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

Sticking with the Peach State, a local judge has ordered the authorities not to “alter, destroy, or erase” any software or data from Dominion-branded voting machines in three counties in response to a case filed by ex-Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell related to fraud in the elections.

Judge Timothy C Batten also gave the state’s aforementioned Repubican governor Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to make their own case, if any, against allowing the inspection of the voting machines in Cobb, Gwinnett and Cherokee Counties by Wednesday evening.  

During the hearing, state administrators asserted that the forensic inspections would pose “substantial security and proprietary/trade secret risks.”  

Mayank Aggarwal has more.

I mentioned the Georgia Senate run-off earlier and here’s the latest.

Senator Kelly Loeffler, who is fighting to retain her seat against Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock, is being savagely mocked for running an ad claiming she knows what “it feels like waiting on that paycheck.”

Loeffler, you see, is married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeffrey Sprecher and is reportedly the wealthiest member of Congress with a fortune estimated at between $800m and $1bn, according to Forbes.

She was appointed to her Senate seat in December 2019 by Georgia governor Brian Kemp after Johnny Isakson resigned for health reasons, only to finish second in the election last month placing her into the runoff against Warnock.

Graeme Massie rounds up the derision.

With Dr Atlas now mercifully out of the picture, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to hold an emergency meeting to decide who gets the Covid-19 vaccine first.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices will vote on Tuesday on who should go to the top of the line once the vaccines are approved, according to CNN.

The group’s chair, Dr Jose Romero, told the outlet they were meeting ahead of states and other jurisdictions submitting their vaccine distribution plans to the US Food and Drug Administration and Operation Warp Speed by Friday.

The US has so far suffered more than 13.6m cases and 268,000 deaths from coronavirus.

Justin Vallejo has the latest.

The president-elect is reportedly considering three candidates to run his Pentagon that would be historic picks, potentially installing the first woman or black person as defence secretary.

Biden has already announced his nominees for secretary of state, director of national intelligence and homeland security secretary, among other national security Cabinet-level posts. 

But he has yet to decide on a defence secretary, though an announcement is expected in December.

John T Bennett has this look at the likely candidates.

President-elect Joe Biden has announced the most diverse team of economic advisers in US presidential history, with former Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen pegged to lead his treasury department and three other women - two of colour - given key spots in his incoming administration.

Princeton economist Cecilia Rouse will head his Council of Economic Advisers and Center for American Progress chief executive Neera Tanden is Biden’s choice to direct the Office of Management and Budget.

Yellen and Tanden’s nominations must be confirmed by the Senate. 

If Republicans keep control of the Senate after the 5 January runoffs in Georgia, Tanden’s nomination in particular could be in peril, given the longtime liberal advocate and Hillary Clinton ally has clashed with GOP senators on Capitol Hill over the years and also alienated members of her own party, notably supporters of Vermont progressive Bernie Sanders.

Griffin Connolly has more.

Rather than pushing out desperate conspiracy theories and a dye-sweating Rudy to conceal his humiliation, the president should perhaps look much closer to home if he seeks answers for his dismal performance at the polls.

James Crump has this on the waning  of the Donald’s own appeal in the final weeks of the campaign as his rambling rallies appear to have actually turned away voters instead of inspiring them.

Despite the abject failure of his Rudy Giuliani-led legal team to provide any evidence whatsoever to substantiate his claims that last month’s presidential election was “stolen” or “rigged” as part of an elaborate mass conspiracy orchestrated by the Democratic Party, the media, the FBI, local election officials, George Soros, Venezuela and Marvin the Martian, Trump is still not letting this go.

On Twitter, he spent his Monday evening retweeting abuse towards Arizona’s Republican governor Doug Ducey and his Georgia counterpart Brian Kemp, rather than, say, governing or working to stamp out the pandemic.

He even retweeted several posts from that great political heavyweight “Catturd”, whose avatar is a white feline wearing spectacles.

Perhaps the most controversial member of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr Scott Atlas, has resigned following 130 days in a role in which he contradicted public health officials, spread misinformation regarding coronavirus “herd immunity” and was flagged by Twitter for claiming that masks do not work to slow the spread of the disease that has killed thousands of Americans. 

Trump appointed the radiologist and fellow at a conservative think-tank to the task force as an adviser in August. The role was set to expire next week. 

Alex Woodward has further details.

The battleground states of Wisconsin and Arizona  finally certified Joe Biden as the winner of their presidential election races on Monday, a month on from ballots being cast, as Donald Trump prepares to launch yet more legal challenges to contest the outcome.

The Wisconsin Election Commission determined Biden’s win by about 20,700 votes a day after completing a partial recount and just hours after Arizona also certified its result in favour of the Democrat.

Trump has nevertheless vowed to file a lawsuit to overturn the results by attempting to disqualify up to 238,000 ballots, saying the Wisconsin recount was not about finding mistakes but finding people who voted illegally.

Justin Vallejo has this report.

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the outgoing Donald Trump administration and the presidential transition as Joe Biden prepares for government.