Author: PolitCens

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is meeting Wednesday with his transition advisers as he continues to plan for taking control of the American government when he is inaugurated on January 20.The projected winner of the November 3 election, Biden has named an array of advisers to look at the operations of agencies throughout the government. He said Tuesday he could announce some key appointments before the annual Thanksgiving holiday on November 26.Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.Biden’s list of transition advisers is long, filled with names of experts familiar with the issues that he will face early in his administration.Kathleen Hicks, senior vice president and director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is heading the review of Defense Department operations.At the State Department, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, is leading the review. Don Graves, an executive at KeyBank, is looking at Treasury Department operations, while Martha Gimbel, the senior manager of economic research at Schmidt Futures, is studying the Council of Economic Advisers.While Biden continues discussions at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Trump on Wednesday participated in a Veterans Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. It was Trump’s first public event since last Thursday, when he leveled a string of unfounded allegations about widespread election fraud.President Donald Trump participates in a wreath laying ceremony on Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, Nov. 11, 2020.Trump has continued his barrage of complaints about the election outcome on Twitter, posting the comments of Republicans supporting his claims that he was cheated out of winning.But a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed that nearly 80% of Americans, including half of Republicans, say Biden is the rightful winner.Meanwhile, Biden told reporters at a Tuesday news conference that Republican leaders, most of whom have not acknowledged his victory, are “mildly intimidated by the sitting president.”Biden said Trump’s refusal to concede is “an embarrassment, quite frankly. How can I say this tactfully? I think it will not help the president’s legacy.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 2 MB480p | 3 MB540p | 3 MB1080p | 15 MBOriginal | 26 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEven though the Electoral College vote is determinative in U.S. presidential elections, Biden is leading Trump by 3.2 percentage points and more than 5 million votes in the national popular vote count as final votes are tabulated. 
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President-elect Joe Biden dismissed the Trump administration’s refusal to begin the official transition process, even as key Republican Party leaders sided with President Donald Trump in his uphill legal fight to overturn Biden’s projected presidential election victory. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday he is not worried about President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede after last week’s national election, but that he thinks it is an “embarrassment” for Trump and the country. “I think it will not help the president’s legacy,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is working on his transition to power and planning his first steps after his expected inauguration on January 20.  Trump, without offering major evidence of voting or vote-count irregularities, has filed more than a dozen lawsuits in several states, trying to overturn Biden’s projected election victory.  Signs by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump hang outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, Nov. 10, 2020.But Biden said, “We’ve already begun the transition” and that Trump’s refusal to concede “does not change the dynamic.” Biden is focusing first on addressing the  coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 238,000 Americans — the most in any country.  Biden said he might make a couple of key appointments to his administration before the annual Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on November 26 this year.  “The fact they’re not willing to acknowledge our victory is not of much consequence,” he said. Trump, in trying to contest the election results, has kept his administration officials from cooperating with Biden’s representatives to arrange a transition of power.  The General Services Administration, a U.S. government agency, has refused to certify Biden’s presumptive victory. That is keeping Biden officials from taking over office space in federal agencies, being assigned government email addresses and receiving federal money to fund the transition.  But Biden brushed it aside without much concern.  “We can get through without the funding,” he said, while also acknowledging he had yet to start receiving the Presidential Daily Brief on U.S. intelligence findings around the world.  “The PDB would be useful,” he said, “but I’m not the sitting president.”  Biden said there was no need for his team to file litigation to try to force acknowledgment that he had won the election.  “I think it will all come to fruition on January 20,” he said.  Asked what he would tell Trump if he were watching the news conference, Biden smiled and said, “Mr. President, I’ll look forward to speaking with you.” 
 
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The Trump campaign’s latest legal challenge to the November 3 presidential election results may be a case of “too little, too late,” some legal experts say.With the election over and former vice president Joe Biden projected as the winner, President Donald Trump faces an uphill battle in his push to overturn the results with scant evidence of fraudulent voting or improper vote counting.That is the assessment of a number of legal experts after Trump’s reelection campaign filed a sweeping new lawsuit that challenges the legality of millions of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that was carried by Biden and put him over the top.The Trump campaign’s 105-page complaint, filed in federal court in Philadelphia late Monday, advances an untested legal theory about voting by mail while rehashing previous arguments and offering little new evidence of fraud, the experts say.Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference on legal challenges to vote counting in Pennsylvania, November 7, 2020, in Philadelphia.The Trump lawyers’ apparent goal is to persuade the courts to discount the massive number of votes cast by mail, most of which were cast by Biden supporters.The suit alleges that Pennsylvania’s use of disparate procedures for handling voting by mail and voting in person represents a “violation” of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, and it asks for an injunction against certifying the state’s election results. U.S. states have different deadlines for certifying their results; Pennsylvania’s deadline is November 23.Danielle Lang, co-director of the voting rights and redistricting program at Campaign Legal Center, said the new lawsuit is “more voluminous but not any more meritorious” than previous ones.Voters in Pennsylvania had the choice between voting in person and voting by mail, Lang noted.“It was always going to be the case that those different methods of voting would be accompanied by different procedures, but it doesn’t mean those procedures are less secure or less appropriate or less constitutional,” Lang said.The lawsuit argues that of the approximately 6.75 million ballots cast in Pennsylvania, the 2.6 million that were sent by mail had fewer safeguards to ensure their transparency and verifiability. The majority of the mail ballots were cast by Biden supporters.While the suit alleges that “almost every critical aspect” of the voting process in Pennsylvania was “shrouded in secrecy,” its core claim is that in-person voters and those voting by mail were treated differently.
“Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person’s vote over that of another,” the suit states, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in the disputed 2000 presidential election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.In that case, the Supreme Court objected to Florida’s patchwork of standards for accepting and rejecting contested ballots, effectively bringing the Florida recount to a halt and giving the presidency to Bush.FILE – An election worker places a vote-by-mail ballot into an official ballot drop box outside a voting site in Miami, Florida.But having different standards for voting by mail and voting in person does not constitute a violation of the Equal Protection Clause, said Richard L. Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine.“If this claim succeeded, it would mean that voting was unconstitutional across the entire country,” Hasen wrote in an email. “The claim is especially weak when voters had the choice to vote using either system.”What is more, Hasen said, it may be too late for the Trump campaign, which has known about the Pennsylvania voting procedures for months, to bring a lawsuit now.“Otherwise you give the campaign an option to sue over things only if they lose and disenfranchise voters who relied on the legality of the existing system,” Hasen wrote.Election administration is a state matter, and legal experts say it is highly unlikely — but not out of the question — that the Supreme Court will get involved in resolving the dispute.The Supreme Court is seen at sundown on the eve of Election Day, in Washington, D.C., November 2, 2020.“Even if the Supreme Court gets involved, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of flipping enough votes to change the outcome of the presidential election,” said Michael R. Dimino, a law professor and election expert at Widener University Commonwealth Law School.
In the lead-up to the November 3 election, the Trump campaign and Republicans filed dozens of lawsuits against states’ plans to expand voting by mail during the deadly coronavirus pandemic.President Trump repeatedly denounced the use of mail-in ballots, arguing with little proof that they were ripe for fraud. While Republicans were able to prevent some changes in voting procedures, most states went ahead with expanded voting by mail, eventually allowing more than 65 million Americans to cast ballots via the postal system.Biden on Saturday was projected by news organizations as the winner on the strength of what is deemed an insurmountable vote lead in enough states to give him a majority in the Electoral College, or at least 270 electoral votes. The results remain subject to court challenges and recounts, and will not be official until certified by the individual states which must happen by December 8.The challenge now facing the Trump legal team is that there may not be enough disputed ballots at stake to alter the election outcome, according to legal experts. Unlike in 2000, when former President George W. Bush won a disputed election by a few hundred ballots in Florida, Trump is running behind Biden by tens of thousands of votes in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.Not all legal experts think the Trump lawsuit is without merit. Dimino said the lawsuit presents “some good arguments” that the vote count in Pennsylvania was not conducted in accordance with law.Election challengers, left, wait outside after an election official, right, closed the door to the central counting board, November 4, 2020, in Detroit.For example, the complaint alleges that Republican vote-count observers were denied “meaningful access” — asserting that poll watchers were kept too far from the ballot counting in Philadelphia. In that case, a judge last week agreed with the Trump campaign and ordered that the watchers be moved closer, Dimino noted.
“And the campaign has other good claims that the administration of the election was at least questionable,” Dimino said. “So there is definitely a chance that the legal arguments will prevail.”
However, the most formidable challenge for the Trump team is “convincing judges that the election violations should result in discarding a large enough number of votes to alter the outcome,” Dimino said.
That would require evidence of systemic fraud and irregularities, something the Trump campaign has yet to produce.Even if Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral ballots were given to Trump — a seemingly far-fetched scenario given his substantial disadvantage in the vote tally — the president would still need to win at least one additional state to reverse Biden’s projected victory.In the week since the Nov. 3 election, the Trump campaign and the president’s supporters have filed lawsuits in four other states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.With a couple of notable exceptions, most of the legal action has failed, with judges either dismissing the suits or demanding tangible evidence.A voter picks up an informational flier while filling out a ballot during absentee early voting at Wayne County Community College in Detroit, October 31, 2020.In Michigan, the latest legal challenge to the vote-counting procedures came from a conservative group on Sunday. The lawsuit, filed by the Great Lakes Justice Law Center, seeks a new election in Wayne County — the Detroit area — alleging Tuesday’s election there was marred by fraud.Tom Spencer, a veteran Republican lawyer who served as co-counsel on the Bush legal team during the Florida recount, said that despite the tough odds, Trump should pursue all available legal avenues.“I remember the Gore lawyers in Florida saying you know, we have to do this not only for Gore but also for the American people so that they have confidence in the outcome and that they know that our client has turned every stone in order to make it,” said Spencer, now vice president of the Lawyers Democracy Fund.
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Another top U.S. Pentagon official is leaving his post, a day after the termination of Defense Secretary Mark Esper. In his resignation letter to President Donald Trump dated Tuesday, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson listed some of his achievements and said it had been an honor to serve his country. “Now, as ever, our long-term success depends on adhering to the U.S. Constitution all public servants swear to support and defend,” he wrote. 
