DEMOLIBNUTS CLAIM BOTH RUNOFFS WITH FIXED HELP AND A LONG DAY AHEAD FOR CONGRESS COUNT

2020 AMERICAN ELECTION RESULTS BY STATE TRUMP VS LOSER LIBERAL SLEEPY (SLOPPY JOE) BIDEN.

ON D-66 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. WED JAN 06,21.

Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20

What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?

November 3 — Election Day

Election Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

December 8 — Safe Harbor

December 14 — The meeting of the Electors

Two key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date. The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.

January 3 — The convening of the new Congress

January 6 — Congress counts the votes

January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.

On January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term will end and the next one will begin.This is excerpted from the new fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn Bowman-Senior Fellow

OK SO AFTER I DONE MY LAST POST AT 11.58PM. IT SAID 98% OF THE VOTES WERE IN. AFTER THE COMMERCIAL. IT MIRACULOUSLY WENT BACK TO 97% TO GO. THE HITLARY THE 2ND CLINTON NEWS NETWORK CNN IS GOING THE WRONG WAY IN THE FIX FOR THE DEMOLIBNUTS. THEN WHEN I WOKE UP HERE AT 6AM. IT SAID 99% COMPLETE. BUT AFTER MY BATH. IT IS AGAIN CHANGED FROM 99 TO 98% COMPLETER. THE MEDIA NEEDS MORE TIME TO FIX THE FINAL RESULTS FOR THE DEMOLIBNUTS. BY ADDING 3% OF VOTES TO GO INSTEAD OF 2%. AND OF COURSE THE DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD IN BOTH RACES. R1 WARNOCK HAS 2,227,296-50.6 TO GOP LOEFFLER 2,173,866-49.4. AND IN R2 OSSOFF HAS 2,208,717-50.2 TO GOP PERDUE 2,192,347-49.8.

AND AT 1PM TODAY THE CONGRESS COUNTS THE VOTES. WERE THE HOUSE AND SENATE GOP WILL BE FORCING A 2 HOUR DEBATE 6 TIMES DURING THE COUNTS. WISCONSIN, PENNSYLVANIA, ARIZONA AND 3 OTHER STATES AT LEAST THE REPUBLICANS WILL BE FORCING 2 HOUR DEBATES IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE. ITS GONNA BE A LONG DAY OF EXCITMENT. SEE IF HERES HOW TRUMP BECOMES PRESIDENT. AND ALSO TODAY. MIKE PENCE WILL PROVE TO AMERICA OF VOTER FRAUD. ITS GOING TO BE AN INTERESTING DAY.

AT 11AM TRUMP WILL BE TALKING FROM GEORGIA I THINK. ABOUT THE LOSSES IN  GEORGIA LAST NIGHT AND BTODAY AND UNTILL FRIDAY. THEN AT 1PM. IT WILL BE A LONG DASY OF DEBATES. AND SOMEHOW TRUMP WILL BECOME PRESIDENT.

ITS 12.57PM-AND IN 3 MINUTES THE AFFIRM PRESIDENT ELECT STARTS. THE FIRST ONE TO BE FILIBUSTERED BY GOP MEMBERS WILL BE ARIZONA-THE 3RD ONE NAMED.THE JOINT HOUSE - SENATE COUNT.

PELOUSI AND PENCE WILL LEAD THE ELECTORAL COUNT. 11 MEMBERS FROM EACH SIDE ARE ALLOWED IN THE CHAMBER-AND NO DEBATES ALLOWED IN THE JOINT SESSION-ALABAMA-9-TRUMP.ALASKA-3-TRUMP.ARIZONA-11-BIDEN (61 GOPS OBJECT)-EACH SIDE-SENATE-HOUSE DEBATE FOR 2 HOURS NOW. TILL 3.15PM.

ITS 3.50PM. AND PROTESTERS FOR THE LAST HOUR OR SO HAVE PLACED THEMSELVES OUTSIDE THE WHITEHOUSE. OF COURSE THE MENTAL CASES TAPPER , BLITZER AND EX TERRORIST VAN JONES ARE CALLING FOR TRUMP TO STOP THE PROTESTERS FROM STANDING OUTSIDE THE WHITEHOUSE. AND THE 3 ARE CALLING FOR SOMEBODY ELSE TO TAKE OVER TRUMPS POSITION. CALLING TRUMP INCOMPITANT. NOW BLITZ IS COMPLAINING TRUMP HAS 14 DAYS LEFT. AND HE WON'T TELL THE PROTESTERSD TO LEAVE. JOHN THE BOARD NUTJOB AT CNN IS SAYING THESE ARE DANGEROUS, VIOLENT, MOB, LAWLESS, CRIMINALS. HMM EVERY THING I SAY ABOUT DEMOLIBNUTS WHEN THEY RIOT-BURN-LOOT ALL KINDS OF AMERICAN CITIES IN THE NAME OF BLACK RIGHTS AND RACISM. BIGOTRY AND HATRED. NOW DEMOLIBNUTS HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM NOW. A TASTE OF ALL YOUR OWN MOB-TERRORIST-LAWLESS-CRIMINAL-ACTIONS. 2 SIDES CAN PLAY THE PROTEST GAME-NOT JUST NUTJOB DEMOLIBNUTS. THE ENTIRE NATIONALGUARD HAS BEEN CALLED TO THE WHITEHOUSE. BIDEN IS NOW BLABBING HOW THESE PROTESTERS ARE AN ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY AND DISORDER AND CHAOS. BIDEN SAYS I CALL ON THIS MOB TO GET BACK. GET BACK-THERE STANDING QUITELY OUTSIDE THE WHITEHOUSE. BIDEN SAYS THERE INSURRECTION-LAWLESS PEOPLE,BREAKING WINDOWS-STORMING THE WHITEHOUSE.AMERICAN DEMOCRACY REQUIRES PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL NOT POWER BUT GOOD WILL OF WE THE PEOPLE. AMERICA IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS. PEACEFUL-GENEROUS-JUST PEOPLE OF RESPECT AND HONOR. THE WORLD IS WATCHING THIS. BIDEN IS SUCH A B-SER. AND HE CLAIMS TRUMP IS DOING NOTHING. MEANWHILE ITS TRUMP THAT CALLED IN THE NATIONAL GUARD. THE CLINTON NEWS NETWORK IS CALLING THIS A CONSPIRACY THEORY COUP BY TRUMP. CNN IS BEING EVACUATED FROM THE WHITEHOUSE. OH POOR CNN. POOR CRY BABIES. THE CAPITAL POLICE ARE IN THE WHITEHOUSE AND TAKING THE MEDIA TO A SECRET LOCATION....OH WHAT A DERANGED DANGEROUS SITUATION THE MEDIA GOING TO A SECRET LOCATION. AND THE MEDIA IS NOT BLAMING THEMSELVES FOR THESE ACTIONS. NO OF COURSE THEY BLAME TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS. THE MEDIA ARE THE BLAME CLINTON-COMMUNIST-NEWS-NETWORK. AND THE REST OF THE DECIEVING LYING HATING MEDIA. ITS 4.22PM. NOW TRUMP IS SAYING GO HOME-PEACEFUL BUT WE GOT ROBBED OF THE STOLEN ELECTION. DON'T DO WHAT THE DEMOLIBNUTS DO RIOT-BURN-LOOT CITIES. WE ARE PEACEFULNPEOPLE UNLIKE THE VDEMOLIBNUTS AND BTHEIR VIOLENCE.ITS 4.25PM-JAN 6,2021. CNN CLAIMES TRUMP REFUSES THAT HE LOST THE ELECTION. AND IS CAUSING INSURRECTION TO THE COUNTRY.
 
