October 31, 2018

More than 20 million early votes cast so far, as women, older voters lead the way

By Annie Grayer and Aaron Kessler, CNN

Updated 10:51 AM ET, Wed October 31, 2018

Washington (CNN)With exactly one week until Election Day, at least 20 million people across the country have already cast their ballots for the midterms as of Wednesday morning.

CNN is partnering with Catalist, a data company that works with Democrats and others, to compile counts of ballots cast before Election Day, either early in-person or by mail.

Below is a breakdown of how votes are coming in from seven critical states, and how tallies from this year compare to the 2014 and 2016 cycles. In some states the analysis includes a dive into ballots cast by party registration and demographics available through each state's voter file.

Catalist compiles these data by matching ballot request and return data from official sources to their database of voter records. This allows for analysis of ballots returned based on voters' partisan affiliation and certain demographic traits.

So far, some emerging themes are clear: more women than men have voted. And the early vote is also predominantly older in the seven states, although a higher percentage of early voters are often older.

more + video
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/early-vote-as-of-wednesday-morning/index.html

October 31, 2018

NYT reporter says Trump is 'not prepared' for upcoming flood of Dem subpoenas

October 31, 2018

Trump argues 14th Amendment doesn't cover birthright citizenship

Source: The Hill



BY TAL AXELROD - 10/31/18 09:57 AM EDT

President Trump argued Wednesday morning that children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. are not protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057624553478897665

Trump floated the idea of issuing an executive order banning birthright citizenship in an interview with Axios, which released a clip of the exchange Tuesday.

He was soon joined in support on Capitol Hill by some of his staunchest allies, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Critics of the plan say it would violate the 14th Amendment, which states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/414023-trump-argues-14th-amendment-doesnt-cover-birthright-citizenship

October 31, 2018

Trump calls Pittsburgh protest reports 'Fake News,' says he was 'treated so warmly'

Source: The Hill



BY JORDAN FABIAN - 10/31/18 09:17 AM EDT

President Trump on Wednesday said he was "treated so warmly" in Pittsburgh and aired his grievances against media coverage of his visit to the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

In a morning tweet, Trump dismissed "Fake News" stories about protests against his visit to the Tree of Life synagogue where 11 people were killed Saturday and insisted he was "shown great respect."

Hundreds of people marched in solemn protest around the Squirrel Hill neighborhood during Trump's visit on Tuesday, many carrying signs condemning the president's rhetoric. But the president described the protests as "small" and said they were "not seen by us, staged far away."

"The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful!" Trump tweeted.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057620518751428608

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/414013-trump-calls-stories-on-pittsburgh-protests-fake-news-says-he-was

October 31, 2018

Dems Hope Trump's Latest Immigration Attacks Could Spur Hispanic Turnout

By Cameron Joseph

October 31, 2018 6:00 am

President Trump’s harsh closing message on immigration and border security, capped off with a threat to attempt to end birthright citizenship by fiat, could help Democrats with one of their biggest concerns of the campaign cycle: turning out Hispanic voters.

Democrats have been worried for months that a failure to boost Hispanic turnout could cost them in key House and Senate races. While some early voting analysis and recent polling suggests there’s been an uptick in interest in recent weeks, they remain concerned that not enough Latino voters will cast ballots to win some key battleground campaigns.

But Trump has decided to close hard in the midterms with a message drilling hard on immigrant fear-mongering. After weeks of stoking alarm about a caravan of refugees working its way up through Central America and sending troops to the border, the president opened a new front on Tuesday by declaring he was considering an executive order to end birthright citizenship — a move of dubious constitutionality that has been pushed for by some anti-immigrant hardliners for years.

Trump’s closing focus on immigration could help the GOP in a number of key Senate races in red states where Republicans have been hammering on similar messages against their Democratic opponents. But in a few key spots across the Sun Belt it could prove a double-edged sword, giving Democrats one more argument as they try to push Latino voters to the polls.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/dems-hope-trumps-latest-immigration-attacks-could-spur-hispanic-turnout

October 31, 2018

Conway Criticizes Pittsburghers 'Politically Protesting' Trump's Visit

By Matt Shuhan

October 30, 2018 6:35 pm

White House staffer Kellyanne Conway criticized the thousands of Pittsburghers who protested the President’s visit to the city Tuesday in the aftermath of a synagogue shooting Saturday that left 11 Jews dead.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier from the White House lawn, Conway said it was “unfortunate people were out there politically protesting with different messages today.”

“That is their First Amendment right, but this President was not about politics today, he was about the mourning in Pittsburgh,” Conway said.

“People who want to find negative will always find it,” she added later, after Baier asked if she expected that Trump would “speak out more about this, against white nationalism or anti-Semitism?”

Conway said Trump has been “doing that, though, all along.”

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/conway-criticizes-pittsburghers-politically-protesting-trumps-visit

October 31, 2018

How an internet meme became a Trump campaign slogan

The creator of 'Dilbert,' a Reddit user and Newt Gingrich all helped to make a random tweet part of Trump's midterm stump speech.

