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00:00A Democrat endorses a Republican in one of the country's closest Senate races.
00:05Now her own party is turning on her just hours before the midterms.
00:09Plus, President Trump spends the final weekend campaigning in states he easily won.
00:14Why Republicans are fighting to hold on to them now.
00:18And nine people are dead after a private jet plunges into a Florida roadway.
00:22Hear the pilot's desperate final call.
00:26The stories that matter. The facts you can trust.
00:31From across the country to around the world.
00:34This is Unbiased Updates from Straight Arrow.
00:39Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. It's Monday, November 2nd, the eve of the midterms.
00:44Let's get you caught up and ready for the day ahead on this extended edition of Unbiased Updates.
00:49We begin with the stunning political reversal in Michigan just a day before the election.
00:54Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens is breaking with her own party to endorse Republican Mike Rogers for Senate.
01:00And she's not just endorsing him. She spent Sunday campaigning alongside him.
01:05The two appeared together at a Detroit church where Stevens had originally been expected to join Democratic nominee Abdul El
01:11-Sayed for a show of party unity.
01:14Stevens narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the August primary.
01:17Their relationship has been strained ever since, particularly over Israel.
01:22Last week, Stevens demanded El-Sayed condemn an outside group's ad linking U.S. military aid to Israel with higher
01:29grocery prices.
01:30She called the ad anti-Semitic.
01:32El-Sayed said he disagreed with the ad and had nothing to do with making it.
01:36His campaign then asked Stevens to stay away from its events and Stevens posted this video.
01:42Abdul said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away.
01:49And he's right.
01:50And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.
01:57I don't belong in Abdul's campaign.
02:00And Stevens faced some tough questions about that decision last night on CNN.
02:05Anderson Cooper pressed her on why she's now supporting the same Republican she warned voters against just three months ago.
02:11Back in August, you posted on social media, quote, Mike Rogers will be another rubber stamp for Donald Trump's dangerous
02:17agenda.
02:18We can't afford to give MAGA another Senate seat in November.
02:22How do you why is it OK now?
02:25Why can you afford now to give MAGA another Senate seat in November?
02:30Well, why is it OK to have the Democratic Party and a top nominee, you know, ejecting, you know, this
02:38type of or injecting rather this type of anger and lack of kindness?
02:42Yes.
02:43That's all.
02:43I'm one Democrat.
02:44OK, so it's the anger and lack of kindness.
02:46That's what you're focusing on.
02:47And there's others who feel the same way.
02:49The backlash from our own party has been swift.
02:52Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it a, quote, despicable betrayal and says Democrats remain united behind El Syed.
03:00DNC chair Ken Martin calls it a betrayal of the party's values and a last-minute political stunt.
03:05El Syed, for his part, is trying to keep the focus on voters rather than his former primary rival.
03:12Reporters asked him about Stevens' decision Sunday.
03:14At the end of the day, I actually don't think about Haley Stevens.
03:17See what I'm saying?
03:18Like, I think about the, like I said, the 9,999,998 people who are not those two.
03:25Because you know what?
03:26I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all.
03:31President Trump is celebrating the move, praising Stevens for backing his party's candidate.
03:36After her endorsement, Stevens' longtime chief of staff resigned, along with several other staffers.
03:42As we mentioned, Trump is weighing in on that Michigan Senate race, too.
03:46Even while campaigning in Iowa Sunday, the president took aim at Democrat Abdul El Syed with some remarks about his
03:52Muslim faith.
03:53Trump was in Iowa and Kansas over the weekend, trying to boost Republicans in two states he won comfortably in
03:592024, but where the GOP now faces competitive Senate races.
04:03And in Iowa, he kept coming back to Michigan.
04:06That's another important election for us.
04:08We don't want to have a jihadist.
04:10We don't want to have a, can you imagine, we'll have to put him through metal detectors in order to
04:15seat.
04:17He'll be, we'll have a hundred senators and most of them could go direct.
04:22We're going to have to get a special metal detector for Abdul.
04:28A party that hates America cannot be allowed to lead the people who built America.
04:33Trump then headed to Kansas for his final rally of the weekend, urging supporters to turn out Tuesday to keep
04:39Republicans in control of Congress.
04:41Both rallies had actually been canceled last week in favor of campaign events by phone before being put back on
04:47the schedule Friday.
04:48The president has now held more than two dozen rallies across 19 states since the start of October, and he's
04:54not finished just yet.
04:55Trump is expected to deliver his final midterm campaign pitch today at 2 p.m. at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting
05:02Pool in Washington.
05:04Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan says he'll accept the results of his race against Democrat Mary Peltola tomorrow, even if
05:11he loses.
05:12But he's still accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election.
05:16Sullivan made the comments Sunday on CNN as a controversy over another candidate with his same name continues to grow.
