§83 —
On the spanking
Democrat
SPANKED
On Tuesday the country answered. Democrats take the House and the Senate in January, NBC News projects. They flipped seven Senate seats: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. They flipped five governorships. An NBC analysis on Wednesday put them at 258 House seats at least, a figure that can still move a few seats 1. Early exit polls had his approval at 38 percent 2. The Dow rose more than 1,500 points Wednesday 3.
Dad's statement came in parts. "I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE" 3. Fox News "bears the responsibility" 3. The vice president blamed the Iran war, and he called that "largely true" 3. Then he posted a red cap reading VETO 1. Democrats will fall short of the two-thirds it takes to override one 1. The gavels change hands January 3, in 59 days. He keeps the veto. He keeps the nuclear codes for 807.
Sources
- Control of both chambers, the seven Senate flips, five governorships, the estimate of at least 258 House seats, and the VETO cap, with Democrats short of two-thirds — NBC News live blog, 4 November 2026 ↑
- Early exit polls put Trump's approval at 38 percent — CBS News, 4 November 2026 ↑
- The Truth Social post of 3 November, "bears the responsibility," "largely true," and the Dow's rise of over 1,500 points — Yahoo News live coverage, 4 November 2026 ↑
Republican
SPANKED
Give the word its due: it was theirs first. In October 2023 his campaign sent the press a statement headed "DeSanctus Campaign Gets Spanked on CNN," in which the governor of Florida was "getting thoroughly spanked" 1. That November a campaign memo read "DeSantis Gets Spanked on FOX News" 2. In October 2024, in Duluth, Georgia, Tucker Carlson widened the program to the country: "You've been a bad little girl, and you're getting a vigorous spanking right now" 3.
There is one more entry, under oath. In May 2024 Stormy Daniels testified in Manhattan that she looked at a magazine with him on the cover and said, "Someone should spank you with that" 4, and then did, "right on the butt" 5. He denies the whole story 6. The judge said some of the testimony "would have been better left unsaid" 7. That is a statement, a memo, a stage and a witness stand. On Tuesday it came back with a count.
Sources
- "DeSanctus Campaign Gets Spanked on CNN" and "getting thoroughly spanked," Trump campaign statement to the media — Mediaite, 28 October 2023 ↑
- Campaign memo headed "KISS OF DEATH: DeSantis Gets Spanked on FOX News and on the Campaign Trail" — Uproxx, 29 November 2023 ↑
- Tucker Carlson at a Trump campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, 23 October 2024: "You've been a bad little girl, and you're getting a vigorous spanking right now" — TheWrap ↑
- Daniels's testimony of 7 May 2024 on the magazine with him on the cover: "Someone should spank you with that" — Fox News ↑
- Daniels testified she "spanked" him "right on the butt" — ABC News via Good Morning America, 7 May 2024 ↑
- "He denies the whole story" — Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, May 2024 ↑
- Judge Juan Merchan declined a mistrial and said some testimony "would have been better left unsaid" — Mother Jones, 7 May 2024 ↑
“I went looking for who started this and I've got a stack. A campaign statement from October 2023, a governor "getting thoroughly spanked." Another one that November. A speech in Georgia, 2024, the whole country this time. And sworn testimony from a courtroom in Manhattan, which he denies, so I set that one to the side, and then I picked it back up. Sorry, one thing before you go. Tuesday night he wrote that he wasn't on the ballot. Then it was Fox News. Then he said the Iran explanation was largely true. That's three reasons. If he wasn't on the ballot, why does he need the other two?”— Lou
“Spanked. And before anybody writes in, it's not our word. It's theirs. Go look. His campaign put it in a press statement in 2023. In 2024 Tucker Carlson stood up at a rally in Georgia and told the whole country Dad's coming home and it's getting a vigorous one. So the country goes to its room and thinks about what it did for two years. Tuesday it came downstairs. Seven Senate seats. Texas. Dad's statement is he wasn't home. And Wednesday the Dow goes up fifteen hundred points. I'm not saying those two things are connected. I'm saying the guy next to me bought a round.”
“I'd push back on "spanked" as a characterization of what was, in fairness, a preliminary count, and I think we can all agree that kind of language has no place in our politics, outside of a campaign statement, where it is a metaphor, and a rally, where it was also a metaphor.”