APPENDIX Real Authentic

APPENDIX
Selected articles about US Presidential Election on CNN.com and The Guardian
1) Aratani L. (2020). Donald Trump releases video statement repeating baseless vote fraud
claims
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/02/donald-trump-video-statement-baseless-
vote-fraud-claims)
DONALD TRUMP RELEASES VIDEO STATEMENT REPEATING BASELESS VOTE
FRAUD CLAIMS
President claims electoral system ‘under coordinated assault’
Justice department found no evidence of significant fraud
Lauren Aratani and agencies
Thu 3 Dec 2020 01.00 GMT
Facebook and Twitter have placed warnings on a 46-minute video statement released by Donald
Trump on Wednesday, in which the president repeats baseless claims of voter fraud in
November’s election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
President-elect Biden, a veteran Democrat, won the presidential election with 306 electoral

college votes, compared with Trump’s 232. However, Trump has refused to concede, and has
instead launched – and lost – flimsy legal battles in several states, which experts said appeared
aimed at dragging out vote counting and creating a cloud of uncertainty over the electoral
process.
“This may be the most important speech I’ve ever made,” Trump says in the video, before
making lengthy, rambling and baseless claims that America’s electoral system is “under
coordinated assault and siege”.
Trump, who spoke from the Diplomatic Room, kept up his futile pushback against the election
even as state after state certifies its results and as Biden presses ahead with shaping his cabinet in
advance of his inauguration on 20 January.
Biden received a record 81m votes compared to 74m for Trump. The Democrat also won 306
electoral votes compared to 232 for Trump. The electoral college split matches Trump’s victory
over Hillary Clinton four years ago, which he described then as a “landslide”.
Trump dug further into his contention of a “rigged election” even though members of his own
administration, including the attorney general, William Barr, say that no proof of widespread
voter fraud has been uncovered. Courts in multiple battleground states have thrown out a barrage
of lawsuits filed on behalf of the president.
“This is not just about honoring the votes of 74 million Americans who voted for me,” Trump
said. “It’s about ensuring that Americans can have faith in this election. And in all future
elections.”
The Trump video comes a day after Barr said the US Department of Justice had not uncovered
evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the presidential election.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Barr said US attorneys and FBI agents had been
working to follow up complaints and information but had uncovered no evidence that would
change the outcome of the election.
“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the
election,” Barr said.
Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement: “With the greatest
respect to the attorney general, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation
of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.”
As the 8 December deadline for states to certify their results approaches, Trump is fast running
out of options to contest the outcome of the election.
Many of Trump’s claims, including that the US election was subject to widespread “voter fraud”,
have been debunked repeatedly in recent weeks.
'It has to stop': Georgia Republican says Trump's election rhetoric will lead to violence – video
In fact, Christopher Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Security Agency, voiced confidence in the integrity of the election ahead of
the November vote. And afterward, he knocked down allegations that the count was tainted by
fraud. Krebs was fired by Trump weeks ago.
The video was released a day after one of Georgia’s top election officials made an impassioned
plea to Trump to tone down his rhetoric disputing the election results, saying the president was
“inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence”.
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system,
also issued the stark warning that if Trump and his supporters did not rein in election
disinformation “someone is going to get hurt”.
Sterling, the voting systems manager for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said last week
that he had police protection around his home because of threats he received after election results
were announced. Trump lost Georgia to Biden by about 13,000 votes.
Trump responded to Sterling’s plea by tweeting baseless claims about the Georgia election and
criticising the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp. Twitter flagged his tweet as “disputed”.
2) Farrer M. (2020). Donald Trump says he will leave White House if electoral college votes for
Joe Biden
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/27/donald-trump-says-he-will-leave-white-
house-if-electoral-college-votes-for-joe-biden)
DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE WILL LEAVE WHITE HOUSE IF ELECTORAL
COLLEGE VOTES FOR JOE BIDEN
President’s comments are the closest he has come to admitting defeat in election and set
stage for college vote on 14 December
Martin Farrer and agencies
Thu 26 Nov 2020 23.16 GMT
Donald Trump has said that he will leave the White House in January if the electoral college
votes for Democratic president-elect Joe Biden, in the closest the outgoing president has come to
conceding defeat.
Biden won the presidential election with 306 electoral college votes – many more than the 270
required – to Trump’s 232. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote
tally.
Trump has so far defied tradition by refusing to concede defeat, instead making a series of
baseless claims about alleged ballot fraud and launching legal attempts to challenge the outcomes
in several states such Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But desperate efforts by Trump and his aides to overturn results in key states, either by lawsuits
or by pressuring state legislators, have failed.
Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said if Biden – who is due to be
sworn in on 20 January – was certified the election winner by the electoral college, he would
depart the White House.
Trump’s comments, made to reporters at the White House after speaking to troops during the
traditional Thanksgiving Day address to US service members, appear to take him one step nearer
to admitting defeat.
Asked if he would leave the White House if the college vote went against him, Trump said:
“Certainly I will. And you know that,” adding that: “If they do, they’ve made a mistake.”
Donald Trump arrives for the event on Thursday night. Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters
However, Trump said it would be “a very hard thing to concede” and declined to say whether he
would attend Biden’s inauguration, which is due to take place on 20 January.
It was the first time he had taken questions from reporters since election day, and at times he
turned combative, calling one reporter a “lightweight” and telling him “don’t talk to me like
that”.
Trump’s administration has already given the green light for a formal transition to get underway.
But Trump took issue with Biden moving forward.
“I think it’s not right that he’s trying to pick a Cabinet,” Trump said, even though officials from
both teams are already working together to get Biden’s team up to speed.
At one point he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending coronavirus vaccines.
“Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people
harder than they’ve ever been pushed before,” he said.
As for whether or not he plans to formally declare his candidacy to run again in 2024 – as he has
discussed with aides – Trump he didn’t “want to talk about 2024 yet.”
In late-night tweets, Trump complained that the media had not covered his news conference in
the way he had wanted, saying the main point he had tried to make was that he won the election.
Twitter flagged his comments.
The electoral college is due to meet on 14 December when each state’s nominated electors will
cast their votes for the winner of the state’s presidential ballot. The votes are officially counted
by Congress on 6 January.
When asked about Trump’s comments, Biden campaign spokesperson, Michael Gwin said:
“President-elect Biden won 306 electoral votes. States continue to certify those results, the
Electoral College will soon meet to ratify that outcome,” adding: “Biden will be sworn in as
President on January 20, 2021.”
Showing that he intends to stay in the political fray until the end of his term, Trump said on
Thursday he would travel on 5 December to Georgia, a once solidly Republican state he lost
narrowly to Biden, to campaign for two Republican Senate candidates.
The two runoff elections in Georgia on 5 January will determine whether the Republicans keep
their majority in the Senate.
Biden and Trump both stayed close to home to celebrate Thanksgiving as the coronavirus
pandemic raged across the country.
Biden spent the holiday with his family in Delaware, giving a presidential-style address in a
message posted on Twitter. He said Americans were making a “shared sacrifice for the whole
country” and a “statement of common purpose” by staying at home with their immediate
families.
Trump often likes to celebrate holidays at his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida. But on Thursday he
remained in the Washington area, spending part of the morning at his Trump National Golf Club
in Virginia where he played a round of golf.
The US is rapidly approaching 13m confirmed Covid-19 infections, and by Thursday more than
263,000 people in the country had lost their lives to coronavirus.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
3) Farrer M. (2020). Violence flares in Washington as far-right Trump supporters clash with
counter-protesters
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/13/trump-supporters-rally-against-election-
outcome-as-proud-boys-and-antifa-face-off)
VIOLENCE FLARES IN WASHINGTON AS FAR-RIGHT TRUMP SUPPORTERS
CLASH WITH COUNTER-PROTESTERS
Four people reportedly stabbed and 23 arrested in the aftermath of a march to denounce
Joe Biden’s election victory
Martin Farrer
Sun 13 Dec 2020 05.53 GMT
First published on Sun 13 Dec 2020 01.18 GMT
Far-right Trump supporters clash with counter-protesters in Washington – video

