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

While Donald Trump continues to deny an election loss, Joe Biden secured 11 more votes in the electoral college on Thursday, with a projected win in the typically Republican-leaning state of Arizona. 

Victory in the state means the Democrat now has 290 electoral votes - 73 more than his Republican rival, and 20 more than needed to secure the presidency. 

And, with expectation that Georgia will be called for the president once a recount is completed, Mr Biden could finish with 306 electoral college votes overall: the same number secured by Mr Trump in 2016. 

While Arizona was called for Joe Biden on Thursday, state election officials published results of post-election audits from  more than half of all the state’s counties, and found no evidence of irregularities that could have affected the outcome of the race, CNN reported. 

Audits in Arizona's four largest counties, which comprised 86 per cent of all votes for president in the state, turned up no evidence of the systematic voter fraud alleged by president Donald Trump, who has so far refused to concede the election.

A coalition of government and industry cybersecurity experts said the 3 November election was the most secure in US history, as they delivered the most direct blow yet to the Trump camp's efforts to undermine Joe Biden’s victory.

The Independent’s Liam James has the latest: 

“2020 marks the final holiday season for the Trump White House”

 …and that’s according to the office of Melania Trump, who like her husband, White House aides and most of the Republican party,  who are still denying Joe Biden’s election victory last week.

And anyone looking for tickets to tour this year’s Christmas celebrations at the White House, will come across the sentence admitting that its the “final holding season for the Trump White House”. 

Ms Trump, whose office is in charge of holiday celebrations and decorations, was infamously reported to have said  in private: "Who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?"

Ron Klain, who was appointed as Joe Biden’s chief of staff this week, was interviewed on MSNBC on Thursday, and said the presidential transition “was going ahead”, even as Donald Trump and federal agencies deny and delay their progress. 

“As time passes, the need to get the full access we are entitled to, and the full access that the American people want us to have—it grows each day,” said Mr Klain, in reference to the US General Services Administration’s (GTA) refusal to recognise Mr Biden as president-elect. 

The Democrat’s transition team have been unable to access federal funding, and work with federal agencies, while GTA administrator Emily W. Murphy delays the process, which typically follows the projected victory of a presidential candidate.

It comes as president Trump also refuses to accept the outcome of the election. 

Three Democratic lawmakers who asked Emily Murphy, the General Services Administration (GTA) head, to explain  why her agency had not recognised Joe Biden as president elect, have not received a reply, according to Politico. 

Representatives Bill Pascrell, Gerry Connolly and Dina Titus sent a letter on Monday, asking for a response by Wednesday evening, but were still awaiting a response on Friday.  

Ms Murphy’s refusal to accept the election outcome has withhold federal funds and access to the Biden transition team, who are preparing to take office in January.

Following the delay, Democrats in Congress are reported to weighing-up options to force the GTA to act - and that includes a lawsuit. 

“Obviously, Congress could file suit against the GSA administrator for failing to do her duty. We could seek to get a court to, in fact, issue an order,” Mr Connolly, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s government operations subcommittee, told Politico on Tuesday. “Right now we’re assessing those options,” he added.

Despite the ongoing fallout over Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Joe Biden, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, will tour European and Middle Eastern states on Friday, and the issue is expected to dominate. 

Mr Pompeo, who has been tipped as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, will visit France, Turkey, Georgia, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel. 

Each of these countries has already congratulated Mr Trump’s Democrat rival Joe Biden on his election victory.

The Independent’s Mayank Aggarwal has the report: 

America’s net favourability has improved by an average of 22 percentage points among five European allies - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - following Joe Biden’s win against Donald Trump in the presidential election. 

The difference in opinion was particularly stark in France and Germany, where favourability towards the US increased by a net average of 33 and 29 percentage points, according to new survey from Morning Consult.  

Favourability in Russia and China fell by 7 and 6 points respectively.

The president-elect told reporters earlier this week that he promised world leaders “it’s not America alone” anymore, in an obvious rebuke to president Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy, which had irked the United States’ closest partners.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who routinely pleaded with Fox News viewers to donate to his own releection,  has said he will donate $1 million to the two Republican candidates in Georgia facing runoffs in January,  Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. 

“I'm going to donate a million dollars to Senators Loeffler and Perdue from my campaign to make sure they have the resources to combat a tsunami of liberal money about to sink Georgia,” he told Fox and Friends, and added that Republicans were “in trouble” if they didn’t match Democrat fundraising. 

According to the Hill, the online donation platform for Democrats, ActBlue, was able to raise a record-breaking $1.5 billion between July and September, while WinRed,  the GOP’s donor platform, raised $1 billion in total. 

Democrats need both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to win their 5 January runoffs, to take control of the Senate. 

An extended ban on political advertising on Facebook is forcing the campaigns of candidates in Georgia’s Senate runoffs to rethink both fundraising and get-out-the vote strategies.

Speaking to Politico, LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter group, said “It’s going to be really important for the Democratic Party and for campaigns to have a ground war strategy, focused on relational organising,” rather than solely digital campaigns.

Progressives in the party, including congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have expressed their frustration at Democratic attempts to reach voters online, and in-person, prior to the 3 November vote, saying not enough was done to pick-up seats they expected to.

Both Republicans and Democrats have voiced opposition to Facebook’s extended ban, as the 5 January runoff races - that will also decide who controls the senate - approach.