Politics

It will be fun, fun, fun under the California sun for many well-heeled attendees at today’s Donald Trump fundraiser in Newport Beach — but not for Beach Boys Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, who are chagrined that the touring version of the group currently headed up by Mike Love will be headlining the campaign benefit.

The Beastie Boys had never before licensed any of their songs for an advertisement, but that commercial blackout came to an end during Sunday’s Steelers/Browns game, when the sounds of “Sabotage” accompanied a spot for the Joe Biden presidential campaign. It wasn’t just any campaign spot, but one that focuses on how the COVID-19 shutdowns

Thousands of people in masks rallied Saturday in Washington D.C. to protest President Donald Trump and his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The rally resembled that of January 2017, when young women and gender minorities across the country gathered to protest the president’s

Twitter is keeping itself in front of the political firing line by inconsistently applying policy to a series of unconfirmed reports by the New York Post about Joe Biden’s son Hunter — moves Republicans have slammed as censorship and election interference. The social network initially banned the Post’s story Wednesday about Hunter Biden’s alleged attempts

President Donald Trump said on Friday that Savannah Guthrie had gone “totally crazy” during the NBC town hall on Thursday night. Speaking to a group of seniors in Fort Myers, Fla., Trump also weighed in on Joe Biden’s appearance on ABC, which he said he did not watch. “He wasn’t looking too good,” Trump said.

Thom Tillis received more than $30,000 from entertainment companies and their trade associations last quarter, as he tries to fight off a challenger in one of the key races that will determine control of the Senate. Lindsey Graham, who is also in a tough race, has received contributions from the Motion Picture Association, Comcast, AT&T

On Friday morning, President Donald Trump retweeted a satirical article about the recent Twitter outage being a plot in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden, seemingly falling for the fake story. Coincidentally before Trump’s and Biden’s separate town halls on Thursday night, Twitter experienced widespread technical problems across the U.S. and other parts of

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, facing Republican wrath over the company’s blocking of tweets linking to New York Post articles on Hunter Biden, admitted Twitter’s handling of the situation was “wrong” and said the social network has updated its policies to do better. “Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement

President Trump and Joe Biden offered starkly different visions for the country and a sharp contrast in leadership styles on Thursday as the presidential contenders took part in dueling town halls on NBC and ABC. NBC’s hourlong event with Trump drew strong criticism from the entertainment industry and many others who saw it as a

Zeroing in on a provision of U.S. communications law that Donald Trump has repeatedly called to be nixed, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday said he believes the telecom agency has the legal authority to regulate social-media companies. “Social media companies have a First Amendment right to free speech,” Pai, a Trump appointee, said in

UPDATE: NBC News is not backing down to calls to move President Trump’s town hall on Thursday night. NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde said in a statement that the decision to air Trump’s town hall at the same time as Vice President Biden’s was not a decision motivated by business. “We share in the

Madame Gandhi kicked off the South Asian Block Party, which featured a who’s who of South Asians in showbiz to promote the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris presidential ticket Wednesday on Zoom. But Kumail Nanjiani brought the emotion, talking about how President Trump’s actions during the coronavirus pandemic have locked down his wife, Emily V.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has blasted Disney over its decision to lay off 28,000 employees, asserting that the entertainment giant’s priorities are unfairly weighted in favor of shareholders and executive pay packages. Warren issued the accusations in a letter released Wednesday, two weeks after Disney announced the layoffs and blamed the state of California’s “unwillingness” to lift

Facebook and Twitter put measures in place Wednesday to limit distribution of a New York Post story based on emails — which the paper claimed were supplied by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani — purportedly revealing evidence of influence-peddling by Joe Biden’s son Hunter. According to the Post’s story, Hunter Biden in 2015 introduced his father,

Snoop Dogg wants you to drop it like it’s hot — your ballot at your nearest official election drop box, that is. In a new ad entitled “Drop It In The Box!,” released in partnership with the Democratic National Convention, the rapper showcases how voters can conveniently drop off their ballots at their chosen location

