The Iconic Moment Sinéad O’Connor Was Banned From SNL for Calling Out the Pope

Sinéad O’Connor, the world-renowned Irish singer and songwriter, has died at the age of 56.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad,” her family said in a statement Wednesday. “Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”

No cause of death was disclosed. The news of her passing has set off a wave of tributes for the artist known not just for her rebellious anthems but for her political activism.

Perhaps her most iconic moment was in 1992, on Saturday Night Live. O’Connor, who was raised Catholic, was performing a version of Bob Marley’s “War.” She changed some of the lyrics to reference child abuse and then held up a picture of Pope John Paul II as she reached the final line: “We have confidence in the victory of good over evil.”

Then she ripped up the photo and said, simply, “Fight the real enemy.”

She later explained that she was criticizing pedophilia in the Catholic Church. SNL banned her.

“I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she told The New York Times in 2021. “But it was very traumatizing. It was open season on treating me like a crazy bitch.”

“It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a type of prison,” she added. “You have to be a good girl.”

O’Connor was vocal on many other issues. She refused to attend the 1991 Grammy Awards or even accept her win for Best Alternative Music Performance. Instead, she wrote an open letter to the Recording Academy in which she criticized the awards for being based on “false and destructive materialistic values” rather than actual artistic merit.

Two years before that, during a performance at the Grammys, she painted Public Enemy’s target logo on her head, in solidarity with the hip-hop group and other Black artists who were being ignored by the Recording Academy.

O’Connor’s debut album, 1987’s The Lion and the Cobra, was an  international success. But her next album in 1990, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which featured the hit song “Nothing Compares 2 U,” turned her into a global sensation.

O’Connor’s teenage son Shane died by suicide last year. She is survived by her three other children: Jake, Roisin, and Yeshua.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was escorted away from the cameras during a news conference Wednesday, after he froze and appeared unable to continue speaking.

McConnell began the press conference but soon trailed off mid-sentence and stood frozen at the podium. Eventually, Senator Joni Ernst put her hand on McConnell’s shoulder and asked, “Are you good? Mitch?”

Senator John Barrasso also approached and quietly asked, “Are you OK, Mitch? Anything else you want to say, or should we just go back to your office?”

McConnell did not respond verbally, only turning and walking off to the side. Senator John Thune then stepped up to the podium to continue the briefing.

When McConnell returned to the podium a little later, CNN reporter Manu Raju asked him if his freezing up was “related to your injury from earlier this year, when you suffered a concussion?”

“No, I’m fine,” McConnell replied.

Raju was referring to March 8, when McConnell tripped and fell after an event in Washington. He was hospitalized with a concussion and discharged on March 13. McConnell then spent more than a week in a physical rehabilitation facility.

If his freezing up is related to that injury, then that’s perfectly normal. McConnell is 81 years old and suffered terrible physical harm—and his injury is common for many older Americans. It’s understandable that he might still be dealing with negative effects.

What is not understandable is his apparent decision to cling to power after suffering incapacitating physical harm. When asked during the press conference by The New Republic’s Pablo Manríquez whether he had someone in mind to replace him if (let’s be real, when) he steps down as Republican leader, McConnell glared, then smiled and walked away.

The situation is starting to look like that of Dianne Feinstein, who has refused to step down despite growing concerns that she is no longer mentally capable of governing. Both politicians are looking less and less able to keep up with the demands of their job—again, understandable!—but simply cannot bring themselves to walk away.

Republicans on Wednesday are eagerly celebrating the last-minute collapse of Hunter Biden’s plea deal on tax evasion.

Biden agreed in June with Delaware federal prosecutors that he would plead guilty to two misdemeanors of tax evasion and admit to a gun violation. Under the terms, he would likely avoid jail if he stayed drug-free for two years. Since the announcement of the plea agreement, Republicans have complained that the deal is too soft.

Biden arrived at the Wilmington, Delaware, courthouse Wednesday to formally plead guilty, but Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to accept the plea deal, saying that she would not “just rubber-stamp the agreement.”

As a result, Hunter Biden is pleading not guilty for the time being to the two tax misdemeanor charges.

The plea deal has not been outright rejected, but Noreika asked both sides to file additional briefs to further explain the agreement’s legal structure.

Still, Republicans have been quick to celebrate Biden’s downfall. “His attorneys shouldn’t have lied to the clerk of the court,” tweeted Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is so desperate to prove Biden committed tax fraud that she waved his nude photos around a congressional hearing.

Representative Mayra Flores tweeted simply:

Others on the right accused the entire Biden family of acting as foreign agents and failing to register as such under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. “The Biden Family cannot take CASH & DIAMONDS from China, Russia, and Ukraine without registering as foreign agents under FARA!” tweeted Representative Mary Miller.

