Trump creates a nickname for DeSantis. Oz commits Pennsylvania football fumble.
Michigan elections chief says she needs all the federal help she can get securing election
From CNN’s Sonnet Swire
One of the nation’s top cybersecurity officials said state election workers in Wisconsin and Michigan have told her they’re “pleased” with the federal government’s support leading up the 2022 midterm elections, while some state officials say they’re not getting enough.
Jen Easterly, the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, was asked by CNN’s Alex Marquardt Saturday about state officials in Wisconsin and Michigan who say they aren’t getting enough federal backing for elections and personnel security.
“I actually was just in Michigan and Wisconsin last week,” Easterly said, adding she met with Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe and an elections director appointed by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
Easterly said she “asked if they were getting everything they needed from us,” adding, “they were actually pleased with everything we’ve been providing,”
Michigan secretary of state responds: Asked by Marquardt on Saturday about Easterly’s comments, Benson said “we appreciate the federal support that’s been provided — it’s simply not enough.”
“In many ways, we are more prepared and better funded than we were in 2020,” Benson added. “But the challenges we are facing are escalating. So it’s gonna create a need for a regular stream of resources moving forward.”
Combating voter intimidation: Benson told Marquardt that “we are at a pivotal point” for the threat of people challenging voters’ eligibility or otherwise intimidating them, “as a way of promoting a political strategy.”
Benson, whose family was harassed during the 2020 elections, added she met with the Wayne County sheriff Saturday to discuss voter intimidation in the Detroit metro area.
“We have folks who are prepared to immediately respond to anyone who tries to intimidate any voters,” Benson said, adding “we will hold them accountable.”
Read more on election security here. You can also read CNN’s guide to navigating intimidation and other obstacles to voting.
Oz is no moderate after sharing stage with Mastriano, Fetterman says
From CNN’s Kit Maher
John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat, criticized his opponent Mehmet Oz for sharing a stage with GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano at former President Donald Trump’s rally Saturday.
“He wants to try to portray himself now a moderate,” Fetterman said in Harrisburg Sunday morning, in conversation with Rep. Patty Kim. “There’s no moderating, no moderate, if you’re willing to, to share a stage with somebody like Doug Mastriano.”
Fetterman contrasted Trump’s stage last night with his own appearance on the same day with gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden.
“Our team is 100% sedition free, and of course no one on the stage, in our stages, ever supported pardoning all of the Jan. 6 kind of insurrectionists. We also support on our stage that the choice of abortion belongs only to women and their doctor,” Fetterman said.
Rep. Kim chimed in: “Oh by the way, who did Oprah endorse?”
The crowd cheered, but Fetterman remained silent in his signature Carhartt hoodie, with a slight smile on his face.
Fetterman emphasized the high stakes nature of the Senate race and how he will be traveling across the Commonwealth to deliver his message to voters until the very end.
Mentioning how he won his mayoral race by one vote, Fetterman said, “It’s a jump ball. On Tuesday, it’s going to come down to every single vote.”
Sen. Scott: “Absolutely” Republicans can win majority in the Senate without Pennsylvania
From CNN’s Sarah Fortinsky
GOP Sen. Rick Scott would not say whether he plans to run for Senate majority leader if Republicans regain control of the chamber, nor would he commit to supporting former President Donald Trump if he entered the 2024 presidential race.
“I’m not focused on anything except getting a majority Tuesday night,” the Florida Republican said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Scott’s comments come amid tension between the senator, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
That tension has only increased in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections. The two have found their strategies at odds as they seek to win back the Senate chamber this November, as CNN recently reported.
On Trump in 2024: Scott was also asked whether he would support Donald Trump in another presidential bid.
“There is going to be a lot of people probably announce. We’ll watch what happens. I’m focused on getting a majority in the Senate,” Scott said told NBC’s Chuck Todd.
On recapturing the Senate: Scott addressed a range of other topics, including GOP prospects this coming Tuesday and plans the party has if they take back the Senate.
“We’re going to get 52-plus,” Scott said, referring to the number of seats he believes could be held by Republicans. “Mehmet Oz is going to win, Ted Budd’s going to win, Herschel Walker’s going to win. Adam Laxalt’s going to win. I think we have a really good shot in Arizona. I think we have a shot, a really good shot in New Hampshire. I think we have a shot in Washington and Colorado. We maybe even have a shot, depends on the voters, in Connecticut.”
