memeorandum: Arizona's GOP Senate Candidate Masters is Noncommittal on Supporting McConnell as Leader (Wall Street Journal)

11:15 PM ET, November 7, 2022

Top Items:

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Musk discusses putting all of Twitter behind a paywall — Will he go through with it? PLUS: Botched layoffs, how the new Blue could lose money, and more — If Friday brought massive layoffs to Twitter, Monday brought fresh evidence that the company will never be the same.

Discussion: The Verge, New York Times, Adweek, Breitbart, Protocol, Fortune, Bloomberg and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

Lori Rozsa / Washington Post:

Black voters in Florida express fear, confusion as DeSantis election laws kick in — HOBE SOUND, Fla. — Geraldine Harriel usually helps her elderly parents vote by taking their mail-in ballots to the elections office for them. But new voting laws in Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis's elections police force …

Discussion: HotAir, Daily Kos, Raw Story and NPR

Washington Post:

Republicans sue to disqualify thousands of mail ballots in swing states — The lawsuits coincide with a systemic effort by GOP leaders to persuade voters to cast ballots in person, not absentee — Republican officials and candidates in at least three battleground states are pushing …

The Philadelphia Inquirer:
John Fetterman's Pa. Senate campaign is suing to have undated and misdated ballots counted

Discussion: HotAir, NBC News, Fox News, Yahoo News, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Wire, Washington Times, The Root, National Review, New York Post, The Post Millennial, IJR, Raw Story and The Daily Caller

The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Philly voters line up at City Hall to fix flawed mail ballots; Fetterman campaign joins legal fight over ballots with disputed dates

Discussion: CNN and LevittownNow.com

NBC News:
As Democrats press ‘threat to democracy’ in campaign's final days, few GOP candidates still want to talk about 2020

Discussion: CNN, Hyperallergic, The Guardian and VICE

Washington Post:
Pennsylvania voters scramble to cast new ballots after GOP lawsuit

Discussion: Raw Story, Sun-Sentinel, Billy Penn, The Fulcrum, CNBC and New York Times

Sabato's Crystal Ball:

Final Ratings for the 2022 Election — KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — Our final Senate pick is 51-49 Republican, or a net Republican gain of 1 seat. — Our final House pick is 237-198 Republican, or a net Republican gain of 24 seats. — Our projected gubernatorial picture …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Split Ticket, Mediaite, Erick Erickson Show Notes, Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog, Fox News, Instapundit and The Hill

Wall Street Journal:
GOP Gaining Support Among Black and Latino Voters, WSJ Poll Finds

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The 3 Big Questions I Still Have About Election Day

Discussion: HotAir, The Hill, ABC News, Daily Kos, Public Notice, Split Ticket, The American Conservative, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Politics with Pete, Vox and Politico

Scott Dworkin / Newsweek:
Democracy Is on the Ballot. The Democrats Are the Only Choice

Discussion: AFP, The Daily Caller, WND, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Common Dreams, The New Arab, WGN-TV, The Guardian and Politico

Ruby Cramer / Washington Post: Beto O'Rourke's third campaign in 6 years embodies Democrats' unrealized gains

Steven Shepard / Politico:
POLITICO's final Election Forecast: Senate up for grabs, GOP on brink of House majority

Discussion: New York Times, Bridge Michigan, Forbes, New Republic, CNN, The Hill, Reason, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politico and New York Times

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling / The Daily Beast:

Musk Shares a Nazi Meme and Then Tells Twitter to Vote Republican — The new Twitter boss was having another totally normal one on Monday morning. — Breaking News Intern — Life comes at you fast. Six months ago, Elon Musk wrote, “For Twitter to deserve public trust …

Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:

Elon Musk Is Bad at This — The Musk era of Twitter has so far been defined by unhinged tweets, fleeing advertisers, and botched layoffs. — Elon Musk has spent the past 12 years tweeting whatever comes into his mind, often without major negative consequences. That was before he owned the place.

Discussion: Washington Post, Quartz, Wired, Brookings, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

Nikki McCann Ramirez / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk Says the Quiet Part Out Loud, Tells His Minions to Vote GOP

Discussion: Associated Press, RedState, Occupy Democrats, The Daily Caller, Fortune, American Greatness, Louder With Crowder, The Daily Wire, Insider, Twitchy, Big League Politics, The Post Millennial and IJR

Washington Post:

Trump spooks GOP with abandoned talk of presidential launch on eve of vote — After top Republicans spent Monday trying to talk Trump out of declaring his candidacy before the midterms, he made no announcement — Former president Donald Trump set off a scramble Monday in the Republican Party …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Sputnik News, Raw Story, Breitbart, TASS and The Guardian

Shelby Talcott / Semafor:
Trump is considering moving up his presidential announcement (again)

Discussion: Fox News, Associated Press, CBS News, RedState, The Hill, The Free Press, New York Post, Washington Examiner, One America News Network, WND and Oliver Willis Explains

Associated Press:

Putin-linked businessman admits to US election meddling — Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted Monday that he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to do so — confirming for the first time the accusations that he has rejected for years.

