Tag: peter welch
Democrats Shatter Midterm Forecasts With Victories Across Country

Democrats Shatter Midterm Forecasts With Victories Across Country

Control of the House and Senate have not yet been determined but many political experts are now saying that supposed “red wave” Republicans have been projecting does not look like it will happen.

The New York Times’ chief political analyst Nate Cohn at 9:51 PM ET election night, tweeted: “So far, Democrats are running about a point ahead of our expectations outside of Florida, with the GOP lead in the House starting to come down a bit.”

“Not many signs of a red wave at this point,” Cohn said.

Historically the President’s party almost always loses seats in the House. In the last midterm elections, 2018, Donald Trump lost 40 House seats.

“Bill Clinton lost 54 House seats in 1994, Barack Obama lost 63 in 2010, and both went on to win re-election,” Jen Psaki, former Biden White House Press Secretary tweeted earlier Tuesday.

Just before 11 PM on MSNBC Psaki observed, “This was supposed to be an election where it would be embarrassing for Joe Biden to wake up in the morning. And it’s not going to be.”

Indeed, it does not currently appear Democrats will lose anywhere close to the number of seats that Trump, Clinton, or Obama lost in their first (or only) terms. The New York Timespredicted that Republicans are likely to take the House, but control of the Senate is still a tossup.

At 10:45 PM ET on Tuesday night, MSNBC analyst Steve Kornacki said it was still “conceivable” Democrats could keep control of the House, although he stressed he was not making a prediction.

NBC News Senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake pointed to a Democratic House seat that should have been won by the GOP had there been a “red wave,” but was held, as Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) kept her seat. Her Virginia Democratic colleague Rep. Abigail Spanberger also won her bellwether race.

Gen Z now has its first U.S. Congressman. And out of Florida, a state that appeared to be turning rapidly red on election night 2022 as GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis romped to an overwhelming victory in his re-election race.

Florida Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost, 25-years-old, has beaten the GOP candidate to take the House seat being vacated by Rep. Val Demings, PBS reports. Demings lost her bid to unseat Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

PBS calls Frost “a 25-year-old gun reform and social justice activist,” and reports he is “a former March For Our Lives organizer seeking stricter gun control laws and has stressed opposition to restrictions on abortion rights. Generation Z generally refers to those born between the late 1990s to early 2010s. To become a member of Congress, candidates must be at least 25 years old.”

In Vermont, Rep. Peter Welch will become U.S. Senator Peter Welch, replacing the retiring Democratic Senator Pat Leahy, the Associated Press reported. Also in Vermont, that state elected Democrat Becca Balint to the House of Representatives, NPR reported. She will become the state’s first out lesbian member of Congress.

“Good news for Democrats in flipping two governor races in Maryland and Massachusetts,” Bloomberg News tweets. “Republican moderates had held those seats, though neither was running for re-election. Democrats, taking on new challengers, won easily.”

Massachusetts has elected Democrat Maura Healey governor, NBC News reports. Healy, the current Attorney General, becomes the first out lesbian governor ever elected in the U.S., Massachusetts’ first woman governor, and move the state from Republican to Democratic control.

.In Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore becomes the state’s first Black governor and only the third Black governor in U.S. history. Like Healy in Massachusetts, Moore takes the state out of Republican hands after that states' GOP governor retired. he beat a far-right MAGA Republican endorsed by Donald Trump, NPR reports.

And in another bellwether race, incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan was reportedly re-elected. Last night MSNBC and NBC News projected Hassan will keep her seat.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet






The Moment Mueller Said What He Thinks Of Trump

The Moment Mueller Said What He Thinks Of Trump

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Throughout his testimony on Wednesday, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was generally reserved and hesitant with his answers. When pressed on specific matters, he usually referred lawmakers directly to what is written in his report, and frequently refused to expand on his analysis or opinions of matters in the Russia investigation.

But under one particular line of questioning from Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), Mueller appeared to drop this hesitance and offered straightforward criticism of President Donald Trump’s conduct during the 2016 election.

Quigley read out a series of then-candidate Trump’s statements about releases of stolen emails from WikiLeaks, which Mueller agreed acted as a hostile foreign intelligence agency. In the comments, Trump said “I love WikiLeaks,” said its “stuff is unbelievable” and “you gotta read it.”

“Do any of those quotes disturb you, Mr. Director?” said Quigley.

“I’m not sure I would say…” Mueller began.

“How do you react to them?” asked Quigley.

“Well, ‘problematic’ is an understatement,” said Mueller. “In terms of what it displays, in terms of giving some hope, or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity.”

Quigley then detailed how Donald Trump Jr. had “direct electronic communication with WikiLeaks during the campaign period.”

“[Is] this behavior, at the very least, disturbing?” Quigley asked.

“Disturbing and also subject to investigation,” Mueller affirmed.

Later, speaking to Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), Mueller offered more direct criticism of the Trump campaign’s actions in 2016. Welch asked whether the Trump campaign’s refusal to report Russia’s efforts to intervene in an election set a “new normal” for campaigns.

“I hope this is not the new normal,” Mueller said. “But I fear it is.”

Watch the clip of the exchange with Quigley below: