THE SHOW NOTES: Trump's Dinner, Protests in China, & Brian Kemp News
Welcome! The world’s largest active volcano started to erupt last night.
BREAKING: Brian Kemp launches a federal super PAC.
HEADLINE: Iran calls for US to be kicked out of 2022 World Cup after it changes Iran flag on social media to show support for protesters - CNN
MUST READ: Meet the Voters Who Fueled New York’s Seismic Tilt Toward the G.O.P. - NYT (paywall)
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Clip of the day: “an unprecedented level of public dissent in China”
The Trump Dinner
Donald Trump’s pre-Thanksgiving dinner with Kanye West continues to draw scrutiny from just about everyone. Kanye West was invited by Trump to dinner at Mar-a-Lago and brought Nick Fuentes, a noted anti-semite who once compared Nazis incinerating Jews in ovens to cookies being baked. Trump deemed Fuentes “impressive” at dinner but later claimed he “knew nothing about” him. Read my morning piece here for my full take.
NBC spoke with a Trump adviser who said:
"This is a f---ing nightmare," said one longtime Trump adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of stoking the former president's ire at "disloyal" people who criticize him. "If people are looking at [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis to run against Trump, here's another reason why."
More Trump/Kanye headlines:
Key Trump 2024 Rivals Silent After His White Supremacist Meeting - Bloomberg (paywall)
'Not an accidental meeting.' GOP Arkansas governor blasts Trump for hosting white supremacist - USA Today
Protests in China
An unprecedented number of Chinese residents are protesting mandatory COVID testing and lockdowns over three years after the first COVID case appeared in mainland China. Residents are hoisting blank sheets of paper to highlight the censorship perpetrated by the ruling party. China has remained in some degree of lockdown as the Communist Party continues to pursue a COVID Zero policy. The protests are viewed as a rebellion against an increasingly intrusive Chinese government that aims to regulate every aspect of its citizens lives.
BBC: A journalist for the BBC was beaten by police for covering the protests before being arrested and carted off to jail in Shanghai.
Twitter: State actors in China used dormant Twitter accounts to spam search terms regarding the protests. The result was that Chinese citizens who searched Twitter for additional information regarding the protests were instead met with a high volume of adult content that suppressed protest updates.
More censorship: China is actively censoring the broadcast of the World Cup to prevent Chinese viewers from seeing fans without masks. Click through and watch this tweet.
Kemp Super PAC
Brian Kemp filed paperwork to create a federal super PAC hinting at a possible Senate run against Jon Ossoff in 2026, the same year Kemp’s second term ends. The super PAC also allows Kemp and his team to raise money for Herschel Walker ahead of next week’s runoff. The news comes as a welcome sign to a Walker team that has struggled to match Raphael Warnock’s fundraising machine.
The rest of the news:
House Dems on GOP's thin majority: Welcome to hell - Politico
POLITICO Playbook: We run down the year-end sprint - Politico
Elon Musk’s ‘bedside table’ photo shows toy guns, Buddhist amulet, Diet Coke - NY Post
Tech companies begin rerouting critical chip supplies to trucks with rail strike looming - CNBC
There Are MASSIVE Protests Breaking Out In China And The Videos Are Insane - Barstool
Sen. Chris Murphy pops Biden’s hopes for assault weapons ban, says the votes aren’t there - Fox News
The Jolt: Warnock rallies weekend voters, but Walker is out of sight - AJC (paywall)
US Housing Enters Deep Freeze With Sellers and Buyers Sidelined - Bloomberg (paywall)
Tweets that caught my eye: