Tangle - SPECIAL EDITION: Democrats' shocking performance.

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

We're taking a look at Democrats suprisingly strong night, where the midterm race stands now, and what to expect in the next few days. Plus, a list of notable election results and a mea culpa on Isaac's inaccurate predictions.You can read today's podcast here.Today’s clickables: Today’s story (1:44), Right’s take (10:45), Left’s take (14:47), Isaac’s take (19:11), Notables (23:35), Quick Hits (24:45)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum. Some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and it is post-election night. It was a wild night. A lot of unexpected stuff happened. We are going to jump in and talk about all that and share some views from the left and the right and some of the results that we have. I'm running on three or four hours of sleep, so I hope you bear with me. Unfortunately, before we jump in, I do have to issue a quick, silly correction from yesterday. In our numbers section, we described the Arizona Senate race between Adam Laxalt and Catherine Cortez Masto. That was the

Nevada Senate race, not Arizona. You'll have to excuse the error when you're navigating dozens of Senate races and hundreds of House races. Those silly kind of mix-ups happen sometimes. But that is our 71st correction and Tangles' 170-week history and our first correction since October 31st. I track those corrections and place them at the top of the podcast in an effort to maximize my transparency. All right, listen, I know everybody wants to hear about the election, so we're going to save the quick hits and some of that stuff for last, and we're just going to jump in with the big picture. We believe that Republicans are still on their way to achieving what they need to achieve

in the 82 total competitive House districts. In addition, the decision desk for NBC News is also explicitly projecting that we will not know House control at the conclusion of tonight. There is still a small possibility, modest possibility, shouldn small, modest possibility, Democrats could hold their majority. You know, we've had sort of an idea of what the rules of politics are about how midterm elections kind of automatically represent this backlash against the ruling party. We may be just living in a new political era right now. I think the best sum up of what happened last night came from

Dave Wasserman, whose first public words on Wednesday morning were, quote, well, that was the craziest election night I've ever seen. Wasserman is Cook Political Report's congressional race expert. He's an expert on redistricting and house races. And I think he pretty much summed up the prevailing sentiment across the political world. The word is overused in headlines and television scripts, but in this case, it actually fits. Last night was shocking. As we noted yesterday, the party in the White House historically loses about 28 seats in the House and four Senate seats on average. Given President Biden's low approval ratings, the strong polling advantages

for Republicans across the country, and the concerns over inflation and crime, many pundits and pollsters predicted a red wave. Instead, Democrats now have a clear path to picking up a seat in the Senate and are keeping the race for the House, which seemed like a foregone conclusion, much tighter than anticipated. Republicans may still end up with control of both the Senate and the House, but they will need to win two of the three still undecided Senate races in Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia to get there. Right now, they are on track to have one of the weakest performances for an out-of-party against a first-term president that we've seen since the unique post-9-11 midterms in 2002. So what happened? In the Senate, Democrats have won

48 seats to Republicans 47. In the House, Republicans have won 197 seats to Democrats 172. Gubernatorial races in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico went to Democrats, while Republicans won governorships in Georgia and Florida. We are still awaiting the results from Arizona, where Katie Hobbs, the Democrat, currently has 50.9% of the vote to Carrie Lake, the Republican's 49.1%. That's with 63% of the vote reported. Senate races in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Alaska are yet to be called and will determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years. Alaska's race is down to Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Chewbacca, two Republicans, so its outcome won't impact the Senate majority. Murkowski is currently a heavy favorite to win.

