The Hill’s Morning Report — Biden claims win while anticipating divided government

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President Biden was smiling at the White House on Wednesday because the midterms could have been a lot worse for Democrats.

“It’s a moving target but it’s going to be very close,” the president said less than 24 hours after the first polls closed in an off-year election that has defied historic trends and invited both parties to come up with the political equivalent of Rorschach test interpretations of what voters really want.

A House GOP majority could conceivably amount to single digits once all ballots are counted, a far cry from a predicted “red wave” and wobbly terrain for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who announced on Wednesday his bid to be Speaker (Fox News).  

Biden told reporters he planned to talk to Republican leaders on Wednesday evening and invite lawmakers to meet at the White House later this month.

“Regardless of what the final tally of these elections show, I’m prepared to work with my Republican colleagues,” he told reporters during a post-election news conference.

The president described his outlook as open and optimistic while defending the policies of his first two years in office. He outlined where he would not compromise, including with policies that aggravate inflation, undercut his party’s climate change agenda, hand tax cuts to the wealthy and big companies, or make “fundamental” changes to Social Security and Medicare.

Biden also vowed to veto any national ban on abortion.

“I’m pretty well convinced that we’re going to get a lot done,” he said without offering evidence to back that up. Challenged to explain his vision of bipartisan collaboration in a Capitol Hill environment he has previously described as bitterly partisan, Biden waved off some of the far-right lawmakers McCarthy may be tasked to manage.

“I don’t think we’re going to break the fever for the super-mega MAGA Republicans,” Biden said, “but they’re a minority of the party.”

▪ The Hill: When will we know who controls the House?

▪ The New York Times: With the House majority in play, a new class takes shape.

Republicans could wind up with enough of a margin to block major legislation, yank administration officials into uncomfortable made-for-TV investigative hearings and road-test Republican messaging ahead of the 2024 presidential contest, a race Biden said he intends to enter, perhaps with an announcement early next year (The Hill). He will celebrate his 80th birthday on Nov. 20.

Next year’s majority in the Senate, which Democrats currently hold with 50 votes plus Vice President Harris, remains in limbo until the outcome is known in three races, most prominently the Georgia contest between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and GOP challenger Herschel Walker. Neither candidate captured a majority on Election Day and Georgia voters will be asked to turn out for a Dec. 6 runoff, which could determine which party holds the Senate reins (The Hill).

One or the other party would need to win pending Senate races in Arizona and Nevada to control the Senate without a victory in Georgia.

▪ The Hill: Ballot counting will continue through next week in the Nevada race between Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt.

▪ NBC News: In Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly (D) leads GOP challenger Blake Masters with 70 percent of ballots tallied as of this morning. 

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Polls during this midterm cycle were flawed in overstating Republican support. Across the eight most competitive Senate races, Democratic candidates on average did about three points better than the final poll averages calculated by RealClearPolitics. And a number of those averages camouflage a wide disparity among individual polls.

▪ The Hill: GOP points fingers after red wave fails to materialize.  

The Pennsylvania open-seat Senate race, which Biden worked hard to flip into his party’s column, is the banner victory for Lt. Gov. John Fetterman that cheered Democrats on Wednesday and sent fans of Republican challenger and TV personality Mehmet Oz into a funk. The Hill’s Al Weaver goes deep inside the Keystone State contest with experts from the state to explain what happened. Oz conceded the race on Wednesday. 

The Hill: House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Wednesday announced a bid to become House majority leader.

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Related Articles

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage offers his take on midterm winners and losers. 

▪ Pluribus News: In a political hole since 2010, state Democrats on Tuesday began digging out.

▪ The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who this week will be in Egypt for the United Nations climate summit COP27, is not feeling pressured to announce whether she will stay or retire from the House after Democrats on Tuesday made strong election night showings around the country.

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LEADING THE DAY

➤ MORE POLITICS

Former President Trump had hoped to ride a wave of Republican victories in Tuesday’s midterms into a triumphant launch for another White House term, but the election results may end up boosting the presidential campaign of another politician: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

DeSantis coasted to victory in Florida with a double-digit margin, flipping traditionally Democratic Miami-Dade County in the process in one of the few clear bright spots for the GOP on an otherwise underwhelming night (The Guardian and The Hill).

While Trump did score some Senate wins — Rep. Ted Budd (R) defeated Democrat Cheri Beasley in North Carolina, while Trump-backed Republican J.D. Vance defeated a stronger-than-expected challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan (D) in Ohio — the victories have so far been limited to red states (CNN). Vance, notably, thanked dozens of people in his victory speech, but did not mention Trump (The Washington Post).

