The Justice Department concluded senior White House advisers have “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas for their testimony, according to a letter obtained by CBS News.
Witnesses come forward:
Guardian
Trump impeachment inquiry calls on White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify – live
Mulvaney, who implied there was quid pro quo with Ukraine, asked to appear while House intelligence panel prepares to release more testimony
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Mick Mulvaney in October. Mulvaney said: ‘I have news for everybody. Get over it. There is going to be political influence in foreign policy.’
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Joanna Walters in New York
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Tue 5 Nov 2019 13.50 EST
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Key events
13:49 EST
Sondland admitted quid pro quo with Ukraine - testimony
Testimony from European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland to the impeachment inquiry reveals that he told a top Ukrainian official that they wouldn’t get vital US military aid unless the country publicly committed to investigations that Donald Trump had been demanding from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, into the president’s domestic political rival, Joe Biden.
Four new pages of sworn testimony released moments ago, from Sondland’s closed-door testimony last month, confirm he was involved in the quid pro quo between the US and Ukraine that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, and which Sondland hasn’t admitted to before.
Updated at 13:50 EST
13:43 EST
Testimony from Sondland and Volker damaging for Trump
Some details of the testimony from EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and former Ukraine enjoy Kurt Volker to the impeachment inquiry last month are dribbling out, via CNN journalists so far.
There is a clear indication that they detailed a parallel foreign policy being carried out in Ukraine via Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Sondland indicated that secretary of state Mike Pompeo was told about it. Volker spoke of Giuliani as a conduit to Trump.
Typically, that would be official US diplomats, it almost goes without saying.
Nothing about this is normal!
Volker says Giuliani was a problem. Was hurting relations. pic.twitter.com/o7SsujHGxz
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) November 5, 2019
Updated at 13:43 EST
13:33 EST
First trickle
The latest transcripts from the closed-door testimony in the impeachment inquiry are making their way rather painfully and fitfully into the public domain today. They’re kind of out, apparently, but most reporters don’t have them yet.
Here’s a tiny snippet from CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz, about back door diplomacy.
Excerpt from Volker’s testimony!!!
So official channels wouldn’t work, they decided on a back door. Here’s the counter intelligence concern. They knew their info would get to Trump.
Ukrainian’s “asked to be connected” to Mr. Giuliani as a direct conduit to President Trump. pic.twitter.com/8WSCp9XlGZ
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) November 5, 2019
More to come, hang in there.
Updated at 13:33 EST
13:21 EST
What about the “blue wave” in Virginia?
Virginians go to the polls today to choose their state legislature. Despite a surge of Democratic success in the 2017 statewide elections, the Republicans hung on by a whisker to their traditionally-solid majority in the general assembly in Richmond.
Will it flip today? The so-called blue wave, which also elected a record number of women to the general assembly, was echoed in the 2018 national mid-term elections.
Key Republican districts flipped, notably giving the US Congress Virginia freshman Democrats Jennifer Wexton, who ousted moderate(ish) Republican Barbara Comstock on the outskirts of DC, and Abigail Spanberger, who beat glowing red Republican Dave Brat in a district closer to Richmond (with his infamously sexist remarks on the campaign trail).
There is a lot of interest to see if, this time also, what happens in Richmond in the election today is a forbearer of how Virginia will vote in 2020.
Since this time last year, Trump has been castigated in the Mueller report and engulfed by the impeachment inquiry centering on his conduct in relation to Ukraine.
And Virginia’s Democratic governor Ralph Northam narrowly survived a scandal over black-face photographs from the past, while his deputy, Justin Fairfax, was at the center of sexual assault allegations.
Local media are talking about the key districts voting today.STRINGER/Reuters
Updated at 13:21 EST
12:51 EST
Mick Mulvaney to be called as witness
He won’t turn up willingly, of course, but the impeachment inquiry investigators want to depose him to testify on Capitol Hill.
Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff to Donald Trump, will no doubt hove to the gag order imposed by the White House that pledges non-cooperation with the inquiry.
House impeachment inquiry now calling Mick Mulvaney for a deposition.
(Not without a fight, of course.)
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 5, 2019
Last month Mulvaney suggested that there was a quid pro quo in relations with Ukraine in a rare, official White House press briefing, no less. He embarrassingly tried to walk back that statement later in the day. It was another unforced error from the Trump administration in the impeachment inquiry.
At the time he said the Trump administration’s decision to withhold millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine was part of efforts to clean up corruption in the country. He was apparently referring, at least in part, to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about a purported Ukrainian link to Russia’s hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 presidential election.
“The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation,” Mulvaney told reporters in the White House briefing room.
“Did he also mention to me in the past the corruption that related to the DNC server? Absolutely, no question about that,” Mulvaney continued. “But that’s it. That’s why we held up the money.”
Asked about mixing politics with foreign policy, Mulvaney replied: “We do that all the time with foreign policy … I have news for everybody. Get over it. There is going to be political influence in foreign policy. Elections have consequences.”
Mulvaney’s statement contradicted Trump’s repeated denials that his administration had made military aid to Ukraine contingent upon Kyiv’s willingness to open an investigation into the debunked DNC theory and the dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of Trump’s 2020 Democratic election rival Joe Biden, in Ukraine.
Mick Mulvaney Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters
Mulvaney’s been asked to appear on Capitol Hill on Saturday. Don’t hold your breath.
Inbox: House committees have sent a letter asking Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to appear at a deposition on November 9, as part of the impeachment inquiry.
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) November 5, 2019
Updated at 12:54 EST
12:39 EST
Stone supporter holds up jury selection
Roger Stone trial was delayed briefly today by this chap.
At US District Court for DC. Roger Stone trial was delayed when this supporter, Anthony Haydenn, fell ill and ambulance was called. Haydenn, 54, from New York, said: “I suddenly got a confused, unstable, blackout feeling. I didn’t mean to embarrass him. He’s a good guy.” pic.twitter.com/4kNgQa2jCO
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) November 5, 2019
Jury selection had been slow to get underway anyway. Hoping for opening arguments to begin asap tomorrow - we’ll keep you posted and let you know when the jury has been picked so that this federal trial can get underway.
This associate of Donald Trump is accused of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, chiefly relating to the release to the public on Wikileaks of emails from Hillary Clinton’s election campaign, hacked by Russian operatives in 2016.
Harris on the ballot in New Hampshire - officially
Democratic 2020 candidate Kamala Harris is struggling to keep up in the election race, as her outgoing funds exceed the cash coming in from fundraising efforts and her poll numbers stay stubbornly paltry.
She’s made the Democratic debate in Atlanta, Georgia, this month (Nov 20) and has qualified for the December debate.
It’s 90 days to the Iowa caucuses, the first voting in the decision process to decide the Democratic party nominee for president, and the former California attorney general and now Senator Harris is focussing her efforts there.
But in the “Live free or die” granite state, New Hampshire, she is now also formally on the ballot. The NH primary is on February 11, 2020.
NEW: @KamalaHarris’ New Hampshire state director Craig Brown just filed on her behalf at the state house in Concord, NH to have Harris be officially on the ballot for the New Hampshire primary in February, a campaign aide confirms to NBC News. t.co/ECnHdH8YkK
The impeachment inquiry, which is likely to move to the congressional trial phase in the US Senate early next year, will take 2020 candidates and senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Harris off the campaign trail, but it will also give them a potentially useful platform to show off their chops in the questioning process - on TV.
‘Don’t count her out’: can Kamala Harris salvage a languishing 2020 bid?
Harris on the campaign trail.
No-shows in impeachment inquiry
As we wait for the expected release, hopefully very soon, of transcripts from the testimony behind closed doors last month of Gordon Sondland, EU ambassador, and Kurt Volker, former envoy to Ukraine, it’s pretty certain that the two new witnesses expected on Capitol Hill today will not show up. This time yesterday, the first two transcripts to be made public were out, with an extraordinary account of the smear and ambush of since-ousted Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
In Yovanovitch’s transcript we see her describing her “shock” at discovering that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal emissary who has also worked for Ukrainian and Russian interests, was attempting to destroy her reputation.
Meanwhile, today, Wells Griffith, the US national security council’s international energy and environment director didn’t show this morning and Michael Duffey, associate director for national security programs in the office of management and budget, had never been expected to show up for his 2PM appointment with the House intelligence committee, so if he turns up out of the blue that would be a huge surprise.
Here is a handy recent piece on some of the main players in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump, the whistleblower and the comic: key players in the Ukraine scandal
Updated at 12:17 EST
12:01 EST
Mississippi voter turnout expected to be high
It’s a red hot race for the governorship of Mississippi today. The local leading paper, the Clarion Ledger daily newspaper and online site out of Jackson, has live coverage of the election today.
