Summary
That’s all for today!
Here’s a recap:
-
Donald Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian operatives during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. The pardon was expected but drew criticism from Democrats. Trump is expected to pardon other aides and perhaps even himself before leaving office.
-
In a Thanksgiving address, president-elect Joe Biden said, “Let’s be thankful for democracy itself.” He added: “Our democracy was tested this year, and what we learned is this: the people of America are up to the task.”
- About 778,000 US workers made claims for jobless benefits during this week. Unemployment and hunger are rising, as the number of coronavirus cases surge.
- Trump called into an event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with GOP state lawmakers who spread lies about the elections. Even as his administration has begun working toward a transition, Trump claimed he won (if votes against him aren’t counted).
Updated
Obama: Republicans portraying white men as 'victims' helped Trump win votes
Barack Obama said part of the reason 73 million Americans voted to re-elect Donald Trump in the election was because of messaging from Republicans that the country, particularly white men, are under attack.
In an interview with the radio show the Breakfast Club on Wednesday to promote his new memoir A Promised Land, Obama said Trump’s administration, which he did not name directly, “objectively has failed, miserably, in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe”, and yet he still secured millions of votes.
“What’s always interesting to me is the degree to which you’ve seen created in Republican politics the sense that white males are victims,” Obama said. “They are the ones who are under attack – which obviously doesn’t jive with both history and data and economics. But that’s a sincere belief, that’s been internalized, that’s a story that’s being told and how you unwind that is going to be not something that is done right away.”
Later, one of the show’s hosts, DJ Envy, asked Obama how he responds to criticism from Black people and other communities of color who don’t believe he did enough for them as president.
“I understand it because when I was elected there was so much excitement and hope, and I also think we generally view the presidency as almost like a monarchy in the sense of once the president’s there, he can just do whatever needs to get done and if he’s not doing it, it must be because he didn’t want to do it,” Obama said.
Read more:
Fauci urges Americans to sacrifice traditional Thanksgiving to save lives
The top US public health official urged Americans today make a “sacrifice now to save lives and illness” by resisting the urge to gather together for Thanksgiving, as the US witnessed more than 2,000 deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday – the first time that grim mark has been surpassed since the spring.
Anthony Fauci, the lead public health expert on the White House coronavirus taskforce and a leading official to every president since Ronald Reagan, said “that’s my final plea” before tomorrow’s traditional dinner celebrations.
“Keep the indoor gatherings as small as you possibly can. We all know how difficult that is because this is such a beautiful, traditional holiday. But by making that sacrifice you are going to prevent infections,” Fauci told ABC’s Good Morning America in a live interview on Wednesday morning.
Fauci, who has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, said that asymptomatic people who have Covid-19 innocently and “without malice” unwittingly infect people if they attend an indoor party or gathering, especially when taking their face mask off to eat and drink.
“The sacrifice now could save lives and illness and make the future much brighter as we get through this, because we are going to get through this. Vaccines are right on the horizon,” he said.
More than 2,100 deaths from coronavirus were recorded in the US on Tuesday. That is the highest 24-hour death toll in the US since early May. The previous record total was 2,603 deaths in a day in mid-April, when New York was the world’s coronavirus hotspot and many hospitals in New York City were overwhelmed.
More than 88,000 Americans are now in hospital across the nation with coronavirus, infections are almost at 12.6m and deaths in the US are on the brink of 260,000, the highest numbers in the world, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus research center.
Read more:
Romance novelists raise $400,000 for Georgia Senate races – with help from Stacey Abrams
Rallying behind Stacey Abrams, the Democratic politician, voting rights activist and romance author, American romance novelists have helped raise nearly $400,000 to help elect two Democratic senators in Georgia.
Now, Abrams herself has joined the “Romancing the Runoff” fundraiser, and has donated a copy of the first of her eight published romance novels--one signed with both her real name, and her pen name, Selena Montgomery.
“I’m privileged to be one of you,” Abrams wrote on Twitter, praising the romance authors’ “amazing” fundraising efforts.
Thank you @RomancingRunoff for your amazing efforts. I’m privileged to be one of you. For the cause, I’d like to throw in an autographed copy of my first novel, Rules of Engagement, in the rare hardback version. Both Selena & Stacey will sign. 😉https://t.co/32aiezmJmW
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) November 25, 2020
Abrams’ work fighting against suppression of black voters and organizing voter registration efforts is widely credited with helping Joe Biden become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in more than a quarter century. Democrats have said her work was “pivotal” in flipping Wisconsin and other battleground states.
Since election day, Abrams has not stopped fighting: a January runoff between two pairs of Democratic and Republican candidates in Georgia will determine whether Republicans maintain control of the US senate – and have the votes to block Democrats and the incoming Biden administration from enacting any substantial new policy agenda.
Read more:
'No end in sight': hunger surges in America amid a spiraling pandemic
As states across the country contemplate new lockdowns to slow down the rampant spread and record hospitalizations, the unprecedented demand for food aid is on the rise, according to the Guardian’s latest snapshot survey:
- In Cleveland, 5,000 families showed up last Thursday for the pre-Thanksgiving drive-in distribution compared with 3,300 a week earlier and an average of 1,600 over the summer. Some 54% of the food distributed was for children and seniors. “We’re now seeing families who had an emergency fund but it’s gone and they’re at the end of their rope. We’re going to be doing this for a really long time, and that’s frankly terrifying given the impact hunger has on physical health, learning and development for children and parents’ stress,” said Kristin Warzocha, president of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
- One woman in Cleveland, who didn’t want to be identified, discharged herself from the hospital against medical advice so that she didn’t miss the Thanksgiving food box delivery. “That’s the depth of need and desperation some families are feeling,” added Warzocha.
- Earlier this month, there were long lines in Dallas as the North Texas Food Bank provided groceries to just over 25,000 people – its busiest day on record. The food bank distributed 7,000 whole turkeys that day, and a total of about 600,000 pounds of food. “Hunger isn’t hidden any more,” said Trisha Cunningham, CEO of the food bank. “If it isn’t you, then this is your neighbor, this is your child’s classmate, this is your hairdresser.”