He said “absolutely” Republicans can win without Pennsylvania and later added that he also predicts Republicans will win in Arizona and New Hampshire, when pressed on his answer.
On whether he will accept all results of the election, Scott said, “absolutely,” but hedged, adding Republican leaders are prepared to combat any “shenanigans” in the process.
On the campaign trail: Economic anxiety top of mind for voters
From CNN’s Dana Bash and Abbie Sharpe
Sometimes you hit the campaign trail and there is an issue voters care so much about, that its dominance is inescapable. In 2006, it was growing opposition to the Iraq war. In 2010, it was the backlash against big government spending and bailouts coupled with fear about what Obamacare would look like. This year, it is deep concern about affordability.
That is not to say that other issues, from abortion to crime to the climate and beyond, don’t matter a lot to voters — but anxiety about the high cost of the basics is palpable.
We learned that traveling to five pivotal states since Labor Day weekend: Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada and Arizona. We covered competitive races and talked to scores of voters in diners, gas stations, grocery store parking lots, construction sites, outdoor markets and more.
“I drive a truck and it does not get very good gas mileage. I actually had to quit my last job because I couldn’t afford to drive all the way out there,” Amanda Cleaver told us at the Michigan State Fair on Labor Day weekend.
Greg Steyer, as he sat with a group of friends at Bud’s Restaurant in Defiance, Ohio, expressed his exasperation as well.
“Why is the price of gas where it is today?” Steyer asked the second week of September.
“You can’t just overlook that issue,” he added.
As Joseph San Clemente put his groceries in his car in a Virginia Beach parking lot in late September, he couldn’t get over the prices of what he had just purchased.
“Vegetables have gone up 20 to 30%,” he said. “Growers locally in the farms are not carrying things they did last year because people don’t have the money.”
Dave Dent, who manages a construction company in Tucson, Arizona, said in late October that inflation in his line of work is as high as 30%.
And Maria Melgoza, who cleans homes in Las Vegas, told us how hard it is to make ends meet these days.
“Food is high, gas is high, rent is high,” she said, speaking in Spanish.
We heard from many frustrated voters — especially those among the working class and in rural areas — who feel forgotten by politicians in Washington.
“I came up in a union household. My dad was a Teamster for 30 years, voted Democrat. But they’re completely out of touch with what everyday Americans want,” lamented Jason Fetke in Virginia Beach.
A current union member we met in Toledo, Ohio, says he is voting for Democrats this year, but still feels like neither party is doing enough.
“I think there should be a lot more focus on working class people,” said Joe Stallbaum.
“It just seems like we always get left behind for either the high or the low,” he added.
Read more from the campaign trail here.
CNN’s John King: Republicans have a huge advantage going into Election Day
From CNN’s John King
Republicans have an advantage going into Election Day, CNN’s John King reports, as he breaks down the key races to watch on Tuesday.
Rep. Maloney says Democrats are “going to hold this majority” on NBC
From CNN’s Andrew Millman
New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, expressed confidence in Democrats’ ability to maintain a majority in Congress.
“We’re going to hold this majority,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” when asked what would be a good night for the party on Tuesday.
Referencing polling cited earlier in the show, Rep. Maloney said the race is “basically tied with the numbers in 2018, which if I recall was a pretty good year for Democrats” and that the race is currently “razor close.”
Asked about his own tough reelection battle, Maloney said he’s “always had a tough race,” noting that he “beat a Republican to have this seat.”
“It’s always been improbable I would serve in the Congress,” the New York lawmaker said, while rejecting the notion that him losing would signal the midterms were a wave election for Republicans.
Maloney also said Republicans want to put Social Security and Medicare “on the chopping block every five years.”
“If these guys control Congress, the first thing they’re going to do is try to pass a national abortion ban,” Maloney claimed, saying voters in blue states like California and New York shouldn’t be complacent about reproductive rights because they have Democratic state governments.
Maloney went on offense against his opponent, state assemblyman Mike Lawler, for voting against abortion rights in New York’s state legislature.
“If he had his way, every state in the country could ban it for any reason without exceptions,” Maloney said.
Maloney also said he thought President Joe Biden gets a “bum rap” and touted the President’s accomplishments. According to Maloney, Biden is “working through the damage of the Trump years and the pandemic and he’s not getting enough credit for it.”
Klobuchar pushes back against Newsom’s claim that Democrats are “getting crushed on narrative”
From CNN staff
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar expressed optimism in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying Democrats are “getting crushed on narrative” in the 2022 midterms.
