Category: Joe Biden

Poll: Striking Number Of Americans Believe Baseless Conspiracy Theories

A scary percentage of our neighbors believe in next-level crazy conspiracy theories.

According to a new NPR/Ipsos poll, forty percent of Americans believe the wild claim that Covid-19 was produced in a Chinese lab, despite science and evidence disproving this. One-third of people believe that election fraud is the reason that President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 election, again with no proof. 

Chris Jackson, a pollster with Ipsos, told NPR that “increasingly, people are willing to say and believe stuff that fits in with their view of how the world should be, even if it doesn’t have any basis in reality or fact.” Continue reading.

Trump trashes McConnell to fellow Republicans

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President Trump lashed out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday night for acknowledging Joe Biden won the election, sending a slide to Republican lawmakers taking credit for saving McConnell’s career with a tweet and robocall.

Why it matters: It’s an extraordinary broadside against McConnell by the sitting president and most popular Republican in the party, ahead of a crucial runoff election in Georgia on Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate.

  • “Sadly, Mitch forgot,” reads the top of the slide sent to Republican senators by Trump’s personal assistant, written in red for emphasis. “He was the first one off the ship.”

Between the lines: While both the message and its delivery targeted McConnell, they also carried a subtle warning to other Republicans who may follow suit as the president grasps at the last straws of his election-fraud claim. Continue reading.

‘A real mess’: Trump is leaving behind crises and undermining Biden before he takes office

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When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, the list of crises he will face includes a massive cyber intrusion, a still-raging global pandemic, a slowing economic recovery and a lingering reckoning over the nation’s racial tensions.

President Trump is not making his job any easier and, in several ways, appears to be actively making it harder — going to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and undermine the traditional transition from one administration to another despite the nation’s many crises.

Trump has sought to play down or even deny the still-expanding cybersecurity breach that many experts blame on Russia, even as its impact has spread to a growing number of federal agencies. The delayed and turbulent transition process could complicate the Biden administration’s ability to address the challenge and shore up the nation’s cyber defenses. Continue reading.

‘Up to no good’: Why this retired 4-star general is sounding the alarm over Trump’s acting Pentagon chief

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Four star Army General Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) is sounding the alarm on reports acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has banned Pentagon brass from holding meetingswith Biden transition team officials, leaving career military staff “stunned.”

“Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—- MAKES NO SENSE. CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED. DOD GOES OPAQUE. TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD. DANGER. —-” tweeted McCaffrey, who is a well-known and highly-respected NBC News and MSNBC military analyst.

Reports from Axios and Business Insider both say Pentagon officials are feeling “overwhelmed” by the number of meetings they’ve attended with Biden staff, and Miller has decided to order a two-week break for the holidays. Continue reading.

Biden team expresses concern over ‘abrupt halt’ in cooperation with Pentagon

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President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team expressed concern Friday about what it described as an “abrupt halt” in cooperation with the Defense Department.

The Pentagon had said it was rescheduling meetings with the transition team originally planned for Friday until after the new year, but insisted the change was part of a “mutually agreed” pause for the holiday season.

“Our agency review teams continue making progress on a shortened timeline, and we’ve benefited from constructive cooperation within many departments and agencies, but we have met isolated resistance in some corners, including from political appointees within the Department of Defense,” Biden transition executive director Yohannes Abraham said in a briefing Friday. Continue reading.

Scoop: Pentagon halts Biden transition briefings

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Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department, senior administration officials tell Axios.

The latest: Biden transition director Yohannes Abraham contradicted the Pentagon’s official response to this story on Friday afternoon, telling reporters, “Let me be clear: there was no mutually agreed upon holiday break.”

  • “In fact, we think it’s important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period as there’s no time to spare, and that’s particularly true in the aftermath of ascertainment delay,” Abraham continued, referring to the Trump administration’s delay in recognizing Biden as president-elect. Continue reading.

Once friends, Biden calls Lindsey Graham ‘a personal disappointment’ for not recognizing election win

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When Stephen Colbert asked Joe Biden on Thursday whether he could patch up his once-close friendship with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the president-elect’s expression turned somber.

Graham, a close ally of President Trump, has declined to acknowledge Biden’s election victory and was accused of pressuring Georgia to discard mail-in ballots in a state that went for the Democrat.

Biden, who has made his willingness to work with Republicans a key campaign promise, declined to say whether their relationship was salvageable. Continue reading.

Biden to receive first dose of coronavirus vaccine on Monday

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President-elect Joe Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden will receive their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine publicly on Monday, according to his transition team.

Incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki briefed reporters on the news in a call Friday. The development comes as other high-ranking government officials, including Vice President Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received the vaccine on Friday.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be getting her vaccine the week after Biden gets it, the transition team said, with medical experts advising that they stagger the first doses.  Continue reading.

Biden and lawmakers raise alarms over cybersecurity breach amid Trump’s silence

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Democrats and some Republicans raised the alarm Thursday about a massive and growing cybersecurity breach that many experts blame on Russia, with President-elect Joe Biden implicitly criticizing the Trump administration for allowing the hacking attack to occur.

“We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyber attacks in the first place,” Biden said in a statement. “Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.”

President Trump, by contrast, has said nothing about the hack affecting numerous federal agencies as well as U.S. companies. U.S. national security agencies are still assessing the scope and severity of the breach, which was discovered by a commercial firm. Continue reading.