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US Monthly Headline News November 2022
Story by Ian Macdougall

To hear some tell it, a Supreme Court case set for argument on Dec. 7 could spell the end of democracy in the United States. If the Republicans who brought the case, Moore v. Harper, prevail, state legislatures will effectively be free to override the votes of their citizens in presidential elections, the doomsayers predict. That might allow a future presidential candidate to undo an election, much as Donald Trump attempted, but failed, to do in 2020.

The Atlantic warned that the "Court's right-wing supermajority is poised to let state lawmakers overturn voters' choice in presidential elections." The Guardian opined that a ruling in favor of the GOP would mean that "whether Republicans win or lose elections via the popular vote will not matter because they will be able to maintain power regardless." And Slate called Moore v. Harper "the Supreme Court case that could upend democracy."

Those fears are overblown. They ignore other legal protections that would prevent the theft of a presidential election. A state legislature can in fact choose which electors to pick, legal scholars generally agree, as those bodies routinely did in the early days of the republic. But a legislature has the power to decide to handle a vote that way only before citizens begin casting ballots in a given election.
By Max Matza & Nadine Yousif | BBC News

A jury found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of the rare charge of seditious conspiracy following a two-month trial. He plotted an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Mr Biden, prosecutors said. Four more were on trial with him related to the 2021 Capitol riots. Three of the group - Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson - went inside the building during the attack. Meggs was also found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday. Both Rhodes and Meggs now face a maximum 20-year sentence on the charges.

Harrelson, Watkins and a fifth member, Thomas Caldwell - were found not guilty of seditious conspiracy. All five of the group members were found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding. Rhodes, who prosecutors say acted as a "battlefield general" during the riots, was also found guilty of tampering with documents or proceedings. He was acquitted of two other conspiracy counts. The verdict comes after three full days of jury deliberation.
Story by Will Carless, USA TODAY

Saturday's mass shooting at Club Q, an LBGTQ-friendly bar in Colorado Springs, came as a shock, but not a surprise, to people who monitor extremism. Meanwhile, Twitter – days after restoring extremists to its pages – banned the account of an anti-fascist pro-gun collective that has been protecting similar LGBTQ events from those who mean them harm. And in Hawaii, two Native Hawaiian men are convicted of hate crimes for a racially motivated attack on a white man.

Saturday's mass shooting at Club Q, a longtime haven for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs, came after more of a year and a half of escalating rhetoric against the LGBTQ community from the far-right. The attack, in which 5 people were killed and 17 injured, follows a longstanding pattern, where the country's extremist far-right fringe latches on to hysterical coverage from conservative media and politicians against a minority group, often with fatal consequences.
Story by Keith Reed

What’s undeniable is that as a company, Twitter has been an unmitigated disaster under Elon Musk’s ownership, marked by an explosion in hate speech, celeb defections from the platform, advertiser moratoriums, mass firings, a mass quitting and at least one firing of an exec that Musk initially begged not to quit.

What hasn’t been clear is what, exactly Musk thinks of Black Twitter, which is arguably the most critical community to have taken shape organically and to elevate Twitter’s relevance as a platform for conversation, activism and storytelling along the way. Before now, that wouldn’t have mattered. Nobody cared what Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey thought about Black Twitter, because it was undeniable that Black Twitter was good for business under his watch.

Musk, however, is a different story: his notions of “free speech” on the platform mean greenlighting the comeback of Donald Trump and other hatemongers and as a manager he’s fired thousands of employees who were part of an intentional internal strategy to attempt to make the company as diverse as the voices on its platform. And now, weeks into his tenure as “chief twit”, we have an idea of exactly what regard Musk holds Black Twitter and the community of Black staffers inside the company. The Independent reports on a Musk tweet, since deleted, in which he made light of t-shirts that had been created by the company’s “Blackbirds” employee resource group, and mocked the Black Lives Matter movement.
By Eric Levenson, Michelle Watson and Andy Rose, CNN