- In central Alabama, demand at the Grace Klein food pantry is up 20% since last month. “It could be the rumours of civil unrest or the rise in Covid cases driving demand, but people are living off this food,” said director Jenny Waltman. The pantry is currently serving about 12,000 people each week, compared with 2,500 a week before the pandemic. The 200 volunteers and staff are exhausted, said Waltman.
- The Food Bank of New York was forced to start doling out the Thanksgiving frozen turkeys well before the holiday. Demand had dipped slightly in August as public health restrictions were loosened and folks returned to work, but another lockdown is looming, and the lines are growing. “We’ve been hustling to ramp supplies back up before the holidays … [and] sending more trucks into neighborhoods, so people don’t have wait in cold, crowded lines,” said Matt Honeycutt, the food bank’s chief development officer.
- In Chicago, the Lakeview pantry has provided groceries for 237% more people so far this year compared to 2019, with demand “ramping up again” after leveling off slightly over the summer, according to CEO Kellie O’Connell. “The pandemic has brought to light how normal wasn’t working for so many people, especially black and brown communities.”
Read more from me and Nina Lakhani:
Republican lawmakers are slowly acknowledging the reality that Joe Biden won the election.
“With yesterday’s certification of many states’ results, it’s evident that President Trump has exhausted the due process offered to all candidates. I offer my congratulations to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris,” said Republican Ohio congressman Steve Stivers in a statement.
But for good measure, he added: “That being said, with Republicans gaining seats in the House and likely maintaining control of the Senate, it’s clear that the American people have rejected the radical policies of the far-left wing of the Democrat Party.
Updated
A Republican former governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, has condemned Donald Trump’s participation in an event with GOP state lawmakers who spread baseless lies about the elections.
The president called into the event in Gettysburg via cell phone.
Ridge referred to the so-called “public hearing” as “a bogus event on the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg in a brazen attempt to undermine the Republic”:
History will record the shameful irony that a president who lied to avoid military service staged a bogus event on the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg in a brazen attempt to undermine the Republic for which scores of real patriots had fought & died to preserve since its founding.
— Gov. Tom Ridge (@GovRidge) November 25, 2020
Updated
Government blocks proposed mine that threatened Alaska salmon fishery
he Trump administration on Wednesday denied a permit for a controversial gold and copper mine near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in south-west Alaska.
The army corps of engineers said in a statement that the permit application to build the Pebble Mine was denied under both the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act.
The corps said the discharge plan from the Pebble Limited Partnership, the mine’s backers, did not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines.
The agency “concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest”, according to the statement from Col Damon Delarosa, commander of the corps’ Alaska district.
The Pebble partnership CEO, John Shively, said he was dismayed, especially after the corps had indicated in an environmental impact statement in July that the mine and fishery could coexist.
“One of the real tragedies of this decision is the loss of economic opportunities for people living in the area,“ Shively said in a statement.
Read more:
Some initial reactions to the Flynn pardon:
The Pardonpalooza has begun! https://t.co/2Y4tlNelxv
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 25, 2020
“law and order” doesn’t mean law or order for *them*
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 25, 2020
While President Trump is insisting publicly that the election isn't over yet and he didn't really lose, the Flynn pardon is another sign that he realizes, but won't admit, he's on his way out the door. Sources say more pardons or commutations are expected.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 25, 2020
We must watch the coming pardons closely. How Trump may someday profit from them--a form of corruption prohibited by law--must be monitored. This is a dirty business to begin with, but count on Trump to make it as dirty as possible. https://t.co/hcwUlKLVZa
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 25, 2020
Three years ago next week:
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
The Flynn pardon was widely anticipated. Here is part of our coverage from Tuesday:
Flynn will be among a series of pardons that Trump plans to grant before his term in office ends, multiple sources were reported as saying by Axios and the New York Times.
Flynn admitted lying to the FBI about his contact with the former Russian ambassador to the US, and became a cooperating witness in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s links with Moscow.
Flynn was the only White House official charged in Mueller’s investigation.
He has become a cause célèbre among the far right, with many of Trump’s most ardent supporters arguing the former national security adviser was a victim of the “deep state”.
Trump pardons Flynn
As expected, Donald Trump has pardoned his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who formerly pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with Russian operatives during and after the 2016 presidential campaign.
It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2020
A clip from Biden’s speech:
“For those who have lost a loved one, I know that this time of year can be particularly difficult. Believe me, I know. I remember the first Thanksgiving and the empty chair, the silence. It takes your breath away,” President-elect Biden says in his Thanksgiving address. pic.twitter.com/NAbT7oIaQ0
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 25, 2020
Biden wishes everyone a happy Thanksgiving, asks for blessings for the troops, again says “happy Thanksgiving” and exits.
Biden: 'our democracy was tested this year'
Biden says this “grim season of division” is going to give way to a year of “light and unity.”
“This is a great country. We are a good people. This is the United States of America.”
He says a sense of history “can help arm us against despair” and invokes the struggles of past generations in a call for Americans to meet the crisis.
The motivating force behind change, he says, is “love”.
“Sounds corny but it was love, plain and simple. Love of country. Love of each other.”
The country is not perfect he says but “we’ve always sought to form a more perfect union”.
“Let’s be thankful for democracy itself,” he says. He mentions the record turnout in the middle of a pandemic. “Simply extraordinary.”
“Our democracy was tested this year, and what we learned is this. The people of America are up to the task.”
That’s quite a counterpoint to the speech Trump just gave.
Updated
Biden says the first immunizations will begin in late December or early January.
He says it will take time to vaccinate the country. “There’s real hope, tangible hope, so hang on,” he says.
“I know we can and we will beat this virus.”
“We have to try to slow the growth of this virus,” Biden says. He says “we owe it” to health care workers fighting the virus.
“We owe that to our fellow citizens who need access to hospital beds … it’s literally our patriotic duty as Americans.”
He calls for mask-wearing, social distancing and limited group sizes.
He says he will implement more testing, more PPE, clear guidance to open businesses and schools and other measures.
“The federal government has vast powers to combat the virus”, Biden says, but individuals also bear responsibility.
“Every decision we make matters.”
Updated
Joe Biden is delivering his Thanksgiving address.
