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We are just one day away from this election being over ― and two days away from Mike Pence and Marco Rubio vying for the establishment lane. Donald Trump said he won more primary votes than Abraham Lincoln ― he even got more black votes in the South! And If things go differently, Trump’s cabinet will be terrifying, and apologies in advance to Interior Secretary Dog The Bounty Hunter for having to sit out all those State of the Union addresses. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, November 7, 2016:
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S LINE OF SUCCESSION IS GOING TO BE TERRIFYING - Of all the tactically stupid things the Trump campaign has done, none is more head-scratching than thinking people will be more inclined to support the guy knowing that Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich will be in his cabinet. Katy Tur and Benjy Sarlin: “Donald Trump’s cabinet-in-waiting is taking shape in the final days of the race, as aides eye a number of Trump loyalists for major posts should he win on Tuesday. Among the names being considered, according to conversations with three campaign advisers who requested anonymity to speak freely: Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Newt Gingrich for secretary of state, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn for defense secretary or national security adviser, Trump finance chairman Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary, and Republican National Committee finance chair Lew Eisenberg for commerce secretary.” [NBC News]
The Clinton camp is not exactly bullish on Katie McGinty’s chances: “Hillary Clinton’s presidential transition team is eyeing six top candidates to lead the Interior Department if she is elected, including former Colorado Sen. Mark Udall and former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, according to a person who has spoken to the transition team. The list of leading candidates also includes Natural Resources Defense Council President Rhea Suh; Felicia Marcus, the chair of California’s State Water Resources Control Board; Denise Juneau, the first American Indian woman elected to statewide office in Montana; and Katie McGinty, the former secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, the source told POLITICO.” [Politico’s Andrew Restuccia]
RINO ALERT! RINO ALERT! - Besides, who wants to defund Obamacare when you can keep passing the same Benghazi resolution over and over to piss off President Clinton? Jeffrey Young: “Ryan admitted that a victory by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would mark the end of his quixotic quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That may seem like an obvious conclusion, but it qualifies as a noteworthy statement because it’s coming from the man who oversaw dozens of hopeless votes to overturn the 6-year-old health care law. During the discussion on WISN, Weber laid out a series of “hard truths” with respect to the stakes in the presidential and congressional elections if Republicans fail to win the White House and lose the Senate, including Democrats being able to confirm Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees.” [HuffPost]
The Hispanic surge is real: “The Hispanic surge in Florida isn’t simply because Mrs. Clinton has drawn typically reliable Election Day voters to vote early instead: According to Daniel Smith of the University of Florida, fully 36 percent of the Hispanics who have voted so far did not vote in 2012.” [NYT’s Nate Cohn]
PSLGOPL PUMPED FOR JANUARY 20TH - HuffPost Hill’s Paranoid Self-Loathing GOP Lobbyist, who’s been on months-long journey to locate and hire Paul Manafort’s accountant, is excited that America will choose the exact kind of change he likes: none of it. “The system is rigged and I’m excited for the status quo,” PSLGOPL, who clearly has gotten bored writes. “I’m with her!” Thanks, PSLGOPL!
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DONALD TRUMP WAS NOT MICHIGAN’S ‘MAN OF THE YEAR’ - Our guess is someone placed some duct tape on a JD Power and Associates “mid-sized sedan of the year” award, wrote “Donald Trump” on it and now the guy is just a little confused. Arthur Delaney and Sam Stein: “It was a throwaway line, offered in a stream-of-consciousness riff about the state of the auto industry. Donald Trump, during a speech on Sunday, claimed that five years ago he was ‘honored’ as ‘Man of the Year in Michigan.’ We have no clue what he’s talking about. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. But there is no apparent record of it happening, and the folks who might know aren’t talking. The Huffington Post looked through various search engines and newspaper archives and found nothing. We checked with The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold, who has scrubbed Trump’s bio down to the bone in his reporting. He said he knew of no such honor. We reached out to the office of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R). Nothing. We asked the Trump campaign. They didn’t respond. The Detroit News does have a list of Michiganians of the Year. But Trump isn’t on it.” [HuffPost]
Stat du jour: “According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 2.6 million anti-Semitic tweets sent between last August and this July, a whopping 60 percent of them in reply to journalists. But while this spike could easily be construed as a widespread increase in anti-Semitic sentiment, the survey also showed that just 1,600 accounts generated 68 percent of the tweets.” [Wired’s Issie Lapowsky]
NC GOP ABOUT 3 SECONDS AWAY FROM ADVOCATING LITERACY TESTS AT POLLS - And requiring an ID, a valid birth certificate and four different receipts from Vineyard Vines. Emily Tate: “North Carolina’s Republican Party boasted about the state’s early voting statistics in a press release on Monday, highlighting the decrease in African-American voters and increase in white voters as indicators that the ‘Obama coalition [is] crumbling.’ ‘The Republican ground game is showing that motivated statewide volunteers and extensive ground game are better indicators of electoral success than the number of candidate-specific offices one has,’ Robin Hayes, the state party chairman, said. ‘Further, the connected weaknesses of Hillary Clinton, Deborah Ross, and Roy Cooper when combined with the clear Democrat voter apathy, shows the once dynamic Obama Coalition crumbling and tired.’ Early voting numbers among African-Americans are down by 8.5 percent from 2012, while early voting by white voters is up 22.5 percent, the North Carolina GOP says in the statement. The group seems to think this is an opportunity for its party to regain footing in the state.” [HuffPost]
TAKE NOTE, ANTHONY WEINER - Marion Barry is smiling somewhere. Amber Ferguson: “It seems nothing can stop Joe Morrissey from winning in politics. Not getting caught sleeping with his teenage secretary in 2013 and serving a three-month jail sentence for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Not recent allegations that he sexually harassed one of his clients. Not the fact that Virginia State Bar is trying to disbar him, or that the Democratic Party of Virginia and the Richmond City Democratic Committee have sued him. Morrissey, 59, is still likely to become the next mayor of Richmond, Virginia. Polls show him with a 3-point lead in what is now a six-way race. (A seventh candidate dropped out on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent Morrissey from winning.)” [HuffPost]
News you can use: Porn is still available in Trump hotels, even though most chains have stopped selling it.
