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Patriot Pony
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EDITOR’S NOTE—This section is reserved as an editorial and may not necessarily reflect the policy of this publication.
President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social: “It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault. Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake Masters and others was a big mistake. Giving 4 Trillion Dollars to the Radical Left for the Green New Deal, not Infrastructure, was an even bigger mistake. He blew the Midterms, and everyone despises him and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!”
***** President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social: “Idiot, and possibly corrupt, officials have lost control of the tainted Election in Arizona. MACHINES BROKEN IN REPUBLICAN AREAS. A NEW ELECTION MUST BE CALLED FOR IMMEDIATELY! “ ***** President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social: “Now they’re finding all sorts of Ballots in Clark County, Nevada. They are pulling out all stops to steal the Election from Adam Laxalt. Mitch McConnell, the Republicans Broken Down Senate Leader, does nothing about this. He’s too busy spending vast amounts of money on bad Senator Lisa M of Alaska, when Kelly S is FAR better. Should have fought and stopped the steal in 2020. Gave Dems 4 Trillion Dollars, never used Debt Ceiling. He’s the WORST!” ***** President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social: “So in Maricopa County they’re at it again. Voting Machines in large numbers didn’t work, but only in Republican districts. People were forced to wait for hours, then got exhausted or had other things to do and left the voting lines by the thou(Continued on page 16)
After media call close Arizona races for Dems, GOP candidates say count all votes first
"I think it was called prematurely," state Rep. Mark Finchem said of his race for Arizona secretary of state, which was called late Friday night for his Democratic opponent.
ByNatalia Mittelstadt
After the races for Arizona's U.S. Senate seat and secretary of state were called for the Democrat candidates with more than 10% of the vote still uncounted, the GOP nominees' message is that voters, not the media, determine the outcome of elections.
The U.S. Senate race in Arizona was called for Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly late Friday night by a snowballing succession of media organizations with Kelly enjoying a roughly five-point lead over Republican opponent Blake Masters and more than 80% of the estimated votes counted.
The secretary of state race was also called late Friday night for the Democratic nominee, Adrian Fontes, who also has a roughly five-point lead over GOP candidate state Rep. Mark Finchem.
Following the media projections of Democrat wins in the state, the Republican candidates called for all votes to be counted before the winners are announced.
Finchem believes his race "was called prematurely," he told Just the News on Saturday.
"No one contacted me about their call, and frankly the news does not make the call, the people do," said the candidate, who has not conceded the race.
On Saturday, Finchem tweeted: "It is completely ridiculous that the #FakeNews is calling the elections in Arizona when there are 390k (many election day) ballots outstanding. RIDICULOUS! #AZSOS"
The campaign of Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake was reporting on Friday that much of the state's outstanding vote comprises Election Day ballots, which they expect to skew heavily in favor of the GOP.
Masters tweeted a statement on Saturday: "For my people who knocked doors in 115 degree heat, and for the million+ Arizonans who put their faith in me, we are going to make sure that every legal vote is counted. If, at the end, Senator Kelly has more of them than I do, then I will congratulate him on a hard-fought victory. But voters decide, not the media; let's count the votes."
On Saturday, Lake's campaign Twitter account posted: "We're not in the business of spreading false hope. Our confidence hasn't wavered & we haven't moved an inch since election day. @KariLake will be the next Governor of Arizona."
The Twitter account retweeted a post on Saturday from Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bowyer about the number of uncounted votes left in Maricopa County, which Bowyer said "spell out KARIZONA," implying a win for Lake.
As of Saturday evening, less than 90% of the votes were tabulated, and the state's races for governor and attorney general had yet to be called as the Democrat and Republican candidates were less than 2 points apart.
Methods used for calling races vary among media organizations' decision desks. For example, the Associated Press has a "vote count reporter at nearly every county election office in America on Election Day." The reporter will call an AP vote entry clerk and report the raw vote totals when they are made available.
AP has another group of clerks that monitors election results displayed on state and county websites. The wire service "also takes in feeds of results directly from election officials where they are provided."
AP says it has multiple checks in place so that the vote total numbers are viewed "from every possible angle in search of discrepancies or apparent inconsistencies."
When calling races, AP says it does so when there is no possibility for candidates that are trailing behind the leader to catch up. In some cases, AP will call races as soon as polls close. The news wire explains that this occurs when races aren't close.
"In some states, a party or candidate's history of consistent and convincing wins —by a wide margin —make a race eligible to be declared as soon as polls close," according to the outlet. "In these states, we use results from AP VoteCast to confirm a candidate has won."
AP's "race callers and Decision Team are driven (Continued on page 16)
GOP Hill leadership up in air, as Senate, House members hint McCarthy, McConnell no longer safe
The GOP's underperforming of expectations on Election Day Tuesday resulted in a blame game.
ByJoseph WeberandNicholas Ballasy
What began as a sleepy federal holiday in the nation's capital had by midday Friday erupted into a full-blown revolt against the Republican congressional leadership.
