The press that serves the U.S. immigrant population typically shows little interest in midterm elections. But the outcome of this year’s fight for control of Congress could either blunt much of President Donald Trump’s agenda or advance his policies. That’s why the immigrant community may be more interested in this year’s midterms than ever before. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details from Los Angeles.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is suggesting Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis could be one of his next key officials to leave the government.

The Republican Trump, in an interview airing Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes” news show, said he has no indication that Mattis is leaving, but added, “It could be that he is. I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth.”

The U.S. leader described the retired Marine Corps general as “a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That’s Washington.”

Trump, during his 21-month administration, has fired or pushed out dozens of key officials, or watched as others he liked have resigned, including United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, who last week said she would be leaving her post at the end of the year.

Mattis, while leading the U.S. military, has occasionally been at odds with Trump and more hawkish Trump administration officials, including national security adviser John Bolton.

Mattis, in mid-2017, pushed for more diplomatic overtures to North Korea in dealing with Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, a stance Trump eventually came around to, leading to his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump said there are still “some people” in his administration that he is “not thrilled with.” He has often assailed Attorney General Jeff Sessions but declined to fire him for removing himself from oversight of the lengthy investigation of whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia and whether Trump as president obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe.

But Trump rebuffed reports of chaos in the White House as “fake news,” adding, “I’m changing things around. And I’m entitled to. I have people now on standby that will be phenomenal. They’ll come into the administration, they’ll be phenomenal.”

 
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President Donald Trump heaped praise Saturday on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, crediting the veteran Kentucky lawmaker’s political toughness and acumen during the ugly battle that concluded with Brett Kavanaugh becoming a Supreme Court justice.

“He’s Kentucky tough,” Trump declared.

Kavanaugh took his seat on the high court this week after overcoming allegations of sexual misconduct dating to his high school and college years. He forcefully denied the charges, and Trump and McConnell firmly backed Kavanaugh as part of their combined quest to populate the judiciary with conservative judges. Kavanaugh could tilt the political balance of the high court in the conservative direction for generations.

“We stuck with him all the way because we knew the facts,” Trump said, speaking of himself and McConnell, Kentucky’s senior U.S. senator.

“There’s nobody tougher. There’s nobody smarter. He refused to cave to the radical Democrats’ shameful campaign of personal and political destruction,” Trump said at a political rally at Eastern Kentucky University before he called McConnell to the microphone.

McConnell returned the compliment and told the president to continue nominating judges and “we’ll keep confirming them.”

​Fierce Democrat opposition

Democrats fiercely and vocally opposed Kavanaugh, opposition that hardened after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. Other women accused him of other sexually inappropriate behavior.

Protesters swarmed Senate office buildings and hundreds were arrested in a futile attempt to intimidate a handful of holdout senators into voting against confirming Kavanaugh. Trump has taken to referring to Democrats who opposed Kavanaugh as an “angry mob.”

Rally in Kentucky

The president flew to Kentucky to campaign for three-term Republican Rep. Andy Barr, who is facing a strong challenge from Democrat Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot, in one of the country’s most-watched House races.

Democrats are focusing on the seat in their drive to regain control of the House. Former Vice President Joe Biden became the highest-profile Democrat to campaign for McGrath when he came to Kentucky on Friday night.

Trump told the rally that a vote for Barr “could make the difference between unbelievable continued success” or failure, and pleaded with his supporters to vote on Nov. 6 to send more Republicans to Congress.

“The only reason to vote Democrat is if you’re tired of winning,” he said. “I need you to get your friends, get your family, get your neighbors, get your co-workers and get out and vote for Andy Barr,” Trump said.

Familiar Trump themes

The president sounded familiar themes during the hour-plus rally, touting the economy’s performance, a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, and his plan for a new military branch devoted to outer space, among a host of other issues that led the crowd to cheer him.

He again panned journalists as the “fake news media” and suggested he could live without their attention.

“I’d like to walk into a place one night and not have any of these guys,” Trump said.

With just over three weeks before Election Day, Saturday’s rally was part of an aggressive fall campaign push by Trump to energize Republicans and encourage them to help keep his legislative agenda moving forward by voting to keep the GOP in control of both houses of Congress.

In fact, even before Trump left the stage Saturday night, his campaign announced a three-state Western swing through Missoula, Montana; Mesa, Arizona; and Elko, Nevada, next Thursday through Saturday.
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Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, likely paid little or no federal income taxes between 2009 and 2016, The New York Times reported Saturday, citing confidential financial documents.

The documents were created with Kushner’s cooperation as part of a review of his finances by an institution that was considering lending him money, the Times reported. The Times said that Kushner’s tax bills reflected the use of a tax benefit known as depreciation that lets real estate investors deduct part of the cost of their properties from their taxable income.

The Times report said that nothing in the documents reviewed “suggests Mr. Kushner or his company broke the law.”

Paid all taxes due under law

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell, told Reuters Saturday that he would not respond to the newspaper’s assumptions, which he said were “taken from incomplete documents obtained in violation of the law and standard business confidentiality agreements.”

He added, “Always following the advice of numerous attorneys and accountants, Mr. Kushner properly filed and paid all taxes due under the law and regulations.”

The records reviewed by The New York Times did not expressly state how much Kushner paid in taxes, but included estimates for how much he owed called “income taxes payable” and how much Kushner paid in expectation of forecasted taxes known as “prepaid taxes.” The paper said that for most of the years covered, both were listed as zero, but in 2013 Kushner reported income taxes payable of $1.1 million.

Kushner Cos, the family company for which Kushner previously served as chief executive, has been profitable in recent years, the Times said, citing the analysis. Kushner sold his interests in the company to a family trust last year.

The White House and Kushner Cos did not immediately comment Saturday.

Trump tax break

The newspaper noted that the 2017 tax rewrite signed by Trump includes provisions that benefit real estate investors.

Mirijanian said that on tax reform efforts, Kushner “followed his approved ethics agreement and has avoided work that would pose any conflict of interest.”

In December, a group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to Kushner, asking whether in his talks with foreign officials he had ever discussed financing for a deeply indebted property in midtown Manhattan, citing concern he was using his position for financial gain.

Kushner Cos said previously it had more than $2.5 billion in transactions 2017 and has 12 million square feet under development in New York and New Jersey.

