Rick Santorum (screen capture via CNN) CNN political analyst Rick Santorum told CNN viewers this morning that “Democrats need to give Republicans, including Trump, time and space to work through their feelings about losing.” “You know he’s just found out that he’s probably not going to be the president of the United States,” added Santorum.
The Twitterverse found that idea a bit funny considering how famously thoughtful Trump supporters have been about Democrats’ “feelings.”
Rick Santorum just said on @CNN: “Democrats need to give Republicans, including Trump, time and space to work through their feelings about losing.” Below: A photo of a lobster boat in Maine flying a giant “Trump 2020: F— Your Feelings” flag. A good friend of mine sent it to me pic.twitter.com/e5gQXzDt3Q
Guy in my neighborhood – Black SUV with vanity plates PUNSHER1 – had this flag over the summer. Yeah, now this same camp wants civility and respect… Right.. pic.twitter.com/ik4VQCD4Ht
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (screen capture) Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney told reporters Friday that Trump needs to “put his big boy pants on” and acknowledge that “he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner.” “Just as Jimmy Carter did, just as George H.W. Bush did and frankly just as Al Gore did,” added Kenney. “Stop this and let us move forward as a country.” As of 1:24 p.m., Biden leads with about 13,492 votes in Pennsylvania with just under 112,000 mail ballots left to count, according to the secretary of state’s website.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney told reporters Friday that Trump needs to “put his big boy pants on” and acknowledge that “he lost.” Biden currently holds a narrow lead in that state over Trump #Election2020https://t.co/FGnEUJtyxspic.twitter.com/6rabIFtnd6
L-R Donald Trump, Joe Biden (screen capture, campaign photo) As of 10 am today, this is the state of play in the race for the presidency via the New York Times:
Mr. Biden, who was winning the popular vote by more than four million votes and has already won 253 electoral votes, pulled ahead of Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania by about 12,000 votes on Friday afternoon. If his lead holds — and it is expected to — the state’s 20 electoral votes would vault him past the threshold to win the election.
In Georgia, his lead was so narrow that state officials said a recount was inevitable.
In Arizona, Mr. Biden maintained his lead as election officials continued to plow through tens of thousands of ballots from Phoenix and its sprawling suburbs. His advantage shrank slightly, but not by as much as Republicans had hoped.
In Nevada, Mr. Biden nearly doubled his lead Friday to around 20,000 votes.
Mr. Biden had already begun to project the image of a man preparing to assume the mantle of office on Thursday, meeting with his economic and health advisers to be briefed on the coronavirus pandemic. He also urged the public on Thursday to show a “little patience” as the vote-counting in battleground states continued.
Note – one media outlet, Business Insider (working with Decision Desk HQ) has called the race for Joe Biden. (graphic via NY Times)(graphic via NY Times)
New numbers were finally reported today from the presidential race in battleground state Nevada showing former Vice President Joe Biden expanding his lead over Donald Trump. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
In the latest results released by the Secretary of State’s office at 9 a.m. Thursday, Biden built on the 7,600-vote lead he held when counting stopped on Election Night, a 0.6 percentage point advantage over Trump in a race with more than 1.2 million votes cast. Biden now leads Trump by 597,353 votes, 49.50 percent, to Trump’s 585,311 votes, 48.50 percent.
Nevada will continue to count ballots and update at least once daily.
Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, in a statement released late Wednesday, said that the remaining ballots were mail-in ballots received on or after Election Day and ballots from voters who registered at the polls on Election Day, as permitted by state law.
Only about 14K votes or so updated from Clark and Biden lead goes up by almost 5K. See the advantage Dems have with mail. If that is ratio for ballots in Clark, very bad news for Trump.
Net vote gain so far compared to yesterday’s totals: – Joe Biden: +9,751 (+0.14%) – Donald Trump: +5,940 (-0.16%) Clark 2-1 Biden, rurals 2-1 for Trump. https://t.co/Sx5NMEJ2EC
L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden A tale of two candidates… As Joe Biden called for unity and declaring the office of the presidency “demands a duty of care for all Americans,” Donald Trump was retweeting his demands that states “STOP THE COUNT!”
