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3.44pm GMT
Trump is feuding with multiple midwestern governors today. Besides Ohio Republican governor Mike DeWine he’s also in a squabble with Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.
Whitmer shot back at previous comments by a top aide to Trump in a call with reporters this morning, according to the Detroit Free Press:
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday denounced as shocking and reckless a call from a Trump administration official for Michigan residents to “rise up” over new coronavirus restrictions she announced Sunday.
“It’s just incredibly reckless, considering everything that has happened, everything that is going on,” Whitmer said in a call with Capitol reporters.
3.36pm GMT
There’s another important rub for Republicans in Georgia: a fear that party infighting will trip up their chances of retaining both Senate seats.
Georgia Republicans Worry Trump Feud Could Hurt Key Senate Runoffs https://t.co/3yTZLji3j6 via @WSJ w/@cammcwhirter @AlexaCorse
Former Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) said he hoped the infighting would die down so the party could unify behind Sens. Perdue and Loeffler but added, “No one party is going to dominate forever. We did dominate for a period of time. Now it’s competitive.”
3.18pm GMT
The American political universe is turning its attention to Georgia, where two Senate races will decide control of the Senate in 2021. In the race between incumbent Republican senator David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, there’s been a standoff over debates.
Here’s Politico reporter James Arkin:
Ossoff campaign says he has accepted six potential debates (five locals plus CNN) for the runoff. Perdue has declined debates.
They did two debates in general election. Perdue cancelled 3rd to do rally with Trump in GA Sunday before ED pic.twitter.com/bFCsLMYYwJ
3.03pm GMT
Ohio governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, seems to have fallen back into the crosshairs of Trump.
Who will be running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio? Will be hotly contested!
“It’s clear that, certainly, based on what we know now, that Joe Biden is the president-elect. And that transition, for the country’s sake, it’s important for a normal transition to start through,” DeWine – a Republican like Trump – said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And the president can go on his other track and his legal track. We should respect that, but we also need to begin that process.”
2.49pm GMT
As part of his media tour for his new book, former president Barack Obama sat down with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. In that interview he lapped praise on George W. Bush and how the Bush administration handed off the federal government to Obama’s incoming administration.
The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly has more:
In an interview with the Atlantic to mark publication of his memoir A Promised Land, Barack Obama ponders Joe Biden’s chances of working with Republicans in Congress, comes close to admitting to being a never-Trump conservative himself – and compares America under Trump to Central Asia under Genghis Khan.
“If we were going to have a rightwing populist in this country,” Obama says, “I would have expected somebody a little more appealing.”
Related: Obama scolds ‘petulant’ Trump but reveals conservative sympathies
2.28pm GMT
Welcome to the US politics blog. Daniel Strauss here.
Donald Trump and his allies are pushing back on reports that the president’s re-election campaign is pulling back on major aspects of its legal challenge to the election results in Pennsylvania.
The Washington Post forgot to read the complaint. Fake News. Poll Watchers, and the way they were treated, are a very big deal in the complaint! https://t.co/Rhc4RY0QSF
Do not use the law firm of Swaine & Viebeck.
They are the WAPO activists who falsely wrote that we changed our case in PA.
They didn’t read para 132-150 which repeat all the allegations of the 680,777 mail in votes which were deliberately concealed from Republican inspectors.