Steve Pond's Blog, page 99

Megyn Kelly Rebukes Charlize Theron for ‘Vulgar’ Orgasm Comments: ‘Have Some Class’

Megyn Kelly blasted Charlize Theron as “vulgar” and classless for sharing her perspective on sex and being a single woman on Wednesday’s episode of “Call Her Daddy”

The conservative host began Thursday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” by questioning why Theron even agreed to go on the popular podcast hosted by Alex Cooper. The actress is in the middle of a press tour for her new Netflix movie “The Old Guard 2.”   

“She decided to go on a podcast tour for some reason,” Kelly said. “She sat down with ‘Call Her Daddy,’ the sex podcaster who interviewed Kamala Harris — all about how much they love abortions.” She chastised the actress for trying to act like a “super cool girl.”

On the “Call Her Daddy” episode Theron was asked to give her best sex advice and the actress responded candidly saying, “I am the last person to ask [for sex tips]. I’m sounding very cocky here, but I think it’s because I’ve found this freedom in my 40s where I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ Just for perspective, I’ve probably had three one-night stands in my entire life. But I did just recently f–k a 26-year-old, and it was really amazing. I’ve never done that. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is great.’ Women should be the ones that are like, ‘F–k you, I’m going to have an orgasm.’”

Kelly looked appalled and pointed out the irony that she was criticizing Theron of all people, who played her in 2019’s “Bombshell.” She also made a point to note that she can’t be sued for defamation for sharing her opinion, because she was clearly stating it was just her opinion. 

“Maybe she’s just boring and stays home on Friday nights, but it seems like she’s compensating for something,” Kelly said. “She’s 49 years old trying to sound 26. It feels weird. She’s one of our biggest stars — act like it. Have some class.”

Kelly clearly took issue with the open discussion about sex on the podcast and called talking about it “vulgar” and “inappropriate.” She also blasted Theron for her commentary about single motherhood and the role men played in her life.

“It’s strange to see one of our most famous actresses sit down cross-legged with a sex podcaster talking about orgasms and who they slept with,” she said. “It’s off-putting. Then she doubles down on how little she needs a man in her life, even when it comes to child-rearing.”

Ironically, on the “Call Her Daddy” episode Theron talked about the harsh judgement single mothers and older women face when they don’t have men in their lives. The “Mad Max: Fury Road” actress said the assumption is that something must be wrong with the woman. Theron added that she felt an immense sense of freedom that comes from raising a child alone.  

“That’s just affectation,” Kelly said of the actress’ comments while also chiding her for swearing so much. “She’s trying to be the cool, young girl who doesn’t need a man. She’s proud that there’s no father in the picture. Great. Good for you. People can make up their own minds, but this isn’t how I want to see our biggest stars behave. She’s on the opposite side of the political aisle from us, but you never see Julia Roberts do this kind of thing.”

You can listen to the full “The Megyn Kelly Show” segment in the video above.

The post Megyn Kelly Rebukes Charlize Theron for ‘Vulgar’ Orgasm Comments: ‘Have Some Class’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Joe Rogan Says OpenAI’s Sam Altman Comes Across Like He’s Running for President | Video

Joe Rogan is concerned about the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and how it will affect humanity moving forward, and said the top companies are run by “odd people” like OpenAI boss Sam Altman.

Rogan, during the Friday episode of his popular podcast, said the man behind ChatGPT reminded him more of a cunning politician than a regular guy when he appeared on his show in late 2023.

“I don’t have anything against Sam Altman — I know Elon Musk does not like him — but when I had him in here, I was like, it’s like I’m talking to a politician who is in the middle of a presidential [election] cycle. Where they’re very careful with what they say,” Rogan said. “Everything has been vetted by a focus group, and you don’t really get a real human response.”

Rogan said Altman’s answers were “all bulls–t” and that ultimately, after his appearance, he was “going to leave [Rogan’s studio] and keep creating this f–king monster that is going to destroy the human race, and not let onto it, at all.”

