“Republican Gov. Rick Scott, claiming south Florida election officials are fraudulently mishandling ballots, ordered the state’s top law enforcement agency Thursday to investigate and filed a lawsuit demanding access to ballots narrowing his lead against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson,” USA Today reports.
Said Scott: “I will not stand idly by while unethical liberals try to steal an election.”
“Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s closer-than-expected loss Tuesday has fueled optimism among his friends and allies — as well as Democratic admirers across the country — that he will run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination,” CNN reports.
“O’Rourke huddled with senior campaign aides Wednesday in El Paso, but offered them no indication of future political plans — saying he first planned to spend time at home with his family after nearly two years on the road and process the election’s results before weighing what comes next.”
“Another source described having ‘very initial discussions’ with O’Rourke in recent weeks about the prospect of a 2020 bid and what it would take to scale a Senate campaign that operated largely on the candidate’s own gut, without pollsters or a massive team of consultants, up to the national level. But the source said it’s too early for O’Rourke to have made any decisions.”
A Florida teacher told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that she discovered a locked ballot box that was left behind at a polling site at her school.
The “unexpected family matter” cited by Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA) in withdrawing from the race for House Democratic Caucus chair relates to her husband, who was indicated on theft and conspiracy charges related to spending corporate money on personal trips, including some allegedly spent on Sánchez, Roll Call reports.
“Suspense and uncertainty now hang over the U.S. Senate race, where Kyrsten Sinema (D) and Martha McSally (R) are locked in a race separated by just 2,106 votes,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“The updated results, updated at 5 p.m. Thursday, was the first time since election night that the results were substantively updated.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who is likely to lead the House Intelligence Committee during the next Congress, told The Hill he’s interested in interviewing former Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the circumstances of his firing.
Said Schiff: “On this particular question of what led up to his firing or what information he may have in terms of obstruction to justice, I think that will be of interest to not only our committee but the Judiciary Committee and others as well.”
“Voter turnout soared in the 2018 midterm elections, according to an early projection in a new study, potentially reaching the highest level in over 50 years,” NBC News reports.
“An estimated 48.1 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, over 113 million people in total… If that holds it would be the highest rate since 1966, when 48.7 percent of voters participated.”
“A year-and-a-half before he took responsibility for overseeing the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Matthew Whitaker, now the acting attorney general, had already reached a conclusion,” the Daily Beast reports.
Said Whitaker, on the Willow Majority show: “The truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign. There was interference by the Russians into the election, but that was not collusion with the campaign. That’s where the left seems to be combining those two issues.”
He added: “The last thing they want right now is for the truth to come out, and for the fact that there’s not a single piece of evidence that demonstrates that the Trump campaign had any illegal or any improper relationships with the Russians. It’s that simple.”
Democrats have an “army of lawyers” working on the likely recount that will decide the winner of the Florida Senate race, USA Today reports.
“Fewer than 17,400 votes out of more than 8.1 million cast separated Republican challenger Gov. Rick Scott over Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson as of Thursday afternoon. That’s inside the 0.25 point margin that dictates a hand recount of ballots that showed either no vote or more than one vote cast in the Senate race.”
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reached out to Fox News inquiring about working at the conservative news channel as a contributor, Politico reports.
“Zinke’s outreach came as the scandal-plagued former Navy SEAL and Montana congressman is looking for employment opportunities after he exits Interior, as is expected. Zinke is also seeking positions on energy company boards of directors or even with private equity firms.”
“The president has said on multiple occasions the Mueller investigation should be completed. He wishes it would happen sooner. But I don’t think there’s any chance that the Mueller investigation will not be allowed to finish.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by CBS News.
President Trump and his attorneys “are planning to meet next week to decide whether to submit any of their written responses to special counsel Robert Mueller about what Trump might have known about Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign,” Politico reports.
President Trump threw Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) under the bus, saying she lost her re-election bid because she didn’t embrace him enough on the campaign trail.
But UtahPolicy.com has confirmed that President Trump recorded a campaign robocall for Love’s campaign in the final days of the 2018 election in which he touted Love’s efforts to secure the release of Utahn Josh Holt from prison in Venezuela.
“The Trump administration expects to be sued over its draconian new immigration plan, which may be unveiled as soon as Thursday afternoon… but with Justice Brett Kavanaugh now on the Supreme Court, it expects to win,” NBC News reports.
“In the weeks before the midterms, even those Trump administration officials who fought bitterly with each other over how to curtail illegal immigration learned they could agree on a few things.”
“First, of the measures most likely to be approved by the president, all were likely to lead to a lawsuit. But second, when sued, they believed they would ultimately prevail. According to the two senior officials, they think that with Kavanaugh in place, the Supreme Court will rule in their favor.”
“A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Thursday that the Trump administration relied on faulty legal reasoning in trying to end the Obama-era program allowing some immigrants brought to the country illegally as children to gain legal status,” the Washington Post reports.
“The decision, echoing other courts, virtually ensures that the question will end up before the Supreme Court.”
Neal Katyal and George Conway, writing in the New York Times:
President Trump’s installation of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general of the United States after forcing the resignation of Jeff Sessions is unconstitutional. It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid.
Much of the commentary about Mr. Whitaker’s appointment has focused on all sorts of technical points about the Vacancies Reform Act and Justice Department succession statutes. But the flaw in the appointment of Mr. Whitaker, who was Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff at the Justice Department, runs much deeper. It defies one of the explicit checks and balances set out in the Constitution, a provision designed to protect us all against the centralization of government power.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) “plans to run for president in 2020, according to a person close to the California congressman who is familiar with his plans,” Politico reports.
Said the source: “He’s definitely running.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.