Trump’s futile last stands to cling to claims of winning are getting even more futile After Georgia officials certified the state’s recount on Friday, confirming Joe Biden as the winner of the state, Michigan also stuck to its election results, making it impossible for Donald Trump to win the presidency. Michigan’s Republican state legislative leaders said after meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday that they had no information that would change the outcome of the presidential election in the state, and would follow the “normal” electoral process. Michigan is one of several states where the campaign of the Republican Trump is seeking to challenge Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 election, based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. “We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan*s electors,” Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House of Representatives Speaker Lee Chatfield said in a joint statement. Shirkey and Chatfield said any allegation of election fraud should be thoroughly investigated. “Michigan*s certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation,” they said. Having been stung by a series of court defeats, the Trump team is resting its hopes on getting Republican-controlled legislatures in battleground states to set aside the results and declare Trump the winner, according to three people familiar with the plan. Before Friday’s meeting, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said: “This is not an advocacy meeting. There will be no one from the campaign there. He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country.” The two lawmakers said they also pressed for more funds for Michigan to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. “We used our time in the White House to deliver a letter to President Trump making clear our support for additional federal funds to help Michigan in the fight against COVID-19,” they said. Reuters contributed to this report Donald Trump Jr., who now has Covid-19, previously downplayed the virus The president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. repeatedly dismissed the risks of coronavirus as the pandemic spiraled out of control this year, before contracting it himself this week. Don Jr. said in an interview with Fox News on 20 October that deaths from Covid-19 in America at the time were “almost nothing”. Days later the number of deaths from coronavirus in the US surpassed 225,000, increasing by at least a thousand each day. In the Fox News innterview, Don Jr said: “If you look at, I put it on my Instagram, I went through the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] data because I kept hearing about the new infections, [but] why aren’t they talking about deaths? Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing, because we have gotten control of this thing.” The elder Trump has repeatedly claimed that coronavirus deaths in the US are declining despite clear evidence that the opposite is the case. President Trump himself was able to recover from Covid-19 after being treated with a cocktail of experimental medications, most of which were unavailable to the public. Don Jr. is reportedly not yet experiencing symptoms. Public health experts predict a spike in deaths to occur throughout the holiday season and in weeks after. A bit of astrology trivia about Joe Biden, whose birthday is today Today is the 78th birthday of president-elect and future Scorpio-in-chief Joe Biden - giving us an excuse to revisit his astrological chart, because why not? As Biden continues to push back against recount demands from Donald Trump, birthday wishes poured in from political allies on social media throughout the day, including from Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, James Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi, and Bill Clinton. But let’s get to the real news: what are Biden’s signs? Joe Biden was born on November 20, 1942 at 8:30 a.m. in Scranton, Pennsylvania. That makes him a Scorpio Sun, Taurus Moon, and Sagittarius Rising. Here is an analysis of his sun and moon published in Oprah magazine by astrologer Lisa Stardust: His Scorpio Sun acts as the ‘claws of justice,’ making Joe Biden a purveyor of transformation. Based on all of his astrological characteristics, it’s likely Joe Biden is a person who believes change is possible—mostly because he’s lived through it and seen it with his own eyes. His Taurus Moon, meanwhile, denotes a kind and practical person, one who is both a hard worker and also stable, and slow to anger. Simply put: He doesn’t do drama. Meanwhile, people like Biden who are Sagittarius risings “are warriors who will fight for the greater good”. His Scorpio leanings do not stop with his Sun! Biden also has Mercury, Venus, and Mars in Scorpio, meaning the water sign shapes how he communicates, behaves in relationships, and takes action in life. That is a lot of Scorpio, Joe. In case you were wondering, future vice president Kamala Harris is a Libra. Exiting president Donald Trump is a Gemini. Donald Trump Jr has tested positive for coronavirus. The president’s eldest son managed to evade infection after the White House super-spreader event earlier this year led to positive tests for many around him, including his father and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle. He tested positive for Covid-19 early this week, according to a statement from his spokesman. This marks the fourth member of the Trump family to contract Covid after Donald Trump Sr, Melania