We found no connection between isolated vote-counting errors and a former Pelosi staffer.
In Michigan, a clerk’s error led to an incorrect early tally that was corrected within two days and was never an official result. In Georgia, early morning voting halted temporarily in two counties when individual machines malfunctioned.
Trump won by large margins in all three counties, and there is no evidence of any broad lapse.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday blasted President Trump for firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper just two days after Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential election.
“The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump is intent on using his final days in office to sow chaos in our American Democracy and around the world," Pelosi said in a statement.
"Continuity
and stability are always important during a presidential transition;
they are absolutely imperative at this moment, as this historically
erratic Administration prepares for its departure," she added.
The CEO of Pfizer dismissed any suggestions that his company waited until the presidential election was decided before announcing the promising results of its COVID-19 vaccine trials.
Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO of Pfizer, completely rejected these suggestions in a Monday interview with CNN. "We announced it the moment we learned about it," Bourla said. "I said multiple times that the election for us is an artificial timeline."
https://time.com/5909532/donald-trump-joe-biden-administration-transition/
The General Services Administration is the federal government’s de
facto real-estate firm. It provides incoming administrations with the
basics — like office space and computers — to make the transition
between election results and Inauguration Day as easy as possible. But
the current head
of the GSA, a former senior aide on Capitol Hill who was appointed by
Trump, has said she has not seen any certification outside of the media
that Biden won, thus she has no obligation to contradict her boss, who
says he has. GSA aides say they are merely following precedent set in
2000, when there was a dispute and a recount.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290911
Fox News on Monday cut away from a Trump campaign press conference outlining its allegations of election fraud in the presidential election.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began her press conference by saying Democrats were the only party opposing voter ID, verifying signatures, citizenship, residency, eligibility, and trying to keep observers out of the count room.
“You take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are
welcoming illegal voting,” she said just before Fox News cut away.
Parts of Brooklyn that had high COVID test positivity rates in early October, including some with large Orthodox Jewish communities, will face fewer restrictions after seeing the rates fall.
US President Donald Trump on Monday falsely accused the US Food and Drug Administration, drugmaker Pfizer and the Democrats of apparently conspiring to delay an announcement of progress on a coronavirus vaccine until after last week’s elections.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/william-barr-voting-irregularities/index.html
The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks.
Yalkut HaMakiri Tehilim (118 28): Tehlim (51:7) Behold I was born in sin. One view is that Dovid’s mother was the son of a beloved wife while another says a hated wife.. Yishai was separated from his wife for three years. After three years he had a pretty maid servant that he lusted for. He said to the slave,”My daughter; I prepared myself for you tonight to free you.” The slave went to his wife, “ “Save yourself and the soul of your husband from Hell.”She replied, “What is happening?”The slave told her everything. She replied, “My daughter what can I do since he hasn’t touched me for three years?. Go prepare yourself and so will I” And she did. That evening, the slave got up and extinguished the candle. and closed the door. The wife entered and the slave left. The wife was with her husband the whole night and became pregnant with Dovid. Because of his strong passion for the slave Dovid was born very ruddy compared to his brothers. His brothers wanted to kill him seeing that he was red {a sign of adultery]. However their father told them to leave him alone so instead of killing him they treated him instead as a slave and shepherd.
http://www.daat.ac.il/he-il/tanach/iyunim/neviim/rishonim/shmuel/prakim/grosman-ahavati.htm
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/health/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-optimism.html
Clearly, the pandemic has not ended. So far some 215,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus, and reliable estimates suggest that the number could reach 400,000. Health experts agree that, with stronger leadership, the death toll would have been far lower.
Since January, when I began covering the pandemic, I have been a consistently gloomy Cassandra, reporting on the catastrophe that experts saw coming: that the virus would go pandemic, that Americans were likely to die in large numbers, the national lockdown would last well beyond Easter and even past summer. No miracle cure was on the horizon; the record for developing a vaccine was four years.
Events have moved faster than I thought possible. I have become cautiously optimistic. Experts are saying, with genuine confidence, that the pandemic in the United States will be over far sooner than they expected, possibly by the middle of next year.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/07/brooklyn-rabbi-accused-of-molesting-children-dies-of-covid-19/
Rabbi Joel Kolko, one of NYC’s most notorious accused pedophiles, has reportedly died of COVID-19 while in Israel, sources told The Post.
