Trump lawyers withdraw Arizona lawsuit as US election officials dismiss fraud claims – live | US news

A Michigan judge has also rejected the Trump campaign’s effort to delay the certification of results in the state.

President-elect Joe Biden currently leads Trump in Michigan by about 146,000 votes, or 2.7% of the total vote.

The Michigan decision is the latest in a string of legal losses for the Trump campaign, after the president’s lawyers withdrew from an Arizona lawsuit and a prominent law firm pulled out of the campaign’s lawsuit in Pennsylvania.

As expected, Trump is having a hard time trying to block states from certifying their results, clearing the way for Biden to be inaugurated in January.

The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:

Top officials on president-elect Joe Biden’s transition team warned of the long-term national security consequences of federal officials continuing to refuse to recognize Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Specifically, Biden officials argued that the General Services Administration’s ongoing refusal to certify Biden as the victor could harm the country.

After a presidential election, the GSA usually quickly acknowledges the victory and approves federal resources like funding and access to national security information to the incoming president and team.

But the GSA has refrained from giving the Biden team that rubber stamp, arguing it is not clear who the winner of the election is.

“It’s been six days, but with every day that passes, it becomes more concerning that our national security team and the president-elect and the vice-president elect don’t have access to threat assessments,” Jen Psaki, a senior adviser for the Biden transition team, said Friday during a briefing with reporters. “And in order to prepare to govern, it’s important that they have access to that information.”

Yohannes Abraham, another top transition official, added, “Lack of access to current classified operations or back-channel conversations that are happening really put the American peoples’ interests as it relates to national security at risk.”

Psaki acknowledged Biden would have an easier adjustment to the Oval Office after serving as vice president, but she emphasized the importance of having access to intelligence briefings to prepare for the new administration.

Donald Trump suggested he may also appear at a rally of his supporters in Washington tomorrow.

“Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there, especially the organic Rallies that are springing up all over the Country, including a big one on Saturday in D.C. I may even try to stop by and say hello,” Trump said in a tweet, before once again repeating his baseless claim that the election was “rigged.”

Several pro-Trump groups have announced plans to rally in Washington tomorrow, in support of the president’s fact-free claims that the election was stolen from him.

The Washington Post has more details on the rally:

The events have been promoted by far-right media personalities, white nationalists and conspiracy theorists — several of whom announced plans to attend. Counterdemonstrations organized by anti-fascist and anti-racism groups are being planned nearby.

The rallies, which include a Women for Trump event, a ‘Million MAGA March’ and a ‘Stop the Steal’ demonstration — which falsely asserts that voter fraud cost Trump the election — will begin Saturday morning in and around Freedom Plaza.

The pro-Trump rallies have garnered support from Fox News host Sean Hannity as well as more fringe figures, including Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys; self-described ‘American Nationalist’ and social media agitator Nicholas Fuentes; conservative provocateur Jack Posobiec, who promoted the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theory tied to the 2016 shooting at D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong; Scott Presler, a pro-Trump activist who works with anti-Muslim group ACT for America; and Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The White House has just announced Donald Trump will speak in the Rose Garden at 4pm ET today, to deliver an update on Operation Warp Speed.

Trump received a briefing this afternoon on the program, which aims to help accelerate the development of a coronavirus vaccine.

This will mark the first time that Trump has publicly spoken to reporters since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential race on Saturday.

Since then, Trump has spent much of his time spreading baseless claims of election fraud over Twitter.

The president’s last press conference was eight days ago, when he appeared in the White House briefing room to air a stream of lies about the integrity of the election.

An update from Tom McCarthy, who wrote earlier on Friday about the Trump law firm withdrawing from a Pennsylvania case challenging the election.