“We need to remember, we’re at war with the virus, not with each other,” he says.
“We’re all in this together.”
He says he’s praying for people who have lost loved ones since last Thanksgiving. His tone is muted. He talks about how his family has had to break its tradition of traveling for the holiday.
“This year, because we care so much for each other, we’re going to be having a separate Thanksgiving,” he says.
“I know how hard it is to forgo family traditions. But it’s so very important. Our country is in the middle of a dramatic spike in cases.”
Donald Trump has called into the attempted election-steal event with a small group of Republican legislators and Rudy Giuliani in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Trump had been meant to attend the event in person but he canceled.
Trump is addressing the room at the Wyndham hotel via a cell phone that one of his lawyers Jenna Ellis is holding to a microphone. He is interrupted at one point by audible beeps signaling an incoming call. She does not pick up, sticking with Trump.
“This election has to be turned around,” Trump says, repeating the baseless accusations of voter fraud he has been making for weeks without presenting any evidence in court or anywhere else.
“This election was lost by the Democrats. They cheated. It was a fraudulent election,” Trump says. He is applauded by the room.
He thanks everyone for being there. “This is a very important moment in the history of our country,” he says.
Etc. Then he thanks Giuliani for his courage and the room applauds Giuliani.
Trump says Giuliani is the greatest mayor in the history of New York but what Giuliani is doing now “is going to be the crowning achievement by far.”
Indeed it will be difficult for Giuliani ever to surpass his performance of the last month. That’s it from Trump he hangs up.
Going on 40 years I’ve been writing columns about giving thanks, and this year I mean it: thank God that America stood up for democracy again.
This year is among the worst. Pandemic is our parlance. Covid runs wild over Iowa while its government stands back and does little. The president thumbs his nose at the virus and at the rule of law, skirted impeachment thanks to feckless senators, and would steal a win through a faithless electoral college, if he could.
But he can’t.
The people spoke. They elected Joe Biden with the most votes ever, and by a convincing margin, as a rebuke to it all. It was a vote for Biden – made by millions, in hopes of good will – but it was as much an act of revulsion for what Donald Trump represents.
Biden promised to govern with fairness and decency. People endorsed a middling approach with a split Congress. They demand that government gets along somehow. Fair enough. There’s wisdom in that vote.
Read the full piece:
We’re expecting a speech by Joe Biden shortly from Wilmington, Delaware “on Thanksgiving.” We’ll have video atop the blog and here’s an additional live stream:
Updated
Updated
Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump, has repeated her interest in running for a US Senate seat coming vacant in North Carolina in 2022, saying “it would be an incredible thing.” Lara Trump is from North Carolina.
“It would be an incredible thing,” she told Fox News, in comments picked up by CNN. “It’s my home state, a state I love so much and. And look, I think we need some strong Republicans in Washington, DC. We had a great run with the Senate and the House this go-round, but you know, let’s see what happens.”
Updated
Barack Obama said part of the reason 73 million Americans voted to re-elect Donald Trump in the election was because of messaging from Republicans that the country, particularly white men, are under attack.
In an interview with the radio show the Breakfast Club on Wednesday to promote his new memoir A Promised Land, Obama said Trump’s administration, which he did not name directly, “objectively has failed, miserably, in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe”, and yet he still secured millions of votes.
“What’s always interesting to me is the degree to which you’ve seen created in Republican politics the sense that white males are victims,” Obama said. “They are the ones who are under attack – which obviously doesn’t jive with both history and data and economics. But that’s a sincere belief, that’s been internalized, that’s a story that’s being told and how you unwind that is going to be not something that is done right away.”
Later, one of the show’s hosts, DJ Envy, asked Obama how he responds to criticism from Black people and other communities of color who don’t believe he did enough for them as president.
“I understand it because when I was elected there was so much excitement and hope, and I also think we generally view the presidency as almost like a monarchy in the sense of once the president’s there, he can just do whatever needs to get done and if he’s not doing it, it must be because he didn’t want to do it,” Obama said.
Envy challenged Obama, making the case that Trump has behaved in exactly that way.
Read further:
Donald Trump’s bid to retake the presidency in 2024 has been launched – by two comedians.
“We got the domain DonaldJTrump2024.com,” comics Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler, AKA The Good Liars, wrote on Twitter.
We got the domain https://t.co/7NxQkh5wBO pic.twitter.com/rDKX567TBe
— The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) November 24, 2020
A TikTok video scored to Loser by Beck showed the site, which was headlined “I lost the 2020 election” and included the subheadings “Trump Lost”, “Trump is a Loser” and “Trump Lost the Election”.
Trump lost the electoral college to Joe Biden by 306-232, a score he said was a landslide defeat when Hillary Clinton was on the wrong end of it in 2016. Trump is also losing the national popular vote by more than 6m ballots, a contest he lost to Clinton by nearly 3m.
Trump belatedly allowed the transition to proceed but has not formally conceded, as he continues to mount legal challenges to results in key states. He has won one such case – but lost 36.
Fundraising efforts nominally for such legal efforts have been shown to benefit Trump’s post-White House political career. Many expect him to declare another run for president soon.
A banner on the DonaldJTrump2024.com website read: “Click here to donate to a PAC that has nothing to do with my legal defence team!”
Read further:
Updated
Don’t miss this op-ed by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders: “How do we avoid future authoritarians? Winning back the working class is key”
The Democrats must make it clear: Do we stand with the struggling working class of this country, or powerful special interests? https://t.co/Bm0PWhnb6D
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 25, 2020
As the count currently stands, nearly 80 million Americans voted for Joe Biden. With this vote against the authoritarian bigotry of Donald Trump, the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief.
But the election results did also reveal something that should be a cause for concern. Trump received 11 million more votes than he did in 2016, increasing his support in many distressed communities – where unemployment and poverty are high, healthcare and childcare are inadequate, and people are hurting the most.
For a president who lies all the time, perhaps Donald Trump’s most outlandish lie is that he and his administration are friends of the working class in our country.