Violence has broken out in the streets of Washington DC after far-right groups clashed with
counter-protesters in the aftermath of a march by conservatives protesting against US president-
elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
The trouble flared as darkness fell and crowds began to disperse in the wake of a largely peaceful
demonstration on Saturday by Trump supporters who allege without evidence that the 3
November election was tainted by fraud.
Proud Boys and Antifa activists square up in Washington. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty
Images
Groups of pro-Trump Proud Boys protesters and Antifa counter protesters brawled in the city’s
downtown streets and although police used pepper spray on members of both sides, the rivals
regrouped and violence continued sporadically.
Four people were taken to hospital with stab wounds with potentially life-threatening injuries,
according to the Washington Post, which quoted DC fire spokesman, Doug Buchanan. Police
said 23 people were arrested.
An estimated 200 members of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group, had joined the marches
earlier on Saturday near the Trump hotel in the capital. Mixing with church groups who urged the
faithful to participate in “Jericho Marches” and prayer rallies for the defeated president, the
Proud Boys contingent wore combat fatigues and ballistic vests, carried helmets and flashed hand
signals used by white nationalists.
They shouted insults at rival Antifa protesters and burned Black Lives Matters flags but police
succeeded in keeping the factions apart until the evening
Rival groups clash in Washington. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Protests also took place in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona,
where Trump’s campaign has sought to overturn vote counts.
Local media in the Washington state capital of Olympia reported that one person was shot and
three arrested after clashes between pro- and anti-Trump protest groups.
More than 50 federal and state court rulings have upheld Biden’s victory. The US supreme court
on Friday rejected a long-shot lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by Trump seeking to throw out
voting results in four states.
“Whatever the ruling was yesterday ... everybody take a deep, deep breath,” retired army general
Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, told protesters in front of the supreme
court, referring to the court’s refusal to hear the Texas case.
Flynn who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with the former Russian
ambassador, spoke in his first public address since Trump pardoned him in November.
Police stand guard to keep the rival groups apart. Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
“My charge to you is to go back to where you are from” and make demands, Flynn told the
crowd, without being more specific. The US constitution is “not about collective liberty it is
about individual liberties, and they designed it that way”, he said.
Trump has refused to concede defeat, alleging without evidence that he was denied victory by
massive fraud. On his way to Andrews air force base and then to the annual Army-Navy football
game in New York, Trump made three passes in the Marine One helicopter over the cheering
protesters.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump’s supporters carrying flags and signs made their way in small knots
toward Congress and the supreme court through downtown Washington, which was closed to
traffic by police vehicles and dump trucks.
Few of the marchers wore masks, despite soaring Covid-19 deaths and cases, defying a mayoral
directive for them to be worn outside. Several thousand people rallied in Washington, fewer than
during a similar protest last month.
As some in the crowd echoed far right conspiracy theories about the election, a truck-pulled
trailer flew Trump 2020 flags and a sign reading “Trump Unity” while blaring the country song
“God Bless the USA”.
“It’s clear the election has been stolen,” said Mark Paul Jones of Delaware Water Gap,
Pennsylvania, who sported a tricorner revolutionary war-era hat as he walked toward the
supreme court with his wife.
Some protesters referenced the biblical miracle of the battle of Jericho, in which the walls of the
city crumbled after soldiers and priests blowing horns marched around it.
In his speech, Flynn told the protesters they were all standing inside Jericho after breaching its
walls.
Ron Hazard of Morristown, New Jersey, was one of five people who stopped at the justice
department to blow shofars – a ram’s horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies – to bring down
“the spiritual walls of corruption”.
“We believe what is going on in this county is an important thing. It’s a balance between biblical
values and anti-biblical values,” Hazard said.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.
4) Gambino L. (2020). Biden hails democracy and rebukes Trump after electoral college
victory
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/14/joe-biden-electoral-college-victory-donald-
trump)
BIDEN HAILS DEMOCRACY AND REBUKES TRUMP AFTER ELECTORAL
COLLEGE VICTORY
The president-elect repudiated Donald Trump and said his assault on the
democratic process was ‘unconscionable’
Lauren Gambino
Tue 15 Dec 2020 03.32 GMT
Joe Biden delivered a sharp repudiation of Donald Trump and his weekslong quest to subvert the
results of November’s election, declaring that the “will of the people had prevailed” in a speech
that came shortly after the electoral college officially confirmed his victory.
It was “time to turn the page” on a presidential election that tested the resilience of American
democracy, the president-elect said just moments after Hawaii cast the final four electoral college
votes, clearing a milestone that all but ended Trump’s unprecedented attempt to overturn the
results.
Biden hailed the presidential election and its uncharted aftermath as a triumph of American
democracy and “one of the most amazing demonstrations of civic duty we’ve ever seen in our
country”.
The final tally – 306 to 232 electoral votes – followed a baseless campaign by the president to
reverse the results of an election that saw historic turnout despite a pandemic. Trump lost not
only in the electoral college but the popular vote, too – by nearly 7m.
Yet for weeks, the president has clung to meritless accusations of voter fraud in a slate of
battleground states that delivered the victory to Biden. His refusal to concede has sowed doubt
among his supporters about the integrity of the vote and undermined faith in the institutions of
American governance.
In a speech delivered from Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said “our democracy – pushed, tested,
threatened – proved to be resilient, true and strong”.
Biden, who will become the 46th president of the United States when he is sworn in on 20
January, continued: “We the people voted. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so,
now it is time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history – to unite, to heal.”
Since Biden entered the presidential race last year, he has cast the election as a “battle for the
soul” of the nation. In his remarks on Monday night, Biden described his electoral college victory
as a fulfilment of that mission and a rejection of Trump.
The president-elect called Trump’s assault on the democratic process “unconscionable” and
assailed Republicans who embraced his unsubstantiated claims about widespread voter fraud. He
singled out the 17 state attorneys general and 126 members of Congress who he said helped
legitimize a legal effort to throw out tens of millions of votes in Wisconsin, Michigan,
Pennsylvania and Georgia and “hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the electoral college,
lost the popular vote and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to
reverse”. The supreme court rejected the lawsuit.
These officials, Biden said, adopted a position “so extreme that we’ve never seen it before – a
position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law and
refused to honor our constitution”.
Anticipating further resistance from Trump and his allies, Biden noted that the president and his
campaign were “denied no course of action” and stressed that their efforts failed in states with
Republican governors and in courts with Republican-appointed judges.
“They were heard,” he said. “And they were found to be without merit.”
Texas presidential electors take the oath of office to cast ballots on Monday. Photograph: Bob
Daemmrich/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Yet Trump continued to dispute the legitimacy of the election on Monday, claiming that the
result was “RIGGED” due to “massive fraud”. Twitter moved quickly to label the
pronouncements “disputed”. As California’s 55 electors cast their ballots for Biden, pushing him
over the 270-vote threshold to win the White House, Trump announced on Twitter that his
attorney general, Bill Barr, was resigning, effective 23 December.
Trump had recently lost patience with Barr, viewed as a loyalist who eagerly advanced the
president’s political agenda, after the attorney general acknowledged that his department had
found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
In a sign that Republicans were increasingly prepared to accept reality, some senators and
members of Congress acknowledged the electoral college vote.
“The orderly transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy, and although I supported
President Trump, the electoral college vote today makes clear that Joe Biden is now president-
elect,” the Republican senator Rob Portman, of Ohio, said in a statement.
Biden thanked the handful of Republican senators who have accepted the electoral college vote,
after resisting his victory for weeks. Ever hopeful that four years of deep partisan division will
yield a new era of bipartisanship, Biden said he was “convinced we can work together for the
good of the nation”.
With the election all but finalized, he called on elected officials to turn to the “urgent work” of
combating the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, the US death toll surpassed more
than 300,000, a grisly reminder on the same day Americans began receiving the first shots of a
vaccine against the virus.
Though the path forward remains challenging, exacerbated by the divisions that persist, Biden
said the electoral college vote should serve as a sign of hope for a weary nation.
He pointed to the election officials – many of them volunteers – who carried out their duties in
the face of political pressure, threats of violence and, in some cases, an intervention from the
president himself. Their unwavering commitment to the electoral process ensured that the “flame
of democracy” was not extinguished, he said.
“They showed a deep and unwavering faith in and a commitment to the law,” Biden said. “They
knew the elections they oversaw were honest and free and fair. They saw it with their own eyes
and they wouldn’t be bullied into saying anything different.”
5) Gambino L. (2020). William Barr steps down as Trump's attorney general

(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/14/william-barr-out-attorney-general-donald-
trump)
WILLIAM BARR STEPS DOWN AS TRUMP'S ATTORNEY GENERAL
Barr had dismissed Trump’s claims of significant voter fraud
Critics said he made justice department tool of White House
Lauren Gambino in Washington

@laurenegambino
Mon 14 Dec 2020 22.55 GMT
The US attorney general, William Barr, one of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, has resigned
just weeks after he contradicted the president by saying the justice department had uncovered no
evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
Barr’s departure ends a tenure marked by brazen displays of fealty to a president whose political
agenda he willingly advanced. Critics said Barr had turned the Department of Justice (DoJ) into
an obedient servant of the White House, eroding its commitment to independence and the rule of
law.
Trump sought to play down tensions as he announced Barr’s resignation in a tweet on Monday,
moments after members of the electoral college officially pushed Joe Biden over the 270-vote
threshold to win the White House on Monday. The procedural step effectively ends Trump’s
unprecedented bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election based on false claims
of widespread voter fraud that Barr concluded were meritless.
“Just had a very nice meeting with attorney general Bill Barr at the White House,” the president
said. “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job! As per letter,
Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family…”
In his resignation letter, released by Trump on Twitter, Barr was characteristically effusive of the
president. He praised Trump’s resilience in the face of what the attorney general described as a
“partisan onslaught” that aimed to undermine a duly elected president.
“No tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds,” Barr wrote.
“Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless,
implacable resistance,” he continued, adding: “Few could have weathered these attacks, much
less forge ahead with a positive program for the country.”
Jeff Rosen, the deputy attorney general, who Trump called “an outstanding person”, will take
over the role of acting attorney general and “highly respected” Richard Donoghue, an official in
Rosen’s office, would become the deputy attorney general.
Barr surprised many observers by telling the Associated Press in an interview published on 1
December that he disputed the idea, promulgated by the president and his re-election campaign,
that there had been widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Trump has attempted to undermine Biden’s victory by pointing to routine, small-scale issues in
an election – questions about signatures, envelopes and postal marks – as evidence of widespread
fraud across the nation that cost him the election.
Trump and some of his allies have also endorsed more bizarre sources of supposed fraud, such as
tying Biden’s win to election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chávez” –
the former Venezuelan president who died in 2013.
“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that
machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DoJ have
looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said in the
interview with the AP.
Barr said some people were confusing the role of the federal criminal justice system and asking it
to step in on allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits and reviewed by state or local
officials, not the justice department.
Barr added: “There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default
fix-all, and, people don’t like something – they want the Department of Justice to come in and
‘investigate’.”
Those comments infuriated Trump and his supporters as they have tried – and failed – to find any
meaningful way, via the courts, requested recounts, or pressure on officials, of overturning his
defeat by Biden.
Speculation about Barr’s future was rife from the moment his AP interview was published, as the
most high-profile member of the administration flatly to contradict the president’s continuing
arguments that he is the rightful winner.
For months, Barr also kept a justice department investigation into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden,
from becoming public, despite calls from Republicans and the White House to launch an inquiry
into the younger Biden’s business dealings, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In the weeks before the 2020 election, Trump publicly berated his attorney general for not
prosecuting the president’s political enemies, among them his Democratic opponent and his
predecessor, Barack Obama. In an October interview, Trump said Barr would be remembered as
a “very sad, sad situation” if he did not indict Biden or Obama. Barr’s refusal to act, Trump
warned then, could cost him the election.
Trump announced in December 2018 that he was nominating Barr to become his next attorney
general, replacing Jeff Sessions, a loyalist who angered the president when he stepped aside and
allowed his deputy to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s election interference.
Barr, 70, had previously served as attorney general in the George Bush administration and was
initially viewed by political veterans in Washington as a much-needed stabilizing force who
would insulate the department from political attacks. Yet, assuming the post the post as
the Russia investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump 2016 election campaign
and Russian operatives neared its denouement in early 2019, Barr quickly upended expectations
by ferociously attacking the special counsel investigation that examined the ties between Russia
and the Trump campaign.
In his resignation letter, the attorney general said it was the “nadir” of what he believed was a
partisan crusade against the president “was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your administration
with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia”.
Critics have often accused Barr of showing more loyalty to the president than to the nation. In
one such instance, Barr called a press conference last April and offered a misleading preview of
Mueller’s report. He omitted the report’s detailed description of potential obstruction of justice
by Trump and falsely claimed the White House had cooperated fully.
This set the tone for Trump’s inaccurate trumpeting when the report itself came out, in restricted
form, that he and his team had enjoyed “total exoneration” by Mueller – a blatant
misinterpretation.
And Barr’s protocol-smashing, partisan path continued from there, as he intervened in criminal
cases brought against prominent individuals in Trump’s circle, such as Roger Stone and Michael
Flynn.
He also initiated an investigation of the origins of the Russia investigation itself, seen as a
fundamental undermining of the work of Mueller and his team, an effort that continues.
6) Kelly C. (2020). Supreme Court rejects Texas' and Trump's bid to overturn election
(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/11/politics/supreme-court-texas-trump-biden/index.html)
SUPREME COURT REJECTS TEXAS' AND TRUMP'S BID TO OVERTURN
ELECTION
(CNN)The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a bid from Texas' attorney general -- supported by
President Donald Trump -- to block the ballots of millions of voters in battleground states that
went in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.
The court's order, issued with no public dissents, to dismiss the challenge is the strongest
indication yet that Trump has no chance of overturning election results in court, and that even the
justices whom he placed there have no interest in allowing his desperate legal bids to continue.
The Electoral College will convene Monday to affirm Biden's win.
The lawsuit, brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, sought to
sue Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin -- which all went for Biden -- and invalidate
their election results. And this week, with his options narrowing, Trump, accompanied by the
support of several Republican attorneys general and GOP lawmakers, cranked up pressure to
have the Supreme Court weigh in.
"From a legal perspective, the fat lady has sung," said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court
analyst and University of Texas Law professor.
Trump and his legal team -- hamstrung by a series of coronavirus diagnoses among lawyers who
had traveled across the country advocating on behalf of Trump's case -- have for weeks pushed
increasingly desperate appeals and baseless conspiracy theories about his second term being
stolen.
"The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!," Trump tweeted around
midnight. Mike Gwin, a spokesman for Biden's campaign, said the decision was "no surprise."
Paxton, calling the court's order "unfortunate," vowed to fight on.
"I will continue to tirelessly defend the integrity and security of our elections and hold
accountable those who shirk established election law for their own convenience," he said in a
statement.
Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg said Trump's crusade to undermine the election's
results through rhetoric and court challenges "put a huge stress test on our democracy."
"The Republicans who did follow Donald Trump really have an obligation now to make the
country strong again, to heal the chinks that Donald Trump tried to put in the foundation of the
country and the democracy," Ginsberg told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."
Texas denied for lack of standing

