President Trump kicked off Friday by unloading on two of the more moderate senators — one with a D next to his name and another with an R — for their votes in in the Senate impeachment trial.
When it came time for the Senate to rule on the two articles of impeachment, which were passed by the Democrat-controlled House without a single Republican vote, only one senator voted against the party line: frequent Trump-critic Utah Republican Mitt Romney, who voted &#8220;guilty&#8221; on &#8220;abuse of power&#8221; (which failed 48-52), but voted to acquit Trump on &#8220;obstruction of Congress&#8221; (which failed along party lines, 47-53).
One of the Democrats most likely to vote to acquit Trump was West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who at one point seemed to indicate that he might move to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-democrat-senator-asks-democrats-to-censure-trump-instead-of-convict">censure</a> the president rather than vote to remove him. In the end, however, Manchin fell in line with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), voting guilty on both charges last week.
In a pair of tweets Friday morning, Trump expressed both surprise and disappointment with Manchin for turning out to be what he described as a &#8220;puppet&#8221; for the Democratic leadership. The president also worked in a shot at Romney, with whom he&#8217;s been publicly feuding for months, and who explained his &#8220;guilty&#8221; vote by citing his religious faith. &#8220;I am a profoundly religious person,&#8221; said Romney in a statement ahead of the vote. &#8220;I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.&#8221;
&#8220;I was very surprised [and] disappointed that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted against me on the Democrat’s totally partisan Impeachment Hoax,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;No President has done more for the great people of West Virginia than me (Pensions), and that will always continue.&#8221;
&#8220;Every Republican Senator except Romney, many highly religious people, all very smart, voted against the Impeachment Hoax,&#8221; Trump added before returning to his Manchin criticism. &#8220;[Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)] was all in (a great person). I was told by many that Manchin was just a puppet for Schumer &amp; Pelosi. That’s what he is!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#8230;.always continue. Every Republican Senator except Romney, many highly religious people, all very smart, voted against the Impeachment Hoax. <a href="https://twitter.com/SenCapito?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenCapito</a> was all in (a great person). I was told by many that Manchin was just a puppet for Schumer &amp; Pelosi. That’s what he is!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1228339437685395458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump&#8217;s reference to &#8220;highly religious people&#8221; was a follow-up to his thinly veiled criticism of Romney at the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday following his acquittal by the Senate the day before.
&#8220;As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-takes-aim-at-romney-pelosi-at-national-prayer-breakfast">said</a> Trump (video below) &#8220;They have done everything possible to destroy us and, by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.&#8221;
After praising &#8220;courageous Republican politicians and leaders&#8221; for pushing back against the Democrats&#8217; impeachment campaign, Trump took a swipe at Romney without mentioning his name. &#8220;I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,&#8221; he said.
Trump then hit House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who famously said she regularly prays for him. &#8220;Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when they know that that’s not so,&#8221; said Trump.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-fbi-director-just-admitted-surveillance-of-my-campaign-was-illegal">Trump: FBI Director Just Admitted Surveillance Of My Campaign Was Illegal</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
President Trump: &quot;I don&#39;t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say &#39;I pray for you&#39; when they know that that&#39;s not so. So many people have been hurt and we can&#39;t let that go on.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NationalPrayerBreakfast?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NationalPrayerBreakfast</a> <a href="https://t.co/79XCLpD7GP">pic.twitter.com/79XCLpD7GP</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1225423944410451968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

President Trump

Trump Expresses ‘Surprise’ By ‘Puppet’ Manchin, Hits ‘Religious’ Romney

Donald Trump

Impeachment

Joe Manchin

Mitt Romney

West Virginia

Governor Jim Justice (R-WV) has approved a recommendation that over 30 members of the correctional officer trainee group “Basic Training Class 18” be fired after a photo of the cadets engaging in a Nazi salute was distributed inside graduation materials. 
“As I said from the beginning, I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” says Justice, according to a <a href="https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2019/Pages/Gov.-Justice-approves-recommended-terminations-after-reviewing-report-on-DCR-Academy-Class-18.aspx">press release</a>. “I also said that this act needed to result in real consequences — terminations and dismissals. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of State government.”
According to an <a href="https://governor.wv.gov/Documents/DMAPS%20Executive%20Summary%20and%20Memo%20to%20Governor.pdf">investigation</a> conducted by the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, Division of Corrections, “the hand gesture was found to have started in the second or third week of the Academy session as one that the cadets have described as a ‘sign of respect’ for [the instructor, Karrie Byrd]. The gesture was started by one of the class members, and other class members began using it as well.”
“Several cadets recognized it for its historical implications and refused to go along with the class. Others who knew the implications of the gesture felt pressure to fit in and joined in,” continues the report. “Some of these class members voiced their concerns to classmates. Those voicing concerns were assured by those comfortable with the gesture, that since there was no racial motivation on their part, the gesture was acceptable.”
Byrd, who feigned ignorance about the meaning of the salute and was fired in December, was explicitly told about the connotations by other corrections officers, according to investigators. Byrd also allegedly told a secretary who reviewed the photo for the graduation materials that the cadets were making the salute “because [she is] a hard-a** like Hitler.”
Investigators say that Byrd chose to ignore the warnings of other officers, and even “encouraged” the salute, “reveled in it, and at times reciprocated the gesture.”
Documents obtained by <a href="https://www.wvpublic.org/post/corrections-instructor-byrd-taught-cultural-diversity-still-no-ids-cadets-nazi-salute-photo#stream/0">West Virginia Public Broadcasting</a> show earlier this month show that Byrd taught multiple subjects, including “Cultural Diversity.” Nonetheless, the report reveals that the picture was taken at Byrd’s direction, and multiple trainees told investigators that Byrd had them retake the picture “due to not everyone participating in the gesture.”
According to the report, 10 trainees told investigators that they feared they wouldn’t graduate unless they obeyed Byrd’s order. A total of seven trainees refused to make the salute even after Byrd told them to do so, but held up a closed fist “in order to comply with Byrd’s direction but not make the gesture,” says the report. In the picture, six people can be seen holding up a fist. 
Jeff Sandy, the cabinet secretary for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, condemned the actions of the cadets, saying that their conduct has damaged the reputation of the department and negatively impacted “morale across the workforce.”
The report concludes that investigators did not find “overt motivation or intent that [the gesture] was a discriminatory act towards any racial, religious, or ethnic group. Rather, contributing factors included poor judgment, ignorance, peer pressure, and fear of reprisal.”
According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/e5fe6e11ded8194a7e6818f7e638ba9f">Associated Press</a>, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety announced Tuesday that the department will go through a Holocaust education program put on by a regional chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.