The truth is that Trump put more billionaires into his administration than any president in history; he appointed vehemently anti-labor members to the National Relations Labor Board (NLRB) and he gave huge tax breaks to the very rich and large corporations while proposing massive cuts to education, housing and nutrition programs. Trump has tried to throw up to 32 million people off the healthcare they have and has produced budgets that called for tens of billions in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and social security.
Yet, a certain segment of the working class in our country still believe Donald Trump is on their side.
Why is that?
Read further:
The White House has canceled a planned trip to Pennsylvania today, according to a media pool report.
It was reported yesterday that Trump planned to appear alongside Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday at a Wyndham hotel in Gettysburg to spread lies about the election. But two members of Giuliani’s circle have since announced positive Covid tests. Giuliani appears to be holding the event nevertheless. He has denied reports that he is earning $20,000 a day to do what he’s doing.
President-elect Joe Biden will begin to receive daily presidential intelligence briefings on Monday, Reuters reports. He’s expected to name key members of his incoming economic team a week after that.
Biden’s team has stepped up contacts with agencies across the federal government, Sabrina Siddiqui at the Wall Street Journal reports:
Biden transition aide @jrpsaki says by close of business on Tuesday, agency review teams "made contact or met with over 50 agencies and commissions, including each of the major offices within the executive office of the president," and held over 30 virtual briefings.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) November 25, 2020
Donald Trump has canceled a planned trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to stage a media spectacle around his false accusations of voter fraud, Politico reports:
Sounds like President Trump’s trip to Gettysburg has been cancelled.
— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) November 25, 2020
We’re awaiting further from the White House. Pennsylvania certified its vote for Joe Biden earlier this week. The nature of the spectacle Trump had planned was unclear. The event itself appears to be going ahead, with an appearance by Rudy Giuliani.
However, another member of the colorful crew of advisers that Trump has assigned to carry forth his election lies, Boris Epshteyn, has just announced a positive coronavirus test:
I have tested positive for COVID-19. I am experiencing mild symptoms, and am following all appropriate protocols, including quarantining and contact tracing.
— Boris Epshteyn (@BorisEP) November 25, 2020
Epshteyn was in close contact with Giuliani at a “news conference” at Republican headquarters last week. At least one other person who attended the event has contracted Covid, ABC News reports.
Lawyer Jenna Ellis, at left in the above photo, tweets that the Gettysburg event is still on:
Headed to Gettysburg, PA with @RudyGiuliani.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) November 25, 2020
Updated
Putting Trump past us is like exiting an abusive relationship: it takes time, Amil Niazi writes:
There are certainly many parallels between the end of Donald Trump’s presidency and a psychologically violent relationship. Think about the temper tantrums, the refusal to accept reality, mood swings, fear of reprisal and a sense of looming danger: all are hallmarks of controlling and abusive behavior.
Farrah Khan is a gender-based violence expert and member of the government of Canada’s Advisory Council on the Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence – and she echoes how Trump’s time in office has often mirrored domestic violence.
“Throughout his time in office, Trump would belittle communities, enact state violence through policies, act out in vengeful ways when he felt slighted and cut off access to supports or protections, isolating communities from each other,” she tells me. “I feel that under Trump many of us had a collective hypervigilance and anxiety of what he might do next. This has shown up in things like night terrors or constantly scrolling on social media for real or perceived threats from him to your community.”
Read the full piece:
The top US public health official urged Americans today make a “sacrifice now to save lives and illness” by resisting the urge to gather together for Thanksgiving, as the US witnessed more than 2,000 deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday – the first time that grim mark has been surpassed since the spring.
Anthony Fauci, the lead public health expert on the White House coronavirus taskforce and a leading official to every president since Ronald Reagan, said “that’s my final plea” before tomorrow’s traditional dinner celebrations.
“Keep the indoor gatherings as small as you possibly can. We all know how difficult that is because this is such a beautiful, traditional holiday. But by making that sacrifice you are going to prevent infections,” Fauci told ABC’s Good Morning America in a live interview on Wednesday morning.
Fauci, who has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, said that asymptomatic people who have Covid-19 innocently and “without malice” unwittingly infect people if they attend an indoor party or gathering, especially when taking their face mask off to eat and drink.
“The sacrifice now could save lives and illness and make the future much brighter as we get through this, because we are going to get through this. Vaccines are right on the horizon,” he said.
Read further:
The Republican secretary of state in Georgia has written in an op-ed that his family supported Donald Trump for president and donated to his campaign, only to be “thrown under the bus by him”.
After he lost Georgia, Trump tried to get the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to block certification of the result. Joe Biden won the state by about 12,000 votes out of 5m total.
Raffensperger refused to undermine the integrity of an election result he knew to be sound, enraging Trump and drawing personal attacks from the president, who derided him as RINO (Republican in name only). The two Republican candidates in the state’s double US Senate runoffs called for Raffensperger’s resignation.
Raffensperger was one of few Republican officials to reject outright Trump’s attempt to steal the election. He did not portray the election result as in doubt when it was not, and he did not publicly credit allegations of fraud he knew to be untrue. He certainly did not fly to meet Trump at the White House, as Michigan legislators did.
In 2020, that makes Raffensperger a hero.
In a USA Today piece he describes his disillusionment with Trump and the importance of running fair elections:
By all accounts, Georgia had a wildly successful and smooth election. We finally defeated voting lines and put behind us Fulton County’s now notorious reputation for disastrous elections. This should be something for Georgians to celebrate, whether their favored presidential candidate won or lost. For those wondering, mine lost — my family voted for him, donated to him and are now being thrown under the bus by him.
Elections are the bedrock of our democracy. They need to be run fairly and, perhaps more important, impartially. That’s not partisan. That’s just American. Yet some don’t seem to see it that way …
In times of uncertainty, when the integrity of our political system is most at risk, the integrity of our politicians is paramount.
Many of my fellow Republicans are men and women of integrity. They demonstrate it each and every day: fighting for their constituents, fighting for liberty, and fighting for fair and reliable elections.
In times like these, we need leaders of integrity to guide us through.
Updated
Updated
Xi congratulates Biden
Reuters: China’s President Xi Jinping on Wednesday congratulated Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election, expressing hope the two countries could promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Also on Wednesday, the Chinese vice-president, Wang Qishan, congratulated Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, on being elected the next US vice-president, Xinhua said.