Like in Kentucky, the Democratic challenger to the Republican candidate is the state attorney general.
AG Jim Hood has a perhaps surprisingly decent chance at the governorship - which would be the first time a Democrat has been in that post for 16 years.
The voting system in the state favors the party in power in the state legislature, however, as the winner needs not just a majority of the popular vote statewide but a tallied results in a majority of the state electoral districts backing them.
Mississippi Lieutenant Governor, Republican Tate Reeves, is the guy to beat.
You can have any candidate as long as they’re white, male and wear a red tie and dark suit. Democratic candidate
Updated at 12:04 EST
11:50 EST
No opening arguments in Roger Stone trial today
That’s confirmed, jury selection is taking a bit longer than some estimated, in the Roger Stone trial in Washington today, and what with the incident with a spectator in the courtroom needing medical attention, it’s all behind the pace.
Latest forecast is that opening arguments will get underway tomorrow. Whether first thing or later in the day…well, watch this space and we’ll let you know as soon as we know. It should be a lively trial and an unwelcome echo for Trump from the Russia investigation, as the impeachment inquiry ramps up.
Updated at 11:50 EST
11:37 EST
Hiatus in Stone trial
The Roger Stone trial in federal court in Washington is proceeding a little more haltingly than expected. There’s been a medical incident involving a spectator and the courtroom has been cleared and the trial put in recess while this is dealt with.
It looks very much like opening arguments won’t get underway today.
Shady. Roger Stone turns up for court wearing comedy shades and a cheeky expression.
Updated at 11:37 EST
11:30 EST
Kentucky close race for governor
Will the Trump factor be enough to carry Republican incumbent Matt Bevin to victory in the Kentucky governor’s race tonight, or will it sink him, even?
Potus was effectively stumping for him in the state at his rally last night - where he spoke for 80 minutes straight, sheesh. What’s worse, 80 minutes of Trump or eight minutes of Rand Paul, who was the president’s sidekick last night and, disgracefully, called on the media to unmask the whistleblower who sparked the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry. Just wrong.
The whistleblower is protected by law and, besides, their words have been overtaken as if by an avalanche by the substance of the testimony given by witnesses in the inquiry so far and the memo issued by the White House itself summarizing the fateful phone call in which Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate a rival in the 2020 US presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden.
Bevin is deemed to be unpopular in deeply-Republican Kentucky. His Democratic challenger, state attorney general Andy Beshear, was out stumping with his father, former governor Steve Beshear, yesterday on the last day of the campaign before voting today.
Local media say Beshear has been campaigning for 17 months in this hugely-important race. Trump won the state easily in the 2016 presidential election.
Bevin attended the Trump’s rally in Louisville last night. There was no escaping the impeachment inquiry.
Some supporters wore tee shirts saying “Read The Transcript”. A. the memo is not a transcript. Testimony so far has indicated there are even more damning bits in the full transcript, with more details of Trump asking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden. B. the memo was damning.
Democratic candidate for governor, Kentucky attorney general Andy Beshear, talks with supporters on Saturday. Voters go to the polls today
11:07 EST
Voters fired up
But perhaps not in the way Fox sees it. There are important races in some key states today. Here’s the president’s echo-routine as he retweets Fox News. He’s tweeting up a storm this morning, so feel free to take a look yourself, but, if you’re busy, you won’t have missed anything earth-shattering if we don’t reproduce them here - nothing really moves the needle.
“The Impeachment Hoax has fired up voters in Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana.” @foxandfriends
Climate crisis - allies dismayed but the fight is far from over
The European Union has voiced regret at the US government’s confirmation yesterday of its decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. But the body expressed hopes that one of the world’s biggest CO2 emitters will backpedal on its decision and rejoin the accord.
That’s probably wishful thinking in terms of a policy U-turn from the Trump administration on the climate crisis. But one year from now who’s knows how the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry and the presidential election will have turned out?
European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said earlier today that the global deal signed in 2015 remains “the most important international agreement on climate change” and insisted that the EU will continue to “fight global climate change under this legal framework.”
Despite the US formal notice of departure, Andreeva added that the 28-member bloc will continue working with various US-based entities and stakeholders who remain committed to the deal, the AP writes.
