Category: Joe Biden

ICYMI: New Report Confirms Election Was Fair, Free and Secure

A new report confirms this election was fair, free and secure. Trump and his Republican sycophants have no evidence for their claims — even other Republicans admit they are inventing conspiracy theories. Trump can’t hide from the truth: Joe Biden won the election and will be the 46th President of the United States.

New York Times: The Times Call Officials in Every State: No Evidence of Voter Fraud

By Nick Corasaniti, Reid J. Epstein and Jim Rutenberg

election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race, amounting to a forceful rebuke of President Trump’s portrait of a fraudulent election.

Over the last several days, the president, members of his administration, congressional Republicans and right wing allies have put forth the false claim that the election was stolen from President Trump and have refused to accept results that showed Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as the winner.

But top election officials across the country said in interview and statements that the process had been a remarkable success despite record turnout and the complications of a dangers pandemic.

“Theree’s a great human capacity for inventing things that aren’t true about elections,” said Frank LaRose, a Republican who serves as Ohio’s Secretary of State. “The conspiracy theories and rumors and all those things run rampant. For some reason, elections breed that type of mytology.”

Steve Simon, a Democrat who is Minnesota’s Secretary of State said: “I don’t know of a single case where someone argued that a vote counted when it shouldn’t have to didn’t count when it should. There was no fraud.”

“Kansas did not experience any widespread, systemic issues with voter fraud, intimidation, irregularities or voting problems,” a spokeswoman for Scott Schwab, the Republican Secretary of State in Kansas, said in an email Tuesday. “We are very pleased with how the election has gone up to this point.”

The New York Times contacted the offices of the top election officials in every state on Monday and Tuesday to ask whether they suspected or had evidence of illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly to The Times. For 4 of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state; none reported any major voting issues.

[…]

One of the Secretaries of State who did not respond to request for comment about the election in his state was Corey Stapleton of Montana, an outgoing Republican. But Mr. Stapleton did post a message implicitly addressing the president’s ongoing fraud claims. “I have supported you, Mr. President,” he wrote. “But that time is now over! Tim you hat, bite your lip, and congratulate @JoeBiden.”

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How the Suburbs Moved Away From Trump

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Suburban counties across the country turned away from President Trump in this election. That includes suburbs in the Midwest and the Sun Belt, in inner-ring counties and those farther out, in predominantly white communities and more diverse ones.

Suburban counties that were already Democratic-leaning before 2020 tilted more so. And many that were deeply Republican nudged several points away from the president.

This graphic shows how these counties voted in preliminary results this year, compared with 2016. Collectively, they shifted up — toward Joe Biden. That movement, apparent across battleground states, has been crucial to lifting Mr. Biden to the presidency. Continue reading.

Pandemic on course to overwhelm U.S. health system before Biden takes office

The country’s health care system is already buckling under the load of the resurgent outbreak that’s approaching 10 million cases nationwide.

The United States’ surging coronavirus outbreak is on pace to hit nearly 1 million new cases a week by the end of the year — a scenario that could overwhelm health systems across much of the country and further complicatePresident-elect Joe Biden’s attempts to coordinate a response.

Biden, who is naming his own coronavirus task force Monday, has pledged to confront new shortages of protective gear for health workers and oversee distribution of masks, test kits and vaccines while beefing up contact tracing and reengaging with the World Health Organization. He will also push Congress to pass a massive Covid-19 relief package and pressure the governors who’ve refused to implement mask mandates for new public health measures as cases rise.

But all of those actions — a sharp departure from the Trump administration’s patchwork response that put the burden on states— will have to wait until Biden takes office. Congress, still feeling reverberations from the election, may opt to simply run out the clock on its legislative year. Meanwhile, the virus is smashing records for new cases and hospitalizations as cold weather drives gatherings indoors and people make travel plans for the approaching holidays. Continue reading.