Updated
In a depressing start to the holiday weekend the US labor department has announced that jobless claims rose for the second straight week last week, up 30,000 to 778,000.
The figure is another sign that the nationwide surge in virus cases is starting to weigh on the labor-market recovery. Monthly figures have also shown that the recovery in the jobs has slowed.
The number of people filing for unemployment insurance has fallen sharply from a peak of nearly seven million in late March. But they remain higher than in any previous recession and over three times the rate before the pandemic struck the US.
You can follow developments on our business live blog here:
Updated
Overnight Jenna Ellis, who is on the Trump legal team that is still trying to overturn the US election result, tweeted out an image of former president Theodore Roosevelt alongside the quote “To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.”
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) November 25, 2020
Unfortunately for Ellis, the quote has been widely debunked as ever having been said by the former president, a fact that social media users have not be slow to point out …
This quotation is a lie, so ... I guess it makes you angry?
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) November 25, 2020
And on that note, I’m off. I’ll see you next week. Tom McCarthy will be here shortly to guide you through the rest of the day. Take care, stay safe, and enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday …
Updated
Initial US unemployment claims last week higher than expected at 778,000
More Americans made initial unemployment claims than expected during the week of 21 November, according to government data.
Some 778,000 US workers made claims for jobless benefits. Economists had expected 730,000 initial jobless claims.
*US Jobless Claims +30K To 778K In Nov-21 Wk; Survey 733K
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) November 25, 2020
*US Nov-14 Week Continuing Claims -299K to 6,071,000
Lucy Bayly notes at NBC that “While the new weekly total is far lower than the March peak of nearly 7 million claimants, it is still elevated when compared to pre-pandemic levels, which averaged 200,000 a week.”
The weekly claims report, the most timely data on the economy’s health, was published a day early because of Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Reuters report that unemployment claims dropped from a record 6.867 million in March as about 80% of the people temporarily laid off in March and April were rehired, accounting for most of the rebound in job growth over the last six months.
That improvement, which spilled over to the broader economy through robust consumer spending, was spurred by more than $3 trillion in government coronavirus relief.
A separate report from the Commerce Department confirmed the economy’s historic pace of expansion in the third quarter. Gross domestic product grew at an unrevised 33.1% annualized rate, the government said in its second estimate of third-quarter output.
Updated
Yesterday Donald Trump was very quick to claim credit for a record stock market level in the US. In a very short and bizarre press briefing where he refused to take any questions, the president said: “That’s a sacred number, 30,000. Nobody thought they’d ever see it. That’s the 48th time we have broken records during the Trump administration.”
The record set by the Dow Jones Industrial Average is in stark contrast to what Trump had promised if Joe Biden won the election – he had claimed that it would crash the stock markets.
Lucy Harley-McKeown over at Newsweek has this on the source of optimism on Wall Street. And it isn’t the prospect of a second Donald Trump term. She writes:
Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance, said: “A trifecta of good news for markets put investors in the holiday spirit, with multiple vaccines announced in the past two weeks, a market-friendly Treasury Secretary appointment and the removal of election uncertainty pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to close above 30,000 for the first time.”
Zaccarelli notes that this rally has been driven by a return to more cyclical stocks and a retreat from more defensive technology shares — and runs contrary to the news of rising coronavirus cases and increased lockdown measures across the US.
The optimism spread on Wednesday as markets in Europe and Asia were also lifted. “With the economic data improving, a vaccine on the way and a Biden-led push for more stimulus on the horizon, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the months ahead,” said Joshua Mahony from financial trading firm IG.
Read more here: Newsweek – Trump claims credit for Dow’s record high, but investors hail smooth transition, Covid vaccines
Brian Slodysko and Richard Larner at the Associated Press have this morning written up the nuts and bolts of an issue that looks like it will dog Sen. David Perdue in the build-up to January’s critical Georgia Senate run-off races.
They remind us that back in March as the coronavirus pandemic impacted the economy the crisis signalled something else for him: a stock buying opportunity.
On 23 January, as word spread through Congress that the coronavirus posed a major economic and public health threat, Perdue sold off $1 million to $5 million in Cardlytics stock at $86 a share, before it plunged.
Weeks later Perdue bought the stock back for $30 a share, investing between $200,000 and $500,000. Those shares have now quadrupled in value. Cardlytics is an Atlanta-based financial technology company on whose board of directors he once served.
There is no evidence that Perdue, who is among the wealthier members of the Senate, acted on information gained as a member of Congress. But legal experts say the timing of his sale and the fact that he quickly bought Cardlytics stock back when it had lost two-thirds of its market value and his close ties to company officials all warrant scrutiny.
“This does seem suspicious,” said John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia University law school professor who specializes in corporate and securities issues. But he added, “You need more than suspicions to convict.”
Now that Perdue is locked in a pitched battle for reelection, his trades during a public health and economic crisis have become an issue. Perdue’s opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, has seized on his stock trading while trying to brand him as a “crook.”
Read more here: Associated Press – With US in Covid-19 panic, Sen. Perdue saw stock opportunity
Here’s a (very) little more detail on what we might expect from the Trump legal team and local lawmakers in Gettysburg today.
It’s still not officially confirmed that Trump is going – asked for comment about his plans, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN, “I’d refer you to the public schedule. I have no additional updates at this time.”
The public schedule is currently blank. Jeremy Diamond writes for CNN that:
State and local election officials have said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and both a federal court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have dismissed lawsuits seeking to prevent the state from certifying the results of the election. Pennsylvania officially certified the results on Tuesday, sealing Biden’s win in the key battleground state.
The meeting is being organized by the Pennsylvania state Senate GOP, which is holding it at a hotel – not at the state Capitol.
It is the first of three similar events the Trump campaign has scheduled in coordination with Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan. There’s no evidence that widespread voter fraud has taken place in any of those states despite frequent claims by Trump and his allies.It’s not clear if Trump will speak at the hearing, which the his campaign said is also expected to include “testimony from witnesses who have filed affidavits attesting to 2020 election fraud.”
The location of Trump’s visit is striking. Gettysburg is the site of the most famous battle of the Civil War, in which the Union turned back a Confederate invasion of the North.
