On Politics: The Biggest Stories of the Week
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/politics/biggest-stories-of-the-week.html Version 0 of 1. From a monumental Election Day to a shake-up in the Trump administration, it’s been a busy week in American politics. Here are some of the biggest stories you might have missed (and some links if you’d like to read further). _____________________ Democrats took the House, and Republicans got a stronger hold on the Senate: • The midterm elections ended Tuesday night with Democrats flipping more than two dozen Republican congressional districts to gain control of the House of Representatives. It gives them the power to investigate the president. • Despite warnings from within the G.O.P., Republicans’ disunity and lack of a coherent message contributed to their losing the House. Here’s how it happened. • Even with the loss of the House, Republican victories in the Senate, and in governors’ races, could have big implications for the courts and social issues like abortion. Read how that may play out in future policy. • The contradictory verdicts in the midterm elections added up to a portrait of a country at odds with itself. Read what the results tell us about the state of the nation. Some races — like in Florida and Georgia — are still undecided: • Election Day may be over, but there are several pivotal races across the country whose outcomes are still in doubt. Here is a look at some important ones that have yet to be decided. • Florida is facing continued turmoil over counting ballots. Days after the election, results are still unclear in three key races, and lawsuits are flying. Here’s more on the situation. • Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, currently has 50.3 percent of the vote. If remaining ballots push that below 50 percent, the race will be decided by a runoff. His opponent, Stacey Abrams, is trying to secure every last vote. Here’s the latest. Diversity was a major player in the elections this year: • There were an incredible number of historic firsts across the country on Tuesday night. Here are some of the winners who will make history when they take office. • They marched, they ran, and on Election Day, they won. Read about the women who led a parade of victories Tuesday to win control of the House for the Democrats. • More than 150 L.G.B.T. candidates, a record, were elected in the United States, and Massachusetts voted to uphold a state law protecting transgender people from discrimination. Read more on the results of the “rainbow wave.” • It could be months before we know the demographic breakdown of who voted in the midterms, but there are early indications that turnout boomed among women, Latinos and young people. President Trump’s reaction to the results was true to form: • At a news conference the day after the elections, Mr. Trump offered to work with the Democrats who gained control of the House, but threatened to retaliate if they use their new power to investigate him. • As several politicians from both parties seek leadership roles in the new House, Nancy Pelosi got an early, if unusual, endorsement from Mr. Trump in her bid to reclaim her title as speaker. Read more on the president’s surprising support. • After a tense standoff at Mr. Trump’s news conference on Wednesday, the White House suspended credentials for CNN’s Jim Acosta. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, used a doctored video from the conspiracy site Infowars to justify the ban. President Trump forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, ending a partnership that soured after Mr. Sessions recused himself from the Russia inquiry. Mr. Trump tapped Matthew Whitaker, Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff, as acting attorney general. Mr. Whitaker has openly criticized the Russia investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III. Now he oversees it. Here’s what may happen to the special counsel’s inquiry. Mr. Whitaker served on the advisory board of a Florida company that was shut down and fined nearly $26 million after the government accused it of scamming customers. Read about his involvement. Mr. Trump said on Friday that he has not yet spoken to Mr. Whitaker about the special counsel investigation, and he distanced himself from the acting attorney general by suggesting that he did not know him. Read more of what he told reporters. Additional Reading • Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker Once Criticized Supreme Court’s Power • Jeff Sessions Executed the Agenda of a President Who Could Not Look Past a Betrayal • Sessions, in Last-Minute Act, Sharply Limits Use of Consent Decrees to Curb Police Abuses Twelve people, including a sheriff’s deputy, were killed in a shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The gunman, a former marine named Ian D. Long who had served in Afghanistan, is also dead. There was no clear motive. Read how the new, Democrat-led House might take action on guns. In a proclamation on Friday, Mr. Trump called illegal immigration “a crisis” and suspended asylum rights to all immigrants who attempt to cross into the United States illegally. But officials said it was aimed primarily at several thousand migrants traveling north through Mexico in caravans. Mr. Trump said he would not meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia this weekend. After weeks of conflicting reports on the on-again, off-again plans, Mr. Trump said they would meet instead in Buenos Aires later in the month. Three weeks before Mr. Trump is scheduled to meet with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the White House trade adviser Peter Navarro lashed out at Beijing, predicting Mr. Trump would have the “courage” to reject a bad trade deal. Here’s more on the tense warning to China. Additional Reading • Diplomacy Appears Stalled With North Korea, Despite Trump’s Declarations • Justice Ginsburg Leaves Hospital After Treatment for Broken Ribs • Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged and Signals December Increase Is on Track _____________________ Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Margaret Kramer in New York. Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com. |