Recall when Lev and Igor were caught laundering Russian money into the Trump campaign and the campaign of dozens of Republicans in Congress? Yesterday, Christian Berthelson reported that Lev-- one of the Giuliani criminal associates was handed a million bucks from Putin in September "a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into U.S. political campaigns.
Gangsta President by Nancy OhanianLast week, Mehdi Hasan interviewed Bernie for The Intercept. I dealt with some of it last night, but not this interaction about 2020:
Gangsta President by Nancy OhanianLast week, Mehdi Hasan interviewed Bernie for The Intercept. I dealt with some of it last night, but not this interaction about 2020:
This morning, Aaron Blake noted at the Washington Post that "When President Trump was elected, he promised the GOP that they would win so much they would get tired of it. But for a third successive election year since then, the Republican Party has walked away the loser." Also this morning a top Democratic congressional staffer told me that she spoke to "two different Republican Hill staffers who have expressed serious concerns with how badly last night went for them.
Let's follow up on last night's pre-election special for Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and New Jersey. The results look excellent tonight... unless your name rhymes with DUMP. Trumpanzee did the trick in Kentucky, a scorching red R+15 state... where the GOP lost the governor's mansion.
I don't know much about Democratic strategist Kevin Walling other than he was one of the founders of-- and the first political director for-- the right-of-center Inside-the-beltway group No Labels-- and that he is often called upon by right-wing media to play the role of "the Democrat," particularly on Fox New, Fox Business News, Newsmax and the neo-Nazi One America News Network (OAN).
One of Trump's closest allies, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin faces the voters in 6 weeks. He's in a fight for his political life and being attached to Trump at the hip might not save him. The most recent poll shows Democrat Andy Beshear beating him by 9 points-- 48-39% in one of the reddest states in the country.
Kentucky is a weird and intriguing state when it comes to politics. Just watch the great explanation of what's going on there in the Samantha Bee video above before you read another word. It's one of the reddest states in the Union (PVI is R+15-- worse than Alabama, Mississippi, Texas or Kansas) and Trump beat Hillary there 1,202,971 (62.5%) to 628,854 (32.68). She won just two of Kentucky's 120 counties. Hillary even managed to lose Elliott County, which had never-- in its 150 year history-- voted for a Republican before, not Reagan, not Eisenhower, not Harding... just Trump.
This is kind of a Part II of the Brexit post from earlier this evening. There are plenty of Democrats-- including many who I like and respect-- who don't believe that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was significant. I disagree, extremely so. I'm far from a Clinton supporter, but I feel absolutely certain that Trump would not be in the White House today had Putin not decided to make a big push to put him there.
