Late Night Braces for the Reign of R.F.K. Jr., Health Czar
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.
Bobby Brainworm
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Robert Kennedy Jr., known to late night viewers for his vaccine skepticism and strange encounters with animals, as the secretary of health and human services. Jimmy Kimmel urged Americans not to worry about the rise of measles now that 'Bobby Brainworm is on the job.'
'Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to vote no. Mitch McConnell is 82 years old. He survived polio as a kid, and thanks to R.F.K. Jr, polio might get another run at him.' — JIMMY KIMMEL
After being confirmed, Kennedy Jr. proceeded to the Oval Office 'to be sworn in and to suck up,' Kimmel said. The new head of health and human services described President Trump as a 'man on a white horse' sent by God.
'Next, God is going to send us diphtheria.' — JIMMY KIMMEL
'Melania couldn't turn him on like that the first night they met. But happy Valentine's Day to Don and Bob.' — JIMMY KIMMEL
The Punchiest Punchlines (OMG Edition)
'The Senate today confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services. He was actually Trump's second choice, but the Wuhan bat withdrew his nomination.' — SETH MEYERS
'R.F.K. Jr. is now in charge of the F.D.A., N.I.H. and C.D.C., to which Americans said, 'OMG,' 'WTF' and 'FML.'' — JIMMY FALLON
'They said it couldn't be done. Excuse me, they said it shouldn't be done.' — JORDAN KLEPPER
'But now it has happened, so you can now add 'employment' to the list of things he's tested positive for.' — JORDAN KLEPPER
The Bits Worth Watching
The filmmaker Brady Corbet discussed his Oscar-nominated move 'The Brutalist' on 'The Daily Show.'
Also, Check This Out
Questlove details Sly Stone's life, career and musical legacy in a new documentary, 'Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius).'
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44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Eyes on Senate Republicans as Trump and Musk feud over tax and spend bill
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While the Senate's Republican leaders have shown no indication that they share Musk's concerns, they are eyeing changes to some aspects of the measure that were the result of hard-fought negotiations in the House, and could throw its prospects into jeopardy. One issue that has reappeared is the deductibility of state and local tax (Salt) payments, which the tax bill passed under Trump in 2017 limited to $10,000 per household. House Republicans representing districts in Democratic-run states that have higher tax burdens managed to get a provision increasing the deduction to $40,000 into the One, Big Beautiful Bill act. But there are almost no Republican senators representing blue states. After meeting with Trump on Wednesday, Thune indicated his lawmakers were not inclined to keep that provision as they negotiate the bill. 'We also start from a position that there really isn't a single Republican senator who cares much about the Salt issue,' he said. 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'He seems pretty dug in right now, and I can't quite understand the motivation behind it,' the speaker added. Later in the day, Johnson told reporters at the Capitol that the call did not take place, but that the disagreement 'isn't personal'. On X, Musk publicly questioned Johnson's resolve to cut government spending, prompting the speaker to reply that he 'has always been a lifelong fiscal hawk'. While the Tesla CEO has focused his complaints on the price tag of the bill, Trump accused him of turning against it because of provisions revoking incentives for consumers to purchase electric vehicles. The president began by saying he was 'very disappointed' by the former adviser's opposition to his top legislative priority, but the online insults escalated after Musk fired back that Trump would not have won election without his financial support. 'I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot,' Trump said, adding that 'he knew every aspect of this bill. 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Rubio imposes sanctions on four ICC judges for ‘targeting' US and Israel
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44 minutes ago
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Impeachment, Epstein and bitter acrimony: Trump and Musk joust in astonishing social media duel
Elon Musk called for Donald Trump's impeachment and mocked his connections to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as the US president threatened to cancel federal contracts and tax subsidies for Musk's companies, in an extraordinary social media feud that erupted between the former allies on Thursday. The deterioration of their once close relationship into bitter acrimony came over the course of several remarkable hours during which the president and the world's richest person hurled deeply personal insults over matters significant and insignificant. The direct shots at Trump were the latest twist in the public showdown over a Republican spending bill that Musk had criticized. Trump and Musk had been careful not to hit each other directly, but on Thursday the pair discarded restraint as the feud escalated on their respective social media platforms. In the most churlish moment of the astonishing saga, Musk said on X the reason the Trump administration had not released the files into Epstein was because they implicated the president. He later quote-tweeted a post calling for Trump to be removed and said Trump's tariffs would cause a recession. 'Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' Musk wrote, after Trump threatened to cut subsidies for Musk's companies as it would save 'billions'. Related: Trump says he is 'very disappointed' in Elon Musk after attacks on tax bill It was a bizarre drama that served to underscore the degree to which Trump and Musk's relationship has been one of mutual convenience, despite the White House claiming for months that they were simply ideologically aligned. It also caused the rightwing writer Ashley St Clair, who gave birth to Musk's 14th known child and sued Musk for child support, to weigh in. 'Let me know if u need any breakup advice,' she posted on X, tagging Trump. Shares in Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company, fell almost 15% on Thursday afternoon with the decline timed to when Trump's remarks began. Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, is not publicly traded, but competitors to SpaceX rose on the news. For weeks, Musk has complained about the budget bill, and used the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimating the bill would add $2.4tn to the deficit over the next decade as an opening to condemn the legislation as a 'disgusting abomination'. On Thursday, Trump appeared to finally have had enough of Musk's complaints. Speaking in the Oval Office as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, looked on in bemusement, Trump mocked Musk's recent black eye and questioned why he didn't cover it up. 'You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk. Even with a black eye. I said, do you want a little makeup? He said, no, I don't think so. Which is interesting,' Trump said. 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will any more.' Trump then ratcheted up his barbs against Musk, accusing him of turning against the bill solely out of self-interest, as the bill did not benefit Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company. Trump also pulled the nomination of Musk's preferred candidate to lead Nasa. 'I'm very disappointed with Elon,' Trump said. 'He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut the EV mandate.' Musk then went on the warpath. Within minutes of Trump's comments appearing in a clip on X, where Musk was responding in real time, Musk accused the president of lying about the bill, and accused Trump of being ungrateful for the millions he spent to get him elected. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk said in a post on X. He added: 'Such ingratitude.' Musk taking credit for Trump's election win initially threatened to be the touchpoint for their relationship, given Trump had made a point to say that Musk's contributions had no effect on him winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania. But then Trump posted on Truth Social that he had fired Musk from his role as a special adviser because he was 'wearing thin' at the White House, and Musk responded: 'Such an obvious lie. So sad.' Related: Elon Musk calls Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill a 'disgusting abomination' It was less than a half an hour later that Musk fired off his Epstein tweet, in effect accusing him of being part of an alleged child sexual abuse ring linked to Epstein, using a dog whistle for the Maga movement to try to set them against the president. In doing so, Musk ignored his own connections to Epstein. In 2014, like Trump, Musk was photographed at a party with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former Epstein girlfriend who was convicted in 2021 on charges that she helped the financier's sex-trafficking activities. The public feud comes after a remarkable partnership that lasted longer than many Democrats on Capitol Hill and in Trump's orbit predicted. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Trump's re-election campaign through his specially created America Pac, which shouldered a large portion of Trump's door-knocking campaign, although the actual impact of that ground-game effort is unclear.
