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Nov. 5, 2025, 2:25 PM ESTBy Steve KornackiBetween the two gubernatorial elections on Tuesday, Virginia was supposed to be the lopsided one — and it was, with Democrat Abigail Spanberger crushing Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by 15 points. But New Jersey looked like it was going to be a different story. The polling was competitive, and Republicans had nominated a battle-tested candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, who’d nearly won the governorship four years earlier. Recent momentum was on the GOP’s side, too, with President Donald Trump coming within 6 points of Kamala Harris there last year — a giant improvement from the 16-point Jersey drubbing he’d suffered in 2020. And Democrats were privately sharing alarm that their nominee, Mikie Sherrill, seemed to be wilting under the spotlight. At the very least, this was going to be a close race, one that Republicans would be able to point to as proof that the national political climate wasn’t that bad for them. There was talk of New Jersey shifting away from blue bastion and into swing-state status. An outright Ciattarelli win didn’t feel out of reach.But it was all a mirage. When the polls closed, the rout was on, and Sherrill walked away with a 13-point win, nearly matching Spanberger’s margin in Virginia.It’s a concerning outcome for Republicans, because the two main ingredients in the Sherrill landslide have potential ramifications that extend well beyond the borders of New Jersey.First, there are the well-to-do suburbs and bedroom communities. These are traditionally Republican areas populated with college-educated, white-collar professionals who are deeply uncomfortable with Trump. When he nearly won four years ago, Ciattarelli clawed back many of the suburban voters his party had been shedding in the Trump era. This time around, with Trump back in the White House, they were cross-pressured, but their verdict was decisive: They wanted to vote against the party of Trump.Consider Hunterdon, Morris and Somerset counties, which have the highest median incomes and the highest concentrations of white residents with college degrees in New Jersey. In each one, Ciattarelli’s margin was 12 to 14 points worse than in his 2021 campaign. But his numbers in these counties were in line with Trump’s showing last year:In fact, Ciattarelli fared worse than Trump in Morris, although some of this could be due to it being Sherrill’s home county.But what about Ciattarelli’s home base of Somerset, where he was buried even worse than Trump? It demonstrates the motivation of anti-Trump suburbanites now that he’s back in office, and it suggests that further GOP erosion is possible — in New Jersey and in similar areas around the country.Simply put, there were a lot of suburbanites who were comfortable with Ciattarelli when Trump was an ex-president but who look like they will shun anyone in the GOP column as long as he’s president. The other ingredient in Sherrill’s win involves nonwhite voters. It was with these voters — Hispanic and Asian American voters in particular — that Trump made his biggest gains in 2024. These voters had not backed Republicans in the past, but Trump’s surprising inroads raised hope among Republicans — and trepidation among Democrats — that a broader shift might be underway, not just in New Jersey but nationally.In this way, Ciattarelli was a test case: Could these Trump gains transfer to a non-Trump Republican running without Trump on the ballot?The answer is a resounding no. In New Jersey municipalities that are at least 60% Hispanic (and where results are currently available), all of Trump’s 2024 gains were washed away Tuesday night:Similar results can be seen in heavily Asian American areas in Middlesex County, where Trump also made notable gains last year. Had Ciattarelli combined his suburban performance from 2021 with Trump’s 2024 inroads among nonwhite voters, Ciattarelli would have won. And if he could have retained at least some of both, the race would at least have been tight.That would have given Republicans a nice post-election talking point, obviously, but it also would have been a genuine source of midterm optimism for them. It would have shown that the anti-Trump suburban passions were cooling and that partywide growth with nonwhite voters was continuing apace.But Ciattarelli got neither. And as a result, he got clobbered.Steve KornackiSteve Kornacki is the chief data analyst for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 6, 2025

Between the two gubernatorial elections on Tuesday, Virginia was supposed to be the lopsided one — and it was, with Democrat Abigail Spanberger crushing Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by 15 points.

