US Elections: Donald Trump vows to avoid Covid lockdown, but does not budge on his first comments since defeat

Donald Trump says there will be no blockade on the United States as long as his administration remains in the White House.

Trump gave his first public address since losing the U.S. election to Joe Biden six days ago and refused to budge.

“This administration will not go into a lockdown. The lockdown cost lives and many problems,” he said.

Trump gave a detailed update on Operation Warp Speed, the US policy to create a vaccine for Covid-19, proceeded in “record time.”

“No medical advance of this scope or magnitude has ever been made so fast,” he said.

Covid-19 cases in the US have exceeded 10 million, with 163,000 new infections yesterday.

More than 243,000 people have died from the virus in the United States.

Operation Warp Speed ​​is unrivaled anywhere in the world, he said.

Trump said he had been congratulated by leaders around the world.

“It has been an incredible effort,” he said.

Trump said Pfizer announced Monday that its vaccine was 90 percent effective.

The White House has given Pfizer about $ 2 billion for the vaccine and it would provide doses to Americans “free of charge.”

Pfizer made “an unfortunate misinterpretation,” Trump said, when the company said that the development of the vaccine was not part of Operation Warp Speed.

Pfizer did not accept federal funding to help develop or manufacture the vaccine, unlike pioneers Moderna and AstraZeneca, the New York Times reported.

Pfizer has distanced itself from Trump and Operation Warp Speed.

In an interview with the New York Times, Kathrin Jansen, Senior Vice President and Head of Vaccine Research and Development at Pfizer, said: “We are never part of Warp Speed,” adding: “We have never received money from the United States government. United, or anyone else. “

Clearance for the vaccine would come “very soon,” Trump said.

“It will be approved very, very quickly, we hope,” he said.

Vaccine development was “five times faster” than the fastest vaccine development in history.

“Five times faster, say it again,” Trump said.

The elderly, frontline workers and the vulnerable would have access first.

Trump said he would be ahead of his own schedule.

Trump said the case levels were high, but that was because the United States had high levels of evidence.

The vaccine would help the elderly to regain their “golden years.”

Trump said in April that the vaccine would be available to the general public, except in New York state.

“This is an amazing and very successful vaccine,” he said.

Trump claimed that the United States had one of the lowest death rates from Covid-19 in the world and claimed that the United States had performed better than “peer countries,” without listing any.

Trump also said that the cocktail of drugs he took as a Covid-19 patient would be available to other patients.

“We have some tremendously promising drugs,” he said.

Trump claimed that there was not a single person in the United States who had requested a respirator and did not get it.

Despite being away from the cameras, Trump has been busy tweeting unfounded theories about election fraud.

This morning, the American news networks summoned the last group of states, completing the results of the elections in the country.

The states of Arizona and Georgia have been called up by Biden, cementing his victory. Trump is the projected winner in North Carolina.

Trump’s campaign team is still taking legal action to challenge the results, but experts say none of the cases are expected to alter the results.

In his current form, Biden won the US election with 306 electoral votes, the same number of electoral votes that gave Trump the victory four years ago.

What Trump would have to do to overturn Biden’s victory

So now that we have the final result, let’s get a little theoretical.

Joe Biden has won 306 electoral votes. What would Donald Trump have to do, hypothetically, to reverse the result?

The path of least resistance here (I’m using that term loosely) would be for the president’s legal team to change in some way:

1. Georgia (where Mr. Biden has won 14,000 votes)

2. Pennsylvania (Mr. Biden has increased by 59,000)

3. Arizona (Mr. Biden has increased by 11,000)

Those three would.

Trump has also been talking about Wisconsin (where Biden leads by 20,000) and Michigan (where he leads by 148,000). There will be a recount in Wisconsin, although it would be highly unusual for that to change more than a few hundred votes.

The most fundamental point here has not changed: Trump and his attorneys have yet to present evidence to support their claims of widespread fraud. None of the lawsuits they have filed so far would threaten Biden’s margin in just one of the states listed above.

Put aside the fact that many of those lawsuits have been quickly dismissed by judges for lack of evidence. They just don’t involve enough votes to change the election outcome anyway.

– With news.com.au