Trump Says Sasse Who Rebuked Him ‘Doesn’t Have What It Takes To Be Great’

Posted on by Zoe Richards

President Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at Republican Sen. Ben Sasse (NE) appearing to lick his wounds amid a growing list of Party critics by suggesting that his latest detractor from within the Republican Party “doesn’t have what it takes to be great.”

“The least effective of our 53 Republican Senators, and a person who truly doesn’t have what it takes to be great, is Little Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a State which I have gladly done so much to help,” Trump tweeted early Saturday.

“Little Ben is a liability to the Republican Party, and an embarrassment to the Great State of Nebraska,” he added in a second venomous tweet about the GOP senator.

The comments come after the Nebraska lawmaker rebuked President Trump in a telephone town hall with constituents on Wednesday, criticizing the President’s bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic, and tearing into the President’s for “kissing dictators’ butts” while appearing to “flirt with white supremacists.” In audio first obtained from the call by the Washington Examiner, Sasse said that Trump’s behavior had so badly offended voters that he might be the root of a “Republican blood bath” in the Senate.

Sasse is among a group of GOP senators who have begun to distance themselves from the President as his chances of winning November’s election appear to be receding as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden widens his lead in national polls.

While Sasse has periodically critiqued the President and has said he didn’t support Trump’s presidential bid in 2016, he’s been a reliable vote for Trump administration nominees and GOP policies. Sasse has primarily stood with Republican colleagues who have largely avoided publicly challenging President Trump since he took office — a trend that’s changed in recent weeks as a Republican defeat for the White House seems increasingly likely.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested during a committee hearing to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett that Democrats have a good chance of winning the White House.

Earlier this week, at least two GOP governors made clear that they wouldn’t support Trump’s reelection bid in November. On Thursday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) told the Washington Post that he had casted a ballot by mail writing in the name of the late Ronald Reagan for this year’s election. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) offered similar sentiments on Wednesday, suggesting that he wouldn’t vote Trump in the critical final days before the election.

President Trump seemed to acknowledge the possibility of loss during a rally on Friday night telling a crowd in Macon, Georgia, that he might have to “leave the country” if he loses the election.

“Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say ‘I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.’ I’m not going to feel so good,” Trump said.

“Maybe I’ll have to leave the country? I don’t know,” he added.

 

SCOTUS Set To Weigh Trump Census Power Grab Before Inauguration

Posted on by Tierney Sneed

The Supreme Court announced plans to review President Trump’s anti-immigrant apportionment policy on a timeline that could give him a decision on its legality before, in the event of a Trump defeat this November, he is forced to leave office.

Continue reading “SCOTUS Set To Weigh Trump Census Power Grab Before Inauguration” →

ICYMI: Your TPM Weekend News Roundup

Posted on by David Taintor

Chasing Amy

  • Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett found herself in the hot seat this week. The marathon confirmation hearings stretched on for several days, but failed to produce many fireworks.
  • The hearing kicked off on Monday, technically a federal holiday, with Republicans using the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s words to justify their speedy confirmation process with Barrett.
  • During their opening statements, Democrats kept the focus on the vulnerability of the Affordable Care Act under a staunchly conservative Supreme Court. The high court is set to take up an Obamacare case just a week after Election Day.
  • Things got more interesting on Tuesday, once senators began asking questions of Barrett, who kept tight-lipped on how she would rule on controversial cases.
  • Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), with surgical precision, laid out how conservative groups and dark money have propelled Barrett’s nomination.

The Debate That Wasn’t

  • Two candidates. Two networks. One time slot. That’s how the debate-that-wasn’t played out this week at two competing town halls. NBC’s Savannah Guthrie grilled President Trump, who also took questions from voters. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos moderated a similar event with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
  • Conservatives on Twitter were up in arms about Guthrie’s grilling of Trump, labeling her tough but on point questions an “interrogation.”
  • During Trump’s town hall, the President refused to denounce the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.
  • Biden, for his part, left the door open to adding more seats to the Supreme Court. But he said it depends how the confirmation process for Barrett plays out.
  • But the ratings-obsessed president suffered a blow to his ego, at least according to preliminary numbers: Biden’s event attracted more viewers, even though NBC’s programming was spread across multiple networks.

GOP’s October Surprises Are Duds

  • Bear with us as we wade through the muck on this one. The New York Post on Wednesday published what it claimed to be a scoop that revealed the contents of Hunter Biden’s hard drive. The son of former Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden has long been a target of the right’s desperate attempts to gin up allegations of corruption against the family.
  • TPM’s Josh Kovensky took a look at the many reasons the New York Post story was so bogus.
  • But like clockwork, Trump’s allies and cronies quickly pounced on the story. From Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to Steve Bannon to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, here are some of the biggest boosters of the bogus story.
  • And that’s not all: Another GOP obsession, digging into allegations of “unmasking” by Obama-era officials, died with barely a whimper.
  • But wait! There’s more! The Durham investigation, nominally meant to put the Russia probe under a microscope, will reportedly not yield any results before Election Day, as Trump and his cohort had so desperately hoped.

