Author: PolitCens

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden announced his picks for top diplomatic and national security posts in his forthcoming administration. Biden is pressing ahead with the transition process even though President Donald Trump has yet to formally concede. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov 
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After four years of warnings and preparations, the 2020 presidential election did not see a repeat of 2016, when intelligence officials concluded Russia meddled using a combination of cyberattacks and influence operations.  
 
But according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials, as well as analysts, the good news ends there.   
 
The Russians, they warn, have been busy laying the foundation for future success.
 
Instead of relying on troll farms and fake social media accounts to try to sway the thoughts and opinions of American voters, they warn the Kremlin’s influence peddlers have instead gained a new foothold, establishing themselves as part of the United States’s news and social media ecosystem, ingratiating themselves to U.S. audiences on the far right and the far left.
 
“A lot of these campaigns are getting engagement in the millions,” Evanna Hu, chief executive officer of Omelas, told VOA. “They are pretty good at inducing the type of sentiment, a negative sentiment or a positive sentiment in the audience, from their posts.”
 
Omelas, a Washington-based firm that tracks online extremism for defense contractors, has been studying Russian content across 11 social media platforms and hundreds of RSS feeds in multiple languages, collecting 1.2 million posts in a 90-day period surrounding the November 3 election.
 
It found the most prolific Russian outlets included state-backed media outlets like RT, Sputnik, TASS and Izvestia TV.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on the screen of a camera viewfinder in a studio of Russia’s RT television channel in Moscow, Russia, June 11, 2013.“We only look at active engagements, so you have to physically click on something or retweet it,” said Hu, admitting that the estimate for the millions of engagements is still “pretty rough.”
 
Also, Omelas determined that only about 20% of the posts pumped out by Russia’s propaganda and influence machine are in English. Forty percent of the content is in Russian, with the rest going out in Spanish, Arabic, Turkish and a handful of other languages.
 Russian-backed media
 
U.S. officials have been reluctant to speak publicly about the impact these efforts have had on American citizens, in part because there is no easy way to measure the effect.   
 
After the 2016 election, for example, intelligence officials repeatedly said while they were able to conclude Russian efforts expressed a preference for then-candidate Donald Trump, they could not say whether any Americans voted differently as a result.
 
Still, multiple officials speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject said it was unlikely that Russia would continue to spend money on these media ventures if the influence operations were not producing results.
 
An August 2020 report by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, while not sharing a figure, concluded Moscow “invests massively in its propaganda channels, its intelligence services and its proxies.”
 
U.S. election security officials have likewise repeatedly voiced concerns about Russia’s efforts to stake out space in the news and social media ecosystem.
 
“I’m telling you right now, if it comes from something tied back to the Kremlin, like RT or Sputnik or Ruptly, question the intent,” Christopher Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told a cybersecurity summit in September. “What are they trying to get you to do? Odds are, it’s not a good thing.”FILE – The main newsroom of Russia’s Sputnik news is seen in Moscow, April 27, 2018.Senior CISA officials again called out Russian-backed media while briefing reporters on Election Day (November 3), begging Americans to treat any information coming from Russian-linked sources with a “hefty, hefty, hefty dose of skepticism.”  
 Disinformation payoff
 
To some extent, the repeated warnings about Russian-supported outlets like RT and Sputnik have paid off, at least when it comes to this month’s presidential election.
 
“They (RT and Sputnik) aren’t prominent domains in any of the analyses that we’ve done on false narratives of voter fraud,” Kate Starbird, a University of Washington professor and lead researcher with the Election Integrity Partnership, told VOA via email.
 
“They do sometimes amplify disinformation that is already spreading,” she added. “But they typically come in late and rarely change the trajectory of that disinformation.”
 
Some intelligence officials and researchers warn, though, that for now, that could very well be enough.
 
“You still see people sharing their (Russian) content in America,” said Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent who has been studying Russian disinformation efforts for years. “The reach of Russian news inside the U.S. … is exponentially higher than in other countries. So, they can see a return on it.”
 Redfish red herring
 
To help grow that return even more, and to avoid labels that identify the content as Russian, outlets like RT and Sputnik have also begun pushing content through the social media accounts of some of their most popular hosts, added Watts, currently a non-resident fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Then there is the Redfish channel on Instagram, which Watts said has allowed Russia to gain “significant traction.”“They put up a heavy rotation on George Floyd protests, and that is now where you see Americans sharing it routinely, millions and millions of shares,” Watts told VOA. “They dramatically raised their profile, particularly with the political left in the United States and African Americans, who I’m convinced have no idea that Redfish is a Russian outfit.”
 Far-right appeal
 
Russia is also finding ways to resonate with the far right.
 
According to the August report by the Global Engagement Center, Russian proxy websites like Canada’s Global Research website or the Russian-run Strategic Culture Foundation amplify conspiracy theories about subjects like the coronavirus.
 
Researchers like Watts say that propaganda then sometimes finds its way onto far-right websites such as ZeroHedge or The Duran, where it gets amplified again.
 
Another researcher warned that Russian efforts are also resonating with far-right conspiracy theorists, some of whom will pick up propaganda from proxy sites, or more mainstream sources like RT.
 
“All of these Q(Anon)-driven accounts — they love the Russian stuff,” the researcher told VOA on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the work.
 Into the mainstream
 
Not all Russian propaganda efforts circulate on the fringes of American politics. Some of the narratives hang around and are repeated often enough that they become difficult to ignore.
 
“So then, they can get somebody else from the American far right or far left to pick up on that story and then eventually snowball that so mainstream picks up on it … coopting the American media in a sense,” said Omelas’s CEO, Hu.  
 
Other times, Russia’s influence peddlers have found their contributors thrust into the spotlight.
 
For example, on November 20, U.S. President Trump repeatedly retweeted Wayne Dupree, who regularly writes opinion pieces for RT.We have great support on the Election Hoax! https://t.co/ChpkuZvc4s— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2020 
Just days earlier in a RT opinion piece, Dupree slammed what he described as “the fraudulent and brazen behavior of these Democrats to destroy the election’s integrity.”“They are all going to fall hard, along with the major news networks that have sought to brainwash the American people,” Dupree added. “The entire system is coming down, folks. Get ready.”
 