Documents released by the White House in June showed Kushner held assets worth at least $181 million, the Associated Press reported. The disclosures also show that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, received at least $82 million in outside income in 2017.
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The Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania threatened to stomp on the face of his Democratic opponent in a social media video Friday and then walked back his comments, saying he made a mistake in his choice of words.

Republican Scott Wagner is trailing well behind incumbent Democrat Tom Wolf in the polls ahead of the Nov. 6 election, and the video posted on Wagner’s campaign Facebook page was part of an acrimonious battle in one of the most populous U.S. states.

“Governor Wolf, let me tell you what, between now and Nov. 6, you’d better put a catcher’s mask on your face because I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes,” Wolf said in the video.

A few hours later, the video was taken down. Wagner explained: “I may have chosen a poor metaphor. I shouldn’t have said what I said.”

On his Facebook page, Wolf encouraged people to share the original video if they agreed that “Scott Wagner should not be the governor of Pennsylvania.”

The video with Wagner’s threat set off a social media storm and attracted the attention of a few prominent Republicans, including Steve Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“These comments are totally unacceptable. As I’ve said many times before, there is absolutely no place in our politics for this kind of rhetoric, said Scalise, who battled for his life after he was shot by a gunman who opened fire on Republican lawmakers during baseball practice in 2017.
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President Donald Trump declared Friday the U.S. will uncover the truth about what happened to journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi, whose possible murder at Saudi hands after disappearing in Istanbul has captured worldwide attention. Trump promised to personally call Saudi Arabia’s King Salman soon about “the terrible situation in Turkey.”

“We’re going to find out what happened,” Trump pledged when questioned by reporters in Cincinnati where he was headlining a political rally.

Khashoggi, a forceful critic of the Saudi government, went missing more than a week ago after entering a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Turkish officials have said they believe he was murdered there. U.S. officials say they are seeking answers from the Saudi government and are not yet accepting the Turkish government’s conclusions.

The Saudis have called accusations that they are responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance “baseless.” Widely broadcast video shows the 59-year-old writer and Washington Post contributor entering the consulate on Tuesday of last week, but there is none showing him leaving.

Separately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, the State Department said Friday. No details of the conversation were released. 

In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Cengiz said Khashoggi was not nervous when he entered the Saudi consulate to obtain paperwork required for their marriage.

“He said, ‘See you later my darling,’ and went in,” she told the AP.

Citing anonymous sources, the Post reported Friday that Turkey’s government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video proof that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered. The AP has not been able to confirm that report.

In written responses to questions by the AP, Cengiz said Turkish authorities had not told her about any recordings and Khashoggi was officially “still missing.”

She said investigators were examining his cellphones, which he had left with her.

Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi left the consulate. He hasn’t been seen since, though his fiancee was waiting outside.

Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia are important U.S. allies in the region. Trump said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will evaluate whether to attend a Saudi investor conference later this month. 

On Thursday, Trump had said U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia were “excellent” and he was reluctant to scuttle highly lucrative U.S. weapons deals with Riyadh. A number of members of Congress have pressed the Trump administration to impose sanctions on the country in response to the Khashoggi affair.

A delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey on Friday as part of an investigation into the writer’s disappearance. In a statement posted on Twitter, the Saudis welcomed the joint effort and said the kingdom was keen “to sustain the security and safety of its citizenry, wherever they might happen to be.”

Cengiz said she and the journalist would have been married this week and had planned a life together split between Istanbul and the United States, where Khashoggi had been living in self-imposed exile since last year.

She had appealed for help to Trump, who earlier this week said he would invite her to the White House.

Cengiz didn’t respond to a question about that, but earlier on Friday she urged Trump on Twitter to use his clout to find out what happened.

“What about Jamal Khashoggi?” she wrote in response to a tweet by Trump in which he said he said he had been “working very hard” to free an American evangelical pastor who has been held for two years in Turkey. Andrew Brunson was released late Friday.

Amid growing concern over Khashoggi’s fate, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country wanted to know “the whole truth” about the writer’s disappearance, calling the early details about the case “very worrying.”

Macron said “I’m waiting for the truth and complete clarity to be made” since the matter is “very serious.” He spoke Friday in Yerevan, Armenia, to French broadcasters RFI and France 24.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Berlin was also “very concerned” about the writer’s disappearance and called on Saudi Arabia to “participate fully” in clearing up reports that he had been killed.

Global business leaders began reassessing their ties with Saudi Arabia, stoking pressure on the Gulf kingdom to explain what happened to Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, who was considered close to the Saudi royal family, had become a critic of the current government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old heir apparent who has introduced reforms but has shown little tolerance for criticism.

As a contributor to The Washington Post, Khashoggi has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticism of its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.

Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the crown prince, who has also presided over a roundup of activists and businessmen.

 
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If history is any guide, Democrats should make gains in the midterm congressional elections on Nov. 6. The president’s party nearly always loses seats in midterm elections, with the average loss of House seats ranging between 20 and 30. Many analysts expect a Democratic takeover of the House, but the Senate appears to be different story. Kyle Kondik, managing editor of “Crystal Ball,” a political newsletter produced by the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, explains why.
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VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren interviews Stuart Eizenstat, who was an aide to former President Jimmy Carter during his administration and is the author of “President Carter: The White House Years.” Eizenstat, offering an insider’s perspective, says his objective was to give a complete assessment of the mistakes and the failures of the Carter administration (1977-81), but also the successes that he says have not been appreciated.
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U.S. national security adviser John Bolton has vowed to further intensify the Trump administration’s tough approach to China, saying Beijing’s “behavior needs to be adjusted in the trade area, in the international, military and political areas.”

Speaking in a radio interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show recorded Thursday and aired Friday, Bolton said President Donald Trump believed China had taken advantage of the international order for far too long and not enough Americans had stood up to it.

“Now’s the time to do it” he said.

Bolton said Trump’s tough approach toward China, a country the administration saw as the “major issue this century,” had left Beijing “confused.”

“They’ve never seen an American president this tough before. I think their behavior needs to be adjusted in the trade area, in the international, military and political areas, in a whole range of areas,” he said.

“Perhaps we’ll see at the G-20 meeting in Argentina next month Xi Jinping willing to come to talk turkey on some of these issues,” he added.

