Donald Trump, advocating in Lexington for the re-election of Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, on November 4, 2019:

The next step to victory begins tomorrow and it begins with all of you. You have to do this. Look, maybe you’ll be late for work. Maybe you’ll be late for whatever. I don’t want to know everything. Some things I don’t want to know, but you have to just put it off. You have to go vote. It’s so important. Tomorrow is so, because beyond even the governorship, and it’s so important. Because again, your state is setting records. In the history of your state, you’ve never done this well economically, job-wise, unemployment, employment, factories moving in, new factories open, expansion of your car plants. You’ve never done this well, but you’re sending that big message to the rest of the country. It’s so important. You got to get your friends, you got to vote. Because if you lose, it sends a really bad message. It just sends a bad, and they will build it up. Here’s the story. If you win, they’re going to make it like ho hum. And if you lose, they’re going to say, Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. This was the greatest.

You can’t let that happen to me!

To “me.”

Oops:

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear pulled off an upset Tuesday night in an apparent victory over Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump, NBC News projects.

Bevin is apparently going to try to take it to a recount, Al Gore style. But he and Trump appear to have been rejected by Kentucky voters.

It looks like they let that happen to him.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

[guest post by Dana]

It was bad enough when NBC hindered reporting on Harvey Weinstein because the disgraced mogul allegedly pressured the network by claiming that he had information about Matt Lauer and wasn’t afraid to use it if necessary. Now, in an unbelievable “hot mic” moment, we are learning that three years ago, ABC quashed an interview with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims because Prince Andrew had been named by the victim, and the royal family threatened to cut off access to Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton if the network aired the piece:

ABC News anchor Amy Robach was caught on camera slamming her own network for allegedly sitting on the Jeffrey Epstein story three years ago. In a video clip released by right-wing group Project Veritas on Tuesday, Robach is seemingly caught on a hot mic complaining to colleagues that her Epstein story was suppressed by network executives. Robach says she’d spoken to Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges Epstein used her as a sex slave and trafficked her to his powerful friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew. “I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts .. we would not put it on the air,” Robach says on camera. “First of all, I was told ‘Who’s Jeffrey Epstein?’… Then the palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways.” She went on to say the network was afraid that running the story would prevent interviews with Kate Middleton and and Prince William. “It was unbelievable what we had. [Bill] Clinton—we had everything. I tried for three years to get it on to no avail and now it’s all coming out and it’s like these new revelations.”

In a statement issued after the footage was made public Tuesday, Robach said she her comments were made in “a private moment of frustration. I was upset that an important interview I had conducted with Virginia Roberts didn’t air because we could not obtain corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations” regarding Epstein, Prince Andrew, and Clinton. She added that in the years since the 2015 interview “no one ever told me or the team to stop reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, and we have continued to aggressively pursue this important story.”

Upon release of the video, and because they are all about the money and ratings, ABC defended itself, while promoting upcoming exposé on Epstein:

“At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story. Ever since we’ve had a team on this investigation and substantial resources dedicated to it. That work has led to a two-hour documentary and 6-part podcast that will air in the new year.”

It’s clear from the video below, that Robach is distraught and angry about the network big wigs quashing the interview:

BREAKING: @abcnews anchor @arobach caught on 'hot mic' in August disgustedly exposing networks decision to strategically spike bombshell investigation into Jefferey Esptein over THREE YEARS AGO.

Says what she had was "unbelievable" #EpsteinCoverup: https://t.co/HagfLpwKDn pic.twitter.com/fPvJc3JCCQ

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 5, 2019

From her hot mic comments:

“There will come a day when we will realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known. I had it all, three years ago.”

What the fuck is wrong with these people: NBC suppressed reporting about Weinstein to protect their own on-air monstrous predator from being exposed by another monstrous predator, while ABC suppressed a victim’s first-hand account about a monstrous pedophile so that they could continue to have access to the royal family. The despicable avarice of the amoral degenerates running these operations is unspeakable.

And always, there is a double-standard of irony:

Recap:

NBC killed story on Harvey Weinstein, saying it didn't meet their editorial standards.

ABC spiked story on Jeffrey Epstein, saying same.

Both orgs (& rest of media) went wild running uncorroborated stories about Brett Kavanaugh being a gang rapist.

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) November 5, 2019

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

On one hand, because the Republican ticket won the White House, some see that as proof that the Republican Party is doing just fine, thank you very much. But you don’t have to look too hard to see that, clearly there are problems. Real problems.