A number of researchers and U.S. counterintelligence officials say the incident falls into what has become an all-too familiar pattern.It’s actually quite a bit worse than that, the whole convergence of Kremlin media and conservative media…. https://t.co/dlJsUeeZOo— Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) November 20, 2020In June, U.S. officials and lawmakers warned that RT purposefully courted outspoken, local U.S. police officers and union officials, attempting to use their reactions to protests sweeping across the country to further inflame tensions.
 
“They know they no longer need to do their own work,” National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina told Hearst Television in October.  
 
“They’re now taking U.S. citizens’ information, and they are taking it and amplifying it,” he said. “Whether it be conspiracy theorists or legitimate folks who have wrong information, they get amplified consistently.” 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s transition to power in Washington has formally started after a government agency declared him the apparent winner of the 2020 presidential election, even as President Donald Trump continues his long-shot attempt to upend Biden’s victory at the polls.Biden’s team of advisers immediately started reaching out Monday night to Trump officials throughout the government to learn about possible national security threats the country faces, and other immediate issues Biden will face when he is inaugurated January 20.Pentagon officials said Biden transition team members contacted the Defense Department soon after Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, determined that Biden is the “apparent” election winner and that the transition can begin. Murphy’s action allows Biden to tap public funds for the transition, to receive security briefings and his transition officials to gain access to federal agencies.What Resources Does the Biden Transition Get? Federal law provides for certain activities to ensure a smooth transition of power It was not immediately clear when Biden would receive his first classified national security briefing as president-elect. Biden has discussed security issues with his team of intelligence and military advisers but has yet to be handed the President’s Daily Brief, the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of worldwide threats.Of immediate concern for Biden is the fight to control the surging number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. Biden officials want information on the Trump administration’s timetable to approve three vaccines against the virus in the next few weeks and plans for widespread inoculations of Americans starting before the end of the year and extending well into 2021.Health officials say approval of the vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration could prove to be more uneventful than the difficult task of distributing the vaccines throughout the country and scheduling millions of people to get the shots. Polls show about four in 10 Americans are wary about getting vaccinated or have already decided against it, potentially making it more difficult to control the pandemic.Other Biden transition teams are contacting officials at numerous agencies throughout the government to verse themselves on pending policy issues as well as to learn the extent to which the Trump administration removed staff members over the last four years to get rid of what the president deemed to be an entrenched “Deep State” at odds with his view of a limited government.Meanwhile, at his transition base in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden introduced some of the top appointees he named Monday, including Antony Blinken as secretary of State, Avril Haines as director of national intelligence and Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security chief.Trump reluctantly eased the path for the orderly Biden transition to power to start by acquiescing in Murphy’s declaration that Biden was the apparent winner of the contentious, months-long campaign.Trump said the transition was “in the best interest of our country.”But the president vowed to continue his fight against the election outcome, saying, “Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good … fight, and I believe we will prevail!”Trump offered no concession to Biden and has not called him with congratulations, even as numerous world leaders have offered good wishes to the prospective 46th U.S. president.Trump’s defeat makes him the fifth U.S. president in the country’s 244-year history to lose re-election after a single four-year term in the White House.Trump has lost more than 30 legal challenges alleging vote and vote-counting irregularities in key battleground states but did not acknowledge defeat in allowing the Biden transition to power to move forward. Trump is continuing several lawsuits or appeals of cases he has lost to try to overturn Biden’s victory. 
On Tuesday morning, Trump said on Twitter, “Remember, the GSA has been terrific, and Emily Murphy has done a great job, but the GSA does not determine who the next President of the United States will be.” 
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The U.S. General Services Administration has determined president-elect Joe Biden is now eligible for certain resources and access as part of a 1964 law enacted to promote an orderly transition of executive power in the United States. Between now and his January 20 inauguration, Biden will be building out his administration, putting in place staff both to begin carrying out his policy vision when his term begins and to be able to immediately handle the national security aspects of the job. The transition team gained access to a government internet domain and email, quickly launching buildbackbetter.gov. Biden will receive information about classified threats to national security, covert military operations and pending decisions the Trump administration may have on possible uses of military force. Members of the transition team and people selected for national security positions can begin to be issued security clearances that will be necessary for doing their jobs.  Key appointees can also take part in orientation sessions to familiarize them with the workings and best practices of a government agency. The Trump administration will conduct emergency preparedness exercises with Biden’s staff. Heads of government agencies can start working with transition officials in order to ensure a smooth handover and uninterrupted execution of the government’s operations.  That includes efforts such as communicating with health experts about the plans to distribute coronavirus vaccines. Biden’s team can use up to $6.3 million in federal funding for its transition operations.  It also gains access to federal office space, including areas where Biden can receive sensitive intelligence briefings. 
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U.S. presidents often change government policy through presidential actions, issuing executive orders, proclamations or memoranda, bypassing Congress and the legislative process. Mike O’Sullivan reports, President Donald Trump has relied heavily on the tactic, and President-elect Joe Biden has promised to do the same.
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President-elect Joe Biden has announced several of his top cabinet picks, naming his long-time close adviser and former deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken as his choice to be the next secretary of state. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more on Blinken, who is known as a staunch supporter of international alliances, human rights and refugees.
Produced by: Barry Unger
 