Trump, and Barron Trump – all of whom have since recovered. “Don has been quarantining out at his cabin since the result,” the spokesman said. “He’s been completely asymptomatic so far and is following all medically recommended guidelines” Georgia governor says he will follow the law and formalize certification of votes after recount Georgia’s governor announced Friday that he will certify the presidential election results following a recount, solidifying Joe Biden’s win there. The announcement came after a recount demanded by Donald Trump in the wake of the November election, which showed a narrow loss to Biden in an upset of the traditionally-Republican state. Despite pressure from Trump to push back against the results, Republican governor Brian Kemp said in a press conference on Friday he will be certifying the election results as is required by law. “As governor, I have a solemn responsibility to follow the law and that is what I will do,” he said. Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted a series of false accusations regarding “illegal ballots” in Georgia, all of which were flagged by Twitter as misinformation. Despite Trump’s “throwing a fit about it”, as critics said Friday, Biden is officially the winner of Georgia and its 16 electoral college votes. Hello readers, Kari Paul here in Oakland, California taking over the blog for the next few hours. Stay tuned for updates. Early evening summary Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has officially certified Biden as the winner of Georgia’s election, after his office mistakenly announced that the process had been completed earlier on Friday. Biden becomes the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state’s 16 electoral college votes in nearly three decades. Joe Biden met with Democratic Congressional leaders in Delaware this afternoon. Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Georgia today, making the case for the state’s Republican senators who are locked in hotly contested runoff elections. In his remarks, he tiptoed around the fact that Trump lost the election. “We’re going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. And whatever the outcome, we will never stop fighting to make America great again,” he told a crowd in Canto, Georgia. Speaking at an event about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, Trump again falsely claimed that he won the election. He took no questions from reporters. A new report in the Washington Post delves into the increasingly confounding inaction by a Trump official who continues to block the transition to a new administration. As head of the General Services Administration, Emily Murphy’s central responsibility is to officially acknowledge the next president of the United States thereby allowing the transition to begin, a process that releases millions of dollars and access to government resources and information critical to an orderly transfer of power. Yet nearly two weeks after Biden became the president-elect, and despite intensifying pressure from Democrats and some Republicans, Murphy has yet to “ascertain” an “apparent winner” – an unprecedented step that has pushed what is typically an apolitical and routine formality into uncharted territory. Murphy has declined to explain her rationale for the delay. “She wants to see what happens with all of the states, and she is looking for cues from the White House,” a senior Trump administration official told the Post. “She doesn’t want to be disloyal to the administration that hired her.” This person added that Murphy is “not a bonafide Trump person” and is upset that she has become a public figure accused of aiding Trump’s efforts to delegitimize the results of an election he lost. Biden certified as winner of Georgia presidential race The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office officially certified the election results, affirming Biden’s victory in the traditionally Republican battleground after a mandatory statewide audit. The office mistakenly sent an email earlier on Friday declaring the process complete, only to immediately correct the statement to acknowledge that the process was ongoing. In a new statement sent around 4pm EST, the office said the results had been certified and directed the public to visit the secretary of state’s website to view the tally, which shows that Biden won by 12,670 votes. Because of the narrow margin of victory, either candidate may request a full recount. Such a request must be made within two business days. Trump’s campaign, seeking to overturn the results, has vowed to pursue all legal options. President elect Joe Biden is meeting with Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Biden, known for both quoting Irish poetry and garbling basic English, told the leaders that they had an open invitation to the Oval Office. “Me casa, you casa,” he told them, misquoting the expression “mi casa es su casa” and drawing a few chuckles. “I hope we’re going to spend a lot of time together,” he added. Trump is speaking now about lowering the cost of drug prices during which he falsely claimed he won the election and accused the pharmaceutical company Pfizer of intentionally delaying the release the results of its preliminary coronavirus vaccine until after the election. He took no questions. Before taking the podium, he sent this evidence-free missive on Twitter, again amplifying a fabricated conspiracy about “illegal ballots”. In the tweet, Trump falsely claimed insisted that would have won Georgia and the