Latest updates and results as millions across the US cast votes in what is largely seen as a referendum on Biden’s presidency
The Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, Kari Lake, told reporters earlier she will be their “worst fricking nightmare for eight years” if she defeats the Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Lake has been talked up as a running mate for Donald Trump in his widely expected run for the Republican presidential nomination.
Continue reading...Victory overturns a Republican-held Senate seat and increases his party’s chances of retaining control of chamber
The Democratic party received a huge boost in Pennsylvania in the early hours of Wednesday morning, when John Fetterman won the state’s US Senate race to increase his party’s chances of retaining control of the chamber.
Fetterman was declared the winner over Mehmet Oz, the Republican celebrity doctor, six hours after the polls closed, overturning a Republican-held Senate seat to bolster Democrats’ chances of retaining the chamber.
Continue reading...Millions across the country vote while Florida state department tells DoJ that federal election monitors won’t be permitted
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and host of the podcast America Explained, and he writes for the Guardian today to argue that the future of American democracy is at stake in the midterm elections:
Never before in American history has there been an organized movement which was only one vote away from having the motivation and opportunity to make that election America’s last. Never that is, until now. Today’s anti-democratic movement is propelled not by genuine controversy or scandal, but rather by their commitment to ending competitive elections in the United States. There is no other way to interpret their belief that only one side, the Republicans, can legitimately be considered to win, and the plans that they hold to make this belief a reality.
Continue reading...In less than an hour, Twitter employees expect official notification of whether or not they will keep their jobs under Elon Musk’s ownership.
A bloodbath is expected, and Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco has been closed today while the news is delivered and employees digest their fates, or, as Musk may prefer, let the news “sink in”.
Continue reading...In Pennsylvania, Chris McGreal reports that a major pro-Israel group is facing criticism for backing Republicans who denied the 2020 election, but not a Democratic candidate who would make history if elected:
More than 240 Jewish American voters in Pittsburgh have signed a letter denouncing the US’s largest pro-Israel group for backing extremist Republican election candidates while spending millions of dollars to oppose a Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress.
Continue reading...The president speaks against election deniers running for office, saying they are leading a path to ‘chaos in America’
Donald Trump’s lawyers tailored their petition specifically to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas for reasons both practical and symbolic, Politico reports.
Thomas is well known for his conservative jurisprudence, but Politico notes he is also the justice responsible for handling emergency filings out of Georgia – which means he would get the Trump legal team’s petition about its election conduct, Politico says.
Continue reading...Don Bolduc, who is running in New Hampshire against Democrat Maggie Hassan, spreads anti-trans rightwing trope
A New Hampshire school has rebuked the Republican US Senate candidate Don Bolduc for claiming schoolchildren were identifying as “furries and fuzzies” in classrooms, using litter trays and licking themselves and each other.
“I wish I was making it up,” Bolduc, a retired special forces general, said last week.
Continue reading...Dire warnings after hammer assault on speaker’s husband and amid concern that security does not adequately reflect threats
Democratic politicians have ramped up their warnings about the threat of political violence in America after a man bludgeoned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband with a hammer in their California home on Friday.
The dire warnings come amid longstanding concern that security services provided do not adequately reflect ongoing threats, especially as midterm elections loom. The Associated Press reported on Sunday that Paul Pelosi’s assailant had been carrying zip ties when he broke in.
Continue reading...New book by Arkansas senator, a Republican presidential hopeful, also suggests president did not understand military procedures
In January 2020, the rightwing Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton said he would vote to acquit Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial because despite senators having “heard from 17 witnesses … and received more than 28,000 pages of documents”, Democrats had not presented their case correctly.
According to Cotton, the senators who sat through so much evidence would “perform the role intended for us by the founders, of providing the ‘cool and deliberate sense of the community’, as it says in Federalist 63”.
Continue reading...Lawyer Gloria Allred introduces woman as Jane Doe who alleges anti-abortion candidate drove her to a clinic in the 1990s
Another woman has claimed that Herschel Walker pressured her into having an abortion and drove her to a clinic to obtain one.
On Wednesday, lawyer Gloria Allred – who has represented numerous alleged victims of sexual misconduct and assault – introduced to reporters a woman who alleges Walker, the anti-abortion Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, took her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion in the 1990s.
Continue reading...Joe Biden is the oldest president ever inaugurated, and will turn 80 this year – but still plans to run for re-election, according to a reporter who recently interviewed the president, Martin Pengelly reports:
Joe Biden is “totally running” for a second term, the MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart has said, just days after interviewing the US president.
Continue reading...Prosecutors urging two aides for more information about how documents were handled at the resort
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The steady drip of details about the investigation into government secrets found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort continues, with the New York Times reporting yesterday that prosecutors are pressuring two aides to the former president for more information about how documents were handled at the south Florida property. There’s no saying yet what the revelation means, but it makes clear how many avenues investigators are pursuing as they look for answers about sensitive documents Trump took with him when he left the White House.
Here’s what’s happening in politics today:
Joe Biden will speak about America’s fight against Covid-19 at 2.05pm eastern time.
