GOP House Campaign Arm Abandons King
KING: Topping our political radar today, a supreme secret between two former Supreme Court justices. Sandra Day O'Connor once turned a marriage proposal from William Rehnquist. That back in the early 1950s when the two dated during their time together at Stanford Law School. NPR says an O'Connor biographer dug up a letter Rehnquist wrote where he puts the proposal in writing. Both soon after married partners who would become their long-time spouses. The Trump administration again trying to change the rules concerning a key benefit of ObamaCare. The New York Times reports it's working, the administration is on a new plan who will give employers more flexibility in denying coverage for birth control. The administration tried imposing similar restrictions once before but they were block by two separate federal judges. General Motors today offering severance packages to salaried employees who'd been with the company for at least 12 years. That's about 18,000 workers across North America. This comes despite solid third quarter earnings. In a statement, GM says it's trying to be proactive as it adapts to a changing industry. A spokesman citing possible trade wars as one factor in its decision to shrink the payroll. Last night was Indiana's Senate debate. It's a tight race as we mentioned a few moments ago between Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly, Republican challenger Mike Braun. Both candidates stayed mostly on message but the Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton used her time on the debate stage to get in some quick clips.</s>LUCY BRENTON (L), INDIANA SENATE CANDIDATE: We got rid of King George for a reason, right? Can we at least agree on that? King George is gone, we're not replacing him with King Trump. No one is going to make unilateral decisions in our country.</s>MIKE BRAUN (R), INDIANA SENATE CANDIDATE: They ought to be on the same thing that everybody else is. That's where you'd start.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mrs. Brenton?</s>BRENTON: Blah, blah, blah. I have 10 children so the idea of contraceptives is something that I'm very much interested in.</s>KING: Funny I guess. The head of the GOP's congressional campaign committee says that the group now washing its hands of fellow House Republican Steve King of Iowa. The National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers says his colleague's comments and actions are beyond inappropriate. King is under fire for backing far right candidates while slamming diversity and immigration. As a result, an NRCC pokesman says it cannot support his re-election bid in what has become in Iowa, a close race.</s>MATT GOMAN, NRCC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: NRCC and Chairman Stivers hasn't been shy to show moral leadership when the time calls for it. As we said yesterday, his words and actions are completely inappropriate. We strongly condemn them. We will not play in his race.</s>KING: Congressman King says these attacks on him are orchestrated by, quote, nasty, desperate, and dishonest fake news. No. They're orchestrated by the congressman's words over the years. Over the years. Look it up, folks, if you disagree with me. You can find it. But this is striking. We're in a very competitive election environment. And the House campaign committee at a time it's trying desperately to preserve its House majority essentially cuts off one of its own members and, you're saying we hope you lose.</s>BADE: Yes, really remarkable moment here. I mean, it sounds like Steve Stivers sort of went out on his own and did this. It sounds like nobody knew in GOP leadership that he was going to do it but he had received some sort of briefing about recent comments from King and said he couldn't do it anymore. Just tweeted. And some people are not happy with him right now in the Republican Party. But there is also some frustration over the years with Steve King. He's never been the biggest team player with the National Republican Congressional Committee. And I think if Republicans have to spend money in Iowa for, they're in a lot of trouble.</s>DAVID DRUCKER, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Having said that, they are spending some money in South Carolina one which suggests that the map is a little bit bigger than they would like. So it's not entirely without significance that they're basically saying hey, man, you're on your own.</s>BADE: Yes. But I mean, it is interesting though because Republicans, this sort of brings up an issue that has haunted Republicans throughout the entire election cycles. Sort of, you know, racist comments, you know, Trump calling Andrew Gillum a thief after these Robocalls being played against him. This is the first instance I can think of a high profile Republican actually being brave enough to push back against things he's seen another Republicans say and say that's racist, stop doing it. So, you know, kudos for him in that regard.</s>PHILLIP: And the reality is, this shouldn't be that hard.</s>BADE: Right.</s>PHILLIP: I mean, as you pointed out, John, it's obvious when -- it's not a dog whistle anymore when everyone can hear it. So these sort of -- the profile in courage if you will is not really -- the bar is very, very low right now. And I think that this is just emblematic of a larger problem not so much that they are actually on their way to a solution. The fact that this is so hard to say this is wrong is the problem. That is why we are having this conversation.</s>KING: Amen for that. Dead right about that. And again, if you support Congressman King, you think we're mischaracterizing him, let's just go back and look at the record. This is not a one time deal. This goes on for years. Before we go to break, celebration. Boston breaking out the duck boats. Come on and join in. Everyone can join Red Sox Nation. Spectacular. Great day in America. All across America. As the Red Sox celebrate in the greatest city in the world. Jackie Bradley Jr. there holding up that trophy. Got to love it.