7. As many as 40 Democrats could run for president; Joe Biden thinks he is the most qualified
— With a little less than two years before the next presidential election, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) told MSNBC of 2020, “[T]here are a lot of U.S. senators, a lot of governors … a lot of people outside of politics.”
— While Senators like Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) prepare to make decisions, former Vice President Joe Biden declared himself the front-runner to a crowd in Montana. He told them, “I’ll be as straight with you as I can. I think I’m the most qualified person in the country to be president.”
6. Former Trump administration advisor Michael Flynn may escape jail time because he cooperated with the Mueller probe
— Special counsel Robert Mueller said Flynn provided “substantial assistance” to the special counsel’s probe and he recommended a lighter criminal sentence, including no jail time for one count of lying to federal prosecutors.
— The documents show that Flynn had 19 different meetings with prosecutors involving an “unknown criminal investigation” and the Russia meddling probe, including the “content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials.”
5. A California lawmaker wants to make his state a magnet for illegal immigrants
— State Assembly member Joaquin Arambula will re-introduce a bill that would allow adults who live in the state illegally to receive medical care paid for by the government, a move that will surely bring illegals into his state.
— Democrats are going big on free health care. Liberal darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continues to push “Medicare for All” with no idea how to pay for her proposed spending.
4. “Ballot harvesting” has the media fired up, but only in North Carolina and not California
— In one North Carolina congressional race, a political operative is accused of paying a woman to “harvest” ballots for the candidate, possibly discarding the ballots cast for the Democrat and filling out some ballots for the eventual winning Republican.
— But in California’s Orange County, where every seat went red-to-blue, the county registrar says “ballot harvesting” was happening with “250,000” votes by mail drop-off ballot delivered. He added, “[P]eople were carrying in stacks of 100 and 200 of them. We had had multiple people calling to ask if these people were allowed to do this.”
3. Tariff Man craters the stock market as China/U.S. talk gets muddied
— The markets plunged almost 800 points after the president declared himself to be “Tariff Man.” The White House acknowledged there was no deal to eliminate auto tariffs and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned it is possible that the global economy is facing a correction that could be made worse by trade disputes.
— J.P. Morgan officially noted that they do not believe there is any particular deal in the making between Trump and China, saying, “It doesn’t seem like anything was actually agreed to at the dinner and White House officials are contorting themselves into pretzels to reconcile Trump’s tweets (which seem if not completely fabricated then grossly exaggerated) with reality.”
2. An Alabama-based company’s train will take former President George H.W. Bush home
— Progress Rail, headquartered in Albertville, will be providing the final rail transportation for President Bush in a specially designed train making Bush the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to be sent off this way.
— Progress Rail unveiled a special 16-foot-tall locomotive 13 years ago designed with the color scheme of Air Force One and numbered 4141 for the late president. He reportedly was stunned when he saw it, only saying “wow” and he couldn’t stop smiling.
1. Riverchase Galleria suspect says he is innocent; Protests target a Walmart for some reason
— Erron Martez Dequan Brown is charged with attempted murder, but his lawyer says he will plead not guilty, but has not elaborated. The lawyer may hold a press conference soon.
— On Tuesday protesters took to a Walmart in Hoover, then to a Buffalo Wild Wings and finally to I-65 where they abandoned their cars and started walking down the freeway.
