Essential Washington

Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administration’s call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart China’s involvement in future mobile networks.

Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say.

The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so.

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Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Maryland’s Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from China’s central government.

But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they weren’t looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004.

American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings — one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition.

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For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein.

As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tung’s old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China.

Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead.

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An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy.

Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economy’s “only problem� and that it didn’t “have a feel for the market.�

“The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch -- he can’t putt!� Trump said on Twitter.

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He’s a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect — despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does.

Beto O’Rourke suggests the will-he-or-won’t-he speculation is something he himself can’t quite fathom.

“I think that’s a great question,� he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. “I ask that question myself.�

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Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there.

The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram — which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal — claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with “radical Islamic groups.�

Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday.

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Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post.

President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year.

Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort.

In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do.

In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats’ strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance.

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On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she won’t be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position.

To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agency’s creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

Kraninger’s declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency.

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Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3.

(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press)

President Trump’s top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role.

That’s according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ayers is Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.

The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers’ length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment.

The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration.

Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

(Dylan Stewart / HS Insider)

The morning after the Nov. 6 congressional midterm election in California, state, county and media websites reported that 100% of precincts had turned in their results.

It was highly misleading: The final tally, released Friday, showed that a staggering 5.2 million of the 12.1 million ballots cast — 43% — remained uncounted that morning. Most of the outstanding votes were from mail ballots.

The website charts listing results from “100 percent� of the precincts feed public mistrust in the counting despite California’s stringent protections of ballot integrity, said Mindy Romero, the director of USC’s California Civic Engagement Project, a nonpartisan research center in Sacramento.

Precinct results are just for ballots cast in person on election day — a shrinking share of California’s vote.

“It doesn’t really match the reality,� Romero said.

Alex Padilla, a Democrat just reelected as secretary of state, acknowledged that the description of the early results might lead the public to wonder why the vote count continues for weeks, with a gaggle of second-place candidates then pulling into the lead.

“Can the terminology be modernized a little bit there? Yeah, I’m open to that,� he said.

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Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates.

U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from October’s strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last year’s average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth.

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Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Two administration officials confirmed Trump’s plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trump’s announcement.

Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year.

Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past.

Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson.

The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year.

Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it.

Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms.

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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trump’s border wall is a waste of money.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border.

The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated he’ll sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush.

The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall.

Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesn’t get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for “border security,� because the wall is a waste of money.

The president’s demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence.

Most of the U.S. government’s $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security.

Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is “basically done.�

Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trump’s $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that.

Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday.

The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21.

A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same.

“This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts,� Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. “It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe.�

The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agency’s assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIA’s findings.

“You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi,� Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being “good soldiers� and at worst were “in the pocket of Saudi Arabia� for presenting the evidence of Mohammed’s involvement as inconclusive.

The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggi’s murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States’ patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinstein’s resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s killing.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggi’s death.

So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggi’s killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution — something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly.

Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners.

But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will.

Demirjian reports for the Washington Post.

The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC.

(Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images)

The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush.

All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited.

In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriff’s Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments.

All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open.

Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014.

(Elise Amendola / Associated Press)

Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he won’t launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run.

A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patrick’s plans was first reported by Politico.

Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governor’s office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election.

Earlier this year, some of Patrick’s supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, “a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020.� Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states.

While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run.

Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasn’t sure he could stand out in such a large field.

“It’s hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and I’m none of those things and I’m never going to be any of those things,� Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod.

Roger Stone in 2017.

(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he won’t provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview.

Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election.

Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks’ plans.

In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committee’s requests were “far too overbroad, far too overreaching� and “far too wide-ranging.�

The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a child’s report card.

Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-.

The nation’s overall grade: D+, which translates to being “in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards� with “significant deterioration� and a “strong risk of failure,� according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is “lying� to get a reduced sentence.

The president is reacting to Cohen’s guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia.

During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trump’s “political message.�

Cohen’s lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates.

When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment.

As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights.

Fewer than half will be returning in January.