Read more here: CNN – Trump is expected to join Giuliani at Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers’ voter fraud event
Rasmussen Reports are this morning vexed with Twitter for labelling one of their tweets as disputed.
The polling company were tweeting their findings that a large number of Republicans believe the election was ‘stolen’ by Democrats. Twitter has said “This claim about election fraud is disputed”.
It’s all a bit of semantics really, as to whether the label is meant to be applying to the assertion that there was election fraud being disputed, or the poll finding that some people believe there was election fraud being disputed. Rasmussen are claiming Twitter have applied it to the latter.
Good Morning!
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 25, 2020
We’ve notified @Twitter that these results are not in dispute but are the scientific survey summation of what actual AMERICAN VOTERS TOLD US. They ignore this, our track record of accuracy & science.
Poll Results At This Link: https://t.co/h2ZIaXN7Wh pic.twitter.com/UNfm1Bm20Y
Still, the label has probably bought the survey to wider attention, and Trump team lawyer Jenna Ellis has been retweeting the dispute.
Former president Barack Obama’s A Promised Land sold more than 1.7 million copies in North America in its first week — which is roughly the combined first-week sales of memoirs by his two immediate predecessors, and is among the highest ever for a non-fiction. But he told Stephen Colbert last night that he has “already waved the white flag” in the race to try and catch up with sales of his wife’s book.
According to The New York Times, as of November 2020, Michelle Obama’s Becoming has “sold 14 million copies worldwide, including more than 8 million in the U.S. and Canada”.
Obama joked on the Late Show that shops keep packaging his book alongside hers, “so she keeps on selling more”.
One question that has arisen is whether there will be any serious professional consequences for Trump’s legal team repeatedly making baseless claims that they cannot stand up in court. Jan Wolfe has looked at this for Reuters and the answer is probably not.
Rep. Bill Pascrell on Friday called for Rudy Giuliani and other members of Trump’s legal team to be stripped of their law licenses for bringing “frivolous” lawsuits, but legal ethics experts say attorney discipline is relatively rare, especially in politically charged disputes.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have legal ethics rules for lawyers that are derived from standards published by the American Bar Association.
One ABA rule says that lawyers should only assert a claim in court if “there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous.” Separately, there are rules prohibiting lawyers from making false statements to third parties and engaging in deceitful conduct.
Giuliani has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims in press conferences and media appearances about electoral fraud.
During a 17 November court hearing, he initially told a judge in Pennsylvania that the election had been marred by fraud. But under questioning by Judge Matthew Brann, Giuliani backed away from this unproven claim, acknowledging that “this is not a fraud case.”
Other members of the Trump legal team have generally made narrower allegations in court. Viviane Scott, a lawyer at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz in New York, said there is a reason for this dissonance between what the campaign says in and out of courtrooms.
“We, as lawyers, are officers of the court,” said Scott. “We’re under an obligation make statements that have a basis in truth.”
On Twitter and in media appearances, Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell appeared to have run afoul of rules barring them from making dishonest statements, said Brian Faughnan, a lawyer and ethics specialist in Tennessee. The Trump campaign has since said that Powell is no longer representing it.
Faughnan said Giuliani acted unethically by tweeting on 22 November that there were “PHANTOM VOTERS” in the Detroit area. That tweet appeared to reference a sworn statement by a cybersecurity analyst, submitted in court, that had a major error: it confused data from Minnesota with data from Michigan.
Two days previously, the lawyer who filed the affidavit, Lin Wood, conceded that it was mistaken and needed to be corrected.
Giuliani either knew his tweet was false, or reasonably should have known it was false, Faughnan said. “By the time he tweeted that, the screw-up had been publicly discussed,” Faughnan said. President Donald Trump has also subsequently spread this erroneous affidavit on social media.
Despite these apparent ethical lapses, Faughnan said he did not expect action against Giuliani and Powell. Faughnan said investigators have limited resources, and will focus on more straightforward violations such as lawyers who steal from clients.
Faughnan said investigators would also be wary of disciplining lawyers when its about politics. “When it is a very politically charged case, you know the first line of defense is going to be ‘you are only doing this to us because of our politics,’” said Faughnan.
In the end, the coup did not take place. In the most grudging manner possible, Donald Trump signalled on Monday night that the transition of power could begin.
That, a White House official told reporters, was as close as Trump will probably ever come to concession, but the machinery of transition has gathered momentum. Joe Biden’s incoming administration now has a government internet domain, is being briefed by government agencies and is due to receive federal funding.
The Pentagon quickly announced it would be providing support for the transfer of power. And one by one, senior Republicans – an especially timid category – are recognising the election result.
But there is no doubt US democracy has been given a scare. As the sense of imminent threat begins to fade, the convoluted inner workings of the electoral system are coming under scrutiny to determine whether it was as robust as its advocates had hoped – or whether the nation simply got lucky this time.
“I had long been in the camp of people who believed that the guardrails of democracy were working,” Katrina Mulligan, a former senior official in the justice department’s national security division. “But my view has actually shifted in the last few weeks as I watched some of this stuff play out. Now I actually think that we are depending far too much on fragile parts of our democracy, and expecting individuals, rather than institutions, to do the work the institution should be doing.”
Trump made no secret of his gameplan even before the election, and it has come into sharper focus with every madcap day since: cast doubt on the reliability of postal ballots, claim victory on election night before most of them were counted, and then sow enough confusion with allegations, justice department investigations and street mayhem with far-right militias to delay certification of the results.
Such a delay would create an opportunity for Republican-run state legislatures to step in and select their own electors to send to the electoral college, which formally decides who becomes president. That would produce a constitutional crisis that would ultimately be settled by the supreme court, which has a 6-3 Republican majority and has become increasingly politicised.For the plan to work it required political fealty to trump actual votes but, at several crucial decision points, that did not happen.
Read more of Julian Borger’s analysis here: Trump’s coup failed – but US democracy has been given a scare
It does increasingly look like Donald Trump will be venturing outside the DC area for the first time since the election today.
