We’ve discussed this before. But The Miami Herald now fleshes out the story. When Ron DeSantis’s administration hired Vertol Systems, a defense contractor, to run its migrant flights program, Vertol insisted on being paid up front for a package deal. That’s not how Florida works with contractors. But Vertol insisted and eventually the politicals in DeSantis’s administration overruled the state employees who manage payments to contractors. (It seems likely that that was done by the appointee running the program, Larry Keefe, who recommended Vetrol and used to be the company’s lawyer.)
Continue reading “Where’s the Money, Ron?”Kari Lake Unsurprisingly Refuses To Admit That She Lost
It’d be bad for the brand if she didn’t make a fuss.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has refused to concede to her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs in the race to become Arizona’s new governor. Instead, she’s signaled a potential legal challenge, but hasn’t followed through yet.
Continue reading “Kari Lake Unsurprisingly Refuses To Admit That She Lost”Boebert’s Dem Opponent Concedes Defeat Despite Automatic Recount
Update: Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) Democrat challenger Adam Frisch conceded earlier today, not waiting for the likely automatic recount.
“The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small. Very, very small,” Frisch said Friday in a video. “It’d be disingenuous and unethical for us or any other group to continue to raise false hope and encourage fundraising for a recount.”
Original post:
The lead that Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) Democratic challenger held over her as counts first poured in was one of the biggest surprises of Election Night. More than a week later, the freshman congresswoman is still hanging on for dear life.
The Trump-backed, gun-toting, MAGA fave is holding on to a lead tighter than ever against Democratic challenger Adam Frisch. With 99% of the votes reported, Boebert is leading by 0.16 percentage points — 551 votes — according to the Associated Press.
Colorado requires an automatic recount when a candidate wins by 0.5% or less of the winner’s total vote count. And with the margin so small, the AP is declaring that the race in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is likely headed to a recount.
Boebert — who has long falsely claimed that former President Trump won the 2020 election — announced late last night that she has won her reelection.
“There are less than 200 votes outstanding, which makes me so happy to announce we have won this race,” Boebert said in a video she posted on Twitter. “Over the next couple of weeks, this race will have an automatic recount… My campaign team and our lawyers will definitely make sure everything is conducted properly.”
With the race too close to call, Frisch, of course, hasn’t publicly conceded as of Friday morning. Frisch attended the congressional orientation earlier this week, saying it was “in the best interest of the district for me to attend new member orientation given the closeness of this race.” After orientation, he tweeted thanking volunteers who helped cure votes and count ballots.
“The volunteers who have spent hours—including sleepless nights—getting ballots cured & counted in #CO03 deserve the nation’s thanks as they complete one of the most democratic processes in the world and ensure the integrity of our elections,” Frisch wrote.
The Cook Political Report rated the district as solidly Republican ahead of the midterms but Frisch outperformed expectations and has been closely trailing Boebert since Election Day.
A full count is expected to be completed today, which is the deadline for counties to submit their tabulations to the Colorado secretary of state, according to the New York Times. If the race goes to a recount, it will have to be done by Dec. 13. State law requires that a mandatory recount be completed no later than 35 days after the election.
TwiTitanic
Its such a bizarre thing. Elon Musk has owned Twitter for roughly three weeks and as of this morning the site seems to be limping forward, with widespread but inconsistent outages, because the inner functioning of the company has essentially imploded. Or rather Musk blew it up. Pretty much on a whim. Musk had already fired roughly half of the company’s workforce and at least temporarily scared off many of its corporate advertisers. Earlier this week he issued the remaining staff an ultimatum in which they had to choose between becoming truly ”hardcore,” working longer hours and weekends, or taking a small severance and leaving.
Apparently an unexpectedly large number chose to do the latter. Last night hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand of the remaining employees signed off for good, often with messages on Twitter itself, toasting their former workplace in a digital equivalent of a New Orleans funeral.
Continue reading “TwiTitanic”Elon Musk Is On The Verge Of Successfully Breaking Twitter
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
Lighting $44 billion on fire would be so much easier, no?
The billionaire man-child has temper-tantrumed his way into a death spiral that seems almost impossible to recover from.
Twitter offices are closed until Monday, the workforce is resigning in droves, and this morning there are real questions about whether the platform will survive the weekend without fundamentally breaking down.
Dystopian late capitalism has a mordant sense of humor:
The Verge: Hundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ Twitter
NBC News: Twitter to temporarily close offices amid wave of new resignations after Musk’s ultimatum
MIT Technology Review: Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it will break in the coming weeks
Lauren Boebert May Be Forced Into A Recount*
The Democratic challenger to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) cut the gap between them in half as counties finalized their vote totals. With nearly all the votes in, the race remains too close to call, but the current vote spread is narrow enough to trigger the state’s automatic recount provision.
*Correction: The headline originally referred to a “runoff” instead of a recount. The error was mine.
Off To A Brilliant Start
On the first day after learning they’d won control of the House, Republicans were in fine, fine form.