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When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment.

As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights.

Fewer than half will be returning in January.

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Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trump’s behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress.

Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document.

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Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14.

(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isn’t too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trump’s acting attorney general.

Matthew Whitaker “may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer,� Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump — as recently as Tuesday — continues to call it a “witch hunt.�

“I think it’s a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry,� Comey said. “The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact.�

“He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and I’m sure he doesn’t want that,� added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar.

Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions’ chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department.

Trump has called Whitaker “a very smart man.� Earlier this year, Trump called Comey “an untruthful slime ball.�

Wagner writes for the Washington Post.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump.

In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinke’s deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office “found no evidence� that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinke’s recommendation.

Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noel’s property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noel’s land holdings, but later reversed the plan.

“We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOI’s proposed revisions to the [monument’s] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noel’s financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries,� Kendall wrote.

Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector general’s office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress “no sooner than 31 days� from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinke’s office.

The Associated Press first reported the inspector general’s conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself.

Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noel’s land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea.

Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The inspector general’s office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdog’s conclusions.

“The report shows exactly what the secretary’s office has known all along — that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws,� she said in an email. “This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IG’s office.�

But Kendall’s spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released “and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time.�

“The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently,� DiPaolo added. “Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department.�

Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year.

“I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest,� he said. “Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits.�

Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post.

Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s top economic advisor, said Tuesday that China’s response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers’ trade relationship has been “extremely disappointing� but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations’ leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough.

“They have to do more. They must do more,� Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina.

“I think the president is exactly right … to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls,� Kudlow said. “They’re so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation.�

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Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the country’s sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide.

Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the state’s recent voting history.

On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results.

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Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008.

(Saul Loeb / Getty Images)

Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday.

“He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful,� according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. “The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters.�

Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009.

Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review.

Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post.

President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving.

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays.

“It’s a disgrace,� Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas.

Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost “control� on its side.

The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops — “You really are our heroes,� he said — as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him.

It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics.

“You probably see over the news what’s happening on our southern border,� Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: “I don’t have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who we’re letting in.�

Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was “a very big subject� for him personally.

“We’ve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals,� Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, “Mr. President, from our perspective on the water … we don’t see any issues in terms of trade right now.�

And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch.

“I hope that you’ll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well,� he said. “The nation’s doing well economically, better than anybody in the world.� He later told reporters, “Nobody’s done more for the military than me.�

Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his “great family� as well as himself.

“I made a tremendous difference in this country,� he said.

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President Trump makes a Thanksgiving Day call to U.S. troops.

President Trump delivered a Thanksgiving message to American service members on duty around the world, telling them by telephone, “Your courage truly inspires us.�

Trump told members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard that he and First Lady Melania Trump wanted to express their “profound gratitude.�

Trump is spending the holiday in Palm Beach, Fla., at his private Mar-a-Lago Club again this year.

He started Thursday morning tweeting as part of his extraordinary public dispute with Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump is warning of “bedlam, chaos, injury and death� if the courts block his efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws.

RELATED: Chief Justice John Roberts denounces Trump’s criticism of a federal jurist as an ‘Obama judge’ »

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency “had feelings� but did not firmly place blame for the death.

Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing.

“He denies it vehemently,� Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that “maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.�

“I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do,� Trump said.

Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame.

“Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place,� the president said.

He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, “we wouldn’t be able to have anyone for an ally.�

Trump’s remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy.

Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday.

Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat.

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On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term.

But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted.

Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since.

The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted.

Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa.

All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016.

Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes – he last won reelection by a 14-point margin – suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats.

If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

(Rogelio V. Solis / Associated Press)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is pushing back against President Trump’s description of a judge who ruled against Trump’s new migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.�

It’s the first time that the leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him.

Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn’t have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.� He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by the Associated Press.

Roberts said on the day before Thanksgiving that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.�

Last year, the president used the term a “so-called judge� after the first federal ruling against his travel ban.

