One of President Donald Trump's closest aides appears to have taken on a powerful new role after Republicans' brutal midterm night. Executive assistant Natalie Harp seems to have taken over the president's personal cellphone and is now deciding who gets to speak with him, The Independent reported Wednesday. For months, the White House has bragged about how easy it is for reporters to reach Trump, with members of the press corps able to dial his phone and land quick interviews at virtually any hour.
Democrat Nancy Lacore, a former Navy Admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is projected to win in the traditionally red House district in South Carolina against Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). Nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted the race for Rep. Nancy Mace's (R) 1st District seat from "lean Republican" to a "toss-up," as Lacore out-fundraised Honeycutt, a Charleston County Council member. Mace unsuccessfully ran for governor in the Palmetto State earlier this year.
I've got some demands for our new woke overlords Read more
Becerra will be California's first Latino governor since the 1800s. Read more
Prospective speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday hailed the "American tsunami" of Democratic victories in US congressional elections that handed the party control of both chambers of Congress.
"It wasn't simply a blue wave. It was an American tsunami," Jeffries, who is poised to become the first Black person to lead the House when the new Congress convenes in January, told a news conference.
"We're humbled by the outcome," Jeffries said, vowing to "fight hard for every single American, wherever you may reside."
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, lost his re-election bid on Tuesday, NBC News projected. Hudson fell short to Democrat Richard Ojeda in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. Ojeda bested Hudson by about 2 points in the close contest. Republicans have held this district since 1963. National Republican Congressional Committee is the official party organization tasked with winning or maintaining the House majority. Read more
NBC News, with a group of other news organizations, conducted exit polling across the country in 45 key states.
The poll includes in-person interviews on Election Day, and it combines the in-person poll with other methods"mail, phone and online"to account for in-person early and mail-in voters.
The exit polls are not vote results, but instead a look at the thinking and motives of voters across the country.
Exit polls help the public better understand the makeup and motivations of the electorate.
Montana voters became the first in the nation Tuesday to sign off on an ambitious plan for banishing political dark money, putting the state on a collision course with the landmark Citizens United ruling. The ballot initiative, I-194, which passed with 66% support as of early Wednesday morning, harnesses a novel legal theory in an effort to get around the 2010 US Supreme Court decision that dismantled corporate campaign finance regulation. Its effect would be a statewide backdoor ban on election spending by the businesses, unions, and nonprofits pouring money into the US political system.
A child in Lewis County has died from the measles, marking the first death from the disease in New York state in 30 years, state health officials announced. State and county health officials did not offer additional details about the child who died. In a joint statement, they called for privacy for the child's family. The death comes as the highly contagious disease continues to spread through undervaccinated communities upstate in an outbreak that prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state disaster emergency last month. "I am heartbroken to learn that a child in Lewis County has died after contracting measles," Hochul said in a statement Monday evening. "As a mother and grandmother, I cannot imagine what this family is going through."
As with interior design for houses, interior design for vehicles is also subject to fashion trends. And like any fashion trend, even the best ideas can become stale and played out with overuse. Some ideas weren't the best, either, like demonstrably worse human-machine interfaces that add to driver distraction; yet, they still proliferated throughout the industry and across the cars offered for sale. But the good news is that the pushback seems to be working.
No one knows what Trump will do this week or in the coming two months before the new Congress is sworn in. On other issues such as the Iran war, Trump has said that nobody knows what he will do. So he almost takes pride in being unpredictable.
But in the case of the midterm elections, his being unpredictable is exactly why so many people are worried.
Remember, this is a guy who once said in a 2019 speech that article two of the constitution allows him to do whatever he wants as president.
And in February of 2025, he posted on social media, he who saves his country does not violate any law. And of course, the one who is saving the country in Donald Trump's eyes is Donald Trump.
Perhaps the biggest reason for all the anxiousness surrounding what Trump might do is that the winners of the midterm elections will need to wait 2 months before they are sworn in. and that happens on January 3rd, 2027.
A lot can happen in 2 months.
As the scale of the Republican Party's losses came into focus late Tuesday, President Trump watched from the White House and went looking for someone to blame. First it was Fox News. Just before midnight, with Democrats projected to seize control of the House, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the network "bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse." Then it was the fact that he had not been on the ballot, otherwise, he said, "we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" Minutes later, Trump was on the phone with the same network he had just accused of sabotaging his party. And over a 22-minute interview, conducted before the Senate had been called for Democrats, his tone shifted from grievance to something closer to acceptance, though never to the idea that the election results were a rebuke on his administration.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a close ally of President Donald Trump, spent election night declaring the death of the United States as Democrats took control of Congress. "Democrats now control the House and Senate. America is over," Loomer posted on X Tuesday night. "Many of us warned for years about the Islamic-communist takeover of America. Our country only declines from here. It's best for people to come to terms with the death of our country sooner rather than later." There is no good that can come from working with people who want to impeach you and kill you," she wrote. "Democrats don't want to work with Trump. They want to murder him and his supporters." She instead urged Trump to go on the offensive. "Hopefully President Trump is more vengeful in the next 2 years of his administration," Loomer wrote. "It's time for him to take vetting seriously and purge the radical left."
Several, but not all, Republican AIPAC candidates lost on Election Day. In Texas, Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott lost, Susan Collins (R) in Maine lost and Islamophobe Bruce Blakeman (R), a champion of the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) and ICE, lost against NYS Governor Kathy Hochul (D) who has been riding the coat-tails of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). In Ohio, serial wife-batterer Max Miller (R) was humiliated at the polls, as was Vivek Ramaswamy (R). Six non-AIPAC Democrats won their races: Darializa Avila Chevalier (NY), Claire Valdez (NY), Melat Kiros (CO); Donavan McKinney (MI), Chris Rabb (PA), and importantly, US Senator-elect Dr Abdul El-Sayed (MI). In Florida, the despicable Byron Donalds (R) will become that state's first African-American governor. Watch for an increase in Florida-Israeli commercial ties, as well as an uptick in firearms violence, banana republic-style political appointments, and zero efforts to combat flooding, pollution, and disease.
