Author: PolitCens

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Friday pressed Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn to grant an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of the day or face possible firing, two administration officials said.The vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech won a critical endorsement Thursday from an FDA panel of outside advisers, and signoff from the agency — which is expected within days — is the next step needed to get the shots to the public.The FDA is not required to follow the guidance of its advisory committees, but often does.Meadows spoke to Hahn by telephone on Friday, according to a senior administration official who was familiar with the conversation but was not authorized to discuss private conversations.Hahn disputed characterizations of his conversation with Meadows.US On Verge of Launching COVID VaccinationsFDA advisory panel voted to recommend approval of vaccine late Thursday The chief of staff also told Hahn his job was in jeopardy if the emergency use authorization was not issued before Saturday, said a second administration official familiar with the conversation.Hahn signaled that he would tell regulators to allow the vaccine to be issued on an emergency basis, the official said.President Donald Trump has been pressing for quick approval for the vaccine and tweeted directly at Hahn earlier Friday, complaining that FDA “is still a big, old, slow turtle.” Trump has publicly bashed the pace of the FDA’s vaccine review process.”Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn,” Trump tweeted Friday. “Stop playing games and start saving lives.”Hahn issued a statement later Friday.”This is an untrue representation of the phone call with the chief of staff,” Hahn said in the statement. “The FDA was encouraged to continue working expeditiously on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EUA request. FDA is committed to issuing this authorization quickly, as we noted in our statement this morning.”The FDA said earlier Friday that it “will rapidly work” to grant emergency use of the vaccine. 
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The Senate approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill Friday, sending it to President Donald Trump, despite his threat to veto the bill because it does not clamp down on big tech companies he claims were biased during the election.The final vote was 84-13, mirroring a similarly overwhelming margin in the House that, if maintained in both chambers, would be enough to override a potential veto.The Senate vote had been expected Thursday but was delayed after Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky objected to the measure, saying it could limit Trump’s ability to draw down U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Germany.Paul’s actions had raised the specter of a brief government shutdown if a short-term spending bill caught up in the dispute was not approved by midnight Friday, but that possibility faded Friday afternoon.Pay raises, military constructionCongress has approved the bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, for nearly 60 years in a row. The current version affirms 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes more than $740 billion in military programs and construction.Trump has vowed to veto the bill unless lawmakers impose limits on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election. Trump has also said he wants Congress to strip out a provision of the bill that allows renaming of military bases that now honor Confederate leaders.Paul said Friday that his main point in filibustering the bill “was to point out that the president should have the prerogative to end a war, not just to start wars.”Paul said that “neoconservatives” such as Representative Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., “are inconsistent in saying they want … to give the commander-in-chief powers to begin war, but then they want to restrain and hamstring a president from ending a war. I think it’s a pretty important principle to discuss, so we did hold things up for a day.”FILE – Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., talks to reporters Jan. 28, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Two amendments addressing troop deployment could create “535 commanders-in-chief in Congress,” Paul said, hampering the president’s ability to draw down troops in Afghanistan and Germany. Democrats support the measure because they oppose Trump, Paul said, but the amendment would also apply to future presidents, including President-elect Joe Biden.One amendment, co-sponsored by Cheney and Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, an Afghanistan war veteran, would block troop withdrawals in Afghanistan unless the Pentagon submits interagency reports certifying that the drawdowns would not jeopardize national security. A separate provision pushed by Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and other lawmakers would limit planned troop withdrawals in Germany.Paul singled out Cheney by name in a floor speech, saying she and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, share a neoconservative belief in “perpetual war.””The philosophy of these people is about war and substantiating war and making sure that it becomes and is perpetual war,” Paul said.Cheney’s replyCheney hit back on Twitter, charging that Paul was “currently holding up passage of the #NDAA, blaming America, and delaying hazardous duty pay to hundreds of thousands of our service members and their families. Inexcusable.”Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a rare break with Trump, urged passage of the measure despite Trump’s threat to veto it. McConnell, R-Ky., said it was important for Congress to continue the long record of passing the National Defense Authorization Act.FILE – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks after the Senate Republican GOP leadership election on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 10, 2020.”This NDAA will unlock more than $740 billion for the training, tools and cutting-edge equipment that our service members and civilian employees need to defend American lives and American interests,” McConnell said. “It will give our troops the 3% pay raise they deserve. It’ll keep our forces ready to deter China and stand strong in the Indo-Pacific.”The Democratic-controlled House overwhelmingly approved the defense bill on Tuesday, defying Trump’s veto threat and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration.A total of 140 Republicans joined 195 Democrats in backing the bill, which received support from more than 80% of the House — well above the two-thirds support required to override a potential veto.Trump tweeted Tuesday that he would veto “the very weak” defense bill unless it repealed Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability.The dispute over social media content — a battle cry of conservatives who say the social media giants treat them unfairly — interjected an unrelated but complicated issue into work on the defense bill. It followed Trump’s bid over the summer to sabotage the package with a veto threat over Confederate base names.Shorter holiday breakIf Trump does veto the defense bill, Congress could cut short its Christmas recess to hold override vote.”I think we can override the veto, if in fact he vetoes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday. “I hope he does not veto. I hope he reconsiders. And I think he will get substantial pressure [from Republicans] that, you know, you don’t want to put the defense bill at risk.”The defense measure guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, military personnel policy and other military goals. Many programs can only go into effect if the bill is approved, including military construction.
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An emerging $900 billion COVID-19 aid package from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers all but collapsed Thursday after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republican senators won’t support $160 billion in state and local funds as part of a potential trade-off in the deal.McConnell’s staff conveyed to top negotiators that the Republican leader sees no path to an agreement on a key aspect of the lawmakers’ existing proposal — a slimmed-down version of the liability shield he is seeking for companies and organizations facing potential COVID-19 lawsuits — in exchange for the state and local funds that Democrats want.The majority leader criticized “controversial state bailouts” during a speech in the Senate, as he insists on a more targeted aid package.The hardened stance from McConnell, who does not appear to have enough votes from his Republican majority for a far-reaching compromise, creates a new stalemate over the $900 billion-plus package, despite days of toiling by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strike compromise.Legislative pile-upsOther legislative pile-ups now threaten Friday’s related business — a must-pass government funding bill. If it doesn’t clear Congress, that would trigger a federal government shutdown on Saturday.McConnell’s staff conveyed to other negotiators it’s “unlikely” the trade-off proposed by the bipartisan group would