Tom writes:

Separately, lawyers for the Trump campaign have withdrawn a lawsuit in Arizona, conceding that the case would not move enough votes to change the election result in the state. “Since the close of yesterday’s hearing, the tabulation of votes statewide has rendered unnecessary a judicial ruling as to the presidential electors,” Trump lawyer Kory Langhofer told an Arizona state court, in news first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Federal and state officials praised the election as “the most secure in American history,” even as Donald Trump continued to spread baseless claims of massive fraud. A group of election officials said in a statement released last night, “While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too.”
• More than 130 Secret Service agents have contracted coronavirus or been asked to quarantine after Trump’s extensive campaign travel, according to the Washington Post. The president held dozens of large rallies in the final weeks before the election, raising concerns about the spread of coronavirus. Now, roughly 10% of the president’s core security team has been sidelined by the virus.
• The US set another single-day record for new coronavirus infections. According to Johns Hopkins University, the US confirmed 153,496 new cases yesterday, and 919 Americans died of coronavirus.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is keeping up the charade that the presidential race has not yet been called.

Asked during a Fox Business interview whether Donald Trump would attend the presidential inauguration in January, McEnany said that was “many steps away.”

“President Trump believes he will be President Trump, have a second term, and litigation is the first step,” McEnany said.

When McEnany was pressed again on whether Trump would attend the inauguration, she replied, “I think the president will attend his own inauguration. He would have to be there, in fact.”

The blog is once again required to fact-check a Trump administration official on the reality of the election results. Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the presidential race by every major news outlet, and he will be sworn in at the January 20 inauguration.

The incoming Congress has two members who have voiced support for the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and one of them is criticizing her colleagues for wearing masks to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman-elect from Georgia, said in a tweet, “Our first session of New Member Orientation covered COVID in Congress. Masks, masks, masks…. I proudly told my freshman class that masks are oppressive.”

As a reminder, health experts have repeatedly urged Americans to wear masks to limit the spread of the virus, particularly now that cases are surging across the country.

Evidence has found that masks can help mitigate the spread of the virus from people who are asymptomatic or have not yet developed symptoms.

Asked yesterday about the two new Republican members who have expressed support for QAnon, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said, “The only thing I would ask for you in the press — these are new members. Give them an opportunity before you claim what you believe they have done and what they will do.”

Two people are dead and a third is missing after an apparent explosion in a maintenance building at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Connecticut.

VA secretary Robert Wilkie said in a statement, “We received a report this morning that an explosion occurred at the West Haven campus of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System that resulted in two deaths in a non-patient care area.”

Wilkie said neither of the victims were patients and patient care was not affected by the explosion. “Our prayers are with the families of the victims of this explosion,” Wilkie said.

Firefighters described the accident as a “steam explosion,” and officials are investigating the cause of the explosion.

Contrary to a prior report, Dr Anthony Fauci is not participating in Donald Trump’s briefing on Operation Warp Speed this afternoon.

The infectious disease expert said he instead took part in a morning meeting about Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s effort to accelerate the development of a coronavirus vaccine.

This will be Trump’s first publicly announced coronavirus briefing since he lost the presidential election, and it comes as coronavirus cases hit record-high levels across the country.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was “proud” of holding a majority of the seats that Democrats won in 2018, many of which were in districts that Donald Trump won in 2016.

“The fact is that President Trump, to his credit, turned out a big vote,” Pelosi said, acknowledging the slimmer Democratic majority in the House for the next Congress.

When asked about whether the smaller majority would affect her legislative agenda, Pelosi pointed to Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race to emphasize that Democrats would have a good amount of power come January.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference on Capitol Hill to address her legislative priorities for the new Congress.

The Democratic speaker once again urged her Republican colleagues to accept the results of the presidential election so that Congress could focus on passing another coronavirus relief bill.

“The election is over,” Pelosi said. “Joe Biden is the president-elect.”

But there are no signs that negotiations between congressional Democratic leadership and the White House have resumed.

Asked about the Democratic members who lost their re-election races, Pelosi said she was “sad” to lose a number of colleagues, but she predicted some of them would run again. She also said some of them were looking to join the Biden administration.

When a reporter asked Pelosi if she took responsibility for the losses, Pelosi replied, “I take credit for winning the majority and holding the House.”