66 House races across the country are still yet to be called as of this writing. Perhaps the biggest win of the night for Democrats was in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman, with 50% of the vote, defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz with 47% of the vote, and Josh Shapiro, the Democrat, cruised past Doug Mastriano by a 13-point margin in the state's gubernatorial race. Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania State House is a toss-up, and if Democrats flipped control of the chamber, it would give them their first majority in 12 years. We gave Pennsylvania's Senate race a lot of coverage because its implications for the 2024 election and what it would tell us about the national mood was pretty significant. Democrats simply outperformed the polls. Exit polling showed abortion was the top issue for voters. Now, all eyes are turning to Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

The race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker looks destined for a runoff, as neither candidate has 50% of the vote with 96% in. That means another election on December 6th, with control of the Senate potentially at stake. In Nevada, Adam Lixalt, the Republican, is up three points on Catherine Cortez Masto, but only 75% of the vote is reported, and the race is still considered a toss-up. In Arizona, Mark Kelly, the Democrat, is leading Blake Masters, the Republican, by six points with 67 percent of the vote in and Kelly is the clear favorite to close it out. If Democrats manage to secure Arizona, that would mean they have to win just one of Nevada and Georgia to keep their Senate majority. In one likely scenario, Democrats could win Nevada and head into a December 6 runoff in Georgia

between Warnock and Walker with an opportunity to gain a Senate seat and take a 51-49 majority. The picture in the House is simultaneously both clearer and a lot messier. The New York Times Needle, which operates on an algorithm taking in data from across the country, gives Republicans an 83% chance of controlling the House. The question now is just how big their majority will be. The Times-Needle currently estimates a 224 to 211 Republican majority, but the race could come down to several House seats in California and New York that may take days or even weeks to resolve. So what's the good news for Democrats? If you are a Democrat, given the expectations, last night was something close to a

best-case scenario. Pennsylvania went blue and the House is still up for grabs, and Democrats have a very reasonable path to keeping a Senate majority and even picking up a seat. Meanwhile, some of the most Trumpy candidates performed very badly. Dr. Oz, endorsed by Trump, lost decisively in Pennsylvania. Don Bulldog, endorsed by Trump, lost badly in New Hampshire after much hype about a potential upset. Blake Masters, endorsed by Trump, is underperforming in Arizona. In Michigan, Tudor Dixon, endorsed by Trump, lost to Gretchen Whitmer in the governor's race. Carrie Lake is losing in Arizona. And even Lauren Boebert, the House representative in Congress who was supposed to cruise to victory, is now in a dogfight to hold onto her seat. Meanwhile,

Democrats look like they are going to fare much better in the House than most pollsters had said they would. Most of that is due to the strength of turnout in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. In Michigan, Democrats not only defended the governorship, but flipped the state House and Senate, winning control of the state government for the first time in 40 years, defended their Supreme Court majority, won most of their House seats, and passed the measure to preserve abortion rights. Perhaps most notably, though, is that none of the major upsets Republicans had hoped for in the governor's races in New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin, or in Senate races in New Hampshire, Colorado, Arizona, and Washington have come to fruition.

Right now, Oregon's governor's race is their best shot at an upset, but Democrat Tina Kotak is still holding on to a 1% lead over Christine Drazin with 67% of the vote reported. So that's the good news for Democrats. The good news for Republicans is, for starters, they still are heavy favorites to take the U.S. House. That would give them an opportunity to be a bulwark against the Biden administration's agenda and could stymie most of Biden's legislative initiatives in the final two years of his presidency. Republicans also had a great night in Florida, which is now unquestionably red. Ron DeSantis romped, beating Democrat and former Republican Governor Charlie Criss by 19 points, winning Hispanic voters with 57% of the vote, women with 52% of the vote, suburban voters with

58% of the vote, and independents with 52% of the vote. He became the first Republican governor to win Miami-Dade County since Jeb Bush was re-elected in 2002. Talk of a 2024 presidential run will only grow louder after his performance last night. Republicans also put away the races they were supposed to. J.D. Vance won his Senate seat in Ohio, defeating former Democratic Representative Tim Ryan by six points. Ted Budd won the North Carolina Senate seat that was vacated by the departing Richard Burr, holding off a strong challenge from Sherry Beasley. And Ron Johnson looks poised to win his tight Senate race in Wisconsin. It's also worth noting that Republicans did threaten in some places they rarely do.

