Trump says finally he will take part in peaceful transfer of power
President Trump acknowledged for the first time that he would leave the White House when the Electoral College casts its formal vote for Joe Biden.
USA TODAY’S coverage of the 2020 election and President-elect Joe Biden’s transition continues this week as he continues to roll out his picks for top positions in his administration and states continue to certify their vote counts.
President Donald Trump has yet to concede the race but his administration has cleared the way for Biden’s team to have access to federal resources and briefings during the transition.
Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.
Biden sprained ankle, will continue to be monitored
After a two-hour examination with doctors in Stanton, Del., President-elect Joe Biden was found to have sprained his ankle while playing with his dog Sunday afternoon.
The president-elect had “no obvious fracture” in his right foot but would be getting an additional CT scan and further examinations tomorrow, according to his doctors.
“Follow-up CT scan confirmed hairline fractures of President-elect Biden’s lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the mid-foot,” a statement from Biden’s doctors reads.
The president-elect will likely need to use a walking boot for several weeks.
Reporters were not allowed near the president-elect as he left Delaware Orthopaedic Specialists, though pool reporters at a distance said Biden appeared to whistle and gave a thumbs up to the group.
– Matthew Brown
Biden picks all women for White House communications team
President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday named his White House senior communications staff, choosing a team of all women led by Jen Psaki, a veteran of President Barack Obama’s administration, as his first press secretary.
Psaki, who wore many hats under Obama including White House communications director, has overseen the confirmations team for Biden’s transition team.
Biden also tapped top campaign aides Kate Bedingfield as White House communications director and Symone Sanders as senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris. Bedingfield worked as deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Sanders served as a campaign senior advisor.
Other communications hires are: Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for first lady Jill Biden; Ashley Etienne, communications director for Harris; Karine Jean-Pierre, principal deputy press secretary; and Pili Tobar, deputy White House communications director.
“I am proud to announce today the first senior White House communications team comprised entirely of women. These qualified, experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better,” Biden said in a statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution, he will be examined this afternoon by an orthopedist,” the president-elect’s team told reporters.
Biden is currently at the Delaware Orthopedic Specialists in Newark where he arrived a little after 4 p.m. EST. His office provided an update on his condition around 6 p.m., after not allowing reporters a view of the president-elect entering the facility.
According to a statement from his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, Biden sustained a sprain of his right foot and while “initial X-rays are reassuring that there is no obvious fracture,” he’ll be receiving a CT scan for further review.
Biden was playing with Major, one of his two German shepherds, according to his office. The Biden family adopted Major in 2018, 10 years after acquiring their first dog, Champ.
The Bidens have said they plan to bring their dogs to the White House. Major, who was adopted from the Delaware Humane Association, will be the first rescue dog to live in the White House. The Bidens have also announced plans to get a cat when they move to the White House.
– Matthew Brown, USA TODAY and Brandon Holveck, Delaware News Journal
Kamala Harris laughs off question about facing President Trump again in 2024
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris waved away a question about whether she and President-elect Joe Biden “will be ready to face” President Donald Trump again in a 2024 redux of this year’s election.
“Please,” Harris said of the question, chuckling at a gaggle of reporters.
After a historically bitter political campaign that was at times overshadowed by a global pandemic and nationwide protests, 2024 may seem like a distant prospect for many Americans. Yet many Democrats and Republicans have made moves indicating they are already preparing for another acrid election in four years.
Trump himself has said he’s interested in a 2024 bid to reclaim the Oval Office, according to Axios, Bloomberg and the Washington Post.
A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted Nov. 21-23 also found that 53% of Republican voters would vote for Trump again in 2024 if he chose to run. Various polls have also found that most Trump voters have not yet accepted the legitimacy of Trump’s loss.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted after Biden’s victory was projected found that 86% of Trump voters did not think Biden’s win was legitimate.
Biden, 78, will be the oldest president ever to take office, which has fueled speculation he may not seek a second term. Harris, 56, would likely be seen as he early frontrunner for the Democratic nomination should Biden not seek reelection.
– Matthew Brown
Republican Congressman reclaims seat as GOP flips 11th House seat
Republican Congressman David Valadao defeated Democrat T.J. Cox in California’s 21st district, The Associated Press reported Friday. The victory is the 11th seat Republicans have wrested from incumbent Democrats in the House of Representatives in the 2020 election.
Valadao’s victory comes as down-ballot Republicans outperformed President Donald Trump across the country, even in solidly blue California
The district, primarily situated in the San Joaquin Valley, slightly favors Democrats, according to the Cook Political Report. Valadao won the seat by emphasizing agricultural issues, which are central to the district’s economy. Though he endorsed Trump in 2020, he is only tepid in his support for the president.
This year, Valadao won the district by a little under 2,000 votes. The district is one of at least three Republicans have reclaimed from the 2018 Democratic “blue wave” that swept the Golden State.
Cox, who won the seat in 2018 by 862 votes, has not yet conceded the election.
– Matthew Brown
Trump mocked for claim that ‘I came up with vaccines’
On his way out of office, President Donald Trump is going out of his way to take credit for emerging COVID-19 vaccines – to the point where he claims to have developed them himself.
“I came up with vaccines that people didn’t think we’d have for five years,” Trump said during his phone interview Sunday on Fox News, later adding that people would try to credit President-elect Joe Biden.
The Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” has helped, but doctors and drug makers have been the ones who developed the actual vaccines that should be available for public use soon.
Jonathan Reiner, professor of Medicine and Surgery at George Washington University, said Trump sometimes sounds like King Louis XIV proclaiming “‘l’état, c’est moi’ – the state is me.”
“The PfizerBioNTech and the Moderna vaccines were created by brilliant and dedicated scientists and clinical trial-ists, as well as thousands of people who volunteered to be vaccinated for the studies,” Reiner said. “The glory goes to them.”
– David Jackson
Sen. Blunt refuses to call Biden president-elect, echoes election misinformation
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., declined to acknowledge Joe Biden was “president-elect” during an interview Sunday with CNN’s “State of the Union.” The refusal came as President Donald Trump and many elected Republicans continue to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
“The president-elect technically has to be elected president by the electors. That happens in the middle of December,” Blunt correctly said, sidestepping the reality that there is no doubt the electors will choose Biden as the next president of the United States.
“There is no official job president-elect,” Blunt said, arguing that the distinction was a “straw man” created by the media. But in 2016, Blunt’s office published a press release “congratulating President-elect Donald Trump” the day after the election and long before the electors met.
Federal and state courts have found the Trump campaign’s claims of fraud to be unfounded. While Blunt’s comments casting doubt on Biden’s status as president-elect echo the Trump campaign’s attacks on the legitimacy of the election, he did not go so far as to claim the election was stolen, as Trump has baselessly contended.
“I don’t think it was rigged but I do think there was some things that were done that shouldn’t have been done,” Blunt said without specifying what potential election wrongdoing he was referencing. “And I think there was some element of voter fraud as there is in every election. But I don’t have any reason to believe that the numbers are there that would have made that difference.”
Election officials across the country have confirmed that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election. A USA TODAY investigation found no instances of voter fraud in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Claims elsewhere in the country were also investigated and debunked.
Blunt predicted Trump would remain active in Republican politics.
“I think there is a big role for President Trump. And I hope he embraces that and looks at how you move to whatever comes next for him, assuming that this election works out the way it appears it will,” he said.
– Matthew Brown
Donald Trump doesn’t know when his election protests will end
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump continued to protest the election during a broadcast interview Sunday, but again provided no proof – and would not say when he might drop election lawsuits and challenges that have met nothing but defeat.
Trump said his complaints might last past the Dec. 14 vote of the Electoral College and even the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
“My mind will not change in six months,” Trump told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” during his first broadcast interview since Election Day.
A steady stream of judges and election officials across the country, including Republicans, have declared the elections fairly run, and criticized Trump’s legal team for filing specious complaints.
