Today in politics
That’s it from us tonight. My colleagues will be keeping an eye on the Ohio rally for any impending announcements. Otherwise here’s what happened today:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first interview since the attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi, last month by a seemingly-unhinged, rightwing conspiracy theory-spouting assailant will be broadcast tonight by CNN at 8pm.
Donald Trump has appealed a judge’s order to install a watchdog at the Trump Organization family business before a civil fraud case by the state’s attorney general goes to trial.
Rumors are swirling that Trump could announce his 2024 presidential bid tonight when he appears at a rally for Senate candidate JD Vance in Dayton, Ohio, on the eve of the midterm elections, where Republicans hope to shine.
Twitter owner Elon Musk posted on his social media platform endorsing the Republicans in the midterm elections.
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the so-called Wagner mercenary group fighting on Russia’s side in the invasion of Ukraine, said today he had interfered in US elections and would continue doing so in future.
It’s the last full day of election campaigning before the big vote tomorrow. US president Joe Biden and former president and Republican beacon Donald Trump will be out on the trail tonight in a contest where so much is at stake for each of their parties – and American democracy.
President Joe Biden says Democrats were “up against some of the darkest forces we’ve ever seen in our history”, according to a White House Pool report from the Guardian’s David Smith. “These Maga Republicans are a different breed of cat. This is not your father’s Republican party.”
Texas senator Ted Cruz was hit with a beer can while riding a float during the Houston Astros victory parade on Monday.
Updated
AP is reporting that an Arizona judge has blocked the hand count of early ballots. Republicans pushed for the count because they claimed they do not trust the voting machines.
PHOENIX (AP) — Judge blocks hand-count of early ballots in Arizona county; measure sought by Republicans who don't trust vote machines.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) November 7, 2022
The move is among more than 100 pre-election lawsuits filed by Republicans around the ways votes are casted or counted.
Updated
A man was arrested after Texas senator Ted Cruz was hit with a beer can while riding a float during the Houston Astros victory parade on Monday, according to Houston police department.
HPD made one arrest during today’s victory parade. A male, 33, threw a beer can at U.S. Senator Ted Cruz as the Senator was on a float in the 2400 block of Smith St. The beer can struck the Senator in the chest/neck area. The Senator did not require medical attention.
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) November 7, 2022
1/2
Cruz and his companions were also met with mass boos from the crowd.
Ted Cruz pulled off what I thought was impossible- getting booed at a championship parade. pic.twitter.com/B4oVgP404Q
— Chancellor Johnson (@ChancellorTV) November 7, 2022
With Trump’s appearance at the Ohio rally looming, Richard Luscombe provides a look at the evolving animosity developing between the former president and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is poised to be the most likely challenger to Trump if he chooses to run for reelection.
Luscombe writes:
Until now, DeSantis and Trump have mostly kept each other at arm’s length. But clues to their fractured relationship were evident as early as August 2020, when the notoriously prickly DeSantis denounced as “a phony narrative” an assertion he was the then president’s “yes man” in Florida.
The governor subsequently criticized Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying earlier this year he regretted “not speaking out” sooner against Trump’s call for a nationwide lockdown. In response, Trump called DeSantis “gutless” for refusing to reveal if he had been given a Covid booster vaccine.
In June, Trump began readying his anti-DeSantis rhetoric, telling the New Yorker he would beat his rival in a nomination contest and claiming it was only his endorsement that revived the three-term congressman’s faltering campaign for governor in 2017.
Now, with the distraction of the midterms almost out of the way, and with Trump seeking a clear run for his third presidential run as a Republican, DeSantis too has been granted a derogatory nickname.
DeSantis’s apparent focus on 2024 – notwithstanding reports he has told donors he may wait until 2028, when Trump will be out of the way – became an issue during the governor’s debate in Florida last month. Charlie Crist, the Democratic nominee, repeatedly challenged DeSantis to say if he would commit to a full four-year term if re-elected.
Seizing on DeSantis’s refusal to answer, Crist said: “It’s not a tough question. It’s a fair question. He won’t tell you.”
DeSantis described Crist, a Republican Florida governor turned Democratic congressman, “a worn out old donkey” he was looking to “put out to pasture”.
At the Miami rally on Sunday, Trump declined to criticize DeSantis again but offered only tepid support for him in Tuesday’s elections, compared to his comments about Rubio and other Republicans in congressional and state races.
“You’re going to re-elect the wonderful, the great friend of mine, Marco Rubio to the United States Senate. And you are going to re-elect Ron DeSantis as your governor,” Trump said.
Updated
The Republican rally for JD Vance has begun in Dayton, Ohio, and Republican candidate for the House of Representatives JR Majewski has taken the stage expressing hope that Trump will announce his bid for reelection. “Folks I can’t wait to see Trump Force One come on down the tarmac and I hope we hear the announcement that we’ve been waiting for: Trump 2024.”
Majewski, who started his speech by saying his pronouns were “patriot” and “ass kicker” also called Nancy Pelosi “drunk” and “nasty” and “dared” Democrat candidate for Ohio senate Tim Ryan to come to the rally. “Timmy if you’re watching, and I know you are, there’s a whole lot of Maga going on in Dayton, Ohio, and you should come on down here, I double-dog dare you.”
