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US Economy Grew at 3.3% Pace in Q4 While Inflation Pulled Back
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The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.

That compared with the Wall Street consensus estimate for a gain of 2% in the final three months of the year. The third quarter grew at a 4.9% pace.

In addition to the better than expected GDP move, there also was some progress on inflation.

Core prices for personal consumption expenditures, which the Federal Reserve prefers as a longer-term inflation measure, rose 2% for the period, while the headline rate was 1.7%.

On an annual basis, the PCE price index rose 2.7%, down from 5.9% a year ago, while the core figure excluding food and energy posted a 3.2% increase annually, compared with 5.1%.

The two components together added up to “supersonic Goldilocks, because it’s really a strong number yet inflation hasn’t shown up,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at U.S. Bank. “Everybody wanted to have fun. People bought new cars, a lot of recreation spending as well as taking trips. We’ve been expecting a soft landing for some time. This is just one step in that direction.”

The U.S. economy for all of 2023 accelerated at a 2.5% annualized pace, well ahead of the Wall Street outlook at the beginning of the year for few if any gains and better than the 1.9% increase in 2022.

As had been the case through the year, a strong pace of consumer spending helped drive the expansion. Personal consumption expenditures increased 2.8% for the quarter, down just slightly from the previous period.

State and local government spending also contributed, up 3.7%, as did a 2.5% increase in federal government expenditures. Gross private domestic investment rose 2.1%, another significant factor for the robust quarter.

The chain-weighted price index, which accounts for prices as well as changes in consumer behavior, increased 1.5% for the quarter, down sharply from 3.3% in the previous period and below the Wall Street estimate for a 2.5% acceleration.

“This year has been like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, and the economy is knocking the blocks off the economists, always outperforming,” said Dan North, senior economist with Allianz Trade Americas. Fed Chair Jerome Powell “has got to have a smirk on his face this morning. Again, he’s defying the economists’ predictions with strong growth and inflation clearly coming under control.”

Markets showed only a modest reaction to the report. Stock futures gained slightly while Treasury yields moved lower. Futures markets continued to reflect the likelihood that the Fed will enact its first rate cut in May, though the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge put the odds of a March cut at 47.4% around 10 a.m. ET.

“It was a great report, but you didn’t see the market move much because GDP is backward-looking. It told us what happened in October and November and December,” North said. “It’s great for historical patterns, but it doesn’t really tell us much about where we’re headed.”

In other economic news Thursday, initial jobless claims totaled 214,000, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week and ahead of the estimate for 199,000, according to the Labor Department. Continuing claims rose to 1.833 million, an increase of 27,000.

The GDP report wraps up a year in which most economists were almost certain the U.S. would enter at least a shallow recession. Even the Fed had predicted a mild contraction due to banking industry stress last March.

However, a resilient consumer and a powerful labor market helped propel the economy through the year, which also featured an ongoing pullback in manufacturing and a Fed that kept raising interest rates in its battle to bring down inflation.

As the calendar turns a page to a new year, hopes have shifted away from a recession as markets anticipate the Fed will start cutting rates while inflation continues to drift back to its 2% goal.

Concerns remain, however, that the economy faces more challenges ahead.

Some of the worries center around the lagged effects of monetary policy, specifically the 11 interest rate hikes totaling 5.25 percentage points that the Fed approved between March 2022 and July 2023. Conventional economic wisdom is that it can take as long as two years for such policy tightening to make its way through the system, so that could contribute to slowness ahead.

Other angst centers around how long consumers can keep spending as savings dwindle and high-interest debt loads accrue. Finally, there’s the nature of what is driving the boom beyond the consumer: Government deficit spending has been a significant contributor to growth, with the total federal IOU at $34 trillion and counting. The budget deficit has totaled more than half a trillion dollars for the first three months of fiscal 2024.

There also are political worries as the U.S. enters the heart of the presidential election campaign, and geopolitical fears with violence in the Middle East and the continuing bloody Ukraine war.

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Trump Wins Presidency in Remarkable White House Comeback

Donald Trump was projected to become the 47th president early Wednesday, completing the most incredible political comeback in American history.

Trump, 78, was on course for an Electoral College landslide over Vice President Kamala Harris after he reversed his 2020 losses in the crucial states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — running up big margins among his white rural and working class base while making significant inroads among ethnic minorities.

“There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond,” the Republican nominee told a rapturous victory celebration at the Palm Beach County Convention Center not far from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“We’re going to help our country heal,” Trump added, “and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders … fix everything about our country.”

The former president’s victory was the highlight of a big Election Night for Republicans, who were also projected to regain control of the Senate after four years in the minority.

The fate of the House of Representatives was too close to call early Wednesday, with the majority not likely to be determined for several days.

But most stunningly, as of early Wednesday, Trump was favored to win the popular vote and end a 20-year losing streak among Republican nominees in the raw vote total.

In an eerie repeat of the scenes on Election Night 2016, thousands of Harris supporters who gathered on the campus of the veep’s alma mater, Howard University, to watch the results come in were left shocked and in tears as it became clear their candidate could not win.

In the end, it was not Harris but her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, who was left to inform the desolate crowd that the Democratic nominee would not be appearing.

“We still have votes to count … so you won’t hear from the vice president tonight,” said Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman and Biden White House official. “She will be back here tomorrow.”

“Go HU and go Harris.”

The 45th president had projected supreme confidence against Harris, 60, in the final days of the race, with heavy messaging aimed at male voters and a marathon schedule of rallies and media appearances — including a shift at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.

Meanwhile, Harris downplayed both her potential to make history as the first female president and her racial identity as a child of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.

Instead, she campaigned as a pro-small business warrior for the middle class, while seemingly disavowing a host of former left-wing stances she had espoused as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and a senator from the Golden State.

Trump’s victory makes him just the second president to be elected in non-consecutive cycles, joining Democrat Grover Cleveland — who was picked as the 22nd president in 1884 and the 24th president in 1892, with Republican Benjamin Harrison of Indiana serving four years in between.

The race was widely considered a toss-up right through Election Day, but the first sign that the odds were against Harris came with exit poll results that showed Americans were desperate for change and yearning for relief from economic strain and a massive influx of illegal immigration.

“I will fight for you, for your family and your future – every single day,” Trump vowed. “I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body. I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.

“This will truly be the golden age of America.”

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Republicans Win Senate Majority

Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate with victories in West Virginia and Ohio on Tuesday, ensuring Donald Trump’s party will control at least one chamber of Congress next year.

Republicans also posted early gains as they battled to retain control of the House of Representatives.

If they prevail, Republicans would be in a position to dictate the agenda in Washington, helping Trump deliver on his promise to slash taxes and restrict immigration.

The final result will probably not be known for days, but Tuesday’s results ensured Republicans in the Senate would be able to help Trump appoint conservative judges and other government personnel.

Republican West Virginia Governor Jim Justice was projected to win an open Senate seat in the state shortly after polls closed, taking over the seat previously held by Joe Manchin, a Democrat-turned-independent. In Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno was projected to defeat third-term incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown. Those two victories ensured Republicans will hold at least a 51-49 majority in the Senate.

Republicans stood a chance to widen their Senate majority further, as their candidates were leading Democratic incumbents in Michigan, Montana, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Republican incumbents also held off challengers in Texas, where Ted Cruz won reelection, and Nebraska, where Deb Fischer defeated independent Dan Osborn.
However, they were unlikely to end up with the 60-vote majority needed to advance most legislation in the chamber.

The Senate was set to see two Black women serving simultaneously for the first time, as Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester won in Delaware, and Democrat Angela Alsobrooks won in Maryland.

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Republicans Now Favored to Win US House

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is feeling pretty good about his job security.

