As U.S. voters prepare to go to the polls for the November 6 midterm elections, federal, state and local officials are preparing, too. But whereas many voters are considering which candidates to support, government officials are doing all they can to make sure everyone who is eligible can cast a ballot and that those votes will be counted correctly.

Fears among many U.S. intelligence and security officials have been growing, dating back to before the 2016 U.S. presidential election when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security accused Russia of orchestrating a campaign to hack into the emails of U.S. political organizations and selectively release them to the public.

“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process,” the joint statement said.

Following President Donald Trump’s election that November, the top three U.S. intelligence agencies issued a declassified report, accusing Russia of executing an unprecedented influence campaign “to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process.”

The January 2017 report from the CIA, the FBI and NSA also assessed that “[President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible.”

But the report said Russia’s efforts to use disinformation to sway voters was only one problem. Another was the access Russia got, and maintained, to U.S. state and local electoral systems — though officials concluded Russia was not able to access systems that would have allowed it to physically change vote totals.

More recent U.S. intelligent assessments indicate that in the run-up to this year’s midterm election, the threats have expanded.

In July, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats ominously declared the “warning lights are blinking red.”

Here are five things to know about the dangers to the electoral system and what the U.S. is doing about them:

Are the Russians interfering again in the U.S. election process?

Yes. “We continue to see a pervasive message campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States,” Coats told reporters during a White House briefing in August.

Coats previously described Russia’s efforts as “undeniable,” accusing Moscow at the annual Aspen Security Conference in July of “trying to undermine our basic values, divide us with our allies.”

But just how much Russia is doing to undermine the upcoming elections remains a question.

“We’re not seeing the targeting of the actual state and local election systems that we saw in 2016 right now,” Jeanette Manfra, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for cybersecurity, said at the July security conference.

Since then, multiple intelligence and security officials have reiterated that the pace and scope of Russian activities do not match their 2016 efforts.

Microsoft has said hackers, using tactics similar to what Russia has used in the past, targeted the campaigns of at least three candidates running for Congress.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, announced that suspected Russian hackers had targeted her campaign. Two Republican think tanks, the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute, also said they appear to have been targeted.

Are other countries following Russia’s lead and getting into the game this year?

Senior U.S. officials say they are “deeply concerned” about the growing use of influence operations, pointing to countries like China, Iran and North Korea as the biggest culprits after Russia.

Trump has been even more explicit, accusing Beijing of “attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November, against my administration.”

China denies the charges. Still, a growing number of U.S. intelligence and security officials warn that Beijing has the capabilities to do as much, if not more, than Russia did in 2016.

There also is evidence Iran has been trying to expand its influence operations. In September, social media giants Facebook and Twitter announced they had removed hundreds of pages and accounts linked to an Iranian-based campaign that targeted the U.S. as well as other countries.

What are state election officials and political parties doing to protect against the hacking of election machinery?

All 50 U.S. states are working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help harden their election infrastructures against attacks.

Every state, as well as almost 1,000 local jurisdictions, has enrolled in the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), to make it easier to share information about threats.

The federal government has also made an additional $380 million in grants available to state officials to help improve election-related cybersecurity, purchase new voting equipment or improve voter registration systems. Organizations for state officials, like the National Conference of State Legislatures, have also helped pool resources and take advantage of best practices. Several states have also passed new laws to improve election cybersecurity.

But the relationship between the states and the federal government has been uneasy, with some state officials voicing concerns that the Department of Homeland Security was going too far in asserting authority over state and local elections. Still, Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen has expressed confidence about reducing the “trust deficit.”

“We have made tremendous strides,” Nielsen said, though she added states would benefit from consistent funding for ongoing security improvements.

What is the federal government doing to try to foil foreign meddling in the election process?

Officials have been working on several fronts to secure the upcoming vote from attacks.

In September, the White House unveiled a new National Cyber Strategy, promising a more aggressive approach in order to deter any sort of cyberattack or intrusion.

“We’re not just on defense,” National Security Advisor John Bolton said. “We’re going to do a lot of things offensively, and I think our adversaries need to know that.”

