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At a rally in scorching Las Vegas on June 9, Donald Trump pointed out one of his followers in the crowd — a particularly fervent Trump fan nicknamed “Front-Row Joe” who’d attended over 200 such events. “It would be suicide before Biden, right?” Trump asked him.

The remark instantly evoked one of the most shocking and tragic instances of cult mind-control — that of Reverend Jim Jones, a preacher who on Nov. 18, 1978, coerced 909 members of his Peoples Temple compound in Guyana to take fatal doses of cyanide-tainted Flavor Aid, killing them all. It’s now believed many did so against their will and at gunpoint.

Not 24 hours earlier, Jones had dispatched gunmen to an airstrip to assassinate U.S. Rep Leo Ryan, from whose San Francisco district most Temple members had come. Ryan flew there on a mission to investigate reports of coercion and sex abuse at Jonestown. Five people were murdered on the runway that day,...

Revisit the tragic and infamous Jonestown massacre in the new trailer for an upcoming docuseries that examines the final hours of Jim Jones’ cult in Guyana.

Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown — the latest installment in Nat Geo and Hulu’s One Day in America franchise — features rare archival footage as well as interviews from witnesses and survivors to explore the downfall of the utopian community turned militarized cult and the group’s final descent to murder and mass suicide that left 918 dead in November 1978.

“There’s not a day...

A group congressional Democrats are calling for the censure of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for posting a bizarre animated video that depicted himself violently attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-n.Y.) and President Biden.

“For a member of Congress to post a manipulated video on his social media accounts depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden is a clear cut case for censure,” the members said in a statement announcing their intent to introduce a censure resolution. “For that Member to post such a video on his official...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is imploring Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring to the floor a bill that would transform the way sexual assault and other major crimes are handled within the military.

Gillibrand has been working across the aisle to garner support for the bill, which currently has 64 cosponsors, including Republican Senators Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley, and Ted Cruz. That is enough support to bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate, but first, the bill has to come to the floor — a decision that rests with Schumer.

“I...

Update, 3:00 Pm Pt: Impeachment took on a solemn, ceremonial tone as the seven House impeachment managers walked to the Senate side of the Capitol to deliver the articles of impeachment.

Save for the clatter of cameras, the corridors of the Capitol were silent as House Clerk Cheryl Johnson and House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving led Rep. Adam Schiff (D-ca) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-ny) and the five other managers to the Senate chamber. The procession had an 18th century formality to it, arcane in that it has happened so few times in American history.

A number of reporters recalled being present for a similar ceremony 21 years ago, when it was Republicans delivering articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

“So sad, so tragic for our country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said moments earlier, before she sat at a desk labeled with the hashtag #defendourdemocracy and signed the articles...

As 2019 year comes to a close, let us harken back and remember some of the greatest gifts we’ve been given this year: memes. There was Alexei and his beloved Slurpee from Season 3 of “Stranger Things” (may he rest in peace), the “When the ‘Succession’ Theme Song Hits” meme of Kermit the Frog dancing, Marie Kondo instructing us to trash absolutely anything that “doesn’t spark joy” and so many more. Let’s take a pause to remember the TV memes that got us through the year 2019.

When the “Succession” Theme Song Hits

This may be the most meme-able theme song of the year. It has been paired everything from a gif of Kermit the Frog dancing to a video of a doggie-dj getting the aux chord at a party — it’s even been Nintendo-fied. The long and the short of it is — this theme song just absolutely slaps.

In early August, a whistleblower within the national intelligence community filed a complaint in which he or she expressed concern over the apparent efforts of President Trump to pressure a foreign nation into investigating one of his chief political opponents. That complaint was finally provided to the House Intelligence Committee this week. On Thursday morning, it was released to the public, right around the time acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee. At the center of Maguire’s testimony was the question of why...