be acceptable, as COVID aid talks continue, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the talks. A senior Democrat first shared the Republican leader’s views after being granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations, which were first reported by Politico.Deadlines, real and perceived, haven’t been sufficient to drive Washington’s factions to an agreement, despite the U.S. breaking a record-high 3,000 daily COVID fatalities, and hospitals straining at capacity from soaring caseloads nationwide.The House recessed for a few days, with leaders warning members to be prepared to return to Washington to vote on the year-end deals, while the Senate was planning a rare Friday session.The breakdown over the COVID aid package, after days of behind-the-scenes talks by a group of lawmakers fed up with inaction, comes as President Donald Trump has taken the talks in another direction — insisting on a fresh round of $600 stimulus checks for Americans.Sending direct cash payments to households was not included in the bipartisan proposal, but has been embraced by some of the president’s fiercest critics — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N,Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who introduced an amendment to include the checks with Trump ally Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.Sanders said the unprecedented moment facing the nation with the pandemic and its economic fallout requires Congress to “take unprecedented action.”Trump’s top negotiator on COVID-19 financial aid, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, reported headway Thursday, before the package from the bipartisan senators’ group fell apart.“I think we’re making a lot of progress,” Mnuchin said.Stop-gap measureA one-week stop-gap measure to prevent a federal shutdown appears to have sapped some urgency from the talks. The short-term government-wide funding bill, approved by the House on Wednesday, needs to clear the Senate before Friday at midnight to avert a partial closure.The next deadline would be Dec. 18, but both House and Senate leaders say they won’t adjourn without passing an aid measure.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress would keep working up to or even after Christmas to get an agreement. The new Congress is being sworn in on Jan. 3.“Now if we need more time then we take more time, but we have to have a bill and we cannot go home without it,” Pelosi said. She also gave an upbeat assessment on the talks.The bipartisan lawmakers held another virtual “dinner group” meeting late Thursday to try to prop up the deal. They have been working furiously to try to bridge the stalemate over COVID aid.The $900 billion-plus proposal provides sweeping new funds for vaccines, small businesses, health care providers, schools and families suffering from the virus crisis and the economic shutdowns.A key hold up has been the standoff over more money for the states, that Democrats – and some Republicans – want and the liability shield that is McConnell’s top GOP priority but that most Democrats oppose.The partisan group tried to marry those two provisions as a compromise.McConnell had initially proposed a five-year liability shield from virus lawsuits, retroactive to December 2019, but the bipartisan group was eyeing a scaled-back shield of six months to a year. Labor and civil rights groups oppose any shield, which they say strips essential workers of potential legal recourse as they take risks during the pandemic.Democratic leaders had wanted far more in state and local aid but were accepting of the lower $160 billion.But many Republicans have long viewed the state and local aid as a bailout they would have trouble supporting, despite the pleas for funds coming from governors and mayors nationwide.Late Thursday, Sen. Dick Durbin and other Democrats pitched another liability proposal to the bipartisan group, but it was rejected by Republicans, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to discuss the private session.The Trump administration is back in the middle of the negotiations with a $916 billion plan. It would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans but eliminate a $300-per-week employment benefit favored by the bipartisan group of Senate negotiators.The White House offer has the endorsement of the top House Republican and apparent backing from McConnell, who had previously favored a $519 billion GOP plan that has already failed twice. But Democrats immediately blasted the plan over the administration’s refusal to back the partial restoration, to $300 per week, of bonus pandemic jobless benefits that lapsed in August.President-elect Joe Biden is pressing for as much pandemic relief as possible, though he’s not directly involved in the talks. McConnell, like Pelosi, says Congress will not adjourn without providing the long-overdue COVID-19 relief.
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An emerging $900 billion COVID-19 aid package from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers all but collapsed Thursday after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republican senators won’t support $160 billion in state and local funds as part of a potential trade-off in the deal.McConnell’s staff conveyed to top negotiators that the Republican leader sees no path to an agreement on a key aspect of the lawmakers’ existing proposal — a slimmed-down version of the liability shield he is seeking for companies and organizations facing potential COVID-19 lawsuits — in exchange for the state and local funds that Democrats want.The majority leader criticized “controversial state bailouts” during a speech in the Senate, as he insists on a more targeted aid package.The hardened stance from McConnell, who does not appear to have enough votes from his Republican majority for a far-reaching compromise, creates a new stalemate over the $900 billion-plus package, despite days of toiling by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strike compromise.Legislative pile-upsOther legislative pile-ups now threaten Friday’s related business — a must-pass government funding bill. If it doesn’t clear Congress, that would trigger a federal government shutdown on Saturday.McConnell’s staff conveyed to other negotiators it’s “unlikely” the trade-off proposed by the bipartisan group would be acceptable, as COVID aid talks continue, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the talks. A senior Democrat first shared the Republican leader’s views after being granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations, which were first reported by Politico.Deadlines, real and perceived, haven’t been sufficient to drive Washington’s factions to an agreement, despite the U.S. breaking a record-high 3,000 daily COVID fatalities, and hospitals straining at capacity from soaring caseloads nationwide.The House recessed for a few days, with leaders warning members to be prepared to return to Washington to vote on the year-end deals, while the Senate was planning a rare Friday session.The breakdown over the COVID aid package, after days of behind-the-scenes talks by a group of lawmakers fed up with inaction, comes as President Donald Trump has taken the talks in another direction — insisting on a fresh round of $600 stimulus checks for Americans.Sending direct cash payments to households was not included in the bipartisan proposal, but has been embraced by some of the president’s fiercest critics — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N,Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who introduced an amendment to include the checks with Trump ally Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.Sanders said the unprecedented moment facing the nation with the pandemic and its economic fallout requires Congress to “take unprecedented action.”Trump’s top negotiator on COVID-19 financial aid, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, reported headway Thursday, before the package from the bipartisan senators’ group fell apart.“I think we’re making a lot of progress,” Mnuchin said.Stop-gap measureA one-week stop-gap measure to prevent a federal shutdown appears to have sapped some urgency from the talks. The short-term government-wide funding bill, approved by the House on Wednesday, needs to clear the Senate before Friday at midnight to avert a partial closure.The next deadline would be Dec. 18, but both House and Senate leaders say they won’t adjourn without passing an aid measure.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress would keep working up to or even after Christmas to get an agreement. The new Congress is being sworn in on Jan. 3.