Prison San Quentin Guard Lookout Tower California

Over 30 Cadets Fired For Nazi Salute Photo, Cultural Diversity Instructor Encouraged Them

Nazis

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced on Tuesday that he has decided to remain in the Senate rather than vacating his seat in order to run for governor of West Virginia.
“The Senate, as envisioned by our Founders, is the greatest deliberative body in the world, and, when it is at its best, senators can transform the lives of people across America for the better,” Manchin said <a href="https://www.manchin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/manchin-announces-decision-to-stay-in-the-senate">in a statement</a>. “Whether that means protecting those with pre-existing conditions, ensuring healthcare and pensions for our miners, or building the roads and bridges, and broadband infrastructure that make our country competitive, we can make a difference.”
“I have always said that ‘public service is not self-service,’” he continued. “So, when considering whether to run for governor, I couldn’t focus just one which job I enjoyed the most, but on where I could be the most effective for the Mountain State.”
Manchin <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/448287-manchin-eyes-senate-exit">reportedly had been</a> confiding in his colleagues for months that he has been exceptionally frustrated with Congress’s lack of bipartisanship and as a result, mulling over the possibility of leaving the Senate.
When asked in June whether he was happy with the Senate’s productivity, he replied, “Not at all.”
“I haven’t been happy since I’ve been here,” Manchin said at the time. “I’ve always thought there was more we can do. It’s the greatest body in the world, so much good can be done.”
Despite winning reelection to his Senate seat in 2018, the West Virginia senator confirmed that he considered stepping down from his position in order to run against Republican Gov. Jim Justice when Justice&#8217;s term expires in 2020.
Manchin had previously served as the Mountain State’s governor from 2005 until 2010, but vacated the position in the middle of his second term to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) following Byrd&#8217;s death.
“Those who know me know how much I loved being the governor of West Virginia. I worked the daylights out of that job. I couldn’t wait to wake up in the Governor’s Mansion in the morning, and I didn’t want to go to bed at night because there was always more that I could do for the state,” Manchin continued in his statement.
“That is what it takes to be an effective governor: relentless effort,” he continued. “Working together, all of us changed the culture of this state from CAN’T DO to DONE! Attitudes changed, our financial outlook changed, and more importantly, we stood tall in what we accomplished: creating good paying jobs, improving West Virginia’s finances, and making the state competitive again.”
“Serving as the governor of this state was the greatest honor of my life,” Manchin added. “Nothing made my heart swell with pride more than bragging about the wonderful state I represented.”
The Democratic lawmaker is considered one of the most centrist members of the Senate today. He survived re-election in deep-red West Virginia by lauding his support for the state’s coal industry. Manchin often crosses the aisle to oppose Obama-era regulations and confirm judicial nominees.
“Our state is blessed with the resources and people to accomplish anything, and I am going to use every day I have left in the Senate to make sure West Virginians have that chance,” Manchin said. “I am grateful to be a public servant from West Virginia, and I can’t wait to continue fighting to make a difference as their United States senator.”

WV Democratic Senate Candidate Joe Manchin Holds Election Night Party In Charleston

Joe Manchin Finally Makes A Decision On Whether To Run For Governor

On Tuesday night, the people of Alabama and West Virginia voted for major victories for the unborn.
In Alabama, voters approved an amendment to the state&#8217;s constitution affirming that the unborn have a right to life.
As <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2018/11/07/alabama-approves-amendment-saying-unborn-babies-have-a-right-to-life/">reported</a> by LifeNews, &#8220;The proposed constitutional amendment asked voters to &#8216;affirm that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, most importantly the right to life in all manners and measures appropriate and lawful.&#8217; The amendment also would guarantee that &#8216;the constitution of this state does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.'&#8221;
Alabamans were undeterred by the whopping $1.5 million that abortion giant Planned Parenthood and its allies <a href="https://yellowhammernews.com/stand-for-life-vote-yes-on-amendment-two/">poured</a> into the state to defeat the amendment.
As <a href="https://yellowhammernews.com/stand-for-life-vote-yes-on-amendment-two/">noted</a> by Yellow Hammer, the amendment clarifies that Alabama &#8220;does not support taxpayer dollars being spent to fund abortions.&#8221;
In West Virginia, voters approved an amendment to their state constitution, which could end the practice of taxpayers funding elective abortions.
&#8220;West Virginians tonight approved a constitutional amendment that makes it clear that their state does not recognize abortion as a &#8216;right.&#8217; The Amendment One ballot measure passed the state legislature in March, and West Virginians just voted for it on their state ballot,&#8221; <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2018/11/07/west-virginia-approves-pro-life-amendment-saying-there-is-no-right-to-abortion/">reports</a> LifeNews.
&#8220;Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion,&#8221; the West Virginia Constitution will now state, per the amendment&#8217;s passing.
&#8220;If Amendment 1 is ratified by the voters in November, then West Virginia will join 33 other states and the federal government in limiting taxpayer funding of abortion,&#8221; explained West Virginians For Life Legislative Liaison Karen Cross.
According to LifeNews, the people of West Virginia have shelled out some $10 million for abortions; taxpayers funded a stunning 1,560 abortions in 2017 alone.
Sixteen other states, including Oregon, currently force their citizens to fund elective abortions. Unfortunately, Oregonians <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2018/11/07/oregon-votes-to-force-residents-to-fund-abortions-up-to-birth-after-planned-parenthood-spends-millions/">voted</a> on Tuesday night to reaffirm the state&#8217;s practice of forcing taxpayers to fund elective abortions by a 2-1 margin via Measure 106.
Tuesday night also brought in and secured major pro-life shifts in Texas, with the reelection of Sen. Ted Cruz; in North Dakota, with the Senate defeat of Heidi Heitkamp; in Indiana, with the defeat of Democrat Joe Donnelly (who claimed to be pro-life) by an actual pro-life candidate; in Missouri, with the defeat of former Sen. Claire McCaskill; and in Tennessee, with the staunch pro-life Republican Marsha Blackburn winning a seat in the Senate.

Promising Pro-Life Wins In Alabama, West Virginia

Abortion

Alabama

Update 2:22 pm ET: The Montana Senate election has been called for Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat who voted against Kavanaugh.
As of Wednesday morning, every incumbent Democrat senator in a competitive race who voted against Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court has lost.
The senate race in Montana is still too close to call, but it looks like Republican Matt Rosendale will eke out a victory. Incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, voted against Kavanaugh in October after the judge was accused without evidence of teenage sexual misconduct.
In Indiana, Republican Mike Braun defeated incumbent Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly. Donnelly had voted yes on President Donald Trump&#8217;s first Supreme Court nomination, Neil Gorsuch, but said he would vote &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36458/breaking-swing-vote-sen-donnelly-no-kavanaugh-mid-paul-bois">no</a>&#8221; on Kavanaugh.
&#8220;I have deep reservations about Judge Kavanaugh&#8217;s nomination to this lifetime position and, as I stated, we have been unable to get all the information necessary regarding this nomination, despite my best efforts,&#8221; Donnelly said at the time. &#8220;Only 113 people have ever served on the Supreme Court, and I believe that we must do our level best to protect its sanctity.&#8221;
Donnelly also said the allegations against Kavanaugh were &#8220;disturbing and credible&#8221; and he wanted the FBI to investigate. The FBI did investigate and found no evidence to support the allegedly credible allegations.
This pattern also occurred with Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota. She voted for Gorsuch but against Kavanaugh despite a majority of voters in her state wanting Kavanaugh confirmed. Heitkamp announced she would vote &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36776/dem-senator-heitkamp-explains-her-no-vote-frank-camp">no</a>&#8221; on Kavanaugh after watching his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the accusations against him with the sound off.
&#8220;In addition to the concerns about his past conduct, last Thursday&#8217;s hearing called into question for me Judge Kavanaugh&#8217;s current temperament, his honesty, and his impartiality. These are critical traits of any nominee to serve on the highest court in our country,&#8221; Heitkamp said in a statement at the time. &#8220;Dr. Ford gave a heartfelt, credible, and persuasive testimony. It took a great deal of courage, and it also came at great personal cost to her. &#8230; Our actions right now are an important signal to young girls and women across the country &#8230; &#8221;
Kavanaugh was not Heitkamp&#8217;s only problem, of course. In her zeal to appear sympathetic to victims of sexual assault, her campaign published an ad claiming to be a letter written by survivors. The only problem was the campaign <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37188/democrat-senator-apologizes-outing-sexual-assault-ashe-schow">didn&#8217;t seek permission</a> from these women to name them and use their locations. Heitkamp was already down in the polls for her vote on Kavanaugh, but this blunder sealed her fate.
Republican Kevin Cramer defeated Heitkamp Tuesday night in North Dakota.
In Missouri, Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Democrat incumbent, voted against Kavanaugh. She, too, lost to her Republican challenger, Josh Hawley. It also appears Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida will be defeated by Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Nelson also voted against Kavanaugh.
Every Democrat in a Red or Red-ish state who voted against Kavanaugh has either lost or looks likely to lose. By contrast, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted for Kavanaugh and won re-election despite running in a state that Trump carried in 2016.
There is one outlier to all of this: In Nevada, Democrat Jacky Rosen defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller, who voted for Kavanaugh. Nevada is not a Red State, however.

