White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 11, 2020

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DECEMBER 10, 2020
Vice President Pence Rally in Georgia
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a Defend the Majority rally in Augusta, Georgia.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton greets President Donald Trump at Austin Bergstrom International Airport on Nov. 19, 2019.

Six GOP-led states join Texas bid to overturn Biden’s election, as Trump dines with Paxton and other AGs

Trump is also trying to join the Texas lawsuit that would nullify 10M votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Dec. 11 - WASHINGTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory sparked a legal war between the states on Thursday.

Six fellow Republican attorneys general asked the Supreme Court to let them join Texas’ bid to nullify 10.4 million votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. As filings poured into the high court, they and others joined President Donald Trump at a private lunch in the Cabinet Room.

Trump has also asked the court to let him sign on to the Texas lawsuit as a plaintiff.

By the close of business Thursday, 21 states — including four led by Republican governors — had filed objections, calling Texas’ request unconstitutional, unfair and outrageous.     more details

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FBI agents seek Texas attorney general records in Paxton probe

Dec. 11 - Federal agents served at least one subpoena Wednesday on the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in an ongoing investigation into allegations that Paxton abused his authority by helping a friend and campaign donor.

Three sources confirmed to the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV that FBI agents delivered the request for information to the agency’s headquarters on West 14th Street. The sources did not immediately know how many subpoenas were issued or what information FBI agents sought.

Federal authorities are investigating claims by former top Paxton aides that he used his position to aid Austin investor Nate Paul, whose offices were raided by the FBI last year.     continue to read

Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr.[1] (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton is a Tea Party conservative.[2] He previously served as Texas State Senator for the 8th district and the Texas State Representative for the 70th district.
Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 on securities fraud charges relating to activities prior to taking office; he has pleaded not guilty.[3][4] In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office made allegations accusing him of "bribery, abuse of office and other crimes".[5][6][7]

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White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 10, 2020

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President Donald Trump has been given a glimmer of hope as 17 states join a legal challenge to the election result.
Trump's glimmer of hope as 17 states join bid to overturn election

Dec. 10 - The US state of Texas has drawn support from 17 other states in its long-shot bid to have the US Supreme Court overturn President Donald Trump’s election loss by throwing out the voting results from four other states.

Seventeen US states on Wednesday filed a brief at the US Supreme Court supporting a bid by Texas to overturn the presidential election results.Those states are: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

All of the states were represented by Republican officials in the filing. All but three of the states have Republican governors.    details

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‘CIVIL WAR’? Democrats outraged at ONE THIRD of US states challenging Biden election in Supreme Court

Dec. 10 - A Texas-led motion to the US Supreme Court challenging the elections in four states that declared Joe Biden president has angered Democrats. Between that and a rant by CNN’s Chris Cuomo, ‘Civil War’ began trending on Twitter.

While some of the 40,000-plus references were to the original 1861-65 conflict over the future of the US, or wars in other places, a great many tweets expressed the frustration of Democrats and their media allies over the Texas lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – where Biden was declared the winner based on mass mail-in ballots – which was backed by eighteen other states and President Donald Trump himself.

“Seventeen states demanding that the Supreme Court disenfranchise voters in other states seems like a great way to get to a second civil war,” tweeted Pod Save America co-host Tommy Vietor, a former spokesman in the Obama administration.     more details

US President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks on the stock market during an unscheduled appearance in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC on November 24, 2020.
17 states tell Supreme Court they support Texas bid to reverse Biden win

Dec. 10 - Seventeen states whose elections were won by President Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that they support Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid to file a lawsuit that could effectively reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s projected Electoral College victory.

The filing backing Paxton by those states came a day after he asked the Supreme Court for permission to sue Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which Biden won, over their voting processes.

Later Wednesday, Trump filed a motion to intervene in the case “in his personal capacity” as a presidential candidate. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on Paxton’s request.