Joe Biden: “We are campaigning as Democrats, but I will govern as an American president. The presidency itself is not a partisan institution … It demands a duty of care for all Americans.” https://t.co/qpSut7hsXg#Election2020pic.twitter.com/wXSZCtiWLx
(graphic via NY Times) With six states left undecided in the presidential race, most folks are saying they’d rather be in Joe Biden’s shoes than Donald Trump’s at this point. I’ll be updating this page as states are called. Update 1: Wisconsin was just called for Biden giving him 237 electoral votes to Trump’s 213. Update 2: CNN just called Michigan for Biden taking him to 252 electoral votes to Trump’s 213. The Trump campaign is already calling for a recount in Wisconsin but state law says a recount can’t happen until 10 days after an election. Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Biden’s 20,000+ advantage could be tough to overcome in a recount tweeting, “After recount in 2011 race for WI Supreme Court, there was a swing of 300 votes. After recount in 2016 Presidential race in WI, Trump’s numbers went up by 131.”
After recount in 2011 race for WI Supreme Court, there was a swing of 300 votes. After recount in 2016 Presidential race in WI, @realDonaldTrump numbers went up by 131. As I said, 20,000 is a high hurdle. #Election2020https://t.co/CEr82eiCWH
Here’s an abbreviated version of how things stand according to Nate Cohn at the New York Times: Nevada: Mr. Biden has a narrow lead (7,600+), with only 86 percent of Democratic stronghold Clark County (Las Vegas) has been counted. The remaining ballots look to be Democratic-leaning late mail and provisional ballots. Arizona: Biden leads by 3.5 points and there’s more than 10 percent of the vote yet to be counted in Democratic strongholds Maricopa and Pima Counties. There are late mail ballots, received by the state over the last few days and those ballots usually tilt Democratic. Michigan: Biden leads with over 48,000 and almost 20 percent of heavily Democratic Wayne County (Detroit) remains to be counted. It’s reasonable to assume that much of the outstanding vote is Democratic mail-in ballots. Pennsylvania: Trump currently leads here by 463,000+ votes – but only 80 percent of the votes have been counted. There are many outstanding votes in Democratic-leaning areas like Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh area. The majority of those are mail-in ballots, which Biden has won those by a margin of 78 percent to 21 percent. There are more than 1.4 million absentee votes left to count, according to the secretary of state, plus more that could arrive over the next few days. If Biden wins those by the same margin he’s been winning them so far it would net him 800,000 votes. Georgia: Trump leads with 93 percent of the vote in (83,000+ votes). An estimated 200,000 uncounted votes remain in the state, and most come from left-leaning areas of metropolitan Atlanta, which could mean they’re likely to skew Democratic. According to the secretary of state, the winners of most races in the state should be announced by Wednesday afternoon. North Carolina: Trump leads by 1.4 points (76,000+ votes), so it’s not really that close. But, the state accepts mail ballots received after the election until November 12, and there were around half a million absentee ballots still outstanding heading into Election Day. I personally don’t expect Biden to win here.
L-R James Corden, Pete Buttigieg (image via The Late Late Show) One of the things to come out of this election cycle that I’ll long appreciate is the emergence of former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg onto the national stage. Over the past year and a half, Buttigieg demonstrated how a mayor of a mid-sized city can show up and go toe-to-toe with not only experienced political candidates but also the press (Fox News, I’m looking at you). Last night, Mayor Pete made an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden where he addressed the state of the election cycle (“It’s all going to come down to getting out the vote”) but also offered a positive view on the resiliency of the American people. “We have to find a way to get through this,” said Buttigieg. “This is a country that has been through pandemics, it has been through wars; at one point, half the country broke off and declared war against the other half. And this country still stands. We have got to find a way through this and I believe that starts with electing new leadership.” “Now, we’re also the generation that could blow it,” he added. “That’s part of the reason this election is so high stakes. But if we get it right in the next few years, the 2020s could go down in history as the time America stood up and turned in a better direction. And by the middle of this century could be delivering to humanity something as important as the founding of America itself. I really believe that – if we do the work, and that’s why we’re doing the work.”
And in another segment called “Late Late Show And Tell,” Corden asked Mayor Pete to share something from his home that the general public wouldn’t generally get to see. Buttigieg revealed a red baseball he received on the night of his first date with now-husband Chasten. The couple had attended a baseball game, and the souvenirs were a give-away at the game that night. Later in the date, the couple held hands for the first time. “That moment we held hands was one of the best moments of my life,” shared Buttigieg. “I keep this baseball around because they were giving them out that night. It’s just a reminder of how any given night can change the rest of your life.” At a time when so many politicians and elected officials give us much to be cynical about, I find Buttigieg continually serves up reasons to look for the good in those in public service.