KAVANAUGH EFFECT: Democrats Who Voted Against Him Lose Competitive Races

2018 Election

Brett Kavanaugh

Claire McCaskill

Democratic Party

Florida

Heidi Heitkamp

Indiana

Missouri

UPDATE 10:30 p.m. EST: ABC News and Fox News project that Republicans will maintain control of the Senate.
Heading into the election, polling data gave Republicans a decided advantage in maintaining control of the U.S. Senate, while Democrats enjoyed a slightly stronger likelihood of taking the House. According to Nate Silver&#8217;s <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/senate/?ex_cid=midterms-header">FiveThirtyEight</a> on the morning of the election, Republicans had a 4 in 5 chance (80.9%) of maintaining control of the Senate and were likely to end up with 52 seats, a net gain of one seat and one more than they need for the 51-seat majority.
<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/2018_elections_senate_map.html">Real Clear Politics</a>&#8216; average of the key polls Tuesday morning gave Republicans 49 seats that polling data indicates are highly likely to go their way, including two that &#8220;lean&#8221; heavily in Republicans&#8217; favor (North Dakota and Texas), one (Mississippi&#8217;s special election) that is &#8220;likely&#8221; to go to the GOP, and 46 that are fully &#8220;safe&#8221; or not up. RCP gives Democrats a total of 43 seats that are very likely to go their way (five that &#8220;lean,&#8221; two that are &#8220;likely,&#8221; and 37 that are safe or not up).
If RCP&#8217;s averages of the polls are correct, that means that just eight Senate seats are truly in play: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Other races that have garnered a lot of attention include North Dakota and Texas. Below is the final polling data for each of these key races and the latest updates on vote counts.
ARIZONA &#8212; Too close to call
With 75% reporting, McSally (R) leads Sinema (D) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/az">49.3 &#8211; 48.4</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST)
The contest for the traditionally center-right Arizona seat left empty by retiring Republican Jeff Flake is one of the Democrats&#8217; best hopes of picking up a traditionally red seat. Polling data has consistently shown a very tight race between Republican Rep. Martha McSally and Democrat Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. RCP&#8217;s average of the latest polls gave McSally a razor-thin <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/az/arizona_senate_mcsally_vs_sinema-6328.html">1-point</a> advantage, a statistical tie. The final Gravis poll showed McSally up by 1; Emerson gave Sinema a 1-point edge; HarrisX had McSally up by 3; ABC 15/OH Predictive Insights gave the Republican a 1-point edge; and Trafalgar Group gave McSally a 2-point lead.
FLORIDA &#8212; Scott (R) declares victory.
With 100% reporting, Scott (R) defeats Nelson (D) <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/live_results/2018/senate/">50.2 &#8211; 49.8</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
Incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson found himself neck-and-neck with Republican Gov. Rick Scott for the Florida seat, though most of the late polls gave Nelson the edge. RCP&#8217;s final averages of the recent polls gave Nelson a <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/fl/florida_senate_scott_vs_nelson-6246.html">2.4%</a> lead over Scott. Quinnipiac&#8217;s final poll showed Nelson up by 7 points; HarrisX found Scott leading by 2; Emerson gave Nelson a 5-point advantage; St. Pete Polls gave the incumbent a 4-point lead; and Trafalgar Group showed Scott with a slim 2-point edge.
INDIANA &#8212; NBC &amp; Fox News project Braun (R) winner.
With 93% reporting, Braun (R) leads Donnelly (D) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/in">52.9 &#8211; 43</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
Incumbent Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly is one of the senators that appears to have been hurt by his vote against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Real Clear Politics&#8217; final <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/in/indiana_senate_braun_vs_donnelly-6573.html">average</a> gave him a slim 1.3% advantage over Republican Mike Braun. The final poll by CBS News/YouGov found Braun up by 3 points; NBC News/Marist found Donnelly leading by 2 points; Fox News found Donnelly ahead by 7 points; and the most recent poll, by HarrisX, found Braun with a razor-thin 1-point edge.
MISSOURI &#8212; Fox News projects Hawley (R) winner.
With 99% reporting, Hawley (R) leads McCaskill (D) by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/mo">51.5 &#8211; 45.5</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
After voting against Kavanaugh, incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill was on the wrong side of several of the polls in the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/mo/missouri_senate_hawley_vs_mccaskill-6280.html">contest in Missouri</a> against Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley. RCP&#8217;s final average showed Hawley with a negligible 0.6% edge. Three of the six most recent polls found the two tied. An NBC News/Marist poll found McCaskill ahead by 3 points; Trafalgar Group found Hawley up by 4 points; and Emerson found the Republican leading by 3 points.
MONTANA &#8212; Too close to call
With 95% reporting, Rosendale (R) leads Tester (D) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/mt">48.8 &#8211; 48.3</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST)
Incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Tester&#8217;s once sizable lead over Republican challenger Matt Rosendale diminished somewhat over the past few weeks. Going into election day, he lead by an average of <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/mt/montana_senate_rosendale_vs_tester-6306.html">3.3 points</a>. Gravis&#8217;s final poll gave Tester a 3-point lead; HarrisX gave him a 6-point lead; and Trafalgar Group gave him just a 1-point edge over Rosendale.
NEVADA &#8211; NBC &amp; Fox News project Rosen (D) winner.
With 94% reporting, Rosen (D) leads Heller (R) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/nv">49.7 &#8211; 46</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST)
Incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) headed into election day <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/nv/nevada_senate_heller_vs_rosen-6304.html">tied</a> with challenger Democrat Jacky Rosen in the polls. Trafalgar Group gave Heller a 3-point lead; HarrisX showed Heller leading by just 1-point; and Emerson gave Rosen a 4-point advantage.
NORTH DAKOTA &#8212; NBC &amp; Fox News project Cramer (R) winner.
With 99% reporting, Cramer (R) leads Heitkamp (D) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/nd">55.4 &#8211; 44.6</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
Incumbent Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp&#8217;s polling numbers tanked after her vote against Kavanaugh. RCP&#8217;s final average was a commanding <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/nd/north_dakota_senate_cramer_vs_heitkamp-6485.html">9-point</a> lead for Republican challenger Kevin Cramer. Both Trafalgar Group and Fox News&#8217; final polls gave Cramer that sizable advantage.
TENNESSEE &#8212; NBC &amp; Fox News project Blackburn (R) winner.
With 99% reporting, Blackburn (R) leads Bredesen (D) by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/tn">54.7 &#8211; 43.9.</a> (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
The race for the open seat between Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen leaned towards Blackburn for the last few weeks. RCP&#8217;s final average put her ahead by <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/tn/tennessee_senate_blackburn_vs_bredesen-6308.html">5.2 points</a>. Recent polls by CNN, Fox News, and Emerson gave her leads of 4, 9, and 8 points, respectively.
TEXAS &#8212; NBC &amp; Fox News project Cruz (R) winner.
With 99% reporting, Cruz (R) leads O&#8217;Rourke (D) by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/tx">50.9 &#8211; 48.3</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
The contest between incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and challenger Democrat Beto O&#8217;Rourke was tight for several weeks, but moved in Cruz&#8217;s direction over the last month. RCP gave Cruz a <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/tx/texas_senate_cruz_vs_orourke-6310.html">6.8%</a> lead by average. The final polls by Quinnipiac, CBS 11/Dixie Strategies, Emerson, and Trafalgar Group showed Cruz ahead by 5, 10, 3 and 9 points, respectively.
WEST VIRGINIA &#8212; Fox News projects Manchin (D) winner.
With 100% reporting, Manchin (D) leads Morissey (R) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-west-virginia-elections.html">49.5 &#8211; 46.3</a>. (Updated 8:00 a.m. EST.)
Though it seemed highly unlikely that incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin would lose his seat to challenger Patrick Morissey, recent polls showed the race tightening. On election morning, RCP gave Manchin a <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/wv/west_virginia_senate_morrisey_vs_manchin-6258.html">5-point</a> lead by average, with recent polls by MetroNews and Emerson both showing him ahead by that same margin. Manchin was the only Democrat to break ranks and vote for the confirmation of Kavanaugh.

