Dear @TatianaSiegel27

1) I met w Licht on 7 different days

2) I used zero off-record details or quotes, as our FC team can attest

3) His trainer overheard portions of 1 interview

4) Licht is quoted extensively in a neutral context (sorry it wasn't positive enough for you/him) 5) In August 2022, Licht himself (not just Dornic) met with me over dinner. They knew I was pitching a profile, because...

6) When you propose to spend months and months reporting on someone—using them as a "case study" for larger trends—we journalists call that a "profile."

Numb. It's no exaggeration to call Blake a once-in-a-generation talent. The guy could do it all—write short and long, edit newsletters and mag cover stories, conceptualize features in the midst of a tweetstorm—and do it with excellence. But that's not what made him special. 1/ Six years ago, I had to tell my new boss something. I was dealing with sudden onset of panic disorder—ferocious, debilitating anxiety. Couldn't leave home. Couldn't make eye contact. Wasn't sure I could practice journalism at all. His response was something I'll never forget. 2/

Actually, let's use the 1/6 anniversary to smear the cowards who systematically deceived those millions of Trump voters. Their mistake was not invading the Capitol; it was believing these professional liars who were radicalizing them for personal/political gain.

A brief thread:

https://twitter.com/newsmax/status/1479154675765047296

Kevin McCarthy, take a bow

If you want to understand the @CNN / @joerogan situation, think of the media as a clique-obsessed high school.

A brief thread: Rogan is the stoner who does wild stuff, breaks all the rules with with few consequences, and hangs out with shady characters (and some straight-up criminals). Therefore most of us don’t want to be associated with him, even though a bunch of us secretly love to get high with him.

My goodness. Kevin Williamson this morning. Read every word.

"No one who has participated in this poisonous buffoonery should ever hold office again."

nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/tr… "I have on many occasions criticized the abuse of the word coup in our politics, but that is what this is: an attempted coup d’état under color of law. It would be entirely appropriate today to impeach Trump a second time and remove him from office before his term ends."

States administer elections in this country. States canvass. States certify. States appoint slates of electors to the EC.

Once those state results are certified, and EC votes cast, there is no federal role beyond Congress tallying them and the sitting VP announcing a winner. This is very straightforward. Can members of Congress object to the count? Yes. But objections have historically been extremely rare and narrow in scope. They've also been ineffectual—because federal lawmakers wouldn't dare, with the stakes so high, usurp the will of the states.

*Long thread alert*

I've spent 2020 writing "Letters to Washington" from across the country to elevate the voices of ordinary Americans.

This is the series finale—with a twist. It's unlike anything I've ever reported or published. Please give it a read.

politico.com/news/magazine/… This isn't sexy stuff. None of these people are influencers. They are your neighbors, colleagues, friends and family.

They're all trying to make sense of this moment in America. I'll bet you are, too.

To that end—agree or disagree with these folks—you should hear them out.

9 of 10 Trump voters I’ve talked to believe mass voter fraud occurred.

8 of those 9 cite the protracted counting and Biden’s “comeback” after Trump led Tues night.

Again: Legislatures in MI/WI/PA failed America by not allowing pre-processing. This madness could’ve been avoided. There was no reason—none—to deny clerks the ability to process ballots early. Other red states allow it. Makes perfect sense re: efficiency AND accuracy (less rush, fewer mistakes.)

But Rs there decided to indulge Trump’s war on mail voting. The consequences have been ruinous.

I asked four GOP campaign managers who lost to Trump in 2016 to predict the 2020 popular vote. They predicted Biden would win by:

-8 million
-6 to 7 million
-6 million
-9 million

But two of them picked *Trump* to win the EC.

Down that path lies madness.
politico.com/news/magazine/… John Kasich's campaign manager, Beth Hansen, picks Dems to win the House and Senate.... Biden to win the popular vote by 8 million.... and Biden to win the Electoral College w/ 278 EVs. Total turnout: 148 million.

I got something special for you.

VALENCIA COUNTY, NM is the ultimate bellwether of presidential politics—voted w/ the winner of every election the last 68 years.

Here’s what this place, and its people, are trying to tell us...

✉️Letter to Washington✉️

politico.com/news/magazine/… Funny thing about the streak? Nobody here knew about it.

"I’ve never felt that people around here are real fluid in their political beliefs," said Dale Thule. "Maybe the swings back & forth are on account of people taking turns getting so frustrated that they don’t vote at all.”