Here are the GOP and Trump campaign’s allegations of election irregularities. So far, none has been proved.

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NOTE: This article is provided free of charge by The Washington Post.

Republicans have made claims of election irregularities in five states where President-elect Joe Biden leads in the vote count, alleging in lawsuits and public statements that election officials did not follow proper procedures while counting ballots in Tuesday’s election.

So far, they have gone 0 for 5.

Since Election Day, President Trump has repeatedly claimed that a broad conspiracy of misdeeds — apparently committed in both Republican and Democratic states — had cost him the election. Continue reading.

Misinformed through social media, Trump supporters take to the streets to challenge election result

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — In the capital of Pennsylvania — the state that ultimately tipped the election in favor of President-elect Joe Biden — supporters of President Donald Trump gathered to protest the election result this weekend.

The past four years in America have been an education in how grievances and misinformation on social media don’t just stay online — they spill out onto the streets, can manifest as violence, and, as seen in Harrisburg, this weekend, be used in attempts to undermine the bedrock of American democracy: free and fair elections. 

Trump supporters here gathered under the banner “Stop the Steal,” convinced the election had been stolen. Continue reading.

GOP Senator Says It’s Time For Trump’s Lawyers To ‘Present The Facts’

Sen. Roy Blunt acknowledged that the election’s results for Joe Biden are unlikely to change but said Trump’s lawyers should make their case.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Sunday said he doesn’t expect any election-altering changes in the days ahead but the country should still refrain from celebrating a presidential win by former Vice President Joe Biden until President Donald Trump submits his alleged proof that he won.

“It’s time for the president’s lawyers to present the facts and then it’s time for those facts to speak for themselves,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

Trump, who remains 56 electoral votes short of the 270 needed to win the presidency based on media projections, has repeatedly claimed he won the election and has accused the Democratic Party of “wrongdoing.” He has insisted that there are “valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.” Continue reading.

A little-known Trump appointee is in charge of handing transition resources to Biden — and she isn’t budging

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A Trump administration appointee is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week, in another sign the incumbent president has not acknowledged Biden’s victory and could disrupt the transfer of power.

The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal buildings, has a little-known role when a new president is elected: to sign paperwork officially turning over millions of dollars, as well as give access to government officials, office space in agencies and equipment authorized for the taxpayer-funded transition teams of the winner.

It amounts to a formal declaration by the federal government, outside of the media, of the winner of the presidential race. Continue reading.

George W. Bush Congratulates Biden And Harris, Calls Election ‘Fundamentally Fair’

The 43rd president called Joe Biden a “good man” and offered him “prayers for his success.”

Former President George W. Bush on Sunday congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory and said Americans can have confidence that the election was “fundamentally fair.”

Bush, a two-term Republican president, called Biden a “good man” despite their “political differences.”

“I just talked to the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden,” Bush said in a statement. “I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night. I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency.” Continue reading.

Biden’s transition moving ahead at full speed

Will announce coronavirus efforts on Monday

When Joe Biden was named president-elect on Saturday, his transition operation was already full speed ahead.

Biden plans to announce his own version of the coronavirus task force on Monday to help shape his administration’s response to the ongoing pandemic, with former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former FDA Commissioner David Kessler among the leaders, according to deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield.

Bedingfield, appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” echoed other Biden campaign and transition officials who have said they intend to hit the ground running. Continue reading.

Biden’s COVID-19 crisis team takes shape as virus rages

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President-elect Joe Biden will find himself facing an immediate public health crisis when he takes office in January, putting pressure on his health team now to hit the ground running.

The pandemic is expected to be raging this winter, as cases and hospitalizations are on the rise in the fall months with no sign of slowing as the weather gets colder.

Biden has been receiving briefings for months from health experts, led by Vivek Murthy, surgeon general during the Obama administration, and David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Other experts who have briefed Biden include Celine Gounder of New York University and Yale’s Marcella Nunez-Smith. Continue reading.