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Antony Blinken, who has been tapped to be U.S. secretary of state under President-elect Joe Biden, has decades of foreign policy experience and is known for his staunch support of international alliances and human rights.   Blinken has a close relationship with Biden, and while he is not a household name, he has held important foreign policy positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations.  If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would become the face of U.S. diplomacy and would be the leading force in the Biden administration’s effort to reshape U.S. alliances after four years in which President Donald Trump has questioned longtime allies.  International alliances  According to multiple news accounts, Blinken agrees with Biden on the need for the U.S. to play a leading role again in world affairs, a change from Trump’s “America First” credo that at times left the United States at odds with other longtime Western allies.   FILE – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki, center, and First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea Lim Sung Nam conclude a news conference in Tokyo on January 2016.Aides say Blinken has helped Biden formulate an international strategy for the United States that includes quick outreach to allies that have been on the receiving end of Trump’s criticisms.   Blinken told The Associated Press in September, “Democracy is in retreat around the world, and unfortunately, it’s also in retreat at home because of the president taking a two-by-four to its institutions, its values and its people every day.” “Our friends know that Joe Biden knows who they are. So do our adversaries. That difference would be felt on Day One,” he added.  Blinken graduated from high school in Paris, France, and is a strong supporter of NATO and other alliances and multilateral institutions.He is also known for his support of human rights and refugees. In 2016, he appeared on the American children’s show “Sesame Street,” explaining the difficulties refugees face and how to practice tolerance.   “We all have something to learn and gain from one another, even when it doesn’t seem at first like we have much in common,” he said then.  Biden has campaigned on rejoining international agreements, including the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal, if Tehran restores its compliance. He would also reverse Trump’s plans to leave the World Health Organization and has promised greater international cooperation to fight the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.   Long resume  Blinken, 58, has held a long list of previous foreign policy positions, including deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration.  A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, he has been influential in Democratic foreign policy circles for two decades.   FILE – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, April 7, 2015.Blinken served first under former President Bill Clinton. While Republican President George W. Bush was in power, Blinken was the Democratic staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the same time Biden was chair of the panel.   He has been advising Biden since 2002 and served during the Obama administration as then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser.     Blinken will take over a depleted State Department workforce, following the departure of a significant number of senior and midlevel agency officials during the Trump administration. Trump had sought to cut the State Department’s budget by more than 30% as it sidelined many of the traditional activities of the department.  
 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden named his top diplomatic and national security team for his incoming administration on Monday, including one of his closest foreign affairs advisers, Antony Blinken, to be secretary of state.Biden also named a former top U.S. diplomat, one-time Secretary of State John Kerry, to a new position as special presidential envoy for climate while holding a seat on the National Security Council. It was a reflection, the Biden transition said, of the incoming president’s commitment to addressing climate change as an urgent national security issue.Biden is set to become the 46th U.S. president, and at 78, its oldest, at his inauguration on January 20, even as President Donald Trump continues his long-shot legal attempt to upend the Democrat’s November 3 election victory.Biden, overseeing his transition to power in Washington from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, selected Alejandro Mayorkas as head of the Department of Homeland Security. A Cuban American lawyer, he is a former deputy secretary at the agency, and if confirmed by the Senate, would be its first Latino and immigrant leader.The incoming U.S. president picked an African American, former Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service who has served on four continents, to serve as the U.S. envoy to the United Nations. Biden elevated her role to a seat in his Cabinet, a rank past presidents have also occasionally given the high-profile position.FILE – Then-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 picked another woman, Avril Haines, as director of national intelligence. She is a former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a deputy national security adviser, She will be the first woman to lead the U.S. intelligence community.Jake Sullivan, a Biden foreign affairs adviser, was named as his national security adviser.In announcing the appointments, Biden said, “We have no time to lose when it comes to our national security and foreign policy. I need a team ready on Day One to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table, rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity, and values.”“This is the crux of that team,” Biden said. “These individuals are equally as experienced and crisis-tested as they are innovative and imaginative. Their accomplishments in diplomacy are unmatched, but they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet the profound challenges of this new moment with old thinking and unchanged habits — or without diversity of background and perspective. It’s why I’ve selected them.”Biden appears set to re-engage the United States in an array of global alliances that Trump abandoned over the last four years.The 58-year-old Blinken is a veteran of U.S. foreign affairs decision-making for two decades, and according to multiple news accounts, agrees with Biden on the need for the U.S. to play a leading role again in world affairs, a change from Trump’s “America First” credo that at times left the United States at odds with other long-time Western allies.In his first days in office, Biden has said he plans to overturn Trump policies and rejoin the Paris climate agreement, stop the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization and attempt to again join other nations in the international pact to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons development.Blinken, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the face of U.S. diplomacy. He served first under former President Bill Clinton, then later as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under former Democratic President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. And while Republican former President George W. Bush was in power, Blinken was the Democratic staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Biden could announce other Cabinet-level nominations on Tuesday even as Trump continues to contest Biden’s election and tries to avoid becoming the third U.S. leader in the last four decades to be ousted after a single term in the White House.FILE – President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris participate in a meeting with state officials, at The Queen Theater, Nov. 19, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware.Virtual meeting with mayorsBiden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Monday are meeting virtually with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The non-partisan organization includes the mayors of more than 1,400 cities, each with a population of 30,000 or more.The conference has pushed for more federal aid to state and local governments as the number of coronavirus cases surges in the U.S. But negotiations for more relief have stalled between Congress and the White House. Biden has called for a new aid deal before he takes office but prospects for its passage by the end of December are uncertain.Trump is continuing to claim he won the election despite Biden’s unofficial 306-232 majority vote in the Electoral College. The electoral vote determines U.S. presidential elections, not the national popular vote, although Biden leads there, too, by more than 6 million votes.Trump’s legal fight against the election results has been fruitless so far, with his campaign losing or withdrawing 34 lawsuits claiming vote and vote-counting fraud in key battleground states Biden was projected to win to claim a four-year term in the White House.Trump is pursuing other lawsuits and appeals of decisions he has lost, attempting to upend Biden’s win.
 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has selected one of his closest foreign affairs advisers, Antony Blinken, to be secretary of state in his new administration, as the projected winner of the U.S. election appears set to re-engage the United States in an array of global alliances that President Donald Trump had abandoned.
 Under the Biden-Harris administration, American national security and foreign policy will be led by experienced professionals ready to restore principled leadership on the world stage and dignified leadership at home. Read more: https://t.co/ojrTxrzafV— Biden-Harris Presidential Transition (@Transition46) November 23, 2020The 58-year-old Blinken is a veteran of U.S. foreign affairs decision-making for two decades, and according to multiple news accounts, agrees with Biden on the need for the U.S. to play a leading role again in world affairs, a change from Trump’s “America First” credo that at times left the United States at odds with other long-time Western allies.
 
