- US passes grim landmark of 250,000 deaths from coronavirus
- Leaked White House report warns current mitigation efforts ‘inadequate
- ‘Pathetic’ Trump denounced over Krebs firing as he presses for recounts
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10.09am GMT
It’s worth catching up with what Virginia’s Democratic senator Mark Warner has said on MSNBC about the Trump attempts to cling to power. Warner is the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was asked whether people were over-reacting to the president’s recent actions. He said:
I view that the vast majority of Republicans are embarrassed by what Donald Trump is doing. But I don’t think they can continue, and should continue, to enable him, just because they don’t want to be the victim of a tweetstorm. And I really think it is not going to be the mainstream media or Democratic elected officials who are going to get this guy to change his behaviour. It is going to have to be business leaders, our retired military leaders, our intelligence community leaders, who just say this is not acceptable. My fear now is about the CIA director, and the FBI Director. My fear is whether he will take other arbitrary actions in terms of our long standing alliances. We can’t allow this to continue.
10.00am GMT
Since Donald Trump’s defeat, Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, has still clung to the president and to his policies as though her political life depends on it.
The actual lives of many South Dakotans could depend, in turn, upon that decision given the terrifying surge of Covid-19 cases that is battering the state under Noem’s contentious leadership. South Dakota has been listed by Forbes as one of the 10 most dangerous states in the Union, all of them in the Midwest.
Related: Kristi Noem rigidly follows Trump strategy of denial as Covid ravages South Dakota
9.48am GMT
You may recall Huffington Post’s White House correspondent SV Dáte as the journalist who once asked Donald Trump to his face “Do you regret all your lying?”. This morning he has laid out how Trump is getting ever more brazen in his attempts to steal the election he lost.
In recent days, his campaign has welcomed the idea of disenfranchising all of the voters of Nevada, pushed to have Michigan’s 16 electoral votes awarded by its Republican legislature and alleged, without evidence, “massive fraud” all over the country in a court case in Pennsylvania ― all as Trump posts one lie after another on social media.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism at New York University, said Trump’s claim to have won an election he lost by 74 Electoral College votes and 6 million votes overall is a clear danger sign.
9.44am GMT
Here’s a quick clip of that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blow-up last night. He clashed with reporters after being asked whether New York city still had the ability to close its schools.
Cuomo, who also has a history of clashing with New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, suggested schools remain open as the state expanded testing, citing a state law, and responded to reporters telling them “You’re confused. Read the law. Read the law and you won’t be confused.”
9.38am GMT
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Thursday. Here’s a quick summary of where we are…