Republicans are largely avoiding any challenges of President Trump over his refusal to concede the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled the game plan during a Monday address on the Senate floor while giving his members cover.
McConnell’s remarks were disparaging of Democrats and the media, who have projected Biden as the winner but have no constitutional role in the process, the Kentucky Republican noted. McConnell, who is poised to be his party’s top official in Washington when Biden takes office, also said Trump was well within his rights of challenging the close results and asking for recounts. Continue reading.
PHILADELPHIA — President Trump’s refusal to accept the presidential election results is being reinforced in pockets of denial nationwide, but the anger continues to fall short of a coherent resistance movement that would threaten to overturn the vote.
In states where Trump won and here in one where he lost a close race, elected Republicans and GOP voters called for the continuation of efforts to challenge the results, which in Pennsylvania give President-elect Joe Biden a roughly 45,000-vote margin of victory.
Small clusters of Trump supporters gathered on several Philadelphia street corners Sunday to condemn a vote-counting process in which the president lost an early lead to Biden over several agonizing days. No evidence of improper counting procedures or any type of voter fraud has been presented. Continue reading.
More than half to American’s votes were for Vice President Biden and now nearly 80 percent recognize him as the duly elected president, despite Trump’s refusal to concede and baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
An overwhelming majority of Americans, including half of Republicans, recognize President-Elect Biden as the winner of the election.
Reuters: “Nearly 80% of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognize President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election after most media organizations called the race for the Democrat based on his leads in critical battleground states, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.”
Pfizer on Monday announced that its COVID-19 vaccine has proven effective in over 90% of previously uninfected people, and added that it could have 50 million doses available by year-end.
Axios Re:Cap talks to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla about vaccine data, distribution, politics, and how he reacted upon receiving the news.
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.”
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.
With President Trump defeated, there is a pivotal question coursing through American politics: What becomes of Trumpism?
Since 2016, that political movement has commandeered the Republican Party and fused White grievances over the nation’s demographic changes with fierce rejection of liberal elites and global engagement.
But more than anything else, Trumpism has united millions under the impulses and ideas of one man: Donald Trump. Now that its titular head has lost the election, the movement faces volatility and a political vacuum. Continue reading.
The answer has little to do with the economy and a lot to do with race and partisanship.
Donald Trump will leave office with the economy considerably worse off compared to where it was when he was elected four years ago.
The unemployment rate hit 6.9% in October, down from record double-digits in April, the Labor Department announced Friday. This is an improvement, but when Trump was inaugurated in 2017, it was 4.8%. The jobless rate is now basically what it was right before Barack Obama took office in the middle of a financial crisis.
Economic output is lower than it was last year. One in 10 Americans said they aren’t getting enough to eat, up substantially from last year. An eviction crisis is on the horizon. With coronavirus infection rates continuing to rise, there are signs that the improvements we’ve seen in economy could slow or even reverse. Last week, 1.1 million Americans filed for unemployment. The Black unemployment rate is still in the double digits. Continue reading.
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.
The 2020 election was a referendum on President Trump that drove record turnout.
Trump lost that referendum, but the question of what happens to the president and his brand of populist identity politics is a harder question to answer.
Biden is on course to beat Trump by well more than 5 million votes nationwide. Continue reading.