“The Paris agreement has strong foundations and is here to stay. Its doors remain open and we hope that the US will decide to pass (them) again one day,” Andreeva said.
Scientists are warning of “untold suffering” in a new report.
Climate crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of ‘untold suffering’
Germany said the announcement from Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo yesterday is “regrettable” but no surprise. (For a great commentary on what Pompeo is up to more widely in his career, read this from my colleague Julian Borger.)
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said the US had announced its plan to withdraw from the pact two years ago and “luckily it has remained alone in doing so.”
Nearly 200 nations signed the landmark 2015 climate deal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, with each country providing its own goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Meanwhile, the 2019 UN COP 25 climate conference will now happen in Spain not Chile, prompting more dismay from activists and one stuck on this side of the Atlantic to ask for a ride…
Since Friday afternoon I’ve been traveling east through the beautiful southern states in the USA to get to the east coast and hopefully find a transport to COP25 in Madrid… pic.twitter.com/WMig6dGKnb
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg)
First no-show of the day…?
Well. Wells. Griffith. Hasn’t turned up for his scheduled 9AM testimony behind closed doors to the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry.
Happening today in the impeachment inquiry:
-
NSC official Wells Griffith scheduled for closed-door testimony at 9AM. Appearance not confirmed.
-
OMB official Michael Duffey scheduled for 2PM. Not expected to appear.
-
Expecting transcripts of Sondland & Volker depositions.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) November 5, 2019
Here’s our Adam Gabbatt with a short, lively video explainer on how that whole impeachment thing works, anyway.
Warren warns on climate crisis and denier-in-chief
Whoah, sorry about the slow roll there, folks, some of us just had a connectivity issue in Guardian US HQ in the Big Apple, but after a nail-biting few minutes - just enough time to cook up a conspiracy theory about who might be jamming the wifi - we’re back live.
Leading 2020 Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren writes for us today on the climate emergency, just a few hours after Donald Trump formalized the process of pulling out of the 2015 landmark Paris climate accord. He promised ages ago that the US would pull out but there is an official process which involves notifying the United Nations and pulling out to a specific timetable, which Trump did yesterday at the first opportunity.
So now we’re on a climate countdown. Unless there is a policy earthquake, the US will leave the accord a year from now. Trump is busy dismantling environmental regulation as fast as he can anyway, while the world’s leading climate science experts give humanity very little time to make huge change and reverse the trajectory of the crisis for our planet.
A climate denier-in-chief sits in the White House today. But not for long | Elizabeth Warren
And here’s a wise note from my colleague Lauren Gambino.
In November 2020, it won’t just be Donald Trump on the ballot but also the chance to renew America’s climate leadership for a safer, cleaner, more secure and more prosperous future.” @ewarren t.co/zp9nFf4j0e
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) November 5, 2019
Updated at 10:12 EST
09:38 EST
Trump crony on trial
Roger Stone will face a judge and jury in what is expected to be a two-week trial, beginning today in Washington.
It’s not known yet exactly when opening arguments will begin, because jury selection begins this morning, but there has been pre-screening of jurists and it could take just a day or less.
The Guardian’s David Smith is in the court house, where federal judge Amy Berman Jackson will preside, and he’ll bring us the drama as and when proceedings begin.
The case involves charges related to his alleged efforts to exploit the Russian-hacked Hillary Clinton emails for political the political gain of Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, in January of this year pleaded not guilty to charges in the Trump-Russia investigation, then ran a gauntlet of protesters outside the courthouse waving Russian flags and playing the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR”.
Supporters had shouted, “We love Roger!” and held aloft signs such as, “Free Stone, fire Mueller”. Protesters yelled, “Lock him up!” and “Fucking traitor!”
The Republican strategist and self-proclaimed dirty trickster is charged in a seven-count indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller with obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering.
Roger Stone indictment packed with details that may make Trump sweat
Stone, briefly served on Trump’s campaign but was pushed out amid infighting with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Though sidelined, he continued to communicate with Trump and stayed plugged into his circle of advisers, the Associated Press adds.
The indictment says Stone repeatedly discussed WikiLeaks in 2016 with campaign associates and lays out in detail Stone’s conversations about emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and posted in the weeks before Trump beat Clinton.
After WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016, released hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, the indictment says, a senior Trump campaign official “was directed” to contact Stone about additional releases and “what other damaging information” WikiLeaks had “regarding the Clinton campaign.” The indictment does not name the official or say who directed the outreach to Stone.
Updated at 09:38 EST
09:01 EST
Impeachment woes pile on for Trump
Good morning, US politics watchers, it’s a massive day on Capitol Hill, in a courthouse in Washington, and in some key voting states across the country. We’ll be there for all the action – live, do join us. Today:
Wells Griffith, the US national security council’s international energy and environment director, is scheduled to testify behind closed doors in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill today. It’s now yet known whether he will turn up or prefer to obey what’s effectively a gag order from the White House - a directive for administration figures not to cooperate with the investigation.
Michael Duffey, associate director for national security programs in the office of management and budget is also due to testify but is definitely not forecast to turn up.
But there’s more - the House intelligence committee is expected to release more transcripts today from closed-door testimony in recent weeks. Around about noon, US east coast time, get ready for the transcripts of EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker. We can make a good guess that they will cast a poor light on Donald Trump - but also likely on themselves.
Roger Stone. Remember the Trump-Russia inquiry, all those lifetimes ago? The substance of all of that is merely dormant, not dead. Today, Trump loyalist, longtime conservative uber-fixer and all around mischief-maker Roger Stone goes on trial in federal court in Washington, DC. He’s chiefly accused of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction. Special counsel Robert Mueller found evidence of communications between Stone and WikiLeaks related to the public release of Democratic party emails hacked by Russian operatives during the 2016 election. Jury selection could be quick today.
There are key governor’s races in Kentucky and Mississippi, where Democratic hopefuls are battling Republican incumbents. And important and hopefully illuminating state house elections are taking place in Virginia and New Jersey, which should offer clues about how those electorates are leaning ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Updated at 09:01 EST
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Mitch MacConnel :
IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
McConnell says Trump impeachment trial ‘would not lead to a removal’ if held today
A national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released this week found that a near-majority of Americans support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.
Nov. 5, 2019, 4:27 PM EST
By Dartunorro Clark
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell threw cold water on the impeachment process Tuesday, telling reporters that if a hypothetical Senate trial were held today, the upper chamber would not vote to convict President Donald Trump.
“I will say, I’m pretty sure how it’s likely to end: If it were today I don’t think there’s any question it would not lead to a removal,” the Kentucky Republican said. “So the question is how long does the Senate want to take? How long do the presidential candidates want to be here on the floor of the Senate instead of in Iowa and New Hampshire?” (Six senators, who would serve as jurors, are running in the Democratic presidential primary.)
“And all of these other related issues that may be going on at the same time, it’s very difficult to ascertain how long this takes,” McConnell added. “I’d be surprised if it didn’t end the way the two previous ones did with the president not being removed from office.”
A national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released this week found that a near-majority of Americans support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office while 46 percent said they do not. But 9 in 10 Republicans oppose the president’s removal from office, which might help him in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Last week, the House adopted a resolution in a 232-196 largely party-line vote, formalizing the rules and procedure for the impeachment inquiry, which ushered in the public phase of the probe. No president has ever been removed from the White House through impeachment, but President Richard Nixon resigned rather face the likelihood of his removal in the Senate.
McConnell, who previously said he did not want to prejudge the process, also told reporters Tuesday that discussions on formalizing the process with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have not begun, but noted that “if the House acts, I think the place to start would take a look at what the agreement was 20 years ago [in the Clinton impeachment trial] as a starting place and discuss how we may be able to agree to handle the process.”
The Constitution requires that the chief justice of the United States presides over the trial.
“How long it goes on really depends on how long the Senate wants to spend on it,” McConnell said.
Dartunorro Clark is a political reporter for NBC News.
Kentucky vote: Democratic governor upset
2020 ELECTION
In stunning upset, Democrat Beshear is apparent winner in Kentucky governor race, a blow to Trump, NBC projects
With nearly all votes counted, Beshear was leading GOP Gov. Matt Bevin, endorsed by the president, by less than 1 percent.
Democrat Andy Beshear speaks to supporters on the last night of the campaign for governor, in Louisville,
WASHINGTON — Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear pulled off an upset Tuesday night in an apparent victory over Republican Gov. Matt Bevin and dealing a blow to President Donald Trump, NBC News projects.
Trump had endorsed Bevin and campaigned with him in Lexington the night before the election, where the president told supporters that a loss by the GOP governor would be portrayed as Trump’s having suffered “the greatest defeat in the history of the world.”