“Now if we need more time then we take more time, but we have to have a bill and we cannot go home without it,” Pelosi said. She also gave an upbeat assessment on the talks.The bipartisan lawmakers held another virtual “dinner group” meeting late Thursday to try to prop up the deal. They have been working furiously to try to bridge the stalemate over COVID aid.The $900 billion-plus proposal provides sweeping new funds for vaccines, small businesses, health care providers, schools and families suffering from the virus crisis and the economic shutdowns.A key hold up has been the standoff over more money for the states, that Democrats – and some Republicans – want and the liability shield that is McConnell’s top GOP priority but that most Democrats oppose.The partisan group tried to marry those two provisions as a compromise.McConnell had initially proposed a five-year liability shield from virus lawsuits, retroactive to December 2019, but the bipartisan group was eyeing a scaled-back shield of six months to a year. Labor and civil rights groups oppose any shield, which they say strips essential workers of potential legal recourse as they take risks during the pandemic.Democratic leaders had wanted far more in state and local aid but were accepting of the lower $160 billion.But many Republicans have long viewed the state and local aid as a bailout they would have trouble supporting, despite the pleas for funds coming from governors and mayors nationwide.Late Thursday, Sen. Dick Durbin and other Democrats pitched another liability proposal to the bipartisan group, but it was rejected by Republicans, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to discuss the private session.The Trump administration is back in the middle of the negotiations with a $916 billion plan. It would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans but eliminate a $300-per-week employment benefit favored by the bipartisan group of Senate negotiators.The White House offer has the endorsement of the top House Republican and apparent backing from McConnell, who had previously favored a $519 billion GOP plan that has already failed twice. But Democrats immediately blasted the plan over the administration’s refusal to back the partial restoration, to $300 per week, of bonus pandemic jobless benefits that lapsed in August.President-elect Joe Biden is pressing for as much pandemic relief as possible, though he’s not directly involved in the talks. McConnell, like Pelosi, says Congress will not adjourn without providing the long-overdue COVID-19 relief.
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A Senate vote on a wide-ranging defense policy bill was delayed Thursday after Republican Rand Paul objected to the measure, casting the next steps in doubt and raising the slim prospect of a government shutdown if a short-term spending bill caught up in the dispute is not approved by Friday.Paul said on the Senate floor that he opposed a provision in the defense bill that would limit President Donald Trump’s ability to draw down U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Germany. His objections threatened another must-pass bill, a one-week spending measure that would keep the government open through December 18. The House has passed the stopgap measure, but a government shutdown would occur if the Senate does not act on it by midnight Friday.Paul said he would drop his objection if GOP leaders allowed a final vote on the National Defense Authorization Act on Monday. Senators from both parties were eager to finish work on the bill this week.Seeking leverageSenator John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said he thought Paul — who has provoked government shutdowns before — was using the time crunch for maximum leverage to remove the provision on troop withdrawals.”I think he’s just trying to figure out ways to derail the bill. And … when you’re in the U.S Senate that’s your prerogative. But most of our people would like to get it done” Thursday, Thune said.”His thing is just to delay this and use all the time, so it pushes the vote on [the defense bill] into next week, which pushes the override vote” on a possible Trump veto into the following week, Thune said of Paul.Paul said he was concerned that the troop amendment “creates 535 commanders-in-chief in Congress” and hampers the president’s ability to deploy troops as he sees fit. Democrats support the measure because they oppose Trump, Paul said, but the amendment would also apply to future presidents, including President-elect Joe Biden.FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2019.Paul attacked the author of the troop amendment, Republican Representative Liz Cheney, saying she and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, share a neoconservative belief in “perpetual war.””The philosophy of these people is about war and substantiating war and making sure that it becomes and is perpetual war,” Paul said.Cheney hit back on Twitter, charging that Paul was “currently holding up passage of the #NDAA, blaming America, and delaying hazardous duty pay to hundreds of thousands of our service members and their families. Inexcusable.”The dispute over the defense bill came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a rare break with Trump, urged passage of the measure, despite Trump’s threat to veto it.McConnell said Thursday that it was important for Congress to continue a nearly 60-year streak of passing the National Defense Authorization Act, which affirms 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes billions in military programs and construction.Unlocking spending”This NDAA will unlock more than $740 billion for the training, tools and cutting-edge equipment that our service members and civilian employees need to defend American lives and American interests,” McConnell said in a Senate speech ahead of an expected vote Thursday or Friday. “It will give our troops the 3% pay raise they deserve. It’ll keep our forces ready to deter China and stand strong in the Indo-Pacific.”The Democrat-controlled House overwhelmingly approved the defense bill Tuesday, defying Trump’s veto threat and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration.A total of 140 Republicans joined 195 Democrats in backing the bill, which received support from more than 80% of the House — well above the two-thirds support required to override a potential veto.Trump has vowed to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he contends were biased against him during the election. Trump also wants Congress to strip out a provision of the bill that allows renaming of military bases that now honor Confederate leaders.FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., responds to a reporter’s question during a press conference in Louisville, Ky., Nov. 4, 2020.McConnell did not address Trump’s veto threat but said the bill “will secure President Trump’s major progress at modernizing our capabilities, our technologies and our strategic nuclear deterrent.”The bill “does not contain every policy that either side would like to pass. But a huge number of crucial policies are included, and a lot of bad ideas were kept out,” McConnell said.Trump tweeted Tuesday that he would veto “the very weak” defense bill unless it repealed Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability.Votes to overrideIf he does veto the defense bill, Congress could cut short its Christmas recess to hold override votes, senior House members said.”I think we can override the veto, if in fact he vetoes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. “I hope he does not veto. I hope he reconsiders. And I think he will get substantial pressure [from Republicans] that, you know, you don’t want to put the defense bill at risk.”The defense measure guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, military personnel policy and other military goals. Many programs can go into effect only if the bill is approved, including military construction.
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U.S. President Donald Trump pushed ahead Thursday with his long-shot effort to upend his reelection loss to President-elect Joe Biden, meeting at the White House with Republican state attorneys general who are supporting a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas at the Supreme Court to attempt to invalidate millions of votes in states won by Biden. Several legal experts were dismissive of the lawsuit’s chances of success, but Trump said on Twitter, “The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States.” The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States. 78% of the people feel (know!) the Election was RIGGED.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton addresses reporters on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.If current results stand, Biden will be elected by 306-232 on Monday when the electors meeting in 50 state capitals across the country cast their votes. Congress must review and certify the Electoral College outcome on January 6 in what is normally a routine function. Trump, however, has been calling some Republican lawmakers to gauge whether any might contest the list of electors from states that narrowly supported Biden. If a House member and a senator challenge a state’s results, the whole Congress would vote on whether to certify any individual state’s electors. That would force Republican lawmakers — many of whom have avoided taking a stand on the election for weeks — to acknowledge the voting results or side with Trump’s effort to overturn the outcome. Republican Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama has said he will challenge the Biden victory, but it is unclear whether any senator will join his challenge. FILE – Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., is interviewed on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 22, 2017.Should any challenge in Congress come to a vote, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives would certainly vote against Trump, dooming his last chance at retaining power.  