This blog is closed. Follow all the latest in US politics – including live results from the Georgia Senate runoff elections – here:
Shortly before polls are set to close in Georgia, Barack Obama offered this reminder to voters: if you are in line at a polling place by 7 pm ET, do not leave.
Georgia voters—If you're in line before the polls close at 7 pm, stay there. You have the right to vote, no matter how long it takes. If you have questions, call the Georgia voter protection hotline at 1-888-730-5816. Let's bring this home.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 5, 2021
The former president has appeared in ads for both of the Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Afternoon summary
That’s all from me today. I’m handing over to my colleague Joan E Greve, who will be with you as the polls close in Georgia and throughout the evening. Here’s a rundown of the day’s biggest stories so far:
- Voters in Georgia have until 7pm today to cast their ballots in two runoff races that will decide the balance of power in the US Senate. Democrats Ralph Warnock and Jon Osoff hope to prevail over Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. If the Democrats take both seats, Joe Biden will begin his presidency with a Senate divided 50-50 – and ties broken by vice-president-elect Kamala Harris. If the Republicans hold on to at least one of their seats, Mitch McConnell will maintain his stranglehold on the upper chamber. More than 3 million Georgians voted early, a record for a runoff in the state.
- The Kenosha, Wisconsin district attorney announced that Rusten Sheskey, the police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times, will not be charged with a crime. The DA said there was not enough evidence to overrule the police officer’s privilege of self-defense. The charging decision came on the same day that Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who shot and killed two people at a Black Lives Matter protest following the Blake shooting, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
- The US government said that Russia was “likely” behind the massive SolarWinds cyber-attack, which has compromised numerous federal agencies. The first formal attribution of the attack by the government came in a joint statement that also alleged that the attack was “an intelligence gathering effort”.
-
Washington DC is bracing for potential violence tomorrow, as Donald Trump continues to urge his supporters to rally behind his efforts to overturn the presidential election. The city has asked the National Guard to mobilize for the protests, which are timed to coincide with Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral college. Trump plans to address supporters at a rally. Meanwhile, a judge ordered Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the neo-fascist street gang the Proud Boys, to leave Washington DC. Tarrio was arrested Monday.
Follow the Georgia elections live here:
Updated
Cleta Mitchell, the prominent Republican attorney who has been advising Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the US presidential election, has resigned from her law firm, the Washington Post reports.
Mitchell’s role in the president’s attempts to subvert democracy was revealed on Sunday, when the Washington Post published a recording of an hour-long call during which Trump, aided by Mitchell, attempted to pressure the Georgia secretary of state to change the outcome of that state’s vote.
Mitchell’s law firm, Foley & Lardner, issued a statement Monday expressing concern about Mitchell’s participation in the phone call, noting that the firm had “made a policy decision not to take on any representation of any party in connection with matters related to the presidential election results” in November.
Updated
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports from Georgia, where voting continues in the crucial senate runoffs.
There was no line to vote here at the Cobb county civic center in Marietta around 3pm – allowing a stream of voters to come and quickly cast their ballots. The suburban Atlanta county is one of the most closely watched in the Senate race because it has long been a Republican stronghold, but Democrats have made substantial gains there in recent years, including flipping a congressional seat in 2018. The county is well populated and one of the places that flipped from Biden to Trump in November.
One of those voters, Chamyce Hall, 26, said she usually votes in high profile elections, like the November general election, but doesn’t usually vote in lower-profile races like the Senate runoff happening Tuesday. She came out to cast her ballot after being bombarded by advertisements from Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic nominees seeking to oust David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
“I feel like the Democrats are definitely going to win since they put themselves out there the most, didn’t even know that Kelly or whoever was running,” she said.
At the Cobb County civic center, a polling place in Cobb County, there’s no wait to vote at 3 p.m pic.twitter.com/6MPpIWgnR9
— Sam Levine (@srl) January 5, 2021
Ted Brown, 38, said he thought the politics in Cobb county were changing because “people just want a change, try something different”.
Wanda McLaughlin, 59, another voter who cast her ballot at the civic center, said she believed Donald Trump’s claim that he really won the state of Georgia (election officials have recounted votes in the state three times confirming Biden’s narrow win there). She told the Guardian there was no circumstance under which she could see Ossoff or Warnock legitimately winning their races or Biden as a legitimately elected president. As she voted on Tuesday, she said she asked the election worker inside repeatedly how he knew her vote wasn’t being flipped.
“To be honest, I’m hoping that now that it’s in such a limelight, there’s going to be a scrutiny on this like nobody’s business, I really do,” said McLaughlin, who said she gets news from the conservative sites Breitbart, Newsmax, Gateway Pundit as well as YouTube channels. “But, you know, people who have so much to hide are willing to do anything to keep it hidden.”
