President-elect Joe Biden has thanked the American people for their support after winning the US presidential election against Donald Trump. From razor-thin margins, record voter turnout and protests via false claims of victory and Joe and Kamala Harris's congratulatory call - here's the story of how the presidency was won
Emboldened by the president’s election defeat, some Republican leaders are speaking out as others vie for the Trumpist mantle
For four years he commanded their unflinching loyalty. They protected him from impeachment, tacitly approved as children at the border were prised from their parents and placed in cages, and looked the other way as peacefully protesting Americans were gassed for a photo opportunity.
Continue reading...Donald Trump refused to formally concede the US election on Saturday, even as senior Republicans began to distance themselves from him, and as recriminations were reported among aides to a man doomed to go down as an impeached, one-term president.
Before the race was called, Trump continued to tweet his defiance and to attract censure for making baseless claims about voter fraud and his supposed victory. He also went to his course in Virginia to play golf. While he played, a defiant statement was issued in his name.
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A campaign aide has also tested positive, Bloomberg reports. CNN and NBC have also confirmed the Meadows has contracted Covid-19.
Worth noting that Mark Meadows was at the election night party at the White House Tuesday that hundreds of people attended. Officials said everyone would be tested beforehand.
Mark Meadows has tested positive for coronavirus, according to reporters from Bloomberg news.
BREAKING: Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has the coronavirus. Meadows informed a close circle of advisers after the election.
Story by me, @tylerpager and @MarioDParker out soon.
Joe Biden was still leading Donald Trump in the tense race to the critical 270 electoral votes as counting continued in key states. Jonathan Freedland describes an election that has provided one clear message: the US remains divided
Joe Biden is tantalisingly close to securing the presidency, as votes continue to be counted in key states after an election with a record turnout and record numbers of postal votes. Donald Trump, watching his grip on the presidency being eroded, has threatened legal action, recounts, and even a halt to all ballot counting.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland tells Rachel Humphreys that the president set the tone for a disputed election result with an extraordinary statement in the White House on election night, and has continued to question the legitimacy of the process.
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With more votes in populous, Democratic counties left to be counted, Donald Trump’s lead in Georgia has shrunk to 47,000 votes.
Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – reporting from the West Coast.
The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit seeking to pause vote count in Georgia, the AP reports, as officials continue counting tens of thousands of ballots in the state.
While the president indulged his victory fantasy, Democrats had a night of part hope, part soul-searching
It was the grand, carefully choreographed victory speech that Donald Trump never got to make in 2016. Hail to the Chief was playing in the background as the president took to the stage around 2am, a phalanx of Stars and Stripes at his back and in front of him a maskless crowd of progeny and devotees screaming “We love you!”
In 2016 Trump was so stunned by his own unexpected triumph that he looked quite taken aback. His victory speech was written in such a hurry it contained profuse praise for Hillary Clinton, the woman who had been subjected to chants of “lock her up”.
Continue reading...With the US presidential election count still too close to call, Joe Biden said he was optimistic about the outcome and that it the race was not over until every vote had been counted. Meanwhile, Donald Trump falsely claimed he had already won and spoke of a fraud against the American public
Mark Kelly, the Democrat and former astronaut, focused on bipartisanship in a speech shortly before he was declared the winner of the Senate race in Arizona. 'I’m confident that when all the votes are counted, we’re going to be successful in this mission,’ Kelly told supporters. ‘The work starts now.’
The retired US navy captain, who ran his campaign by playing up his outsider status in politics, said: 'Our state doesn't need a Democrat senator or a Republican senator. We need an Arizona senator. There is nothing we can't achieve if we work together'
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The AP has confirmed that Senator John Cornyn has won another Senate term in Texas, defeating Democratic candidate MJ Hegar.
BREAKING: Republican John Cornyn wins reelection to U.S. Senate from Texas. #APracecall at 9:06 p.m. CST. #Election2020 #TXelection https://t.co/lGfinjTqT4
Donald Trump has won Kansas and its 6 electoral votes, the AP just announced.
