Biden plans executive orders, pandemic panel, while Trump claims he won the election.
Now President-Elect Joe Biden with supporters in Henderson, Nevada, February 2020. (Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons)
Biden Lays Out Plans, While
Trump Still Disputes Result
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
While Former Vice President Joe Biden has begun to lay out changes he plans to make immediately upon taking office, President Donald Trump has vowed to continue waging a legal battle to prove that he won instead.
Biden aides have revealed that he plans a series of executive orders upon assuming power that would reverse numerous Trump policies, The Washington Post reported. Biden will have the U.S. rejoin the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, lift the ban on travel from numerous Muslim countries and he’ll put back in place the Dreamers program, that allows children of undocumented aliens to remain in the United States.
Biden said in his victory speech on Saturday that he would set up a coronavirus task force with top scientists to presumably reverse Trump’s policy on the pandemic. Trump’s handling of the health emergency was cited in opinion polls as the issue most on Americans’ minds.
Meanwhile, Trump has not given up, tweeting on Sunday:
“THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!”
Lawyers for the Trump team have begun legal action in swing states. In Michigan a legislative committee began a probe into allegations of irregularities in vote counting. The Republican majority committee is demanding documents from the state’s Bureau of Elections. While counting continues in various states, the Trump team will need access to ballots in order to make a case of fraud.
Biden Takes Pennsylvania & White House
Saturday–Joe Biden has won the White House after taking the state of Pennsylvania, CNN, NBC News and the Associated Press have projected. The New York Times has also called it for Biden:
So has The Washington Post:
One hour earlier:
I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
Trump issued a statement shortly after the media called the election. “The simple fact is this election is far from over,” President Donald Trump said. “We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed.”
Biden and Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris, the first woman to become vice president, are to speak in Wilmington, Delaware Saturday evening.
Biden Takes Pennsylvania Lead
Friday– Joe Biden has taken the lead in the state of Pennsylvania putting him in position to win the presidency.
With 95 percent of the votes counted, Biden now leads Trump by 5,587 votes. If Biden holds on, he’d win the state’s 20 electoral votes, giving him 273 and the presidency.
There are still 130,000 votes to count in the state.
Biden Takes Lead in Georgia
Joe Biden is zeroing in on the presidency as he takes the lead in Georgia and is within a few thousand votes of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania as the U.S. east coast woke up on Friday morning.
A win in Pennsylvania with its 20 electoral votes would win it for Biden. At 8 a.m. EST he trailed Trump by 18,049 votes with 95 percent of the votes counted. A Biden victory in Georgia would deprive Trump of enough electoral votes left on the board to stay in the White House. Biden leads by 1,096 votes in Georgia with 98 percent counted.
Because of razor thin margins in those two states and others, like Wisconsin, legal challenges and recounts will follow with a Trump concession speech probably weeks away.
Some Republican congressional leaders have distanced themselves from Trump’s remarks on Thursday, while others, like Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, have stuck with Trump, fearful of alienating his still energized base.
Trump’s Pennsylvania Lead is Eroding
Thursday—Donald Trump’s lead over Joe Biden in Pennsylvania has narrowed to just 64,266 votes with 98 percent of the vote counted. Six hours ago Trump led by 116,000 votes, as the mail-in ballot count continues. On Wednesday morning, Trump had a 600,000 vote lead. If Biden pulls it out in the state, he would win the presidency with 270 electoral college votes.
Trump Again Claims Victory & Blames ‘Fraud’
Donald Trump appeared in the White House briefing room just before 7 p.m. to say he has won the election and it is being stolen from him.
“If you count the legal votes I easily win,” Trump said. “If you count the illegal votes, they are trying to steal this—if you count the votes that came in late.”
Trump said there had been interference in the election by “big media, big money and big tech. We won with historic numbers.” Trump said the wrong opinion polls that had Biden winning by a landslide was evidence of “suppression.”
“Pollsters got it wrong. There was no blue wave. It was done for suppression reasons. There has been a big red wave.”
Again, Trump blamed mail-in ballots. “Democratic officials never believed they could win honestly, that’s why they mailed out tens of millions of unsolicited ballots without verification,” Trump said. “It’s totally unprecedented. There was no requirement to have signatures or to determine whether voters were eligible. We have information coming in litigation.” Trump said that ultimately the Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, would decide the election.
