The Mystery of NC’s “Well-Known” Peeing Pastor
Everything you need to know for Monday, Oct. 19: Uncle Joe comes to Durham + the first 1.4 million NC votes + the N&O’s non-endorsement endorsement
Monday, Oct. 19, 2020
15 days until the election.
8 days until the deadline for absentee ballot requests.
12 days until early voting ends (you can register when you vote at EV sites). Find your EV site here.
56 days until Electoral College slates send their votes to Congress.
79 days until Congress counts Electoral College votes.
93 days until the inauguration.
Today’s Number: 1,433,772
Absentee ballots accepted in North Carolina through Saturday.
That’s 20% of registered voters in the state and 46% of the total number of absentee voters in 2016.
By party:
Democrats: 46%
NPA: 28%
Republicans: 25%
By generation:
Boomers: 45%
Gen X: 22%
Millennials: 14%
Greatest/Silent:14%
Gen Z: 5%
By regions:
City: 31%
Urban suburb: 26%
Surrounding suburbs: 24%
Rural: 19%
Important: 22% of these votes—roughly 308,000—come from people who either didn’t vote in 2016 or registered afterward. For perspective, in 2016, Donald Trump won North Carolina by 173,000 votes.
RELATED: Today, following litigation over the conditions under which absentee ballots will be accepted, the State Board of Elections will send out new guidance to county elections boards. The guidance will “comply with an order by a federal district court that the absence of a witness or assistance signature is not a curable defect,” and will “not refer to the extended absentee-ballot receipt deadline that remains a matter of dispute.”
ALSO RELATED: Nationally, at least 27.7 million people have already voted.
ABOVE THE FOLD
—> Joe Biden Comes to Durham
Former Vice President Joe Biden stopped in Durham Sunday afternoon for a brief speech outside of Riverside High. Whereas Donald Trump believes his jam-packed COVID superspreader parties are evidence that the polls might be wrong, the Biden campaign asked supporters to stay in their cars to maintain social distancing.
In the parking lot, visitors sat in their vehicles—decorated with balloons, campaign signs, and American flags—and watched Biden on big screens as he spoke from a stage on the side of the school. People honked their horns to show support to the candidate.
In a speech lasting less than 20 minutes, Biden emphasized the importance of voting.
Biden spent most of those 20 minutes criticizing Donald Trump.
“The president has known how bad this virus would be since January and he hid it from you,” Biden said. “His excuse is that he didn’t want Americans to panic. Americans don’t panic. Donald Trump panics.” …
Biden pledged to support all Americans if he is elected president. “I will work just as hard for those who didn’t support me as those that did,” Biden said. “That’s the job of a president.”
The Trump campaign attacked Biden’s “anemic” presence in North Carolina, which the Trumps have virtually made a second home. Of course, Biden has several paths to 270 without North Carolina, which he is narrowly leading. Trump has none.
RELATED: While he was in town, Biden went to Cook-Out.
LOCAL & STATE
—> Which “Well-Known” N.C. Pastor Peed on a Woman on a Plane?
Fox 2 Detroit reports that an unidentified “well-known pastor from North Carolina” urinated on a woman during a flight from Las Vegas to Detroit.
Alicia Beverly had just spent a great time in Vegas and could not wait to get home Monday night. They were on the red-eye flight and pretty much everyone was asleep, including her.
Alicia said she was curled up in a back seat next to her sister when suddenly she woke up to the feeling of being urinated on.
"It felt warm, like on the side of me I felt something warm," she said.
In her sleepy haze, right at eye level, she saw something very unexpected.
"I jump up and I seen his private area out and I screamed and that woke everybody up," Alicia said. "By that time I actually looked at him and I see him shake himself off and I’m like this man just peed on me! I looked and there was a puddle of pee in the seats!"
She screamed and got the attention of everyone on the plane, including an off-duty officer who rushed over and restrained the man, a well-known pastor from North Carolina.
According to sources, the pastor had an apparent reaction to a sleep aid.
Everyone’s different, I suppose. But as an occasional insomniac, I will tell you that I’ve taken lots of sleep aids in my life, and I can state with some amount of certainty that I have never peed on a stranger—or someone I knew, for that matter—because of them.
Per Queen City Nerve:
A spokesperson at Detroit Metro Airport, where the flight landed and the man was taken into custody, told Queen City Nerve that “the incident was referred to the FBI” and the airport could not provide any further details into that investigation. …
According to the Fox 2 report, “the pastor’s camp has declined to comment on the story.” Reporter Jessica Dupnack said on Twitter that the channel’s policy is not to identify suspects unless there are formal charges.
QC Nerve has put in a FOIA request for the police report. Right now, the FBI is keeping mum.
The pastor, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was issued a court appearance for misdemeanor assault and released, said Mara Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Detroit office of the FBI.
“Until he appears in front of a judge and therefore gets formally charged, we will not be releasing his name,” Schneider said.
To recap, the unnamed pastor:
Is “well-known” enough to be “well-known” in Detroit
Was on a red-eye from Vegas to Detroit last Monday night
Was taken into custody in Detroit
Has a “camp”
Here’s the inevitable Reddit thread trying to guess his identity. If you happen to know (or know enough to venture a guess), shoot me a secure email.