Bolton’s remarks came amid a series of administration broadsides against China that goes beyond a trade war. These have included accusing Beijing of trying to undermine Trump ahead of next month’s congressional elections and of taking reckless military actions in the South China Sea.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that Trump would go through with plans to meet Xi at the G-20 summit if it looked possible to chart “a positive direction.” But he said re-launching trade talks with China would require Beijing to commit to taking action on structural reforms to its economy.

Bolton called recent Chinese behavior in the South China Sea, where a U.S. warship had a near collision with a Chinese vessel last month, “dangerous” and said the United States was determined to keep international sea lanes open.

“This is something the Chinese need to understand,” he said, adding that allies including Britain and Australia were also sailing through the South China Sea to make this point.

“We’re going to do a lot more on that,” he said. “I think we could see more exploitation of mineral resources in the South China Sea with or without Chinese cooperation. They need to know they have not achieved a fait accompli here. This is not a Chinese province and will not be.”

Bolton did not elaborate on his remark about mineral exploitation in the strategic waterway, which China claims almost in its entirety in spite of several rival claimants.

Bolton said China’s violation of international norms in trade and business had allowed it to gain substantial economic and military strength.

“If they’re put back in the proper place they would be if they weren’t allowed to steal our technology, their military capabilities would be substantially reduced. And a lot of the tensions we see caused by China would be reduced,” Bolton said.

He indicated that Washington was prepared to take more action to restrict sensitive high-tech exports to China.

“We did this and continue to do it in terms of dual-use technology that could affect nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or ballistic-missile development,” he said. “I think in cyberspace, we’re entitled to do the same thing. … We want to do it in ways that protect our open economy, but deny others the ability to take advantage of it.”

Bolton said he expected a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “sometime in the next couple of months,” but said it remained to be seen if the diplomatic effort to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons would be successful.

“The president has held the door open for North Korea,” he said. “They need to denuclearize completely and irreversibly. And if they do that and walk through the door, the future could be very different for the North Korean people.

“The future remains uncertain on the president’s diplomacy. He’s optimistic. He presses hard. He does not have stars in his eyes about this. Neither does Mike Pompeo, neither does Jim Mattis, neither do I,” Bolton said, referring to the U.S. secretaries of defense and state.
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In one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate contests this year, Democrat Beto O’Rourke raised a record $38.1 million during the third quarter in a bid to oust Ted Cruz, a prominent Texas Republican who made an unsuccessful run for the White House in 2016. 

O’Rourke announced on Friday his eye-popping financial haul over the last three months. It was more than three times the amount raised by Cruz and set a new quarterly fundraising record in a Senate race.

The funding was the most a Senate candidate has raised in a quarter since Rick Lazio, a onetime Republican member of Congress who hauled in $22 million in the third quarter of 2000 in a failed contest against Hillary Clinton for a Senate seat in New York, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Last week, Cruz said his campaign had raised more than $12 million during the third quarter and predicted, correctly, that his rival’s take for the period would top $30 million. During a rally in Texas where he announced his own fundraising success, Cruz said of O’Rourke: “If you wanna raise money from Hollywood liberals, there ain’t nothing better. But that’s not Texas.”

O’Rourke’s unprecedented fundraising caused a stir on social media, with many commentators noting that it outpaced what high-profile presidential candidates have raised in a quarter in the past. One noted that Republican Jeb Bush’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign had raised $35.5 million in a quarter. Another pointed out that former President Barack Obama had raised $23.5 in the final quarter before the 2008 primary season kicked off.

Progressive push

The contest between O’Rourke, a three-term liberal member of the House of Representatives, and Cruz, a conservative senator, has fired up progressives around the country, drawing in large amounts of small donations from out-of-district and out-of-state donors as Democrats seek to wrest control of Congress.

O’Rourke, who has rejected receiving money from political action committees, said the latest funding came from 800,000 contributors, although he did not say how many were from outside El Paso, which is the heart of the congressional district he represents.

The Center for Responsive Politics said more than $25 million of the funds raised by O’Rourke during the latest quarter came through ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising juggernaut. ActBlue said earlier this week that it had raised more than $385 million for 9,300 campaigns and organizations during the third quarter.

In a statement released Friday, O’Rourke said, “The people of Texas in all 254 counties are proving that when we reject PACs and come together not as Republicans or Democrats but as Texans and Americans, there’s no stopping us.”

The O’Rourke-Cruz race currently stands as the second most expensive Senate contest, with each candidate raising more than $23 million through the second quarter. The latest quarterly fundraising puts O’Rourke well ahead of his rival. 

The most expensive Senate race is being waged in Florida between Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott; more than $50 million had been raised through the second quarter. Congressional candidates must report their third-quarter fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

Despite his sizable fundraising advantage,O’Rourke lags behind Cruz in most polls. In a poll conducted on Thursday by The New York Times’ Upshot newsletter and Siena College, Cruz was ahead of O’Rourke 51 percent to 43 percent.

It’s a ‘serious race’

Nevertheless, with O’Rourke emerging as a competitive challenger in Texas, Republicans are “understanding now that this is a serious race beginning to rally to Cruz’s side,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at University of Texas at Austin.

Spending on presidential, congressional and local election campaigns has been steadily rising in the United States in recent years, partly as a result of unlimited spending by outside groups.The Center for Responsive Politics expects this election cycle to set a new fundraising and spending record.

But outraising and outspending your rival doesn’t always ensure victory. In one of the most expensive and closely fought races this election cycle, Democrat Jon Ossoff lost in a special election for a House seat in Georgia last year to Republican Karen Handel despite a $20 million fundraising advantage.

Nevertheless, money does make a difference. 

To be competitive, “you need to be able to both outspend or keep up with your opponent but also have at bay, ready to deploy, a huge amount of money in case a super PAC comes in and makes a huge ad buy in your district,” said Sarah Bryner, research director for the Center for Responsive Politics.
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A Republican candidate for Connecticut’s General Assembly has withdrawn following criticism over comments he made online about victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Steven Baleshiski, a 22-year-old college student from Southington, had been challenging six-term state Rep. Joe Aresimowicz for a House seat.

The Hartford Courant reports the Republican town committees for Southington and Berlin withdrew their endorsements of Baleshiski before he resigned. The two committees said they do not condone Baleshiski’s “hurtful and dividing behavior.” Committee chairs said they are looking for a new candidate.

In a social media post in March, Baleshiski said a survivor of the Parkland shooting who turned to gun-control advocacy “can burn in hell.”

Baleshiski did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.
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Melania Trump says she loves President Donald Trump and has “much more important things to think about” than allegations he cheated on her with a porn star, a Playboy Playmate or anyone else.

Mrs. Trump, who was interviewed by ABC while touring Africa last week, said people are just spreading rumors about her marriage.

“I know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage and circulate the gossip,” she said. “But I understand the gossip sells newspapers, magazines … and, unfortunately, we live in this kind of world today.”

She insisted allegations of her husband’s infidelities are not a concern.

Trump, who during the 2016 presidential campaign was heard on an old “Access Hollywood” tape talking about groping and try to have sex with women, has been accused of having multiple affairs. Porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal have said they had sex with him years ago.

Trump has denied the trysts with Daniels and McDougal but has acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for a $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels. Mrs. Trump has generally kept quiet on the subject.

Asked in the ABC interview if she loves her husband, Mrs. Trump said, “Yes, we are fine. Yes.”

She played down a suggestion the repeated rumors of his philandering had put a strain on their marriage.

“It is not concern and focus of mine,” she said. “I’m a mother and a first lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do.”

But when she was asked if the repeated rumors had hurt her, she paused. Then she reiterated the “media world is speculating.”

“Yeah, it’s not always pleasant, of course,” she said. “But I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true.”

Portions of Mrs. Trump’s interview aired Friday on “Good Morning America.” Her full interview is set to air Friday night in an ABC News special, “Being Melania – The First Lady.”

Other portions of the interview aired earlier this week featured Mrs. Trump saying she could be “the most bullied person” in the world and saying women who make accusations of sexual assault need to “show the evidence.”

Donald Trump, on the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape that became public during the 2016 campaign, says when he’s attracted to beautiful women, “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet.” He said when you’re a star, women let you.

“Grab them by the p—-,” Trump adds. “You can do anything.”

Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the National Enquirer tabloid were involved in buying the silence of Daniels and McDougal after they alleged affairs with Trump.
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New York’s most conservative congressional district is unexpectedly in play as Republican incumbent Chris Collins, one of President Donald Trump’s first supporters, fights insider trading charges while seeking re-election.

Republican leaders in a western New York district that Trump swept overwhelmingly in 2016 are counting on party and presidential loyalty, even if it means voting for someone that even they wanted off the ballot.

“This district is Trump country, and it will continue to be,” said Erie County Republican Party Chairman Nicholas Langworthy. “It’s a conservative Republican district, and I expect that when the dust settles on election night it will re-elect a conservative Republican to the seat.”

Democratic challenger Nate McMurray is still the underdog but says his volunteers and donations have surged since Collins was charged in August, and his crowds have gone from handfuls to hundreds.

“It’s like an avalanche that started out with a little snowball that’s rolling downhill and getting bigger and bigger every day,” McMurray, a Grand Island town supervisor, said recently to a roomful of supporters. They included Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman, who dropped in to drum up enthusiasm in what had been a little-watched race.

Once considered a sure win for Republicans, Real Clear Politics now lists the race as a “toss-up,” and the Cook Political Report in mid-September moved the seat from “likely Republican” to merely “lean Republican.” McMurray said this week his internal polling showed the race to be a dead heat.

With Democrats forecast to make gains in the House, for some voters in the Republican-advantaged district, the decision will be more about keeping the challenger out than Collins in, analysts said.

“The old phrase of ‘all politics is local,’ the Tip O’Neill statement? These local races are not so local anymore,” American University political science professor Jan Leighley said.

Accusations against Collins

Collins, with a reported net worth of $44 million one of the wealthiest members of Congress, is accused of illegally leaking confidential information about a biopharmaceutical company to his son and the father of his son’s fiancee that allowed them to avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock losses. The most serious charge carries a potential prison term of up to 20 years. If he wins and is later convicted and forced to resign, a special election would be held.

The 68-year-old Collins pleaded not guilty and initially vowed to continue his re-election campaign. He then agreed to be removed from the ballot “in the best interests of the constituents,” only to reverse course again and announce he would stay on the ballot — even as party leaders who had spent weeks exploring legal maneuvers to remove him were preparing to announce a replacement.

“The stakes are too high to allow the radical left to take control of this seat in Congress,” Collins said in a Sept. 19 statement. 

Collins is one of two Republican congressmen running for re-election while under indictment. Rep. Duncan Hunter, of California, has pleaded not guilty to spending campaign funds for personal expenses. Hunter and Collins were the first two Republicans to endorse Trump in the Republican presidential primaries, and their indictments drew a critical Sept. 3 tweet from Trump aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Tweeted Trump: “Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time.”

Since entering the race, Collins has limited his personal appearances largely to friendly gatherings like the Republican Women’s Autumn Brunch and the Newstead GOP Sportsman Extravaganza. He declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press.

“A lot of folks just happy that I’m back in the race,” he told WIVB this week. “They know what’s at stake. … Every seat matters. As you read the pundits now, it’s going to be a very close election to see who is going to be in the majority of the House come next year.”

The campaigns

Collins, a businessman who made his money by buying distressed businesses and turning them around, proudly carries an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association and cites among his priorities never increasing entitlement programs, reforming the tax code and balancing the federal budget in 10 years.

He has been on the air with negative television ads, including one that was assailed by critics as racist. It showed McMurray speaking Korean as a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un floated in the background and captions falsely implied McMurray was talking about sending American jobs to Asia.

McMurray, a lawyer, studied the development of constitutional democracy in South Korea as a Fulbright scholar. His campaign has focused on health care for all, protecting Social Security, the environment and strengthening infrastructure. He said he supports gun rights but also universal background checks and a ban on bump stocks.

Out in the district, 23-year-old line cook Brett Schuman said the allegations against Collins were enough to sway him. “When there’s anything happening, criminal or otherwise, I’m going to defer to the other party.”

Retired engineer Don Lloyd said he liked McMurray’s background and education but would still vote for Collins, if only to help Republicans keep control of the House and preserve Trump’s agenda. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to take control of the chamber.

“Let’s face it, the election isn’t about Chris Collins — it’s about Trump,” said Lloyd, 70.

“So hold your nose, I guess.”
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Facebook announced Thursday that it had deleted over 800 mostly U.S.-based pages and accounts that were posting politically oriented spam and engaging in “inauthentic behavior.” 