Pam Mahler, 74, said she also believed Trump really won Georgia, citing videos Georgia officials have debunked.
She speculated that the political shifts in Cobb county were only temporary.
“If they only realize how much their taxes are gonna go up – they’ll be back two years from now,” she said.
Updated
Benjamin Crump, Patrick A Salvi II and B’Ivory LaMarr, attorneys for Jacob Blake’s family, have denounced the decision not to charge Rusten Sheskey, the police officer who shot Blake.
“Officer Sheskey’s actions sparked outrage and advocacy throughout the country, but the district attorney’s decision not to charge the officer who shot Jacob in the back multiple times, leaving him paralyzed, further destroys trust in our justice system,” the attorneys said in a statement. “This sends the wrong message to police officers throughout the country. It says it is OK for police to abuse their power and recklessly shoot their weapon, destroying the life of someone who was trying to protect his children.”
Kenosha district attorney Michael Graveley is still speaking about his decision not to charge Sheskey or any of the other officers on the scene with a crime.
Graveley began by discussing the fact that officers were called to the scene for a domestic violence incident, which he seemed to argue was relevant to the self-defense privilege. He discussed Blake’s past record of domestic violence, though he acknowledged that the responding officers did not know of that record at the time. He also said that Blake was armed with a knife, and that officers tased him multiple times before shooting him.
Graveley also said that contrary to reports that Blake was shot seven times in the back, an expert told the DA’s office that three of the entry wounds were in Blake’s side. He said that Sheskey began administering first aid to Blake immediately after he stopped shooting.
Updated
US government agencies say Russia was likely behind SolarWinds hack
The massive SolarWinds cyber-attack that targeted multiple federal agencies was “likely Russian in origin”, the US government said on Tuesday.
The tentative attribution – the first formal attribution from the government – came in a joint statement from four national security agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Agency.
“At this time we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort,” the statement reads. “This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate.”
The agencies state that “fewer than ten US government agencies” are among the clients of the SolarWinds product that have been “compromised by follow-on activity on their systems”, according to the statement.
NEW: FBI, ODNI, CISA & NSA issue joint statement saying their investigation indicates an APT actor "likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks." pic.twitter.com/O7fRn1G6Tv
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) January 5, 2021
You can read more about what is known about the SolarWinds hack here:
Kenosha district attorney Michael Graveley is continuing to speak about his decision not to charge any of the police officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake. You can watch a livestream of the press conference here.
Graveley’s justification for not filing any charges is simply that he believes that Rusten Sheskey was acting in self-defense.
“This is not a case where there would be any dispute about any of the factual circumstances of this case, except for one piece of law – and that is self-defense,” Graveley said. “The question to a jury would be, did officer Sheskey reasonably believe that the shooting at Jacob Blake was necessary to prevent being stabbed by him, or necessary to prevent someone else from being in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm ... It’s an abuse of discretion to charge if the evidence is clearly insufficient to support a conviction.”
Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back.
Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake will not be charged with crime
The police officer who shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin will not be charged with any crime, the district attorney Michael Graveley announced Tuesday.
None of the officers on the scene will be charged with any crimes either, Graveley said, nor will Jacob Blake.
Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back on 23 August, leaving him paralyzed. The shooting touched off protests and rioting in the Wisconsin city and across the country.
Donald Trump plans to address protesters traveling to Washington DC on Wednesday in support of the outgoing president’s efforts to overturn a democratic election, the Associated Press reports.
Trump will speak at a rally near the White House, according to the AP. The protests in DC are timed to coincide with Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral college. Trump and his supporters, including dozens of Republican senators and congressional representatives, have advanced a byzantine theory to support their efforts to overturn the US elections system. Their arguments have no basis in law.
The protests are nevertheless being treated with great seriousness by Washington DC, which is bracing for potential violence. Social media forums for Trump supporters have been flooded with references to weaponry and violence, the Washington Post reported. Among the groups expected to attend is the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist street gang with ties to white nationalism.
The Proud Boys’ leader, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested in Washington DC yesterday in connection to his admitted role in burning a Black Lives Matter banner torn from a historic Black church during a pro-Trump protest in December. Tarrio was also charged with a firearms offense after DC police found him to be in possession of two high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Tarrio was released from custody by a DC judge on Tuesday afternoon, but ordered to leave the city and stay out until his next court appearance.