If Congress certifies the Electoral College outcome, Biden’s inauguration is set for noon January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Trump has neither conceded to Biden nor said whether he plans to attend his successor’s swearing-in ceremony. In a brief order Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request by Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Biden’s 81,000-vote victory in that state, marking the first time the country’s top court had weighed in on the election.  The ruling was the latest of dozens of legal losses across the country for Trump and his campaign as he tries to stay in office for another four years.  Seventeen states, all of which voted for Trump, expressed support for Paxton’s lawsuit in a court filing on Wednesday. Paxton’s suit is based on a collection of claims of voting and vote-counting irregularities that have already been largely rejected in separate cases brought in state and federal courts. But Trump has persisted in his claims. “There is massive evidence of widespread fraud in the four states (plus) mentioned in the Texas suit,” Trump contended on Twitter. “Just look at all of the tapes and affidavits!”There is massive evidence of widespread fraud in the four states (plus) mentioned in the Texas suit. Just look at all of the tapes and affidavits!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020Trump said, “We will soon be learning about the word ‘courage,’ and saving our Country. I received hundreds of thousands of legal votes more, in all of the Swing States, than did my opponent. ALL Data taken after the vote says that it was impossible for me to lose, unless FIXED!” Paxton claimed that election officials in the four states he sued used the COVID-19 pandemic as an unconstitutional justification to circumvent their state legislatures in setting election rules, “thereby weakening ballot integrity.” Paxton’s complaint asks the court to extend the deadline for the Electoral College vote beyond Monday and to disallow electors from the four states, who are pledged to vote for Biden because he won the popular vote in these states. Paxton asked the Supreme Court to instead allow the state legislatures to appoint electors, presumably ones favoring Trump. The Supreme Court gave the four states until Thursday to respond to Paxton’s suit, but their state attorneys general disparaged Paxton’s legal effort as misguided.   “With all due respect, the Texas attorney general is constitutionally, legally and factually wrong about Georgia,” said a spokeswoman for Chris Carr, Georgia’s Republican attorney general. Attorneys General Dana Nessel of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Josh Kaul of Wisconsin — all Democrats — called Paxton’s lawsuit an attempt to “mislead the public and tear at the fabric of our Constitution.” “It’s well past time for the president and our fellow states and elected officials to stop misleading the public about this year’s election and to acknowledge that the results certified in our states reflect the decisions made by the voters in a free, fair and secure election,” they stated. Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas, said of Paxton’s legal effort on Twitter, “It looks like we have a new leader in the ‘craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election’ category.” Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California-Irvine, called Paxton’s suit a “news release masquerading as a lawsuit,” in a blog post explaining his view of why the suit would fail. 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday announced several more nominees for top spots in his administration, including three women of color. In a statement, the Biden-Harris transition team said it was nominating U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, former United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice as director of the Domestic Policy Council, and House Ways and Means Committee trade lawyer Katherine Tai as United States trade representative. FILE – Rep. Marcia Fudge, left, and then-Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris wave to employees of Zanzibar Soul Fusion restaurant during a campaign event in Cleveland, Oct. 24, 2020.Fudge and Rice are African American, and Tai’s parents are immigrants from Taiwan. Biden also nominated former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to lead the Agriculture Department, a job Vilsack held for eight years under former President Barack Obama, for whom Biden served as vice president. He tapped Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff under Obama, to be secretary of veteran’s affairs. “This dedicated and distinguished group of public servants will bring the highest level of experience, compassion, and integrity to bear, solving problems and expanding possibilities for the American people in the face of steep challenges,” Biden said in Thursday’s statement, promising they will “hit the ground running on day one.” If confirmed, Fudge would become another high-ranking African American woman in the incoming administration, following Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and United Nations ambassador-designee Linda Thomas-Greenfield. FILE – Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 9, 2014.Biden has been reluctant to nominate his party’s members of Congress to his cabinet, given the Democrats’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives and uncertainty in the Senate. Fudge, a champion of affordable housing and infrastructure investment, is seen as an exception as she represents a safe seat in her district in Ohio. Tai would be the first woman of color in the role of U.S. trade representative if confirmed. Her nomination was pushed by Democratic lawmakers who noted in particular her fluency in Mandarin and her expertise in U.S.-China relations.  In tapping Tai, who successfully led Washington’s disputes against Beijing at the World Trade Organization from 2007 to 2014, the Biden team may be signaling an intent to return to a more multilateral approach to advancing U.S. trade interests and confronting China economically. The choice of Rice for a top domestic policy job comes as a surprise given her experience in foreign policy, serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and as the national security adviser from 2013 to 2017. FILE – Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks following a cabinet announcement by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, Nov. 24, 2020.However, Democrats were concerned that Republicans might block her nomination to a position that required Senate confirmation. Rice had been a contender to be secretary of state, a position that went to Antony Blinken. Biden on Wednesday announced the selection of another African American, retired Army General Lloyd Austin, to serve as defense secretary. Gender and racial diversity Biden has been facing pressure from activist groups and is eager to show that his administration intends to expand on gender and racial diversity in top appointments. Activists see diverse leadership as especially crucial as the country faces the pandemic and tries to recover economically. “For too long, the United States government has not been representative of the people that it’s intended to serve,” said Sarah Fleisch Fink, vice president for policy and strategy at the National Partnership for Women & Families. Fink said the issues that the U.S. is facing are worst for the people who are most marginalized, including women, people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. “The pandemic has only exposed that and compounded it,” Fink added. “In order for these communities to experience real change and transformation, they need to be served by people who understand their experiences.” FILE – Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who has been selected to serve as the chair of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 equity task force, speaks in a video displayed during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 8, 2020.Biden chose Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert on health care disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., as chair of his COVID-19 equity task force. Other female top administration official designees include Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary and Avril Haines as director of national intelligence. FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Biden has also named Latinos to his cabinet including California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as his choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and Alejandro Mayorkas as his nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Activists are calling on Biden to nominate a Black person as attorney general, but he is said to be considering Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama, who lost his bid for reelection in last month’s general election. Jones is a former federal prosecutor who successfully prosecuted two members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan group for the deadly 1963 bombing of a Black church in Alabama. VOA’s Richard Green  contributed to this report.
 