Perhaps most notably was New York, where Lee Zeldin, the Republican, won 47% of the vote in the governor's race, the best showing for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 20 years. On top of that, Republicans look poised to unseat House Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. They are also still within striking distance in the Oregon governor's race. So with the good news for both sides out of the way, we'll talk a little bit about what the right and the left are saying. First up, many on the right are criticizing Trump's endorsements and furious about a missed opportunity to get a stranglehold on Congress. Some celebrate Ron DeSantis and the dominance of Republicans in Florida. Others question whether Republicans will actually make use of their incoming power. In a piece that captured the mood on the right, Isaac Schoer wrote in National Review that

Republicans were choosing to lose. No one forced New Hampshire Republicans to choose Don Bulldog, the spineless conspiracy theorist, as their nominee to serve in the United States Senate. But they did, and now the race has been called for incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan with less than 40% of the expected vote reporting, he wrote. No one forced Pennsylvania Republicans to choose Doug Mastriano, a dyed-in-the-wool stop-the-stealer who attended the rally that led to the riot at the Capitol building in January 2021 to be their gubernatorial nominee. But they did, and now not only has his race been called, but his candidacy might be the difference between Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz making Mitch McConnell majority leader again and letting Chuck

Schumer hold on to the title. There are a number of other statewide candidates who may or may not lose winnable races. Blake Masters in Arizona and Herschel Walker in Georgia come to mind, and it appears that while the GOP will retake the House of Representatives, it will not be by the margin it had hoped to, Schor said. Sometimes, events out of a party's control condemn them to electoral losses, but oftentimes, losing is a choice, and the fact remains that in several states, Republican voters simply chose to lose. The Wall Street Journal editorial board celebrated DeSantis' huge victory. Ron DeSantis was expected to win re-election as Florida governor, but the big news Tuesday was the magnitude of his victory. His nearly 20-point rout of Democrat Charlie Crist shows the magnitude

of the political change in the once-swing state and may launch the Republicans' campaign for the White House. The governor won nearly everywhere in the state, and notably in Democratic strongholds. He won by double digits in heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade County, which Joe Biden carried by 85,000 votes and a statewide Republican hadn't carried since Jeb Bush won re-election in 2002. Mr. DeSantis also won Osceola County, south of Orlando, which has a heavy Puerto Rican population. He even won in Democratic Palm Beach County. The DeSantis tide lifted other GOP candidates, as Senator Marco Rubio won re-election handily, the board said. The GOP also picked up two House seats, including the St. Petersburg seat Mr. Chris gave up to run for governor. Florida has been trending to the GOP for some time, and previous two-term governors Mr. Bush and Rick

Scott did much to demonstrate effective Republican governance. But Mr. DeSantis won by fewer than 34,000 votes in 2018. He was leading Tuesday by nearly 1.5 million, with 90% of the vote counted. Florida Democrats are going to have to rethink their campaigns in the state. In The Federalist, Christopher Bedford asked if Republicans would make use of their power in the House. Will they halt the president's extremely successful judicial nomination record? Halt it completely without exception, Bedford asked? Will they ask where the billions in dollars in arms going to Ukraine ended up or just keep sleepwalking toward a nuclear standoff? Will they claw back the IRS's newfound funds or leave their tens of thousands of new agents on the job?

Will they continue to send $45 billion to America's hard-left universities without a word of objection as they have for years? Will they demand funding for a wall and objection, as they have for years? Will they demand funding for a wall and funding toward abortion here and abortion abroad, and refuse to confirm ambassadors and other posts devoted to spreading the left's culture war to Vatican City and further abroad? Will they break up the big tech companies who wield their power to control the flow of information to voters? Or, on all of these issues, will they just tinker around the edges and go on Fox News to crow about it, he asked. Conservatives have been losing for about a century now and at this point rightly find little to conserve. If this will change any at all,