President Trump also signed an executive order promising to seek retribution, using sanctions and a range of other penalties, against any person, group or country assessed to have meddled in the election.

“We are engaged every single day,” U.S. Cyber Command’s Gen. Paul Nakasone said in September, though he refused to share any specifics.

The U.S. has also tried to hold Russia accountable for its efforts to meddle in the 2016 election, indicting 12 Russians affiliated with the country’s GRU intelligence agency for hacking into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.

At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security has been working with all 50 U.S. states to harden the country’s election infrastructure against possible attacks. Those efforts include information sharing and analysis, and deploying network intrusion sensors that can help detect attacks in real time.

DHS said 90 percent of Americans will be voting in areas covered by these sensors.

Will the 2018 midterm elections be secure?

U.S. officials say the election infrastructure is secure and that Americans should trust that their votes will count.

“We currently have no indication that a foreign advisory intends to disrupt our election infrastructure,” Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen said, though she cautioned U.S. adversaries are unlikely to give up altogether.

“We’re constantly on alert,” she said. “We know they have the capability and we know they have the will.”

But protecting and securing U.S. election systems is just part of the challenge. Intelligence officials warn stopping disinformation campaigns is far more difficult because countries like Russia, China and Iran are able to take advantage of social media and U.S. laws that protect freedom of expression.

Government officials have been working with social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, to remove accounts used by trolls and bots to spread propaganda and false information.

The companies also say they have been more active.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told lawmakers in September that the company is “blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day” and has been “making progress on fake news.”

Still, U.S. intelligence officials said they have no way of knowing when or if one bit of disinformation will cause an individual to change how he or she is going to vote.
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As U.S. senators await the result of an FBI investigation and prepare for a potential final vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, Trump used part of a political rally to mock a woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her.

The FBI investigation was launched Friday, one day after Christine Blasey Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. Kavanaugh angrily denied the charges hours later and accused Democrats of orchestrating a “political hit” against him.

In front of a crowd of supporters Tuesday night in Mississippi, Trump gave an apparent re-enactment of Ford’s testimony, mockingly portraying what he described as holes in her testimony.

“How did you get home? ‘I don’t remember.’ How did you get there? ‘I don’t remember,'” Trump said.

Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee she was “100 percent certain” it was a drunken Kavanaugh who pinned her down on a bed, groped her, tried to take off her clothes, and put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams for help. Kavanaugh testified he has never assaulted anyone.

Ford’s lawyer, Michael Bromwich, called Trump’s attack Tuesday “vicious, vile and soulless.”

“Is it any wonder that she was terrified to come forward, and that other sexual assault survivors are as well? She is a remarkable profile in courage. He is a profile in cowardice,” Bromwich wrote on Twitter.

Earlier Tuesday, Senate Republicans and Democrats sparred over the ongoing FBI investigation, which is expected to be completed by Friday.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the confirmation vote will occur once senators of both parties have a chance to review the FBI’s conclusions.

“What I can tell you with certainty is that we’ll have an FBI report this week and we’ll have a vote this week,” McConnell told reporters.

Democrats, meanwhile, demanded that the White House divulge its instructions to the FBI in ordering the investigation, that the FBI’s report be made public, and that the bureau’s lead investigators brief senators about their their findings.

“We need to be briefed by the FBI, by the agent in charge,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “The FBI must not be handcuffed, and their results should be made public.”

In the days since the FBI probe began, one of the nominee’s former classmates at Yale University issued a statement alleging that, as a student, Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker and a heavy drinker” who often became “belligerent and aggressive” during his binges. 

On Monday, President Trump told reporters the FBI had the authority to interview anyone it desired, pushing back against charges by Senate Democrats that the White House is limiting the scope of the investigation.

At the Capitol, Schumer said questions surrounding Kavanaugh extend beyond sexual assault and now encompass his truthfulness and judicial temperament.

“It’s hard to believe what Judge Kavanaugh swore under oath,” Schumer said. “He sure didn’t show the demeanor of a judge at the hearing.”

Republicans accused Democrats of attempting to destroy the nominee’s reputation for political gain.

