On This Day: November 5

6 posts spanning 2018–2025

2018

• Day 655: Democrats are expected to take control of the House of Representatives but fall short in the Senate; national polls show that 55% of voters prefer Democratic control of the House; some polls, however, show the Democratic edge shrinking; at least 31 million people have voted early nationwide; and U.S. intelligence officials have seen no evidence of any attempts to tamper with the midterm election systems. Nov 5, 2018

2019

• Day 1020: A key witness in the impeachment inquiry acknowledged there was a quid pro quo linking U.S. aid to Ukraine with an investigation into Trump's political rival; House Democrats requested that Trump's acting White House chief of staff appear for a deposition; an associate of Rudy Giuliani will cooperate with a subpoena issued by House investigators; and phone records show that Trump made at least six phone calls to a woman who says he sexually assaulted her at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Nov 5, 2019

2020

• Day 1386: There was no conclusion to the U.S. presidential election (so far); Biden currently leads in several undecided states but votes continue to be counted in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona; Biden remains six electoral votes away from 270; Trump’s campaign pushed officials in Arizona to ensure all ballots were counted but sued in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia to stop the counts; Biden urged Americans "to stay calm" and reiterated that "every vote must be counted," while Trump, after a 14-hour Twitter silence, tweeted that states must “STOP THE COUNT!” and at a press conference later in the day repeated his false declaration that he won the election and falsely claimed that "they" are trying "to steal the election"; and, oh by the way, the U.S. reported more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time. Nov 5, 2020

2021

• Day 290: The House will vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill tonight after abandoning an agreement with progressive Democrats to first vote on a separate $1.75 trillion education, healthcare, and climate package; the attorneys general in 11 states sued the Biden administration to stop new rules requiring workers at companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested weekly; Pfizer's Covid-19 antiviral pill reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in a clinical trial; the Biden administration sued Texas over the state's restrictive voting law; a federal judge questioned Trump’s effort to block the congressional Jan. 6 select committee from obtaining his White House records; and a former Trump Justice Department official refused to answer the Jan. 6 select committee's questions about Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. Nov 5, 2021

2024

• Day 1386: The presidential election is today; more than 83 million Americans voted early in the first presidential election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol; control of the House and Senate is also on the line with 435 House seats and 34 Senate seats up for grabs; voters in 10 states will decide whether to cement reproductive rights in their state constitutions; and in 62 days, Kamala Harris will preside over a joint session of Congress to count the 2024 electoral votes where she'll either declare herself the winner – marking the first woman elected president – or announce that Trump is returning to the White House as the second president to be elected to two nonconsecutive terms – and at 78 years old, the oldest person ever elected president. Nov 5, 2024

2025

• Day 1751: Democrats won elections across several states Tuesday, taking governorships, legislative chambers, and ballot measures in a rejection of Trump’s second-term agenda; California Republicans sued to block the state’s new congressional maps hours after voters approved Proposition 50, a measure allowing the Legislature to redraw districts that could give Democrats up to five more House seats; Steve Bannon warned Republicans that Democrats’ wins in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City showed “there should be flashing red lights all over” before the 2026 midterms; Trump blamed Republicans’ election losses on the record 36-day shutdown and urged Republican senators to kill the filibuster to reopen the government and advance his agenda; the FAA said it would cut scheduled air traffic by 10% across 40 high-volume markets to maintain safety during the government shutdown; the Supreme Court appeared skeptical that Trump had legal authority to impose his sweeping global tariffs under the 1977 emergency powers law; and a federal magistrate judge criticized the Justice Department’s handling of former FBI director James Comey’s prosecution, calling it an “indict first and investigate second” case. Nov 5, 2025