Don Jr tests positive, as his father dodges media questions
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump held a press conference on Friday to discuss prescription drug prices, but the moment also included him falsely claiming “he won” the 2020 election while accusing Moderna and Pfizer of working to stop his re-election efforts. The two pharmaceutical companies announced their coronavirus vaccines were 90 per cent or more effective against the novel virus following the election.
The press conference was actually not a press conference because the president took no questions. His decision not to take questions potentially came after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held her press briefing since 1 October on Friday.
Ms McEnany, who defended Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the election, was heckled by one reporter during the briefing over her inability to accept the election results. She also entered into a verbal spat with a CNN reporter, whom she called an “activist”, after refusing to answer more questions.
This comes after Mr Trump was told to to move aside by Republican senator Lamar Alexander, who said on Friday that the US president should allow the transition to a Biden administration to take place after more than two weeks of delay. Sources close to the president suggested that his refusal to concede was, in part, an act of revenge on Democrats who investigated Russian interference in his 2016 win over Hillary Clinton.
And later in the day it was confirmed that the president’s son, Don Jr, had tested positive for coronavirus and was quarantining.
Trump campaign withdraws from Michigan lawsuit
In a statement on Thursday, the Trump campaign said it was withdrawing its last remaining legal challenge in Michigan, after the president earlier championed two GOP officials who reversed their decision to certify results in Wayne County - the state’s most populous county, and home to a population that is 80 per cent Black American.
“We are withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan as a direct result of achieving the relief we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured every legal vote has counted and every illegal vote has not been counted,,” said the statement,
There are, however, no such concepts as a “premature” confirmation of election results, and no proof of so called “illegal” ballots", as claimed by the president and his allies.
Calls grow for Lindsay Graham to resign over Georgia ballot claims
Lindsey Graham has laughed off calls for him to resign after he reportedly pressured the Georgia secretary of state to throw out legally-cast ballots.
The South Carolina senator, one of Donald Trump's staunchest allies, was accused on Monday by Brad Raffensperger, the Republican in charge of Georgia's voting, of calling him and asking him to reject some ballots.
Ilhan Omar, congresswoman for Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, representing Michigan, joined the chorus of condemnation and demanded Mr Graham resign.
Harriet Alexander has the report:
Lindsey Graham mocks calls for his resignation over election interference
The veteran South Carolina senator said he ‘must be doing something right’ when he angered Democrats with his call to Georgia’s top election official
Not one success for Trump claims in court
An update on the status of all 30 lawsuits tied to Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud, according to NBC News, shows not one success in proving the existence of fraud, or reversing the election result.
Still, he tries.
Later on Thursday, lawyers representing the president’s campaign will announce a so-called legal plan for a “path to victory” for Mr Trump, who claimed his election challenges were "falling nicely".
We are now sixteen days past the election, and twelve days past Joe Biden’s projection as the overall winner by all major US media outlets.
Michigan state secretary says ‘no way’ for Republicans to rescind vote
The president’s campaign on Thursday said the decision by two Republicans to rescind their certification of ballots in the state’s most populous county, Wayne, was the reason behind the withdrawal of a legal challenge against statewide results.
But, hours earlier, a spokesperson for Michigan’s secretary of state shot down the prospect, and said: "There is no legal mechanism for them to rescind their vote,"
"Their job is done and the next step in the process is for the Board of State Canvassers to meet and certify."
The two Republicans, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, said they were promised that an independent audit of the votes would be conducted if they voted to approve results, and that they had been pressured into reversing on their initial desire to block the certification, according to reports.
Trump called Michigan’s Wayne County Board of Canvassers, reports
A day later they signed an affidavits saying they regret their votes to certify the election, after reversing their decision not to certify the results a day earlier.
This via White House correspondent Peter Alexander, who in a tweet thread said Monica Palmer told him her work on the canvas is not attached to her support for the president.
“The President and I did not discuss rescission or anything like that... my conversation with the President was about threats coming from the public and my safety," she told him.
Is this a preview of Trump’s press conference?
Breath is bated and corn is popped for the “path to victory” press conference from Donald Trump’s lawyers momentarily, but the president may be giving a preview of the strategy.
Trump has been tweeting out the inside scoop over the past two hours, which so far amounts to One American News Network (OANN) sees dead people and Georgia will flip republican. And fraud is rampant in Detroit, where the campaign just dropped a lawsuit.
Biden reaches out to governors as Trump stymies transition
Joe Biden’s meeting Thursday with a group of Democratic and Republican governors is his latest attempt to fight through President Donald Trump’s unprecedented attempt to block the president-elect’s transition to power.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris planned a virtual session in the afternoon with the National Governors Association’s leadership team, which includes five Republicans and four Democrats. All the Democrats and a majority of the Republicans involved have acknowledged Biden as the winner of the White House election.
One expected participant, Governor Larry Hogan, R-Md., told The Associated Press recently that Trump’s wild and unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud were “dangerous” and “embarrassing.”
The highest-ranking Republican on the NGA’s executive committee, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, said over the weekend that Biden would be the next president and he called on the Trump administration to give Biden access to the intelligence briefings he needs in order to be fully prepared to lead the country on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.
So far, the governors have not swayed the Republican president. AP
Watch: Trump’s lawyers outline its ‘clear path’ to winning the election
Tune in live with The Independent to watch Rudy Giuliani’s “path to victory” press conference.
It’s the hottest ticket in town.
Rudy Giuliani starts press conference
“We will present in brief the evidence we have collected over the last, I guess, two weeks,” he says.
White House getting the coronavirus band back together
The once-abundant, since-redundant coronavirus taskforce is making a comeback tour.
The White House announced the task force will hold a press conference this afternoon to talk about all the good things happening lately in the Covid space.
No word on whether original band members doctors Anthony Fauci or Deborah Birx will join the reunion and play some of their back catalogue/
But it’s a good bet Dr Scott Atlas will be on lead riffing their new stuff.
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