They called it. Stunning upset tonight in New York City. Ocasio-Cortez defeats high-ranking House Dem Crowley.
Stunning thing about Rep. Joe Crowley’s apparent defeat tonight is not just the result but that it’s not even close. It looks like a 15-point margin. And he may not be the only incumbent to go down in New York City. Yvette Clarke in the 9th District is up by a single point, just about 300 votes over challenger Adem Bunkeddeko. As I wrote this morning, real elections are a great thing. New York City needs more of them.
Also felon Michael Grimm went down to a resounding defeat. I’d have liked both him and Donovan to lose. But since one had to win, this is probably the better result, though it’s probably a harder race for Democrats to win now.
Of the two others I mentioned this morning, Eliot Engel crushed all his opponents and my rep, Carolyn Maloney, is winning comfortably, by a similar margin to the one Ocasio-Cortez holds over Crowley. Wow.
The comeback attempt by ex-con Michael Grimm on Staten Island came up way short.
Longtime incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) is trailing his 28-year-old challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 57-43 with 74 percent of precincts reporting.
Stay tuned.
At a speech in Los Angeles this afternoon Attorney General Jeff Sessions cracked a joke about family separation to laughter and applause. The speech was to the conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
Jeff Sessions cracks joke about family separation to laughter and applause at speech in Los Angeles. https://t.co/319jARULTx pic.twitter.com/FT3zwOBIzy
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 27, 2018
Be certain to read Tierney Sneed’s article on this broad attack against the Mueller probe from the judge in one of the two Manafort prosecutions. I react very negatively at some level simply because I think the Mueller probe is a critical, righteous, essential investigation. Beyond this, the independence and integrity of the probe are really beyond reproach. In part this is because of the reputations and conduct of the key players, particularly Robert Mueller. But we always have to remember that this is an entirely Republican affair. A Republican Deputy Attorney General appointed by President Trump choosing a Republican former Director of the FBI. The idea that this probe is infected by partisanship is simply absurd.
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Okay, I got some further detail on how exactly subpoenaing/getting the President’s tax returns would work if the Democrats get run at least one house of Congress next year. We’ll write it up later this evening.
Let me flag your attention to something. The President has now repeatedly claimed that Harley Davidson is lying about the reason for shifting motorcycle production overseas. He is focused on the closure of a plant in Kansas and opening one in Thailand. The company seemed to be talking about something different from that. On its own this isn’t terribly surprising. President Trump accuses people of things all the time. But there’s something specific about this. This wasn’t a comment from the CEO or a press release. It was an 8-K filing. Read More
Remarkable moment in the President’s discussion of tariffs today when he suggested that his tariffs may be able to fund the government in place of income taxes. He references the McKinley era when this was the case, prior to the enactment of a federal income tax. Of course federal expenditures are roughly 10 times (2.2% versus 23% or 24%) higher today as a percentage of GDP. So this is basically insane.
Trump appears to suggest that revenue from his tariffs may be able to replace the federal income tax, referencing McKinley when federal spending was 2.2% of GDP as opposed to 23% or 24% https://t.co/4y9qDZKhwy pic.twitter.com/Z18GF1Zlzn
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 26, 2018