Related: Trump lashes out after judge rules that migrants who cross border illegally can seek asylum »

President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October.

In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIA’s reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to carry it out.

Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff.

The election-night lead that GOP Rep. David Valadao of Hanford established over his Democratic challenger T.J. Cox has shrunk to 968 votes, stoking Republican fears that the party could lose a seventh California congressional seat.

The alarming news for the GOP came Monday as Kern and Tulare counties released updated results from their ongoing ballot counting.

On election night, when Valadao had a 4,389-vote lead, the Associated Press projected the Republican incumbent would win, but that victory now appears uncertain.

California’s 21st Congressional District, mainly farmland along Interstate 5 between Bakersfield and Fresno, is split among four counties. Cox holds a lopsided lead in Kern County, but Valadao remains ahead in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties.

It is unclear how many thousands of ballots remain uncounted. The four counties have told the state that they still have nearly 70,000 ballots to tally. Many of them came from voters living outside the 21st District, so it’s difficult to estimate Valadao’s prospects for survival.

The Nov. 6 midterm election results have been dismal for Republicans in California. The party has lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, leaving it with a tiny minority of the 53-seat delegation.

Democrats unseated Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Mimi Walters of Laguna Beach, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock. Democrats also won the seats of retiring GOP Reps. Ed Royce of Fullerton and Darrell Issa of Vista.

All six of those seats are in districts that voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Valadao’s is the only other California district that favored Clinton but is represented by a Republican in the House.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority.

Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case.

But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader.

“We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus,� they wrote. “However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change.�

Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speaker’s gavel in January — eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House.

“Come on in, the water’s fine,� she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge.

The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided.

All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority.

That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3.

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Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker

(Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images)

Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker’s appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him.

The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitaker’s appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate.

Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7.

The Constitution’s Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office.

The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitaker’s appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a “sufficiently senior pay level.�

“President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nation’s top law enforcement official,� Blumenthal said in a statement. “The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called ‘constitutional nobody’ and thwarting every senator’s constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts.�

The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitaker’s appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitaker’s appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation.

The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitaker’s appointment as “lawful� and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent.

“There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position,� Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. “To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent.�

Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7.

(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)

Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race.

Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson “graciously conceded� their Senate race shortly after the state’s recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday.

The defeat ends Nelson’s lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years.

Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scott’s ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump.

Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange County’s undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the state’s six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism.

With Cisneros’ victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange County’s seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House.

“Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen,� said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office.

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For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that it’s possible to plunge even further.

The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election — again, in blowout fashion — but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit

After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in California’s 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team.

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Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January.

“I’m going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1,� Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in California’s 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening.

“It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state,� Porter added. “When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and what’s at risk in things like drilling off our coasts.�

Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat.

Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement.

“Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesn’t punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence,� she said.

“Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go.�

Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters.

Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porter’s teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said.

Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla.

(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)

Florida’s acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes.

But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race.

Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that “it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted.�

The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline.

“We gave a heroic effort,� said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said.

Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes.

Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent.

Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle.

It’s time for Nelson “to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes — which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served,� the governor said in a statement.

The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000.

“We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this,� Walker said during a morning hearing.

Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work.

“This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile,� Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. “It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark.�

The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems.

A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court.

Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request.

State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday.

Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it “inappropriate.�

Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points.

The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelson’s campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures.

The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP.

Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of California’s undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state.

In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in California’s 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties.

In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills.

Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead.

The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win.

The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far.

Unofficial Florida election results show that the governor’s race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount.

Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governor’s race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount.

Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less.

Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered.

The election will be certified Tuesday.

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House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chamber’s speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year.

“I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House,� the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. “I happen to think at this point, I’m the best person for that.�

A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker.

During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called “almost a tsunami.� With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber.

Pelosi called that “the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in.�

Pelosi’s comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington.

After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership.

The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010.

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that she’s being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesn’t have the votes.

In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been “overwhelmed� by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker.

“Over the last 12 hours, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received,� Fudge said, adding that there are “probably closer to 30� Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi.