Judge Raymond ordered #EnriqueTarrio released from custody, barring him from D. C., except for court-related mtgs. His atty asked he only be barred from #BlackLivesMatter Plaza. Raymond denied request. "There are too many Black Lives Matters banners and such throughout the city." https://t.co/KijmffcTRH
— Keith L. Alexander (@keithlalexander) January 5, 2021
Updated
Summary
Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong, picking up the blog from Oakland, California.
The Illinois teenager who shot and killed two people and injured a third during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which include intentional homicide and reckless endangerment.
Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, entered his not guilty plea during a teleconference court hearing on the same day that the Kenosha district attorney is expected to announce whether or not the police officer who shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake will be charged with a crime.
Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back on 23 August. The shooting touched off protests and rioting in the Wisconsin city, prompting rightwing vigilantes to issue a call to arms.
Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who is white and was 17 at the time, travelled to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois on 25 August. Rittenhouse was armed with an assault-style rifle, and opened fire, killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse has argued that he was acting in self-defense.
Wisconsin governor Tony Evers activated 500 members of the National Guard to patrol Kenosha in anticipation of the charging decision. The move has prompted speculation by Blake’s family that Sheskey will not be charged.
“What is the National Guard for?” Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, asked the Associated Press. “They going to deliver mail? Deliver ice cream? What do you think they’re here for?”
Updated
The reported new picks for top foreign and national security policy jobs in the Biden administration reinforce the impression of a return to Obama-era orthodoxy after a four year interlude of Trumpian turmoil.
The appointments, reported by Politico, which have neither been confirmed nor denied by the Biden transition team, are all veterans of the Obama administration, each of them moved up a peg or two from their former roles.
Wendy Sherman, said to be the new deputy secretary of state, was previously under secretary for political affairs and more importantly, the lead US negotiator (under John Kerry) on the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA.
The problem of how to salvage that deal, by getting Iran back into compliance on its nuclear activities and lifting sanctions imposed by Trump, will be one of the more complex problems facing the incoming administration.
Tensions are high in the Gulf and Iran has this week announced the resumption of production of 20% enriched uranium, which was banned under the deal because it represents a major step towards weapons-grade material.
The appointment of Sherman, a staunch supporter of the JCPOA with a reputation as a tough negotiator, suggests that reconstituting a deal, and moving beyond it, possibly to include Iran’s missile programme, is a priority.
The appointment of Victoria ‘Toria’ Nuland will trigger cheers in Kyiv and groans in Moscow. In her Obama-era role as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, she was best known for her enthusiastic support for the pro-democracy, anti-Russian movement in Ukraine, and famously handed out cookies to protesters in Kyiv.
She is also famous for saying “Fuck the EU” in a conversation with a colleague, probably hacked and leaked by Moscow. In the 2014 conversation, she was expressing frustration at the lack of EU pressure on the then pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych.
A third interesting appointment is Amanda Sloat as senior director for European affairs in the National Security Council. Sloat was assistant secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean affairs in the Obama-era state department, and was particularly involved with working with Turkey and the Kurds.
In her four years out of government at the Brookings Institution, she emerged as one of Washington’s foremost experts on Brexit and Northern Ireland, appearing routinely on the BBC to help spell out the nuances of each torturous step.
The appointment serves as a reminder to London that a Biden administration will notice and react strongly to any threat to the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland, posed by any post-Brexit moves by the UK.
More appointments reported for incoming Biden administration
Experienced diplomats Wendy Sherman and Victoria Nulane are expected to be named as Joe Biden’s designated deputy secretary of state and under secretary of state for political affairs, respectively.
If confirmed they would serve as lieutenants to Biden’s incoming secretary of state Anthony Blinken, Politico reports, citing unnamed senior sources.
At the State Department, longtime diplomat Wendy Sherman will be nominated to serve as Secretary of State-designee Tony Blinken’s deputy, according to two people close to the transition. Sherman previously served as under secretary of State for political affairs in the Obama administration and was a lead negotiator for the Iran deal.
Sherman is currently a senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, the same firm where Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s pick to be US ambassador to the United Nations, also worked as a senior counselor.
Nuland and Sherman, who entered academia and the think tank world after leaving the Obama administration, have been outspoken critics of Donald Trump’s foreign policy — particularly his appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(And) on the National Security Council, former State Department official Jon Finer will be named deputy national security adviser, the people said, reporting up to incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan....
The key NSC role of senior director for European Affairs will go to Amanda Sloat, a Brookings Institution fellow who served as deputy assistant secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean affairs at the State Department in the Obama administration. It’s not clear whether Sloat will also oversee the Russia portfolio.
Potus wants lawsuit brought by his niece thrown out
Donald Trump is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming he defrauded his niece out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars, accusing her of embracing “conspiracy theories” in her quest to consume him with lawsuits after he leaves the White House.