“[Democrats] will not be satisfied unless they have brought down Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination,” McConnell said. “The floodgates of mud and muck opened entirely on Brett Kavanaugh and his family.”

“It’s not fair to Judge Kavanaugh to string this matter along further,” Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said. “This has become a national embarrassment.”

Democrats countered that brief delays in voting on Kavanaugh pale in comparison to Republicans refusing to consider former President Barack Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, for most of 2016.

Republicans hold a 51-49 Senate majority heading into next month’s midterm elections that will determine which political party controls both houses of Congress.

So far, no Democrat has announced support for Kavanaugh and no Republican has declared opposition to him.

Richard Green and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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As U.S. senators await the result of an FBI investigation and prepare for a potential final vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, Trump used part of a political rally to mock a woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her.

The FBI investigation was launched Friday, one day after Christine Blasey Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. Kavanaugh angrily denied the charges hours later and accused Democrats of orchestrating a “political hit” against him.

Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee she was “100 percent certain” it was a drunken Kavanaugh who pinned her down on a bed, groped her, tried to take off her clothes, and put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams for help. Kavanaugh testified he has never assaulted anyone.

In front of a crowd of supporters Tuesday night in Mississippi, Trump gave an apparent re-enactment of Ford’s testimony, mockingly portraying what he described as holes in her testimony.

“How did you get home? ‘I don’t remember.’ How did you get there? ‘I don’t remember,'” Trump said.

Ford’s lawyer, Michael Bromwich, called Trump’s attack Tuesday “vicious, vile and soulless.”

“Is it any wonder that she was terrified to come forward, and that other sexual assault survivors are as well? She is a remarkable profile in courage. He is a profile in cowardice,” Bromwich wrote on Twitter.

Trump’s comments about Ford triggered strong reactions from several senators, some of whom are undecided about whether to vote in favor of Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“There’s no time and place for remarks like that,” Republican Senator Jeff Flake said Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show. “To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right. I wish he hadn’t done it,” he said, adding “it’s kind of appalling.”

Republican Senator Susan Collins also condemned Trump’s comments, saying on CNN Wednesday they “were just plain wrong.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and frequent critic of Trump, said on CNN “this vile, mocking attack on a credible, immensely powerfully eloquent survivor of sexual assault is a mark of disrespect and disregard not only for Dr. Blasey Ford but the entire community.”

Independent Senator Angus King said on CNN’s “New Day” Trump’s remarks “made me feel sort of sick.”

Earlier Tuesday, Senate Republicans and Democrats sparred over the ongoing FBI investigation, which is expected to be completed by Friday.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the confirmation vote will occur once senators of both parties have a chance to review the FBI’s conclusions.

“What I can tell you with certainty is that we’ll have an FBI report this week and we’ll have a vote this week,” McConnell told reporters.

Democrats, meanwhile, demanded that the White House divulge its instructions to the FBI in ordering the investigation, that the FBI’s report be made public, and that the bureau’s lead investigators brief senators about their their findings.

“We need to be briefed by the FBI, by the agent in charge,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “The FBI must not be handcuffed, and their results should be made public.”

In the days since the FBI probe began, one of the nominee’s former classmates at Yale University issued a statement alleging that, as a student, Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker and a heavy drinker” who often became “belligerent and aggressive” during his binges.

On Monday, President Trump told reporters the FBI had the authority to interview anyone it desired, pushing back against charges by Senate Democrats that the White House is limiting the scope of the investigation.

At the Capitol, Schumer said questions surrounding Kavanaugh extend beyond sexual assault and now encompass his truthfulness and judicial temperament.

“It’s hard to believe what Judge Kavanaugh swore under oath,” Schumer said.”He sure didn’t show the demeanor of a judge at the hearing.”

Republicans accused Democrats of attempting to destroy the nominee’s reputation for political gain.

“[Democrats] will not be satisfied unless they have brought down Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination,” McConnell said. “The floodgates of mud and muck opened entirely on Brett Kavanaugh and his family.”

WATCH: Senators split on Kavanaugh

“It’s not fair to Judge Kavanaugh to string this matter along further,” Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said. “This has become a national embarrassment.”

