Business and World Leaders Move On as Trump Fights to Reverse Election

New York Times logo

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is seizing the moment, not to aggressively confront the president he defeated, but to act presidential in his stead.

WASHINGTON — Inside the wrought-iron fences that surround the 18-acre White House complex, the 2020 election rages on, with President Trump angrily refusing to concede. But the rest of the world — and President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. — is moving on.

The leaders of Western Europe have called Mr. Biden, while the world’s rising superpower, China, has congratulated him. PayPal’s chief executive extended his “warmest congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden, who will become the 46th president of the U.S.A.” The Boeing Corporation, which benefited from Mr. Trump’s demands for big-ticket defense items, issued a statement on Friday saying, “We look forward to working with the Biden administration.”

It is as if the vast machinery of diplomacy, business and lobbying has suddenly been recalibrated for the Biden era. Mr. Trump, by far the dominant world figure for the past four years, is increasingly treated as irrelevant. Continue reading.

More conservatives break with Trump over election claims

The Hill logo

A growing number of conservative Republicans are breaking with President Trump and his legal team over what they view as a dangerous effort to overturn the election results by promoting conspiracy theories.

GOP lawmakers, conservative lawyers and key figures in rightwing media say it is time for his legal team to either back up their claims about fraud or concede defeat to President-elect Joe Biden.

The voices range from Fox News’s Tucker Carlson to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) to conservative lawyers and thought leaders such as Karl Rove. Continue reading.

‘That’s not doing your job’: Kayleigh McEnany storms out of press conference as reporters shout questions

AlterNet logo

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany abruptly exited today’s press conference as she was criticized about her refusal to answer questions. One reporter also concluded with a few words of advice for the embattled press secretary. 

On Friday McEnany appeared before a group of reporters in the White House press room to take questions for the first time in over a month. At one point during the press conference, McEnany was asked about the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ (FBI) involvement, or lack thereof, in President Donald Trump’s voter fraud case.

McEnany used the moment as an opportunity to rant about the presumed lack of assistance the Trump campaign is faced with in its efforts to challenge the outcome of the election. Then, she abruptly ended the press conference and headed for the exit. At that point, CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlin Collins confronted McEnany for repeatedly refusing to take any of her questions. Continue reading.

After Trump meeting, Michigan GOP leaders say Biden’s win still stands

The Michigan lawmakers said they had “not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome.”

A delegation of Republican state lawmakers from Michigan came to Washington on Friday as part of President Donald Trump’s Hail Mary attempt to usurp the results of the election he lost. 

But when the day ended, the lawmakers were unequivocal: President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan was still intact.

Trump has baselessly cast doubt on the presidential election in Michigan, which he lost Biden by approximately 150,000 votes, and has waged a campaign over the past two weeks to pressure Republicans in the state to back him in reversing the outcome. And despite White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s insistence that Friday’s gathering was “not an advocacy meeting” — and that no one from the Trump campaign would be present — several attorneys running Trump’s legal effort to overturn the election were expected to call in. Continue reading.

Psychiatric expert: Trump will not hesitate to cause violence to stay in power

AlterNet logo

Dr. Bandy X. Lee was interviewed by Patrick R. McElligott, who is a retired psychiatric social worker from upstate New York. He has decades of experience in grass roots social-political activism, including working on his late friend Rubin “Hurricane” Carter’s case, serving as Onondaga Nation Chief Paul Waterman’s top assistant on burial protection and repatriation, and providing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency information on Super Fund sites for federal court cases. Dr. Lee agreed to an interview regarding current events in post-election America.

McElligott: In April, 2017, you organized the “Duty to Warn” Conference. Later, you were the editor and contributor to the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. Has Donald Trump’s behaviors since losing the 2020 election reinforced your opinion on the dangers Trump poses to a civilized society?

Lee: Absolutely. We are seeing the last bout of just how much he is willing and able to destroy norms and to push the limits. It is clear he does not intend to leave without placing us in further danger, and without obstructing the president-elect’s agenda as much as possible. My regret is that, because of the “gag order” on all mental health experts, which the American Psychiatric Association forced through public campaigns since this administration, the people are still left vulnerable without having learned much. As we see from the 72 million who voted for him again, we are very likely to repeat our errors. Continue reading.

The Daily 202: Trump’s ugly pattern of attacking urban areas spotlights failure to act like president for all Americans

Washington Post logo

After a hand recount of nearly 5 million ballots, and an audit that found no fraud or irregularities, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state announced Thursday night that President-elect Joe Biden beat President Trump in the state by 12,284 votes.

Multiple factors can be described as decisive when a race is so close, but here is one to consider: John Lewis represented Clayton County in Congress from 1986 until he diedfrom pancreatic cancer in July. In 2016, Hillary Clinton garnered 75,908 from Clayton, which is just south of downtown Atlanta and includes the city’s airport. In 2020, Biden won with 95,232 votes from Clayton.

Trump set the tone for his relationship with urban America in January 2017 when he ripped Lewis for declining to attend his inauguration by saying that the civil rights legend was “all talk” and “no action.” This was a ludicrous line of attack: Only one of these men was nearly beaten to death by police for protesting racial injustice, and it was not Trump. Continue reading.

Trump administration revives talk of action on birthright citizenship

The Hill logo

The Trump administration has revived discussions around taking executive action targeting birthright citizenship in its final weeks before leaving office, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

President Trump has spoken throughout his first term about ending birthright citizenship. Drafts of a possible order have been circulating for some time, and there is now internal discussion about finalizing it before the Biden administration takes over in January, sources said.

The administration is aware the order would be promptly challenged in court, but officials would hope to get a ruling on whether birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment, according to one source familiar with the plans. Many lawmakers and experts have argued it is protected, but the courts have not definitively ruled on the issue. Continue reading.

Conservative media has stayed devoted to Trump’s bogus claims of victory — but cracks are starting to show

Washington Post logo

After four long days of uncertainty, the purveyors of mainstream media credibility — including The Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press and all the major broadcast and cable news networks including the president’s once-favorite Fox News — all declared on Nov. 7 that Joe Biden had won the presidency.

Here and there, a few votes remained to be counted. But the outcome was clear to most of the media. The election was over. And President Trump had lost.

But nearly two weeks later, as courts shut down the Trump campaign’s long-shot legal challenges and states move forward with certifications of the vote, Trump himself is not letting go. And fighting alongside him are large — if wavering— swaths of the conservative media landscape. Continue reading.

Virus vaccination timeline depends on variety of factors

There won’t be enough supply in time for the winter holidays

Two COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration soon, raising hopes that pre-pandemic life could resume, but piecing together varying messages from drug companies, experts and the government into one clear timeline isn’t easy.

When can you expect to get a vaccine? How many people could the United States vaccinate per week? It will take a while, and projections differ.

A vaccine won’t blunt the current third wave of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. There won’t be enough supply in time for loved ones besides potentially health care workers to get a shot before the winter holidays, and full protection doesn’t come until a week or two after a second dose. Continue reading.

Scoop: Trump lawyers to avoid Michigan lawmaker meeting after COVID exposure

Axios logo

Why it matters: This added turmoil inside the president’s legal operation comes at a time when the president is urging Republican state lawmakers to interfere with the electoral process and reverse Joe Biden’s victory to a Trump win.

  • “It’s just a shitshow, it’s a joke,” said a Trump campaign adviser.

Behind the scenes: Top Trump campaign officials held a conference call this morning with Eric Herschmann, a lawyer on the White House staff, in which they candidly discussed their legal conundrum. Continue reading.