The court's order Friday night was unsigned, and court did not provide a vote count, but there
were no dissents to the order made public.
In its short order, the court said that Texas had not demonstrated that it had the legal right to
bring the suit because it had not demonstrated a "judicially cognizable interest in the manner in
which another State conducts its elections."
The order states: "The State of Texas's motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for
lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially
cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending
motions are dismissed as moot."
In a statement accompanying the order, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they
would have allowed the case to be filed, but would grant no other relief.
"Even Justice Thomas and Alito, who might otherwise have been sympathetic to these
challenges, went out of their way to express that they would grant no relief on the merits,"
Vladeck said.
"Not only did the Court reject Texas's effort to challenge the results in four battleground states,
but it did so on a ground that will prevent any other states from doing so," Vladeck added.
Another big loss for Trump

For the past five weeks, federal and state courts have rejected most of Trump's attempts
thoroughly.
Hastily-written filings have contained a multitude of elementary errors. Many of the pro-Trump
arguments hinged on what was ultimately hearsay or conjecture. And in many of the cases,
Trump backers have said they don't have evidence proving their allegations yet, but want to
review ballots or confidential elections data more closely to see if they can find proof of fraud.
And though Trump has refused to move on, those closest to him -- including the legal team and
his family -- are working on their next steps.
Multiple sources told CNN earlier this week that Trump's legal team and inside what remains of
his campaign staff have been sensing that efforts to overturn or delay the results of the election
are coming to an end. White House staffers are resigning or are out the door, and members of
Trump's Cabinet have also begun meeting with their Biden administration counterparts.
First lady Melania Trump, meanwhile, has begun overseeing shipments of family furniture and
art to Mar-a-Lago. And Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are in the final stages of purchasing a
plot of land within a Miami enclave known for its privacy and high net worth residents.
Presidential pressure
Hours ahead of the court's decision, the President called on the Supreme Court to intervene in the
election, but seemed to acknowledge that a Biden administration is on its way.
"Now that the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much
easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what
everybody knows has to be done. They must show great Courage & Wisdom. Save the USA!!!"
Trump tweeted Friday morning.
Each of the four battleground states targeted by the lawsuit -- Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania
and Wisconsin -- issued blistering briefs on Thursday, with Pennsylvania officials going so far as
to call the effort a "seditious abuse of the judicial process."
And although the case started off with Texas challenging four states, it grew into a
dispute featuring some 19 Republican attorneys general siding with Texas and 22 Democratic-led
states and territories supporting the battleground states that Biden won.
In addition, 126 House Republicans signed on to an amicus brief in support of Paxton's motion,
including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Still, several Republican lawmakers in Washington slammed the basis of the suit, citing
federalism concerns and saying Texas shouldn't have a say in how other states hold their
elections.
This story has been updated with additional details, background information and reaction.
CNN's Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.
7) Laughland O. (2020). 'I won't vote next time': could Georgia Republicans' doubts cost them
the runoffs?
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/13/georgia-senate-runoff-election-republicans-
fraud-claims)
'I WON'T VOTE NEXT TIME': COULD GEORGIA REPUBLICANS' DOUBTS COST
THEM THE RUNOFFS?
As Trump relentlessly pushes false claims of fraud, some fear lower turnout – while poll workers
fear for their safety
Oliver Laughland in Atlanta and Sam Levine in New York
Sun 13 Dec 2020 07.30 GMT
As the sun dipped on a crisp autumnal evening in southern Georgia, Lauren Voyle stood in line
for a front-row seat on the makeshift risers at the Valdosta regional airport. Donald Trump was
due to arrive on the tarmac in a few hours’ time.
It was the first time the president would hold a rally since losing the election in November and
Voyle, who wore a blue Trump 2020 cap with the slogan “Keep Liberals Crying” on the rim, had
driven four and a half hours from Cumming, a small city in the northern part of the state, to
witness what she described as a historic moment.
The president had ostensibly travelled to Georgia to canvass for the two Republican senate
candidates, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, before a critical runoff election in January. But he
spent the vast majority of an incoherent, 90-minute monologue spreading baseless disinformation
about a rigged election, continuing to claim victory after losing by more than 7 million votes.
Georgia election officials, meanwhile, have done three separate counts of the presidential vote,
each time confirming Biden’s victory in the state.
Donald Trump attends a rally in support of the senators David Perdue and Kelly
Loeffler. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Some national Republicans fear that Trump’s continued denial of the results could have major
consequences for the party in January, when this Senate election will determine control of the
upper chamber. With over 70% of Republicans, according to recent polling, now believing that
November’s presidential election was not “free and fair”, there are concerns that a collapse in
trust in electoral processes could cost conservatives dearly at the ballot box.
With the Senate election likely to be decided by a thin margin – both Democratic candidates, Jon
Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, are slightly ahead, according to recent polls – even a small drop in
turnout on either side could have significant consequences. In many ways, Voyle was the
embodiment of their worst nightmare: a staunch Republican who would not turn up to vote again.
“We really believe this election was crooked,” said the 57-year-old, who voted in the November
election. “I won’t [vote] next time unless they give us a clean election with paper ballots, IDs and
fingerprints. I’m not doing Dominion machines.”
Although Trump urged supporters during his speech to turn out for Loeffler and Perdue, he also
regurgitated many of the conspiracy theories about Dominion voting software and identification
issues that Voyle described.
Of the dozen people interviewed by the Guardian at Trump’s rally, all said they had mostly
stopped watching Fox News, which faced the fury of Trump after accurately calling the election
for Joe Biden, shifting their attention to Newsmax and the One America News Network, two
fringe channels propagating baseless election fraud claims recently championed by the president.
Even among some of those who did plan to vote, there remained a distinct lack of enthusiasm for
the two Republican Senate candidates without Trump on the top of the ticket.
“I’m not feeling it for either of them, but I’ll vote,” said Tammy Bailey, who had driven three
hours south to attend in person. She added: “I feel like they’re both part of the deep state,”
suggesting neither candidate had shown enough support for Trump’s efforts to subvert the
election results.
The rally came before a crucial runoff election for Perdue and Loeffler on 5 January. Photograph:
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Loeffler and Perdue have walked a rhetorical tightrope during their second election season, on
the one hand declining to articulate the full-throated, baseless claims of widespread fraud that
Trump has propagated while on the otherdeclining to recognize Biden as the president-elect
and offering their backing for desperate legal bids to overturn the result.
On Sunday, during a televised debate, Loeffler, a multimillionaire businesswoman, declined
three times to acknowledge the result, instead arguing that Trump had “every right to every legal
recourse”.
Democrats in the state are quietly confident that this confusing messaging will play into their
hands. “While they’re scrambling to make clear sense to their base, our message is clear and
unified,” said one source close to the Ossoff campaign.
In his effort to undermine Georgia’s election results, Trump has also attacked two of the top
Republicans in the state, Governor Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state.
Despite Trump’s howling, both men have refused to acquiesce to his request and Raffensperger
has loudly dismissed allegations the election was rigged against Trump. Raffensperger has said
that Trump’s own criticism of voting by mail cost him the election in Georgia.
Asked whether the president’s attacks were hurting Republicans’ chances of winning the runoff,
Raffensperger told the Guardian it would be “helpful” to separate the general election and the
coming vote.
“The most helpful thing for the senators is obviously to have everyone focused on them getting
re-elected in the runoff election,” Raffensperger said. “It’s very tough, I understand, to really
bifurcate the issue of the presidential race from the senatorial runoffs, but the better that the state
party and the candidates do that, the better it really is.”
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in Atlanta on 7 December. Photograph: Erik S