In his first days in office after the January 20 inauguration, Biden plans to overturn Trump policies and rejoin the Paris climate agreement, stop the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization and attempt to again join other nations in the international pact to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons development.
 
Blinken served first under former President Bill Clinton, then later as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under former Democratic President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. And while Republican former President George W, Bush was in power, Blinken was the Democratic staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
 
In addition to Blinken’s nomination, which must be approved by the Senate, Biden transition officials told news media that the incoming U.S. leader named two other foreign policy veterans to key positions — Jake Sullivan as national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as his nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.FILE – Then-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.Sullivan is another Biden foreign policy adviser. Thomas-Greenfield, an African American, is a former career Foreign Service officer and would hold one of the most high-profile diplomatic posts in the new administration.
 
Biden’s Cabinet-level nominations even are being made as Trump continues to contest his election as the country’s 46th chief executive.  
 
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Monday are meeting virtually from Wilmington, Delaware, with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The non-partisan organization includes the mayors of more than 1,400 cities, each with a population of 30,000 or more.
 
The conference has pushed for more federal aid to state and local governments as the number of coronavirus cases surges in the U.S. But negotiations for more relief have stalled between Congress and the White House. Biden has called for a new aid deal before he takes office but prospects for its passage by the end of December are uncertain.
 Trump insists he won election
Trump is continuing to claim he won the election despite Biden’s unofficial 306-232 majority vote in the Electoral College. The electoral vote determines U.S. presidential elections, not the national popular vote, although Biden leads there, too, by more than 6 million votes.  
 
Trump’s legal fight against the election results has been fruitless so far, with his campaign losing or withdrawing 34 lawsuits claiming vote and vote-counting fraud in key battleground states Biden was projected to win to claim a four-year term in the White House.  
 
Trump is pursuing other lawsuits and appeals of decisions he has lost, attempting to upend Biden’s win.
 
Trump’s legal team filed an appeal Sunday after its latest courtroom defeat late Saturday in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes Biden won by an 81,000-vote margin.
 
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann declared that the Trump campaign had presented “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” in its effort to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and hand the state’s electoral votes to Trump.FILE – A canvas observer photographs Lehigh County provisional ballots during vote counting in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Nov. 6, 2020.“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.
 
After a hand recount of 5 million votes, the southern state of Georgia on Friday certified Biden’s victory there, while Pennsylvania and the midwestern state of Michigan could do the same on Monday. The Trump campaign has since requested another recount of the votes in Georgia.  
 
Despite his legal setbacks, Trump has refused to authorize his administration to cooperate with Biden on his transition to office.   
 Transition stalled
On Sunday, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain rebuked Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration, for so far refusing to ascertain that Biden is the apparent election winner so that federal funding can be made available for the transfer in control of the government and Biden aides can talk with officials at numerous agencies.  
 
“I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job,” Klain said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to Murphy. 
 
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to name the first members of his Cabinet on Tuesday, a key aide said Sunday, even as President Donald Trump urged on Republicans to help him in his longshot legal effort to overturn his re-election defeat. Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, declined in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” show to say which agency heads Biden would name. But the president-elect said last week he had settled on a new Treasury secretary and that his selection would appeal to “all elements of the Democratic Party… progressive to the moderate coalitions.” While Biden is transitioning to become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration on January 20, Trump has refused to concede. On Sunday, the outgoing U.S. leader told his followers on Twitter, “We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots… Fight hard Republicans.” It’s all about the signatures on the envelopes. Why are the Democrats fighting so hard to hide them. We will find massive numbers of fraudulent ballots. The signatures won’t match. Fight hard Republicans. Don’t let them destroy the evidence! FILE – Sen. Pat Toomey returns from a break in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2020.“President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania,” Toomey said. “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country.” Another Trump adviser, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, told the ABC show, “The conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment.”Christie said Trump should concede and that Republicans should instead focus on winning two Senate run-off elections in the southern state of Georgia in early January that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate for the next two years.“The rearview mirror should be ripped off,” Christie said.After a hand-by-hand recount of 5 million votes, the southern state of Georgia certified Biden’s victory there on Friday, while Pennsylvania and the midwestern state of Michigan could do the same on Monday. The Trump campaign has since requested another recount of the votes in Georgia. FILE – Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.Despite his legal setbacks, Trump has refused to authorize his administration to cooperate with Biden on his transition to power.  Biden aide Klain rebuked Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration, for so far refusing to ascertain that Biden is the apparent election winner so that federal funding can be made available for the transfer in control of the government and Biden aides can talk with officials at numerous agencies. “I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job,” Klain said, referring to Murphy. Klain said the Republican president’s efforts to overturn the results were a disgrace, “definitely not the democratic norm.” “A record number of Americans rejected the Trump presidency, and since then Donald Trump’s been rejecting democracy,” Klain said. Klain said that with the surging outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States, Biden’s inauguration would be “scaled down” from the normal large event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol followed by a luncheon with key lawmakers, a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and gala inaugural balls in the evening.  But he said plans have not been finalized. “There is something here to celebrate,” Klain said. “We just want to do it in a safe way.”  
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Native Americans are urging President-elect Joe Biden to make history by selecting one of their own to lead the powerful agency that oversees the nation’s tribes, setting up one of several looming tests of Biden’s pledge to have a Cabinet representative of Americans.
 
O.J. Semans is one of dozens of tribal officials and voting activists around the country pushing selection of Rep. Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat and member of the Pueblo of Laguna, to become the first Native American secretary of interior. Tell Semans, a member of the Rosebud Sioux, that a well-regarded white lawmaker is considered a front-runner for the job, and Semans chuckles.
 
