Don Jr tests positive, as his father dodges media questions

The Independent’s Richard Hall writes Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has become a lightning rod for attacks from his own party. 

“Faced with a barrage of misinformation over the election results from the White House and pressure from his fellow Republicans, the 65-year-old has held his ground and repeatedly assured the public that the vote in Georgia was free and fair and that no systemic fraud has been uncovered… Raffensperger, a civil engineer who founded and ran his own firm before running for his current post in 2018, has responded in kind.”

Getting nowhere in the courts, President Donald Trump s scattershot effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory is shifting toward obscure election boards that certify the vote as Trump and his allies seek to upend the electoral process, sow chaos and perpetuate unsubstantiated doubts about the count.

The battle is centered in the battleground states that sealed Biden's win.

In Michigan, two Republican election officials in the state's largest county initially refused to certify results despite no evidence of fraud. In Arizona officials are balking at signing off on vote tallies in a rural county.

The moves don’t reflect a coordinated effort across the battleground states that broke for Biden, local election officials said. Instead, they seem to be inspired by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about baseless fraud and driven by Republican acquiescence to broadsides against the nation’s electoral system as state and federal courts push aside legal challenges filed by Trump and his allies.

Still, what happened in Wayne County, Michigan, on Tuesday was a jarring reminder of the disruptions that can still be caused as the nation works through the process of affirming the outcome of the 3 November election.

Catholics split almost evenly in supporting Donald Trump or Joe Biden in the presidential election. Now they’re sharply divided over a declaration by the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that the president-elect's support for abortion rights presents the church with a “difficult and complex situation.”

The USCCB’s president, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, made that statement Tuesday near the close of the conference’s national meeting and announced the formation of a working group of bishops to assess the dilemma. Some experts said it's possible the group will discuss whether Biden — a practicing Roman Catholic — should be barred from partaking in Holy Communion.

Catholic anti-abortion activists hope the bishops follow through with tough words and action, making clear that Catholic politicians who support abortion are in breach of church teaching.

Biden’s policy agenda “is incompatible with the Catholic position on abortion and the protection of innocent human life,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B Anthony List, a leading anti-abortion group.

When Kamala Harris returned to the Senate this week for the first time as vice president-elect, her Republican colleagues offered their congratulations and Sen. Lindsey Graham greeted her with a fist bump.

It was a sign that many Republicans have privately acknowledged what they refuse to say openly: Democrat Joe Biden and Harris won the election and will take office in January.

The GOP's public silence on the reality of Biden's victory amounts to tacit approval of Trump s baseless claims of election fraud. That has significant repercussions, delaying the transition during a deadly pandemic, sowing public doubt and endangering Biden’s ability to lead the portion of the country that may question his legitimacy.

“The real-world consequences are perilous,” said Eddie Glaude, chair of the Department of African American studies at Princeton University. “The long-term implications are calcifying the doubt about the election and what that means for the body politic. It could lead to half the country not just being deeply suspicious of the democratic process but also actively hostile toward it. It becomes difficult to imagine how we move forward.”

Arguing that the results of the presidential election are defective, Donald Trump’s campaign has asked a judge in Pennsylvania to declare him the winner in the state and allow the Republican-led state legislature to decide which way it will allocate its 20 electoral college votes. 

It’s a tall order - not least because he is trailing the state by more than 80,000 votes.

Donald Trump's campaign committed $3m on Wednesday in order to request a partial recount of votes in the state of Wisconsin to look into "irregularities" in the state, where Joe Biden is leading by over 20,000 votes.  

It’s now confirmed that the Republican is only asking for a recount in two Democrat-leaning counties, Milwaukee and Dane, after baulking at the $8m cost of a state-wide recount.

The Trump campaign’s senior legal adviser, Jenna Ellis, previously slammed the president as a narcissistic “idiot," a “bully,” and someone who “really cannot be trusted to be consistent or accurate in anything,” according to CNN’s KFile. 

Now Ms Ellis is spearheading the president’s attempts to challenge election results around the country, which are rooted in a baseless conspiracy theory that mass fraud prevented him from winning. 

Josh Marcus has the story:

Joe Biden’s team have accused the Republican president of ‘cherry picking’ Milwaukee and Dane counties for a recount in Wisconsin, which is due to begin on Friday. 

Milwaukee County is the state's largest, home to the city of Milwaukee, and Black Americans make up about 27 per cent of the population, more than any other county. 

Dane County, meanwhile, is home to the liberal capital city of Madison and the flagship University of Wisconsin campus.

"The official canvass results reaffirmed Joe Biden's clear and resounding win in Wisconsin after Wisconsin voters turned out to cast their ballots in record numbers," said Biden campaign spokesman Nate Evans. 

"A cherry-picked and selective recounting of Milwaukee and Dane County will not change these results."

Mr Biden received 577,455 votes in those two counties compared with 213,157 for Mr Trump, while the Democrat won statewide by 20,608 votes, based on canvassed results submitted by the counties.

The recounts, which must be completed 1 December, are not expected to change the outcome of results in either county, or the state of Wisconsin, despite president Trump’s allegations of a “rigged” election against him.

The Associated Press

Speaking ahead of Georgia finalising its statewide recount on Thursday, the state’s Republican election chief provided a stark warning for those whose repeated and unfounded claims of fraud were amounting to the "emotional abuse" of voters, and that those pushing such allegations "should be ashamed".

“There’s just people who are really angry and they’re being spun up… It’s really the spinners that should be ashamed for playing with people’s emotions," Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger told The Hill.

"Politicians of both sides should never play with people’s emotions. It’s one thing to motivate people, I get that. 

Mr Raffensperger, who has faced pressure from Republicans to resign, has repeatedly clashed with Donald Trump over his refusal to concede the election and unsubstantiated claims about widespread “irregularities”. 

Mr Biden is due to retain a lead of more than 10,000 votes in the state, when the results of the recount are announced.

Georgia has until Friday to certify the results of its hand tally of about 5 million votes, that stemmed from an audit required by a new state law.

Announcing the recount last week, Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, said the recount would “help build confidence” in the results, which showed a slim margin between the two presidential candidates.  

Despite claims from Donald Trump and his allies of election fraud, the recount wasn't called in response to any suspected problems with the state's results or an official recount request, while a state audit of its election systems has shown no irregularities. 

Counties in the state were due to complete the recounts by 11:59pm on Wednesday, with a statewide report set to be announced on Thursday.

Mr Trump, who is expected to still lose the state to Joe Biden, would then be able to request a recount, under state election law, if the margin is below 0.5 per cent.