There was no primary system... also more than half the adult population was barred from voting… also the population were one-tenth the number of people there are now: @KilloughCNN: Trump: I got more primary votes than Lincoln. “That’s probably the only thing I did better than honest Abe. Honest Abe was...pretty good”
HISTORY LESSON - Or, “Let’s all hope the South has learned to chill out a bit more.” Julia Craven: “It was 1876, and the Democratic presidential nominee was one vote shy of the 185 Electoral College votes needed to secure the nation’s highest office.... On March 5, 1877, an Electoral Commission established by Congress confirmed [Republican Rutherford B.] Hayes would be America’s 19th president. During this political upheaval, there were talks of civil unrest, and fears of a second Civil War or the election being rigged to favor a candidate who better served the interests of the party in power. But Tilden, who had pretty good reason to think he was cheated, did not question the legitimacy of the results and conceded the election. Current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may not be as gracious.” [HuffPost]
OBAMA NICER THAN TRUMP: REPORT - “Chanting ‘U-S-A’ and pushing his wheelchair” might be the Trumpiest sentence written this election. Jessica Schulberg: “Twelve-year-old J.J. Holmes begged his mother to drive him to a Donald Trump rally in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday. J.J., who has cerebral palsy, wanted to go and protest the Republican nominee’s treatment of people with disabilities. His mother, Alison, agreed to make the trip. But once they got there and began chanting Hillary Clinton’s name, Trump ordered them out of the rally. Trump supporters responded by ‘chanting ‘U-S-A’ and pushing his wheelchair,’ Alison told The Washington Post...The day after J.J. and his mom were kicked out of the Trump rally, they headed to Kissimmee, Florida, about an hour east of Tampa, to watch President Barack Obama deliver one of his final campaign speeches on behalf of Clinton...After he finished speaking, Obama took a moment to meet J.J. and shake hands with the young Trump protester.” [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a dog attending a wedding.
NOT THE ONION - Helena Andrews-Dyer: “On Sunday afternoon, Comey announced that the FBI’s unprecedented ‘October surprise’ — yet another cache of emails connected to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton — wasn’t that surprising after all...After a day like that, Comey was spotted grabbing dinner and a ‘giant’ margarita at El Tio Tex Mex Grill in McLean, Va., on Sunday evening. At around 6 p.m. our tipster clocked what looked like a Secret Service agent (black suit, earpiece, bulging muscles) casing the inside of the restaurant. Minutes later, Comey, his wife, one of his five children and two more security guys arrived. This being Washington (or at least its environs) other diners definitely recognized the embattled FBI director — but no one asked for a photo, we’re told. According to the restaurant, which wasn’t sure if the Comeys were regulars, it was a ‘casual’ night, ‘nothing fancy.’” [WaPo]
COMFORT FOOD
- Let these super soothing “Joy of Painting” episodes get you through the election.
- The best “Mazel Tov cocktail” recipes.
- “Photoshop for audio” is coming and it looks amazing.
TWITTERAMA
@MerriamWebster: No, we have no idea what a “mazel tov cocktail” is.
@AliWatkins: “Someday you’re going...”
”No.”
”...going to appreciate”
”Nope.”
”...having covered...”
”Shut up.”
”...this campaign.”
”Fuck off.”
@timothypmurphy: Wednesday shaping up to be a big day for “most Hispanics are conservative, they just don’t realize it” takes
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