President Trump is planning to fly to Gettysburg PA today where a handful of Pennsylvania state Republican lawmakers are meeting about the 2020 election, sources familiar with the planning confirm to @ABC News. Details still in flux / flying via Marine One to PA w/ @KFaulders
— John Santucci (@Santucci) November 25, 2020
Leonard Pitts Jr writes for the Tampa Bay Times on something that feels like it could be a long-term consequence of the senior Republican decision to go along with Donald Trump’s legal charade disputing his election defeat. Pitts writes “I am not disappointed in Donald Trump”
For there to be disappointment at childish behavior presumes an expectation of adult behavior. No such expectation exists where Trump is concerned. So his weeks of sulking and floating bizarre conspiracy theories since he lost the election, while embarrassing in the extreme, doesn’t really let me down so much as confirm what I already knew. One might as well be disappointed in an infant for soiling his diaper as to be disappointed in Trump for soiling his office.
But I must admit that prior to this I did harbor some tiny, flickering expectation that, if pushed to the limit, the Republican Party, the party always lecturing the rest of us on patriotism, would stand up for the country. I did expect – or maybe it was just a vestigial hope – that when rubber met road, the GOP would finally put America ... ahem, first.
Well, call it expectation or call it hope, but it’s dead. And it died, quite literally, in silence. We are a people of notoriously short memories. But one hopes we recall the stink of this cowardice for a very long time.
Read more here: Tampa Bay Times – Leonard Pitts Jr – I am not disappointed in Donald Trump
Sen. Marco Rubio is on social media this morning complaining that media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has been negative to the Republican president and Republican-controlled Senate that have overseen the country face 12,597,506 cases and 259,976 deaths.
On Covid,media emphasized bad news even when we had positive developments & did more Trump/hydroxychloroquine stories than all vaccine stories combined
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 25, 2020
Part of a broader pattern of characterizing everything as bad news Republicans are to be blamed for https://t.co/Ki2AgoOJY1
More than 30 states in the US have seen an increase of new coronavirus cases by at least 10% in the last seven days. The US currently leads the world in both confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University.
Joe Biden will give a speech later today highlighting the challenges facing Americans as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches and the nation faces a surge in coronavirus infections and a wave of unpopular health restrictions.
The address is meant to encourage Americans and focus on the sacrifices they are making during the holiday season, his office said, as officials across the country plead with Americans to stay at home and avoid large gatherings that can spread Covid-19.
Biden has promised to make fighting the pandemic his top priority in office,
as the number of patients being treated for coronavirus infections in US hospitals surpassed 86,000, an all-time high.
Simon Lewis for Reuters reports that Biden plans to spend Thanksgiving at home in Delaware with a few family members. The president-elect yesterday said that his team has finally been able to coordinate with the Trump administration on the pandemic, vaccine distribution plans and national security since getting the green light on Monday for formal transition efforts.
The Washington Post have a good look this morning at one of the candidates in that crucial Georgia Senate run-off – the Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Two weeks into the extraordinary run-off races that will decide which party controls the Senate, Warnock and Jon Ossoff have combined their efforts to try to win Georgia’s pair of Senate seats. Their names are stacked together on yard signs; they’ve called each other “brother” at joint campaign appearances. But it is Warnock who is animating the Democratic base — and the Republican opposition.
That’s because both sides are treating Warnock, the fiery 51-year-old preacher who leads the legendary Atlanta church associated with Martin Luther King, as the key factor in determining who wins the 5 January races. Democrats hope his presence on the ballot can sustain the energy of Black voters who helped hand Georgia’s electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992. Republicans, likewise, see Warnock as a threat as well as a ripe target, unleashing a torrent of attacks designed to tarnish his appeal and mobilize GOP voters despite finger-pointing in the party over President Trump’s defeat in the state.
“Georgia is positioned to do a marvelous thing,” Warnock recently told a crowd. “Send a young Jewish man, the son of immigrants, who sat at the feet of Congressman John Lewis, and a kid who grew up in the public-housing projects of Savannah, Georgia, the pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, to the United States Senate at the same time.”
Read more here: Washington Post – In Georgia Senate run-offs, the focus — and the fire — is on Raphael Warnock
Getting Joe Biden’s cabinet picks into office is not a done deal by any stretch, as Lisa Mascaro and Matthew Daly at the Associated Press remind us.
As the president-elect starts rolling out his administrative team, one key voice has been notably silent: Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Senate Republicans will hold great sway in confirming or denying Biden’s Cabinet nominees, regardless of which party controls the narrowly split Senate after runoff elections. But key Republican senators, including the GOP leader, are keeping quiet, for now, choosing their battles ahead.
In announcing his national security team, Biden appealed Tuesday to the Senate to give the nominees “a prompt hearing” and “begin the work to heal and unite America and the world.”
The soonest the Senate would consider the nominations is inauguration day on 20 January. Past presidents often have been able to win swift confirmation of top national security officials shortly after taking the oath of office.
But with president Donald Trump and his lawyers still disputing his overwhelming defeat, McConnell is setting the tone for Senate Republicans by not publicly congratulating Biden. He wants to give the president time to contest the vote, even as Trump’s legal team flails.
Nominees need 51 votes for confirmation. Heading into 2021, Republicans have a 50-48 hold on the chamber. But if Democrats win both Georgia seats in the 5 January, they would flip to majority control because the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, is a tie breaker.
It will be tight either way. If McConnell retains control, it’s unclear what priorities he would extract from the Biden administration in return for confirmation. If Democrats win control, they will have no margin for dissent among more progressive or conservative flanks in approving Biden’s nominees.
CNN are reporting Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, describing Thanksgiving as “potentially the mother of all superspreader events.”
He went on to tell them that “One of the ways we think the Midwest was seeded with virus over the summer was with the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally, where people were infected and then dispersed out through the Midwest. Now imagine that on a massive scale, with people leaving from every airport in the United States and carrying virus with them.”
In her report, Christina Maxouris also sets out the truly bleak stats that are emerging this week:
When cases and hospitalizations began to surge weeks ago, officials predicted deaths would soon follow. Daily cases haven’t dipped below 100,000 in three weeks. And for the 15th consecutive day, the US beat its own hospitalization record, with now more than 88,000 Covid-19 patients nationwide, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
The coming weeks are likely to continue getting worse, before a possible vaccine begins to offer some relief. But just how much worse things will get depends on the mitigation steps taken across the country -- as well as the kinds of celebrations Americans will opt to host over the coming days, experts say.
