The Divided States of Pennsylvania:
My tour of PA from the urban Acela corridor to rural farmland to Appalachia to the industrial Midwest to show what makes the state so complex and politically competitive.
Hop on for the ride:
Defense: How can we know Trump's words actually led to the violence?
Dems: Here's a guy with a bullhorn reading out the presidents tweet as they storm the Capitol.
Fetterman at his Philly rally asks everyone to hold up a hand if they have had a health problem, or a parent or child with a health problem.
"I hope that you didn’t have a doctor in your life making fun of it, laughing at you, telling you that you’re not able to do your job"
Dem Rep. Al Greene - wheeled in just as the vote appeared headed toward a tie, no shoes on, in what looked like hospital scrubs as pants - said he had surgery. But came to vote against the impeachment.
Hakeem Jeffries shook his hand after he arrived
ATL Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asked right now on CNN if President Trump is capable of delivering a unifying national message:
“I think he is capable of reading one.”
Lamb stmt:
"Our entire democracy is on the line in Nov. Dems need to be unequivocally united in our defense of this democracy, and we will be. John’s vote in the Senate is essential to protect this democracy, & he will have my vote in November. I will do everything I can to help"
PAs Mike Kelly (R) raising questions about whether PAs Act 77 (on voting laws) was constitutional.
It was passed with huge bipartisan support through the GOP-led state legislature. Signed a year before the 2020 election.
No one objected to it until after Trump lost.
Where PA stands:
- Trump's edge is down to about 300k.
- About 900k mail ballots uncounted yet.
- Biden still winning 78% of those.
- If - again IF - that % holds, Biden would surpass Trump's advantage.
Trump for months mocked Biden for playing it safe around the virus and "hiding in his basement."
Now Biden hits the road during the final stretch while Trump is forced to stay home.
Someone - looked like security but I can't be sure - just rushed Steny Hoyer off the floor.
Someone on the Dem side stood and yelled to Republicans; "This is because of you!"
Inbox: Sen. John Fetterman calls for “every one of my colleagues” to join and expel Sen. Menendez
“We cannot have an alleged foreign agent in the United States Senate. This is not a close call.”
Good morning. In PA, here's where Biden's hopes hang:
He has won 77% of mail ballots counted so far.
There are 1.4m left to count.
IF - if - that pace continues, he'd net a 787k edge - and is trailing by 657k
(and since much of blue PA is left to count, poss he might exceed 77%)
Biden campaign call:
"We will win by a sizable number of votes in Pennsylvania"
Trump campaign is saying the same, but data and remaining votes right now appear to support the Biden team
Today, Philly's
@CongBoyle
plans to introduce the "Stable Genius Act" to require all presidential candidates have a standardized medical exam & disclose the results before an election
The Bidens left chalk messages after volunteering at Philly's
@Philabundance
"Philly Strong! Thank you for all you do—Love, Jill Biden"
"Thank you for giving people in need the most valuable thing that can be given. HOPE" - Joe Biden
This is how big the Philly suburbs were for Biden:
He is +283,061 votes in Bucks, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery Counties
That's +94,708 (and counting) vs Clinton.
A 50% (!!!) increase over her margin
If you're still interested:
Joe Biden's lead in PA is up to 45,727.
Slightly more than Trump's 44,292-vote win in 2016.
About 54,300 mail ballots left to count this year - with the biggest chunks coming from Philly and Allegheny County
NEWS: PA Sen Pat Toomey will not run for governor or reelection in 2022. Announcement expected Monday.
He'll serve out his current senate term.
w/
@wbender99
NEWS: Sen. Pat Toomey will co-sponsor the Senate bill to reform how Electoral College votes are counted - giving it 10 GOP cosponsors, enough to clear filibuster
(if all 50 Dems also support it)
It's Friday night and it's starting to get wild in the Senate:
Sen. Romney returned from the cloakroom with a glass of chocolate milk and drained it in a matter of minutes
@lindsaywise
reports from the chamber
The PA Republicans who signed onto a fake certificate of electors included 2 now running for Gov (Barletta, Gerow) and some of the party's top state and county officials, including the national cmte man, state party vice chair & deputy chair
PAs
@SenToomey
(R) acknowledges Joe Biden’s win and urges the transition process to proceed:
“I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country”
New: the estranged wife of Pa Senate candidate Sean Parnell testified under oath that he choked her, pinned her down and berated her - calling her a piece of shit - and once slapped one of their children so hard it left welts thru a t shirt
Inbox: 5 former Homeland Security secretaries, including ex Trump chief of staff John Kelly, ex Pa Gov Tom Ridge and NJs Michael Chertoff write joint letter urging Trump, Congress to fund the Dept.
The outstanding ballots in PA are NOT new votes.
The 1.4m this morning are votes that were cast and arrived on or before Election Day. They have simply not been counted yet.
Conor Lamb comment that set off the near clash on the House floor :
"We know that that attack today, it didn't materialize out of nowhere, it was inspired by lies, the same lies that you're hearing in this room tonight."
(full quote below)
Bernie suggests he's going to stay in the race to try to push Biden to take more liberal stands on key issues - not mapping a path to winning, but hoping to keep moving Biden
Inbox: Joe Biden condemns violence in Portland:
“I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same.”
- "100k votes just showed up"
- “people voting 2 or 3 times"
- dead people voting to help Biden
All lies delivered by GOP congressmen from PA in the weeks after the election, amplifying the beliefs that fueled last week's riot.