Pjotr Sauer / The Guardian:

Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections — Russian businessman and founder of Wagner Group says interference will continue as midterms loom — The powerful Russian businessman and a close Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin has admitted to interfering in US elections …

Discussion: Associated Press and Politico

NBC News:

Timothy Griffin of New York state is killed fighting Russians in Ukraine — LONDON — Another U.S. citizen has died fighting in Ukraine, two people with knowledge of his death told NBC News on Monday, bringing the number of Americans killed in Russia's war to at least six.

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Examiner

CNN: US citizen recently died in Ukraine, State Department says

Eileen Grench / The Daily Beast:

MAGA Candidate Slapped With Cease-and-Desist Over ‘Racist’ TV Spot — Saheed Vassell was shot and killed by the NYPD four years ago—and somehow is being used as a symbol of New York's new governor being soft on crime. — In 2018, officers from the New York City Police Department shot …

Discussion: Raw Story and Occupy Democrats

Wall Street Journal:

Arizona's GOP Senate Candidate Masters is Noncommittal on Supporting McConnell as Leader — PHOENIX— Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona, remains noncommittal on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's leadership. Mr. Masters, an ally of venture capitalist Peter Thiel …

Discussion: Breitbart, Raw Story, Washington Examiner, Reason and Insider

David Weigel / Semafor:

Republicans hope Michigan is proof-of-concept for an LGBT backlash — Despite a tough year, Michigan Democrats are still favored to win the governor's race and pass an amendment codifying abortion rights. Republicans believe a debate over transgender rights could spark an upset. — THE FACTS

Discussion: National Review and The Daily Wire

U.S. Department of Justice:

Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 24 States for Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws — The Justice Department announced today its plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 64 jurisdictions in 24 states for the Nov. 8, 2022 general election.

Discussion: Raw Story, Fox News, Gizmodo, KTLA, MLive.com, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Michigan Advance, Washington Post, CNBC, Bloomberg, The Texas Tribune, Common Dreams, NBC News, The Daily Signal and Courthouse News Service

Patrick Thomas / Wall Street Journal:

Tyson Foods CFO Arrested After Authorities Say He Fell Asleep in Wrong House — John R. Tyson, great-grandson of firm's founder, arrested over the weekend, local law-enforcement officials say — John R. Tyson, Tyson Foods Inc.'s chief financial officer and son of the meat giant's chairman …

Discussion: The Hill, Bloomberg, CBS News, Forbes, Fortune, Metro.co.uk and Boing Boing

Clare Foran / CNN:

‘I never thought it would be Paul’: Nancy Pelosi reveals how she first heard her husband had been attacked — Exclusive: Pelosi recounts moment she learned that her husband was attacked John King: These midterms are the most complicated of my lifetime Kevin McCarthy asked about impeaching Biden if GOP wins House.

Discussion: New York Times, Bloomberg, The Hill, Insider, The Daily Beast, Washington Post, New York Post, CBS News, TMZ.com, Politico, Associated Press, The San Francisco Standard, The Guardian, Raw Story, TheBlaze, Fox News, HuffPost, USA Today, MSNBC and Mediaite

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Trump-DeSantis feud just got worse. A hidden factor is driving it. — When Donald Trump starts belittling you with a sandbox nickname, you know you're in real trouble — especially if you're a Republican with ambitions for higher office. — The Florida governor's allies …

Discussion: New York Times, Daily Kos, Right Wing Lefty, Raw Story, HotAir, The Daily Wire, The Mahablog, HuffPost, Balloon Juice and National Review

Max Tani / Semafor:

Black leaders are protesting Tiffany Cross's firing from MSNBC — More than 40 African-American political leaders are demanding a meeting with MSNBC president Rashida Jones over the network's decision not to renew weekend host Tiffany Cross' show. — In a letter circulated in recent days …

Discussion: Semafor, The Daily Beast, The Root, Fox News, Page Array and TheBlaze, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

Climate change threatening ‘things Americans value most,’ U.S. report says — Climate change is unleashing “far-reaching and worsening” calamities in every region of the United States, and the economic and human toll will only increase unless humans move faster to slow the planet's warming …

Fox News:

Zeldin supporter attacked, choked at Hochul event speaks out: 'Can't have debates without it getting violent' — Angelica Torres says she was only trying to exercise her First Amendment rights when she was choked & assaulted — Zeldin supporter assaulted at Hochul rally calls for action: ‘I was treated like a subhuman’

Discussion: RedState, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, The Post Millennial, New York Post, The Daily Wire, TheBlaze and Louder With Crowder

Washington Post:

Trump once reconsidered sticking with Truth Social. Now he's stuck. — The former president has told his allies that he can't leave his Twitter clone because he's propping it up, and he doesn't want a site so closely associated with his brand to collapse.

Discussion: The National Interest, TechCrunch, Raw Story, Occupy Democrats, Insider and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Elena Schneider / Politico:

Specter of midterm wipeout threatens Dem plans to shake up presidential primaries — The Democratic National Committee is planning to pick up a big project after the midterm election: shaking up its presidential nominating process and changing the states that get to vote early.