As the election results rolled in Tuesday night, Johnson — who was once widely viewed as a placeholder leader — told Axios he’s confident House Republicans will keep their majority and tap him to stay on as speaker.

Johnson predicted members would be receptive to his message — “keep your quarterback” — when it comes time for leadership elections, scheduled for Nov. 13.

“We’ve been working for a year … preparing this playbook that we’ll talk about all the time for the next Congress,” Johnson said in an exclusive interview from his campaign headquarters.

“So if we’re going to … run those plays and execute them with precision, you got to keep the quarterback on the field and keep the same team,” he added.

Surrounded by senior staff in his campaign war room, Johnson said he doesn’t see a scenario where former President Trump wins the White House and the GOP loses the House.

House Up for Grabs

Republicans also won several races that could allow them to expand their 220-212 majority in the House, though the final outcome may not be known for days.

They won a Democratic-held district in Pennsylvania that includes Scranton, Democratic President Joe Biden’s hometown, and picked up seats from Democrats in North Carolina, where they had redrawn district lines to their advantage, with another victory in Michigan.

Democrats won a Republican-held seat in upstate New York and a seat in Alabama that had been redrawn to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order to create a Black majority district.

Democrats now need to flip at least seven seats to take control of the 435-seat chamber. But their opportunities to do so were gradually diminishing, as Republican incumbents won competitive reelection races in Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey and Virginia.

In Delaware, voters made history by electing Democrat Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress.

With at least 200 seats safe for each party, the winning side will likely end up with a narrow majority that could make governing difficult. That has been evident in the past two years as Republican infighting has led to failed votes and leadership turmoil and undercut the party’s efforts to cut spending and tighten immigration.

Tight races in the heavily Democratic states of New York and California could determine House control, and California typically takes several days to count its ballots.

Follow live results.

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Trump Declares Victory in Presidential Election

Former President Trump declared the country had delivered him and Republicans an “unprecedented mandate” as he took a victory lap early Wednesday after multiple outlets projected he would win the White House.

“This is a moment like nobody’s ever seen before. Frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country,” Trump told supporters in Florida who had gathered for his campaign’s watch party.

“And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our country heal,” Trump continued. “We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders, we’re going to fix everything about our country. We made history for a reason tonight.”

Trump was projected to win the presidency, according to Decision Desk HQ, having carried Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The former president addressed supporters from a watch party near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he took in the election results with family members, allies and close advisers.

Those in attendance included billionaire Elon Musk and former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of whom endorsed Trump and are expected to play a role in his next administration.

The former president appears on track for a convincing victory, as he is also leading narrowly in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada as those states continue to count ballots with the races too close to call. Arizona and Nevada could take days to tabulate their ballots.

A New York Times projection showed Trump was also on track to narrowly win the popular vote, something he did not do in 2016 when he first won the White House and something a Republican candidate has only done once since 1992.

“America has given us a powerful and unprecedented mandate,” Trump said.

Trump claimed Republicans had won Senate races in Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, despite those contests still being too close to call. Republicans did have leads in all four states early Wednesday morning.

Republicans already flipped control of the Senate by winning seats in West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Additional wins could create a much larger Senate majority.

Control of the House of Representatives remained up for grabs early Wednesday.

Exit polls showed Trump making huge gains with Latino voters, bolstering his margins in rural areas and running nearly even with Vice President Harris among young men.

The Harris campaign maintained late Tuesday night that there was a path to victory for the vice president if she was able to win the “blue wall” states. But Harris did not appear to get the vote totals she needed out of Philadelphia in particular, closing her path in Pennsylvania and to the White House.

Watch the full speech:

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Kamala Refuses to Give Concession Speech, Crowd Told to Go Home

Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t appear at her watch party as it neared 1 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday as her path to victory shrunk, prompting her campaign chief to say she will instead address supporters later in the morning.

“You won’t hear from the vice president tonight,” Harris campaign chair Cedric Richmond told the crowd gathered at Howard University, her alma mater.

Mr. Richmond said Ms. Harris will return later Wednesday and address the audience at the D.C. university and “the nation.”

“Thank you for believing in the promise of America,” he said. “We still have votes to count. We still have the states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight.”

At the time he spoke, two of the seven swing states had been called for former President Donald Trump — North Carolina and Georgia — and he was leading in all four of the others that had done significant vote counting.

Mathematically, Ms. Harris would almost have to perform a clean sweep of those states.

Mr. Richmond pledged that the campaign will continue to “monitor the vote.”

The appearance of Mr. Richmond to address the crowd immediately drew comparisons to 2016, when Hillary Clinton sent campaign chairman John Podesta to address the crowd at her watch party ahead of her election defeat.

“The entire girl boss ‘I’m speaking’ campaign send a man out to speak for her on election night. Perfection,” wrote Trump adviser Stephen Miller on Twitter.

Roughly half the crowd gathered to watch the election results at the watch party left after midnight without a visit from the vice president as Ms. Harris’ path to victory became narrower.

The crowd was cheering, dancing and listening to loud music all night, but became immediately silent after North Carolina was called for Mr. Trump.

“I wasn’t scared when I came here tonight, but I’m scared now,” Malika Washington, 24, a Harris supporter from the District, told The Washington Times as she left the watch party.

A Howard University student, who declined to give her name, said she was going home and planned to watch the rest of the results there.

Both left before Ms. Harris, who was scheduled to speak, arrived at the watch party. Ms. Harris was expected to depart for the watch party around 10 p.m. Reporters traveling with Ms. Harris said at 10:18 EST that they were holding at her residence and had “no further guidance.”

Revelers had gathered at the Yard, a large open space on Howard University’s campus where they planned to celebrate what they thought would be a Harris victory.

As television networks began calling several key states for Mr. Trump and showed him leading in others, partygoers’ enthusiasm soon waned.

The event began with students and Harris supporters dancing and listening to Howard’s gospel choir as they sang, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which has been dubbed by some as the “Black National Anthem.”

By 11 p.m. the mood darkened considerably and the dancing had stopped. Attendees watched in near silence at the CNN telecast broadcast on a large TV screen next to the stage.

Once North Carolina was called for Mr. Trump, the CNN broadcast was briefly shut off and instead replaced with images of the crowd, some of whom stood agape.

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Abortion Advocates Win in 4 States, But Lose in Florida

Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s abortion bans in one of four victories Tuesday for abortion rights advocates, while Florida defeated a similar constitutional amendment, leaving in place a law barring most abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion amendments also passed in Colorado and Maryland. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York.

Results were still pending in five other states with abortion measures on the ballot.

The Missouri and Florida results represent firsts in the abortion landscape, which underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.

Missouri is positioned to be the first state where a vote will undo a ban that’s already in place. Currently, abortion is barred at all stages of pregnancy with an exception only when a medical emergency puts the woman’s life at risk. Under the amendment, lawmakers would be able to restrict abortions past the point of a fetus’ viability — usually considered after 21 weeks, although there’s no exact defined time frame.

But the ban, and other restrictive laws, are not automatically repealed. Advocates now have to ask courts to overturn laws to square with the new amendment.

“Today, Missourians made history and sent a clear message: decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care are personal and private and should be left up to patients and their families, not politicians,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement.

Roughly half of Missouri’s voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,200 of the state’s voters. But only about 1 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in all cases; nearly 4 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in most cases.

Florida is the first state since Roe was overturned where abortion opponents prevailed on a ballot measure. Most voters supported the Florida measure, but it fell short of the required 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.

The result was a political win for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, who had steered state GOP funds to the cause.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national pro-life group SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the result is “a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country,” praising DeSantis for leading the charge against the measure.

“The reality is because of Florida’s constitution a minority of Florida voters have decided Amendment 4 will not be adopted,” said Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for the Yes on 4 Campaign said while wiping away tears. “The reality is a majority of Floridians just voted to end Florida’s abortion ban.”