Read more here: CNN – The US reported more than 2,100 deaths in a single day. Things are projected to get worse
Some states are taking specific measures to try and combat the risk that Thanksgiving will lead to another surge of coronavirus cases across the country. In Pennsylvania, it is bars and restaurants that have been the target for authorities. They have been ordered by the state to stop selling alcohol at 5pm on Wednesday
“It turns out, the biggest day for drinking is the day before Thanksgiving,” Gov. Tom Wolf said at a news conference on Monday.
He then rather graphically added: “I don’t like addressing that more than anyone else does, but it’s a fact. And when people get together in that situation, it leads to the exchange of the fluids that leads to the increased infection.”
Millions of Americans are traveling and gathering for the Thanksgiving holiday, in spite of dire and urgent warnings from US doctors, nurses, health authorities and hospitals not to do so.
The travel raises the possibility of a “surge superimposed on a surge,” in the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and of a wave of deaths as Christmas arrives.
“There is so much community transmission all over the United States that the chances of you encountering somebody that has Covid-19 is actually very, very high, whether it’s on an airplane, at the airport or at a rest area,” said Dr Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist for New York City hospitals.
Nearly 12.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and more than 258,000 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. Doctors and nurses have reported severe burnout, and some healthcare facilities have seen emerging staff shortages. States such as North Dakota have recently led the world in the death rate from the disease.
In spite of this, several recent surveys show a meaningful minority of Americans have not changed Thanksgiving plans, and intend to go ahead with travel and gatherings.
A New York Times survey showed more than a quarter of Americans still planned to dine with people outside their household. An Axios-Ipsos poll found 39% of Americans had not changed their travel plans at all, while 61% have decided to limit gatherings to those only in their household, have small dinners and avoid travel.
Read more of Jessica Glenza’s report here: Millions of Americans to travel and gather for Thanksgiving despite expert warnings
This is the speculation, by the way, that Donald Trump is going to put in an unscheduled appearance in Pennsylvania today. Jeremy Diamond is a CNN White House correspondent.
News: Trump is expected to join Giuliani in Gettysburg, PA tomorrow where GOP state lawmakers are holding a "hearing" on allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, two sources familiar with the plans tell me.
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) November 25, 2020
Not on his schedule, but being planned as an unannounced movement
Pennsylvania Senate Republicans issued a media advisory about the meeting yesterday, saying:
At the request of Senator Doug Mastriano, the Senate Majority Policy Committee will hold a hearing to discuss recent issues regarding the 2020 General Election in Pennsylvania.
“Elections are a fundamental principle of our democracy – unfortunately, Pennsylvanians have lost faith in the electoral system. It is unacceptable,” said Mastriano. “Over the past few weeks, I have heard from thousands of Pennsylvanians regarding issues experienced at the polls, irregularities with the mail-in voting system and concerns whether their vote was counted. We need to correct these issues to restore faith in our republic.”
“We want assurance that the issues encountered during this past election don’t happen again in the future,” said Majority Policy Committee Chair Senator David G. Argall. “Senator Mastriano requested this meeting because Pennsylvanians deserve a fair election.”
They are billing it as “Senate committee to discuss election issues”, although it sounds like it is more of a press conference than any kind of hearing in the state legislature with official standing.
Pennsylvania certified the results of its election yesterday, formalizing Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. Biden secured 50% of the vote to Trump’s 48.8%, giving him a final victory tally of 80,555.
Today @PAStateDept certified the results of the November 3 election in Pennsylvania for president and vice president of the United States.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) November 24, 2020
As required by federal law, I’ve signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
If you missed it, here’s the key moment from that Joe Biden interview last night, when he said his presidency would not be “a third Obama term”.
“We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” Biden said. “President Trump has changed the landscape.”
He went on to say that his administration aimed to represent the “spectrum of the American people as well as the spectrum of the Democratic party” Biden added, agreeing that he’d even consider appointing a Republican who voted for Trump.
“I want this country to be united,” Biden said.
Biden expressed his wish to pursue a “progressive” agenda. Asked if he’d consulted with progressive senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on cabinet appointments, the president-elect said “there’s nothing really off the table” when it comes to who he’ll tap to join his administration. But, he said, “taking someone out of the Senate, taking someone out of the House … is a really difficult decision that will have to be made”.
Here’s Maanvi Singh’s report on last night: Joe Biden says ‘this is not a third Obama term’ in first sit-down interview
Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Wednesday. Last night Joe Biden gave his first sit-down TV interview since winning the election, and he also unveiled some of his key picks for his cabinet. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and a little of what we can expect today…
- Joe Biden said ‘this is not a third Obama term’ on NBC last night. “We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” he said. “President Trump has changed the landscape.”
- As president-elect Biden introduced his top team at an event yesterday, vice president-elect Kamala Harris said: “When Joe asked me to be his running mate, he told me about his commitment to making sure we selected a cabinet that looks like America – that reflects the very best of our nation. That is what we have done.”
- Multiple reports suggest Donald Trump plans to pardon his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn before he leaves office. Flynn admitted lying to the FBI about his contact with the former Russian ambassador to the US.
- Conservative news outlet OANN was suspended from YouTube after promoting a sham cure for Covid-19.
- There were 172,935 new cases of coronavirus recorded yesterday, and 2,146 further deaths in the US. The country has recorded more than 100,000 cases per day every day for over a fortnight now, and yesterday’s deaths total was the highest daily figure since May.
- All eyes are on how many people decide to travel today ahead of Thanksgiving, with the pandemic raging across the nation.
- Republicans are going to be holding an event about voter fraud in Pennsylvania at the Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg today. At least we think it is the hotel, and not Wyndham Total Landscaping or something like that. There are rumors swirling around that Donald Trump might attend this in person with Rudy Giuliani. If so, it would be the first time the outgoing president had left the DC area since losing the election – but it isn’t on his public engagements diary yet.
- We do know that Joe Biden will be giving a Thanksgiving address from Wilmington, Delaware.
