Anna Moneymaker/GettyRep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) attacked Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream on Sunday after Bream brought up a December 2022 New York Times article that chronicled Stefanik’s transformation from a moderate Republican to a Donald Trump acolyte—one that cited Stefanik’s own public comments attacking Trump.Bream noted the article’s use of Stefanik’s former friends and its reference to a radio interview Stefanik gave in 2015, where she described Trump as “insulting to women,” to ask her what changed to make Trump more palatable to her. The question enraged the House Republican, a potential pick for Trump’s vice-presidential slot, who called it a “disgrace” that Bream would cite the Times and anonymous sources.“It’s a disgrace that you would quote The New York Times with nameless, faceless, false sources,” Stefanik said, shouting over Bream’s rebuttals. “They’re not quoting my friends. Those names are not included because they are false smears.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Lev Radin/Getty ImagesThe man accused of randomly punching actor Steve Buscemi in the face two weeks ago has been arraigned and is being held in New York City on $50,000 cash bail.According to the complaint, Clifton Williams, 50, is charged with one count of assault in the second degree and one count of assault in the third degree. Williams allegedly punched a separate male victim nine minutes before he assaulted Buscemi, the complaint says, leaving them both with “bruising, swelling, and substantial pain,” the complaint said. It did not name either of the victims, although enough information was given to identify Buscemi as the second.At the time of the attack, police said Buscemi had been walking with a female companion in midtown Manhattan on May 8 when the attacker strolled up, punched him in the face, and then ran away, evading capture for over a week. The attack was confirmed by Buscemi’s publicist, who characterized it as “a random act of violence.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Elijah Nouvelage/GettyPresident Joe Biden’s commencement speech at Morehouse College on Sunday went off mostly without a hitch, though a handful of students and faculty turned their backs on him as he spoke while some walked out altogether—a muted response for a modern president as pro-Palestinian sentiments continue to roil higher education.Biden’s speech at the historically Black men’s college touched on many of his campaign’s pillars, including his economic wins and his calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, while acknowledging policies that have boosted Black Americans. The speech was Biden’s first direct interaction with college students after a month of protests across U.S. college campuses, including Columbia, the University of California-Los Angeles, and the University of Florida.Biden was greeted with a standing ovation from multiple Morehouse alums as he took the stage, according to a video posted on social media, though students largely remained seated. About six students turned their backs towards Biden as he spoke, according to NBC News, in a continuation of various protests at commencements nationwide over the war. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jakub Porzycki/Getty ImagesA Bronx mother is suing American Airlines for the wrongful death of her 14-year-old son, which she claims the airline failed to prevent. She also says the airline “lost” crucial evidence in the case.Melissa Arzu claims American Airlines broke Federal Aviation Administration policy by flying with a faulty defibrillator on board, failing to properly train flight attendants to use the machine, and then failing to provide the device when her lawyer attempted to obtain it, according to a complaint filed in the Northern District of Texas on May 13.In June 2022, Arzu and her son Kevin Greenidge were flying from Honduras to Miami on their way back home to New York when Greenidge suddenly “experienced a medical emergency,” the complaint says. Greenidge was allegedly unconscious and unresponsive, the complaint continues, and “after some delay,” airline personnel assisted by directing medically-trained passengers to give the boy CPR.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean \"Diddy\" CombsIn a video posted to social media on Sunday morning, Diddy claimed to “take full responsibility” for his actions in the disturbing video that showed him beating his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a violent fit of rage in 2016.“I was fucked up,” Diddy said in the video posted to his Instagram account, before adding, “I’m sorry.” “I mean, I hit rock bottom. I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Akintunde Akinleye/ReutersMeghan and Harry counter ‘free flight’ claimsSources in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s camp have defended the couple after claims were made in the Daily Mail that they were flown around Nigeria for free “by an airline whose chairman is a fugitive wanted in the U.S.”The Mail said that the founder of Nigerian airline Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema, which provided the Sussexes with air transport during their tour of Nigeria, is wanted in the US, “facing multiple charges linked to millions of dollars’ worth of alleged fraud set down in a federal indictment filed in November 2019.