Entirely predictably the knives are already out in the House for probable Speaker Kevin McCarthy. On cue they all come from the hard right of the caucus who believe the problem in 2022 is that Republicans weren’t sufficiently feral. More interesting is a push on the Senate side to delay the Republican leadership elections in the upper chamber. The wannabe mutineers don’t seem quite willing to say what they’re doing. They’re not coming out against McConnell, proposing an alternative leader or criticizing his management. But since McConnell’s leadership is almost universally assumed there’s only one logic and aim of delay.
Continue reading “Is There a Revolt Against McConnell?”Where We Stand
ITEM One: I continue to be calmly stunned that the battle for control of the House still does not seem settled. Any Republican margin is likely to be so minuscule that it amounts to something of a poisoned chalice for Kevin McCarthy and the GOP generally. As I’ve noted repeatedly, the debt ceiling remains the sui generis, overriding thing. But if you set that aside, given that Democrats will not get 52 senate seats, in purely political terms there’s actually some real advantage in having Republicans hold the House by only one or two seats.
Continue reading “Where We Stand”Umm… What?
We need to remember that Donald Trump is a pathological liar. That said, I think this requires some explanation, if only a clear and definitive confirmation that this did not happen.
Battle Over Senate Is Down To The Wire In Nevada And Arizona
With control of the Senate still up in the air several days after Election Day, all eyes are on Nevada and Arizona, where the Senate races are both still too close to call.
Continue reading “Battle Over Senate Is Down To The Wire In Nevada And Arizona”How Did You Feel About the Fetterman Win?
John Fetterman’s Pennsylvania Senate run turned out to be one of the most high-stakes, closely watched and — for many — most emotionally engaging of the cycle. Now we are going to learn how it unfolded from the inside. On Monday at 2 p.m. ET will be joined for a TPM Newsmaker briefing by Fetterman campaign manager Brendan McPhillips. We’ll talk about the early salad days when it seemed like Fetterman might win in a landslide, the tightening polls, press criticism over Fetterman’s absence from the campaign trail, the debate and what the campaign did to secure victory in the final days when many election analysts were predicting a Mehmet Oz win in a Republican wave.
TPM’s Kate Riga and I will lead the discussion and take your questions. The briefing is open to all TPM members. If you’re a member you should be receiving an email shortly with instructions on how to register and join us on Monday.
Listen To This: Senator Elect John Fetterman (D-PA)
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate break down election results from a night that was decidedly not a red wave.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here
How the Press Missed the 2022 Non-Wave
Democratic strategists Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier were the two most prominent voices telling us for weeks that the 2022 Red Wave was a mirage. They were right. We talked to them yesterday about what they saw. If you weren’t able to join us live you can see the discussion after the jump.
Continue reading “How the Press Missed the 2022 Non-Wave”McCarthy’s Already Facing MAGA-Sized Hurdles In Front Of Speaker Ambitions
Though the House still hasn’t been called yet after the midterms, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) kicked off his long-awaited journey to the House speakership on Wednesday, sending a letter to the rest of the House Republican Conference that formally announced his campaign for the top leadership role.
He’s already facing stumbling blocks from the chamber’s hard-core Trumpists.
Continue reading “McCarthy’s Already Facing MAGA-Sized Hurdles In Front Of Speaker Ambitions”Ron DeSantis Will Go Through Some Things
One of the clearest takeaways from the 2022 midterm was that Trump-backed candidates did quite poorly. Meanwhile Ron DeSantis chalked up a thundering reelection victory in Florida, just shy of 60% of the vote. That is the kind of reelection victory that cues up a big state governor for a presidential run. DeSantis can say plausibly that he essentially owns the state of Florida and that he has a politics that sells in a large and diverse state. These factors have begun to coalesce into a push within the GOP to move not beyond Trumpism, which DeSantis embodies, but beyond Trump himself. Trump is old, profoundly divisive, in deep legal trouble. Meanwhile Republicans have suffered defeat in the last three electoral cycles largely because of opposition to him.
Moving away from Trump, though, will be a lot harder than it looks.
Continue reading “Ron DeSantis Will Go Through Some Things”Still Counting…But Wow That Could Have Been A LOT Worse
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Still In Limbo
As of Thursday morning, it’s still too early to tell which party will control the Senate and House after the widely expected “red wave” turned out to be more of a pink dribble.
- Control of the Senate is now down to three key races that haven’t been called yet:
- Sen. Mark Kelly (D) vs. Republican Blake Masters in Arizona.
- Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) vs. Republican Adam Laxalt in Nevada.
- Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia. Warnock and Walker are headed to a runoff that’ll be held on Dec. 6.
- The Alaska Senate race between Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka hasn’t been called yet either, but that seat’s staying red either way since both candidates are Republicans.
- The House is also up in the air (dozens of close races still haven’t been called), and if Republicans do win back the chamber, they’ll have a much slimmer majority than they’d hoped for.
Boebert’s Thiiiiis Close To Being Unemployed
Colorado is very, very close to giving far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) the boot in her race against Democrat Adam Frisch, who currently has a paper-thin lead of 64 votes over the congresswoman.
Catching Up On TPM’s Midterms Coverage
Hey, did you know the midterms happened? Learn more about it through our liveblog.
- “Five Things That Surprised Us Last Night” – Josh Kovensky, Kate Riga and Emine Yücel
- “America Starts To Reject Election Deniers” – Josh Kovensky and Kaila Philo
A String Of Wins For Abortion Rights
As grim as a post-Roe reality is, reproductive rights advocates got some big wins to soften the blow in the midterms, where California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont all had abortion rights on the ballot.
- California, Michigan (!), and Vermont all voted to enshrine the right to an abortion in their state constitutions.
- Kentucky (!!) rejected a constitutional amendment that would say explicitly that Kentuckians don’t have a right to abortion care.
- Montana rejected a legislative measure that would create criminal penalties for health care providers who don’t take actions that are “medically appropriate and reasonable” to save an infant who is born alive, including if the infant was born after an attempted abortion.
Trump Definitely Isn’t Mad, Okay???
Fun Reads
“Trump Under Fire From Within G.O.P. After Midterms” – The New York Times
“We ‘Sh!t the Bed So Bad.’ The GOP Post-Midterm Meltdown Has Begun” – Rolling Stone
“Waiting For God At Doug Mastriano’s Election Night Watch Party” – HuffPost
A little after midnight, one video showed a few dozen remaining Mastriano supporters, many sullenly sitting in chairs, as the DJ played “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.
“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down,” Astley sang as the disco lights circled above people’s heads. “Never gonna run around and desert you.”
🎶Morning Memo Radio🎶
I haven’t done one of these in a while:
Elon Musk Unleashes Chaos With Paid Blue Check Scheme
Faced with fleeing advertisers, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is trying to pay for his $44 billion Twitter purchase by implementing a new “feature” in which any user can pay $8 a month to get a blue check that was previously available only for verified public figures, members of the media, brands, etc.
Cue the most obvious possible result of Musk’s gambit:
Jesse Watters Freaks Out Over Fetterman Win
Fox News personality Jesse Watters had some trouble coming to terms with Democrat John Fetterman defeating celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz for a Pennsylvania Senate seat:
A Humble Request
Given that this is will be my last time writing Morning Memo, I’d like to ask for something from you, dear readers, before I sign off: Please post pics of your cats (or your friends’ cats or literally any cats) in the comments. Bonus points if the kitty is in loaf form (arguably the most delightful shape a cat can take).
Here, I’ll get the ball rolling with my own cat, Waffles:
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!