The president’s lawyers said Mary Trump gave up her claims in a 2001 settlement with family members over the estate of his father Fred Trump Sr, who died in 1999, Reuters reports.
They also said Mary Trump waited too long to accuse Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and his late brother Robert Trump of trying to “squeeze” her out of her inheritance, relying instead on a 2018 New York Times report on tax matters involving the family.
“Plaintiff makes outlandish and incredulous accusations in her complaint, which is laden with conspiracy theories more befitting a Hollywood screenplay than a pleading in a legal action,” the lawyers, who also represent Robert Trump’s estate, said in a filing yesterday in a New York state court in Manhattan.
They said the lawsuit’s “true purpose” was “to weaken the president’s political influence during his post-presidency by preoccupying him with the defense of innumerable lawsuits.”
Mary Trump, 55, a psychologist, made some of her allegations in her best-selling tell-all: “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
The president’s sister, a retired federal judge, also wants the lawsuit dismissed.
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Mary Trump, said that while her client “is surely no fan of Donald Trump or his administration’s policies, intra-family fraud is what this case is about.”
Trump faces several other legal actions. These include a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a civil probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James into whether he inflated asset values to obtain loans and tax benefits, and a defamation lawsuit by the writer E. Jean Carroll, whose allegation of rape he has denied.
Afternoon summary
As voting continues in Georgia, it’s been a lively morning in US political news and there will be no shortage of developments for the rest of the day - and overnight - so please stay tuned to our blog, which is staying live around the clock for the Georgia runoffs and into the official certification of the presidential election result on Capitol Hill tomorrow (where the chances of chaos and lengthy delays are building by the hour).
Here are the main news headlines so far today:
- The main prosecutor in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will announce later this afternoon whether there will be criminal charges against the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back in August, paralyzing him and sparking days of protests.
- Democratic candidate for one of the US Senate seats up for grabs in Georgia today, John Ossoff, called himself a “John Lewis Democrat” when he went to vote today in the runoff election.
- There was a flurry this morning as senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley indicated that he, not vice president Mike Pence as expected, would preside over the certification process in Congress tomorrow of the Electoral College vote, cementing Joe Biden’s victory. And that Pence might not even show. These two points were quickly contradicted by Pence’s office. As you were.
- In-person voting is happening in the Georgia runoffs today, with polls open from 7am to 7pm. Voting is brisk and my colleagues David Smith, Kenya Evelyn and Sam Levine are in Georgia reporting from the ground.
Jacob Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, led a march through Kenosha last night yesterday evening, calling on people to “make noise” and be “heard around the world.”
He spoke of the white police officer who shot his son last summer.
“(Sheskey) tried to kill my son and could have killed my grandchildren,” Jacob Blake Sr. said during a news conference before the march. “He shot him seven times in his back unjustifiably.”
The family said it’s taken too long for a charging decision, and the precautions suggest that Sheskey won’t be charged, Reuters reports.
“What is the National Guard for?” Jacob Blake Sr. said. “They going to deliver mail? Deliver ice cream? What do you think they’re here for?”
Tanya McLean, executive director of the community organization Leaders of Kenosha and a friend of the Blake family, said as Monday evening’s march was kicking off that violence isn’t acceptable.
“No matter what the decision is, we are seeking non-violence,” she said.
“We want everybody to come out, make as much noise as you want, but we don’t want any destruction of property or businesses. We are for nonviolence. Anything else is not acceptable for this community.”
Donald Trump visited Kenosha in the days after the shooting. Then-candidate, now vice president-elect Kamala Harris visited and met with the Blake family.
Kenosha, Wisconsin, is braced for more protests as prosecutors prepare to announce today whether they’ll charge a white police officer who shot a Black man in the back.
Kenosha county district attorney Michael Graveley will announce his decision at 3pm local time (4pm ET).
Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Jacob Blake seven times on August 23 as Blake was about to get into an SUV during a domestic dispute. The below report is supplied by Reuters but edited by this blogger.
The police union said that Blake resisted arrest and was armed with a knife, although state investigators have said only that a knife was found on the floor of the vehicle. Blake’s three children were in the back seat of the SUV when he was shot.
The shooting sparked protests that went on for several nights. Some of them turned violent on the fringes initially, with some protesters burning businesses, and some right-wing agitators then came to the city, after calls went out on social media.
Prosecutors have charged agitator Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois, with shooting three people, killing two of them, with an assault-style weapon during one incident.
Rittenhouse, who is white, was 17 at the time of the shootings. Coincidentally, he was expected to plead not guilty to all counts at an arraignment today, his lawyer said.
Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree reckless homicide and five other criminal counts related to the shootings.
Jacob Blake’s family appealed for justice in the aftermath of the police shooting.
Protests outside of the initial unrest and the incidents involving Rittenhouse were largely peaceful.
Wisconsin governor Tony Evers has activated 500 National Guard troops to help Kenosha authorities when the decision is announced.
Updated
Prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to announce outcome of investigation into police shooting of Jacob Blake
Kenosha county district attorney Michael Graveley will announce this afternoon the prosecutor’s office decision on whether any of the Kenosha police officers involved in the August 23, 2020, shooting of local man Jacob Blake will face criminal charges.
Blake was shot in the back during an encounter with police and ended up in hospital paralyzed from the waist down, as fierce protests erupted in the streets and his family and supporters demanded justice.
Donald Trump has made a misleading tweet and we’re here to debunk it.
The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2021
This comes on top of Trump attempting to strong-arm Pence last night at his rally in Georgia, to, somehow, swing the election for Trump during the congressional confirmation of the result tomorrow. Trump said to his supporters: ““I hope Mike Pence comes through for us ... He’s a great guy. ‘Course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him quite as much.”
In fact, Mike Pence is not in a position to overturn the results of the November presidential election, which Joe Biden won over Donald Trump in a decisive contest that has been described as the most secure election in American history.
The election was on November 3. The result was called by the traditional decision desks of leading media on Saturday November 7, announcing the victory of Biden and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris for the Democratic Party.
The Electoral College voted to confirm that result on December 14.
And tomorrow the US Congress will certify the Electoral College vote and officially confirm that Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States.
A small confusion earlier notwithstanding, it looks certain that outgoing vice president Mike Pence will preside over the congressional proceedings tomorrow, which might prove to be messy as some maverick Republicans lodge objections, forcing delays, and vote against, but they will in all certainty conclude with him publicly counting the votes, in a largely symbolic act.
Pence will not be in a position to determine unilaterally the outcome of the election, his “power” is to rubber stamp the result.
Here’s the latest explainer from the New York Times:
Debunking Trump's tweet and explaining what the law and Constitution say about the election certification Pence will oversee tomorrow. https://t.co/Urj7Wk04m3 https://t.co/Y7EwXVWmkw
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) January 5, 2021
Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, falsely asserting that Mr. Pence had the power to unilaterally throw out electoral votes on Wednesday when Congress meets to certify the election results.
But there is nothing in the Constitution or the law that explicitly gives a vice president that power, and aides close to Mr. Pence, who concede that he is facing a politically perilous moment, are convinced he will follow the normal procedures and confirm Mr. Biden’s election, Schmidt writes.
When will we get the results of the Georgia runoffs?
The polls close at 7pm Eastern Time in Georgia today but no-one is expecting a swift result in either race, unfortunately.
The Guardian US team will be live-blogging this evening and overnight to bring you the news and it would be great to think there will be a result on Tuesday, but the chances are it’s more likely to be Wednesday or even Thursday (or longer...?).
My colleague Tom McCarthy has this handy explainer, which also notes that anyone in line to vote at 7pm when the polls officially close will be allowed to cast their ballot.
By state law, ballot counting cannot start until polls close at 7pm. Military and overseas ballots arriving as late as Friday could be counted.
That means results could take days, election officials say. The November election in Georgia was extremely close, with Biden’s victory in the state not projected by television networks until 10 days post-election.
Analysts warn that another dynamic of the November election, the so-called “red mirage”, could repeat itself this week, with Republicans appearing in the lead on the strength of election day returns, only to lose ground as mail-in and absentee ballots are counted.
If the results comes within 0.5% of one’s opponent, the candidate has the right to a recount on request.
In the November election, where no-one got above 50% of the vote, with the rules then triggering a runoff, Republican David Perdue was ahead of his Democratic challenger John Ossoff by 49.7% to 47.9%. In the other race, Democrat Raphael Warnock overtook Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler with 32.9% vs 25.9%.
Here’s a useful recap of what’s going on in Georgia today, why it matters so much and how we got here.
Voters cast ballots today in a pair of US Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of that chamber of Congress - and with it the ability to block or advance Democratic president-elect Joe Biden’s agenda - after a contentious campaign that broke spending and early-turnout records.
Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, and the Reverend Raphael Warnock, a pastor at a Black church in Atlanta, in a state Biden narrowly carried in the Novemberr 3 presidential election, Reuters writes.
The tumultuous contest’s final days have been dominated by Donald Trump’s continued effort to subvert the presidential election results.
