Networks call Georgia for Biden as security officials say vote was ‘secure’
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Your support makes all the difference.As Donald Trump continues to refuse conceding the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden, the president-elect was said to have spoken with Senate Republicans who have begun to admit he should at least receive intelligence briefings that have so far been denied.
On Friday afternoon most networks called Georgia for Mr Biden and North Carolina for Mr Trump bringing their respective electoral college vote totals to 306 to 232.
US federal and state cybersecurity officials, meanwhile, have delivered a direct rebuke to Donald Trump, who continues to allege irregularities and widespread fraud without evidence.
Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the 3 November vote was “the most secure in history" in a report published Thursday, and added that Americans should trust the result. His agency had not find any evidence of ballots being lost, deleted or altered, he said.
Watch: The moment Fox News called the election and ended the Trump love affair
“The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former vice-president Joe Biden will win Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting him over the 270 electoral votes he needs to become the 46th President of the United States,” Fox anchor Bret Baier said.
Shortly after the Associated Press and CNN declared Joe Biden as the president-elect, conservative network Fox News announced that Donald Trump had lost the 2020 US election.
Fox News, often cited as Mr Trump’s favourite television network, called the election for the Democratic candidate after four days of vote-counting in several swing states.
The Independent’s James Crump reports.
The moment Fox News called the election and ended the Trump love affair
He ‘will be denied a second term’ says Martha MacCallum
Joe Biden’s moves suggest he will not wait for a Trump concession that might not come
President-elect Joe Biden is not waiting on Donald Trump to concede the election, moving ahead with an agenda that includes assembling his own coronavirus task force and addressing climate change.
Mr Biden is expected to formally announce his Covid-19 group on Monday after attending church services on Sunday and then retreating to his Wilmington, Delaware, home to get deeper into transition planning. The White House is not expected to begin cooperating with the Biden team, as is custom once a sitting president has conceded a loss.
As the incoming administration gets to work, progressives like New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are making waves and – less than 24 hours after he was declared the winner – defying his calls for national unity and bipartisan compromise in Washington. As she defended her liberal policy whims on cable news on Sunday, Mr Biden’s team was already trying to hold together what promises to be a wobbly and bickering House Democratic caucus.
The Independent’s Washington Bureau Chief, John T Bennet, has reports.
Biden’s moves suggest he will not wait for a Trump concession that might not come
President golfs and raises money for legal fees as he presses ahead with legal challenges in several swing states
Trump calls a ‘lid’ after a Sunday of golf
In a striking turnaround from before the election, the White House has called a “lid” for the second day as Joe Biden, the previous leader of lids, moves forward with plans to assume the presidency.
Donald Trump’s lid was called on his way back from a 4+ hour round of golf, meaning there aren’t any in-person appearances or news to be expected from the president for the rest of the day.
“DECLASSIFY EVERYTHING!!!” says Trump Jr
Seemingly sensing the end, Don Jr is calling for a declassification of everything.
Everything, as one might imagine, includes an awful lot.
Here is a top 5 wish list:
- UFOs - The truth is out there
- Who killed JFK – so we can stop watching the movie
- Who killed Jeffrey Epstein - because seriously
- Where is the edge of this flat earth
- Who built the pyramids - See #1
Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is not backing down
With Donald Trump quiet (or, at least a little quieter) this weekend, his spokesperson, Kayleigh McEnany, is doing a lot of the president’s heavy lifting. And she is digging in her heels for a fight.
“We were called deplorable, irredeemable CHUMPS! Now we are expected to roll over & unite behind Joe Biden without asking questions? NOPE!!”
Where is Mike Pence? VP missing in action as Trump administration rejects election loss
Whereas he appeared on the campaign trail with Donald Trump right up to the eve of election day, Mike Pence has kept a low profile in public since the results began filtering in – and even as the Trump administration fought back hard against indications the president was losing.
And the day after the race was called for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the vice president’s public schedule appeared to be empty. He has not tweeted since the race was called.
At the time of writing, this makes him somewhat unusual among the president’s allies.
The Independent’s Andrew Naughtie asks where the VP has gone.
Where is Mike Pence?
In the days after Donald Trump lost the election, his vice president appeared to go to ground
What will Melania Trump do next?
If you were a fly on the wall of the White House, where on Saturday would you have wanted to be?
Not watching Donald Trump as he returned home from his golf game: his fury and denial was all too predictable. Not watching Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump: their despondency and growing alarm was equally expected.
The prime spot was certainly wherever Melania Trump was, to watch how she took the news.
The Independent’s Harriet Alexander looks at what the First Lady might do next.
What will Melania Trump do next?
Former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman claimed the first lady is ‘counting every minute until he is out of office and she can divorce’
ICYMI: Jared Kushner reportedly advising Trump to both concede and stay on as media scrambles for hint at president’s next move
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.
Kushner advising Trump not to concede after reports claimed the opposite
The curious case of Kushner's concessions
‘Looking like a loser’: Michael Cohen says Trump to flee White House at Christmas and never return
The one-time Trump whisperer says the president will likely flee south to Mar-a-Lago for the winter and never return.
Speaking on MSNBC, Michael Cohen said the president would likely fight the election result all the way until January and beyond from the comfort of Mar-a-Lago.
“I would not be shocked if there is no concession speech at all. My theory is that at Christmas time he goes to Mar-a-Lago. I think he will stay there through the inauguration. I would not be shocked if he will not show up to the inauguration either,” Cohen said.
“He cannot let the camera look at him and basically pull down the curtain and see the wizard standing beside. He is just a loser and it is killing him and he, right now, what is going on in the White House is nothing but finger-pointing.”
Donald Trump to make his first live remarks on Fox News
While the president has been active on Twitter all weekend, he has remained uncharacteristically quiet since Joe Biden was announced president elect.
That’ll change at 8pm tonight, and for his first address to the nation he will be speaking on Fox New to discuss, as he says, the “mail-in ballot hoax!”.
It’s a reliable assumption that this would not be a concession speech, though it may turn into an attempted acceptance speech.
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