The Latest: Trump says ‘affordability’ is GOP’s goal, ducking blame for party’s election losses

Audio By Carbonatix

Democrats dominated the first major Election Day since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

And while a debate about the future of the Democratic Party may have only just begun, there are signs that the economy — specifically, Trump’s inability to deliver the economic turnaround he promised last fall — may be a real problem for Trump’s GOP heading into next year’s higher-stakes midterm elections.

“Happy Anniversary! On this day, November 5th, one year ago, we had one of the Greatest Presidential Victories in History — Such an Honor to represent our Country. Our Economy is BOOMING, and Costs are coming way down. Affordability is our goal. Love to the American People!” Trump posted to social media Wednesday.

Democratic candidates who won Tuesday in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races, and the New York City mayor’s contest, focused their campaigns on the public’s cost-of-living concerns.

The Latest:

Many have declared Republican Curtis Sliwa the spoiler in the three-way race between him, Democrat Zohran Mamdani and former governor Andrew Cuomo.

But AP Voter Poll data suggests that it’s unlikely that Sliwa’s presence in the race changed the outcome.

When asked how they would vote if only Mamdani and Cuomo were in the race, about half of Sliwa’s supporters said they would have voted for Cuomo. In the hypothetical question, about 4 in 10 Sliwa supporters said they wouldn’t have voted. The remainder either would have moved to Mamdani, or didn’t know what they would do.

The data indicates that even half of Sliwa’s voters on Tuesday would not have been enough to make up the significant lead that Mamdani won by.

With slightly more than 90% of the estimated vote counted, the AP Decision Desk found Mamdani won with 50.4% of the vote, while Cuomo gathered 41.6% percent of the vote. Sliwa, for his part, won 7.1% percent of the vote. Those figures could change as late-arriving mail ballots are added.

Asked about his thoughts on Democrats’ resounding victories in Tuesday’s election, Pennsylvania’s Democratic senator said he didn’t think they meant much, saying Democrats were heavy favorites in both New Jersey and Virginia, as was a ballot measure in California.

“I wasn’t surprised by any of these things,” said Sen. John Fetterman.

Whether the results will have an impact on the shutdown, Fetterman said he didn’t think Democrats should be treating the shutdown “like it’s some kind of a political game.”

“If people think that we should keep it closed because of the elections that we already knew we were going to win, it’s like then that seems like it’s a game,” he added.

Democrats expanded their majorities Tuesday in both the New Jersey Assembly and Virginia House and broke a Republican supermajority in the Mississippi Senate.

Democrats flipped control of two Mississippi Senate districts that had been redrawn under court order to increase Black voter representation. The reshaped districts played a significant role in Democrats’ victories, said Heather Williams, president of the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

“When there are representative maps -- and there is a process that actually gives voters a choice of who their elected officials are -- we can connect with voters and win,” said Williams, adding: “Mississippi was a prime example of that.”

But the future of such districts could be in doubt. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a legal challenge to the section of the federal Voting Rights Act allowing such court intervention.

Reporters waiting near the South Lawn for the president to leave on a trip to Florida noticed what appeared to be a mock-up of a sign that says, “The Oval Office.”

The flowery, gold lettering appeared to be written on some type of temporary paper that was put up on the wall near the door where reporters enter for Trump’s appearances in the Oval with foreign leaders, Cabinet members or other guests.

The White House had no comment on the sign.

▶Read more about White House redecorations

The Department of Homeland Security is revoking protections that shielded some South Sudanese living in the United Status from deportation, saying it is now safe for them to return to their chaotic East African nation.

The order, which will take effect in early January, affects the small number of South Sudanese who have temporary protected status, which allows people already in the U.S. to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe.

But the news comes amid fears that the 2018 peace agreement ending that nation’s civil war is collapsing, with growing hunger, violence and kidnappings, including of aid workers, and weeks after an international ceasefire monitor warned that all sides in the conflict were recruiting new fighters.

The announcement, which was released for public review Wednesday in the Federal Register, will be formally published Thursday. It will take effect 60 days later.