The social media giant declined a request from VOA News to name the 559 pages and 251 accounts. Nation in Distress, a pro-President Donald Trump page identified by The Washington Post as being among the banned, had over 3 million followers.

Facebook said that many of the pages and accounts had posted political clickbait across multiple fake accounts to drive users to their websites, where they were often targeted with ads. 

“Many used the same techniques to make their content appear more popular on Facebook than it really was,” Facebook said on its news blog. “Others were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate.”

Facebook said “the ‘news’ stories or opinions these accounts and pages share are often indistinguishable from legitimate political debate,” noting the proximity of the 2018 midterm elections.

In the past, Facebook has purged dozens of pages spreading fake news originating from Iran and Russia, countries that have antagonistic relations with the U.S. The company says most of the pages and accounts banned this time were from the U.S.
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Missouri’s top election official on Thursday said the state was appealing a judge’s ruling that blocked enforcement of parts of a voter photo identification law, adding that the ruling was causing “mass confusion” ahead of a key election for a U.S. Senate seat.

Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in a statement said the state attorney general had appealed the ruling and asked it to be put on hold as that process plays out. 

At issue is Senior Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan’s recent ruling striking down a requirement that a voter lacking a valid photo ID must sign a sworn statement and present some other form of identification in order to cast a regular ballot. Callahan also blocked the state from advertising that a photo ID is required to vote.

Ashcroft said there’s confusion because Callahan’s ruling “directs the STATE not to use the statement.” But Ashcroft said it’s local election authorities who would have been responsible for requesting that voters without proper photo identification sign an affidavit, “so it is not clear if they are bound by the judge’s decision.”

“The judge’s decision has injected mass confusion into the voting process just weeks before an important election — an action the courts historically and purposely have not taken,” Ashcroft said, adding that many local election authorities already had trained poll workers to require voters to sign sworn statements.

Callahan’s ruling came as voters are preparing for a Nov. 6 election headlined by the race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and her Republican challenger, Attorney General Josh Hawley, whose office is defending the state law on behalf of Ashcroft.

Strategist Symone Sanders of Priorities USA, a Washington-based liberal advocacy group that sued on behalf of some Missouri voters, in a statement praised Callahan’s ruling and criticized the photo ID law as having “required voters to sign a threatening and confusing affidavit to receive a regular ballot if they didn’t have photo identification.”

“What’s confusing is the secretary of state’s support of limiting access to the ballot box,” she said.

Missouri’s 2016 law was enacted when the Republican-led Legislature overrode the veto of then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Voters in 2016 also approved a constitutional amendment intended to permit photo identification laws. The Missouri law was not yet in effect for the 2016 elections.

Voter photo ID requirements have been pushed by Republicans in numerous states as a means of preventing fraud. They have been opposed by Democrats who contend such laws can disenfranchise poor, elderly, disabled and minority voters who are less likely to have photo IDs.
…

Arkansas’ highest court on Thursday upheld a voter ID law that is nearly identical to a restriction struck down by the court four years ago.

The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed a judge’s ruling against the law approved last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature and governor. A judge had blocked officials from enforcing the restriction, but justices in May stayed that ruling and kept the law in effect while they considered the case.

The high court in 2014 struck down a previous version of the voter ID law as unconstitutional.

The revised voter ID law, which was approved last year, requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. Unlike the previous measure, the new law allows voters to cast provisional ballots if they sign a sworn statement confirming their identities. Opponents of the new measure had argued that it circumvented the 2014 ruling.

In the 5-2 ruling Thursday, justices said lawmakers had the power to enact the restriction by labeling it a change to a constitutional amendment related to voter registration requirements. “It is therefore constitutional,” Justice Robin Wynne wrote in the court’s ruling.

Arkansas officials argued the new law complies with part of the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the 2013 measure. Justices in 2014 unanimously struck down the previous voter ID law, with a majority of the court ruling that it unconstitutionally added a qualification to vote. Three justices, however, ruled the measure didn’t get the two-thirds vote needed to change voter registration requirements.

A majority of the court has changed hands since that ruling, and more than two-thirds of the Arkansas House and Senate approved the new measure last year.

A justice who disagreed with the ruling Thursday questioned the court’s argument that the law was related to voter registration, noting that the state doesn’t require photo ID in order to register to vote.

“If providing photo identification were required at registration, requiring presentation of the card at the polling place would be more defensible,” Justice Jo Hart wrote. “Asking for a photo identification card at the polling place strikes me as locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he is optimistic about Republicans retaining control of both chambers of Congress in next month’s nationwide congressional elections, as well as his own re-election in 2020.

“I think the Republicans are very energized,” Trump told interviewers on his favorite news talk show, “Fox & Friends,” because of the robust U.S. economy and last week’s Senate confirmation of Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. “I really believe we’re going to do well. I think we’ll be successful.”

Trump’s prediction on the Nov. 6 elections halfway through his first four-year White House term is at odds with historical trends favoring the political party out of power, the Democrats at the moment, in U.S. midterm elections.

In addition, independent analysts say polling shows Democrats are poised to take control of the House of Representatives, while Republicans are likely to retain their slim majority in the Senate.

‘Bunch of haters’

Trump said that if Democrats assume control of the House, “We’ll just have to fight it out” over the next two years “because there’s a bunch of haters” against him and his policies. Some Democrats have already said that if they have a majority in the House they plan to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump and investigations of his personal finances and government programs he has changed since he assumed power in January 2017.

Still, Trump said if there is a Democratic takeover in the House, “It’s possible we’ll get along,” because both he and Democrats could reach agreement on infrastructure spending they both favor to repair crumbling highways and bridges in the U.S.

2020

As for 2020, Trump declined to say whether there was any possible single Democratic opponent he feared most in his bid for a second four-year term.

“So far, I like ’em all, everyone of them,” Trump said. “I don’t see a name I don’t like.”

Several Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, say they will make up their minds by the end of the year whether to mount a nationwide campaign against Trump. Already, some of them have been making campaign-style speeches in states with early 2020 Democratic primaries that will play a pivotal role in determining Trump’s eventual opponent.

Republican prospects

Trump said that with the economy doing well, often a key determinant in U.S. presidential elections, “I don’t see why I wouldn’t do well in the election. We’ve done more in less than two years than anyone in history, and I don’t think it’s even close.”