Kolko, 74, was visiting the country for recent holidays and fell ill with the coronavirus, they said.
n 2016, Torah Temimah agreed to pay an unprecedented $2.1 million [https://nypost.com/2016/10/23/brooklyn-yeshiva-settles-with-sexual-assault-victims-for-2-1m] to two former students who charged that Kolko sexually assaulted them.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-victory-speech-election-richard-fowler
Unfortunately, many Republicans have been quick to attack Biden’s
call for unity. That’s a mistake. Perhaps once Trump’s term of office is
over, at least some Republicans will accept Biden’s olive branch and
agree to work in the national interest instead of fanning the flames of
division.
According a report by Axios and confirmed by Fox News, Trumps’ campaign plans to take less traditional path to challenging the results of the election, including holding “a series of Trump rallies” focused on the campaigns ongoing legal efforts in numerous states across the country.
Along with the rallies, Trump is also planning to use obituaries of people who allegedly voted but are actually dead as evidence of the voter fraud he's been claiming. The campaign is also sending recount teams Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, with Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., heading up the effort in the Peach State.
https://time.com/5909222/i-gave-donald-trump-a-chance/
I’m an optimist, but I’m not cock-eyed. As my friend, historian Jon Meacham says, disagreement is the oxygen of democracy. I’m just looking forward to, as Joe Biden said, lowering the temperature of our national thermostat and seeing each other as human beings, not bumper stickers or lawn signs. Perhaps then we can get back to work and start making progress on some enormous problems that won’t just go away on their own. I wanted Donald Trump to succeed and I gave him a chance. For all those who voted for him, please do the same for the incoming Administration. I’m excited to do my part. Are you?
The Trump campaign’s strategy to file a barrage of lawsuits challenging US President-elect Joe Biden’s win is more about providing President Donald Trump with an off-ramp for a loss he can’t quite grasp and less about changing the election’s outcome, according to senior officials, campaign aides and allies who spoke to The Associated Press.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-trump-path-to-victory-supreme-court
Meanwhile, some Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, are criticizing Trump's strategy as Biden seems set to take the reins.
"The President is within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities... He is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen—doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions," Romney said in a statement posted on Twitter.
https://time.com/5908881/president-trump-cant-sue-his-way-to-a-second-term-why-he-is-trying-anyway/
Shortly after the Associated Press projected that Joe Biden would win enough electoral college votes to defeat President Donald Trump, Trump released a statement saying that his campaign would go to court Monday to fight the outcome. “Networks don’t get to decide elections,” Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said later at a press event at a landscaping company in Philadelphia, “Courts do.”
That is, of course, not the case. With the notable exception of the 2000 presidential race, which was effectively decided by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, it is voters who decide elections. And that, legal experts say, is the main flaw with Trump’s strategy: Biden has won too many votes for the Trump campaign to mount any legal challenge that would actually change the outcome.
For an election to be successfully litigated, experts say, the margins between the candidates have to be exceedingly close. The dispute between George W. Bush and Al Gore two decades ago, for example, hinged on just 537 votes in Florida. Election litigation is only consequential, says Nathaniel Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School, “if the number of contested ballots exceeds the margin of victory.”
So why pursue a legal strategy that seems so clearly destined to fail? For Trump, some observers say, the goal may not be to win the election so much as to cast a pall of uncertainty over the results, thereby encouraging the perception, however unfounded, that he is the victim of fraud and remains the rightful leader of his fervent base. “This is all looking increasingly like disinformation through litigation, rather than plausible legal claims,” says Joshua Geltzer, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-8-2020/
Some 12 hours after victory projected for Democrat over Trump, Israeli PM and president express optimism regarding future of Israeli-American partnership
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-election-lawsuits-biden-jenna-ellis
Despite projections by many news organizations Saturday that former Vice President Joe Biden has won the presidential election and defeated President Trump, the media don’t have the power to decide the outcome of American elections. Legal challenges by the Trump reelection campaign, where I serve as a legal adviser, are still before the courts and we await judicial rulings on our challenges.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/07/opinions/trump-concession-norms-zelizer/index.html
If Donald Trump refuses to give a concession speech, it will be one of the last norms that he breaks as President. Now that President-elect Joe Biden has won the 2020 election, Trump will need to decide what to do next.
The good thing is that it doesn't ultimately matter. A formal concession after an election is not embedded in our Constitution -- it is a norm. Historians tend to date the first public concession back to 1896, when Democrat William Jennings Bryan sent Republican William McKinley a telegram that said: "I hasten to extend my congratulations. We have submitted the issue to the American people and their will is law."
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-7-2020/
Both outlets call Pennsylvania for the Democrat challenger, lifting him above 270 electoral college votes; MSNBC follows suit; Trump claims illegality in vote counting
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290699
U.S. President Donald Trump continues to tweet despite the expected loss, "I won the election by a lot."
Meanwhile, a Trump advisor told CNN that in fact the campaign has "no concrete evidence" of anything to do with election fraud.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden continues to widen the gaps with his rival, President Donald Trump. So far, the voter turnout is 253 for Biden and 213 for Trump.
The Trump campaign and President Donald Trump peppered Thursday with tweets and news conferences boasting of success in courts as states continue to count ballots,
but the legal efforts repeatedly failed to gain traction or affect
significant enough numbers of votes, if any, in key states.
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54835454
Mr Trump's eldest son Don Jr accused the party of being "weak". His brother Eric warned: "Our voters will never forget you if your [sic] sheep!"
The spat reflects an emerging rift between Trump disciples and the party.
The election still hangs in the balance but Democratic candidate Joe Biden appears to be closing in on victory.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) supported a number of President Trump's unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud and election corruption on Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday night.
Why it matters: A number of Republicans, including top Trump adviser Chris Christie, have rebuked the president for failing to provide evidence for his claims that Democrats are "stealing" the election. Graham and Cruz, two of the most prominent Republicans in the Senate, are sticking by Trump.
Fact check: Both Cruz and Graham claimed that partisan election observers in Philadelphia were being denied access to observe the counting of ballots there, though that was not the Trump campaign's original complaint.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290665
Former Trump senior strategist Steve Bannon has been permanently barred from Twitter, after he called on President Donald Trump to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
In a video posted to multiple social media outlets, Bannon declared that Trump had won this week’s presidential election, and called on the president to fire both Fauci and Wray, joking that the two should be beheaded.
"I'd put the heads on pikes. Right. I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you are gone."
https://time.com/5908081/trump-losing-election-false-claims/
Election night was not the party Trump had wanted, and he’s been complaining bitterly about it ever since—and trying to undermine faith in legitimate election results along the way. As the first returns came in, high-top tables had been arranged in the East Room along with dozens of neatly arranged chairs and a podium set up for a triumphant speech in front of a field of American flags. When Trump finally came out shortly after 2 a.m. on Nov. 4 he didn’t have a victory speech loaded into the TelePrompter, but he gave one anyway.
President attacks democratic process with unfounded allegations of ‘illegal votes’ as his lead dwindles in battleground states that will decide next White House occupant
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-voter-fraud-remarks-draw-criticism-from-some-republicans
President Trump faced some pushback from his own party Thursday after warning about illegal voting and an attempt to "steal" the presidential election.
President Donald Trump delivered the most dishonest speech of his presidency on Thursday evening.
"Well, I think it's more likely that Biden will win the votes, the electoral votes necessary, but if it goes to the court, Trump has to be a favorite in the courts because he appointed so many of the judges at all three levels of our system," said Dershowitz.
Trump made an unsubstantiated claim on Monday night of fraud in the election process. He wanted the Supreme Court to halt voting even though the high court does not hear direct challenges and reviews cases that have moved up from the lower courts.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-biden-2020-campaign-judith-miller
Trump declined the opportunity to toot his own political horn. Rather, he falsely declared an election victory that he had not yet achieved and vowed to petition the Supreme Court to demand a halt to the counting of ballots — ostensibly to prevent “fraud” in late-counted mail-in ballots. This was the latest twist of an evidence-free narrative that the president has echoed in tweets for weeks.
There have been many “sad” moments in the campaign, but none more pathetic and outrageous than the president’s effort to delegitimize some of the more than 150 million votes cast by 67% of eligible voters.
