This is pretty great: An interactive map of U.S. House election results from 1840 to 2016.
Little Partisan Agreement on the Big Issues
Pew Research: “Majorities of registered voters who support Democratic candidates for Congress rate 13 of 18 issues as ‘very big’ problems facing the country. Among voters who favor the Republican candidates in their districts, majorities rate only five issues as very big problems.”
“More striking, several of the issues that rank among the most serious problems among Democratic voters – including how minorities are treated by the criminal justice system, climate change, the rich-poor gap, gun violence and racism – are viewed as very big problems by fewer than a third of Republican voters.”
Trump Denies He Bet Warren $1 Million for DNA Test
President Trump denied that he offered Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) $1 million to take a test proving her Native American heritage, even though he did just that, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I didn’t say that. You’d better read it again.”
He must have forgotten the challenge is actually on video:
Senate Candidate Compared Michelle Obama to a Chimp
Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Karin Housley (R) compared then-first lady Michelle Obama to a “chimp” in 2009 Facebook post, the HuffPost reports.
Housley is running against Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN).
Fox Host Complains Trump Was ‘Peppered with Questions’
Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt complained on Twitter that President Trump’s interview on 60 Minutes was unfair because he was “peppered endlessly with questions,” the Washington Post reports.
“The response on Twitter was what you might expect. Earhardt later deleted the tweet.”
Trump Suggests ‘Rogue Killers’ Got Saudi Dissident
President Trump said that he spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia and that the ruler denied any knowledge of the disappearance of a Saudi dissident journalist, the New York Times reports.
After the call, Mr. Trump said it was possible that “rogue killers” were behind the disappearance of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
Former Congressman Leaves the Republican Party
Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) quietly registered under no-party affiliation several weeks ago, the Tampa Bay Times reports, “spurred in large part by the pending birth of a daughter for whom they wanted to set an example and not be part of of the Trump party.”
Said Jolly: “It’s also just a personal rejection of partisanship. It’s a very comfortable place for us to be.”
Can Democrats Fix Their Problem with Latino Voters?
NBC News: “Even with phenom Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke at the top of the Texas ticket, it hasn’t been easy, as Democratic officials, party operatives and tied-in organizations in this state and across the country are seeing signs — surprising to some — that many Hispanics may sit out the midterms. The lack of enthusiasm among Latinos has party leaders concerned that a key part of the coalition needed to take back the House and Senate may stay home.”
“Nationally, Latino voters favor a Democratic Congress over a Republican one by 64-21 percent, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Telemundo poll last month. But self-reported interest in the election is low, according to the same survey, and the picture in some individual races looks even worse for Democrats.”
Trump Hangs ‘Fantasy Painting’ In White House
Daily Beast: “President Trump’s latest addition to White House decor is a kitschy fantasy painting that shows him relaxing with Republican presidents of the past—an update to a best-selling image commonly found in tourist gift shops and online galleries.”
“The artwork, ‘The Republican Club’ by Andy Thomas, could be seen in the background of a photo tweeted by 60 Minutes, which aired an interview with Trump on Sunday night.”
“It shows a slimmed-down Trump sandwiched between Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, directly across from Abraham Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and both Bushes are also in the imaginary scene.”
Will Trump Pay Up?
From the Boston Globe on July 5, 2018:
President Trump joked Thursday night that he would give Senator Elizabeth Warren $1 million to a charity of her choice if she took a DNA test and it proved that she has Native American roots.
Warren released the results of a DNA test this morning which shows that she has “strong evidence” of Native American roots and she reminded Trump of his challenge on Twitter.
Trump Sours on Jim Mattis
Mike Allen: “President Trump has clearly soured on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and top Republicans and Democrats both tell me his departure would be particularly costly for the White House — and a disturbing sign for outsiders.”
Said one former aide: “His tone on Mattis is really striking. … Will be worth watching whether he’s just brushing him back and moving on, or if he launches a sustained effort to get him to quit.”