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBC/screengrabAbout midway through the final “Weekend Update” of Saturday Night Live’s 49th season, Michael Che told a joke about King Charles and Meghan Markle that drew loud enough groans from the studio audience that he felt the need to remark, “I thought they’d like that, Colin.”But that reaction was nothing compared to what followed at the end of the segment when Che and Colin Jost brought back their recurring “joke swap” bit where they each cold-read the most offensive jokes the other could think of for them to say on live television. And while the last time they engaged in this ill-advised pursuit in December, Che invited a (fictional) civil rights icon to sit beside Jost as he told his jokes, this time he welcomed a woman who he claimed was an “actual practicing rabbi.”With that in mind, Jost kicked off the proceedings by reading this joke about the student walk-out that greeted Jerry Seinfeld’s recent commencement address at Duke University. “I think that's disgraceful. During these difficult times it’s important to support our Jewish friends. That’s why the only chant you’ll hear from me is ‘Free Weinstein.’’Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/ReutersListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher.Representative Jasmine Crockett may well be The New Abnormal’s Hero of the Week for taking on America First Legal’s vice president Gene Hamilton over Project 2025—a blueprint for radical government changes should Donald Trump be re-elected as president.“It calls for eliminating the Department of Education, eliminating the Department of Commerce, deploying the military for the use of domestic law enforcement against protestors under the Insurrection Act of 1807,” Crockett told Hamilton during a Republican-led House Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government earlier this week. “It also has the repealing of Schedule F status for thousands of federal employees to allow a president to replace career civil servants with unqualified partisan loyalists. That’s probably my favorite of it. It also prohibits the FBI from combating the spread of misinformation and disinformation like Russia and China who are actively trying to interfere with American elections.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty ImagesJERUSALEM—Israel is crippling the ability of NGOs and human rights organizations to address the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, by smearing, threatening and torturing aid workers while using their power to limit or deny visas to people who want to come and help.The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the backbone of aid, education and support to millions of Palestinians, has been hard hit by bombing attacks on its staff and infrastructure in Gaza but also by the iniquity of red-tape facing its international staff in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.The U.N. said its first foreign aid worker was killed by an Israeli tank attack on his marked vehicle this week in the latest escalation.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NBC / SNLThe season 49 finale of Saturday Night Live opened with a message from James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump. Airing from “his new home, the barricades outside of a Manhattan courthouse,” Trump confessed to his supporters that he hasn’t been loving the past few weeks.“They say very mean things about me while I’m trying to sleep,” he complained, before insisting that he would love to testify in court himself. “I’m not afraid to testify at all. I’m just not going to, out of fear. You see, they do a terrible thing when you testify, which is they write it down, and we don’t like that…”As he talked, a member of the jury (played by cast member Sarah Sherman) walked on stage. She quickly realized she was on camera, panicked, and walked off. “Oh, that was a juror, did you see her face?” Trump said. “Everyone just saw her face and now her life is over, folks. My people are going to screenshot her face and dox her to hell. Oh, we love to dox.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

via X A suspected meteor lit up the sky over Portugal and Spain late Saturday night, prompting witnesses to flood social media with videos of the spectacular blue fireball.One video, apparently filmed on a driver’s dash-cam, shows a burst of blue light blazing across the sky. Another captures a crowd reacting with awe and dismay as the entire sky turns neon blue while the apparent meteor falls.Authorities in Viseu, Portugal, told Publico they had been alerted to reports of an object falling in the sky but that they had so far not been able to find whatever it was that came crashing down to Earth. The outlet said the Civil Protection agency initially reported a “meteorite fall” but then retracted that statement.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Howard L. Bingham“We were flying by the seat of our pants,” Stax legend William Bell recently recalled of the early days of the venerable label that tracked the rise of the civil rights movement. “A lot of us came in from the gospel arena, right out of church, just neighborhood kids. We learned how to craft a song as young kids, 14, 15 years old, but really, we just wanted to hear our voices on the radio.”According to legend, Stax Records replaced cotton as the single biggest product coming out of Memphis, Tennessee, during its late-1960s heyday. And if you know the Stax story, it’s not hard to believe.But if you only know the hits, and not the rags-to-riches tale of the label that made stars of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave, the Staple Singers, and so many more, then you couldn’t do better than STAX: Soulsville U.S.A., a four-part documentary that premieres on Max on May 20 and tracks its remarkable, and often heartbreaking, history.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/MaxHaving a one-night stand seems to have become veteran comic Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) go-to method in confronting the two most painful moments from her past: losing a late-night talk show and losing her husband to her younger sister in one fell swoop.In both of the last two seasons of Hacks, Deborah has had fleeting encounters that prove she has the capacity for self-reflection after a night in the sack with a hot guy—which is true even when Deborah breaks her own “no married men” rule.