2 weeks ago
Pelosi criticizes Biden for ending campaign late and endorsing Harris
Speaking to the New York Times, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker who played a major role in the pressuring Joe Biden not to seek re-election, said she believed the president waited too long to exit the race, and erred in immediately endorsing Kamala Harris.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said. Shortly after announcing in July that he would end his bid for a second term, Biden endorsed Harris, setting the stage for her to become the Democratic nominee. Harris went on to lose the presidential election to Donald Trump on Tuesday, and in the interview conducted two days later, Pelosi said Democrats would have benefited from a primary to choose their candidate.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said.
“And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Military officials discussing how to respond to illegal orders under Trump – report
Officials at the Pentagon are having informal discussions about what to do if Donald Trump were to give an illegal order, such as deploying the military domestically, CNN reports.
They are also preparing for the possibility that he may change rules to be able to fire scores of career civil servants.
On the campaign trail, Trump has mulled sending the military after his political enemies, and also to turn back migrants at the southern border. US law generally prohibits active-duty troops from being deployed for law enforcement purposes. There are also fears he could gut the civil service in the Pentagon, and replace fired staff with employees selected for their loyalty to him.
Here’s more, from CNN:
Trump has suggested he would be open to using active-duty forces for domestic law enforcement and mass deportations and has indicated he wants to stack the federal government with loyalists and “clean out corrupt actors” in the US national security establishment.
Officials are now gaming out various scenarios as they prepare for an overhaul of the Pentagon.
“We are all preparing and planning for the worst-case scenario, but the reality is that we don’t know how this is going to play out yet,” one defense official said.
Trump’s election has also raised questions inside the Pentagon about what would happen if the president issued an unlawful order, particularly if his political appointees inside the department don’t push back.
“Troops are compelled by law to disobey unlawful orders,” said another defense official. “But the question is what happens then – do we see resignations from senior military leaders? Or would they view that as abandoning their people?”
Nancy Pelosi also said she disagreed with Bernie Sanders, the progressive independent senator who said Democrats had “abandoned working-class people” after Kamala Harris’s election loss.
“Bernie Sanders has not won,” Pelosi said in her interview with the New York Times.
“With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him, for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic party has abandoned the working-class families.”
The former speaker instead blamed cultural issues for Harris’s loss to Donald Trump. “Guns, God and gays – that’s the way they say it,” Pelosi told the Times.
“Guns, that’s an issue; gays, that’s an issue, and now they’re making the trans issue such an important issue in their priorities; and in certain communities, what they call God, what we call a woman’s right to choose.”
Pelosi criticizes Biden for ending campaign late and endorsing Harris
Speaking to the New York Times, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker who played a major role in the pressuring Joe Biden not to seek re-election, said she believed the president waited too long to exit the race, and erred in immediately endorsing Kamala Harris.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said. Shortly after announcing in July that he would end his bid for a second term, Biden endorsed Harris, setting the stage for her to become the Democratic nominee. Harris went on to lose the presidential election to Donald Trump on Tuesday, and in the interview conducted two days later, Pelosi said Democrats would have benefited from a primary to choose their candidate.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said.
“And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
Donald Trump has attacked California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who yesterday called the state legislature into a special session to enact laws intended to counter the Republican president-elect’s agenda.
“Governor Gavin Newscum is trying to KILL our Nation’s beautiful California. For the first time ever, more people are leaving than are coming in. He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He also restated his support for voting laws that could make it more difficult to cast ballots: “Also, as an ‘AGENT’ for the United States of America on Voting & Elections, I will be DEMANDING THAT VOTER I.D., AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP, ARE A NECESSARY PART AND COMPONENT OF THE VOTING PROCESS!”
Donald Trump’s transition team could announce additional White House positions as early as today, CNN is reporting.
As we reported earlier, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is not expected to return to a new Trump administration but could advise on Middle East policy.
The Financial Times is reporting that the North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum, is being tapped to be Trump’s new “energy tsar”.
Burgum is Trump’s preferred candidate for the role, the paper writes, adding that former energy secretary Dan Brouillette is also a contender.
Adria R Walker
Just hours after Donald Trump’s election win on Tuesday, Black people across the US reported receiving racist text messages telling them that they had been “selected” to pick cotton and needed to report to “the nearest plantation”.
While the texts, some of which were signed “a Trump supporter”, varied in detail, they all conveyed the same essential message about being selected to pick cotton. Some of the messages refer to the recipients by name.
Black people in states including Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, the DC area and elsewhere reported receiving the messages.
The messages were sent to Black adults and students, including to high schoolers in Massachusetts and New York, and students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), such as Alabama State University and other schools, including ones across Ohio, Clemson University, the University of Alabama and Missouri State.
At least six middle school students in Pennsylvania received the messages, according to the AP.
Authorities including the FBI and attorneys general are investigating the messages.
Jim Banks, the Republican Indiana senator-elect, said he hopes that every undocumented immigrant who came to the US illegally under the Biden administration will be deported once Donald Trump is in office.
“It’s my hope that we deport every single one of them that we can, and it starts with deporting violent criminals who are in the United States who came here illegally who have committed violent crimes,” Banks told CNN on Friday.
“I think once you do that, President Trump is committed to making that his first and top priority when it comes to mass deportation.”
Asked how those plans would be carried out, Banks said he didn’t think it would be “that complicated”.
He said the American people had given Trump and the Republicans “a mandate to do everything that we can.”
“The goal should be to deport every illegal in this country that we can find,” he added.
Donald Trump, during a call with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, handed the phone to Elon Musk, the New York Times is also reporting, confirming an earlier Axios story.
It is not clear what the three men discussed or whether they touched on any change in US policy toward Ukraine in the wake of Trump’s election victory, the Times said.
The tone of the call was described as “positive”, a source told the paper.
Pentagon lifts ban on US defense contractors inside Ukraine to repair weaponry - report
The Biden administration has decided to allow US defense contractors to work in Ukraine to maintain and repair Pentagon-provided weaponry, Reuters is reporting, citing US officials.
The contractors would be small in number and located far from the frontlines and will not be engaged in combat, an official told the news agency.
“Having small numbers of contractors in Ukraine conducting maintenance away from the front lines will help ensure U.S.-provided equipment can be rapidly repaired when damaged and be provided maintenance as needed,” the US official said.
Faisal Ali
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested on Friday that a second term for Donald Trump could provide an opportunity to resolve the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Lebanon and Gaza.
Erdoğan said he called Trump on Wednesday, while in Budapest for the European Political Community summit, in which he congratulated him on his election victory.
During a speech in Istanbul, Erdoğan said he now expects Trump to “abandon the erroneous policies of the previous administration” on Gaza and bring the war there to an end.
“You know Trump has promised to end the conflicts initiated by Israel. We want that promise to be fulfilled and for Israel to be told stop”, Erdoğan said.
On Ukraine, Erdoğan called for more diplomacy, adding that Turkey-US cooperation could get a breakthrough.
“More weapons, more bombs, more chaos, and conflict will not end this war,” he warned.
Ankara has previously played a key role in facilitating dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow.
Judge grants Jack Smith's request to pause proceedings in election interference trial
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case has granted a request from the special counsel’s office to pause proceedings in his trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election.
As we reported earlier, Jack Smith asked judge Tanya Chutkan to pause the case against the president-elect to “assess the unprecedented circumstances” in which the office finds itself.
In a filing earlier on Friday, Smith said that “as a result of the election” the prosecution “respectfully requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance.”
Smith’s team said it would inform the judge of “the result of its deliberations” by 2 December.
The day so far
Donald Trump seems set to evade federal prosecution for allegedly plotting to overturn the 2020 election, with special counsel Jack Smith asking a judge to pause proceedings in the case. Separately, the justice department unveiled charges against a member of an Iranian paramilitary for allegedly plotting to kill the president-elect prior to his victory on Tuesday. We have also been getting more of a sense of who might serve in a second Trump administration, and what it’s priorities may be. Elon Musk reportedly took part in a call with Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which the Ukrainian president found to be more reassuring than he expected. And on Fox News, the House majority leader Steve Scalise said Republican lawmakers would be focusing on extended tax cuts, allowing more oil and gas production and stopping migrants.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
We still do not know the winners of Arizona and Nevada’s electoral votes or Senate races. Trump is expected to win the former, while Democratic candidates appear to have advantages in the latter.
Bob Casey, Pennsylvania’s Democratic senator, lost his bid for re-election yesterday, the Associated Press confirmed. But he has not conceded, and a prominent Democratic election attorney has indicated there may be a fight over ballot counting brewing.
Million of Americans may lose health insurance coverage next year, if Congress does not decide to extend subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
Special counsel Jack Smith asks judge to pause Trump's 2020 election meddling case - report
With Donald Trump headed back to the White House, NBC News reports that special counsel Jack Smith has asked a federal judge to pause proceedings in his trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Continuing the case appeared untenable after Trump won Tuesday’s election, since justice department policy prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents – something Trump will soon be, once again.
NBC News reports that, in his filing, Smith said that “as a result of the election” he “requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance.”
Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that Smith will end both the election interference case against Trump, and a separate prosecution for allegedly taking and hiding classified documents. Neither case had gone to trial prior to Trump’s election victory on Tuesday:
Signs that Iran was trying to assassinate Donald Trump increased in the run-up to the election, leading his campaign to reportedly request extraordinary security accommodations. Here’s a look back at those, from the Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis:
Donald Trump’s team has asked for officials to provide him with a dramatic array of military protections as the presidential campaign wraps, including travel in military aircraft and vehicles, according to reports.
Trump’s campaign has also requested ramped-up flight restrictions around his residences and rallies, and “ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states” for his team’s use, the Washington Post reported, citing internal emails and sources familiar with the requests. The New York Times first reported on these requests.
The demands were both “extraordinary and unprecedented”, the Post noted, as not a single recent presidential nominee has been shuttled in military aircraft before an election. A source told the Times that these sorts of high-level, classified military resources are used solely for sitting presidents.
Trump’s asks followed intelligence provided to his campaign staff that Iran is seeking to assassinate him and after his team expressed worry about drones and missiles targeting him. Trump was shot during a failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on 13 July, and a man was arrested in an alleged assassination attempt on 15 September; neither gunman is believed to have had Iranian ties.
Justice department charges Iran Revolutionary Guard member with trying to kill Trump
The justice department has brought charges against a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards paramilitary group for plotting to assassinate Donald Trump prior to Tuesday’s presidential election, the Associated Press reports.
On the campaign trail in the lead-up to his election win, Trump survived two assassination attempts, but authorities do not believe either were linked to Iran, a longtime foe of the United States.
According to the AP, the complaint unsealed in a Manhattan federal court says an unnamed official of the guard, which is formally known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, instructed a contact in September to create a plan to surveil and kill Trump.
Signs are continuing to mount that Elon Musk will be involved in Donald Trump’s administration. But the Guardian’s Dan Milmo reported earlier this week that even if he decides to stay out of politics, Musk appears set to gain from the Republican’s return to the White House:
Hours before it became official that Donald Trump had returned to the White House, his biggest supporter was already inside the Oval Office.
Elon Musk, who has been a key backer of Trump’s return to the presidency, was in his default wind-up mode as he used his X platform to post a superimposed picture of himself – holding a sink – inside the seat of US power.
“Let that sink in,” he wrote.
It was amateurish but Musk’s contribution to Trump’s victory has been serious and will reap benefits for the world’s richest person.
Trump acknowledged Musk in his victory speech on Wednesday, even if it required prompting from the audience, and indicated that Musk will be well treated under his administration.
“We have to protect our geniuses, we don’t have that many of them,” said Trump.
Musk, who is worth $264bn (£205bn), can easily afford the more than $100m he has given to the fellow billionaire’s campaign via his Super Pac.
Musk joined Trump's call with Zelenskyy - report
In yet another sign of Elon Musk’s clout with the second Trump administration, Axios reports that he was on the line when Donald Trump called Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his election win.
Two sources knowledgable about the call said Zelenskyy was “somewhat reassured” by what Trump told him. On the campaign trail, the president-elect promised to end the war in Ukraine in “24 hours” after taking office, which raised concerns he would broker a deal that would benefit Russia.
According to Axios, the call between Trump and Zelensky lasted about 25 minutes, and “the president-elect said he will support Ukraine, but didn’t go into details.”
“Three sources briefed on the call all told Axios that Zelensky felt the call went well and that it did not increase his anxiety about Trump’s victory. One source said it ‘didn’t leave Zelensky with a feeling of despair,” Axio said.
As for Musk, Axios said he “weighed in during the call to say he will continue supporting Ukraine through his Starlink satellites, the sources said. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.”