05:22When asked if he'd accept the results if only he wins, here's what he told Jake Tapper.
05:28No, I'm going to accept the election results.
05:30It is a breathtaking smoking gun that Peltola, her team, Schumer, his team, had as their first order of business.
05:39So what I say to Alaskans is don't let them get away with the tricks.
05:44Get out the vote. Vote for the honest senator.
05:47We have truth on our side, Jake. We have truth on our side, and that's why I'm going to win.
05:51As you'll recall, there are two Dan Sullivans running for Senate in Alaska.
05:56One is the incumbent Republican. The other is a retired teacher named Dan J. Sullivan.
06:01And Republicans say the second Sullivan is on the ballot to confuse voters and take votes away from the senator.
06:07The New York Times reported last week that former aides to Peltola and Democratic Senate operatives were involved in recruiting
06:14him.
06:14Peltola denies knowing about the effort. Her campaign also denies any involvement.
06:20And over the weekend, a federal judge threw out the Trump administration's lawsuit over the ballot controversy.
06:25The Justice Department wanted votes for the second Sullivan set aside for investigation and sought to block certification of the
06:32election if the Republican senator loses.
06:35But Judge Sharon Gleason ruled Sunday that the government's request would violate voters' right to a secret ballot.
06:41The Justice Department has already appealed.
06:43Peltola's campaign calls the lawsuit baseless, saying it won't stop Alaskans from choosing their next senator.
06:49Both Sullivans remain on tomorrow's ballot, and Alaska's ranked-choice system allows voters to rank their preferred candidates.
06:57If you think two Dan Sullivans on the same ballot is strange, well, Alaska isn't the only place we've seen
07:02some unusual politics this election cycle.
07:05I caught up with our senior politics reporter, Ozzy Pabora, outside the Capitol over the weekend to talk about some
07:11of the wilder stories we've seen and what he's watching as we head into Election Day.
07:15Over the last few weeks, we've talked a bunch about some of the biggest storylines during this midterm cycle and
07:24what a long midterm cycle it has been.
07:27And some of the craziest storylines, we're currently seeing one play out right now in Alaska with Mary Peltola's campaign
07:34being accused of coordinating to have the teacher Dan Sullivan run against the incumbent Dan Sullivan.
07:43My question to you is, what has been one of the craziest storylines that we've seen this midterm cycle?
07:52I mean, in a midterm cycle where you have two Dan Sullivans running for Senate on the Republican line in
08:00Alaska,
08:01you have an Ohio Republican candidate running an ad featuring the estranged mom of his Democratic opponent who that candidate
08:12hasn't spoken to her mom in five decades.
08:14And for very good reason, there's a very tragic case of abuse in the background.
08:17But you have all sorts of cases of people tweaking their websites to either hide the fact that they were
08:24supportive of Donald Trump or erase prior statements about climate change and health equity and women's health issues.
08:36To be fair, at least one of those people said, you know, that was I erased it because it was
08:41from an old campaign.
08:42Yes, you know, some people are updating 2024 campaigns for 2026 and others on the Republican side are erasing things
08:50they said only a few weeks or months ago about Donald Trump because he is so unpopular compared to other
08:56presidents at this period.
08:57The other thing that is quietly but very loudly becoming a more central issue is just whether or not people
09:06are going to accept the election results.
09:09President Donald Trump very famously, very publicly has challenged election results that he does not like.
09:15He has never accepted his loss in 2020.
09:18And increasingly, he has staffed his administration with people who are walking that same line.
09:24The question is how many people who have his endorsement who have said they're aligned with him are on election
09:32night going to accept the results.
09:34Now, what's happening in Alaska is fodder for challenging those results.
09:39The Department of Justice already has a lot. They had a lawsuit even before that.
09:42Your time story exposed the Democratic plot to have that second because this goes back to earlier in the year.
09:49This has been going on for months and as unethical and immoral as it might be, there might not actually
09:57be a violation of law.
09:59They're also challenging voter registration in California on some very shoddy work that has been debunked numerous times.
10:07And it's all laying the groundwork for the president to come out on election night before any results are finalized
10:12or generally accepted and to declare what he wants.
10:15It's almost like you're you're saying that even though there have been these really unique storylines throughout the midterm cycle,
10:25we could be seeing one of the most consequential storylines play out after after election night.
10:34Absolutely. Election night is the start or actually the sort of middle of the election storyline.
10:42The campaigns have had months, in some cases, years of telling their story.
10:48Voters for the last couple of weeks have been casting their ballots, early votes in person, early votes by mail.
10:53And on election night, that's when you see the score.
10:57And some of those scores don't get tabulated for a couple of days because it takes a while to process
11:02some of these absentee ballots and votes that come in by mail.
11:06But what the president and some Republicans are doing is initiating the what appears to be a challenge in advance
11:15of results.
