Networks call Georgia for Biden as security officials say vote was ‘secure’

Biden seeks to move quickly and build out his administration

Joe Biden signaled on Sunday he plans to move quickly to build out his government, focusing first on the raging pandemic that will likely dominate the early days of his administration.

Biden named a former surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, David Kessler, as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group set to get started, with other members expected to be announced Monday.

Transition team officials said that also this week Biden will launch his agency review teams, the group of transition staffers that have access to key agencies in the current administration to ease the transfer of power. The teams will collect and review information such as budgetary and staffing decisions, pending regulations and other work in progress from current staff at the departments to help Biden’s team prepare to transition.

“People want the country to move forward,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden deputy campaign manager, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press, and see Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris “have the opportunity to do the work, to get the virus under control and to get our economy back together.” - AP

BREAKING: Melania Trump weighs in on whether president will concede of fight on

Anonymous sources had been quoted saying the First Lady was pushing Donald Trump to accept the election loss.

But Ms Trump just signaled her support for the president’s impending legal battle to contest the results of the 2020 election.

“The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal - not illegal - vote should be counted. We must protect our democracy with complete transparency,” she said in a tweet.

Twitter immediately flags Trumps first six tweets as misleading on day after Biden’s win

Twitter immediately flagged all six of Donald Trump’s first tweets of the day as possibly misleading on Sunday, one day after his rival Joe Biden  was declared the winner of the US presidential election.  

On Sunday morning, the president used Twitter to lash out further at the electoral process and promote continued baseless claims of election fraud by posting quotes attributed to Newt Gingrich and a legal analyst.

All six of the posts were flagged by the social media platform within an hour of their publication by the president, with small blue exclamation points appearing underneath the post to alert users.  

Four of the tweets show a warning underneath by Twitter which reads “this claim about election fraud is disputed” while the other two display a different message that reads: “learn how voting by mail is safe and secure”.

The Independent’s Louise Hall reports.

Trump will lose special Twitter protections in January

Donald Trump will be subject to the same Twitter Inc rules as any other user when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on 20 January, the social media company confirmed this week.

Twitter places “public interest” notices on some rule-breaking tweets from “world leaders” that would otherwise be removed. Such tweets from political candidates and elected or government officials are instead hidden by a warning and Twitter takes actions to restrict their reach.

But the company said this treatment does not apply to former office holders.

“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement.

It has added multiple warnings and labels to tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account, including many since Tuesday’s election that made unfounded allegations of voting fraud. It first hid one of his tweets behind a “public interest” label in May when the president violated the company’s policy against glorifying violence. - Reuters

Trump has questions - since when has media called the election?

And the country has learned a lot. Just not whether Trump will conceed or fight on in court.

Watch: Fox News reporter in Times Square drowned out by people chanting 'F*** Donald Trump'

“Alex Hogan there at Times Square. A little tough to understand amidst the noise. We’ll check back.”

A Fox News reporter was drowned out during a live broadcast in Times Square, Manhattan, as people chanted “F*** Donald Trump.”

On Saturday evening, groups of people flooded to the streets of New York City to celebrate the announcement that Joe Biden had won the US election, after being projected to amass the 270 electoral college votes needed to beat Donald Trump.

During the celebrations, Fox News’ Alex Hogan was reporting live from Times Square, as residents cheered around her.

The Independent’s James Crump has more.

The curious case of Kushner's concessions

Jared Kushner has become the centre of the "will he or won't he" game trying to figure out if Donald Trump will concede or challenge the election results.

Quoting multiple anonymous sources, competing media narratives have been saying that Mr Kushner has been privately compelling the president to concede while also compelling him to fight on in the courts.

The most recent source close to Kushner told Axios that he has advised Mr Trump to pursue "legal remedies" to the election, with a second source close the president's son-in-law confirming he had not advised Trump to concede.  

The outlet reported that there were "awkward conversations" happening around Mr Trump, but that the president is still insisting he won with several advisers pushing for the legal fight.

The New York Times also reported that Mr Kushner was among the minority of the president's advisers who "doubted that Mr Biden was likely to win" and was leading the team to contest vote counts.

It comes after CNN reported earlier that two anonymous sources said Mr Kushner approached the president about conceding, with a third source saying that Melania Trump privately advised her husband the time had come to accept the election loss.

Melania on Sunday gave a public showing of support for her husband, saying in a tweet, saying “Every legal - not illegal - vote should be counted”. 

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has publically maintained that they're going to continue the legal challenge and file more lawsuits on Monday.

Campaign adviser Jason Miller denied CNN's reporting on Monday and said he was directing Mr Trump towards legal action.

Iran's Zarif calls on neighbours to cooperate following Trump's defeat

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on his country’s neighbours to cooperate in achieving common interests, following U.S President Donald Trump’s defeat in the presidential election.

“Trump is gone, and we and our neighbours will stay. Betting on foreigners does not bring security, and disappoints. We extend our hands to our neighbours to cooperate in achieving the common interests of our peoples and countries. We call on everyone to embrace dialogue as the only way to end differences and tensions. Together to build a better future for our region,” Zarif Tweeted in Arabic late on Sunday. - Reuters

Romney predicts Trump will eventually ‘accept the inevitable’ that Biden won election

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Donald Trump, despite having a "relaxed relationship with the truth", will eventually "accept the inevitable" — that Joe Biden is the president-elect.

"The president doesn't have a choice. People think, 'Can we remove him from office?' You don't have to remove him from office," Mr Romney said on CNN. "If he does not win on a legitimate basis, he ceases to be the president when Joe Biden is sworn in."

“You’re not gonna change the nature of President Trump in these last days, apparently, of his presidency,” he said. “He is who he is. And he has a relatively relaxed relationship with the truth and so he’s gonna keep on fighting until the very end.”

The Independent’s Washington Bureau Chief John T Bennett has the full story.

‘I saw Donald Trump’s presidency come crashing down at Four Seasons Total Landscaping’

The Trump presidency ended in the parking lot of a landscaping company next to an adult bookstore. The Independent’s Richard Hall was there.