In purple and blue states, however, Trump saw losses across the board. Oz lost in the Pennsylvania Senate race after the former president helped carry the candidate across the finish line in a competitive primary earlier this year. Additionally, Trump-backed gubernatorial candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin lost their races, and high-profile Trump endorsements in Arizona and Georgia are still locked in close races as of Thursday morning. 

The losses extend to the House, where Trump-backed candidates lost competitive contests that the GOP deemed critical to building a significant majority in the lower chamber.

In New Hampshire, former Trump aide Karoline Leavitt lost to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas (WMUR). In North Carolina, Trump-backed Republican Bo Hines lost to Democrat Wiley Nickel (Axios), and in Ohio, Democratic state Rep. Emilia Sykes defeated Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert (Akron Beacon Journal).

“Candidate quality matters,” Erick Erickson, a longtime GOP commentator, told the Post of what he called a disappointing showing for Trump. “They weren’t good candidates. They had more allegiance to him than anything else. The GOP might still win both [chambers] but this is not the night they expected.”

Trump’s evening was particularly bad when viewed through the lens of DeSantis’s resounding 19-point win, which outpaced Trump’s own margin of victory in the Sunshine State in 2020.

“We not only won an election. We have rewritten the political map,” DeSantis on Tuesday told supporters during his victory speech, where some attendees urged him to consider a White House bid by chanting, “Two more years!”

The reaction within the GOP has only further fueled momentum for DeSantis to run for president and take on Trump next year. Trump, meanwhile, has already signaled he’s ready to face the governor with attacks, calling DeSantis “DeSanctimonious” at a recent rally (NPR). 

Some Republican leaders are moving on from the former president and embracing DeSantis as the party’s best hope for retaking the White House in 2024 (Bloomberg News). Some of Trump’s longtime allies are now encouraging him to delay the announcement of this candidacy he had planned for next week (The Washington Post).

One person familiar with the discussions told the Post that Trump was polling advisers for their opinions but had not made up his mind.

“Republican chairmen across a wide spectrum of states were counting on Donald Trump to deliver victory for them last night and he didn’t, they are let down,” David Urban, a top adviser to Trump in 2016, told the Post on Wednesday. “It is clear the center of gravity of the Republican Party is in the state of Florida, and I don’t mean Mar-a-Lago.”

Biden on Wednesday shrugged off the prospect of facing either Trump or DeSantis in a potential 2024 match-up (The Hill).

“It will be fun watching them take on each other,” he said at a news conference where he spoke about the outcome of the midterm elections.

▪ New York Magazine: The Republican elite moves against Trump and behind DeSantis.

▪ The New York Times: Trump under fire from within GOP after midterms.

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IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL   

Russia’s defense minister announced Wednesday that he was ordering troops withdrawn from the strategically important southern city of Kherson, a potential blow to President Vladimir Putin’s war effort. But Ukrainian officials have expressed skepticism that the Russians will leave (The New York Times).

“We have signs they are pulling out,” Roman Kostenko, a colonel in the army and chairman of the defense and intelligence committee in Ukraine’s parliament, told the Times. “They blew up bridges that would have allowed our forces to advance. We see them leaving population centers, but in some they leave soldiers behind to cover their movements.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Wednesday that it could take Russia “weeks” to pull troops out of Kherson, but “early indicators are that they are doing what they say they are doing” (BBC).

Speaking at a Wednesday press conference, Biden said Russia’s decision to withdraw from Kherson shows its military has “some real problems.” He added he’s been expecting the move for “some time” and that it would allow both sides to “recalibrate their positions” over the winter (BBC).

Asked about continued funding for Ukraine if Republicans take over the House — and McCarthy, who has argued for less aid, assumes the Speakership — Biden said he expects it to continue without interruption. “And by the way, we’ve not given Ukraine a blank check,” Biden added, noting the White House had refused to provide some of the equipment and assistance requested by Ukrainian leaders, including U.S. aircraft (Reuters).

WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February for entering the country with cannabis oil cartridges, is being moved to a penal colony, her legal team said Wednesday. Griner in August was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison, and a judge rejected her appeal late last month (The Washington Post).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in a tweet Wednesday that “we strongly protest the movement of Brittney Griner to a remote penal colony and the Russian government’s use of wrongful detentions.”

▪ The Washington Post: U.S. citizen gunned down in Iraq under mysterious circumstances.

▪ Reuters: North Korea fires another missile as South Korea salvages parts of Soviet-era weapon.

▪ The New York Times: Jordan Is running out of water, a grim glimpse of the future.

➤ TECH & JOBS

Meta will lay off more than 11,000 employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told workers in a Wednesday message, reducing the company’s workforce by about 13 percent. The layoffs will affect workers across the company’s products — Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp — as well as the virtual reality business Reality Labs and Meta’s business teams.