The world may be turned upside down, but the “Hamilton” cast is not letting Joe Biden throw away his shot. Biden’s presidential campaign campaign announced Monday night that it will be holding a virtual grassroots fundraiser with the cast of the hit musical on Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. ET. Original cast members Lin-Manuel Miranda,

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has claimed that he did not consent to being included in President Donald Trump’s new campaign ad. In an interview with CNN, Fauci explained that his words were “taken out of context” and that his appearance should not be interpreted as a

Twitter announced several new steps related to next month’s U.S. elections, including its plans to label tweets by any political candidates — including Donald Trump and Joe Biden — if they falsely claim they have won before a race is “authoritatively called.” And among other measures, starting Oct. 20, Twitter will prompt users to use

With just 26 days to go until election day, four of the five members of Pearl Jam joined Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, Thursday night for an online conversation about voting, activism, the importance of human connection during the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of the imperiled live

Woodville is a small town in the forestland of East Texas. With a population of about 2,500, it is home to the Tyler County courthouse, where two circuit judges split their time with other counties. Woodville is, in other words, an unlikely place for a culture war over a French movie. But on Tuesday, Lucas

Sen. Kamala Harris blasted the Trump administration’s “incompetent” response to COVID-19 at Wednesday night’s debate, calling it the “greatest failure” of any administration. Vice President Mike Pence defended the administration and accused Harris and Joe Biden of seeking to pack the Supreme Court if Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed. The debate had a calmer

Facebook, trying to further instill confidence that its powerful platform won’t interfere with the 2020 U.S. elections, announced an expanded set of policies — including prohibiting ads after polls close Nov. 3. Among other steps: Facebook said it will remove posts from anyone to engage in poll watching “when those calls use militarized language or

Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris will hold their vice presidential debate tonight. With Election Day looming, Pence and Harris will face off at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, from 9 to 10:30 p.m. ET. The candidates are expected to discuss President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic,

A group of Hollywood celebrities got naked in a new PSA to bring attention to “naked ballot” laws, which require voters in 16 states to place their mail-in ballots in two different envelopes — one inside of the other and in a specific order — for their votes to be counted. The ad (watch below)

Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee on Wednesday slammed Netflix for defending its decision to greenlight a high-profile adaptation of the Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin’s “Three-Body Problem” novels despite his “execrable views” on China’s treatment of its mostly Muslim Uyghur population. Netflix announced early last month that it had commissioned “Game of Thrones” creators

ICM Partners’ Hannah Linkenhoker and Chris Silbermann have partnered to create a new political consulting firm called Vivify. After working together for years supporting progressive candidates and causes, Linkenhoker and Silbermann are launching a consultancy designed to promote activism through public policy and legislative initiatives. Vivify will work with clients who want to be more

Tonight’s vice presidential debate will feature several firsts. Sen. Kamala Harris will be the first Black and South Asian American woman in a national debate – and it will also be the first debate in which the participants are shielded by Plexiglass. But that aside, the debate should feel somewhat like a return to “normal”

Capping a nearly 16-month probe into the market power of four big tech companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google — House Democratic lawmakers issued the findings from their report and called for an overhaul of U.S. antitrust laws to rein in their “monopoly” status. “The totality of the evidence produced during this investigation demonstrates

President Trump called off negotiations on Tuesday for another COVID stimulus bill, saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not negotiating in good faith. The announcement caused the S&P 500 to drop by nearly 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial average also lost about 1.9%, or about 500 points. The market had been up for the

President Trump, holed up in the White House after being infected with the coronavirus, falsely claimed in Facebook and Twitter posts Tuesday that COVID-19 is “far less lethal” than the seasonal flu. Facebook removed the president’s post, citing a violation of the social network’s policy against COVID-19 misinformation. “We remove incorrect information about the severity