Subject: Playbook PM: House Dems project confidence as voters take to the polls
From: "Anna Palmer Jake Sherman Daniel Lippman" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2018 12:00:10 -0600
List-Id: <1376319.xt.local>

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 By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun 
             
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HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CALIF.) and DCCC CHAIRMAN BEN RAY LUJAN (D-N.M.) gaggled at the DCCC this morning. LUJAN said he is "confident Democrats will win the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives." PELOSI said she was 100 percent sure of victory tonight. 

-- ASKED IF SHE WAS confident she'll be speaker, Pelosi said, "We'll talk tomorrow."

NYT'S JIM RUTENBERG on the Sean Hannity/Jeanine Pirro rally appearance with PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (@jimrutenberg): "LATEST FROM FOX ON HANNITY RALLY: 'FOX News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events.We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work.This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed."

PROBLEMS IN GEORGIA? ... AP: "Long lines and malfunctioning machines marred the first hours of voting in some precincts across the U.S. Some of the biggest problems Tuesday were in Georgia, a state with a hotly contested gubernatorial election. Voters reported waiting up to three hours to vote.

"At a polling place in Snellville, Georgia, more than 100 people took turns sitting in children's chairs and on the floor as they waited in line for hours. Voter Ontaria Woods said about two dozen people who had come to vote left because of the lines.

"At a poll site in Atlanta, voters waited in the rain in long lines that stretched around the building. Hannah Ackermann said officials at the polling site offered various explanations for the delay, including blaming workers who didn't show up and overloaded machines." AP

IOWA REP. STEVE KING'S CLOSING MESSAGE, via WaPo's Felicia Sonmez: "Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Monday that he hopes Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor 'will elope to Cuba,' hours before he was to appear with Iowa's governor in an election-eve rally.

"King has a long history of making inflammatory comments on race and immigration. He recently drew a rebuke from a top Republican Party leader and lost support from corporations, including Land O'Lakes, although he is still favored to win reelection Tuesday.

"At an appearance in Hampton, Iowa, King was discussing the Supreme Court and said that he was optimistic that 'we'll have a 7-2 court' after Tuesday's midterms, according to Weekly Standard assistant opinion editor Adam Rubenstein. King added that perhaps 'Kagan and Sotomayor will elope to Cuba,' referring to President Barack Obama's two Supreme Court appointments." WaPo

Good Tuesday afternoon. THE PRESIDENT TWEETED support for Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a 26-year veteran of the House. Trump also retweeted his own tweets supporting a number of Republican candidates in tight races.

POLITICO'S MIDTERM COVERAGE ... Follow along on the POLITICO site for results, news and analysis all day and night. Latest results ... House map ... Senate map ... Live analysis ... Hour-by-hour guide ... Election results bot ... Sign up for news alerts 

YOU'RE INVITED -- ANNA and JAKE are sitting down with top Republican and Democratic operatives for a "PLAYBOOK ELECTIONS: WHAT'S NEXT?" event to make sense of the 2018 midterms. Speakers to be announced soon for this event, part of the POLITICO-AARP Deciders series. DETAILS: Nov. 15 at 5:30 p.m. at The Showroom. RSVP
       
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AROUND THE MIDTERM HORN ...

-- RETIRING REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CALIF.) says his district will be won by a Democrat. Video, via TPM

-- NYT'S TRIP GABRIEL in Des Moines: "Two Visions of Patriotism Clash in the Midterm Elections": "Here in the middle of the country, where three of Iowa's four House races are competitive, and where Mr. Trump first rewrote the rules of patriotism by attacking a war hero and ex-P.O.W., Senator John McCain, it is clear that Republicans and Democrats part ways over the meaning of duty, respect and love of country. 

"For Republicans and Mr. Trump ... patriotism in politics often means conspicuous displays of respect for the traditional expressions of America - the flag, the military, the Pledge of Allegiance. ... [M]any Democrats described their vote as a different form of patriotism, an urgent effort to protect and reclaim American democracy. ... Democrats see a president who has sought to use the Justice Department against his political enemies, to undo constitutional protections including freedom of speech and birthright citizenship, and who has dangerous authoritarian tendencies." NYT 

-- WAPO'S ELI ROSENBERG: "Republicans attack Jewish candidates across the U.S. with an age-old caricature: Fistfuls of cash"

-- NYT'S MATT FLEGENHEIMER in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: "'Just Really Anxious': An America on Edge Votes on a Day That Really Matters" 

-- "Here's What Else Is Being Decided on Tuesday," by Ruair&iacute; Arrieta-Kenna in POLITICO Magazine: "Billionaire Democrat and environmental advocate Tom Steyer has poured millions into campaigns to increase the renewable energy mandates in Arizona and Nevada, for example, while opposition to California's Proposition 8, which would cap revenue at the state's dialysis clinics, hit a ballot initiative fundraising record of $111 million. In total, there will be 155 initiatives across 37 different states on the ballot on Tuesday." POLITICO Magazine 