 Acting policy chief of @DeptofDefense resigns following clash with @WhiteHouse. pic.twitter.com/SdTKhhx0pY— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) November 10, 2020On Monday, Trump announced via Twitter that he had fired the defense secretary. “Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service,” Trump wrote Monday. Trump Fires Defense Secretary Via Twitter Christopher Miller, Director of National Counterterrorism Center, will serve as acting secretary of defense ‘effective immediately’Esper had been expected to serve through the transition period between now and President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in late January 2021. 
 
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There was undisguised glee among Europe’s liberals and centrists when Joe Biden was projected the winner of the race for the White House. But for the continent’s populist nationalists, including a group of national leaders in Central Europe, the election outcome has prompted dismay, and some foreboding.With Trump out of the White House they would be deprived of a powerful cheerleading ally in Washington and some centrists predict his departure will have a knock-on effect of retarding the political fortunes of leaders on the continent of Europe who espouse populist politics.“Trump’s defeat can be the beginning of the end of the triumph of far-right populisms also in Europe,” tweeted Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council and now head of the European People’s Party, Europe’s largest transnational political party made up Christian Democrats and moderate Conservatives.President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 4, 2020, in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen and First Lady Melania Trump listen.While most European leaders congratulated Joe Biden Saturday when he was projected as the victor by America’s TV networks – based on the provisional tallies of the states – Central European populist leaders noticeably withheld their compliments, or were slower than Western European counterparts in doing so.These included Janez Jansa, prime minister of Slovenia, where Melania Trump was born.  Echoing the objections of Donald Trump, who disputes Biden’s projection as the winner, Jansa complained the media was premature in announcing the outcome, tweeting “complaints have been filed.” The Slovenian leader noted “the courts have not even begun to decide.”Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa says Democratic US presidential nomiee Joe Biden’s projection as the winner, the media was premature in announcing the outcome of the election.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who like his Slovenian counterpart endorsed Trump in the run-up to the vote, also withheld his congratulations Saturday. A pro-government news site owned by Orban’s political allies declared America was in the grip of chaos and criticized “big media” for declaring Biden the winner.But Orban shifted Monday and offered his congratulations, albeit not on a phone call but via a letter. “Let me congratulate you for a successful presidential campaign. I wish you good health and continued success in performing your exceedingly responsible duties,” Orban wrote in the letter quoted by state news agency MTI.Orban, who faces an election in 2022, was largely ostracized by the Obama administration for presiding over what Washington saw as an erosion of the country’s democratic checks and balances. Biden served as Obama’s vice president. In 2018 the Orban government was offended when the U.S. Department of State announced a $700,000 grant to help nurture independent media outlets in Hungary.EU pressureFor Central Europe’s populist governments, Trump’s reversal coincides with an approaching rule-of-law showdown with Brussels. The European Union parliament and the Council of Europe have agreed on a mechanism for the disbursement of the bloc’s funds that would require countries like Hungary and Poland to uphold democratic rules — or lose the cash.Hungarian ministers last week accused the EU of failing to focus on pressing problems, including rising anti-Semitism and Islamist terrorism. “Ideological pressure is used under the guise of the rule of law against certain countries just because we say no to migration, no to multiculturalism, and because we have a different view on the role of family in society,” said Hungary’s justice minister, Judit Varga.In practical terms the departure of Trump gives the populist leaders less cover in their confrontations with Brussels and the bloc’s more liberal-minded Western European states, say analysts. Populists also believe their close alliance with Washington gave them a boost in electoral terms, making them appear in tune with the zeitgeist; they fear they may now appear to be going against the gain of history.Trump is credited by members of Poland’s Law and Justice Party with helping Polish President Andrzej Duda win reelection in June in a closely fought race. An eve-of-poll White House meeting, as well as Trump’s decision to move some American troops stationed in Germany to Poland, boosted Duda’s campaign, they say.File – Polish President and presidential candidate of the Law and Justice (PiS) party Andrzej Duda holds up a bouquet after the announcement of the first exit poll results on the second round of the presidential election in Pultusk, July 12, 2020.Biden is expected to be much tougher on rule-of-law issues, although diplomats say they would be surprised if he reversed military and business deals with Central Europe’s populist governments already in the pipeline, if for no other reason than that might be exploited by Moscow, which has been courting them. Populism out, liberalism in?For populists out of power but hoping to win forthcoming elections, including Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Lega party, Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally and Tino Chrupalla of Germany’s AfD, a Biden win means they may find themselves leaning into a headwind of liberalism. Their opponents are already predicting that 2021 will see in Germany the AfD slump and the Greens surge, and that the following year France’s Emmanuel Macron will secure reelection.Other forecasts under this optimistic scenario suggest liberalism will be back and populism out, with the PiS losing in 2023 and Britain’s opposition Labour Party ousting Britain’s populist-leaning Conservatives in 2024.Denis MacShane, a former British Labour Party lawmaker and one-time minister for Europe, says Biden’s projected win shows populist nationalism is not “taking over.” He highlights a series of election setbacks populists have suffered in recent months. Writing in The Article, a British news-site, he says: “Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and Finland all have social democratic prime ministers. Greens are the new rising force in European politics. In New Zealand, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern, has won a new term of office, seeing off rightwing nationalist populist opposition.”He added: “Political scientists, intellectuals and commentators now need to get down to work and stop leaning on the crutch of populism as a catch-all explanation of politics going into the next decade.” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at the Labour Election Day party after the it won the general election, in Auckland, Oct. 16, 2020.Biden’s projected win has certainly spooked populist leaders currently out of power. Tomio Okamura, head of the Czech Republic’s far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party, said a Biden victory represents a victory for migration and the dictatorship of minorities. Jan Skopecek of the Civic Democratic Party, a Euro-skeptic party in the Czech Republic, the second largest in the country’s chamber of deputies, warned this week that Biden supports radical leftist views and would struggle to pinpoint Czechia on the map.But the closeness of the U.S. presidential vote, as well as Republican seat gains in the House of Representatives and the likelihood Republicans will retain a majority in the U.S. Senate, is providing some solace for Europe’s populist nationalists.They say the election doesn’t amount to a repudiation of populism as Trump managed to increase his overall vote, and they highlight how Trump even in defeat broadened his electoral coalition, making it more multi-ethnic.They also say populist nationalism has been a long time in the making and is rooted deeply now. Distrust of establishment parties and political elites will persist amid continuing squabbles over immigration and fears of distant and unaccountable international organizations, they argue.European populists have seen their support fall off since the coronavirus pandemic emerged. A survey in October by British pollster YouGov showed a decline in populist thinking in eight European countries, including Germany, Britain, France and Italy. Political analysts said the findings were likely tied to the pandemic because of the natural tendency for people to rally around their governments at times of national crisis.Populists, like some establishment parties, have also struggled to maintain a consistent message about how to handle the pandemic.But some analysts say there will likely be plenty of fertile ground for populists to hoe in the meantime. Support for populist beliefs could recover quickly as the focus of the crisis shifts to the economic fallout, impacting politics even more. Income disparity and industrial and rural decline — the bread-and-butter of populism — are likely to worsen after the pandemic. Migration is likely to increase. The transition towards green economies is also likely to help populists recruit supporters.“We live in a populist era,” said Christoph Trebesch of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a research institute based in Germany. He doesn’t believe that the US election will come to be seen as marking the end of populist nationalism.“At least all the signs suggest that this isn’t going to happen I don’t see evidence of a turnaround. It isn’t as though, say, Biden won by 10 percent. It is tempting to think that everything will go back to normal, but I don’t think this is going to happen. Populists have their ups and downs but the trend is upwards,” he said. 
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There was undisguised glee among Europe’s liberals and centrists when Joe Biden was projected the winner of the race for the White House. But for the continent’s populist nationalists, including a group of national leaders in Central Europe, the election outcome has prompted dismay, and some foreboding.With Trump out of the White House they would be deprived of a powerful cheerleading ally in Washington and some centrists predict his departure will have a knock-on effect of retarding the political fortunes of leaders on the continent of Europe who espouse populist politics.“Trump’s defeat can be the beginning of the end of the triumph of far-right populisms also in Europe,” tweeted Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council and now head of the European People’s Party, Europe’s largest transnational political party made up Christian Democrats and moderate Conservatives.President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 4, 2020, in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen and First Lady Melania Trump listen.While most European leaders congratulated Joe Biden Saturday when he was projected as the victor by America’s TV networks – based on the provisional tallies of the states – Central European populist leaders noticeably withheld their compliments, or were slower than Western European counterparts in doing so.These included Janez Jansa, prime minister of Slovenia, where Melania Trump was born.  Echoing the objections of Donald Trump, who disputes Biden’s projection as the winner, Jansa complained the media was premature in announcing the outcome, tweeting “complaints have been filed.” The Slovenian leader noted “the courts have not even begun to decide.”Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa says Democratic US presidential nomiee Joe Biden’s projection as the winner, the media was premature in announcing the outcome of the election.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who like his Slovenian counterpart endorsed Trump in the run-up to the vote, also withheld his congratulations Saturday. A pro-government news site owned by Orban’s political allies declared America was in the grip of chaos and criticized “big media” for declaring Biden the winner.But Orban shifted Monday and offered his congratulations, albeit not on a phone call but via a letter. “Let me congratulate you for a successful presidential campaign. I wish you good health and continued success in performing your exceedingly responsible duties,” Orban wrote in the letter quoted by state news agency MTI.Orban, who faces an election in 2022, was largely ostracized by the Obama administration for presiding over what Washington saw as an erosion of the country’s democratic checks and balances. Biden served as Obama’s vice president. In 2018 the Orban government was offended when the U.S. Department of State announced a $700,000 grant to help nurture independent media outlets in Hungary.EU pressureFor Central Europe’s populist governments, Trump’s reversal coincides with an approaching rule-of-law showdown with Brussels. The European Union parliament and the Council of Europe have agreed on a mechanism for the disbursement of the bloc’s funds that would require countries like Hungary