The states supporting the suit, all of which have Republican attorneys general, are Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

Trump defeated Biden in the popular vote in all of those states, though one of Nebraska’s electoral votes was awarded to Biden.     continue to read

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‘This is madness’: Romney lashes out at Republicans threatening to protest Electoral College vote
Joe Biden’s popular vote lead has grown to over 7 million, and results confirming his win have been certified by states, including key battlegrounds

Dec. 10 -Mitt Romney has torn into fellow Republicans threatening to disrupt the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

The Utah senator said: “This is madness. We have a process, recounts are appropriate, going to the court is appropriate, and pursuing every legal avenue is appropriate, but trying to get electors not to do what the people voted to do is madness.”

Senator Romney’s comments were first reported by NBC News reporter Frank Thorp V, as Donald Trump’s campaign and supporters in the party continue to attempt legal action in battleground states to try and overturn the 2020 election results.

He continued: “It would be saying, 'Look, let's not follow the vote of the people, let's instead do what we want’. That would not be the way a democratic republic ought to work.”

Asked if he was very confident that anything like that would be rejected, Mr Romney replied, yes.     continue to reaad

PBS NewsHour full episode, Dec. 9, 2020
Dec. 10, 2020
Wednesday on the NewsHour, COVID cases and deaths continue to surge in the U.S. with hospital beds in short supply, drug testing rules in Alabama are holding some people down after they are released from jail, Facebook comes under fire from states claiming the social media giant needs to be reigned in, and a look at how women are being impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic.

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DECEMBER 9, 2020
President-elect Biden Announces Defense Secretary Nominee
President-Elect Joe Biden announced his nominee for Defense Secretary, retired Army General Lloyd Austin. Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris also took part in this event in Wilmington, Delaware.

WEDNESDAY

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 9, 2020

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DECEMBER 8, 2020
President Trump Remarks on Operation Warp Speed
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser and Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer for Operation Warp Speed spoke about the race to produce, gain FDA approval and distribute COVID-19 vaccines at a White House summit. Both stressed the importance of getting vaccinated.

DECEMBER 8, 2020
House Democratic Caucus Leaders News Conference
House Democrat Caucus Chair Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Democratic Caucus Vice Chair-elect Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA) held a news conference on Capitol Hill. They discussed a number of topics inducing COVID-19 relief negotiations, upcoming vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, and President-elect Biden cabinet appointments.

Congressional Republicans refuse to acknowledge they are preparing for Biden's inauguration

Dec. 8 - A high-level Inauguration planning meeting on Capitol Hill ended in acrimony Tuesday after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer offered up a motion that the small committee – known as the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) -- affirm that it is preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Although all three Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the motion, their Republican counterparts voted against it, resulting in a deadlock.

"The extent to which Republicans are refusing to accept the outcome of the election and recognize Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next President and Vice President is astounding," Hoyer said in a statement after the meeting. "Their continued deference to President Trump's post-election temper tantrums threatens our democracy and undermines faith in our system of elections."

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Hoyer voted in favor of the motion. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt voted no.     continue to read

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From left, Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, Roy Blunt, Mitch McConnell, Amy Klobuchar.
Republicans block inaugural committee from recognizing Biden win

Dec. 9 - Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies voted against a resolution that would have affirmed the committee was preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: By voting against the resolution, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy effectively blocked the committee from publicly recognizing Biden as president-elect...     continue to read

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested dropping discussions about two items that have been big sticking points.
Confusion grips Capitol amid flurry of stimulus plans

Party leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers are both struggling to reach a Covid deal.

Dec. 8 - No one seems to know what’s going on with coronavirus relief anymore.

In the span of an afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested dropping discussions on the two biggest sticking points. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offered a new proposal to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A bipartisan group of senators is still working to finalize language on a $908 billion package. And President Donald Trump endorsed new stimulus checks.     continue to read

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PBS NewsHour full episode, Dec. 8, 2020
Dec. 9, 2020
Tuesday on the NewsHour, Britain gets the first COVID-19 vaccine, President-elect Joe Biden names his health care advisers, a retired army general is tapped to be the next secretary of defense, and the pandemic and social stigmas complicate the process of integrating the formerly incarcerated back into society.