“Not if I trip him,” Semans says.
 
African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other people of color played a crucial role in helping Biden defeat President Donald Trump. In return, they say they want attention on problems affecting their communities — and want to see more people who look like them in positions of power.
 
“It’s nice to know that a Native American is under consideration,” said Haaland, who says she is concentrating on her congressional work. “Sometimes we are invisible.”
 
In Arizona, Alejandra Gomez was one of an army of activists who strapped on face masks and plastic face shields in 100-plus-degree heat to go door-to-door to get out the Mexican American vote. Intensive Mexican American organizing there helped flip that state to Democrats for the first time in 24 years.
 
“We are at a point where there was no pathway to victory” for Democrats without support from voters of color, said Gomez, co-executive director of the political group Living United for Change in Arizona. “Our terrain has forever changed in this country in terms of the electoral map.  
 
“So we need to see that this administration will be responsive,” she said.FILE – Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Native American Caucus co-chair, joined at right by Congresswoman Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 5, 2020.Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it was important that Biden’s Cabinet “reflects the country, and particularly his base that supports him,” including women, racial and ethnic minorities and other groups.
 
The departments of defense, state, treasury, interior, agriculture, energy and health and human services and the Environmental Protection Agency are among Biden’s Cabinet-level posts where women and people of color are considered among the top contenders. As with interior, where retiring New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall is thought to be a leading prospect, the candidacies of people of color are sometimes butting up against higher-profile white candidates.  
 
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, whose February endorsement of Biden played a critical role in reviving the former vice president’s struggling campaign, said he is confident Biden’s Cabinet and White House staff will reflect the nation’s diversity.
 
“I think Joe Biden has demonstrated he takes the concerns of African Americans seriously,” said Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress. “I expect him to be Lyndon Baines Johnson-like on civil rights.”
 
At the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge and California Rep. Karen Bass, respectively, are being considered. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would be the first Black woman to lead agriculture, which oversees farm policy and billions of dollars in farm and food programs and runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as food stamps — that feeds millions of low-income households.
 
Fudge’s main competitor is former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who was long seen as the front-runner but faces growing opposition from progressives worried that she would favor big business interests at the sprawling department.
 
Clyburn, who is known to hold considerable sway with Biden, backs Fudge, calling her accomplished and experienced. “What you need is someone who understands the other side of agriculture,” he said. “It’s one thing to grow food, but another to dispense it, and nobody would be better at that than Marcia Fudge.″FILE – African American supporters of president-elect Joe Biden celebrate on Black Lives Matter Plaza across from the White House in Washington, Nov. 7, 2020, after Biden was projected the winner of the 2020 presidential election.Biden has promised to pick a diverse leadership team. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, will be the nation’s first female, first Black and first Asian American vice president.
 
In January, Biden assured a Native American candidate forum that he would “nominate and appoint people who look like the country they serve, including Native Americans.”
 
Native Americans say they helped deliver a win in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Arizona and elsewhere, voting for Biden by margins that sometimes hit the high 80th percentiles and above. A record six Native American or Native Hawaiian lawmakers were elected to Congress.
 
For the Department of Interior, consideration of Udall — a political ally of Biden’s for nearly 50 years who would be the second generation of his family to serve as interior secretary — is facing the historic candidacy of Haaland, a first-term congresswoman.
 
Asked if qualified white men with political seniority might have to step aside to make room for people of color, Udall told The Associated Press that Biden should be judged by his overall leadership team, including Cabinet secretaries and White House leaders.
 
“What you should look at a year or two years down the line is the leadership team at interior or EPA or agriculture,” said Udall, whose late father, Stewart, served as interior secretary in the 1960s. “Do they look like a leadership team to represent America?″  
 
The Interior Department deals with nearly 600 federally recognized tribes but also manages public lands stretching over nearly 20% of the United States, including oil and gas leasing on them. That makes the agency critical to Biden’s pledge to launch ambitious programs controlling climate-destroying fossil fuel emissions.
 
Tribal officials concur there has never been a Native American as head of interior. The department’s websites cite six Native American heads of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was transferred to the Interior Department from the War Department in 1849.  
 
Haaland, vice chair of the House Committee for Natural Resources, also is getting support from many Democrats and progressives in Congress.  
 
She told the AP that regardless of what job she had, she’d be working to “promote clean energy and protect our public lands.”
 
The push for her appointment makes for what historian Katrina Phillips of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, says is “one of the first times we’re seeing in public spheres such a broad push on Indigenous issues.”  
 
“We have finally reached the point where there’s a broader American consensus … recognizing Native people deserve a voice,” said Phillips, a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.
 
Government decisions on tribal issues made by “somebody that never had to live the life” would likely be different than decisions made by someone from the community, said Semans, who lives on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and helps run the Four Directions Native-voting project. Haaland’s pick would be “something very historical.”
 
“I have all kinds of respect for Mr. Udall. But there is not one rule or regulation that interior could change that would affect him or his family,” Semans said. “Ever.”
 
