House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi gave the longest continuous speech in House history on Wednesday—clocking in at eight hours and seven minutes—in support of Dreamers, whose futures were not addressed in the bipartisan budget deal recently negotiated in the Senate. Pelosi, 77, did not sit or take a bathroom break,…
Outgoing Republican Senator Jeff Flake gave another speech on the Senate floor today denouncing his party’s president, elaborating on the same “daily sundering of our country” he mentioned last time. A day after a similar op-ed by his colleague John McCain ran in the Washington Post, Flake defended the free press…
Welcome to another episode of “Donald, Jared, and Donald’s Company Lawyer Bring Peace to the Middle East With No Trouble Whatsoever.” Today, Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced plans to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv, fulfilling a campaign pledge at the cost of…
As he announced he would be doing in January, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi skipped this year’s Academy Awards ceremony to protest Trump’s disaster of a travel ban. Farhadi’s brilliant A Separation won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2012, and tonight his The Salesman won in that same category.
Laura Dean worked as a speechwriter for President Barack Obama from 2011 to 2014. We asked her to annotate Donald Trump’s vague, dark inauguration speech.
Just three months after receiving her first Emmy for her work on ABC’s Black-ish, Tracee Ellis Ross has received her first Golden Globe. After nearly two decades appearing on television (she starred in BET’s highly successful Girlfriends for eight years), it’s about time.
Tonight, at Hillary Clinton’s rally in Philadelphia, Michelle Obama brought down the house as she called for Americans to head to the polls and cast their votes for the nation’s first female president.
While accepting a Trailblazer honor at Outfest’s Legacy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles, Sean Hayes, best known for his portrayal of the endearingly effete Jack on Will & Grace, expressed regret for not having come out sooner. Hayes came out publicly in an Advocate profile in 2010, when he was 39—almost four years…
On Tuesday morning, Vice President Joe Biden gave a long—very long— speech about sexual violence at the United State of Women Summit in Washington, D.C. So long did Joe Biden take to rail against the abuse of power baked into our patriarchal system, in fact, that MSNBC’s Irin Carmon reported via Twitter that the rest…
In what might have been her strongest speech of the campaign, Hillary Clinton made a compelling case against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon. “I believe that the person the Republicans have nominated for President cannot do the job,” Clinton said in the foreign policy-focused speech.…
This is just a theory, but it’s also absolutely correct and pretty much inarguable: Bernie Sanders ran for president so that he could turn several hours of talking about democratic socialism into a news event. Proof: Bernie Sanders spent a little over an hour Thursday making a speech about Democratic socialism, and…
Donald Trump gave a speech in Dallas Monday night, and he was very, very proud not to be using a teleprompter. And he should be! It worked out great! In that we have the broadest, vaguest sense of what he was trying to say. Generally.
Yesterday, actress, writer and showrunner Mindy Kaling gave a speech to Harvard Law School graduates at Harvard Class Day. Unsurprisingly, it was funny, charming, thoughtful and a great way to get fictional grad real life law professor Noah Feldman to finally notice her.
Philip Seymour Hoffman thanking his mom at the 78th Academy Awards was incredibly endearing. You'll notice that this clip, however, features another actor who died way before his time: Heath Ledger, who would've probably won the Oscar if Hoffman wasn't so amazing as Truman Capote.
Cate Blanchett won a SAG award last night (hooray!) for her performance as Blanche DuBois in Woody Allen Movie No. 463. She was understandably thrilled about winning, but not so thrilled about getting the hurry-it-along music after 29 seconds, especially since America's stoned older cousin who made us all watch A…
Okay, I want everyone to shout out the most exciting part of the Academy Awards on the count of three. 1...2...3...THE SPEECHES. What?! That is so crazy how we all shouted the exact same thing, but, on second thought, maybe it's not so crazy after all. I mean who doesn't like listening to a bunch of millionaires…
OK, we need to walk through what just happened. I think it was Jodie Foster refusing to come out as she came out, and then retiring. I think? I was crying, but I wasn't sure why, and then I was laughing, but I wasn't sure why. I think maybe Jodie Foster felt the same way. Also, she was possibly kinda drunk.
Here's a commencement speech by David McCullough Jr., an English teacher at a Massachusetts high school, who took the opportunity to remind his graduating seniors that they are, in fact, not at all special. "Climb the mountain not to plant your flag," he says. "But to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold…
Your gay BFF President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address at the all-women's Barnard College today. During his speech, he encouraged the Class of 2012 to focus on their own personal improvement rather than the "beauty and fashion" obsessed pop culture that surrounds them, but added an important caveat:…
Even if you're not, say, the President of the United States, you may well be called upon at some point to give a speech or presentation before an audience. This can be super-stressful! Luckily, we've assembled some tips to help you wow anyone and everyone.