UPDATES: The Key Senate Races, All The Latest Results

Arizona

Montana

Nevada

North Dakota

Republican Party

Texas

U.S. Senate

The West Virginia Judiciary Committee voted to impeach the entire West Virginia Supreme Court on charges of maladministration, corruption, incompetence, neglect of duty and certain high crimes. 
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/08/09/west-virginia-supreme-court-justices-impeachment/944619002/">According to Charleston Gazette-Mail,</a> all four of the justices &#8212; Chief Justice Margaret Workman, Justices Robin Davis, Allen Loughry, and Beth Walker &#8212; are accused of &#8220;unnecessary and lavish&#8221; spending and failing to maintain court policies regarding the use of state funds, cars, and other resources.
Loughry is also charged with using state vehicles for personal travel, having state-owned computers and furniture in his home, and using state funding for personal expenses. Last year, <a href="https://wchstv.com/news/waste-watch/waste-watch-investigation-wv-supreme-court-spending-examined">WCHS-TV reported</a> that in his chamber, he had a $32,000 couch, $1,700 throw pillows, a $2,560 coffee table, and eight office chairs costing $16,374. He is also out on bond and reportedly &#8220;the subject of a 23-count federal indictment charging him with 16 counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, three counts of making false statements to a federal agent, one count of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering.&#8221;
The articles for impeachment will now be up for vote in the state House and if approved, the state Senate will need a two-thirds vote to begin impeachment trials. 
Last month, former Justice Menis Ketchum resigned from the court and <a href="http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2018/07/former-justice-menis-ketchum-pleads-in-federal-investigation-of-w-va-supreme-court/">pleaded guilty</a> in federal court to one felony count of wire fraud improper use of a state fuel card after he used state vehicles and the gas card for personal golf outings.

Committee Votes To Impeach Entire West Virginia Supreme Court For Corruption

Recently released polling conducted in battleground states again found support for President Donald Trump&#8217;s Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The <a href="https://judicialnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/JCN-SCOTUS-Polling-Memo.pdf">new polls</a>, conducted by North Star Opinion Research in Alabama, Indiana, North Dakota, and West Virginia in the days after Kavanaugh was nominated, show large pluralities wanting the judge confirmed. The four states were selected because Trump won each, and each have a Democratic senator who voted for Trump&#8217;s previous pick, Justice Neil Gorsuch (except for Sen. Doug Jones, who wasn&#8217;t in the senate yet).
Registered voters in Alabama want Kavanaugh confirmed by 54% to 30%. Voters in Indiana (52% to 34%) and West Virginia (55% to 30%) gave similar responses. Eligible voters in North Dakota, where Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp faces a tough re-election, were the most supportive of Kavanaugh, with 60% saying they want to see the judge confirmed, compared to just 22% who did not.
Breaking the numbers down further, Independents in each of the four states also want Kavanaugh confirmed. North Dakota Independents were again the most supportive, by a margin of 60% to 18%. In Alabama, Independents favored Kavanaugh&#8217;s confirmation by 54% to 30%; in Indiana, 48% to 34%; and in West Virginia, 59% to 23%.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted for Gorsuch last year, and appears to be poised to win re-election in November. Heitkamp and Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/32870/poll-senate-democrat-hysterics-arent-moving-voters-ashe-schow">not in as good shape</a>.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/33071/mcconnell-says-senate-will-confirm-brett-kavanaugh-ashe-schow">hopes to have Kavanaugh confirmed by October 1.</a>