In Maryland, the abortion rights amendment is a legal change that won’t make an immediate difference to abortion access in a state that already allows it.

The Colorado measure exceeded the 55% of support required to pass. Besides enshrining access, it also undoes an earlier amendment that barred using state and local government funding for abortion, opening the possibility of state Medicaid and government employee insurance plans covering care.

A New York equal rights law that abortion rights group say will bolster abortion rights also passed. It doesn’t contain the word “abortion” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Sasha Ahuja, campaign director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, called the result “a monumental victory for all New Yorkers” and a vote against opponents who she says used misleading parental rights and anti-trans messages to thwart the measure.

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WATCH: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Melts Down Live on Air After Trump Wins

Liberal commentator Joy Reid has slammed Trump voters and described Florida as ‘extremely right-wing fascist’ after the Sunshine State was called for the Republican nominee.

Reid took part in the MSNBC election night panel on Tuesday and lashed out as votes rolled in, with Trump taking a the lead.

‘Think about the last two weeks and the things that Donald Trump has said into the TV that people could hear him say and do,’ she said.

‘The vulgarity in front of families with young children and the threats to do mass deportation and a violent start to his dictatorship on day one, you name it.’

Reid said she couldn’t fathom that Trump could still secure support from half the population in spite of his often controversial stances, noting it reflects poorly on the American public.

‘If all of that gets you half of the votes… what does it tell you?

‘We need to really take a step back and think about what does that say about us.’

After Florida was called for Trump early in the evening, Reid said: ‘It’s a pure Project 2025 in miniature in Florida.

‘That extremist sort of right-wing, fascist type government in Florida, does that make it more of an attractive place?’

And when Texas was called for Trump, Reid described black voters in Houston as ‘deeply suppressed.’

Her comments sparked a wave of outrage online from outspoken Trump supporters, some of whom said they wanted her ‘removed from the panel.’

Political commentator Collin Rugg said: ‘Joy Reid is looking increasingly more concerned, appears to suggest that half the country is sick.’

‘And the meltdown begins,’ another noted.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter said: ‘This is turning out to be a good night to watch MSNBC.’

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Dollar Jumps, Bitcoin Hits All-Time High

The dollar surged and bitcoin hit a record high Wednesday as traders bet on a victory for Donald Trump as he picked up key swing states needed to take the White House, ramping up bets on fresh tax cuts, tariffs and rising inflation.

While polls had shown the race on a knife edge, the Republican appeared to be faring better than his Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris as results rolled in.

Both candidates picked up expected wins in safe states, but indications that the business tycoon was on course for a second term boosted the so-called Trump Trade.

Trump won Georgia and North Carolina, with others still up in the air, while US networks declared him the winner in key battleground Pennsylvania with Fox News calling the election in his favour.

News that the former president’s party had won control of the Senate boosted the prospect of sweeping tax cuts, more tariffs and deregulation — seen as a boost for the greenback.

The dollar jumped 1.5 percent to 154.33 yen, its highest since July, while it was also up more than one percent against the euro and more than three percent against the Mexican peso.

Bitcoin piled more than $6,000 higher to a record $75,371.69, topping its previous peak of $73,797.98 in March.

Trump has pledged to make the United States the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world” and to put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of a wide-ranging audit of governmental waste.

“The price of bitcoin has closely followed Trump’s position in the polls and on betting markets,” Russ Mould, an analyst at AJ Bell, said ahead of Tuesday’s US election.

Investors are “potentially taking the view that a Republican victory would lead to a surge in demand for the digital currency”, he added.

Analysts said a clean sweep of Congress and the White House for Trump and Republicans would likely boost the dollar and Treasury yields owing to his plans to cut taxes and impose tariffs on imports.

Republican control of the Senate and House “could bring sweeping spending or tax policy shifts. Still, congressional gridlock could be the ultimate volatility suppressor”, said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

And Peter Esho, economist and founder at Esho Capital, said: “The markets are scrambling to figure out what happens next, but for the time being, the market is pricing in a higher growth and higher inflation outlook.”

The election comes as the central bank prepares to deliver its latest policy decision Thursday amid expectations it will cut interest rates by 25 basis points, having lowered them by 50 points in September.

The dollar’s surge against the yen rallied stocks more than three percent in Tokyo at one point thanks to gains in exporters, while markets Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai and Bangkok also rose.

However, there were losses in Shanghai, Seoul, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta.

Hong Kong was also well down — at one point diving almost three percent — on worries about the impact of a Trump presidency on China’s economy and relations between Beijing and Washington.

Traders had been given a strong lead from Wall Street, where all three main indexes climbed more than one percent.

While the result of the election is being closely followed globally, it is of real interest in China after Trump vowed to ratchet up a trade battle with the economic titan by imposing massive tariffs on goods from the country.

The vote comes as Chinese leaders hold a key meeting to hammer out a package of stimulus measures aimed at kickstarting growth and providing support to the colossal property sector, which is mired in a painful debt crisis.

– Key figures around 0710 GMT –

Dollar/yen: UP at 154.21 yen from 151.60 yen on Tuesday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0711 from $1.0930

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2853 from $1.3035

Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.32 from 83.82 pence

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 2.6 percent at 39,480.67 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.6 percent at 20,467.69

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,383.81 (close)

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.9 percent at $70.59 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.0 percent at $74.03 per barrel

New York – Dow: UP 1.0 percent at 42,221.88 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,172.39 (close)

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Widespread Voting Problems Reported in 2 Heavily Republican Pennsylvania Counties

Voters in a deep-red Pennsylvania county will get two extra hours to vote on Election Day after widespread problems with voting machines caused confusion and long lines.

The issues with scanning ballots in Cambria County threatened to disenfranchise voters in the critical swing state, a local election official said Tuesday.

Problems were also reported with tabulation machines in Bedford County.

Authorities reassured voters that their ballots will be counted despite the malfunctions.

Former President Donald Trump won the counties with 68% and 83% of the vote a four years ago with 68% and 83% of the vote, respectively.

“The Cambria County Board of Election learned early this morning that a software malfunction in the County’s Electronic Voting System has prevented voters from scanning their ballots,” Cambria County Solicitor Ron Repak said in a statement.

“This should not discourage voters from voting at their voting precincts. The Board has filed a Court Order extending the time to vote within Cambria County.”

Nathan Anderson, an IT specialist from Johnstown, Cambria’s largest city, said he ran into issues at his voting site when he cast his ballot for Trump this morning.

He said a poll worker put his ballot in a lock box until it could be scanned, but Anderson admitted he had reservations about the issue.

“I was able to turn in my ballot, whether or not it gets scanned, I’ll never know to be honest,” he said.

Anderson added that others were also leaving their ballots with poll workers to be scanned later rather than coming back once the machines are fixed.

Election officials filed emergency paperwork to extend the voting time by two hours to 10 p.m. to rectify the issue and ensure all ballots are counted, according to the petition filed in county court.

In the filing, Repak said, “The malfunction caused voter confusion, long lines of voters, and many individuals left the polling locations without casting a ballot.”

He also added that the malfunction “threatens to disenfranchise a significant number of voters in Cambria County.”

A judge quickly approved the order, but noted that any ballot cast after the standard 8 p.m. deadline would be provisional.

In Bedford County, local officials said the several precincts reported issues with their tabulator machines before the polls were opened, with support teams sent out to resolve the issue.

“The ability to vote has not been impacted and at this time all sites are being addressed,” said Jeffrey Gable, director of Elections in Bedford County.

Pennsylvania has the most electoral college votes of any swing state in the 2024 election. Given that Trump, 78, lost the Keystone State by just over one percentage point in 2020 and that polls have pegged the state as a statistical tossup, the outages have sparked serious concerns for Republicans.