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The Justice Department is investigating the finances of President-elect Joe Biden’s son, including scrutinizing some of his Chinese business dealings and other transactions, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The revelations put a renewed spotlight on questions about Hunter Biden’s financial history, which dogged his father’s successful White House campaign and were a frequent target of President Donald Trump and his allies. They also come at a politically delicate time for the president-elect, who is weighing his choice to lead an agency that is actively investigating his son.
The tax investigation was launched in 2018, the year before the elder Biden announced his candidacy for president. Hunter Biden confirmed the existence of the investigation on Wednesday, saying he learned about it for the first time the previous day.
“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” he said in a statement.
It is unclear which entities or business dealings might be tied up in the probe, though the person with knowledge of the matter said at least some of the focus was on his past work in China. Federal investigators served a round of subpoenas on Tuesday, including one for Hunter Biden, according to another person familiar with the investigation.
Investigators did not reach out until recently because of Justice Department practice against taking overt investigative actions in the run-up to an election, one of the people said. The people familiar with the investigation insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe.
Hunter Biden has a history of international affairs and business dealings in a number of countries. Trump and his allies have accused him of profiting off his political connections and have raised unsubstantiated charges of corruption related to his work in Ukraine at the time his father was vice president and leading the Obama administration’s dealings with the Eastern European nation.
Late Wednesday, Trump tweeted a quote from New York Post columnist Miranda Devine claiming, “10% of voters would have changed their vote if they knew about Hunter Biden.”
Biden is actively assembling his Cabinet but has yet to name a nominee to lead the Justice Department. That person could ultimately have oversight of the investigation into the new president’s son if it is still ongoing when Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.
The transition team said in a statement, “President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger.”
The revelations could also add weight to Trump’s broad accusations that Biden was weak on China. Trump took a tough line on China during the campaign as he tried to deflect blame for the coronavirus. Biden has rejected the characterization that he was weak and said that, unlike Trump, he would rebuild global coalitions to check China’s power.
A New Yorker profile on Hunter Biden last year detailed some of his business work in China, including how he accompanied his father on a 2013 trip to Beijing, where he met with a business associate. He also acknowledged having received a diamond from a Chinese energy tycoon interested in liquified natural gas projects.
He downplayed the idea that the gift could have been intended to affect his father’s policy. He told the magazine he gave the diamond to an associate.
“What would they be bribing me for? My dad wasn’t in office,” he said.
Hunter Biden has been caught up in controversies before. While his father was vice president, Hunter joined the Naval Reserve and was discharged after testing positive for cocaine in his system, later revealing a yearslong struggle with addiction.
He also joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma in 2014, sparking concerns about the perceptions of a conflict of interest given the elder Biden was deeply involved in U.S. policy toward Ukraine. An investigation by the Republican-led Senate did not identify any policies that were directly affected by Hunter Biden’s work.
In the weeks before the election, Trump supporters used the existence of a laptop they said was connected to Hunter Biden — and the emergence of someone who maintains he had business discussions with him — to raise questions about Joe Biden’s knowledge of his son’s activities in Ukraine and China. The president-elect has said he did not discuss his son’s international business dealings with him and has denied having ever taken money from a foreign country.
The laptop surfaced publicly in October when The New York Post reported on emails that it said had come from Hunter Biden’s laptop and that it said it received from Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.
A third person familiar with the matter said the tax investigation does not have anything to do with the laptop.
In a CNN interview last week, President-elect Biden addressed the business dealings of his brothers and his son Hunter, pledging that they would avoid any perceived conflicts of interest during his time in office.
“My son, my family will not be involved in any business, any enterprise that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict, where there’s appropriate distance from the presidency and government,” Biden said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to carry on his fight to upend President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in last month’s nationwide election in a new Supreme Court case after the high court rejected an attempt to overturn Biden’s key win in the eastern battleground state of Pennsylvania.The Supreme Court, in a brief order Tuesday, rejected a request by Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Biden’s 81,000-vote victory in the state, the first time the country’s top court had weighed in on the election. But the ruling was the latest of dozens of lawsuit losses across the country for Trump and his campaign as he tries to stay in office for another four-year term.The flurry of court battles comes as the country’s Electoral College, which determines the winner in U.S. presidential elections, is set to vote Monday and likely confirm Biden’s 306-232 vote advantage. It is the same edge Trump had in the 2016 election, when he declared he won in a “landslide” victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.After Congress reviews and certifies the Electoral College outcome on January 6, Biden is set to be inaugurated two weeks later, at noon January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.Trump said he would intervene in a new suit filed in the Supreme Court by conservative Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to overturn Biden victories in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The suit is based on a collection of claims of voting and vote-counting irregularities that have already been largely rejected in separate cases brought in state and federal courts.  “There is massive evidence of widespread fraud in the four states (plus) mentioned in the Texas suit,” Trump contended on Twitter. “Just look at all of the tapes and affidavits!”There is massive evidence of widespread fraud in the four states (plus) mentioned in the Texas suit. Just look at all of the tapes and affidavits!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020Trump said, “We will soon be learning about the word ‘courage,’ and saving our Country. I received hundreds of thousands of legal votes more, in all of the Swing States, than did my opponent. ALL Data taken after the vote says that it was impossible for me to lose, unless FIXED!””Paxton claimed that election officials in the four states he sued used the COVID-19 pandemic as an unconstitutional justification to circumvent their state legislatures in setting election rules, “thereby weakening ballot integrity.”Paxton’s complaint asks the court to extend the deadline for the Electoral College vote next Monday and to disallow electors from the four states pledged to vote for Biden because he won the popular vote in these states. Instead, he asked the Supreme Court to allow the state legislatures to appoint electors, presumably ones favoring Trump.The Supreme Court gave the four states until Thursday to respond to Paxton’s suit, but their state attorneys general disparaged Paxton’s legal effort as misguided.    “With all due respect, the Texas attorney general is constitutionally, legally and factually wrong about Georgia,” said a spokeswoman for Georgia’s Republican attorney general, Chris Carr.Attorneys general Dana Nessel of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Josh Kaul of Wisconsin — all Democrats — called Paxton’s lawsuit an attempt to “mislead the public and tear at the fabric of our Constitution.”“It’s well past time for the president and our fellow states and elected officials to stop misleading the public about this year’s election and to acknowledge that the results certified in our states reflect the decisions made by the voters in a free, fair, and secure election,” they stated.Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas, said of Paxton’s legal effort on Twitter, “It looks like we have a new leader in the ‘craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election’ category.”Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine, called Paxton’s suit a “news release masquerading as a lawsuit” in a blog post explaining his view of why the suit would fail.Meanwhile, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a Trump supporter, said he would convene a Homeland Security Committee hearing next week about election irregularities, contending that “a large percentage of the American public” does not view the election outcome favoring Biden as legitimate.But another Republican lawmaker, retiring Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said that assuming the Electoral College confirms Biden’s victory on Monday, Trump should concede his loss.“I hope the president will put the country first, congratulate Joe Biden and take pride in his considerable accomplishments, and help him off to a good start,” Alexander said. 
