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

Donald Trump may launch a digital streaming network to rival conservative outlets like Fox News after leaving the White House next year, members of his inner circle have said in recent days, as the prospect of his inevitable departure becomes ever apparent, writes Chris Riotta.

It was reported back in 2016 when the polls showed him losing to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Mr Trump was expected to ignite the media industry with his own cable news network, after recruiting millions of fans and supporters along the campaign trail.

Trump continues tweet-warfare against Fox News

At least these probably won’t get those misleading content warnings.

The network has been taking some rating hits and Trump is doing his best to push viewers to Newsmax and OANN, and of course whatever “Trump TV” ends up being when he leaves office.

And did the president just refer to himself here as the “Golden Goose”? Fact Check: The Golden Goose is a mythical creature of fairytales from The Brothers Grimm. Trump suggests - without evidence - that such a Goose of Golding origin is real and, in addition, is actually himself.  Better get out that misleading label after all.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to answer whether President-elect Joe Biden will receive access to intelligence briefings, saying: “That's a question for the White House.”

Ms McEnany was interviewed on Fox News on Thursday morning in the role of a Trump 2020 campaign adviser, and not in her taxpayer funded position as the White House press secretary, writes James Crump.

Trump team resurfaces tweet from Arizona Secretary of State calling president’s supporters ‘Nazis’

This new tactic in Arizona won’t do anything to lower temperatures among 70 million Trump voters that are being fed a steady diet of claims that the election being stolen.

And expect it to spread like wildfire among certain corners of the media today. This 2017 tweet from Katie Hobbs was circulated by Ron Coleman, partner at the firm Dhillon Law, advisers to the Trump campaign.

Arizona was called for Biden early in the election by Fox News and The Associated Press, and that doesn’t’ look to be changing as the full vote count comes in.

The Trump campaign will continue to contest in the state even as one of its biggest law firms Snell & Wilmer withdrew as counsel.

Lindsey Graham to donate $1m to Georgia run off races

The results of two runoff elections in Georgia in January will determine control of the Senate, so the stakes could not be higher for both Republicans and Democrats.

Lindsey Graham, who fought of a $100-million challenge to his South Carolina Senate seat, will drop $1 m of his own cash on supporting Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, according to the Associated Press.

Graham has been one of the few Republican leadership being vocal following the election as the party at large has gone quiet amid Trump’s legal challenges to the result.  

He told Fox News last week that they needed to counter “tsunami of liberal money” being injected into the 5 January runoff elections.

That “liberal money” was behind the $100m bid from Jaime Harrison to unseat him in South Carolina, a race he ended up winning comfortably.

Trump-endorsing newspaper tells president he’s lost election in scathing editorial

A newspaper that endorsed president Donald Trump in both 2020 and 2016 has released a scathing editorial chastising his claims of election fraud and affirming he has “lost the election.”

“Rhetoric from Trump surrogates alleging widespread illegal activity has been devoid of detailed evidence supporting the charge that there was a concerted effort to ‘steal’ the election through corruption,” wrote Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Nevada's largest newspaper, the Review-Journal hit out at the president’s reaction to the election saying that Mr Trump’s challenges to the result were only “prolonging the inevitable” and are “an insult to reason and logic.”

"An electoral system that involves the participation of 150 million Americans will have its share of issues, but it’s an insult to reason and logic to argue that isolated irregularities constitute proof of a grand national conspiracy,” it said.

The Independent’s Louise Hall finds out what’s written in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas.

Few legal wins so far as Trump team hunts for proof of fraud

During a Pennsylvania court hearing this week on one of the many election lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud from among the 592 ballots challenged.

The answer was no.

“Accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step,” said the lawyer, Jonathan Goldstein. “We’re all just trying to get an election done.”

On Wednesday, Trump took aim at Philadelphia, the Democratic stronghold that helped push President-elect Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the race. The president accused a local Republican election official, Al Schmidt, of ignoring “a mountain of corruption & dishonesty.” Twitter added a label that said the election fraud claim is disputed.

Trump loyalists have filed at least 15 legal challenges in Pennsylvania alone in an effort to reclaim the state’s 20 electoral votes. There is action, too, in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan.

Some of the suits filed on Trump’s behalf appear to be hastily thrown together, with spelling errors (“ballet” for “ballot”), procedural mistakes and little to back up their claims. Judges have been skeptical.

In Michigan, Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed one filing as “inadmissible hearsay within hearsay.” When Trump’s lawyers appealed, the next court kicked the filing back as “defective.”

The campaign has scored just one small victory, allowing their observers to stand a little closer to election workers processing the mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. - AP

Things will get better under Biden, says German foreign minister

Relations between Europe and the United States will improve under a Joe Biden presidency, the foreign minister of Germany has predicted.  

Speaking at the Paris Peace Forum international conference on Thursday, Heiko Maas said the currently strained relationships with America would get better once Mr Biden takes office in January, but there would still remain points of tension.  

But there were enough disagreements between Mr Biden and his European allies that it was unrealistic to expect an overnight transformation, he added.  

Tim Wyatt reports.

BREAKING: Joe Biden speaks with the pope

Biden, only the second Catholic president along with JFK spoke this morning with Pope Francis.

Biden “thanked His Holiness for extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation for His Holiness' leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world".

Read the full statement from the Biden camp below.

Charles Grassley joins Republicans saying Biden needs classified briefings

The Iowa senator joined on Thursday joined Oklahoma senator James Lankford to say Joe Biden should begin receiving classified briefings during the presidential transition.

Breaking with the Trump administration, Grassley agreed Biden should receive briefings when asked directly by CNN.

“I would think, especially on classified briefings, the answer is yes,” Grassley said.

Lankford, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he would intervene if Biden is not given access by Friday. Lankford sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, so he has some ability to do so.

For Biden’s part, he said this week that classified information would be “nice to have, but it’s not critical”.