Cambria County, which is about 65 miles east of Pittsburgh, has a population of 131,000; Bedford, next door, has about 47,000 residents.

Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris previously campaigned in Johnstown.

The machine and software issues in Cambria and Bedford counties come as the country is on edge over the election. Four years ago, Trump peddled unsubstantiated claims about widespread voter fraud. Ahead of this election cycle, he has warned of potential maleficence.

Trump’s allies have been carefully on the lookout for any irregularities and geared up to potentially file a slew of lawsuits. The issues in Cambria and Bedford could give fodder for potential suits.

“This will be the most important day in American History. Voter enthusiasm is THROUGH THE ROOF because people want to Make America Great Again. That means lines are going to be long! I need you to deliver your vote no matter how long it takes. STAY IN LINE! The Radical Communist Democrats want you to pack up and go home,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

Repak suggested that the county’s response to the software and machine snafus illustrates how the system is working to safeguard voters from glitches.

“Cambria County Board of Elections took measures to have IT specialists called to review the software issue. There is a process in place for issues of this nature. All completed ballots will be accepted, secured, and counted by the Board of Elections,” he stressed.

“The County Board of Elections has express voting machine at precinct locations to continue to allow voting electronically, while still allowing hand ballots to be cast,” Repak went on. “The County Board of Elections will be continuing to monitor this issue and take any necessary action to ensure that all voters have an opportunity to cast their ballots.”

Local voter Jessie Anderson said she was shocked by the voting issue but relieved that she chose to cast her ballot early on Oct. 29, anticipating possible Election Day issues.

“I’ve never voted early; voted by mail. But Trump kept putting it out there. Make it too big to rig,” she echoed the former president.

The Pennsylvania Department of State said it has been made aware of the issues in Cambria County and is working with local officials to correct them.

“Voters are continuing to vote by paper ballot, in accordance with normal operations, while the county resolves the issue with in-precinct scanning,” the department said in a statement.

“We are working with the County to resolve this technical matter and remain committed to ensuring a free, fair, safe, and secure election.”

Trump has a 0.6 percentage point edge over Harris in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of multi-candidate polling. The 45th president had flipped the state in 2016 but lost it in 2020.

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CNN Panelist Says Dems at Massive Disadvantage from Early Voting Deficit

A CNN panel looked shocked after guest Marc Lotter suggested a significant shortfall in Democrat early voting vs. 2020 portends a bad time for Kamala Harris.

“The math doesn’t work. The Democrats are down 1.7 million early votes in the battleground states in urban areas,” said Lotter.

“They are down 1.4 million votes in the battleground states among women voters.”

“Rural voters have overperformed early by 300,000,” he continued, noting that “Democrats have to win their races early. Republicans generally win them on election day.”

“The margins don’t add up right now for the Democrats in any of these battleground states.”

Watch:

Lotter’s comments come after the Trump campaign touted bullish data showing Republicans gaining ground with the early vote in battleground states vs. the 2020 election cycle.

According to the campaign, new and infrequent voters are leaning more Republican than Democrat based on the latest indications from Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania, the NY Post reports, citing a source in the camp.

“In those states, Democrats have more than 1.4 million voters who voted before Election Day in 2020 or 2022 but have not voted yet” — despite early voting being closed in nearly every state — “and many not having even requested a mail ballot,” the source said, suggesting that Democrat turnout might not be as strong this time around.

According to the Post, here’s some of the data that allies of the campaign have been privately touting – mixed with early-voter information:

Arizona

Returned mail and early-vote party registration: Republicans up 8 points.

Relative to 2020: Republicans are up 9 points.

Early voting in the Grand Canyon State closed Nov. 1. Men comprised about 50% of the votes for Republicans and 40% for Democrats, according to the data shared with The Post.

Other groups have reported apparent advantages for Republicans here, too. For instance, there have been 924,524 GOP ballot returns, relative to 736,569 for Democrats, according to early-vote data compiled by UpLift Campaigns.

Georgia

The Peach State doesn’t have voter registration information for its early votes.

Looking at data from Democratic analyst Tom Bonier, the African American early vote and mail turnout dipped 7% relative to 2020.

Early voting in Georgia stopped Nov. 1. Its turnout soared to 4,004,588 both through early voting and absentee voting by mail this year, compared to the 2,697,822 early voters four years ago, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Michigan

The Wolverine State similarly lacks voter registration information for its early votes.

But the Trump campaign is touting data suggesting that in-person early voters represent about 32% of the pre-Election Day votes cast and that its supporters typically favor in-person voting. In-person early voting is new in Michigan.

More than 2.58 million of the over 7 million people registered to vote in Michigan have cast early votes, according to data from the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office.

North Carolina

Returned mail and early-vote party registration: Republicans up 1 point.

Relative to 2020: Republicans are up 9 points.

This appears to be the first time Republicans have ever clinched the early vote in North Carolina.

Data from Bonier suggests that African American mail and early-vote returns have sunk 22% relative to 2020 here. Men comprised about 37% of the Democratic support and 49% of Republican support.

In-person early voting in the Old North State stopped Nov. 2.

There have been about 4.4 million early votes cast out of the roughly 7.8 million registered voters in North Carolina, including 1,478,496 for Republicans, 1,436,861 for Democrats and 1,524,094 without a party registration, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

Nevada

Returned mail and early-vote party registration: Republicans up 4 points.

Relative to 2020: Republicans are up 8 points.

Early in-person voting was closed off Nov. 1. Roughly 42% of Democratic votes came from men and 52% from Republicans.

Across the board, Nevada saw about 1,077,441 voters turn out early, including 406,705 from Republicans and 363,595 from Democrats, according to data.

Pennsylvania

Returned mail and early-vote party registration: Democrats up 23 points

Relative to 2020: Republicans are faring 22 points better.

The Trump campaign believes that Democrats’ early-vote advantage in the Keystone State has slipped from past elections, with total absentee ballots plummeting about 29% relative to the 2020 cycle.

There have been at least 1,739,606 early votes cast in Pennsylvania, including 971,615 from Democrats and 571,725 from Democrats, per the University of Florida’s Election Lab data.

Wisconsin

The Badger State lacks voter registration information for its early votes.

Still, the Trump campaign believes that early votes and mail-in ballots have slipped 23% since 2020 and that mail-in ballot requests are down 52% from 2020.

There have been at least 1,338,728 early votes cast in Wisconsin, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab. There are more than 4.7 million registered voters there.

Approximately 76 million early votes have been cast across the country, per the University of Florida’s Election Lab vs. 252 million in the 2020 election, in which early voting generally favored Democrats, while in-person voting leaned Republican.

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Georgia Poll Worker Arrested After Bomb Threat

A Georgia poll worker was arrested Monday for allegedly mailing a letter threatening other poll workers with rape, a “beatdown” and a bomb threat.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, was working at the Jones County Elections Office on Oct. 16 when he had a verbal altercation with a voter, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The next day, Wimbish mailed a letter to the county elections superintendent, written to appear as though it came from the voter he had argued with, the DOJ said in a Monday press release.

The letter said, “Wimbish had ‘give[n] me hell,’ according to the DOJ.

Wimbish allegedly made other complaints about himself, claiming that he was “conspiring votes” and distracting people from concentrating.

The letter also said that Wimbish and other poll workers “should look over their shoulder” and that he would “beatdown” the young men “if they fight me.”

Additionally, the letter threatened to “rage rape” female poll workers and concluded with a handwritten note, saying, “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe,” according to the DOJ.

Wimbish has been charged with mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, as well as mailing a threatening letter and making false statements to the FBI.

The FBI Atlanta Field Office is investigating the case.