Trump had told his supporters in the middle of pandemic not to vote by mail, so it is not surprising that most of those votes are Democratic. “I said mail in ballots would be a disaster,” he said.
Trump said there were “secret count rooms” and that Republican observers had been kept out the counting areas in Detroit. He said they were also blocked in Philadelphia, but that the Republicans won litigation to get the observers in. In fact the lawsuit was not about access but about how close they could position themselves to the counters.
Pennsylvania Could Determine Outcome Today
The Pennsylvania secretary of state said Thursday that the state’s 20 electoral college votes should be determined by the end of the day, which could deliver the White House to former Vice President Joe Biden.
Kathy Boockvar told CNN that there are still 550,000 votes, about 100,000 in Philadelphia, to be counted, all of them mail-in ballots.
Biden has so far won 253 electoral college votes to Trump’s 213. Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes would give Biden 273. A candidate needs 270 to win the presidency.
As of 2 pm Thursday, Trump still leads Biden in the Keystone State by 50.2 percent to 48.5 percent, with 92 percent of the vote counted. That is a difference of about 116,000 votes in Trump’s favor. However that lead is threatened by the outstanding mail-in ballots, which have heavily favored Biden.
Earlier in the day the Biden camp said it did not expect a winner to be declared on Thursday. That was before Boockvar spoke.
Nevada officials said final results from that state, with its six electoral votes, would not be known until the weekend. Biden leads in Nevada by 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent with 89 percent counted.
Biden also leads in Arizona by two percentage points with 86 percent counted. If Biden holds on in both states, Nevada’s six electoral votes and Arizona’s 11 could also put him over the top.
Meanwhile Trump has been furiously tweeting from the White House, declaring “STOP THE FRAUD!” and “STOP THE COUNT!”
He also tweeted: “All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud. Plenty of proof – just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!”
Even if Biden were to win Pennsylvania today and declare victory, Trump is unlikely to concede anytime soon, allowing his legal challenges and recounts to proceed. The Trump campaign has already demanded a recount in Wisconsin, with counting continuing there.
The large number of mail-in ballots have come in the midst of the pandemic. The Democrats urged their voters not to risk going to the polls and vote by mail instead. Trump, who has been denying the severity of the virus, did not encourage mail-in voting.
Instead, his administration tried to cut funding to the Post Office to make it harder for Democrats to vote. The president has been railing against voting by mail for months, alleging that it is subject to fraud.
When he saw that he was leading in all swing states on Tuesday night, he declared victory and demanded the counting be stopped, knowing that his leads were threatened once the mailed-in ballots were counted.
Biden Wins Michigan and Wisconsin
Wednesday-—Joe Biden is projected to win Michigan and Wisconsin, giving him 253 electoral college votes to 213 for Trump. Biden can win if he holds on to his leads in Nevada and Arizona. It would put him at the needed 270 electoral college votes.
Biden, who is trailing in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, could lose those states and still win the presidency. Biden spoke in Delaware today and said “We are not declaring victory, but we believe we will win.”
Trump Wants Supreme Court to Stop Counting of Votes While He’s Ahead
Wednesday–President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared premature victory and said he would go to the US Supreme Court to stop the counting so that he would win key electoral states he is leading in, giving him the presidency.
Speaking from the White House after 2 a.m. Washington time, Trump said there had been a “major fraud” committed on the American people because “millions and millions” of mail in ballots were allowed. “Frankly, we did win this election,” he declared.
Biden took over Trump’s lead in the swing state of Wisconsin by 49.5 percent to 48.8 percent with 97 percent of the votes counted; Trump leads in Pennsylvania by 55 percent to 44 percent with 76 percent counted and in North Carolina by 50.1 percent to 48.7 percent with 95 percent counted. Biden took over the lead in Michigan 49.3 percent to 49.1 percent with 90 percent counted.
In states where Biden trails, mail-in ballots are still being counted. Democrats are dominating the mail-in vote. There are about 1.4 million votes yet to be counted in Pennsylvania alone.
Biden is leading by 227 to 213 electoral votes, according to a count by The New York Times. CNN has Biden leading by 224 to 213. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke after Trump, appeared to ignore what the president said, calling for the votes to be counted. There is no way for Trump to go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop counting, or even for a recount. These are state matters dealt with by state courts, which can hear challenges to the counting.
