Chief of Staff Changes

1. What event has caused Trump to make changes to his staff and advisers?

• John Kelly is leaving his role as chief of staff and so Trump has to replace him. Also, because of the midterm elections with the Democrats taking the House, he wants to shake up the personnel.

2. How did CNN describe the relationship between the president and the Chief of Staff this week?

• CNN said that Kelly and Trump were no longer even speaking to each other.

3. Who was Trump's original Chief of Staff and what job did he come from before that?

• Trump's original Chief of Staff was Reince Priebus, and his former job was the RNC chair.

4. Why did Trump pick Kelly (the military general) to become his new Chief of Staff?

• He picked Kelly because he wanted a tough guy to fix the White House chaos that was because of Priebus and that Priebus was too weak and a military general would look good.

5. In what ways did Kelly influence policy making while he was Chief of Staff?

• He influenced policy while he was Chief of Staff concerning immigration. He is a great obstacle in DACA and has hardline views on immigration.

Gerrymandering!

1. Look at the map.  By what margins did Democrats win in the 3 districts that they won?

• 40, 48, 46

2. Look at the map.  By what margins did Republicans win in the 9 districts that they won?

• 20, 19, 14, 6, 11, 13, 0.3, 13, 5

3. What percent of the votes for Representatives did Republicans and Democrats earn statewide?

• Republicans: 50%
• Democrats: 48%

4. What have federal courts said about the district lines in North Carolina?

• They said that the lines were unconstitutional.

5. What did Democrats fail to do in both North Carolina and Ohio?

• Democrats failed to pick up a single House seat despite winning close to half of the popular vote.

6. Why did Pennsylvania have new districts for this election? What was the result of the House elections in Pennsylvania this year?

• Pennsylvania had new districts for this election because their old lines were very partisan and in favor of the Republicans. The House seats for Pennsylvania went from 13 Republicans and 5 Democrats to 9 Republicans and 9 Democrats.

7. How does the article describe the residential patterns of Republicans and Democrats?

• Democrats tend to be concentrated in urban areas, while Republicans are distributed more across suburban and rural areas.

8. After the district lines were rejected because they were based on race, what justification was used for the new district lines?

• He says it is based on political parties and not by race.

9. How do the district lines counter the large number of Democratic votes in cities like Greensboro, Winston Salem, and Fayetteville?

• They split the votes of the cities between two big red districts.

10. What other laws has North Carolina passed that disenfranchised voters in the state?

• Very restrictive voter ID law which targeted African Americans