Democrats countered that brief delays in voting on Kavanaugh pale in comparison to Republicans refusing to consider former President Barack Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, for most of 2016.

Republicans hold a 51-49 Senate majority heading into next month’s midterm elections that will determine which political party controls both houses of Congress.

So far, no Democrat has announced support for Kavanaugh and no Republican has declared opposition to him.

Richard Green and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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The controversy over U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for a Supreme Court justice continues while U.S. senators await an FBI report on the allegations of past misconduct by Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Leading Republican and Democratic senators clashed Tuesday over the delay in the vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware forged their friendship in Africa, thousands of miles away from the divisiveness of Washington.

Both spent formative time there as young men in the early 1980s — Coons studying in Kenya during college, Flake doing his mission for the Mormon church in southern Africa — and they bonded over their shared interest on a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. They traveled to the continent multiple times together, fighting wildlife trafficking, promoting economic development, spending time with a dictator and even being chased by elephants once in 2016.

Flake, who is retiring from Congress this year, said at an event with Coons in Washington on Tuesday that it was that bipartisan bonding — so rare in the Senate these days — that made it possible for them to come together last week and urge an FBI investigation into sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The development delayed Kavanaugh’s final confirmation vote and eased, temporarily, some of the partisan wrath over the nomination.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Flake said, recounting, among other adventures, a four-hour meeting with former Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe and a safari outing gone wrong that led to elephants chasing their vehicle. “And the trust that you develop working with each other on issues like that … that’s how compromises are possible, and there’s less and less of that going on.”

Rare relationships

Bipartisan friendships, especially in the Senate, weren’t always so rare. But in 2018, locked in a political fight that could determine the direction of the Supreme Court for a generation, senators have found little reason to reach across the aisle.

Flake’s decision to call for an FBI investigation came a day after an all-day hearing in which California professor Christine Blasey Ford testified that she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh in the early 1980s when both were in high school. Kavanaugh also testified, forcefully denying the claim and blaming Democrats.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting the next day, Republicans angrily defended Kavanaugh and some Democrats walked out, protesting a committee vote on Kavanaugh they said was being rushed.

Coons stayed in the room and proposed a one-week delay, in which time an FBI investigation could be conducted. Flake later called it a “sober, rational speech.”

After Coons spoke, Flake walked around the dais, tapped him on the shoulder and motioned into the anteroom, where the two began negotiations. With tight margins in the Senate, Flake had the power to withhold his vote and force an investigation. Republicans and Democrats were in and out of the anteroom, but Flake wanted to talk to Coons, and at one point the two ended up alone in a small phone booth for privacy.

‘It felt real’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was an early part of the discussions. She said Flake listened to others, but that his friendship with Coons was a key part of his final decision.

“What I liked about it was that it felt real,” she said of the talks between them.

On Friday, shortly after the deal was announced, Coons teared up talking about Flake, calling him his “role model” and mentioning their trips to Africa. He said then that Flake feels passionately that division in the U.S. “teaches the wrong thing to the world about our democracy, and suggests that we are not able to respect each other or work together.”

Several days later, Coons told The Associated Press that he sees his friendship with Flake as in the mold of two other senators from Delaware and Arizona: former Vice President Joe Biden and the late Republican Sen. John McCain, who died this summer after battling brain cancer. Each served more than three decades in the Senate, and Biden gave a eulogy at one of McCain’s funerals in August.

Coons and Flake attended McCain’s funeral together.

“I am determined, in John’s memory, to try to keep building relationships like that,” Coons said. “And Jeff has been one of the greatest partners I’ve had in my eight years here.”

Coons says he’s emotional about Flake’s decision to retire, which came after differences with President Donald Trump and others in his party. He said he is also struggling with the retirement of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., with whom he has worked closely, and the death of McCain. All three questioned Trump’s leadership and occasionally bucked their party.

Coons says he has considered not running for re-election in 2020, but “I look forward to considering to serve if I can find legislative partners comparable to Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, whom I will dearly miss.” He noted this year’s Democratic primary in his state, in which longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Carper was challenged from the left. Carper won the race handily, but Coons says he is concerned in some ways about the increasingly divisive direction of politics within his party.