CNN — A 22-year-old gunman entered an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just before midnight Saturday and immediately opened fire, killing at least five people and injuring 18 others, before patrons confronted and stopped him, police said Sunday. The suspect in the shooting at Club Q was identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, according to Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez. He used a long rifle in the shooting, and two firearms were found at the scene, Vasquez said. At least two people inside the club confronted and fought the gunman and prevented further violence, Vasquez said. “We owe them a great debt of thanks,” he said.
Story by dlevinthal@insider.com (Dave Levinthal)

Donald Trump's White House blocked dozens of federal agencies from creating new government websites aimed at aiding homeless people, fighting human trafficking, and helping people vote, according to records obtained by Insider through a Freedom of Information Act request. The requests for new websites came from agencies small and large at a time when Trump had grown openly hostile toward his own administration, often deriding the federal government's executive branch as an out-of-control "deep state" conspiring to undermine him.

The Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Central Intelligence Agency, and Environmental Protection Agency are among the more than two-dozen agencies that Trump's Office of Management and Budget rebuffed. Proposed websites that Trump's Office of Management and Budget rejected include HumanTrafficking.gov (Department of State); ReportFraud.gov (Federal Trade Commission); Telehealth.gov (Department of Health and Human Services), FindShelters.gov (Department of Housing and Urban Development), and FiscalData.gov (Department of the Treasury), according to federal records.
Story by Zachary Leeman

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied allegations he was behind leaking a 2014 Supreme Court ruling, which has many critics now branding him as the one who leaked the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Former anti-abortion activist Rev. Rob Schenck claimed through interviews with the New York Times and a letter sent to Chief Justice John Roberts that he was told the outcome of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby weeks before it became public in June 2014. According to the report by Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker, Schenck prepared a public relations campaign ahead of the ruling and he even tipped off the president of Hobby Lobby, the company that would win the case.

According to the Times:
In early June 2014, an Ohio couple who were Mr. Schenck’s star donors shared a meal with Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann. A day later, Gayle Wright, one of the pair, contacted Mr. Schenck, according to an email reviewed by The Times. “Rob, if you want some interesting news please call. No emails,” she wrote. Mr. Schenck said Mrs. Wright told him that the decision would be favorable to Hobby Lobby, and that Justice Alito had written the majority opinion. Three weeks later, that’s exactly what happened. The court ruled, in a 5-4 vote, that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance covering contraception violated their religious freedoms.
Story by Maria Pierides

Donald Trump may have just announced that he officially intends to run for the 2024 presidency, but that’s not the only news that has broken about him. It’s just been revealed that major untaxed perks were “authorized” by the former president, according to his former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty of tax fraud in August and agreed to testify as part of a plea deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Donald Trump’s Former CFO Testifies Against Him
Weisselberg told a jury that Trump, 76, was not only aware of the untaxed benefits at the heart of the government’s criminal case against the Trump Organization, but he was the guy who authorized them, as it was ‘convenient for the company’ for Weisselberg and other senior employees to receive benefits and bonuses that were not declared as part of their regular salary.
Story by ashoaib@insider.com (Alia Shoaib)

When former President Donald Trump announced that he was planning to run for president in 2024, there was confusion and anger in the extremist QAnon community. The QAnon conspiracy movement, which is based around the belief that Trump is secretly working to expose a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles that run the world, has in recent years grown to become a part of mainstream politics.

While many QAnon believers reacted to his long-anticipated announcement with excitement, some voiced their anger, because it implied he was accepting that he lost the 2020 election – something he and his most ardent supporters have spent the last two years rejecting. "Hey you guys, the elections are all rigged… But [vote] for me again! This is literally 1984-tier doublethink," one user wrote on 8kun, according to screenshots posted on Twitter. "He just conceded 2020 election we're just gonna skip over the 2020 and 2022 fraud," another user wrote on Telegram. "There's no justice for treason, there's no justice for crimes against humanity."
By Tierney Sneed and Evan Perez, CNN

CNN — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Both investigations implicate the conduct of Trump, who on Tuesday declared his candidacy in the 2024 presidential race, making him a potential rival of President Joe Biden.