Lesser/EPA
“I would never tell anyone not to turn out to vote. I don’t know why someone would do that. All
the true blue, or I guess true red Republicans, we’ll be all out there, making sure that we vote for
our senators,” he added.
Raffensperger, who certified Georgia’s election results for Biden last month, has received threats
against him and his family for doing so, and urged leaders from both sides “to condemn violence
and threats of violence”.
The attacks have also made it harder for local election officials to prepare for the runoff. Janine
Eveler, the director of elections and registration in Cobb county, which encompasses
the Atlanta suburbs, said she had been getting about 50 calls and emails a day from people
concerned about the election.
“It has taken away time that we could be working on the election to field all of their questions,”
she said, adding that it was extremely difficult to convince the callers there had not been fraud.
“They are unwilling to listen to any rebuttal of that. It’s fruitless. You can’t really explain
anything to anybody because they’re not willing to listen.”
Eveler said the attacks had taken a toll on election workers. She said her office had lost about 15
workers for the runoffs, which she attributed to a combination of concerns about Covid, burnout,
and the attacks.
“The public scrutiny over things, the accusations of wrongdoing that we’ve endured is very
discouraging to people,” she said. “They don’t make a lot of money. And they’re working really
hard. And to be accused of fraudulent activity, it’s hard for people. Their pictures are in the
newspaper all the time, counting ballots.”
The lack of staffing has also meant Cobb county has had to cut by half the number of early
voting sites for the runoff, a move that drew strong objections from civil rights groups who said
the few sites that were available were not adequately accessible for minority voters. Cobb county
is one of the largest in Georgia, home to more than 537,000 registered voters, and flipped to
Biden in November – the first time the county had chosen a Democratic candidate in 40 years.
Eveler acknowledged the accessibility was a problem and said the county was moving one site
and working on a plan to ramp up staffing and open two additional locations during the final
week of early voting.
Republicans in the Georgia state legislature have already signaled they intend to use the
uncertainty Trump created around the election to implement new restrictions on voting by mail.
State Republicans said this month they planned to move legislation that would require photo ID
with a mail-in ballot, eliminate ballot drop boxes and require an excuse to vote by mail – a rule
that exists in just a handful of states.
Jon Ossoff bumps elbows with Julián Castro during a Latino voter registration event in Lilburn,
Georgia, on 7 December. Photograph: Dustin Chambers/Reuters
“I can’t understand why all of a sudden now we have to have these barriers to vote by mail,” said
Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, a civil rights
group that helps expand access to the polls. “When the other side used it – and I’m just gonna be
honest, more white people used vote by mail than people of color, because they didn’t trust the
process – now that we’ve got them trusting the process, now they want to go in and change the
rules.”
National Democrats, too, see Trump’s efforts to undermine the process as a long-term danger to
democracy across the country, which could extend well beyond the election in Georgia.
At an Ossoff campaign rally in the city of Lilburn, just outside Atlanta, Julián Castro, the former
presidential candidate and US housing secretary, paused in the cold to reflect on the post-election
circus.
“The attacks that Donald Trump is launching against the basic foundations of our democracy are
dangerous. They are the types of things that can weaken the common agreement we all have of
participating in democracy, believing in it, supporting it and abiding by it,” he told the Guardian.
“All because this man acts like a child and can’t put the needs of the country above his own
selfish needs.”
• This article was amended on 13 December 2020 because an earlier version misspelt the city of
Cumming as Cuming.
8) LeBlanc P. (2020). Top Trump ally Chris Christie says it's time to accept Biden won the
election
(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/17/politics/chris-christie-us-election-cnntv/index.html)
TOP TRUMP ALLY CHRIS CHRISTIE SAYS IT'S TIME TO ACCEPT BIDEN WON
THE ELECTION
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Updated 0304 GMT (1104 HKT) December 18, 2020
Washington (CNN)Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a staunch ally of President Donald
Trump, said Thursday evening it's time to accept that Joe Biden won the 2020 election as the
President continues to push baseless conspiracy theories that his second term is being stolen.
"Whenever anybody loses an election -- party, an individual -- there is great disappointment. But
elections have consequences and this one was clearly won by President-elect Biden by the same
margin in the Electoral College that President Trump won four years ago -- by even more, nearly
double the popular vote," Christie told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "Prime Time."
"This election, there has been no evidence put forward that has shown me as a former prosecutor
that there is any fraud that would change the results of the election. It's time for us to accept that
defeat. Also, by the way, accept the many victories we had that night. Fourteen new House
members, two legislatures at the state level switched, and a governorship flipped to the
Republican party."
"We had a great night except at the top of the ticket," he continued. "So we need to accept that
and we need to move on."
The comments from Christie, who previously derided Trump's legal team as a "national
embarrassment," come as a growing number of high-profile Republicans acknowledge Biden's
victory and refer to him accurately as "President-elect."
"The Electoral College has spoken," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the
Senate floor earlier this week, adding, "Today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."
But a wide swath of Republicans on Capitol Hill are still siding with Trump or ignoring his daily
conspiracy theories altogether. And the President's staunchest defenders are urging him to fight
his loss all the way to the House floor in January.
It is not unusual for a losing candidate's most fervent supporters to take their case to the House
floor -- something that occurred after the 2016, 2004 and 2000 presidential races. But it is
unusual for the losing candidate to mount a weeks-long public campaign aimed at sowing discord
and distrust over a pillar of democracy, something that Trump has done relentlessly since losing
the race.
Pressed Thursday on being perceived as disloyal to the Republican Party because of his
comments, Christie offered: "I am a person who relies on the facts."
"The facts are that every one of these lawsuits has been thrown out of court, not because these
judges and certainly not the justices of the Supreme Court lacked courage. It's because the claims
lacked evidence," Christie said.
"You got to fight based on the facts," he added, "and so name calling won't change anything at
this point."
9) Levine S. (2020). Supreme court rejects Republican bid to overturn Biden's Pennsylvania
victory
(https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/dec/08/us-supreme-court-republican-pennsylvania-
election-results-trump)
SUPREME COURT REJECTS REPUBLICAN BID TO OVERTURN BIDEN'S
PENNSYLVANIA VICTORY
Lawsuit filed on behalf of Republican congressman took issue with 2019 state law that
expanded mail-in voting
Sam Levine in New York and agencies
Wed 9 Dec 2020 00.04 GMT
The US supreme court on Tuesday turned away a long-shot bid by Republicans to overturn the
election results in Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 race.
The suit, filed on behalf of Mike Kelly, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, took issue
with a 2019 state law that adopted no-excuse absentee voting, and argued that the expansion of
mail-in voting was illegal.
Several courts, including the Pennsylvania supreme court, had already denied the request, noting
that Kelly waited until after the 2020 election to file his suit when the law was in place well
before the election.
The case is the first piece of 2020 election litigation to reach the US supreme court, which has a
6-3 conservative majority including three Trump appointees. But the decision is not a surprise.
As is customary with emergency requests, the supreme court did not offer an explanation for its
decision. There were no noted dissents.
Pennsylvania was one of the pivotal states in the election, with Biden, a Democrat, defeating
Trump after the Republican president won the state in 2016. State officials had already certified
the election results.
Trump has falsely claimed that he won re-election, making unfounded claims about widespread
voting fraud in states including Pennsylvania. Democrats and other critics have accused Trump
of aiming to reduce public confidence in the integrity of US elections and undermine democracy
by trying to subvert the will of the voters.
“This election is over. We must continue to stop this circus of ‘lawsuits’ and move forward,” the
Pennsylvania attorney general, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter.
The supreme court also must decide what to do with another election-related case brought on
Tuesday. Republican-governed Texas, hoping to help Trump, mounted an unusual effort to
overturn the election results in Pennsylvania and three other states – Georgia, Michigan and
Wisconsin – by filing a lawsuit against them directly at the supreme court.
The Republican plaintiffs argued that the universal, “no-excuse” mail-in ballot program passed
by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature in 2019, enabling voters to cast ballots by
mail for any reason, violated the state’s constitution.
Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes and received a much higher proportion of the mail-in
votes than Trump. Many more people voted by mail this year because of health concerns
prompted by the coronavirus pandemic as they sought to avoid crowds at polling places.
Ahead of the election, Trump urged his supporters not to vote by mail, making groundless claims
that mail-in voting – a longstanding feature of American elections – was rife with fraud.
Pennsylvania said in a court filing that the Republican challengers were asking the justices to
“undertake one of the most dramatic, disruptive invocations of judicial power” in US history by
nullifying a state’s certification of its election results.
The state said most of what the challengers had sought was moot because the election results
already were certified and what they were really wanted was for “the court overturn the results of
the election”.
Trump’s campaign and his allies have lost in a stream of lawsuits in key states won by Biden,
also including Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and others. Judges have rejected sweeping
assertions of voting irregularities.
Biden has amassed 306 electoral votes – exceeding the necessary 270 – compared with 232 for
Trump in the state-by-state electoral college that determines the election’s outcome, while also
winning the national popular vote by more than 7m votes.
Tuesday represents a “safe harbor” deadline set by an 1887 US law for states to certify
presidential election results. Meeting the deadline is not mandatory but provides assurance that a
state’s results will not be second-guessed by Congress. After this deadline, Trump could still
pursue lawsuits seeking to overturn Biden’s victory but the effort would become even more
difficult.
Reuters contributed to this report
10) McCarthy T. (2020). ‘Will he ever concede?’: Trump keeps GOP leaders in endless political
limbo
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/09/trump-republicans-presidential-election-joe-
biden)
‘WILL HE EVER CONCEDE?’: TRUMP KEEPS GOP LEADERS IN ENDLESS
POLITICAL LIMBO
Republicans in Congress cling to hope that electoral college event will prompt Trump to
admit to the realities of the election results
The majority of Republican voters who think the election was fraudulent, despite no supporting
evidence, is still growing. Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters
Tom McCarthy and agency
@TeeMcSee
Wed 9 Dec 2020 20.38 GMT
First Republicans in Congress gave Donald Trump a week to admit he lost the presidential
election. Then they called for the lame duck president to have his day in court, where the Trump
campaign amassed a 1-51 win-loss record in challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
Next Republicans pointed to the so-called “safe harbor” deadline of 8 December, when states
would certify their respective results, as the date when Trump would surely be forced to admit
his loss. But that deadline came and went on Tuesday, seemingly unnoticed by the White House.
Now, it is beginning to dawn on some members of the Republican leadership that Trump is
working on a calendar all his own, and that the political limbo they now inhabit – unable to take
the basic step, as elected officials in the United States of America, of recognizing the rightful
winner of a free and fair election – might never end, assuming they will not summon the courage
to contradict Trump.
“I don’t know that he’s ever gonna concede,” John Thune, the Senate majority whip, told
Politico on Wednesday. More than 200 Republicans in Congress – about 90% of the total – will
not say publicly who won the presidential election, the Washington Post found.
The Republican silence has given Trump a window to expand his attacks on US democracy. The
president’s tweeted lies about fake election fraud have escalated in the last month to include the
simple message on Twitter “#OVERTURN”.
The majority of Republican voters who think the election was fraudulent, despite findings to the
contrary by Trump’s own administration and no supporting evidence, is still growing.
The high stakes are plain. As Trump himself put it on Wednesday: “How can you have a
presidency when a vast majority think the election was RIGGED?”
Some Republicans cling to hopes that upcoming events in the transfer of power – future dates on
the election calendar – will cause Trump to change course, and relax the pressure on them. Next
Monday, 14 December, the electoral college meets to cast votes based on state certifications of
the result.
On 6 January, Vice-President Mike Pence, in his capacity as president of the US Senate, is to
preside over a ceremonial meeting of a joint session of Congress at which the electoral votes are
