President-elect Joe Biden urged Congress to pass a large coronavirus relief package modeled on the $3 trillion Heroes Act that the House passed in May and that then stalled in the Senate.
Biden said that “more people may die” because of President Trump’s refusal to coordinate with Biden’s transition team about vaccine distribution plans. The distribution is likely to begin under Trump and continue under Biden.
People aligned with the Republican Party dropped lawsuits in four states that challenged the integrity of the presidential election. Lawsuits remain active in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Biden is planning to announce some key members of his staff today: Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana to oversee public outreach; Jen O’Malley Dillon, who managed Biden’s presidential campaign, as a deputy chief of staff; and Steve Ricchetti, a longtime confidant, as a counselor to the president.
Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, acknowledged that Biden appeared to have won the election. “Look, 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,” O’Brien said last week. (His remarks became public yesterday.)
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, told The Washington Post that other Republicans — including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — pressured him to throw out legally cast ballots to reverse Biden’s narrow win in the state. Graham denied the accusation.
With at least two thirds of a hand recount in Georgia done, local officials said there were no meaningful changes in results.
OTHER BIG STORIES
A view of the sea seen from a destroyed house in Nicaragua.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua battering a region still recovering from Hurricane Eta, which struck less than two weeks ago.
Trump asked senior advisers last week for options to attack Iran’s main nuclear site before leaving office. Aides dissuaded him from moving ahead.
Administration officials expect Trump to order the U.S. military to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Some of his advisers have argued that a rapid withdrawal may destabilize those countries.
The Trump administration said it would sell drilling leases to oil companies for Alaska’s Arctic refuge.
The F.B.I. recorded more than 7,300 hate crimes in 2019, the highest number since 2008.
Prosecutors charged Harvard’s former fencing coach with bribery, accusing him of accepting $1.5 million to help a wealthy businessman’s sons get admitted to the university.
Jay Clayton, a former corporate lawyer who has led the Securities and Exchange Commission since 2017, is stepping down as chairman at the end of the year. Clayton tended to favor financial deregulation.
Three Republican senators have said they oppose Trump’s effort to name Judy Shelton, a former economic adviser to the Trump campaign, to the Federal Reserve, complicating the prospects of her confirmation. Lawmakers have been skeptical of Shelton’s unorthodox views on money, her flip-flops on policy positions and her loyalty to Trump.
The New York Times