Trump news - live: President posts ‘most important’ 46-minute speech filled with false voter fraud claims

Key Senate Republican, however, claims president is ‘fine’ with language on confederate names coming off military bases

President Donald Trump has teased a “big Trump Rally” in Georgia on Twitter while reportedly considering plans to announce a second re-election bid as it becomes increasingly clear he has no path to overturn the results of the 2020 race.

The president said he would visit the state to support both Georgia Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are running for re-election in the January special elections, describing the two GOP candidates as “fantastic people who love their Country and love their State.”

‘Everybody agrees that you can’t pardon someone ahead of the time that they actually commit a crime’

One of the nation’s leading legal experts has decried an alleged White House pardon bribery scheme as “an extreme abuse” of power in the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency amid new reports of the potential crime.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday night, Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law professor and constitutional expert, broke down the laws surrounding presidential pardons — and explained why a “preemptive pardon” like the one discussed in news reports would be impossible for Mr Trump to grant one of his allies.

“Everybody agrees that you can’t pardon someone ahead of the time that they actually commit a crime,” the professor said. “That kind of preemptive pardon is impossible, and yet when you are engaged in bargaining with somebody about a possible pardon at a time when they are still engaged in all kinds of shenanigans, you are essentially saying go ahead, commit crimes if you want, and retrospective I’ll give you the kind of sweeping pardon that I have now given Michael Flynn.”

Mr Tribe spoke amid explosive reports based on newly-unsealed court records that indicated the Justice Department was probing the potentially criminal bribery scheme. 

Story to come.

Outgoing president will not even invite successor to White House, according to a new report

Justin Vallejo writes: The US is in a “dangerous place” and the risk of Covid-19 to Americans is at a historic high due to limited hospital capacity, according to the latest White House coronavirus task force report.

The report, sent to the states and first reported by NBC News, says public health authorities should circumvent state and local policies and “alert the state population directly” if current advice does not reflect the seriousness of the situation.

"It must be made clear that if you are over 65 or have significant health conditions, you should not enter any indoor public spaces where anyone is unmasked due to the immediate risk to your health; you should have groceries and medications delivered,” it says.

'I guess he's the next one to be fired,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.

Donald Trump’s press secretary has denied there has been any discussion of pardons for the president’s family.

Rather than discussing the surge in COVID-19 infections nationwide or the president's continued failed attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany opens today's briefing by  attacking CNN's Chris Cuomo and Democratic officials seen not wearing face masks in public settings. 

Dr Jacob Keeperman says he was ‘completely caught off guard’ after his selfie became the subject of right-wing misinformation - and a tweet from the president

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