“Things could change rapidly,� Fudge said.

Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members.

To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus.

On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her “insight, fortitude and strategic thinking� and urging support for her speakership bid.

Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as “an architect of the recent midterm success.�

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is “the kind of new leader that we need in this party.�

“She’s in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. She’s a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, ‘That’s the future of our party, that’s the future of our country, and that’s exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker.�

Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Post’s Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report.

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent California’s 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley.

“It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years,� the 51-year-old congressman said. “The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives.�

Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition.

Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans’ Affairs and Agriculture committees.

First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College.

Denham’s House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning.

Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018.

(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)

Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange County’s 45th Congressional District.

In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes.

The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesday’s updated ballot counts came from the latter two.

There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County.

In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic.

In the Central Valley’s 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090.

A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that “[s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race.�

Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP.

Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issa’s San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin.

First Lady Melania Trump.

(Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images)

Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trump’s office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal.

No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first lady’s staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the president’s national security staff.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration.

On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s spokeswoman, released a statement saying, “It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House.�

President Trump’s White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump.

An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year.

Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next year’s shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress.

The race for minority leader is McCarthy’s to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus.

The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year.

Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate.

Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosi’s bid to return as the Democrats’ nominee for speaker, is later this month.

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First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11.

(Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images )

First Lady Melania Trump’s office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House.

“It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House,� Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardel’s removal.

Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first lady’s wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trump’s trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said.

Grisham’s statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg.

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CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week.

The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating “fake news� for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration.

“The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acosta’s 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process,� CNN said in a written statement. “If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials.�

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Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks — Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank — when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee.

The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committee’s top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last week’s elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while — including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump.

“With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for America’s consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight,� Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times.

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For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as “ranked choice� is being used to decide a federal election.

It’s happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016.

Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot.

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A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.’s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8.

(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trump’s order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger.

The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending.

The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum.

The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban.

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(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Trump is brushing off former First Lady Michelle Obama’s declaration that she can’t forgive him for campaign rhetoric that potentially put her family at risk.

Trump instead pointed to former President Obama, telling reporters outside the White House on Friday, “She talked about safety. What he did to our military made this country very unsafe for you and you and you.� Trump didn’t explain what he meant.

In the former first lady’s upcoming memoir, she says Trump’s rhetoric barely concealed “bigotry and xenophobia� that was “dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks.�

She writes, “Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgive him.�

The Associated Press bought a copy of the book, “Becoming,� which is set for release on Tuesday.

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Trump goes on a rant Friday, attacking Michelle Obama, Jim Acosta, April Ryan, Broward County and Brenda Snipes.

President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9.

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general.

Trump told reporters Friday that “I don’t know Matt Whitaker� and said he didn’t speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Whitaker has made public comments critical of Mueller’s investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein.

Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: “It’s a shame that no matter who I put in they go after.�

He also called Whitaker “a very highly respected man.� Whitaker was Sessions’ chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions’ interim replacement.

The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall.

The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is “doing well� and working from home.

The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight.

Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014.

Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

(Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP.

Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff.

McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car.

McBath’s margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded.

Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, it’s clear she “came up a bit short� in Tuesday’s vote.

Handel congratulated McBath, offering “good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her.�

McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital.

The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening.

Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs.

Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014.

The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference.

They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, “That’s enough!� and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern,� calling it “absolutely unacceptable.�

The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. “Pardon me, ma’am,� he told her.

Acosta tweeted that Sanders’ statement that he put his hands on the aide was “a lie.�

CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acosta’s press pass in “retaliation for his challenging questions� Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acosta’s actions.

Sanders “provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better,� CNN said. “Jim Acosta has our full support.�

Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved.

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President Trump assails CNN’s Jim Acosta at a White House news conference.

President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another he’s a “rude, terrible� person.

He told another reporter he’s “not a fan of yours, either.�

The president’s mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an “invasion.� Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections.

Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the man’s actions to the caravan.

Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all.

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Ione Kauser of La Habra campaigns for Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Cox’s giant campaign bus, the words “HELP IS ON THE WAY� emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office.

Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike.

“Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative?� Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of “Nooo!�

The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros.

She led the crowd in chants of “Enough is enough!� and, though short-lived, “Drain the swamp!�

“I’ve served you in Sacramento and I’ve seen dysfunction personally,� Kim continued. “We cannot continue that route.�

She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. “Let’s get out there — the 72 hours is really critical. It’s all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote,� she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, “it could be your vote. So don’t sit back and do nothing.�

“Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow?� Kim said. “It can be physically exhausting but I’m mentally, emotionally very energized.

She listed off her events so far that day — and the next one she was heading to.

“That’s just what I can remember,� she said. “I’m living one hour at a time at this point.�

Kim’s campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday.

After she was whisked away to her next event — a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained.

John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up.

“This is the Super Bowl. We’re not in an NFL stadium, we’re not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what?� Freeman said. “We’re walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game.�

Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background.

(Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times )

Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porter’s campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember ’70s rock ’n’ roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na.

Jon Bauman, as “Bowzer� is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters.

“I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked,� he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. “There has never been a more important election.�

Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside.

“We love Trump,� the voice cried out.

“We love him too, he makes great fodder,� the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter.

Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district.

“I know it’s going to be tough out there,� she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat.

“This election is going to be close,� she said. “If we don’t fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 o’clock on Tuesday, this could slip away.�

Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song “Good Night Sweetheart�: “Good night, Mimi Walters,� he crooned.

A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt.

She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds.

“We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids it’s supposed to be run,� said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: “They’ve had control over all these years and California’s gone to crap.�

Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old.

Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children — the older ones are 5 and 2 — about the presidency and the government since Trump’s election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town.

“This is the first time it’s felt like a big deal and there isn’t a president up for election,� she said.

Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals — her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican — she the race felt more urgent here.

“It makes the election really cutthroat,� said Campbell, an independent who doesn’t vote along party lines — in fact, she thought she may have voted for Walters in the past. “When it’s so close and so much is at stake, we figured it was finally time to bite the bullet,� she said about coming out to volunteer for Porter.

Gil Cisneros canvasses for votes Sunday in Buena Park.

(Christine Mai-Duc / Los Angeles Times)

Gil Cisneros got on stage with comedian Chelsea Handler on Sunday afternoon, urging his supporters to help him reach as many voters as possible to get out the vote in the 39th Congressional District, where he’s hoping to snag a seat held by retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton).

“This election really is going to come down to the wire,� he said.

Within the hour, Cisneros was knocking on doors in a nearby Buena Park neighborhood full of tidy ranch-style homes with neatly trimmed lawns and within earshot of roller-coaster screams emanating from Knott’s Berry Farm.

At one, he introduced himself to Nicolas Cervantes, a 64-year-old Democrat who’s voted in only two of the last five elections.

“I’ve already sent in my vote, and my daughter and son, too,� Cervantes said in Spanish as he took a break from yard work to hang over his chain link fence. His wife, Julia, said she’ll go to the polls Tuesday.

“Do we have your vote?� asked Cisneros in English.

“Oh, cien por ciento,� Cervantes responded in Spanish, “100%.�

“Every vote is going to count in this election,� Cisneros staffer Tom Rivera replied in Spanish.

One street over, Laura Cabaruvias and Max Molina, both 27, greeted Cisneros with two small dogs underfoot. Both said they were supporting Cisneros, but neither had voted yet. Molina was waiting to turn in his mail ballot, which was already filled out.

“If you’ve got it done, we can take it now,� Cisneros said. (Under a fairly new state law, campaigns and other organizations — not just family members — can collect ballots and turn them in for voters.)

“Thank you, that will save me a trip. I knew I was going to be pretty busy the next couple days,� said Molina, as he licked the envelope, sealed and signed it.

