Even though Sen. John Thune (R-SD) called for Donald Trump to withdraw from the presidential race, he told the Rapid City Journal that he would still likely cast his ballot for him.
“Thune said the 2005 audio on which Trump can be heard describing his attempts to have sex with a married woman was ‘more offensive than anything I’ve ever seen.’ Nonetheless, the Senate’s third-ranking Republican said he would be voting solely for GOP candidates this election cycle.”
“A federal judge has extended voter registration in the battleground state of Florida for one week, until Tuesday, October 18,” CNN reports.
“The request to extend the deadline had been sought by the Florida Democratic Party in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.”
Doyle McManus: “Donald Trump has already lost that one several times over — through his serial attacks on women and minorities, the appearance of a videotape in which he describes himself as a sexual abuser, and his overall failure to turn himself into a credible president-in-waiting. Still at stake on election day, though, is what kind of presidency Clinton will be allowed to have — and that depends mostly on who is elected to the Senate and House of Representatives.”
“If Democrats win a majority in both chambers, Clinton will be able to pass significant parts of her platform, much as Obama did in 2009 and 2010.”
“But if Republicans keep their majorities, she’ll have to negotiate with an angry opposition in which the loudest voices are likely to revive the obstructionism they have perfected over the last six years.”
“Given the stakes of this election, if Paul Ryan isn’t for Trump, then I’m not for Paul Ryan.”
— Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), on Twitter.
Early voting is already underway in 16 states. Daily Kos has a great map showing the early options available in each state.
Here’s the full calendar:
9/23: Idaho (thru 11/4), Minnesota (thru 11/7), South Dakota (thru 11/7), Vermont (thru 11/7), and Wyoming (thru 11/7)
9/24: New Jersey (thru 11/7)
9/29: Illinois (thru 11/7), Iowa (thru 11/8)
10/9: Maine (thru 11/3)
10/10: California (thru 11/8), Nebraska (thru 11/7)
10/11: Montana (thru 11/7), New Mexico (thru 11/5)
10/12: Arizona (thru 11/4), Indiana (thru 11/7), Ohio (thru 11/7)
10/17: Georgia (thru 11/4)
10/19: Kansas (thru 11/7), Tennessee (thru 11/3)
10/20: North Carolina (thru 11/5)
10/22: Nevada (thru 11/4), DC (thru 11/5)
10/24: Alaska (thru 11/8), Arkansas (thru 11/7), Colorado (thru 11/8), Massachusetts (thru 11/4), Texas (thru 11/4), Wisconsin (thru 11/4)
10/25: Hawaii (thru 11/5), Louisiana (thru 11/1)
10/26: Utah (thru 11/4), West Virginia (thru 11/5)
10/27: Maryland (thru 11/3)
10/29: Florida (thru 11/7)
11/3: Oklahoma (thru 11/5)
11/8: Election Day
“Democrats are now extremely confident they will capture control of the Senate next month in the wake of Donald Trump’s drop in the polls and an intensifying civil war in the Republican Party.”
“Winning the majority is a given, Democratic officials told The Hill, adding that signs point to a pickup of seven seats and possibly more on Election Day… Democrats contend they’re on track to pick up seats in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Hillary Clinton expanding her lead over Donald Trump nationally to eight points, 45% to 37%.
On the tape: “Some 42% of American adults, including 19 percent of registered Republicans, said Trump’s comments disqualified him, while 43% said they did not. Among Republicans, 58% said they want Trump to remain atop their party’s ticket, and 68% said the Republican leadership should stand by him.”
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) still won’t say whom he’ll support for president, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
“Toomey’s dilemma, with just four weeks to go until Election Day, reflects the way Trump has engulfed the political landscape and left Republicans flailing in his wake as his poll numbers plunge.”
Donald Trump is stepping up warnings about “rigged” elections as he trails in polls and faces a mutiny in his own party, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Trump’s campaign is centered on an antiestablishment message skeptical of a range of polling, the media, even his own political party. Interviews with Trump supporters in Florida suggest his message is getting through… At rallies and through social media, the Trump campaign is recruiting poll watchers.”
James Hohmann: “It has truly been a surreal cycle to watch. Many Republican elected officials are personally outraged and ashamed by something their party’s nominee says or does. So they distance themselves. But as soon as they face a whiff of blowback from some in the party, they cave and fall back in line. Then they offer up excuses and rationalizations, twisting themselves into pretzels to justify voting for a guy who some will tell you privately is a danger to the Republic. It’s happened over and over again now, and it validates what Trump himself said during the primaries: many politicians are indeed craven and interested mainly in maintaining power for themselves, principles be damned.”
“Four women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant said Donald Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants — some as young as 15 — were changing,” BuzzFeed reports.
“Trump, who owned the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants from 1996 until last year, has publicly bragged about invading beauty queen dressing rooms, calling it one of his prerogatives of ownership.”
Meanwhile, CBS 2 Los Angeles reports Trump just came “waltzing in” while Miss USA contestants were nude or half-nude as they changed into bikinis.
“Enough of the pussyfooting around about, do you support us or do you not support us?”
— Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, on Good Morning America.
Wall Street Journal: “Political analysts are watching for signs that Republicans in tight races who had earlier broken with Mr. Trump now face greater odds of being swept out of office on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment. The problem is that waves that are big enough tend to sweep out candidates in races further down the ballot, as too few voters distinguish between the presidential nominee and his or her colleagues in downballot races.”
Meanwhile, CNN reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “told House Democrats on a conference call Tuesday that if the election were held today, Democrats would regain control of the House of Representatives.”
“Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta, said that the FBI is investigating a ‘criminal hack’ of his private email account, which he blamed on Russia and suggested that the campaign of Republican Donald Trump could have known what was coming,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Podesta: “I’ve been involved in politics for nearly five decades, and this definitely is the first campaign that I’ve been involved with in which I’ve had to tangle with Russian intelligence agencies, who seem to be doing everything they can on behalf of our opponent.”
“Donald Trump’s intensifying battle with his own party is tearing open the nation’s political map, pulling Republicans across the country into a self-destructive feud that could imperil dozens of lawmakers in Congress and potentially throw conservative-leaning states into Hillary Clinton’s column,” the New York Times reports.
“Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has concluded that at least two traditionally Republican states, Georgia and Arizona, are realistic targets for her campaign to win over. And Republican polling has found that Mr. Trump is at dire risk of losing Georgia, according to people briefed on the polls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
The Fix: “And we are adding Utah and Indiana to our list of competitive states with ratings of ‘lean Republican.'”
“A year before Donald Trump hired Breitbart News’ executive chairman to be his presidential campaign’s CEO, Stephen K. Bannon boasted, ‘I’m Trump’s campaign manager’ via email,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Breitbart’s ties to Trump were long suspected before Bannon was brought aboard the campaign following the ouster of campaign chairman Paul Manafort in August 2016. Breitbart News, a website beloved by the so-called ‘alt-right’, had been a Trump’s staunchest ally in the media. Breitbart was so loyal to Trump that it even took the campaign’s side when then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski lied about bruising Michelle Fields, then a Breitbart reporter.”
Donald Trump took aim at Speaker Paul Ryan in an interview on Fox News.
Said Trump: “I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people that I can tell you, including Ryan…especially Ryan.”
Trump also accused Ryan of having “opened borders and amnesty” and he charged that Ryan had promoted “bad budgets by the way, very, very bad budgets.”
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.