Alabama Senate Race
On Sunday Richard Shelby, senator of Alabama, said on CNN that he could not vote for Roy Moore and instead wrote in a “distinguished Republican” on his absentee ballot. This turned out to matter because on Tuesday Jones beat Moore by 1.5% and the Write-In vote was 1.7%.
Here is how Trump dealt with the Alabama loss and spun his involvement in it: “Aides to the temperamental president reported being pleasantly surprised that he did not rage against the setback in private, as he is wont to do in moments of difficulty. But neither did he concede a mistake.”
Here is Charlie Sykes, former right-wing talkshow host, on how accepting Trump in 2015 and ’16 has brought the GOP to this loss: A GOP Tragedy in Four Acts.
In an Atlantic piece about how Republicans will have a hard time finding winning candidates even after the Moore loss, McKay Coppins interviews a Republican official in Ohio who explains the reason the GOP keeps nominating out-of-the-mainstream candidates: “Part of the problem is we’ve trained our base to only respond to very specific messaging. We’ve fine-tuned what these people need to hear.”
Also on Tuesday, Trump tweeted that Kristen Gillibrand, who recently called for him to resign, used to beg him for campaign funds and “would do anything for them.” USA Today printed an unusually scathing editorial attacking Trump for the sexually suggestive tweet: “A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.”
David Ignatius opines about Congress’s rushed job passing their tax bill. An important thing to remember in the coming years as the tax bill is implemented: “Without a clear legislative history, tax lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service won’t have adequate guidance when they try to write regulations implementing the law. Courts won’t have a record of congressional intent, other than news conferences, tweets, and hurried floor and committee statements.”
On the Russian Front
Among rising right-wing clamor to discredit Meuller as partisan, Rosenstein holds his ground in congressional testimony.
A big Washington Post expose on Trump’s response or lack thereof to Russia hacking. One shocking quote: “Current and former officials said that his daily intelligence update — known as the president’s daily brief, or PDB — is often structured to avoid upsetting him.”
The Republicans leading the House Intelligence Committee has apparently decided to wrap up its investigation of Russia’s 2016 election interference. The final interviews are being rushed and several high value witnesses are being interviewed next week in New York during the tax bill vote, which means House members won’t be present for the interviews.