“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said at the Justice Department on Friday.
By The New York Times Editorial Board

On May 29, 2020, Steven Carrillo decided that his moment to take up arms against the government had arrived. It was a Friday in downtown Oakland, Calif., and at 9:44 p.m., Mr. Carrillo opened the sliding door of a white van and, according to court documents, opened fire with a rifle at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and courthouse. Officer David Patrick Underwood was killed inside a guard booth, and his partner was seriously injured. The van sped away into the night.

About a week later, Mr. Carrillo, who was tied to the antigovernment paramilitary boogaloo movement, was arrested after he ambushed and murdered a police officer and wounded several others with homemade explosives and an assault rifle in another attack some 60 miles away. Mr. Carrillo wasn’t just linked to an antigovernment paramilitary group; he was also an active-duty sergeant in the Air Force. This summer, he was sentenced to 41 years in prison for attacking agents of the government he’d sworn to protect and defend.
Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess and Lola Fadulu

The criminal trial of Donald J. Trump’s family business took an emotional turn Thursday as one of the former president’s most loyal executives laid bare the machinery of a sprawling tax fraud, scoring points for both prosecution and defense during hours of illuminating testimony. The executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, several times bolstered Manhattan prosecutors’ contention that the scheme benefited not just himself, but the Trump Organization. He testified that the off-the-books luxuries he and other executives received saved the company money in taxes.

Yet Mr. Weisselberg, 75, who started working for the Trumps decades ago, rose to become chief financial officer and is now the prosecution’s star witness, also distanced Mr. Trump and his family from the wrongdoing. He testified that they did not team up with him, nor authorize him to commit crimes. He agreed more than a dozen times that he had acted only for himself. Near tears, he testified that he had betrayed a company he had served for decades.
Republicans are on track for a tiny majority despite predictions that a red wave was coming.
By Ally Mutnick and Jessica Piper

Republicans have won back control of the House, giving the GOP a toehold to check President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats despite a disappointing midterm election. Republicans are on track for the smallest of majorities despite pre-election predictions that a red wave was coming. Instead, it took more than a week of vote-counting after Election Day for it to be clear the party had won the majority. And that majority could be difficult to manage for a Republican speaker next year.
Sarah Rumpf

At the beginning of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement speech Tuesday evening, he touted what he considered several accomplishments of his time in the White House, including a $28 billion bailout to American farmers hurt by a trade war with China, but over $100 million of that money went to a subsidiary of a Brazilian company with a corrupt and troubling history.

During the speech, Trump bragged that China was “reeling and back on its heels” from the heavy tariffs his administration had imposed. “You had never seen that before,” he claimed. “The United States was outdoing them on every front and China was paying billions and billions of dollars in taxes and tariffs. The farmers know that because they got 28 billion of it. No president had ever sought or received one dollar for our country from China until I came along.” (He also joked that this made people believe that China “played a very active role in the 2020 election, just saying,” but that’s an entirely separate mess of tin foil hattery.)
Samaa Khullar

Former Trump Organization financial chief Allen Weisselberg took the stand in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Tuesday in the company's criminal trial on tax fraud charges. He testified that he received $1.76 million in untaxed, off-the-books perks from the Trump Organization, confirming several aspects of the district attorney's case against the former president's company. Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization was involved in an illicit compensation scheme that lined the pockets of executives like Weisselberg. After pleading guilty to a 15-count indictment in August, Weisselberg agreed to "testify truthfully" against the Trump firm.

He testified that Trump suggested in 2005 that he move into a luxury Riverside Drive apartment using company funds, and even signed the lease for the property. In addition to paying for Weisselberg's rent, the Trump Organization covered his utility and parking fees, according to the indictment. "It's your understanding that was authorized by Mr. Trump?" Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger asked about the payment of utilities at the rent-free apartment on Tuesday.  "That was my understanding, yes," Weisselberg responded.
Sarah K. Burris

The New York Times is confirming that Gen. John Kelly confirmed that former President Donald Trump wanted the IRS to audit his foes. "While in office, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly told John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, that he wanted a number of his perceived political enemies to be investigated by the Internal Revenue Service," the Times said, citing the former general.

