Monday, November 16, 2020

Election 2020 live updates: Trump’s national security adviser talks legacy, promises smooth transition

 

Election 2020 live updates: Trump’s national security adviser talks legacy, promises smooth transition

USA TODAY'S coverage of the 2020 election continues this week as states prepare to finish certifying their vote counts after Joe Biden's victory in the hard-fought presidential race. President Donald Trump has yet to concede the race as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris meet with transition advisers and prepare to take office in January.

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Trump could buck US tradition of conceding defeat
Donald Trump wearing a suit and tie standing in front of a flag: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden (left) and President Donald Trump (right) are pictured during their respective campaigns.© Angela Weiss, AFP via Getty Images | Saul Loeb/AFP Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden (left) and President Donald Trump (right) are pictured during their respective campaigns.

Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.

Georgia election chief fires back at Trump and ex-Rep. Doug Collins

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After a barrage of unfounded claims from President Donald Trump questioning various aspects of Georgia’s voting system, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger fired back.

In a series of Facebook posts from the Secretary of State page, Raffensperger, a Republican, addressed claims about the makers of the state’s election system, Dominion, as well as claims made by the president about Georgia’s recount and absentee ballots system.

Raffensperger, in an uncharacteristically aggressive retort, included a shot at former Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican who was gunning for the senate seat currently held by Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Collins, who didn’t get enough votes to make it into the runoff, has repeated Trump's misleading claims about the Georgia recount.

“We strengthened signature match. We helped train election officials on GBI signature match — which is confirmed twice before a ballot is ever cast. Failed candidate Doug Collins is a liar — but what’s new?” Raffensperger’s post read.

“Our office has received multiple requests to match ballots back to voters —  exposing how a Georgia voter has voted.” Raffensperger’s post read. “We stand ready to prevent any and all attempts from any party to intimidate voters. Georgia voters have a right to vote in secret without intimidation from any political candidate or party. ”

– Will Peebles, Savannah Morning News 

In a break with other advisers, Trump’s national security adviser talks Trump legacy, promises smooth transition

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien seems more ready to accept the Nov. 3 election results than his boss or other top White House allies.

During an interview Monday, O’Brien talked about the end of Trump’s term, promised a “very professional transition” to a Biden-Harris administration, and even referred to “President Biden,” although Democrat Joe Biden is still just “president-elect” until the inauguration on Jan. 20.

O’Brien did qualify his remarks, referring to the Trump campaign’s ongoing legal challenges to the election results. But his comments, made during an interview with the Hill as part of a global security conference, were far more conciliatory than other Trump officials, some of whom have suggested Trump will have a second term in the White House despite the election results showing Biden won.

“If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner and … obviously things look that way now, we'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council. There's no question about it,” O’Brien said.

He even said Biden will have “very professional folks who are coming in to take these positions, many of whom have been here before and spent a lot of time in the White House” in prior administrations.

O’Brien said one legacy of the Trump administration would be the accords it negotiated between Israel and several Arab countries, and he quickly added that he hoped a Biden administration would preserve and strengthen those.

If the current lawsuits “don’t work out for the president and President Biden becomes our next president, I really hope that a Biden-Harris administration” will continue to pursue those accords, O’Brien said.

He also said there’s at least one last foreign policy matter Trump would like to achieve in his final days: securing the release of an American hostage held in Syria, Austin Tice. “I’d like to get him back and I know the president would like to see him back before he leaves office.”

– Deirdre Shesgreen

Trump hints at primary challenge for GOP governor who acknowledged Biden win 

President Donald Trump appears to be encouraging a primary challenge to Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

Trump tweeted on Monday morning "Who will be running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio? Will be hotly contested!"

DeWine was a co-chair of Trump's re-election campaign in Ohio, but he was among a select group of Republicans who last week acknowledged former Vice President Joe Biden as president-elect.

On CNN on Sunday, DeWine said Trump should begin the transition to Biden. Trump has refused to concede the race and has used his Twitter account to advance unfounded conspiracy theories about the election.

– Rick Rouan and Jessie Balmert, The Columbus Dispatch

The election process: What to expect in the next 60 days

Trump and Biden celebrate news of second successful COVID vaccine

President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden both took to Twitter to celebrate the news that the biotechnology company Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine was 94.5% effective against the coronavirus in initial trials. Earlier this month, Pfizer announced its vaccine had been 90% effective, according to preliminary results. 

"Today's news of a second vaccine is further reason to feel hopeful," tweeted Biden. But the incoming president cautioned that the vaccine was still "months away" and "Americans need to continue to practice social-distancing and mask-wearing to get the virus under control." 