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Following a hand recount of ballots, officials in Georgia certified U.S. presidential election results in the state, confirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. Yet the president shows no signs of conceding. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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Trying to close out major unfinished business, the Trump administration issued regulations Friday that could lower the prices Americans pay for many prescription drugs.But in a time of political uncertainty, it’s hard to say whether the rules will withstand expected legal challenges from the pharmaceutical industry or whether President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will accept, amend or try to roll them back entirely.”The drug companies don’t like me too much. But we had to do it,” President Donald Trump said in announcing the new policy at the White House. “I just hope they keep it. I hope they have the courage to keep it,” he added, in an apparent reference to the incoming Biden administration, while noting the opposition from drug company lobbyists.The two finalized rules, long in the making, would:— Tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a doctor’s office to the lowest price paid among a group of other economically advanced countries. That’s called the “most favored nation” approach. It is adamantly opposed by critics aligned with the pharmaceutical industry, who liken it to socialism. The administration estimates it could save $28 billion over seven years for Medicare recipients through lower copays. It would take effect January 1. — Require drugmakers, for brand-name pharmacy medications, to give Medicare enrollees rebates that now go to insurers and middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers. Insurers that deliver Medicare’s Part D prescription benefit say that would raise premiums. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it would increase taxpayer costs by $177 billion over 10 years. The Trump administration disputes that and says its rule could potentially result in 30% savings for patients. It would take effect January 1, 2022.FILE – A research scientist works in a laboratory at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in San Diego, March 4, 2015.’Reckless attack’The pharmaceutical industry said Trump’s approach would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S. and vowed to fight it.”The administration is willing to upend the entire system with a reckless attack on the companies working around the clock to end this pandemic,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement, adding that it is “considering all options to stop this unlawful onslaught on medical progress and maintain our fight against COVID-19.”The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the “most favored nation” rule would lead to harmful price controls that could jeopardize access to new, lifesaving medicines at a critical time.Trump also announced he was ending a Food and Drug Administration program designed to end the sale of many old, and potentially dangerous, unapproved drugs that had been on the market for decades.Sales of hundreds of these drugs, including some known to be harmful, have been discontinued under the program. But an unintended consequence has been sharply higher prices for consumers for these previously inexpensive medicines after they were approved by the FDA.President Donald Trump listens as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington, Nov. 20, 2020.Different Medicare pathTrump came into office accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.As a candidate in 2016, Trump advocated for Medicare to negotiate prices. As president, he dropped that idea, objected to by most Republicans. Instead, Trump began pursuing changes through regulations.He also backed a bipartisan Senate bill that would have capped what Medicare recipients with high bills pay for medications while generally limiting price increases. Ambitious in scope, the legislation from Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., did not get a full Senate vote.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a former drug company executive, said the rules would “break this model where patients suffer, where prices increase every year,” while corporate insiders enrich themselves.Addressing the prospect of legal battles, Azar said, “We feel that both regulations are extremely strong, and any industry challenging them is declaring themselves at odds with American patients and President Trump’s commitment to lowering out-of-pocket costs.”The international pricing rule would cover many cancer drugs and other medications delivered by infusion or injection in a doctor’s office.It would apply to 50 medications that account for the highest spending under Medicare’s Part B benefit for outpatient care. Ironically, the legal authority for Trump’s action comes from the Affordable Care Act, the Obama-era health care overhaul he’s still trying to repeal.The rule also changes how hospitals and doctors are paid for administering the drugs, to try to remove incentives for using higher-cost medications.FILE – Ann Lovell holds her prescriptions at her home in South Jordan, Utah, following her visit to Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 31, 2020. She travels every few months to Tijuana to buy medication for rheumatoid arthritis at a steep discount.Democrats’ preferenceRelying on international prices to lower U.S. costs is an approach also favored by Democrats, including Biden. But Democrats would go much further, authorizing Medicare to use lower prices from overseas to wrest industry concessions for all expensive medications, not just those administered in clinical settings.Embodied in a House-passed bill from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., this strategy would achieve much larger savings, allowing Medicare to pay for new benefits such as vision and dental coverage. It also would allow private insurance plans for workers and their families to get Medicare’s lower prices.Trump has taken other action to lower prescription drug costs by opening a legal path for importing medicines from abroad. Also, Medicare drug plans that cap insulin costs at $35 a month are available during open enrollment, currently under way.Prices for brand-name drugs have continued to rise during Trump’s tenure, but at a slower rate. The FDA has put a priority on approving generics, which cost less.
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President-elect Joe Biden is calling on Congress to enact billions of dollars in emergency COVID-19 assistance before the year’s end, according to a senior adviser who warned Friday that “there’s no more room for delay.”Biden transition aide Jen Psaki delivered the remarks before Biden’s first in-person meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer since he was projected the winner of the presidential election. Biden hosted the pair Friday afternoon at his makeshift transition headquarters in a downtown Wilmington, Delaware, theater.Biden sat with Schumer, Pelosi and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, all wearing masks and spaced out around a bank of tables.”In my Oval Office, mi casa, you casa,” Biden said during the brief portion of the meeting that journalists were allowed to witness. “I hope we’re going to spend a lot of time together.”Pelosi said at an earlier news conference that she and Schumer would be talking with Biden about “the urgency of crushing the virus,” as well as how to use the lame-duck session of Congress, legislation on keeping the government funded and COVID-19 relief.FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks after the Senate Republican GOP leadership election on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 10, 2020.But prospects for new virus aid this year remain uncertain. Pelosi said talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP leadership on Thursday did not produce any consensus on a new virus aid package.”That didn’t happen, but hopefully it will,” she said.Also Friday, McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, proposed that Congress shift $455 billion of unspent small-business lending funds toward a new COVID-19 aid package. His offer came after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.Biden’s new governing team is facing intense pressure to push another COVID-19 relief bill and come up with a clear plan to distribute millions of doses of a prospective vaccine, even as Biden is just days away from unveiling the first of his Cabinet picks, which are subject to Senate confirmation.Psaki said that Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are working together on a pandemic relief bill before Congress adjourns for the year.”They’re in lockstep agreement that there needs to be emergency assistance and aid during the lame-duck session to help families, to help small businesses,” Psaki said. “There’s no more room for delay, and we need to move forward as quickly as possible.”The president-elect has also promised to work closely with Republicans in Congress to execute his governing agenda, but so far, he has focused his congressional outreach on his leading Democratic allies.The meeting came two days after House Democrats nominated Pelosi to be the speaker who guides them again next year as Biden becomes president, though she seemed to suggest these would be her final two years in the leadership post.FILE – President Donald Trump walks down the West Wing colonnade from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden to speak to the press, at the White House in Washington, Nov. 13, 2020.President Donald Trump continues to refuse to allow his administration to cooperate with Biden’s transition team. Specifically, the Trump administration is denying Biden access to detailed briefings on national security and pandemic planning that leaders in both parties say are important for preparing Biden to govern immediately after his January 20 inauguration.