TPM’s Kate Riga: House Republicans Insist Investigations Aren’t About Hunter Biden While Talking Exclusively About Hunter Biden
Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: You’re Not Ready for How Much These Jokers Want to Talk about Hunter Biden’s Laptop
Strong KAREN IS NOW THE MANAGER Vibe
Nancy Still Nancying
Kari Lake Refuses To Concede: ‘Our Elections Are A Circus Run By Clowns’
This is choice. On the same day she made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, Kari Lake (R) made it clear she’s not conceding the race for Arizona governor, even though the race has been declared for Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Lake continued to cast baseless doubts on the election: “What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable,” she said.
Lake is making noises about mounting a legal challenge, but it’s not clear she has any proper basis to challenge the results in court.
“Rest assured I have assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week,” Lake said. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs.”
Not conceding it too on brand for Lake.
Trump’s Legal Arguments In Mar-a-Lago Case Are Just Epically Bad
The Justice Department has filed its reply brief to the 11th Circuit, which the department is asking to short circuit the unwarranted special master review of its search of Mar-a-Lago.
It’s rare to see the justice Department argue a case with such unabashed confidence in its own position and undisguised scorn for the opponent’s, but it keeps happening over and over in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Here’s my favorite part:
What Would A Mar-A-Lago Prosecution Look Like?
The good folks at JustSecurity have published a model prosecution memo for Trump’s improper retention of government documents. This is the kind of memo the Justice Department would prepare internally before making its prosecution decision, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the case.
Trump Org Monitor Given Extraordinary Powers
Barbara Jones, the former federal judge appointed to monitor Trump Org finances during the massive civil lawsuit against the company by the New York attorney general, has been the authority to keep Trump’s business under a very close microscope for any unusual, suspicious, or fraudulent activity.
TPM Alum Watch
Brian Beutler in the NYT: Enemies of Democracy Should Fear the American Voter
Georgia Election Probe Grinds Slow
Two new developments in the Fulton County grand jury probe of 2020 election interference:
- The testimony of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was supposed to happen yesterday but has reportedly been delayed until Nov. 22.
- A South Carolina judge ruled that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows must testify to the grand jury.
GOP Operative Convicted Of Funneling Russian $$$ to Trump’s 2016 Campaign
Jesse Benton, the former campaign aide to Kentucky Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell who was pardoned by President Trump for campaign finance violations, has been convicted of new campaign finance violations.
Long Road Ahead On This One
The Biden administration will ask the Supreme Court to reinstate its student loan debt relief program.
‘This Is Positively Dystopian’
Federal judge blocks Florida’s “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” from being enforced against public university professors.
Whodathunkit?
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Listen To This: A House Divided
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate talk elections, Republican infighting and the new Congress.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here
Incoming Representative Offers Constituent Help As Cawthorn Leaves Tumbleweeds
The disappearance of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who lost his primary and is on his way out of Congress, has been well documented.
Continue reading “Incoming Representative Offers Constituent Help As Cawthorn Leaves Tumbleweeds”Pelosi’s Departure Sets Up Generational Shift In House Dem Caucus: ‘This Is Hakeem’s Time’
TPM’s Kate Riga contributed reporting.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) announcement on Thursday afternoon that she will not seek a leadership role in the next Congress has paved the way for a new, younger generation to lead House Democrats. Pelosi had served as her party’s leader in Congress since 2003. According to a pair of senior Democratic staffers, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is likely to be named the party’s leader in a vote set for November 30.
“It looks like it will be zero competitive races for upper leadership. We expect Jeffries will win by acclamation,” one of the staffers said.
Continue reading “Pelosi’s Departure Sets Up Generational Shift In House Dem Caucus: ‘This Is Hakeem’s Time’ “The Dems’ Sinema Problem
Kyrsten Sinema has been a thorn in the side of Democrats for the last two years. Unlike, co-thorn Joe Manchin, there’s no obvious reason why she insisted on being one. (As Eric Levitz notes, Mark Kelly’s victory is an indictment of Sinema’s politics.) Manchin is from the most pro-Trump state in the country. Sinema’s not.
In recent weeks, Rep. Ruben Gallego has been signaling more and more clearly that he may challenge Sinema in a primary in advance of her reelection campaign in 2024. Normally in such circumstances partisans try to find a balance between disciplining or displacing an errant elected official and the risk of losing the seat altogether. But that mistakes the challenge Democrats actually face. Because Sinema is already unelectable.
Let’s start with the fact that 2024 is going to be a very challenging year for the Democrats to hold the Senate. The pick-up opportunities are challenging at best. Democrats must defend seats in Ohio, Montana and West Virginia. In other words, Democrats can’t afford to lose a seat in Arizona if they have hopes of retaining Senate control.
Continue reading “The Dems’ Sinema Problem”Pelosi Will Not Seek Reelection To Dem Leadership In Next Congress
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Thursday she will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress, but will continue serving in her role as a representative.
Pelosi’s announcement marks a long-awaited generational sea change in the House Democratic leadership. Moments after Pelosi wrapped her speech, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced he would not seek reelection in the next Congress either. Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) released a more ambiguous statement shortly after Pelosi’s speech, expressing his support for new leadership, but he has since indicated he will run for assistant leader. All three Democrats are over 80 years old and have held down the top leadership slots for most of this century.
Continue reading “Pelosi Will Not Seek Reelection To Dem Leadership In Next Congress”