President lauds Operation Warp Speed success but says New York will have to wait for vaccine
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump broke his eight day silence with an update on Operation Warp Speed, the project to distribute a vaccine when it is approved by the Food & Drug Administration.
The Rose Garden briefing comes on the day that most networks finally called Georgia for Joe Biden and North Carolina for the president, putting the electoral college votes at 306 to 232 in favour of the Democrat.
In a slight verbal stumble, the president came close to acknowledging that the administration may be in its last days. No formal statement was made regarding the election result. He did not answer any questions.
Trump is being tipped to announce a fresh presidential run in 2024 as he continues to refuse to acknowledge his election defeat to Mr Biden, now president-elect and preparing for government as Mr Trump fires out conspiracy theories in angry tweets from the Oval Office.
The president has meanwhile been branded an “elixir of racial anxiety” by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in an advanced extract from the latter’s new memoir A Promised Land, reflecting on the toxic political undercurrent the former real estate mogul and reality TV star was able to capitalise on to win the White House in 2016.
Mr Obama has also made his first remarks on the current undemocratic impasse in Washington, telling Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes that the Republican Party is “humouring” the incumbent in his delusional rejection of the outcome and taking the country down “a dangerous path”.
• Read more: Follow live updates in our dedicated election liveblog
McConnell tries to paint Trump’s election fraud claims as normal
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not backing away from his attempts to paint Donald Trump’s unprecedentedly litigious reaction to losing the US presidential election as normal.
There’s “no reason for alarm,” the majority leader told reporters on Tuesday at the Capitol.
“Until the electoral college votes, anyone who's running for office can exhaust concerns about counting in any court of appropriate jurisdiction,” Mr McConnell said. “That’s not unusual. That should not be alarming.”
The majority leader continued: “At some point here we'll find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states. And the electoral college will determine the winner. And that person will be sworn in on January 20. No reason for alarm.”
The Independent’s Griffin Connolly reports.
McConnell tries to paint Trump’s election fraud claims as normal
President’s post-election hysteria about election fraud is ‘not unusual,’ majority leader says of unprecedented claims of widespread fraud from his party
Trump to launch leadership PAC after departure from White House
Donald Trump has set up a leadership political action committee (PAC) to enable him to fundraise and maintain his influence within the Republican party even when he departs the White House, reports say.
Trump campaign spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, told The New York Times the initiative has been in the works for a while and that Mr Trump intended to set up the committee whether or not he won the election.
“The president always planned to do this, win or lose, so he can support candidates and issues he cares about, such as combating voter fraud,” Mr Murtaugh told the newspaper.
A leadership PAC is a political committee that is established and maintained by current and former members of Congress as well as other prominent political figures.
The Independent’s Louise Hall reports.
Trump to launch leadership PAC after departure from White House
‘He’s going to insert himself in the national debate in a way that’s unlike any of his predecessors’
Trump’s election results-bashing tweets erodes trust among loyalists, study finds
Donald Trump’s tweets attacking the US presidential election’s legitimacy does have some impact on his supporters, a new study finds.
Researchers led by a Stanford University political scientist examined such tweets by Mr Trump, and found “virtually no evidence that exposure to election-related or general norm violations substantially affects respect for trust in elections, election norms, support for political violence, or support for democracy.”
“We also find no significant differences in effect between the election and norm violation treatments,” they wrote.
The Independent’s Washington Bureau Chief John T Bennett reports.
Trump’s election results-bashing tweets erodes trust among loyalists, study finds
But researchers admit their study has ‘important limitations’ as president continues attacking election results
Mary Trump says her uncle is attempting a coup on departure from White House
Mary Trump, the estranged niece of Donald Trump, has called the president's reaction to the election an “attempted coup”.
Ms Trump, a clinical psychologist and vocal critic of the president, has publicly spoken out over the predicament her estranged uncle faces amid diminishing re-election prospects.
“President-elect Joe Biden won legitimately and decisively. No matter how much Donald and his enablers lie and spin, nothing will change that,” she said in a tweet on Sunday night.
“But they're going to break as much as they can on the way out. Stay vigilant--this is an attempted coup.”
Louise Hall reports.
Mary Trump says her uncle is attempting a coup on departure from White House
'They're going to break as much as they can on the way out’
Trump stays hidden in White House firing Pentagon officials
Donald Trump has sequestered himself in the White House for days as he begins purging senior officials following the presidential election, according to reports.
Fox News’ White House correspondent John Roberts said the press pool has not seen Trump since he last spoke on Thursday.
“I have to say that it is unusual that we have not seen the president in some shape of form in person talking about what’s on his mind,” he added.
While he hasn’t made public appearances, the president has been firing senior Pentagon officials beginning with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday. He was followed by chief of staff Jen Steward, and undersecretary of defence, vice admiral Joseph Kernan, according to reporter Jennifer Griffin.
Trump campaign layoffs begin despite RNC support for president’s electoral fraud allegations
The Republican National Committee has begun a round of layoffs of staff brought on for the election campaign, even as Donald Trump continues to dispute the results.
Despite being in a fundraising drive to challenge Joe Biden’s victory, the layoffs were announced on Monday, blindsiding staff, CNN reports.
Most of the layoffs are of staffers assigned to the RNC-Trump Victory program, a joint fundraising venture between the party and the Trump campaign, which served as the field program in the run-up to the election.
A “large portion of staff” were laid off according to the report — something to be expected after an election, but not an encouraging sign given the party’s apparent wish to pursue legal challenges to results in certain states.
Oliver O’Connell reports.
Watch: Biden blasts Trump’s ‘needlessly divisive’ attempt to overturn Obamacare
"This doesn’t need to be a partisan issue, it’s a human issue," Biden said in remarks from Delaware on Tuesday. He said the president’s effort to “bypass the will of the American people” is "simply cruel and needlessly divisive."
Biden was condemning attempts to overturn the Affordable Care Act hours after the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in a case from Donald Trump and Republican allies to dismantle the landmark healthcare law.
The future of US healthcare – and insurance coverage for millions of Americans who lost their employer-back plans following mass layoffs and business closures in the wake of the coronavirus crisis – emerged as a central campaign issue in the presidential race.
The Independent’s Alex Woodward has more.
Biden defends Obamacare as Trump takes healthcare law to Supreme Court
President-elect renews pledge to expand on healthcare law as administration dealt a blow at nation’s high court
There’s always a tweet
But this time, let’s flip the script and instead of trawling through the president’s timeline to resurface old tweets lets look at Joe Biden.
This one went viral today for reasons.
Trump administration still hiring for a second term
Nothing if not confident?
Despite Joe Biden being the projected winner of the presidential election, the Trump White House is still vetting new job applicants.
Quoting two sources familiar with the situation, The Daily Beast is reporting that the White House Presidential Personnel Officers is vetting candidates for job openings to be filled early in 2021. They are even contacting references and conducting background checks, the outlet reported.
Donald Trump has not conceded the election and will contest the count in key swing states before results are certified.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that federal agencies had been instructed to continue as normal. And then there was, of course, this zinger from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier today.
‘George’ Secretary of State gets a stern talking to
Republican members of congress sent a letter to the Secretary of State for George on Tuesday.
While it’s unclear whether this is addressed to the secretary for George Bush, George Washington or George Clooney, it is clear that Georgia’s Republican leadership are concerned about voting irregularities.
Someone may want to forward this missive onto the Secretary of State for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, who may be better placed to respond.
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