Biden says hopes of holding House are ‘still alive’ – follow live

Jump to contentSign up to our newslettersSubscribeNewsSportsVoicesCultureLifestyleTravelPremiumCloseFox News host says midterms are ‘searing indictment’ of the Republican partyPresident Joe Biden has insisted that hopes for the Democrats to hold onto the House of Representatives are still alive even as the GOP closes in on a narrow majority.’It’s still alive. It’s still alive. But it’s like drawing an inside straight,’ he told reporters.President Biden also denied earlier acknowledging Republicans’ victory during a conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. ‘I said if you win the majority, congratulations,’ Mr Biden clarified.Meanwhile, control of the US Senate now hinges on two tight races in Arizona and Nevada, after the race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker in Georgia headed for a runoff.Both Republicans and Democrats need two of these three remaining Senate seats to take the upper chamber, after Democrats flipped a red seat in Pennsylvania where John Fetterman sailed to victory over TV doctor Mehmet Oz.Both Arizona and Nevada are still too close to call. In Arizona, incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly is currently leading Republican Blake Masters with more than 20 per cent of votes still to be counted.His Nevada party colleague Catherine Cortez Masto is still behind Republican Adam Laxalt.1668188700Filing from the last frontier, Summer Koester has this report on how Sarah Palin and other right-wing Republicans have found themselves struggling in Alaska’s elections after decades of near-total Republican dominance.Mary Peltola’s win in a special congressional election this summer, it seems, may have been anything but a fluke.’Hate to be a negative Nancy, but I really think Alaska is going the way of Washington and California. The conservative ship has sailed’ Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 17:451668188026Florida Senator Marco Rubio has called for the postponement of the Senate GOP leadership vote, currently scheduled for next week.He argues: ‘First we need to make sure that those who want to lead us are genuinely committed to fighting for the priorities and values of the working Americans (of every background) who gave us big wins in states like Florida.’His call was seconded by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley: ‘Exactly right. I don’t know why Senate GOP would hold a leadership vote for the next Congress before this election is finished. We have a runoff in [Georgia] – are they saying that doesn’t matter? Don’t disenfranchise Herschel Walker.’Florida Rep Matt Gaetz also applauded Mr Rubio’s call: ‘So proud of my Senator! We should not hold leadership elections in the House or Senate until we know exactly who will constitute the Republican conferences in each chamber.’He adds: ‘Marco knows we must be very deliberate about this and make good choices for the people!’Oliver O’Connell11 November 2022 17:331668186900Eric Garcia went into this week with no idea what awaited the US when the midterm polls closed – and in the end his wariness of predicting an overall outcome proved to be justified: Before the final polls closed, I said that this election did for midterms what Donald Trump’s election in 2016 did for presidential races: It scrambled everything we thought we knew about politics. Democrats overwhelmingly defied what pundits, the press, political professionals and yes, even I thought would happen, holding tough in many House races and successfully flipping Pennsylvania’s Senate seat.Read his full dispatch below.What the hell just happened? Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 17:151668185100In a conspiracy-laden Instagram post, Ms Palin blamed the ‘cockamamie’ ranked choice voting system, Senator Lisa Murkowski and the ‘dark, dysfunctional GOP machine’ after she was seemingly trounced by Democrat Mary Peltola for a second time in three months.’They opposed me every step of the way in my Congressional bid, which is par for the course.’With 80 per cent of votes tallied in the Alaska first congressional House race, Ms Peltola appears to have an unassailable lead with 47 per cent. Ms Palin is second on 26.6 per cent and fellow Republican Nick Begich is on 24 per cent.Former vice presidential candidate declares war on ‘dark, dysfunctional GOP machine’ Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 16:451668183300The MAGA Republican shared a video on Twitter on Friday morning where she told veterans that she is ‘so proud to be an American and so grateful for the freedom we all enjoy because of you’.’You are more loved than you will ever know,’ she added as she spoke in front of an American flag.Ms Boebert captioned the post: ‘We can never thank our Veterans enough. God bless you as we honor your service to our great country on Veterans Day!’Her message comes after she came under fire from opponent Adam Frisch on the campaign trail for her ‘lies’ about her support of veterans.MAGA Republican came under fire from opponent Adam Frisch on the campaign trail for her ‘lie’ about her support of veteransAndrew Naughtie11 November 2022 16:151668181504Writing for The Independent, Clemence Michallon looks at the resurgence of abortion rights at the polls – and examines how its importance to tens of millions of voters was missed. Of course, we can still expect a world of mess if Republicans take the House. But the midterms tell us a couple of things already: one, that Trumpism is waning, and two, that abortion truly matters in the electoral world. And why wouldn’t it? It’s a social issue, and a human rights issue, and an economic issue. It affects everyone – not just the people who may or may not access it, but also their partners and other relatives. It’s front of mind, as it should be.In states where abortion was on the ballot, people overwhelmingly voted to support access to the procedure – and where anti-abortion candidates stood for election, voters tended not to favor them Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 15:451668180298With two states still counting their votes in crucial Senate and gubernatorial contests, Donald Trump is re-running his 2020 election gameplan and trying to seed the idea that the elections are being stolen:There are some key differences from 2020, however: firstly, this particular lie about the results focuses on state-level races and not a presidential campaign, and secondly, there is not yet any sign of a majority tendency at the top of the Republican Party who are amplifying Mr Trump’s baseless claims.Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 15:241668177904Donald Trump’s morning ravings on Truth Social continue, this time with a garbled message falsely claiming fraud in the outstanding Senate and gubernatorial races in Arizona:Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 14:451668176104A recent batch of mail-in ballots from Nevada’s Clark County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Las Vegas, the state’s most populous city, has nudged Sen Catherine Cortez Masto closer to closing in on Republican Adam Laxalt’s lead.An early morning batch of more than 35,000 mail-in ballots were tabulated, which were part of the more than 50,000 ballots that remained to be counted as of late Thursday night.County registrar Joe Gloria confirmed late Thursday night that those ballots were at ‘various stages in the process of validation.’In the Friday morning update, the results gave incumbent Ms Cortez Masto a net positive of more than 6,000 votes.Of the 35,183 votes added, 14,756 (41.9 per cent) went to the Democratic senator while 8,688 (24.7 per cent) went to Mr Laxalt, giving Ms Cortez Masto a net of 6,068. The remaining 11,739 (33.4 per cent) went to other.Earlier, Mr Laxalt had led the race by about 9,000 votes but with this recent batch, Ms Cortez Masto is closing in and that lead is likely going to be cut down to less than 4,000.As Nevada Independent put it: if the Democrat continues to picking up ballots at a pace of 60 per cent and Mr Laxalt at 35 per cent, ‘she could pick up 9,000 in this batch alone’.’Bottom line: Unless trend suddenly shifts, this batch will help her a lot,’ said Nevada Independent CEO Jon Ralston.Johanna Chisholm11 November 2022 14:151668174304DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney suffered a humiliating loss in his congressional district this week, this having muscled out a progressive colleague to run in the repurposed seat. In a post-defeat interview, he gave a withering assessment of his New York City colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, accusing her of making little contribution to the campaign besides giving money to candidates who were not keen to be associated with her.Ms Ocasio-Cortez, never one to let an insult slide, has now responded:Andrew Naughtie11 November 2022 13:45Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalismBy registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalistsAlready have an account? sign inRegistration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalismBy registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalistsAlready have an account? sign inPresident Joe Biden stops to talk with reportersCopyright 2022 The Associated Press. 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