--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, November 14th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, what's behind California's seeming shift to the right in this election? How those hounding campaign fundraising texts mislead vulnerable people into giving away their life savings? And Matt Gaetz gets tapped to be the next attorney general. But first, President-elect Donald Trump returned to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Biden yesterday, ahead of a new term where Trump is set to have full control of the government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The AP reports that House Republicans have secured enough seats to hold onto a narrow majority. Since the party already flipped the Senate, this would give Republicans control of both chambers. In their meeting, Trump and Biden discussed a number of domestic and international priorities. And Biden promised a smooth transition for Trump's team.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The president-elect thanked him. Politics is tough. And it's, in many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today. And I appreciate very much a transition that's so smooth. It'll be as smooth as it can get. And I very much appreciate that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 2020, when Biden won the election, Trump did not invite him to the White House for a similar meeting. The question now is, with control of the government, what will Trump and Republicans in Congress prioritize first?
--:-- Ben Jacobs: At the top of their list is extending the tax cuts Republicans passed in 2017 during Trump's first term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The big thing that Republicans have in the trifecta is that they can at least theoretically pass through budget legislation without dealing with the filibuster.
--:-- Ben Jacobs: For a variety of arcane reasons in Senate rules, there's this process known as reconciliation that enables you to do a lot of economic legislation. It's how Trump got his tax cuts bill in 2017 done. They can now go through this without needing to rely on any Democratic votes dealing with the filibuster and the 60-vote supermajority there. So this really speeds things up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Though he points out Republicans will have just a slim majority.
--:-- Ben Jacobs: Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans chose their leader by secret ballot yesterday. South Dakota Senator John Thune will replace Senator Mitch McConnell, who has led Senate Republicans for 17 years, making him the longest serving Senate Party leader.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Jacobs told us Thune is most aligned with McConnell politically out of all the top names that were being considered, including Senators John Cornyn and Rick Scott, who was the top choice for a number of Trump allies.
--:-- Ben Jacobs: Thune is probably the closest to McConnell, that he was the whip for McConnell, and he's the institutional choice. That on one hand, it means Trump has someone who certainly is skeptical of the president-elect, but someone who actually understands the Senate processes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the past, Thune hasn't always been in Trump's corner. In 2016, he called for Trump to leave the presidential race after the Access Hollywood tape surfaced.
--:-- Ben Jacobs: And while he voted to acquit Trump in an impeachment trial related to Trump actions on January 6th Thune described his vote as not an exoneration for Trump conduct.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So he is seen as less of a Trump loyalist than others.
--:-- Ben Jacobs: Even with more traditional Republicans in the mix in Washington, Jacobs told us that this government stands in stark contrast to Trump's first term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is Donald Trump's party that eight years ago, Liz Cheney was a rock solid Republican and Tulsi Gabbard was a Bernie Sanders acolyte. And this is now through the looking glass into what the new political environment in D.C. is of politicians, many of whom have only run for federal office since Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and are shaped by his influence on the party.
--:-- Shamita Basu: California is widely considered one of the most liberal states in the country. For the most part, voters there support progressive candidates at the top of the ticket. The electorate overwhelmingly went for Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: But a look at local results paints a more nuanced picture of the state's politics. Voters this year supported a number of conservative ballot measures and rejected some progressive issues.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Los Angeles and the Bay Area, people voted out progressive-leaning prosecutors. San Francisco's mayor lost to a more centrist Democrat. And statewide, voters rejected a measure that would have made it easier for cities to enact rent control.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: L.A. Times reporter Mackenzie Mays told us why, despite California's high cost of living, the measure ultimately failed to get enough support.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even rent control proponents who are fed up with the cost of living had voiced concerns about what they said were unintended consequences of the measure.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: And so there was this big push to campaign and let voters know that this could actually make California's housing shortage worse. And I think it's a good guess to say that voters were probably pretty spooked by that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another measure that would elevate certain low-level crimes to felonies passed overwhelmingly with close to 70 percent support.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: It cracks down on theft crimes and fentanyl drug crimes, and it essentially undid a decade's worth of progressive criminal justice reform that has really come to define California and Democratic laws for years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Overall, Mays told us the results of these local races and ballot measures have been surprising to some residents.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: Some progressives said, you know, where do I live? You know, this isn't the California I know. And then some Republicans said, you know, we told you so.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People who have been in California for a long time, they weren't super shocked by this. California has sort of defied its liberal reputation before when it comes to ballot measures.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: They rejected a ballot measure to abolish the death penalty. In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And then I think people were shocked by that. And it doesn't feel that long ago for a lot of voters that still live in California.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: There were, however, some progressive policies that California voters supported this year, like measures to protect same-sex marriage, to expand health care for low-income residents and to allocate funds for climate change.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One polling expert Mays spoke to for this story said they not looking at the outcome in California as a sign of some big political shift to the right in the state.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: The experts I talked to said not to look too into this because we know in California how we vote at the top of the ticket and how we might sometimes vote differently than what people think that should look like when it comes to specific issues on the ballot.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sometimes the measures are more complicated and there are more nuanced reasons for why voters may reject or approve of them.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: In other words, they said ballot outcomes are just another imperfect gauge of the overall politics of a state.