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 8, 2020

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Nevada court dismisses Trump campaign election suit

Dec. 7 - A Nevada court Friday dismissed with prejudice a Trump campaign election contest lawsuit. In the suit, the president’s legal team alleged voter fraud in mail-in ballots, voter irregularities in provisional ballots, machine signature matching errors, in-person voter fraud and denial of legal voters, double voting, voter impersonation, late counted ballots, failures in voter roll maintenance, and improper Postal Service ballot delivery. Additionally, the legal team alleged that Nevada’s vote count and observation process itself was flawed and threatened election integrity. Outside of allegations over the election process, the legal team additionally accused the Biden campaign of giving voters monetary incentives to vote for Joe Biden and of filling out fraudulent ballots behind a Biden-Harris campaign bus.

The court dismissed the case because it found that the Trump legal team had failed to meet the requisite burden of proof:

Although Nevada has not addressed this issue, the Court believes that Contestants need to prove the ground for their contest by clear and convincing evidence. This higher standard of proof is appropriate in election contests because it “adequately balances the conflicting interests in preserving the integrity of the lection and avoiding unnecessary disenfranchisement of qualified absentee voters.”…However, even if preponderance of the evidence standard was used, the Court concludes that Contestant’s claims fail on the merits there under or under any standard…Contestants’ evidence does not establish by clear and convincing proof, or under any standard of evidence, that “there was a malfunction of any voting device or electronic tabulator, counting device or computer in a manner sufficient to raise reasonable doubt as to the outcome of the election.”…Contestants did not prove under any standard of proof that the Agilis machine malfunctioned…Contestants did not prove under any standard of proof that illegal votes were cast and counted, or legal votes were not counted at all, due to voter fraud, nor in an amount equal to or greater than 33,596, or otherwise in an amount sufficient to raise reasonable doubt as to the outcome of the election.

The Nevada court’s decision follows a series of cases over the election results and the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s refusal Thursday to hear a Trump campaign election challenge.     source

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2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, speaks during an event on Thursday, November 14 at Los Angeles Trade–Technical College, in Los Angeles, Calif.

FCC chairman admits that he wants to block Biden from changing anything

Dec. 7 - In a recent interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr,  said it would be “valuable” for Senate Republicans to block President-elect Joe Biden from appointing a new FCC chairperson. That way, the GOP can “forestall” Biden’s agenda in the agency, including restoring net neutrality so that corporations can’t charge companies for an equal presence on the internet.

In short, if Republicans win Georgia’s runoff elections on January 5, they could stall a vote for Biden’s new pick for the FCC head. If this happens, Biden won’t be able to seat someone to help implement his agenda.

“But I think it would be very valuable to … help forestall what really would be billions of dollars worth of economic damage that I think a Democrat FCC would look to jam through from day one in January or February,” Carr said.     source

Georgia lieutenant governor on President Trump's attempts to overturn election
7, 2020
President Trump is pressuring Georgia's governor to persuade the state's legislature to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the pressure campaign and the upcoming runoff elections for the state's Senate seats.

A police officer wearing a body cam is seen during a demonstration on May 31, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here's what police chiefs think Biden should do to help address issues with law enforcement

Dec. 8, (CNN) - Police chiefs across the country are hoping President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration will help them address a crisis of legitimacy and focus on reform measures after a string of high-profile shootings by police officers and subsequent protests roiled the nation this summer.

A survey of almost 400 police chiefs, administered by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), asked law enforcement leaders across the country to identify priorities for the incoming administration. The top two results: Increasing public trust and addressing the call for reform.

Biden identified police reform as a priority of his racial equity agenda following a summer of unrest in cities across the country. The protests were prompted by the death of George Floyd in May, who died after a now-fired member of the Minneapolis Police Department knelt on his neck during an arrest.It's not clear what Biden will be able to accomplish, and the makeup of the US Senate is contingent on special election results in Georgia. Biden's transition team met with the Fraternal Order of Police in November, and has met with other groups representing law enforcement since.

The chiefs, surveyed at the end of November, were asked to identify three policing issues in greatest need of addressing.
A clear majority said they hope the Biden administration will help increase trust in police, with 76% calling it a priority, and 57% wanting to address calls for police reform.

Fewer than half of respondents -- 43% -- said crime reduction was among their top three priorities for next year.     more details

PBS NewsHour full episode, Dec. 7, 2020
Dec. 8, 2020
Monday on the NewsHour, Congress moves closer to passing a long-awaited response to the pandemic's financial toll, Democrats and Republicans in Georgia push for control of the U.S. Senate with two very different approaches, and in our new series, “Searching for Justice,” we look at one man's life after prison during the pandemic.