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YouTube said on Wednesday it would start removing content that falsely allege widespread fraud changed the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, in a change to its more hands-off stance on videos making similar claims.
The update, which applies to content uploaded from Wednesday, comes a day after “safe harbor,” a deadline set by U.S. law for states to certify the results of the presidential election.
YouTube said it would start enforcing the policy in line with its approach towards historical U.S. presidential elections.
Online platforms have been under pressure to police misinformation about the election on their sites.
YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc’s Google, was widely seen as taking a more hands-off approach than Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc, which started labeling content with election misinformation. YouTube labels all election-related videos.
After the November election, Reuters identified several YouTube channels making money from ads and memberships that were amplifying debunked accusations about voting fraud.
Last month, a group of Democratic senators asked YouTube to commit to removing content containing false or misleading information about the 2020 election outcome and the upcoming Senate run-off elections in Georgia.
Asked about how the policy would apply to Georgia elections, a YouTube spokeswoman said this policy only applied to the presidential election.
YouTube said in a blog post on Wednesday that since September it had removed over 8,000 channels and thousands of misleading election-related videos for violating its existing policies.
The company said more than 70% of recommendations on election-related topics came from authoritative news sources.
YouTube also said that since Election Day, fact-check information panels had been triggered over 200,000 times on election-related search results
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The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday easily approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill, defying a veto threat from President Donald Trump and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration. The 335-78 vote in favor of the $731 billion defense measure came hours after Trump renewed his threat to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election. Trump tweeted Tuesday that he will veto “the very weak National Defense Authorization Act,” or NDAA, unless it repeals so-called Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability. Trump also wants Congress to strip out a provision of the bill that allows renaming of military bases that now honor Confederate leaders.  Congressional leaders vowed to move ahead on the hugely popular bill — which affirms automatic 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes other military programs — despite the veto threat. The final vote represented approval from more than 80% of the House — well above the two-thirds support required to override a potential veto. A total of 140 Republicans joined 195 Democrats to back the bill, which now goes to the Senate. FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2019.Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House Republican leadership, urged Trump not to follow through on his veto threat, but added that if he does veto it, “We should override.” If Trump vetoes the bill, “we will come back to vote to override,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. But with Trump pressuring Republicans to stand with him, it was unclear until the final tally whether the bill would receive the two-thirds support needed to override a veto. The House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of roughly three-dozen conservatives, backed Trump’s position Tuesday and opposed the bill. FILE – Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., speaks on Capitol Hill, Dec. 3, 2020.”We stand with the president,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., the group’s chairman. “This particular NDAA bill is filled with flaws and problems,” including limitations on troop withdrawals ordered by Trump in Afghanistan and Germany, Biggs said. Smith and other lawmakers noted that many defense programs can only go into effect if the bill is approved, including military construction. The measure guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, military personnel policy and other military goals.  FILE – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, April 12, 2018.Troops should not be “punished” because politicians failed to enact needed legislation to ensure their pay, said Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the Armed Services panel. The $731 billion measure increases hazardous duty pay for overseas deployments and other dangerous job assignments, hikes recruiting and retention bonuses, and adjusts housing allowances. The dispute over social media content — a battle cry of conservatives who say the social media giants treat them unfairly — interjects an unrelated but complicated issue into a bill that Congress takes pride in having passed unfailingly for nearly 60 years.  Measures approved by the House and Senate would require the Pentagon to rename bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Hood named for Confederate generals, but Trump opposes the idea and has threatened a veto over it. The fight erupted this summer amid widespread protests over police killings of unarmed Black men and women, and Trump used the debate to try to appeal to white Southern voters nostalgic about the Confederacy.  FILE – Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 2, 2019.Smith and Thornberry said in a joint statement last week that lawmakers had “toiled through almost 2,200 provisions to reach compromise on important issues affecting our national security and our military.”  For 59 straight years, they added, the NDAA has passed because lawmakers and presidents agreed to set aside their own preferences “and put the needs of our military personnel and America’s security first. The time has come to do that again.”  The powerful Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said he had spoken to Trump and explained that the defense bill is not the place for the big tech fight. “I agree with his sentiments — we ought to do away with 230,” Inhofe told reporters. “But you can’t do it in this bill.” Trump’s veto threat in the final months of his administration is his latest attempt to bend the norms. From redirecting money intended for military bases to build the border wall with Mexico to installing acting nominees in administrative positions without Senate confirmation, Trump has chipped away at the legislative branch throughout his term. If he does veto the defense bill, Congress could cut short its Christmas recess to hold override votes, senior House members said. FILE – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Feb. 4, 2020.”I think we can override the veto, if in fact he vetoes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday before the vote. “I hope he does not veto, I hope he reconsiders. And I think he will get substantial pressure, advice (from Republicans) that, you know, you don’t want to put the defense bill at risk.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s attempt to pressure Congress on Section 230 was justified.  “Twitter has become a publisher, choosing to fact-check content,” she said. “And when you’re a publisher, there are certain responsibilities with that and you should not be immune from liability.” Past presidents have certainly threatened to veto defense bills, which set annual policy with troop levels, equipment priorities, pay raises and other matters. The defense bill is typically a widely bipartisan measure, one of the few areas of common ground. Over the summer, the Senate approved its version, 86-14, while the House similarly passed its effort, with opposition coming mostly from the liberal and conservative flanks.  FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 12, 2020.Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have railed against the social media companies, especially during the heated November election. McCarthy, R-Calif., voted for the bill Tuesday but said he would not support overriding the veto. Some Democrats, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, agree the Section 230 provision could be revisited, even as they disagree with Trump’s tactic of attaching it to the defense bill. 
 
