Tracking Papadopoulos During Campaign, Tuesday Election Clogs GOP Tax Cut Push, And GOPers Still Vow To Kill O'Care

November 9th, 2017 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [Where In The World Was George Papadopoulos During The Campaign?]( The Gist: On July 22 last year, when the Republican National Convention had wrapped up and the first round of Wikileaks hacked Democratic emails had dropped, the court filings in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's case go mostly mum on George Papadopoulos’ activities. Here’s what we know about what Papadopoulos was up to from that period onward. [Republicans Shrug Off Tuesday’s Rout, Vow To Keep Voting To Repeal Obamacare]( The Gist: Democrats dominated elections across the country Tuesday night, and health care was a major issue on the ballot both explicitly and implicitly. Voters in Maine overwhelmingly backed a measure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to more than 80,000 state residents, voters in Virginia’s blue wave named health care as their top issue, and pro-Obamacare candidates won on the state and local level from New Jersey to Georgia. But on Capitol Hill, most Republican lawmakers told TPM they don’t plan to change course on health care, and will continue working to repeal the Medicaid expansion and the entirety of the ACA. [GOP’s Election Bloodbath In The Suburbs Complicates Tax Cut Push]( The Gist: Republicans’ suburban decimation at the polls on Tuesday has vulnerable House members increasingly on edge — and it’s likely to make the GOP’s uphill struggle for a big tax bill even harder to achieve. Democrats shellacked Republicans in elections across the nation on Tuesday, but the GOP’s worst losses by far came in suburbs from Virginia to New York to Washington — the types of places that will be hardest hit by Republicans’ initial tax redistribution proposals. From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- Obamacare won big at the ballot box on Tuesday night, [TPM's Alice Ollstein reports](. Voters in Maine overwhelmingly backed a measure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to more than 80,000 state residents, voters in Virginia’s blue wave named health care as their top issue, and pro-Obamacare candidates won on the state and local level from New Jersey to Georgia. But Republicans on Capitol Hill [told Ollstein]( that those results won't sway their dedication to repealing the Affordable Care Act. Agree Or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Marshall: "We’re a year from election day 2018. A lot can happen. But if numbers and enthusiasm look like Tuesday's results next year, [Democrats are in a strong position to reclaim the House and possibly the Senate](. A certainty? Of course not. And it is critical to recognize that this didn’t just happen. It happened both because of the country’s basic rejection of Trump and the Trump Republican party, but also because of countless hours of work organizing, knocking on doors, planning, and money to fund it all. It took lots of people simply deciding to take the effort to vote." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "I can’t unequivocally state [global warming is] caused by humans. - Department of Homeland Security secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen [saying]( that she cannot determine whether humans are the primary cause of climate change. BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "'Strategist' is the new power buzzword in organizations. I work on a university magazine, and after the longtime editor retired, she was replaced by a 30-something guy whose title is 'digital content strategist.' Whatever else he is, an editor he ain't. With regard to Fox, 'analyst' is viewed as more of a passive role, whereas 'strategist' conjures up images of powerful men pushing battleships around on a room-sized world map, plotting grand plans to overthrow some third-world commie socialist president in order to secure important oil fields." Related: [Hannity Announces Fox Has Hired Sebastian Gorka As NatSec Strategist]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- He Solved The DNC Hack. Now He's Telling His Story For The First Time ([BuzzFeed News]( Johnstown Never Believed Trump Would Help. They Still Love Him Anyway ([Politico]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](