“Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke Monday to discuss bipartisan efforts to overturn President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria and sanction Turkey for its military offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces,” Axios reports.
Bloomberg Rethinking Race as Biden Struggles
“Michael Bloomberg has indicated to associates in recent weeks that Joe Biden’s recent struggles against Sen. Elizabeth Warren are making him rethink his decision to stay out of the 2020 Democratic primary,” CNBC reports.
“Bloomberg has signaled he’s ‘still looking at’ running for president, but people close him say that the only way he could even go down that path is if Biden’s fortunes suffer so much that he drops out before or during the early stages of the primary. Bloomberg could then enter the race as one of the rare moderates with enough name recognition and campaign funding to make a run.”
Said one Bloomberg ally: “I think it’s something he wants. He has not been shy about that. Nothing can happen unless Biden drops out, and that’s not happening anytime soon.”
Will the Supreme Court Stop Faithless Electors?
“On Dec. 19, 2016, a little more than a month after the presidential election, members of the Electoral College gathered around the nation to cast their votes. Ten of them went rogue,” the New York Times reports.
“A swing by that number of electors would have been enough to change the outcomes in five of the previous 58 presidential elections, according to a petition filed last week in the Supreme Court. In the 2000 election, after an assist from the Supreme Court, George W. Bush beat Al Gore by just five electoral votes.”
“The petition asked the justices to decide whether ‘faithless electors‘ were free to disregard pledges they made to vote for their own parties’ candidates. It urged the court to act quickly.”
Inside the Steele Dossier
Out next month: Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch.
“What began as a march through a mind-boggling trove of lawsuits, bankruptcies, and sketchy overseas projects soon took a darker turn: The deeper Fusion dug, the more it began to notice names that Simpson and Fritsch had come across during their days covering Russian corruption—and the clearer it became that the focus of Fusion’s research going forward would be Trump’s entanglements with Russia.”
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Simpson, Glenn (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 330 Pages - 11/26/2019 (Publication Date) - Random House (Publisher)
Facebook Courting Conservatives
“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hosting informal talks and small, off-the-record dinners with conservative journalists, commentators and at least one Republican lawmaker in recent months to discuss issues like free speech and discuss partnerships,” Politico reports.
“The dinners, which began in July, are part of Zuckerberg’s broader effort to cultivate friends on the right amid outrage by President Trump and his allies over alleged ‘bias’ against conservatives at Facebook and other major social media companies.”
Why Syria May Be What Finally Undermines Trump
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Americans Feel Divided on Core Values
A new Monmouth poll finds 69% of America is greatly divided when it comes to our most important values. Just 27% say Americans are united and in agreement on these values.
The sense that the country is divided is fairly similar among Democrats (74%), Republicans (68%), and independents (66%).
Internal Poll Shows Edwards Leading Runoff
A new ALG Research (D) poll in Louisiana finds Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) leading challenger Eddie Rispone (R) in the November 16 gubernatorial runoff election, 52% to 36%.
Inside Elections: Key takeaways from the primary election.
Ohio Returns to Swing State Status
A new Public Policy Polling survey shows that Ohio is set to return to its traditional status as a battleground state in 2020.
After winning the state by 8 points in 2016, President Trump now trails a generic Democratic 47% to 48% and holds an underwater 47% to 51% favorable rating. Given that state’s swing from 2012 to 2016, it is especially notable that Trump trails a generic Democrat 37% to 51% with independent voters.
Fiona Hill Testifying Over White House Objections
Fiona Hill, the former Trump adviser testifying in the impeachment probe today was subpoenaed, CNN reports, because of “attempts by the White House and the Administration to direct witnesses not to cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry and efforts by the White House to limit any testimony that does occur.”
Biden Says He Wouldn’t Pardon Trump
Joe Biden told Radio Iowa that if he is elected president, he would not pardon President Trump from any possible charges he might face after leaving office.