By BEN SCHRECKINGER 10/31/2018 05:05 AM EDT

It used to take a fancy degree and political connections to become a presidential speechwriter. In the era of President Donald Trump, all you need is a tweet.

On a Thursday morning earlier this month, a Twitter user in Georgia with 500 followers responded to a video of Trump touting the economy and denouncing Democrats by tweeting the hashtag “#JobsNotMobs.” The next day, Scott Adams, the pro-Trump creator of the comic strip “Dilbert,” who has nearly 300,000 followers, endorsed this catchy framing in a tweet of his own. The hashtag took off from there, as Trump supporters on Reddit turned it into a visual internet meme, with images of auto workers set against leftist antifa protesters. Even former House Speaker and Trump confidant Newt Gingrich tweeted in praise of the concept, calling it “a nice, clean formula.”

Within a week, Trump had begun incorporating a variation of the concept — “Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs” — into his stump speech, and his campaign began printing up signs to distribute at rallies with the slogan “Jobs vs. Mobs.”

The line’s journey from a stray thought on social media to the heart of Trump’s closing midterms argument offers a case study in the free-wheeling approach to messaging that has enabled the brander-in-chief to thrive in a fast-moving information environment even while relying less than his recent predecessors did on consultants, focus groups and other tools of modern political messaging.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/31/trump-jobs-not-mobs-slogan-origin-twitter-reddit-949718

October 31, 2018

Trump launches early blame game on markets and the economy

The president looks to blame Democrats and the Fed for declines in the stock market. Analysts cite many other explanations.

By BEN WHITE 10/30/2018 05:10 PM EDT

President Donald Trump is setting up a simple strategy if markets and the economy cool over the next two years: Blame Democrats and the Fed.

In recent days, Trump and his senior advisers have repeatedly argued that recent turbulence in the stock market reflects investor fear that Democrats will retake the House in the midterm elections next week. “If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. And he has repeatedly bashed the Federal Reserve in recent interviews for its modest campaign of rate hikes.

The Trump campaign’s closing ad of the midterm cycle — using footage from the 2008 financial crisis — suggests that handing power to Democrats would bring back sky-high unemployment. “I think election risk is a big part of this correction,” Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, said in an interview. “The market doesn’t want to see an overturning of the business tax cuts or the deregulation or the energy boom. Until this is settled, it’s going to be hard.”

Economists and market analysts say these arguments bear little connection to reality.

Instead, they note that the economy is following a pattern many predicted when Trump and Congress slashed corporate tax rates last year: a period of faster growth followed by a return to the pace of around 2 to 3 percent that has persisted for nearly a decade with annual deficits rising.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/30/trump-democrats-markets-economy-949477

October 31, 2018

Scott mum, DeSantis supports Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship

By MATT DIXON 10/30/2018 04:17 PM EDT

TALLAHASSEE — President Donald Trump’s proposal to use an executive order to unilaterally get rid of “birthright citizenship,” which grants citizenship to those born in the United States, has put GOP candidates on the spot, including those at the top of the ticket in Florida.

Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for Senate against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Ron DeSantis, in a tight gubernatorial race against Democrat Andrew Gillum, are considered two of Trump’s closest political allies but are taking different approaches to the presidents proposal, which was floated a week before Election Day.

Though not a border state, Florida is home to one of the nation’s largest immigrant populations. Though not monolithic politically, the state’s immigrant population keeps that issue in the forefront. A CBS News/YouGov poll taken earlier this month found 91 percent of respondents said immigration was “important” or “somewhat important.”

Scott, who raised $20 million for Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, is noncommittal.

“I have not seen the details of what the president is suggesting and would need to fully review the proposal,” his campaign said in a statement. “My priorities continue to be securing the border and fixing the long-broken immigration system.”

more
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/10/30/scott-mum-desantis-supports-trumps-proposal-to-end-birthright-citizenship-672074

October 31, 2018

Trump Ramps Up Fear-Mongering: Caravans Made up of 'Very Bad Thugs and Gang Members'

Source: Mediate



by Colby Hall | Oct 31st, 2018, 9:00 am

-snip-

Despite significant and bipartisan criticism for irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric that critics have described as fear-mongering, Trump is hitting the same “be afraid of the Caravan” note on Twitter this morning.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057612657665171457

He followed that first tweet shortly after with:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057614564639019009
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057614564639019009

These tweets came the morning after the Commander in Chief and First Lady returned from a somber visit to the Pittsburgh synagogue that saw 11 worshipers murdered by an unhinged individual that parroted right-wing rhetoric calling this mass of migrants “invaders.”

Depending on reports one follows, the caravan is comprised of roughly 3,500 Central Americans that are roughly 1,000 miles from the southern U.S. border and are traveling by foot. By most accounts, they won’t arrive at the United States for at least six to eight weeks.



Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-ramps-up-fear-mongering-caravans-made-up-of-very-bad-thugs-and-gang-members/