Yet, national surveys show voters consistently disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, currently by about a 53 to 43 percent margin.
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The question before a panel of U.S. appeals court judges: Should non-native residents of Guam have a say in the territory’s future relationship with the United States?

Three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were at the University of Hawaii’s law school Wednesday to listen to arguments in an appeal of a federal judge’s 2017 ruling that says limiting the vote to those who are considered native inhabitants of the island is unconstitutional.

Voters would have three choices: independence, statehood and free association with the United States similar to island states that allow the U.S. exclusive military access to their land and waters while their citizens have the right to live and work in the U.S.

The case

Arnold Davis, a white, non-Chamorro resident of Guam, sued in 2011 after his application to participate in the vote was denied.

Last year’s ruling concluded that even though Guam has a long history of colonization and its people have a right to determine their political status with the United States, it’s unconstitutional to exclude voters simply because they “do not have the correct ancestry or bloodline.”

The ruling cites a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows non-Native Hawaiians to vote in elections for Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees.

Guam appealed.

The vote would only be a “symbolic, but no less sacred, nonbinding expression of a political opinion of a subset of Guam,” Julian Aguon, an attorney representing Guam, argued Wednesday.

The vote would have ramifications for all who live on the island, said Davis’ attorney, Lucas Townsend. 

“This is a taxpayer-funded, government-sponsored vote involving the territory’s election machinery,” he said.

Guam plans to submit results to the president of the United States, Congress and the United Nations, Townsend said.

Who is eligible?

Voters wouldn’t be limited based on their race, but would include only those who were granted U.S. citizenship through the 1950 Guam Organic Act, and their descendants, Aguon said. Court documents in the case cite 1950 census data showing that the vast majority of the noncitizens on Guam at the time were Chamorro.

About one-third of the U.S. territory’s 160,000 people identify as Chamorro, the indigenous group that is believed to have migrated to Guam from Indonesia and the Philippines an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. The U.S. took control of Guam in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. The Navy ruled the island until Japan took control in 1941. The U.S. installed civilian leadership and granted citizenship to Guam residents in 1950.

It’s not clear when the judges will issue a ruling.

Upholding the lower court ruling will effectively end Guam’s self-determination effort, Aguon said after the hearing.

“This case is so important because it’s about defending the sacred right of self-determination, even if it’s a symbolic vote,” he said. “It really matters to the community. Guam has been colonized for hundreds of years, and this would finally give us some semblance of dignity to be able to have just this non-binding vote. And that’s what it means to me as a Chamorro as well.”
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President Donald Trump is stepping up his attack on Democrats over a health care proposal called Medicare for All, claiming it “would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives.”

One senator who has introduced a Medicare for All proposal dismissed Trump’s statements as lies.

Trump, omitting any mention of improved benefits for seniors that Democrats promise, wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday in USA Today, “The Democrats’ plan means that after a life of hard work and sacrifice, seniors would no longer be able to depend on the benefits they were promised.”

But Medicare for All means different things to different Democrats. The plan pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, would expand Medicare to cover almost everyone in the country, and current Medicare recipients would get improved benefits. Other Democratic plans would allow people to buy into a new government system modeled on Medicare, moving toward the goal of coverage for all while leaving private insurance in place.

Trump’s column came as he is looking to paint Democratic candidates as extreme ahead of next month’s midterm elections. A White House official speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to describe internal plans said that Trump’s health care attack would be echoed by the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups and that the president would continue to raise the attack during his campaign rallies.

​’No, Mr. President’

Sanders responded Wednesday in a statement, saying Trump “is lying about the Medicare for All proposal” that he introduced.

“No, Mr. President. Our proposal would not cut benefits for seniors on Medicare. In fact, we expand benefits,” Sanders said.

As Trump escalates his efforts on behalf of fellow Republicans, he is casting health care as one of an expanding list of choices for the electorate this year while seeking to raise the alarm about the consequences of Democratic control of the House or the Senate.

Medicare for All, also called single-payer over the years, was until fairly recently outside the mainstream of Democratic politics, but this year it has become a key litmus test in many party primaries and a rallying cry for progressive candidates. Under the plan by Sanders, all Americans would gain access to government insurance with no co-pays or deductibles for medical services.

Republicans contend that the proposal would be cost-prohibitive and argue it marks government overreach.

Trump has already sought to paint Democrats as extremists after the bitter confirmation battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and internal GOP polling obtained last month by the AP shows that the party believes the message will help galvanize Republican voters to the polls.

At a rally in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump argued that the only reason to vote for Democrats “is if you are tired of winning.” He was to hold a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening. 
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President Donald Trump says he has been speaking to one of his former advisers, Dina Powell, about the possibility of succeeding Nikki Haley as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and he plans to speak with others about the post.

At the White House on Wednesday, Trump said Powell is one of many people being considered.

Haley announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as U.N. ambassador and would vacate the post by the end of the year.

“It has been an honor of a lifetime,” Haley said, sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office where they announced her pending departure Tuesday.

The former governor of the state of South Carolina has been seen by some as a relatively moderate voice in Trump’s Cabinet.

Her appointment as ambassador to the U.N. was seen as a surprise because she had been viewed as a critic of Trump’s confrontational style during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as a proponent of free markets and global trade, in contrast to the president’s “America First” policies.

The 46-year-old Haley, whose parents emigrated from India, is one of six women in Trump’s Cabinet and is regarded as a potential future Republican Party presidential contender.

“No, I’m not running for 2020,” Haley said, adding she would be campaigning for Trump’s re-election in the next presidential election.

Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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Congress has approved a sprawling bill to improve the nation’s ports, dams and harbors, protect against floods, restore shorelines and support other water-related projects.

The massive Water Resources Development Act would authorize billions in spending for projects nationwide, including one to stem coastal erosion in Galveston, Texas, and restore wetlands damaged by Hurricane Harvey last year.

The bill also would help improve harbors in Seattle; Savannah, Georgia; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and extend a federal program to improve drinking water quality.

The bill also sets up a new framework for large water projects run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The changes are intended to increase local input and improve transparency.

The Senate approved the bill, 99-1, on Wednesday, sending it to President Donald Trump.

 
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Michael Avenatti held court last month with a dozen Democratic strategists in the main dining room at The Palm — a see-and-be-seen table at one of Washington’s most prominent power lunch spots.