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Here’s When Polls Close in Every State

Election Day has arrived, and while millions of Americans have already voted early or through mail-in ballots, results from each state won’t begin to be posted until the polls close on Tuesday.

Along with the presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, voters are also electing candidates to the House and Senate and deciding important ballot measures. The earliest polls close at 6 p.m. ET, while on the West Coast, many voters have until 11 p.m. ET to cast their ballots.

Here’s a timeline of each state’s poll closing times (all times Eastern):

6:00 p.m.

Parts of Indiana and Kentucky will see polls close at 6:00 p.m. as both states have regions in Eastern and Central time zones. Polls in Indiana’s 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th districts will close at this time as will polls in Kentucky’s 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th districts.

7:00 p.m.

All polls in Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia will close at 7 p.m. In Indiana, polls in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th districts will close at this time while polls in Kentucky’s 1st and 2nd districts will close. Most of the polls in Florida will also close at 7 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

All polls in North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia will close at 7:30 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

The largest chunk of poll closings happens in the 8 p.m. hour. Polls in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee close at 8 p.m. Florida’s 1st and 2nd district’s polls will also close at 8 p.m. as will the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th districts in Kansas. Most of the polls in Michigan and Texas will also close at 8 p.m.

8:30 p.m.

Arkansas is the only state where the polls close at 8:30 p.m.

9:00 p.m.

This is the second biggest chunk of closings as polls in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming close at 9 p.m. The rest of the polls in Kansas, Michigan, and Texas also close at 9 p.m.

10:00 p.m.

Polls in Montana, Nevada, and Utah close at 10 p.m., along with polls in the 2nd House district in Idaho.

11:00 p.m

Most of the polls on the West Coast close at 11 p.m. Voters in California, Oregon, and Washington, along with the 1st district in Idaho, have until 11 p.m. to vote.

12:00 a.m.

Hawaii’s polls will close at midnight.

1:00 a.m.

The final polls in the country will close at 1 a.m. in Alaska.

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4 Things Elon Musk Told Joe Rogan Before His Trump Endorsement

Joe Rogan, the massively popular podcaster who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2020 and signaled he would back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) were he to go the distance in 2024, long expressed reluctance about having President Donald Trump on his show.

Rogan finally gave in late last month and sat down for three hours with the Republican president for an interview that went viral despite YouTube’s apparent censorship efforts. Although the titular host of “The Joe Rogan Experience” appeared receptive to Trump’s various policy proposals and his commentary about the issues facing the nation, Rogan refrained from endorsing the president — until Monday night after Elon Musk detailed his own reasons for backing Trump.

Rogan noted after the nearly three-hour interview Monday that Musk, a former Democrat, made “the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear” and agreed with the tech magnate “every step of the way.”

While their conversation was replete with indications that might account for why Rogan finally endorsed Kamala Harris’ opponent — such as the falsity of both the Democrat-constructed Russian collusion narrative and the party’s promise of change; Harris’ censorial reflex and dislikable personality; economic woes; Democrats’ failure or unwillingness to tackle crime; reckless government spending; the border crisis; the promise of Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement; and the slaying of Peanut the squirrel — Musk highlighted four key reasons Trump was the optimal choice.

To save America from a ‘one-party state’

Musk, who has reportedly poured hundreds of millions of dollars into efforts to see Trump elected, emphasized that should the Republican candidate lose the election, America will in turn “lose the two-party system.”

The tech billionaire reasoned that there are only a handful of swing states where the margin of victory is small, “often 10 or 20,000 votes.”

Musk echoed the concern Rogan raised with Sen. John Fetterman on the previous episode, namely that “the Democrat administration has been … importing vast numbers of illegal aliens into swing states.”

“What we’re seeing is triple-digit increases in the numbers of illegals in every swing state. Some cases, 700% increases. These are gigantic numbers,” said Musk, stressing that these numbers are far in excess of what would be necessary to permanently lock swing states for the Democrats.

“Once the swing states vote blue, there is no election anymore,” continued Musk. “There’s only a Democrat primary.”

“Which is so crazy,” Rogan responded. “And it’s so crazy that people are fine with that.”

Musk indicated that the ultimate result would be a “one-party state” whose Democratic commissars could continue the project of overwhelming resistive states with illegal aliens until the remaining resistance is electorally neutralized.

While the Tesla CEO intimated that amnesty might play a big role in this scheme, he indicated that illegal aliens will be able to put their thumbs on the scale long before receiving citizenship, referencing successful Democratic efforts to eliminate voter ID laws.

Steven Camarota, the director of research for the Center of Immigration Studies, noted in a recent op-ed that illegal aliens are also counted in the census, meaning blue states will enjoy greater and greater representation in Congress the longer the border crisis goes unchecked.

“If Trump doesn’t win, this is the last election,” reiterated Musk.

Rogan replied, “I think you’re right.”

To save the Constitution

Musk noted that there has been a concerted campaign by Democrats to infringe upon Americans’ rights and to render the Constitution a dead document.

“There have been all these attacks on the Constitution, especially on the Democrat side. They have been repeatedly saying that the First Amendment is an obstacle,” said Musk. “And they’re claiming, ‘Oh, the First Amendment is enabling disinformation, misinformation.’ And I’m like, ‘Yo, there’s a reason for the First Amendment.'”

Democrats have been explicit about their problems with the First Amendment and the speech rights it guarantees.

Tim Wu, a former special assistant to President Biden for competition and tech policy and author of one of Biden’s executive orders, complained in July that the “First Amendment is out of control” and recommended reining it in.

Former Biden-Harris climate czar John Kerry noted during a World Economic Forum panel discussion on trade and so-called sustainability in September that “our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to just, you know, hammer [‘disinformation’] out of existence.”

The Biden-Harris administration has evidenced in practice its hostility toward free speech. For instance, it leaned on social media companies to silence dissenting voices during the pandemic; launched the Department of Homeland Security’s short-lived Disinformation Governance Board and tasked an advocate for deplatforming Trump to run the censorship outfit; weaponized the State Department to clamp down on undesirable speech; and worked to control speech on the internet.

“If you don’t have freedom of speech, you don’t have democracy,” Musk told Rogan. “If you don’t have freedom of speech, people cannot make an informed vote. If they’re just being fed propaganda, and there’s no freedom of speech, democracy is an illusion.”

Musk noted further that the Second Amendment — similarly under assault by Harris and her fellow Democrats — serves to ensure Americans can fight off those tyrannical forces that would dare undermine the First Amendment.

“I’ve had these debates, especially with people in L.A., because they want to take everyone’s guns away, and I’m like, ‘Yo, can you guarantee me that the government — that we’ll never have a tyrannical government in the United States? Can you make that guarantee?’ They’re like, ‘Well, nobody can make that guarantee.’ I’m like, ‘Then we need to keep our guns,'” said Musk. “Because that’s what’s going to stop it.”

Harris’ campaign website noted that if elected, she would “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”

In the past, Harris has threatened to storm the homes of law-abiding Americans for surprise gun inspections and sponsored a handgun ban.

To save America from suffocating regulation

Musk told Rogan that regulation has stymied innovation, such that it apparently takes longer for Space X to gain approval from regulatory agencies for a rocket launch than it takes to build the actual rockets.

When making his case for why a return to Trump’s style of relative deregulation is optimal, Musk likened regulators to referees in a game of football.

“You don’t want to have no refs. You want to have some number of refs. But you don’t want to have way more refs than players,” said Musk. “‘Well, the running back couldn’t complete the pass because there were too many regulators in the way because the football field was full of regulators.’ Like, you can’t even play the game.”

Musk said in September that if Trump wins, “We do have an opportunity to do kind of a once-in-a-lifetime deregulation and reduction in the size of government.”

