Trump Supporters That Harassed Biden Bus Organized in Private Facebook Group That Touted QAnon – Newsweek
Trump Supporters That Harassed Biden Bus Organized in Private Facebook Group That Touted QAnon – Newsweek

Some supporters of President Donald Trump who recently harassed a Biden-Harris campaign bus in Texas allegedly organized the incident in a private Facebook page where QAnon references were shared widely. Neither Democratic candidate Joe Biden nor running mate Kamala Harris were on the bus.

Fact-checking website Snopes states that the convoy of pickup trucks that were seen on video surrounding a Biden-Harris bus on Texas’ Interstate 35 was partly organized in a private Facebook page called “Alamo City Trump Train.” The report also notes that messages between the group’s members suggested that they were armed with guns.

According to Snopes, on October 30, one group member posted “#OperationBlockTheBus RN,” with “RN” referring to “right now.”

The post “was endorsed with 142 reactions, including likes, laughing emojis, or love hearts. “I LOVE IT!!!!,” said one commenter. “This is awesome,” said another. Other comments included: “Great job!,” “GOOD!,” “Love it,” “This is f***ing hilarious,” and “Awesome.”

Snopes notes that in its study of the private Facebook group, it found a number of posts and comments referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers believe that a cabal of ruling elites are part of a satanic cult involved with child sex trafficking.

One member shared a screenshot they believed to be from “Q”—the eponymous figure purportedly behind efforts to bring down the cabal—and others commented with the conspiracy theory’s slogan “WWG1WGA,” or “Where We Go One We Go All.”

According to Snopes, QAnon logos, signage and flags were also found throughout the Facebook page.

Snopes notes that on October 31, one day after the bus incident, a group member published a post questioning news articles that suggested those involved in the operation were armed, which was met by another group member responding with, “Yep we are armed and dangerous.”

“It’s Texas. Everyone is carrying!” another member commented.

“Cause it’s Texas and we don’t f*** around, we are always armed!!!” another comment read.

On October 30, several Trump supporters were seen on video surrounding a Biden-Harris campaign bus. On the same day, Biden’s campaign cancelled a joint event in Pflugerville with the Austin Young Democrats and Texas House Representative Sheryl Cole due to security reasons. It is not confirmed that the cancellation is related to the bus incident. The FBI has announced it is opening an investigation.

A video of the incident was shared by Trump on Twitter with a caption that read, “I LOVE TEXAS!”

In response to the FBI investigation, Trump posted another tweet that read, “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”

According to CBS News, the Biden campaign said in a statement that, “rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas [yesterday] instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way.”

Newsweek contacted Biden and Trump’s campaigns for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Correction 11/3/20, 8:30 a.m. ET: The headline of this article was updated to remove the assertion that the Trump supporters following the Biden-Harris bus were armed.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-that-harassed-biden-bus-were-armed-operation-organized-private-facebook-group-1544215

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What A Joe Biden Presidency Might Mean For The U.K. – NPR
What A Joe Biden Presidency Might Mean For The U.K. – NPR

Joe Biden arrives at No. 10 Downing St. in London, the residence and office of Britain’s prime minister, while serving as vice president in 2013.

Matt Dunham/AP


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Joe Biden arrives at No. 10 Downing St. in London, the residence and office of Britain’s prime minister, while serving as vice president in 2013.

Matt Dunham/AP

With Joe Biden ahead in the polls, many in Europe are wondering what U.S. foreign policy might look like if the former vice president wins the White House.

If President Trump is defeated in Tuesday’s election, one loser in the region could be British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Trump’s closest ally in Europe. While Trump has often denigrated other European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, he’s chummy with Johnson, who, like Trump, is seen as a populist showman.

“He’s a good guy,” Trump said of Johnson last year. “He’s a friend of mine.”

More significantly, Trump has backed two of Johnson’s key policy priorities: Brexit and a free-trade deal with the U.S., the world’s largest economy.

But Biden, who opposed Brexit, would have different priorities if he becomes president. Unlike Trump, Biden values the trans-Atlantic relationship with Europe and hopes to rebuild ties with allies like Germany and France that Trump has insulted and alienated.

Over the past four years, Trump characterized some NATO countries as freeloaders for not spending enough on defense, and he has called the European Union a “foe.”

Mending fences could take Biden some time and would delay Britain getting a trade deal with the U.S. until 2022 or beyond.

“The symbolic importance and value of that agreement cannot be overstated,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe with Eurasia Group, a risk management firm. “The entire legitimacy and credibility of Brexit on some level hangs on the government’s ability to land an agreement with the U.S.”

A Biden presidency would also put more pressure on Johnson to abandon his threat of a no-deal Brexit and conclude a trade deal with the European Union. The United Kingdom is in a Brexit transition period that expires at the end of this year. Biden, who is of Irish descent, has warned Johnson not to mess around in negotiations with the EU or do anything that could undermine the 1998 Northern Ireland peace agreement.

“Joe Biden’s personal stake and role in this has been absolutely key in forcing a change of position in Downing Street vis-à-vis the EU in those talks,” Rahman says.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has deeply damaged the British economy, also makes it more difficult and costly for Johnson to follow through on his threat of a no-deal Brexit.

While a Biden presidency could create challenges for Johnson’s administration, the two governments would probably find common ground on issues including combating climate change and managing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

And there might be another clear upside.