“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” Zuckerberg told employees. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”

Zuckerberg added that the company will hire fewer people next year and is extending its hiring freeze into the first quarter of 2023 (NBC News).

▪ Yahoo Finance: Twitter, Meta, Lyft and more: Another wave of layoffs hits tech.

▪ Business Insider: Why tech layoffs are happening all at once — and why the next few weeks could be the worst of them.

Asked at a Wednesday press conference whether tech billionaire and new Twitter CEO Elon Musk posed a threat to national security, Biden said that Musk’s foreign relationships are worth scrutiny.

“Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” Biden said. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate — I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting it’s worth being looked at and that’s all I’ll say.”

While Musk has invested billions of his personal wealth into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, he also raised funding from outside equity and debt financing partners. Additionally, he asked some major existing shareholders to roll their stakes into his holding company.

Longtime shareholder Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns tens of millions of shares of Twitter, making the Saudi royal family the second-largest shareholder in the social network, which is now privately held. The kingdom of Qatar also participated in Musk’s Twitter deal (CNBC and The Hill).

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OPINION

■  Why is America always divided 50–50? by Annie Lowrey, staff writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/3huCqwC 

■  Republicans did not read the room, by Michelle Goldberg, columnist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3Upj8Yi

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WHERE AND WHEN

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The House meets at noon for a pro forma session. Members are scheduled to return to the Capitol on Monday. ​​

The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. for a pro forma session. Senators make their way back to Washington on Monday. 

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:30 a.m. He will depart the White House for a political event at Howard Theatre in Washington, joined by first lady Jill Biden. The president departs the White House at 9:45 p.m. for Egypt to participate on Friday at COP27, the United Nations climate change conference. Biden will then travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the annual U.S.-ASEAN Summit. He will be there until Sunday and then head to the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia. 

Vice President Harris will join Biden at 3 p.m. to speak at a political event at the Howard Theatre in Washington, joined by second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in New Delhi, India, to participate in meetings of the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership.

Economic indicators: The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. will report on the consumer price index in October. The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on filings for unemployment benefits in the week ending Nov. 5.

The White House daily briefing is scheduled at 12:45 p.m. and will include White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in addition to the press secretary.

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ELSEWHERE

➤ WEATHER WATCH

Hurricane Nicole, which had been a tropical storm early on Wednesday while taking aim at the Bahamas, made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along Florida’s east coast early today and then weakened back to a tropical storm with sustained winds of about 70 mph (ABC News and The Weather Channel). 

Early today, at least 45 of Florida’s 67 counties were under a state of emergency. A hurricane warning from Boca Raton to the Flagler-Volusia County line in eastern Florida was changed to a tropical storm warning. A tropical storm warning south of Boca Raton to Hallandale Beach, Fla., was also discontinued, along with a hurricane watch for Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Nicole forced the closure of theme parks and airports while prompting evacuation orders that included Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

The National Hurricane Center said the eye of the sprawling storm made landfall on Great Abaco island in the Bahamas on Wednesday with estimated maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. Nicole is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019, before hitting the Sunshine State (The Hill).

Communities along Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Fort Myers, are still recovering from Hurricane Ian, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28 and crossed the state before moving north along the Atlantic Ocean.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

Researchers have long known that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to be prescribed lifesaving addiction treatment options than white people.

But a new data analysis published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry shows that even when Black and Hispanic patients start a prescription for buprenorphine — the most popular medication to help those in recovery fight cravings — the duration of their treatment is typically shorter than that of white patients (The New York Times).

“Bottom line, these types of disparities are likely going to translate into worse clinical outcomes,” Bradley Stein, the director of the RAND Opioid Policy Center and a senior physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, told the Times. “That matters.”

▪ The Hill: The World Health Organization reports 90 percent drop in world COVID-19 deaths since February.

▪ Time: The latest COVID-19 variants can evade vaccine protection, according to new data.

Information about COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot availability can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,073,934. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,504 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

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THE CLOSER

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by barrier-breaking winners during this midterm elections, we’re eager for some smart guesses about congressional firsts.

Email your responses to asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com and/or kkarisch@digital-stage.thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

When were women first permitted to wear trousers on the Senate floor?

1. 1982

2. 1993

3. 1970

4. 1965

During what era were African Americans first elected to Congress?

1. The Antebellum

2. Roaring ‘20s

3. Reconstruction

4. World War I

Who was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress?

1. Dianne Feinstein

2. Margaret Chase Smith

3. Jeannette Rankin

4. Rebecca L. Felton

Who was the first member of the House of Representatives to later serve as president?

1. John Quincy Adams

2. Andrew Jackson

3. James Monroe

4. James Madison

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