A moment later, Rogan added there is a lot of “deception” around how much Altman is making from OpenAI. It was not all negativity from Rogan towards Altman, though — he said Altman came across as a “very nice guy.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Friday afternoon.

The UFC and podcasting star’s comments were made during a conversation with Roman Yampolskiy, a computer scientist who has written about the potential dangers of AI in his 2024 book “AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.”

Yampolskiy told Rogan he believes AI will reach “superintelligence” — where models like ChatGPT, X’s Grok and Google’s Gemini surpass humans in all forms of intellectual abilities — in the next few years.

He added there are a few different ways AI can upend the world, from the much-discussed possibility AI leads to mass unemployment, to an even bigger concern — the technology is not aligned with mankind and decides to wipe out humans.

“Right now, the larger AI labs are running this experiment on 8 billion people. They don’t have any consent,” Yampolskiy said. “They cannot get consent, [and] nobody can consent, because we do not understand what we are agreeing to.”

Rogan, earlier in the podcast, agreed with Yampolskiy about the potential dangers of AI, saying “it must be confronted” before it is too late.

You can watch the full conversation between Rogan and Yampolskiy below:

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‘Love Island’ Narrator Iain Stirling, a Day in the Life: How the Comedian Pulls Double Duty for UK and USA

Perhaps as iconic as “Love Island USA” host Ariana Madix or fan-favorite islanders from across the seasons is narrator Iain Stirling, the snarky yet steady heartbeat of the reality dating franchise best known for his quips about the islanders’ questionable fashion choices or their not-so-stimulating conversations.

While the comedian has narrated “Love Island U.K.” for a decade since the show’s start in 2015, he began pulling double duty as the narrator for “Love Island USA” in 2022, when the spinoff series moved from CBS to Peacock. The gigs have lead to quite jam-packed days for Stirling, as the dating shows roll out in real-time.

The comic, who remains based in the U.K. as “Love Island USA” and “Love Island U.K.” film in Fiji and Mallorca, respectively, begins his day around 8 a.m. U.K. time with some parenting duties, breakfast and a gym session that takes him to around noon, when his work for “Love Island U.K.” begins. Stirling hops on a Zoom with writer Mark Busk-Cowley, who originated the “Love Island” format, and the duo write the four parts of “Love Island U.K.” until around 5:30 or 6 p.m.

As most people close out their day around 6 p.m., Stirling is in the thick of “Love Island” joke writing and narrating by dinnertime, when he takes a reprieve to make dinner with his wife and put his children to bed. Then, at 8:30 p.m., Stirling does it all again for “Love Island USA” as he hops on a Zoom with U.K. comic Steve Bugeja and American comic Caroline Hanes, who joins from Fiji.

“Love Island USA” is much longer than “Love Island U.K.” however, with the U.S. iteration broken into six rather than four acts that sometimes stretch into hour-and-a-half long episodes.

“There’s more voiceover, which is great — I get more times to be funny,” Stirling told TheWrap of “Love Island USA.” “We basically don’t stop right until 2:30 in the morning … then I finish at 2:30 and I go to bed, and then I wake up whenever a child decides it for me to wake up.”

Luckily, the Zoom calls feel much more “collaborative” than anything, with Stirling comparing the experience to “three friends just shooting the s–t, the same way that if you were watching ‘Love Island’ with your mates.” “We just sit and come up with some jokes, and then we’ll say some out loud, and some of them just instantly, you just notice something and you can do a joke,” he said.

Other times, Stirling admits the writers will get stumped, prompting them to watch a scene over and over again for 20 minutes brainstorming jokes to contribute.

“When Nic and Olandria are on the dock having a conversation for the 20th time, you’re like, ‘what is left to joke about with this?'” Stirling said. “Other times, obviously, there’s dates and … loads of new things that you can pick out on. It’s much easier.”

After narrating the franchise for over a decade, Stirling noted that “Love Island USA” feels markedly different this season as Gen Z islanders bring a level of fluidity — both in their relationships and sexuality — to the villa, which can be seen during the recent heart-rate challenge, when several female islanders shared kisses.

“As millennials, we were very like, ‘Get in a box … you’re with someone or you’re not, you’re chatting or you’re not, you like boys or you don’t,'” Stirling said. “The Gen Z ‘Love Island’ has started, and I think they’re bloody built for it … It’s a Gen Z takeover.”

The flexibility in connections has led to a different turn of events in “Love Island USA” this season, according to Stirling, especially with the Casa Amor twist. “Casa Amor is built on the romantic moment where the couple that has been the couple come out and they’re a couple together,” Stirling said. “We didn’t have that and we didn’t need it.”

Taylor Williams, Huda Mustafa, Iris Kendall, Jeremiah Brown on “Love Island USA” Season 7 (Ben Symons/Peacock)

Out of the Season 7 islanders, Stirling applauded Huda Mustafa, who was at the center of a dramatic and toxic relationship with Jeremiah Brown, for both making great TV, as well as being a grounding anchor for the show. “There’s that really human part of it where you’re cringing, remembering the 500 times you’ve absolutely been Huda in a relationship,” he added.

“Every main sitcom character has a flaw, one big issue that the minute they realize that’s their issue, the sitcom ends because it stops being funny,” Stirling said. “You can see she’s trying her absolute best to not follow the same path that she’s followed every single time, and she just can’t.”

“Love Island USA” streams every day but Wednesdays on Peacock.

The post ‘Love Island’ Narrator Iain Stirling, a Day in the Life: How the Comedian Pulls Double Duty for UK and USA appeared first on TheWrap.

HFPA President Helen Hoehne Ousted as Members Aim to Reverse Dissolution

Helen Hoehne was ousted as president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Thursday, TheWrap has learned, as members aim to reverse the organization’s dissolution following its 2023 acquisition by Eldrige Industries.

Hoehne, who as president saw the HFPA through restructuring amid allegations of misconduct and lack of diversity within its membership, was also ejected from its board of directors.

The vote, which passed 59-1 with two abstentions, was shared in a memo to members by executive secretary Adam Tanswell on Thursday. With Hoehne’s removal from the HFPA board, current members are: Vera Anderson, Henry Arnaud, Tina Jønk Christensen, Barbara Gasser, Earl Gibson III, Sharlette Hambrick, Gabriel Lerman, Yuki Nakajima, Scott Orlin, Bárbara de Oliveira Pinto and Kirpi Uimonen.

The vote to remove Hoehne came days after the 60 remaining members of the HFPA voted against the organization’s dissolution, as mandated by the 2023 acquisition by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge and Dick Clark Productions.

Members voted Monday to formally reactivate and kickstart an audit of the deal that dissolved their organization and formed the Golden Globes Foundation. Hoehne has served as president of Golden Globes LLC since the HFPA’s acquisition.

Jeff Harris and Dr. Joanna Dodd Massey, two of the HFPA’s three external members appointed to its board of directors in 2021, resigned following Monday’s vote, an individual with knowledge of their exit told TheWrap.

Heading the audit of the 2023 deal for HFPA is attorney Reynolds T. Cafferata. Members allege they were misled into voting in favor of the 2023 deal and given assurances that were never seen through.

Hoehne joined the Globes in 2004. When the awards body came under scrutiny for its lack of membership diversity and ethically ambiguous campaign and voting standards, she oversaw its efforts to expand membership by the hundreds and address areas of alleged misconduct. She touted after an membership expansion ahead of the 81st annual Golden Globes Awards in 2023 that “we have exceeded our goal of reaching 300 voters.”

“We are excited at the unprecedented achievement in building a truly global voting body where 58% self-identify as ethnically diverse,” she said at the time.

Of the 2025 ceremony, TheWrap’s Steve Pond reflected on the ongoing facelift within the Globes, writing: “This felt like a old-style Golden Globes show: loose, messy, moving at times, dull at others and mostly inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Oscar race.”

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‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-jae Initially Wondered if Season 3 Was the Best Ending for Gi-hun

Spoilers ahead for “Squid Game” Season 3

Lee Jung-jae had the same reaction as nearly every fan of “Squid Game” when he learned about Gi-hun’s death.

“I was also very shocked myself when I first found out. I spoke a lot with the director about ‘Is this really the best ending for it?'” Lee told TheWrap.

When asked what those conversations looked like, Lee emphasized that “Squid Game” was originally intended to be a one season show. The series’ creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk only returned to make Seasons 2 and 3 because of the resounding popularity of the first installment.

“While Gi-hun’s death is indeed heartbreaking, I believe director Hwang wished that it would seem to convey a sense of hope to the audience as well,” Lee said.

“I think that if Season 1 hadn’t been such a huge success or if circumstances were different, I might have given more input. I might have been more almost aggressive in my discussions with the director in terms of my ideas,” he said. “But seeing the amount of support and trust that everyone has in director Hwang as a creator and in his vision, I was also coming from a place where I just wanted to fully support director Hwang’s vision. I thought that him telling this story in his own way — the way he wants to tell it — was the way to go and was the right approach for ‘Squid Game.'”

True to the tone of this dystopian thriller, “Squid Game” ends on a depressing twist. But as Lee noted, there’s also a degree of hope to it. After spending a fourth of the competition protecting Jun-hee’s (Jo Yu-ri) baby, Gi-hun is forced to make an impossible choice in the final moments of Season 3. He can either kill this innocent child and win the game again or sacrifice himself. He chooses to do the latter, but in his final moments he turns to face the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and billionaires watching him.

“We are not horses. We are humans,” Gi-hun says, calling back to a conversation he previously had with the Front Man. “Humans are” he says before his voice trails off. That last line was intentionally left unfinished to encourage audiences to think about what it means to them.

“If that line had been finished, obviously it would have been a more overt way of expressing [Hwang’s] beliefs and what he wanted to say. But I believe that with ‘Squid Game,’ we’ve always been with the fans,” Lee said. “That also is partly the meaning behind [the line]. The audience is capable of finishing that sentence with their own emotions and with their own interpretation.”

The post ‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-jae Initially Wondered if Season 3 Was the Best Ending for Gi-hun appeared first on TheWrap.

How Podcasts Became Hollywood’s Next Retention Strategy | Charts

Last month, the HFPA announced a new Golden Globe category dedicated exclusively to podcasts, starting in 2026. In recent years, podcasts have firmly established themselves within the Creator Economy. From journalists and comedians to athletes and actors, creators from diverse backgrounds are utilizing the format to create a community by cultivating their own loyal audiences.

Major media companies have taken note. Spotify and Amazon Music have built out their libraries with exclusive content, while Netflix is showing early signs of investing more heavily in the space. These strategic moves are far from incidental; the podcast format has proven effective at both attracting brand partnerships and elevating visibility, especially among talent.

In the meantime, streaming platforms have curated content around the podosphere, such as Hulu’s “Call Her Daddy” docuseries, which focuses on Alex Cooper, one of the most popular podcast hosts who has already had guests ranging from Paris Hilton to Kamala Harris. 

Considering the podcasts from Spotify’s U.S. charts, different hosts reached exceptional peak demand levels in the U.S., according to Parrot Analytics, an achievement earned by less than 1% of all tracked talent, regardless of profession or nationality. This list reflects a broad spectrum of public figures, including political commentators, journalists, comedians and actors. 

While true crime, interviews and fiction remain staples, a growing podcast subgenre is the “behind-the-scenes” content, which could be particularly relevant to entertainment platforms like Netflix. These shows, hosted by original cast members, revisit beloved series with anecdotes and insider stories. The popularity of this category underscores the long-tail value of high-engagement IP.