JR Majewski is already smearing "that drunk, nasty Nancy Pelosi" at the Trump rally in Dayton, Ohio, and basically challenging Tim Ryan to a fight pic.twitter.com/kopAydz3UA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 7, 2022
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President Joe Biden says Maga Republicans are "some of the darkest forces" in US history
In another DNC virtual reception on Monday afternoon, President Joe Biden said the Democrats were “up against some of the darkest forces we’ve ever seen in our history”, according to a White House Pool report from the Guardian’s David Smith. “These Maga Republicans are a different breed of cat. This is not your father’s Republican party.”
Biden reiterated his gratitude for the DNC’s work ahead of the midterm elections and said he thought they had a shot at keeping the Senate and that he was “optimistic about the House as well”.
“It’s not about power for power’s sake,” Biden said. “It’s about getting power to work for people who need a little bit of help. Just a shot.”
“Again, not power for power’s sake but power for the good of the country. I know it’s not easy,” he continued.
Biden’s remarks come hours before Donald Trump is expected to announce his bid for reelection at a rally for Senate candidate JD Vance in Ohio.
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There are dozens of lawsuits being filed ahead of the election in battleground states, CNN is reporting. Many of the 120 lawsuits filed since 3 November deal with voting processes like how people can vote and how votes are counted.
It’s a major increase from previous elections, according to the CNN report which indicates there were only 68 pre-election lawsuits in 2020. One in five of these complaints were filed by state GOP committees or the Republican National Committee.
A judge in Detroit threw out one such lawsuit earlier today, according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit brought by Kristin Karamo, the GOP candidate for secretary of state, challenged voting by absentee ballot and intended to force Michigan residents to vote in person. But the judge found that there was no evidence of election violations, despite the plaintiffs’ arguments.
Updated
Johana Bhuiyan here taking over the blog.
Today, President Joe Biden spoke at a virtual Democratic National Committee reception and said he was optimistic about tomorrow’s elections and thanked those in attendance for their hard work. He also warned that they still had a “lot of work to do to get out that vote”, according to a pool report.
“You helped get me and Kamala elected in 2020 and we’re going to surprise the living devil out of people because of all the work you’ve done,” Biden said.
Biden also said that if “Maga Republicans take over” American jobs, ingenuity, as well as fundamental rights and freedoms are “very much in jeopardy”.
“I want to remind you to remind your teams, with so much at stake for our nation, don’t leave a thing – put it all out there,” he said. “Go full bore till the last poll closes. Make that extra call – not a joke. Knock on that extra door.”
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Interim summary
Hello again, live blog readers, it’s a lively day in US politics, on the eve of the midterm elections. We’ll continue to bring you the news as it happens for the next few hours. My colleague Johana Bhuiyan will take over now.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first interview since the attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi, last month by a seemingly-unhinged, right-wing conspiracy theory-spouting assailant will be broadcast tonight by CNN at 8pm.
Donald Trump has appealed a judge’s order to install a watchdog at the Trump Organization family business before a civil fraud case by the state’s attorney general goes to trial.
Rumors are swirling that Trump could announce his 2024 presidential bid tonight when he appears at a rally for Senate candidate JD Vance in Dayton, Ohio, on the eve of the midterm elections, where Republicans hope to shine.
Twitter owner Elon Musk posted on his social media platform endorsing the Republicans in the midterm elections.
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the so-called Wagner mercenary group fighting on Russia’s side in the invasion of Ukraine, said today he had interfered in US elections and would continue doing so in future.
It’s the last full day of election campaigning before the big vote tomorrow. US president Joe Biden and former president and Republican beacon Donald Trump will be out on the trail tonight in a contest where so much is at stake for each of their parties – and American democracy.
Yet more speculation that Donald Trump could announce his next run for president, in the 2024 race, tonight at a rally he’s attending in Ohio for Republican candidate for the US Senate there, JD Vance.
Now the New York Post has a report. Note the ever-teasing, ever-shifting nature of the situation. The tabloid notes, citing anonymous sources, that Trump “has told several allies he could announce a 2024 presidential run Monday night” – bold italics ours.
The article further mentions, again our bolding and italicizing: “A well-connected Republican source said the 45th president was ‘telling people he might tonight, but it’s not a done thing’.”
The Post acknowledges it’s not clear what will happen, and that Trump is “mercurial.”
A judge today agreed to extend the deadline to return absentee ballots for voters in a suburban Atlanta county who didn’t receive their ballots because election officials failed to mail them.
Some of the voters filed a lawsuit Sunday seeking the extension after Cobb county election officials in Cobb county acknowledged Friday that the county failed to mail out more than 1,000 absentee ballots to voters who had requested them, The Associated Press reports.
County elections director Janine Eveler wrote in an email to the county election board that because of staff error, ballots were never created nor sent on two days last month, the lawsuit says.
We know it wasn’t the voters’ fault, we know it wasn’t the post office’s fault. This was an administrative error,” said Daniel White, an attorney for the elections office, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As a result of the error, 1,036 voters never received the ballots they requested. State election data shows that about 250 of them had voted in person during early voting.
But the lawsuit said many of those whose ballots weren’t sent may not be able to vote without action by the court.