“Downing Street has found dealing with Trump a nightmare,” Rahman says. “He’s unpredictable, difficult to work with, has made the government’s life on a whole swath of multilateral issues very difficult to navigate.”

NPR London producer Jessica Beck contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929628586/what-a-joe-biden-presidency-might-mean-for-the-u-k

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Vienna Shooting Attack: Live Updates – The New York Times
Vienna Shooting Attack: Live Updates – The New York Times

The attacker was known to the authorities and had previously been convicted of attempted jihad and attempted membership in a terrorist organization, after he tried unsuccessfully to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, Mr. Nehammer, the Austrian interior minister, said Tuesday.

He was sentenced to 22 months in prison but was allowed out early, Mr. Nehammer said.

He defended the decision to release the young man, pointing to his good behavior in prison. And he insisted the young man had appeared to be “fully integrated” into society — though evidence found in his apartment, including a stockpile of munitions, after the attack told a different story.

“There were no warning signs about his radicalization,” Mr. Nehammer said, promising to review the justice system to try to ensure that a similar mistake not be made again.

Before setting out on his attack, the man posted a photograph of himself to social media. It showed him wielding a machete and a rifle with a message that “clearly indicated his sympathy for I.S.,” the minister said, referring to the Islamic State.

The lawyer who represented the man in 2018 after he was caught trying to join ISIS said there had been no indication he was dangerous. The lawyer, Nikolaus Rast, said his client had planned to travel to Syria to join the extremist group with a friend, but only got as far as Turkey before being arrested.

There was no suggestion that his parents shared his views, and, in fact, the man’s mother was the one who alerted the authorities when he went missing, Mr. Rast said.

Mr. Rast said that his client’s remorse after returning to Austria seemed genuine and that his behavior in prison was such that he was released after only about a year of his 22-month sentence. He took part in a special de-radicalization program, the lawyer said.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/world/europe/vienna-shooting.html

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Charlie Baker says he ‘blanked’ his 2020 presidential vote – Boston.com
Charlie Baker says he ‘blanked’ his 2020 presidential vote – Boston.com

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has repeatedly said he wouldn’t vote to re-elect Republican President Donald Trump in this year’s election.

However, despite his often vocal criticisms of Trump, the moderate GOP governor also isn’t backing Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Baker indicated for the first time that he did not vote for any candidate in the 2020 presidential race.

“I blanked it,” he said, when asked whether he voted for Biden.

Baker similarly voted for no one in the 2016 presidential race, explaining at the time that he couldn’t vote for Trump for “a number of reasons,” but thought then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton “had believability issues.”

During his 2018 re-election race, Baker described Trump as “outrageous,” “disgraceful,” and “a divider,” and has been a consistent critic of Trump’s rhetoric, immigration policies, and attempts to undo former President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Baker has also vented over the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the government response and even called out the president’s personal response to his own COVID-19 diagnosis. Perhaps most forcefully, Baker has criticized Trump for lacking “compassion and leadership” following the racal justice protests last spring and more recently called Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power “appalling and outrageous.”

Last month, Politico reported that Baker was among several Republicans that the Biden campaign had discussed for a potential cabinet position if they were to win the election this week. In response to the report, Baker said he was “flattered to be considered,” but intends to serve out “at least” the remaining two years of his current term.

Baker, who said last week that he mailed in his ballot, did not elaborate Tuesday on why he wasn’t moved to vote for Biden.

However, he didn’t leave his entire 2020 ballot blank; last week, Baker said he would vote for Senate candidate Kevin O’Connor, the Republican challenging incumbent Sen. Ed Markey. He also said he would vote against Question 2, the Massachusetts ranked choice voting ballot measure.

While a number of former Republican governors, including Baker’s “mentor” Bill Weld, have publicly backed Biden, many of Trump’s currently elected intra-party critics, even in solidly Democratic states, have been more coy about their presidential votes.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott became the first Republican governor in the country Tuesday afternoon to say he voted for Biden, as Seven Days reported. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a fellow Republican critic of Trump, said last month that he cast a write-in vote for former President Ronald Reagan, who is dead.

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Source Article from https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/11/03/charlie-baker-blanked-2020-presidential-vote

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The Full 2020 Presidential Election Guide – The New York Times
The Full 2020 Presidential Election Guide – The New York Times

If Mr. Biden does not win any of those three states (or Texas, where most of the state polls close at 8 p.m.), that will ratchet up the importance of the so-called blue wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which Mr. Trump flipped from Democrats in 2016 and where polls show Mr. Biden ahead. Mr. Trump needs to hold on to just one of them to win re-election, assuming he keeps the rest of his 2016 winning map. That’s a big assumption: He is defending a half-dozen states he won in 2016, and slightly trailing in some polls in Georgia and Arizona.

It all may come down to Pennsylvania. Polls there close at 8 p.m., but Pennsylvania won’t begin counting its early votes until Wednesday morning. The in-person voting is expected to be overwhelmingly Republican, so Mr. Trump may jump out to an early-night lead.

Don’t get misled; the early voting has been overwhelmingly Democratic. Polling shows Mr. Biden with a narrow lead in Pennsylvania, though Mr. Trump’s poll-defying victory there in 2016 — and the effort by his campaign this time to turn out first-time voters who Republicans say have been overlooked by pollsters — has made this state one of the big mysteries of the night. It could take days to finish counting Pennsylvania’s votes.

