Category Archives: US Politics

Trump’s phone call to Brad Raffensperger: six key points

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Conversation between president and Georgia’s secretary of state laid bare Trump’s determination to cling on to power

Donald Trump has been recorded pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn US president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, in a tape obtained by the Washington Post.

The conversation is mainly between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, but Trump allies including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorney Cleta Mitchell were also present, as was Ryan Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel. Here are the main points:

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Leave military out of it, former defence secretaries tell Trump

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Unprecedented letter calls on voted-out president to accept Joe Biden’s election victory amid growing fears over his behaviour

All 10 former US defence secretaries still living, including two who worked for Donald Trump, have called for the president and his supporters to accept he lost the election and warned against attempts to involve the military in his increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the result.

In an unprecedented joint letter published in the Washington Post, the defence secretaries addressed the worst fears of what could happen in 17 days of Trump’s administration remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration: an attempt by Trump to foment a crises with the aim of triggering a military intervention in his last-ditch struggle to hold on power.

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‘I just want 11,780 votes’: Trump pressed Georgia to overturn Biden victory

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In an hour-long phone call on Saturday, Donald Trump pressed Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to overturn Joe Biden’s victory there in the election the president refuses to concede.

Related: Healthcare to the electoral college: seven ways 2020 left America exposed | Robert Reich

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‘Traitors and patriots’: Republican push to keep Trump in power seems doomed

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All 12 Republican senators who have pledged not to ratify the electoral college results on Wednesday, and thereby refuse to confirm Joe Biden’s resounding victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election, declined to defend their move on television, a CNN host said on Sunday.

Related: Ted Cruz and other Republican senators oppose certifying election results

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Can Kamala Harris as vice-president be both loyal deputy and heir apparent?

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Harris says her model will be Biden’s role as veep to Obama but the president-elect’s age means speculation about an eventual elevation to the Oval Office is intense

American vice-presidents occupy what can be one of the most powerful positions in all of the federal US government and yet it can also be one of the least powerful. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is going to soon find out where her tenure will land.

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Ted Cruz and other Republican senators oppose certifying election results

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Republicans say they will reject presidential electors from states where Trump campaign contested results unless audit completed

Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other Republican US senators or senators-elect said on Saturday they will reject presidential electors from states where Donald Trump has contested his defeat by Joe Biden, “unless and until [an] emergency 10-day audit” of such results is completed.

Related: Republican plan to challenge election signals ‘cult of Trump’ will live on in Biden era

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Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi homes vandalised in Covid protests

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The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, decried what he called a “radical tantrum” on Saturday after his home in Kentucky was vandalised with messages apparently protesting against his refusal to increase Covid aid payments from $600 to $2,000.

The attack followed a similar one on the home of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, in San Francisco.

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Biden seeks term-defining wins in Georgia runoffs Trump called ‘illegal’

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Contests will decide control of Senate and how far Biden can reach on issues such as pandemic, healthcare, taxation and environment

Campaigning continued in Georgia on Saturday in two Senate runoff elections which will define much of Joe Biden’s first term in office.

Related: Biden wants to fill federal court seats – but he needs to win the Senate first

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US judge dismisses suit filed against Pence seeking to overturn election result

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Lawsuit aimed at allowing vice president to reject electoral college votes is latest in a long line of cases to be thrown out

A US judge has rejected a lawsuit from a Republican congressman that sought to allow vice president Mike Pence to reject electoral college votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets on Wednesday to certify his victory over president Donald Trump.

The latest long-shot attempt by Trump’s Republican allies to overturn the November election result was dismissed by one of Trump’s own appointees to the federal bench, Jeremy Kernodle.

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Senate overrides Donald Trump’s veto of defense spending bill

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Republicans join Democrats to push through bill against Trump’s strong objections

Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in the US Senate on Friday took the atypical rebellious step of overriding his veto for the first time in his presidency.

The Senate pushed through a bill on defense spending against Trump’s strong objections – just 20 days before he leaves office.