Election officials agreed to the lawsuit’s demands that the deadline to return ballots be extended and that the voters be contacted and sent an absentee ballot by overnight mail.
During the three weeks of early voting that precede Election Day, election officials are supposed to send out ballots within three days of receiving a request. Voters then have until 7 p.m. on Election Day to return their ballots.
Georgia is a battleground state that features a fiercely contested governor’s race, as well as a Senate contest between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker that could determine which party controls the narrowly divided chamber.
Here’s the Guardian’s latest Politics Weekly America podcast, where host Jonathan Freedland reports from Georgia.
For Raphael Warnock, a boost from Stevie Wonder can’t hurt.
The GOAT @StevieWonder himself knows the stakes of this election. Make your plan to vote this Tuesday! pic.twitter.com/jNoLzeDysg
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) November 6, 2022
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The newest US Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has issued her first supreme court opinion, making a short dissent today in support of a death row inmate from Ohio.
Jackson wrote that she would have thrown out lower court rulings in the case of inmate Davel Chinn, whose lawyers argued that the state suppressed evidence that might have altered the outcome of his trial, The Associated Press reports.
Jackson, in a two-page opinion, wrote that she would have ordered a new look at Chinn’s case:
Because his life is on the line and given the substantial likelihood that the suppressed records would have changed the outcome at trial.”
The evidence at issue indicated that a key witness against Chinn has an intellectual disability that might have affected his memory and ability to testify accurately, she wrote.
Prosecutors are required to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. In this case, lower courts determined that the outcome would not have been affected if the witness’ records had been provided to Chinn’s lawyers.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only other member of the court to join Jackson’s opinion. The two justices also were allies in dissent Monday in Sotomayor’s opinion that there was serious prosecutorial misconduct in the trial of a Louisiana man who was convicted of sex trafficking.
Jackson joined the high court on June 30, following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, her onetime boss.
The court has yet to decide any of the cases argued in October or the first few days of this month. Jackson almost certainly will be writing a majority opinion in one of those cases.
There’s a fuller report from The Hill, which has this quote:
Justices Jackson and Sotomayor recognized the injustice in upholding Davel Chinn’s conviction and death sentence when the State suppressed exculpatory evidence that, based on the Ohio Courts’ own representations, was likely to result in an acquittal. Ohio must not exacerbate the mistakes of the past by pursuing Mr. Chinn’s execution,” said Rachel Troutman, an attorney for Chinn.
Results in the midterm elections will come through in dribs and drabs after polls close at various times tomorrow and races could be called in hours, a few days or more.
Here’s a useful piece from FiveThirtyEight with a guide to the races state by state. We probably won’t know who the winners are on election night itself, and therefore who will have control of the House and Senate next year.
For example, in the crucial race in Pennsylvania for an open US Senate seat, things could take a while.
INBOX: @JohnFetterman's campaign says in a memo to reporters to "buckle up for a long week," saying that the ballot counting process could take "several days" before the results are made clear #PASEN https://t.co/bOoHG0jxJP pic.twitter.com/sRoPEtbbGG
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) November 7, 2022
Why the midterms matter, by our Guardian team:
The Guardian relies on the Associated Press to declare when races have been called.
US support for Ukraine’s continued resistance to the invasion by Russia will be “unflinching and unwavering,” the White House has asserted.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is briefing the media in Washington right now and has been asked about support for Ukraine, given a lot of reporting that if the Republicans win control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections they will block further spending on military aid for Ukraine.
Jean-Pierre said that the White House will work hard to make sure there is a bipartisan effort on Ukraine, no matter the results of the midterm elections.
Those voters who have not already cast their ballots are invited to go to the polls tomorrow, on election day.
Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre reported that no specific, credible threats to the security of the midterm elections have been reported by law enforcement, Reuters adds.
“Law enforcement has briefed us that there are no specific, credible threats identified at this point,” Jean-Pierre told the briefing.
Biden has been briefed “on the threat environment and directed that all appropriate steps be taken to ensure safe and secure voting,” she said.
Further on Ukraine:
Russia admits to interfering in US elections on behalf of Republicans, the same week Marjorie Taylor Greene (who’s angling to be Trump’s running mate) promises that “under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine” https://t.co/JZFpehpg6L
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) November 7, 2022
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'I never thought it would be Paul' – Speaker Pelosi following attack on husband
House speaker Nancy Pelosi was asleep in her residence in Washington when the doorbell rang at 5am on Friday morning last month, followed by banging on the door, CNN reports.
“So I run to the door, and I’m very scared,” Pelosi has told Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview to be aired on CNN tonight.
She added: “I see the Capitol police and they say, ‘We have to come in to talk to you.’ And I’m thinking my children, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul because, you know, I knew he wouldn’t be out and about, shall we say. And so they came in. At that time, we didn’t even know where he was,” she said.
Paul Pelosi had been attacked in the couple’s San Francisco home, an assailant, demanding to see Nancy, whacking him on the head with a hammer, breaking his skull and putting him in hospital.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi describes the moment she learned about the attack on her husband in her first sit-down interview since the violence in their home https://t.co/1L8EZLHWvD
— CNN (@CNN) November 7, 2022
The attack heightened fears of further escalation in threats of violence to lawmakers, families and staff.