“We are going to win these races,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday. “So he can talk about all the ones out there. I’m in the middle of it.”
Bash also asked Klobuchar about Democratic groups spending millions to boost Republican Don Bolduc in the primary — who is running against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in the general election in New Hampshire — now that it’s a really tight race and Hassan could lose her seat.
“I’m not going to at one moment concede this race because Maggie has been ahead every step of the way,” Klobuchar said. “First of all, I’m not going back over past strategy right now two days before the election… I’m not a big fan of spending money on other candidates and messing around. I will admit that and I’ve said that.”
Klobuchar also said that she would support President Joe Biden in the 2024 election after CNN has reported former President Donald Trump plans to jump into the race.
“President Biden has made clear he is running and I support him,” Klobuchar said. “And what I will say about this: Donald Trump cannot be president again. The American people know it.”
Watch some of Klobuchar’s interview below:
RNC chair: Nobody should break the law, but poll watching is not intimidation
From CNN’s Sarah Fortinsky
Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, defended the practice of poll watching Sunday when asked about instances of voter intimidation throughout the country, but added that everyone needs to abide by election laws.
“Nobody should be intimidating or breaking the law, nobody should. But poll watching is not intimidating,” McDaniel told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “If you’ve been at a poll place, you see, they’re just simply observing and it helps us, at the end, give assurance to the voters, say listen, we were there, we watched it, it went well,” she said.
McDaniel continued to defend poll watchers, claiming they were facing intimidation, too. Poll watchers “do not break the law. Do not attack or intimidate people who are trying to vote,” she said.
“I don’t think that should be done at all. Also, don’t intimidate our poll watchers. Because we’re having that right now too,” McDaniel continued.
She would not criticize Republican candidates who have raised doubt about the upcoming election and sought to draw a false equivalency between GOP candidates and Democratic candidates on whether they would accept election results.
Asked for a yes-or-no answer to whether all Republican candidates should accept election results, McDaniel said: “Well, I would say the same to Stacey Abrams, right? Or Hillary Clinton who’s already saying in 2024, we’re going to rig the election. That’s not helpful.”
“Listen, you should have a recount. You should have a canvass and it’ll go to the courts and then everybody should accept the results. That’s what it should be,” McDaniel continued. “But I’m also not going to say if there’s problems that we shouldn’t be able to address that. If there’s real problems, everyone should be able to address that.”
“But we need to have that ability to fix it. And every election’s run differently at the county level, at the precinct level. So we want to make sure it’s run fair and transparently. And then we’ll let the process play out and then we’ll accept the results,” she added.
McDaniel also predicted that Republicans would take back both chambers.
Are you facing any voting issues? Send us your stories here. And here’s a guide to navigate intimidation and other obstacles to voting.
Arizona governor candidate Katie Hobbs calls GOP border visit a political stunt
From CNN’s Kate Sullivan
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate in the state’s gubernatorial race, criticized the recent visit to the border by GOP candidates in Arizona.
Hobbs called the trip, attended by her opponent Kari Lake and fellow Republicans Blake Masters, Abe Hamadeh and Mark Finchem, a political stunt.
“We need border security. We need the federal government to step up and implement real border security. This political stuntery is not going to do it and that’s really all it is — it’s empty rhetoric and political stunts,” Hobbs said, in response to a question from CNN at a campaign event in Phoenix.
The Democrat also responded to Lake calling her an “incompetent” secretary of state and constantly referencing ballots that were sent to wrong voters in Arizona this cycle.
“I don’t send any ballots, number one, and that’s just a clear misunderstanding of the role of the secretary state in elections versus the county’s,” Hobbs said. “It was a potential that 6,000 voters were impacted, but it was far, far less than that.”
What Lake is saying: During their border visit Friday, Lake and her fellow Republicans vowed to continue building former President Donald Trump’s border wall.
“If we don’t secure our border here, every sheriff around this country has to deal with the ramifications of that,” Lake said, standing in front of the unfinished wall. “You can see over here. This is the material that you and I paid for – the taxpaying citizens of this country paid for this material. When I’m governor my plan calls to take that back,” she said of the building materials, “and start finishing the wall.”
More context: Immigration remains a major concern for many Arizona voters, particularly the independents who could decide the state’s hotly contested top races.
GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters told CNN’s Kyung Lah this week that it is a key issue that’s helping him build momentum and win over voters: “We’ve got a wide-open southern border – moderates don’t like that,” he said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-day-coverage-11-06-2022/index.html