To save America from foreign entanglements

The duo broached the subject of the left’s desperate attempts to liken Trump to Adolf Hitler. Musk made a point of noting that Hitler is so despised because he committed genocide and effectively started war with Western civilization.

“Tell me about the wars and genocide that Trump did. Uh, I don’t remember that, and he was president for four years,” said Musk. “It’s insane. It makes no sense.”

Rogan noted, “He’s campaigning on stopping all the wars. It’s like his primary concern.”

“Exactly! The war mongers like Liz Cheney hate him,” added Musk. “Because they love war. … They profit off of war.”

Former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney and her father, Dick Cheney — a champion of the invasion of Iraq, which cost thousands of U.S. service lives and trillions of dollars — are among the interventionists who have backed Harris. Harris and Cheney recently denounced Trump’s “isolationism,” calling his aversion to foreign entanglements “dangerous.”

Rogan indicated that he felt a sense of cognitive dissonance when the left celebrated Dick Cheney’s Harris endorsement: “It’s the craziest turn — the craziest 180 I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Yeah, can we play all the videos where you said Dick Cheney was the devil?” Musk replied, laughing.

“The war-profiteers hate Trump,” said Musk. “Which is f***ed up. … We should be like, ‘Yeah, let’s vote for the guy war-profiteers hate. That sounds like a great idea.'”

The tech billionaire noted further that the “Kamala puppet regime” is a guarantee for more war.

Musk concluded the interview by emphasizing the “men need to vote.”

“This is a message to the men out there: Vote like your life depends on it because I think it does,” said Musk. “Nothing is more important.”

Watch the full interview:

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Netanyahu Fires Israeli Defense Minister

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday fired the country’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

Netanyahu’s decision in the midst of Israel’s multi-front war is being driven largely by domestic political pressure, including from members of his coalition government who are pressing him to pass laws that would benefit ultra-orthodox students who don’t serve in the military.

Gallant opposes the laws, while the ultra-orthodox parties in the coalition are threatening to topple the government if the laws aren’t passed in the coming days.

By firing Gallant, who was independent and challenged the Prime Minister’s policies regarding the war many times, Netanyahu will now have tighter control over national security decision making.

Gallant was the most trusted partner in the Israeli government for the Biden administration.

Netanyahu announced he is appointing foreign minister Israel Katz as Minister of Defense. Katz has no military background and limited experience on national security issues.

Netanyahu also announced he is appointing Gideon Saar as Israel’s foreign minister.

Netanyahu claimed he fired Gallant because of a lack of trust needed to work together.

“Significant gaps emerged between me and Gallant in the management of the war, and these gaps were accompanied by statements and actions that contradicted government and cabinet decisions,” Netanyahu said.

He claimed he made many attempts to bridge the gaps with Gallant “but they kept widening” and accused Gallant for making the disagreements between them public “which pleased our enemies who benefited greatly from it.”

Gallant issued a short statement in response: “The security of the State of Israel always was, and will always remain my life’s mission.”

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Witnesses in Daniel Penny Trial Recall How Subway Confrontation Unfolded

Witnesses to the May 2023 incident in which Marine Daniel Penny placed Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness, into a chokehold on a Manhattan-bound subway train and caused his death, testified in a Manhattan courtroom on Nov. 4 about what they saw and heard that day.

One witness, Yvette Rosario, said the incident made her far more frightened than anything else she had experienced on the subway in her 10 years of living in New York City. Jurors watched a portion of a video of the incident and its aftermath taken with Rosario’s cellphone.

After seating a full jury last week, the trial got into full swing on Nov. 1 in Judge Maxwell Wiley’s courtroom in the criminal court building at 100 Centre St. in lower Manhattan.

When the trial, which the judge said is likely to last about six weeks, comes to an end, the jurors will be asked to decide whether to convict Penny on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. At the heart of the case is whether Neely was simply a desperate person who wanted attention and help, as prosecutors maintain, or posed an immediate danger to others on the Manhattan-bound F train, as Penny’s defense insists.

In a brief initial phase on the morning of Nov. 4, Penny’s lawyers sought to persuade the judge that the prosecution’s opening statement depicting Neely as the kind of ordinary homeless person whom urban residents encounter daily was wrong and prejudicial to the jury.

Given Neely’s documented history of mental health problems and violent incidents leading up to, and earlier on the day of, the fatal encounter, such a characterization “creates a very false narrative for the jury,” Thomas Kenniff, a lawyer for Penny, said.

Wiley said he did not think that the prosecution had in any way hampered the defense from making whatever arguments it pleased but said he would take the defense’s motion under advisement.

The courtroom then heard from Rosario, 19, who was on the train with a friend when the incident occurred. Under direct examination from government lawyers, Rosario, who is from the Dominican Republic, said she took the subway almost every day to travel to and from school.

On May 1, 2023, Rosario was on the F train heading toward her destination, at the stop at Broadway-Lafayette, where SoHo borders Greenwich Village. At the Second Avenue station, she said, the doors had almost closed when a man whom she identified as Neely stuck his hand in to prevent the doors from closing and then came inside.

“Once he came in, he took off his sweater, and while he was taking off his sweater, he stated how he was homeless, he didn’t have any money, and he didn’t care about going back to jail,” Rosario said.

She recalled Neely throwing his sweater hard onto the ground and moving quickly up to one of the poles in the subway car. Rosario said Neely’s tone frightened her.

“I was very nervous and was telling my friend I was going to pass out. … I got scared by the tone of how he was saying it,” Rosario stated. “I have seen situations, but not like that.”

She recalled putting her head on her friend’s chest and wishing the train’s doors would open again so she could get off. She said the next thing she remembered was the sound of someone falling to the floor, and then looking up to see Penny and Neely struggling.

“I saw them both on the floor, and then he was holding him, the white guy; he had him like this,” Rosario said, approximating a chokehold with her arms and hands.

Under cross-examination from Kenniff, Rosario repeated much of her account and emphasized that the incident stood out from other tense and unpleasant things that she had seen on the subway in the past.

The testimony of another passenger, Juan Alberto Vazquez, who spoke through an interpreter, confirmed much of Rosario’s testimony.

Vazquez said he had witnessed some of the encounter and heard other parts of it from his position sitting behind a couple riding the train.

The trial resumes on Nov. 7 with more witness testimony.

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Home Depot Co-Founder Bernie Marcus Dies at 95

Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, has died at the age of 95.

Marcus, who grew up in New Jersey, was the youngest son of poor Russian immigrants and became a self-made billionaire with a net worth of over $11 billion, per Forbes, after founding the home improvement chain with Arthur Blank in 1978, with the support of investor Ken Langone.

Marcus, a longtime donor to the Republican National Committee, according to federal election records, was an early supporter of former President Donald Trump.

In one of his last interviews in November 2023, Marcus spoke with FOX Business senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino in a wide-ranging interview in which he blasted President Biden’s economic policies for exacerbating the rise in prices that consumers are facing.

“I never anticipated anything like what we’re going through,” Marcus said of Biden at the time. “I wake up every morning and I say, ‘What is this dunce going to do today?’”

“He cut back drilling, he caused the inflation, the inflation caused every other problem for every businessman, for every American,” Marcus said. “And the people that he’s supposed to represent – the poor people, the middle class – they’re getting killed today.”

Marcus also founded the Job Creators Network, a small business advocacy group, more than a decade ago.

“Bernie Marcus was one of the great American business success stories,” said Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Network. “But Bernie was so much more than a businessman. He was a visionary, a philanthropist, and a dedicated family man. While The Home Depot grew to become one of the nation’s largest businesses, Bernie never forgot the importance of small businesses to the economy and the country as a whole. He generously tasked JCN with preserving the small business economy against relentless big government attacks.”

Marcus and his wife Billi, who founded the Marcus Foundation, have given more than $2 billion to various causes.