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday on “CBS This Morning” that Biden’s charge that the transition delays would cost American lives was “absolutely incorrect.””Every aspect of what we do is completely transparent – no secret data or knowledge,” Azar said.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied Friday that by ending several emergency loan programs being run by the Federal Reserve, he was trying to limit the choices President-elect Joe Biden will have to promote an economic recovery.Mnuchin said his decision was based on the fact the programs were not being heavily utilized. He said Congress could make better use of the money by reallocating it to support grants to small businesses and extended unemployment assistance.”We’re not trying to hinder anything,” Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview. “We don’t need this money to buy corporate bonds. We need this money to go help small businesses that are still closed.”However, critics saw politics at play in Mnuchin’s decision, saying the action would deprive the incoming administration of critical support the Fed might need to prop up the economy as coronavirus infections spike nationwide.FILE – Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is pictured during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 19, 2017,”There can be no doubt, the Trump administration and their congressional toadies are actively trying to tank the U.S economy,” Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a prepared statement Friday. “For months, they have refused to take the steps necessary to support workers, small businesses and restaurants. As the result, the only tool at our disposal has been these facilities.”Mnuchin on Thursday had written Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announcing his decision not to extend some of the Fed’s emergency loan programs, which had been operating with support from the Treasury Department. The decision will end the Fed’s corporate credit, municipal lending and Main Street Lending programs as of December 31.The decision drew a rare rebuke from the Fed, which said in a brief statement Thursday that the central bank “would prefer that the full suite of emergency facilities established during the coronavirus pandemic continue to serve their important role as a backstop for our still-strained and vulnerable economy.”Move ‘ties the hands”The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also criticized the move. “A surprise termination of the Federal Reserve’s emergency liquidity program, including the Main Street Lending Program, prematurely and unnecessarily ties the hands of the incoming administration and closes the door on important liquidity options for businesses at a time when they need them most,” said Neil Bradley, the chamber’s executive vice president, in a prepared statement.Private economists argued that Mnuchin’s decision to end five of the emergency loan facilities represented an economic risk.”While the backstop measures have been little used so far, the deteriorating health and economic backdrop could shine a bright light on the Fed’s diminished recession-fighting arsenal and prompt an adverse market reaction,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.Under law, the loan facilities required the support of the Treasury Department, which serves as a backstop for the initial losses the programs might incur.In his letter to Powell, Mnuchin said he was requesting that the Fed return to Treasury the unused funds appropriated by Congress.FILE – Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sept. 24, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.He said this would allow Congress to reappropriate $455 billion to other coronavirus programs. Republicans and Democrats have been deadlocked for months on approval of another round of coronavirus support measures.In public remarks Tuesday, Powell made clear that he hoped that the loan programs would remain in effect for the foreseeable future.”When the right time comes, and I don’t think that time is yet, or very soon, we’ll put those tools away,” he said in an online discussion with a San Francisco business group.The future of the Main Street and Municipal Lending programs has taken on greater importance with Biden’s victory. Many progressive economists have argued that a Democratic-led Treasury could support the Fed taking on more risk and making more loans to small and midsized businesses and cash-strapped cities under these programs. That would provide at least one avenue for the Biden administration to provide stimulus without going through Congress.Relatively few loansNeither program has lived up to its potential so far, with the Municipal Lending program making just one loan, while the Main Street program has made loans totaling around $4 billion, to about 400 companies.Republicans including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo of Idaho and Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania supported Mnuchin’s move.”Congress’ intent was clear: These facilities were to be temporary, to provide liquidity and to cease operations by the end of 2020,” Toomey said in a statement. “With liquidity restored, they should expire, as Congress intended and the law requires, by December 31, 2020.”
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President-elect Joe Biden is adding four Obama-Biden administration veterans to his top ranks as he continues to build out his White House team.Cathy Russell, who was Jill Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration, will serve as director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, evaluating applicants for administration roles. Louisa Terrell, who served as a legislative adviser to the president in the Obama administration and worked as deputy chief of staff for Biden in the Senate, will be director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Terrell has already been engaged in Capitol Hill outreach as part of Biden’s transition team.FILE – U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, attends a Veterans Day observance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 11, 2020.Carlos Elizondo, who was social secretary for Jill Biden during the Obama administration, will reprise his role and serve as social secretary for the incoming first lady. And Mala Adaga will serve as her policy director. Her role hints at what Biden may focus on as first lady — Adaga previously worked as a director for higher education and military families at the Biden Foundation, and also advised Jill Biden on policy during the Obama administration.The announcements come just a few days after Biden unveiled his first major round of top White House staff, including the appointment of his current campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, to serve as deputy chief of staff, and campaign co-chair Rep. Cedric Richmond as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Late last week, he announced that longtime aide Ron Klain will serve as his chief of staff.While the new hires give a sense of the White House that Biden is beginning to build, he has yet to appoint someone to fill the role of COVID coordinator, which Klain announced this week, or name individuals for key communications roles. His team has thousands more staff-level roles to fill when it takes over the administration in January, and they’re currently reviewing applications and reaching out to potential candidates for key roles.Biden has indicated he plans to make and announce some of his Cabinet picks around Thanksgiving, and he said Thursday he’s already made his decision for Treasury Secretary. 
 
