Our live coverage of the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections has concluded. Stick with CNN Politics on Tuesday to see how America votes.
President Trump hit Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri Monday night, telling the crowd that any support she has been declaring for Trump will disappear the day after the election.
“She was going down and then she said the Democrats are crazy – and I said that’s genius for getting elected,” Trump joked to the crowd adding that he appreciate she’s support “out of nowhere” on the border.
Trump said that the Senator was “getting a lot of heat” from Democrats, but warned the crowd that she would make up with democrats the day after the election at “lunch.”
Trump also hit McCaskill for not voting for several of his referendums saying she will “be a disaster” if elected again.
Trump then invited McCaskill’s opponent, Josh Hawley, to the stage in Missouri.
President Trump, at his 11th and closing rally of the final week before the midterms, told the crowd in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, “If we don’t do so well tomorrow, they will put me on the ticket. If we do great tomorrow, they will say he has nothing to do with it.”
With just hours until polls open in the 2018 midterm elections, Facebook said Monday night that it had taken down a network of Facebook and Instagram pages, acting on a tip from US law enforcement.
“On Sunday evening, US law enforcement contacted us about online activity that they recently discovered and which they believe may be linked to foreign entities,” Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s head of cybersecurity, said in a statement.
The company removed 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts, the statement read.
“Almost all the Facebook Pages associated with these accounts appear to be in the French or Russian languages, while the Instagram accounts seem to have mostly been in English — some were focused on celebrities, others political debate,” Gleicher wrote.
“Once we know more — including whether these accounts are linked to the Russia-based Internet Research Agency or other foreign entities — we will update this post,” he added.
Facebook’s release comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a joint statement Monday that there was no indication of a compromise of America’s voting infrastructure.
Fox News host Sean Hannity appeared on stage beside Trump and thanked him for his work at a rally in Missouri Monday night, despite saying only hours earlier that he would not hit the stump for the President.
Hannity began by approaching the lectern and telling the audience, “by the way, all those people in the back are fake news,” pointing to members of the media located in a press pen.
“I had no idea you were going to invite me up here, and the one thing that has made and defined your presidency more than anything else: Promises Made, Promises Kept,” Hannity said, echoing the slogan on a banner that appeared behind the President’s lectern.
Hannity then went on to tout improvements in the economy since Trump took office and lauded his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal.
Hannity had previously said in a tweet that he “will not be on stage campaigning with the President. I am covering final rally for my show.”
Hannity’s colleague at Fox, Jeanine Pirro, appeared on stage after him.
Hannity is not a journalist, but he works at a hugely popular network with “News” in its name, alongside staffers who have to follow policies that forbid this type of political involvement.
Perhaps that’s why Fox News reacted to the press release by saying that Hannity was not sponsoring the rally or campaigning for Trump.
Hannity hosted his 9 p.m. show from the rally site, and he interviewed Trump there.
The White House’s communications team, led by former Fox News co-president Bill Shine, set up a similar on-site interview in Las Vegas in September. Trump arrived at the arena, walked up to Hannity’s stage for a live chat, then began his rally.
But the Trump campaign isn’t making a distinction between interviewing the president and showing up at the rally as a “special guest.” The campaign’s website encourages people to sign up for tickets to the event “w/Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, & Lee Greenwood.”
Read more here
President Trump has just arrived at his third and final rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Before he takes the stage, Trump will speak to Sean Hannity live on Fox News.
Hannity anchored the first half of his show from the rally – he’s interviewing POTUS backstage. There are only a few minutes left of Hannity’s show, but they could always go into the next hour.
Hannity has had a slew of Trump supporters on his show today, including Judge Jeanine live here in Missouri.
Once the rally starts, you can watch Trump live here.
Former Vice President Joe Biden grasped the microphone tightly as he delivered his closing pitch for Democrats, his normally booming voice gone after a week of campaigning and replaced with something much lower and hoarse.
Biden’s mission over the past week was straightforward: help Democrats make their closing argument heading into Tuesday’s elections. But his six day, eight-state campaign swing, which took him to college campuses, union halls, suburb fairgrounds and even the early nominating state of Iowa, also carried the trappings of an opening act with chants of “Run Joe Run!” filling many of his 12 rallies over the last week.
“The only thing strong enough to tear apart America is America itself, and we’ve seen it start, and we have to stop it and that’s what Tuesday’s about,” Biden said Sunday in Yatesville just a few miles from his birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a city upon which he’s centered much of his blue collar, middle-class message.
“It’s time to get up. Remember who in the hell we are. This is America,” added Biden, who was struck with laryngitis over his last few days of campaigning.
Oprah fired back against a racist robocall impersonating her, and said Monday, “Jesus don’t like ugly.”
