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Election 2024 live updates: Trump starts his transition as Democrats turn inward to question strategy

President-elect Donald Trump names his victorious 2024 campaign manager as first-ever female White House chief of staff as he works on transition to Oval Office

Donald Trump praises ‘ice maiden’ Susie Wiles after historic election win

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President-elect Donald Trump has begun preparing for the Oval Office by naming Susie Wiles as his new White House chief of staff.

This comes as the Democratic blame game begins, with ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing to regret that Democrats didn’t have an open primary to select its nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out.

“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” the former speaker told The New York Times. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”

The Republicans are expected to retain control of the House, likely handing the GOP a trifecta as they’re set to take back the Senate, possibly handing Trump full control of the levers of power in Washington.

Trump and President Joe Biden both had a trifecta for their first two years in office.

Wiles spearheaded Trump’s successful 2024 campaign and is the first of many appointees who will help to push his agenda, which includes the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, more trade tariffs and extended tax cuts.

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Ann Selzer explains why her very wrong Iowa poll may have helped Trump

The pundit’s much-watched Iowa poll, which showed Kamala Harris heading into Election Day with a surprise three-point lead, was one of numerous 2024 election forecasts that ultimately failed to predict the result.

In a post-mortem on Thursday, Selzer explained how she’s thinking through the discrepancy between what actually happened and what was forecast in the Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey of voting intentions in the Hawkeye State.

Josh Marcus has the story.

Ann Selzer explains why her very wrong Iowa poll may have helped Trump

Numerous prominent pre-election forecasts missed result as Trump swept to victory

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 14:40
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The Handmaid’s Tale soars 400 places to third on bestseller charts after Trump win

Margaret Atwood’s novel from 1985, recently filmed as a prestige TV series with Elisabeth Moss, presents a near-future dystopian society in which women are reared for the sole purpose of bearing children.

Sales of the book are now reportedly spiking in response to Trump’s election, as copies of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four were said to have done in reaction to his first term.

Maira Butt has more.

Handmaid’s Tale soars 400 places to third place on bestseller charts after Trump win

Other dystopian titles have seen up to a 30,000 per cent surge in sales

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 14:20
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Oddsmakers call JD Vance and Gavin Newsom the 2028 frontrunners

The bookmakers are already looking ahead to the next presidential election and see Trump’s running mate as his natural heir on the Republican ticket.

Perhaps less obviously, the consensus suggests that California Governor Gavin Newsom will be the man to mount the fightback next time around.

Kelly Rissman reports.

Oddsmakers call JD Vance the 2028 frontrunner - but Aaron Rodgers make the list

While a list of usual suspects crowds the top, oddsmakers also included some creative predictions for who will become president in four years

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 14:00
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Watch: CBS anchor chokes up discussing how he will explain Trump’s victory to his children

CBS anchor chokes up discussing how he will explain Trump’s victory to his children

CBS News anchor choked up when asked how he will explain Donald Trump’s election victory to his children. John Dickerson was visibly emotional as he reacted to the president-elect’s historic victory when he appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday (7 November). Colbert asked: “How would you explain that to a 14-year-old today? How would you explain this election?” “I’ll try not to think about my boys because,” Dickerson said before choking up. After a brief pause, he regained his composure to explain his concerns.

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 13:40
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Vladimir Putin congratulates ‘brave man’ Trump on his election victory

The Russian president has congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory, praising his “brave” response to the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 but admitting that even he has “no idea” what a second term will look like given Trump’s impulsive nature.

Kelly Rissman has more.

Putin congratulates ‘brave man’ Trump on his election victory

’I don’t know what will happen now. I have no idea,’ Putin said of a second Trump term

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 13:20
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Joe Rogan calls on Trump ‘to unite everybody’ as president

The podcaster who interviewed both Trump and JD Vance but not Kamala Harris (her campaign was in talks with him but the two sides failed to agree a time) has already been credited by the likes of Elon Musk and Dana White with helping the Republican to victory with his last-minute endorsement.

He has since urged the president-elect against attacking his enemies, commenting on his popular show: “He’s got to unite people. He’s got to not attack the left, not attack everybody, let them all talk their s***, but unite.

“Now it’s time to unite everybody.”

Here’s Josh Marcus on the Democratic hunt for its own influencer kingmaker.

Why some Democrats want to create their own Joe Rogan after Trump’s win

The popular podcast played host to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and JD Vance in final moments of the 2024 election

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 13:00
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Ted Cruz’s daughter grimaces and says ‘don’t clap’ for Trump win

Here’s a nice little moment you might have missed amid this week’s seismic events: Caroline Cruz, 16, showing up her dad at his victory party after he saw off a challenge to his Senate seat from Democrat Colin Allred.

James Liddell has the story.

Ted Cruz’s daughter winces and tells mom not to clap as senator praises Trump

Caroline Cruz, 16, was left scowling at her mother on stage as the Texas senator prayed for a Trump win

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 12:40
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Mass racist text messages sent to Black people across America spark investigations

A deluge of racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the US this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies.

The messages, sent anonymously, were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

They generally used a similar tone but varied in wording.

Some instructed the recipient to show up at an address at a particular time "with your belongings," while others didn’t include a location.

Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.

It isn’t yet clear who is behind the messages and there was no comprehensive list of where they were sent but high school and college students were among the recipients.

The FBI said it was in touch with the Justice Department on the messages and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement”.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office also said it was looking into the matter.

Mass racist text messages sent to Black people spark investigations

The messages, sent anonymously, were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 12:20
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David Axelrod blames Democrats for becoming ‘smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party’

The former senior adviser to Barack Obama has criticized the Democratic Party for snobbery and for disillusionment among working-class voters following its US election rout.

In an excoriating takedown of his own party, David Axelrod highlighted the Democrat failure to reach blue collar voters and large parts of the electorate who hadn’t gone to college.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday night, Axelrod said the Democrats had become an increasingly “smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party”, suggesting that they failed to appeal to people from lower-class and non-college educated backgrounds.

“The only group that Democrats gained within the election on Tuesday was White college graduates, and among working-class voters, there was a significant decline,” he added.

Madeline Sherratt reports.

David Axelrod accuses Democrats of becoming ‘a smarty-pants, college-educated party’

Democrats captured the vote from people ‘who make more than a hundred thousand dollars a year’ he said

Joe Sommerlad8 November 2024 12:00

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