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President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to four people familiar with the decisions. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just elected to a seventh term representing a majority Black district that includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. Vilsack spent eight years as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor. Their intended nominations were confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday by four people familiar with one or both of the decisions who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid preempting the president-elect’s announcement. Marcia FudgeBiden sees Fudge as a leading voice for working families and a longtime champion of affordable housing, infrastructure and other priorities, according to one of the people familiar with the president-elect’s decision. Vilsack was selected in part because of the heightened hunger crisis facing the nation and the need to ensure someone was ready to run the department on day one, the person said. FILE – Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, arrives for the Democratic Caucus leadership elections at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 28, 2018.As news outlets started reporting Fudge’s selection as HUD secretary, she said on Capitol Hill that it would be “an honor and a privilege” to be asked to join Biden’s Cabinet, though she didn’t confirm she had been picked. “It is something in probably my wildest dreams I would have never thought about. So if I can help this president in any way possible, I am more than happy to do it,” she said Tuesday evening. A longtime member of the House Agriculture Committee and a fierce advocate for food stamps, Fudge was originally discussed to become agriculture secretary. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat who gave Biden a key nod of support in the primaries, had strongly backed her, saying, “It’s one thing to grow food, but another to dispense it, and nobody would be better at that than Marcia Fudge.” She also had the strong backing of progressive groups who touted her support for food aid and worker protections at meatpacking plants.  But her name was later floated for HUD as Biden’s team focused on other candidates for USDA, including Vilsack and former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. Tom Vilsack Biden’s relationship with Vilsack goes back decades. He was an early supporter of Biden’s first campaign for president in 1988 while Vilsack was the mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He endorsed Biden a year before the 2020 election and campaigned tirelessly for him in Iowa, the nation’s first caucus state. Biden adopted aspects of Vilsack’s rural policy agenda as Democrats look to make up ground they’ve lost to Republicans in rural areas over the past decade. Having run the giant department for eight years under Obama and sat at the table with Biden, there’s little mystery to Vilsack’s expertise. Their 34-year friendship and longtime professional connection make the choice one offering little risk. FILE – Former United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack speaks at a campaign stop for Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, in Burlington, Iowa, Jan. 31, 2020.Vilsack entered politics in large part because of tragedy, when the mayor of Mount Pleasant was gunned down at a city council meeting in 1986. Vilsack, then a young lawyer, had grown up in Pittsburgh and moved with his wife, Christie, to her Iowa hometown. He was recruited to seek the mayor’s office, then served two terms in the Iowa Senate before being the first Democrat to win the governorship in 30 years. After two terms, Vilsack ran a 10-week campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination before withdrawing and throwing his support to Hillary Clinton, even as Biden was among the field. Vilsack was a finalist for Clinton’s running mate that year. Biden has said he wants a diverse Cabinet, and some Black leaders have said he needs to do more to achieve that. Biden announced earlier Tuesday that he had selected retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be the nation’s first Black defense secretary. Clyburn aggressively pushed Fudge for USDA but seemed to suggest earlier Tuesday that she may be under consideration for another position. “Marcia Fudge is a tremendous candidate. I was pitching her for the Department of Agriculture,” Clyburn said on CNN. “I don’t know if that’s where she will end up, but I feel certain that Marcia Fudge is the kind of person that should be in this Cabinet and I will continue to advocate for her.” She earned her bachelor’s degree in business from The Ohio State University and a law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law at Cleveland State University. Politico first reported the news of Fudge’s selection, while Axios was first to report Vilsack as agriculture secretary. 
 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden introduced his top health care officials on Tuesday, all of whom will quickly face the country’s grim world-leading coronavirus statistics: nearly 15 million infections and more than 283,000 deaths.  Biden, set to be FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Biden tapped former Congressman Xavier Becerra to be his Health and Human Services chief to lead the country’s fight against the virus and oversee millions of vaccinations in the coming months. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could approve the first vaccine against COVID-19 in the coming days, although it will be months before most Americans are inoculated.  Outgoing President Donald Trump, defeated for re-election by Biden in last month’s national vote, delivered remarks during Tuesday’s Operation Warp Speed summit on the government’s effort to produce several vaccines against the coronavirus.  Trump described the record-breaking speed with which the vaccines were developed was a “monumental national achievement” that would save millions of lives and “end the pandemic.” Although Biden has promised to get inoculated when a vaccine is approved as safe, polls show about four in 10 Americans are wary of getting the shots or will refuse to be vaccinated.  In this file photo, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks during an unscheduled briefing after a Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on April 5, 2020, in Washington.Biden picked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, as his chief medical adviser on COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Fauci will also continue in his longtime role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  Fauci, 79, has served as a medical adviser to six U.S. presidents and for months was the face of the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic. But in the months before the presidential election, Trump grew increasingly angered at Fauci’s grim assessments of the spread of the infection and sidelined him in favor of more upbeat commentary.   Throughout his campaign, Biden said he will pay close attention to scientific findings about the coronavirus from Fauci and other medical experts. Aside from reviewing the Pfizer vaccine, U.S. health regulators are to review another produced by the Moderna biotechnology firm next week. Millions of doses of the vaccines could be available later this month, with millions more in early 2021. President-elect Joe Biden, right, puts on his mask as he listens to Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has been nominated by Biden to serve as U.S. Surgeon General, speak during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware, December 8, 2020.Biden named Dr. Vivek Murthy as surgeon general, a position he held from 2014 to 2017 during the administration of former President Barack Obama, when Biden was second-in-command.  The president-elect picked Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a top expert on virus testing, prevention and treatment in the eastern state of Massachusetts, as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Biden chose Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert on health care disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., as chair of his COVID-19 equity task force. She is an associate professor of medicine, public health and management at the Yale School of Medicine.  He also picked business executive Jeffrey Zients, a former director of the National Economic Council under Obama, as a coordinator of his COVID-19 response team and a counselor to him.  Biden named former White House and Pentagon senior adviser Natalie Quillian as deputy coordinator of the government’s response to the pandemic. 
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The state of Texas, aiming to help President Donald Trump upend the results of the U.S. election, said on Tuesday it has filed suit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin at the Supreme Court, calling changes they made to election procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic unlawful.
The lawsuit, announced by the Republican attorney general of Texas Ken Paxton, was filed directly with the Supreme Court, as is permitted for certain litigation between states. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority including three justices appointed by Trump.
The lawsuit represents the latest legal effort intended to reverse the Republican president’s loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election.
Republican-governed Texas in the lawsuit accused election officials in the four states of failing to protect mail-in voting from fraud, thus diminishing “the weight of votes cast in states that lawfully abide by the election structure set forth in the Constitution.”
State election officials have said they have found no evidence of such fraud that would change the results. There was a surge in voting by mail in the election due to the pandemic, as many Americans stayed away from polling places to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
Texas is asking the Supreme Court to block the Electoral College votes in the four states – a total of 62 votes – from being counted. Biden has amassed 306 electoral votes – exceeding the necessary 270 – compared to 232 for Trump in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the election’s outcome, while also winning the national popular vote by more than 7 million votes.
Texas also is asking the Supreme Court to delay the Dec. 14 deadline for Electoral College votes to be cast.
Paul Smith, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school, said Texas did not have a legitimate basis to bring the suit.
“There is no possible way that the state of Texas has standing to complain about how other states counted the votes and how they are about to cast their electoral votes,” Smith said.
Trump’s campaign and his allies have pursued unsuccessful lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other states, making unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. Trump lost those four states after winning them in 2016.
The Supreme Court is not obligated to hear the case and has said in previous decisions that its “original jurisdiction” that allows litigation between states to be filed directly with the nine justices should be invoked sparingly.
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is introducing his top health care officials on Tuesday, all of whom will quickly face the country’s grim world-leading coronavirus statistics: nearly 15 million infections and more than 283,000 deaths.Biden, FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Outgoing President Donald Trump, defeated for re-election by Biden in last month’s national vote, is delivering remarks at Tuesday’s Operation Warp Speed summit on the government’s effort to produce several vaccines against the coronavirus.Although Biden has promised to get inoculated when a vaccine is approved as safe, polls show about four in 10 Americans are wary of getting the shots or will refuse to be vaccinated.In this file photo, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks during an unscheduled briefing after a Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on April 5, 2020, in Washington.Biden picked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, as his chief medical adviser on COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus. Fauci will also continue in his longtime role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Fauci, 79, has served as a medical adviser to six U.S. presidents and for months was the face of the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic. But in the months before the presidential election, Trump grew increasingly angered at Fauci’s grim assessments of the spread of the infection and sidelined him in favor of more upbeat commentary.Biden has also decided to nominate retired four-star Army General Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense, according to numerous news accounts.Austin, 67, a career officer, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1975 and served 41 years. He would need a congressional waiver to become defense secretary because he has not been out of uniform for at least seven years. If confirmed, he would be the Pentagon’s first Black leader.Throughout his campaign, Biden said he will pay close attention to scientific findings about the coronavirus from Fauci and other medical experts. Aside from reviewing the Pfizer vaccine, U.S. health regulators are to review another produced by the Moderna biotechnology firm next week. Millions of doses of the vaccines could be available later this month, with millions more in early 2021.    In this image from video, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 20, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP)Biden named Dr. Vivek Murthy as surgeon general, a position he held from 2014 to 2017 during the administration of former President Barack Obama, when Biden was second-in-command.The president-elect picked Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a top expert on virus testing, prevention and treatment in the eastern state of Massachusetts, as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.Biden chose Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert on health care disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., as chair of his COVID-19 equity task force. She is an associate professor of medicine, public health and management at the Yale School of Medicine.The president-elect picked business executive Jeffrey Zients, a former director of the National Economic Council under Obama, as a coordinator of his COVID-19 response team and a counselor to him. Biden named former White House and Pentagon senior adviser Natalie Quillian as deputy coordinator of the government’s response to the pandemic.The Biden transition team said the health officials “will help fulfill the president-elect’s vision of making health care a right, not a privilege, for all Americans — building on the Affordable Care Act to lower health care costs and tackle prescription drug costs.”In a statement, Biden said, “This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced — getting the pandemic under control so that the American people can get back to work, back to their lives, and back to their loved ones.”He said that after his inauguration next month, the government would “expand testing and masking, (and) oversee the safe, equitable and free distribution of treatments and vaccines.”Biden said his administration would “rally the country and restore the belief that there is nothing beyond America’s capacity if we do it together.” 
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Nearly a year after announcing its construction, a new tennis pavilion has been completed on the White House grounds, the administration said in a statement Monday.  The project, for which construction began in 2019, was to refurbish the existing tennis court on White House grounds and construct a new building alongside it, inspired by the classic architecture of the East and West Wings, the White House said in a statement Monday. “It is my hope that this private space will function as both a place of leisure and gathering for future first families,” first lady Melania Trump was quoted as saying in the statement. Today, @FLOTUS announced the completion of the Tennis Pavilion on the White House grounds! https://t.co/CQeyDLPTHN— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 7, 2020But the announcement was immediately met with backlash by some on social media, as many Americans questioned the cost and importance of the project as the U.S. recorded more than 283,000 deaths from COVID-19. “How many PPEs, tests, masks, contact tracers, and ICU beds could that have bought instead?” one epidemiologist wrote on Twitter. Good news—WH just announced today that they just completed the WH Tennis 🎾 Pavilion. WH is so excited that they put out a press release. How many PPEs, tests, masks, contact tracers, and ICU beds could that have bought instead? #COVID19https://t.co/zGVpn7mkAGpic.twitter.com/uRLGpvvxcU— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 7, 2020The White House has not revealed how much money was spent on the project. The project drew criticism earlier in the year as well, when Melania Trump posted on Twitter a photo of herself wearing a hard hat and surveying construction. She responded to critics then in a tweet, calling on those who criticized her to “contribute something good and productive in their own communities.” I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the @WhiteHouse to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities. #BeBesthttps://t.co/03sx0rq2Nx— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) March 7, 2020 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden named his top health care officials on Monday, tapping former Congressman Xavier Becerra as his Health and Human Services chief to lead the country’s fight to curb the surging coronavirus pandemic and oversee millions of vaccinations against it in the coming months.
 FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Becerra currently is attorney general for the western state of California who led the defense last month in the U.S. Supreme Court against a conservative bid to overturn the country’s Affordable Care Act, in a case yet to be decided. During his 24 years as a congressman in the House of Representatives, Becerra worked to win approval for the national health care law that has provided insurance coverage to millions of Americans.
 
In addition, Biden picked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, as his chief medical adviser on COVID-19. Biden also asked Fauci to continue in his longtime role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
 
Fauci, 79, has served as a medical adviser to six U.S. presidents and for months has been the face of the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic.  
 
In the months before the presidential election, President Donald Trump grew increasingly peeved at Fauci’s grim assessments of the spread of the virus and sidelined him in favor of more upbeat commentary.
 FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases arrives to participate in a roundtable at the American Red Cross national headquarters in Washington.Biden has said he will pay close attention to scientific findings about the virus from Fauci and other medical experts and get vaccinated as soon as Fauci says the preventative is safe.
 
U.S. health regulators are about to review two proposed vaccines that have proved effective in clinical tests. Millions of doses of the vaccines could be available later this month, with millions more in early 2021.    
 
Biden named Dr. Vivek Murthy as surgeon general, a position he held from 2014 to 2017 during the administration of former President Barack Obama, when Biden was second in command.
 
The president-elect picked Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a top expert on virus testing, prevention and treatment in the eastern state of Massachusetts, as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
 
Biden chose Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert on health care disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., as chair of his COVID-19 equity task force. She is an associate professor of medicine, public health and management at the Yale School of Medicine.
 
The president-elect picked business executive Jeffrey Zients, a former director of the National Economic Council under Obama, as a coordinator of his COVID-19 response team and a counselor to him. Biden named former White House and Pentagon senior adviser Natalie Quillian as deputy coordinator of the government’s response to the pandemic.
 
The Biden transition team said the health officials “will help fulfill the president-elect’s vision of making health care a right, not a privilege, for all Americans — building on the Affordable Care Act to lower health care costs and tackle prescription drug costs.”
 
In a statement, Biden said, “This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced — getting the pandemic under control so that the American people can get back to work, back to their lives, and back to their loved ones.”
 
He said that after his inauguration on January 20, the government would “expand testing and masking, (and) oversee the safe, equitable and free distribution of treatments and vaccines.”
 
He said his administration would “rally the country and restore the belief that there is nothing beyond America’s capacity if we do it together.”
 
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