added up and Joe Biden is formally declared the next president.
Representative Alex Mooney, a Republican from West Virginia who introduced a House
resolution on Tuesday that encourages neither Trump nor Biden to concede until all the
investigations are completed, expressed faith that the congressional count would convince Trump
and end the silence of his colleagues.
“The end is when the roll call is put up here,” Mooney told the Associated Press.
But the five weeks since the election are littered with flawed speculation by Republicans about
the supposedly imminent moment when Trump would admit reality and they could safely follow
suit.
“I think the goal here is to give the president and his campaign team some space to demonstrate
there is real evidence to support any claims of voter fraud,” one senior Senate Republican
aide told Reuters on 10 November. “If there is, then they will be litigated quickly. If not, we’ll all
move on.”
“At some point this has to give,” a second aide told Reuters at the time. “And I give it a week or
two.”
The result is a risky standoff like none other in US history. The refusal to agree upon the facts of
the election – which was called for Biden by the leading media decision desks, including the
Associated Press and, thereby, the Guardian, on 7 November, threatens to undermine voter
confidence, chisel away at the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency and re-stack civic norms.
Trump sent his party down this unprecedented path by claiming the election was “rigged”, but
Republican leadership has enabled doubts to swell through their past four weeks of silence.
The president has personally called on some local elected officials to reconsider the results. Now,
the disputed election has taken on a political life of its own that the party’s leadership may not be
able to squash, even as Trump’s legal challenges crumble and state and national level officials
declared it the most secure election in US history.
Republicans say it makes little political sense at this point for them to counter Trump’s views lest
they risk a backlash from his supporters – their own constituents – back home.
They are relying on Trump voters to power the Georgia runoff elections on 5 January that will
determine control of the Senate. And while some GOP lawmakers have acknowledged Biden’s
victory, most prefer to keep quiet, letting the process play out “organically”, as one aide put it,
into January.
But election experts warn of long-term damage to the long-cherished American system.
“It clearly hurts confidence in the elections,” said Trey Grayson, the Republican former secretary
of state for Kentucky and a past president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
“My hope,” he said, is by 14 December “there will be some more voices, but my gut is it won’t
be until the 6th” (of January).
Edward Foley, an elections expert and constitutional law professor at Ohio State University, said
it was true that the election winner is not officially the president-elect until the Congress declares
it so with its vote on 6 January to accept the electoral college results.
“I’m less concerned about the timing, but that it happens,” he said.
For Americans to “have faith” in the elections, the losing side has to accept defeat. “It’s very,
very dangerous if the losing side can’t get to that,” he said.
“It’s essential for the parties to play by that ethos – even if one individual, Mr Trump, can’t do it,
the party has to do it,” he said.
“What’s so disturbing about the dynamic that has developed since election day is that the party
has been incapable of conveying that message because they’re taking their cues from Trump.”
11) Murphy K. (2020). Trump 'penned political suicide note' at every Covid press conference,
former Australian PM says
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/17/trump-penned-political-suicide-note-at-
every-covid-press-conference-former-australian-pm-says)
TRUMP 'PENNED POLITICAL SUICIDE NOTE' AT EVERY COVID PRESS
CONFERENCE, FORMER AUSTRALIAN PM SAYS
If US president handled coronavirus pandemic ‘half-decently’ he would have won election,
John Howard says
Donald Trump was headed to election victory until the pandemic hit, the former Australian PM
John Howard has said. Photograph: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
Katharine Murphy Political editor
@murpharoo
Wed 16 Dec 2020 16.30 GMT
The former Australian prime minister John Howard has said Donald Trump penned a lengthy
“political suicide note” with his “terrible” handling of the coronavirus pandemic, without which
the Republican would have prevailed against Joe Biden.
Howard, who led a conservative Coalition government for nearly 12 years, made the remarks on
Wednesday night during a question and answer session at the Menzies Research Centre at the
conclusion of a lecture delivered by the former National party leader John Anderson.
“If Donald Trump had handled the pandemic half-decently he would have won the election,”
Howard said.
“He was headed towards a victory until the pandemic hit. It was his mishandling of that because,
in the end, the public, when threatened, want their leaders to defend them against the threat.”
Howard said competent public health responses had increased the popularity of political leaders
across Australia.
“That’s why Scott Morrison has very high approvals, Gladys Berejiklian has, our friend [Mark
McGowan] in Western Australia has, and even our friend in Victoria [Daniel Andrews] is
surviving – he’s more than surviving, politically, he is quite perpendicular at the present time,”
the former Liberal leader said. “Now part of that is a perception that difficult as it all was, and so
forth, he got the show through.”
Howard noted that Andrews, the Labor premier in Victoria, had been “open to a lot of political
attack”.
“I know this is not a political occasion so I shouldn’t join in that attack,” he said.
“But I think there’s something to be said for the proposition – and this is an optimistic thing in a
way – that the side of politics in America that embraced identity politics far more, namely the
Democratic party side, sure Biden won, but given how appallingly Trump handled the pandemic
how could he not win?
“Every time [Trump] had a news conference he was penning a political suicide note.”
Howard, Australia’s prime minister from 1996 to 2007, said Trump’s handling of the pandemic
was “terrible” but still the Republicans did “far better than many people expected” in Congress.
Anderson’s lecture to the Liberal-aligned thinktank on Wednesday night railed against
“wokeness” and identity politics.
Despite Biden’s resounding victory both in the electoral college and the popular vote, Howard
said he detected a backlash in “middle America” which prevented the Democrats from gaining
control of the legislature.
“I draw a little bit of encouragement from that, not in a partisan sense – I am more sympathetic to
the Republicans than I am to the Democrats – but I think probably there was a middle America
rejection to be found in that election outcome, notwithstanding the fact that [Biden] won and I
think you are starting to see it reflected in Biden’s choice of people who will serve in his
administration – they are not as leftwing and embracing of political correctness as you might
expect.”
Anderson agreed with Howard’s thesis and declared the media in Australia and the US were
preoccupied with characterising Trump as a “terrible person” rather than analysing his policies.
The former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister did not reflect on Trump’s habitual lying
while in office or the scandals that ultimately defined his presidency.
Anderson noted that an “astonishing” number of Americans voted for Trump despite the
mismanagement of Covid-19. Howard said in response to that observation: “He did have a
number of flaws.”
And Anderson said the looming runoff election in the state of Georgia was “a very important
runoff for the globe – I mean what happens in American politics at this point in history is
probably as important to us as what happens here”.
“I’m so motivated by what I see as the real potential for us to lose our freedoms,” Anderson said.
“I’m so despairing at our lack of, am I allowed to say, manning up.”
After deciding he should instead say “humanising up” – “there’s a touch of wokeism in
everyone” – Anderson concluded by stating that when it came to the defence of freedom “it’s all
hands to the wheel”.
12) Nobles R. (2020). Loeffler leaves open the option of objecting to the Electoral College
results
(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/16/politics/kelly-loeffler-electoral-college/index.html)
LOEFFLER LEAVES OPEN THE OPTION OF OBJECTING TO THE ELECTORAL
COLLEGE RESULTS
By Ryan Nobles, CNN
(CNN)Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican who is up for reelection in a heated runoff
race set for January 5, left open the possibility Wednesday that she may object to the Electoral
College results of Joe Biden's victory when the matter is brought before the US Congress next
month.
"January 6 is a long ways off; right now we've got a Senate race to run here in Georgia," Loeffler
said. "We've got to win. The future of the country is on the ballot. I'm focused on making sure
that we win that, to hold the line here in Georgia against the radical left, the democrat socialist
policies, and that's what I'm doing every single day."
When pressed if she was leaving the option open, Loeffler responded: "I haven't looked at it.
January 6 is a long way off; there's a lot to play out between now."
Loeffler, who is being challenged by the Rev. Raphael Warnock, also refused to call Biden the
President-elect during a short news conference after she cast her ballot Wednesday morning for
the Georgia races. She deflected or ignored several direct questions about the results of the
presidential election, claiming she was focusing all of her energy on the January 5 runoff.
"The President has a right to every legal recourse," she said. "That's what's playing out right now.
I'm focused on winning this race on January 5."
Both GOP candidates in the Georgia runoff have found themselves in a difficult position as they
attempt to fire up Republican base voters to participate in the runoff, which is expected to be
very close.
Their efforts have been complicated by President Donald Trump, who, despite endorsing
Loeffler and GOP Sen. David Perdue, has spent much of his time challenging the results of the
presidential race in Georgia and attacking leading Republicans who oversaw the voting process
and confirmed the results.
Perdue and Loeffler have leaned in to the President's attacks without specifically endorsing
them. During her last debate with Warnock, Loeffler refused to describe the November election
as "rigged" but also declined to say that Biden was the winner.
Warnock quickly pounced on Loffler's comments Wednesday, accusing her of disrespecting
voters in Georgia.
"After refusing for weeks to acknowledge the basic fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won
the election, Kelly Loeffler is now leaving the door open to challenging those results in
Congress," Warnock said in a statement. "That's reckless and disrespectful of Georgia voters."
Republican voters in Georgia have put an enormous amount of pressure on Loeffler and Perdue
to demonstrate support for Trump's ill-fated quest to overturn the results. Some have interrupted
their campaign stops demanding they do more to stand up for Trump. When the pair appeared
onstage with Trump during a rally in Valdosta, the crowd erupted in a chant of "Fight for
Trump."
It's left Loeffler and Perdue in a situation where they been forced to wade carefully through the
sensitive issue and commit full loyalty to Trump, despite the reality of the results of the
presidential race. So much so that when Loeffler was asked Wednesday if she will ever concede
that Biden won the election she responded:
"Look, there will be a time for that, if that becomes true."
Loeffler may have a say on January 6, win or lose. Because she is filling a seat vacated by the
retirement of Sen. Jonny Isakson, she will remain in office until the results of the runoff are
certified by the Georgia secretary of state. That could take a week or longer, depending on how
long it takes to count all the votes. It is likely that even if she is the apparent loser, she may still
be a member of the Senate when Congress convenes to take up the Electoral College results.
13) Pengelly M. (2020). Trump's fraud claims undermine democracy, ex-US election security
chief says
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/30/trump-election-fraud-claims-aim-chris-
krebs)
TRUMP'S FRAUD CLAIMS UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY, EX-US ELECTION
SECURITY CHIEF SAYS
Chris Krebs, who was fired from Department of Homeland Security two weeks after the
election, calls Trump’s actions dangerous
Chris Krebs on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on 14 May 2019. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Martin Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Mon 30 Nov 2020 15.51 GMT
Donald Trump and his allies are “undermining democracy” with evidence-free claims of fraud
and conspiracy, the former head of US election security said on Sunday, discussing the effort he
led before he was fired by the president.
“What I saw was an apparent attempt to undermine confidence in the election, to confuse people,
to scare people,” Chris Krebs told CBS 60 Minutes.
Trump called the interview “ridiculous, one-sided [and] an international joke”, as he continued to
tweet conspiracy theories and baseless claims of electoral malpractice.
Trump lost the electoral college to Joe Biden by 306-232, the result he said was a landslide when
it was in his favour over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden is more than 6m ahead in the popular
vote and won the support of more than 80m Americans, the most of any presidential candidate.
Trump belatedly allowed the transition to proceed but has not conceded defeat, despite his team
having won one election-related lawsuit and lost 39.
Relaying baseless claims to reporters over the Thanksgiving holiday, the president did say he will
leave the White House if the electoral college is confirmed for Biden. It votes on 14 December, a
result certified on 6 January. Inauguration day is 20 January.
Krebs, 43, was fired as head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) two weeks after election day. Two days after that, at
Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, the Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani
gave a press conference in which he and then team member Sidney Powell pushed Trump’s false
claims.
“It was upsetting,” Krebs told CBS.

