Don Jr tests positive, as his father dodges media questions

Rudy Giuliani’s leaking hair dye is the gift that keeps on giving.

Giuliani, 76, was visibly affected by the bright camera lights in the small room, within the RNC headquarters.

Sweating profusely, he repeatedly wiped his brow. Dark brown streaks started running down his cheeks.

A person running the Trump campaign's feed of the press conference could be heard saying: "Can they hear us on the stream?"

They then began talking about "Rudy's hair dye dripping down his face."

The Independent’s Harriet Alexander investigates.

Donald Trump’s move to withdraw more US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan once again exposed the wedge he has driven in the Republican party on US foreign policy in the Middle East over the last four years, with the GOP’s pro-intervention establishment on one side and its isolationist faction on the other.

And if the recent comments of House and Senate Republican leaders assailing the president’s latest troop drawdown are any indication, that rift isn’t healing anytime soon.

The Independent’s Griffin Connolly reports.

“We have evidence that this came from Venezuela, from Nicolas Maduro, from Hugo Chavez, from Cuba, and from China which has significant interests in Venezuela,” said Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell.

“We have no idea how many Democratic officials paid to have the election rigged in their favour. This is a massive, well-coordinated effort. It is the 1775 of our generation and beyond.”

Donald Trump’s election fraud lawyers – who describe themselves as an “elite strike force team” – have alleged that the vote was hacked and ballots switched from the president to Joe Biden, thanks to technology developed in Venezuela.

Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, leading the team, said that the election had been rigged by “a company owned by affiliates of Chavez and Maduro”.

They were angered by the use of Dominion, a Canadian company, which uses technology from a Venezuelan firm, Smartmatic.

The Independent’s Harriet Alexander peels back the onion.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised Americans to not travel for the Thanksgiving holiday amid a surge in coronavirus cases.  

"We're seeing exponential growth in cases," CDC Covid-19 incident manager Dr Henry Walke said. "The opportunity to translocate disease or infection from one part of the country to another leads to our recommendation to avoid travel at this time."

“We’re alarmed,” he added, referencing the increase in cases, hospitalisations, and deaths. “What we’re concerned about is not only the actual mode of travel – whether it’s an airplane or bus or car – but also the transportation hubs we’re concerned about, as well.” 

Danielle Zoellner has more.

Lawmakers have expressed fury over President Donald Trump’s refusal to comply with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team on coronavirus vaccine distribution efforts, saying the failure to cooperate could be “potentially catastrophic” for the country.

The Trump administration’s vaccine distribution team said it had not briefed anyone involved with the transition about its efforts during a conference call on Thursday, Senator Chris Murphy (D—CT) said in a statement, adding that they “have no plans to do so” despite calls from Mr Biden and others to comply with the process.

“First, there needs to be an integration between Trump's team and Biden's team to assure a clean hand-off of a complicated distribution plan,” the Democratic senator wrote in a tweet. “Second, Biden will likely want to improve the plan, but he can't do that effectively if he isn't read into ahead of time.”

Chris Riotta reports.

After the Trump campaign withdrew one of its lawsuits in Michigan earlier today, lawyer Rudy Giuliani said during their “path to victory” press conference that it was withdrawn because they had already achieved the injunctive relief they sought.

That relief was to halt certification of the election results in Wayne County. After the vote to certify was gridlocked, the two Republicans on the board changed their votes before changing back, signing affidavits saying they were under duress for the first change to go ahead and certify.

Michigan says too late, the certification can’t be taken back. But that’ll likely be the subject of another legal challenge.

It’s a thicket of legal challenges that will further bog down certification which, ultimately, could be the point.

For Trump’s part, the Michigan suit was pulled because they “won!”. Now, he has also said he won Michigan. But that was before the lawsuit. So withdrawing the lawsuit because they won, is apparently a backing of Giuliani’s position that it was withdrawn because the results weren’t certified. Which, again, could be the point entirely.  

If that case, the “we” and “won” in “we won” is highly subjective.

President-elect Joe Biden has suggested Republicans in Congress are stalling on a coronavirus stimulus package because they fear retribution from Donald Trump.

The incoming commander-in-chief said he hopes Democrats and Republicans can make more progress on a deal when Mr Trump leaves office in January.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have so far failed to agree terms on further legislation aimed at helping Americans struggling through the pandemic.

Democrats have proposed a package worth $2.2 trillion, which Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked.

Matt Mathers has more.

It’s the story that just won’t, ahem… die.

Voices were heard mocking Rudy Giuliani’s leaking hair dye on the Trump campaign’s livestream of the “path to victory” press conference.

Given it was the campaign’s live stream, it was seemingly the campaign video team staffers having a chortle at the expense of America’s mayor.

FAKE NEWS! They were hacked, according to the Team Trump twitter account.

“The extra voices heard on a portion of our press conference livestream were NOT campaign employees,” they said.

“Our operators got disconnected, and when they re-connected, the keys were momentarily visible. Unauthorized users used them to get in & their voices were overheard on the stream.”

These virtual Zoom meetings are dangerous. At least those hackers weren’t overheard in an unauthorized Toobin.

The coronavirus taskforce will begin its briefing at the White House shortly. Follow live with The Independent .

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has signalled that he and fellow Republicans would “accept” the results of the 2020 election even if Donald Trump has lost, a subtle divergence from the president’s position.

“At the end of the day, when every legal vote is counted, when every recount is finished, and every legal challenge is heard — yeah, people will accept what the results are,” Mr McCarthy, the California Republican, told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

Mr McCarthy did not qualify his statement with whether he believed Mr Trump’s ongoing legal challenges to ballot-counting in key swing states such as Georgia or Michigan would result in the reversal of the president’s projected fortunes, which currently have him losing to President-elect Joe Biden.

Griffin Connolly has more.