Said Biden: “It wouldn’t unite the country. You’d say: ‘Wait a minute. I get a parking ticket and I’ve got to pay it. This happens to me and I’ve got to go to jail. This guy does all these things that put us jeopardy and he gets off?’ I think this is of a different nature.”
He added: “I think President Ford… had to do it over again he wouldn’t have done it… because he didn’t get reelected.”
Trump Is Averaging 36 Tweets a Day
In the week before Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) launched an impeachment probe, President Trump was tweeting an average of 18 times per day. But the start of the inquiry has led Trump to double that to an average of 36 tweets a day, the Washington Post reports.
Trump set his single-day tweeting record of his presidency just five days after the impeachment inquiry began with 48 tweets. He then set another record last Friday, “hitting 59 total tweets, including 33 in just 20 minutes.”
Warren Leads In First Two Early States
New Firehouse Strategies/Optimus polls finds Elizabeth Warren ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire, Joe Biden leading in South Carolina and Pete Buttigieg surging in Iowa:
- Iowa: Warren 25%, Biden 22%, Buttigieg 17%, Sanders 5%.
- New Hampshire: Warren 25%, Biden 18%, Sanders 9%
- South Carolina: Biden 32%, Warren 16%, Sanders 8%
Most Democrats Want Trump Sent to Prison
A new Firehouse Strategies/Optimus poll found that a majority of Democratic primary voters in early voting states believe that President Trump should not only be impeached but also imprisoned.
The Ultimate Art of War
Just published: The Ultimate Art of War: A Step-by-Step Illustrated Guide to Sun Tzu’s Teachings by Antony Cummins.
“This is the most accessible edition of Art of War ever produced, with the text broken down into digestible individual lessons, unique teaching illustrations to clarify the text, and step-by-step commentary that draws on the full range of recent translations and ancient commentators.”
- Hardcover Book
- Cummins, Antony (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 328 Pages - 10/08/2019 (Publication Date) - Watkins Publishing (Publisher)
Endorsements Missing From Elizabeth Warren’s Surge
New York Times: “Ms. Warren is expected to reveal additional support from Democratic officials this week in conjunction with Tuesday’s CNN/New York Times debate and the release of her smashing third-quarter financial disclosure. Yet her growing crowd sizes, soaring fund-raising and surge to the top of a number of national and early-state polls only shine a brighter light on one of the most revealing elements of this primary: the widening gap between the preferences of many Democratic voters and the lawmakers who represent them.”
“Ms. Warren is now a clear front-runner in the race for her party’s nomination, yet just under four months before the leadoff Iowa caucuses she lacks the support of a single governor, big-city mayor or fellow senator outside Massachusetts.”
Democrats Need to Target Their Impeachment Audience
Walter Shapiro: “Awash in advice from constitutional scholars, House Democrats desperately need to hear from top theatrical directors. Because the only way that Trump’s impeachment will be more than a Democrats-only quest is if the dramatic arc becomes as compelling as Watergate. And that means that the target audience now should be wavering Republican voters appalled by Trump’s conduct and Republican legislators who are privately ashamed of their timidity.”
What GOP Insiders Really Think About Impeachment
Olivia Nuzzi: “The truth is, Trump fatigue is a condition that knows no party, and many Republicans are as tired of this shit as anybody else. That’s not to say they’re outraged, or motivated to Make a Difference. They’re just tired. You can live inside the right-wing bubble in a state of depression, resigned to the fact that, yeah, every five minutes or so, the president is probably going to do something norm-shattering or potentially impeachable, and no, you probably won’t or can’t do anything to change that. Sad!”
“‘I’m totally bored by the story,’ one person who speaks regularly with the president told me. ‘There’s nothing to it. I already know all the details.’ This person is bored more generally, too — with the topic of Donald Trump. When we talk about what it would take for the president’s defenders to turn on him, this crucial piece is missing: You can’t feel outraged if you can no longer feel anything at all.”