“It’s not me, it’s not just Cisa. It’s the tens of thousands of election workers out there that had
been working nonstop, 18-hour days, for months. They’re getting death threats for trying to carry
out one of our core democratic institutions, an election. And that was, again, to me, a press
conference that … didn’t make sense. What it was actively doing was undermining democracy.
And that’s dangerous.”
Trump tweeted in response, part of a stream of Sunday night messages.

“There is no foreign power that is flipping votes,” Krebs said. “There’s no domestic actor
flipping votes. I did it right. We did it right. This was a secure election.”
Claims by Trump lawyers of interference from Venezuela or China were “farcical”, he said,
adding: “The American people should have 100% confidence in their vote.”
Polling, however, shows a majority of Republicans believe the president. Krebs defended state

officials who Trump, and subsequently his supporters, have targeted.
“It’s in my view a travesty what’s happening right now with all these death threats to election
officials, to secretaries of state,” Krebs said.
“I want everybody to look at Secretary [Kathy] Boockvar in Pennsylvania, Secretary [Jocelyn]

Benson in Michigan, Secretary [Barbara] Cegavske in Nevada, Secretary [Katie] Hobbs in
Arizona. All strong women that are standing up, that are under attack from all sides, and they’re
defending democracy. They’re doing their jobs.
“Look at Secretary [Brad] Raffensperger in Georgia. Lifelong Republican. He put country before
party in his holding a free and fair election in that state. There are some real heroes out there.
There are some real patriots.”
14) Perez E., Cole D. (2020). William Barr says there is no evidence of widespread fraud in
presidential election
(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/01/politics/william-barr-election-2020/index.html)
WILLIAM BARR SAYS THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD FRAUD IN
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
By Evan Perez and Devan Cole, CNN
(CNN)The Justice Department hasn't found evidence to support allegations of widespread fraud
that could have changed the result of last month's presidential election, Attorney General William
Barr said in an interview with the Associated Press published Tuesday.
The comments from Barr, who has been steadfast in his support of President Donald Trump
during his tenure, represent the latest official rebuke from Republicans of the President's claims
of widespread fraud in his loss to Joe Biden.
"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the
election," Barr said.
Barr, who prior to the election echoed Trump's claims that mail-in voting wasn't secure, said both
the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security have looked into claims of
fraud and come up empty.
"There's been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that
machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results," Barr said. "And the DHS
and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven't seen anything to substantiate that."
Barr's announcement came the same day he publicly revealed he appointed Connecticut US
Attorney John Durham to act as special counsel investigating whether intelligence and law
enforcement violated the law in investigating the 2016 Trump presidential campaign --
essentially keeping that issue alive into the Biden administration.
Trump and his attorneys are still pursuing desperate legal challenges to the 2020 election results
in some key states, despite the fact that a number of them have already certified their results.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Monday that his state's elections were secure, drawing
condemnation from the President.
"I've been pretty outspoken about Arizona's election system, and bragged about it quite a bit,
including in the Oval Office," the Republican governor tweeted in part, praising the state's
election laws and practices as secure and empowering to voters. Biden beat Trump by 10,457
votes in Arizona, the secretary of state's office said.
And last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia's secretary of state rejected Trump's calls
for them to overturn the state's election results after they were certified. Trump has made a series
of unfounded claims of fraud in the state, for which there is no evidence, and he lost the state to
Biden by more than 12,000 votes. Trump has criticized Kemp for how he handled the state's
recount.
Barr had previously pushed similar claims to the ones Trump has repeatedly made, including in
September, when he made a number of false and misleading statements to CNN's Wolf Blitzer in
an interview in which he condemned states using mail-in voting during the coronavirus
pandemic.
"People trying to change the rules to this, to this methodology -- which, as a matter of logic, is
very open to fraud and coercion -- is reckless and dangerous and people are playing with fire,"
Barr said at the time.
Barr's comments will almost certainly raise questions about Trump's relationship to his attorney
general moving forward, especially given the fact that Chris Krebs, the official running the cyber
arm of the Department of Homeland Security, was jettisoned by the President because of a
statement he released saying Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud were "highly inaccurate."
Barr went to the White House on Tuesday for a pre-planned meeting with chief of staff Mark
Meadows, an official told CNN.
Two attorneys working for Trump swiftly rejected Barr's assessment on Tuesday, repeating their
claim that they have "ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states," which they say the
attorney general isn't privy to.
"With the greatest respect to the attorney general, his opinion appears to be without any
knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud,"
attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement.
This story has been updated with additional information on Barr's actions.
CNN's Caroline Kelly, Katelyn Polantz and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
15) Phillips T., Agren D. (2020) Brazil and Mexico presidents recognize Biden's victory after
facing criticism
(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/15/mexico-amlo-lopez-obrador-congratulates-
joe-biden)
BRAZIL AND MEXICO PRESIDENTS RECOGNIZE BIDEN'S VICTORY AFTER
FACING CRITICISM
Jair Bolsonaro and Andrés Manuel López Obrador both acknowledged Democrat’s win
after six-week hesitation
Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília, Brazil, on 23 October. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro and David Agren in Mexico City
Tue 15 Dec 2020 21.20 GMT
The populist leaders of Brazil and Mexico have both finally recognized Joe Biden’s election
victory after facing heavy criticism for their six-week hesitation.
“Greetings to President Joe Biden with my best wishes and the hope that the US continues to be
the land of the free and the home of the brave,” the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, a pre-
eminent Donald Trump admirer, tweeted late on Tuesday afternoon. “I will be ready to work
with the new government.”
Earlier Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, sent the US president-elect a
lukewarm two-page letter which contrasted with the enthusiastic seven-page missive he sent
Trump after his own election in 2018.
Advertisement
López Obrador’s decision had left Bolsonaro as the most prominent member of a tiny band of
holdouts still declining to endorse the result.The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, also
congratulated Biden on Tuesday, wishing the president-elect “every success”.
Rubens Ricupero, Brazil’s former ambassador to the US said he believed most Brazilian
diplomats were aghast at Bolsonaro’s delay in recognizing Biden’s win. “It’s a lunatic reaction
that is utterly lacking in any kind of diplomatic logic … Any diplomat with their head screwed
on knows this is madness,” Ricupero said.
Even Brazil’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, had appeared perplexed. Before Bolsonaro’s
announcement on Tuesday, Mourão shrugged when quizzed by journalists over his boss’s
motives, answering: “I don’t know.”
Guga Chacra, a US-based foreign affairs commentator for Brazil’s GloboNews network, said he
believed Bolsonaro was moved by genuine admiration for Trump, who he often cites as an
inspiration.
“He hasn’t not congratulated Biden because he has anything specific against him, but because he
truly idolizes Trump. He admires him and perhaps feels he owes his [2018] victory to Trump.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi and Mohammed bin Salman had all recognized Biden’s
win despite their warm ties with Trump, Chacra pointed out. “But for them Trump was more of
an ally. For Bolsonaro it’s about idolatry. He’s a Trump fan – and he’s not ashamed of it.”
Amlo’s letter thanked Biden for his positive attitudes toward Mexican migrants and his
willingness to promote development in southern Mexico and Central America to slow outward
migration.
But the Mexican president also sent a subtle warning to Biden, writing: “We have the certainty
with you in the [US] presidency it will be possible to continue applying the basic principles of
foreign policy established in our constitution; especially that of non-intervention.”
Amlo had previously defended his refusal to congratulate Biden by arguing it adhered to
Mexico’s policy of non-intervention in foreign affairs. But he also appeared to give credence to
the US president’s unsubstantiated claims of fraud, saying he was waiting for the resolution of
any legal challenges.
“Having read AMLO’s congratulatory letter to Biden, I can only say it would have been better if
he had not congratulated him,” tweeted Gabriel Guerra Castellanos, a former Mexican diplomat.
“If someone from this side of the border doesn’t intervene, we will have four icy years in the US-
Mexico relationship.”
Despite Trump’s discourteous comments toward Mexican during his improbable rise to power,
Amlo and the US president developed an unlikely relationship.
Writing to Trump after his own election in 2018, Amlo presented himself as a fellow populist –
and signed off with abrazos (hugs) as opposed to the more formal un saludo (regards) he
directed at Biden.
“I am encouraged by the fact that we both know how to fulfill what we say and we have faced
adversity successfully,” he told Trump. “We managed to put our voters and citizens at the center
and displace the political establishment.
16) Pilkington E. (2020). Electoral college vote may be knockout blow to Trump's ploy to
subvert election
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/13/us-election-electoral-college-vote-biden-
trump)
ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE MAY BE KNOCKOUT BLOW TO TRUMP'S PLOY
TO SUBVERT ELECTION
Formality to cement outcome of election takes on real political significance as Trump
continues efforts to undermine results
Ed Pilkington
@edpilkington
Mon 14 Dec 2020 10.41 GMT
Donald Trump on Monday could suffer a withering blow to his increasingly hopeless effort to
overturn the results of the US presidential election when 538 members of the electoral college
will cast their ballots and formally send Joe Biden to the White House.
Under the arcane formula which America has followed since the first election in 1789, Monday’s
electoral college vote will mark the official moment when Biden becomes the 46th president-in-
waiting. Electors, including political celebrities such as both Bill and Hillary Clinton, will gather
in state capitols across the country to cement the outcome of this momentous race.
Normally, the process is figurative and barely noted. This year, given Trump’s volatile display of
tilting at windmills in an attempt to negate the will of the American people, it will carry real
political significance.
Trump continued those quixotic efforts over the weekend, sparking political unrest in several
cities including the nation’s capital. On Sunday morning he tweeted in all caps that this was the
“most corrupt election in US history!”.
In an interview with Fox & Friends that aired on Sunday, he insisted that his anti-democratic
mission was not over. “We keep going and we’re going to continue to go forward,” he said,
before repeating a slew of lies about the election having been rigged.
Trump’s barefaced untruths about having won key states including Pennsylvania and Georgia
went entirely unchallenged by the Fox News interviewer, Brian Kilmeade.
Any faltering hopes Trump might still harbor of hanging on to power were shattered on Friday
when the US supreme court bluntly dismissed a lawsuit led by Texas to block Biden’s victory in
four other states. In a different case, a Wisconsin supreme court judge decried Trump’s lawsuit
aiming to nullify the votes of 200,000 Americans, saying it “smacked of racism”.
Despite the categoric rebuff that Trump has suffered in dozens of cases, including before the
nation’s highest court, his unprecedented ploy to tear up democratic norms continues to inflict
untold damage on the country with potential long-term consequences. The Texas-led push to
overturn the election result was backed by 126 Republicans in the House of Representatives –
almost two-thirds of the party’s conference – as well as Republican state attorneys general from
18 states.
Among the wider electorate, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 77% of Republicans
believe – mistakenly – that there was widespread voter fraud in the 3 November election.
Another manifestation of the harm that is being done was the violence that erupted on Saturday
night across several cities. In Washington DC, four people were stabbed and required hospital
treatment, and 23 were arrested, when far-right groups clashed with counter-protesters following
a so-called “Stop the Steal” march enthusiastically endorsed by Trump.
Far-right militia groups mingled among the Trump supporters and engaged in the violence,
including the white nationalist Proud Boys who call themselves “western chauvinists”. Michael
Flynn, the former national security adviser who Trump pardoned for lying to the FBI, addressed
a crowd, exclaiming: “We decide the election. We’re waging a battle across America.”
Violence also broke out in Olympia, the state capital of Washington state. One person was
shot in clashes between heavily armed factions, with Trump supporters and Proud Boys facing
off against counter-protesters, and three people were arrested.
Video footage appeared to show that the shot was fired by a member of the Proud Boys and that
the victim was a counter-protester, although details remained sketchy.
In Georgia, a separate militia group, Georgia Security Force III%, were in attendance at a far-
right rally at the statehouse on Saturday. The armed group has helped to organise recent caravans
that have intimidated local election officials at their homes claiming falsely that Biden’s victory
in Georgia was fraudulent.
Biden’s transition team has watched with growing alarm the spate of violent incidents that has
cropped up around Trump’s spurious claims of a rigged election. Cedric Richmond, a
Democratic representative from Louisiana who Biden has tapped as the incoming director of the
White House Office of Public Engagement, said they were anxious about what lay ahead in the
holiday season.
“We are concerned about violence,” he told Face the Nation on CBS News. “Where there’s
violence it is not protest, that is breaking the law, so we are worried about it.”
Asked about the majority of House Republicans who backed Trump’s frivolous lawsuit to block
election results being certified, Richmond implied their resistance was more theatrical than real.
“They recognize Joe Biden’s victory. This is just a small proportion of the Republican
conference that is appeasing the president on his way out because they are scared of his Twitter”
feed.
The outlier nature of Trump’s stubborn refusal to concede was underlined on Sunday by Al Gore
in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union. Exactly 20 years ago to the day, he conceded the
bitterly-fought 2000 presidential race to George W Bush, saying: “This is America, we put
country before party – we will stand together behind our new president.”
Gore told CNN that he hoped Monday’s electoral college vote would be the beginning of
healing. He called the lawsuit dismissed by the supreme court “ridiculous and unintelligible”, and
castigated those Republicans who continued to stick with Trump in his “lost cause”.
“With the electoral college votes tomorrow in all 50 states, I hope that will be the point at which
some of those who have hung on will give up the ghost,” Gore said. “There are things more
important than bowing to the fear of a demagogue.”
17) Stark L., Cohen E. (2020). All 50 states and DC have now certified their presidential election
results
(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/09/politics/2020-election-results-certified/index.html)
ALL 50 STATES AND DC HAVE NOW CERTIFIED THEIR PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION RESULTS
By Liz Stark and Ethan Cohen, CNN
(CNN)All 50 states and the District of Columbia have now certified their presidential results,
according to CNN's tally, as the Electoral College process moves forward with the meeting of
electors on Monday.
West Virginia became the final state to certify its presidential election results Wednesday,
formally declaring that President Donald Trump is entitled to the state's five electoral votes.
President-elect Joe Biden is projected to win 306 electoral votes, and Trump is projected to win
232. It takes 270 electoral votes of the 538 available to become president.
The states' certifications come as Trump has baselessly claimed that the election was rigged and
sowed doubt about the outcome of the presidential race. Dozens of lawsuits challenging the
results have been dismissed at the state and federal levels across the country since the November
election.
Each state has different processes for certifying results, and some states certified their slate of
presidential electors separately from state and local election results.
The next major step in the Electoral College process is the meeting of the electors, who
are required by law to convene on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December,
which this year is December 14. The electors' votes are later transmitted to officials and counted
in a joint session of Congress on January 6.
Some states have laws that seek to bind their electors to the winning candidate and in some
instances stipulate that so-called "faithless electors" may be subject to penalties or replaced by
another elector. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that such laws punishing members of the
Electoral College for breaking a pledge to vote for the state's popular vote winner are
constitutional.
18) Sullivan K. (2020). Biden hopes to complete Cabinet picks by Christmas

