polls look pretty decent for Biden; they looked good for Hillary, right? Not exactly, Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report tells Molly. In the last couple of weeks of the last campaign, there was so much attention on those freakin’ emails. “You could see the race tightening. Hillary went from up 11… […]
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York, joins “The New Abnormal” host Molly Jong-Fast to chat about the last presidential debate, the story leading up to his resignation, and why there could be an “avalanche” of new revelations if President Donald Trump loses the election. Bharara said that the presidential debate was “relatively normal,” but that’s no thanks to Trump […]
Rare is the person these days who thinks of airlines as sexy. Sure, Virgin brought some cool back and some of the Middle Eastern and East Asian airlines can be luxurious. But the airlines are generally more utilitarian now. That wasn’t always the case, and that’s why the latest selection for our series on gorgeous travel coffee table books (Just Booked) is the updated Airline Visual […]
In this members-only episode of “The New Abnormal,” host Molly Jong-Fast sits down with award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien to chat about the media’s role in covering elections. “So is the media doing a better job in 2020 than they did in 2016?” asks Jong-Fast. O’Brien gets straight to the point: “Obviously, they’re not.” She then suggests that the media didn’t understand they had a lesson to […]
It’s bad enough that we have to deal with one Donald Trump here in the U.S. of A. What’s worse, Mehdi Hasan explains on the latest episode of The New Abnormal, is that Trump has become a template for a whole planet full of bad-faith actors and wannabe strongmen. Before he became the host of his own TV show in America, Hasan interviewed all sorts of […]
Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) helped get Trump impeached, but now there’s a new battle: his SCOTUS pick. She worked within the government’s Internal Affairs department and became one of the impeachment managers in Trump’s case after 27 years as an Orlando police officer. And impeached he was. So on this members-only bonus episode of The New Abnormal, co-host Molly Jong-Fast asks for her thoughts on Trump’s […]
President Donald Trump isn’t a threat to American democracy on a metaphorical level. He’s a threat to the country’s entire political structure, literally, according to two academics who have studied American democracy throughout history and wrote a whole book on the topic. Dr. Robert C. Lieberman, Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy, joined […]
“People are dying, tens of thousands of people are out of work—he’s embarrassing,” is not only the quote of the year from former Hillary Clinton senior adviser Philippe Reines, but also sums up how he, Rick Wilson, Molly Jong-Fast, and Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid feel about Donald Trump’s dwindling support among his own base. To make matters worse for the president, he is set to […]