and Poland to uphold democratic rules — or lose the cash.Hungarian ministers last week accused the EU of failing to focus on pressing problems, including rising anti-Semitism and Islamist terrorism. “Ideological pressure is used under the guise of the rule of law against certain countries just because we say no to migration, no to multiculturalism, and because we have a different view on the role of family in society,” said Hungary’s justice minister, Judit Varga.In practical terms the departure of Trump gives the populist leaders less cover in their confrontations with Brussels and the bloc’s more liberal-minded Western European states, say analysts. Populists also believe their close alliance with Washington gave them a boost in electoral terms, making them appear in tune with the zeitgeist; they fear they may now appear to be going against the gain of history.Trump is credited by members of Poland’s Law and Justice Party with helping Polish President Andrzej Duda win reelection in June in a closely fought race. An eve-of-poll White House meeting, as well as Trump’s decision to move some American troops stationed in Germany to Poland, boosted Duda’s campaign, they say.File – Polish President and presidential candidate of the Law and Justice (PiS) party Andrzej Duda holds up a bouquet after the announcement of the first exit poll results on the second round of the presidential election in Pultusk, July 12, 2020.Biden is expected to be much tougher on rule-of-law issues, although diplomats say they would be surprised if he reversed military and business deals with Central Europe’s populist governments already in the pipeline, if for no other reason than that might be exploited by Moscow, which has been courting them. Populism out, liberalism in?For populists out of power but hoping to win forthcoming elections, including Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Lega party, Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally and Tino Chrupalla of Germany’s AfD, a Biden win means they may find themselves leaning into a headwind of liberalism. Their opponents are already predicting that 2021 will see in Germany the AfD slump and the Greens surge, and that the following year France’s Emmanuel Macron will secure reelection.Other forecasts under this optimistic scenario suggest liberalism will be back and populism out, with the PiS losing in 2023 and Britain’s opposition Labour Party ousting Britain’s populist-leaning Conservatives in 2024.Denis MacShane, a former British Labour Party lawmaker and one-time minister for Europe, says Biden’s projected win shows populist nationalism is not “taking over.” He highlights a series of election setbacks populists have suffered in recent months. Writing in The Article, a British news-site, he says: “Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and Finland all have social democratic prime ministers. Greens are the new rising force in European politics. In New Zealand, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern, has won a new term of office, seeing off rightwing nationalist populist opposition.”He added: “Political scientists, intellectuals and commentators now need to get down to work and stop leaning on the crutch of populism as a catch-all explanation of politics going into the next decade.” 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at the Labour Election Day party after the it won the general election, in Auckland, Oct. 16, 2020.Biden’s projected win has certainly spooked populist leaders currently out of power. Tomio Okamura, head of the Czech Republic’s far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party, said a Biden victory represents a victory for migration and the dictatorship of minorities. Jan Skopecek of the Civic Democratic Party, a Euro-skeptic party in the Czech Republic, the second largest in the country’s chamber of deputies, warned this week that Biden supports radical leftist views and would struggle to pinpoint Czechia on the map.But the closeness of the U.S. presidential vote, as well as Republican seat gains in the House of Representatives and the likelihood Republicans will retain a majority in the U.S. Senate, is providing some solace for Europe’s populist nationalists.They say the election doesn’t amount to a repudiation of populism as Trump managed to increase his overall vote, and they highlight how Trump even in defeat broadened his electoral coalition, making it more multi-ethnic.They also say populist nationalism has been a long time in the making and is rooted deeply now. Distrust of establishment parties and political elites will persist amid continuing squabbles over immigration and fears of distant and unaccountable international organizations, they argue.European populists have seen their support fall off since the coronavirus pandemic emerged. A survey in October by British pollster YouGov showed a decline in populist thinking in eight European countries, including Germany, Britain, France and Italy. Political analysts said the findings were likely tied to the pandemic because of the natural tendency for people to rally around their governments at times of national crisis.Populists, like some establishment parties, have also struggled to maintain a consistent message about how to handle the pandemic.But some analysts say there will likely be plenty of fertile ground for populists to hoe in the meantime. Support for populist beliefs could recover quickly as the focus of the crisis shifts to the economic fallout, impacting politics even more. Income disparity and industrial and rural decline — the bread-and-butter of populism — are likely to worsen after the pandemic. Migration is likely to increase. The transition towards green economies is also likely to help populists recruit supporters.“We live in a populist era,” said Christoph Trebesch of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a research institute based in Germany. He doesn’t believe that the US election will come to be seen as marking the end of populist nationalism.“At least all the signs suggest that this isn’t going to happen I don’t see evidence of a turnaround. It isn’t as though, say, Biden won by 10 percent. It is tempting to think that everything will go back to normal, but I don’t think this is going to happen. Populists have their ups and downs but the trend is upwards,” he said. 
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After winning a close election, President-Elect Joe Biden now shifts focus to governing a deeply divided nation that is grappling with a deadly pandemic and a struggling economy. VOA’s Brian Padden reports that for the incoming moderate Democratic president, success will likely hinge on both finding common ground with conservative Republicans while maintaining support from progressives in his own party.