state’s Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would not have been forced into runoff races in January if it weren’t for widespread corruption. Twitter flagged the tweet as problematic. Loeffler, who was appointed to the seat, was running in a jungle election, in which she came in second behind the Democrat, Raphael Warnock, in a race that saw the Republican electorate split between Loeffler and Trump ally Doug Collins. Collins earned 20% of the vote compared with Loeffler’s nearly 26%. Perdue fell roughly .03% below the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been known to make blunt assessments of the president. On a private call Friday, she again did not mince words, reportedly calling the president a “psychopathic nut”. Members of Trump’s outside legal team will not attend the president’s meeting with Michigan state lawmakers due to their exposure to the coronavirus pandemic, Axios reported. Earlier Friday, Andrew Giuliani, the son of Rudy Giuliani, announced on Twitter that he tested positive for the virus. The younger Giuliani attended an indoor press conference with his father, several members of Trump’s legal team and a contingent of reporters. According to Axios, trump campaign officials held a conference call this morning with a lawyer on the White House staff to “candidly discussed their legal conundrum.” A decision was ultimately reached that a member of Giuliani’s legal team needed to attend the meeting with the Michigan lawmakers this afternoon. After it was raised that the lawyer’s son had tested positive for the virus, someone suggested that Giuliani shouldn’t attend as he was in close contact with his son. At that point, Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis chimed in to say that the entire team had likely been exposed. Georgia has not certified the results, SoS says in correction The Georgia Secretary of State said the office is still completing the certification process, correcting a previous statement that declared the certification process complete. In a corrected statement, the secretary of state’s office said it was on track to certify the vote today. Afternoon summary It’s been a lively morning in US politics, from Georgia to Michigan via Washington, DC, and on around the country. And there’s more to come this afternoon. Joe Biden is meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in Delaware and Donald Trump is venturing before the cameras for the first time in days, so do stay tuned. So far today: Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, officially certified Joe Biden’s historic election victory in the state. In confirming Biden’s win in the state, after a vote recount by hand and more than two weeks after polls closed for in-person voting, Raffensperger said: “I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie.” Pharmaceutical partnership Pfizer/BioNTech said it is asking US regulators today to allow emergency use of its Covid-19 vaccine, the first to do so. The meeting at the White House today between Donald Trump and Republican leaders from Michigan, as the president tries to overturn Biden’s victory in that state, too, was described as “an embarrassment to the state” by Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer. New York’s attorney general has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records related to consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump as part of a broad civil investigation into the president’s business dealings, per a report. A top legal adviser to the Biden campaign said it was “not possible” and “not legal” for the Republican-controlled Michigan legislature to overturn the result in the decisive battleground. “No state legislature in our country’s history ever has done what Donald Trump is apparently agitating for the Michigan state legislature to do, which is to ignore the results of a popular vote,” Biden campaign legal adviser Bob Bauer told reporters during a press call on Friday. “It cannot be done.” On the call, Bauer assailed Republican lawmakers for meeting with the president. “It’s an open attempt to intimidate election officials,” he said. “It’s absolutely appalling.” Trump’s campaign has baselessly claimed that elections officials counted enough “illegitimate ballots” to swing the election results against him, and that he would win if they were thrown out. The campaign has yet to provide evidence to support the suggestion of wide-scale fraud and a court has found the claims to be “not credible”. Georgia secretary of state certifies Biden win Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, officially certified Joe Biden’s victory in the state on Friday. The move is another setback for the president, whose legal team is working to overturn the results of the election in Georgia and a number of other battlegrounds in a desperate attempt to ultimately overturn the results of the US presidential election. Raffensperger certified the results on Friday after a statewide audit of millions of ballots. In a statement, the office of the secretary of state said that under Georgia law the candidates had two business days to request a recount. “I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie,” Raffensperger told reporters at a press conference on Friday. “I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct.” He added that, as a Republican, he was disappointed Trump didn’t win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes but said the results reflected the will of the states voters. The recount found that Biden beat Trump by nearly 12,000 votes.