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Trump appeals New York court order for watchdog at company
Former US president Donald Trump today appealed a judge’s order to install a watchdog at the Trump Organization family business before a civil fraud case by the state’s attorney general goes to trial.
Manhattan-based judge Arthur Engoron last Thursday granted state attorney general Letitia James’s request to appoint an independent monitor to halt alleged ongoing fraud at the real estate company and keep the Trumps from transferring assets out of her reach, Reuters reports.
Engoron’s order bars the defendants from transferring assets without court approval, and requires that the monitor receive a “full and accurate description” of the Trump Organization’s structure and assets.
James had in September named Trump, three of his adult children, the Trump Organization and others as defendants in a $250m civil fraud lawsuit for allegedly overvaluing assets and Trump’s net worth through a decade of lies to banks and insurers.
In a notice of appeal filed today, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba and lawyers for his children, Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr, said the defendants asked the appellate division, a mid-level state appeals court, to review Engoron’s order, without laying out her legal arguments.
Trump, a Republican, last week called Engoron’s order “ridiculous” and the Trump Organization called it an “obvious attempt” to influence Tuesday’s midterm US elections. James is a Democrat.
Engoron gave both sides until 10 November to recommend three candidates to be come a monitor.
The case is among many legal battles Trump faces as he mulls a 2024 bid for the presidency.
Testimony began last week in another Manhattan courtroom in a criminal case by the Manhattan district attorney’s office accusing the Trump Organization of scheming to defraud tax authorities for at least 15 years. The company has pleaded not guilty.
James has accused Trump et al of “staggering fraud”.
Updated
A Michigan judge harshly rebuked Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee to be Michigan’s top election official, as he rejected a last-minute lawsuit to get tens of thousands of mail-in ballots rejected.
Karamo’s campaign filed a last minute challenge seeking to invalidate mail-in ballots in Detroit, which is heavily Black and Democratic, saying the city’s process for validating the mail-in votes ran afoul of state law. A ruling in her favor could have invalidated the votes of 60,000 people who voted by mail already in the city.
But Timothy Kenny, the chief judge for the third judicial circuit, rejected that request on Monday, saying the challengers had not produced any evidence of illegal activity.
“Plaintiffs have raised a false flag of election law violations and corruption concerning Detroit’s procedures for the November 8th election. This Court’s ruling takes down that flag,” Kenny wrote in his ruling.
“Plaintiffs’ failure to produce any evidence that the procedures for this November 8th election violate state or federal election law demonizes the Detroit City Clerk, her office staff, and the 1,200 volunteers working this election. These claims are unjustified, devoid of any evidentiary basis and cannot be allowed to stand,” he added.
A Wayne county judge had pretty harsh words for the campaign of the GOP nominee for secretary of state, who wanted tens of thousands of mail-in ballots in Detroit rejected. "These claims are unjustified,
— Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2022
devoid of any evidentiary basis and cannot be allowed to stand." pic.twitter.com/FdZDhXrBgJ
I’ve been reporting in Michigan these last few days and yesterday afternoon I caught up with Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who is running for re-election as secretary of state. She’s also overseeing the election here, a key battleground state, where there are concerns about violence and intimidation at the polls.
Benson is one of several Democrats across the country who are running against opponents who have cast doubt on the 2020 election results. Her opponent, Kristina Karamo, has falsely claimed she witnessed fraud on election night in 2020 and recently filed a lawsuit trying to get thousands of mail-in ballots in Detroit rejected.
Benson told me she saw the suit as an effort to pre-emptively cast doubt on the election results in Detroit.
“This is certainly a strategic effort to sow seeds of doubt about the integrity of our elections, about the validity of absentee ballots in Detroit. There’s no question that’s the strategy there. I don’t think it’s worked,” she said.
“What we’ve seen in response, and in part that’s because of the work we’ve done over the last few years to call out the election deniers and lies and the meritless lawsuits as they’ve been filed, is that there’s almost a uniform chorus, particularly coming from Detroit, acknowledging the invalidity of the lawsuit, acknowledging the real nefarious intent behind it, she added. “I think it’s backfired.”
I also asked Benson, who is leading in the polls, what strategies other candidates running against election deniers could take away from her campaign.
“Talking in the abstract about democracy being under attack, while that’s real and I’ve certainly done that over the last few years and will continue to do so, we really also need to talk in the specifics about what that actually means,” she said. “What it means to empower folks who have been lying to voters as opposed to holding them accountable and rejecting them.”
Here’s something else from Levine and team:
Some of the most consequential races in this election are the ones Americans may be least paying attention to. Overlooked battles for state legislative chambers that could have far-reaching consequences for US democracy https://t.co/HVGSNX7wyp w/ @rachelleingang @awitherspoon
— Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2022
Benson was getting some celeb support this weekend, as was governor Whitmer.
AMAZING DAY in Michigan! VOTE @GovWhitmer and @JocelynBenson AND Prop 1, 2 AND 3!!!!! pic.twitter.com/9QSdsh1Mja
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) November 5, 2022
Campaign trail madness.