-- CLICKER ... NYT'S SUSAN CHIRA: "13 Questions about Women and the Midterms" 

THE PRESIDENT -- HE'S JUST LIKE US! ... "Trump's Election Day plans include monitoring races, watching returns with friends," by Caitlin Oprysko. POLITICO

THE STEP BACK -- THE ATLANTIC'S MCKAY COPPINS: "Trump Already Won the Midterms": "Heading into Election Day, some commentators have argued that the best way to de-Trumpify the GOP would be to hand the party a stinging defeat by flipping control of the House. That's certainly possible. But the same electoral dynamics that have placed that goal within reach could also, counterintuitively enough, end up tightening Trump's grip on the caucus that remains.

"With so many of this year's campaign battlegrounds located in suburban districts that are trending blue, it stands to reason that the Republicans who lose their seats Tuesday will be those whose constituents don't demand absolute fealty to the president. The result, in this scenario, could be a smaller Republican caucus, yes-but one populated almost entirely by die-hard Trumpists." The Atlantic 

-- ANDREW RESTUCCIA and DARREN SAMUELSOHN, "'It's depressing as hell': Dem win would spell misery for Trump White House aides": "White House staffers can expect to work past midnight battling congressional committees, wage exhausting fights over redactions to internal documents, suffer through mind-numbing meetings with government lawyers about the nuances of executive privilege and see their memos and emails leaked to the media by freshly-empowered Democratic investigators." With cameos by Chris Lehane, Leon Panetta, Neil Eggleston, Jack Quinn, Fred Fielding and Harold Ickes: POLITICO

WHAT ELSE IS ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 10:20 a.m.: "There is a rumor, put out by the Democrats, that Josh Hawley of Missouri left the Arena last night early. It is Fake News. He met me at the plane when I arrived, spoke at the great Rally, & stayed to the very end. In fact, I said goodbye to him and left before he did. Deception!"

-- CAITLIN OPRYSKO: "'Fox and Friends,' one of the president's favorite shows, claimed that Hawley did not stick around for the rally's entirety. 'Why Josh Hawley didn't stay last night for the Missouri rally is beyond me,' host Brian Kilmeade said near the top of the show in an explanation of how passionate Trump rallygoers are. 'What could he have been doing that was so important?'" POLITICO 

IMMIGRATION FILES -- VOX'S DARA LIND: "Exclusive: even before the caravan, Trump took steps to use travel bans to limit asylum": "As soon as this week, the Trump administration is expected to issue a new asylum policy - ostensibly in response to the migrant 'caravan' - that could have the effect of barring people who enter the US between ports of entry from asylum.

"The policy has been developed hastily over the past couple of weeks, primarily by the Department of Justice. Details of what the Trump administration plans to roll out in the coming days are still unknown. ... That plan could also allow the government to try parents and children independently - rather than granting protections to entire families - and make it easier for the government to keep asylum seekers in immigration detention without bond for the months it took to process their cases." Vox

         
ON THE WORLD STAGE ... "Iran officials mock, warn U.S. over renewed sanctions," by AP's Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell in Tehran: "The 'largest-ever' U.S. sanctions list targeting Iran drew mockery from Iranian officials on Tuesday for including mothballed Boeing 747s, a bank that closed years earlier and a sunken oil tanker that exploded off China months ago.

"However, the new list of sanctions, which also aims to cut Iran's vital oil industry off from international sales, also included for the first time its state airline and its atomic energy commission, further highlighting the maximalist approach of President Donald Trump's administration." AP 

-- NYT'S CARLOTTA GALL in Istanbul: "Erdogan Champions Khashoggi While Trampling Turkish Journalists and Dissidents": "The tactics [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan has used against the Saudis are much the same ones he has perfected against political enemies at home - leaks planted by government sources and reported by friendly news outlets, which he then cites to destroy his opponents.

"That approach has become a staple of the president's arsenal to spread intimidation and to crack down on dissent. He has been able to employ it so effectively, including against the Saudis, partly because of a compliant news media that he has fashioned over 16 years in power." NYT 

ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA ... WSJ'S ANDREW JEONG in Seoul: "U.S., North Korea Toughen Stance Ahead of Nuclear Talks": "North Korea says it has made enough concessions on nuclear disarmament and has grown more strident in its demands for the U.S. to reciprocate. Last week, Pyongyang threatened to resume building up its nuclear forces if the U.S. doesn't remove sanctions or provide other ways to improve relations. ...

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is scheduled to meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong Chol in New York on Thursday, said last week that sanctions would stay in place until the complete and verified denuclearization of North Korea. A lack of progress in the talks would lend credence to doubts among U.S. officials and security analysts about whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sincere about delivering on his June agreement with President Trump on denuclearization." WSJ
               
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