On Saturday, he pressured the state’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to “find” votes to reverse Biden’s victory, falsely claiming massive fraud. Trump’s ongoing efforts to undo Biden’s victory have caused a dramatic split in his own party and condemnation from critics who accuse him of undermining democracy.
The runoff elections, a quirk of state law, became necessary when no candidate in either senatorial race exceeded 50% of the vote in November.
Trump and Biden campaigned in Georgia yesterday, Trump in the state’s northwest and Biden in Atlanta. Trump called the November election “rigged” and falsely claimed he won the state as he used his speech to air grievances about his defeat.
“There is no way we lost Georgia,” Trump said, ticking off a long list of unfounded conspiracy theories about election fraud.
On the ground today, Scott Sweeney, 63, said he was voting for Perdue and Loeffler as a way to block the Democrats from getting control of the Senate.
“I believe the two of them are consistent with my values,” Sweeney said at a polling place in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta. “Taxes for one, and traditional values.”
Andria Lang, 73, exited her polling place at a church in Atlanta voicing optimism that the Democrats would prevail.
“I feel great about my vote,” Lang said.
Biden’s victory in Georgia, the first for a Democratic presidential candidate there in nearly 30 years, was not confirmed for more than a week. Two recounts and subsequent legal challenges from the Trump campaign pushed the state’s final certification into December.
“We won three times here,” Biden quipped at yesterday’s rally as he urged Georgians to vote Democratic. “This is not an exaggeration: Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you.”
Democrats need to win both races to gain Senate control from Republicans. A double Democratic win would split the Senate 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote giving Democrats control of the chamber.
Ossoff votes
After that flurry in a thimble involving Pence and Grassley, we’re back in Georgia.
My Guardian colleague David Smith was there when Democratic candidate John Ossoff, who is hoping to flip a senate seat away from Republican David Perdue in the runoffs today, voted a little earlier in Atlanta.
In Atlanta. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff after voting: “This is history unfolding in Georgia right now. I want everyone to be part of it.” pic.twitter.com/g0SllH6afe
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 5, 2021
Ossoff once interned for the late civil rights and congressional icon John Lewis.
Ossoff: “I’m a John Lewis Democrat, I’m a civil rights Democrat and that’s the kind of Democrat running in the south right now.” pic.twitter.com/BeuDdJwzyD
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 5, 2021
You can hear from miles away the sound of the rending fabric of Republican leadership in Washington. The latest fog of war over who will preside over Congress tomorrow for the certification of the electoral college vote is signified by the instant confusion and disagreement apparently coming out of the offices of Vice-President Mike Pence and Iowa Republican Charles Grassley.
Charles “Chuck” Grassley is Senate president pro tempore, defined by the Senate itself as “the constitutionally-recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the vice president. The president pro tempore (or, “president for a time”) is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service”.
VP office says Pence is still going tomorrow, per @kaitlancollins. Unclear where this miscommunication occurred. https://t.co/jasCul0yXr
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) January 5, 2021
Recap:
A Grassley spokesman clarifies that the senator does not "have any indication Pence won't be present." Grassley, he said, was just trying to explain that at president pro tempore of the Senate, he would fill the chair if Pence does not show or steps out at points for a break https://t.co/iS8Wb7Yfpy
— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) January 5, 2021
FYI: Grassley is 87 and tested positive for coronavirus last November. He recovered and shortly before Christmas urged fellow Iowans to get inoculated against Covid-19 asap.
Updated
Pence's office begs to differ
Immediate confusion on Capitol Hill. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins now reporting that Mike Pence’s office is indicating he will preside over proceedings in Congress tomorrow to certify the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election.
Pence is still expected to preside over the certification of the election results tomorrow, per his office.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 5, 2021
Pence "won't preside" over crucial election vote in Congress, may not even attend
Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley will preside over certification of the Electoral College vote in the US Congress tomorrow that will officially confirm Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in November’s election - not Mike Pence.
NEW: Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore, says he and not Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the certification of Electoral College votes, since "we don't expect him to be there."
— Roll Call (@rollcall) January 5, 2021
Vice president Mike Pence had been assumed to be the one overseeing proceedings tomorrow in his role, under the US Constitution, as president of the US Senate.
Pence was put under huge pressure by Donald Trump last night urging him to engineer an overturning of the election results - even though the role of the person presiding over Congress tomorrow is simply to publicly count the electoral college votes, which went for Biden, not to determine unilaterally the outcome of the election.
And now it appears that Pence won’t be in the hot seat and might not even be present. There’s a massive showdown expected when some super-loyalist maverick Republicans object to and are expected to vote against confirming the Electoral College result, futile as that will be.
No explanations have been given yet and we await details.