Thank you for everything Michigan! I looooooved hanging with you all. Next stop: Pennsylvania!!!!!!! #GoVote #SOSTour @KHBforjustice @JocelynBenson pic.twitter.com/y5NeO5DgwN
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) November 6, 2022
Updated
Richard Luscombe reports on the prospects of the Republican “ultra-Maga” candidates, the standard-bearers of Trumpism, in tomorrow’s elections …
The spectre of Donald Trump’s imminent declaration of a new White House run looms over races in several key states ahead of Tuesday’s US midterm elections, with the former president poised to seize on any success for ultra-conservative candidates as validation for his 2024 campaign.
Opinion polls appearing to reflect a last-minute surge of support for Trump-endorsed nominees in a number of crucial congressional and governors’ contests came as the former president appeared at a rally for the Republican senator Marco Rubio in Florida on Sunday.
Heaping praise on “an incredible slate of true Maga warriors”, Trump cited his “Make America Great Again” political slogan.
Full article:
Updated
The former US ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told Republicans at a rally for Herschel Walker the Democrat in the Georgia Senate race, Rev Raphael Warnock, should be “deported”.
“Legal immigrants are more patriotic than the leftists these days,” Haley said, in Hiram, Georgia on Sunday. “They worked to come into America and they love America. They want the laws followed in America. So the only person we need to make sure we deport is Warnock.”
Haley, widely thought to be a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is the child of immigrants from India. Her comment drew criticism.
Cornell William Brooks, a Harvard professor and pastor, wrote: “Were it not for civil rights laws Black folks died for, Nikki Haley’s family might not be in America.
“Were it not for a HBCU [historically Black college and university] giving her father his first job in the US, Haley wouldn’t be in a position to insult Georgia’s first Black senator. Warnock’s history makes her story possible.”
Walker and Warnock are locked in a tight race that could decide control of the US Senate, currently split 50-50 and controlled with the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris. On Monday, the polling website FiveThirtyEight.com put Warnock one point ahead.
Haley also said Walker was “a good person who has been put through the ringer and has had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at him”.
Walker, a former college and NFL football star, has been shown to have made numerous false claims about his business career and personal life. Two women have said he pressured them to have abortions – allegations he denies, while campaigning on a stringently anti-abortion platform.
Here’s more about Walker:
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the violent, rightwing militia-style organization the Oath Keepers, told jurors on Monday there was no plan for his band of extremists to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 – as he tries to clear his name in his seditious conspiracy trial.
Taking the stand in his defense for a second day, Rhodes testified that he had no idea that his followers were going to join the pro-Trump mob to storm the Capitol and that he was upset after he found out that some did, The Associated Press writes.
Rhodes said he believed it was stupid for any Oath Keepers to go into the Capitol. He insisted that was not their “mission.”
There was no plan to enter the building for any purpose,” Rhodes told the court in Washington, DC.
Rhodes is on trial with four others for what prosecutors have alleged was a plan to stage an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of presidential power from Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
Prosecutors have tried to show that for the Oath Keepers, the riot was not a spur-of-the-moment protest but part of a serious, weeks-long plot.
Rhodes’ defense is focused largely on the idea that his rhetoric was aimed at convincing Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which gives the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary and what qualifies as military force.
Rhodes told jurors he believed it would have been legal for Trump to invoke that act and call up a militia in response to what he believed was an “unconstitutional” and “invalid” election.
When prosecutors get a chance to question Rhodes this week, they are likely to highlight messages such as one Rhodes sent in December 2020 in which he said Trump “needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.”
Rhodes did not go into the Capitol during the insurrection on January 6 last year.
Prosecutors have spent weeks methodically laying out evidence that shows Rhodes and the Oath Keepers discussing the prospect of violence before January 6 and the need to keep Biden out of the White House at all costs. Rhodes denies the charges against him.
Rhodes on the 2020 election: "Yes, I thought it was illegal and also unconstitutional."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 7, 2022
(Note: As a matter of law, it was neither.)
Also
Asked whether he knew Oath Keepers went into Congress, Rhodes claims: "No, it didn't cross my mind."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 7, 2022
Q: Was there a plan to come in to disrupt the election?
A: (laughs) No.
Updated
In the realm of ‘it’s the economy, stupid’, here’s what Joe Biden is tweeting this morning.
I'll do what it takes to bring inflation down.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 7, 2022
But I won't accept the Republican argument that too many Americans have found good jobs and have more dignity in the workplace. Or that our largest, most profitable corporations shouldn’t have to pay their fair share.
And if you can vote but don’t you surely can’t complain about the outcome of the elections tomorrow. Here’s what US vice president Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff have on their minds today:
We all have a responsibility to participate in our democracy by voting in each and every election.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) November 7, 2022
Election day is Tuesday, November 8th. Make a plan to vote. pic.twitter.com/boTwFH0F0n
Here’s Guardian superstar columnist, professor, author and former labor secretary Robert Reich.
Here's an inquiry into the lies Republican candidates are telling about:
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 7, 2022
1. Crime
2. Inflation
3. Taxes
Please share with others. At this point, every voter we can reach with the truth is one additional potential vote for decency and democracy.