Shows like “The Office,” “Glee,” “One Tree Hill” and “The O.C.” are examples of this format, serving as the central theme for podcasts hosted by their original cast members. “Office Ladies,” for instance, is hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who played Pam and Angela on “The Office.”

According to Parrot Analytics’ Streaming Economics model, the TV show generated more than an estimated $120 million in streaming revenue contribution only in the UCAN (United States and Canada) region over the past five years, a notable figure considering its final episode aired in 2013. This sustained value highlights the wide range of opportunities that a multi-million-dollar IP can continue to unlock over time.

This strategic opportunity extends beyond nostalgia. High-profile actors like Amy Poehler and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are turning to podcasts as a space for creative expansion, far from the traditional routes once limited to late-night talk shows or guest appearances. From a streaming platform perspective, these ventures could offer more than just visibility. 

Considering the performance of “Parks and Recreation” and “Seinfeld,” popular series led by Poehler and Louis-Dreyfus, respectively, both demonstrated high retention value on streaming platforms. On Peacock, 80% of the users associated with “Parks and Recreation’s” revenue contribution in the UCAN region over the last four years were retained users. “Seinfeld” performed even higher, with over 90% of its equivalent users being retained users on Netflix. These numbers reflect not only the enduring appeal of legacy titles, but also the audience stickiness that comes with familiar, beloved talent.

In this context, podcasts can serve as a powerful retention lever, either by leveraging pre-existing communities from digital natives like Alex Cooper, reigniting fan engagement with iconic IPs, or by offering new creative vehicles for actors already associated with high-performing content. As streaming platforms navigate an increasingly competitive landscape, podcasts might be a possibility to extend the lifecycle of premium IP, and keep subscribers meaningfully engaged within their content ecosystems.

The post How Podcasts Became Hollywood’s Next Retention Strategy | Charts appeared first on TheWrap.

Ed Helms Recalls ‘The Office’ Star Steve Carell Making Him Break On-Camera in Christmas Episode Scene | Video

Ed Helms knows exactly which scene from “The Office” broke him the most, and it involved Steve Carell.

While speaking with Vulture, Helms – who played Andy Bernard in the series – was asked about working with Steve Carell and if there were scenes that kept him laughing and laughing. He knew exactly what that scene was and evidence of him breaking essentially made it into the episode.

“One of the hardest times I ever laughed in my life was Steve as Santa Claus and Kevin sits on his lap,” Helms remembered. “It’s funny the scene is funny with him on his lap but then when Kevin gets up Steve starts like moving around the space because his leg is asleep, and he’s like hammering his leg against the desk and then the chair.”

He continued: “I think you can see in the shot that I disappear. Like I duck behind a wall, because I can’t – and that was probably take 12 and I still couldn’t keep it together.”

Sure enough, during the scene in question – Season 6, Episode 13 “Secret Santa” – Kevin sits on Michael’s lap who is posing as the office Santa and having the employees tell him what they want for Christmas. After some grunts of discomfort, Kevin gets off and Michael wanders around struggling to get feeling back in his leg. In the background, Helms’ character Andy can be seen ducking around a corner while Michael bangs his leg against a chair.

“It was the commitment,” Helms finished. “It was one of the things, I could just tell Steve was so present that all of that flailing around with the asleep leg was like … I don’t think that was in the script. You feel like you’re watching, you really were immersed in Michael’s world. And then you’re just reduced to a fan and you’re laughing.”

Carell played Michael Scott from the beginning of the series until the end of Season 7. Helms joined the show in Season 3 and remained until the show ended with Season 9.

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Paul Simon Postpones Long Beach Concert While Recovering From Back Surgery

Paul Simon postponed his upcoming Long Beach performance Thursday while recovering from back surgery. The 83-year-old rock musician canceled two shows in Philadelphia last week due to chronic back pain and underwent a surgical procedure to address it.

