As The Midterm Results Continue To Unfold, The White House Attacks The Press

(AP)

Today’s stories you might’ve missed:

1. There is no full rest for those weary from the midterm election drama. Plenty of races are still too close to call or in dispute, and some may be headed for recounts. Some of the biggest races still up in the air are in Georgia and Florida. Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams has not conceded the Georgia race while awaiting the full results from about 25,000 ballots yet to be counted. Republican Brian Kemp, who resigned this morning as Secretary of State, has a 50.3% of the vote so far. Should his lead fall below 50% with the additional votes, it would trigger a runoff election; if Abrams received about 23,000 additional votes, the race would go into a recount.

Things are even murkier in the Florida race, where both the race for Governor and a Senate seat are approaching recount thresholds. There are also reports that there may have been some machine errors in (Democratic-leaning) Broward County that may have prevented votes from being counted. It may be weeks before a final outcome is decided. As Dems are heading into 35+ net gain terrority in the House, the Democratic Candidate Krysten Sinema just took the lead in the Arizona Senate race. One thing is for certain given these results, however; “my vote doesn’t count” is a sentiment that citizens should really abandon.

2. Pundits will pore over the election results this entire week and offer mostly short-sighted takes on what this means for the country (the daftest will offer the “split decision” routine.) But the midterms didn’t just elect candidates, they also enacted policies as well. Here are some of the most significant:

• Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah voted to pass Medicaid expansion (Montana rejected the measure.)
• Florida passed an amendment granting the right to vote to 1.4 million ex-felons.
• Minimum wage increases were approved in Arkansas and Missouri.
• Maryland and Michigan passed same-day registration measures.
• Louisiana passed a law requiring unanimous guilty verdicts in felony trials (the previous law, still on the book from the Jim Crow era, required only 10 of 12 jurors to find a defendant guilty)
• Michigan legalized marijuana, while Utah and Missouri approved medical marijuana use. (North Dakota rejected a legalization measure.)
• Not all ballot initiatives were progressive, however. Alabama and West Virginia voted to curtail abortion rights.

3. CNN’s Jim Acosta has been barred from the White House after grilling President Trump on the migrant caravan during yesterday’s presidential press conference. The White House, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders at the forefront, then launched an effort to discredit Mr. Acosta via a doctored video purporting to show him striking an intern. The video has been tied to Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at the hate speech outlet Infowars. Mr. Watson is notorious for posting fake news; just this morning, he reportedly tweeted (since deleted) that last night’s shooter at Thousands Oaks, CA was a Middle Eastern man; he was, in fact, a white male from the US.

This is a brazen escalation in the White House’s war against press freedom

Not only did they ban Jim Acosta, they blatantly lied about footage we all saw with our own eyes

This Orwellian, authoritarian-like attack on the fourth estate should be met with solidarity and resolve https://t.co/pnnffbJQFv

— Rantt Media (@RanttMedia) November 8, 2018

4. Remember Trump’s claim that a trade war with China was easy to win and necessary? Recent reports would suggest otherwise, at least for the moment. Data shows that the Chinese economy is holding up well so far, with exports and imports both exceeding expectations for the month of October, the first month for which American tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods took effect. Some of the overperformance was due to firms ramping up orders in advance of the tariffs, as well as delays in reworking supply chains. The Chinese economy is slowing overall, but it seems to have diversified enough to weather America’s protectionism. Trump’s trade war will probably drag on as a result, to the detriment of America’s exporters and consumers.

5. An anti-fascist group descended upon and vandalized the home of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson last night. Carlson is best known as one of the most prominent disseminators of Fox News’ right-wing propaganda and bigotry. However, last night’s protestors only succeeded in providing Fox News with a talking point; they will surely use this incident to point out the violence on “both sides” next time there is a much more violent incident perpetrated by a Trump supporter.

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