He adds, somewhat jokingly: “No rational person would do this job and say, ‘I’m loving it.’ ”

Trust is key

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has worked closely with the Republican chairman, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, on the panel’s Russia investigation, says bipartisan relationships are rooted in deep trust.

“I think that’s what Americans want from us, to have these relationships,” Warner said, “It means at some point you have to be willing to show that you aren’t always going to be reflexively for your own team.”

Flake is less certain that voters want to see cooperation. He says there’s no currency, or incentives, to work together in a polarized political climate. He says he is leaving the Senate because he “simply couldn’t run the kind of campaign I figured I’d need to run.”

Speaking of Coons, he said, “The thing I will miss the most about the Senate is relationships like this.”
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In five weeks, U.S. voters head to the polls to elect a new Congress and the outcome will have a profound impact on the next two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Intensity is building for the Nov. 6 election, especially among opposition Democrats seeking to win back control of the House of Representatives. But the polarizing battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh seems to be mobilizing voters in both political parties, as we hear from VOA National correspondent Jim Malone.
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A basic function of America’s constitutional system, filling a Supreme Court vacancy, has been thrown into chaos following accusations of sexual misconduct against nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the intrusion of hyper-partisanship into the judicial confirmation process. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, the Senate is under intense scrutiny as it struggles to provide “advice and consent” in confirming or rejecting a Supreme Court nominee one month before midterm elections that could reshape Congress.
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In five weeks, U.S. voters head to the polls to elect a new Congress and the outcome will have a profound impact on the next two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Intensity is building for the Nov. 6 election, especially among opposition Democrats seeking to win back control of the House of Representatives.  But both parties could become energized, depending on the outcome of the polarizing confirmation battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

During the weekend, President Trump was on the campaign trail in West Virginia, whipping up support for Kavanaugh and blasting Democrats.

“I’m not running, but I’m really running and that is why I am all over the place fighting for great candidates,” Trump told the crowd in Wheeling, West Virginia.  “You see what is going on, you see those horrible, horrible, radical group of Democrats and you see it happening right now.”

Emotional hearing

The fight over Kavanaugh has animated those in favor of the judge and those opposed in the wake of a sexual assault allegation made by California professor Christine Blasey Ford.

Ford detailed the alleged assault in emotional and riveting testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Brett’s assault on me drastically altered my life.  For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone the details.”

Supporters have rallied around Kavanaugh after the judge issued a combative denial later in the hearing.

“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace.  You have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy.”

A final Senate vote on Kavanaugh is on hold until the FBI completes an investigation related to the allegations aired in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.  Trump said Monday he wants a “comprehensive investigation” but he also added, “I’d like it to go quickly.”

Declining support

A new Quinnipiac University poll found that 48 percent of Americans surveyed oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation, while 42 percent are in favor.  Women voters in particular oppose Kavanaugh’s appointment by a margin of 55 to 37 percent.  Men support the judge, 49 to 40 percent.

Amid the furor over Kavanaugh, Trump is making a furious push around the country to help Republicans hold their narrow majority in the Senate.

“Promise me, you have to get out for the midterms,” Trump implored supporters during a recent rally in Las Vegas, Nevada.  “Don’t be complacent.  You have got to get out for the midterms.  You have got to vote.”

Many Democrats seem cautiously optimistic about their chances in November of flipping the House of Representatives back under their control.

But even House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the party still has to follow through by turning out voters.  “Seeing the urgency and willing to take responsibility for what happens, understanding that you have to vote.  If you don’t vote, everything else is a conversation.”

And Democrats are also taking advantage of some star power of their own to rev up the party base including Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

Obama recently rallied Democrats in Pennsylvania, targeting those who have skipped voting in past midterm elections.

“They will say, ‘Well, I am going to wait until the presidential election.’  This one is actually more important.  This is actually more important than any election that we have seen in a long time.”

Trump as motivator

For both sides, there is little doubt that Trump will be the central figure in next month’s election.

“He has been out there endorsing people and working in a way that many thought when he was elected he would not be or working within the Republican Party and with other candidates,” said John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.

