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Trump and Biden battle for the presidency with several states undecided . . . President Trump and former Vice President Biden were deadlocked in a tight race early Wednesday morning, with several states not yet called and each candidate having a chance to win the election. As of 7:00 am, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada had yet to be decided, with votes still being counted. Trump leads by about two points in Georgia, one in North Carolina, one in Michigan, and by 11 in Pennsylvania, though in the latter two states there were many votes yet to be counted. Biden barely leads in Wisconsin — the state is basically tied — and is ahead by less than a point in Nevada. It is not clear how this will be resolved.  To win, Trump probably needs to prevail in both Georgia and North Carolina. I don’t see how Biden can catch up in Pennsylvania, despite the drama of contested ballots about to ensue, so the president is likely to win there. If he wins those three states, then he still has to win either Michigan, Wisconsin, or Nevada. I think he will get at least one of those. If he loses Georgia or North Carolina, which seems possible, then he must win Michigan and either Wisconsin or Nevada. White House Dossier

 

Trump declares victory . . . President Trump claimed to have as good as won the election even as ballots were still being counted across the country in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Appearing in the White House East Room, he said he would go all the way to the Supreme Court to stop any more votes being cast. Trump claimed without any evidence that millions of people had been “disenfranchised” by his opponents. "This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to the country,” he told an audience of staff and supporters at the White House. “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election." Washington Examiner

 

Biden campaign rips Trump claim as "outrageous" . . . The Biden campaign early Wednesday ripped President Trump's "outrageous" comments in which he claimed victory in the presidential election even as more than a million votes were still being counted. Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillion issued a blistering rebuke of Trump's remarks from the White House, where he also pledged to ask the Supreme Court to halt the counting of ballots. "The counting will not stop," O'Malley Dillon said in a statement, calling Trump's comments "a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens." The Hill

 

 

Biden says he is on track to win . . . Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he believed he was on track to win the election in a speech in Wilmington after midnight on Election Day with the 2020 race hanging in the balance. “We feel good about where we are. We really do. I’m here to tell you tonight that we believe we’re on track to win this election,” the former veep told a crowd of supporters with many key swing states still undecided. New York Post

 

 

Trump wins Florida with huge Hispanic support . . . President Donald Trump won Florida for a second time Tuesday night, riding a red wave that delivered stinging losses to Democrats down the ballot and put into question the state’s status as the nation’s largest battleground. Instead of the Hispanic community delivering Florida to Biden, it turned to Trump, who had used the Black Lives Matter and defund-the-police movements to paint his opponent as extreme. Trump won by more than three points with about 51% of the vote. Politico

 

Twitter censors Trump tweet . . . Twitter restricted the ability to view and share President Trump's tweet claiming that people are trying to "steal" the election. The label, placed on a tweet posted at 12:49 a.m. EST on Wednesday, reads "some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process." Washington Examiner

 

Polls are wrong again . . . Opinion pollsters have once again proved badly wrong in the US Presidential election, four years after Hillary Clinton was widely predicted to win and lost. Polls held just before election day this time around gave Biden an average lead of ten points which all-but evaporated on the day itself. Among the most inaccurate were an ABC-Washington Post poll that gave Biden a 17-point lead in Wisconsin, a state where he is now tied with Trump with 49.3 per cent of the vote to 49 per cent. A Quinnipac poll gave Biden a five point lead over Trump in Florida and four point lead in Ohio. In the end, Trump won both - by three and eight points, respectively. Daily Mail

 

 

Protests, violence, looting feared . . . From Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive to the White House, the nation was anxious Tuesday as police and business owners feared Election Day rioting. With heightened political tensions, cities braced for a repeat of the violence and looting that erupted during this summer’s racial justice demonstrations protesting the deaths of Black people during police encounters, even though there were few reports of election-related violence as the polls closed on the East Coast. “Everybody’s taking it very seriously — not just here in California, but all across the country,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. “And I can assure you we’re taking it very seriously at all levels.” Washington Times

 

Republicans poised to keep Senate . . . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans appeared poised to keep control of the upper chamber of Congress early Wednesday morning, as three GOP lawmakers were projected to win re-election races that had been considered toss-ups. Four other competitive contests featuring Republican incumbents were deemed still too early to call, but that didn’t stop one of them — freshman GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — from declaring victory in his re-election bid, Fox News reported. New York Post

