memeorandum: Romania election stunner: Unexpected hard-right candidate surges in presidential vote (Politico)

8:40 PM ET, November 24, 2024

Top Items:

CBS News poll finds Trump starts on positive note as most approve of transition handling — President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration starts off with mostly good will from the public: a majority of Americans overall are either happy or at least satisfied that he won …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, RedState, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, The Hill, Mediaite, Townhall, IJR, New York Post and Althouse

Max Thornberry / Washington Examiner:
Democrats turn on each other in battle for soul of the party

Discussion: RedState and Politico

Lauren Frias / Business Insider:
Trump's vow to use US troops for mass deportations could face intense resistance — starting from within the military

Discussion: The Hill, USA Today, New York Times, Raw Story and Politico

New York Times:

Trump Is Running His Transition Team on Secret Money — Breaking with past practice, President-elect Donald J. Trump has not agreed to disclose the donors paying for his planning effort or to limit their contributions. — President-elect Donald J. Trump is keeping secret the names …

Discussion: Raw Story, Mother Jones, The Independent and Digby's Hullabaloo

Peter Wade / Rolling Stone:

Trump Refuses to Disclose Who Is Funding His Transition — He is the first president-elect not to sign an ethics agreement that sets fundraising limits and transparency — True to character, Donald Trump is already flouting ethics laws and norms even before he takes office as president in 2025.

Discussion: Raw Story and The Mahablog

Mia McCarthy / Politico:

Trump's national security pick: I'm on same page as Jake Sullivan about ‘our adversaries’ — “We are hand in glove. We are one team with the United States in this transition,” Rep. Mike Waltz said. — Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) said Sunday that he has met with President Joe Biden's …

Discussion: Associated Press, Reuters and Axios

Kenya Hunter / Associated Press:

Feeling betrayed by increased minority support for Trump, Black women say they're stepping back — As she checked into a recent flight to Mexico for vacation, Teja Smith chuckled at the idea of joining another Women's March on Washington. As a Black woman, she just couldn't see herself helping …

Politico:

Romania election stunner: Unexpected hard-right candidate surges in presidential vote — Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu is currently on track to make it to the final round of presidential elections, according to Sunday's provisional results with more than 90 percent of precincts reporting.

Luiza Ilie / Reuters:
Hard right's Simion in with a chance as Romanians vote for president

Discussion: Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Euromaidan Press, Semafor and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Trudy Ring / Advocate:

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas introduces bill to deny transgender identity — U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, has introduced a bill to deny transgender identity. … Marshall Wednesday introduced the Defining Male and Female Act of 2024, which a press release from his office calls …

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Pam Bondi's road from Four Seasons Total Landscaping to AG pick should alarm America — The long, strange trip of the United States of America has taken a wild and dangerous right turn, and you can see the exact moment that Pam Bondi — Donald Trump's newest pick to become …

Discussion: emptywheel

Washington Post:
Pam Bondi, Trump's AG pick, said ‘prosecutors will be prosecuted’

Discussion: RedState, NBC News, The Hill, Orlando Sentinel, CNN, The Independent, The Gateway Pundit, New Republic and BizPac Review

Kedric Payne / The Hill:

Resignation shouldn't prevent the release of Gaetz report — it didn't stop us last time — Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has withdrawn his name from consideration for attorney general and said he would not be returning to the House. But Gaetz, who announced his resignation …

Shari Dunn / Salon:

Trump's plan to dismantle DEI on day one is a “colorblind” path to Jim Crow 2.0 — Stephen Miller makes clear the subtext behind Trump's call to ban DEI — Donald Trump's vow to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in workplaces and educational institutions …

Tara Suter / The Hill:

McBride says House Republicans' bathroom ban is ‘attempt to distract from what they are actually doing’ — Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first transgender person elected to Congress, said Sunday that House Republicans' bathroom ban is an “attempt to distract from what they are actually doing.”

Discussion: The Guardian, Politico, NBC News, Fox News, The Post Millennial and Washington Examiner

Mark Kennedy / Associated Press:

Chuck Woolery, smooth-talking game show host of ‘Love Connection’ and ‘Scrabble,’ dies at 83 — Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died.

Discussion: Rolling Stone, New York Times, Breitbart, Hollywood Life, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, Variety, One America News Network, The Hollywood Reporter, Us Weekly, New York Post, TMZ.com and The Daily Caller

Michael Lee / Fox News:

Harris disappears from spotlight, vacations in Hawaii after election loss — Harris could still play a key role in confirming Biden judges — Vice President Kamala Harris has kept a low profile since losing the election to President-elect Trump, vacationing in Hawaii with second gentleman Doug Emhoff since last week.

Discussion: RedState and American Thinker

Politico:

Business donors overwhelmingly bet on the GOP. Here's where it paid off. — The 2024 general election saw a flood of contributions from the crypto industry, banking and labor. And then there was Elon Musk. — Thousands of industry donors poured over $425 million into the general election this year …