There’s a slew of debates between candidates standing in the 8 November midterm elections, including Pennsylvania’s Senate candidates Mehmet Oz, a Republican, and John Fetterman, a Democrat, who face off at 8pm eastern time.
Progressive Democrats appear to be walking back a letter sent to Biden yesterday urging more diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Republican senator Ted Cruz was a vociferous objector to the 2020 election, but ended up hiding in a supply closet when insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on January 6, as Ramon Antonio Vargas reports:
As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president’s electoral defeat, the Republican senator from Texas has revealed.
Tight Senate margins and a Democratic president would make it impossible for GOP leaders to deliver on the party’s most hardline fiscal wishes, at least with President Joe Biden still in office. The disappointment would surely prompt blowback from right-leaning Republicans already known as the sharpest thorns in the party’s side.
“Spare me if you’re a Republican who puts on your frigging campaign website, ‘Trust me, I will vote for a balanced budget amendment, and I believe we should balance the budget like every family in America.’ No shit,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the pro-Trump Freedom Caucus, said in an interview.
Continue reading...Steve Bannon has just spoken with reporters outside the courthouse in Washington DC, telling them he “respects” the judge’s sentence, and veering off quickly into an attack on Joe Biden’s administration.
In a brief, and chaotic appearance at the microphone, Bannon said of judge Carl Nichol’s four-month sentence:
The sentence he came down with today is his decision. I fully respect it, I’ve been totally respectful this entire process on the legal side.
I testified before the Mueller commission for more hours. I testified in front of [congressman Adam] Schiff in the House intelligence committee more than any other person in the Trump administration. I testified in front of the senate intelligence [committee], I think more than anybody, about the issues related to Russiagate, to all of that. The same process every time.
I had lawyers that were engaged, they worked through the issues of privilege. At that time, I went and testified. And this thing about I’m above the law is an absolute and total lie.
Today was my judgment day by the judge. And we’ll have a very vigorous appeals process. I’ve got a great legal team, and there’ll be multiple areas of appeal.
But as that sign says right there, vote. On November 8, there’s gonna have [sic] judgment on the illegitimate Biden regime and, quite frankly, Nancy Pelosi and the entire [January 6] committee. And we know which way that’s going.
Continue reading...Move is president’s attempt to mitigate concerns over the economy as midterms approach
Donald Trump in 2021 asked a group of people whether a Jewish documentary filmmaker was “a good Jewish character”, according to a video of the former president that was released as part of footage that was subpoenaed by the House special committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the New York Times reports.
The interaction was recorded by documentary filmmaker Alex Holder at an event at Trump’s New Jersey golf club in May 2021. Trump, speaking to several people, was responding to a woman’s comment about “Jews who didn’t vote for you”.
Continue reading...Barnes, who would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin, is looking to unseat Republican Ron Johnson
Barack Obama, who twice won Wisconsin by large margins, will travel to the battleground state in the final weeks of the current midterm elections, seeking to boost Mandela Barnes, the young lieutenant governor looking to unseat the Republican Ron Johnson in a key US Senate contest.
Barnes would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin. He held early leads over Johnson but the Republican, a prominent figure on the GOP hard right, has surged back. This week, a Marquette University Law School poll showed Johnson in the lead.
Continue reading...The Oath Keepers were mentioned repeatedly at yesterday’s January 6 hearing, and Politico reports their lawyers have attempted to make that an issue as they stand trial for seditious conspiracy – without success:
Investigators with the January 6 committee are looking into communications between a Secret Service agent and the Oath Keepers militia group, one of the most violent actors during the attack on the Capitol, NBC News reports:
Continue reading...Senate finance panel chair sends detailed questions to financial firm on deal for property owned by then White House aide’s family
A financial firm that operates billions of dollars in real estate properties around the world is facing new questions from the powerful chairman of the Senate finance committee about whether Qatar was secretly involved in the $1.2bn rescue of a Fifth Avenue property owned by Jared Kushner’s family while Kushner was serving in the White House.
Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who leads the finance committee, has given the chief executive of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management until 24 October to answer a series of detailed questions about a 2018 deal in which Brookfield paid Kushner Companies for a 99-year lease on the family’s marquee 666 Fifth Avenue property.
Continue reading...Panel intends to detail how White House and Secret Service were told of potential for violence in days leading up to insurrection
President Joe Biden signaled today he is ready to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for pushing Opec+ to slash oil production.
Speaking as he was departing the White House for a trip to Colorado, Biden said, “We’re going to react to Saudi Arabia and we’re doing consultation when they come back. We will take action.”
Continue reading...The longest-tenured US senator joins a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to such a restriction
The longest-tenured Republican in the US Senate has pledged to vote against a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy which a prominent fellow party member and chamber colleague proposed last month, joining a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to that idea.
Chuck Grassley, who’s been one of Iowa’s senators since 1980 and is seeking an eighth term in his seat during November’s midterms, expressed his opposition to such a ban during a televised debate Thursday night with his Democratic challenger Mike Franken.
Continue reading...