Who Hyped Beyoncé at the DNC? Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Whodunnit then? Who was the original Beyoncé hypeman? Who got the party started by claiming there would be a live rendition of Freedom.

DNC chairman Jaime Harrison and convention chair Minyon Moore didn’t tamp the speculation down in interviews on Tuesday. “Texas Hold’ Em” rang through the convention hall.

A DNC official wouldn’t deny an appearance to the Daily Beast on Thursday, and two outlets—The Hill and TMZ—even reported it was happening.

Hours and hours went by before The Hollywood Reporter ripped the band-aid off: she wasn’t coming. TMZ admitted on X they got the story wrong, and The Hill’s article link now leads to a 404 page.

Sorry to All The Single (Cat) Ladies

At Crooked Media and Cari and Michael Sacks’ afterparty at The Salt Shed, attendees munched burrata and miso-mushroom deep-dish pizza (Daily Beast Rating: 6/10, though any pizza was better than the one at the CNN-Politico Grill) and bopped to Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan songs as they commiserated about the lack of Beyoncé. That’s as they waited for an actual promised musical guest—Brandi Carlile. (Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker came out to introduce her, two days after his Tuesday shindig there with John Legend. Guess he can’t get enough of the place.)

“I was looking for a big reveal, like, ‘who’s it gonna be,’” said Anthony Polcari, the 25-year-old consultant better known as Tony P who popped off in political circles earlier this year for documenting being a 25-year-old bachelor in DC. (Low bar in the capital, apparently.)

Others felt like the DNC should’ve said something long before the VP graced the stage. “They should’ve clarified it sooner,” comedian Matt Friend said close to the Salt Shed’s bar.

He compared it to putting on his stand-up show. “If I’m an entertainer, I wanna know what’s going on with my show,” he said, before joking in his Donald Trump impression that the Daily Beast could twist his words. (Matt, you’re our contributor, how could we? And maybe you could have done Beyoncé yourself?)

Deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, donning the signature camo Harris-Walz hat, didn’t want to chat about anything as he sipped on his drink at the Crooked party.

Crazy In Love (With Gus)

Gwen Walz headlined a Women for Harris-Walz fundraising brunch at Chicago’s colorful Carnivale Thursday afternoon—but it was her children who got the loudest cheers. Hundreds of women applauded as the Minnesota first lady called Hope out from backstage. But they clapped even louder when she mentioned her neurodiverse son, Gus, 17, whose emotional reaction to his dad’s speech the night before had prompted an attack by Ann Coulter among others.

“I will tell him that he got a lot of cheers and he will ask me, ‘More than Hope?’” Walz predicted. “I’ll say, ‘It was equal!”

Wearing a neon yellow off-the-shoulder gown, Ana Navarro started a chant of “We love Gus!” as the Minnesota first lady nodded along. Walz’s mic had apparently been cut, but she mouthed, “Thank you.” Navarro’ wasn’t holding her dog ChaCha, though the pup had been in the political commentator’s arms not long before, not one to miss a “brunch of badass b-----s.”

In the crowd, celebrities like Uma Thurman mingled with political content creators. Author Glennon Doyle and her wife, soccer player Abby Wambach, snapped photos with attendees.

Model and TV host Padma Lakshmi had some choice words about Trump’s attacks on immigrants. “Has he forgotten who built this country?” she asked. “Or that his grandfather and two out of his three wives are immigrants? Such a d---. I’m not running for office, I can say it, but we’re all thinking it.”

More than a dozen female members of Congress showed up, including Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, the loudly-cheered California Rep. Maxine Waters, and Florida Rep. Lois Frankel, who joked, “We love cats.”

Attendees noshed on pork belly arepas, veggie breakfast tortas, and chocolate-covered bacon. They drank Madam Chiefs (blood orange juice, Ketel One Peach & Orange Blossom vodka, and a blood orange garnish) and Waltz Spritzes (rose, grapefruit, and ginger beer).

Ring the Alarm All Night

The place to be after the gavel for young progressives was the House of Blues, where Voto Latino held its El Party Thursday night. Common performed and was joined briefly by Rosario Dawson.

Later, Cimafunk took the stage. Joining him on the drums was Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z member of Congress, while the friends he was partying with, including activist and influencer Deja Foxx, joined him on stage to dance.

Also in the crowd were Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and one-time presidential candidate Julián Castro and his identical twin Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, and Texas Rep. Greg Casar.

The event’s signature drinks were the Sol (coconut rum, cranberry, and pineapple) and the Luna (tequila, triple sec, sour.) (Daily Beast Rating: Sol, 7/10, Luna, skipped.) In addition to a buffet that was closing down when the Daily Beast arrived, waiters carried trays of desserts and miniature slices of pizza. (Daily Beast Rating: Pizza, 10/10.)

Guests were still trying to get in when the doors closed at 2 a.m.

I Was Here

Cornel West, on the United Center’s media row as a guest of talk show host Tavis Smiley. West said he thought it was “a beautiful thing to see people excited,” but “if it doesn't have any deep, deep moral and spiritual quality to it, then it becomes a little bit too superficial.”

What does he think of RFK Jr. ending his third-party run? “I hear brother Kennedy might be supporting brother Trump,” West said. “That's sick, that's ridiculous, but that's his choice. People have a right to choose.”

Ex-CNN DC Bureau Chief and incoming C-SPAN head Sam Feist chatting with ex-C-SPAN honcho Steve Scully.

Wolf Blitzer, sans a Wolf Spritzer, munching on Chicago staple Homer’s vanilla ice cream (he said it was great).

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell grabbing dinner around 6:30 p.m CST alongside her two daughters, who were attending their first convention. She kindly opted not to chat about Katie Couric’s Times op-ed that torched her network for removing her from the Evening News and replacing her with three men.

Retired Chicago Bulls player Joakim Noah, taking selfies with fans and wearing a suit in his home team’s colors.

Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan scarfing down nachos as he raved to the Daily Beast about Gov. Walz. “It’s like the anti-Vance, right? Vance is like—the little eye-make-up and all this stuff—you couldn’t be more out-of-touch with anyone in Wisconsin and he couldn’t be more in-touch.”

I Miss You

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who never made it out to Chicago to watch the Democratic Party leave Biden behind. That also meant he didn’t get to end—or pursue—his feud with Pod Save America’s Tommy Vietor, who lashed out at Scarborough after the host kept trying to prop Biden up last month.

Vietor told the Daily Beast he holds no grudge.

“I don’t know Joe personally, I don’t mean anything against him,” he said. “He has a relationship with Joe Biden. Politics is personal. I understand where he’s coming from. We weren’t trying to make it personal, it’s just about the future of the country.”

Get Me Bodied

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy confronted CNN’s Van Jones backstage at the DNC Thursday, alleging he received death threats after Jones called the CEO-turned-presidential-hopeful a “demagogue.”

“For the first time in the campaign, we get a death threat of a man who wants to show up in New Hampshire," Ramaswamy said. “Thankfully, the police got him.” The following day, he added, security personnel allegedly informed Ramaswamy that an individual showed up to his house with “four dead bodies.”

In Dec. 2023, following Ramaswamy’s appearance at the fourth GOP primary debate, Jones said “You’re watching the rise of an American demagogue that is a very, very despicable person.” The former presidential candidate initially reacted to Jones’ quip by telling him to “just shut the f--- up.”

The CNN commentator apologized for his comments during the DNC face off to which Ramaswamy responded, “I hope we can build a friendship. I really mean that.”