The DHS statement acknowledged South Sudan is dealing with “violence linked to border disputes, cross-border violence, cyclical and retaliatory attacks, and ethnic polarization,” but notes that “return to full-scale civil war, to-date, has been avoided.”

Petros Krommidas lost to incumbent Nassau County Legislator Patrick Mullaney in his bid for a seat in the Nassau County Legislature on Long Island, according to the county’s unofficial election results.

With all precincts reporting, Krommidas captured about 40% of votes cast in the race while Mullaney, a Republican, garnered about 55%.

Krommidas disappeared after a night swim off Long Beach in the spring. A state judge ruled that his name had to remain on the ballot after local Republicans challenged Democrats’ attempt to field a replacement.

The California Republican Party says Proposition 50 violates the 14th and 15th Amendments.

The ballot measure created a new congressional map with the goal of giving Democrats five more of the state’s 52 congressional seats. It easily passed.

The party announced plans to file a federal lawsuit on Wednesday. It’s being filed by The Dhillon Law Group, the California-based firm started by Harmeet Dhillon, who now works for the U.S. Department of Justice. A state assemblyman and 18 voters are also plaintiffs.

While some people last Friday dressed in Halloween costumes or handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, a group of U.S. data scientists published a list of datasets that have been axed, altered or had topics scrubbed since Trump returned to the White House.

The timing of the release of the “Dearly Departed Datasets” with “All Hallows’ Eve” may have been cheeky, but the purpose was serious: to put a spotlight on attacks by the Trump administration on federal datasets that don’t align with its priorities, including data dealing with gender identity; diversity, equity and inclusion; and climate change.

Officials at the Federation of American Scientists and other data scientists who compiled the list divided the datasets into those that had been killed off, had variables deleted, had tools removed making public access more difficult and had found a second life outside the federal government.

▶ Read more about efforts to preserve federal data

Indians lit up social media on Wednesday to celebrate Zohran Mamdani’s election win as New York City mayor after he thanked his Indian-born parents, quoted a historic speech by India’s first prime minister and turned the victory rally into a Bollywood-style street party.

“We are proud of him. He has done a great job,” Mamdani’s maternal uncle Vikram Nair told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile in Uganda, where Mamdani was born, the opposition leader in the Ugandan Parliament sees his victory as an inspiring political shift. “It’s a big encouragement even to us here in Uganda that it’s possible,” said Joel Ssenyonyi, who represents an area of the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

Uganda has had the same president for nearly four decades, Yoweri Museveni, despite attempts by multiple opposition leaders to defeat him in elections.

▶ Read more about how Ugandans and Indians are celebrating Mamdani’s victory.

Mamdani attended St George’s Grammar School in Cape Town for around three years in the mid-1990s, from the age of five. He and his family lived in South Africa after leaving his country of birth, Uganda, and before emigrating to the United States. Mamdani’s father, a political theorist, worked as an academic at the University of Cape Town.

“We trust that he will continue to uphold the principles embodied in our school motto, Virtute et Valore — the courage to do what is right,” Mamdani’s former school said in a statement sent to the AP.

The grammar school also released a photo of Mamdani at 6 or 7 years old.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered prosecutors in the criminal case of former FBI Director James Comey to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, saying he’s concerned the Justice Department’s position has to been to “indict first and investigate later.”

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick instructed prosecutors to produce by the end of Thursday grand jury materials as well as other evidence that investigators seized. Comey’s attorneys said they were at a disadvantage because they had not been able to review materials that were gathered years ago.

Comey is charged with lying to Congress in 2020 in a case filed days after Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies. He has pleaded not guilty.

Progressive organizations are using Tuesday’s election victories to warn Democrats against cutting a deal with Republicans to end the government shutdown.

“Moderate Senate Democrats who are looking for an offramp right now are completely missing the moment,” said Katie Bethell, political director of MoveOn. “Voters have sent a resounding message: We want leaders who fight for us, and we want solutions that make life more affordable.”

▶ Read more about congressional developments involving the government shutdown

Trump sent the social media post as Air Force One was about to take off for Miami, where he’s addressing business leaders in the afternoon.