Keep doing whatever you can do. pic.twitter.com/OU9Tgz8ovC
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American democracy itself is in effect on the ballot at tomorrow’s elections
There are forces from the right-wing seeking to bring victories for Republican candidates running for office at national and state level who are threatening democracy in ways ranging from claiming that Joe Biden did not win the 2020 presidential election to planning more voter suppression and challenges to voting systems in numerous states.
Democratic House majority whip James Clyburn issued a dire warning via Fox News yesterday.
Rep. James Clyburn to Fox: "Democracy will be ending" if Democrats lose the midterms.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 7, 2022
"I've studied history all of my life. I taught history. And I'm telling you, what I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany."
Clyburn swung vital, southern, Black voter support behind Joe Biden in 2020 to help him come from far behind to clinch the Democratic nomination for president.
Here’s a recent Guardian special report on the threat to US elections.
Updated
In a round-up of predictions from some other outlets’ reporters whose job it is to be 24/7 election obsessives for the specialist websites, Politico summarizes some of the forecasts for the House.
The Cook Political Report’s House of Representatives specialist David Wasserman assesses today that 212 seats House seats can be called “lean Republican” or stronger for the GOP and 188 seats are leaning towards the Democrats, and there are 35 seats he deems to be toss-ups.
Wasserman tells Politico that if those toss-ups were to split evenly, Republicans would wind up at around 230 seats, a gain of 17. His team believes a Republican gain of 15 to 25 seats in the House is most likely but also that toss-ups could break mostly one way or the other and if they break red, that will of course push GOP gains even higher.
Kyle Kondik’s House forecast for online political newsletter and election handicapper Sabato’s Crystal Ball, reckons the GOP will gain 24 seats in the House. They only need to flip five seats from the current balance to give them control of the chamber and block further Biden legislation, no matter what happens in the US Senate.
And opinion-poll analysis specialists FiveThirtyEight give Republicans an 80% chance of winning between one and 33 seats in the House.
We’re forecasting the race to control the Senate and House, as well as each party’s chance of winning the 36 governor seats up for election. https://t.co/knpKHSsHLA
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) November 7, 2022
Here’s an explainer from some of the Guardian US team about why the midterms matter.
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Rumors swirl that Donald Trump could announce his 2024 presidential bid tonight
Could Trump announce his 2024 bid tonight?
That is certainly the rumor flying around senior Republican circles at the moment, according to Axios scribe Jonathan Swan.
The well-regarded journalist has tweeted that a flood of Republican figures are in various stages of panic and anticipation that Donald Trump will use the platform of his Ohio rally tonight to announce a 2024 run.
Based calls/texts all morning, Trump/Vance rally in Ohio will be v closely watched by Rs. Speculation has reached a point of absurdity at this point but many Rs of varying degrees of closeness to Trump are anticipating accelerated announcement based on his recent private comments
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) November 7, 2022
Of course, the truth is probably unknowable – perhaps even to Trump himself given his proclivity to do things on the fly. What is certain is that all the speculation on a Trump White House run is firmly centered on when not if.
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Republicans are going to revel in a so-called red wave in the US midterm elections, winning control of both chambers of Congress and putting Democrat Joe Biden’s back right up against the wall for the rest of this presidential term, if the predictions of Henry Olsen, Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, are anything to go by.
He is certainly at the high end of super-geek predictions in his forecast for the shellacking awaiting Democrats. He’s predicting that the GOP will gain 33 House seats and also take a 54-46 Senate majority once voting ends tomorrow evening.
Politico, by contrast, is predicting a modest win for Republicans and keeps the Senate competition as a toss-up, with one last full day on the campaign trail remaining.
About 41 million Americans have already voted in a surge of early voting, out of almost 170 million registered voters in the country.
My 2022 midterm predictions are up! Rs gain 33 House seats and take a 54-46 Senate majority. Read them and see if you agree!https://t.co/YJeFFPVkeS
— Henry Olsen (@henryolsenEPPC) November 7, 2022
Here’s Olsen’s piece in the WaPo today.
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Volker Türk, the new United Nations high commissioner for human rights, yesterday urged Twitter owner Elon Musk to make respect for human rights central to the social media platform, amid savage cuts to the tech company’s staff under its new chief.
In an open letter, Türk said that reports of the new owner laying off the platform’s entire human rights team were “not, from my perspective, an encouraging start”.
Türk said he was writing with “concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter’s role in it”.
He also warned against propagating hate speech and misinformation and highlighted the need to protect user privacy, saying free speech was “not a free pass”.
Since his $44bn takeover, Musk has dissolved the company’s board, sacked its CEO, Parag Agrawal, along with senior managers, and began mass layoffs last Friday.
Türk, who posted the open letter on Twitter, where he has more than 25,000 followers, wrote: “Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them.
“Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform’s use and evolution. In short, I urge you to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership.”
You can read the full story here.
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Twitter owner Elon Musk today made the controversial decision to endorse the Republicans in the crucial midterm elections being held tomorrow, and post that on his platform.
But the mass layoffs at Twitter last week that diminished several teams, including staff on the company’s safety and misinformation teams, had already attracted warnings that the actions could spell disaster during the elections, the Guardian’s Kari Paul has reported.
The company has laid off around 50% of its workforce, according to news reports; a figure that Musk and others have not disputed, amounting to an estimated 3,700 people.