The broadcast and cable networks gave a glimpse of what is in store for the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, as they devoted live coverage of Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

Maguire’s testimony was not part of an impeachment hearing per se, but it centered on the whistleblower who sounded the alarm over Trump’s alleged conduct and the White House efforts afterward to conceal it.

Just minutes before the hearing was set to begin, the House Intelligence Committee released the actual complaint itself, revealing that the whistleblower had “information from multiple U.S. government officials that the president of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president’s main domestic political rivals.

Attorney General William Barr released a statement on Saturday, announcing that both the FBI and Office of Inspector General will open investigations into the apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who was in jail facing charges of federal sex trafficking.

Barr’s statement read: “I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody. Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered. In addition to the FBI’s investigation, I have consulted with...

Ben Stiller reprised his role as Michael Cohen for the Mar. 2 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” in which the late-night NBC sketch comedy series addressed the Congressional hearings of Donald Trump’s former lawyer. Former “SNL” player Bill Hader also dropped by to play Ohio’s representative, Jim Jordan.

“For any other president, this hearing would be the most damning and humiliating moment of their lives. But for Trump it’s just Wednesday,” said Elijah Cummings, as played by Kenan Thompson, leading into the hearings.

Stiller as Cohen said that “if it pleases the court” he would like to read a prepared statement he wrote, to which Thompson as Cummings reminded him this was not a court.

“I had some help from the guys who wrote ‘Green Book,'” Stiller as Cohen said to begin. “Thank you for inviting me here today to correct the record under oath. Of course,...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is under fire from a Democratic congresswoman who raised conflict of interest allegations in his sale of his stake in the RatPac-Dune Entertainment company, which held minority interests in such movies as Wonder Woman, Gravity, Batman v Superman, The Lego Movie and Creed.

Rep. Jackie Speier of California claimed Mnuchin sold his stake in RatPac-Dune to Len Blavatnik, and therefore should have been disqualified from the Treasury decision late last year to lift sanctions on another business associate of Blavatnik.

Treasury sent a letter to Speier on Wednesday denying that Mnuchin sold his holdings in RatPac-Dune to Blavatnik, claiming he instead sold his stake to an unrelated third party.

“To be clear, the Secretary did not sell his stake in Rpde (RatPac-Dune) to Mr. Blavatnik or his companies,” according to the Treasury letter, written by Jennifer Bang, deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs. “The Secretary...

Update, with video When a call for impeachment rivals a four-letter word for news coverage, which one takes, literally, the lead?

Welcome to the first Friday of the new year.

First, the president. Donald Trump didn’t refer to freshman Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib by name, but he seems to have cleared some mind-room for the frank-talking impeachment-demanding newcomer.

Trump tweeted this morning, “How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong…” (My truncated version stops just before the inevitable and unsurprising “no collusion” stuff).

Trump’s early morning protesting-too-much likely was prompted by media accounts of last night’s four-letter rallying call from Tlaib, who calls herself an “Unbossed Congresswoman” from Michigan. At a MoveOn reception last night, she said, “We’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf*cker.” Watch the video below.

On the morning cable programs,...

Roughly 900 corpses lay before the Guyanese state pathologist Dr. Leslie Mootoo, one of the first on the scene at Jonestown. Arrayed in strangely uniform rows on the ground, the bodies were rapidly decomposing, thanks to tropical heat, a rainstorm and swarms of animals and insects. Some were so lost to putrefaction that the U.S. military clean-up crew used snow shovels to pick them up, and wore facemasks to block the stench.

“Mootoo was called to a scene for which there was absolutely no precedent. They were completely overwhelmed with the crime scene they found.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier wants to make sure that victims of sexual misconduct are not forgotten when President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union speech on Jan. 30.

The California Democrat who started the #MeTooCongress hashtag is urging her colleagues — male and female — to wear black to Trump’s speech in the Capitol’s House chamber in a demonstration of “solidarity w/survivors of sexual harassment/violence in Hollywood, politics, the military, academia, etc.”

