Trump news – President complains about daytime TV amid claims he will hold spoiler event during inauguration
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Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to launch a 2024 re-election bid on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
On Saturday, The Daily Beast cited three sources who confirmed he is considering a 2024 run, and two of them said he had floated the idea of holding an event on 20 January.
According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the president has privately bragged that he would still remain in the spotlight, even if Mr Biden is in the Oval Office, because the media finds Mr Biden “boring.”
The report comes after the Trump campaign suffered a humiliating court defeat in Pennsylvania, where Republican-appointed judges unanimously ruled to toss out the campaign’s attempt to challenge the election result there.
“Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the court's ruling.
By Saturday evening the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had also dismissed a case brought by Congressman Mike Kelly and others to disallow millions of mail-in ballots in the state.
LA told to ‘stay home as much as possible’
With little to no action on the coronavirus pandemic from lawmakers in Washington, Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the US, has announced stricter stay-at-home orders, including banning most gatherings, as coronavirus cases surge.
The three-week “safer at home” order, which will take effect on Monday, advises residents to stay home “as much as possible” as well as wearing a mask whenever outside. It also prohibits all gatherings outside one’s immediate household except for religious gatherings and protests because they were "constitutionally protected rights."
Danielle Zoellner reports.
Los Angeles County to implement stricter coronavirus lockdown measures
The three-week ‘safer at home’ order will take effect on Monday
RNC chair faces Georgia voters
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel is in Georgia today in support of her party’s candidates in the Georgia Senate runoff elections.
Speaking to a crowd in Marietta without either candidate present, she then took questions which were all about the president’s claims of election fraud. The challenge for the party is to translate enthusiasm for Trump into votes for the Senate race.
This might not be as it easy as you’d expect.
Why vote when it’s already decided?
Here’s video of the exchange with Republican voters. This could be a big problem from the RNC —how do you get your base to turn up to vote when they believe that the president’s allegations that the election is fixed?
Melania in talks for White House memoir, report says
First Lady Melania Trump is having meetings about writing a White House memoir, according to The New York Post.
A source told Page Six that while it would be a chance to earn on her own and tell her own side of the story of four years in the White House, it is also being done with the encouragement of the president.
“She’s not done, or going as quietly as you might expect,” the source told the tabloid, adding: “in the wake of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s betrayal, in both print and on secret tapes, Melania’s story could be worth big money.”
The Trump White House has generated a multimillion dollar genre of book publishing with insider accounts flying off the shelves. The president himself is also looking to land a multimillion-dollar book deal once he has left office.
Barack and Michelle Obama signed a record-breaking book deal after their eight years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, reportedly worth $65m.
It’s Small Business Saturday
…and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is doing a little holiday shopping at an outdoor market in Washington, DC. She is joined by her husband Doug Emhoff, and Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Letters: Trump has discredited democracy and paved the way for a future ideological dictator
On The Independent’s letters page, Graham Powell of Cirencester, writes:
Although the petulant rants and insubstantial accusations of fraud by president Trump will eventually cease and Biden will become US president in January, the long-term damage he may be causing is a salutary warning for other democracies.
Read more here:
Letters: Trump has discredited democracy and paved the way for a future ideological dictator
Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk
Trump returning to Camp David
Golf at Trump National in Virginia is over for the day and Trump is on his way back to Camp David in Maryland on Marine One, per pool reporters.
Harris scoffs at facing Trump again in 2024
On her Small Business Saturday shopping trip in Washington, DC, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was asked if she and Joe Biden would be ready to face Donald Trump again in 2024 if he were to run.
Ms Harris scoffed: “Please,” before breaking out in laughter, per pooler Edward-Isaac Dovere of The Atlantic.
ICYMI: Joe Biden considering retired General Lloyd Austin for defence secretary
President-elect Joe Biden has considered retired four-star General Lloyd Austin as his nominee for defence secretary, Axios reports.
Mr Austin was reportedly on the short list for the Cabinet position along with Jeh Johnson, the former United States secretary of homeland security; Senator Tammy Duckworth; and Michele Flournoy, who served as the under secretary of defence for policy for President Barack Obama.
If picked, he would serve as the first Black secretary of defence in American history.
Danielle Zoellner reports.
Joe Biden considers retired General Lloyd Austin as his nominee for defence secretary, report says
If Mr Austin was picked, he would serve as first Black secretary of defence in American history.
Bernie campaigns for Georgia Dems
Bernie Sanders is doing his bit over the holiday weekend to get out the vote for Georgia’s Democratic Senate candidates, touting their progressive policies to his almost 14 million followers.
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