There is an obvious contradiction between the president’s fraudulent
claim of victory and his demand to throw out ballots that might award
the victory he claims to Biden. Despite his bravado and exaggerated
assertions of triumph in state races that state officials have yet to
declare, Trump’s appearance smacked of desperation and of fear that he
might actually lose to Biden.
Several high-profile supporters of Donald Trump
including Chris Christie and Rick Santorum condemned the president
early on Wednesday morning after he falsely declared victory before all
of the votes in key battleground states have been counted.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/04/chris-christie-slams-trump-for-declaring-2020-election-win/
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an ally of President Trump, blasted the commander-in-chief’s comments about claiming victory and threatening to ask the Supreme Court to halt more vote-counting.
Christie said there is no evidence to back Trump’s claim that Democrats are trying to fraudulently steal the election away from him.
“I talk tonight not as a former governor, but as a former US attorney. There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn’t,” Christie told ABC News.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-sues-in-pennsylvania-michigan-asks-for-wisconsin-recount/
US President Donald Trump’s campaign filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania and Michigan, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in undecided battlegrounds that could determine whether he gets another four years in the White House. The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, the campaign said. However, at one Michigan location in question The Associated Press observed poll watchers from both sides monitoring on Wednesday.
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54818992
Donald Trump and Joe Biden each claim to be ahead in the US presidential election, even as the final outcome hangs on a razor's edge and both sides ramp up for legal action.
The Trump campaign is challenging vote counts in the key states of Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The BBC projects Mr Biden won Michigan. US media forecast he took Wisconsin. No result has emerged in Pennsylvania.
Winning all three of these Rust Belt states would hand Mr Biden victory.
Democratic candidate Mr Biden stopped short of declaring he had won, but said he was confident he was on course to defeat Republican Mr Trump.
Overall turnout in Tuesday's election was projected to be the highest in 120 years at 66.9%, found the US Election Project.
Mr
Biden had the support of 70.5 million voters, the most won by any
presidential candidate ever. Mr Trump has pulled in 67.2 million votes,
four million more than he gained in 2016.
https://time.com/5907546/america-divided-2020-election/
Even if he has lost, a President who trampled the rule of law for four years was on pace to collect millions more votes this time than last. And though they braced for a bloodbath, the congressional Republicans who enabled him instead notched unexpected gains. The GOP appeared likely to retain the majority in the Senate and cut into the Democratic House majority, defying the polls and fundraising deficits. Republicans held onto states such as Florida, South Carolina, Ohio and Iowa that Democrats had hoped to flip. They cut into Democrats’ margins with nonwhite voters, made gains with Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley, and racked up huge turnout among non-college-educated white people, while halting what many conservatives feared was an inexorable slide in the suburbs.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290568
The Trump campaign announced that it was filing a suit to stop ballot counting in Pennsylvania after filing a similar motion in Wisconsin.
"This is the most important election of our lifetime, and President Trump made clear our path forward last night: ensure the integrity of this election for the good of the nation. Bad things are happening in Pennsylvania. Democrats are scheming to disenfranchise and dilute Republican votes. President Trump and his team are fighting to put a stop to it," Justin Clark, Trump 2020 Deputy Campaign Manager, said in a statement.
https://time.com/5906949/donald-trump-vote-count/
Trump’s claims are both flawed and dangerous, multiple election experts say. Because Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cast a ballot by mail this year, many of the remaining ballots that have yet to be counted in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin—which didn’t get an early start on processing absentee ballots—are likely to skew blue.
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54791113
Mr Trump hosted an election night gathering inside the White House with about 100 guests.
In a speech at about 02:30 local time (07:30 GMT) he said: "We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."
He went on to allege "major fraud on our nation" without providing evidence, adding: "We'll be going to the US Supreme Court."
"We want all voting to stop," the president said, apparently meaning that he wants to block the counting of postal ballots, which can be legally accepted by some state election boards after Tuesday's election.
Millions of ballots have still to be counted and there is no evidence of fraud.
https://www.jpost.com/us-elections/trump-speaks-as-2020-us-election-results-are-tallied-up-647951
US President Donald Trump falsely claimed victory over Democratic rival Joe Biden on Wednesday with millions of votes still uncounted in a White House race that will not be decided until a handful of states complete vote counting over the next hours or days.