BREAKING: Donald Trump wins Kansas. #APracecall at 9:00 p.m. CST. #Election2020
Continue reading...Scenes from across the United States as voters headed to the polls and Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off in a tense presidential election
Continue reading...Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in the national polls for the presidential election, but that doesn’t guarantee the Democratic candidate victory. Hillary Clinton also had a clear lead over Trump in the polls for almost the entire 2016 campaign and ended up losing in the electoral college.
Because the presidential voting system assigns each state a number of electoral college votes, which go to the state’s victor regardless of the margin of victory (with the exception of Nebraska and Maine), a handful of swing states will probably decide the election and be targeted heavily by campaigners.
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino examines how the race is developing in the areas that could decide the election
Continue reading...The president has questioned American democracy for four years, creating challenges abroad
The last time a Republican won the popular vote for president, the winning candidate declared that the spread of democracy was central to American security.
“It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world,” said George W Bush in his second inaugural address in 2005.
Continue reading...The US has set a world record for coronavirus cases in 24 hours, according to one count with just over 100,000 new infections recorded.
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In several of his rallies this week, Donald Trump has accused the media of focusing on the coronavirus crisis only for political purposes, in order to damage him.
Barack Obama has trolled him for it in rallies in Florida, where the former president warned that America could not afford four more years of Trump and needed to put Joe Biden into the White House next week.
A federal judge this afternoon ordered the US Postal Service (USPS) to adopt “extraordinary measures” at some processing locations to ensure the timely delivery of millions of ballots before Tuesday’s presidential election.
US district judge Emmet Sullivan said he was ordering the measures in places where election mail processing scores for completed ballots returned by voters were below 90% for at least two days from October 26-28.
Continue reading...Although polling averages gave Clinton the edge over Trump in 2016 there are significant differences in the evidence today
For months, activists and Democratic party officials have been telling Joe Biden supporters that the only answer to the question “can we trust the polls?” is to go out and vote for Biden, and then get others to do the same.
Continue reading...At least three senior Colombian lawmakers have been accused of acting as surrogates for Donald Trump in Florida
The American embassy in Bogotá has warned Colombian politicians to “avoid getting involved” in the US election, amid a growing row over allegations that far-right lawmakers from the South American country are campaigning in support of Donald Trump.
At least three senior Colombian politicians have been accused of acting as Trump surrogates in Florida, a pivotal battleground state which has been flooded with political advertising and fake news aimed at Latino voters.
Continue reading...Senate’s confirmation of Barrett, 48, cements rightwing domination of court for years to come
The US Senate has confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court, delivering Donald Trump a huge but partisan victory just eight days before the election and locking in rightwing domination of the nation’s highest court for years to come.
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Here again is a link to the interview with Donald Trump published on Sunday by 60 Minutes, an institution in US television news known for editorial balance and seriousness of purpose. Significantly, the program also reaches millions of older voters, who overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016 but who appear to be splitting their vote this year between the candidates.
In this clip, via Vox’s Aaron Rupar, Trump whines about the difficulty level of the questions he is being confronted with, after interviewer Lesley Stahl refuses to endorse one of his conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation.
I don’t understand how anyone can watch this and draw any conclusion other than Trump is completely unfit for his job pic.twitter.com/DA87zGehXI
Hello and welcome to our round-the-clock coverage as the 2020 US election enters its final lap. Only eight days to go.
On Sunday, the number of early voters in the election surpassed 58m, the number who voted early in 2016. That means the 2020 election will mark the first time in history that more than half of the overall US vote was cast early.
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Voting has begun...
As McConnell continues his cynical, revisionist version of how we’ve ended up at this moment – awaiting the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett – the supreme court, one member short, is still working.
Just now, the court upheld a federal appeals court ruling that blocks a deadline extension for mail-in-ballots, awarding a victory for Republicans in a crusade against expanding voting rights and access.