The internal chaos unfolding at Twitter, in addition to a sudden lack of staff and resources dedicated to counteracting misinformation, has created ideal conditions for election misinformation to thrive, said Paul Barrett, an expert in disinformation and fake news at New York University.
“Twitter is in the midst of a category 5 hurricane, and that is not a good environment for fostering vigilance when dealing with inevitable attempts to spread falsehoods and hateful content on a very influential platform,” he said.
This while Musk and other senior figures have sought to re-assure the public.
Musk posted this silly tweet last night:
Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Here’s his current pinned tweet, from last Friday:
⚡️⚡️⚡️ Power to the People ⚡️⚡️⚡️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
Here’s some Guardian reading.
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Twitter owner Musk backs Republicans in midterm elections
Elon Musk has just posted on Twitter, the social media platform he now owns, endorsing the Republicans in the US midterm elections.
To independent-minded voters:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.
Musk is the entrepreneur behind Tesla electric cars, SpaceX rockets and now Twitter, the social media platform so beloved of politicos and journalists.
He further noted:
Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who’s in charge!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
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‘Republicans have a grip on the House majority. But the Senate is firmly up for grabs’
That’s the inside view of the election-watching reporters at politics-specialist news website Politico today.
The outlet writes: The first midterm election is historically a bear for the president’s party, and this year is expected to be no different. Republicans are likely to gain upward of 15 House seats, and they have a good shot of taking full control of Congress.
But in many of the most consequential statewide races, Democrats are still in the hunt – thanks to their candidates’ strong fundraising and polls that show, for now, they are running ahead of President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings.
Whether that holds up – if Democratic senator Mark Kelly can outpace Arizona voters’ opinions of Biden by the margin pre-election polls suggest, for example – will determine whether Democrats can retain control of the Senate and limit their losses in the House.
Meanwhile, the party is also defending nearly a dozen governorships Republicans are targeting. A good election for Republicans could see them reaching deep into blue territory to oust Democratic governors in states like Oregon and New York. But Democrats have a chance to keep many of their vulnerable states if they even slightly overperform expectations.
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We put a lot of focus on our live blogs, bringing you news developments and snippets of analysis on various things as they happen, whether politics, breaking news or big events, as our regular readers know.
This US politics blog will begin early tomorrow for election day and roll around the clock into Wednesday, thanks to our blogging reporters in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and London, backed by our whole team, including reporters out in the field watching voting and election night events coast to coast and sending dispatches.
But in other major rolling news coverage, we are now also blogging the vital Cop27 climate talks taking place in Egypt, which got underway yesterday. America’s Al Gore earlier called out world leaders for not doing enough, treating the environment like an open sewer and enabling a “culture of death” with over-reliance on fossil fuels in the face of climate instability revving extreme weather.
And the UN chief is warning the world it’s on the “highway to climate hell.” You can follow the Guardian’s live blog on Cop27 issues and happenings here. Cop27 runs through November 18. Joe Biden arrives at the summit on Friday.
Meanwhile, we’re also blogging Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s efforts could be affected if Republicans do too well in the midterm elections in the US and block funding for US weapons to Ukraine to resist its gigantic neighbor. The head of the so-called Wagner Russian mercenary group has also admitted persistent allegations of interference in US elections. But in terms of the war, we’ve been live blogging the conflict since Russia invaded in February and you can follow war news as it happens, here.
We also run a business live blog and a UK politics live blog, both reported out of the Guardian mother ship in London.
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Joe Biden is fighting a rearguard action to stave off defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections as Republicans look poised to make sweeping gains in the US Congress, setting up two years of political trench warfare.
The president, along with former president Barack Obama, has been crisscrossing America in a last-ditch bid to persuade voters that a Democratic victory is critical not only to Biden’s legislative agenda but the preservation of American democracy.
But momentum appears to be with Republicans capitalising on frustration over inflation and fears of crime and illegal immigration. Election forecasters and polls say it is highly likely that the party of ex-president Donald Trump will win a majority in the House of Representatives and also have a shot of taking control of the Senate.
“Republicans are peaking at the right time,” said Brendan Buck, a former aide to Republican House speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner. “Democrats did a good job defying political gravity for a long time but it’s finally catching up to them. It feels like a healthy Republican majority in the House and, if I were a betting man, I would guess that Republicans pick up the one Senate seat that they need.”
Midterms are held every four years but in 2022 they are far from routine and have seen a huge increase in early voting turnout. Tuesday’s election represents the first nationwide test of democracy since Trump’s followers staged a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 last year.
A surprise Democratic victory in the House and Senate would give Biden a mandate to pursue a sweeping legislative agenda on issues such as abortion rights, police reform and voting rights during his two remaining years in the Oval Office.
But Republican control of either chamber would be enough to derail such ambitions and raise questions over the US’s open-ended support for Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Full report here.
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Russian head of 'Wagner' mercenary group revving war in Ukraine admits interfering in US elections
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said today he had interfered in US elections and would continue doing so in future, the first such admission from a figure who has been formally implicated by Washington in efforts to influence American politics, Reuters writes.