Kelly was the chief of staff from July 2017 to the end of 2018, when he and most of his loyalists were shoved out. Trump's children Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump didn't like that Kelly refused to allow them"walk-in privileges," where they could simply walk into the Oval Office. They've denied any issues they had with Kelly. Reports claimed, however, Ivanka Trump took the lead in firing Kelly. In a July report, The New York Times revealed that at least two of President Donald Trump's foes were suspiciously targeted by the IRS for extensive and "invasive" audits.
In memoir, former vice-president protests loyalty but hits out over Charlottesville, Russia, both impeachments and more
Martin Pengelly in New York

In his new book, Donald Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, protests his loyalty to his former boss but also levels criticisms that will acquire new potency as Trump prepares to announce another presidential run and the Republican party debates whether to stay loyal after disappointment in last week’s midterm elections. According to Pence, Trump mishandled his response to a march staged by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017, a costly error that Pence says could have been avoided had Pence called Trump before a fateful press conference in which Trump failed to condemn “the racists and antisemites in Charlottesville by name”.

Also in Pence’s judgment, “there was no reason for Trump not to call out Russia’s bad behaviour” early in his term while beset by investigations of Russian election interference on Trump’s behalf and links between Trump and Moscow. “Acknowledging Russian meddling,” Pence writes, would not have “somehow cheapen[ed] our victory” over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Pence does not stop there. Among other judgments which may anger his former boss, he says Trump’s claimed “perfect call” to Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine in 2019, the subject of Trump’s first impeachment after he withheld military aid in search of political dirt, was in fact “less than perfect” – if not, in Pence’s judgment, impeachable.
Brad Reed

Former Vice President Mike Pence this week slammed former President Donald Trump for his infamous tweet on January 6th, 2021, in which he attacked Pence for not overturning the results of the 2020 election. Former Vice President Mike Pence this week slammed former President Donald Trump for his infamous tweet on January 6th, 2021, in which he attacked Pence for not overturning the results of the 2020 election.

"It angered me but I turned to my daughter, who was standing nearby, and I said, 'It doesn't take courage to break the law, it takes courage to uphold the law,'" he said. "The president's words were reckless. It was clear he decided to be part of the problem." Pence eventually oversaw the certification of President Joe Biden's victory in the Senate after hundreds of Trump-backing rioters had been cleared from the Capitol.
Bob Brigham

Four U.S. Supreme Court justices attended the black-tie dinner gala at the first Federal Society convention since the court overturned Roe vs. Wade in its controversial Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health decision. Associated Press correspondent Mark Sherman reported Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh were in attendance at the group's 40th-anniversary celebration Sherman noted it is four-fifths of the majority of the court that overturned Roe. Controversial Justice Clarence Thomas was the fifth.
Opinion by Tom Van Denburgh

It's becoming increasingly obvious: Christian nationalists sound uncannily like the Ku Klux Klan. In a video compilation, The Daily Show spotlighted the nearly identical language and views of Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Tucker Carlson, and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. America, they believe, is a Christian nation that must stop "white replacement."

And today's white Christian nationalism is just like yesterday's. Rachel Maddow recently shined a light on America First Party founder Gerald K. Smith, specifically his 1950s statement, "When a Christian is nationalist, he becomes necessarily a Christian nationalist." Similarly, in July of this year, Greene rallied Republicans, "We need to be the party of nationalism. And I'm a Christian, and I say it proudly. We should be Christian nationalists." Maddow then revealed Smith's claims of a "highly organized campaign to substitute Jewish tradition for Christian tradition," of secretive forces trying to "enslave the white man" and "mongrelize our race" through "the intermixture of the black and white races."
Xander Landen

Thousands of people have signed an online petition circulated by a Christian organization condemning Republicans including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, and former Trump national security adviser, Michael Flynn, as "false prophets." In a description of its petition, the organization, Faithful America, blasts leaders of the "Christian nationalist movement," who "come to us in sheep's clothing by claiming to speak for Jesus, but ultimately prove themselves to be ravenous wolves who manipulate the language of religion and care only for themselves, devouring the rights of non-Christians, women, migrant families, voters, and the LGBTQ community."

