Don Jr tests positive, as his father dodges media questions
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump held a press conference on Friday to discuss prescription drug prices, but the moment also included him falsely claiming “he won” the 2020 election while accusing Moderna and Pfizer of working to stop his re-election efforts. The two pharmaceutical companies announced their coronavirus vaccines were 90 per cent or more effective against the novel virus following the election.
The press conference was actually not a press conference because the president took no questions. His decision not to take questions potentially came after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held her press briefing since 1 October on Friday.
Ms McEnany, who defended Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the election, was heckled by one reporter during the briefing over her inability to accept the election results. She also entered into a verbal spat with a CNN reporter, whom she called an “activist”, after refusing to answer more questions.
This comes after Mr Trump was told to to move aside by Republican senator Lamar Alexander, who said on Friday that the US president should allow the transition to a Biden administration to take place after more than two weeks of delay. Sources close to the president suggested that his refusal to concede was, in part, an act of revenge on Democrats who investigated Russian interference in his 2016 win over Hillary Clinton.
And later in the day it was confirmed that the president’s son, Don Jr, had tested positive for coronavirus and was quarantining.
Watch: Kamala Harris and Lindsey Graham fist bump on Senate floor
And people say civility in politics is over (potential spread of deadly coronavirus notwithstanding).
Now let’s see if parties will be as cordial in the Georgia run-off elections that would determine control Senate. As vice president, Harris will get the deciding vote to break a 50-50 seat deadllock.
Given that Harris instigates the fist bump, maybe she knows something Graham doesn’t.
‘For many people, this is their final Thanksgiving’: Trump Covid adviser encourages family gatherings
Donald Trump’s coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas encouraged older Americans to join family for Thanksgiving celebrations as it could be their last.
Speaking to Fox News, he said it’s important to protect “vulnerable, high-risk, senior family” members but that having them at Thanksgiving was worth it.
"This kind of isolation is one of the unspoken tragedies of the elderly, who are now being told 'don’t see your family at Thanksgiving,' " Atlas said. "For many people, this is their final Thanksgiving believe it or not."
He continued: "I think we have to have a policy, which I have been advocating, which is a whole person, whole health policy. It’s not about just stopping cases of Covid, we have to talk about damage of the policy itself."
Iraqi military says 4 rockets land in Baghdad’s Green Zone
Four rockets struck inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Tuesday, Iraq’s military said, wounding at least two people and signaling an end to an informal truce announced by Iran-backed militias in October.
The rockets were fired from the al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood of Baghdad, according to the military’s statement.
Two Iraqi security officials said the rockets struck just 600 meters (2,000 feet) from the U.S. Embassy and were intercepted by the C-RAM air defense system installed by the U.S. earlier this year. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.Two Iraqi security forces personnel were wounded, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Two Iraqi security forces personnel were wounded, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. - AP
Arizona secretary of state denies Lindsey Graham spoke to her as voter fraud row intensifies
Arizona’s secretary of state has denied Lindsey Graham’s claim he spoke to her as the row over voter fraud intensified.
“This is false. I have not spoken with @lindseygrahamsc,” she wrote on Twitter.
Senator Graham has come under fierce criticism after the Georgia secretary of state revealed that the politician had hinted he should toss out legal ballots.
Mr Graham told reporters on Tuesday that he had also spoken to election chiefs in Arizona and Nevada out of concern for voting integrity.
The Independent’s Graeme Massie has the full report.
Arizona secretary of state denies Graham spoke to her on voter fraud
Senator faces accusations of meddling in another state’s election process
Trump gives more reasons to move to Canada
Calls to move to Canada after Trump’s 2016 win were so widespread, yet so rarely followed through on, that it became an enduring meme that resurfaced in earnestness ahead of the 2020 election.
With Joe Biden projected to be the next resident of the White House, Trump seems to be eyeballing Canada himself.
The main reason - they don’t use the Dominion voting system he’s pushing as the nefarious cause of the 2020 election results.
On the other hand, Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau wants to “reset” economic systems. It’s hard to see how that would make a capitalism-loving Trump feel at home north of the border.