11:16Now, the other thing that is an emerging storyline that is unlike anything we've ever seen is the money.
11:25Hmm. Talk about it.
11:27Elon Musk is the single largest known contributor to candidates and campaign committees this cycle.
11:38If you really want to be infuriated, think about your number one issue, the number one issue that you as
11:46a voter think is the most important.
11:48To a lot of voters, the economy, cost of living, affordability.
11:52Is it cost of living at the pump?
11:53Is it the road in front of your house having potholes that are not filled?
11:58Is it your child's schools not having updated textbooks or a crumbling roof?
12:03Pick any one of those issues.
12:06Try to calculate how much it would cost to fix it.
12:10And compare that to the amount of money that goes in to arguing who is the right person to fix
12:17it.
12:20If people like Elon Musk and other billionaires took a portion of their money and dedicated it to solving the
12:29issues rather than electing the people that they prefer to solve those issues, you potentially could see more dramatic movement.
12:36Alright, many thanks to Ozzy for that. Now to Florida, where nine people are dead after a private jet plunged
12:42from the sky and crashed in Palm Beach County Sunday afternoon.
12:46And investigators are now trying to determine what went wrong.
12:49The moment the Bombardier Learjet 60 crashed was captured on dash cam video.
12:54You can see it plummeting nose first toward the ground before exploding into a massive fireball, sending thick black smoke
13:02into the air.
13:03The impact left a large crater in the road just feet from a nearby neighborhood.
13:07All nine people on board were killed.
13:10The jet was headed from Austin, Texas to the Bahamas when it crashed just before 1 p.m. Sunday.
13:15The identities of those on board have not yet been released.
13:18Air traffic control recordings reveal the pilot reported icing and moderate turbulence, then requested to climb to 37,000 feet.
13:27Moments later, the plane was in a rapid descent.
13:30We want to warn you the pilot's final distress calls are difficult to hear.
13:34722 Bravo Delta, we're descending 8,000. Mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute.
13:40722 Bravo Delta, roger.
13:43Declared emergency, 722 Bravo Delta.
13:45We are in an overseas condition.
13:47Descending 20,000 feet per minute.
13:50We're going to crash into the ground, 722 Bravo Delta.
13:54November 2 Bravo Delta, I'm here with you. Talk to me.
13:57We are descending 22,000 feet and we are banking 60 degrees.
14:04The NTSB has sent a team of investigators to Florida to determine what caused the crash.
14:10The agency is expected to hold a news conference with an update sometime today.
14:15Later today, the Idaho Supreme Court takes up the case of convicted killer Lori Vallow Daybell.
14:21She's serving three life sentences for the murders of her two children and conspiring to kill her husband's former wife.
14:27Now, she wants those convictions thrown out.
14:30Her attorney argues she was denied a speedy trial and the right to keep her chosen lawyer.
14:35The appeal also challenges the judge's decision to allow testimony about two shootings in Arizona.
14:41The case made national headlines after her children, 7-year-old JJ and 16-year-old Tylee, disappeared in 2019.
14:49Vallow Daybell became known as the Doomsday Mom for her extreme religious beliefs, including claims that her children were possessed
14:56by evil spirits.
14:57Their bodies were later found buried on property belonging to Chad Daybell.
15:02He and Lori married just weeks after his previous wife Tammy died.
15:06Chad was also convicted in the three killings and sentenced to death.
15:10Lori Vallow Daybell also has two life sentences from separate convictions in Arizona.
15:15Today's hearing focuses on her Idaho convictions.
15:19Finally this morning, the winners of the New York City Marathon have been crowned, and this race was one for
15:25the books.
15:26Nearly 60,000 runners took part in this year's race, setting a new participation record.
15:31On the women's side, Kenya's Sheila Chipkiri, who won in 2024, reclaimed her title.
15:37She finished the 26.2-mile race in just over two hours and 24 minutes.
15:42For the men, Sweden's Andreas Almgren won his marathon debut, becoming the first Swede ever to win the New York
15:49City Marathon.
15:50He finished in two hours, six minutes, and one second.
15:53American runners also had a strong showing.
15:56Jessica McClain finished second in the women's race, becoming the first American woman to reach the podium in eight years.
16:02And Zohar Talbi finished sixth in the men's race, posting the fastest time ever by an American on the New
16:09York City course.
16:10Speaking of fast, we are the fastest way to get the facts.
16:14Watch us anytime at san.com or our app, or join our audience on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get
16:21your podcasts.
16:22We're glad to be a part of your morning routine.
16:25Folks, that's Unbiased Updates for this Monday.
16:28For the Unbiased Updates team and all of us at Straight Arrow, I'm Christian Bryant.
16:32Thank you so much for watching and for joining us.
16:34Have a good one, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.
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