The answer to court-packing Q is “Look, that isn’t our decision to make. Congress would need to pass legislation to expand the Supreme Court, and there’s no use speculating on that possibility when we’ll face immediate challenges on day one of a Biden adminstration.”

Not hard. Of course, I’d want to hammer that answer with a thousand follow-ups, because this isn’t just another silly hypothetical exercise.

But that’s not the point. The point is, Biden & Harris have not provided a ready-made answer on this obvious question, which is really bewildering.

Frank Luntz focus group, asks for one word to describe Pence: "robot... presidential... even-keeled...presidential...bland...regressive....professional...pathetic....calm....typical politician....comfortable....no emotion" Frank Luntz focus group, asks for one word to describe Harris: "evasive...nervous...shifting blame...caring....snarky....too rehearsed....nervous....evasive....abrasive....unsteady....rigid....unpresidential"

It’s time to inch out on a limb.

In the coming weeks, I’ll unpack my notebook, highlighting the trends and intelligence I feel most certain will shape the outcome November 3.

Here’s the first batch.

politico.com/news/magazine/… 1. Trump fatigue is peaking at the wrong time for Trump.

politico.com/news/magazine/…

in Frank Luntz's focus group, Ruthie from PA (upper right corner) said she was undecided coming into tonight..... but now likes Biden b/c Trump was behaving like a "crackhead" and made the debate impossible to watch Luke from Wisconsin (red shirt) says Trump is obnoxious and unpresidential... but that behavior doesn't affect his bottom line, doesn't impact his day-to-day life (like the violence he's seen in Kenosha)

Presidential debates are not a game. The implications are bigger than any sporting event.

Buuuuuuuuut ... with the advent of betting on politics, there's a fascinating intersection of my two pet obsessions. That in mind, here are some locks tonight... Take the over.

Covid-19 is not a good answer. Nearly every state offers early voting, either in-person or absentee drop-off. Also, Dr. Fauci has said physically voting is safe. What should have been stressed as a last resort, mail voting, was celebrated as a cause. Dems may come to regret that. Deleted the one tweet b/c some are interpreting as me excusing/enabling Trump, which I'm obviously not doing.

The president's delegitimizing of elections is the single greatest threat to American institutions in our lifetimes. Knowing that... nobody should play into his hands.

"The truly bad stuff is in states like Pennsylvania... where you're talking about universal ballots just being mailed to everybody. OK? Can we just report this correctly to the people listening?" - @DanCrenshawTX to me.

Yes. The congressman was wrong. 1/
Pennsylvania is not universally mailing ballots to everybody. The state allows for *applications* to be sent to registered voters—something Crenshaw initially said he was OK with—but it does not send ballots unsolicited.

This was a repeated point of contention in our Q&A. 2/

NEW 📨 Letter to Washington

Dominating the rich white vote is Trump’s only chance to hold down losing margins in metro areas—which, in turn, is his only chance of securing a second term.

Which brings me to **crucial** Ozaukee County (sorry, @daveweigel)

politico.com/news/magazine/… “I voted for Trump last time, but I cried. Literally—I cried while voting," said Quiana Verbeten, 31, a hair stylist.

And?

"I actually feel better about him now.”

Her husband, Peter: "It's funny... I feel much worse about him now. But I’ll probably vote for him again."

I'm reminded of how, at this time 4 years ago, Meadows was telling friends he wasn't sure he'd go to Cleveland for the GOP convention. He worried that casting his delegate vote for Trump would haunt him for the rest of his life.

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1297553709581438980

While on the subject.... here's what Meadows said about Trump, on-record, days before the 2016 convention
amazon.com/American-Carna…

I believe some of these Republicans re-finding religion on debt/deficit right now are genuinely freaked out by unprecedented spending & borrowing. I also believe they’re laying groundwork for ideological opposition to big govt programs in a Biden administration.

Echoes of 2008. "You clown! Don't you know Republicans are total hypocrites on fiscal responsibility?!?"

Nope. Had no idea.

First look at #MI13, where Wayne County shows zero precincts reporting.... but of the ~12k votes counted, "Squad" member Rashida Tlaib is doubling up her bitter rival, Detroit city council president Brenda Jones.

I'll post updates to this thread. not much of an update, few thousand more votes counted, Tlaib still leads Jones by a 2-to-1 margin

(Saw a few people saying this race is called. Deep breaths. Wayne counted slow pre-Covid & had problems at polls today. Could be a while before we see volume returns.)