Friends,
First of all thank you for joining the Lens (thoughts on name?) email list. I meant to send my first update last week but it was my birthday weekend and thus I was too hungover to think. Fortunately, the first week of my Jordan year has come with increased motivation.
I’m going to try to keep this short and for those of you who know me well you’ll understand that’s going to be difficult.
Here are the top stories in Politics you really should care about:
The midterms
As of this writing the Democratic party has gained 34 seats (6 haven’t been called) in the US House of Representatives and the Republicans gained 1 (Florida hasn’t been called) seat in the US Senate, ousting a trio of Democratic Senators in states that voted for Trump by wide margins (North Dakota, Missouri and Indiana). Democrats countered by beating Dean Heller in Nevada and taking Jeff Flake’s old seat in Arizona, more on that later.
Was there a blue wave? Yes. Was it a tsunami? No.
Historically, losing more than 35 house seats is a terrible day for the party of the sitting President. It’s only happened 4 times since 1950. But two of those instances are fairly recent. Democrats lost 54 seats in the 1994 midterms during the Clinton Administration and 63 (!) seats in in the 2010 midterms midway through Obama’s first term in office.
Of note: Krysten Sinema is the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate from Arizona since 1988.
Jeff Sessions
President Trump, after months of publicly humiliating his chief law enforcement officer, has finally fired Jeff Sessions, the now former Attorney General. The new (interim) AG is Matthew Whittaker, Sessions former Chief of Staff. Frankly, no one cares about Matthew Whittaker, a new full-time AG will be selected soon (Christie and Graham are frontrunners). But, we do care about Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The investigation is part international espionage probe and part is Donald Trump Jr. really this stupid? (reminder: he welcomed a Kremlin-connected Russian Lawyer into TRUMP TOWER to provide dirt on Hillary (illegal), lied about it, and then un-lied about it by publicly posting self-incriminating emails on Twitter…)
But seriously, finding the Truth about whether or not the Trump administration conspired with the Russian federation to undermine American elections is paramount to continued faith in our democratic institutions. Unfortunately, Matt Whittaker, the man now overseeing that endeavor, has frequently questioned the necessity and legality of the investigation.
Fortunately, legislation is pending in the US Senate to protect the Mueller investigation from Presidential interference and Senator Jeff Flake has promised not to vote for any judicial nominees until the bill is brought to the floor. Unfortunately, if the effort ultimately fails, which it will unless McConnell capitulates (doubtful), Trump may take drastic measures against the Mueller investigation which should be seen as an assault on the rule of law and a cover up of historic proportions.
Fun fact: George T Conway, husband of Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, authored an op-ed arguing the President’s appointment of Whittaker is illegal. And, even worse, he’s got a point. Should be an interesting thanksgiving….
Midterms (again)
We are going back to the midterms because I just thought of more nuance you should know.
The narrative that Republicans had a great night in the Senate is wrong. The three states Republicans flipped all voted for President Trump by more than 15 points. North Dakota went for Trump 63-27 and Indiana/Missouri both voted 56-37 in favor of the President.
In states where Trump won by less than 15 points, Democrats won two (Arizona and Nevada) and Republicans have won zero, but will probably end up with one (Florida).
Why? Middle-aged, suburban, white, educated voters ran, en-masse, to the Democratic corner.
Now, before I close, I’d be remiss if I did not highlight the most explosive news of the week. The FDA announced plans to ban all flavored electronic nicotine delivery system products, a nuanced way of saying no more discount QT mango/mint/cucumber juul pods. Some (me) view this as an unprecedented attack on personal freedom. Others (most) view this as a prudent measure to mitigate teen nicotine addiction.
And will that, the inaugural edition of the Lens is complete. Thanks again for signing up. Hoping to have an automatic subscriber program up and running soon but for now if you know anyone that may like to be a part of this reply with their email.
Crawford
The Lens 