ITS 6.22PM. AND THERE IS A 6PM CURFEW IN WASHINGTON. WOLF BLITZER JUST OUT RIGHT LIED ABOUT THE PEACEFUL PROTESTERS. BLITZER PROPAGANDA HITLER EXPERT SAID. DID THE POLICE TELL THE MOB HE CALLS THEM TO GET BACK FROM THE WHITHOUSE OR WE WILL GAS YOU AND ARREST YOU. THIS ALEX MARQUARTE PROPAGANDIST OF CNN. SAID NO BLITZY-THE POLICE ARE NOT SAYING ANYTHING TO THE PEACEFUL PROTESTERS. AND ALSO A WOMAN WAS SHOT AT THE WHITEHOUSE. AND SHE NOW HAS DIED FROM HER WOUND. BUT OF COURSE CNN WITHOUT KNOWING THE FACTS ABOUT HER DEATH. BLAMED THE TRUMP SUPPORTERS AT THE WHITEHOUSE FOR KILLING HER. BUT WHEN A TERRORIST ATTACK OCCURS. CNN INSIST YOU CAN'T BLAME A MUSLIM. YOU MUST WAIT FOR THE FACTS. BLITZER-CNN HYPOOOOOCRIT HITLER LIERS. CNN NEEDS A 10,000 FOOT WHEEL BARROW TO CATCH ALL THE HITLER DUNG THEIR PROPAGANDIZING  AGAINST THESE PEACEFUL TRUMP SUPPORTING PROTESTERS WHO ARE WALKING AROUND. BUT CNN CALLS THEM VIOLENT DOMESTIC TERRORISTS-INSURRECTORS AND  RIOTERS AND HATERS OF AMERICA. AND BLAMES EVERYTHING ON TRUMP. AND WANTS TRUMP IMPEACHED OR THROWN OUT OF OFFICE. TO STOP HIS LAST 14 DAYS OF THIS OFFICE. UNTILL HE REKNEWS THE NEXT 4 YEARS AS PRESIDENT ON JAN 20TH. PELOUSY SAYS THE VOTE COUNT GOES ON TONIGHT ET. HMM-IF THEIR SO VIOLENT. WHY WOULD POLOUSY COME OUTTA THE UNDER GROUND WHITEHOUSE BUNKER AND WANT TO CONTINUE THE COUNT IF THE WORLD IS GOING TO END WITH THESE PEACEFUL PROTESTERS.IS MY QUESTION COW DUNG HITLERS CNN.THE ELECTORAL COUNT RESUMES AT 8PM.ITS 6.45PM CURRENTLY.

1 hour ago-Kate Murphy-D.C. police chief: 'Just above 13 arrests' made

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Robert J. Contee III, chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, said his officers made "just above 13 arrests" during the breach of the U.S. Capitol.None of those arrested were Washington residents, Contee said. Three were from Arlington, Va., and the rest were "from out of the area."A number of firearms, including long guns and handguns, were recovered by police, he added.

National Review-At Least One Person Shot after Trump Supporters Breach Capitol-Tobias Hoonhout-Wed, January 6, 2021, 2:20 PM EST

At least one person was shot by police in the Capitol building Wednesday afternoon, according to multiple reports, after thousands descended on the hill following a “Stop the Steal” rally in which President Trump again claimed the election was stolen from him.Armed standoff on House floor. Police pointing guns at protestors who have broken glass door — Erik Wasson (@elwasson) January 6, 2021-Video from the chamber. pic.twitter.com/UKF7MScHKN — Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 6, 2021-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) told Fox News that he overheard “shots fired” on Capitol Hill police radios, and there are reports of at least one woman being shot in the chest. Trump has tweeted asking his supporters to “remain peaceful. No violence!”A person on a stretcher just wheeled out with what appears to be a serious injury. pic.twitter.com/wucrpusBzE- Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) January 6, 2021-The Senate chamber has also been breached by protestors. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) has requested the National Guard, and D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser has ordered a 6 p.m. curfew.Several people got on to a scaffolding outside Senate, took it to second floor, which looked like the area where McConnell’s office is located, and started banging on windows pic.twitter.com/IIZ21nkzFT — Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021-The massive crowd, numbering tens of thousands, moved on the Capitol — where vice president Mike Pence is overseeing the certification of the Electoral College — after Trump repeatedly urged them to do so, saying he would join them and vowing to “never give up” and “never concede.” Trump, however, left for the White House after delivering his address, and did not join the MAGA crowd.Capitol Hill police moved to evacuate the Cannon House office building after the crowd overwhelmed police and broke through barriers. Flash bangs and tear gas were used on the crowd, with little effect. There are reports of multiple suspicious packages near the Capitol grounds (the New York Times later reported that an “explosive device” was safely detonated at the Republican National Committee). The crowd subsequently broke into the building as both the House and the Senate sessions to certify the election were forced into recess, and Pence was escorted out.Tear gas has been deployed inside the building, and members of Congress have been instructed to put on gas masks and are being evacuated.Broke down the barriers- storming Congress pic.twitter.com/gCFOgX4PTT — Storm_Chaser (@StmCh_) January 6, 2021-Right outside the Capitol building: pic.twitter.com/UKNCEqF4P5— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) January 6, 2021-BREAKING: Trump supporters have breached the Capitol building, tearing down 4 layers of security fencing and are attempting to occupy the building — fighting federal police who are overrun-This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Thousands, police can’t stop them pic.twitter.com/VVdTUwV5YN— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) January 6, 2021-Capitol Police are using flashbangs to try to get the Trump crowd to disperse. pic.twitter.com/IHAtc1dsJ5- Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 6, 2021-BREAKING: revolution in process as Trump supporters break into the Capitol building, attacking police, breaking windows, and knocking down doors-Full anarchy at this “mostly peaceful” demonstration DC-The people have pushed through & are storming to main chambers pic.twitter.com/NW6VDDNBQw— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) January 6, 2021-While Donald Trump Jr. condemned the actions of the crowd, urging them to not “start acting like the other side,” the president took to Twitter to attack his running mate.Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021-Less than 15 minutes later, Trump urged his supporters to “[s]tay peaceful!” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has announced that, per Trump’s orders, the National Guard and federal law enforcement have been called to secure the Capitol.Multiple Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) — one of the instigators in the effort to object to the Electoral College certification — have condemned the clashes with police.Violence is always unacceptable. Even when passions run high.Anyone engaged in violence—especially against law enforcement—should be fully prosecuted.God bless the Capitol Police and the honorable men & women of law enforcement who show great courage keeping all of us safe. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 6, 2021-Violence and anarchy are unacceptable. We are a nation of laws.This needs to end now. https://t.co/zyrFUFYZm1-— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 6, 2021-