“So he is fully in, for better or worse, and he will certainly help some candidates in Republican places, but may turn off people in others.” Fortier is a frequent guest on VOA’s “Encounter.”

Democrats have been turning out in big numbers in special elections and in primaries since last year, and that is a positive sign for the opposition, said Jim Kessler, a senior vice president for policy at Third Way, a center-left policy research group.

“I expect Democrats to take the House. I now even think they might take the Senate, even though the map is so difficult out there. The excitement among Democratic voters is very, very high.  Republican voters are turning out too, but Democratic voters are really turning out,” said Kessler.

Many experts predict a Democratic takeover of the House would stop President Trump’s agenda in its tracks and put the White House on the defensive.  Some Democrats have talked about trying to impeach Trump.

In short, there is little likelihood of looking for common ground, according to George Washington University analyst Lara Brown.

“The truth is, we are just not in the 90s anymore, and by that I mean that there really is not an appetite on either side for compromise.

Trump is expected to stay busy on the campaign trail right up until Election Day, hopeful of blunting a Democratic surge that not only jeopardizes Republican control of both the House and Senate, but also could place severe constraints on his presidency.
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President Donald Trump is back in Tennessee, trying to push U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s Senate bid over the finish line.

Trump headlined a high-dollar, closed-door fundraiser for Blackburn in Johnson City before appearing at a packed rally at the Freedom Hall Civic Center.

Blackburn is in a tight race against the state’s Democratic ex-Gov. Phil Bredesen, who, like other Democratic candidates across Trump country, has painted himself as a pragmatist willing to work with the president on certain issues. The Tennessee campaign is among several closely watched races expected to determine control of the Senate, and Republicans are desperate to defend a narrow two-seat majority in the face of surging Democratic enthusiasm.

And the stakes couldn’t be clearer. The rally comes as the FBI is continuing to investigate sexual misconduct allegations against Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh — an FBI investigation that was forced by a small group of undecided senators who could sink the nomination. Trump earlier Monday disputed reports that his White House has tried to narrow the scope of the investigation and limit which witnesses the FBI could interview, saying he wants them “to do a very comprehensive investigation, whatever that means.”

Trump is planning a busy week of campaign travel, with trips to a handful of states including Mississippi, Minnesota and Kansas as he tries to boost Republican turnout for the midterm elections.

Blackburn’s contest, in a state that Trump won by 26 points, has drawn especially heavy interest from the White House, with repeat visits by both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Bredesen has tried to distance himself from the national Democratic Party, presenting himself as an independent thinker who will support Trump’s policies when they’re beneficial to the state.

“I need to make clear to everybody my independence from all of the national Democratic stuff,” the former two-term governor recently told The Associated Press.

Blackburn and Bredesen are seeking the seat of Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who is retiring.

Bredesen, who would be the first Democrat to win a Senate campaign in Tennessee since Al Gore in 1990 if he’s victorious, has run TV ads in which he says that he’s “not running against Donald Trump” and learned long ago to “separate the message from the messenger.” He was holding an event in Chattanooga on Monday night that he’d hoped would be a debate with Blackburn, and he has been needling her for not agreeing to one.

Trump, as he has in other states, is expected to argue Bredesen is not the centrist he says he is and will wind up voting with Democratic leaders including Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi if he gets to Washington.

Blackburn, meanwhile, has stressed her ties to Trump, running ads that feature footage of his last rally in the state in May.

“Phil, whatever the hell his name is, this guy will 100 percent vote against us every single time,” Trump said at the time.

Trump offered an early endorsement of Blackburn in April, tweeting that she is “a wonderful woman who has always been there when we have needed her. Great on the Military, Border Security and Crime.”
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The image of the United States has deteriorated further among its traditional allies after a year in which President Donald Trump ratcheted up his verbal attacks on countries like Canada and Germany, a leading survey showed.

The survey of 25 nations by the Pew Research Center also showed that respondents from across the globe have less confidence in Trump’s ability to lead than they do in Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.

Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has pulled the United States out of international agreements like the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal, cozied up to authoritarian leaders like Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and criticized his neighbors and NATO allies.