The concert, originally scheduled for Monday at Terrace Theater in Long Beach, will now take place one day later on Tuesday.

The legendary artist underwent a surgical procedure this week to alleviate his longtime back pain, his spokesperson said in a statement to TheWrap. Though the musician’s surgery went well, he still needs more time to recovery before his scheduled performance in Long Beach.

“Thanks to a great team of doctors, the surgery went well, as expected,” his spokesperson said. “However, it has become clear he will need one additional day of rest and recuperation to insure he is able to perform at the top of his ability in Long Beach.”

The show was postponed one day “out of an abundance of caution.” All tickets purchased for Monday’s concert will be transferred to the following show time, or if patrons are unable to attend, the tickets are eligible for a full refund.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but Paul is looking forward to seeing everyone in Long Beach on Tuesday,” the statement continued.

The most recent postponing comes after Simon canceled two shows in Philadelphia June 28 and June 29 due to back pain that had become “unmanageable.”

Simon is scheduled to perform in at Disney Hall in Los Angeles from July 9-16 for the next leg of his “A Quiet Celebration” tour. The 16-time Grammy Award winner has been dealing with severe hearing loss, so this tour he specifically chose venues “with optimal acoustics” to protect his ears. The tour is scheduled to conclude in Seattle Aug. 3.

Before taking off for his “A Quiet Celebration” tour, Simon opened the “SNL50” with pop star Sabrina Carpenter, performing a rendition of his song “Homeward Bound.” The musician and George Harrison played the duet almost 50 years prior on the sketch show in 1976.

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Netflix Tops Strategic Counsel ‘Must Keep TV’ List for 6th Consecutive Year

Netflix has topped the Strategic Counsel’s “Must Keep TV” list for the sixth year in a row as the leading television brand in the U.S. for 2025.

Following closely behind is ABC hanging onto the 2nd place spot for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Prime Video, CBS and Fox. Rounding out the Top 10 are NBC, which moves up one spot to sixth place; Hulu; Disney+; Paramount+, which enters the Top 10 for the first time since 2021; and Max, which reenters the Top 10 after a brief exit in 2024.

Meanwhile, Peacock dropped out of the Top 10, ranking 11th, while ESPN is now ranked 12th overall despite remaining the No. 1 cable channel brand in the U.S. Fox News Channel climbed to 13th, up from 17th, while Tubi came in 15th and was ranked the top FAST TV brand in the U.S. as Apple TV+ ranked 16th, jumping up from 26th place.

Other brands that saw positive momentum included HGTV, The CW, Hallmark, TNT, SyFy, USA and Bravo, while brands that lost steam included CNN, which dropped to 26th place; History, which dropped to 27th; Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

Must Keep TV list (Courtesy of The Strategic Counsel)

The 2025 research is based on online interviews with 1,400 American consumers aged 12 and older conducted at the end of April.

Respondents were shown a list of 83 broadcast, cable and high-penetration streaming brands and asked to identify which ones would be on their ‘must keep TV’ list if they had to choose a limited number.

This marks the 18th edition of the annual survey, which has been done since 2007.

When looking at 18 to 34 year olds, Netflix maintained the top spot for the ninth year in a row, followed by Prime Video, Hulu, ABC and Max. Rounding out that Top 10 were Disney+, Fox, Paramount+, Peacock and CBS.

Other brands that saw positive moment for this demo included Apple TV+ which climbed from 19th to 13th, Fox News Channel, which ranked 14th, National Geographic, SyFy, HGTV and Discovery. Brands recording declines in the demo included Nickelodeon, CW and Comedy Central.

When looking at men ages 18 to 49, Netflix, ABC, Prime Video, Fox, CBS, Max, Hulu, ESPN, NBC and Paramount+ are the Top 10 brands this year, in that order. ESPN remains the No. 1 cable channel in the demo.