The Week-Ted Cruz suggested the Senate hold a 'commission' to investigate election results. Bipartisan senators immediately tore him apart.Kathryn Krawczyk-Wed, January 6, 2021, 2:43 PM EST

In his opposition to the counting of electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggested Congress "follow the precedent" of another disputed election.In 1877, just a few years after the end of the Civil War, a disputed election was resolved with a bipartisan electoral commission that put former Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House, but also ended most of the Reconstruction efforts aimed at enforcing the end of slavery and white supremacy in the South. The 1877 commission allowed Jim Crow laws to take hold in the South and remain for nearly a century later. But without much regard for that racist history, Cruz suggested today's Congress follow 1877's lead."I would urge that we follow the precedent of 1877," says Senator Ted Cruz.The bipartisan electoral commission that Cruz speaks of was widely regarded as a disaster https://t.co/azXMO0zfYw pic.twitter.com/dLSuPLrvcO— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) January 6, 2021-Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) followed with a complete teardown of Cruz's argument, questioning why Cruz wasn't also disputing the elections of dozens of House members elected on the same ballots. And then came Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), a Republican from a swing state Biden won. Despite supporting and campaigning for Trump, Toomey also wasn't siding with the Republican opposition, instead questioning just how much good a "commission" would do for the undisputed count.

Ossoff declares victory-JAN 6,21

Democrat Jon Ossoff declared victory in his Senate race against Republican incumbent David Perdue, saying in a video statement, "It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate." The Associated Press has yet to call the race.Early Wednesday morning, Ossoff’s campaign manager, Ellen Foster, released the following statement:“When all the votes are counted we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon’s performance has been dominant. We look forward to seeing the process through in the coming hours and moving ahead so Jon can start fighting for all Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”

(AP)-Democrat Warnock defeats Loeffler-JAN 6,21

Rev. Raphael Warnock defeated Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one of two Senate runoff elections that took place Tuesday. Warnock, the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is the first Democrat to win a Senate election in the state since 1996 and the first Black person to represent the state in the chamber. Loeffler, a businesswoman who was appointed to the seat in December 2019, attempted to portray Warnock as a radical and aligned herself closely with President Trump in his bid to overturn last November's presidential election. The Associated Press called the race at 2:01 a.m. ET.We are still awaiting a call in the contest between Sen. David Perdue and challenger Jon Ossoff. If Ossoff were to win, Democrats would take control of the Senate, while a Perdue victory would keep Sen. Mitch McConnell installed as majority leader.

Associated Press-Warnock makes history with Senate win as Dems near majority-STEVE PEOPLES, BILL BARROW and RUSS BYNUM-Wed, January 6, 2021, 3:02 AM EST

ATLANTA (AP) — Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party's reach.A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of outgoing President Donald Trump, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. That contest was too early to call as votes were still being counted.There were still some mail ballots and in-person early votes left to be counted statewide, the majority of which are in Democratic-leaning counties. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.If Ossoff wins, Democrats will have complete control of Congress, strengthening President-elect Joe Biden’s standing as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20.Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a striking shift in Georgia’s politics as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.Warnock, 51, acknowledged his improbable victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience with poverty. His mother, he said, used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager.“The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”Loeffler refused to concede in a brief message to supporters shortly after midnight.“We’ve got some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We’re going to win this election,” insisted Loeffler, a 50-year-old former businesswoman who was appointed to the Senate less than a year ago by the state’s governor.Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory.“We are going to keep fighting for you,” Loeffler said, “This is about protecting the American dream.”Georgia’s other runoff election pitted Perdue, a 71-year-old former business executive who held his Senate seat until his term expired on Sunday, against Ossoff, a former congressional aide and journalist. At just 33 years old, Ossoff would be the Senate’s youngest member.Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the runoff elections, which were held only because no candidate hit the 50% threshold in the general election. He attacked the state’s election chief on the eve of the election and raised the prospect that some votes might not be counted even as votes were being cast Tuesday afternoon.Republican state officials on the ground reported no significant problems.This week’s elections mark the formal finale to the turbulent 2020 election season more than two months after the rest of the nation finished voting. The unusually high stakes transformed Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’s presidency — and likely beyond.Both contests tested whether the political coalition that fueled Biden’s November victory was an anti-Trump anomaly or part of a new electoral landscape. To win in Tuesday's elections — and in the future — Democrats needed strong African American support.Drawing on his popularity with Black voters, among other groups, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November.Trump's claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,600 voters in the runoff elections.Election officials across the country, including the Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, as well as Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that there was no widespread fraud in the November election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, where three Trump-nominated justices preside.Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls because of the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote.Even before Tuesday, Georgia had shattered its turnout record for a runoff with more than 3 million votes by mail or during in-person advance voting in December. Including Tuesday’s vote, more people ultimately cast ballots in the runoffs than voted in Georgia’s 2016 presidential election.In Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, 37-year-old Kari Callaghan said she voted “all Democrat” on Tuesday, an experience that was new for her.I’ve always been Republican, but I’ve been pretty disgusted by Trump and just the way the Republicans are working,” she said. “I feel like for the Republican candidates to still stand there with Trump and campaign with Trump feels pretty rotten. This isn’t the conservative values that I grew up with.”But 56-year-old Will James said he voted “straight GOP.”He said he was concerned by the Republican candidates’ recent support of Trump’s challenges of the presidential election results in Georgia, “but it didn’t really change the reasons I voted.”“I believe in balance of power, and I don’t want either party to have a referendum, basically,” he said.___Peoples reported from New York. Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga. Associated Press writers Haleluya Hadero, Angie Wang, Sophia Tulp, Ben Nadler and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Dylan Stableford-here things stand
• Democrat Raphael Warnock was declared the winner over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler at 2:01 a.m. ET.
• We are still awaiting a call in the race between GOP Sen. David Perdue and challenger Jon Ossoff. Current tracking slightly favors the Democrat, but the contest could be close enough to trigger an automatic recount if the final margin is within .5 percentage points. On Wednesday morning, Ossoff declared victory.
• If Warnock and Ossoff both win, Democrats will hold an edge because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris can cast any tiebreaking votes.
• President Trump, who campaigned for both GOP candidates on Monday, claimed without evidence that election officials were planning to rig the vote count against them.
• Trump is scheduled to speak at a rally protesting the results of the presidential election at 11 a.m. ET.
• Congress is convening in a joint session at 1 p.m. ET to count electoral votes certifying Joe Biden's victory.
• Some of Trump's Republican allies say they will object to the certification.

