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Alex Wagner
Alex Wagner has secured Rachel Maddow's coveted prime time slot on MSNBC.
“I am absolutely thrilled and honored and generally upside down with excitement to come back home to @MSNBC to host the 9PM hour, beginning August 16th,” Wagner said on Twitter. “LET’S DO THIS."
Wagner's upcoming program, which has not yet been named, will debut on August 16 and air Tuesdays through Fridays.
She will soon be the only Asian American to host a prime time cable news program, according to MSNBC.
In an interview with the New York Times, MSNBC president Rashida Jones pointed to Wagner’s experience covering politics as her strong suit.
“This is not a show where our hair is on fire and we’re yelling past each other, and we’re creating these manufactured moments of tension,” Jones told the Times. “I really want the takeaway from this show to be a better understanding of what’s happening in the world.”
Maddow announced in April that she would be scaling back The Rachel Maddow Show, only hosting it on Mondays instead of five nights a week.
Before Wagner claimed the slot, and until she officially takes over in August, the 9 pm hour has been filled by a rotating cast of hosts.
Wagner, a former MSNBC anchor, also returned to the network earlier this year as a senior political analyst and guest anchor.
“I’m honored to be anchoring a key hour of television in such a critical time for American democracy,” Wagner said in a statement. “In many ways, the stakes have never been higher, and there’s no better place to explore this moment than MSNBC. I’m thrilled to be coming home.”
The Rachel Maddow Show has been the linchpin and ratings titan of MSNBC's prime time lineup, and the network trusts Wagner to preserve the success of the slot -- marking quite the win. |
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 | MEDIA LOSER:
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani almost died this weekend, according to Rudy Giuliani.
New York City's former mayor was campaigning for his son Andrew Giuliani when a 39-year-old local man allegedly assaulted him.
Based on his version of events, he could have "easily died."
The employee allegedly approached Giuliani, slapped him on the back, said “Hey, what’s up, scumbag?” and made comments referring the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The man, identified as Daniel Gill, was arrested at the scene.
According to a report by The New York Post, Giuliani “almost went down” but soon “regained his composure” after, as an eyewitness described, a man “came out of nowhere and open-handedly slapped him in the back.”
Speaking to The New York Times, Giuliani said he had "red marks on his back, but was not bleeding and had remained on his feet after being struck."
The former mayor also told reporters that he “felt a tremendous pain in my back” like “somebody shot me” after the attack.
Giuliani later addressed the alleged assault in a Monday Facebook Live stream, insisting, "He could easily have hit me, knocked me to the ground, and killed me.”
Surveillance video of the incident paints a different picture.
ShopRite's footage of the incident shows the employee approaching Giuliani from behind, giving him a slap on the back, and ... well, that's pretty much it.
Giuliani was not remotely close to toppling over due to the impact, nor was he close to dying -- and the comparison to getting shot seems like a bit of a stretch.
Twitter had a field day once the footage was released, both mocking Giuliani for the exaggerated portrayal and questioning the need to get the employee arrested. |
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Democrats question the legitimacy of the court
Several Democrats have started to question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court following its Roe decision, with some vowing to defy the ruling all together.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) did not mince words while speaking to ABC's Martha Raddatz about the court on Sunday.
"This court has lost legitimacy. They have burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had after their gun decision, after their voting decision, after their union decision," she said.
"They just took the last of it and set a torch to it with the Roe V. Wade opinion."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also lamented the decision during a Sunday appearance on Meet the Press, calling it "a crisis of our democracy."
Condemning the court for its “dramatically overreached” authority, the lawmaker went on to call for the impeachment of justices who had, under oath, identified Roe v. Wade as settled legal precedent before voting for the case to be overturned.
“If we allow Supreme Court nominees to lie under oath and secure lifetime appointments … we must see that through," Ocasio-Cortez argued. “There must be consequences for such a deeply destabilizing action and hostile takeover of our democratic institutions."
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) expressed a similar sentiment following the ruling.
"I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans," he wrote.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) joined protests against the ruling on Friday, encouraging open defiance of the decision.
“Women are going to control their bodies no matter how they try and stop us. The hell with the Supreme Court. We will defy them," Waters said. "Women will be in control of their bodies. And if they think Black women are intimidated or afraid, they got another thought coming."
Chuck Todd pointed to the political fallout from the decision on Sunday, highlighting new concerns about the legitimacy of the Judiciary.
“Thanks to how this court was put together, its credibility has never been more in question,” Todd said. “And this decision came at a time when the country is already dangerously divided.”
In Other News...
GOP Gained Over 1 Million New Registered Voters in the Last Year As Suburbs Shift Right, New Report Finds
Jake Tapper Asks, Amid Latest Jan. 6 Revelations: Has the ‘American Experiment’ Begun to Fail?
Ana Navarro Defends Her Comments About Aborting Fetuses With Special Needs Amid Outcry
Joe Scarborough Bashes Clarence Thomas Calling for Reviews of Contraception, Gay Marriage…but Not Interracial Marriage
Ratings: Wolf Blitzer Beats Bret Baier in Demo |
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'I love you, Woody'
Alec Baldwin does not care what you think about his upcoming interview with Woody Allen.
In perhaps the strangest video to ever grace the internet, Baldwin announced that he will be interviewing Allen via Instagram Live on Tuesday at 10.30 a.m. ET.
Anticipating some backlash, Baldwin wrote in the caption, “Let me preface this by stating that I have ZERO INTEREST in anyone’s judgments and sanctimonious posts here."
“I am OBVIOUSLY someone who has my own set of beliefs and COULD NOT CARE LESS about anyone else’s speculation," he added. "If you believe that a trial should be conducted by way of an HBO documentary, that’s your issue.”
Baldwin's decision to interview Allen, who was accused of sexually assaulting his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was just seven-years-old, is already strange enough considering Baldwin's own controversies.
But the video announcing the interview really takes it to the next level.
Baldwin begins by looking off into the distance and laughing to himself. He then holds up a copy of Allen’s book Zero Gravity.
“I’m going to be doing an Instagram Live with … Woody Allen,” Baldwin says, whispering the director’s name.
Baldwin proceeds to make a baffling facial expression that looks as if his Donald Trump impersonation just stuck ... forever.
“I love you, Woody,” the actor says at another point in the video.
Interviewing Allen, is just one way Baldwin is keeping busy while the investigation continues into the death of Halyna Hutchinson the set of Rust last year. |
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