It’s finally Election Day! And according to ABC News, early voting across the country hit record highs as over 97 million Americans cast their vote before today. Prior to this morning, voters had cast more than 70% of the total ballots counted in the 2016 general election, when 166 million Americans voted. In 2016, there were just under 43 million early votes. Former Vice President Joe Biden attended a church service before heading out to final ‘get out the vote’ appearances in Pennsylvania.
Good morning America! It’s Election Day & @JoeBiden is starting his by going to church with @DrBiden and two of their granddaughters. He’ll then make one final stop in Scranton and Philadelphia, Penn. as voters head to the polls today. pic.twitter.com/gBLDwPvXsG
Donald Trump called in to his own place of worship – Fox & Friends. Sounding a bit low energy, Trump spoke about how “mean” people had been to him, bragged about the size of his campaign rallies, threw some predictable shade at Biden, and then turned on – of all outlets – Fox News Channel. “Fox has changed a lot,” whine Trump. “Somebody said ‘What’s the biggest difference between this and four years ago?’ I said Fox, it’s much different, you know. Fox is a much different place in terms of politics.” “In the old days, [Fox] wouldn’t put on sleepy Joe Biden every time he had opened his mouth. They had other networks for that, frankly. It’s a much different operation, I’m just telling you. It’s much different.” Trump also complained about the democratic process itself again moaning that all ballots won’t be counted by the end of tonight. As I’ve reported yesterday, every state has its own rules for cutting off accepting ballots and when to begin processing and counting them. Trump criticized American voters saying, “There’s no reason why they couldn’t put the ballot in 2 weeks earlier.” Some of those ballots include military service members overseas who have little control over when their ballots arrive.
An exhausted-sounding Trump on when he’ll declare victory: “When there’s victory. If there’s victory … there’s no reason to play games.” pic.twitter.com/MiuuPjTe1E
“There’s no reason why they couldn’t put the ballot in 2 weeks earlier” — Trump explicitly wants to disenfranchise voters who have done nothing wrong beyond cast a ballot in a way he doesn’t like pic.twitter.com/zzLZnekNaR
Just heard him speaking at his campaign HQ in Virginia and it sounded like a concession speech. He kept talking about his presidency in the past tense, like it was over. Their internals must look bad
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, a George W. Bush appointee, has rejected a bid by Texas Republicans to throw out 127,000 ballots cast in Harris County (Houston) due to lack of standing. The Republicans tried to argue that drive-thru sites (which were approved months ago by the Texas Secretary of State) are less secure than in-person polling sites, but Judge Hanen said, “I ain’t buying that.” If you want to understand why the GOPers wanted the votes tossed – Harris County is 25% Black and 43% Latinx.
🚨 Just now: U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, a W. Bush appointee, has ruled Republicans lack standing to challenge 127k drive-thru votes cast in Harris County (#Houston).
🚨 Re: certain pending 5th Circuit appeal, Hanen says if he did find GOP had standing, he would likely halt drive-thru voting tomorrow. He orders Harris County to keep all drive-thru memory cards separate in case higher court intervenes.
A District Court judge in Nevada has ruled against the Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans’ attempt to delay counting mail-in ballots in the Democratic stronghold of Clark County. The judge wrote in his decision that the plaintiffs failed to produce any evidence that would precipitate intervening in the counting of votes. From the Nevada Independent:
A District Court judge has again blocked efforts by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the Nevada Republican Party to delay the counting of mail ballots in populous Clark County over alleged issues with signature verification and observation plans — saying their claims largely lacked evidence or standing necessary for last-minute judicial intervention in the election process.
Carson City District Court Judge James Wilson issued the order Monday morning denying the request to halt mail ballot processing after a lengthy evidentiary hearing held telephonically last week.The decision ensures that Clark County — by far the largest county in the state — will continue its process for counting and processing the record number of mail ballots submitted for the 2020 election, without any delays that could potentially bottleneck results on Election Night.
Longtime Nevada political pundit Jon Ralston issued his prediction earlier this morning that Biden would carry the Silver State by about 4 points mainly due to a 90,000+ lead run up by Democrats in Clark County during early voting and mail-in ballots received.
