Trump news: President discussed ‘using military to overturn election’ as Powell touted for DOJ role

Georgia governor Brian Kemp attended a White House Christmas party on Friday, despite President Trump repeatedly criticising him and other state officials for certifying its election results.

On Friday evening, Mr Kemp tweeted a photo of him and his daughter Lucy at the White House Christmas party, standing between elaborate festive decorations.

“Lucy and I had a great time at the @WhiteHouse Christmas Party today. Merry Christmas, everyone!” the governor wrote.

Here is the story: 

Senator Mitt Romney said a widespread data breach across the US government was "extraordinarily damaging" and that President Trump has a "blind spot" when it comes to Russia

"We've come to recognise that the president has a blind spot when it comes to Russia," Mr Romney said on NBC's Meet the Press, one of a series of Sunday morning TV interviews.

"And the reality here is that the experts, the people who really understand how our systems work and how computers work and software and so forth, the thousands upon thousands at the CIA and the NSA and the Department of Defense, have determined that this came from Russia.

“This is an extraordinarily damaging invasion, and it went on for a long, long time.”

The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, will campaign for the two Republican candidates standing in the Georgia Senate run-offs on Monday.

Ms Trump, who has three stops on her schedule, plans to “highlight the historic accomplishments of the Trump Administration with the help of the Republican Senate Majority, along with the importance of voting in the Georgia runoff elections”.

She will be joined by Congressman Dan Crenshaw as well as Senator David Perdue and Senator Kelly Loeffler, who are standing in the contest.

Mr Trump’s administration is ending how it began, with over-the-top declarations of praise for the chief executive.

But now the flattery is mixed with a sense of finality as key people in the president’s orbit are beginning to turn the page and acknowledge his defeat. 

Mr Trump himself keeps to the Oval Office, still fighting the Election Day results and offering scant acknowledgement of the death and suffering Americans are bearing in the darkest hours of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a week when the Electoral College made official President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Mr Trump remained out of sight, staying late in the Oval Office and working the phones and television remote in his private dining area just steps from the Resolute Desk.

Here is the report from AP: 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new guidance regarding allergies and coronavirus vaccines after reports of severe allergic reactions to the jab.

The agency said it “learned of reports that some people have experienced severe allergic reactions, also known as anaphylaxis, after getting a Covid-19 vaccine".

In the new guidance, the CDC recommends that those who have a severe reaction to the first shot of the vaccine should not receive the second jab.

Here is our report: 

American health officials are monitoring the new strain of Covid-19 emerging in the UK, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on Sunday, adding that any mutation shows people must keep protecting themselves from the novel coronavirus while awaiting vaccination.

"Viruses mutate all the time," Mr Adams told CBS News' Face the Nation programme.

"If this is a mutation that is more contagious, then that just means that we need to be that much more vigilant while we wait to be vaccinated."

Saturday Night Live said “so long, farewell, aufwiedersehn” to President Donald Trump during its final episode of the year, highlighting some of his most controversial moments along the campaign trail and in the White House.

The show featured a montage of Mr Trump throwing paper towels at Puerto Ricans following the devastating Hurricane Maria, as well as mocking his apparent enemies and making nonsensical comments, in an apparent reminder to Americans everywhere of just how crazy things got at times over the last four years.

Co-anchor Colin Jost quipped before the montage that it was their final segment of The Weekend Update during Mr Trump’s tenure in the White House — “barring a reverse Christmas miracle.”

“As a president, [Mr Trump] was mostly bad,” he continued. “But there were a few bright spots. So before he is tranquilized and moved like a dinosaur in Jurassic Park, I just want to take a moment to recognize some of his greatest moments in office.”

Story to come. Watch below:

Speaking of SNL, James Crump writes: Saturday Night Live mocked outgoing US vice president Mike Pence for being administered the coronavirus vaccine after he let it “spread everywhere".

Mr Pence along with the US second lady Karen Pence were administered the coronavirus vaccine, which was developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, live on television on Friday to promote its safety to Americans.

After the vice president, who also serves as the chair of the White House coronavirus task force, received the vaccine, he said: “I didn't feel a thing.”

Donald Trump has reignited a longstanding feud with his former national security adviser, describing John Bolton as “one of the dumbest people in Washington” in a tweet after the president's ex-appointee lambasted him on television.

“What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know?” the president wrote in a tweet posted just after midnight on Sunday. “Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, ‘Libyan solution’, when describing what the U.S. was going to do for North Korea?”

Mr Trump then added: “I’ve got plenty of other Bolton ‘stupid stories.’”

The president’s late-night tweets came after Mr Bolton appeared on CNN and decried comments made by Michael Flynn, another former national security adviser who Mr Trump pardoned after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his secret work for the Turkish government before joining the White House administration.

My latest:

Sidney Powell, the attorney who was cast aside by the president’s legal team, was considered by Donald Trump as a special counsel to investigate baseless allegations the election was rigged against him, Gino Spocchia writes.