Georgia county uncovers another 2,700 new votes in recount but no evidence of fraud, officials say
The Georgia recount found 2,755 votes in Fayette County that weren’t included in the initial total of the state, which Joe Biden won by a razor-thin 14,000.
The votes were scanned onto a memory card that was never uploaded, according to state official Gabriel Sterling.
Of those found, 1,577 were for Trump while 1,128 were for Biden and the rest for Joe Jorgenson or write ins.
Added to the 800 net votes found from 2,600 ballots in Floyd County on Monday, that takes Biden’s lead down to 12,929 votes.
The state is also investing another memory card issue in Walton County that may have been missed.
Forensic examination of voting machines in Georgia showed “no sign of foul play” according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Graeme Massie has more on the audit of the voting system.
Forensic examination of voting machines in Georgia shows ‘no sign of foul play’
Announcement comes as state hand recounts ballots for presidential vote
Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejects Trump lawsuit
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned one of the Trump campaign’s few wins in its legal battle contesting the results of the 2020 election.
In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that the rights of election observers were sufficient in Philadelphia. It rejected the claim that poll observers didn’t get “meaningful access” for being physically too far away from the vote counters.
“We conclude the Board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the precanvassing and canvassing process, as the Election Code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives,” the court wrote.
“Critically, we find the Board’s regulations as applied herein were reasonable in that they allowed candidate representatives to observe the Board conducting its activities as prescribed under the Election Code.”
How Rudy Giuliani plans to get Trump’s legal battle to the Supreme Court by failing upwards
Is Rudy Giuliani headed to the Supreme Court?
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney has joined a lawsuit battling the electoral process in Pennsylvania, after multiple lawyers fled the case this week. It’s a last-minute bid to join a lawsuit that Mr Giuliani himself appeared to suggest was doomed to fail: in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday, the former New York City mayor said: “Frankly, that is a case that we would like to see get to the Supreme Court.”
He continued to his apparent strategy to overturn the results of the election, saying: “We're prepared in some of these cases to lose and to appeal and to get it to the Supreme Court.”
Mr Giuliani, who was due to appear in court virtually on Tuesday, told the conservative network the campaign was planning to “probably” sue in “at least eight or nine” additional states. He had to request special permissions to represent the campaign in Pennsylvania, where he is not admitted to practice law.
The Independent’s Chris Riotta has more.
How Rudy Giuliani plans to get Trump’s legal battle to the Supreme Court by failing upwards
President’s personal lawyer joins lawsuit challenging the electoral process while other attorneys flee
Lawsuits launched in Nevada ahead of vote certification
Election-related lawsuits flew Tuesday in Nevada, where a voting watchdog group organized by a conservative Nevada activist claimed fraud and asked a judge to nullify the 3 November statewide election and two Republicans who lost Las Vegas-area races to Democrats went to court to demand re-votes.
In a promised fourth action, the state Republican Party said it would file a new lawsuit “to throw out fraud and ensure election integrity in the Nevada general election.”
Donald Trump Nevada campaign co-chairman Adam Laxalt and American Conservative Union chief Matt Schlapp scheduled an afternoon news conference to describe that effort.
The legal filings came after Clark County commissioners on Monday accepted the results of the election in the Las Vegas area, where more than 977,000 votes were tallied. Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria acknowledged 936 “discrepancies” among votes countywide. Gloria said officials identified six people who voted twice.
Discrepancies ranged from inadvertently canceled votes, reactivated voter cards and check-in errors at polling places, he said.
Two lawsuits filed Monday in state court in Las Vegas seek fast-track action to invalidate the election on behalf of GOP candidates Jim Marchant, who lost a bid for Congress by nearly 5% to incumbent Democratic US Representative Steven Horsford, and April Becker, who lost a state legislative race by less than 1% to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro. AP
Ivanka joins the Trump train exodus leaving Twitter for Parler
Trump supporters have been walking away from mainstream traditional and social medial companies like Fox News and Twitter for conservative Newsmax and Parler.
While Ivanka joins Donald Trump’s other progeny Parler, the president himself might not have a profile.
He may have no choice but to find a new platform once he’s no longer a sitting president and Twitter is no longer obligated to keep his posts around.
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