Avenatti did most of the talking. While he offered few details about how he planned to raise enough money or hire the staff to run a presidential campaign, one participant and another person briefed on the lunch said he cast himself as one of the few Democrats who knows how to go head-to-head with President Donald Trump. The sources requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss details of the meeting.

Avenatti’s brash confidence is being closely watched by Democrats in Washington and key political battleground states with a mix of intrigue and trepidation. Trump’s victory over more experienced politicians in the 2016 campaign has reshaped traditional views of who would make a viable presidential candidate. Yet some party leaders are worried about trying to replicate Trump’s approach by backing another untested and unpredictable candidate — a concern that was heightened after Avenatti’s involvement in the recent Supreme Court confirmation fight.

Still, Avenatti has so far managed to stand out among the senators, governors and mayors expected to vie for the Democratic presidential nomination. Early state operatives are offering him advice, and he’s sold out Democratic Party dinners in Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s scheduled to be in South Carolina this weekend, and has another trip to New Hampshire planned on October 22.

Raymond Buckley, a veteran New Hampshire Democratic strategist, said ticket sales for a recent Hillsborough County Democratic Party fundraiser tripled within 48 hours after Avenatti was announced as the featured guest.

“There is great interest in him,” said Buckley, who met with the high-profile attorney. “I take everybody seriously. Donald Trump has taught us all a lesson. It is a mistake to be dismissive of anybody.”

But Avenatti has suddenly found himself on the defensive over his role in the acrimonious Supreme Court confirmation fight for Brett Kavanaugh, raising questions about whether his relentless self-promotion could backfire before a presidential campaign ever gets off the ground.

After two women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, Avenatti revealed that he was representing a third accuser, Julie Swetnick. In a signed declaration, Swetnick said she witnessed Kavanaugh engage in sexually inappropriate behavior.

In the same statement, Swetnick said she had been the victim of gang rape — an explosive allegation that garnered significant attention, even though she never accused Kavanaugh of the crime. Avenatti’s promise to provide people to corroborate Swetnick’s account never materialized. He says he tried to bring more information to the FBI, but the bureau never investigated.

Republican congressional aides say Avenatti’s involvement helped turn momentum back toward Kavanaugh. When the deciding vote on the nomination, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, announced that she was supporting Kavanaugh, she cited Swetnick’s “outlandish allegation” and said it was “put forth without any credible supporting evidence.”

Democrats quickly found themselves having to answer for Avenatti’s actions. During an early-voting rally in Iowa Monday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker responded to questions about Avenatti’s client by stressing the validity of the other two accusers, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.

“What is obvious to most Americans, I think, is you have Dr. Ford and Ramirez come forward with credible claims,” said Booker, another Democratic weighing a presidential run.

Avenatti said he’s seen no drop in interest in his potential presidential prospects since he jumped into the confirmation fight, and cast the criticism of him as an inevitable response to his presidential prospects.

“It is being stoked by the Republicans and establishment Democrats that are very nervous about what my intentions are,” Avenatti said. “This is a direct response to individuals coming to the conclusion that I am a threat.”

To questions about his fundraising and planning, Avenatti said that he has not been providing details at introductory meetings, but stressed that he has donors lined up should he run and said that “we are going to have no problem raising money.” He also said he is hearing from people who are “very enthusiastic” about joining the campaign and “the only people that may be wary are establishment Democrats who are concerned because I don’t owe them anything.”

Avenatti’s uneven handling of the Kavanaugh allegations was a stark contrast to his role representing Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she had sex with Trump and was paid by the president’s lawyer to keep quiet. While Trump and attorney Michael Cohen initially denied Daniels’ claims, details of the payment have been verified during court proceedings. Avenatti became a media fixture in the process, spending hours a day racing from one television studio to the next.

His interest quickly shifted from taking on Trump in the courtroom to challenging him in the presidential election. On Monday, Avenatti formally launched a federal political action committee, The Fight PAC, giving him the ability to support Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, pay for political travel and build a list of supporters. The PAC will not accept money from corporate PACs.

Avenatti’s PAC is being advised by Tracy Austin, a Los Angeles-based fundraiser who has helped several California Democrats, including Gavin Newsom, Antonio Villaraigosa and Xavier Becerra; Stephen Solomon, a digital media strategist; and Adam Parkhomenko, an aide to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Ready for Hillary PAC that preceded her campaign.

During his visits to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests on the presidential calendar, Avenatti has also sought out local consultants and party leaders familiar with the caucus and primary races. During a trip to Iowa in August, Avenatti was joined by Matt Paul, an Iowa-based former strategist to Clinton, and Jeff Link, a longtime adviser to former Sen. Tom Harkin.

Avenatti’s handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation fight was met with a mixed reaction in the early presidential voting states.

Steve Shurtleff, the top Democrat in the New Hampshire state house, said Avenatti’s promotion of his client may have undermined the credibility of Kavanaugh’s other accusers.

“If there was any other attorney connected to that woman, it might have helped avoid the three-ring circus it became,” said Shurtleff, who said he doesn’t see Avenatti as a viable presidential contender.

But Iowa Democrat Randy Brown, who hosted Avenatti at a Democratic fundraiser in August, said the prominent lawyer’s involvement may have helped energize some voters who may not have normally paid attention to the confirmation process.

“It fired them up more,” said Brown, chairman of the Iowa Wing Ding fundraiser.

As for the impact on Avenatti’s presidential prospects, Brown said the lawyer was simply “doing what he does best — getting his name out there.”
…

Chants of “Lock her up!” rang once again throughout an Iowa arena as President Donald Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night.

But this time, the staple of Trump’s 2016 campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton had a new target: California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Trump, who was in the state boosting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, claimed that Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter written by California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

Feinstein has denied her office was the source of the leak.

“Can you believe that?” Trump said, as his supporters turned the chant once deployed against the former secretary of state on another Democratic woman.

“Did she leak that? 100 percent,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t want to get sued, so 99 percent.”

In a statement, Feinstein called Trump’s remarks “ridiculous and an embarrassment.”

Ford had sought to remain anonymous when she brought the allegation against Kavanaugh to Feinstein’s attention. She later went public after reporters started trying to contact her. Kavanaugh staunchly denied Ford’s accusation.

“Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly,” Feinstein said. “Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn’t me or my staff.”

The rally in Council Bluffs, across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska, was Trump’s latest stop on a busy tour campaigning for Republican candidates in the lead-up to midterms that will determine control of Congress. And it comes as the president is on a high wave following a series of wins, including Kavanaugh’s confirmation. It’s the second appointment Trump has made to the Supreme Court.

Indeed, Trump’s loudest applause came as he continued his victory lap, which has included bashing Democrats for attempting to sink the nomination. Trump and other GOP leaders say the effort energized Republican voters, who had long been considered less energized than Democrats.

“This is truly an historic week for America,” said Trump, praising Republican senators for standing up to what he called “the Democrats’ shameful campaign of political and personal destruction” against his nominee.

“They wanted to destroy that man,” Trump said. “What the Democrats did to Brett and his family is a national embarrassment, a national disgrace.”

Trump also rolled out new fuel standards that will be a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater ethanol sales. The long-expected change will lift the federal ban on summer sales of gasoline with high-ethanol blends and allow them year-round. The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days. Ethanol industry advocates say that fear is unfounded.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands, Trump said he was delivering a promise he’d made to Iowa voters years ago when he campaigned ahead of the state’s caucuses.

“Promises made, promises kept,” he said. He charged without offering evidence that if Democrats take control of Congress next month, they will seek to roll back his efforts.

The move was also seen as a reward for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who led Kavanaugh’s contentious but successful confirmation fight. Trump praised Grassley on Tuesday night as a “tough cookie” as he applauded local leaders including Iowa’s Republican Rep. David Young and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who face tough re-election fights.

Trump also boosted Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who face voters next month. The pair received loud applause from the heavily Nebraskan crowd.

Early voting in Iowa began on Monday, and Trump urged those gathered to cast their ballots now. “Go! Just vote. Get it over with,” he urged.

Early voting accounted for 41 percent of the Iowa vote in 2016, according to the White House.
…

Lynn Fedele sits at a booth at a natural-food deli, next to a wall painted light jungle green with bright red accents. She sips a steaming cup of peppermint chamomile tea and talks politics. 

“I think it’s very important to take the House out of the hands of the Republicans,” she sighs, referring to the battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Fedele describes herself as a left-leaning progressive. She didn’t vote for Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016. Nor did she vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, knowing Clinton would win New Jersey. (Clinton won 55 percent to Trump’s 41 percent.)

She instead voted for Jill Stein, hoping that her Green Party would get 5 percent of the vote and the federal matching funds that go with it. Stein finished with just over 1 percent of the U.S. vote.

The U.S. midterm congressional elections, held halfway through a president’s term, typically signal the public’s judgment of the performance of the incumbent president. If voters turn against Trump, they could change the control of Congress. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats in the House to take control of that chamber and two seats in the Senate to achieve a majority there.

Key bloc

Many analysts agree the key voting bloc that could flip Congress consists of women like Fedele.

White? Check.

Suburban? Check. She lives in Montclair, N.J.

Educated? Check. She has a master’s degree in English and has been teaching high school English for 27 years.

Education is on top of her list of political priorities, followed by housing inequality, environmental protection, health care and Planned Parenthood.

​Who’s voting?

A Politico poll taken in mid-September showed more than 64 percent of women were “very motivated” to vote in the midterms. Among Democratic women, that number jumped to 71 percent.

Fedele believes the bitter battle to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and the sexual assault accusations that were brought against him by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez will prompt many more women to vote for Democratic congressional candidates. Fedele said the way Ford was treated and mocked by Trump and Republican senators “is an affront to any woman who has been assaulted.”

On the other hand, Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders insist the Kavanaugh debate — and what they characterized as an “angry mob” of Democratic protesters — will motivate Republicans to vote for Senate candidates to confirm more conservatives like Kavanaugh.

Even so, Kate Smith, 49, is not planning to vote.

“It’s so contentious. I just don’t enjoy politics anymore,” she said.

Smith, the mother of a 5-year-old, is a registered independent. She said if she suddenly decided to vote, she would support someone who is fiscally responsible, who supports curbing government regulatory programs. Smith has a doctorate and runs a financial business.

Women and the 2016 race

Democrats have typically won the women’s vote since 1992, according to Pew Research. In the 2016 presidential election, Clinton won the overall women’s vote with 54 percent. But she lost the white women’s vote — 52 percent of them voted for Trump. However, college-educated white women were more inclined to vote for Clinton than Trump, and they are overwhelmingly supporting Democratic candidates in their congressional districts this year, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School survey.

Chris Elliott backed Trump. She emigrated from Ireland as a child and now lives in New Jersey. Her political hot buttons are jobs and education. She’s voted for the past 40 years but said she’s never seen partisan acrimony like this.

Elliott blames the president and said he’s turning female voters away because they don’t like how he “acts like a bully.” Though she regrets voting for Trump, she will remain a Republican voter in the midterms because of the administration’s strict immigration rules that have cracked down on illegal immigrants.

“That illegal alien,” Elliott said, “I’m not for that.”

Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., and author of Women in American Politics, said she’s seeing presidential “buyer’s remorse” like Elliott’s among white Republican women, specifically young white women. That remorse, she thinks, will determine the outcomes of many competitive House races.

“Perhaps some of these women will now flip to the Democratic side, or young women will be increasingly mobilized to vote,” she said.

New Jersey’s 11th District

Political analysts are looking at New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Montclair, as an illustration of that pushback by women voters.

The 11th, formerly a Republican stronghold, is a wealthy suburb west of New York City. Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen has held the district since 1995 but is not seeking re-election. Currently, the Cook Political Report shows the 11th District race competitive, but leaning left.

Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot and federal prosecutor, is a political newcomer. Her Republican rival, Jay Webber, is a New Jersey assemblyman. Sherrill recently filled a banquet hall with screaming supporters as former Vice President Joe Biden arrived to campaign with her.

“A lot of our women voters are concerned about the same economic issues that all of our voters are,” Sherrill told VOA. “We have infrastructure needs. We have health care needs here, like the rest of the country. So a lot of women, some of them heads of the household [or] … single mothers, they’re very concerned about the economy as well.”

Webber said female voters want the same thing as men, and that’s what he’s campaigning on: “A thriving economy. The opportunity to have a job and provide for their families. And save for retirement and their kids’ education.”
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