Taxpayer-paid ads before November 3, Congress gone until after it, and on more bombing of Iran after the vote: “Possible.” The calendar sorts this story into two piles. Before November 3: government-paid spots built around the President, on air since September 23, and Axios reporting on September 29 that they are “about to ramp up”. Also before November 3: an empty Capitol. The House left September 16, the Senate on September 30, and the government is funded to December 11, so no deadline calls lawmakers back before the vote. After November 3: the Senate’s return the week of November 9, the funding deadline, and the detention argument SCOTUSblog expects “early next year”. Iran sits on the line. TIME asked, “Are you going to ramp up bombing after the midterms?” The answer was “Possible.” The date came from the question, not the President. On October 1 in Denton, CBS reports, he put the end of the war right after the election, and also maybe before it. One answer belongs to no pile. On a state of emergency before the vote: “I don’t rule anything out or in. We’ll see.” What the calendar cannot prove is a plan. The Roosevelt left San Diego “on a scheduled deployment” per the Washington Examiner citing USNI News, and the Navy has not named its destination. The dates sit side by side. Whether anyone set them side by side is something the dates cannot answer.