(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/10/politics/biden-new-cabinet-picks/index.html)
BIDEN HOPES TO COMPLETE CABINET PICKS BY CHRISTMAS
By Kate Sullivan and Jeff Zeleny, CNN
Washington (CNN)President-elect Joe Biden's goal is to have his remaining Cabinet selections
announced before Christmas, a transition official told CNN, with no plans of delaying any
decisions until the outcome of the Georgia runoffs determines control of the Senate.
This is contingent on Biden making up his mind and not delaying decisions on his picks, as he
hears criticism and suggestions from outside supporters and advocates.
Several announcements are expected next week. CIA director is expected to be at the beginning
of the week, with others grouped together later.
The timing of an attorney general announcement remains unclear, with sources offering
conflicting indications of when it will happen. A separate source on Thursday insisted Biden has
yet to reach a final decision, but others believe he has. The four finalists are Alabama Sen. Doug
Jones, Merrick Garland, Sally Yates and Deval Patrick, with Jones and Garland seen as the top
two options.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the President-elect announced a slate of new Cabinet nominees and
picks for top roles in his administration, including Denis McDonough for secretary of Veterans
Affairs, Tom Vilsack for Agriculture secretary and Marcia Fudge for secretary of Housing and
Urban Development.
Biden tapped Susan Rice, former national security adviser during the Obama administration, as
his director of the Domestic Policy Council. The President-elect also announced Katherine Tai,
who oversaw trade enforcement for China during the Obama administration, as his nominee for
United States Trade Representative. All of Biden's picks announced Thursday except Rice will
require confirmation by the United States Senate to serve in their roles.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are expected to introduce these key administration
members at an event on Friday in Wilmington, Delaware, the transition team said. CNN had
previously reported all of these administration picks.
The picks reflect how Biden is turning to longtime advisers and experts in their respective
fields for top posts in his administration. Many have close ties with Biden, and developed
relationships with the President-elect while working in the Obama administration.
"This dedicated and distinguished group of public servants will bring the highest level of
experience, compassion, and integrity to bear, solving problems and expanding possibilities for
the American people in the face of steep challenges," Biden said in a statement.
The President-elect continued, "The roles they will take on are where the rubber meets the road
— where competent and crisis-tested governance can make a meaningful difference in people's
lives, enhancing the dignity, equity, security, and prosperity of the day-to-day lives of
Americans. This is the right team for this moment in history, and I know that each of these
leaders will hit the ground running on day one to take on the interconnected crises families are
facing today."
Vilsack served as agriculture secretary for the entirety of President Barack Obama's time in the
White House. He was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate in January 2009 and served in
that post until he stepped down in 2017, shortly before President Donald Trump took office.
Vilsack is also the former governor of Iowa -- in 1998, Vilsak became the first Democrat elected
governor of Iowa in more than 30 years. He served as governor from 1999 to 2007.
McDonough was a longtime chief of staff to former President Barack Obama. He served as chief
of staff during Obama's entire second term and also worked as deputy national security adviser.
McDonough developed a close relationship with Biden while serving in both positions. He also
chaired the National Security Council's Deputies Committee, which is responsible for
formulating the administration's national security and foreign policy.
Fudge has represented Ohio's 11th Congressional District since 2008. She serves on a number of
committees, and previously chaired the Congressional Black Caucus. Prior to running for
Congress, Fudge made history as the first woman and first African American to be elected mayor
of Warrensville Heights, Ohio.
Rice was thought to be a contender to be Biden's vice president or secretary of state. First
Obama's UN ambassador and then later his national security adviser, Rice has a long and close
relationship with Biden and has deep foreign policy experience. She also served in Clinton's
administration as the special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs at
the White House, the assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs at the State
Department and the director of international organizations and peacekeeping at the National
Security Council.
Tai is seen as an expert on China trade policy, and if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first
woman of color to serve as USTR. She is currently the top Democratic trade counsel for the
House Ways and Means Committee. Tai played a key role in negotiating trade policy for
Democrats in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which came under Trump's
administration and replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.
19) Walters J. (2020). Biden nears record 80m votes as Trump persists in trying to overturn
result
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/19/biden-latest-votes-record-amid-trump-legal-
challenges)
BIDEN NEARS RECORD 80M VOTES AS TRUMP PERSISTS IN TRYING TO
OVERTURN RESULT
Rising Biden tally and his popular vote lead overshadowed by Trump escalating his false
insistence that he actually won
Joanna Walters in New York and agency
@Joannawalters13
Thu 19 Nov 2020 18.40 GMT
Joe Biden is approaching a record 80m votes, with ballots still being counted and having already
recorded the highest number of votes for a US presidential election winner, as Donald
Trump persisted on Thursday in denying the result and trying to overturn it.
In a gigantic turnout of the US electorate, Trump has now got a record number of votes for a
losing candidate.
With more than 155m votes counted and California and New York – Democratic bastions – still
counting, turnout stood on Thursday at 65% of all eligible voters, the highest since 1908,
according to data from the Associated Press and the US Elections Project.
The rising Biden tally and his popular vote lead – nearly 6 million votes – has been
overshadowed by Trump escalating his false insistence that he actually won the 3 November
election and his campaign and supporters now intensifying efforts to stop or delay results
being certified by state officials.
“It’s just a lot of noise going on, because Donald Trump is a bull who carries his own china shop
with him,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “Once the noise
recedes, it’s going to be clear that Biden won a very convincing victory.”
Indeed, some experts are saying that the way the lame duck president is digging in on his false
claims of victory and an election stolen from him by widespread fraud, as all the while his legal
challenges fall one by one is actually serving to entrench his failure.
“Each [legal] loss further cements Biden’s win,” said election law expert Richard Hasen, Axios
reported on Thursday.
But Trump’s last ditch could also be dangerous.
“History shows that any leader who constructs a major myth, that is later shown to be false, will
eventually fall,” Harvard science historian and Merchants of Doubt author Naomi Oreskes
further told Axios.
She added: “The risk is that he takes his country down with him.”
Trump has made up to 30 legal challenges so far and by Thursday morning, more than two weeks
after the polls closed for in-person voting and the bulk of mail-in ballots were received, 19 of
those lawsuits had been denied, dismissed, settled or withdrawn, NBC reported.
He is fighting the result in various ways in Pennsylvania, which tipped the election to Biden
when it was declared for the Democrat on 7 November and he passed the crucial 270-electoral
college vote mark, also in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.
Biden currently has an electoral college lead of 290-232. But that does not include electors from
Georgia, where Biden leads Trump by 0.3 percentage points as officials conduct a hand tally
which concluded on Wednesday night with every expectation that Biden would be confirmed the
winner on Thursday.
The Associated Press, the news agency whose projections of winners in each state are followed
by the Guardian, had not called the race in Georgia on Thursday morning, even though CNN has
already called it for Biden.
If Biden’s lead holds he will win the electoral college that determines the victor for the White
House with 306 votes to 232 for Trump – the identical margin Trump won in 2016 over Hillary
Clinton, which he then described as a “landslide”.
On Thursday, Trump mounted an all-out assault on the election result in Michigan, reportedly
planning to fly state lawmakers to meet with him in Washington and phoning county officials in
an apparent attempt to derail the certification of Biden’s 150,000-vote victory in the state.
Some analysts believe the noise and confusion being generated by Trump is an end in itself,
and sowing chaos is the goal rather than a real attempt to overturn an election Trump – and
increasingly those around him – must know he has lost.
“This is all about maintaining his ego and visibility,” said Judd Gregg, the former Republican
governor and US senator from New Hampshire.
He added: “He’s raising a lot of money and he intends to use it.”
The scenario of confusion and doubt is exactly what Trump spent much of 2020 laying the
groundwork for, particularly with his unfounded claims that mail-in ballots would be subject to
systemic fraud. That wasn’t true before 2020 or in this election.
“His response should surprise no one. He foreshadowed it well before the election and it
continues his pattern of declaring victory, regardless of the actual facts,” said Tim Pawlenty, the
former Republican governor of Minnesota.
20) Zeleny J., Merica D., Vogue A. (2020). Biden’s search for an attorney general complicated
by ‘competing questions’
(https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/16/politics/biden-attorney-general/index.html)
BIDEN’S SEARCH FOR AN ATTORNEY GENERAL COMPLICATED BY
‘COMPETING QUESTIONS’
By Jeff Zeleny, Dan Merica and Ariane de Vogue, CNN
Washington (CNN)The deliberations among President-elect Joe Biden's tight circle of advisers
about whom he should nominate as attorney general have emerged as some of the more
complicated of the transition, sources familiar with the process tell CNN, with possible
investigations into President Donald Trump, a federal probe into Hunter Biden's business
dealings and pressure from powerful outside groups hanging over the process.
The discussions inside the transition team are down to a series of front-runners, people familiar
with the search tell CNN, with Judge Merrick Garland and Alabama's Sen. Doug Jones seen as
the two most likely choices. A final decision is not expected until next week.
In Garland, Biden's team sees someone who is unimpeachable and politically independent at a
time when rebuilding trust in the Department of Justice will be critical and a number of thorny
political issues could cross the attorney general's desk. Jones, on the other hand, has a strong civil
rights background and is seen as far closer to Biden, although that relationship could raise
questions about his ability to impartially oversee a department that is actively investigating the
incoming president's son.
"Those are the competing questions," a person following the transition closely tells CNN.
"Someone perceived as above reproach or someone closer to Biden."
Sources told CNN that while Garland and Jones are currently seen as the leading contenders, it's
always possible that Biden will take a second look at former acting Attorney General Sally Yates
or former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
None of Biden's earlier Cabinet picks were made in a vacuum and all have been subject to both
internal and external pressures. But the choice of attorney general has been more fraught,
underscoring the tug of war that has come alive inside the Democratic Party, with civil rights
groups and progressives working hard to influence Biden's decision.
Because many of the people being considered for attorney general are White, sources said there
is a desire inside Biden's orbit to roll out selections for other top Justice Department jobs,
including possibly deputy attorney general and the head of the department's civil rights division.
While many Cabinet picks have been longtime advisers and loyalists to Biden, people familiar
with the matter say the choice of attorney general is being viewed in a different light, in part
because of the newly announced federal probe into Hunter Biden's business dealings in China,
which was launched before the election but did not become public until earlier this month.
Even before the federal probe was announced, the President-elect and chief of staff Ron Klain
were said to be looking for someone who appeared above political reproach when making
decisions about Trump-era investigations in the Department of Justice under the Biden
administration.
Garland is see as someone who would lead the department without political influence, but he
does little to excite liberals and would open up a seat on a key court.
"Harry Reid went nuclear in 2013 to enable Obama to fill seats on the DC Circuit Court of
Appeals, widely seen as the 2nd highest court in the land," tweeted Brian Fallon, the executive
director of the liberal advocacy group Demand Justice, who previously worked at the Department
of Justice. "Opening up Garland's seat on that same court, when there are plenty of other
perfectly good AG picks, would be most unfortunate."
Jones is far closer to Biden and has a strong civil rights record from his prosecution of Ku Klux
Klan members in Alabama but is inherently more political, given he is finishing his term as a
Democratic senator.
And his relationship with Biden, while a selling point for the President-elect, could be used by
Republicans to question his impartially.
Jones declined to discuss Biden's attorney general selection or the conversations he's had about
the job while walking to Senate votes on Wednesday. Asked about the calls for a special counsel
on the Hunter Biden investigation, Jones said, "I don't think that would be appropriate for me to
comment."
Jim Cole, a former deputy attorney general, said knowledge of politics is "not always a complete
disqualifier or a bad thing."
"One of the things the attorney general has to deal with is politics," Cole said. "You are going to
have to deal with politics one way or another. It is not that you are going to be guided by politics,
but you need to understand them."
A focus on someone who is impartial is partly borne out of Democratic reaction to Trump, who
regularly leaned on the Justice Department both publicly and privately to advance some of his
political goals.
"I'm not going to be telling them what they have to do and don't have to do," Biden said of his
attorney general pick in an interview with CNN. "I'm not going to be saying, 'Go prosecute A, B
or C' -- I'm not going to be telling them. That's not the role. It's not my Justice Department, it's
the people's Justice Department."
And at an event over the summer, Biden said the attorney general is "not the president's private
lawyer."
"I will not interfere with the Justice Department's judgment of whether or not they think they
should pursue the prosecution of anyone that they think has violated the law," he said.
Garland does not have a particularly close relationship with Biden, but the argument being made
on his behalf includes that he is a universally respected jurist whose previous tenure at the
Department of Justice reflects that he knows the department well and would be able to navigate
the need to remain independent from the White House on prosecution matters and align with it
on important policy agenda items.
Jones, however, has a far stronger background on civil rights. He previously worked as the US
attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and was the lead prosecutor suing KKK members
responsible for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
Several civil rights leaders have implored Biden to select a person of color to lead the Justice
Department, given the forceful calls for racial justice after a remarkable year of protests and
police brutality.
"We are in an era of heightened alert in the areas of race and criminal justice," the Rev. Al
Sharpton, who leads the National Action Network, told CNN earlier this month. "And anything
that does not recognize that means that people who voted for him, feeling he would deal with this
issue, will feel a sense of betrayal."
Sharpton has said, however, that he is comfortable with Jones because of the senator's record on
civil rights.
For weeks, a small group of advisers on Biden's transition team has been poring over Garland's
rulings and statements. He was closely vetted four years ago as a Supreme Court nominee in the
Obama administration -- a nomination that was never taken up by Republicans in the Senate --
but the cases are being reviewed again to avoid any surprises in today's more fractured
Democratic Party.
Progressive groups bemoaned Garland's centrist reputation in 2016, with many still blaming
former President Barack Obama for choosing a nominee seen as more palatable to Republicans
than some Democrats. Now the Biden transition team is beginning to work to try to answer
progressive leaders' concerns about Garland -- should Biden choose him.
"Millions of people did not protest for racial justice this summer for the next attorney general to
have opinions on criminal justice reform to the right of the average Democrat," said Waleed
Shahid, spokesman for the liberal Justice Democrats.
The decision on an attorney general was always expected to be one of the last Cabinet picks
Biden made, given the critical importance in the post-Trump era and his long tenure on the
Senate Judiciary Committee. But as the Biden transition has been stung by a series of leaks
around other Cabinet picks, the conversations around those selections have gotten smaller and
smaller, a source said. The hope is that Biden will be able to announce the name before
Christmas.
CNN's Nicquel Terry Ellis, Sarah Mucha and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.