Right-wing influencers like Jack Posobiec, Ian Miles Cheong, and Catturd all also celebrated the collapse of the deal.

This story has been updated.

When he’s not working to endanger national security, Tommy Tuberville is apparently lying about details of his dad’s military record.

The Alabama Republican has long praised his father’s record serving in World War II. But a new analysis by The Washington Post shows that the Senator may have made false claims about the extent of his father’s service.

Tuberville says his father lied about his birthday to enlist at age 16 and then went on to become a tank commander who earned five Bronze Stars, landed at Normandy Beach on D-Day, and drove a tank through Paris when U.S. forces freed the city from Nazi control. While there is no question that Tuberville’s father served in WWII, it is unlikely—and in some cases impossible—that he achieved everything else Tuberville brags about.

Charles Tuberville was born on July 16, 1925. His draft registration card shows he submitted it on July 16, 1943—his eighteenth birthday. His tombstone lists his highest rank as technician fifth grade (TEC 5). This rank indicates technical skills, not combat leadership. He reportedly was only a corporal, not a sergeant (the minimum rank to be a tank commander). While it is possible he could have filled in for a tank commander, it is unlikely that he was regularly in that position.

Charles Tuberville also did not earn five Bronze Stars. No after-action reports mention that he earned the award given for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service” in combat, nor is it mentioned on his tombstone or in his widow’s obituary. A photo of him shows that he earned five Bronze Service Stars, which show that a soldier was physically present during a particular military campaign.

It is also impossible for Charles Tuberville to have driven a tank through Paris on the day it was liberated. After-action reports for his tank battalion show they were about 90 miles away from the city at the time.

While it is possible that Charles Tuberville participated in D-Day, it’s unclear whether he actually did. He is only reported to have been overseas starting the day after D-Day, something that Tommy Tuberville has said himself.

It’s not surprising that Tommy Tuberville misrepresented parts of his father’s service record, because it makes the senator look more heroic by association. It also helps distract from his ongoing efforts to wreck the military’s readiness.

Tuberville has blocked hundreds of military promotions since March, in objection to the Defense Department’s policy of reimbursing travel costs for service members who need to travel for an abortion. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has warned that Tuberville’s blockade “harms America’s national security” and poses a “clear risk” to the military’s readiness.

Tuberville has actually done very little to support the military, despite his purported passion for the institution. During his campaign for Senate, Tuberville promised to donate “every dime I make when I’m in Washington, D.C.” to veterans in his home state. He has yet to do so.

He has also said that white nationalists are not racist and should be allowed to serve in the military, despite the fact that the very definition of white nationalism involves being racist and the Department of Defense has made great efforts to eradicate extremism from the ranks.

Before Vivek Ramaswamy wanted to become president of the United States, he wanted to become … a libertarian rapper.

Politico reported Wednesday that Ramaswamy, while an undergrad student at Harvard, had a side gig as “a libertarian-minded rap artist who went by the stage name ‘Da Vek.’”

The “anti-woke” candidate was especially inspired by Eminem, whose hit song “Lose Yourself” came out in 2002, just before Ramaswamy started at Harvard.

A friend provided footage of Ramaswamy’s performance of the song—and it is almost as bad as his presidential campaign.

Ramaswamy appears out of breath and raps offbeat for much of the cringey clip, which you can watch for yourself here, if you dare:

Ramaswamy regularly performed at Harvard open mics, and frequently chose to sing “Lose Yourself.” He also often tried out lyrics with “libertarian themes” in his performances.

“I saw myself, honestly, making it big through American capitalism, and that’s why the Eminem story spoke to me,” Ramaswamy told Politico.

He described finding inspiration in Eminem’s success, given his background.

“He’s growing up in the trailers, with a single mom, and he wants to make it. He’s going to use the moment to do it. He feels like he’s going to use the moment to do it, he seizes it and then he makes it happen, and I thought it was a pretty cool story,” said Ramaswamy, who is of Indian descent.

“I didn’t grow up in a trailer,” he added, “but I also didn’t grow up in the same circumstances that most of my peers at Harvard did, either. I aspired to achieve what many of their parents did. It kind of spoke to me, I would say.”

Ramaswamy conveniently ignored that Eminem has railed against Donald Trump’s politics, racism, and general morals. In a 2017 freestyle rap, Eminem made his views quite clear:

The rest of America stand up,

We love our military, and we love our country,

But we f---ing hate Trump.

Ramaswamy instead has gone in the opposite direction from his role model, sucking up to Trump every chance he gets, even while running against him. Ramaswamy has promised to pardon his 2024 rival and dismissed Trump’s encouragement of the January 6 attack as “not a crime.”