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Chuck Schumer caught on hot mic telling Biden that Democrats are losing pivotal Senate race in Georgia



Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York was caught on a hot microphone admitting to President Joe Biden that the Democrats were losing the U.S. Senate election in Georgia to the Republicans.

Schumer was speaking to Biden on an airfield tarmac Thursday when his comments were caught by a Washington Post microphone.

"The state where we're going downhill is Georgia," said Schumer. "It's hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker."

Schumer and the president were surrounded by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both New York Democrats.

"But our early turnout in Georgia is huge! Huge!" he added enthusiastically.

Video of the exchange was widely shared on social media:

\u201c\ud83d\udea8Schumer to Biden: "The state where we're going downhill is Georgia. It's hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker."\u201d
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1666902736

Schumer also explained the state of other midterm elections during the exchange and claimed that the poor performance of Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman in a debate with Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz wasn't hurting Democrats.

"It looks like the debate didn't hurt us too much in Pennsylvania as of today, so that's good," he said on the video, "and basically, we're picking up steam in Nevada."

The race to fill one of Pennsylvania's two seats on the U.S. Senate could be the key to flipping control of Congress to Republicans. Polling shows that the race has tightened significantly from earlier when Fetterman had an advantage over Oz.

The Tuesday night debate between the candidates could have been the moment that Oz seized the advantage as questions about Fetterman's health and ability to fulfill the obligations of the office worsened. Democrats have used social media to barrage those who have pointed out Fetterman's poor performance.

Early voting in Pennsylvania has already begun.

Here's the video of the hot mic moment:

Chuck Schumer on hot mic: Fetterman debate didn't hurt us too muchwww.youtube.com

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Republican Party sides against David McCormick in Pennsylvania mail-in ballot lawsuit



The Republican Party has sided against Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick, who is suing to make county election boards count undated mail-in ballots in his too-close-to-call race against TV doctor Mehmet Oz.

In a lawsuit that could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, McCormick's campaign is seeking to have a recent federal appeals court decision enforced that would require mail-in ballots turned in without a handwritten date on the return envelope counted. He currently trails Oz by fewer than 1,000 votes and appears to have a slight advantage over his rival in mail-in ballots.

Oz's campaign, which was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, contends that the ballots should not be counted because they were not dated, as required by state law. The national and state Republican Parties weighed in Monday, taking Oz's side and announcing they would go to court to oppose McCormick.

“The RNC is intervening in this lawsuit alongside the Pennsylvania GOP because election laws are meant to be followed, and changing the rules when ballots are already being counted harms the integrity of our elections," said RNC Chief Counsel Matt Raymer in a statement.

"Either of Pennsylvania’s leading Republican Senate candidates would represent the Keystone State better than a Democrat, but Pennsylvania law is clear that undated absentee ballots may not be counted," he added.

The McCormick campaign's lawsuit argues that Republican voters would be disenfranchised by a "technical error" if the undated ballots are not counted. It says that county election boards should be bound by a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision issued Friday that said undated mail-in ballots must be counted for a 2021 Pennsylvania county judge race.

A three-judge panel had ruled that state law requiring a handwritten date next to a voter's signature on the outside of return envelopes was "immaterial." Since mail-in ballots are postmarked and stamped when they are received by county election offices, the court said there was no reason not to count undated ballots.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's administration told counties Tuesday that undated ballots must be counted, citing the appeals court's decision. However, the governor's office instructed counties to keep undated ballots separate, in anticipation that the case could be appealed to the Supreme Court and possibly reversed, the Associated Press reported.

As of Tuesday, Oz held a 997 vote lead over McCormick out of more than 1.3 million votes cast. Separated by just 0.07 percentage points, the race will trigger an automatic recount under Pennsylvania law that may not be completed until June 8.

Whoever wins the Republican primary will face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the race for retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey's seat.


Pennsylvania GOP Senate race appears to be headed for a recount



The Pennsylvania Republican primary for U.S. Senate remains too close to call as votes are still being counted Wednesday afternoon. TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick are separated by fewer than 2,000 votes with more than 1.3 million ballots cast in the highly contested campaign to succeed retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Oz, who is supported by former President Donald Trump, holds a small lead over McCormick as several counties have yet to finish counting mail-in ballots, as well as provisional, overseas, and military absentee ballots.

Pennsylvania state law prevents counties from beginning to count mail ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, which could delay the final tally for several days. The Keystone State is one of only a handful of states with vote by mail that does not allow pre-canvassing of mail ballots.

The results may be delayed even further by another law that mandates an automatic recount if the margin between Oz and McCormick is less than 0.5%. According to the New York Times, Oz has earned 31.3% of the vote with 413,784 ballots, and McCormick has 31.1% with 411,833 votes. Kathy Barnette, a firebrand Trump-supporter who made a surprising surge in the polls during the final weeks of the campaign, finished in a distant third with 24.7% of the vote.

Though a winner has yet to be declared, Trump urged Oz to claim victory on Truth Social, the social media platform he founded to compete with the "liberal media consortium" of Facebook, Twitter, and other websites. He accused the McCormick campaign of using mail-in votes to cheat but did not provide any evidence supporting his claim.

“Dr. Oz should declare victory. It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find,’” Trump said.

Thousands of votes remain to be counted before the race will be called. Neither the Oz nor McCormick campaigns have conceded, and each candidate has expressed confidence in their victory once the remaining ballots are tallied.

More than 37% of registered Republican voters turned out for the primary election, the highest midterm primary turnout recorded in at least two decades, according to the Associated Press.

On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman overwhelmingly won the Democratic Senate primary hours after being hospitalized to have a pacemaker implanted after he suffered from a stroke on Friday.

In the state's gubernatorial contest, Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro will face Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano.