donald trump leads pennsylvania republicans, leaves pennsylvania republicans fuming while in georgia, the former president reportedly abandons his struggling pick for governor. good morning. and welcome to way too early. on this very busy friday, may 20th. i m jonathan lemire. there s still no winner in the pennsylvania republican senate primary this morning with state officials confirming to nbc news that there are nearly 9,000 votes left to count. the effects of former president trump s handling of this race and other primaries in the state are already being felt. and could hurt his political capital in the future. nbc news reports that exacerbated republicans in the state say the end result of promoting candidates with far right views with such intensive media coverage could boomerang in ways that damage both the party and trump s own chances should he run for president again in 2024. officials reporting that trump s endorsement of celebrity tv doctor mehmet oz, now in
ginnie thomas, conservative activist and wife of supreme court justice played a much bigger role than we previously knew in pushing the election results. virginia ginnie thomas pressed arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside joe biden s popular vote victory and choose, quote, a clean slate of electors, that s according to emails obtained by the washington post. that email sent by thomas to lawmakers in 2020 argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud. though she did not mention either candidate by name, the context was clear. thomas urged lawmakers to stand strong in the face of political and media pressure. she told lawmakers the chance to have lawmakers was yours and yours alone and had the power to fight back against fraud. that push by thomas in battle ground states ultimately culminated of alternate slate of trump electors being sent. the states are now under investigation by the justice department and they form
the general election. plus, republicans in north carolina s 11th congressional district run out of patience with madison cawthorn as trump s pick in that race is voted out. we ll break down those results. and speaking in the wake of the buffalo tragedy, president biden vowed to, quote, expose those who use power and prestige to spread hate. but the question this morning, will he name names? good morning. welcome to way too early on this wednesday, may 18th. i m jonathan lemire. we ve got a lot of news to get to today. here we go. results are still coming in this morning for pennsylvania s closely-watched primary election. in the hotly-contested senate race, republicans still do not have a winner. the election is too close to call between trump-backed dr. mehmet oz and hedge fund executive david mccormick. mccormick is backed by several trump administration officials, including former secretary of state mike pompeo. recent polling saw him losing momentum after trump
had he not been stopped. tell us what we know so far about his motivation? well, obviously from what all of the evidence that we ve gathered so far, the motivation at this stage appears to be pure hatred. pure racial hatred. now there happens to be a penal law in the state of new york that is entitled a domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate. that particular crime right now is a crime that i m focusing on. i ve already got him charged mika with the highest murder charge in the state. murder if the first-degree. so we got that charged. we got him hold on that. so now, the next legal step is we have a felony hearing scheduled for thursday. it is a probable cause hearing to determine whether or not a felony has been committed. i m confident that the murder in the first-degree meets the probable cause standard. so he s going to be either held for the grand jury on thursday, or he s going to waive to the grand jury. so i m already in grand jury mode right now. so what that
not changed they are not conducting a legitimate investigation. it seems as though they just want to go after their political opponents. now before we dive into what this means for the investigation, nbc s capitol hill correspondent, ali raphael, is here with the latest. ali, welcome. good to be with you, symone. did you have. you ali, you are hill grew here. so this penis have been issued, but are the members expected to comply with the subpoena. yeah, well judging from the fact that all of these lawmakers, all five of them have been asked to voluntarily speak with the committee in the past, and all five of them refused, in addition to the fact that as you mentioned at the top there, all of them have slammed the committee and this probe. they have called it quote, illegitimate, corrupt. as you mentioned they ve called this a witch hunt. it is very unlikely that they would comply with the subpoenas. but the committee, if that happens is left with very few options. the f