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The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a Republican effort to strike down the Affordable Care Act health care law.The hearing comes weeks after Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority.At the center of the case is a requirement in the 2010 law for most people to have a minimum level of health insurance or face a financial penalty.  In a 2012 case, the Supreme Court ruled that provision was allowed on the basis that it represented a tax that Congress is allowed to levy.  In 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress and set the penalty to zero.A group of states, led by Texas, is leading the current charge to dismantle the health care law, commonly known as Obamacare.  They argue that the mandate for individuals to purchase health coverage is unconstitutional, and that without that provision, the entire Affordable Care Act must be struck down.Part of the original congressional intent in requiring people to have coverage was that it would bring more healthy people into the system who would pay premiums without using many services, helping to offset costs of individuals who needed more care, including those with pre-existing conditions who had previously been denied coverage.Texas and its partners argue that eliminating the individual mandate would create an imbalance and push health costs unfairly higher.The opposition is led by California, and points to the 2017 action by Congress as evidence that lawmakers had no problem with removing only the penalty for the individual mandate while allowing the rest of the Affordable Care Act to remain in place. They further argue that as the law stands, with no penalty in place, it merely encourages people to have health insurance, and thus cannot be seen as an unconstitutional imposition by the government.The court is expected to issue its ruling in the case by late June or early July.Of the justices who were members of the court during the 2012 case, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas voted to strike down the entire law.  Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor voted to uphold it.Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch have since joined the court.If the court strikes down the law, up to 20 million people could lose their health coverage and insurance companies could be allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
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Haitian President Jovenel Moise congratulated U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory Sunday.    “I extend my congratulations to President-elect @JoeBiden, and Vice-President-elect @KamalaHarris. The USA is an important ally for Haiti, and I look forward to continued cooperation with this friend,” he tweeted.Je présente toutes mes félicitations au Président élu @JoeBiden, ainsi qu’à la Vice- Présidente élue @KamalaHarris. Les USA constituent un partenaire de premier plan pour Haïti qui souhaite poursuivre ses relations de coopération avec ce pays ami.— Président Jovenel Moïse (@moisejovenel) November 8, 2020Bilateral relations between the two countries have remained cordial during President Donald Trump’s administration.  President Moise joined Caribbean leaders at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, in March of 2019 to discuss trade and investment. The meeting was hailed by the Caribbean participants as extremely positive with Trump promising them renewed U.S. engagement in the region.   In Port-au-Prince Monday, opposition leader Louis Gerald Gilles of the Nou La party told VOA he thinks a Biden administration will bring positive changes to the bilateral relationship.    “I think Joe Biden’s victory is a breath of fresh air in terms of our relationship with the United States. We have to recognize that Trumpism – Donald Trump’s policy – was centered around his personality – it was ‘I am the lone ruler.’ But the Democrats adhere more to institutions and traditions, human rights, the constitution, respect for democratic principles – it’s a huge departure from a person who acts like a sheriff. The fact that he (Trump) lost the election shows that the world is against this type of autocratic government,” Gilles said.  But Wilson Joseph, leader of the youth opposition party Mouvman Jenes pou Refonde Ayiti (MJRA), says he doesn’t think Biden’s election victory will change much.     “Haiti’s problems have not changed. Remember, Obama was U.S. president not that long ago and after January 12 (2010, the year of the devastating earthquake) what changed? Not much, really. Joe Biden was his vice president. So what is there to celebrate? We (Haitians) have to stop relying on the United States, we have to learn to govern ourselves and look after our own interests,” he said.  Anti-corruption activist Ricardo Fleuridor of the PetroChallenger movement thinks a Biden administration will bring positive changes not only for Haiti but the world.    “Haitians cannot say we don’t need the United States when you consider how great America’s influence is throughout the world. But Haitians must also do their part to get the country back on track and work hand in hand with this important ally to make that happen,” he told VOA.   In early October, Biden made a campaign stop in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami, Florida, where he courted the Haitian American vote and promised to take action on an immigration issue high on their list of priorities, the Temporary Protected Status program. More than 55,000 Haitians are currently enrolled in the program, which allows them to live and work legally in the United States, according to the National Immigration Forum. President Trump has said he intends to end TPS in September 2021. 
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The Trump administration has yet to begin the process of aiding President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team in the initial stages of taking control of the government.  The General Services Administration (GSA), a government agency in Washington, is holding up approval for the full funding and resources of the transition process until a winner is “ascertained.” President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election and has claimed fraud in the vote count.   Government experts warn it is vital for the transition to begin to guarantee an orderly transfer of power. Here is a look at what the transition process is and how it works.    What is a presidential transition?  The time between a presidential candidate winning the election and the inauguration ceremony is known as the “transition.” The transition is run by the president-elect’s nonprofit transition team, which is separate from the campaign and has its own staff and budget.  What happens during the transition?  The transition marks the beginning of the complex task of a president-elect taking over the administration of the federal government. During this time, a president-elect often focuses on selecting his White House staff, led by a chief of staff, as well as key Cabinet posts.     A president appoints around 4,000 people to positions across the government, with more than a quarter of them needing Senate confirmation. These administrators help to oversee 2.1 million civilian employees and 1.4 million active-duty military personnel, part of a federal bureaucracy with an annual budget of more than $4.5 trillion.   In addition to filling positions, transition officials explore how a new president can turn campaign promises into federal policy. They often look at what actions can be taken quickly, such as rolling back executive actions taken by the previous president. They look at each federal agency to understand policy and staffing needs and will often have key team members shadow outgoing staff to prepare for new roles.  When does the transition begin?    Planning for the transition can informally begin at any time, however it officially starts when the outcome of the election becomes known. The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 allows the GSA to provide the president-elect team with offices and office equipment. The government also provides background checks for security clearance purposes.   