—> N&O/Charlotte Observer Backs Cunningham, Won’t Endorse Him
While polling has shown that voters don’t care in the slightest about Cal Cunningham’s “historically sexy” sex scandal, the joint News & Observer/Charlotte Observer editorial board cares quite a bit. So much so, in fact, that it refused to endorsed Cunningham—while reaffirming that Thom Tillis sucks and telling you to vote for Cal anyway.
Confused?
Two weeks ago, this editorial board was prepared to endorse Democrat Cal Cunningham in North Carolina’s 2020 U.S. Senate race. It wasn’t a particularly difficult recommendation to make given what we thought we knew about Cunningham—and what we certainly know about his opponent. …
Voters in North Carolina have an opportunity to ensure that if the president wins re-election, a Democratic senator will act as a check on his recklessness.
We hope that happens. But we’re not endorsing Cal Cunningham in this race.
They hope Cunningham wins, but they won’t endorse him. Not because he had an affair, but because of “his lack of judgment … as well as his selfishness.” But he’s sufficiently moderate for the paper’s taste—no Green New Deal or Medicare for All or defunding the police or adding seats to the Supreme Court.
So why don’t we just go ahead and endorse him? … Some members of the Editorial Board believe that we should recommend Cunningham—that his mistakes don’t merit voting for Tillis. Others believe that we’ve long called for public officials to live up to high standards of leadership, of choosing the people over political expediency, and that we shouldn’t abandon those standards for this endorsement.
In the end, they couldn’t reach a consensus. So they’ll vote for Cunningham but not endorse him. To, like, send a message or something.
—> State to Elect Record Number of Women to Congress
That record number, sadly, is four. Out of 13 seats.
The previous record was three.
In fact, North Carolina has only sent six women to the House of Representatives in its history. But in November, voters will almost certainly send four: incumbents Virginia Foxx and Alma Adams, as well as Democrats Deborah Ross and Kathy Manning.
“We should at the very least approach parity. What we’re going to have is more representative government. That’s going to be a really, really good thing,” said Ross, a lawyer and former state representative from Wake County who lost a U.S. Senate bid in 2016. “Everybody’s views and everybody’s voices will be at the table.”
Currently, there are 101 women (13 Republicans and 88 Democrats) serving in the 435-member House. This fall, 300 Republican and Democratic women are still in the running to win a seat, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. The data does not include third-party candidates on the ballot in November. …
Women outpace men among registered voters in North Carolina. More than 3.62 million women are registered to vote compared to 3.07 million men, according to registration information from the state board of elections.
—> Greg Lindberg Would Rather Not Go to Prison Yet
Lindberg is the Durham billionaire convicted of trying to bribe Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. He faces seven years behind bars and is supposed to report to jail on Tuesday. He’d rather not go.
A few days ago, a judge rejected his plea to delay his sentence on account of the pandemic. Now, he’s asking a court to delay his sentence until 10 days after the birth of his child, due Dec. 10.
Lindberg’s attorneys, who didn’t return a request to comment on the situation, claim in court filings that it’s a high risk pregnancy and that doctors believe it is of “critical importance” that Lindberg be able to care for and support his partner “leading up to and immediately after the birth of their son.” …
Federal prosecutors opposes Lindberg’s motion. It's one of several attempts made by Lindberg’s legal team to delay his report date, and all have been rejected.
—> The North Carolina Roundup
Irving McPhail, the new president of St. Augustine’s University, died Thursday night of COVID. The university is in mourning.
When Wake County kids begin returning to school later this month, they’ll have to wear masks.
A woman who appears in one of Josh Stein’s ads works for the State Crime Lab.
Duke reports its first COVID cluster among students at off-campus apartments.
McClatchy has unloaded Walter to The Pilot LLC, publisher of Business North Carolina and other mags.
Folks ignored social distancing rules at a fair-food preview event.
Former Republican state lawmaker Gary Pendleton was arrested on Friday for assaulting a poll worker while “observing” for voter fraud.
—> Weather
Partly cloudy, high of 74. ⛅️
NATION & WORLD
—> Ship Sinking, Rats Flee
One way to tell the GOP’s internals don’t look good for Donald Trump: In Texas, which Trump won by nine points four years ago, Republicans running for reelection are putting distance between themselves and the president. Here’s what Texas Senator John Cornyn told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram during an editorial board interview:
Cornyn initially described his relationship with Trump as “maybe like a lot of women who get married and think they’re going to change their spouse, and that doesn’t usually work out very well.”
That’s an … interesting way to put it.
“What I tried to do is not get into public confrontations and fights with him because, as I’ve observed, those usually don’t end too well.” …
“But when I have had differences of opinion, which I have, [I] do that privately,” Cornyn said. … For example, Cornyn said he expressed concerns over budget deficits and debt with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, during discussions about COVID-19 stimulus aid.
Cornyn said he also disagreed with the way Trump handled trade agreements with China and other Asian countries. Trump in 2017 pulled the United States out of a Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement that would have expanded trade in 12 countries.