In comments posted by the press service of his Concord catering firm on Russia’s Facebook equivalent VKontakte, Prigozhin said:
We have interfered (in US elections), we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do.
The remark was posted on the eve of the US midterm elections in response to a request for comment from a Russian news site.
During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once,” Prigozhin said. He did not elaborate on the cryptic comment.
Prigozhin, who is often referred to as “Putin’s chef” because his catering company operates Kremlin contracts, has been formally accused of sponsoring Russia-based “troll farms” that seek to influence US politics.
In July, the US state department offered a reward of up to $10m for information on Prigozhin in connection with “engagement in US election interference”. He has been hit by US, British and European Union sanctions.
Prigozhin kept a low public profile until recently but has become more outspoken in the course of the Ukraine war, including by criticising the performance of Russia’s generals.
In September he admitted to founding the Kremlin-aligned Wagner Group mercenary group, which is active in Syria, Africa and Ukraine.
We’ll have more on this from Guardian reporters later.
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Biden and Trump on campaign trail in last big push before election day
It’s the last full day of election campaigning before the big vote tomorrow. US president Joe Biden and former president and Republican beacon Donald Trump will be out on the trail in a contest where so much is at stake for each of their parties – and American democracy.
It’s a tough battle for the Democrats against strong economic headwinds in the shape of record inflation and fears of recession, despite the fact that such gales are howling across many other countries as well, driven by ongoing fall-out from the pandemic and the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The party has been struggling against their president’s low approval ratings for more than a year now – though it hopes the shock of the US Supreme Court stripping federal abortion rights when it overturned Roe v Wade in June and the threat of extremism from the right will boost their chances.
Republicans hope not only to pick up the traditional midterms backlash against the party in power but to power a “red wave” and win big, wresting the majority in both the House and Senate from the Democrats.
Biden is rallying in the governor’s race in Maryland tonight and Trump is stumping in Ohio, where Democratic congressman Tim Ryan is battling JD Vance. Biden’s warning of what will happen to the US economy if Republicans ever get a chance to wreck the healthcare and retirement benefits backbone.
Folks, there’s nothing that will create more chaos and more damage to the American economy than if Republicans in Congress threaten to default on the national debt in order to sunset programs like Medicare and Social Security.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 6, 2022
We’ll have a Guardian reporter at each event tonight, in Bowie, Maryland, and Dayton, Ohio.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are on the line, 35 out of 100 Senate seats are being contested in these midterms election.
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It’s not exactly clear who will pursue the Republican nomination for president in 2024, but now we know someone who will not be: Tom Cotton, the US senator from Arkansas.
Cotton on Monday told the Republican-friendly Fox News network that he will not seek the Oval Office in two years because it was “not the right time” for his family. His remarks confirmed a Politico report late Sunday that, citing anonymous sources, said Cotton would not enter a field of GOP presidential nominees that could include former president Donald Trump and Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis.
“Family was really the only consideration,” Cotton, who has a wife and two children, said to Fox. “This is not the right time for our family for me to commit to a six-to-seven day a week campaign for the next two years.”
The 45-year-old Cotton is a former soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Arlington Cemetery before entering politics as a foreign policy hawk. He’s been a senator for Arkansas since 2015, and his current term doesn’t expire until 2027.
Cotton voted to acquit Trump both times the former president was impeached, the second time for inciting the US Capitol attack on January 6 2021.
The senator published a book on 31 October, Only the Strong: Reversing the Left’s Plot to Sabotage American Power, in which he bragged about refusing to pay attention to Trump’s first impeachment trial before voting to acquit him. The book also criticizes the White Houses helmed by Democrats Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
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Last full campaign day before US midterm elections
Good morning, US politics live blog readers, it’s midterms Monday, the last campaign day before those who haven’t already voted go to the polls tomorrow in an election that’s a crucial taking of America’s political temperature this November. It will be a busy day, here’s some of what’s coming up:
Joe Biden and Donald Trump both plan to be back on the stump today after a frantic weekend of campaigning, where the US president turned out with his Democratic predecessor and former boss, Barack Obama, and Trump, the ex, one-term Republican US president, showed he is still the most powerful force in his party.
Biden campaigned in super-swing, super-crucial Pennsylvania at the weekend but tonight is playing safer and closer to home with an appearance in Maryland for gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore, who appears to have a decent chance of making history as that state’s first Black governor.
Trump stump: the Donald will be back in Ohio tonight, in Dayton, to rally in a state that has rallied around him. The stakes are very high in a race for an open seat in the US Senate, with rightwing author and Trump convert JD Vance trying to secure the win over congressman and ex-presidential candidate Tim Ryan.
More than 40 million Americans have already cast their ballots in early voting. There are almost 170 million registered voters in the US and a big turnout is expected in on-day voting tomorrow. Results may take a while to come in because of so many different rules across different states.
The Democrats are fighting to keep control of the House of Representatives (though analysts expect them to lose), where all 435 seats are being contested and the US Senate (analysts say “toss-up”), where 35 out of the 100 seats are in contention, against a backdrop of high inflation.
The effectiveness of the remainder of Joe Biden’s first term, and probably the health of Democrats’ prospects of holding onto the White House in 2024, are on the line, as well as many aspects of the embattled US democratic machine.