Polls in Wisconsin close at 9 p.m. Eastern, but the state’s municipal clerks won’t begin to count early votes until the polls open the morning of Election Day; a tight race might mean it will take a day or more before a winner is declared. In Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, officials said they would not release the results of any early voting until all ballots were counted — a process that isn’t likely to end until around 4 a.m. Wednesday.

The final poll closing in Michigan is 9 p.m. as well, though most of the state’s polls will be closed at 8 p.m. Early voting has been heavy here as well, and counting those votes didn’t begin until Monday. This is another one that could take awhile.

There will be a few later-night states out West that are worth keeping in mind: Nevada, which Mr. Trump has sought to pull back from the Democrats, and Arizona, which Mr. Biden has been trying to put into the Democratic column.

Four years ago, a superstitious Mr. Trump did not have a victory speech written before election night. Now, with the president expecting no definitive winner on Tuesday night, and his campaign lawyers trying to use state rules to stop the counting of mail-in votes after Election Day, he has no plans to deliver any sort of concession.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/us/politics/presidential-election-guide.html

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Control of Senate at stake as Trump’s allies face Democrats – Associated Press
Control of Senate at stake as Trump’s allies face Democrats – Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Control of the Senate is a razor-close proposition in Tuesday’s election, as Republicans fight to retain their majority against a surge of Democratic candidates confronting the president’s allies across a vast political map.

Both parties see paths to victory, and the outcome might not be known on election night.

From New England to the Deep South, the Midwest to the Mountain West, Republican senators are defending seats in states once considered long shots for Democrats. Washington’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, the economic fallout and the nation’s uneasy mood are all on the ballot. Stunning amounts of cash have been flowing to Democrats from millions of Americans apparently voting with their pocketbooks; Republicans are tapping deep-pocketed donors to shore up GOP senators.

President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden swooped in on key states important to the Senate as they propelled their own campaigns in a final stretch.

Securing the Senate majority will be vital for the winner of the presidency. Senators confirm administration nominees, including the Cabinet, and can propel or stall the White House agenda. With Republicans now controlling the chamber, 53-47, three or four seats will determine party control, depending on who wins the presidency because the vice president can break a tie.

“Let’s run through the tape,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, making a final campaign swing Monday in Kentucky as he faces Democratic former fighter pilot Amy McGrath.

McConnell said he hoped to remain the Republican majority leader alongside Trump. But he acknowledged the tough Senate races could flip control to the Democrats. “Obviously, that depends on what happens,” he said.

The campaigns are competing across an expansive Senate map as Democrats put Republicans on defense deep into Trump country.

What started as a lopsided election cycle with Republicans defending 23 Senate seats, compared with 12 for Democrats, quickly became a starker referendum on the president and his party.

Some of the nation’s most well-known senators are in the fights of their political lives.

In South Carolina, Democrat Jaime Harrison is trying to topple GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the president’s top allies.

The two crisscrossed the state in a rush of final campaigning, Graham acknowledging the tight contest after Harrison raised a whopping $100 million by October, an unheard-of sum for the state. The senator, making TV appeals for cash, said he, too, hit the $100 million mark over the weekend.

Stuck in Washington to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a week before Election Day, senators quickly fanned out — some alongside the president — for last-ditch tours, often socially distanced in the pandemic, to shore up votes.

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined Trump’s rally in Fayetteville on Monday as he struggled to fend off Democrat Cal Cunningham despite the married challenger’s sexting scandal with a public relations strategist.

In one of the most-watched races in the nation, Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins made a final campaign stop in Aroostook County near her hometown, visiting workers in a sawmill. Democratic challenger Sara Gideon met voters at the Whistle Stop cafe for breakfast Monday.

The Maine race is one of several that could push past Election Day if no candidate breaks the 50% threshold. Collins has typically rallied support as a centrist with an independent streak, but the tight contest shows the difficulty GOP senators have appealing to Trump’s most ardent backers while also retaining support from more moderate voters.

Democrats have more than one route to secure the three or four seats needed to capture the majority, and GOP strategists privately conceded the incumbents will almost certainly suffer defeats in some key races.

Younger voters and more minorities are pushing some states toward Democrats. In Colorado, the parties have essentially stopped spending money for or against GOP Sen. Cory Gardner because it seems he is heading toward defeat by Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor.

Arizona could see two Democratic senators for the first time since last century if former astronaut Mark Kelly maintains his advantage over GOP Sen. Martha McSally for the seat once held by the late Republican John McCain.

Even the open seat in Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, is being contested.

“The better President Trump does in a state, the easier it is to win any race,” said Corry Bliss, a GOP strategist.

The biggest risks to Democrats come in Alabama and Michigan.

Republicans are expecting to reclaim the seat in Alabama, where Democratic Sen. Doug Jones pulled off a rare 2017 special election win in the Trump stronghold but now wages an uphill campaign against Republican Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn football coach.

In the presidential battleground of Michigan, Republicans have made an aggressive push for John James, a Black Republican businessman, as he rakes in cash to take on Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

“We think the numbers are moving,” said Senate Leadership Fund president Steven Law.

Still, voter turnout during the COVID-19 crisis remains key, and volatile, as more Americans than ever — nearing 100 million — cast early ballots.

