Year: 2022

Trump Was Going to Announce Prez Run Before Midterms

Buck Banks

“Donald Trump was seriously considering announcing a week from today before the election because he thought Republicans are gonna win the House, gonna win the Senate, and he wanted to take credit for it. … He’s now backed away from it. He may deny it, but he told people who raise money for him, he told political people that this is what he was going to do.”

— Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Fox News that Donald Trump “was seriously considering” announcing a presidential bid before the midterms.

Trump Didn’t Make the Violence Stop on Jan. 6 and He Won’t Now

Trish

AP StoryIt’s another one of those days. Like Jan. 6, only this time it’s the day that one of Trump’s goon fans took a hammer to Paul Pelosi, husband of the Speaker of the House.

Like Jan. 6, we didn’t see this coming. Also like Jan. 6, those who are waiting for the former president to call for an end to the violence will count the time in years until he does.

Much was made of how Trump never condemned the violence and destruction on Jan. 6, 2021, never asked his supporters to stop it. The members of the Jan. 6 committee have made this point repeatedly, as witnesses described how they begged him to do so.

In Mark Leibovitch’s unparalleled new book, Thank You for Your Servitude, he lists person after person who pleaded with Trump to intervene, from Ivanka Trump to Sean Hannity to Chris Christie to every leader in Congress including Kevin McCarthy. But Trump let it roll right along. He sat and watched it live on TV and said and did nothing to bring the killing and marauding to an end.

And here’s the thing. He still hasn’t. […]

Fetterman Rakes in $2M Following Debate with Oz

Buck Banks

$2 million

The first and only debate between Pennsylvania Senate candidates John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday yielded a fundraising windfall for both candidates, reports the Daily Beast. Fetterman reportedly raised $2 million by Wednesday afternoon. The Oz campaign went dollar for dollar, filing a fundraising report showing nearly $2.2 million in receipts. But $2 million of that came from Oz himself.

Four Points to Give Democrats Hope

Buck Banks

Political Wire‘s Taegan Goddard notes that though polling and historical midterm trends show Democrats potentially losing their majority in the House and with only a 50:50 chance of maintaining their slim margin in the Senate, there still are some reasons not to succumb to pessimism.

Four things Democrats can point to:

  • The economy isn’t as bad as some polling suggests. It’s true that inflation is at a 40-year high, but the economy is growing and there are still more job openings than people looking for work.
  • Abortion rights will be a motivating factor for many voters — particularly young women. It’s not often that a fundamental right is taken away in this country and we saw Democratic candidates outperform in a series of special elections over the summer. We also saw voters in Kansas come out in extraordinary numbers to make sure abortion stayed legal in their state.
  • The polls could be wrong — maybe even very wrong. In two of the last three election cycles polling proved wildly misleading. Though pollsters insist they have improved their “likely voter” screens, we have seen fewer polls this year from fewer pollsters. That could make even the polling averages unreliable.
  • The number of Americans who vote early continues to rise. It’s extremely hard to gain insights from early voting trends, but overall it is generally viewed as an advantage for Democrats.