(Warning: Spoilers ahead for the latest episodes of Hacks.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Netflix/Getty ImagesHave you ever professed feelings to the love of your life while a Pitbull song was playing in the background? Oh, you haven’t? You should give it a try sometime. Clearly, it works wonders—because in Bridgerton, it leads to one of the series’ greatest love stories. Pitbull is a romantic genius.(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 3, Part 1.)Let’s set the scene: Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is having a tense carriage ride back to her home across from the Bridgerton estate. She’s fed up with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), who has vexed her for years as the charming boy next door. He just ruined her one chance at marriage by intercepting a proposition at a ball. And yet, he still does not seem to love her. Why, then, must he continue to take such a vested interest in her love life?Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThere is something preternaturally alluring about Bella Hadid. Maybe it’s the supermodel-activist-lemon heiress’ cheekbones, which look like Rodin’s careful hands finished sculpting them just before Pat McGrath’s devoted brushes dotted highlighter powder across their curvature. Or perhaps it’s the Palestinian-American’s fearless dedication to speaking out for what she believes in. Hadid has been strong-willed enough to suffer any detractors, consistently using her platform to speak out about Israel’s virulent military campaign in Gaza, and joining the call to demand a ceasefire.Whatever her draw is, one thing’s for sure: Bella Hadid serves as often as an Applebee’s waiter doing a double shift after a local junior baseball tournament. Watching her walk a runway is like catching a glimpse of Helen of Troy—suddenly, you understand how one face could launch a thousand ships. Hadid has an “it” factor that so many of her contemporaries have failed to procure, an undeniable pull that has made her the muse of designers and photographers around the world at just 27 years old. Who wouldn’t want an aura that makes people fall head over heels with just one look, if only for the big, fat paychecks it may yield?For anyone looking to replicate Hadid’s aura themselves—trust me, I’ve closely studied the texts to try to do this for years—there is Orebella, Hadid’s new line of fragrances, touted as “the first intentional skin parfum.” As a longtime Bella Hadid superstan, whose name was on the Orebella mailing list before the product was even announced, I couldn’t get my hands on Orebella’s first three scents fast enough. I may be a professional critic, sure, but I lay the money down first and form my subjective opinions later. Suze Orman will have my head for that, yet little does she know that all things are possible through Bella Hadid, which I have found out after a week’s worth of testing Orebella. The scents, and their unusual, proprietary formula, are as enchanting as the person who created them, a unique blend of essential oils whose bouquet transforms the longer they’re worn on the skin. While I’m reluctant to gush over every scent in the launch collection, one of them has become my go-to summer staple, a must-have for anyone looking to “reveal their alchemy,” to borrow a phrase from the brand itself.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesDonald Trump followed up his endorsement by the National Rifle Association on Saturday with a speech stoking fears of the government under Joe Biden “coming for your guns” and a bizarre monologue set to dramatic music resembling a song favored by QAnon.Addressing thousands of members of the NRA at their annual meeting in Texas, the former president stuck to his usual talking points, hailing the reversal of Roe v. Wade as an “amazing thing,” comparing himself to Al Capone, and insisting “genius” runs in his bloodline.Then, as he wound down, in a disorienting shift, sentimental music began to play and Trump furrowed his brow and shook his head to deliver the grim message that America is “a failing nation.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

CNN via YouTubeCNN political commentator Alice Stewart died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 58. Authorities said they discovered her body outdoors in Bellevue, Virginia, and believe Stewart suffered a medical emergency. No foul play is suspected.Stewart served as communications director for the presidential campaigns of former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), and most recently Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). She was hired by CNN ahead of the 2016 presidential election. She was a conservative commentator who would regularly appear on CNN, and offer criticism of former president Donald Trump. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/New York County District Attorney's OfficeShe had a simple job at a complex trial: Read a man’s damning words.Not just any man, of course. The Twitter posts on the bright courtroom screens at Donald Trump’s New York trial last Friday were the thoughtless intimidation tactics of the first American president to face criminal charges in a fight that could alter the course of the country’s history.The task fell to Georgia Longstreet, a tall, unassuming 24-year-old who walks into court every morning impeccably dressed. She and her two fellow paralegals show up half an hour before the prosecution team does, lugging in binders of evidence and prepping for the seven-hour battle ahead.Read more at The Daily Beast.