An updated law passed in 2010 allows major party candidates to begin receiving government assistance for the transition earlier in the process, permitting them to use government office space, computers and services immediately following the nominating conventions, which this year took place in August.  Federal law also gives career civil servants significant power over the transfer of data and knowledge to incoming administration officials, an arrangement intended to reduce the risk of politicization. Agency transition directors are required to be senior career staff and not political appointees.  Does the length of the transition vary?  The transition generally lasts about 11 weeks, from Election Day in early November to Inauguration Day, which is constitutionally mandated to be held on January 20. However, the transition can be shortened if the outcome of the election is not quickly known.   In 2000, a drawn-out legal fight between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, who would eventually win the presidency, led to a transition that was only about half the time as usual. Bush was not declared the victor until five weeks after the election, truncating the transition period to just 39 days.    How is the transition funded?  Transitions are paid for by a combination of federal and private funds. The administrator for the GSA has the legal authority to release over $6 million in federal funding to Biden’s transition team. In addition, The New York Times reports that Biden has raised at least $7 million in private donations for his transition. The Federal Election Commission allows individuals donors or organizations to give up to $5,000 to a candidate’s presidential transition, which must be publicly disclosed.     Who is leading Biden’s transition planning?    Biden has tasked longtime aide Ted Kaufman to head his transition team. Kaufman is Biden’s former chief of staff in the Senate and is also a former senator from Delaware — appointed to fill the seat vacated by Biden in 2009 after his election to the vice presidency. In April, Biden asked Kaufman to start working on a transition in the event he wins the presidency. Kaufman also worked on former President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008 and helped write the 2010 legislation that provided earlier government support for the transition process.  
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign on Monday filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal court, seeking to block state officials from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state. The lawsuit, brought by the campaign and two registered voters, alleged Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting system “lacked all of the hallmarks of transparency and verifiability that were present for in-person voters.” The lawsuit claims Pennsylvania officials violated the U.S. Constitution by creating “an illegal two-tiered voting system” where voting in-person was subject to more oversight than voting by mail. It was filed against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the boards of elections in Democratic-leaning counties that include Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Boockvar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. FILE – Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar speaks at a news conference regarding election vote counting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, November 5, 2020.The president, who has spent months trying to undermine the election with unproven allegations of fraud, has pledged to go forward with a legal strategy that he hopes will overturn state results that gave Biden the win in Tuesday’s vote. The Trump campaign and Republicans have brought numerous lawsuits since Election Day over alleged election irregularities. Judges have already tossed cases in Georgia and Michigan. Separately, some Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania on Monday said in a press release that they would “call for a legislative-led audit of the 2020 election and demand election results not be certified, nor electors be seated, until the audit is complete.” In the United States, a candidate becomes president by securing the most “electoral” votes rather than winning a majority of the national popular vote. Electors generally cast their vote for the winner of the popular vote in their respective states. They are slated to meet on December 14. Edward Foley, who specializes in election law at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, said the Pennsylvania legislature couldn’t stop the certification of the vote without changing the law. “To do that, they would have to attempt to amend the state statute and that is going to be vetoed” by Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Foley said. The Pennsylvania case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. 
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World leaders have been giving their reactions to the victory of Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, some U.S. rivals including China and Russia are awaiting the outcome of legal challenges to the result.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell  Produced by: Jason Godman 
 
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Twitter says it could strip President Donald Trump’s account of certain privileges when projected election winner Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
 
Trump’s recent tweets alleging voter fraud in the November 3 election have been tagged by Twitter, with notices that say for example, “This claim about voter fraud is disputed.”
 
Ordinarily, Twitter would remove such tweets, but affords world leaders some further latitude.
 
“A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable,” a Twitter spokesman told the Bloomberg news agency. “With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules.”
 
This policy, however, does not apparently extend to former leaders, Twitter told the Reuters news organization.
 
“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman told Reuters in a statement.
 
Trump is refusing to concede the election, alleging voter fraud. He is suing various states over what he says are irregularities.  
 
Media organizations, including VOA, have projected Biden as the winner of the election, with 279 electoral votes.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday congratulated the new U.S. president-elect and his running mate on their projected election victory and said the U.S. and its European partners must stand together to deal with the challenges of our time.
At a news conference in Berlin, Merkel said Biden has decades of experience in both domestic and foreign policy and knows Germany and Europe well. She said she had fond memories of good encounters and discussions with the former vice president.  
The German chancellor also warmly congratulated Harris as future vice president, noting she will be the first woman to serve in that position. Merkel said Harris, as the child of two immigrants, is an inspiration for many people and example of what is possible in America, and added, “I am looking forward to meeting her.”
Merkel said the U.S., Germany and the rest of the European Union must stand “side by side” to face the big challenges of our time, including the COVID-19 pandemic, global warming and terrorism. She said they must work for “an open world economy and free trade, because this is the basis of our prosperity on either side of the Atlantic.”
Merkel also said she recognized Germans and Europeans have to take on more responsibility in their partnership with the United States.  “America is and remains our most important ally. But it expects us, and rightly so, to make stronger efforts to take care of our security and to stand up for our convictions in the world,” she said.   
Germany currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
Relations between Merkel and President Donald Trump had been strained over issues such as funding for NATO and relations with Russia.