Biden also congratulated "the brilliant women and men who produced this breakthrough and have brought us one step closer to beating this virus," and he thanked the "frontline workers who are still confronting the virus around the clock." 

Trump's tweet focused on his own role in the development. 

"Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective," Trump tweeted. "For those great 'historians', please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!" 

– William Cummings 

Second coronavirus vaccine shows promise: Moderna's candidate COVID-19 vaccine looks to protect 94.5% of those who get it, trial shows

SEC Chairman Clayton to leave at the end of the year

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton confirmed Monday that he is stepping down at the end of the year. President Donald Trump's appointee has served in the role since May 2017. 

"Working alongside the incredibly talented and driven women and men of the SEC has been the highlight of my career," Clayton said in a statement, adding his thanks to "President Trump for the opportunity, and the support and freedom, to lead" them. 

The SEC statement credited Clayton with advancing the agency's transparency and modernization, promoting diversity and helping markets manage the coronavirus pandemic. 

Clayton's term was scheduled to end in June. 

According to Bloomberg and The New York Times, which first reported Clayton's departure, President-elect Joe Biden's top choices to head the SEC are Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration, and Preet Bharara, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

– William Cummings

Trump COVID adviser Scott Atlas tells Michigan to 'rise up' against new measures 

Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, faced heavy criticism after he told Michiganders to "rise up" in a tweet in response to the new COVID-19 restrictions announced by the state's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday. 

Whitmer held a news conference to announce that because of the rising rate of COVID-19 infections, she was suspending in-person classes for school and college, as well as indoor dining, for three weeks. 

"The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept," Atlas tweeted shortly after Whitmer's announcement. The tweet echoed Trump's controversial call on April 17 to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN" in the face of similar restrictions. 

Atlas later clarified Monday that he was not advocating violence. But many criticized his choice of words regarding a state where armed protesters against coronavirus measures at one time flooded the state Capitol, and where an armed group recently targeted Whitmer in a kidnapping plot that was foiled by the FBI. 

"We know that the White House likes to single us out here in Michigan – me out in particular," Whitmer said when asked about Atlas' comment on CNN. "I'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals." 

Whitmer stressed the word reputable and said she consults with experts who "actually have studied" infectious diseases. She did not refer to Atlas – a neuroradiologist whose views on the coronavirus were criticized by some of his former Stanford University colleagues as running "counter to established science" – by name, but rather as "the individual" who is "doing the president's bidding." 

– William Cummings 

Biden and Harris to speak on economic plans Monday

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will speak about the economy Monday afternoon in Wilmington, Delaware, according to a press release from the Biden-Harris transition team.

The Democratic duo will speak "on the economic recovery and building back better in the long-term," in their first speech addressing the country’s economic situation since their victory in the presidential election.

During the campaign, Biden laid out an expansive economic agenda focused on increasing the number of U.S. jobs, strengthening the social safety net and fighting economic inequality.

The scale of Biden’s plans now, however, hinge on whether Democrats will narrowly control the Senate or if all legislation must be negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Analysts have projected that Biden’s proposals will bring back the 11 million jobs and $670 billion in annualized gross domestic product wiped out – and not yet recovered – in the crisis more rapidly than if President Donald Trump had won a second term.

The speech in Wilmington is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. EDT. 

– Matthew Brown and Paul Davidson 

Dems' economic vision: What Biden and other Democrats have proposed for 401(k) plans, home ownership and building wealth

Trump faces criticism for delaying Biden transition amid raging pandemic 

President Donald Trump faced mounting criticism Sunday for continuing to focus his message on the election and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud while sidestepping a resurgent coronavirus spike raging across the country.

New coronavirus cases have surged in the U.S. during November, with the country hitting record new infection levels.

Trump's critics said Sunday that by refusing to acknowledge the results of the Nov. 3 election, Trump was delaying the transition and complicating President-elect Joe Biden's ability to hit the ground running in the battle against COVID-19.

"It's almost like passing a baton in a race – you don't want to stop and then give it to somebody," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the transition. "You want to just essentially keep going."

Biden campaign officials are prohibited from interacting with agency leaders, including those at public health agencies, until the Trump administration formally recognizes the outcome of the election – a recognition that has not yet taken place. Fauci said starting those conversations now would have an "obvious" benefit for the next administration. 

"Of course it would be better if we could start working with them," he told CNN's "State of the Union." 

– John Fritze 

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