W/
@AndrewSeidman
For me one of the most telling things about Jan 6 - and that sometimes gets lost in the blur of events - is that the objections to PA happened *after* the riot.
There was literally blood in the halls and broken windows in the House chamber as they continued the effort
Look, I try to show some grace on this web site because it is sorely needed. But this might be the worst most uninformed take I have ever seen.
Pat Toomey ran against Arlen Specter twice and chased him out of the GOP.
Not long ago if you had Mitch McConnell, the WSJ edit board and Chamber of Commerce all endorsing a deal negotiated by a conservative Oklahoma senator, it would be a slam dunk with GOP Senators.
Those folks aren't running the show anymore.
PAs
@SenToomey
(R) had a call with Joe Biden last week, congratulated him on his victory.
"The outcome of the election is clear and that is that Joe Biden won the election"
Amazing.
Andy Kim jumped into this race without insider support - and he gets the payoff for having the guts to take a big risk.
He captured massive grassroots energy and is now almost assuredly NJs next senator
PA Thurs morning:
- Trump's lead down to 159k (was 657k Wed morning)
- Still about 484k mail ballots to count (from on/before Election Day) - incl some 100k in Philly
- Biden winning 77.5% of mail ballots counted so far
- If this continues, would easily pass Trump
As someone who covered a closely contested swing state through November, let me say thanks and respect to the GA reporters who basically crossed a marathon finish line, and were then told to go run another 10 miles - and have done it.
Sean Parnell's team had hoped a favorable ruling would help dispel the abuse claims.
Instead, his wife emerges with primary physical custody and sole legal custody. Likely devastating to his campaign.
“They’re in the rotunda. Police using tear gas in the Capitol”
It’s still hard to believe I wrote that.
What I saw in the House chamber Wednesday as the mob closed in:
This has been said many times, but still remarkable: we're minutes away from a committee vote, and a short drive away is a witness who has not been asked to appear and answer questions.
@Leh_ber_tee
Absolutely- there was a huge crowd & I tweeted that several times too. that's not the same as all time record and ppl left standing outside
.
@MeghanMcCain
: "We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness. The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly"
"You have to watch what we're going to do to 60 Minutes .... Leslie Stahl's not going to be happy"
- Trump, 2 weeks from election day in a key swing county in key swing state
AP calls PA7 for Dem Susan Wild - completing a Democratic sweep of all the top races in Pennsylvania.
There were 3 PA House seats Rs thought they could win, PA7, PA8, PA17, but Dems held them all
On a flight for less than 2 hours, land to another mass shooting, a day after a guy was arrested for mailing out bombs. In my life it has never felt so much like a world coming apart at the seams
Jan 6 was a major reason Dems gave for refusing to rescue McCarthy.
Said it then and it still holds: you cannot overstate how much that day is seared in Dems’ minds, and how it has poisoned any potential trust
A majority of House Republicans voted not to certify so that means Jeffries wouldn’t support folks like Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole and most of the House GOP leadership
One potential big change with Fetterman replacing Toomey: No more bipartisan negotiations on district court judges.
Biden, Casey, Fetterman will have a much freer hand the next 2 years - when judicial appointments might be the biggest thing that comes out of the Senate
Biden closes by urging voters to send Shapiro to Senate, and elect "that big guy" as Gov - reversing the offices Shapiro and Fetterman are actually running for
PA mail ballots approved for the Tues primary:
Dems: 1.3 million
GOP: 525k
"We’re kind of listening to Trump on this" says one GOP chair
Via
@AndrewSeidman
Remember: Republicans freaked out because Bill Clinton (who had no formal government authority) had a *conversation* with the Attorney General while there was an investigation into Hillary Clinton.
Trump and/or Barr have gone miles beyond that.
Fetterman announces his transition co chairs:
Adam Jentleson, a former top aide to Harry Reid (and avid pro Fetterman Twitter-er)
Kristen Gentile, Chief of Staff to Bob Casey
HI's
@brianschatz
says there should be "shame" that lawmakers act when air travel is disrupted, but not when food stamps, paychecks, etc are affected
"If the elites are imperiled or inconvenienced in any way at all, game over. And shame on us if that's what it takes"
If you accept that the president misspoke we're to believe that he stated the exact opposite of his beliefs in a huge moment watched around the world - and the WH just let it sit for a full day without anyone trying to correct the record.
Toomey (R):
“With today’s decision by Judge Brann, a longtime conservative R whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, to dismiss the Trump campaign’s lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pa”
Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,555 votes, exceeding the 44,292-vote margin Trump won in 2016.
With the result certified, me and
@Elaijuh
look at the numbers behind the results.
It begins with a huge Dem suburban surge:
New: Sen. Pat Toomey says the GOP should move away from Trump’s influence after the “debacle” in Pa and elsewhere.
“The more MAGA a candidate was, the more they tended to underperform.”
CNN dug into 50 names that the Trump folks are pointing to as evidence of dead people voting in Michigan.
The upshot: 37 were dead and didn’t vote. 5 are alive and did vote. 8 are alive but didn’t vote.
@CNN
Oz in the crowd after a woman appeared to collapse at his rally in Bucks County - was apparently tending to her as they waited for paramedics to arrive
PA Republicans are moving to censure Pat Toomey for voting to convict President Trump Saturday - another sign of how loyalty to Trump is defining the party:
w/
@AndrewSeidman
If you're mocking Biden without taking the minute it takes to learn he had a stutter, and often talks about meeting kids with the same challenge, you are exhibiting the absolute worst of this platform