This week, we start with some good news: Kentucky has a new Democratic governor! That's
amazing. Democrats just picked up a governorship in
a state as red as Trump's face when he heard about this!
Now, to be fair, this wasn't just any race. GOP governor Matt Bevin was super unpopular.
Even the GOP didn't like him. I just was texting with a veteran Republican
strategist in Kentucky who said the following:
“Well, we found out that being an A-hole is slightly worse than being a liberal.”
Congrats, Democrats, you just found your new slogan.
Bevin fought the Medicaid expansion that Kentuckians needed,
and spent all his time making dumb Facebook videos of himself like this:
Weird choice, but that's how he announced he was cutting state education funds.
When Kentucky's teachers went on strike, Bevin suggested that they were making students
vulnerable to pedophiles. Here's what's crazy to me.
You know how many hundreds of thousands of children today were left home alone?
I guarantee you today, somewhere in Kentucky today,
a child was sexually assaulted that was left home
because there was nobody there to watch them. I guarantee you, somewhere today a child was
physically harmed or ingested poison because they were home
alone. It's crazy that Kentucky didn't rally behind
the guy that guaranteed that their children would
ingest poison. However they try to spin it, this is still
a hugely bad sign for the GOP. Trump fought hard for Bevin.
He even held a rally for him on election eve, where he said this:
"If you lose, they are 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!"
Turns out they can. This is Trump's worst nightmare come true.
Well, his second-worst nightmare after the one
where he gets chased by stairs and salads. Bevin hasn't conceded yet, despite being about
5000 votes behind and the GOP basically giving him last rites.
Come on, Matt, exit with some class. You know, like... like…
Nope, not like that. Here's some more encouraging news:
the Democrats took both chambers of the Virginia legislature last night!
That's huge. They can now control redistricting, and keep
the GOP from drawing a bunny that gives them power for
10 more years. And they can also do something even more exciting.
"If Democrats can take control, they could consolidate power
for the first time in 26 years and work with Governor Ralph Northam
to enact legislation long blocked by Republicans. That would mean a significant shift in policy,
especially on issues like gun control, protections against discrimination
for the LGBT community, higher minimum wage and passage of the Equal Rights Amendment."
The Equal Rights Amendment! Holy shit! If Virginia ratifies the ERA, it would be
the 38th state to do so, which is the threshold to add it to, I kid
you not, the US Constitution. Now, it's been almost 100 years since the
ERA was introduced, and it would face a legal fight to be ratified, so let's
not get ahead of oursel- Unh.
Too late, I just came. Sorry.
100 years is a long time to think about baseball. A lot of this good news for Democrats is due
to voters in the suburbs, where GOP support is cratering.
Turns out suburban white ladies are starting to turn on the party
of the guy who is facing 2 separate lawsuits from women this week
who say he sexually assaulted them.
Would have been nice if they had turned on him when they first heard about it
in 2016, but it's a start. Keep it going, Meghans! You can do it!
But wait, weren't Democrats supposed to be doomed at the polls for impeaching the President?
That's what I heard from incredibly correct man Chuck Todd.
Turning now from the big news on impeachment to the politics of impeachment, which gets
its first significant test with voters tonight. And it could bail out a few Republicans who
were in trouble a week ago.
They should win it. Impeachment is the only reason they may not.
If the Republicans sweep these 3 Red state gubernatorial races, 2 tonight and the 1,
I think you'll have nothing but impeachment to thank.
Once again, Chuck Todd's as wrong as his facial hair.
It appears that at least some GOP voters are as freaked out by Trump's shenanigans as the
rest of us. In fact, these electoral victories came right
on the heels of major news in the Ukraine story.
One of President Trump's most supportive witnesses in the impeachment inquiry
has changed his testimony to confirm a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
The ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland,
now tells lawmakers that the Trump administration held up military aid
as it pushed Ukraine's government to investigate Democrats,
including the Biden family. The former Trump donor updated his testimony
this week with a 3-page written statement saying his
memory had been refreshed.
Looks like Virginia and Kentucky weren't the only ones flipping yesterday.
Refreshed? Did he drink a really good soda and think, "Wait a minute?"
Obey your thirst, and Congress." Sondland's testimony is very convincing.
Partly because of his central role, but mostly because his description of talking to Trump
sounds incredibly accurate.
He describes a phone call where he asks the President whether the White House
was withholding military aid to get investigations. Sondland says Mr. Trump told him,
"I want no quid pro quo. I want the president of Ukraine to do the right thing."
Sondland says, "I wouldn't say he hung up on me, but it was
almost like he hung up on me."
Yeah, he hung up on you. At which point you said, "Thank you so much
Mr. President, see you next week, I love you! Oh no, I blew
it." There's even more fun election news today.
For the first time in almost 40 years, Democrats gained control
of the city council of Mike Pence's hometown of Columbus, Indiana.
That's gotta be rough for Pence. He was so distracted, he left his safety Bible
at home. What if his first-string Bible touches a woman?
The turning of tides is great news, though the pod that birthed Mike Pence still
votes GOP. What, you think sex made Mike Pence? Think
again. And there was more schadenfreude in Virginia,
where Juli Briskman, the woman who was fired for
flipping off Trump's motorcade, beat a Republican incumbent to be elected
to local office. She's cycling's greatest hero, next to Lance
Armstrong. What? Oh no. All of them?
And friend of the show Danica Roem, who made history 2 years ago
when she was the first openly transgender person to be elected to the Virginia State
House made history again last night when she was
re-elected, becoming both the longest-serving and first
openly transgender individual to be re-elected in our nation's history.
2020 is still going to be a huge challenge. But it's nice to be reminded that people do
give a shit. And aside from his core supporters, everyone
is sick of Trump's schtick. It's time for him and his cult followers to
ride off into the sunset together.