Vivek Ramaswamy’s Springfield

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Panel of No-Shows

Taking down the temperature is still not on the Trumpworld agenda. Vivek Ramaswamy held a town hall with several hundred people in attendance in Springfield, Ohio, where he promised “unity through dialogue.” Though he said he had spent the day meeting with city officials and Haitian community leaders, none of them were in the room with him. It was a largely MAGA crowd, and it got a largely MAGA message.

“I think the reason that they’re not here tonight is not because they don’t care about this,” Ramaswamy said, insisting the local leaders actually do care about what Donald Trump and JD Vance have pushed (one city commissioner apparently only made it into the overflow room). “It’s because they are scared, actually.”

Charles Patterson is one of the local Republican VIPs who was asked to go but stayed away (he was also supposed to be at a local candidate forum that was canceled due to safety concerns because of Trump’s slurs against Haitian migrants). After retiring as Clark County health director, he is running for a commission seat in the county home to Springfield. I asked him about why he’d avoid a room full of Republican voters with one of the party’s stars.

“If the people running for higher office would ask me, I would tell them the Republicans are already going to vote for you,” he said. “Stop playing to these folks. You need to highlight what you are going to do for people in the middle.”

There are a lot of Republicans in Ohio like Patterson. Gov. Mike DeWine is one — he’s stepped before the cameras twice now and said Trump’s claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield were not true. Patterson was pretty careful when talking about the top of the GOP ticket but was clear that they have not been helpful. Misinformation about the Haitians “has been burning for a year,” he said. “Trump and Vance are throwing gasoline on it.”

Should Trump come like he’s promised to? Patterson used a public health analogy — in past disasters, “we didn’t need someone who was going to take away from the resources to come and visit us. We just needed people who were going to come and add resources to the pot.”

—Evan McMorris-Santoro, reporting from Springfield, Ohio.

The ‘I Told You So’ Caucus Is Screaming in North Carolina

“The governor’s race is over,” one veteran North Carolina GOP strategist told NOTUS’ Calen Razor after CNN went live with its bombshell investigation into Mark Robinson’s posts on an adult site. Robinson has denied that he wrote the comments.

“The real question is going to be if this impacts the other Republicans on the ballot. Trump endorsed the guy. He’s going to have to answer for all this,” this strategist said.

If social media is any indication, at least one Republican House candidate in a tough race appears to have deleted a photo of her with Robinson.

Front Page

• Mike Johnson “Plan B” Is What Everyone Expected: The speaker’s GOP detractors were correct. They made sure of it.
• Lawmakers Want Harris and Trump to Have More Security: They just don’t agree on what that should look like
• Mark Robinson’s Latest Scandal Has Republicans Fearing for the Rest of the Ballot: Democrats are already highlighting times other GOP candidates praised Robinson.

The Concepts of the Plan Have Been Badly Received

JD Vance shared his “concept of a plan” to repeal and replace Obamacare, and it brought Republican senators back to some of their worst days of the early Trump presidency. NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt asked Republicans what they made of Vance’s new (very old) ideas. Let’s just say few wanted to hear the words high-risk pools or preexisting conditions.

Sen. James Lankford: “It’s not just as easy as turning off and turning on anymore. It’s well established.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis: “Repealing Obamacare isn’t going to happen. It isn’t even going to be debated.”

Sen. Josh Hawley: “I’m kind of skeptical. I have experience with this in my own family, with one of my kids. If you’ve got a preexisting condition, I don’t think you should be discriminated against. I think that you ought to be able to have the same range of choices at the same prices that other people are paying right now.”

Read the story.

NOTUS Exclusive: Democrats’ New Very Trump-Focused Ad in New Hampshire

One of Democrats’ closing messages in New Hampshire for the 2024 election: In 2016, Republican candidate Kelly Ayotte said she wouldn’t support Donald Trump.

The NH Democratic Party is out with a new ad, first shared with Calen, that hammers Ayotte for supporting Trump now, after having disavowed him post-“Access Hollywood” tape: “I want my daughter to know that, that is more important to me than winning any election,” Ayotte is seen saying in the ad. Ayotte called Trump “the right choice for the White House” in 2024, the ad then shows.

It’s a notable strategy given Trump’s numbers in the state: The Republican nominee hasn’t been personally campaigning there, as Politico reported, and he’s down significantly in the polls. Democrat Joyce Craig and Ayotte were statistically tied in the University of New Hampshire’s September survey.

U.S. vs. Google Is on a ‘Rocket Docket’

The DOJ wrapped up its case just 10 days into the watershed anti-monopoly trial against Google. The defense is expected to start laying out their arguments today. Close watchers say the “rocket docket” speed is thanks to 80-year-old Judge Leonie Brinkema’s no-funny-business way.

“She’s a bit coarse on the stand. She becomes frustrated with repetitive testimony and will frequently be saying things like, ‘OK, I’ve heard this before. Let’s move it along,’” American Economic Liberties Project attorney Lee Hepner told reporters Thursday. “The pace at which Brinkema is moving through this and cutting testimony is another indicator that she gets it. … Whether that means the government’s case is stronger in Brinkema’s eyes is anyone’s guess.”

—Claire Heddles

Not Us

We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by … not us.

• The investigation into Mark Robinson’s activity on an adult online forum from CNN.
• JD Vance can’t seem to keep his mouth shut on policy, Semafor reports.
• Speaking of Vance … Politico introduces his “British sherpa.”
• Not quite “I can see Russia from my house,” but Trump’s latest Alaska comments aren’t much better, according to Alaska Public Media.
• Sometimes getting a FOIA request is the story. It’s how Bloomberg’s FOIA Files found out law enforcement is investigating an eye-popping Elon Musk post on X.

Be Social

Bonnie Watson Coleman got a kick out of Ben T.N. Mause’s latest NOTUS story re: House GOP dysfunction.

Tell Us Your Thoughts

Will Mark Robinson hurt Donald Trump in North Carolina?

Send your thoughts to newsletters@notus.org.

Thank you for reading! If you like this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please subscribe (it’s free!).