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Trump attacks and vote by mail: the top voting rights stories of 2020

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The pandemic created new barriers to the ballot box and strengthened existing ones – aided by the president and his Republican allies

The fight over access to the ballot was one of the most important stories in America in 2020.

The country faced a pandemic that both offered new barriers to the ballot box and exacerbated existing ones. After election day, America faced an unprecedented effort to undermine faith in the election results as Donald Trump and Republican allies baselessly claimed fraud and brought a flurry of unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to get election results overturned.

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Trump looks back and Biden looks ahead in contrasting new year messages

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Biden calls for quicker distribution of Covid vaccines, while Trump points out he predicted vaccine’s arrival

In a New Year’s Eve message, Donald Trump reflected on his accomplishments in office, calling them “historic victories”, while his incoming successor, Joe Biden, struck an upbeat tone in looking ahead to 2021.

After weeks of fighting to remain in office, Trump said in a video posted on Twitter: “We have to be remembered for what’s been done.”

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Pelosi rebukes McConnell for saying ‘no realistic path’ for $2,000 relief stimulus bill – video

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The Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, says the bill that would direct $2,000 coronavirus relief payments to Americans has 'no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate'. After Donald Trump and Democrats pushed for larger relief cheques, McConnell said he would not be 'bullied' by Democrats into quickly approving the measure. House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, criticised McConnell for adding a delay to the payments.'These Republicans in the Senate seem to have an endless tolerance for other people's sadness,' she said

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Mitch McConnell says ‘no realistic path’ for $2,000 relief checks bill

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Attempts by Donald Trump and Democrats for bigger coronavirus relief checks fade in the Senate

Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 relief checks to Americans struggling financially with the pandemic was all but dead after Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that a proposal from Democrats had “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate”.

Declaring that he would not be “bullied” by Democrats into quickly approving the measure, McConnell effectively denied a final request for legislative action by the president in the waning days of his administration.

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Biden and Harris to campaign in Georgia as Trump calls on its governor to quit

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Democrats and Republicans are deploying their big guns for the state’s runoff elections that will decide who controls the Senate

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia to campaign for next week’s high-stakes Senate runoff elections, it was announced on Wednesday, as Donald Trump called on the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to resign.

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How Trump turned his 2020 TV appearances into one big reality show

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Television cameras tend to bring out the performer in the president, no matter how inappropriate the context

As we look back at the Trump presidency, it often feels like America has endured four years of reality TV – with its leader as a main contestant.

Related: Infinity culture war: what now for Trump's Hollywood supporters?

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Mitch McConnell blocks Senate Democrats’ move to fast track $2000 Covid payments – video

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The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, blocked an effort by Democrats to quickly increase coronavirus relief payments to US citizens from $600 to $2,000. Donald Trump demanded the raise on Tuesday, tweeting that Americans had ‘suffered enough’ from the Covid pandemic. But amid mounting pressure from fellow Republicans,  McConnell objected to a move by Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, to swiftly pass the measure

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Newt Gingrich: Democrats are trying to ‘brainwash the entire next generation’

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The 77-year-old Republican former House speaker says Trump will ‘remain a dominant figure for a fairly long period of time’

Some blame Donald Trump. Others blame social media. And those with longer memories blame Newt Gingrich for carving up America into blue states and red states racked by mutual fear, suspicion and alienation.

As speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, the Republican arguably did more anyone else to sow the seeds of division in Washington. “Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise,” reflected the Atlantic magazine in 2018.

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House Republicans join with Democrats to override Trump’s veto of defence bill

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If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency

Donald Trump suffered fresh humiliation on Monday when more than a hundred Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to override his veto of a $741bn defence bill.

If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency, which has only three weeks left to run.

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Covid vaccines and $600 payments: key provisions in the US stimulus bill

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The coronavirus relief bill has finally been signed into law by Donald Trump. Here’s a look at what’s in the 5,000-page package

Donald Trump signed the new Covid-19 stimulus package into law on Sunday night, suddenly giving into pressure from Congress after calling the legislation a “disgrace” days earlier.

Related: Dow hits record high after Trump belatedly signs Covid relief bill

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