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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – US President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday (November 10) that nothing would stop the transfer of power in the US government, while President Donald Trump filed lawsuits in various states in a risky attempt to cling to power.
The Trump campaign said it would file a lawsuit to prevent Michigan from officially certifying Biden as the winner there until the state could verify that the votes were legally cast, the latest in a series of lawsuits across the battlefield states to deal with. to back Trump’s lack of support. claims of widespread fraud.
Legal experts have said that Trump’s litigation has little chance of changing the outcome, and state officials have said there were no significant irregularities in the Nov.3 election.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters faced a possible setback in Pennsylvania. A witness who had filed ballot tampering allegations retracted his allegations, according to Democrats in Congress who were briefed on the investigation.
Trump’s fraud allegations did not appear to be gaining traction among the public. Nearly 80 percent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognize Biden as the winner, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll.
Top Republicans in Congress, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said Trump had a right to challenge Biden’s victory, and others echoed the president’s baseless accusations of widespread fraud.
Privately, some attendees said Trump would soon have to present credible evidence to retain their support. Biden garnered more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take the presidency by winning Pennsylvania on Saturday after four tense days of counting, which was delayed by an increase in mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden said in a speech in Delaware that his team was moving forward in forming a new administration to take over on Inauguration Day, Jan.20, 2021, come what may.
“We are going to keep moving forward, moving forward, consistently, putting together our administration, the White House, and reviewing who we will elect to Cabinet positions, and nothing is going to stop that,” he said. on Tuesday.
Biden said it was a “shame” that Trump did not grant the election.
Responding to media inquiries for the first time since his victory, Biden was asked what he would say if Trump were watching. He said, “Mr. President, I look forward to speaking with you.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted a “second Trump administration,” in remarks contrary to congratulatory phone calls from the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany and Ireland to Mr Biden.
Trump installed loyalists to the highest posts in the Pentagon, a day after firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper, potentially making it easier to use American troops to respond to internal protests.
Biden’s transition team has not been able to move into federal government office space or leverage funds to hire staff because a Trump appointee who heads the federal office charged with recognizing election results has not yet done so.
“The entire Republican Party has been put in a position with some notable exceptions of being mildly intimidated by the incumbent president,” said Biden, who chuckled when asked about Pompeo’s comments.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a conservative whose stormy style is often compared to Trump’s, said he spoke with Biden on Tuesday by phone about working together on priorities like climate change, promoting democracy and recovering from the pandemic. .
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan also congratulated Biden, a former vice president now heading to take over the White House after nearly five decades in politics.
‘THEATER’
Justices have thrown out election lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia started by the Trump campaign.
The Trump campaign and Republicans have sued primarily over claims of procedural problems with the vote count and have presented no evidence of fraud in their lawsuits.
Bob Bauer, a senior advisor to Biden, dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday as “theater, not really lawsuits.”
He said recounts across the state since 2000 had resulted in an average of 430 votes changed, which is not enough to change the result in the states where Biden won this year.
The Jones Day law firm, which has served as an outside adviser to Trump’s campaign, said it no longer works with the campaign or others who challenge the election results. The campaign sued in federal court on Monday to prevent officials in Pennsylvania, one of the hardest-hit states in a deeply divided nation, from certifying results there.
Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania urged an audit of the election results. “We just got a lot of allegations,” State Rep. Dawn Keefer told reporters. Some of those allegations are based on a whistleblower report from a US Postal Service worker who claimed that illegal, older postmarks may have been added to some late mail ballots.
However, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the worker had retracted his accusations, according to the Postal Service’s internal watchdog. That office declined to comment. Democrats voted more by mail than Republicans in much of the country after Trump repeatedly and without evidence called voting by mail unreliable.
Attorney General William Barr, Trump’s appointee who heads the Justice Department, told federal prosecutors Monday to pursue “substantial” allegations of election wrongdoing, in a break with previous policy.
Barr told prosecutors they should not pursue “fanciful or implausible claims.” The Justice Department’s top election official, Richard Pilger, resigned in protest.
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