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Nov. 5, 2025, 3:48 PM ESTBy Saba HamedyKim Kardashian’s actress era is off to a rough start.Ryan Murphy’s new drama “All’s Fair,” which puts the reality star front and center, is getting blasted by critics, with many specifically calling out Kardashian’s performance as fictional divorce lawyer Allura Grant.The show follows a group of high-powered female attorneys as they help their clients get back at cruel rich men. On Tuesday, the show had a 0% critics score on the movie-focused website Rotten Tomatoes. By Wednesday, that had increased to just 6%. “… Kardashian’s performance, stiff and affectless without a single authentic note, is exactly what the writing, also stiff and affectless without a single authentic note, merits,” The Hollywood Reporter’s TV critic wrote. “Her very presence, which succeeds at generating buzz and not much else, feels fitting for a show that seems to want not to be watched so much as mined for viral bits and pieces.”The legal drama was described as a “crime against television” by The Telegraph’s TV critic. The idea to cast Kardashian came after Disney’s co-chair of entertainment, Dana Walden, set up a dinner with Murphy and Kris Jenner, matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner family.“I went to Kris’ house and I did something I’ve never done in my career, which was I brought a reality pitch and it wasn’t good,” Murphy said during the show’s lavish Los Angeles premiere at the DGA Theater Complex, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I started my pitch and I was kind of excited. Anybody in the future who pitches to Kim, you’ve lost Kim when she starts texting on her phone. I finished my pitch and I was sort of nervous and Kris said, ‘That was really good sweetie, but you should write a role for Kim.’”Murphy also praised Kardashian, who is an executive producer on the series alongside Jenner, describing her as “fantastic.” Kardashian has been at the center of the show’s promotional materials and had been prominently featured in trailers for the series ahead of its release. The entrepreneur has said her character was inspired by her own divorce attorney Laura Wasser, who also counts Angelina Jolie, Kevin Costner and Ariana Grande as clients. The role marks the first of several Hollywood projects Kardashian is on deck for. Eva Longoria is set to direct Kardashian in a comedy feature for Netflix titled “The Fifth Wheel,” and Kardashian’s also reportedly being eyed to play the villain in a “Bratz” movie adaptation. She previously had a smaller role in Murphy’s “American Horror Story,” playing a publicist employed by Emma Roberts’ character, and voiced characters in two “PAW Patrol” movies.Like many of Murphy’s other series, “All’s Fair” has an all-star cast made up of Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Sarah Paulson, Teyana Taylor and Glenn Close.But critics said the Hollywood A-listers weren’t enough to bolster the show’s rating. “Not even Glenn Close can save this Ryan Murphy disaster from its dismal plots, clueless characters — and the worst kissing scenes ever filmed,” The Guardian wrote in its 0-star review. The publication’s critic described Kardashian’s performance as “expressionless” and “useless,” but added that “no one seems to know what they’re doing.” Still, some viewers have been enthusiastic about the ensemble and its campiness. The Rotten Tomatoes “Popcornmeter,” which tracks audience reviews, was 62% as of Wednesday. “All’s Fair on Hulu dares to ask the question ‘Does a show need to be good?’ & the answer is no, it doesn’t,” one X user wrote. “We have legendary actresses here giving the worst performances of their careers, it takes a special kind of talent to pull that kind of inability out of them.”Another X user described criticism toward the show as “sexist.”“It’s a show that isn’t afraid to be bad, it reminded me of old ABC dramas,” the user wrote. “It’s a very fun show to watch because it’s over-the-top and bad without apprehension, and that’s fantastic.”Fans of Kardashian also noted that they enjoyed watching her performance, likening the show to an episode of her family’s reality series.Several social media users said the bad reviews are what made them all the more interested. “0% on rotten tomatoes……… oh i need to watch this IMMEDIATELY,” one X user wrote. “IT’S SO BAD GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW,” wrote another.New episodes of the show drop weekly at midnight ET Tuesdays on Hulu, through Dec. 23. Saba HamedySaba Hamedy is the trends and culture editor for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 6, 2025

