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
Report: Trump drops Arizona ballot lawsuit
It’s the latest setback after a law firm working for the campaign dropped out of the suit on Tuesday.
More from Josh Marcus.
Trump reportedly drops Arizona ballot lawsuit as gap grows wider
It’s the latest setback after a law firm working for the campaign dropped out of the suit earlier this week
Geraldo: Trump not ‘plotting the overthrow of the elected government’
Speaking on Fox News after his conversation with Donald Trump today, Geraldo Rivera said: "I got no impression that he was plotting the overthrow of the elected government."
I guess that’s good news.
However, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner still wants to know when the president might get around to doing the job of governing the nation as the coronavirus pandemic spirals out of control across the entire country.
We may find out at 4pm’s press briefing.
Here’s the clip from Fox News.
‘Voter fraud’ hotline shutdown after being swamped with prank calls
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign was forced to shutter a hotline it created in recent days to field allegations of voter fraud after it had become the subject of viral pranks and ridicule among critics.
Chris Riotta reports.
Trump forced to drop ‘voter fraud’ hotline after it was swamped by prank calls from teenagers on TikTok
President has no path to overturn the results of the election despite his continued attacks on the democratic process
Networks call Georgia for Biden
NBC, ABC and CNN have called Georgia for Joe Biden adding the final blue to their election results maps.
North Carolina was also called for Donald Trump.
This puts the final electoral college vote count at 306 to 232, which is exactly the result that Mr Trump and his team referred to as a landslide in 2016.
The difference is that this time, Mr Biden won the popular vote by several million.
Here’s the final map from CNN.
Trump praises supporters mulls rally appearance
Donald Trump has thanked his supporters for the ‘organic rallies springing up all over the country’.
He also proposed possibly stopping by the ‘Million MAGA march’ in Washington on Saturday.
The president then said "the election was rigged, from Dominion all the way up & down".
His tweet was flagged by Twitter for its claim about election fraud.
Jimmy Kimmel: Trump may soon learn what it’s like to be evicted in the middle of a pandemic
"One reason that Trump’s advisors are so worried he might not be able to win is because he lost," quipped the late night talk show host.
Jimmy Kimmel says Trump will learn ‘what it feels like to be evicted during a pandemic’
‘One reason that Trump’s advisors are so worried he might not be able to win is because he lost’
Trump supporters pull down anti-Trump signs
More from near the White House.
The most secure [but rigged] election ever
Missed this earlier and now I have whiplash.
The election was both "rigged" and the “most secure in American history”. OK.
Which is it?
New statement from Dominion Voting Systems
Following Donald Trump’s allegations regarding voter fraud and the company, Dominion Voting Systems has released a statement categorically denying assertions about vote switching issues with its voting systems, calling them completely false.
The company says:
An unsubstantiated claim about the deletion of 2.7 million pro-Trump votes that was posted on the internet and spread on social media has been taken down and debunked by independent fact-checkers.
Edison Research (ER) has refuted any claims that company data suggests any voting irregularities, including vote switching. ER President Larry Rosin told The Dispatch Fact Check: "Edison Research created no such report and we are not aware of any voter fraud."
Claims that 941,000 votes for President Trump in Pennsylvania were deleted are impossible, as Dominion only serves 14 Commonwealth counties. Collectively, those Counties produced 1.3 million votes representing a voter turnout of 76%. Fifty-two percent of those votes went to President Trump, which amounts to 676,000 votes the company's system processed for the president in Pennsylvania.
The company also reiterated that it is a non-partisan US company and is not connected to leading Democrats nor Venezuela; said that its tabulated ballots and results are 100 per cent auditable; denied any last -minute software upgrades; and said there were no issues with the use of Sharpie pens.
Finally, Dominion said that assertions of voter fraud conspiracies are 100 per cent false.
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