More Polling Shows Battleground States Want Kavanaugh Confirmed

Seventh grade students at a West Virginia middle school were given packets of work wherein they were instructed to write their submission to Allah as their one true god in Arabic calligraphy.
<a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/parent-outraged-school-gives-students-worksheet-writing-islamic-faith-declaration-224078/">According</a> to The Christian Post, a worksheet in a homework packet handed to students &#8220;instructs students to practice calligraphy by copying the Arabic form of the Shahada by hand.&#8221; The Shahada &#8220;is the Islamic profession of faith that declares belief in one true God and Muhammad being a messenger of God.&#8221;
Mountain Ridge Middle School student Brielle Penkoski brought the work packet home and showed her father, Rich Penkoski, a Christian who runs an online ministry.
&#8220;I saw the assignment of writing the Shahada in Arabic. Their excuse was calligraphy,&#8221; the enraged father told The Christian Post. &#8220;I was like, &#8216;Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!&#8217; First of all, calligraphy was invented in China 3,000 years prior to Muhammad. The fact that they were trying to get my daughter to write that disturbed me.'&#8221;
According to Brielle, the assignment was mandatory and she would receive a consequence if she left it uncompleted.
&#8220;I said, &#8216;That is not happening. My daughter is not doing that,'&#8221; Penkoski said. &#8220;My daughter told me that if she didn&#8217;t do the assignment then she was going to get a [detention] slip.&#8221;
Horrified over the assignment from Katherine Hinson, his daughter&#8217;s teacher, Mr. Penkoski immediately contacted the school&#8217;s principal, Ron Branch, who contends Hinson never actually assigned the work packet, but that it was &#8220;optional.&#8221;
&#8220;There were two calligraphy activities in the packet,&#8221; Branch wrote in an email. &#8220;One involving the Shahada and one that is just English letters in which the students can write whatever they want in calligraphy,&#8221; Branch explained. &#8220;The teacher told the students that they could do these activities if they wanted. I told Mr. Penkoski that the calligraphy activity was optional, but was not assigned. They are reading through the packet as part of the study. The teacher has told her class several times that this is a study of world religions and that she is not trying to advocate for any religion over another. She has told her class that if they had questions about religious beliefs, that those conversations should take place with their parents.&#8221;
Penkoski, citing past homework assignments concerning Christianity and Judaism, believes the school is merely backtracking and calling the work &#8220;optional&#8221; only in light of his complaint.
&#8220;Why would they print all that out and then tell them they don&#8217;t have to do it?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;When they were given a packet [on Christianity], which didn&#8217;t go into that much detail, they did have to write an essay. So you&#8217;re telling me they don&#8217;t have to do it now that I called you on it? It makes no sense and it is not consistent.&#8221;
&#8220;If it was optional, then why was there no option for comparison for Judaism and Christianity? There was no option to recite any of the Lord&#8217;s Prayer and Ten Commandments. There was no option to write Hebrew,&#8221; Penkoski continued. &#8220;Why is it only Islam?&#8221;
&#8220;I am curious why the other ones were not optional and the Islamic one was optional,&#8221; he added. &#8220;It only seemed to be optional after I raised objection.&#8221;&#8203;
Branch pushed back: &#8220;The units on Judaism and Christianity were about a week-and-a-half. Each of the other units should take about a week. Jesus was taught,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;The students read the chapter in our textbook that discusses Christianity&#8217;s belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and salvation. They also discussed the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper and Jesus&#8217; Betrayal, the Trinity, and the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, among other topics.&#8221;
&#8203;In the packets on Christianity and Judaism there were &#8220;no Bible verses, no reciting the Ten Commandments or the Lord&#8217;s Prayer,&#8221; noted Penkoski. &#8220;[There&#8217;s] no practicing writing in Hebrew as compared to the Islamic packet.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s one thing to talk about secular, but they cross the line with Islam because they went from the secular aspect of it to the faith aspect of it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Let&#8217;s be honest, if they had come home with the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, we would have atheists suing all over the place.&#8221;

West Virginia Middle Schoolers Instructed To Write Their Submission To Allah; Parent Outrage Ensues

Children

Education

Islam

Religion

On Tuesday, Republicans in West Virginia cast their votes for whom they wanted to be the GOP Senate nominee that will face Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in November.
After a brief scare from GOP outsider Don Blankenship, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey pulled out the victory &#8212; a major relief for the Republican Party.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
JUST IN: The Fox News Decision Desk can now project a winner in the West Virginia Republican Senate Primary: State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEHQ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEHQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/WxejROC9iC">https://t.co/WxejROC9iC</a> <a href="https://t.co/EmJj3zH6ze">pic.twitter.com/EmJj3zH6ze</a>
&#8212; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/994034522265137153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
The race was highly anticipated due to the emergence of Blankenship, who served a year in prison for his involvement in a deadly mining accident. Republicans worried that his prior conviction and recent racially-charged remarks that he made against Asians would all but doom the GOP&#8217;s chances of knocking off Manchin.
Looking to avoid another disaster like the recent debacle in Alabama, President Donald Trump weighed in on the race, encouraging West Virginians not to vote for Blakenship.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can&#8217;t win the General Election in your State&#8230;No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/993443781281271808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

BREAKING: Results Are In For West Virginia’s GOP Senate Nomination

Trump Administration

In West Virginia, where GOP voters will choose their candidate for the Senate seat among Don Blankenship, a coal baron who was jailed for conspiracy to violate mine safety laws, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, and Congressman Evan Jenkins, two internal campaign polls shockingly show Blankenship <a href="https://www.weeklystandard.com/john-mccormack/exclusive-two-west-virginia-internal-campaign-polls-show-blankenship-narrowly-edging-gop-rivals">leading both other candidates</a>.
One internal campaign poll conducted by one of the other candidate&#8217;s campaigns found Blankenship with 31% of the vote, Jenkins 28%, and Morrissey 27%; the poll conducted by the other non-Blankenship candidate showed Blankenship with 28%, Morrissey 27%, and Jenkins 14%. That second poll two weeks ago showed Blankenship with 14%, Morrissey 29%, and Jenkins 26%.
On Monday, President Trump, concerned that Blankenship would win the primary and lose in the general election to a Democrat, tweeted on Monday:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can&#8217;t win the General Election in your State&#8230;No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/993443781281271808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
One West Virginia Senate campaign official told The Weekly Standard, &#8220;If it&#8217;s truly a two-point race, that Trump tweet is going to make a difference.&#8221;
Meanwhile, Blankenship has called Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell &#8220;cocaine Mitch&#8221; and attacked McConnell for creating jobs for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/card/blankenship-hits-back-donald-trump-jr-launches-china-people-attack-n871396">&#8220;China people.&#8221;</a>
Behind the scenes, both national parties are working feverishly to influence the voters; McConnell&#8217;s friends have spent over $1.3 million to defeat Blankenship; Democrats have spent at least $1.2 million to eliminate Jenkins from the race, as The Washington Examiner&#8217;s <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/democratic-pac-escalates-spending-to-sway-gop-primary-against-evan-jenkins-for-don-blankenship">Al Weaver reported</a>.
There is another serpentine possibility that Allahpundit noted at HotAir: that the two other candidates released the polls in order to galvanize their own voters into action. As <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/2018/05/07/yikes-two-internal-polls-show-don-blankenship-leading-wv-eve-senate-primary/">Allahpundit wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
It could be, though, that the Blankenship &#8220;surge&#8221; is smoke and mirrors engineered by the other two candidates for their own advantage. Until these internal polls dropped, Blankenship appeared to be losing steam in the race, having slipped to third in several surveys. Silver theorizes that the poll above showing Morrisey behind Blankenship by just a point with Jenkins trailing far behind was a leak from Morrisey&#8217;s own campaign to signal to voters that the choice tomorrow is between him and Blankenship. The poll showing Jenkins in second, a point ahead of Morrisey, was probably leaked as a counterpoint by Team Jenkins, to suggest that the choice is actually between him and Blankenship.
</blockquote>

TIME TO WORRY:  Blankenship Narrowly Edging GOP Rivals In Two Internal Polls

In West Virginia, the epicenter of the opioid crisis, young women who got addicted to the drugs have turned to prostitution to support their drug habit. The usual pattern has been for the women to start by using prescription painkillers, then segueing to heroin, then to prostitution. Matt Meadows, a probation officer in Huntington who has witnessed numerous prostitution arrest reports, said, &#8220;They go from prescription painkillers to heroin to prostitution. It&#8217;s very common.&#8221;
The National Institute on Drug Abuse <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-summaries-by-state/west-virginia-opioid-summary">reported in February</a> that in 2016, West Virginia had the highest rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States &#8213; a rate of 43.4 deaths per 100,000, That figure had skyrocketed from 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 1999.
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/women-addicted-opioids-turn-sex-work-west-virginia-n868591">According to NBC News</a>, some of the women choose prostitution, but others are victims of sex trafficking. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Cogar stated that sex trafficking &#8220;is a crime of opportunity, and the pivot point for that opportunity is opioid addiction. Pimps often hold out [the] promise of drugs in return for women engaging in prostitution. We think that&#8217;s fueling a lot of the demand and supply.&#8221;
Matthew Perry, the Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s resident agent in charge, who investigates sex trafficking, echoed, &#8220;A lot of the addicts are from towns that went bankrupt when the coal industry collapsed. In some places, there just aren&#8217;t many other ways to make enough money to support a habit.&#8221;
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is now investigating the pharmaceutical companies and distributors who they say turned West Virginia into the epicenter of the crisis.
In 2017, <a href="http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/hsc/Statserv/Stat_Triv.asp">909 people died from fatal overdoses in West Virginia&#8217;s 55 counties,</a> according to the West Virginia Health Statistics Center. NBC News reports, &#8220;Some struggling small cities like Williamson (population 3,200) were swamped with an astounding <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/welcome-williamson-w-va-where-there-are-6-500-opioid-n843821">6,500 pills per person over a decade</a>, creating a new generation of addicts and further fraying the already torn social fabric.&#8221;