Nick Delvillar, 28, took a break from watching the Rams lose to the New Orleans Saints to speak with Cisneros, whom he instantly recognized from the campaign’s TV commercials.

“I’ve gotten like 10 calls from you guys,� Delvillar said, “I told them I’m voting for you.�

Cisneros peeked in and pointed at another young man there.

“What about him?� he asked.

“He’s voting for you, too.�

Delvillar shut the screen door, and Cisneros walked on to the next door.

Young Kim’s campaign did not give her detailed schedule of Sunday events to The Times despite requests.

Water for farmers and support for local businesses were among the top issues for Republicans gathered in Modesto on Sunday at a campaign rally for Congressman Jeff Denham and gubernatorial candidate John Cox.

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) meets with supporters in Modesto.

(Jazmine Ulloa/Los Angeles Times)

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham and California gubernatorial candidate John Cox on Sunday called for a repeal of the state’s gas tax increase and underscored the need to expand roads and add jobs.

Stumping in Modesto, where Cox’s bus made a stop at Denham’s campaign headquarters, the two made little mention of President Trump in an area where Democrats hold a slight edge in registered voters. Their most passionate pleas were to bring water to Central Valley farmers and to build not a wall along the border with Mexico but greater storage capacity.

“We need to have our water, and we need to make sure that we have a candidate that will fight for the Valley,� Denham said.

Denham, 51, is facing a tight race against Democrat Josh Harder, 32, in a district targeted by national Democrats. Harder supporters have flooded into the Valley over the weekend from across the state to knock on doors and hand out fliers in hopes of flipping the House.

Harder, a former venture capitalist who was born and raised in the district, has stressed healthcare, citing Denham’s vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act as the reason for his return home and his first run for Congress.

But on Sunday, the two Republicans seized on his outside support to cast the 2018 election as a battle between the liberal values of the Bay Area and the conservative way of life of rural California. Cox, 63, is facing his own opponent with ties to the Bay, Democrat Gavin Newsom, the state’s two-term lieutenant governor and a former San Francisco mayor.

“Who are we fighting? The San Francisco values,� Cox said, as dozens booed at the city’s mention. “Take a look at that city. It used to be a wonderful city. It was run by my opponent – I would say run into the ground.�

The battle cry was not enough for some supporters who wanted them to rally behind Trump. “I would love to hear somebody say something positive about the president,� yelled out a woman as they wrapped up. “Build the wall,� another shouted.

Katie Hill, the Democrat trying to oust Republican Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale, drafted “Veronica Mars� and “The Good Place� star Kristen Bell to campaign with her Sunday in Simi Valley.

Bell’s appearance at a strip-mall rally of about 150 canvassers for Hill was the highlight of a whirlwind day of campaigning in one of America’s most competitive House races in Tuesday’s midterm elections — at least on the Democratic side (Knight had no public schedule).

Bell told the crowd of volunteers that she’d known Hill for more than a decade through her support for PATH, a Los Angeles nonprofit that provides services to the homeless. Hill, 31, was one of PATH’s top executives when she left to run for Congress.

“I actually said to myself at one point, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, is she the real-life Veronica Mars?’� Bell told the crowd from a platform outside a bustling Hill campaign office. “Because truly she’s always fought for the underdog.�

Hill said she expected nearly 3,000 volunteers to walk door-to-door Sunday across the state’s 25th Congressional District, which covers Simi Valley, Porter Ranch, Santa Clarita, Palmdale and southern Lancaster.

“We’re knocking on doors that have never been knocked on before,� Hill told the group.

Hill, who also campaigned Sunday with filmmaker Rory Kennedy, was headed later to a Chatsworth house party, then a picnic and two rallies in the Antelope Valley.

Knight’s only public event over the weekend was a sunrise visit Saturday to the starting line of the Santa Clarita Marathon.

Knight, 51, said he would have a busy weekend schedule, including a Day of the Dead celebration and a veterans ball, but his campaign declined to release locations for any events except the marathon.

Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) at the start of the Santa Clarita Marathon.

(Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times)