Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) defended Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in an AP interview in the face of criticism from President Trump saying she “certainly” would recover after voting against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Said McConnell: “Well, she’s certainly going to recover… She’s about as strong as you could possibly be in Alaska. Nobody’s gonna beat her. I’m proud she’s in the Republican conference.”
Rolling Stone: “The ad — which was paid for by an anti-Cruz PAC and was not endorsed by his senate opponent, Beto O’Rourke — is beautiful in its simplicity, and strikes to the heart of Cruz’s campaign, which has revolved around the idea that he is more authentically Texan than his challenger.”
“In a motion to dismiss a new lawsuit accusing President Trump’s campaign team of illegally conspiring with Russian agents to disseminate stolen emails during the election, Trump campaign lawyers have tried out a new defense: free speech,” The Atlantic reports.
Trump lawyers argued that the First Amendment protects the campaign’s “right to disclose information—even stolen information—so long as (1) the speaker did not participate in the theft and (2) the information deals with matters of public concern.”
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Joe Scarborough ripped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Morning Joe for referring to protesters of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation as “angry mobs,” after attendees of President Trump’s campaign rally last night chanted “lock her up” in reference to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Said Scarborough: “Now the president of the U.S. is holding rallies where angry mobs of people are demanding to lock up a U.S. senator because they disagree with her politics. I guess due process and keeping your head, that was in vogue for Republicans last week. Mitch McConnell must be shocked at the angry mobs.”
He added: “He was a snowflake just a couple days ago, just melting on national television because of all the angry mobs. I wonder what Mitch thinks again about people talking about locking up one of his colleagues… because they disagree with her politically. That’s an angry mob, right?”
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said that widespread predictions of a “blue wave” of Democratic victories in next month’s midterm elections should be taken with a hefty grain of salt because they emanate from the “same geniuses” who all but guaranteed a landslide win for Hillary Clinton in 2016, Politico reports.
Said Conway: “Let’s not forget the same geniuses that predicted a huge romp by that woman who lost in 2016 are the same people predicting a huge win by the Democrats this time. So we have to be a little bit cautious.”
A new ABC15/OH Predictive Insights poll in Arizona finds Martha McSally (R) with a six-point edge on Kyrsten Sinema (D), 47% to 41%. Eight percent said they had yet to decide on a candidate.
ProPublica: “After decades as a major Republican donor, Adelson is known as an ideological figure, motivated by his desire to influence U.S. policy to help Israel. ‘I’m a one-issue person. That issue is Israel,’ he said last year. On that issue — Israel — Trump has delivered. The administration has slashed funding for aid to Palestinian refugees and scrapped the Iran nuclear deal. Attending the recent opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, Adelson seemed to almost weep with joy, according to an attendee.”
“But his reputation as an Israel advocate has obscured a through-line in his career: He has used his political access to push his financial self-interest. Not only has Trump touted Sands’ interests in Japan, but his administration also installed an executive from the casino industry in a top position in the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. Adelson’s influence reverberates through this administration. Cabinet-level officials jump when he calls. One who displeased him was replaced. He has helped a friend’s company get a research deal with the Environmental Protection Agency. And Adelson has already received a windfall from Trump’s new tax law, which particularly favored companies like Las Vegas Sands. The company estimated the benefit of the law at $1.2 billion.”
“Nikki Haley is getting out of the Trump administration with her stature elevated and political prospects brightened — not something that could be said for most top political power players who leave the President’s reputation-crushing fold,” CNN reports.
“Outshining the showman in chief in her Oval Office goodbye Tuesday, the outgoing US ambassador to the UN pocketed a valuable endorsement for a political career no one thinks is over.”
“The President, in comments that might one day find new life as a campaign ad, said Haley ‘has been very special to me. She’s done an incredible job. She’s a fantastic person, very importantly — but she also is somebody that gets it.’”
“Don’t expect to find any flattering biographical information about newly-minted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on his namesake website domain,” the HuffPost reports.
“Instead, visitors to BrettKavanaugh.com are invited to click on links to resources for survivors of sexual assault.”
“The Democrats have become too extreme, and they’ve become, frankly, too dangerous to govern. They’ve gone wacko. The only reason to vote Democrat is if you are tired of winning.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Omaha World Herald.
Politico: “President Trump, who as a candidate warned that he alone could fix the nation’s ills, is making the midterms a referendum on the one thing he appears most comfortable talking about: himself.”
President Trump writes an op-ed in USA Today:
If Democrats win control of Congress this November, we will come dangerously closer to socialism in America. Government-run health care is just the beginning. Democrats are also pushing massive government control of education, private-sector businesses and other major sectors of the U.S. economy.
Every single citizen will be harmed by such a radical shift in American culture and life. Virtually everywhere it has been tried, socialism has brought suffering, misery and decay. Today’s Democratic Party is for open-borders socialism. This radical agenda would destroy American prosperity. Under its vision, costs will spiral out of control. Taxes will skyrocket. And Democrats will seek to slash budgets for seniors’ Medicare, Social Security and defense.
Playbook: “This is unusually dire language in the weeks before an election. Remember when jaws dropped after Democrats said Republicans were trying to push granny off a cliff during the 2012 election? The president of the United States is saying that Democrats are looking to model the U.S. off a socialist country whose leader is the hemisphere’s enemy No. 1 at the moment.”
Michael Bloomberg announced on Instagram that’s he re-registered to vote as a Democrat.
“At key points in U.S. history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution. Two years ago at the Democratic Convention, I warned of those threats. Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat – I had been a member for most of my life – because we need Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs.”
Playbook: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who was named to fill John McCain’s Senate seat, has said that he will serve likely until the end of the year. He had been previously working as a lobbyist for Covington and Burling. How much was he making there? We might never know! He was granted an extension on his financial disclosure form until ‘no later than January 03, 2019.’ He might be out of the Senate by then!”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds Ned Lamont (D) leading Bob Stefanowski (R) in the governor’s race, 47% to 39%, with 11% for independent candidate Oz Griebel.
Politico: “Republicans are touting the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as rocket fuel for the GOP grass roots in next month’s midterm elections, but it’s Democrats who appear more energized by the nomination fight, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll.”
”Kavanaugh’s confirmation is not popular: In the poll, which was conducted entirely after last week’s Senate vote, 46 percent of voters said the Senate ‘made the wrong decision’ in approving the controversial judge, while 40 percent said it was right to elevate him to the high court.”
”And following the GOP-led effort to push through his nomination, enthusiasm among Democratic voters has surged. More than 3 in 4 Democrats (77 percent) say they are ‘very motivated’ to turn out and vote in the midterms — more than the 68 percent of Republicans who say they’re ‘very motivated.‘“
Axios: “Democratic voter turnout in this year’s House primaries increased in each of the 19 competitive, comparable House districts compared to 2014, and doubled in more than two thirds of them. That’s far better than Republican voter turnout, which increased in 14 of those districts but didn’t double in any of them.”
“Poor turnout has been the scourge of Democrats’ efforts to win congressional elections in the last decade. But this data suggests that a surge of anti-Trump enthusiasm could boost their turnout in November — and not just in already-blue areas, but in parts of the country that could deliver control of the House to the Democrats.”
SEnate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) promised to raise $3 million to support Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to counteract anger over her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, The Hill reports.
Said Grassley: “I’m going to help raise $3 million to match that.”
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.
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