EXCLUSIVE: Ross Commits To Protocols That Make It Harder For Trump To Mess With Census

Posted on by Tierney Sneed

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement to TPM that when the Census Bureau gives the President the 2020 census data for congressional apportionment, it will make that data public at the same time.

Continue reading “EXCLUSIVE: Ross Commits To Protocols That Make It Harder For Trump To Mess With Census” →

MI Secretary Of State Bans Open Carry Of Guns At Polling Places On Election Day

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Friday issued a ban on open carry of firearms at polling sites on Election Day.

Continue reading “MI Secretary Of State Bans Open Carry Of Guns At Polling Places On Election Day” →

Biden Beats Ratings-Obsessed Trump In Viewers During Competing Network Town Halls

Posted on by Zoe Richards

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s town hall on Thursday garnered more viewers than President Trump’s alternate primetime event on NBC, according to Nielsen.

Biden’s town hall averaged 13.9 million viewers on Thursday night, significantly trumping the President’s average of 10.6 million viewers on the competing NBC network.

The ratings figures come after NBC was widely criticized for holding the competing event, offering President Trump a time slot after he refused the Commission on Presidential Debate’s proposed virtual format for a second face off with his Democratic opponent after he announced a COVID-19 diagnosis on Oct. 2.

Perhaps even more surprising, per CNN, is that the Trump town hall was simulcast by two of NBC’s cable channels, MSNBC and CNBC, but even when those channels are included in the total, the ratings for Biden’s town hall still win out. On MSNBC, Trump reached 1.74 million viewers, and on CNBC, about 671,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. Cable channels included, Trump’s audience average expands to 13 million — still roughly 1 million viewers shy of Biden’s average audience total on ABC.

Notably, Nielsen’s early ratings measure viewers tuning in from televisions and do not count live-streaming numbers from phones, tablets, computers and other devices — figures that are expected to be released later in the day. 

While surprising perhaps to both campaigns and many political commentators, Biden’s ratings strength has been intensifying for months as he deepens his lead in national polls — much to the chagrin of the ratings-obsessed Trump.

Before his 2016 presidential bid, Trump had been a staple of NBC, hosting shows like “The Apprentice” and touting high performance for the network. 

That marked fixation on optics and ratings has continued and was palpable from the earliest days of his presidency when he famously exaggerated attendance at his inauguration in 2017.

But when the TV ratings have failed him, Trump has called foul, claiming when Nielsen reported higher turnout for the Democratic National Convention that “Online Streaming Numbers” hadn’t been counted in the released numbers. 

But as the Associated Press previously pointed out, there is no single universal standard for measuring all the various ways the town halls were streamed, both live and on-demand.

Neither event reached anywhere near the ratings achieved during the Sept. 29 presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, which Nielsen has said drew an estimated 73.1 million viewers who tuned in across 16 networks.

Should America Voluntarily Split In Two? Election Day May Force Us To Ask

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

Many in blue states have gone through a Kubler-Ross range of emotional reactions to the Trump/Republican administration. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. When you get to the acceptance part, a psychologist told me, “You need to figure out a plan of action that changes things in the real world. Acceptance is not the same as resignation. Being bummed out is not the end of the road but should be a beginning.” We are probably at that political point now. I know I am. 

Continue reading “Should America Voluntarily Split In Two? Election Day May Force Us To Ask” →

Are These Five States (And A Territory) Ready For A Pandemic Election?

Posted on by Tierney Sneed

The election is a scant three weeks away, and a new surge in COVID-19 cases is upon us. We continue our state-by-state look at how election officials are trying to keep voting safe in the pandemic.

Continue reading “Are These Five States (And A Territory) Ready For A Pandemic Election?” →

Massive Unemployment Just One ‘Great Part Of American Capitalism’ Kudlow Insists

Posted on by Matt Shuham

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow is likely aware that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to millions of Americans losing their jobs, including nearly 900,000 new unemployment claims just last week. But that massive surge in joblessness, he said Friday, is just part of what makes American capitalism great!

Continue reading “Massive Unemployment Just One ‘Great Part Of American Capitalism’ Kudlow Insists” →

The Complicit Start to Turn on the President

Posted on by Josh Marshall

There is an unfolding development which you can miss in the muddy onrush of campaign events but is nevertheless important to take note of. As President Trump’s electoral prospects appear increasingly dire, national security officials, intelligence officials and his own top political appointees are talking more openly and critically to the press about the President. There are many examples of this. But yesterday’s Washington Post article about intelligence warnings about Rudy Giuliani are a good example. If you read the article closely the sourcing seems to come either directly or with the okay of the President’s National Security Advisor, Attorney General and other top appointees. It’s not new information. It goes back almost a year. It’s new willingness to talk. The NYPost “emails” story is the peg. But the willingness is new.