Joe Biden urged Americans to put aside their political differences as he called for unity in his Thanksgiving address to the nation.
'We need to remember, we are at war with the virus, not one another,' said the president-elect. 'Our democracy was tested this year, and what we learned was this: the people of this nation were up to the task.'
Continue reading...President-elect urges shared sacrifice amid hardship of restricted holiday, and says: ‘We’re at war with the virus, not each other’
In an eve-of-Thanksgiving address on Wednesday, Joe Biden drew on historic hardships and his deep personal loss to make a passionate appeal for resilience, asking Americans to endure a national holiday amid restrictions on travel and gatherings imposed to fight the pandemic.
Related: Trump pardons former national security adviser Michael Flynn
Continue reading...Hassan Rouhani tells Tehran cabinet he hopes US will ‘condemn Trump policies against Iran’ and lift sanctions
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said on Wednesday it would be easy to solve the country’s problems with the US so long as Joe Biden stuck to the commitments he made on the campaign trail.
Rouhani’s optimistic remarks to a weekly cabinet contrasted with a speech the day before by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which sketched out a more difficult path to normalisation and the lifting of sanctions.
Continue reading...
Brian Slodysko and Richard Larner at the Associated Press have this morning written up the nuts and bolts of an issue that looks like it will dog Sen. David Perdue in the build-up to January’s critical Georgia Senate run-off races.
They remind us that back in March as the coronavirus pandemic impacted the economy the crisis signalled something else for him: a stock buying opportunity.
Here’s a (very) little more detail on what we might expect from the Trump legal team and local lawmakers in Gettysburg today.
It’s still not officially confirmed that Trump is going – asked for comment about his plans, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN, “I’d refer you to the public schedule. I have no additional updates at this time.”
State and local election officials have said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and both a federal court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have dismissed lawsuits seeking to prevent the state from certifying the results of the election. Pennsylvania officially certified the results on Tuesday, sealing Biden’s win in the key battleground state.
The meeting is being organized by the Pennsylvania state Senate GOP, which is holding it at a hotel – not at the state Capitol.
Continue reading...
That’s all for today!
Here’s a recap:
Barack Obama said part of the reason 73 million Americans voted to re-elect Donald Trump in the election was because of messaging from Republicans that the country, particularly white men, are under attack.
In an interview with the radio show the Breakfast Club on Wednesday to promote his new memoir A Promised Land, Obama said Trump’s administration, which he did not name directly, “objectively has failed, miserably, in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe”, and yet he still secured millions of votes.
Related: Obama: Republicans portraying white men as 'victims' helped Trump win votes
Continue reading...President-elect Joe Biden says his presidency would not be 'a third Obama term' after announcing a slew of cabinet nominees that included many former Obama administration staffers. In his first sit-down interview since the election, Biden said the appointments reflected the spectrum of the American people and the Democratic party. 'This is not a third Obama term. We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,' he told NBC's Lester Holt, adding that Donald Trump's 'America first' approach meant 'America alone'. He also said he would consider appointing a Republican in upcoming appointments.
Continue reading...The president pulled every lever to stay in power. It didn’t work, but how would the US handle a closer election?
In the end, the coup did not take place. In the most grudging manner possible, Donald Trump signalled on Monday night that the transition of power could begin.
That, a White House official told reporters, was as close as Trump will probably ever come to concession, but the machinery of transition has gathered momentum. Joe Biden’s incoming administration now has a government internet domain, is being briefed by government agencies and is due to receive federal funding.
Continue reading...US President-elect Joe Biden says he would like to avoid a guarded border between the UK and Ireland as Brexit negotiations continue. Speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said "We do not want a guarded border. We want to make sure – we’ve worked too long to get Ireland worked out, and I talked with the British prime minister, I talked with the Taoiseach, I talked with others, I talked to the French. The idea of having a border north and south once again being closed is just not right, we’ve just got to keep the border open."
Continue reading...
Minnesota has certified Joe Biden’s win in the state in the presidential election, following Pennsylvania and Nevada earlier today.
Minnesota was part of the smashed up so-called Blue Wall that fell to Donald Trump in 2016, as he won Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Minnesota Canvassing Board certifies result of the 2020 election, will be digitally signed after meeting:
Joe Biden won presidential race in state
Tina Smith won re-election to Senate
U.S. House seats split 4 to 4 among parties
MN Senate in GOP control
MN House in DFL hands https://t.co/7ISbOMubtM
New: Republicans in Wisconsin (the Trump campaign is not a party) filed an emergency petition in the state Supreme Court to stop the final certification of election results (HT @DemocracyDocket for the filing, screenshot of docket below) https://t.co/ZFwxvd0VTC pic.twitter.com/XqRRZCJduK
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may soon shorten the length of self-quarantine period after potential exposure to the coronavirus, a top official said this afternoon.
Health authorities currently recommend a 14-day quarantine in order to curb transmission of the virus but an official said today that there is evidence that the period could be shortened if patients are tested for the virus during their quarantine, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...The Dow Jones Industrial Average has topped the 30,000 mark for the first time as financial markets around the world rally amid hopes for a coronavirus vaccine and smooth transition to a Joe Biden presidency.
The landmark for the Wall Street market comes as investors bet rapid medical advances will bring the Covid outbreak to an earlier end than feared, paving the way for a swift economic rebound next year as business activity returns closer to normal and tough government restrictions are relaxed.
Continue reading...President-elect Joe Biden seeks to blunt criticism from leftwingers as he formally introduces his first round of cabinet nominations, by emphasising the fight against the climate crisis.
Biden says that in John Kerry, a former secretary of state and presidential nominee, America will have a full-time climate leader for the first time, someone with 'a seat at every table around the world'
Continue reading...President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced his first round of cabinet nominations on Tuesday, a move broadly welcomed as a restoration of the old Washington and international order after the turmoil of the Trump administration.
Related: Joe Biden's cabinet picks: what we've learned from his choices so far
Continue reading...President says he will continue to fight results as General Services Administration clears way for handover
The General Services Administration has declared president-elect Joe Biden the apparent winner of the US election, clearing the way for the formal transition from Donald Trump’s administration to begin after weeks of delay.
The GSA said on Monday that it had determined that Biden was the winner of the 3 November race after weeks of Trump refusing to concede and violating the traditions of the transition of power at the White House.
Continue reading...Board of state canvassers confirms 154,000-vote victory in 3-0 vote with one abstention
Michigan election officials on Monday certified Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in the state amid president Donald Trump’s brazen attempts to subvert the results of the election.
The board of state canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 3-0 vote with one abstention. Allies of Trump and the losing Republican Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in heavily Democratic Wayne county, home to Detroit.
Continue reading...Barack Obama said the Trump administration's foreign relations had inflicted 'damage' upon America, and that it would take time for the country's reputation to be restored. Obama expressed confidence in a new Biden administration, but cautioned change would not happen immediately
Continue reading...Foreign ministers hope US will lift sanctions in effort to revive 2015 agreement with Tehran
European foreign ministers from Germany, France and the UK have met to discuss a joint approach with the incoming Joe Biden administration on reviving the Iranian nuclear deal.
The three nations, whose ministers met in Berlin, are hoping Tehran can reach an agreement under which the US would lift its crippling sanctions in return for Iran ending its non-compliance with the 2015 agreement constraining its nuclear activities.
Continue reading...Move is latest chapter in deteriorating relationship with Beijing and improvement under Joe Biden is unlikely
Donald Trump has banned US investment in a further 89 Chinese companies, and reportedly sent a navy admiral to Taiwan, as he seeks to secure a tough-on-China foreign policy legacy.
Multiple media outlets have reported plans by the Trump administration for a series of confrontations with China before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, and the moves were largely expected. Foreign policy and political analysts believe Trump wants to leave a legacy of being tough on China, while simultaneously conducting a “scorched earth” policy on his way out of the White House.
Continue reading...The Biden transition team is facing pressure not to hire people with fossil fuel ties, like Obama’s energy secretary Ernest Moniz
It was a deceptively low-key occasion on Capitol Hill: an older man in a dark suit, talking into a TV camera about an energy report.
According to his firm’s 362-page analysis, the fastest path to California’s climate goals included continuing to rely on fossil fuels. The analysis was funded by gas companies and groups related to them, but he wasn’t a lobbyist or industry consultant. Quite the opposite, he was the Obama administration’s well-respected energy secretary, Ernest Moniz.
Continue reading...A born internationalist, Blinken will seek to soothe the frayed nerves of western allies
After reports first emerged on Sunday night that Antony Blinken would be secretary of state in the Biden administration, one interview from his past began circulating on social media.
It was a September 2016 conversation with Grover, a character from Sesame Street, on the subject of refugees, directed at American children who might have new classmates from faraway countries. “We all have something to learn and gain from one another even when it doesn’t seem at first like we have much in common,” Blinken told the fuzzy blue puppet.
Continue reading...Veteran diplomat may be named as early as Tuesday, with Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be ambassador to UN
The US president-elect, Joe Biden, will nominate the veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as his secretary of state and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the UN, moving forward on his campaign pledge to restore the US as a leader on the global stage and rely on experts.
Blinken and Thomas-Greenfield bring deep foreign policy backgrounds to the nascent administration while providing a sharp contrast with Donald Trump, who distrusted such experience and embraced an “America First” policy that strained longstanding US relationships.
Continue reading...