“I heard people were making racist robocalls in my name against Stacey Abrams, who I am one hundred percent for, in Georgia,” Oprah says in an Instagram video. “I just want to say: Jesus don’t like ugly. Mm - mmm! And we know what to do about that: vote. Tomorrow show up and show out, and vote,” she says, singing the last “vote.”
A white supremacist group that targeted Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum with racist robocalls is now targeting Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
The prerecorded phone message features a voice impersonating Winfrey, who was in Georgia on Thursday stumping for Abrams, and contains racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The robocall went out to Georgia voters, but it is unclear how many received it.
Abrams’ Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, strongly denounced the automated call, calling it “absolutely disgusting” in a statement Friday.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican who has been critical of President Trump who has hinted he may consider a 2020 primary challenge, urged voters on election eve to get out and help “drive the change.”
“There’s a lot that we can do together,” Kasich told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “In the meantime, you and I and all these people that watch – start doing things where you live and drive the change from where you live to the top. It will work.”
Watch:
In Cape Girardeau tonight, inside the Show Me Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University, President Trump’s supporters are filing into the arena after standing outside for hours in the rain.
A familiar sight has returned for the final Trump rally of the 2018 campaign: A Fox News set on the floor of the arena, not far from the President.
There was no sign of host Sean Hannity on set yet, but the lights and cameras for his show were up and ready. His set up was about 10 to 20 yards away from the presidential lectern. (Fox News is apparently allowing Hannity to appear as a “special guest” at Trump’s final rally of the midterm season.) Hannity was spotted in the crowd at the rally.
It is unclear how the Trump interview will take place since he would seem to arrive after the Hannity show begins.
Rush Limbaugh told listeners of his show today that he will speak before the President — and warns against anyone giving him the hook in his hometown.
Limbaugh said: “I’m looking forward to it. I have… You know, I’ve sworn off of these kinds of things some time ago, but they asked — they were very persuasive — and I’m actually thrilled to be there…
A GOP congressional aide expressed concerns that an immigration message will likely fall flat or even backfire in the suburbs of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and California — places where Republicans are on defense as they face independent, fiscally conservative — but not culturally conservative — people.
Republican officials have pushed President Trump to champion an economic message for the sake of races in those states and districts like them.
“If that drowns everything out, and that’s all people hear, it becomes a challenge,” the aide said of the immigration message.
However, White House officials claim to have data showing Trump’s immigration message has moved key voters.
Republicans have trailed Democrats in voter enthusiasm for months, and Trump has hoped his focus on immigration will motivate otherwise complacent GOP voters to head to the polls on Tuesday.
But the aide said Trump would benefit swing districts more if he drew a fundamental contrast with Democrats on the economy — particularly by warning that Democrats, if given power, would raise taxes and over-regulate the economy.
“The contrast works well for us in all districts, especially one in districts that are important,” the aide said.
One possible reason Trump’s focused on the issue: A source close to the White House argued the decision to focus primarily on immigration — at the expense of any other issue — is in part data driven. The data White House officials have been analyzing, according to the source, shows people care less about the economy right now and much more about immigration and health care.
“If he talks about the economy, people are tuning out, because right now, people aren’t worried about the economy,” the source said. By contrast, the data shows the national mood is more focused on immigration, with headlines about the migrant caravan dominating headlines.
The source said the timing of Trump’s immigration push worked well because, although it’s an issue that the President has been touting for several years, “it all matches up now” with immigration being a top concern, even though the caravan of Central American migrants is more than 600 hundred miles from the border.
President Trump, asked to reflect on any regrets from his first years as President while traveling to a rally, told CNN affiliate Sinclair earlier this evening, “I would like to have a much softer tone.”
Scott Thuman/Sinclair: “Is there anything as you look back at your first almost two years that you regret, that you wish on you, that you could just take back and redo?”
President Trump: “Well there would be certain things, I’m not sure I want to reveal all of them but I would say tone, I would like to have a much softer tone. I feel to a certain extent I have no choice, but maybe I do, and maybe I could’ve been softer from that standpoint…”
President Trump invited three of his White House aides on stage during his campaign rally Monday in Indiana to help bolster his message.
The aides — senior adviser Ivanka Trump, press secretary Sarah Sanders, and counselor Kellyanne Conway — all made pitches for Republicans.
Conway was more forceful when she took the podium, declaring: “Joe (Donnelly) Must Go. Get him out.”
Both Sanders and Conway seemed cognizant of not falling afoul of Hatch Act violations that prevent government employees from using their positions for political activity. Conway said she was speaking in a “personal capacity” because the election meant a lot to her personally.
And Sanders made reference to her “official capacity,” saying she was not speaking in that role during the rally.
Watch the moment:
More than 14 million tweets have been sent about voting and early voting since Oct. 1, according to Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio.