Throughout his presidency Trump has repeatedly made wild statements, both spoken, and on Twitter, which he quickly reverses. It has made it hard to often take him seriously. It remains to be seen if Trump continues to pursue his line of “major fraud” because of the “millions of ballots” sent by mail that will take time to count.
If an authoritarian leader does not have the people around him to implement his orders, he is not a dictator, but an isolated fabulist.
Trump has railed against mail-in ballots for months when it became clear that these would favor Biden. Trump wants the counting to stop so he can be declared the winner of those battleground states that he leads in, which would give him at least 270 electoral votes.
If those mail-in ballots tip at least some of these states to Biden, he the former vice president could win. It would remain to be seen how Trump would react to that.
A Republican lawyer told CNN that Trump had no way to go to the US Supreme Court to have the counting stopped. He said such a legal move can only made in state courts, and that Trump had no basis to demand the counting be stopped.
Rick Santorum, the former Republican senator, told CNN he was “distressed” by Trump’s statements.
Trump had earlier tweeted that he won the election and that “they” are trying to steal it. Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein told CN Live! Thursday night that that was a dangerous signal to violent Trump supporters.
Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke about two hours earlier to his supporters, saying he is “feeling good,” about winning. “It ain’t over until all the ballots are counted.” About 1.4 million mail-in votes have not yet been counted in Pennsylvania.
Biden said “we are going to win Pennsylvania. It will take time” to count the votes. “We may know in the morning,” he said. “Keep the faith, we are going to win this.”
Interesting reading all the 25-comments. So, if you think America is screwed up I can say you’re only half correct because you have no idea how screwed up / corrupt America is until you read the book JPMadoff. This book will scare the hell out of you. The book is written by the lawyers representing the 1,600 of Madoff’s customers. Who Madoff ripped off for $64.8 Billion, yes you read that correctly BILLION.
To put you at ease American is not the Lonely Ranger in this rip-off / corrupt behaviour, wherever I travel in the world and kickover the rocks I have to make a run for my life to not being runover by the crooks that came out from under the rock.
Happy reading.
Sincerely,
DrFransBRoosPhD-JD..
The important question will be, “Who will accept Juan Biden as the LEGITIMATE president?” – China? Russia? America? Venezuela? Interestingly, it may be the one thing Australia again agrees with China about!
We actually do have a problem with fraud. But it’s not voter fraud. It’s election fraud. In at least nine of the 24 states where exit polls were performed the unadjusted exit polls were so improbably wrong they would have failed the US state department’s own standard for verifying foreign elections as free and fair. Eight of them were to Trump’s benefit, one to Biden’s. We have a criminally fraudulent electoral system and Trump’s vague claims of non-existent voter fraud are being used to once again dismiss even the POSSIBILITY that the United State’s has extremely vulnerable, hackable elections. Source here:
see: tdmsresearch.com/2020/11/04/2020-presidential-election-table/
Media do indicate that this time, Russia stole the election for Biden. I think they’re trying to show enthusiasm — “start of a new era,” and all that. The dirty little secret, understood all along by those not inclined to get caught up in the campaign year hoopla: While Trump and Biden have different styles, they have strikingly similar ideologies. The most notable thing about 2021 will be how little changes because of the election.
It proves again that USA is a criminal society in which a senile, corrupt candidate like Biden can win the presidential election. In addtion it proves that the US media & large digital companie like Facebook, Google, Twitter can manipulate the outcome of an election. This is the END of DEMOCRACY!
From Jonathan Cook’s article on CN today:
This week liberal Americans reached for that glass of wine and voted Joe Biden. Others did so much more reluctantly, spurred on by the fear of giving his opponent another four years.
Biden isn’t over the finishing line quite yet, and there are likely to be recounts, court challenges and possibly violence over the result, but he seems all but certain to be crowned the next US president. Not that that should provoke any kind of celebration. The rest of the world’s population, future generations, the planet itself – none of us had a vote – were always going to be the losers whichever candidate won.
The incumbent, Donald Trump, miscalculated, it seems, if he thought dismissing his opponent as “Sleepy Joe” would be enough to damage Biden’s electoral fortunes. True, Trump was referring to the fact that Biden is a dried-out husk of the machine politician he once was. But after four years of Trump and in the midst of a pandemic, the idea of sleeping through the next presidential term probably sounded pretty appealing to liberals. Most of them have spent their whole political lives asleep.
Four years ago, however, they were forcibly roused from their languor to protest against Donald Trump. They grew enraged by the symptom of their corrupt political system rather than by the corrupt system itself. For them, “Sleepy Joe” was just what the doctor ordered.
But it won’t be Biden doing the sleeping. It will be the liberals who cheerlead him. Biden – or perhaps Kamala Harris – will be busy making sure his corporate donors get exactly what they paid for, whatever the cost to the rest of us.
A side issue, I supposed, but thank you for indicating the difference between liberals and progressives/the left.
Looks like Dear Leader is exiting the way he entered, lying like a rug and delusional to the bitter end. Trump seems to actually believe the Supreme Court owes him, that it is going to hand him the prize as it did for Baby Bush – except Bush was the grandson of a US Senator and Papa Bush was a US President, while Trump is an outsider, a vulgar arriviste thoroughly despised by DC’s hereditary aristocracy. If SCOTUS rubber-stamped Trump’s blatant fraud, the court would lessen its credibility to effectively do its real job, protecting the prerogatives of the ruling class.
Do you really think the SCOTUS has credibility? The three latest additions were bad enough, but since Powell’s memorandum in 1971, the rights of ordinary citizens have been whittled away and there is practically no hope for decisions that are not in the interest of the corporations and business leaders. 2010 was the real death knoll.
Where we go from here: China was furious at Trump for not only criticizing those “free trade” policies that cost of millions of US jobs, but working to reverse the years of US companies shipping our jobs to China. From this, we can anticipate a few years of Republicans shouting, “China stole the election!” Has a familiar ring to it, should sell well enough.
Actually I think our relationship will return to normal under Biden. No more whining about losing jobs to China and increasing the import of cheap products. The economy may take a few years to recover but in the meantime the investigation of Hunter Biden will be stopped and he can expand his corporate ties to the Chinese Communist Party and he can hold his dad’s 10% until he retires.
After hearing lunatics like Giuliani and Gingrich ranting, and reading Trump’s tweets, it’s difficult to imagine that he’ll just like concede and ride off into the sunset. An ugly, protracted fight with daily incitements to violence and racist attacks seems probable at this point. Doesn’t it seem, like, weirdly calm and uneventful so far, knowing how rabid the Republican party is about holding onto power? We better buckle up, it’s gonna get out of control. This is just the proverbial calm before the storm I guess.
This may be the first election decided by The Pentagon…god help us all.
The election of Biden means, as was pointed out by Pepe Escobar, a return of the Blob in full throttle. They – MICCIMATT – will of course be the effective government, and moreover, with a stronger and even more messianic and alarming foreign policy dementia; Biden will be paraded as a perfunctory show of Presidential window-dressing. This ultra-insider will just serve to enunciate the usual cliched narrative, provided he can manage his lines correctly, served up to him by the real, permanent state bureaucracies, not forgetting of course the MSM whores.
He will pick up Arizona and Michigan. There are 100%+ turnouts in several states and he will pick up those states as well.
Thanks for the very timely coverage, Joe.
Sadly, I have no choice but to agree with your crisp and, I am afraid, highly accurate insight on the truely dirty nature of American politics and “democracy” !
When Sean Davis, editor of The Federalist, pointed out the odd jumps in Biden’s votes, Twitter slapped a warning on his tweet. Calling it “disputed” and “potentially misleading”.
According to a Trump’s campaign statement: « Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan’s law. »
Is it true?
What is so sad about the “democratic elections” in the USA is that they are in no way representative of the majority of voters. The candidates are chosen by committees and pushed ahead by donations. Whoever is elected follows the wishes of the lobbies that helped him or her get elected. The policies that most American polled say they want eg universal health care, decent education, housing, (perhaps even peace??!!) are not even discussed in the Congress. All investigations eg Gilens and Page 2014 show that what the rich and powerful want, they get. What the rest of us get-who cares? *The differences between the Parties on foreign affairs are minimal (eg support for Israel)and changeable (eg “enemies” Russia and China) and the media make no effort to present news disagreeing with their particular bias.
So well said Rosemerry! How can we extricate ourselves from this fraudulent “democracy”?