In addition to the #MeToo hashtag, Speier also tagged the post #Timesup, referring to a legal defense fund set up to help combat sexual assault,...

A day after New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called for Trump to resign and that Congress should investigate the “multiple sexual harassment and assault allegations against him,” Trump sent a suggestive tweet that she would come to his office “begging” for campaign contributions “and would do anything” to get them.

“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-used!”

The tweet prompted an instant...

Morning Exclusive: Leeann Tweeden opens up about the photo and alleged sexual misconduct from Sen. Al Franken: https://t.co/jGJ0mfxdGD pic.twitter.com/as0nPPE584

— Good Morning America (@Gma) November 17, 2017

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Leeann Tweeden, the woman who spoke out Thursday to accuse Al Franken of kissing and groping her in 2006 without her consent, said Friday morning that she is not asking for the Minnesota Senator to be removed from office.

Tweeden, a TV host and sports broadcaster, sat down with ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday where she revealed to co-anchor Robin Roberts...

[[tmz:video id="0_ufzrzv4f"]] Congresswoman Katherine Clark wants to go a step further than some other members of Congress ... she wants the names of her colleagues who are sexually harassing people exposed. We got the Massachusetts Democrat on Capitol Hill Wednesday ... and she wants to take things a step further than Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who said earlier this week there was a Democratic and a Republican currently in Congress ... both of whom are sexual harassers, but she didn't name them.

Sen. Claire McCaskill says that when she was a political intern in the mid-1970s she used to avoid elevators for fear of being sexually harassed in the confined spaces.

“When I was an intern I learned to avoid elevators, because elevators were when you were captured,” McCaskill told NBC News. “After one unfortunate incident in the elevator, I began taking the stairs everywhere I went in the state Capitol when I was there as a college student.”

The comments come one day after McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, revealed to reporters that she was sexually harassed “more than once...

[[tmz:video id="0_h7g44len"]] Congresswoman Jackie Speier says it didn't take Harvey Weinstein to focus her on sexual harassment in D.C. ... but she's still playing her cards close to her vest. We got the California Representative Tuesday on Capitol Hill, after she announced she knows of sitting members of Congress who have sexually harassed staffers. Speier, who says she's been working on new rules on the subject since 2014, went so far as to say some of the alleged...

One current and three former female lawmakers have come forward to allege that they’ve been subject to harassment by their fellow members of Congress — including hostile sexual comments, repeated unwanted advances and even inappropriate touching on the House floor.

Former Gop Rep. Mary Bono of Ohio, who served 15 years before being defeated in 2012, is one of the four women who shared stories of alleged misconduct with the Associated Press.

Bono alleges one male colleague repeatedly harassed her, and one time even told her on the House floor that he’d been thinking about her in the shower.

Bono declined to identify the lawmaker,...

Outside of the Nevada delegation and recent gun violence victim Rep. Steve Scalise (R-la), it's possible that the Las Vegas shooting massacre has not hit home as hard for anyone in Congress as Rep. Jackie Speier (D-ca).

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

(Washington) — The House intelligence committee chairman privately apologized to his Democratic colleagues on Thursday, yet publicly defended his decision to openly discuss and brief President Donald Trump on typically secret intercepts that he says swept up communications of the president’s transition team.

Gop Rep. Devin Nunes’ decision to disclose the information before talking to committee members outraged Democrats and raised questions about the independence of the panel’s probe of Russian interference into the 2016 election and possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia.

“It was a judgment call on my part,” Rep. Devin Nunes,...

Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier (D-ca), a vocal proponent of stiff gun laws stemming from having been shot multiple times herself in Jonestown in 1978, appeared on MSNBC to express her frustration with the slow pace Congress has taken in enacting new gun laws in the wake of the Newtown massacre. Rather than attack her Republican colleagues for opposing gun laws, Speier lashed out at the design of the Constitution which she called a system "orchestrated to protect the cowards.