“And if Mattis departs on anything other than the most cordial terms, confirming a successor will be fraught. But here’s something aides may not have told the president: People who know Mattis tell me that he won’t stay around to be abused and humiliated like Attorney General Jeff Sessions has. If ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, as Trump calls him, is convinced that the president is shorting his stock, the retired four-star Marine general could leave abruptly.”
Top Republican Group Says Little About Trump Tax Law
“A deep-pocketed Republican group that began the year vowing to focus on the tax overhaul has mentioned the GOP’s signature legislative achievement in just a fraction of its TV ads in 2018, a signal that the issue hasn’t been the political boon party leaders hoped it would be,” Bloomberg reports.
“The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super-political action committee that’s the largest-spending political group this cycle, has put out 31,220 broadcast spots in the first nine months of 2018, just 17.3 percent of which referred to the tax law… The data underscore concerns among Republicans that the 2017 tax law — championed by President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leaders — hasn’t gained traction with voters ahead of the Nov. 6 election that will determine control of the House and Senate. Instead, the GOP base has been more stirred up by issues like immigration and crime in the Trump era.”
Trump Makes New Overtures to Democrats
“President Trump is making overtures to Democrats about working together next year, a move that would mark a major shift in his approach to dealing with Congress but one that could prove necessary in order to secure big legislative achievements ahead of his reelection campaign in 2020,” The Hill reports.
“If Democrats take control of the House after the November midterms, Trump will have no choice but to reach across the aisle if he wants to check off campaign promises such as a massive infrastructure package.”
Trump Stays Away from Swing Voters
The places where Trump has been making his campaign pitches — in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kansas and rural Iowa — have been in solid Trump/GOP territory, NBC News reports.
“Trump’s average margin of victory in the counties he’s campaigned in, including the pair he dropped to Hillary Clinton, is more than 20 points — 57% to 36% — and includes five counties he won with more than 60 percent of the vote.”
How Newt Gingrich Paved the Way for Trump
The Atlantic: “In the clamorous story of Donald Trump’s Washington, it would be easy to mistake Gingrich for a minor character. A loyal Trump ally in 2016, Gingrich forwent a high-powered post in the administration and has instead spent the years since the election cashing in on his access—churning out books (three Trump hagiographies, one spy thriller), working the speaking circuit (where he commands as much as $75,000 per talk for his insights on the president), and popping up on Fox News as a paid contributor. He spends much of his time in Rome, where his wife, Callista, serves as Trump’s ambassador to the Vatican.”
“But few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trump’s rise. During his two decades in Congress, he pioneered a style of partisan combat—replete with name-calling, conspiracy theories, and strategic obstructionism—that poisoned America’s political culture and plunged Washington into permanent dysfunction. Gingrich’s career can perhaps be best understood as a grand exercise in devolution—an effort to strip American politics of the civilizing traits it had developed over time and return it to its most primal essence.”
Quote of the Day
“Washington DC is a vicious, vicious place. The attacks, the bad mouthing, the speaking behind your back, but you know, and in my way, I feel very comfortable here.”
— President Trump, in an interview on 60 Minutes.
GOP Blame Game Begins
“Republicans have begun to concede defeat in the evolving fight to preserve the House majority. The party’s candidates may not go quietly, but from the Arizona mountains to suburban Denver to the cornfields of Iowa, the GOP’s most powerful players this midterm season are actively shifting resources away from vulnerable Republican House candidates deemed too far gone and toward those thought to have a better chance of political survival,” the AP reports.
“And as they initiate a painful and strategic triage, the early Republican-on-Republican blame game has begun as well. GOP operatives connected to several vulnerable candidates complain that the committee responsible for electing House Republicans has failed to deliver on its promise to invest $62 million in political advertising across 11 states this fall, a promise detailed in a September memo that declared, ‘The cavalry is coming.'”
Republicans Fall Flat In Trump Country
“A number of Republicans running for governor or senator in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including several who hitched their wagon to Trump’s political movement, are behind in polls by double digits, a remarkable turnabout in swing states that were key to the president’s 2016 victory,” the Washington Post reports.
“If current polling averages hold, Democrats will maintain all their Senate seats in those states, pick up a handful of House seats and, in some cases, retake the governors’ mansions.”
