The Morning Briefing: Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Quit Sniffing Glue

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. The Sine Qua Non Sequitur is taking a rest day after being a Pole watcher at a nightclub in Kraków.

Yeah, that was unpleasant.

This will be a quick post mortem; there will be plenty more to examine in the next several days. Also, there are fewer links. There were some things from earlier in the day that, put mildly, didn't age well. There was also a lot of repetition of the various results last night. We all know what happened. The news will soon get newsier again.

I had planned on doing a companion to the live blog as the evening went on. Things went sour so quickly that I could tell that there wouldn't be a lot of material for that. What I did write down is at the end here.

I've written all year that President Trump was the Republicans' one big hope for bucking midterm trends. Well, he's good, but he's not a miracle worker.

Congressional Republicans have done nothing to inspire Republican voters, they certainly weren't going to be winning any undecided, independent, or moderate Dem voters. The John Thune wing of the GOP hasn't done much of anything to help President Trump with his agenda.

Victoria said something in the live blog that really summed it up well:

Here's the takeaway for R's. Get off your asses and do the damned thing. Instead of pretending that "Trump is on the ballot," pretend that you're in the Trump role and work as hard as he does for your country.

YAHTZEE! The country desperately needs Congressional Republicans and candidates who have Trump energy. The president has infused some members of the Executive Branch with his fearlessness, fortitude, and work ethic. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent are the most notable examples.

The Legislative Branch is lagging, however, and still has too many inverterbrates.

If Republicans are going to bounce back and then push back against whatever the heck it is that people voted for last night, the party will need to be channeling President Trump long after he is out of office. So will future candidates. Candidates who need to be inspired by the people in office.

If they can do that, maybe next time they win a majority in Congress they'll act like they've won.

I'll leave you with this. My daughter was 10 during the 2008 election. When it was obvious very early in the evening that Barack Obama was going to win, we headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner. She knew that I'd put in some effort for McCain-Palin and she asked me if I was sad. I told her that I was a little, but that there would be another election and all I could do was get up the next day and start working hard to make sure I didn't feel like that on the next election day.

Well, it's the next day.

THE LIVE BLOG VIBE.

6:40 PM MST: It's still that magical time during every election night when hope springs eternal. Or partial. My colleagues are in a good mood for the most part, and the comments section has "just buzzed enough" spring break energy. One hiccup from Maricopa County has already been reported — a power outage at a polling place. As SNL's Church Lady used to say, "How conveeeeeenient."

7:30 PM MST: The angst is setting in among the faithful. I get it but, as I wrote here earlier in the week, I've never been happy after a midterm election when a Republican was in the White House; I wasn't expecting that to suddenly change this year. While I am not one to blame social media for every ill known to man (like so many are), I do think that people voluntarily expose themselves to too much negativity there. That makes it more difficult to not want to go on a three-month bender when one doesn't like an election's results.

8:14 PM MST: If we all worked and lived in the same city, I would be getting ready to do wellness checks on my colleagues now. Woe is everyone.

Here's something that I posted when the mood in the "room" took a hard turn.

9:10 PM MST: I sincerely hope that all of the rough feelings that Republican voters have tonight will turn into functional righteous anger for the 2028 election. I'll be sharing a story from the 2008 election as I wrap this up that always applies in situations like this.

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POTUS Press Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11/03/26

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2026

In-Town Pool
TV Corr & Crew: CBS
Secondary TV Corr: Scripps
Photos: AP, AFP, NYT, Reuters, Getty
Print: The Hill
Secondary Print: USA Today
Radio: NPR
New Media: Breitbart

EST:
9:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time

8:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in Executive Time
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11:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Policy Meeting
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1:30 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Policy Meeting
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2:00 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Policy Meeting
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3:30 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Policy Meeting
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