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Democrat Joe Biden, the projected winner of the long and contentious  U.S. presidential election over Republican President Donald Trump, has moved quickly to start preparations to take over the U.S. government when he is inaugurated January 20 and reverse some key Trump policies.  The move comes as Trump is contesting the outcome of the November 3 election through lawsuits, claiming, without evidence, that vote-counting irregularities in several states where Biden won narrow pluralities and all their electoral votes, would reverse the result and hand him a second term. 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)Coronavirus advisory panel
Biden announced Monday the formation of a 13-member coronavirus advisory panel co-chaired by former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and Yale University associate professor and associate dean Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. “Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts,” Biden said in a statement. Biden, during the campaign, regularly assailed Trump for his handling of the pandemic as the death toll of Americans rose to a world-leading total of 237,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.  Trump in recent weeks has said the U.S. is “rounding the turn” on COVID-19. People line up at a COVID-19 rapid test site, Nov. 7, 2020 in Miami Beach, Fla.During the past week, the United States averaged more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day. The Biden-Harris transition website lays out a seven-point plan against the coronavirus, including ”regular, reliable, and free testing”  for all Americans, an “effective, equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines” once they become available and an attempt to implement a nationwide mask mandate that many oppose as an intrusion on their individual freedom.  Climate change, Muslim ban
Aides say that on his first days in office, Biden plans for the United States to rejoin the Paris climate accord that Trump withdrew from and reverse Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization.  Biden plans to repeal the ban on almost all travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and to reinstate the program that allows young people, often called “Dreamers,” who were brought illegally into the U.S. as children, to remain in the country.  During the campaign, Biden also said he plans to rejoin the international accord to restrain Iran’s nuclear weapons development that Trump rebuked and pulled the U.S. from.  U.S. transitions in power can often bring swift policy shifts but the one from Trump to Biden could be among the most jarring in recent U.S. political history.  One Biden aide told CNN, “Across the board we will continue laying the foundation for the incoming Biden-Harris administration to successfully restore faith and trust in our institutions and lead the federal government.”  Trump won’t concede
Trump has declined to concede or call Biden.   President Donald Trump returns to the White House after news media declared Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to be the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, in Washington, Nov. 7, 2020.The Trump campaign is pursuing multiple court cases starting Monday, although there were scant reports of irregularities during last Tuesday’s voting or in the days of vote counting since then, tabulations that are still going on in numerous states even though the outcome in almost all the country’s 50 states is not in doubt.  A majority of 270 votes in the country’s 538-member Electoral College, with the most populous states holding the most sway, determines the outcome of U.S. presidential elections, not the national popular vote. Biden currently holds a 4-million vote edge in the national vote count.  Biden passed the 270-vote Electoral College majority threshold on Saturday when it became apparent he had amassed a narrow, but decisive popular vote lead in the eastern state of Pennsylvania and won its 20 electoral votes.   At that point, all major television news organizations, including Trump favorite Fox News, and leading newspapers, declared Biden the winner.  Trump has railed against the outcome, while praising himself Saturday on Twitter, saying, “71,000,000 Legal Votes. The most EVER for a sitting President!”  Biden currently has 75.2 million votes. A Joe Biden supporter holds up a message for President Donald Trump during a rally near the White House, Nov. 7, 2020. (Margaret Besheer/VOA)Thousands celebrate Biden-Harris victory
Thousands of people massed in the streets in large Democratic-dominated cities across the country on Saturday to celebrate Trump’s defeat, including in Washington, outside the White House.Some shouted, “You’re fired,”  Trump’s signature line from his one-time television reality show, “The Apprentice,” before he won the presidency in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton.  Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, who is leading the bipartisan effort planning the January 20 inauguration, said it “seems unlikely” that vote projections showing Biden as the presidential winner would change in the coming days.  But he told ABC’s “This Week” show it was reasonable for Republicans to wait a little longer for state election officials to tabulate the official outcome and in some cases, such as in the southern state of Georgia where Biden leads narrowly, to conduct a recount.  Biden and Harris launched Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts using the handle @Transition46, a reference that Biden will be the country’s 46th president in its 244-year history.  On the Biden-Harris website, BuildBackBetter.com, he said, ”We’ll rise stronger than we were before. We will act on the first day of my presidency to get COVID under control. We will act to pass my economic plan that will finally reward work, not wealth, in this country. We’ll act to restore faith in our democracy and our faith in one another.   “We’ll once more become one nation, under God, indivisible, a nation united, a nation strengthened, a nation healed,” he said.  FILE – Protesters hold their fists in the air during a rally in Las Vegas against police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd, June 5, 2020.Racial injustice
The website said it would also address racial inequity and police reform in the U.S. by working with Congress to institute a “nationwide ban on chokeholds” during police arrests of criminal suspects, stop “the transfer of weapons of war to police forces,” establish a “model use of force standard” and create a “national police oversight commission.”  The Biden-Harris website also said, “The moment has come for our nation to deal with systemic racism. To deal with the growing economic inequality in our nation. And to deal with the denial of the promise of this nation — to so many.” 
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American voters waited days to hear the projected results of the 2020 election, with voter turnout at record numbers. Amid a pandemic and a strong partisan divide, how does the country heal? Esha Sarai reports from Philadelphia.
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