In June, after a G7 summit in Canada, Trump refused to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, deriding his host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as “very dishonest and weak”. He has repeatedly attacked Germany for its trade surplus, low defense spending and reliance on Russian gas.

Last week, when giving a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Trump drew laughter from world leaders when he claimed to have achieved more in his two years in the White House than almost any other U.S. administration in history.

The survey showed that America’s image, which took a big hit in 2017, Trump’s first year in office, continued to deteriorate in many countries in 2018, particularly in Europe.

Just 30 percent of Germans have a favorable view of the United States, down five points from last year and the lowest score in the entire survey after Russia, on 26 percent.

Only 38 percent of French and 39 percent of Canadians said they had a positive view of the United States, both down from last year. Mexico inched up slightly to 32 percent.

Faith in Merkel Highest

The countries with the most positive views of the United States were Israel, the Philippines and South Korea, all at 80 percent or above. Across all countries, the U.S. got positive marks, with 50 percent saying they had a positive view, compared to 43 percent who were negative.

Just 7 percent of Spanish, 9 percent of French and 10 percent of Germans said they had confidence in Trump’s leadership. In 20 of the 25 countries surveyed, a majority said they had no confidence in Trump.

Across all countries, an average of 27 percent of respondents said they had confidence in Trump. That compared unfavorably to Putin, on 30 percent, and Xi, on 34 percent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the only leader in which a majority of those surveyed, 52 percent, expressed confidence.

French President Emmanuel Macron was just behind at 46 percent.

Despite Trump’s low ratings, 63 percent of respondents said the world was better off with the United States as the leading power, compared to 19 percent who preferred China in that role.

Allies took a dim view of the Trump administration’s position on civil liberties, with majorities in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and Mexico saying the government did not respect the personal freedoms of its people.

Reflecting Trump’s “America First” stance, substantial majorities in 19 of the 25 countries surveyed said the United States did not take their interests into account when making international policy.

The survey was conducted between May and August, and based on interviews with over 900 people in each of the surveyed countries.
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Former President Barack Obama is expanding his influence ahead of November’s midterm elections. On Monday, he released a second slate of endorsements for Democrats running for offices ranging from local to national, bringing the total to more than 300.

Among the most prominent candidates to win Obama’s support are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate who won an upset primary victory this summer in New York; Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who is running for governor in Florida; and Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Arizona.

While the candidates that Obama endorsed stretch up and down the ballot — from gubernatorial hopefuls to aspiring state lawmakers — he notably declined to wade into several races that have captivated national attention. Obama did not endorse Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, or Phil Bredesen, a former Democratic governor of Tennessee who is now running for Senate against Republican Rep. Marcia Blackburn.

Obama’s endorsement might not be helpful to Democrats competing in southern states, where the former president isn’t popular. Bredesen said last month he wouldn’t welcome Obama or other party leaders campaigning for him in Tennessee.

Obama favored Democrats in close races across the country, veterans of his administration and past campaigns, and he also prioritized diversity. In a statement, Obama described the candidates as “Americans who aren’t just running against something, but for something.”

“The Democratic Party has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when we lead with conviction, principle and bold, new ideas. Our incredible array of candidates up and down the ticket, all across the country, make up a movement of citizens who are younger, more diverse, more female than ever before,” Obama said.

The former president’s engagement in the political fray since leaving office has been limited and carefully crafted. He returned to the political stage last month with a speech in Illinois, in which he made a sharp break from the deference that past presidents typically show their successors, offering a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump’s tenure.

Since then, as he has campaigned on behalf of Democrats in states like California, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he has largely shied away from as explicit indictments of the Trump presidency, instead imploring voters — particularly young Americans — to vote.

Hillary Clinton, the former Democratic presidential nominee, also tweeted words of encouragement for a slew of Democrats backed by Run For Something, a group launched in the aftermath of the 2016 elections to encourage young Democrats to enter politics.

“Pitch into their campaigns if you can, reach out to friends in their districts to encourage their support, or start with a like or a follow,” Clinton tweeted. “November 6th is only 36 days away, so there’s no time to waste.”
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