--:-- Shamita Basu: By now, you know the kinds of texts that political fundraising groups like to send. Urgent, we need your help, can I count on you? They're designed to catch your attention and maybe even sound like they're coming from the candidate themselves.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: Now that the election is behind us, the L.A. Times found in this election cycle, more than 13,500 Americans were giving money to one of the major political fundraising groups on a daily basis, suggesting frequent donors are becoming an increasingly crucial part of political fundraising.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But we're also seeing reporting about how text and email campaigns make it easy for people to be misled into giving away large sums of money.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: This is particularly true for older people like Richard Benjamin. He's 81 years old. His kids told CNN he's been experiencing cognitive decline and that during the election season, he would get dozens of texts a day soliciting donations for Trump's campaign.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They realized he was giving lots of money away. in $10, $15, $40 increments. Just so out of character. It was almost shocking because he was always very frugal and very responsible with his money.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: And I logged in and that's when my jaw dropped because I saw hundreds and hundreds of transactions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Benjamin believed he was getting texts directly from President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: I was dealing with President Trump, So it was kind of President Trump and Speaker Johnson were both, they want to know how I was, what I was doing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His kids say he was manipulated by these misleading messages.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: He ultimately depleted his life savings and gave away more than $80,000. They sold his house, sold his car, and moved him into an assisted living facility.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He'd never donated to politicians before. He'd never given this large amount of money before. It made no sense that he would do this.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: CNN reviewed more than 1,000 reports filed with government agencies and advocacy groups about political fundraising complaints. And they found both parties rake in donations from elderly voters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Republican candidates use more aggressive and predatory tactics than Democrats, according to donor complaints and interviews with experts.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: One tactic that commonly trips up online donors is checking an optional box for recurring donations. Sometimes that left automatically checked so people who think they making one small contribution are actually signing up for a monthly one
--:-- Shamita Basu: The two big donation platforms for Republican and Democratic campaigns WinRed and ActBlue say they notify donors of recurring donations and have guides on their site for people to cancel or request refunds.
--:-- Mackenzie Mays: And some of the candidates and PACs that solicited money told CNN they were working on refunding donations made in error.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But victims interviewed by CNN said they're having a tough time recovering money, finding the process confusing and ultimately just too big to tackle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump nominated more candidates for cabinet positions yesterday, including former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and now ex-Congressman Matt Gaetz for the role of Attorney General.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ex-Congressman because he just resigned yesterday. Gaetz was once investigated by the DOJ in a sex trafficking probe, but was not charged.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Up until yesterday, he was also the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The chair of the House Ethics Committee told CNN, ahead of Gaetz's resignation, that the investigation would end if the congressman resigned. because they only look into sitting Congress members.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gates had previously denied any wrongdoing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In other politics news, Pennsylvania's Senate contest is officially heading to a recount.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The AP called the race for Republican Dave McCormick last week. Incumbent Democrat Bob Casey trails by almost 30,000 votes, but tens of thousands have yet to be tallied.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Counties are required to complete their recounts by November 26th.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that recounts often result in the tallies changing ever so slightly, but it's extremely rare for the declared winner of the race to change.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, in a surprising move, the satirical news publication The Onion won a bankruptcy auction to acquire conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's outlet Infowars and its parent company.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was a court-mandated auction to come up with over a billion dollars that Jones owes to families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He was previously found guilty by juries in two states for defaming these families after using his platform to spread misinformation about the shooting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Onion says its bid was sanctioned by the victims' families, and it plans to relaunch the site next year as a parody with the advertising support of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that started after the Sandy Hook shooting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Esquire looks at the weird true story of the reality TV show Kid Nation. If you don't remember it, the show came out in the 2000s and involved a bunch of kids dropped into the desert with no adults.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now it's become a bit of a phenomenon as people discover it online and ask how something like this could have ever gotten made.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