Both Biden and Trump touched down in Georgia, where the state is seeing a boost of new voters. Georgia’s two Senate seats are at stake and could very well push to a Jan. 5 runoff if no candidate reaches beyond the 50% threshold.

GOP Sen. David Perdue, the former business executive Trump calls his favorite senator, is working to fend off Democrat Jon Ossoff, another candidate who has benefited from the “green wave” of donations.

Separately, GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler faces Republican Rep. Doug Collins, as well as Democrat Raphael Warnock, in a special election for the seat she was appointed to fill with the retirement of GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson.

It’s expected to be a long count in races across the country.

The political landscape is quickly changing from six years ago, when most of these senators last faced voters. It’s a reminder of how sharply the political climate has shifted in the Trump era.

In Montana, Republican Sen. Steve Daines is trying to brush back Democrat Steve Bullock, the governor, in a state where Trump was popular. Democrats created an opening by working hard to recruit a well-known candidate in Bullock, who also ran in the party’s primary for president.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is fighting for a second term against Democrat Theresa Greenfield. Texas Sen. John Cornyn faces an upstart Democrat, MJ Hegar, in the once solidly Republican state.

And in Alaska, newcomer Al Gross, a doctor, has broken state fundraising records in part with viral campaign ads as he challenges GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Find AP’s full election coverage at APNews.com/Election2020.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/control-of-senate-at-stake-election-4255da17a16505fb9ee20ae64b2153b3

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‘I still can’t believe this’ – CNN
‘I still can’t believe this’ – CNN

By Denise Hruby and Angela Dewan, CNN

Updated 12:35 PM ET, Tue November 3, 2020

    CNN’s Nina Avramova contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/03/europe/vienna-attack-witness-scene-intl/index.html

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    Biden sweeps board in tiny New Hampshire village Dixville Notch – The Guardian
    Biden sweeps board in tiny New Hampshire village Dixville Notch – The Guardian

    Joe Biden won a symbolic early victory this morning in the tiny New Hampshire village of Dixville Notch, where voters backed him by five to zero over Donald Trump.

    The community near the Canadian border has been casting its ballots at midnight on election day for decades. Biden’s clean sweep might be seen as an augur of things to come – were it not for the fact that in 2016 Dixville Notch backed Hillary Clinton.

    There was less good news for the former vice-president from the neighbouring town of Millsfield, 12 miles away. There Trump got 16 votes, compared with Biden’s five. A third hamlet with midnight voting, Hart’s Location, suspended the tradition due to Covid concerns.

    “It’s sort of proof positive that every vote counts and that every vote is part of the system. It’s a privilege to be able to do it,” resident Les Otten told CNN. “It’s just a demonstration to the rest of the country that democracy works,” Joe Casey, another local, added.

    “I’m a Republican and I’m going to break ranks tonight and vote for Joe Biden,” one of the five voters explained, his mask hanging from one ear.

    With so few people on the electoral roll social distancing measures were easy to enforce. The vote took place in a former cookery school decorated with political memorabilia taken from a previous wood-panelled location.

    Dixville Notch, in the White Mountains, started early voting in 1948 to accommodate railroad workers who had to be at work before normal voting hours. The tradition stopped in 1964 but came back in 1996.

    The communities also vote just after midnight in New Hampshire’s first presidential primary. The 11 February primary almost didn’t happen this year in Dixville Notch, when one person moved away, leaving the remaining four residents one short of the minimum needed to handle various election responsibilities. That was fixed when a developer working on renovations of the now-closed Balsams resort, where the voting tradition began, moved in.

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    Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/03/biden-sweeps-board-in-tiny-new-hampshire-village-dixville-notch

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    All but one drive-through voting site in Harris County closed amid Texas legal battle | TheHill – The Hill
    All but one drive-through voting site in Harris County closed amid Texas legal battle | TheHill – The Hill

    A Houston-area county clerk announced late Monday that he would close almost all drive-thru voting sites on Election Day, hours after a federal judge ruled against Republican plaintiffs who sought to throw out 127,000 ballots cast by drive-thru voting in the Democratic-leaning county. 

    In a series of tweets announcing the decision, Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins (D) wrote that he “cannot in good faith encourage voters to cast their votes in tents if that puts their votes at risk.” 

    “My job is to protect the right to vote for all Harris County voters, and that includes those who are going to vote on Election Day,” Hollins explained. 

    The one drive-thru location that will remain open is the Toyota Center, which has “walls and a roof” and would fit the judge’s definition of a “building,” Hollins said in the tweets. 

    District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled earlier Monday that four plaintiffs, three of whom are GOP candidates, lacked standing in the case. 

    The plaintiffs had claimed the drive-thru polling stations were an illegal expansion of curbside voting, an option Texas makes available only to physically disabled voters.

    “I’m not happy with that finding,” Hannen, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said. “But the way I look at it, the law requires it.”

    The judge also said the plaintiffs had not filed the challenge in a timely manner, noting that the drive-thru polling option was announced over the summer.

    Later Monday evening, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit denied the plaintiff’s motion to appeal the lower court’s decision, although the Republicans limited their appeal request to only asking that drive-thru voting be blocked on Election Day. 

    Hollins had praised the district court’s decision in his tweets announcing that most of the drive-thru centers in Harris County would be closed on Nov. 3, calling the ruling a “huge win for democracy.” 

    Hollins added in the tweets that he had “consulted with my legal team and multiple election law experts who have reiterated the legality of drive-thru voting.”

     

    –John Kruzel contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/524138-all-but-one-drive-through-voting-site-in-harris-county-closed-amid-legal

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    Dow rises more than 500 points on hopes election resolves stalemate over relief package – USA TODAY
    Dow rises more than 500 points on hopes election resolves stalemate over relief package – USA TODAY

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2020/11/03/stock-market-dow-rises-more-than-500-points-stimulus-hopes/6137408002/

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    Washington Post: Birx disputes Trump in calling for ‘much more aggressive action’ to combat pandemic – CNN
    Washington Post: Birx disputes Trump in calling for ‘much more aggressive action’ to combat pandemic – CNN

    By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

    Updated 9:38 AM ET, Tue November 3, 2020

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/03/politics/deborah-birx-trump-covid-19/index.html

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    Officials brace for lines and lawsuits as polls open on Election Day – CNN
    Officials brace for lines and lawsuits as polls open on Election Day – CNN

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/03/politics/voting-polls-news/index.html

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    ‘Trump’ and ‘MAGA’ spray-painted on gravestones in Michigan Jewish cemetery – The Washington Post
    ‘Trump’ and ‘MAGA’ spray-painted on gravestones in Michigan Jewish cemetery – The Washington Post

    It’s Election Day.

    Live updates: The latest developments.

    What to know about voting: The United States has already hit a record for the number of people who have already voted. If you are casting your ballot in person today, find out the rules in your state.

    Are you running into voting problems? Let us know.

    What to know about the Presidential race: Who actually votes, and who do they vote for? Explore how shifts in turnout and voting patterns for key demographic groups could affect the presidential race.

    What to know about the Senate: Here are the Senate races to watch

    What to know about the House: Here are the House races to watch.

    The electoral college: How it works.

    Election results: Here’s what we know about when to expect results, including in key swing states.

    You can find results here as they come in tonight.

    Show More

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/03/michigan-jewish-cemetery-trump-maga/

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    Pollster Who Predicted Trump’s 2016 Florida Win Says President Will Take State Again – Newsweek
    Pollster Who Predicted Trump’s 2016 Florida Win Says President Will Take State Again – Newsweek

    A respected state pollster who correctly predicted Donald Trump‘s 2016 win in Florida has projected that the president will take the state again this year, and perhaps even by a wider margin

    FOX 13 pollster Matt Towery went on air five days before Election Day in 2016 and predicted that Trump would win Florida. Trump did win Florida by 1.2 percentage points with a plurality of 49 percent of the popular vote over Hillary Clinton‘s 47.8 percent.

    As Americans prepare to vote on November 3, Towery has predicted another close victory for Trump in Florida this year. “My final projection for Florida is Donald Trump will carry the state by at least a point, maybe a little better than he did last time—maybe even getting closer to two points,” he said, according to Fox 13.

    Towery explained that his prediction relies on several factors: the similarity in polling compared to 2016, the president’s successes in Miami compared to 2016 and growing enthusiasm for his reelection campaign among Latino and African Americans in the state.

    “I might add one of the reasons Trump is performing better than many expected in Florida is we’re seeing him do better with Hispanic Latino populations than we expected. That’s one,” Towery said. “The other is African American. In almost every state we polled, the African American vote is hitting at minimum 15%. I’ve never seen that in all the years I’ve polled.”

    Towery also believes that Trump will take Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. However, he declined to offer a prediction for the candidate that will take the electoral college and White House.

    Political analysts have indicated a close race in Florida, a state that many have called a must-win to take the Oval Office. Trump appears to have the support of white men and rural voters, while Biden is expected to draw strong support among women and African Americans.

    Biden is still leading Trump in most statewide polls. However, the margin has narrowed in recent weeks. On October 13, Trump trailed Biden by an average of 4.5 percentage points in the state, according to polling data maintained by FiveThirtyEight. That margin closed to 2.5 percentage points on the evening before November 3.

    Florida’s two week early voting window closed on Sunday with roughly 8.97 ballots cast in the state. The figure was close to the 9.5 million overall ballots cast in 2016. Democrats accounted for 39 percent of the early votes, Republicans 38 percent and independents 21.5 percent.

    Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.

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    Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/pollster-who-predicted-trumps-2016-florida-win-says-president-will-take-state-again-1544251

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    Biden Sweeps Dixville Notch In Midnight Vote – The New York Times
    Biden Sweeps Dixville Notch In Midnight Vote – The New York Times

    The results are already in from two New Hampshire towns where voters famously head to the polls just after the stroke of midnight on Election Day.

    In Dixville Notch, where a handful of masked residents voted shortly after midnight on Tuesday, all five votes for president went to Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee. He is the first presidential candidate to sweep the general election vote in Dixville Notch since the midnight voting tradition began there in 1960, when Richard M. Nixon won all nine votes over John F. Kennedy.

    The other northern New Hampshire town that voted around the same time on Tuesday, Millsfield, favored President Trump by 16 votes to 5.

    A third town, Hart’s Location, canceled its traditional midnight voting this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 48 voters there will have to wait until the morning like everyone else.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/us/politics/dixville-notch-biden-millsfield-trump.html

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    Supreme Court takes up religious freedom, anti-gay discrimination laws in Philadelphia foster care case – NBC News
    Supreme Court takes up religious freedom, anti-gay discrimination laws in Philadelphia foster care case – NBC News
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    Shooting In Vienna Leaves At Least 4 Dead – NPR
    Shooting In Vienna Leaves At Least 4 Dead – NPR

    Police officers investigate the scene in Vienna on Tuesday, the day after at least one gunman went on a shooting spree in the city center before he was shot and killed by police.

    Ronald Zak/AP


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    Ronald Zak/AP

    Police officers investigate the scene in Vienna on Tuesday, the day after at least one gunman went on a shooting spree in the city center before he was shot and killed by police.

    Ronald Zak/AP

    At least four people were killed and 14 others wounded, seven with life-threatening injuries, in a shooting spree in the city center of Vienna on Monday before police shot and killed a gunman the country’s interior minister described as an “Islamist terrorist.”

    Austria’s interior minister, Karl Nehammer, said two men and two women died from their injuries, according to NPR’s Rob Schmitz. Nehammer said a single suspect armed with a rifle and fake explosive vest was killed by police.

    “We experienced an attack last night by at least one Islamist terrorist,” Nehammer said.

    Schmitz reports that Nehammer said the suspect was a 20-year-old dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia who was sentenced to 22 months in prison last year because he’d attempted to travel to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State. He was released seven months later due to laws applying to young adults.

    Nehammer said the suspect’s house has been searched and video material seized. Several additional arrests were made and at least 15 additional homes searched.

    Residents of Vienna were told to stay home on Tuesday as authorities tried to determine whether there were other attackers or accomplices.

    The attack began about 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) Monday when at least one gunman opened fire near Vienna’s main synagogue. The synagogue was closed and unoccupied at the time.

    Witnesses said the gunman fired randomly into bars and cafes that were crowded on the last night before a nationwide lockdown because of the coronavirus. The gunman was killed by police within minutes.

    Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called it a “despicable terror attack.” The government declared three days of national mourning with flags to be flown at half-staff through Thursday. On Tuesday at noon (6 a.m. ET), the nation will observe a minute of silence.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/930721562/at-least-4-killed-by-gunman-in-vienna-austria-in-terror-attack

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    Voters head to the polls today as Missouri turnout expected to hit 75% – STLtoday.com
    Voters head to the polls today as Missouri turnout expected to hit 75% – STLtoday.com

    Long lines Monday

    Among those waiting to vote absentee in person Monday at the county board office was Margaret Morrow, who was making her second attempt after encountering a long line there a few days earlier.

    The line on Monday was only a little shorter — but it was moving at a brisk pace, and the sun was shining.

    “I decided I’d wait until I felt like I could stand outside all day, and today was that day,” said Morrow, 72, a retired auto worker who lives in Florissant. “And I want to make sure I get my vote in, even if I have to stand all day.”

    “If you don’t get out and vote, you can’t cry about what happens later.”

    Morrow was among about 200 people in line to vote midday Monday. Nearly every person in the line, which wrapped around the corner of the building, was wearing a required protective face mask.

    It took Ernestine Robertson about an hour to reach the doors. But Robertson, 68, of Creve Coeur, was only holding a friend’s place in line. After working an overnight shift, she had volunteered to drive him out to vote.

    “I didn’t want anybody to feel like they couldn’t vote because of transportation problems or anything else,” said Robertson, a home care worker who was motivated this year to vote against Trump.

    “I feel like this is one of the most unusual and important elections I’ve ever voted in — and it all has to do with who is in the White House,” she said.

    Trevon Graves, 27, and Jessica Sterling, 32, of Maryland Heights, were shocked to see how long the line was when they arrived shortly before noon.

    Source Article from https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/voters-head-to-the-polls-today-as-missouri-turnout-expected-to-hit-75/article_1a350d3b-d6af-5845-ae92-2445dfd073f0.html

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    Twitter censors Trump’s tweet knocking Supreme Court’s Pa. vote, Facebook also cracks down – Fox News
    Twitter censors Trump’s tweet knocking Supreme Court’s Pa. vote, Facebook also cracks down – Fox News
    Video

    Twitter reinstates New York Post’s account after attempt to censor Hunter Biden story

    Opinion editor and columnist for the New York Post Sohrab Ahmari joins ‘Fox & Friends’ with insight.

    Twitter and Facebook cracked down on President Trump‘s account yet again Monday, this time over a post slamming a recent Supreme Court ruling on Pennsylvania’s extension for ballot counting. 

    All eyes have been on Pennsylvania in recent weeks as polls between Trump and Joe Biden have tightened in the Keystone State. However, the Supreme Court ruled last week that Pennsylvania officials will be able to count ballots received up to three days after the election.

    On Monday evening, Trump sounded the alarm on the “dangerous” precedent that was set. 

    TWITTER, FACEBOOK HAVE CENSORED TRUMP 65 TIMES COMPARED TO ZERO FOR BIDEN, STUDY SAYS

    “The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one,” Trump wrote. “It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”

    However, Twitter users cannot automatically see the tweet. 

    “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” a label warns before allowing users to view Trump’s tweet.

    There’s also a warning label attached to the bottom of the tweet reading, “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure,” which links to a separate Twitter report on the subject. 

    Users cannot like or retweet Trump’s post, only allowing quote tweets that force other users to provide a reaction to what was declared a “misleading” tweet. 