Two Texas congressmen, Rep. Will Hurd and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, recently discussed what the GOP needs to do in order to remain strong in the future. This in light of six Republican congressmen from Texas having announced that they will not seek re-election (including Hurd). It’s apparent from a few snippets of the interview below, that Hurd and Crenshaw have the same end-goals in mind, but see the getting-there a bit differently.

Hurd, who is the only black Republican in the House, wants to see the Republican Party more closely resemble the nation at large:

“I do believe that if the Republican Party doesn’t start looking like the rest of the country, there won’t be a Republican Party in this country,” Hurd told “Axios on HBO.”

Hurd said he’s talked with at least a dozen black Republicans who want to run for Congress in the last few weeks alone.

More than 1 in 4 members of the House of Representatives is a racial or ethnic minority, but only 10% of that group are Republicans.

Hurd, who won his re-election last year by just over 920 votes, says, “Texas is in play.”

“Texas is a purple state. Just because we don’t have a statewide elected Democrat doesn’t mean Texas is not already purple,” Hurd said. “We should be operating as if it’s purple.”

Crenshaw, on the other hand, doesn’t like what he sees as “identity politics”:

[Crenshaw] is skeptical of the idea of specifically recruiting non-white or younger candidates, but acknowledged that “people do want to hear that message from somebody who they can relate with.”

“I hate engaging in identity politics,” he said. “I just don’t take it as a given that because you’re nonwhite, that we should worry about you voting Democrat.”

“We would definitely like a more diverse candidate list and we’re definitely accomplishing that for the 2020 cycle.”

Crenshaw told “Axios on HBO” several factors are shaping the changes in Texas, including an influx of residents from bluer states, Trump’s non-traditional qualities and a bump in the proportion of younger voters.

“President Trump wasn’t as popular as maybe more traditional Republicans would be in Texas,” he said. “Millennials are overwhelmingly against Trump. I think that has a lot to do with it. I think it’s more of a personality distaste for him.”

What they are entirely in agreement about is that Republicans need to:

… show up, talk to everyone and articulate how conservatism is looking out for the people who don’t look like the rest of their party.

(Side note: That Republicans have an issue with just showing up and going into neighborhoods where they might not normally go and engaging with diverse communities, made me think of that time when an easy, no-brainer decision to just show up was a struggle…)

Anyway, clearly the Republicans need to persuade Americans as to why the GOP is more preferable than the Democratic party. Also, to reach out to different communities doesn’t signify a surrendering to identity politics. The numbers are just what they are: a dominant number of minority Americans have collectively and historically been wed to the Democratic party, to one degree or another. It therefore falls to the GOP to convince those Americans that there is a better alternative. Of course, there is also one significant hurdle to overcome when trying to convince Americans to come to the right side of the aisle… After all, you can say all the great things there are to say about conservatism, but when someone like Trump is at the helm, the task of persuading becomes all the more difficult.

[Ed. Only for the sake of time and debate am I equating the GOP with Conservatism. While I believe there is very little daylight left between the two major parties, I still think the GOP adheres more closely to Conservatism than any other group. In word, at least, if not necessarily in deed.]

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

This is what criminal justice reform looked like in Oklahoma yesterday:

More than 400 inmates were released in Oklahoma on Monday in the largest mass commutation in U.S. history, news station KOCO reports. More than 500 inmates’ sentences were commuted by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board last week as part of the state’s criminal justice reform, and 462 inmates were able to walk free Monday. The inmates who left and are slated to leave prison were doing time for nonviolent crimes, like drug possession and low-level property crime. The move will reportedly save Oklahomans almost $12 million in taxpayer dollars.

Voters determined the legislative change leading up to yesterday’s mass release of prisoners:

Oklahoma voters approved a state question in 2016 that changed simple drug possession and low-level property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Stitt signed a bill this year that retroactively adjusted those sentences, approving a fast-track commutation docket for those who met the criteria.

Echoing his predecessor Mary Fallin, Gov. Stitts, a Republican, did not like that Oklahoma had the “dubious honor” of being at the top of the list for incarcerations. From his comments about the historic event:

“This marks an important milestone of Oklahomans wanting to focus the state’s efforts on helping those with nonviolent offenses achieve better outcomes in life,” Stitt said in a statement Monday.

“This is really a second chance for each and every one of you, and I want to challenge you,” Stitt said. “Because you know there will be tough times ahead. But your kids, your family, your future – everything depends on you getting tough and making sure you get the help you need, so you do not come back here and make the same mistakes that have happened in the past.”

“Now is the first day of the rest of your lives.”

Details:

Of the hundreds of inmates who had their sentences commuted:
— The average age is 39.7 years old
— 75% are men, and 25% are women
— They had been incarcerated for three years
— They were being released an average of 1.34 years early

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana