Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani had a tough day at the office as the media spotlights revealed a little more than he bargained on
With sweaty hair dye running down his face, Donald Trump’s top lawyer had a tough day as he tried to convince America the US President won “in a landslide”.
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It was the awkward moment that typified the bizarre 2020 US election and put an exclamation mark on the ongoing comedy capers that have followed the apparent victory of Joe Biden.
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, had a bad hair day like no other in front of the world’s media.
As he claimed his legal team had enough evidence to “overturn” the election result, hair dye ran down both sides of his face as he sweated under the media spotlights.
None of his staff thought to inform him or go to his assistance. So Mr Giuliani continued to prosecute his case with long dark streaks running down from his ears to his jawline.
Mr Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, announced new election lawsuits, claiming it was “not a singular voter fraud in one state” as the dye stained his face.
“It’s a pattern that repeats itself in a number of states,” Mr Giuliani claimed before sweat began to pour down his face after he’d been standing under hot lights for about 30 minutes. The press conference lasted for more than 90 minutes and the dye kept running every time he returned to the podium.
“There was a plan from a centralised place to execute these various act of voter fraud,” he said, claiming it “specifically focused on big cities controlled by Democrats”.
Mr Trump’s lawyer appeared to be perspiring heavily as he shockingly accused George Soros, the Clintons and China of being behind a “conspiracy” to elect Joe Biden.
The sweaty lawyer declared that voter fraud in Pennsylvania “could fill a library” and said he would only have been surprised if Philadelphia “hadn’t cheated” and that “you could say the same thing in Detroit”.
He made multiple allegations about the mail-in ballots sent in to polling stations as a result of coronavirus, claiming this included the same person voting 30 times in Pennsylvania, an allegation that has yet to be confirmed.
During the fraught conference, Mr Trump - who tells his supporters he demands his own hair is “perfect” - tweeted that it was an “an open and shut case of voter fraud. Massive numbers!”
TRUMP INVITES POLITICIANS TO WASHINGTON IN BID TO WIN VOTES
Donald Trump has reportedly invited Michigan politicians to the White House as he tried to wrestle the state’s electoral votes from Joe Biden.
The news comes after lawyer Rudy Giuliani announced that the Trump campaign is withdrawing their lawsuit in the state.
“This morning we are withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan as a direct result of achieving the relief we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured that every legal vote has been counted and every illegal vote has not been counted,” Mr Giuliani said in a statement.
According to AP sources, Mr Trump later invited top Michigan politicians to the White House amid a longshot bid to overturn the election result.
Senate Republican Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield will reportedly attend the meeting.
Following the announcement, the Michigan Democratic Party released a statement saying: “If you want to know what your legislators’ priorities are, it is important to not just hear what they say, watch what they do.
“It is telling that Michigan GOP legislative leaders Mike Shirkey and Lee Chatfield are jetting off to Washington DC this week to meet with President Trump. They are more focused on continuing the GOP smoke and mirrors show designed to hide Trump’s humiliating defeat than taking care of the actual problems impacting Michiganders.
“It is both shameful and dangerous that they would travel during a global health pandemic that has killed over 8,000 Michiganders while refusing to work with our Governor in offering relief to our frontline workers, our small business owners, and everyone impacted by this deadly virus. Both Shirkey and Chatfield are once again sending a message to everyone in this state that they care more about Trump than the people they were elected to serve.”
The news comes after the president this morning once again slammed Michigan’s presidential election results on Twitter, writing of the state’s most-populous city: “Voter Fraud in Detroit is rampant, and has been for many years!”
Michigan is one of several key states to have been called by media outlets for Joe Biden that Mr Trump is challenging in a last-ditch effort to swing the election his way.
Republicans Monica Palmer and William Hartmann initially voted against certification, leaving the Wayne County Board of Canvassers deadlocked at 2-2 along party lines.
Ms Palmer complained that certain Detroit precincts were out of balance, meaning that absentee ballot books did not match the number of ballots cast.
However Ms Palmer and Mr Hartmann had a change of heart after “three hours of being berated by the public,” said Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell, a Democrat.
“They came to their senses to do the right thing,” Ms Bell said. “This was just wrong. They had to single it out against Detroit.”
TRUMP FIRES TOP ELECTION OFFICIAL
A top election official is the latest senior figure to be fired by Donald Trump after he claimed that the 2020 election was the “most secure in American history.”
Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was fired by the president in a tweetstorm.
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting,” Trump tweeted.
“Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed, votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more,” Trump continued.
“Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” he ended.
Just minutes after finding out he was fired via Twitter, Krebs himself took to the platform and issued a final statement.
“Honoured to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow (sic). #Protect2020,” he tweeted.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” read a CISA statement released last week.
“Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalising the result.”
The statement continued, noting that close elections prompt a recount of ballots to identify and correct any mistakes or errors. “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” the statement continued.
“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 ended.
“When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”
Sources close to Mr Krebs said as early as last week he believed he would soon be fired following the release of the CISA statement.
Mr Trump also fired Mr Krebs’ deputy Matt Travis, who will leave this week.
Earlier today, Mr Krebs took to Twitter to share data that any claims of voter fraud were untrue.
“ICYMI: On allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, ‘in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.’ #Protect2020,” read his tweet.
Krebs retweeted Georgetown University professor and scientist Matt Blaze, who shared a link to a letter penned by him and his colleagues entitled, “Scientists say no credible evidence of computer fraud in the 2020 election outcome, but policymakers must work with experts to improve confidence.”
The president has been purging those least loyal to him in recent weeks following the election that found Joe Biden the president-elect. He fired Defence Secretary Mark Esper in a tweet last week as well.
Mr Trump, citing Mr Krebs’ recent statement of the election’s security as being inaccurate, has resisted conceding the election to Mr Biden and claimed there was widespread voter fraud in the election despite the evidence proving otherwise.
Mr Krebs, a former Microsoft executive, ran CISA since it was first created following Russian interference in the 2016 election through the November election.
Members of both parties praised Krebs for his co-ordinated response in federal, state, and local efforts to defend electoral systems from any interference – foreign or domestic.
Although Mr Krebs defended the November 3 election, he kept a relatively low profile and struck down allegations of fraud or political bias in the election.
N ANCY PELOSI RULES THE HOUSE AGAIN
Nancy Pelosi – arguably Mr Trump’s most aggressive Democatic foe – was re-elected as the Speaker of the House in a virtual vote despite Democrats supposedly trying to oust her.
Ms Pelosi’s position was reportedly in jeopardy after the Democrats failed to expand their majority in the election and the party became increasingly divided.
Ms Pelosi’s dominance over the House decreased after the Republicans kicked out several incumbents, defended representatives, and narrowed the gap between the rival political parties.
The Democrats will control the House on a knife-edge majority for the next two years – but some feel new leadership is needed, reports said.
Yet, Ms Pelosi managed to retain her position for another term, according to the House Democrats’ Twitter account.
Their statement read: “Congratulations to. @SpeakerPelosi, once again elected by House Democrats to be our fearless leader and nominee for Speaker of the House for the 117th Congress! #DownWithNDP #ForThePeople.”
A full House floor vote for the speakership won’t be happening until the new Congress is sworn in, however.
The news comes after the Democrats reportedly planned to oust Pelosi as Speaker after the House election collapse – and the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s left-wing Squad.
But her position was reportedly in peril as another Democrat Rep Elissa Slotkin turned against her as the party’s internal divisions are intensify.
“I will not be voting for Nancy Pelosi,” Ms Slotkin told Politico. “I have no idea if people are going to run against her, or who might run against her.
“And I will of course have this conversation directly with her. But I believe we need new leadership.”
“I would love to see more Midwesterners, because if you look across the leadership,” the Michigan congresswoman added. “I respect these people, but it’s New York and California.”
COURT RULES AGAINST TRUMP
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled 5-2 against allegations supporters of President Donald Trump were blocked from observing the counting of mail-in ballots.
The decision, which was handed down on Tuesday afternoon local time, is the latest failed effort by the President and his team to try to reverse the results of the November 3 election, which ultimately saw Joe Biden claim victory on November 7.
In the hours and days following the historic election, Mr Trump, a number of his family members and key senior players within his team began alleging that mass voter fraud was taking place across the United States and that the election had been “stolen”, without presenting any substantiated evidence.
In some states, Trump supporters gathered at vote counting centres to demand state officials “stop the count”, while in other states supporters demanded officials “count every vote” in a bid to avoid what they believed to be fraudulent behaviour.
In Philadelphia, Trump supporters claim they lacked access to observe votes being counted after being ordered to stand between 15-18 feet away from official counters due to ongoing COVID concerns. Supporters argued the distance did not allow them to adequately observe the votes.
Shortly after complaints first aired, the Trump team secured a court order to allow count watchers to observe within six feet.
But in rejecting the campaign’s complaints on Tuesday afternoon, Justice Barbara Todd said, “The Board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the pre-canvassing and canvassing process, as the Election Code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives.”
Her written findings continued, “We find the Board’s regulations as applied herein were reasonable in that they allowed candidate representatives to observe the Board conducting its activities as prescribed under the Election Code.”
According to Mark Stern, a reporter for Slate, “The decision was 5–2 because two justices wouldn’t have even decided the case, preferring to rule that it is moot. The principal dissent also explicitly says that throwing out valid ballots would not be an appropriate remedy anyway.”
To date, no evidence of fraud or corruption has been found. The Trump team still has a number of court cases pending in other states around the country.
ATTACK ON US EMBASSY AMID TROOP WITHDRAWAL
A series of rockets targeted the US embassy have slammed into Iraq’s capital late Tuesday local time and killed a child in their wake.
The attack came soon after President Donald Trump announced new troop withdrawals in the Middle East and broke a month-long truce on attacks against the embassy in Baghdad.
According to the Iraqi military, four of the rockets landed in the high-security Green Zone, where the US embassy and other foreign missions are based.
Another three rockets also hit other parts of Baghdad, killing one girl and wounding five civilians.
All seven rockets were launched from the same location in east Baghdad, the Iraqi military said in a statement.
AFP reporters heard several large blasts, followed by rapid-fire sounds and red flares lighting up the sky, indicating that the embassy’s C-RAM rocket defence system was deployed.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition said Iraqi intelligence had confirmed an indirect fire attack on the US embassy but declined to comment on the C-RAM usage.
Earlier, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller confirmed that President Trump will draw down troops in Afghanistan and Iraq days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Mr Miller said the US will reduce troop levels to 2,500 in each country by January 15 — down from 4,500 in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq currently.
Since October 2019, nearly 90 deadly rocket attacks and roadside bombs have targeted foreign embassies, troops and other installations across Iraq.
The attacks have been claimed by groups described by both US and Iraqi officials as “smokescreens” for hard line Iran-aligned factions in Iraq.
The US has explicitly named Kataeb Hezbollah as behind some of the violence and has twice bombed the group.
They have infuriated the US, which responded twice by bombing Kataeb Hezbollah and other hard line pro-Iran factions it blames for the spree of attacks.
Last month, Washington threatened to close down its diplomatic compound in Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone if the attacks did not stop.
Its ultimatum prompted pro-Iran factions to announce a truce for an unspecified amount of time. The rockets immediately halted, with the latest attack the first in more than a month.
It came just hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who Iraqi sources said had relayed the earlier threat to close the embassy, called Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.
Around the same time, the US announced it would slash troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 in each country, their lowest levels in nearly 20 years of war.
Washington still has some 3,000 troops stationed across Iraq as part of the US-led coalition helping the country fight the Islamic State group since 2014.
The coalition had already significantly drawn down its troop levels this year, partly due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
B IDEN ORDERS TEAM TO AVOID BAITING TRUMP WITH LEGAL ACTIONS
In a bid to bridge the damaging political divide between Americans, President-elect Joe Biden has made it clear he does not want Donald Trump to be swamped by law suits when he leaves the White House.
Mr Biden believes attacks against outgoing President Trump after he leaves office will only further divide the nation, he privately told advisers.
NBC News cited five people familiar with discussions in which Mr Biden said he was wary of some Democrats’ appetite to probe the business and personal affairs of Mr Trump once he no longer has legal protections.
The incoming President is apparently worried that such investigations would only deepen the political divisions in America at a time when he has publicly argued he has a mandate to unite Americans across party lines.
The president-elect said he was specifically concerned about ongoing federal tax investigations into Mr Trump or of the potential for prosecutors to challenge any pardons granted by the outgoing president to members of his staff before leaving office.
One Biden Adviser said the president-elect has made it clear that he “just wants to move on” from Trump, while another said: “He’s going to be more oriented toward fixing the problems and moving forward than prosecuting them.”
While a Biden-led Justice Department can opt against investigating the former commander-in-chief, he has no authority to stop the probes being led by state and other non-federal officials, including by New York State Attorney-General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
The New York Post said Mr Vance has been engaged in a long legal battle for Mr Trump’s tax returns, while Ms James is probing the Trump Organization’s business dealings.
The President’s son Eric Trump testified before state investigators last month after unsuccessfully fighting to delay his interview until after the November presidential election.
New York State politicians have even gone as far as to propose a bill that would make it harder for any former president to avoid state prosecution if accused of criminal wrongdoing.
IRAN PROMISES ‘CRUSHING RESPONSE’ TO USA
Iran has threatened a “crushing response” to any US strike after Donald Trump reportedly was talked out of hitting the nuke site.
President Donald Trump asked for options for a strike on Iran’s main nuclear site last week but decided against doing so, according to reports.
“Any action against the Iranian nation would certainly face a crushing response,” spokesman Ali Rabiei said, in remarks streamed on an official government website.
But it’s understood Mr Trump may still be considering other avenues of attack against Iran.
The president asked whether he had any options to engage Iran after international inspectors found a significant increase in the nation’s main nuclear site, according to a New York Times report.
Among the advisers were Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defence Secretary Christopher C. Miller, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley.
They told the president – reeling after his election defeat to Joe Biden days earlier – that such an act could quickly escalate into a “broader conflict”, the Times reported.
Any attack, a physical missile or a cyber strike, would likely target Natanz, Iran’s main nuclear site where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported the country’s uranium stockpile was more than 12 times larger than the amount permitted under the nuclear accord Trump abandoned in 2018.
The IAEA also said it was not allowed access to another suspected site where there was evidence of previous nuclear activity, the Sun reports.
Although Pompeo and Milley described the likelihood of a war erupting should the United States risk military escalation, administration officials with knowledge of the meeting suggest Trump was still looking for ways to attack Iran.
The meeting comes days after Trump fired Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, prompting Pentagon officials to fear an escalation between the United States and Iran.
Following the president’s firing of Mr Esper by tweet, Pentagon officials said they feared the president would try to escalate tensions with Iran during his final days in office.
Former Defence official turned Democratic Michigan representative Elissa Slotkin said, “There would only be a few reasons to fire a secretary of defence with 72 days left in an administration.”
“One would be incompetence or wrongdoing, which do not seem to be the issue with Secretary Esper,” she said. “A second would be vindictiveness, which would be an irresponsible way to treat our national security.”
“A third would be because the president wants to take actions that he believes his secretary of defence would refuse to take,” Slotkin ended, “which would be alarming.”
Before Mr Trump’s meeting with his advisers, the president met with a small group of national security aides discussing what to do with Iran.
Last month, Mr Trump told Iran they had been “put on notice.”
“If you f*** around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are gonna do things to you that have never been done before,” he said during an interview.
As Mr Trump enters his lame duck period, his meeting shows how global threats will affect his final days in office. Any talk of a strike on Iran will push away the president’s supporters, who openly oppose any conflict in the Middle East.
Increasing tensions with Iran will also harm president-elect Joe Biden’s chances to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord that Trump pulled out of in 2018, something Biden promised to accomplish within his term.
BIDEN BUILDS TEAM
Joe Biden is building his team to work with him in the White House, announcing he is appointing two long-time advisers to senior roles and naming several other veterans of his presidential campaign to senior positions.
Mike Donilon, the chief strategist for Biden’s campaign who played a leading role in crafting his speeches and advertising as he framed the 2020 race as a “battle for the soul of the nation,” will be a senior Adviser to the president.
And Steve Ricchetti, the Biden campaign chairman and a veteran of the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton White Houses, will be a counsellor to the president, CNN reports.
The announcements come days after Mr Biden unveiled Ron Klain as his chief of staff.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign manager who took over after Biden limped through the Democratic primary and turned his campaign into the biggest fundraising juggernaut in history, is Biden’s deputy chief of staff.
Louisiana politician Cedric Richmond, the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is resigning from his House seat to become a senior Adviser to Mr Biden and the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a Biden deputy campaign manager who had previously been a top aide to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign during the primary, will be director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Chavez Rodriguez is also a veteran of former President Barack Obama’s administration, where she was a special assistant to the president and senior deputy director of public engagement.
‘SAVING LIVES’: BIDEN'S PLAN TO FIX USA
President-elect Joe Biden has laid out his plan to repair the United States, as the country battles surging coronavirus cases and a failing economy that has left millions unemployed.
“The fact that the President is off playing golf while our economy suffers is terrible,” Mr Biden said, referring to incumbent President Donald Trump.
“We should be saving lives and jobs now.”
Speaking during a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, Mr Biden spoke about an “irresponsible” Trump administration which had not encouraged Americans to wear masks or practice social distancing.
“There’s nothing macho about not wearing a mask,” Mr Biden said.
Speaking alongside Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Mr Biden opened up about the status of the COVID-19 vaccine, blasting the Trump administration for its handling of the global health crisis.
“It's an international health crisis, and the only reason people question the vaccine is because of Donald Trump,” said Mr Biden.
When asked about Mr Trump’s “I won” tweet over the weekend, Mr Biden laughed and said: “That’s just Trumpism”.
Mr Biden also said Mr Trump’s refusal to concede and allow a peaceful transition was “embarrassing”.
“I find it more embarrassing for the country than debilitating [in terms of] my attempts to get started.”
Earlier, Mr Trump again tweeted baseless claims about a “stolen” election and avoided addressing the worsening coronavirus pandemic, other than to mention the Moderna vaccine trial results and its positive effect on the US stock market today.
The Radical Left Democrats, working with their partner, the Fake News Media, are trying to STEAL this Election. We won’t let them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
They will PACK THE COURTS. We won’t let that happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
His tweets came as more than one million children under 18 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States, according to CNN.
Mr Trump alleged that, although the votes in the swing states were being recounted, even those recounts were rigged.
It was a tweet that was flagged with the disclaimer: “This claim about election fraud is disputed”.
Georgia won’t let us look at the all important signature match. Without that the recount is MEANINGLESS. Open up unconstitutional Consent Decree, NOW! @BrianKempGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
Meantime, the Trump administration said it would begin selling oil leases for the Acrtic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
The lease sales would kick in just before Inauguration Day on January 20, 2021, meaning the incoming Biden administration would have to try to reverse them after the fact.
TRUMP BRIEFLY ALLUDED TO DEFEAT
US President Donald Trump appeared to acknowledge that President-elect Joe Biden had won the 2020 race for the White House — but chalked up the outcome to the election being “rigged” — and then he tweeted again to clearly state that he did not concede defeat at all.
“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Mr Trump tweeted.
“NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!” he continued.
He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more! https://t.co/Exb3C1mAPg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
RIGGED ELECTION. WE WILL WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
Twitter flagged the tweets with the warning “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
Mr Trump had previously accused Dominion Voting — which supplies voting machines throughout the US — of deleting 2.7 million votes that were cast for him, and changing 221,000 votes cast in Pennsylvania for him to favour Mr Biden.
The company said in a statement that it “denies claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems.”
Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said that the election result would be “overturned,” insisting he had “evidence” that “corrupt machines” had deleted millions of votes for Trump — but couldn’t share it.
In an interview on Fox News, Mr Giuliani claimed that the president had actually won the key swing states that were called for Joe Biden.
“They didn’t allow Republicans in those key places to observe the mail vote. That makes the mail vote completely invalid,” he told TV anchor Maria Bartiromo.
TRUMP FANS RAGE AGAINST DEFEAT
The night before, pro-Trump demonstrators were joined by members of far-right groups including the Proud Boys, some wearing helmets and bulletproof vests.
America’s ABC described the clashes as “very ugly scenes” which resulted in multiple arrests.
Trump supporters rallied in Washington over the weekend to push the discredited theory that fraud denied him rightful victory in the election, though turnout for the protest was uncertain as further results cemented the president’s defeat.
Mr Trump expressed his thanks and suggested he might “stop by and say hello” at rallies held under the banners of “Stop The Steal,” “Million MAGA March” and “Women for America First.”
ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back. Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent #MAGA People. DC Police, get going — do your job and don’t hold back!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
He tweeted that MAGA people were “innocent” and leftist protesters were “scum” after a photo circulated of a Trump supporter being kicked in the head.
Right-wing militia groups such as the pro-Trump Proud Boys had planned to hold rallies, prompting a large security presence in the capital to prevent clashes with separate anti-Trump events that were scheduled outside the Supreme Court.
“The whole system’s rigged … in the way that the information is getting to the people, it’s filtered through these channels that makes it so that the truth never actually gets out,” said marcher Darion Schaublin, 26, who drove to Washington from Columbus, Ohio.
“There is a good chance … he is not going to have a second term, and I’m not sure of the legitimacy of that.”
The crowd – reportedly in excess of 10,000 – swarmed the US President’s motorcade as he drove past on his way to his golf course in Virginia.
At least 20 people were arrested, reports said, including four for firearm violations and one for assault on a police officer.
The final two undeclared states were called on Friday by US television networks, with Democrat challenger Joe Biden winning the former Republican stronghold of Georgia in an extremely close race, and Trump getting North Carolina.
The latest tallies gave Biden a solid overall final win in the state-by-state Electoral College that decides the presidency, with 306 votes against Trump’s 232. Two hundred seventy votes are required for election.
Mr Trump continues to impede Biden’s ability to prepare for his transition ahead of inauguration on January 20 and has filed numerous lawsuits — so far unsuccessfully — to challenge vote counts around the country.
On Friday, a judge in Michigan issued another rejection of Republican claims of fraud.
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Trump went on a Twitter spree expressing several U-turns on previous expressed opinions.
But in the shadow of his election defeat, he’s not apparently giving up the White House just yet.
He weighed in on the importance of a “big and focused” COVID-19 relief bill for the US, which is in direct contradiction to Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s continued rejections of the Democrats’ pleas for such a bill.
Congress must now do a Covid Relief Bill. Needs Democrats support. Make it big and focused. Get it done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2020
Negotiations on such a package remain stalled even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference on Thursday that they are not willing to change their call for a large coronavirus package.
Mr Trump also tweeted that he loves New York City, despite earlier threats to withhold the vaccine from the Empire State alone out of all the other states, purely as retaliation against its governor Andrew Cuomo.
I LOVE NEW YORK! As everyone knows, the Trump Administration has produced a great and safe VACCINE far ahead of schedule. Another Administration would have taken five years. The problem is, @NYGovCuomo said that he will delay using it, and other states WANT IT NOW...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2020
....We cannot waste time and can only give to those states that will use the Vaccine immediately. Therefore the New York delay. Many lives to be saved, but we are ready when they are. Stop playing politics!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2020
Mr Trump also tweeted a message to Indians in honour of Diwali, the Festival of Lights mainly celebrated by Hindus, despite being anti-immigration for the duration of his presidential term.
Vice-president elect Kamala Harris is of South Asian (Indian Tamil) descent.
While Mr Trump spoke publicly on Friday for the first time since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential election a week ago, he has declined to formally acknowledge his defeat.
Mr Trump spoke from the Rose Garden at the White House, delivering an update on vaccine efforts, but only hinted at the possibility that he will no longer be president at that time, saying only, “time will tell.”
With just two months until the United States Presidential Inauguration, president-elect Joe Biden has moved ahead with transition plans including launching a COVID-19 task force, despite Mr Trump remaining unwilling to yet concede the election.
TRUMP’S ‘GET OUT OF JAIL FREE’ CARD
Trump is desperately trying to cling to power. When he hands over the presidency on January 20, the outgoing President will also lose the “cloak of immunity” which has protected him for four years against a range of lawsuits and prosecutions.
It may be that only the power of the White House will save him in the end.
Since becoming the 45th president of the United States in 2016, Mr Trump has been inundated by civil lawsuits and criminal investigations directed at himself, his family and his close associates.
But when you’re dealing with the leader of the free world, the wheels of justice can turn very slowly indeed.
“Part of it is the power of the presidency,” said Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
“Part of it is the slowness of the system. He is the target of a number of litigation matters and investigations, but he’s been able to take advantage of the extreme slowness of the system.”
Yet Mr Trump may still have a “get out of jail free” card to stymie his accusers. More on this later.
CLOAK OF IMMUNITY
The so-called “cloak of immunity” – the Justice Department’s unwritten policy to not pursue criminal matters against a sitting President – has also been a key factor which has allowed Mr Trump to dodge and weave litigators for the past four years.
Special counsel Robert Mueller pointed to this code when his team decided not to pursue obstruction of justice charges against Mr Trump after they investigated allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
But the “cloak of immunity” only relates to actions Mr Trump took while he was in the White House.
Without the ability to invoke the cloak, Mr Trump’s legal team will no longer be able to shield him from having to testify in inquiries levelled against him. Experts say that Mr Trump could potentially face more than a dozen serious legal suits and, potentially, time behind bars.
PENCE COULD PLAY A ROLE
If the long list of lawsuits facing Mr Trump, detailed below, seems likely to disturb his post-presidential life on the golf course, he may have a couple of lifelines left to save him.
The President of the USA has the power to pardon not only people convicted of crimes, but also people yet to face the courts, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling more than 150 years ago.
The pardon “may be exercised at any time after (the act’s) commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency or after conviction and judgment”.
This is pre-emptive pardoning – absolving someone of their sins before they face judgment.
And there is precedent, with Richard Nixon being cleared by his successor Gerald Ford before he was charged with any wrongdoing over the Watergate scandal.
Under one scenario, Mr Trump would resign from the White House before the January 20 inauguration of Joe Biden, handing power to his Vice President Mike Pence, who would then deliver pardons to his ex-boss for the many allegations he faces.
There is also another bizarre way for Mr Trump to be pardoned – and that is by doing it himself.
“All we can say is that a president could try to pardon himself, and that it might or might not work,” opined the Washington Post.
In the Trump era, anything is possible, right?
HUSH MONEY
There is a certain irony in the fact that the major lawsuits facing Mr Trump when he leaves office are coming mainly from his former hometown of New York City, with which he has, at best, a fractious relationship these days.
Manhattan District lawyer Cyrus Vance is leading the charge, along with New York Attorney-General Letitia James, both of whom are looking into legal issues surrounding Mr Trump’s business empire.
Mr Vance’s office is investigating allegations that “hush money” was paid to two women during the 2016 campaign who claimed to have had affairs with Mr Trump before he entered the White House.
Manhattan prosecutors are also looking into possible criminal activity within the Trump business empire. At the heart of these issues are Mr Trump’s tax returns and other financial information that he has battled to keep out of the public eye. Mr Trump has repeatedly sued to keep his tax records hidden and launched legal action which has wound up in the Supreme Court.
Yet the Supreme Court, which became a feature of the 2020 election campaign when Mr Trump successfully nominated conservative Amy Coney Barrett to fill a vacancy, rejected claims that he cannot be subject to criminal investigation while he is in the White House.
“Two hundred years ago, a great jurist of our Court established that no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Chief Justice John Roberts declared.
“We reaffirm that principle today and hold that the president is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas.”
The court sent the case back to the lower court to resolve other legal issues.
And last month, a federal appeals court again ruled that Mr Trump must show his financial records to Mr Vance’s office.
Mr Trump appealed to the Supreme Court once more. It has not yet decided whether to hear the case again.
Meanwhile, another investigation is underway to determine whether the Trump Organisation improperly overvalued assets in financial statements to secure loans and gain tax advantages, allegations levelled by Mr Trump’s one-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Then his son Eric Trump was ordered to give an interview under oath about the family business, but his testimony has been marked “confidential” for the time being.
There are also two lawsuits being brought against Mr Trump by women who claim he sexually assaulted them and then proceeded to defame them after he denied their allegations.
Mr Trump accused former Elle magazine writer E. Jean Carroll of lying about her accusation that he raped her in a NYC dressing room more than 20 years ago to generate interest in her tell-all memoir. She filed a defamation case against him and is trying to find DNA evidence to prove his genetic material is on clothing she said she was wearing during the alleged assault.
Mr Trump has also been accused of kissing and groping a former contestant on The Apprentice, Summer Zervos. She is suing for defamation after Mr Trump called her a liar.
Even the outgoing president’s family are pursuing him in the courts. His niece Mary Trump, the daughter of his older brother Freddy, has claimed that she was fiddled out of millions of dollars of her inheritance.
Her legal team said in a lawsuit that “fraud was not just the family business – it was a way of life”.
Meanwhile, Washington DC’s Attorney-General, Karl Racine, has begun legal action alleging that Mr Trump illegally gained financial benefit when the non-profit inaugural committee and two other Trump-owned bodies misused the committee’s money.
The allegations include the committee spending over $US1 million ($A1.3 million) to rent space and pay for food in the Trump International Hotel – well above market rates.
In yet another lawsuit, a group of men who protested outside New York’s Trump Tower say that security guards shoved them, punched them in the head and choked them.
Then there is the allegation levelled in a class action that Mr Trump, his adult children, and an affiliate of the Trump Organisation misled people to sell products for American Communications Network.
The group alleged that the Trump family wanted to benefit themselves by promoting the company, which charged people $US499 ($A685) to sell the goods, Reuters reported.
“Trump attracts lawsuits and prosecutors like metal filings to a magnet, ”former Bill Clinton aide Michael Waldman said.
Mr Trump will be hoping desperately that he can reverse polarity when he leaves office.
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