Yahoo News-How Congress will count up Biden's Electoral College victory-Crystal Hill·Reporter-Tue, January 5, 2021, 8:59 PM EST

The 2020 presidential election will likely reach a decisive conclusion this week as the new Congress begins counting the Electoral College votes on Wednesday, a process that experts say could potentially last days.President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory isn’t in doubt. President Trump nevertheless has spread a steady stream of misinformation about the election itself and Wednesday’s proceedings.Here’s how the count will play out in Congress.The Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate will convene at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday to receive and count the electoral votes from the states and address and resolve any objections to the votes. Biden is expected to be certified as the winner, after receiving 7 million more votes than Trump and clear victories in enough battleground states to win the Electoral College.With few exceptions, the counting process has historically been a polite affair, election experts said Tuesday in a press briefing with reporters. But with roughly a dozen Republican lawmakers vowing to make the unusual move of objecting to states’ whole slates of electors, the count may be fraught with disagreements, fueling the false notion, spread fervently by Trump and his allies, that the election was rigged.One thing experts are sure of is that there will be a newly certified president before Jan. 20, the final day of the current presidency. And it won’t be Trump.“I don’t see any real potential for [objectors] to change the outcome,” Paul M. Smith, an election expert at Georgetown University Law Center and the vice president for litigation and strategy at the Campaign Legal Center, told Yahoo News. “It’s very clear that there’s a majority in both houses to support the counting of the Biden electors from the six disputed states [Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada].”Normally, the vice president acts as the presiding officer, a largely symbolic role, over the event to maintain order. The count starts after pages bring in ceremonial boxes full of votes from the states. Then, alphabetically, the states’ votes are counted.Assuming Vice President Mike Pence presides over the count, each state’s vote count and the attached certifications from the state governors and election officials will be presented to Pence, who will then hand the votes (in an envelope) to one of the four tellers selected to receive them, according to Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center.The tellers are two Republicans and two Democrats from each legislative chamber — the ranking and minority members on the Senate Rules Committee and the House Administration Committee. This year the tellers should be Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Reps. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.Their job, Potter said, is to open the envelopes and read the vote totals, stating that they appear to be properly given. At that stage, any member can rise from their seat and object to the vote. The objector is then asked to detail the objection, and is also asked if it’s in writing and if it’s signed by a member of the House and a member of the Senate.If the objection doesn’t meet that standard, then it’s ruled out of order. For example, during the count in 2017, multiple Democratic House representatives objected to the vote, citing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lost to Trump, CNN reported. But none of the lawmakers had the required Senate member signature.If an objection does clear that hurdle, it is received by the presiding officer. Then the two chambers divide and separately debate the objection, for no longer than two hours, during which the objector presents arguments that support the dissent.This procedure is what theoretically could prolong the process, if both chambers end up having to discuss multiple objections. Last week Trump loyalist Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced that he will object during the process — on the grounds that he believes some states failed to follow their own election laws — and call for an investigation into potential fraud and election irregularities. At least a dozen other like-minded senators are expected to join him.A spokesperson for Biden’s transition team told Yahoo News that the planned objections “won’t change the fact that President-elect Biden will be sworn in on [Jan. 20], and these baseless claims have already been examined and dismissed by Trump’s own attorney general, dozens of courts and election officials from both parties.”Rebecca Green, co-director of William & Mary Law School’s Election Law Program, said that any attempt to somehow hand Trump a reelection by trying to “run out the clock” won’t succeed.“I think we should expect things [to] take longer,” Green told reporters on Tuesday, noting that COVID restrictions may also affect how lawmakers can gather. “But the debate is limited by law to two hours. If the vote-counting session lasts for five days, that is, if it lasts past Monday, Congress is required to finish the counting without recessing until it is complete.”After the debate, there is a vote in each chamber. Then the Senate comes back to the House, and officers of the two chambers announce the results of the debate and the vote. If both chambers have refused to accept the objections, then the votes are counted. But if one chamber has objected and not the other, then under the Electoral Count Act — a federal law that sets the procedures for counting the electoral votes — the vote that was certified by that state’s governor is valid.This process continues with each state until the end, when the presiding officer announces how many electoral votes were cast, received and accepted, and which candidate got how many votes, and then announces who has won the presidency and the vice presidency.In accordance with the election results, the final count will hand Biden 306 electoral votes and Trump 232. But the potential for a controversy looms large over Wednesday’s vote, including the possibility that pro-Trump electors send in their own slate of votes, which would not be revealed until Wednesday. However, Potter said if that were to happen, it’s unlikely that those votes would even be accepted and read out by the teller, because they were not sent by a state.Pence has said he would hear the objections, but stopped short of saying he would take any further steps, despite public pressure from the Oval Office.On Tuesday, Trump floated the false notion that Pence can accept and reject votes on Wednesday, tweeting that the “vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.”“There’s really no conceivable legal basis for that,” Smith told Yahoo News. “The only thing that he’s supposed to do is announce the count; the idea that this entire election would all come down to who Pence wants to win is pretty absurd.”If either candidate fails to reach 270 votes (which would occur if enough electors were invalidated), Green said, “then the contingent election takes place, which is a state-by-state vote in the House.” The 12th Amendment gives each state congressional delegation one vote to determine the presidency. The vice president would be chosen by the Senate.And if for some reason there’s still no decision by noon on Jan. 20 — an even more far-fetched scenario — then the 20th Amendment requires an acting president, which would be the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, according to Green.Even with the added drama, Potter said he believes there are “more than enough” Republican senators and House members who have indicated they expect to recognize the duly certified votes from the states.“So unless people change their minds,” he said, “the result is already visible.”