In rejecting a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, a federal appeals court said Friday that “charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
Lawsuits and election challenges have met similar fates in Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia.
In a Fox telephone conversation that lasted 46 minutes, Trump criticized Republicans who have disputed his claims of election fraud.
That includes Georgia, the site of two Senate run-offs that will determine control of the U.S. Senate. While Trump plans to campaign in Georgia for incumbent Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, even as he blasted GOP officials like Gov. Brian Kemp.
“The governor’s done nothing,” Trump said. “He’s done absolutely nothing. I’m ashamed that I endorsed him.”
Trump’s comments throughout the interview amounted to little more than rants, complaints, and evidence-free conspiracy theories.
“He’s all over the place,” said Bradley Moss, a national security attorney. “He’s got nothing, he knows it’s all ending and he’s ranting to anyone who will listen.”
Other analysts hit the softball questioning of Fox host Maria Bartiromo, some noting that Trump is reportedly thinking about buying his own news network.
“@MariaBartiromo auditioning for a job on Newmax this morning,” tweeted former President Bill Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart.
– David Jackson
Wisconsin recount ends, Biden gains net of 87 votes
MADISON, Wis. – A partial recount boosted President-elect Joe Biden’s victory by 87 votes Sunday, and President Donald Trump said he was preparing a lawsuit to overturn the results.
Biden netted 132 votes in Milwaukee County, and Trump got 45 votes in Dane County. Taken together, that increased Biden’s statewide margin to 21,695.
Trump’s campaign paid $3 million to cover the cost of the recounts in Wisconsin’s two most Democratic counties so he could pursue a long-shot lawsuit to claim the state’s 10 electoral votes.
Trump on Saturday tweeted that he would file a lawsuit in Wisconsin by Tuesday, when the state Elections Commission is set to certify the results.
“The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the recount is over, on Monday or Tuesday,” Trump wrote.
Retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen expressed concern on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the recent assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist will “makes things much more challenging” for the incoming Biden administration to negotiate with the country.
Mullen – the nation’s highest-ranking military officer from 2007 to 2011 – called the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who oversaw Iran’s nuclear program for over a decade, “a significant event,” one that could significantly hobble U.S.-Iranian relations just as President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Mullen’s concerns were shared by retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, who told ABC News’ “This Week” that the move reinforces the “difficult challenge” Biden faces in negotiating with Iran.
Iran was already unlikely to be receptive to a new agreement with a Biden administration after its experience with President Donald Trump, who pulled out of an agreement negotiated during the Obama administration to slow Iran’s nuclear weapons development, McRaven said.
“Now by attacking their nuclear scientists and by really escalating this effort, the Iranians are going to be more compelled to get a bomb quicker,” and Iran will be more hesitant to join any future deal, McRaven predicted.
Mullen likened the move to Trump’s decision to assassinate Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. That move enraged the Iranian government and public alike, and led experts to fear the prospect of open war.
Fakhrizadeh was “not only the brains but also the passion behind” Iran’s nuclear program, Mullen said. Biden, who has said he’d reopen talks with Iran, will now likely face a country further embittered and resistant to diplomacy.
“I’m hopeful that President-elect Biden can actually reach in and calm the waters but I think this heightens tensions significantly,” Mullen said.
– Matthew Brown
Progressives aren’t going to give Biden a honeymoon
After helping to mobilize election turnout of young people and left-leaning Democrats, progressive leaders want to hold the Biden administration to promises made on the campaign trail: addressing climate change, combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and offering student debt relief.
“This isn’t 2015 anymore. This isn’t 2010 anymore. It’s not 2005 anymore,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist from New York, said at a rally with progressives last week. “The movement got us here. You all got us a seat at the table.”
But as progressives lean into their policy demands, one roadblock remains: Who will control the Senate?
Two runoffs in Georgia will determine whether Republicans maintain control of the chamber when the new Congress is sworn in in January. If the Republican majority holds, not only will it be difficult for Democrats to pass legislation, it will likely mean the progressive wish list will be left on the backburner.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