While nobody knew exactly when such an uprising would begin, it was nearly inevitable following the GOP underperforming expectations on Election Day Tuesday. The ensuing blame game eventually targeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Raphael Warnock, now headed for a runoff election on Dec. 6.
"I don't know why Senate GOP would hold a leadership vote for the next Congress before this election is finished," Hawley wrote. "We have a runoff in #GASenate _ are they saying that doesn't matter? Don't disenfranchise @HerschelWalker."
Who controls the Senate is now down to three Senate races —in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Models project the GOP will win the House majority, with most showing as of Friday night the party having 211 seats and needing 218.
At midday Friday, Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, empowered by a decisive reelection victory in the state where the GOP had its best midterm performance, posted an unexpected tweet in which he called for next week's leadership votes, customary after elections, to be postponed over what he appeared to consider a crisis of conscience.
"First we need to make sure that those who want to lead us are genuinely committed to fighting for the priorities & values of the working Americans (of every background) who gave us big wins in states like Florida," he tweeted.
The tweet was almost immediately backed by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who's considered more outspoken about McConnell, the longestserving Senate Republican leader in history, and his leadership team.
"Exactly right," Hawley tweeted, citing the stillundecided Georgia Senate race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Signs of problems for McCarthy began to show even before Tuesday's balloting, in which many expected Republicans to retake the House in large numbers on a "red wave."
News reports retold the story of how the California Republican lost his bid for the speakership in 2015 because he wouldn't cave to the demands of members of the chamber's most conservative wing and suggested he'd changed his strategy since then to avoid another defeat.
McCarthy's victory speech Tuesday night in a Washington, D.C., hotel was far more subdued than planned —and much later than scheduled —with no red wave and him promising those who stuck around until about 2 a.m. that by Wednesday morning the GOP would have the majority.
But by Thursday night, the tanned, silver-haired McCarthy seemed to have regrouped, going on the Fox News Channel's "Jesse Watters Primetime" show to tout his (Continued on page 16)
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entirely by the facts," the news wire claims. "Race calls made by other organizations have no bearing on when AP declares a candidate the winner. Our team does not engage in debate with any campaign or candidate."
Unlike other media outlets, AP no longer uses exit polling to call races because "many voters don't vote at polling places on election days anymore."
NBC News, on the other hand, is part of the National Election Pool, which "is a consortium of major news networks —ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC —that pools resources to gather vote data and exit poll data." The outlet "uses exit poll data to determine whether uncompetitive races can be called" early on election night.
"Most races are called based on analyses of precinct- and countylevel vote returns," according to NBC News' website. "The analyses also examine differences between early and Election Day votes. In close contests, a careful analysis of how much of the vote has not been counted is a crucial part of the process. No race is projected until the Decision Desk is at a minimum 99.5% confident of the winner."
Similar to AP, NBC News counts votes by having their data reporters get "raw vote results on a county-by-county basis" from local election officials. When state and county vote computer feeds are available, it is used to supplement the raw vote results that the reporters obtain.
Trump
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sands. Even Kari Lake was taken to a Liberal Democrat district in order to vote. Others weren't so lucky. This is a scam and voter fraud, no different than stuffing the ballot boxes. They stole the Election from Blake Masters. Do the Election
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credentials for the job of speaker.
"I'm not concerned," he said. "Think about this: Since I've been leader for the last four years we've only gained seats. It's the goal of winning the majority. We won the majority. I think I've accomplished the goal that we wanted to."
Still, some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus appear to be withholding their support for McCarthy, at least until he meets some of their demands, including impeachment hearings on President Biden and members of his Cabinet such as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
"I've heard from multiple of my constituents who question the wisdom of proceeding forward with that leadership," said Arizona GOP Rep. Andy Biggs, according to CNN.
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy has said that "no one currently has 218" votes for speaker and he wants McCarthy to list his plans for investigations into the Biden administration.
The House Freedom Caucus currently has 42 members, and it could become larger after the final election results. For comparison, the former Tea Party Caucus, which was established in 2010 during the presidency of Barack Obama, had 60 members in 2011, when the GOP took control of the House due, in large part, to the Democrats' passage of Obamacare. By 2013, the caucus was down to 48 members.
Former House Speaker John Boehner often struggled with Tea Party Caucus members to garner enough votes to pass spending bills and raise the debt ceiling.
over again!” ***** President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social: “The Democrats are finding all sorts of votes in Nevada and Arizona. What a disgrace that this can be allowed to happen!”
The Patriot Pony, November 14, 2022
'The Gipper' strategy: Six bold ideas for Trump, Republicans to rebound from 2022 midterms
Party faithful want Trump and other Republicans to act like Reagan did after ’76, and not like Oscar the Grouch.
By John Solomon
After an underwhelming midterm election, the Republican Party and its enigmatic leader Donald Trump find themselves in a political wilderness, much like Ronald Reagan did after losing the 1976 nomination.
The Biden Democrats with hiding Kathy Hochul and hobbled John Fetterman seemed as beatable as bumbling Gerald Ford, and yet somehow the Reagan and 2022 GOP teams lost the process even though polling data showed they had won the hearts of the faithful. And the despair of knowing a far left regime (Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden) might rule for another election cycle led many to throw hands up and point fingers.
Not Reagan, who many openly said could not possibly run for president in 1980 at the age of 69 (then the oldest candidate in history.)
"The Gipper" knew differently. While painfully aware he had lost the process at the convention, he also could see the groundswell forming around his conservative agenda. He recognized it needed tweaks and adjustments and a postelection commitment to better own the narrative to appeal to independents. He also knew internal fighting and blame would only distract from the opportunity.
While others whined and cast blame, Reagan projected optimism and a clear strategy to fix what needed fixing as evidenced by a personal note he wrote a depressed supporter shortly after his '76 defeat.
"Going on with what God has given us, confident there is a destiny, somehow seems to bring a reward we wouldn't exchange for any other," the eventual 40th president penned his fan. gy was imposed instantaneously and with four years of relentless discipline.
He worked to own the narrative, starting with daily radio commentaries. He plotted to sew two very different wings of the party together, eventually unveiling a once-unthinkable Reagan-Bush ticket. He backed Republican lieutenants in Congress and the states by focusing on their strengths, not their perceived weaknesses. And he learned how to harness an electoral process that defeated him at the contested convention, plucking a youthful Paul Manafort from Ford's team to run what become known as the "Southern Strategy."
Five days into the overtime election of 2022, the Trump GOP finds itself much like Team Reagan. It underperformed expectations but its performance provided nonetheless evidence of a pot of gold inside the electorate. It won the popular vote handily, according to morning after analyses. It won married and unmarried men, and married women. The only demographics lost were unmarried women, who tilted 70% to Democrats, and voters under 30.
More than 7 in 10 Americans believe the Biden Democrats —like the Carter Democrats —are taking the country off a cliff. That's a massive advantage waiting to be seized with a fine-tuned message.
Like Reagan, the 2022 GOP lost the process in the key battleground states where Democrats once again ran up a massive pre-election advantage with no-excuse absentee early voting, one that could not be overcome by day-of vote in places like Pennsylvania, and Arizona. Preelection voting is now a fact of life and one Republicans will have to learn to win with. from a television doctor to a wealthy tech executive. But congressional races are won on the strength of local appeal and local sentiments. Dr. Mehmet Oz is a great example.
Pennsylvanians chose Fetterman over Oz because they are proud of homegrown, even if quirky, candidates. They distrust outsiders and have a clear dislike for candidates who waffle on abortion. (Heck, they even keep electing an anti-abortion Democrat to the Senate.)
Oz simply never closed the deal with allimportant evangelicals or independents. Adam Laxalt missed the mark with independents in Nevada too.
So like Reagan, a few dials need to be adjusted on candidate selection and messaging and appeal to independents, women and young voters. But the environment for GOP wins is target rich.
Just the News interviewed two dozen political strategists, donors and thought leaders across different factions of the Republican and Democrat parties. Here are the six boldest ideas they offered:
Fix the GOP's leadership relationships in the House and Senate.
Republicans can't go into another election cycle with large parts of their House and Senate caucuses distrusting their leaders. Mitch McConnell greatly alienated some in his own ranks by talking down candidates and in some cases running against GOP nominees, like Kelly Tshaibaka.
Kevin McCarthy missed two years of opportunity to find agreement with the restlessly conservative Freedom Caucus wing in this party, though he has built as strong relationship with one of the caucus' icons, Rep. Jim Jordan, helped raise $420 million and win more seats in 2020 and 2022.
McConnell is facing an unexpected backlash, led by Sens. Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Ron Johnson.
Some prominent voices, including the influential Heritage Foundation and its Heritage Action arm, are ready to dump both McConnell and McCarthy. That's one possible fix. The other is for the two leaders to take Reagan-like action, acknowledge their failings and make meaningful concessions to their rank and file to unify their caucuses.
McCarthy has the best chance to do this, in part because there is no clear heir apparent. Jordan is the most popular alternative, but the GOP needs him at the helm of House Judiciary to impose accountability on the FBI and other institutions that have so harmed Americans. And Jordan told Just the News he is sticking with McCarthy as leader.
The Freedom Caucus has a list of demands and ideas. Its members want "regular order" returned to the House where bills get the proper process without backroom deals, a regular budget process instead of temporary spending bills, an unbreakable commitment to reduce runaway spending, a willingness to stand up to Biden, and the ability to fight a recalcitrant bureaucracy by restoring the Holman Rule that defunds federal officials, offices or programs that don't comply with Congress.
McCarthy could signal he will provide these along with changing the House rules so that investigative chairman can unilaterally issue subpoenas without Democrat support. He could also acknowledge his stewardship of the Commitment with America was too slow and too dense, failing to build the sort of messaging platform and timetable to let the best (Continue reading…)