they'll need to think of themselves not as conservatives but as revolutionaries. They're going to make a difference, they might as well. They'll be up against a powerful executive, its sprawling army of lifelong employees, its allies in the intelligence agencies, Pentagon, corporate media, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and beyond. All right, that is it for the rightist saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is celebrating the results, arguing that the red wave never materialized and emphasizing Democrats' strong chances to hold the Senate. Some wonder if Republicans will deny how poorly they performed or finally acknowledge the strength of Democrats. Others are hammering the

liberal media for concocting a red wave that did not exist. In the Washington Post, Karen Tumulty said the expected red wave looks like a puddle. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza

cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca. Political forecasters had it wrong again, she said. Although votes are still being counted in many of the most closely watched races, with control of the House and Senate unclear, it is already apparent that the expected great red wave of 2022 turned out to be a messy puddle. Yes, the most powerful wins all seem to be blowing

the GOP's way. The curse of history that says a first-term president gets a comeuppance in the midterms. President Biden's listless approval rating, roaring inflation, an economy that appears to be on the edge of recession, an alarming climb rate, record numbers of migrants coming over the border. But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had it right back in August when he said that, especially in Senate races, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome. By Wednesday morning, only one Senate seat had flipped, and that was in the

direction of Democrats, with Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, despite suffering a serious stroke, beating celebrity Dr. Mehmet Aj, he said. Voters, it would appear, saw this midterm as something more than a referendum on the party in power. With Republicans putting forward a host of extreme, election-denying candidates and little by the way of an agenda, it became a choice between two drastically different paths forward. And while abortion was not the silver bullet that some Democrats had thought it might be, it helped. In Slate, Jim Newell asked if Republicans will pretend they won or acknowledge reality. As more states rolled in, it was clear Republicans would not have the night of their dreams, Newell wrote. Democrats kept two of the three Virginia House seats they were monitoring

as potential defections in a red wave. They held a crucial Rhode Island House seat that Republicans had targeted. Democrats won five out of Ohio's 15 districts when they feared they might only win two under Republicans' gerrymandered map. Democrats would go on to hold toss-ups in Redding, South Texas, both of New Hampshire's House seats, and knock off Beau Hines, one of Donald Trump's prize recruits in North Carolina. By the time McCarthy spoke at 1.57 a.m. Eastern to say that Republicans would win, in fact, there was still a chance that Nancy Pelosi might retain the Speaker's gavel. In the Senate, the outer perimeter of races Republicans thought they might have a chance at winning under

wave-like conditions, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Washington—weren't even close. Republican J.D. Vance did win in Ohio, and Republican Rep. Ted Budd defeated Sherry Beasley in North Carolina. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson was narrowly but consistently leading over Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin. Behold, the Republicans ultimately will need to have any shot at taking the Senate, he said. Democratic governors won re-election in three crucial swing states that could be determinative of a 2024 presidential race, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and they took back control in

Maryland and Massachusetts after eight years of Republican governors. In the new republic, Michael Tomasky criticized the liberal media for what it got wrong about the midterms. Exit polls should be taken with a grain of salt these days, but they're all we have, and they show that the media got four main narratives really, really wrong. Independents and moderates backed Democrats. It was close, maybe within the margin of error, but in the two exit polls conducted, Democrats won. The network exit poll by Edison Research gave Democrats a 49-47 advantage, while the AP survey had Democrats up 39-35, with a large undecided. Abortion mattered after all, too. It became conventional wisdom in early to mid-October that Dobbs wasn't an issue anymore and that Democrats had made a crushing mistake by

spending all that TV ad money on abortion. No one cared. Well, the network poll Edison had inflation the number one issue at 31%, but abortion a close second at 27%, he said. Latinos did not abandon the Democratic Party. This was a whopper. In the mainstream media, Latinos had basically become Republican. They hated abortion, all manifestations of wokery, many were evangelical, and on and on and on. The network poll had Latinos going Democratic 60-39, and the AP poll was 50-38. Joe Biden was also not a huge albatross around Democrats' neck. He was underwater on approval in the exits, and he perhaps didn't help in some races, but he sure didn't drag Democrats down the way so