West Virginia Women Addicted To Opioids Turn To Prostitution

Drugs

Throughout President Trump&#8217;s 80-minute State of the Union address, you&#8217;d think Democrats were sitting on their hands and they&#8217;d fallen asleep.
Whenever the cameras panned the Capitol&#8217;s House chamber to show the 500-plus lawmakers packed in for the speech, half the room was clapping and half wasn&#8217;t. In one shot, Democrats could be seen flipping through their smart phones or chatting with each other. Rudely, many left before the end of the address.
Not so, though, for Sen. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Democrat. He was often shown jumping to his feet and applauding, especially when Trump touted subjects with which many Americans agree (as the president did repeatedly).
&#8220;As Donald Trump talked about infrastructure, the resurgence of coal as part of America&#8217;s energy strategy and Christian faith as the center of American life, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin bucked his party and applauded,&#8221; the Daily Mail reported.
<blockquote>
On at least one occasion, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer glared at him as he rose, leading Manchin to quickly take his seat again.
&#8220;In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of American life. &#8216;The motto is, &#8220;In God We Trust,&#8217; &#8221; the president said. Manchin was the only Democrat who leapt to his feet during any of Trump&#8217;s 115 applause lines.
</blockquote>
Manchin said on &#8220;CBS This Morning&#8221; that Democrats really need to grow up and appreciate ideas that all Americans support &#8212; for the good of the country.
&#8220;There&#8217;s so much we need to do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And just to sit there and frown is not going to fix anything.&#8221;
He also said on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; that he was just practicing a little thing called common courtesy.
&#8220;That&#8217;s the way I was raised in West Virginia,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s some civility still yet &#8212; there should be civility in this place.&#8221;
Democrats fled quickly at the end of the speech. As Trump was making his way up the aisle afterward, most of the seats on the left side of the chamber were empty. But Manchin stayed.
&#8220;I stood there and shook his hand and thanked him,&#8217; Manchin said. &#8220;Because he talked about coal. We&#8217;re going to do coal research, research and development. Opiate addiction. I need that.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen a pothole that belonged to a Democrat or a Republican. We both get blamed for that one,&#8221; he said.
Throughout the night, Trump offered up lines that both sides could agree on. But that didn&#8217;t happen. Praise to the U.S. flag? One side stood and cheered, the other side sat silent. Applauding America&#8217;s gritty veterans? A no brainer, right? Wrong. Republicans stood and clapped, Democrats didn&#8217;t budge. Freedom and democracy? Yawn, said the Democrats, as Republicans whooped and hollered.
When Trump touted the fact that black unemployment has hit a record low, you&#8217;d think the Democrats &#8212; the party of black America &#8212; would have at least indulged in a polite golf clap. Think again. Crickets.
Republican Rep. Chris Collins said on C-Span that he was disappointed by the partisanship.
&#8220;Time after time, standing ovations by our Republicans &#8212; and I think with the exception of Joe Manchin from West Virginia who stood with us, the rest of the Democrats sat on their hands.&#8221;
&#8220;It was &#8212; I&#8217;ll just use the word disappointing.&#8221;
Spot on.

Lone Democratic Senator Who Applauded Trump’s Speech: ‘Just To Sit There And Frown Is Not Going To Fix Anything’

Charles Schumer

State of the Union

A West Virginia man has avoided jail time after being indicted for raping his 11-year-old daughter, impregnating her at age 12, and arranging for the young girl to have an abortion.
&#8220;The indictment charged Michael Joe Adkins with incest, first-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by a parent for alleged intercourse with his daughter, which impregnated the girl as the sexual activity continued after she became 12,&#8221; <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2017/11/16/father-who-raped-his-11-year-old-daughter-took-her-for-abortion-avoids-prison/">reports</a> Life News. &#8220;He and the girl&#8217;s stepmother, Amanda Rea Adkins, also faced counts of child neglect creating risk of injury and conspiracy as part of an abortion and subsequent procedure aimed at covering up the alleged incest.&#8221;
The alleged assaults on the 11-year-old first began in October 2010. The girl was taken to have her unborn child, allegedly conceived from rape by her father, killed at an abortion clinic in March 2011.
<a href="http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/father-avoids-prison-in-incest-forced-abortion-conviction/article_126ac3f8-d3fb-5650-a33a-76b589081445.html">According</a> to The Herald-Dispatch, Adkins has avoided jail time but has been placed on probation:
<blockquote>
Cabell Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell, honoring a plea deal reached between assistant prosecutor Kellie Neal and defense attorney Connor Robertson, placed Michael Joe Adkins, of Ona, on five years&#8217; probation and 50 years of supervision after his probation is completed. &#8230;
Adkins had entered a Kennedy plea in September 2015 to incest with a young girl. A Kennedy plea allows a conviction without the defendant admitting guilt or explaining his role in a crime. He will also have to register as a sex offender and take specialized classes and therapy as part of the deal.
While Robertson argued against the additional 50 years of supervision, which will start after Adkins&#8217; probation period, Farrell insisted on the maximum allowed by statute.
</blockquote>
&#8220;I&#8217;m just going to be blunt: I hope you screw up during those 50 years so I can send you to prison,&#8221; said Judge Farrell. &#8220;If you violate any of the terms and conditions in the next 50 years, then the court can send you to prison &#8212; and I&#8217;m hoping that&#8217;s the case, because you should go to prison for what you did.&#8221;
According to Life News, the case of statutory rape was not reported by the abortion clinic that performed the D&amp;C (dilation and curettage) on the 12-year-old, though &#8220;some licensed medical professionals were involved in getting information to authorities.&#8221;
&#8220;That point was withheld, which makes it pertinent in her health and her safety,&#8221; said West Virginia State Police Cpl. Marlene Moore. &#8220;That&#8217;s where the neglect creating risk of injury comes in. The parents neglected to take care of her needs &#8212; her basic needs and put her in extreme danger by letting her go through an unnecessary procedure &#8212; be put under anesthesia when they knew that that had been performed before.&#8221;