Mike Pence faces biggest loyalty test in announcing Trump's loss during a special session of Congress-Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY-Wed, January 6, 2021, 9:02 AM EST

WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence began the Trump administration tasked with investigating Donald Trump’s baseless claims that millions of illegally cast ballots cost him the popular vote in 2016.The “election integrity” commission Pence headed quickly faded from view and disbanded months later after uncovering no evidence of widespread voter fraud.Now, Pence is ending his tenure with an even bigger test of whether to support Trump’s spurious election claims.Pence's constitutional role of presiding over the Senate includes the obligation of declaring during a joint session of Congress Wednesday that President-elect Joe Biden received more Electoral College votes than Trump.It will be the biggest break with Trump yet for the ever-loyal Pence.Trump, who continues to argue without evidence that he won the election, has urged Pence to unilaterally reject state-certified results that show that Biden won the Electoral College, 306-232.Trump has falsely asserted Pence has the option of blocking Congress from formally accepting the results. However, Pence has informed the president that he intends to carry out his constitutional role and that he does not believe the law gives him the authority to do otherwise, according to reports from the New York Times and other outlets.Trump – but not Pence – denied the reports. Trump asserted in a statement late Tuesday that he and Pence "are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.""If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency," Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning.Pence's office did not immediately respond to a request for a response to Trump's comments.The rules may not matter to Trump’s supporters, some of whom apparently believe Pence can do as he wants.“We need you to do the right thing Jan. 6!" a Trump supporter yelled at Pence during a rally Monday for the Senate runoff races in Georgia.The Supreme Court twice refused to take up Trump-endorsed lawsuits that sought to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election. Federal and state courts dismissed Trump's claims of voter fraud more than 60 times. And recounts in Georgia and Wisconsin upheld Biden's victories in those states.In addition to prevailing in the Electoral College, Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes.Breaking with Trump could hurt Pence’s chances of inheriting his mantle to run for president himself in four years.But Pence – a history major who reveres the Constitution and said he gets "chills" when he visits Independence Hall – also has to be hyper aware of how history will judge his actions.Even if Pence stays within the law, he will share with Trump the blame and criticism for a manufactured crisis because he did not counter the president’s disinformation campaign about widespread election fraud, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University.“It’s not enough to say President Trump has put Vice President Pence in a tough spot,” Naftali said. “I think Vice President Pence has put himself in a tough spot.”Looking ahead to 2024-Trump’s refusal to concede has divided the Republican Party, including those eyeing a possible bid for the White House in 2024.“The party is in the process of tearing itself apart,” GOP pollster Frank Luntz said Tuesday on CNBC.Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., whom Pence made an extra effort to help elect in 2018, was the first GOP senator to announce he would object to the Electoral College results.Vice President Mike Pence meets with his chief of staff, Marc Short, at the White House on Jan. 4, 2020.Pence, as he has throughout the presidency, has tried to strike a balance between remaining loyal to Trump while not parroting his most divisive rhetoric and unfounded claims.Pence did not support an unsuccessful lawsuit aimed at giving him the authority to decide which states’ Electoral College votes to count. But he “welcomed” the efforts of lawmakers to “use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence.”Pence described his actions as making sure all “legal votes” are counted without acknowledging that states and courts have found no widespread irregularities in the election. He hasn't addressed Trump's effort Saturday to strong-arm Georgia officials to overturn his election defeat in that state.Audiotape: Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to 'find' votes.In his only public comments about Wednesday's proceedings, Pence promised Trump supporters on Monday: “We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.”He stopped short of saying he would do anything other than follow the prescribed rules in doing so.“The VP’s role under law is purely ministerial,” said Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and outside counsel for the nonpartisan Voter Protection Program. “His responsibility is to open the certificates and call for objections in writing signed by at least one senator and one congressperson.”Those objections are certain to fail. They require majority support from both the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate.Will Pence 'do his duty'? An Indiana Republican who requested anonymity to speak freely said Pence is doing what many other Republicans have done for four years – keeping his head down and hoping that everything will work out.Though the Republican expects Pence to “do his duty,” he said he would not be surprised if Pence steps off stage for the final vote total announcement.Pence could hand the gavel to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who would become the presiding officer as the most senior member of the majority party in the Senate.Vice presidential scholar Joel Goldstein said that “would be pretty miserable behavior” on Pence’s part. Most vice presidents who have announced the results of their own defeat recognized the importance to democracy of gracefully accepting their loss and offering support to the victors, he said.“To preside but boycott stating the result would make clear that pleasing Trump is more important to Pence than communicating that basic and traditional democratic message,”Donald Trump congratulates vice presidential candidate Mike Pence at the 2016 Republican National Convention.What past VPs have done-Richard Nixon and Al Gore both received standing ovations after declaring their opponents the winner when, as sitting vice presidents, they had to certify their own presidential losses.Nixon said he could not think of "a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system."In 2017, when some House Democrats tried to raise complaints about Russian election interference and voter suppression allegations, Biden repeatedly ruled them out of order."There is no debate. There is no debate,” Biden said as he wielded the gave.Dramatic moments: Congress' count of Electoral College votes could be most contentious in 144 years.Pence’s spokesman Devin O'Malley declined to say whether the vice president intends to oversee all of the vote counting proceedings, including declaring the winner.Former Rep. Mark Souder said Pence has consistently bent his own record to accommodate Trump but is probably still not considered 100% loyal by Trump’s core supporters. Backing Trump’s claims to the end would probably not be enough to become the most “pro-Trump future candidate,” the Indiana Republican said, and it would end the chance for Pence to expand his potential political base, as well as compromising the basic integrity of the office he has been honored to hold.“Within these parameters, the vice president has been walking a fine line,” said Souder, a Republican. “Now he will have to choose.”-Pence has limits-Former Indiana Rep. David McIntosh, a close friend of Pence’s, said the vice president wants to do everything he can to support Trump and believes there were irregularities in the election that need to be corrected. But there are limits to how far he’ll go.“He's going to perform his role and not go beyond that to try to exert power that he doesn't have,” said McIntosh, head of the conservative Club for Growth.McIntosh tried to relieve some of the pressure Pence faces by running ads to counter those aired by the Lincoln Project. The anti-Trump group trolled the president and vice president by warning that Pence “will put the nail in your political coffin when he presides over the Senate vote to prove Joe Biden won.”The Club for Growth’s ads proclaimed, “Mike Pence stays true. … Always has. Always will.”“The main audience was the president,” said McIntosh, who heard that the Lincoln Project ads had gotten to Trump. “We wanted to correct the record.”As Trump publicly pressured Pence on Monday to ignore the law, he alternated his entreaties with praise for Pence as a smart man who calls it straight.“Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him quite as much,” Trump said during a rally in Georgia before adding, “No, Mike is a great guy.”Long-term impacts-Pence's longtime friend Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the relationship that Pence built with Trump is strong enough to withstand Pence’s expected decision to follow the rules Wednesday.“He has been an indispensable governing partner to this president and his team,” Reed said. “There is a tremendous and deep personal regard for him.”Reed said Pence’s “overriding priority” will be to “do the right thing and let the verdict of history take care of itself.”Assuming Pence does not ignore the law Wednesday, his presiding over the congressional certification of Trump’s defeat may not become a big part of his legacy, said Lindsay Chervinsky, a presidential historian and author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.”“But certainly, his acceptance and flirtation and sort of careful cultivation of these ideas that maybe the election was rigged will be a big part of his biography,” she said. “They're trying to overthrow the democracy. And so I think that he will be remembered as participating in that.”This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Pence faces biggest loyalty test in announcing Trump's loss

