What Newt’s Reading | September 23, 2020

What Newt’s Reading Minnesota is a state that has been incrementally trending red for several cycles in the rural, suburban, and exurban areas. It is looking promising that President Trump wins the state in 2020. - Newt GOP Has Good Chance of Scoring Trump and Senate Upsets in Minnesota By Salena Zito Washington Examiner Former Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN) lost his House seat in suburban Minnesota, making him one of the casualties of the 2018 Democratic congressional wave. This year, he has the chance of staging an upset by defeating incumbent Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), a candidate who does not have the name recognition of her predecessor, Al Franken. While RealClearPolitics says Minnesota leans Democrat, with an average polling spread of 8.7 points in favor of the Democratic incumbent, a recent Emerson poll indicates that Tina Smith only has a 3-point lead with 7 percent of voters still undecided. The suburban, exurban, and rural counties in the state have been trending red for the last few election cycles while the Twin Cities area, which is larger and more populated than other parts of the state, has been trending blue. In such a political environment, President Trump and Jason Lewis will have to win back the suburbs and hold the rural and exurban vote in order to win the state. Both Trump and Lewis plan to use the violent riots in Minneapolis as a battering ram against the Democratic mismanagement of the state in an effort to win back suburban voters. Additionally, several Democratic mayors in the Iron Range of Minnesota, responsible for about 85 percent of the state’s steel industry, have endorsed Trump and Lewis for their respective elections. Lewis is confident that the anti-mining stances of various prominent Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), will help his bid for the Senate. He is optimistic about his chances. Officials in Sussex County, New Jersey, discovered 1,666 ballots from the July 7 primary "in a bin that was mislabeled." Whoops. The revised count did not change the outcome of any election in any race for any office. And if it had? - Newt Whoops — We Found 1,666 Ballots By The Editorial Board Wall Street Journal Two months after New Jersey’s June 7 primary, officials in Sussex County discovered 1,666 ballots “in a bin that was mislabeled.” Following consultations with the state’s attorney general, the New Jersey Board of Elections tallied the ballots and concluded that the new votes did not alter the results of any election. However, this raises the question of what would happen if the new votes had changed the results of an election certified as complete. If the November presidential election is close, such mislabeled bins could wreak havoc in states where a few hundred votes could alter the result. Given the fact that only 12.3 percent of votes were cast via mail in 2018, a primarily absentee statewide vote in November raises the possibility of misplaced ballots that go uncounted for weeks, if not months. While states like Washington have always had widespread mail voting and have developed procedures to ensure ballot integrity, it is disturbing that other states have only six weeks to get this right. If Democrats capture the White House and the Senate this November, they will pursue the most progressive legislative agenda since 1965. - Newt Consigning Republicans to the Political Wilderness By James Carter and Jim Ellis Daily Caller Never Trumpers believe that a sweeping Democratic victory in November would eradicate President Trump’s philosophy from the Republican Party and lead to victories in the 2022 midterms. This belief is misguided, however. All of the 12 Democratic seats that are on the ballot in 2022 are in states that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 and that Joe Biden will likely win in 2020. Hence, if Democrats win a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate this November, they probably will not lose their majority prior to January 2025. If Democrats make inroads in state legislatures across the country, they could use redistricting following the 2020 census to solidify their majority in the House of Representatives. If a Democratic Senate ends the filibuster, as Biden has said he’ll do, Republicans would be left unable to stop any legislation they oppose. Moreover, just as all four of President Ronald Reagan’s appointments to the Supreme Court affected national policy for decades, President Trump has the opportunity to wield the same influence by making more Supreme Court appointments in a second term. If you’re a Republican and do not like President Trump’s style or approach, your opposition to him, and to other Republican candidates, risks plunging the party into a long electoral winter while empowering the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. In 2009, President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, apparently on the grounds of good intentions and great expectations. Looking at the present moment, Trump actually deserves one (maybe two). - Newt Trump Deserves the Nobel Prize By Jay Ambrose Detroit News The historic Abraham Accords — just signed between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations — marks the first such agreement between Israel and Middle Eastern nations in two decades. While President Trump’s nephew and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was initially criticized for being an exhibit of nepotism, his shrewd negotiating got both sides to make key concessions in order to reach this deal. Israel, for example, suspended its push to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank to reach a peace deal. All three countries are also concerned about Iran trying to dominate the Middle East. The Trump administration of course withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE all strongly oppose. By withdrawing from the nuclear deal, President Trump showed his commitment to serving as an honest broker between Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE. While Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize without any strong accomplishments, it is now evident that President Trump deserves the Prize for the Abraham Accords. DOE is investigating Princeton University on whether it lied to the public and to the department in its promise not to discriminate under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. - Newt Education Department Opens Investigation Into Princeton University After President Deems Racism 'Embedded' in the School By Tiana Lowe Washington Examiner Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber recently published an open letter stating that racism persists at Princeton and that racist assumptions are “embedded in the structure of the university.” This letter was circulated after hundreds of Princeton faculty members wrote to Eisgruber, following George Floyd’s death, demanding “anti-racist” policy changes including instituting racial quotas and removing standardized testing as a factor in admissions. Shortly afterward, the Department of Education sent a letter to Eisgruber informing him that his university was under investigation, given that it receives tens of millions of dollars in federal funds. The letter mentioned that, by admitting to engaging in racist conduct, Princeton might be in violation of its nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances in its Program Participation Agreements from at least 2013 to the present. The department is also concerned that Princeton’s many nondiscrimination and equal opportunity claims to students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates may have been false, misleading, and actionable substantial misrepresentations. The Department of Education now seeks from the university all documents pertaining to Eisgruber’s open letter and a spreadsheet containing the names of all those materially affected by Princeton’s allegedly racist policies. Eisgruber and a designated corporate executive will also have to sit for interviews under oath and answer written questions on the matter. Newt's Latest Podcasts: Order Newt's Latest Book: https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future