Wednesday marked one year since his reelection.

“Happy Anniversary! On this day, November 5th, one year ago, we had one of the Greatest Presidential Victories in History — Such an Honor to represent our Country. Our Economy is BOOMING, and Costs are coming way down. Affordability is our goal. Love to the American People!” he wrote.

Democratic candidates who won Tuesday in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races, and the New York City mayor’s contest, focused their campaigns on the public’s cost-of-living concerns.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said it’s time for Trump to meet with them as well as GOP congressional leaders to negotiate an end the shutdown and address the health care issue.

“Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace,” the Democratic leaders wrote. Trump has so far refused to engage in talks until the Democrats vote to reopen the government.

Voters in Charlotte, North Carolina, have given Democrat Vi Lyles a fifth term as mayor.

Lyles won comfortably Tuesday to remain the city’s top leader 2 1/2 months after the death of a young Ukrainian woman on a commuter train. The stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska sparked outrage from Trump and other Republicans, who sought to pin blame for violent crime and pretrial release decisions on Democrats in general, and Lyles in particular.

Lyles defeated Republican candidate Terrie Donovan, who had made crime her top issue even before the August stabbing. Charlotte hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 2007.

The suspect in Zarutska’s stabbing had been arrested more than a dozen times. The GOP-controlled state legislature tightened suspect release rules in September, and Lycles has promoted additional safety measures on Charlotte’s light rail.

Trump just got a serious warning from voters that he’s out of touch with their fears about a deteriorating U.S. economy.

Democrats were able to run up the score in key races across the country on Tuesday by harnessing some of the same populist fervor that helped get Trump reelected a year ago — but also by focusing on the kitchen table issues the Republican had vowed to fix. Now, as the incumbent, fears about the economy have made Trump the face of much of the public’s discontent.

Voters in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, the New York City mayoral contest and the California ballot proposition each ranked economic concerns as a top issue. Democrats swept all those, and it was difficult to point to any major race, anywhere, where Republicans had a key victory.

▶ Read more about how Americans have soured on Trump’s management of the economy

Mamdani wasted little time as New York City’s mayor-elect before making clear that he’ll be standing up to the president of the United States, who had threatened not only to defund the city if he won, but also to arrest and deport him.

“Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up,” he said at his victory party. “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”

“New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” said Mamdani, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Uganda. “So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

Trump seemed to be watching: “…AND SO IT BEGINS!” he posted on social media as Mamdani spoke.

The Republican speaker insisted he’s willing to talk to Democrats about their demands for health care funds, but blames them for the record-breaking shutdown, now in its 36th day.

Johnson was speaking with GOP lawmakers on the steps outside the Capitol, where he has kept the House closed to regular business, sending lawmakers home in September.

Israel’s hardline National Security Minister Itamir Ben-Gvir said Mamdani’s election is an “everlasting disgrace — how antisemitism triumphed over common sense.” He called Mamdani “a Hamas supporter, a hater of Israel and an avowed antisemite.��

Mamdani has said Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim denied by Israel. During the campaign, he also denounced “atrocities” committed by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which he called a “horrific war crime.” While supportive of Palestinian rights, he denies being antisemitic and reached out to Jews during his campaign.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli posted on X encouraging Jews of New York to emigrate to Israel, writing that the city “would never be the same again.” His feed on the social media site Wednesday was a stream of anti-Mamdani graphics, including a photo of the Twin towers being engulfed in flames with the caption “New York already forgot,” a meme criticized as Islamophobic.

When asked Wednesday about their combative relationship during the mayoral campaign, Mamdani said he has repeatedly expressed a willingness to help the president fulfill some of the promises Trump made during his 2024 presidential campaign.

“I have said time and again that I will work with the president if he wants to work together to deliver on his campaign promises of cheaper groceries or a lower cost of living. But for too long what New Yorkers have seen is a mayor who has been willing to work with the president at the expense of those New Yorkers,” Mamdani said on New York’s NY1 news channel.

“And I want to make it very clear that if the president looks to come after the people of this city, then I will be there standing up for them every step of the way.”