 

Democrats spend more than a quarter billion to lose long-shot Senate races . . . Democrats spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in a futile bid to pick up longshot Senate seats in Kentucky, South Carolina, and Texas. The campaigns of Kentucky's Amy McGrath, South Carolina's Jaime Harrison, and Texas's M.J. Hegar burned through nearly $200 million, and outside groups backing them spent an additional $60 million boosting the three candidates. Washington Free Beacon

 

Lindsey Graham wins again . . . Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham defeated his Democratic opponent Jaime Harrison in an expensive and tight race Tuesday night. The Associated Press called the race around 10 p.m. E.T., and Graham led Harrison by 12.2 points. The race gained national attention as former President Barack Obama released an ad for Harrison, listing reasons he believes people should vote Graham out of the Senate. Daily Caller

 

McSally loses in Arizona . . . Retired U.S. Navy captain and former astronaut Mark Kelly on Wednesday morning was projected to unseat Republican incumbent Arizona Sen. Martha McSally. McSally was thought to be one of the most vulnerable Republican senators facing reelection this year. Kelly raised a whopping $37 million in the third quarter of 2020, while McSally raised $20 million. The Hill

 

Democrats fail to make gains in the House . . . Democrats beat back GOP challengers in competitive districts and will remain in control of the House, election night results indicate, but Republicans outperformed polls and won back several seats the party lost in 2018. Democrats were poised to keep their majority in the 435-member chamber, with the help of numerous GOP retirements and some redistricting that left seats vulnerable to Democratic takeover in Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia. Washington Examiner

 

Republican Madison Cawthorn is youngest person in centuries elected to House . . . Republican newcomer Madison Cawthorn on Tuesday night was called the winner of the U.S. House seat in western North Carolina that was vacated by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Cawthorn, 25, thus became the youngest person elected to Congress since the late 1700s. The candidate -- who first catapulted to GOP stardom after speaking at the Republican National Convention in August, getting up from his wheelchair at one point on stage -- defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Moe Davis, D-N.C., to capture the 11th Congressional District seat. Fox News

 

Former Clinton HHS chief Shalala loses House seat . . . Rep. Donna E. Shalala, a Democrat who served as President Bill Clinton’s health secretary, narrowly lost her Florida seat to the Republican candidate, Maria Elvira Salazar, on Tuesday, becoming one of the more notable Democratic casualties in the House. In a rematch of their 2018 House race, Ms. Salazar, a former television journalist, will represent Florida’s 27th Congressional District, which includes Miami and surrounding communities in Miami-Dade County. New York Times

 

Republican state legislature candidate who died of Covid wins election . . . Republican candidate David Andahl, who died on Oct. 5 after he had been sick with COVID-19 for several days, won a seat as state representative for District 8 on Tuesday. Andahl, 55, remained on the ballot, in part because early voting had begun weeks before his death. Republicans are set to choose Andahl's replacement by using a committee to make an appointment, according to previous statements by North Dakota's attorney general. But voters could call for a special election. USA Today

 

Sarah McBride becomes first transgender state senator . . . Sarah McBride, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, became the first openly transgender state senator in the nation. McBride made history Tuesday night when she was elected to Delaware's state senate in a race against Republican candidate Steve Washington. "We did it," McBride wrote on Twitter Tuesday night, announcing victory and thanking her supporters. "I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too."

As a state senator, she will also be the country's highest-ranking openly transgender official. USA Today

 

Uber, Lyft, Doordash don't have to reclassify California drivers as employees . . . The companies, along with Postmates Inc. and Instacart Inc., collectively contributed around $200 million to support Proposition 22, a measure that allows them to bypass a state law intended to provide employee-like protections for their drivers. The outcome allows the ride-hailing and delivery companies to avoid complying with a law that could have reshaped their business models and battered their business in the most populous U.S. state. It also sets the tone for gig-worker regulation in the rest of the country. Wall Street Journal

 

 

 

Keith

 

Keith Koffler

Editor, White House Dossier and Cut to the News

Author of Bannon: Always the Rebel and The Obama Scandals

 

 

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