Trump insists ‘I concede nothing’ after tweeting that Biden ‘won’ – live coverage

Axios is reporting that Donald Trump will enact a series of hardline policies during his final 10 weeks to cement his legacy on China, citing senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the plans.

Trump officials plan to sanction or restrict trade with more Chinese companies, government entities and officials for alleged complicity in human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, or threatening U.S. national security.

• The administration also will crack down on China for its labor practices beyond Xinjiang forced labor camps.
• But don’t expect big new moves on Taiwan or more closures of Chinese consulates in the U.S., officials say.

Said national security council spokesperson John Ullyot to Axios: “Unless Beijing reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage, future US presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions.”

Victoria Bekiempis

Washington state governor Jay Inslee has ordered sweeping restrictions and shutdowns starting at 11.59pm on Monday, in an attempt to curb Covid-19.

Restaurants and bars were ordered to shut down indoor service and keep outdoor service to groups of five or less. Gyms, movie theaters, museums and bowling alleys were also ordered to close by that deadline, according to the Seattle Times.

Indoor gatherings involving people from multiple households are barred, unless those present have quarantined for two weeks beforehand. Alternatively, participants can quarantine for one week and test negative for coronavirus within two days of the get-together.

Inslee’s mandates will be enacted for a minimum of four weeks.

“Today, Sunday 15 November 2020, is the most dangerous public health day in the last 100 years of our state’s history,” Inslee said. “A pandemic is raging in our state. Left unchecked, it will assuredly result in grossly overburdened hospitals and morgues; and keep people from obtaining routine but necessary medical treatment for non-Covid conditions.”

Victoria Bekiempis

Amid persistent talk of Donald Trump moving into the conservative media sphere once he moves out of the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that allies of the president have discussed buying Newsmax and thereby creating a competitor to Fox News.

Trump has refused to concede defeat in the presidential election, though all major media organizations including Fox News have called the race for Joe Biden.

Citing “people familiar with the matter”, the Journal, which like Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch, said Hicks Equity Partners, a private finance concern with links to a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, had discussed buying Newsmax as “part of a larger effort that could also include a streaming-video service”.

Hicks, the Journal reported, has been interested in creating a competitor to Fox News for about two years.

Fox News, which has long had the highest cable news ratings, has largely supported Trump since he entered the Republican presidential primary in summer 2015. The network’s opinion hosts continue to treat Trump more charitably than its news anchors and their counterparts at other organizations but the relationship has soured nonetheless.

The Journal report landed as Trump continued attacks on Fox News which began on election day, when the network was the first news organization to call Arizona, a key state, for Biden. Fox News later joined other networks in calling the whole contest for the Democratic nominee.

The Trump campaign and supporters of the president reportedly flooded the network with calls, seeking a reversal. Protesters outside one ballot counting center in Phoenix, Arizona shouted: “Fox News sucks!”

Newsmax hosts have propped up Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that the election was rigged, the Journal said – an effort which has coincided with an improvement in the network’s ratings. Nielsen data cited by the Journal said Newsmax average prime-time viewership surged 156% to 223,000 in election week, helping it pass a million viewers between 7pm and 8pm – approximately 50%’s of Fox News’ audience in the same slot.

The Trump campaign, the White House and Fox News did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian. Nor did a press representative for Hicks, or Newsmax.

Newsmax chief executive Chris Ruddy, a friend of Trump, played down the Journal report, telling the paper: “Newsmax never had any deal with the Hicks group, and if it’s true they were using our name for the purposes of capital fundraising, that is wholly inappropriate.”

North Dakota has become the 35th US state to require face coverings be worn in public, as governors across the country grapple with a surge in coronavirus infections that threatens to swamp their healthcare systems. North Dakota joined 38 other states this month in reporting record daily jumps in new cases, 17 others with record deaths and 25 others with a record number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals, according to a Reuters tally.