We can’t. Too many years of work went into successfully pitting us against each other by class and race. Liberals and the left have rarely seen eye-to-eye, but this division is particularly deep today — thanks to the Democrats.
Excellent summary.
What an alarming demand Trump has made. He just does not care what anyone thinks of him or care about any rules or traditions.
The possibility of four more years is truly disturbing.
The election sadly is a good measure of what a changed place America has become, leaving even pretenses to decency behind.
It is difficult to accept that more-or-less half of Americans can cast a ballot for a man who has cheated, stolen, and killed in office – all while giving off a steady stream of ignorant claims and lies.
The world is going to be a very dangerous place if he succeeds. He will be just full of attitude about how right he was.
Don’t kid yourself, Mr. Chuckman. The world is going to be a very dangerous place regardless of who becomes the head dog catcher. Anybody can be a narcissistic, ignorant, megalomaniac. The fact that roughly 50% of our electorate would vote for a narcissistic, ignorant, megalomaniac is a damning indictment of the American people.
You’re right, I’m afraid, Jeff.
— a disillusioned 80-year-old
It is a damning indictment of the people who own and use the most powerful propaganda and corporate media apparatus the world has ever seen. Be aware that the information warfare from many sides, has made this bed; this opinions-over-facts environment, and now the world is forced to lay in it.
Capitalism has made narrative control profitable, a commodity, contested as it may be. We are all subjected to a constant barrage of twisted partisan soap-boxing disguised as news. In a sea of misinformation, there are few rocks on which to stand.
People have come to believe all sorts of bizarre narratives. This is the result of private media ownership, and market competition, without arbitration.
Cui Bono? Well, not the people. The proletariat is divided, seemingly about ready to pit one half against the other based on beliefs quite sideways of the real. Yet capital continues to promote the consumption of all things, for “our” economy, even, to the end of the world.
A small addition to my earlier comment: regarding free speech.
In the end of this fraught debate, we have to accept that the core of it, is whether we defend the right of an influential liar to lie.
Whether from a corporation, or from social media victims of false narratives, or from a supposed political representative, the right to lie, is not a thing I can tolerate.
Protection of speech is not supposed to be a defense of willful deceit of the many.
Democracy requires accurate information.
Blame the liars, not their victims. The people are doing the best they can. The powerful who influence the people with self interested narratives, rather than honest ones, are responsible for the social disintegration worsening day by day.
Yes, but here’s the point that Dem Party loyalists can’t grasp: As appalling as Trump is, so many former Dem voters can no longer see the Democrats as the “lesser evil.” And as the record so strikingly shows, Democrats have been a party of war all along.
The Democrats aren’t the Democrats any longer. After St. Ronnie was elected and pushed the Republicans to the right, moderate Republicans jumped ship to the Democrats and the party ceased to be the party of FDR. You are absolutely right that the Democrats portrayed themselves as “not as bad as the Republicans” even well after they were demonstrably as bad as the Republicans. However, you are wrong when you say that the Democrats were the war party all along. Back in the 60’s and 70’s they weren’t (leaving aside the outlier of LBJ) but they couldn’t elect anybody (see George McGovern) which implies that the real war party was the American people.
Trump is insane. I guess it is senility. His mind is no longer in what passes for reality. He has been showing that for some time now and the odd thing is that no one picked up on it. I suppose it’s hard to tell the difference between a lie and a delusion.
As the psychologists and psychologists have said from the beginning as published in their book(s) they felt they had a duty to warn the nation that Trump is a Malignant Narcissist. That’s a dangerous person to lead the nation. He should never have been elected.
This surely shows up the system of election, first to allow only two Parties (freedom of choice???) then to have the parade of contestants, needing no qualifications, to be chosen not by the people in their electorates but by committees, then MONEY decides which lies are going to convince the potential voters in the long circus of propaganda.
For 67% actually to vote being considered an achievement in an alleged democracy (check out other nations level of participation and number of Parties gaining Reps in governments) is disgraceful.
Both candidates are arguably senile/insane. How the hell did “democracy” come up with them???
Still haven’t figured out what people mean, when they say”democracy.”
What democracy?
Why, my limerick seems perfectly suited to your commentary:
Dangerously deluded Trump
Thinks everyone else is a chump
A serial liar
his pants caught on fire
and thoroughly roasted his rump!