Pelosi Says Next Term as Speaker will be her Last
Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that her next term as Speaker will be her last, making good on a promise she’d made in 2018 to relinquish power after the next midterm elections.
“I don’t want to undermine any leverage I may have,” she told reporters in the Capitol, “but I made the statement.”
The comments came shortly after House Democrats had voted privately to nominate Pelosi (D-Calif.) to serve another two years at the top of a party she’s led since 2003, marking the longest stretch since the legendary Rep. Sam Rayburn (Texas) died in office in 1961.
Faced with an internal revolt in 2018 from moderate Democrats pushing for a leadership overhaul, Pelosi had won the support of her detractors in part by vowing to keep the gavel no more than two additional terms. A resolution formally adopting those conditions was abandoned last year without a caucus vote, but Pelosi said she stands by them nonetheless.
Read the source article at The Hill
Trump Campaign Wires $3M to Wisconsin to Cover Recount Request
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign on Wednesday filed for a partial recount in Wisconsin to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
The campaign wired $3 million to Wisconsin election officials to cover the cost of the recount request, which officials are expected to approve and order Thursday.
Trump’s campaign said in a statement that it is requesting recounts in two heavily Democratic counties: Milwaukee, which includes the city of Milwaukee, and Dane, which contains the state’s capital of Madison.
The campaign claimed “illegal” voting activity was carried out by Wisconsin election officials, without providing evidence of any widespread problems that could upend Biden’s more than 20,000-vote lead.
Read the source article at cnbc.com
As Georgia's Hand Recount Ends, Count Shows Biden Still Ahead
Georgia election officials expect to release the results of a statewide audit by noon Thursday, as a handful of counties finish data entry from a full hand recount of 5 million presidential votes.
Gabriel Sterling with the secretary of state's office said Wednesday afternoon that at least 21 of 159 counties show their risk-limiting audit is still in process, including some of the large jurisdictions in metro Atlanta. The deadline for the audit is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.
"We cannot do the full quality-control process until all the data entry is in there," he said. "We will likely be having to use every minute of that midnight deadline."
Read the source article at npr.org
President-Elect Joe Biden Announces New White House Staff Picks
President-elect Joe Biden announced additional senior White House staff hires, tapping some of his longest-serving aides to serve alongside newer players in his orbit in key roles in the West Wing.
Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus who served as Biden’s campaign co-chair, will lead the White House Office of Public Engagement. The post gives him broad reach to help advance Biden’s agenda across the federal government and to work with state and local governments, and also as a "point of entry" for outside groups, according to Anita Dunn, a Biden transition adviser who also played a top campaign role.
“This new role will allow me to offer advice to the president when he wants, maybe sometimes when he doesn’t want it,” Richmond said. “I’ll also be in an office in the West Wing. When you talk about the needs of Louisiana, you want someone in the West Wing.”
Read the source article at NBC News
President Trump Fires Top Cybersecurity Official Christopher Krebs
President Trump announced on Twitter Tuesday night that Christopher Krebs, the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, had been fired effective immediately.
Why it matters: Krebs, who is responsible for securing voting technology, has drawn bipartisan praise for his handling of the election and debunking of misinformation. Reuters recently reported he expected to be fired after he pushed back against false claims that Democrats "rigged" the election, a claim that Trump has heavily promoted.
Our thought bubble: Krebs is a universally respected figure even in the notoriously fractious world of cybersecurity and information security, notes Zach Dorfman, author of Axios’ Codebook newsletter.
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Where Trump and Republican Election-Related Lawsuits Stand
Washington — As President-elect Joe Biden lays the groundwork for his transition to the presidency, President Trump still refuses to acknowledge his defeat and is instead looking to the courts to rescue his chances for a second term in the White House, though in most cases unsuccessfully.
Since Election Day, the number of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and Republican voters in an effort to halt the certification of election results has swelled to more than a dozen, with the legal battles focused on a handful of key battleground states where Mr. Trump lost. The president continues to claim the cases provide him a pathway to victory over Mr. Biden, but they involve too few ballots for him to close the president-elect's 5.5 million-vote lead or change the outcome of a state's race. Mr. Biden secured 306 electoral votes to Mr. Trump's 232.
Read the source article at CBS News
Trump's National Security Advisor Acknowledges Biden's Victory
The White House’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, on Monday promised President-elect Joe Biden an orderly transfer of power, a departure from other Trump administration officials who have shunned any perception that President Donald Trump lost the election.