Lauren Gambino

Joe Biden’s first hours as president-elect were met with spontaneous dance parties, champagne showers and car parades that wound through several blocks. But amid the “Biden-Harris” placards and T-shirts dotting a diverse crowd gathered in front of the White House last week, there was a creeping sense that the source of their shared jubilation had less to do with the dragon-slayer than the dragon slayed …

The Great Counterpuncher has responded to John Bolton’s appearance on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos today, calling his former national security adviser “one of the dumbest people in government” and “a real dope”.

Bolton, who has become a fierce critic of the president since departing from his post in September 2019, urged GOP leaders to acknowledge and explain the presidential election result to their supporters rather than continuing to appease the president as he promotes baseless claims of voter fraud.

“I think it’s very important for leaders in the Republican party to explain to our voters, who are not as stupid as the Democrats think, that, in fact, Trump has lost the election and that his claims of election fraud are baseless,” Bolton said on Sunday morning. “The fact is that we’ve seen litigation in all the key battleground states, and it has failed consistently. Right now the Trump campaign is doing the legal equivalent of pinching pennies.”

After playing golf at his private club in northern Virginia, Trump appeared to respond to Bolton’s remarks with a spicy tweet.

“John Bolton was one of the dumbest people in government that I’ve had the “pleasure” to work with,” Trump wrote. “A sullen, dull and quiet guy, he added nothing to National Security except, “Gee, let’s go to war.” Also, illegally released much Classified Information. A real dope!”

Victoria Bekiempis

Many New York City parents breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday, as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that public schools would remain open next week, as Covid-19 testing rates remain below the threshold for closures.

Increasing positivity rates in New York City and state have prompted rollbacks of reopening initiatives, spurring De Blasio to warn on Friday that schools could close again. De Blasio said classrooms would close if the seven-day test positivity rate exceeded 3%.

According to De Blasio, that rate was 2.57% on Saturday.

“Thankfully, schools will remain open on Monday, but we have to keep fighting back with everything we’ve got,” De Blasio said.

The New York City public school system has 1.1 million students. Under Covid-19, about 300,000 pupils are doing some in-classroom instruction, according to the New York Times. Most parents have chosen to have their children learn remotely but some 25% participate in a hybrid structure of in-person and distance coursework. The newspaper also noted that the schools-wide infection rate is 0.17%

Public health experts have told the Guardian that while increases in Covid-19 positivity rates are cause for concern, acting quickly – such as by recent rollbacks of business reopenings – should prevent any new wave of cases. Experts say the disease is considered under control so long as testing percentages stay below 5%.

Martin Pengelly

While his aides seek to turn up the pressure on Donald Trump, to force his cooperation with the presidential transition, Joe Biden is going about his business as the president-elect:

The state of the economy is of course intrinsically tied to the state of the US effort to combat Covid-19, and that effort is in a terrible state. Here’s our news wrap on the Covid case count and more, and here’s chief reporter Ed Pilkington on the struggle to make Trump play ball:

Ed Pilkington

The White House is coming under growing pressure from President-elect Joe Biden, as well as senior Republicans and health experts, to allow transition talks to begin amid a terrifying surge in coronavirus cases that is pushing hospital systems across the US to the brink of collapse.

As Donald Trump insisted he would not concede defeat – despite tweeting that Biden “won” last week’s election – Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, said on Sunday it was essential that a “seamless transition” begins quickly, given the severity of the pandemic.

He told NBC’s Meet the Press Biden’s Covid advisory panel remains hamstrung from talking to US government health officials including the White House taskforce led by Vice-President Mike Pence.

Under transition rules routinely followed for the past 60 years, a letter of “ascertainment” declaring Biden the winner of the 3 November election should by now have been issued by the General Services Administration (GSA), authorising communication between the outgoing and incoming administrations.

But with Trump still refusing to concede, as he lies repeatedly on Twitter about a “stolen election”, no such letter has been produced.

Victoria Bekiempis

In separate interviews on Sunday, the two Democratic candidates for US Senate in Georgia said their runoff elections in January would be decisive for America’s future.

If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock beat their Republican incumbent opponents, Democrats will regain control of the Senate, Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vice-president in a chamber split 50-50. Though precarious, that would give Joe Biden greater hope of implementing his legislative agenda.

Georgia went to Biden in the presidential election, a recount unlikely to change the result. Crediting former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ organizing efforts for shifting Georgia’s vote – no Democratic presidential candidate had won the state since 1996 – Ossoff told ABC: “What we’re feeling for the first time in four years is hope.

“With Trump departing, we have the opportunity to define the next chapter in American history, to lead out of this crisis. But only by winning these Senate seats.”

Speaking to Warnock, CNN host Jake Tapper pointed out that Republicans have tried to link him to Democrats in Washington, to cast him as a dangerous radical.

“Listen,” Warnock said. “This is a Georgia race. And I’m Georgia. I grew up in Savannah, Georgia, my church is in Atlanta. I’m pastor of the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr.

“I grew up in public housing, one of 12 children in my family. I’m number 11. And the first graduate of a four-year college in my family. I know personally the importance of good federal policy, combined with personal responsibility, work, grit and determination. That’s the reason I’m able to run for the United States Senate. I am an iteration of the American dream.”

Further reading:

Ed Pilkington

Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, whose approach to coronavirus carries weight given his successful marshaling of the federal response as “Ebola tsar” in 2014, told NBC’s Meet the Press earlier the block on communications between the Trump and White House and the president-elect was especially damaging around preparations for a vaccine.

Hopes soared this week when Pfizer/BioNTech announced its candidate was 90% effective in protecting people from the infection. The White House has said some 20m doses of the vaccine could be ready for distribution to vulnerable populations such as older people in nursing homes by the end of December.

Biden’s transition team will meet Pfizer and other producers this week, Klain said. But he added: “The bigger issue is the mechanism of manufacture and distribution – getting this vaccine out. Vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations save lives – it’s a giant logistical problem.

“Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president, the American people did that. What we want to see is the GSA issue that ascertainment so we can meet vaccine officials.”

Robert Reich

Leave it to Trump and his Republican allies to spend more energy fighting non-existent voter fraud than containing a virus that has killed 244,000 Americans and counting.

The cost of this misplaced attention is incalculable. While Covid-19 surges to record levels, there’s still no national strategy for equipment, stay at home orders, mask mandates or disaster relief.

The other cost is found in the millions of Trump voters who are being led to believe the election was stolen and who will be a hostile force for years to come – making it harder to do much of anything the nation needs, including actions to contain the virus.

Trump is continuing this charade because it pulls money into his newly formed political action committee and allows him to assume the mantle of presumed presidential candidate for 2024, whether he intends to run or merely keep himself the center of attention.

Leading Republicans like Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell are going along with it because donors are refilling GOP coffers.

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Andrew Cuomo is planning to sue the Trump administration over the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, alleging that the president’s plan discriminates against Black and minority communities. Cuomo says the federal plan is too reliant on healthcare providers that some Black and brown people do not have easy access to.

“If the Trump administration does not change this plan and does not provide an equitable vaccine process, we will enforce our legal rights,” Cuomo said on Sunday. “We will bring legal action to protect New Yorkers.”

Black and Latino people have experienced much higher death rates that white people from Covid-19. “Those are ugly facts,” Cuomo said. “We must have the courage to face it and admit it.” He added that he wanted to see the vaccine available in places such as churches and community centres.

“Any plan that intentionally burdens communities of colour to hinder access to the vaccine deprives those communities of equal protection under the law,” said Cuomo. “We need to make special efforts for the vaccine to reach the underserved Black, brown and poor communities. The private market alone will not do it.”

While a great deal of attention is on the presidential election, the power of balance in the Senate is being decided in Georgia, which will hold two runoff elections in the coming weeks. It would be a huge boost for the Democrats if their two candidates can unseat the incumbent Republicans, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

Jon Ossoff is running against Perdue and on Sunday morning he made an appearance on ABC’s This Week. Perdue received 90,000 more votes that Ossoff in the initial election, even though Joe Biden won Georgia (as no candidate got more than 50% of the vote, the Senate race will go to a run-off). Ossoff is asked whether Perdue’s success gives him concern.

“It doesn’t worry me at all. First of all, we are currently organizing and running the largest voter registration and turnout effort in American history,” he said. “For example, there are 23,000 young people here in Georgia who will be become eligible to vote just between the November election and this January 4th runoff.

“And a decade of organizing, much of this work led by Stacey Abrams … has put the wind here in our sails here in Georgia. What we’re feeling for the first time in four years is hope.”

Read more on Georgia and the Senate race here:

Victoria Bekiempis

Donald Trump’s refusal to participate in Joe Biden’s transition doesn’t just pose military national security risks – it hampers the nation’s Covid-19 response, Dr Atul Gawande, a member of the Biden Covid-19 advisory board, told ABC’s This Week.

Across the Sunday talkshows, top public health experts said a smooth transition would be better for the fight against the coronavirus, which continues to spread unchecked in many US states.

“It is in the nation’s interest that the transition team get the threat assessments … understand the vaccine distribution plans, need to know where the stockpiles are, what the status is of masks and gloves,” Gawande said. “There’s a lot of information that needs to be transmitted. It can’t wait until the last minute.”

On CNN’s State of the Union, Dr Anthony Fauci was asked how problematic the lack of communication could be.

“I’ve been through multiple transitions,” he said, “now having served six presidents for 36 years, and it’s very clear that the transition process that we go through, that period measured in several weeks to months, is really important in a smooth handing over of the information.

“It’s almost like passing a baton in a race, you don’t want to stop and then give it to somebody, you want to just essentially keep going, and that’s what transition is so, it certainly would make things [go] more smoothly if we could do that.”

Gawande said the Biden transition team does not support a new nationwide lockdown.

“We believe there simply isn’t a scenario because we can get this under control,” the doctor and New Yorker staff writer said, explaining that targeted measures on a “more localized basis” were “quite effective”.

Arkansas’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, says Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States and believes Donald Trump’s recent statements show he is starting to accept the fact that he lost the election.

“I expect Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States,” Hutchinson said during an appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday. “It was good actually to see President Trump tweet out that ‘he won.’ I think that’s a start of an acknowledgment.”

However, Trump later tweeted “I concede nothing” and has repeated baseless theories that the election was rigged. Hutchinson added that the Trump administration should ensure a smooth handover of power to Biden’s team, something that the president has shown few signs of agreeing to so far.

“It is very important that Joe Biden have access to the intelligence briefings to make sure that he is prepared,” he said. “During times of transition our enemies have an opportunity to take advantage of us, and we want to make sure that there is a smooth transition, particularly when it comes to the vaccine distribution [so that] everybody understands what we’re doing there and what the plan is for the future.”

Hutchinson also conceded that Trump’s influence over Republicans will continue after he leaves office. “Clearly, President Trump will have a voice for a long time in the party,” he said. “Anybody that can generate those kinds of crowds … will have an influence for some time to come.”

Martin Pengelly

Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, has said the federal government needs to sign off on transition team efforts this week so that Biden can receive national security briefings and address Covid-19.

“What we really want to see this week … is the General Services Administration issue that ascertainment,” Klain told NBC’s Meet the Press.

Trump’s tweet on Sunday appearing to acknowledge Biden’s win – the president later said he did not concede – had no bearing on the actuality of the election, Klain said.

“Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that,” Klain said.

The US recorded 166,555 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, down on more than 184,000 on Friday but still its second-highest daily total and a 12th day in a row of more than 100,000.

One expert said the approach of the crowded and travel-heavy holiday season left him “terrified” .

According to Johns Hopkins University, the overall US caseload is now nearly 10.9m. More than 245,000 people have died. On Saturday, 1,266 died. Hospitalisations are rising.

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