    Facebook took similar action, adding a label to Trump’s post telling users: “Both voting by mail and voting in person have a long history of trustworthiness in the US. Voter fraud is extremely rare across voting methods.” It identifies the Bipartisan Policy Center as its source.

    CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

    President Trump has long feuded with Twitter and Facebook during this election cycle, specifically on the issue of censorship. A recent study last month showed the president being censored by both tech giants a whopping 65 times since May 2018.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/twitter-censors-trumps-tweet-knocking-supreme-courts-pa-vote-facebook-also-cracks-down

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    Trump Supporters That Harassed Biden Bus Were Armed – Newsweek
    Trump Supporters That Harassed Biden Bus Were Armed – Newsweek

    Supporters of President Donald Trump who recently harassed Democratic candidate Joe Biden‘s campaign bus in Texas were armed and organized their operation in a private QAnon Facebook page, according to a new report.

    The report, which was published by the fact-checking site, Snopes, states that the convoy of trucks that were seen on video surrounding a Biden-Kamala Harris bus on Texas’ Interstate 35, organized the event in a private Facebook page called the Alamo City Trump Train. The report also notes that messages between the group’s members suggested that they were armed with guns.

    According to the report, on October 30, one group member posted “#OperationBlockTheBus RN,” with “RN” referring to “right now.”

    The post “was endorsed with 142 reactions, including likes, laughing emojis, or love hearts. “I LOVE IT!!!!,” said one commenter. “This is awesome,” said another. Other comments included: “Great job!,” “GOOD!,” “Love it,” “This is fucking hilarious,” and “Awesome.”,” Snopes wrote in its report.

    In the report, Snopes notes that in its study of the private Facebook group, it found a number of posts and comments referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers believe that several notable members of the Democratic Party are part of a satanic cult involved with child sex trafficking.

    In one post found in the group, one member shared a screenshot they believed to be from “Q” and others commented the conspiracy theory’s slogan, ” “WWG1WGA,” or “Where We Go One We Go All.”

    According to Snopes, QAnon logos, signage and flags were also found throughout the Facebook page.

    Additionally, Snopes also notes that on October 31, one day after the incident, a group member published a post questioning news articles that suggested those involved in the operation were armed, which was met by another group member responding with, “Yep we are armed and dangerous.”

    “It’s Texas. Everyone is carrying!” another member commented, according to Snopes.

    “Cause it’s Texas and we don’t f*** around, we are always armed!!!” another comment read, Snopes reported.

    The incident Snopes is reporting on occurred on October 30, when several Trump supporters were seen on video surrounding the Biden-Harris campaign bus. The incident prompted Biden’s campaign to cancel a joint event in Pflugerville with the Austin Young Democrats and Texas House Representative Sheryl Cole due to security reasons, and the FBI announced that they were opening an investigation into the incident.

    A video of the incident was shared by Trump on Twitter with a caption that read, “I LOVE TEXAS!”

    In response to the FBI investigation, Trump posted another tweet that read, “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”

    According to CBS News, a statement from the Biden campaign said that, “rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas [yesterday] instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way.”

    Newsweek reached out to Biden and Trump’s campaigns for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

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    Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-that-harassed-biden-bus-were-armed-operation-organized-private-facebook-group-1544215

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    Final Forecast: Democrats Have A 3-In-4 Chance Of Flipping The Senate – FiveThirtyEight
    Final Forecast: Democrats Have A 3-In-4 Chance Of Flipping The Senate – FiveThirtyEight

    Democrats are favored to take control of the Senate in the 2020 elections, according to the final version of FiveThirtyEight’s Senate forecast. With the forecast set in stone as of early Tuesday morning, Democrats have a 75 in 100 chance of flipping the chamber. Republicans, meanwhile, have a 25 in 100 chance of keeping control — as likely as drawing a spade from a deck of cards.1

    However, a ton of seats are still competitive; in 80 percent of our model’s simulations, Democrats wind up with anywhere between 48 and 55 seats. That’s a big range! And the exact number of seats here matters, because it’s not just about control of the chamber. Winning 50 seats (plus the tie-breaking vice presidential vote) is a very different outcome for Democrats from winning 55 seats, as the size of their majority would affect how likely they are to pass their ambitious agenda over the objections of more moderate Democrats like, say, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

    Now for those competitive seats. There are a whopping 17 Senate seats where both parties have at least a 5 in 100 chance of victory. But a big reason why Democrats are favored overall is that Republicans have far more seats at risk — 13 in total, as the table below shows. (We’ll touch on those four seats Democrats could lose in a moment.)

    Democrats have many opportunities to pick up Senate seats

    Republican-held Senate seats that have less than a 95 percent chance of remaining Republican, according to the final numbers from the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEight’s forecast

    *Special election.

    Remember, Democrats need a net gain of only three seats (if they also win the vice presidency) or four (if Vice President Mike Pence wins a second term) in order to take control. But not all of those GOP-held seats are equally vulnerable — so let’s break them down into categories based on roughly how likely they are to turn blue.

