Border Wall Battle Set For December
Cancel your Christmas plans. Politico: "We’ve seen a massive ramp-up of the 'build-the-wall' rhetoric from key Hill Republicans -- signaling that the Dec. 7 funding deadline will be a major funding clash over the physical border with Mexico. Mitch McConnell said at an AP event yesterday that 'we are committed to helping the president get wall funding,' and signaled he would fight to get Trump the amount he’s seeking, which is far more than what the Senate offered. House Speaker Paul Ryan said earlier this week there would be a “big fight” for wall funding. And House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy - the top Republican in waiting - went as far as introducing a bill that would allocate $23 billion to build Trump’s border wall.">
GOP Governors In Jeopardy
GOP at risk of losing several key governorships at a crucial political moment. LA Times: "Running in a place where Republicans dominate state government and Donald Trump won in 2016, Michigan Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette might have expected an easier path to victory in the upcoming governor’s race. But at a recent midday press conference on the fringes of downtown Detroit, his allies were outnumbered by protesters outside, who shouted that the GOP nominee should “Go home!,” banged on building windows and hoisted a giant puppet of him scowling. Schuette is trailing badly in polls. In similar governor's races throughout the nation, the GOP's lock on power is in serious jeopardy as their candidates — in even the reddest states where Democrats have long been an afterthought — struggle ahead of the November midterms. Some of the states where Republicans risk losing the governor’s office — Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida and Ohio, for examples — are known to swing politically, but the trend extends far beyond those states. Georgia, Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota have all been thrown into the toss-up column by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which recently noted that even Oklahoma is not a lock for Republicans."
MN Dems Lead Senate Races
Dems maintain double-digit leads in MN Senate races. The Hill: "Sens. Tina Smith (D) and Amy Klobuchar (D) have double-digit leads in their reelection bids over their Republican opponents in Minnesota, according to a new NBC News/Marist poll released Wednesday. Smith, who was appointed by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (D) to fill the remainder of former Sen. Al Franken’s term, has a 16-point edge over Republican state Senator Karin Housley. About 54 percent of likely voters support Smith, while 38 percent support Housley and seven percent are undecided. While both candidates have net-positive favorability ratings, Smith’s margin is noticeably wider than that of Housley. Meanwhile, in Minnesota's second Senate race, Klobuchar has a 30-point lead over Republican state Rep. Jim Newberger, earning the support of 63 percent of likely voters compared to Newberger’s 33 percent. The favorability rating gap in this race resembles Smith’s race, with both candidates having net-positive ratings but Klobuchar attaining a higher margin."
Trump Attacks Medicare With Lies
Fact-checking President Trump’s USA Today op-ed on ‘Medicare-for-All’. WaPo: "President Trump wrote an opinion article for USA Today on Oct. 10 regarding proposals to expand Medicare to all Americans — known as Medicare-for-All — in which almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood. Many of these are claims we have already debunked. Presumably, the president is aware of our fact checks — he even links to two — but chose to ignore the facts."
Trump Wants To Stop WH Protests
Trump pushes 'stealth proposal' to limit public's right to protest outside White House.Common Dreams: "As the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress face mass protests in Washington, D.C. against their attacks on healthcare, immigrants, women, and the poor—as well as well as their support for white supremacists and men accused of sexual assault—civil liberties advocates are speaking out against an "unconstitutional" National Park Service (NPS) proposal that would severely limit Americans' ability to protest near the White House and on the National Mall. With the Oct. 15 deadline for public comment on the proposed rule rapidly approaching, the D.C. branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has submitted its 33-page takedown of policy changes that the group warns would violate the First Amendment rights of demonstrators that have been affirmed by 'court orders that have stood for decades.' In a blog post published Tuesday, the ACLU of D.C.'s legal co-director Arthur Spitzer noted President Donald Trump's "record of attacking the rights of protesters" and declared, 'The heart of the matter is clear: President Trump might not like having protesters on his doorstep, but the First Amendment guarantees their right to be there.'"