A Grassley spokesman clarifies that the senator does not "have any indication Pence won't be present." Grassley, he said, was just trying to explain that at president pro tempore of the Senate, he would fill the chair if Pence does not show or steps out at points for a break https://t.co/iS8Wb7Yfpy
— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) January 5, 2021
Updated
Voting continues apace in the Georgia runoffs
A record three million people took advantage of early voting in the Georgia runoffs, casting their ballots before the official election day today.
These are unheard of numbers for a runoff. And many are hitting the polls in person today.
My Guardian voting rights reporter colleague, Sam Levine, is in Atlanta this morning and has sent this report:
At Antioch Baptist Church, a polling station in Atlanta’s English avenue neighborhood, a steady stream of voters tricked in on a chilly Tuesday morning.
Most voters - all wearing masks - were in and out of the site in less than 5 minutes - a welcome relief in a state that saw hours long lines to vote last year.
Gabi Strode, 27, who moved to Georgia two years ago, said it was exciting to vote in a competitive election that will determine which party controls the US senate.
Gabi Strode, 27, said it was kind of “surreal” to participate in this election and see how her vote mattered pic.twitter.com/wFXHeimPeq
— Sam Levine (@srl) January 5, 2021
“To be able to be part of this specific election is memorable because I feel like my vote actually counted this time,” she said. “It’s surreal, kind of.”
Stephanie Aluko, 30, who works as an academic adviser, said it was “kind of cool” for Georgians to see how much their vote matters.
“It made people in Georgia see how important it actually is to vote,” she said. “If the whole world is looking at you and paying attention to you, suddenly, maybe your vote matters.”
(Note, this post has just been updated to correct the spelling of a name.)
Updated
National Guard requested to protect downtown Washington DC
Bracing for possible violence, the nation’s capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests today and tomorrow by Donald Trump’s supporters in connection with the congressional vote due tomorrow afternoon to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump’s supporters are planning to rally, seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. “There are people intent on coming to our city armed,” DC acting police chief Robert Contee said yesterday, The Associated Press reports.
A pro-Trump rally in December ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the signature black and yellow of the extremist right-wing Proud Boys faction, sought out confrontations with a collective of local activists attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House.
(Here’s the late civil rights icon John Lewis in Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC):
John Lewis, Black Lives Matter Plaza. Washington DC pic.twitter.com/mJS124s1Sk
— Al Elia (@alfromfl) December 30, 2020
Downtown DC businesses have been boarding up their windows again, which they did before the November election, Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested a limited National Guard deployment to help bolster the Metropolitan Police Department.
I am asking Washingtonians and those who live in the region to stay out of the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday and not to engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation, and we will do what we must to ensure all who attend remain peaceful.
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) January 3, 2021
Bowser has asked that local area residents stay away, and avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight.”
But, she warned: “We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”
The additional forces will be used for traffic control and other assistance but they will not be armed or wearing body armor.
Congress is meeting tomorrow to certify the Electoral College results, and Trump has refused to concede defeat while whipping up support for protests.
Speculation rife over Trump's plans for inauguration day
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has warned Donald Trump against flying to Scotland to play golf in order to avoid Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president later this month, since that would breach Scottish coronavirus lockdown laws.
Sturgeon was responding to a report that Prestwick airport, which is close to Trump’s (loss-making) Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire, has been told to expect a US military Boeing 757 used by Trump in the past on 19 January - the day before Biden’s inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC, our Scotland editor writes.
Sturgeon said she had no knowledge of Trump’s travel plans, adding that the only thing she expected was that he will vacate the White House as required before 20 January, in good time for Biden’s arrival.
But she added that Scotland’s strict Covid lockdown laws, which came into effect at midnight last night and are in force for the rest of January, and perhaps beyond, made it illegal to travel into Scotland for non-essential reasons.
Being back in lockdown is really hard to take for everyone, but it is necessary to slow down this new strain of the virus while we get people vaccinated. Please - for you own safety, that of your loved ones and of the whole country: Stay at Home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) January 4, 2021
“We’re not allowing people to come to Scotland without an essential purpose and that would apply to him just as it would apply to anybody else and coming to play golf isn’t what I would consider to be an essential purpose.”
There is no official confirmation or any clear indication that Trump is planning to fly to Scotland in the final days of his presidency, apart from an anonymous source cited by the Sunday Post newspaper. There has been significant speculation in the US he would travel instead to his Mar-a-Lago private resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
However, if he did opt to visit Trump Turnberry or his other golf course in Aberdeenshire he could claim that was for business reasons, on the grounds he needed to update himself on the multi-million pound expansion and upgrading plans at both his loss-making resorts.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on reports of a Trump visit to Scotland: "I've no idea what Donald Trump's travel plans are. I hope and expect that as everybody hopes - and it's what everybody expects - that the travel plan immediately that he has is to exit the White House". https://t.co/Tm5aaV9SZM
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) January 5, 2021
Now that he is soon to leave the White House, Trump is almost certain to resume hands-on control of his business empire’s finances and tax affairs, which are under intense scrutiny from prosecutors.