“Bernie Marcus’s legendary business success is matched only by his generous philanthropy,” said Elaine Parker, president of Job Creators Network Foundation. “He didn’t just give back but paid it forward, helping preserve the free-market economy that enables the next generation of Home Depots.”

“Bernie recognized that small businesses and entrepreneurship are the lifeblood of the American economy,” she added. “And the best way to protect them is by defending capitalism, the only economic system that allows ordinary people to become entrepreneurs and financially independent.”

The couple is also part of “The Giving Pledge” along with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and other wealthy individuals. The organization supports philanthropists who commit to giving a majority of their wealth to charity.

Home Depot went public in 1981 for $12 per share and is trading around $395 a share as of Tuesday. It has over 2,000 stores and employs more than 500,000.

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Pennsylvania Judge Allows Elon Musk’s $1 Million Voter Giveaway

A Philadelphia judge on Monday denied City of Brotherly Love DA Larry Krasner’s effort to block billionaire Elon Musk from giving away daily $1 million payouts to registered swing state voters.

Krasner argued that the giveaways amounted to an illegal lottery, but Judge Angelo Foglietta spurned the DA’s bid to stop the prizes immediately after Musk’s lawyer testified that the winners were not randomly selected.

“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” attorney Chris Gober told the court, according to the Associated Press. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

Chris Young, the head of Musk’s America PAC, testified that the prize winners were vetted prior to being selected in order to “feel out their personality, [and] make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the political action committee.

Musk’s lawyers further argued that recipients of the million-dollar prizes become paid spokespeople for America PAC and that their “core political speech” would be violated if the giveaways were halted. The Tesla and X CEO’s team also argued that Krasner’s effort was moot since no other Pennsylvanians would be selected before the giveaway ends on Election Day.

Since Oct. 19, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has given away $16 million to voters who have signed his petition backing freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.

To be eligible for the seven-figure prize, signatories must also be registered to cast a ballot in one of the seven swing states that will decide the election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Amid the revelation that winners were not being randomly drawn, Krasner derided Musk’s program as a “grift.”

“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” the DA said. “That’s what it is. A grift.”

“They were scammed for their information,” added Krasner. “It has almost unlimited use.”

Musk, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, is expected to reveal the final prize winner on Election Day.

The Harris-Biden Justice Department reportedly warned Musk last month that his program may be illegal.

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Georgia Supreme Court Blocks Cobb County from Accepting Absentee Ballots Past 7 pm Tuesday Night.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that certain absentee ballots can only be counted if they arrive by Election Day, a move that will set aside at least 3,000 late-arriving ballots pending further litigation.

The decision by the state’s highest court marks a monumental victory for the Republican National Committee‘s election integrity efforts.

The RNC’s appeal was in response to a lower court judge who extended the deadline for counting around 3,000 absentee ballots to Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. after Cobb County officials admitted to failing to mail out a certain subset of ballots on time.

“HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley posted to X on Monday afternoon as he applauded the state Supreme Court’s decision to reverse a lower court’s order and maintain that all ballots must be postmarked and received by Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Superior Court Senior Judge Robert E. Flournoy III ordered Cobb County last week to “process received ballots by Affected Voters” so long as their ballots were postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day, and that those ballots could be counted for the general election until 5 p.m. on Nov. 8.

“Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court,” Whatley said.

The Georgia Supreme Court’s decision means that any late-arriving ballots by the roughly 3,000 “Affected Voters” that come in after Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. will be set aside for now, barring any potential appeals to the Supreme Court.

The Georgia Supreme Court noted that the order “does not pertain to voters entitled to vote under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act,” which pertains to military and overseas voters.

According to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s Office, “All ballots postmarked by the date of the primary, election, or runoff will be counted if received within three days of Election Day” for those subject to UOCAVA.

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Joe Rogan Endorses Trump on Eve of Election Day

Joe Rogan endorsed former President Trump for president on Monday evening.

The podcaster’s endorsement of the GOP presidential nominee on the eve of Election Day could be a major boost for Trump as “The Joe Rogan Experience” is particularly popular among young men — a key voter demographic for the Republican.

In announcing his endorsement on X, Rogan hailed the “great and powerful” Elon Musk.

“If it wasn’t for him we’d be f–ked,” Rogan wrote in the post, which links to his interview with Musk.

“He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way. For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump. Enjoy the podcast.”

Rogan’s three-hour interview with Trump reached tens of millions within days.

He had also pursued an interview with Vice President Harris and said her campaign had not turned him down, but requested that he travel for it.

“I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin,” he said on X last week.

“My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”

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When Will We Know Who Won the 2024 Election?

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck and neck heading into Election Day, and it’s nearly a certainty that a 2024 winner won’t be declared until later this week.

Both the 2020 and 2022 midterm elections saw some significant delays in declaring a winner. President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory wasn’t solidified until the Saturday following Election Day. During the 2022 midterms, the House also took four days to be decided, while the Senate took a full eight.

According to 538, there are two key factors in determining when results will be returned. First, the actual tightness of the race, as opposed to the margin in the polls, will impact how quickly critical states can be called. Actual vote tallies are unpredictable, so there’s no real way to know just how tight this race is in advance.

For example, the Des Moines Register’s final 2024 poll, conducted last week and released over the weekend, showed a 7-point swing since September that gives Harris a 3-point lead over the former president among likely Iowa voters.

Trump won Iowa by more than eight points in 2020 and was leading Biden by nearly 20 points before this summer’s ticket switch. If Harris were to somehow win the state this cycle, Trump’s path to the White House would significantly change.

Secondly, the speed at which votes can be counted is determined by the total number of ballots cast by mail, which require additional levels of verification. Furthermore, each state, including the seven critical battlegrounds, all have different rules about when election workers can begin counting mail ballots, and when those early votes must be reported by.

Roughly 46% of the more than 155 million votes cast in the 2020 general election were by mail, and this cycle, nearly 69 million voters requested absentee or mail ballots.

The Harris campaign said in a memo over the weekend that they won’t expect results in the seven battleground states to be known until Thursday or beyond. The Trump campaign did not answer questions about their own timeline for when they expect votes to be counted.

Harris campaign officials expect most of the results from Georgia and North Carolina to be posted by Tuesday night, but warned that those results might be delayed if they are particularly close.

The campaign also expects mostly complete results from Michigan and Wisconsin to be in by 6 a.m. EST Wednesday morning, and the majority of votes in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Nevada to be counted later that day.

Campaign officials note that in Nevada, “ballots can continue to arrive through 11/9, and voters can cure ballots through 11/12.”

Furthermore, the campaign expects that “tens of thousands of provisional ballots will be counted starting 11/8” in Pennsylvania and some challenged ballots in North Carolina won’t be counted until Nov. 15.

“It will take a long time to count every single vote, and we can’t place too much stock in the early returns. The tally in certain states is going to change a lot as additional ballots are counted,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in an email sent to supporters over the weekend. “For example, some states that count absentee ballots first may start off blue and shift to red as time goes on. Those would be your Michigans and Pennsylvanias.”

There is a chance that Trump might declare victory before all the votes have been counted, like he did in 2020.

Toward that end, Harris has begun telling reporters that she has a team of lawyers ready to challenge the former president in court.

“Of course,” Harris said in an interview with NBC in October when asked if she thought Trump would declare victory early. “This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to undo a free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people, who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol and 140 law enforcement officers were attacked.”

You can find a state-by-state breakdown of poll closing times below, in addition to any state laws that could delay results from being published:

ALABAMA

Polls Close: 8:00 pm EST

State law requires specific excuses for absentee voting, resulting in high rates of in-person voting. The majority of Alabama’s votes should be counted by election night.

