President’s legal efforts against election result continue as US records highest every daily Covid case rise
- Joe Biden confirmed as Georgia winner after recount
- Trump’s election legal challenges: where do things stand?
- Biden: Trump is one of ‘most irresponsible presidents in American history’
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10.07am GMT
In that MSNBC interview last night, former president Barack Obama also had some words to say on the unique challenge facing vice president-elect Kamala Harris as she prepares for her new role.
I mean she’s gone through a twofer, right? I think the one thing we’ve learned over the last several years is that the challenges that women face as women are profound, just as race is a profound issue in our society, and women of color have to deal with both. The good news is, is that Kamala is accustomed to it. She’s been a first before. She’s been on the national stage. And my advice to her is actually really similar to my advice to Joe, which is, surround yourself with great people. Stay open to ideas wherever they come from. Reach out to the other side, but understand that you may not always get the cooperation you want, but you keep on trying just to make sure that you can – when you go to bed at night – be confident that you’re doing everything you can to try to unify the country. And then follow your instincts and follow your values.
9.55am GMT
While on the subject of the Democratic party progressives, that’s the topic for our Politics Weekly Extra podcast this week. Jonathan Freedland and Maanvi Singh discuss how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will need to think long and hard as they embark on a bid to unify the moderates of the Democratic party and those further left.
It’s a familiar conundrum for parties on the left and centre-left all over the world. If you delight young, educated voters in the cities, how can you avoid alienating your traditional supporters, including blue-collar workers in the towns?
9.39am GMT
While Donald Trump continues to deny that he lost, Joe Biden is getting on with the task of putting together his teams. But Steve Peoples warns for the Associated Press that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are at risk of being excluded from the senior ranks of president-elect’s administration as the incoming president balances the demands of his party’s progressive base against the political realities of a narrowly divided Senate.
He writes that the senators remain interested in serving in Biden’s Cabinet, but even some of their allies recognize they face major political hurdles getting there. Sensing disappointment, progressive leaders have reluctantly begun to express support for less-controversial alternatives.
9.33am GMT
Here’s what the New York Times had to say in the early hours about Donald Trump’s renewed assault on the election results in Michigan. At present, Joe Biden leads the state by around 155,000 votes, and has 50.6% of the vote compared to Trump’s 47.8% – it has 16 electoral college votes at stake.
For Trump and his Republican allies, Michigan has become the prime target in their campaign to subvert the will of voters backing Biden. Trump called at least one GOP elections official in the Detroit area this week after she voted to certify Biden’s overwhelming victory there, and he is now set to meet with legislators ahead of Michigan’s deadline on Monday to certify the results.
The president has also asked aides what Republican officials he could call in other battleground states in his effort to prevent the certification of results that would formalize his loss to Biden. Trump allies appear to be pursuing a highly dubious legal theory that if the results are not certified, Republican legislatures could intervene and appoint pro-Trump electors in states Biden won who would support the president when the Electoral College meets on 14 December.
9.22am GMT
Former president Barack Obama was continuing his media rounds to promote his new memoir last night, and he was on MSNBC. He had this to say about Trump’s attempt to defy his defeat:
Look, Joe Biden’s going to be the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next vice president. I have been troubled, like I think every American, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat or Independent, should be troubled, when you start having attempts to block, negate, overturn the people’s vote when there’s no actual evidence that there was anything illegal or fraudulent taking place. These are just bald assertions. They’ve been repeatedly rejected by the courts. And I think I’m less surprised by Donald Trump doing this. You know, he has shown only a flimsy relationship to the truth.
I’m more troubled that you’re seeing a lot of Republican officials go along with it, not because they actually believe it, but because they feel intimidated by it, and the degree to which you’ve seen some news outlets that cater to the right and the conservative viewpoint somehow try to prop up these bogus claims.
Related: Obama’s A Promised Land sells almost 890,000 copies on first day
9.14am GMT
New York’s attorney general has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records related to consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump as part of a broad civil investigation into the president’s business dealings, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that a similar subpoena was sent to President Donald Trump’s company by the Manhattan district attorney, which is conducting a parallel criminal probe.
This is harassment pure and simple. This ‘inquiry’ by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage. They know very well that there’s nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless.https://t.co/4dQoDzQlRX
9.08am GMT
Here’s a re-cap of president-elect Joe Biden saying Donald Trump will go down in history as one of the ‘most irresponsible presidents in American history’, labelling his challenges to the election results ‘incredibly damaging’.
Biden said he was not concerned that Trump’s refusal to concede the election would prevent a transfer of power, but added it ‘sends a horrible message about who we are as a country’.
9.05am GMT
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Friday. Donald Trump and his campaign continue to mount legal challenges to Joe Biden’s overwhelming election victory. The preisdent has taken the unprecedented step of inviting Republican state leaders in Michigan to the White House to pressure them not to certify the state’s election results. All this against a backdrop of the number of coronavirus cases in the US and the death rate continues to grimly rise.
Related: Joe Biden confirmed as Georgia winner after recount