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- President-elect Joe Biden will deliver a speech on the Affordable Care Act Tuesday as the conservative-majority Supreme Court hears a challenge to the legislation.
- President Donald Trump, who has not relented, reportedly ordered agencies to block the transition to the Biden administration for now, again in defiance of electoral rules.
- Biden’s team has threatened legal action if the government agency that can unlock the transition funds and access to the office continues to fail to acknowledge his victory.
- There are 71 days left until Trump’s term ends on January 20 and 34 days until the Electoral College officially votes for the president based on state results.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s ongoing coverage of the US elections. This is Joseph Stepansky.
Trump Pressured Georgia Senate Candidates to Discredit Election Official: Report
Trump and his top allies pressured Georgia Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to call for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, despite no evidence of wrongdoing, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The president and his allies threatened to make negative public statements against the senators, who are both running in January’s special elections, if they did not comply. Those remarks could threaten grassroots support for Trump in what are expected to be close races.
The Republican candidates, in a statement Monday, said Raffensperger “has failed the people of Georgia and that he should resign immediately.” Local Republican officials, including state governor Brian Kemp, have also criticized Raffesnsperger, even though there is no evidence of widespread fraud or voting irregularities in the state.
Biden is currently leading Trump by a narrow margin in Georgia, which will almost certainly be heading for a recount. Such counts rarely change the overall results.
Senator Kelly Loeffler and Senator David Perdue were reportedly pressured by Trump to call for the resignation of the Georgia secretary of state. [Evan Vucci/The Associated Press]Money Donated To Trump’s Legal Challenge Fund Now Goes To His PAC: Report
The Trump campaign has been urging supporters to donate to a fund to support its various long-term legal challenges for results in several key states.
The campaign has been sending out emails urging supporters to donate to “defend” the integrity of the election and continue to push for unsubstantiated accusations of widespread fraud. However, those emails initially contained fine print saying that 60 percent would go to pay off debts the campaign had accumulated.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported, that fine print changed to say that 60 percent of donations would go to the Save America political action committee, which Trump’s campaign treasurer recorded on Monday. The PAC can pay for Trump’s travel, polls and political equipment beyond his departure, according to the newspaper. It can also be used to support other candidates.
British Prime Minister Johnson says he has spoken to Biden
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a tweet Tuesday that he had spoken with Biden.
Johnson had congratulated Biden shortly after the election was called on Saturday. It’s the first time Johnson has been known to speak to Biden since he became president-elect.
Johnson said he looked forward to working on “shared priorities, from addressing climate change to promoting democracy and building back better after the pandemic.”
I just talked with @Joe Biden to congratulate you on your choice. I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our countries and working with him on our shared priorities, from addressing climate change to promoting democracy and building back better after the pandemic.
– Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 10, 2020
Only 180 votes in question in Trump’s Arizona election challenge: Report
The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in Arizona’s Maricopa County last week alleging poll workers ignored procedures designed to give voters a chance to correct ballot errors.
The lawsuit specifically targets “excessive votes,” or instances where voters mark more candidate options than are allowed. Voters can correct their ballots or send them as is. The lawsuit alleges that voters who chose the latter option were denied a subsequent manual inspection of their ballots to which they are entitled.
However, a county attorney said Monday that of 155,860 votes cast, only 180 were identified as “potential overvotes,” a negligible number that is highly unlikely to change the outcome in the state, the Arizona Republic reported.
The attorney added that it was also unclear how many of those ballots were incorrectly tabulated, but that it was highly unlikely that all of those in need of correction favored Republicans.
Republican challenge to Maricopa County elections involves fewer than 200 ballots, lawyers say https://t.co/FCTzQw9B9a
– azcentral (@azcentral) November 10, 2020
Trump Plans Political Action Committee: Report
Trump plans to launch a leadership political action committee (PAC) that will raise funds for federal elections and help him maintain his influence in the Republican party after he leaves office, officials told the New York Times.
The newspaper reported that Trump is expected to make an announcement later this week. The PAC leadership could only accept donations of $ 5,000 per individual, but can accept those donations from an unlimited number of people and other political action networks, the Times reported.
The Trump campaign spokesman told the newspaper that Trump “had always planned to do this, win or lose … so that he could support the candidates and the issues that concern him, such as fighting voter fraud.”
Erdogan of Turkey congratulates Biden after days of silence
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory in the 2020 presidential election, a day after saying he would wait to comment until the result is finalized.
In his message, Erdogan reiterated Ankara’s “determination to work closely with the US Administration” in the coming period, adding that “strong cooperation and alliance” between the two countries will continue to contribute to world peace.
Read more about what Biden’s victory means for Turkey here.
The Supreme Court begins to hear the challenge to Obamacare
The conservative-majority Supreme Court has begun to hear arguments in a challenge from Republican-ruled states backed by President Donald Trump’s administration to invalidate a critical component of the so-called “Obamacare” healthcare law.
President-elect Biden has criticized Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the law is formally known, amid the coronavirus pandemic and hopes to tighten the legislation after taking office on January 20. .
In 2018, Texas-based U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the legislation was unconstitutional as currently structured in light of a Republican-backed change made by Congress in 2017. Appeals partially upheld that ruling, saying that the law’s “individual mandate”, which required individuals to obtain insurance or pay a financial penalty, contravened the Constitution. The ruling failed to repeal the law.
The case represents the latest Republican legal attack on the 2010 law, which was the signature domestic politics achievement of former President Barack Obama, under which Biden served as vice president. The Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 ruled against previous Republican challenges.
Read more about the stakes here.
Justice Department’s top attorney resigns after Barr’s directive
A prominent Justice Department attorney has resigned in protest after Attorney General William Barr gave a directive to prosecutors to “pursue substantial allegations” of voting and counting irregularities, which critics say fuels the flames of Trump’s unfounded claims so far. of widespread fraud.
Barr told prosecutors in a letter Monday that “fanciful or outlandish claims” should not be a basis for investigation. His letter did not indicate that the Department of Justice had discovered voting irregularities that affected the outcome of the elections.
The directive prompted Richard Pilger, who for years has served as director of the Electoral Crimes Section, to resign, citing “the new policy and its ramifications” in an internal email.
Previous Justice Department policy, designed to avoid intervening the federal government in election campaigns, had discouraged open investigations “until the election in question has concluded, its results certified, and all electoral counts and contests are concluded.”
White House Instructs Agencies to Block Biden’s Transition: Report
The White House has instructed government agency officials to block cooperation with Biden’s transition team, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
News organizations called for Biden’s election on Saturday, but Trump has refused to budge. The General Services Administration, which may give Biden’s team access to transition funds and office space, has so far failed to acknowledge Biden’s victory as the Trump campaign throws a number of long-term legal challenges to the state vote counts.
Government officials told The Washington Post they were ordered by the White House on Monday not to cooperate with Biden’s team until the government made the election results official.
In the US, it is the norm for the media to declare a winner in elections after it is clear that a candidate no longer has a path to victory. The winner is not officially decided until the electors of each state, who in most cases agree to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, vote on December 14 and those votes are approved by Congress on December 6. from January.
It is common for the GSA to recognize a candidate after they are projected as a winner and for the outgoing administration to coordinate with the incoming administration in the months leading up to the January 20 inauguration.
Read all the updates from yesterday (November 9) here.
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