Kim Kardashian’s actress era is off to a rough start

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Nov. 5, 2025, 6:07 PM ESTBy Michael KosnarA federal judge blasted Justice Department prosecutors on Wednesday several times for what he described as an “indict first, investigate later” attitude in the criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey.Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick voiced his concerns at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria about how prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia were handling evidence against Comey, who was indicted in September on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstructing a congressional proceeding stemming from his testimony on Sept. 30, 2020, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.Comey, who was indicted after President Donald Trump urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post to charge Comey and other longtime enemies, has pleaded not guilty. Ahead of a trial scheduled for Jan. 5, his attorneys have argued that the case should be dismissed on the basis that it is a vindictive prosecution brought at the behest of Trump. They are also challenging interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as U.S. attorney, calling it “unlawful.”On Wednesday, Fitzpatrick expressed particular concern about information that was obtained through search warrants from a previous FBI investigation. He appeared frustrated and said this was not a “traditional case” and that “the procedural posture of this case is highly unusual.”Fitzpatrick chastised prosecutors, saying, the “indict first investigate later” strategy they employed “creates procedural challenges.”The hearing lasted just under an hour.Lindsey Halligan in the Oval Office of the White House on March 6,.Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileFitzpatrick ordered prosecutors to produce, by the end of the day on Thursday, all grand jury transcripts and materials from the current prosecution as well as evidence that FBI agents seized during a prior leak investigation in 2019 and 2020.Comey’s attorneys said they are at a disadvantage because they have not received access to the information that was collected back then as part of an investigation into FBI media leaks known as “Arctic Haze.”Four search warrants targeted Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor who was an “FBI special government employee” and a close friend and onetime attorney for Comey. He has been revealed to be “person 3” in the Comey indictment.The indictment alleges that Comey told Richman to leak information to reporters and therefore he lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he denied having authorized any media leaks.But Comey’s lawyers say he was not referring to Richman at the time, and that he thought he was responding to a question about former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.Comey’s lawyers told the judge they had not been able to review the materials and data seized from Richman’s electronic devices, so they don’t know if any of it contained privileged information from back in 2019 and 2020, when Richman served as Comey’s personal attorney.“We’re going to fix that, and we’re going to fix that today,” Fitzpatrick said, questioning whether privileged information had been used to secure the indictment against Comey as well as in subsequent court filings.Nathaniel Lemons, an assistant U.S. attorney brought in from North Carolina to prosecute the case against Comey, said investigators reviewing the old search warrant materials stopped the process after finding information that might fall under attorney-client privilege with Richman.Lemons said the information seized from the old search warrants has been “isolated on a desk in FBI headquarters.”Fitzpatrick said he was admittedly putting an “unfair burden” on the defense because they will not have much time to review the discovery materials once handed over by the prosecution, due to the fast track that the case is on.“The defense is gravely concerned with the government’s conduct,” said Rebekah Donaleski, one of Comey’s attorneys.Another stumbling block for Comey’s team: Defense attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said he has not been able to review classified information in the case because of a delay in getting a security clearance.Comey attended the hearing but did not speak, and sat at the defense table with his attorneys: Fitzgerald — a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois — and Donaleski — a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — who did the bulk of the talking for the defense.Comey’s wife and his son-in-law, former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Troy Edwards, Jr., who resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s office after Comey’s indictment, sat in the courtroom’s first row.At the prosecution table sat Halligan, who presented the case by herself to the grand jury.Halligan, a former White House aide and former Trump attorney, was named interim U.S. attorney despite her lack of prosecutorial experience after the previous U.S. Attorney, Erik Siebert, resigned under pressure to indict Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Halligan also indicted James, a frequent Trump target, who secured a nearly $500 million judgment against him and his companies before he was elected to a second term last year. A New York appeals court later tossed out the civil fraud penalty. James also has pleaded not guilty to charges she similarly describes as political retribution.Michael KosnarMichael Kosnar is the Justice Department Producer for NBC News. Zoë Richards contributed.

- Latest News - November 6, 2025

A federal judge blasted Justice Department prosecutors on Wednesday several times for what he described as an “indict first, investigate later” attitude in the criminal case against former FBI Director.

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