In addition to Greene and Flynn, the organization labels Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Republican Ohio U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance, Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, and Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, as "false prophets," according to the organization's website. The petition, which has a goal of 15,000 signatures, currently has close to 14,000 signatures as of Saturday morning.
Dell Cameron

The Department of Homeland Security launched a failed operation that ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters in what new documents show was as a sweeping, power-hungry effort before the 2020 election to bolster President Donald Trump’s spurious claims about a “terrorist organization” he accused his Democratic rivals of supporting.

An internal investigative report, made public this month by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, details the findings of DHS lawyers concerning a previously undisclosed effort by Trump’s acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, to amass secret dossiers on Americans in Portland attending anti-racism protests in summer 2020 sparked by the police murder of Minneapolis father George Floyd.

An internal investigative report, made public this month by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, details the findings of DHS lawyers concerning a previously undisclosed effort by Trump’s acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, to amass secret dossiers on Americans in Portland attending anti-racism protests in summer 2020 sparked by the police murder of Minneapolis father George Floyd.
By Brad Reed | Raw Story

Axios reporter Jonathan Swan has uncovered a new trove of emails that show Trump lawyers going into full meltdown mode as their legal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election imploded. The emails in question date from December 30th, 2020 until January 8th, 2021, and they show that Trump lawyers continued to push to overturn the election even after Trump supporters launched a deadly riot at the United States Capitol that sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives. The emails also show significant infighting, particularly between lawyers Cleta Mitchell and Bruce Marks after Marks apparently botched a complaint that was intended to challenge the certified results in Georgia. "They've done squat on this new case after saying it was all ready to go," Mitchell wrote in an email to Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn on December 31st. "This 'team' of Bruce's is worthless. BRUCE IS WORTHLESS. So sick of them." The emails also show Marks expressing concern about putting Trump's name on a lawsuit that was riddled with false claims about voter fraud in Georgia, which he believed could leave Trump open to legal prosecution.
Nick Mordowanec

Avideo has resurfaced from a campaign event in 2010 involving incumbent U.S. Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, in which he said his intentions were to "phase out" Social Security. Lee, who is in the midst of a reelection campaign against unaffiliated candidate Evan McMullin, was originally elected to the Senate in 2010 after incumbent Republican Senator Bob Bennett lost renomination at the GOP's state convention while seeking his fourth term. "I'm here right now to tell you one thing you probably have never heard from a politician: It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up from the roots and get rid of it," Lee said during a campaign stop February 23, 2010, in Cache Valley, Utah. "People who advise me politically always tell me it's dangerous and I tell them, 'In that case it's not worth my running.' That's why I'm doing this, to get rid of that. Medicare and Medicaid are of the same sort, they need to be pulled up."
“It’s a huge manipulation,” the Texas Republican said.
By Lee Moran

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) revealed what election deniers actually say behind closed doors as a slew of reality-defying candidates run as Republicans in next week’s 2022 midterms. “It was always a lie. The whole thing was always a lie. And it was a lie meant to rile people up,” the Texas Republican said of the lie that Donald Trump was cheated by widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election during the latest episode of his “Hold These Truths” podcast.
Christina Wilkie

A New York state judge has approved the appointment of a special monitor to oversee the Trump Organization’s financial statements and reports, and has barred the company from transferring any non-cash assets without notifying the court and the state attorney general’s office in advance. The ruling from Judge Arthur Engoron on Thursday is a significant blow to Trump and three of his adult children, who were named in a sweeping lawsuit brought in September by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The suit accused the Trumps and other senior Trump Organization officials of decades of fraud related to financial statements. Engoron’s written order said the appointment of an independent monitor was justified given the “persistent misrepresentations throughout every one of Mr. Trump’s [Statements of Financial Condition] between 2011 and 2021.” The monitor would “ensure there is no further fraud or illegality that violates” the New York state law prohibiting fraud.
Ron Dicker