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APPENDIX

Selected articles about US Presidential Election on CNN.com and The Guardian

Justice department found no evidence of significant fraud

Lauren Aratani and agencies

Thu 3 Dec 2020 01.00 GMT

President-elect Biden, a veteran Democrat, won the presidential election with 306 electoral

Martin Farrer and agencies

Thu 26 Nov 2020 23.16 GMT

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

Sun 13 Dec 2020 05.53 GMT

First published on Sun 13 Dec 2020 01.18 GMT

Far-right Trump supporters clash with counter-protesters in Washington – video

Rival groups clash in Washington. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tue 15 Dec 2020 03.32 GMT

5) Gambino L. (2020). William Barr steps down as Trump's attorney general

Lauren Gambino in Washington

Texas denied for lack of standing

Another big loss for Trump

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in Atlanta on 7 December. Photograph: Erik S

Sam Levine in New York and agencies

Wed 9 Dec 2020 00.04 GMT

Reuters contributed to this report

Chris Krebs on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on 14 May 2019. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

“It was upsetting,” Krebs told CBS.

Trump tweeted in response, part of a stream of Sunday night messages.

Polling, however, shows a majority of Republicans believe the president. Krebs defended state

“I want everybody to look at Secretary [Kathy] Boockvar in Pennsylvania, Secretary [Jocelyn]

Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília, Brazil, on 23 October. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters

18) Sullivan K. (2020). Biden hopes to complete Cabinet picks by Christmas

Joanna Walters in New York and agency

But Trump’s last ditch could also be dangerous.

He added: “He’s raising a lot of money and he intends to use it.”

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