Reuters House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is more popular than President Donald Trump, an RNC poll shows.
A private survey conducted for the Republican National Committee finds House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to be more popular than President Donald Trump — and beats him when the midterm election is framed as a contest between the two, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
The internal poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek. It asks registered voters who they support “when the November election is framed by Trump and Pelosi.” Overall, respondents prefer Pelosi-aligned candidates over Trump-aligned candidates by five points, 50% to 45%. Among independents only, California Democrat Pelosi still prevails by a four-point margin. The poll was completed on Sept. 2.
Midterm blame game: The Hill writes the White House and congressional Republicans are blaming each another for a difficult political environment that has bolstered Democrats’ chances of winning control of the House, and possibly the Senate. Republicans on Capitol Hill say Trump’s lack of discipline and penchant for controversy has put them at a disadvantage, while Trump’s political team has grown frustrated with the high number of GOP retirements and poor fundraising totals, the Hill reports. “This election is all about Trump. The White House knows it, and to shift blame is a ridiculous notion,” said one House Republican chief of staff. Republicans, writes the Hill, say strong economic gains should help propel GOP incumbents to victory, but the chaos surrounding Trump has helped negate that advantage.
Wealthy donors spending millions for Senate Democrats: The Washington Post reports wealthy donors — including a former Republican backer — poured millions last month into the main Democratic Senate super PAC, a sign of intensifying hopes on the left of flipping control of the chamber. Senate Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, posted a strong haul in August at $17.6 million, far above its monthly fundraising average of $10.5 million so far for the midterms. The Post says the super PAC has raised $94.4 million so far, compared with the $61.5 million by its GOP counterpart, according to new Federal Election Commission records posted Thursday evening.
Senators’ Gmail accounts targeted: The personal Gmail accounts of an unspecified number of senators and Senate staff have been targeted by foreign government hackers, a Google GOOG, +1.35% GOOGL, +1.47% spokesperson told CNN. CNN reports that on Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, wrote in a letter to Senate leadership that his office had learned that “at least one major technology company has informed a number of Senators and Senate staff members that their personal email accounts were targeted by foreign government hackers.” CNN said Alphabet Inc.’s Google confirmed it was the company Wyden was referring to, but wouldn’t say which senators were targeted or when the attempted intrusions were detected.
The senators and their staff targeted were both Republicans and Democrats, a Senate aide told CNN. CNN reports Google wouldn’t say whether the targeting had resulted in a successful hack but pointed to a blog post on its website about its government-backed hacking warnings that says they are sent “out of an abundance of caution.”
Facebook to give less support to Trump: Facebook Inc. FB, +1.82% says that for future presidential campaigns, it will pull back from the kind of on-site support it gave Trump for his 2016 presidential race — a relationship that came under scrutiny by Congress. Bloomberg writes the company will still offer technical support and basic training to candidate campaigns and political advocacy organizations. But it won’t visit campaign headquarters with as much frequency or provide as much strategic support as it did for Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Instead, writes Bloomberg, Facebook officials said they are working to improve the company’s political advertising website to give free advice to campaigns more broadly.