ReutersIt’s been a tumultuous year for Sean “Diddy” Combs and those in his orbit, which was punctuated this month with his once-promising fashion line, Sean John, appearing to have had its website wiped from the internet. Internet archives indicate the site’s removal took place sometime between May 3 and Saturday, when The Daily Beast discovered its domain—seanjohn.com—now directs users to an “under construction” page that links to seedy webpages seemingly not associated with the brand. It appears to be the first time the domain has been in such a state since it went live in 1999, the archival service Wayback Machine shows. It’s unclear if the site’s deactivation is temporary, permanent, or merely an extremely bad technical error. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pinal County Sheriff's OfficeA convicted sex offender was arrested on Tuesday in Arizona, seven months after he allegedly faked his own death to avoid having to register.In October, 50-year-old Benjamin Hollins allegedly had a woman file a false police report claiming that he’d killed himself jumping off the Theodore Roosevelt Lake Bridge in Roosevelt, Arizona.In a video statement posted to Facebook, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said his department had wasted “a lot of resources” searching for Hollins’ body, “which was clearly not found, because he wasn’t dead.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Shanna BessonNothing about Selena Gomez’s new movie that premiered at Cannes should work.Let's just review the plot. Stay with me here.Emilia Perez is the mostly Spanish-language story of a lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), who is hired by a notorious cartel leader, Manitas, who has been on hormones for two years, to make secret arrangements for a gender confirmation surgery. Rita makes millions in the process. Cut to four years later: Manitas is now Emilia Perez. She is impossibly glamorous and has another task for Rita. Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) wants the lawyer, now a success in London, to retrieve her wife, Jessi (Gomez), and children from their hideaway in Switzerland and install them in a house in Mexico City, where Emilia will pose as her own kids’ aunt. Jessi assumes that Manitas is dead and has no idea who Emilia really is, but she wants to return to get back together with the sexy Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez), with whom she had an affair. Later, Emilia, atoning for her crimes as the ruthless Manitas, opens a foundation to locate the bodies of disappeared people.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tom Williams/Getty ImagesFirebrand Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) continued to take no prisoners on a Friday night CNN appearance, doubling down on comments she made during a contentious House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday night.The meeting, which was supposed to be about contempt-of-Congress proceedings for Attorney General Merrick Garland, went off the rails when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suddenly attacked Crockett’s appearance during a hostile exchange of barbs on the committee floor, suggesting that Crockett’s “fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”The comments drew immediate outrage from Democratic reps including committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who moved to strike Greene’s comments from the record. That motion ultimately failed, and Greene refused to apologize.Read more at The Daily Beast.