ALASKA

Polls close at 12:00 am EST 11/6 and 1:00 am EST in the Aleutian Islands

Alaska begins reporting results at 1:00 am EST, and the state’s Division of Elections will provide updates every half-hour until 3:00 am EST. The next update, including the majority of mail ballots, will be counted and announced on Nov. 12

ARIZONA

Polls Close: 9:00 pm EST

Arizona will not post results until all precincts have reported or 10:00 pm EST at the latest. After 10:00 pm, counties will begin counting and announcing mail ballot totals, but Maricopa County, a hotbed for voter fraud claims in 2020, said that it might take until 5:00 am EST on Wednesday to count and report all of the Election Day votes and potentially two weeks to count all of its mail ballots.

ARKANSAS

Polls Close: 8:30 p.m. EST

Arkansas consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

CALIFORNIA

Polls close at 11:00 pm EST

California will begin publishing results as soon as the polls close, but the state still accepts mail ballots through Nov. 12, so it will take at least a full week to tally all the votes.

COLORADO

Polls close: 9:00 pm EST

Election law requires Colorado counties to begin posting results one hour after the polls close, but election officials have warned that a full count could drag into the following week based on the sheer number of mail ballots.

CONNECTICUT

Polls Close: 9:00 pm EST

Connecticut consistently is able to report all of its results by election night, or the Wednesday after at the latest.

DELAWARE

Polls Close: 8:00 pm EST

Delaware consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Polls Close: 8:00 pm EST

Most but not all results will be known on election night, as Washington, D.C., allows ballots to be received by Nov. 15, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 5.

FLORIDA

Polls Close: 7:00 pm EST, 8:00 p.m. in the Western part of the state

Florida requires all early voting, both in-person and by mail, to be reported 30 minutes after polls close.

GEORGIA

Polls Close: 7:00 p.m. EST

State laws passed after the 2020 election require early votes to be counted and reported by 8:00 pm on Election Night. The state election office predicts posting 90% of all results to be posted by midnight on Election Night, with all remaining absentee ballots counted by 5:00 p.m. EST the next day.

HAWAII

Polls Close: Midnight EST

Hawaii reports its votes in three batches, with the first coming shortly after polls close, the second by 3:30 a.m. EST on Nov. 6, and the third sometime later on Wednesday.

IDAHO

Polls Close: 10:00 p.m. EST in the South, 11:00 p.m. EST in the North

Idaho consistently is able to report all of its results by the day after the election.

ILLINOIS

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Illinois reports its early voting numbers shortly after the polls close, but the state allows mail ballots to be counted through Nov. 19.

INDIANA

Polls Close: 6:00 p.m. EST in most parts of the state, 7:00 p.m. in the West

Indiana state law requires results updates to be published on the hour beginning at 8:00 p.m. EST through midnight. Results updates resume at 9:00 a.m. EST until the count is completed.

IOWA

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

Iowa consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

KANSAS

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST in most of the state, 9:00 p.m. in the West

Kansas allows mail ballots to be counted through Nov. 8, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.

KENTUCKY

Polls Close: 6:00 p.m. EST in the East, 7:00 p.m. in the West

Kentucky consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

LOUISIANA

Polls Close: 9:00 pm EST

Louisiana consistently is able to report all of its results by Wednesday morning.

MAINE

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Maine uses ranked choice voting, which can delay counting by several days if neither Harris nor Trump wins a majority of the vote.

MARYLAND

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Maryland begins reporting results shortly after polls close, but the state still receives and allows mail ballots to be counted through Nov. 15.

MASSACHUSETTS

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. ET

Massachusetts may begin posting results on election night but is not required to do so until Nov. 8, the received cutoff for mail ballots postmarked by Election Day.

MICHIGAN

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. in the East, 9:00 p.m. in part of the Upper Peninsula

Newly enacted state laws allow Michigan to begin counting mail ballots before Election Day, and the state is expected to return all of its results by Wednesday.

MINNESOTA

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

Minnesota consistently is able to report all of its results by Wednesday.

MISSISSIPPI

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Mississippi allows mail ballots to be counted if received by Nov. 13, as long as they are properly postmarked.

MISSOURI

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Missouri consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

MONTANA

Polls Close: 10:00 p.m. EST

Montana consistently is able to report all of its results by Wednesday.

NEBRASKA

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

Nebraska typically reports nearly all its votes on election night, but the state election’s office will deliver an update on Nov. 8 followed by additional updates as necessary.

NEVADA

Polls Close: 10:00 p.m. EST

Nevada allows all voters waiting in line when the polls close to vote, and the state will not report any results until after those final votes are cast. Furthermore, the state allows mail ballots to be counted through Nov. 9, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Polls Close: 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST depending on the municipality

New Hampshire consistently is able to report all of its results by Wednesday.

NEW JERSEY

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

New Jersey allows properly postmarked mail ballots to be received and counted through Nov. 11.

NEW MEXICO

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

New Mexico begins reporting results shortly after polls close, but if not all votes are counted by 1:00 am EST on Wednesday, the count must be paused until 11:30 a.m. EST.

NEW YORK

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

New York allows properly postmarked mail ballots to be received and counted through Nov. 12.

NORTH CAROLINA

Polls Close: 7:30 p.m. EST

North Carolina will report all early voting totals between 7:30 p.m. EST and 9:30 p.m. EST on election night, followed shortly after by Election Day totals. The state will continue to count provisional ballots, absentee ballots, and special ballots for voters in regions hit by Hurricane Helene over the following 10 days.

NORTH DAKOTA

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST in most of the state, 9:00 p.m. EST in the Southwest

North Dakota allows mail ballots postmarked by Nov. 4 to be received and counted through November 18.

OHIO

Polls Close: 7:30 p.m. EST

Ohio allows mail ballots postmarked by Nov. 4 to be received and counted through Nov. 9.

OKLAHOMA

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Oklahoma consistently is able to report all of its results by Wednesday.

OREGON

Polls Close: 10:00 p.m. EST in Malheur County, 11:00 p.m. EST in the rest of the state

Oregon allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received and counted through Nov. 12.

PENNSYLVANIA

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

State law prohibits any mail ballots from being processed until Election Day, but once the count starts, it cannot stop until all votes are reported. State officials say they expect full results by Wednesday or Thursday.

RHODE ISLAND

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Rhode Island consistently is able to report all of its results by Wednesday.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Polls Close: 7:00 p.m. EST

South Carolina consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m EST. in the East, 9:00 p.m. EST in the West

TENNESSEE

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST

Tennessee consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

TEXAS

Polls Close: 8:00 p.m. EST in most of the state, 9:00 p.m. EST in the West

Texas cannot start counting early votes until after polls close, but the state also requires all Election Day voting to be tabulated 24 hours after polls close.

UTAH

Polls Close: 10:00 p.m. EST

Utah allows mail ballots postmarked by Nov. 4 to be received and counted through Nov. 19, depending on the county.

VERMONT

Polls Close: 7:00 p.m. EST

Vermont consistently is able to report all of its results on election night.

VIRGINIA

Polls Close: 7:00 p.m. EST

Virginia allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received and counted through Nov. 8.

WASHINGTON

Polls Close: 11:00 p.m. EST

Washington allows properly postmarked ballots to be received and counted all the way up until Nov. 26 in some counties.

WEST VIRGINIA

Polls Close: 7:30 p.m. EST

West Virginia consistently is able to report all of its results on election night, though the state does allow properly postmarked mail ballots to be received and counted through Nov. 12.

WISCONSIN

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

Wisconsin does not allow absentee ballots to be processed until Election Day, which historically has delayed full results for up to a few days.

WYOMING

Polls Close: 9:00 p.m. EST

Wyoming consistently is able to report all of its results on Election Night or early Wednesday morning.

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