No Prison Time For Father Who Raped 11-Year-Old Daughter, Arranged Abortion

Rape

Vice President Mike Pence gave remarks on Wednesday in which he addressed the devastation the Gulf Coast suffered during Hurricane Harvey. &#8220;The American people and the world have been transfixed with images of destruction and suffering and the resilience of the people of Texas and Louisiana as Hurricane Harvey has battered that state, now Louisiana, over the past five days,&#8221; he said.
Pence was speaking to the West Virginia Chamber Summit in White Sulphur Springs where he said that the White House is mobilizing to help the region. &#8220;The President, my family, and our entire administration have been deeply moved by the suffering of so many. &#8230; And even before the storm made landfall, President Trump took decisive action to bring the full resources of the federal government to support state and local first responders.&#8221; 
He emphasized, &#8220;The President convened the Cabinet twice over the weekend to ensure our administration is effectively partnering with state and local officials.&#8221;
Pence praised the first responders, emergency management, the Navy, and Coast Guard saying that they &#8220;have been amazing.&#8221;
He also applauded the Texas governor for his response to the crisis saying, &#8220;President Trump and I commend Governor Greg Abbott for his incredible leadership, and the efforts of all state and local officials in Texas and Louisiana.&#8221; 
He continued, &#8220;As all of you know, President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Texas just yesterday to oversee our rescue and recovery efforts, to stand with the people of Texas, and to assure them that our administration will continue to provide them all with the support that they need. &#8230; To Texas and Louisiana we say: We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we will be with you every single day to restore, recover, and rebuild. &#8230; Even in this challenging time, the people of Texas are proving yet again that the brightest lights oftentimes come the darkest moments. In the midst of this historic storm, the people of Texas have responded with their very best. This could well be Texas&#8217;s finest hour.&#8221;
The Vice President concluded, &#8220;The road to recovery will be long and difficult. But as the President said, we will endure, we will overcome. But we all need to do our part to help our fellow Americans get back on their feet.&#8221;
Watch the remarks below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_EO_HH780Jk" width="854"></iframe></div>
Mike Pence and his wife Karen are planning to visit Texas over the weekend. 
Later, he gave remarks to the audience about tax reform and President Donald Trump&#8217;s efforts to get it passed by Congress.

Mike Pence To Texas: ‘We Will Be With You Every Single Day’

Conservatism

Environmentalism

Federal Government

Houston

Law Enforcement

Melania Trump

Mike Pence

Taxes

According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Rothenberg">the Google Machine</a>, Stuart Rothenberg, a senior editor at a Washington DC-based political site that brags in its header about &#8220;<a href="http://insideelections.com/contributors/stuart-rothenberg">Nonpartisan Analysis</a>,&#8221; is both white and 70 years-old. And so, like many old, white Democrats, as more and more time passes, more and more his hatreds and bigotries reveal themselves. On Thursday night, Rothenberg all but used his Twitter account in place of a white hood as he smeared the good people of West Virginia, and did so with provable lies.
While President Trump was wowing his supporters last night at a West Virginia rally &#8212; where the governor of that once-Democrat stronghold announced his shift from the Democrat to Republican Party &#8212; Supremacist Stu let loose a few; unleashed a torrent of prejudice against an entire state filled with more than 2 million Americans. The problem is, it was mostly lies &#8212; flat-out fake news.
Rothenberg, a plugged-in and longstanding member of the DC elite, started with this smear about the people of West Virginia being unable to support themselves or speak English:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Lots of people in West Virginia can&#8217;t support themselves or speak English.
&#8212; Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/StuPolitics/status/893257471686475776">August 3, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
And yet, according to the most recent data I could find, West Virginia&#8217;s unemployment rate <a href="https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm">is just 4.6%</a>, which ranks it above California, Delaware, Illinois, Connecticut, and Washington DC &#8212; all Democrat strongholds.
As far as English speaking, according to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/us-language-map/">this map</a> from the Washington Post, that isn&#8217;t even close to a problem in West Virginia.
After the Internet struck back, Mr. Nonpartisan Analyst attempted to justify his ignorance with &#8212; &#8220;West Virginia ranks 42nd in percentage of high school graduates&#8221; &#8212; which, as you can see <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/17/498246451/the-high-school-graduation-reaches-a-record-high-again">here</a>, is not even close to true:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
West Virginia ranks 42nd in percentage of high school graduates.
&#8212; Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/StuPolitics/status/893258742124478464">August 3, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
According to a report dated April 2017 from the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coi.asp">Department of Education</a>, Rothenberg is lying. While the national high school graduation rate is 83%, West Virginia&#8217;s graduation rate sits at an impressive 87%, which elevates it well above such cherished left-wing states as California (82%), New York (79%), Washington (78%), Oregon (74%), Minnesota (82%), Rhode Island (83%), and Rothenberg&#8217;s precious Washington DC (69%).
Moreover, those provincial hicks in West Virginia somehow manage to enjoy a graduation rate that ties with the oh-so progressive Massachusetts and Delaware.
By the way, according to Wikipedia, Rothenberg lives in Maryland, which is also tied with West Virginia.
But bitter Rothenberg wasn&#8217;t done spewing the hate. He went on to attack all of West Virginia as &#8220;close-minded, provincial, angry &amp; easily misled.&#8221; And the reason Rothenberg knows this? His wife&#8217;s dad was a coal miner in a completely different state:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Of course they are hard-working. They mean well. Just close-minded, provincial, angry &amp; easily misled. My wife&#8217;s dad was a coal miner in PA. <a href="https://t.co/9q5JJ3fq90">https://t.co/9q5JJ3fq90</a>
&#8212; Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/StuPolitics/status/893264193046138880">August 4, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Grandpa&#8217;s getting angry!
But I&#8217;ll bet my house that through popular culture, vacations and schooling, a whole lot more West Virginians have spent a whole lot more time stewing in urban culture than Rothenberg has in West Virginia or any rural area. So who&#8217;s the real provincial here?
Rothenberg did tell one truth, though, one very sad truth about our media&#8230; Although his hate is high, his bigotry apparent, and his facts wrong, he never has to fear losing his job nor fear being shunned by his fellow bigots in the national media:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I don&#8217;t have to worry about this. I am not looking for a job. I can say the truth without worrying about an employer. <a href="https://t.co/RsobJeqLsc">https://t.co/RsobJeqLsc</a>
&#8212; Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/StuPolitics/status/893264767653208064">August 4, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I had the pleasure of spending a few days in West Virginia. From what we saw, it is a beautiful and inviting place. If you want to visit the kind of dystopia Rothenberg describes, try leftwing hell-holes such as Detroit, DC, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Los Angeles &#8212; places of despair where Rothenberg&#8217;s leftwing politics have been allowed to roam free and unfettered for decades.
And remember, Grandpa Stu doesn&#8217;t give a single damn about West Virginia or its people.
He hates them &#8230; and all of us.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook Page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true">here</a>.

