As key states started to slip away from Trump, Rudy Giuliani repeatedly urged former president to lie, according to new book
A drunken Rudy Giuliani repeatedly urged Donald Trump to “just say we won” on election night last November, according to a new book, even as key states started to slip away from the president and defeat by Joe Biden drew near.
Related: Landslide review: Michael Wolff’s third Trump book is his best – and most alarming
Continue reading...‘It’s entertaining. But it’s not real’, says Utah senator, referring to artificial world of professional wrestling
Donald Trump’s “big lie” that he lost the 2020 US election because of voter fraud is “a bit like WWF”, Mitt Romney said on Sunday, referring to the gaudy and artificial world of professional wrestling, an arena in which Trump starred before entering politics.
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Continue reading...Donald Trump tried to enlist top US law enforcement officials in a conspiracy-laden and doomed effort to overturn his election defeat, a campaign they described as “pure insanity”, newly released emails show.
Related: White House unveils first national strategy to fight domestic terrorism
Continue reading...Weekend rallies with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn show key influence of libertarian helping to fund Arizona election audit
This Memorial Day weekend, several prominent conservative allies of Donald Trump, who have promoted almost nonstop his false narratives about the 2020 election results, are slated to hold rallies in Florida and Texas endorsed by the wealthy libertarian Patrick Byrne.
Billed as featuring the Trump confidant Roger Stone, the retired general Michael Flynn, Byrne and other pro-Trump stalwarts, the dual events underscore that Byrne – who has been leading private fundraising for the politically driven vote audit now under way in Arizona’s largest county – seems intent on funding and pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 elections.
Continue reading...A Colorado man suspected in the death of his wife, who disappeared on Mother’s Day last year, is also accused of submitting a fraudulent vote on her behalf for Donald Trump in November’s presidential election, court documents show.
Related: California woman may have washed $26m lottery fortune down the drain
Continue reading...Republican who voted to impeach Trump under increasing fire from members of her own party who are loyal to former president
Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who voted to impeach Donald Trump, is coming under fire from members of her own party after her tweet that the former president did not lose the election unfairly. The spat illustrates the split between Republicans loyal to Trump and those willing to criticize the former president.
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Continue reading...Dominion has filed defamation lawsuits against several Trump allies for pushing election ‘radioactive falsehoods’ – could it triumph?
When Donald Trump and his allies pushed the “big lie” of voter fraud and a stolen election, it seemed nothing could stop them spreading disinformation with impunity.
Related: Trump 'money bomb' scheme raised millions from unwitting donors – report
Continue reading...Practice that used pre-checked boxes and obscure design on fundraising emails condemned as ‘unethical and inappropriate’
Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign used pre-checked boxes and obscure design on fundraising emails to wring millions of dollars out of unwitting supporters, detonating a “money bomb” which allowed the Republican to compete against Joe Biden in the last months of the race.
Related: Trump and Carlson lead backlash as MLB pulls All-Star Game from Georgia
Continue reading...Company accuses some of network’s biggest personalities ‘and their chosen guests’ of spreading ‘defamatory falsehoods’
The North American voting machine company Dominion has hit Fox News with a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit, accusing the network of spreading election fraud lies in a misguided effort to stop an exodus of enraged viewers after Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The complaint accuses some of Fox’s biggest personalities Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro “and their chosen guests” of spreading “defamatory falsehoods” about Dominion.
Continue reading...Lawyers for Sidney Powell argued conspiracies she laid out constituted legally protected first amendment speech
A key member of the legal team that sought to steal the 2020 election for Donald Trump is defending herself against a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit by arguing that “no reasonable person” could have mistaken her wild claims about election fraud last November as statements of fact.
Related: Senate filibuster reform would produce 'nuclear winter', says Mitch McConnell
Continue reading...Jakub Żulczyk faces possible prison term for insulting Andrzej Duda over his comments on Biden election win
A Polish writer faces a possible prison sentence for insulting President Andrzej Duda by calling him a “moron” over comments the latter made about Joe Biden’s US election victory.
Jakub Żulczyk, the screenwriter behind the popular TV series Blinded by the Lights and Belfer, said prosecutors had charged him under an article in the criminal code for insulting the head of state in a Facebook post.
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Illinois and Maryland recently announced that within the next two months, all adults will be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, joining at least seven other states who said they can open up eligibility in March and April.
Illinois governor JB Pritzker said today that all residents 16 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine starting 12 April. Meanwhile, Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, said on Tuesday that all adults should be eligible by 27 April.
The Senate just confirmed William Burns to be director of the CIA. Burns is the former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration and has held multiple roles within the State Department.
While Burns’ nomination received widespread support from Democrats and Republicans, senator Ted Cruz had temporarily blocked what would have been a quick confirmation as Cruz was hoping to send a message to Biden over the Russia-Germany natural gas Nord Stream 2 pipelines, a controversial energy project that critics fear will give more political power to Russia.
Continue reading...Intelligence report underscored allegations that Trump allies played into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims against Biden
Russia tried to influence the 2020 US presidential election by proliferating “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” largely against Joe Biden and through allies of Donald Trump, US intelligence officials said on Tuesday.
The assessment was contained in a 15-page report published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It underscored allegations that Trump’s allies played into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims against Biden by Ukrainian figures with links to Russia.
Continue reading...Experts say ‘effect on turnout and on partisan outcomes is very muted’ and undermines Trump claim that mail-in voting cost him
Mail-in voting did not significantly increase turnout nor did it benefit Democrats in the 2020 election, a new study has found, undermining the talking point, advanced by Donald Trump and others, that mail-in ballots cost him the election.
Related: Fight to vote: This is how Georgia Republicans are attacking democracy
Continue reading...A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed “Covid is the best thing that ever happened to him”, a new book reports.
Related: Ruling on Trump tax records could be costliest defeat of his losing streak
Continue reading...Complaint accuses ex-mayor of having ‘manufactured and disseminated’ conspiracy theory related to voting machines
Dominion Voting Systems, the voting equipment manufacturer at the centre of baseless election fraud conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump and his allies, has sued the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in a $1.3bn defamation lawsuit.
Related: Schumer promises quick but fair trial as Trump impeachment heads to Senate
Continue reading...The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States concluded with a spectacular fireworks display over Washington DC, with Biden and the first lady watching from the White House.
The newly-elected president took the opportunity to underline the importance of ‘unity’ in a democracy while the vice-president, Kamala Harris, said Biden was calling on people to have the ‘courage to see beyond crisis’
Continue reading...The White House has released Donald Trump’s farewell address, a 20-minute pre-recorded video of the president touting his accomplishments in office. ‘I did not seek the path that would get the least criticism,' Trump said celebrating his controversy-laden presidency. ‘I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices’. The outgoing president also offered a message of encouragement to his successor, but avoided saying Joe Biden's name. He ended by hinting at a possible political future, even as he awaits the start of his second Senate impeachment trial. 'Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning’
Joe Biden shed a tear as he took to the stage to deliver a farewell address to a Delaware crowd ahead of his inauguration on Wednesday, saying: 'I know these are dark times, but there is always light.'
Speaking at the Major Joseph R 'Beau' Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center, named for Biden’s late son, who died of brain cancer in 2015, the president elect said things 'can change, they can and they do'.
Continue reading...The US is riven with stark inequalities, rising white supremacist terror and large numbers who believe the election was stolen. The new administration faces a truly daunting challenge
In another age, Joe Biden’s promise to heal the nation might have been regarded as the kind of blandishment expected from any new leader taking power after the divisive cut and thrust of an American election.
Related: Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other
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