Prime Video climbed to the 3rd place spot from 6th and Max climbed to 6th from 10th. Apple TV+ also climbed to 14th from 23rd, while Tubi held on to its mid-teen ranking in 15th place for 2025 as Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2 moved into the Top 20 this year.

When looking at African American audiences, ABC knocked Netflix out of the top spot after a five-year run, which was attributed to its sports schedule. Rounding out that Top 10 were CBS, Prime Video, Fox, NBC, Hulu, Peacock, Max and Tubi.

As for the Latin audience, Netflix was the top streamer, followed by Prime Video in 2nd, and ABC was the top network in 3rd, followed by Hulu and Max. The latter climbed to the 5th place spot from 11th, while Paramount+ entered the Top at 9th, up from 12th last year. Telemundo maintained its ranking as 13th this year, while Univision dropped slightly from 9th to 14th.

When looking at virtual multi-channel video programming distributor (vMVPD) households, Netflix was the top brand, followed by Prime Video, ABC, Hulu and Max. ESPN also notably came in at 7th.

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Lawrence O’Donnell Gleefully Mocks House Republicans Over Big, Beautiful Bill Vote: ‘It Has a Mistake In It’ | Video

Lawrence O’Donnell mocked House Republicans for putting forward President Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill vote with a mistake in it, an error that shot themselves in the foot.

“It has a mistake in it,” O’Donnell said on Wednesday night’s episode of “The Last Word.” “They all know that the real leading expert on House rules is Democrat Jim McGovern, the Democratic leader of the House Rules Committee. They know that the Republican chair of the House Rules Committee, Virginia Foxx, is completely and permanently incompetent—always has been, always will be—along with her staff.”

The MSNBC host went on to explain the difference between how legislation is voted on between the Senate and the House. For example in the Senate, rules do not change but in the House, the Rules Committee—controlled by the party in power—writes the rule for every bill. It is standard for the rule to say that no amendments will be allowed once the bill reaches the floor. 

“The incompetent Republicans did such a bad job of writing that very simple, one-paragraph rule that Jim McGovern was able to stop everything in the House of Representatives today by announcing: ‘It has a mistake in it,’” O’Donnell said in disbelief.

“We’ve never seen anything like that in the House—not something that stupid,” he continued. “For the next 11 hours, the Republican-controlled House was paralyzed by that mistake. Usually in the House, no one in the Republican Party listens to anything said by Democrats on the floor. But this time, everyone heard what Congressman Jim McGovern said when he started a drama like we’ve never seen before.”

The host explained in layman’s terms that Republicans pushed forward the bill and didn’t include an out for themselves. So if they began debating, and the GOP realized they didn’t have the votes, they would still have to take the vote. O’Donnell chastised Speaker Mike Johnson for not knowing anything about governmental procedure and that it quickly became clear they didn’t have the votes.  

“Panic set in among House Republicans and within the Trump White House,” O’Donnell said. “While Republicans may now try to fix the error with an amendment, McGovern posed a critical question: ‘If this Republican leadership cannot get a one-paragraph rule right, can we really trust them to get an 870-page bill right?’”

The mistake allowed Democrats to go to the mic and request amendments to cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, a main pushback on the bill from both sides of the aisle. Despite the Democrats’ attempts, Republicans blocked every single amendment request on the House floor.

O’Donnell also took a moment to blast some of the GOP members who have capitulated to Trump’s demands including Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin who said, “we’re not a bunch of little bitches” for giving up all his prior objections to the bill. 

“OK. No one said you were,” O’Donnell said as he called Van Orden’s defense “breathtakingly pathetic.” “I mean, we’ve said negative things about what you’re voting for and what you’re willing to do, and many of us have said negative things about the cruelty that you’re willing to inflict on people here and around the world. But ‘little bitches’ is your term, Congressman Derrick Van Orden—not mine.”

You can watch the full “The Last Word” segment in the video above.

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