many in the media predicted. Alright, that is it for the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. Well, yeah, I mean, this is why I don't really make predictions very often. So I guess for starters, Amikolpa, I mean, I tried to read the tea leaves here and I missed. I was pretty confident that Oz would win in Pennsylvania, and I suspected historical trends would prevail, pointing to a Republican blowout. I'll take some credit for hedging a little bit yesterday when I wrote this. This election does not seem particularly complicated to me. It's a midterm election, inflation is high, Biden's approval ratings are low, and Democrats are likely to lose a lot of

House seats and probably the Senate too. Historically, the party in the White House loses 28 seats and four Senate seats on average. Democrats' saving grace is that in several of the most important Senate races, there are Republican candidates that appeal strongly to base voters on the right but have very high disapproval ratings among moderates and independents. It's possible that saves them a Senate majority, but I think it is unlikely. There are going to be weeks of navel-gazing and post-mortems to try to understand what is happening right now, but here are my first impressions. For starters, it's a terrible night for Republicans. I don't know how else to frame it, honestly. Your opportunities to face a disliked president with historic inflation in a midterm season where control of the Senate is

possible and a House route is likely, only come around every so often, and Republicans simply miss their chance. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican from California, was confidently predicting Republicans might pick up 60 seats in the House. At this rate, they'll be lucky to snag 15. The picture in the Senate is far worse. Kelly is outrunning Masters in Arizona, and there are a lot of mail-in ballots still coming. Nevada is a jump ball, but even if Democrats lose, they will probably come out of the gates as favorites in a Georgia runoff to retain control. In the Senate races, there is zero doubt you'd rather be in Democrat shoes than Republicans. Of course, the results are to say nothing of the mess this will cause and intra-party squabbles for the right. Donald Trump is already

being blamed by longtime allies for pushing weak candidates, and Fox News is running headlines like this. Conservatives point finger at Trump after GOP's underwhelming election loss. He's never been weaker. Not only will there now be a battle over who is actually leading the party, DeSantis, McConnell, or Trump, there is going to be a dogfight over the Speaker's gavel if Republicans do take the majority in the House. McCarthy was banking on a blowout to secure his spot. With the majority so thin, though, he is going to face stiff challenges from the right, and the ensuing battles could divide the party even further. Remember, 24 hours ago, we were wondering if New York might go red or whether Democrats could manage to hold on to 48 seats in the Senate. None of those things came to fruition.

As of this writing, Republicans haven't pulled off a single major seats in the Senate. None of those things came to fruition. As of this writing, Republicans haven't pulled off a single major upset in the Senate or gubernatorial races, and Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona all look like they are moving left, not right. So, how did everyone get it so wrong? One good theory was floated in the pages of a Tangle edition a couple weeks ago and now looks prescient. Junk polls. After 2016 and 2020, pollsters were trying desperately to fix their problem of undercounting support for Trump and politicians like him. This cycle, one way they did that was by including polling averages from places like the Trafalgar group, who have a well-known right-wing bias. Those polls were way, way off. One example,

their polling on the Washington Senate race between Patty Murray, the Democrat, and Tiffany Smiley, the Republican, had Murray leading only by 1.2%. She won by 15%. Including polls like that in the averages made a lot of elections look much closer than they really were and left pollsters and pundits alike blindsided by the results. Of course, Democratic turnout was also severely undershot. That races like the Senate battle in Pennsylvania, which some election officials thought could take days to resolve, were called last night, is reflective of how many voters in blue state areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh swarmed to the polls. It was over shortly after midnight, and once we had the first results, it was never really close. Fetterman outperformed Biden basically everywhere. There is still much to be resolved. Georgia is in runoff territory, which would mean an early December redo. Nevada has no clear winner. It looks like Democrats are