Sean Hannity appeared to utter a big fat lie on Fox News this week, claiming no Republican has ever said they wanted to take away Social Security. Cue the riposte from the Twitter user Acyn, who shared 2010 video of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), then a candidate, saying his objective was “to phase out Social Security ― to pull it out by the roots and get rid of it.” Hannity’s comment on Tuesday’s “Hannity” added to the conservative channel’s dismissal of Democratic Party concerns over the fate of Social Security as “scare tactics” before Tuesday’s midterm elections.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that congressional Republicans “have embraced plans to reduce federal spending on Social Security and Medicare, including cutting benefits for some retirees and raising the retirement age for both safety net programs.” Some lawmakers have revealed a few specifics on the table if the GOP retakes the House, including raising the Social Security eligibility age to 70, requiring the elderly to pay increased premiums for health insurance, and imposing a strict government debt ceiling that could adversely impact entitlement programs, according to Bloomberg Government and the Times.
Tomas Kassahun

Candace Owens’ Blexit Foundation, which aims to convert more Black Americans to conservatives, appears to be struggling to get funds. According to The Daily Beast, the foundation’s 2021 tax filings show that it only earned a third of the amount it generated the previous year. Owens, however, has earned more than $250,000 in salary from the organization according to the report. The Blexit Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2018, earned more than $7 million in donations during the social justice protests in 2020. The foundation’s 2021 tax filings, however, indicate that the organization is now struggling to increase its funds while the executives are still getting paid handsomely.
Opinion by Mark Joseph Stern

Federal judges are not historians, but they are increasingly obligated to play ones on the bench. In his Bruen decision last June, Justice Clarence Thomas ordered courts to assess the constitutionality of modern-day gun restrictions by searching for “historical analogues” from 1791, when the Second Amendment was ratified. Ever since, judges have struggled mightily with this task—in part because most have no training in real historical analysis, but also because the record is often spotty and contradictory. In light of Bruen’s maximalist language, they have erred on the side of gun owners, finding a constitutional right to buy a gun while under indictment for a violent crime, to carry a gun into airports, and to scratch out the serial number on a firearm, rendering it untraceable.
By Sarah K. Burris | Raw Story

Another pro-MAGA activist has been outed as a Chinese spy, according to the Washington Post. Just as Elon Musk is taking over Twitter, the company uncovered three China-based operatives pretending to be influencers in American politics as part of an effort to polarize Americans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. In a cache of data released by the site, nearly 2,000 users were uncovered as they claimed election-rigging and attacked members of the transgender community. They also promoted pro-China narratives to their American audience.

"The disclosure by Twitter adds to what is known about China-based efforts to influence American audiences by mimicking the strategies Russia-based operatives used to stoke cultural and political tensions during the 2016 election," said the Post. "In September, Meta announced it had disrupted a China-based operation seeking to influence U.S. politics. The U.S. government also has issued warnings about Chinese influence efforts, as have a spate of reports from cybersecurity firms including Google’s Mandiant, Recorded Future and Alethea Group."
Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has investigated a series of threats of violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dating back nearly a decade, although federal prosecutors rarely pursued charges. Records released to USA TODAY through the Freedom of Information Act show the Capitol Police passed on threats to the FBI at least four times between 2013 and 2017. Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment Section handles most threats but escalates some of the most urgent and serious to the FBI.

While not comprehensive, the records offer a window into some past threats the speaker has faced, which were typical for both Democratic and Republican party leaders. On Friday, police say a man broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her 82-year-old husband Paul. Authorities say the hammer-wielding attacker was targeting the longtime California lawmaker and planned to break her kneecaps as a warning to other members of Congress. The suspect reportedly called out, “Where is Nancy” during the attack that left Paul Pelosi hospitalized with a skull fracture.
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Washington CNN — The man alleged to have attacked Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is expected in a San Francisco court on Tuesday for his arraignment. David DePape, 42, is facing a litany of state charges, including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Monday. These charges are in addition to the federal charges DePape faces, which include assault and attempted kidnapping. “He has obviously been booked on these charges, we will file our complaint, we expect for him to be in court tomorrow, and that’s the most I can say,” Jenkins said in a news conference Monday, adding that DePape’s prior arrests and criminal history will be discussed in court Tuesday.
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