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President Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a longshot bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
 
Among other last-ditch tactics: personally calling local election officials who are trying to rescind their certification votes in Michigan, suggesting in a legal challenge that Pennsylvania set aside the popular vote there and pressuring county officials in Arizona to delay certifying vote tallies.  
 
Election law experts see it as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January. But there is great concern that Trump’s effort is doing real damage to public faith in the integrity of U.S. elections.
 
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics, accused Trump of resorting to “overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election.” Romney added, “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.”
 pic.twitter.com/S3kFsIRGmi— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 20, 2020Trump’s own election security agency has declared the 2020 presidential election to have been the most secure in history. Days after that statement was issued, Trump fired the agency’s leader.  
 
The increasingly desperate and erratic moves have no reasonable chance of changing the outcome of the 2020 election, in which Biden has now received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and has clinched the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.  
 
But the Republican president’s constant barrage of baseless claims, his work to personally sway local officials who certify votes and his allies’ refusal to admit he lost is likely to have a lasting negative impact on the country. Legions of his supporters don’t believe he lost.  
 
“It’s about trying to set up the conditions where half of the country believes that there are only two possibilities, either they win or the election was stolen,” said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law scholar and professor at Loyola Law School. “And that’s not a democracy.”
 The phrase “Count Every Vote” is projected on a giant screen organized by an advocacy group in front of the State Capitol while election results in several states have yet to be finalized, Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/David…The two GOP canvassers in Michigan’s Wayne County said in a statement late Wednesday they lacked confidence that the election was fair and impartial. “There has been a distinct lack of transparency throughout the process,” they said. But there has been no evidence of impropriety or fraud in Michigan, election officials have said.  
 
Trump’s allies have homed in on the way that the president’s early lead in Michigan and some other states on election night slipped away as later votes came, casting it as evidence of something nefarious.  
 
But a massive influx of mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic leaned largely to Biden, who encouraged his supporters to vote by mail, and those votes were the last to be counted. So it appeared Trump had an edge when he really didn’t.  
 
In fact, Biden crushed Trump in Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Detroit, by a more than 2-1 ratio on his way to winning Michigan by 154,000 votes, according to unofficial results.  
 
Earlier this week, the county’s two Republicans canvassers blocked the certification of votes there. They later relented and the results were certified. But a person familiar with the matter said Trump reached out to the canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, on Tuesday evening after the revised vote to express gratitude for their support. Then, on Wednesday, Palmer and Hartmann signed affidavits saying they believed the county vote “should not be certified.”  
 
They cannot rescind their votes, according to the Michigan secretary of state. The four-member state canvassing board is expected to meet Monday and also is split with two Democrats and two Republicans.
 
Trump appears intent on pushing the issue. He has invited Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders, Senate Majority Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, to the White House, according to two officials familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. The two have agreed to go, according to one official, but they haven’t commented publicly, and it’s not clear what the purpose of the meeting is.  
 
The Michigan Legislature would be called on to select electors if Trump succeeded in convincing the state’s board of canvassers not to certify Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in the state. But both legislative leaders have indicated they will not try to overturn Biden’s win.
 
“Michigan law does not include a provision for the Legislature to directly select electors or to award electors to anyone other than the person who received the most votes,” Shirkey’s spokeswoman said last week.
 
During a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday, Biden said Americans are “witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages are being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.” 
He added, “I just think it’s totally irresponsible.”Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, in Washington, Nov. 19, 2020.Earlier, Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others had held a press conference to allege a widespread Democratic election conspiracy involving multiple states and suspect voting machines. But election officials across the country have said repeatedly there was no widespread fraud.  
 
Many of the allegations of fraud stem from poll watchers who filed affidavits included with lawsuits in battleground states aimed at delaying vote certification. Those affidavits lean into innuendo and unsupported suggestions of fraud.  
 
For example, they refer to suitcases in a polling place but make no suggestion that ballots were being secretly counted. There are allegations of ballots being duplicated — something routinely done when a ballot is physically damaged. There are claims that partisan poll watchers were too far away to observe well and therefore something fishy was probably going on. But they don’t have proof. Poll watchers have no auditing role in elections; they are volunteer observers.
 
Giuliani cited a few sworn affidavits that he said showed a vast Democratic conspiracy, but he added that he could not reveal much of the evidence. One he cited was from Jessy Jacob, identified as a city employee in Detroit who said she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Biden and the Democrats.  
 
A judge who refused to block certification of Detroit-area results noted that Jacob’s claims included no “date, location, frequency or names of employees” and that she only came forward after unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan.
 
Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis, who joined Giuliani, said more evidence would be forthcoming and that Trump’s allies would have more success in courts going forward. But so far, most of their legal actions have been dismissed.
 
Chris Krebs, the Trump administration election official fired last week over the comments about the security of 2020, tweeted: “That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest.”
 
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., tweeted: “Rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore their certification obligations under the statute. We are a nation of laws, not tweets.”
 
In Pennsylvania, where the Trump campaign is challenging the election results in federal court, a legal team led by Giuliani suggested in a filing Wednesday that the judge order the Republican-led state legislature to pick delegates to the Electoral College, potentially throwing the state’s 20 electoral votes to Trump. A judge canceled an evidentiary hearing in the case.
 The Maricopa County Elections Department officials conduct a post-election logic and accuracy test for the general election as observers watch the test, Nov. 18, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona.In Arizona, the Republican Party is pressuring county officials to delay certifying results. The GOP lost a bid on Thursday to postpone certification in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous. In northwestern Arizona, Mohave County officials postponed their certification until next week.  
 
Judge John Hannah ruled without explanation, except to bar the party from refiling the case. The judge promised a full explanation in the future.
 
Maricopa County officials are expected to certify elections results on Friday.
 
Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, and Maricopa County put him over the top. The county performed a hand count of some ballots the weekend after the election, which showed its machine counts were 100% accurate. The same was found Wednesday during routine post-election accuracy tests.
 
In Georgia, where officials have been auditing the results of the presidential race, Trump has repeatedly attacked the process and called it “a joke.”  
 
He has also made repeated incorrect assertions that Georgia election officials are unable to verify signatures on absentee ballot envelopes. In fact, Georgia requires that they be checked.
 
The Associated Press called Biden the winner of Georgia and its 16 electoral votes on Thursday night.  
 
A top Georgia election official said earlier Thursday that a hand tally of ballots cast in the presidential race had been completed, and that the results affirmed Biden’s narrow lead over Trump. The secretary of state’s office planned to release results of the audit later Thursday.  
 
During the hand tally, several counties found previously uncounted ballots that the secretary of state’s office has said would reduce Biden’s lead to just under 13,000 votes, with roughly 5 million total votes cast. Georgia law allows a candidate to request a recount within two business days of certification if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. That recount would be done using machines. 
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