People are also tweeting about this year’s candidates. These are the 10 who were mentioned the most in the past week:
After arriving in Indiana on Monday afternoon, President Trump shrugged off the prospects of Democrats going after his tax returns if they win back the House.
“I don’t care. They can do whatever they want, and I can do whatever I want,” Trump said at Fort Wayne International Airport.
He also said that “we’ll just have to work a little bit differently” if Democrats win the House on Tuesday, though he didn’t elaborate on how.
He is in Indiana to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who stood next to Trump as the President as he spoke to reporters.
“He’s (Braun) run a brilliant campaign, the polls just came out, he’s actually leading by a little bit,” Trump said. “Mike is going to have a great victory.”
Braun is facing off against Democrat Joe Donnelly in one of the marquee Senate contests of this year’s midterm elections.
Despite a busy campaign schedule the last two weeks, with sometimes two or three rallies a day, President Trump has nothing on his schedule tomorrow, a White House official tells CNN.
His plan is to sit back, watch the results roll in and see if his campaigning blitz paid off.
The call to vote is plastered across America. Artists, activists and brands have taken to the streets to get out the vote with visual representations meant to convey the importance of Tuesday’s election.
Lyft, which is offering 50% off for rides to polling places Tuesday, covered a wall in the Lower East Side with mock ballots. Tinder has an “Every ‘Single’ Vote Counts” campaign in multiple cities, and Patagonia pledged to give employees time off to vote.
In New York, “vote” has turned into a street art tag, seen on sidewalks and signposts. In the Times Square subway station, “I’m Voting” stickers were stuck on people featured in ads for Bumble.
Some of the street art is candidate-specific. In Houston, artist Anat Ronan painted “Vote Beto” with an image of Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke Superman-style, and artist Fabian Williams created a mural of gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams with the word “vote” in an Atlanta bar.
Republican Brian Kemp’s Georgia gubernatorial campaign is targeting Democrat Stacey Abrams with calls to voters in the final days of the election that feature several false claims.
Among the falsehoods are claims that Abrams is trying to “steal” the election with undocumented immigrant voters, that Abrams supports impeaching President Donald Trump, and that Abrams was endorsed by Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
“Radical Stacey Abrams is so extreme that she wants to allow illegal immigrants to vote in this election,” a robocall from the Kemp campaign says. “We can’t let her steal this election. It’s up to you to stop her.”
Another phone bank call from the Kemp campaign says Abrams wants to give undocumented immigrants “the right to vote.”
Cody Hall, a spokesman for the Kemp campaign, pointed to comments from Abrams during a campaign stop this month with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, where she said undocumented immigrants were part “of the Blue Wave.” He also pointed to a 2009 vote against requiring a citizenship check before voting. In neither instance did Abrams say she supported giving undocumented immigrants the right to vote in the election.
Another call from the campaign claims Abrams is “endorsed by Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi,” and “Stacey Abrams has even said she supports the impeachment of President Trump.”
While Clinton did endorse Abrams, Pelosi hasn’t announced an endorsement of Abrams and isn’t involved in the race.
Jorge Aguilar, a spokesman for Pelosi, said she only endorses in House races.
Abrams has also never said she supports impeaching Trump. In May, she said impeachment is “absolutely a lever we need to look at” but only if it was shown that the President had “committed high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Abigail Collazo, director of strategic communications for Abrams, blasted the last-minute calls.
“Lies, false accusations, and misleading calls have become the hallmark of Brian Kemp’s increasingly desperate campaign,” Collazo said.
President Trump, who was in Ohio campaigning for gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine, spent a good portion of the rally bashing Democratic candidate Richard Cordray, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Mike’s opponent, who was in my administration for a short while, who is – by the way, terrible, terrible – is a far-left, radical socialist, and not a good person,” Trump said.
Trump tied Cordray to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, perhaps previewing the 2020 message that will be underway the minute the votes are counted tomorrow.
“He’s a disciple of Elizabeth Warren, who I can no longer call Pocahontas because she has no Indian blood. She has no Indian blood!” Trump said.
Trump recalled that he used to go around saying that he has “more Indian blood” than Warren, boasting, “And I was right!”
At a Montana rally on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence predicted a Republican victory in Tuesday’s midterm election.
“I keep hearing about this blue wave that’s coming our way,” said Pence in Kalispell, Montana. “But I got to tell you, I got to tell you, it kind of reminds me of a couple years ago today. I mean was standing — I was standing there with a man who would become President of the United States.”
He recounted the final rally that he and President Trump attended in Michigan, saying, “You know, that was the night he turned the blue wall red, remember? And I got a feeling that blue wave is gonna hit a red wall right here in Montana and all across America.”
Pence campaigned for Montana Senate candidate Matt Rosendale and Rep. Greg Gianforte. Later on Monday, he will head to Rapid City, South Dakota, to campaign for Rep. Kristi Noem, who is running for governor.