Updated
What is Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley up to?
Last week he announced he will formally object tomorrow in Congress to the official certification of the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
That amounts to a disruption, delay and signal-to-the-base move as much as anything. And it’s unclear what he’s actually trying to do.
My colleague Martin Pengelly reported moments ago on how Hawley dodged the question when asked if he was definitively involve in trying to overturn November’s election result.
Asked if he was trying to “overturn the election” and keep Donald Trump in power, Missouri senator Josh Hawley told Fox News: “That depends what happens on Wednesday.”
That is when Congress will meet to count Joe Biden’s 306-232 electoral college victory, which has been certified by all 50 states. Formal objections due to be raised by Hawley, around a dozen other senators and more than 100 Republicans in the House will not overturn the result – as Trump and his supporters hope they will.
Democrats hold the House, guaranteeing defeat there, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and other senior Republicans in that chamber also oppose the objections.
Speaking on Monday night, Hawley at first avoided questions about whether he was trying to overturn an election and thereby disenfranchise millions of Americans, insisting he was objecting to the handling of the presidential election in states including Pennsylvania.
“I just want to pin you down,” anchor Bret Baier said, eventually, “on on what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to say that as of 20 January [inauguration day] that President Trump will be president?”
“Well,” said Hawley, “that depends on what happens on Wednesday. I mean, this is why we have to debate.”
Baier answered: “No it doesn’t. The states, by the constitution, they certify the election, they did certify it by the constitution. Congress doesn’t have the right to overturn the certification, at least as most experts read it.”
“Well,” Hawley said, “Congress is directed under the 12th amendment to count the electoral votes, there’s a statute that dates back to the 1800s, 19th century, that says there is a right to object, there’s a right to be heard, and there’s also [the] certification right.”
Read the full story here.
Updated
Secretary of State indicates Trump administration is on the way out
This shouldn’t be news. But after secretary of state Mike Pompeo talked after the election about a “smooth transition” tiny pause, smirk “to a second Trump administration”, we now see an effective acknowledgement of a changing of the guard in Washington, DC.
Questioned at an event about his legacy in the Trump administration, Pompeo gave a fulsome and plain answer that was all about leaving office.
“I think we’re leaving the world safer than when we came in,” Pompeo said.
He added: “I hope that the policies that we put in place will have the capacity to continue and whoever the next secretary of state is will continue down this path...”
Etc.
Here’s the key tweet from CBS.
While the president is trying to change the results of the election, @SecPompeo seems to be openly admitting reality. Asked about his legacy, starts by saying “we are leaving— after four years...” pic.twitter.com/A2yAZfpiYd
— Christina Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) January 5, 2021
Joe Biden’s incoming secretary of state has been named, of course, and is the experienced Anthony Blinken.
Georgia voters head to the polls
Good morning, US live blog readers. It’s G-Day! The Georgia runoffs that will determine two US Senate seats and the balance of power in the senate overall after November’s close elections. There will be lots of action in US politics today so please stay with us as we bring you live developments.
And, importantly, we are running this blog non-stop for the next 24 hours to reflect the vital news from Georgia. Do stay tuned for our bloggers as we hand the baton over to each other around the clock.
Here’s what we’re watching this morning.
- Georgians began lining up in the dark this morning outside polling stations in Atlanta before they opened at 7am eastern time across the state for in-person voting.
- Record numbers of people voted early but many will want to cast their ballots on the day – the polling stations are open from 7am to 7pm ET.
- Four candidates are fighting over two seats, with Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue hoping to retain power against Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff.
- The US Senate in Washington was so closely fought in the November election that the outcome of the Georgia runoffs today (after Loeffler and Perdue failed to get above 50% of the vote in November to win re-election on the spot) will determine whether the GOP or the Democrats have control over the senate in the incoming Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration.
- In Washington, DC, mayor Muriel Bowser has requested National Guard troops to back up local police tomorrow for expected pro-Donald Trump protests coinciding with the vote in Congress to certify the Electoral College vote and formally declare Joe Biden the winner of November’s presidential election.
- In rallies in Georgia yesterday, Biden said: “Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you”, while Donald Trump tried to strong-arm his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the election result in Congress tomorrow – a power the vice-president does not possess whether he wanted to or not.
Updated