XThe Biden campaign gleefully turned one of Donald Trump’s favorite digs against him on Saturday, branding the 78-year-old candidate as woefully geriatric in response to his embarrassing stumble at a Minnesota rally on Friday.Video from the event shared by Biden-Harris HQ on X showed Trump grabbing the lectern during his remarks on stage, after nearly toppling the podium over.“A feeble Trump nearly falls down on stage after he leans on his podium too hard and then goes on an angry rant calling his event workers ‘crappy,’” the caption reads.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Reuters and Courtesy of HBOBill Maher said he doesn’t understand the backlash to Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s graduation speech at Benedictine College, in which the footballer said being gay was a “deadly sin” and lectured female graduates on the importance of being homemakers.On the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the late night host made it clear that he doesn’t share Butker’s personal enthusiasm for things like marriage, religion, and children. “I couldn’t be more not like this,” Maher said.But Maher wasn’t convinced that the outrage about Butker’s comments towards women were well-founded.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bob D'Amico/Getty ImagesJohn Stamos remembered his late co-star Bob Saget on what would’ve been the actor’s 68th birthday on Friday, posting a Full House reunion picture that included a rare appearance by the Olsen twins.The actor shared a black-and-white group photo of himself and several of his co-stars from the classic sitcom—including the famously private Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who shared the part of Michelle Tanner as young children. They were joined by four other Full House OGs: Jodie Sweetin, Candace Cameron Bure, Dave Coulier, and Scott Weinger, gathered around a statue of Dumbo in Saget’s home.“Happy Birthday Bob,” Stamos wrote in the caption. “This was taken as we gathered for his funeral. Though Bob wasn’t there physically, his spirit was unmistakably present, wrapping us in warmth and shared memories that drew both laughter and tears.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Darren McCollesterCollege graduates at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth were left stunned at their commencement ceremony this week, captured in footage with their mouths ajar as a billionaire announced he was gifting each of them $1,000.Even better, the graduates would be getting the money on the spot, with the tech CEO Robert Hale Jr. handing them a pair of envelopes—each stuffed with $500 cash—as they walked across stage, he explained. “Each of you is getting $1,000 cash right now,” he said, to the crowd’s bemusement.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jason LaVeris“Time tells truth.”That was the cryptic Instagram post left by disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs just days before surveillance video would reveal the truth that he physically attacked his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016.The disturbing footage–that was originally obtained by CNN–shows Ventura trying to leave a hotel room with her belongings before being assaulted by Combs. Diddy, who was only wearing a bath towel wrapped around his waist, is seen in the triggering video grabbing, shoving, dragging and kicking Ventura on the floor. Such filmed abuse corroborates with the formal complaint Ventura filed last year against Combs in which she cited the attack as taking place “around March 2016” as her ex “followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

REUTERSThe Los Angeles District Attorney’s office has revealed why it won’t be prosecuting Diddy after horrific footage showed him brutally attacking his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a hotel.The office said in an Instagram post that because the alleged attack happened on March 5, 2016, the window to prosecute has lapsed. California’s statute of limitations for simple assault is one year, while aggravated assault is three years. “We are aware of the video that has been circulating online allegedly depicting Sean Combs assaulting a young woman in Los Angeles. We find the images extremely disturbing and difficult to watch. If the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted,” the office said. “As of today, law enforcement has not presented a case related to the attack depicted in the video against Mr. Combs, but we encourage anyone who has been a victim or witness to a crime to report it to law enforcement or reach out to our office for support from our Bureau of Victims Services.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyAs the chit-chatting, bicycling, late spring afternoon life of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park swirled around us, Corey Stoll excitedly spoke about the need to be reminded multiple times a day of his own mortality. “My favorite app is called WeCroak,” the actor said, smiling wide, holding his smartphone up. “Five times a day it sends you an alert that says, ‘Don’t forget, you’re going to die.’ It’s the best thing. Inevitably, it pings while I’m in the middle of some petty nonsense in my head. Then I get this alert, and it’s like, ‘Oh yep, it really doesn’t matter.’”Mortality isn’t just pinging at Stoll on his phone, The big D, the passing of time, the gritty truths of hidden history and what really matters and what does not, also form the pulsating bedrock of Appropriate, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ acclaimed 2013 play about a white family discovering some horrifically racist dirty laundry in its past.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesIf you are among the more-than-half of Americans not paying much attention to Trump’s hush money trial, two pieces of news may still have managed to make their way to you: that Trump appears to be farting quite frequently, and he also seems to be falling asleep in the courtroom.What could be funnier? Everyone loves a good fart joke. But if you tuned into Saturday Night Live this past week, their flatulence-themed sketch wasn’t James Austin Johnson’s Trump offering his characteristic word-salad over increasingly loud fart noises. Instead, it was host Maya Rudolph as a throw-back Hollywood starlet trying to sell decaf coffee while pretending she’s not stinking up the room.In fact, Johnson’s Trump impression has not been seen since March. This absence comes during a particularly historic eight weeks, including the unofficial launch of the first election rematch of two presidents since 1892 and the start of the first criminal trial of an American president since ever. Yet instead of capitalizing on this historic moment, SNL has relegated Trump to somewhat perfunctory jokes in Weekend Update.Read more at The Daily Beast.