in a strong position in Arizona's Senate race, and dozens of House races in states that will be counting mail-in votes for a few days are going to take some time to resolve. But right now, one thing is clear. The punditry missed badly, and so did Republicans. missed badly, and so did Republicans. Alright, that is it for my take, which brings us to a special election section. It's our notables section. So in every election, there are some key races and firsts that are worth noting. Even though many results are still incoming from 2022, last night had a number of historically significant outcomes and a few closely watched races that have been decided. In Alaska, Mary Peltola is poised to defeat Sarah Palin in their much-watched ranked-choice voting house race. John Gibbs, who was endorsed by Trump and defeated Republican Peter Meyer in Michigan's primary, Meyer was one

of 10 Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment, lost his house race to Democrat Hillary Scholten. Wes Moore, the Democrat, became Maryland's first Black governor and the third Black governor in U.S. history. Katie Britt, the Republican, became Alabama's first woman to be elected to the Senate. Maura Healey, the Democrat, will become Massachusetts' first female governor and the nation's first out lesbian who is a state chief executive. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican, the former Trump press secretary, will become the first female governor of Arkansas, and Leslie Rutledge will become the state's first woman to be elected lieutenant governor. Maxwell Frost, the Democrat

who won Florida's 10th district, is becoming the first member of Gen Z to get elected to Congress. He is just 25 years old. Alex Padilla, the Democrat, will become the first elected Latino senator from California. Sri Thanadar, the Democrat, will become the first elected Latino senator from California. Sri Thanadar, the Democrat, will become the first Indian American elected to Congress from Michigan. Kathy Hochul, the Democrat, will become the first female governor of New York. Mary Kaptur, the Democrat from Ohio, won her 21st term in the House, making her the longest serving woman in Congress. She was first elected in 1982. Mark Juan E. Mullen, the Republican, will become the first Native American senator from Oklahoma in nearly 100 years. Summer Lee, the Democrat,

will become the first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania. James Moylan is the first Republican elected as Guam's non-voting congressional member. George Santos from New York is the first openly gay Republican to win an election in Congress. And Robert Menendez Jr. and Robert Menendez of New Jersey became the first father-son duo in Congress since Rand and Ron Paul. All right, that is it for our notable election stuff. Before we go, though, I do want to give you some quick hits. First up, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be open to negotiations with Russia under the conditions Ukraine's sovereignty was acknowledged and some land was returned. Brittany Greiner, the WNBA star currently being held in a Russian prison,

was reportedly moved to a penal colony. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, says it is laying off 11,000 employees. A judge dismissed Alexander Vindman's lawsuits against Trump and his allies. Vindman alleged they had conspired to intimidate him over his testimony in Trump's impeachment hearing. And finally, Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to strengthen to a hurricane today as it bears down on the Bahamas and Florida's eastern coast, where evacuations have already been ordered. All right, before I go, a quick heads up. Tomorrow, we are going to be covering some of the stuff we didn't get to. Today's podcast is already pretty long. There is a lot we need to save for tomorrow. We'll be back with updates on all the results we get later today,

a list of some more notable election outcomes, significant ballot initiative results, and an update on allegations of fraud in Arizona that I've been monitoring. In the meantime, if you want to support our election coverage, please go to readtangle.com slash membership or drop something in our tip jar with the link in today's episode description. And also, if you have an election result or story you think I should know about, feel free to write in isaac at readtangle.com. That's Isaac at readtangle. com. We'll be back here tomorrow, hopefully around the same time. It is a travel day for me, but we'll get the podcast up as soon as we can and we'll see you then. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and produced

by Trevor Eichhorn. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Sean Brady, and Bailey Saul. Shout out to our interns, Audrey Moorhead and Watkins Kelly, and our social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who designed our logo. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, subscribe to our newsletter or check out our website at www.readtangle.com. It was the season of chaos and all through the house, not one person was stressing. We'll be right back. on Charles Yu's award-winning book. Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.

The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.