CNN — The attack on Paul Pelosi was terrifying. A man broke into the house of the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the middle of the night and hit him with a hammer. Paul Pelosi suffered a fractured skull among other injuries. The intruder shouted, “where’s Nancy?” Donald Trump Jr. appears to thinks it’s funny. Late Sunday night, Trump Jr. shared an image on social media of a hammer and a pair of underwear with the words “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.” Trump Jr. wrote: “The Internet remains undefeated.” (Sidebar: I’m not going to share a link to Trump Jr.’s post. You can find it on the internet if you so choose.)

Which, even by the low standards set by the eldest son of former President Donald Trump, is egregiously bad. But, unfortunately, not unexpected. Trump Jr., even more so than his famous father, has reveled in the idea that he is the king of the deplorables – someone willing to say and do things that other people want to but are too afraid. Trump Jr.’s MO has always been – as it likely will be for this incident – that he is just joking, and that people need to stop taking themselves so seriously. He’s the cool guy who doesn’t ever get offended while the rest of us are the squares who are forever on outrage watch.
Martin Pengelly in New York

ANew Hampshire school has rebuked the Republican US Senate candidate Don Bolduc for claiming schoolchildren were identifying as “furries and fuzzies” in classrooms, using litter trays and licking themselves and each other. “I wish I was making it up,” Bolduc, a retired special forces general, said last week. In response, Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, said Bolduc was indeed making it up. On social media on Monday, the school said: “It has come to our attention that at a recent event in Claremont Don Bolduc named Pinkerton in false claims suggesting that unhygienic, disturbing practices are taking place in our classrooms and spaces on campus.

“We want to assure our community that Mr Bolduc’s statements are entirely untrue. We invite all political candidates to speak with members of our administration or visit our campus so they can inform themselves about our school before making claims about what occurs here.” A week before election day, the Trump-aligned, conspiracy-spouting Bolduc trails the incumbent Democrat, Maggie Hassan, by around four points.
Children ages 3, 11 and 13 were among the wounded in the drive-by shooting on the West Side.
By Sun-Times Wire

Fourteen people were shot, including three children, in a drive-by shooting in East Garfield Park on the West Side Monday night, Chicago police said. The children are 3, 11 and 13 years old, Police Supt. David Brown told reporters. All three were in serious condition. The other victims ranged in age from 31 to 56, police said. The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. as some people gathered in the 2700 block of West Flournoy Street for a vigil and others were out for Halloween, police said. It was not known who the vigil was for.

“It’s over by three seconds,” Brown said outside Stroger Hospital, where many of the wounded were taken. “The car’s pulling out after driving by and shooting randomly into the crowd. “We do not have any motive,” he said, adding that officers believe there were two shooters. “We always worry about retaliation obviously, but we don’t know enough about this, whether it involved a gang conflict or some personal conflict yet, but as soon as we know we’ll share that with the public,” Brown said. “And obviously we’re deploying extra police resources in the area to make sure that we can prevent any retaliation if that’s something that’s real.”
ABC News

A woman who accused Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker of pressuring her into having an abortion defended her claims in an exclusive interview with ABC News, saying he is not fit for office and that "honesty matters." Walker has denied the allegations, which were first made at a press conference last week, dismissing the claims as "foolishness" while adding "this is all a lie, and I will not entertain any of it."

The woman, whom ABC News agreed to call Jane Doe, told ABC News in her first on-camera interview that she decided to come forward after another woman made similar claims that Walker had also pressured her into having an abortion. Speaking with Juju Chang, co-anchor of ABC News' "Nightline," the woman said that in 1993 she became pregnant amid a yearslong affair with Walker, saying they saw each other "several times a week, usually in the mornings" and that they were in love. "[Walker] was very clear that he did not want me to have the child. And he said that because of his wife's family and powerful people around him that I would not be safe and that the child would not be safe," the woman said.
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