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Good Morning. The Trump campaign has abandoned a central claim in its legal challenge to the Pennsylvania election result, which was a key part of Joe Biden’s victory. In the run-up to a hearing Tuesday, the president’s legal team withdrew its claim that more than 680,000 absentee ballots were illegally processed without campaign representatives being present. However, the campaign team still hopes to prevent Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral college votes, from confirming a victory for Biden.
Despite going ahead with the demands, the president tweeted on Sunday that Joe Biden “won” the election, but insisted it was only because the vote was “rigged” and in a follow-up he declared “I grant NOTHING. Nesrine Malik maintains that while Trump’s post-election behavior has at times seemed a sham, his refusal to concede is no laughing matter and sets a dangerous precedent for future elections.
The careless incoherence and chaos of Trump and his administration makes it hard for some to believe that they are capable of pulling off something as organized as a coup. But if enough Republican lawmakers and enough Republican voters can be activated to make this happen, Trump himself needs to do very little.
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Five ways American democracy is failing: The election exposed deep flaws in the country’s democratic system. Ed Pilkington explores five problems with American democracy, from the electoral college system to the appointment of judges.
Soaring Covid cases are cornering Trump
Democrats, high-ranking Republicans and health experts are urging Trump to allow a transition of power to begin, amid an alarming increase in coronavirus transmission in which the United States reached 11 million confirmed cases Sunday night. The last million cases were registered in less than a week.
While Biden’s transition team is expected to meet with Pfizer, the company behind a 90% effective coronavirus vaccine, Trump’s refusal to compromise is hampering preparations for a vaccine and preventing the team from de Biden meet with U.S. government health officials.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases official and a member of the task force, joined the calls for a smooth transition from power this weekend. Fauci also revealed that Trump had not attended any meeting of the coronavirus task force “for several months.”
How Georgia’s second round of Senate is ‘decisive for America’s future’
In January, control of the Senate will rest on the shoulders of two Democratic candidates in Georgia. If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock can beat their current Republican opponents, they will give Kamala Harris a tiebreaker vote for vice president in a 50-50 house divided. Although precarious, this would dramatically improve Joe Biden’s chances of implementing his legislative agenda. In separate interviews on Sunday, both men said the contests were critical to America’s future. Ossof said:
Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake, millions of jobs, homes and livelihoods are at stake.
In other news …
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Biden has been urged to join a global treaty on plastic pollution to “correct the mistakes of the Trump era.” More than two-thirds of UN member states have announced that they are open to a new deal to tackle plastic pollution, but the two largest producers of waste per capita, the US and the UK, have yet to join.
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Trump is reportedly considering buying Newsmax, the right-wing news outlet that has still refused to call Biden’s election and subsequently won the president’s support. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s allies have considered turning the outlet into a competitor to Fox News, which Trump has clashed with in recent days over his refusal to endorse his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
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Election protesters were arrested in Washington over the weekend, during clashes between Trump supporters and counter-protesters over who is the rightful winner of the election. A stabbing was reported and two policemen were injured.
View from the right
By focusing on Trump and his refusal to concede the election, Republicans are squandering the victories they can get from the presidential race, Dan Hannan argues in the Washington Examiner today. The Republican Party made headway in the House, is ready for the Senate, and garnered greater and more diverse support than in 2016, but Trump’s behavior threatens to undermine all of this.
At best, his refusal to accept the outcome of the presidential election seems petty and graceless and risks what should be two comfortable Senate victories in Georgia. At worst, it undermines the legitimacy of American institutions.
Don’t miss this
A record number of young voters turned out in the elections and mobilized voters in key states, helping Biden to victory. Now, they want the president-elect to return the favor by tackling the climate crisis head-on, and they are willing to hold him to account.
Last thing: Obama says ‘Michelle would leave me’ to take a Cabinet role
Former President Barack Obama has ruled out a cabinet position for Joe Biden, saying that if he did so, “Michelle would leave me.” Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning, Obama detailed the impact his political career had on his wife, saying she passed up exciting opportunities to make sure she could be close to the couple’s two daughters. “With my choice, she was forced to leave a real impact job for a position [as first lady] that, in its original design, at least, was too small for its gifts, ”he said.
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