“If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner — and obviously things look that way now — we’ll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council,” O’Brien said in a virtual interview at the Global Security Forum. “There’s no question about it.”
O’Brien said he trusts Biden to stock his team with qualified foreign policy hands, including those who have served in previous presidential administrations, and to ensure a continuity of leadership for the United States.
Read the source article at Politics, Policy, Political News
Third GOP Senator Comes Out Against Federal Reserve Board Nominee
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Monday that he opposes Judy Shelton's nomination to the Federal Reserve board, but he won't be in Washington this week to vote against her.
“I oppose the nomination of Judy Shelton because I am not convinced that she supports the independence of the Federal Reserve Board as much as I believe the Board of Governors should. I don’t want to turn over management of the money supply to a Congress and a President who can’t balance the federal budget," Alexander said in a statement.
Alexander, who is retiring at the end of his term, is the third GOP senator to oppose Shelton. GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitt Romney (Utah) have also said they will vote against her.
Read the source article at The Hill
US Military Anticipates Trump will Issue Plan to Withdrawal Troops
The Pentagon has issued a notice to commanders known as a "warning order" to begin planning to drawdown the number of troops in Afghanistan to 2,500 troops and 2,500 in Iraq by Jan 15, the officials said. Currently there are approximately 4,500 US troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 troops in Iraq.
The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.
Read the source article at cnn.com
Republicans Urge Trump to Begin Formal Transition Process
As President Trump continues to refuse to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, Republican governors and officials called on the Trump administration to begin the transition process.
“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,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “The president can go on his other track and his legal track. We should respect that, but we also need to begin that process.”
However, DeWine also said the president’s legal challenges to the election should be allowed to play out.
Read the source article at The Hill
Trump Admits Biden Won Then Insists He's Not Conceding
Most news networks declared Biden the victor more than a week ago. Since the call was made, Biden has given a victory speech and gotten his transition team up and running. But Trump, who had questioned the validity of the election before votes had even been cast, is continuing to dig in his heels on unsupported legal challenges lodged by his allies over vote counts in several states and asserting that the fight has only begun.
"He won because the Election was Rigged," Trump said in one Sunday morning tweet. In another, he stood by his false belief he may be able to win the election and refused to concede, writing, "I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go."
Read the source article at cnn.com
Judge Rules Acting DHS Secretary Cannot Suspend DACA Program
A federal judge in New York City says Chad Wolf was not legally serving as the acting secretary of homeland security when he issued a memo in July that stopped new applicants to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Therefore, Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York ruled Saturday, Wolf's memo is invalid.
It's the latest court ruling against the Trump administration's attempts to undo the Obama-era program that currently protects about 640,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
In June, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's attempt in 2017 to cancel DACA, saying the administration's reasoning was "arbitrary and capricious." In July, a federal court in Maryland told the administration to start accepting new applicants.
Read the source article at npr.org
Department of Homeland Security Said the Presidential Election was Secure
The November 3rd election was the “most secure in American history” and “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The statement follows numerous claims of supposed election fraud by President Donald Trump and his allies.
“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” the statement continues.
The statement also follows a report from Reuters that Christopher Krebs, the official in charge of election cybersecurity and the director of CISA, expects to be fired by the White House. Krebs has been using Twitter to actively combat misinformation about the election, including issuing repeated denials of a false conspiracy theory claiming secret computer systems are committing voter fraud.
Read the source article at The Verge
Senator Will Intervene if Biden Doesn't Receive Intelligence Briefings
"There is no loss from him getting the briefings and to be able to do that," Lankford told radio station KRMG, noting that he sits on the Senate Oversight Committee and that he's already started engaging on this issue.
The Oklahoma Republican said if no progress is made on the issue by Friday, he will step in and say, "This needs to occur so that regardless of the outcome of the election, whichever way that it goes, people can be ready for that actual task."
Read the source article at cnn.com
Who Will Get Kamala Harris' Senate Seat?
LOS ANGELES -- Election Day is over, but California already is consumed with its next high-profile political contest — the competition to fill Kamala Harris’ soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat.
In this race, only one vote matters, because there is only one vote. The selection falls to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is being pressured by rival interest groups, fellow Democrats and even friends intent on swaying his decision.
Harris will be sworn in as President-elect Joe Biden’s vice president on Jan. 20, and it's not yet clear how soon before then she will give up her seat. Newsom has said he has no timeline to make an announcement.
Read the source article at abcnews.go.com