Political Journalist Stu Rothenberg Blasts West Virginia With Bigoted Fake News

Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia, a Democrat who was elected in 2016, is expected to announce Thursday night at a rally with President Trump that he is changing parties and becoming a Republican, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/us/politics/west-virginia-governor-to-switch-from-democrat-to-republican-trump.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;_r=0">The New York Times.</a>
On Thursday, Trump told reporters that there would be &#8220;a very big announcement&#8221; at a gathering in Huntington, West Virginia.
The switch isn&#8217;t entirely a shock; Justice, a billionaire coal and real estate magnate, was a Republican until just before launching his run for governor in 2015. Then in 2016, he refused to endorse Hillary Clinton and ran instead as a blue-dog Democrat. Before he was governor, he donated to politicians of all stripes, Republican, Democrat and independent.
During the 2016 campaign, both Justice and his opponent, Republican Bill Cole, vied for the claim over which of them <a href="https://newrepublic.com/minutes/137743/west-virginia-even-democrats-love-trump">was closer to Trump</a>; that battle became clear in their second gubernatorial debate:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/Justiceforwv">@Justiceforwv</a> trying to make a pitch that he is the bigger <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> supporter. He says he&#8217;s friends with the Trump family.
&#8212; Andrew Brown (@Andy_Ed_Brown) <a href="https://twitter.com/Andy_Ed_Brown/status/785988084118716416">October 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
</div>
Justice also <a href="http://www.ozy.com/politics-and-power/the-billionaire-democratic-governor-who-hunts-with-the-trumps/75012">regularly hunted</a> with Trump&#8217;s son Eric. He told OZY, &#8220;I have a pathway to the White House, and it&#8217;s really unusual for West Virginia.&#8221;
Scott Crichlow, chair of the political science department of West Virginia University, pointed out that in West Virginia &#8220;it&#8217;s a fairly weak governor position,&#8221; as the West Virginia legislature only needs a simple majority to overturn vetoes.
If Justice does announce he is a Republican, only 15 governors in the United States will be Democrats. After Barack Obama was elected in 2009, the Democrats had a majority of the governorships; they held 26 seats.

THE TRUMP EFFECT: Democratic WV Governor To Switch Parties At Trump Rally

Barack Obama

On Friday, speaking in Homewood, Pennsylvania, former president Bill Clinton <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/09/bill-clinton-mocks-the-coal-people-in-west-virginia-kentucky-for-supporting-trump-video/">criticized</a> the &#8220;coal people&#8221; in West Virginia for supporting Donald Trump.
Clinton intoned, &#8220;We all know how [Hillary&#8217;s] opponent has done well down in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The coal people don&#8217;t like any of us [Democrats] anymore. They all voted for me. I won twice, and they did well. They blame the president when the sun doesn&#8217;t come up in the morning now.&#8221;
51.5% of West Virginians voted for Clinton in 1996; by 2012, Barack Obama only won 35.5% of the vote. Another coal state, Kentucky, has experienced the same desire to vote for the GOP; Clinton got 45.8% of the vote in 1996 while Obama only received 37.8% in 2012.
Clinton got herself in trouble with coal miners in May, when she said, &#8220;We&#8217;re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?&#8221; But she followed by adding, &#8220;Now we&#8217;ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don&#8217;t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.&#8221;
Clinton has been <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/virginia/hillary-clinton-in-bid-for-coal-miners-support-urges-congress/article_3d522328-2331-59b0-ae8f-9e5ef180922f.html">making an appeal</a> to win back coal miners, urging Republicans to pass the Miners Protection Act, which transfers funds to pay mine workers&#8217; pensions and that coal workers denied health care because their companies go bankrupt still receive health benefits. The bill could affect roughly 30,000 workers.
On Thursday, while the United Mine Workers of America rallied at the U.S. Capitol for a &#8220;Keep the Promise&#8221; rally, she stated that the government should still fund coal miners&#8217; health and pension funds, asserting, &#8220;I firmly believe that if you spent your life keeping the lights on for our country, we can&#8217;t leave you in the dark. For more than a century, America&#8217;s coal miners have put their own health and safety at risk to provide affordable and reliable energy for the nation. They are entitled to the benefits they have earned and the respect they deserve.&#8221;
The &#8220;Keep the Promise&#8221; rally was in reference to a 1946 promise from President Harry Truman for coal miners to receive lifetime retirement benefits. Truman was attempting to forestall a post-World War II strike. Recently, coal companies have been more reticent to provide health care and benefits, according to the UMW.
In August, Trump told Virginia coal miners that roughly 200,000 mining jobs had been lost. He has not commented on the Miners Protection Act.

Bill Clinton: ‘Coal People’ Don’t Like Us Any More

Bill Clinton

Coal

On Thursday, barely an hour after the Charleston Gazette Mail discovered that his assistant communications director had participated in a video that features slogans of white supremacists, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey <a href="http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160825/wv-attorney-general-fires-aide-who-recited-white-supremacist-slogans-in-video">fired her</a>.
Morrisey, a Republican, fired Carrie Bowe, who only started working for him in January 2015, for reciting the slogans in a video titled, &#8220;THE &#8216;Stop White Genocide&#8217; Video.&#8221; White nationalists often foment a conspiracy theory using the term &#8220;white genocide.&#8221;
Morrisey spokesman Curtis stated that Bowe &#8220;is no longer a member of this office. The employee&#8217;s conduct and statements, which occurred years before being employed by the attorney general&#8217;s office, were not previously disclosed until today, which is contrary to the transparency requirements for being a member of this office, do not reflect the opinion or the perspective of the attorney general or this office.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMzeKBEvaQ">YouTube video</a>, which was posted on YouTube in December 2012, claims it has been banned in 18 countries. It was excised from YouTube but then reposted in 2013; it has been viewed over 260,000 times.
In the video, Bowe consistently intones, &#8220;Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white,&#8221; a phrase originated by white supremacist Bob Whitaker, as well as referring to &#8220;the ongoing obvious truth about white genocide.&#8221; She also states &#8220;If I tell you the ongoing truth about genocide against my race, the white race, liberals and &#8216;respectable conservatives&#8217; agree that I&#8217;m a Nazi that wants to kill 6 million Jews,&#8221; &#8220;Throughout elementary school, junior high, high school and college, I was told that my race, the white race, was the cause of all the world&#8217;s problems,&#8221; &#8220;Now, many of you have jobs where minorities say things that would get you as a white person instantly fired.&#8221;
Joined by three other women all of whom dressed completely in white, as Bowe also does in the video, she ask viewers to &#8220;recite The Mantra,&#8221; which reads: &#8220;Asia for the Asians, Africa for the Africans, white countries for everybody.&#8221;
Bowe adds, &#8220;Everybody says the final solution to this race problem is for every white country, and only white countries, to assimilate, i.e., intermarry with all those non-whites.&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;Asia for the Asians, Africa for the Africans, white countries for everybody.&#8221;
Slogan recited by fired aide Carrie Bowe
</blockquote>
Bowe apologized on her Facebook earlier this week, writing of a &#8220;project&#8221; that &#8220;may be offensive and hurtful to some.,&#8221; acknowledging she took &#8220;full ownership of my role in the message &#8230; Unfortunately, I did not view the finished edit. My understanding of the project was not the reality of the completed product or the malice [sic] intentions of its creators.&#8221; She asserted she is &#8220;working with all of my power to remove the content,&#8221; and added she &#8220;would greatly appreciate prayers during this time&#8221; and that she is &#8220;TRULY sorry&#8230; P.S.: I sincerely ask should you see something of concern, please don&#8217;t pass it along or engage in public conversation on the matter.&#8221;
Bowe <a href="http://wvpublic.org/post/morrisey-spokeswoman-fired-racially-charged-video">wrote to West Virginia Public Broadcasting</a> after she was fired, &#8220;embarrassed and heartbroken&#8221; over the video and saying she participated because she thought it would &#8220;further discussion on race relation from a white perspective &#8230; Growing up, you could not question why some races could talk or behave a certain way and it was seen as OK, whereby if the behavior was repeated by a white person, it was automatically racist. As a child and a teenager, the inability to even question this was confusing and, really, the opposite of the honest dialogue we need to have in order to understand different cultures and their history better.&#8221;

Menu