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 7, 2020

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Kellyanne Conway acknowledged Joe Biden won the presidential election, one of the most prominent Donald Trump supporters to do so

'It looks like Joe and Kamala will prevail': Trump ultra-loyalist Kellyanne Conway finally admits Biden has won - and says she'd work with the new president if he asked

Dec. 7 - Kellyanne Conway on Friday acknowledged Joe Biden won the presidential election and said she would work with his administration if they needed her.
She is one of the most prominent Donald Trump supporters to acquiesce his rival's victory and her tactic admission comes as the president continues his legal fight to overturn the results.
  
'The president wants to exhaust all of his legal avenues, as he has made clear many times. His team is doing that, and that is his right,' Conway told The 19th.

'If you look at the vote totals in the Electoral College tally, it looks like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will prevail. I assume the electors will certify that and it will be official. We, as a nation, will move forward, because we always do,' she added.
Conway's statement will likely please her husband George and daughter Claudia, who have consistently railed against the Trump administration since he took office.     continue to read

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US Election 2020: Donald Trump to hold ‘victory rally’ in Georgia
Donald Trump will hold a ‘victory rally’ in Georgia to show support for Republicans ahead of the senate election next month.
Published on Dec. 6, 2020

12/5/2020 10:02PM     
Trump Holds Rally in Georgia Ahead of Senate Runoff Election
President Trump held a rally Saturday evening in Valdosta, Ga. for incumbent GOP Sens. Perdue and Loeffler who are fighting to hold onto their seats in a pair of key Jan. 5 runoffs.

DECEMBER 6, 2020
Operation Warp Speed Chief Adviser on COVID-19 Vaccine
On CBS “Face The Nation,” Operation Warp Speed chief scientific adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui talked about the COVID-19 vaccine.

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 6, 2020

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DECEMBER 5, 2020
Campaign 2020President Trump Campaigns for U.S. Senate Runoffs in Georgia
President Trump spoke at a rally in Valdosta, GA in support of Georgia Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both facing a runoff election in early January.


US Election 2020: Trump to rally for senators
Donald Trump will hit the stage, rallying for the Georgia state run-off.

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U.S. President Donald Trump is greeted by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp as he arrives at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., July 15, 2020.
Trump pushes Georgia governor to help overturn Biden election win

Dec. 5 - President Donald Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday and asked him to convince state legislators to help overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Georgia and permit an audit of signatures on absentee ballots.
The request is Trump’s latest attempt to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in a state where two GOP Senate runoff races in January could decide which party controls the Senate. The call was first reported by The Washington Post.

Trump has argued without evidence that Georgia election officials took voter ballots with signatures that didn’t match the ones on file. A recount in Georgia following the election affirmed Biden’s victory and the results have been certified.

The president referenced the call in a tweet on Saturday afternoon, calling for a signature audit of Georgia’s absentee ballots and claiming discrepancies in the process.

“I will easily & quickly win Georgia if Governor @BrianKempGA or the Secretary of State permit a simple signature verification,” Trump wrote. “Has not been done and will show large scale discrepancies. Why are these two “Republicans” saying no? If we win Georgia, everything else falls in place!”     continue to read

A composite image of President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden. 

Trump is refusing to concede the election to Biden and reportedly planning a rally on his inauguration day. Here are 9 other famous presidential feuds in history.

Dec. 6 - President-elect Joe Biden's January 20 inauguration looks set to be one of the most awkward transfers of power in US history, with President Donald Trump still refusing to even acknowledge his election loss.
It's been a month since the election was called for Biden, but Trump has refused to concede, and continues to challenge the results of the election.

Trump has also not confirmed whether he will even attend Biden's inauguration. A recent report from The Daily Beast said the president may be planning a rally for the same day instead, as Trump hints at another run in 2024.
 
Biden took a dig at Trump when he told CNN on December 3 he hopes Trump attends to so that "we are able to demonstrate at the end of this chaos — that he's created — that there is a peaceful transfer of power," but that his predecessor's presence is "of no personal consequence to me."     continue to read