Two weeks before the election, one of the president’s most stalwart Senate supporters—who happens to find himself in an unexpectedly competitive race—pinky-swears that when no one is looking, he does too stand up to the president. That should tell you everything you need to know about the state of the election.
And Cornyn isn’t the only one.
Facing grim polling numbers and a flood of Democratic money and enthusiasm that has imperiled their majority in the Senate, Republicans on Capitol Hill are beginning to publicly distance themselves from the president. The shift, less than three weeks before the election, indicates that many Republicans have concluded that Mr. Trump is heading for a loss in November. And they are grasping to save themselves and rushing to re-establish their reputations for a coming struggle for their party’s identity. …
Yeah, but:
Yet [Mitt] Romney and other Republicans who have spoken up to offer dire predictions or expressions of concern about Mr. Trump are all sticking with the president on what is likely his final major act before the election: the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a favorite of conservatives, to the Supreme Court.
RELATED: How bad is the Republican fundraising deficit?
Every Democratic Senate candidate running in the 15 races considered competitive outraised his or her Republican opponent. Combined, they raised more than $370 million, compared with about $150 million for the GOP candidates: an average of $25 million for the Democratic candidates and $10 million for the Republicans.
—> 5 Stories You Should Read Today
In addition to ending the Census early—thus undercounting immigrants, transients, and the poor—the Trump administration is also seeking to not count undocumented immigrants. On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments in the case. “The latest controversy involves the constitutional mandate that apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives be based on the ‘whole number of persons in each State.’ That has been interpreted to mean every resident, regardless of immigration status. But this summer, Trump issued a memorandum that said, for the first time, ‘it is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status.’”
In places where local news is collapsing, a Republican PR machine is stepping in: “Maine Business Daily is part of a fast-growing network of nearly 1,300 websites that aim to fill a void left by vanishing local newspapers across the country. Yet the network, now in all 50 states, is built not on traditional journalism but on propaganda ordered up by dozens of conservative think tanks, political operatives, corporate executives and public-relations professionals.”
On Sunday, a federal judge rejected the Trump administration’s effort to end food stamps for some 700,000 people. “In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the Agriculture Department for failing to justify or even address the impact of the sweeping change on states, saying its shortcomings had been placed in stark relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which unemployment has quadrupled and rosters of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have grown by more than 17 percent, with more than 6 million new enrollees.”
A year after Bolivia’s socialist president Evo Morales fled into exile, the country held an election on Sunday. The results hadn’t been announced as of late last night. “Morales, banned from running this time, is watching from Argentina as his former finance minister, front-runner Luis Arce, 57, faces two main competitors, the centrist former president Carlos Mesa, 67, and right-wing nationalist Luis Camacho, 41. Fears have run high of a repeat of the violence last year that saw mobs burn ballot boxes and clashes in the streets, but the early hours of voting on Sunday appeared largely calm.” Based on polling, Mesa is expected to face Arce in a runoff.
Monday long-read: The New York Times Magazine looks at free speech in the disinformation age. “It’s an article of faith in the United States that more speech is better and that the government should regulate it as little as possible. But increasingly, scholars of constitutional law, as well as social scientists, are beginning to question the way we have come to think about the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. They think our formulations are simplistic—and especially inadequate for our era.”
—> Polling Update
National
Biden 50-44 (IBD)
Biden 54-41 (USC)
Biden 53-45 (Survey Monkey)
Alabama
Senate: Jones (D., inc.) 48-47 (FM3)
Alaska
President: Trump 49-46 (Patinkin)
Senate: Gross (D) 47-46 (Patinkin)
Senate: Sullivan (R, inc.) 45-37 (NYT/Sienna)
Arizona
President: Biden 50-47 (YouGov)
Senate: Kelly (D) 52-41 (YouGov)
Michigan
Senate: James (R) 47-46 (Trafalgar)
Senate: Harris (D, inc.) 50-43 (HarrisX)
South Carolina
Senate: Harrison (D) 47-45 (Brilliant Corners)
Texas
Senate: Cornyn (R, inc.) 49-46 (PPP)
Wisconsin
President: Biden 51-46 (YouGov)
—> The Roundup
An airline-funded study says COVID doesn’t spread on airplanes.
Twitter had to remove a tweet from a Trump coronavirus adviser for spreading false information undermining the importance of mask-wearing.
CBS will tweak its cop procedurals for the Black Lives Matter era.
New York Post reporters weren’t so sure about that big Hunter Biden scoop.
Britain tells businesses to prepare for a no-deal Brexit after trade negotiations break down.
Georgia Senator David Purdue, last seen making an anti-Semitic ad attacking opponent Jon Ossoff, mocked Kamala Harris’s name at a Trump rally.
The Trump campaign claims to be mad about Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—recently targeted by a militia coup— having an “8645” emblem next to her during an interview, which they argued (not at all disingenuously) was a call to assassinate the president.
—> Image of the Day
This is (apparently) a real billboard outside of Pittsburgh.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you tomorrow.