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, the candidates were separated by less than 10,000 votes. Beshear was leading with 49.4 percent, or 706,865 votes, to Bevin’s 48.7 percent, or 696,918 votes.
Turnout appeared to be higher than expected and is estimated at 1.4 million — roughly 400,000 more than the last governor’s contest in 2015, according to an NBC News analysis.
Trump injected himself into the race, traveling to Lexington on Monday to boost Bevin by trying to turn out the GOP base in the conservative state.
“You’ve got to vote,” Trump told the crowd. “If you lose, they are going to say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. You can’t let that happen to me!”
Now, though, Republicans may begin to worry about their prospects in next year’s elections if the president is unable to deliver his base in a state he won by 30 percentage points in 2016.
The race was competitive from the start because Bevin is one of the least popular governors in the country, according to the Morning Consult poll, due in part to a history of incendiary comments and fights over public teachers and health care.
Bevin tried to nationalize the contest and tie himself to Trump to overcome that headwind, with a closing campaign ad tying Beshear, to “socialists in Washington (who) want to impeach Trump.”
Democrat Andy Beshear speaks to supporters on the last night of the campaign for governor, in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 4, 2019.Dylan Lovan / AP
“Talk to the average person. Ask the next 100 people who come in here if they care about this impeachment process, and they will tell you almost to a person that they do because they find it to be a charade,” Bevin said Tuesday at his polling place. “We don’t appreciate when a handful of knuckleheads in Washington abdicate their responsibility as elected officials and try to gin up things that are not true because they can’t handle the fact that Hillary Clinton didn’t win.”
Beshear, the son of the last Democratic governor in the state, Steve Beshear (who served two terms, 2007 to 2015), focused on bread-and-butter issues, including defending the Obamacare Medicaid expansion enacted by his father, and on his ability to work with Trump. But he aligns with national Democrats in support of abortion rights, putting him at odds with the bulk of Kentuckians.
“This is not about who is in the White House,” Beshear said Tuesday before the polls closed. “It’s about what’s going on in your house. It’s about the fact a governor can’t affect federal policy but a governor can certainly impact public education, pensions, healthcare and jobs — four issues that Matt Bevin has been wrong on and we’re going to do a lot of right.”
Meanwhile, in Mississippi, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, backed by Trump, is hoping to defeat Democrat Jim Hood, the state attorney general, who has earned a nickname as “the last Democrat in Dixie” after winning four statewide elections as attorney general by sounding nothing like a national Democrat.
Hood’s ads featured him hunting, repairing machinery and talking about God, and he’s vowed to continue defending the state’s strict new anti-abortion law in court if elected. “I bait my own hook. Carry my own gun. And drive my own truck,” he says in one recent ad.
Reeves had nonetheless called Hood a “liberal and phony” who wants to take residents’ guns, and a closing ad argued that Hood, as attorney general, sued Trump but “refused to challenge Obama, even one time.”
“Now liberals are impeaching Trump. Do you stand with our president and Tate Reeves, or with the liberals and Jim Hood?” the narrator asks.
“All I know about Jim Hood is he fought very hard to elect crooked Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump said Friday at a Tupelo rally for Reeves. “He wanted Obama to win so badly and then he wanted Hillary to win, and that’s not the kind of guy we need here, not Mississippi.”
Meanwhile, in Virginia, where a 2017 Democratic wave was the first real bellwether of what would come in the 2018 midterms, every seat in both chambers of the state Legislature is up for grabs and Democrats maintain they have a good chance of winning complete control of the state for the first time in years. The Associated Press said Tuesday night that it appeared the Democrats had won control of the Senate, while the House of Delegates was still up for grabs.
Money has poured in to Virginia at unprecedented levels, as Democrats and gun control activists contest seats in wealthy suburbs outside Washington, D.C., and Richmond that were until recently GOP strongholds in the economically booming state.
Trump did not campaign in Virginia, but Vice President Mike Pence held a rally there on Saturday.
“Everything is on the line in these elections, and Virginians are deciding that radical socialists have no place in the state Legislature,” said Austin Chambers, the president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group that supports GOP candidates in state legislative race.
Seitz-Wald reported from Washington and Hillyard reported from Kentucky.
Alex Seitz-Wald is a political reporter for NBC News.
Vaughn Hillyard is a political reporter for NBC News.