    First, there are the two Republican-held seats most likely to fall to Democrats: Colorado and Arizona. In Colorado, former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s chances of defeating Republican Sen. Cory Gardner look particularly strong: 84 in 100. This is probably due in part to the fact that Joe Biden looks extremely likely to carry Colorado, and it’s become increasingly rare for voters to split their tickets between the presidential and Senate races. In Arizona, Biden’s victory is less assured, but former astronaut Mark Kelly has proven to be an extremely strong recruit for Democrats in Arizona, raising more than $87 million in individual contributions and leading in almost every poll since he entered the race in early 2019. Hurt by the fact that she is an appointed senator (which affords her almost no incumbency advantage), Republican Martha McSally has just a 22 in 100 chance to prevail.

    Two additional Republican-held seats lean toward Democrats — although in all likelihood, we’ll only know who won one of them today: North Carolina. There, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham is a 68 in 100 favorite to defeat Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. Despite revelations that Cunningham sent sexts to a woman who is not his wife, the race has been pretty stable, and he has managed to hold onto a narrow polling lead. We give Democrats similar odds (a 63 in 100 chance) of eventually prevailing in Georgia’s special election — but this race will almost certainly not be decided until January. That’s because the race is a battle royal among 20 candidates of all parties (there was no primary), making it nearly impossible that any one candidate will secure the majority of votes necessary to win. Assuming that doesn’t happen, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff on Jan. 5. Democrats currently lead in polls of the runoff, but a lot can happen in the next two months, and Georgia remains a Republican-leaning state.

    Then there are the three Republican-held seats that are more or less toss-ups. In Maine, Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon has a 59 in 100 chance to win, while incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins has a 41 in 100 chance. Polls have generally favored Gideon, but Collins, with her moderate voting record and history of running well ahead of other Republicans in Maine, is a strong incumbent who may be able to overcome the state’s blue tinge. The tables are turned in Georgia’s other Senate race, where Republican Sen. David Perdue has 57 in 100 odds and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff isn’t that far behind at 43 in 100. There’s also a decent chance that this race goes to a runoff, as our average vote-share predictions show neither candidate hitting 50 percent. Last but not least, Iowa is another virtual coin flip of a race: Republican Sen. Joni Ernst has a 58 in 100 chance of winning, while Democrat Theresa Greenfield is at 42 in 100.

    But the races that could really make the difference between a slim Democratic majority and a robust one are the six Republican-held seats where Democrats are underdogs — but still have an outside shot to pick off. Perhaps the most likely candidate for an upset is in Montana, where Republican Sen. Steve Daines has a 69 in 100 chance to win — but Democrat Steve Bullock, the state’s popular governor, has a 31 in 100 chance. Democrats also have a respectable 23 in 100 chance in Alaska and a 20 in 100 chance in Kansas, where their candidates have strong independent identities that could help them swim against the partisan tide in these fairly red states. In Alaska, Al Gross is an independent running as a Democrat; in Kansas, state Sen. Barbara Bollier was a Republican until 2018. And in South Carolina, Jaime Harrison has become the 2020 cycle’s Beto O’Rourke — a Democrat running a surprisingly strong campaign in a red state against a boldfaced Republican name (in this case, Sen. Lindsey Graham). Harrison has raised almost $108 million (!) in individual contributions, recently breaking O’Rourke’s record for biggest Senate fundraising quarter ever. Harrison has also kept things close in the polls but has just a 23 in 100 chance to win. Finally, Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (88 in 100) and John Cornyn (86 in 100) are healthy favorites to win another term in Mississippi and Texas, respectively, but they aren’t totally safe either.

    So that’s a lot of potential Democratic pickups. But the number of seats Democrats pick up is only half the equation: Let’s not forget that Republicans have a few chances to play offense as well, which could negate some of those Democratic gains. But the problem for Republicans is simply that they have fewer seats to target. In fact, they’re likely to flip only one seat.

    The GOP has fewer opportunities to pick up Senate seats

    Democratic-held Senate seats that have less than a 95 percent chance of remaining Democratic, according to the final numbers from the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEight’s forecast

    That’s in Alabama, where Republican Tommy Tuberville has an 87 in 100 chance to defeat Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. While Jones is the incumbent and raised a considerable amount of money (far more than Tuberville), he arguably won the seat in 2017’s special election only because his scandal-tarred Republican opponent was a historically weak candidate. Ultimately, our forecast thinks Alabama is just too red for Jones to win reelection.

    Democrats are pretty strong favorites in every other Democratic-held Senate seat up this year, though. Some Republicans are optimistic that John James can defeat Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan — and he is one of Republicans’ strongest recruits of the cycle, having raised almost $36 million in individual contributions — but our forecast nonetheless gives James only a 17 in 100 chance. And New Mexico and Minnesota are on the cusp of being noncompetitive, as Republicans have only a 6 in 100 chance in the former and a 5 in 100 chance in the latter.

    With Republicans likely to defeat one Democratic incumbent, Democrats probably need to flip four Republican-held seats to secure that coveted majority. And that’s very possible: They have a clear path to do so through Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina and (maybe eventually) Georgia — not to mention the many other states where they have a real, if longer, shot. Overall, when the dust settles, our forecast projects that Democrats will have an average of 52 Senate seats2 and Republicans an average of 48. However, while we hope we know on Tuesday night which party will control the next Senate, we almost certainly won’t know its exact composition thanks to potential runoffs in Georgia and slow vote counts in states like Alaska. It may be pencils down for our forecast, but stay with FiveThirtyEight in the next several weeks as we wrap up all the loose ends in the Senate and elsewhere.

    Source Article from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/final-2020-senate-forecast/

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