Josh Shapiro Makes His Closing Argument

Plus, Conspiracists Beware: Post-Election Lies Could Land You in Legal Hot Water

Nov 07, 2022

CHARLIE SYKES: Elon Musk, Savant Idiot?
JVL: The Happy Guide to the Midterms 🔐 and Three Stories About the Death of Twitter.
DMITRI MELHORN: How to Play the 2022 Election Dice Game

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New from Me: Josh Shapiro Makes His Closing Argument.

Kingston, Pennsylvania
Josh Shapiro is beginning to lose his voice. With Election Day rapidly approaching, Pennsylvania’s attorney general is nearing the end of his “Big Fights Bus Tour,” crisscrossing the state campaigning for governor. It’s been a long day for Shapiro and the gang he brings with him: his father, Dr. Steve; his daughter Sophia, a college student at Pitt who runs Students for Shapiro; and his running mate, state Rep. Austin Davis, and Davis’s wife Blayre. With a cadre of well-prepared campaign staff and a phalanx of state troopers, both uniformed and plainclothes, in separate vehicles, the bus tour becomes something of a motorcade.
If the polls are to be believed, Shapiro is sprinting to the finish of a race he’s likely already won. Both the RealClearPolitics and Five Thirty Eight averages have him up by more than 10 points. It helps that his opponent is Doug Mastriano, a candidate largely out of touch with Pennsylvania voters except the most extreme MAGA Republicans, and whose positions and rhetoric have sent many Republicans and independents flying into the Shapiro camp. The owner of the roadside motel I stayed overnight in Lancaster before joining Shapiro’s bus for the day is a Shapiro voter. He likes the Democrat, and says “Mastriano is crazy.” Shapiro tells reporters in Lancaster, “Look, I’m feeling good, but I take nothing for granted. Those who know me know I run like I’m 50 points behind.”

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ERIC EDELMAN AND DAVID J. KRAMER: Now Is Not the Time to Negotiate with Putin.

Aiding Ukraine is not only the morally right thing to do—it also serves U.S. national security interests. By helping Ukraine defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, we not only staunch the dangerous spread of Putinism beyond Russia’s borders, but we send a signal to Putin, as well as China’s Xi and other authoritarian leaders, that we will stand by democratic allies in their struggle for freedom. Thanks to the heroism of its fighters and citizens, Ukraine has imposed enormous costs on Russian forces and is regaining previously occupied territory. President Biden has said the United States will continue its support “for as long as it takes.” That is the right stance. Much to the surprise of many officials and analysts, it looks increasingly possible that Ukraine could win this war. It is in U.S. national interests to help them do so.
The United States has provided more than $20 billion in vital military assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s first invasion in 2014, with most of it coming after Putin launched the latest phase of the war in February. U.S. support has made a massive difference on the battlefield, enabling Ukraine to regain the initiative, inflict heavy losses of personnel and equipment and push back invading and occupying Russian forces.

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DeSantis flew too close to the sun, Kellyanne tried out her take on denialism, and Musk — the man who once talked of colonizing Mars — showed in the space of one week how much of nasty, thin-skinned putz he is. Will Saletan is back with Charlie Sykes for Charlie and Will Monday.

Instead of a focus group this week, Sarah sits down with four political super-nerds to get their read on Tuesday's election and beyond. She's joined by Jon Ralston to talk Nevada, Brahm Resnik — political reporter for Phoenix’s local NBC affiliate — to talk Arizona, along with Bill Kristol, and Gunner Ramer, the political director of the Republican Accountability PAC.

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AMANDA CARPENTER: Conspiracists Beware: Post-Election Lies Could Land You in Legal Hot Water.

As Elon Musk seeks to dismantle Twitter’s verification standards and the new crop of pro-Trump anything-goes social media networks like Truth Social and Rumble gain momentum, MAGA media activists may feel emboldened to spread lies about the midterm election even more recklessly than they did in 2020. They ought to consider what’s happening to some of their conspiracy-minded fellow travelers.
At first glance, it might seem as if the most brazen peddlers of Trump-era misinformation haven’t paid any price for their lies. But let’s look at the record. Fox News is facing a pair of billion-dollar defamation suits brought by election-technology firms Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Fox has also settled with the family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, putting the network in the same league as InfoWars fabulist Alex Jones, now on the hook to pay Sandy Hook families $965 million in damages. These examples show that defamation laws can be effectively applied to both traditional and nontraditional media figures. And new legal efforts are underway asking the courts to do just that.

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BILL LUEDERS: Is the Man Who Attacked Paul Pelosi a Leftist?

Right-wing media outlets are pushing back hard against accusations that there is some sort of connection between the forces that precipitated the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and the savage attack on Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, by a man with a hammer.
“Did the assailant have anything in common with those people—either the mob responsible or the federal agents or agent provocateurs that initiated it?” wrote Joseph Farah, the founder and CEO of WND (formerly WorldNetDaily), a right-wing news and opinion website that’s partial to conspiracy theories. “He had nothing in common with ‘MAGA Republicans.”

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🚨OVERTIME 🚨

I’m back from the trail… But I enjoyed my time on the road and chatting with AG Shapiro and voters. I also had a pancake the size of a hubcap at the Route 30 Diner in Lancaster.