CBC-Hospital figures reach pandemic highs as Ontario reveals more details about vaccine rollout-Tue., January 5, 2021, 3:13 p.m. EST

The Ontario government has unveiled a plan to vaccinate all long-term care residents, workers and essential caregivers in the hard-hit areas of Toronto, Peel, York and Windsor-Essex by Jan. 21.The announcement comes amid mounting criticism around the pace of Ontario's rollout of the vaccine and on a day when the province saw more than 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations reached pandemic highs.Provincial health professionals have called for a "greater sense of urgency" in administering doses and have questioned why the province has only used about a third of its vaccine supply.On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford and retired general Rick Hillier, tasked with overseeing Ontario's vaccinations plan, said things would be speeding up soon."It might take us a week, maybe a couple of weeks to ramp up, but once we get the machine going, we kick butt anywhere in the country," Ford said.As of Monday, the province had received 148,350 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in all.And, by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, public health officials said 50,495 people in Ontario had received one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a total of 44 immunization sites. That figure includes more than 26,000 health-care workers in long-term care and retirement homes, about 20,700 other health-care workers and nearly 1,000 residents of long-term care.Further, nearly 3,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine have also been administered, members of the province's vaccine task force said at a morning briefing. About 4,000 additional doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to be given out in 26 long-term care homes in the first half of this week.Hillier told reporters that the province is now doing 10,000 vaccinations a day.He also said the province had been holding back doses of the Pfizer vaccine to ensure there were adequate numbers available for people's second shots, but that Ontario will have used up its initial shipment by this weekend.A new shipment is arriving in Ontario this week, while a new shipment of Moderna vaccines is set to arrive next week.Pfizer vs. Moderna-The Pfizer-BioNTech shot is largely being given out in hospitals to health-care workers due to its storage requirements, while the Moderna shot is being used in long-term care homes.The officials said, however, that a pilot project is currently underway in Ottawa to explore how the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be brought into long-term care facilities to accelerate its delivery. Protocols will be developed this week, the officials said.On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed concern about long-term care outbreaks in Ontario specifically, saying during the same news conference that "now is the time, with the new year upon us, to really accelerate."Meanwhile, doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to begin arriving in some Indigenous communities this week. A collaboration between Ornge, Ontario's air ambulance service, and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation will see doses distributed to 31 mainly remote communities in the coming weeks.Hillier said vaccines will arrive at smaller long-term care homes along the coast of James Bay in northeastern Ontario on Thursday and Friday, and in the northwestern town of Sioux Lookout, Ont. on Friday.Health-care workers administering the immunizations will be vaccinated beforehand, officials said.You can read a summary of the province's updated vaccine rollout plan at the bottom of this story.7-day case average tops 3,000-Ontario reported another 3,128 cases of COVID-19 and 51 more deaths of people with the illness on Tuesday, as the number of active infections and hospitalizations in the province both reached pandemic highs.There are now 25,840 confirmed, active cases of the illness throughout Ontario, and the seven-day average of new daily cases surpassed 3,000 for the first time.Further, there are 1,347 people with COVID-19 in hospitals, 157 more than yesterday, which was the previous record.Of those, 352 are being treated in intensive care and 245 require the use of a ventilator, both also all-time highs in Ontario.Public health officials have said that about 350 admissions to Ontario's ICUs is the threshold for when hospitals must begin postponing or even cancelling non-COVID-19 related care and procedures.Meanwhile, Ontario's network of labs processed just 35,152 test samples for the novel coronavirus — despite capacity for tens of thousands more — and reported a test positivity rate of 9.4 per cent.The new cases reported today include 778 in Toronto, 614 in Peel Region, 213 in York Region, 172 in Durham Region and 151 each in Middlesex-London and Hamilton.Other public health units that saw double- or triple-digit increases were:Windsor-Essex: 142 - Waterloo Region: 129 - Halton Region: 128 - Ottawa: 126 - Niagara Region: 101 - Simcoe Muskoka: 72 - Lambton: 62 - Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 46 - Eastern Ontario: 45 - Chatham-Kent: 39 - Southwestern: 35 - Brant County: 29 - Huron Perth: 21 - Haldimand-Norfolk: 18-(Note: All of the figures used in this story are found on the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 dashboard or in its Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, because local units report figures at different times.)-Combined, the new cases reported today push the seven-day average to 3,065.No Ford news conference today-Though he made remarks on his way into a vaccine task-force meeting on Tuesday, Ford did not hold a news conference. It has been 14 days since Ford last took questions from the media.During that time in Ontario, there have been more than 37,000 new COVID-19 cases, the number of people hospitalized has increased by 34 per cent and 542 more people have died.Ford also hasn't answered detailed questions about the actions of his former finance minister, Rod Phillips, who travelled to St. Bart's over the holidays and resigned after returning home to Ontario.Field hospital opens in Burlington-Ontario's first field hospital built during the pandemic is taking patients this week as COVID-19 infections strain the health-care system.The Burlington facility, built on the grounds of Joseph Brant Hospital, was ready to treat patients as of Monday.The hospital said it's responding to increased pressure on hospital capacity across the southern Ontario region that includes Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand County and Burlington.Rob MacIsaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences, said opening the field hospital is a necessary step as the health-care system is stretched to its limits.Hospitals in the region are identifying patients whose care has progressed enough to be treated at the field unit, after consulting with their families.The field hospital was built in April as part of the hospital network's capacity plan.A summary of Ontario's COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan:

GEORGIAS 2 RUNOFFS FOR SENATE CONTROL - IS THE FIX IN FOR THE DEMOLIBNUTS

2020 AMERICAN ELECTION RESULTS BY STATE TRUMP VS LOSER LIBERAL SLEEPY (SLOPPY JOE) BIDEN.

ON D-65 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. TUE JAN 05,21.

Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20

What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?

November 3 — Election Day

Election Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

December 8 — Safe Harbor

December 14 — The meeting of the Electors

Two key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date. The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.

January 3 — The convening of the new Congress

January 6 — Congress counts the votes

January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.

On January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term will end and the next one will begin.This is excerpted from the new fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn Bowman-Senior Fellow

THE 2 GEORGIA RUNOFFS ARE GOING ON AT 7PM. JAN 5,21-AT AROUND 6.15PM OR AROUND THAT. ALREADY GEORGIA GOVERNOR MADE AN EXCUSE THAT SOME POLLS WILL BE OPENED FOR AN HOUR LATER BECAUSE OF SOME EXCUSE. THEY BETTER DO THE PRE VOTE-VOTING NUMBERS FIRST. OR WE WILL HAVE A FIX FOR SURE AGAIN.AT 7.25PM THE DEMOLIBS LEAD BOTH RACES BY 67.9% TO 32.1. THEY KNOW THERE WAS 3 MILLION PRE VOTES. WHY ARE THEY NOT GETTING THEM RESULTS OUT FIRST. THERE ALL COUNTED ALREADY. THIS IS HOW THEY FIX THE VOTES. FOR THE DEMOLIBNUTS. NOW THERE STAYING OPEN 3 HOURS LATER-THE VOTER REGISTTRATION SYSTEM FROM 11PM TO 2 AM.

AT 8.05PM AFTER 26% OF THE VOTES DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD BOTH RACES OSOFF 52.6% - WARNOCK 53.0%

AT 10.55PM-LOFFLER OF THE GOP HAS 2,017,336 OVER LIB 1,943,217 AND GOP PERDU HAS 2,033,382 OVER LIB 1,927,013 GOP R1 50.9% - 49.1% AND 51.3% IN R2 - 48.7% . THERES STILL 9% LOOK FOR TRICKS BY THE DEMOLIBNUTS. IN DEKALB COUNTY WE GOT A SCREW UP BY THE OFFICIALS. ONE SAID THERES A 171,000 LEFT. ANOTHER SAID 117,000 VOTES TO COME. GABRIEL STERLING COMES ON AND SAYS - OH THE LADY GOT THE 1 AND 7 MIXED UP. WHAT BULL. STERLING CLAIMS THE 171,000 VOTES WILL BE COUNTED IN TONIGHT. AND HE CLAIMS THE DEMOLIBNUTS WILL TAKE THE LEAD IN BOTH RACES.ITS 11.05PM.

AT 11.20PM-AT 94%. SUDDENLY THE DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD IN R1 WARNOCK 2,120,825 - LOEFFLER 2,100,815 50.2% - 49.8%. AND GOP PERDUE LEADS DEMOLIBNUT 50.2% - 49.8%. 2,122,971 - 2,103,342. STERLING KNEW WHAT WAS COMING. HE SAID THE DEMOLIBNUTS WOULD BE LEADING AFTER THE VOTES CAME DOWN AFTER CLAIMING 171,000 INSTEAD OF 117,000 VOTES. FIXXXXXX. NOW THEY CLAIM DEKALB COUNTY HAS 18,000 MORE VOTES TO COUNT IN. CLINTON NEWS NETWORK CNN. IS PLAYING WITH THE NUMBERS TO CONFUSE EVERYBODY NOW. ITS 96% DONE.AT 11.30PM.THEY NOW CLAIM SOME WON`T BE COUNTED TILL TOMORROW OR THU OF THE 4% LEFT AND MAIL IN VOTES.

AT 11.50PM-ONE DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD AND THE OTHER VIRTUALLY TIED NOW AFTER 98%. WARNOCK 2,205,935 50.4% AND LOEFFLER 2,170,803 49.6%. AND PERDUE STILL LEADS BY 2,000 VOTES-2,189,226 50.0% AND OSSOFF 2,187,338 50.0%. ABOUT 200,000 VOTES STILL TO BE COUNTED SAYS GA SEC OF STATE. JUST ENOUGH FOR THE DEMLIBNUTS TO SECURE THE SENATE AT A 50-50 DRAW WITH PENCE GETTING THE DECIDING VOTE WHEN TRUMP WINS THE PRESIDENCY INNTHE NEXT 15 DAYS.ITS 11.58PM.JAN 5,21.

Some Georgia precincts granted extensions for wait times

Georgia Election Official Gabriel Sterling announced Tuesday evening that several precincts have received judicial extensions for polling locations to remain open as wait times build up: Gwinnett County with 1 precinct; Columbia County with 2 precincts; Tift County with 1 precinct and Chatham County with 2 precincts.

35 minutes ago 7PM.Dylan Stableford-JAN 5,21-The latest

• Polls closed in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET, though voters who were in line at that time are legally allowed to vote.
• A record 3 million people cast ballots in early voting, both in person and by mail; about another million were expected to vote in person Tuesday.
• Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in races that will decide control of the U.S. Senate.
• If Warnock and Ossoff both win, Democrats will take control because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris can cast any tiebreaking votes.
• If either Perdue or Loeffler win, Republicans will retain control with a slim majority.

Yahoo News-Trump supporters in Georgia explain why they believe the president's claims of voter fraud-BY Marquise Francis·National Reporter & Producer-Tue, January 5, 2021, 7:10 PM EST

DALTON, Ga. — On Monday, President Trump traveled to rural Georgia to campaign for the state’s two incumbent Republican senators, where, a day before two runoff elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate, he continued to spread baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.“Since the election, we have put forth indisputable evidence documenting the rampant fraud, which will be announced on Wednesday, as you know,” Trump said at Monday night’s rally in this city, known as the carpet capital of the world, in front of thousands of his supporters. “I want to thank Sen. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and all of the incredible senators that have stepped up to fight, because they’ve seen what happens. They know it’s a fraud and not just here.”Trump’s supporters at the rally held onto his every word, repeatedly chanting, “Stop the steal” and “U-S-A” at several moments during the evening. In interviews with Yahoo News, they explained why, despite the lack of evidence to support the president’s claims, they continue to repeat them.“I believe [Trump] won the election by a landslide,” said Debbie Edwards, 67, of Rome, Ga. “We are here to stop the steal!”Despite the Trump campaign’s dismal record in court challenging the election results, Dorothy Harpe from Atlanta, who attended Monday’s rally, said Trump should get a second term because the election was “rigged.”“[Trump] has done great things for this country,” Harpe, 70, told Yahoo News, saying he brought jobs to the country and did “great things” for Black people.“I don’t trust the election, but I already voted,” she said. “I think the voting [in November] was rigged and the election was fraud. We have enough evidence to prove that the election was rigged,” she continued, adding that election ballots in Fulton County were hidden, which is not true.Jim Earnhardt, 76, from Canton, said there is mathematically no way Democrats could have won in Georgia.“Democrats stole it,” Earnhardt said. “They’re not smart enough to pull it off, and the numbers don’t add up.”Alanta-based political strategist Fred Hicks told Yahoo News that he believes this election cycle has forced voters to “justify” their decisions.“This election season, perhaps more than any other, has forced voters to justify to themselves and their families their decisions,” he said. “I think that is why Trump lost Georgia while Republicans in the state had a good day overall.”Hicks added that Republicans are once again in a tough place for this Senate race, but Democrats aren’t going to win on anti-Trump rhetoric alone.“Republicans are in what I call the Trump conundrum,” Hicks said. “They need [Trump’s] votes to have any chance at winning, yet Trump lost Georgia and is their biggest liability.”“Democrats can get to 48 or even 49 percent by being anti-Trump, but we have to tell what we are going to do if we win and how that will reduce suffering if we want to get people — especially minorities who live outside of metro Atlanta — out to vote and get over 50 percent,” he added. “The key determinant of the outcome will be if left-leaning groups can connect the dots for voters between this election and their day-to-day lives.”

Yahoo News-At Georgia rally, Pence says America will 'hear the evidence' of election fraud on Jan. 6-Jay Busbee-January 4, 2021, 2:31 PM EST

Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that the case for widespread election fraud would be made to the American people when Congress meets this week to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump.“We’ve all got our doubts about the last election. I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities,” Pence said at an indoor congregation at Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga., in support of Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in runoff elections there.Pence, who by law will be tasked with declaring a winner of the Electoral College vote, seemed to leave open the possibility that Trump could still remain in power for a second term.“Come this Wednesday,” he said, referring to the impending certification of election results, “we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the evidence.”Biden won the state of Georgia by 12,000 votes, and three separate recounts have confirmed that victory. But with Trump contesting the election results, and pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” and declare him the winner, Pence’s job of turning out the vote in the two Senate runoff elections has been made more precarious.If both Loeffler and Perdue lose to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the Senate will be split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris a tie-breaking vote and vastly easing the path for Biden’s agenda.Mike Pence“I hear some people saying, ‘Just don’t vote,’” Pence said, referring to multiple Trump loyalists who have suggested voters boycott the election. “If you don’t vote, they win.”From the moment that Rock Springs senior pastor Benny Tate introduced him with “He’s a Christian, he’s conservative, he’s Republican, in that order,” it was clear Pence’s faith would play a significant role in his remarks. He praised the role of prayer in American life; he contended that the Trump administration had protected religious freedom; and, in one particularly applause-heavy line, he thundered, “We’re going to keep Georgia, and we’re going to save America!”Pence also touted the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19, praising the jobs regained and the vaccines rolled out and contending that America is nearing the end stage of the pandemic. “We know what we need to do to stop the spread and flatten the curve,” he said before the indoor crowd, many of whom were unmasked.Perhaps it was the fact that he was behind a pulpit, or perhaps he was rising to the gravity of the moment, but Pence was more animated and engaged than he’d been in most past public appearances. He spoke with the cadence of a preacher, he modulated his voice to project both sincerity and resolve, and he made absolutely sure to tie himself directly to Trump, which brought the loudest cheers of the rally.“We’re looking to you, Georgia, we’re looking to you to hold the line,” he said, “and I believe in all my heart that you will.”Election Day is Tuesday, with early voting already complete. FiveThirtyEight’s current average of all polls of the races has Ossoff ahead by 1.4 percentage points and Warnock ahead by 2 percentage points, though those margins have narrowed slightly since the weekend.Pence’s rally was the second of several major visits to Georgia in the days leading up to the election. Harris spoke at a rally in Savannah on Sunday, Biden is slated to speak Monday afternoon in Atlanta, and Trump will be hosting a rally in Dalton on Monday night.

Yahoo News-Georgia election official on Trump call: ‘Nobody I know who would be president would do something like that’Mon, January 4, 2021, 4:19 PM EST

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling condemned President Trump’s call with Georgia’s secretary of state, saying, “I personally found it to be something that was not normal, out of place and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state."Some have said, do you believe that what happened in that phone call was an attack on democracy? I'll leave other people that make the decision on that. I personally found that to be something that was not normal, out of place, and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a Secretary of State.Thank you.

Yahoo News-More than 1.3 million votes already cast in key Georgia races-Marquise Francis·National Reporter & Producer-December 20, 2020

ATLANTA — More than 1.3 million people have already cast their ballots in the first week of early voting in the critical Georgia Senate runoff races, according to state election data. After just six days of early in-person voting and about four weeks of mail-in balloting, the unusually high number is just about on track with last month’s historic presidential race turnout in which 5 million Georgians voted.“Georgians are fired up,” Georgia-based Democratic strategist Greg Nasif told Yahoo News. “While some folks like me will always hold out hope for 100 percent turnout and find disappointment when we inevitably fall short, I think many will be very pleased with how the voters turn out.”Runoff elections in Georgia, triggered when no candidate wins 50 percent of the November vote, are relatively rare. The last notable runoff in Georgia occurred in 2008, when Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin. The two runoff races underway right now will determine control of the U.S. Senate and potentially define the arc of the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s term.Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are looking to keep their seats, while Democratic hopefuls Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock are trying to unseat the two incumbents and position Georgia as a blue state for years to come. Unless both Ossoff and Warnock win, the GOP will retain its Senate majority and its ability to block much of Biden’s agenda.Late Saturday evening, President Trump announced he would host a rally on Jan. 4, on the eve of the Jan. 5 election. Trump used the announcement to renew his attacks on Georgia Republicans who reject his false claim that he won the Peach State in the November presidential vote.“As badly as we were treated in Georgia by the ‘Republican’ Governor and ‘Republican’ Secretary of State, we must have a massive victory for two great people, Kelly Loeffler & David Perdue, on January 5th,” Trump tweeted. “I will be having a big Rally for them on Monday night, January 4th.Local Republicans are likely to pay close attention to Trump’s message in the closing days of the campaign. If he uses the rally to continue to undermine confidence in the state’s election system, he could be turning off his own voters.“As the Georgia secretary of state noted, the president’s public hostility toward mail voting cost him in key states, and it’s a significant issue Republicans are seeking to address by telling their people to vote however they can, including absentee,” veteran Republican strategist Liam Donovan told Yahoo News. “If they don’t address this inequity, you could very well see another election-night lead for Republicans eroded as the mail votes roll in.”Campaigns usually struggle to turn out voters in off-cycle elections, and officials feared the heightened tensions surrounding Trump’s flurry of baseless legal challenges of fraud would dissuade voters from casting ballots. But with high turnout so far, voters appear engaged in the runoff contests.“The Republicans may have a problem on their hands, with many of their voters convinced the [presidential] election was rigged and Jan. 5 could be rigged again,” Nasif said. “I tend to think those voters will gravitate toward cynicism over consistency, and that angry voters vote.”About 150,000 people have voted each day of early voting thus far, as a flood of TV ads, giant highway bililboards and other forms of outreach bombard voters across the state.Early data offers some hope for Democrats in the historically Republican state.About 59 percent of runoff voters so far who also voted in the primary requested Democratic Party ballots, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while about 39 percent requested GOP ballots.But one-third of runoff voters didn’t show up for the primary, leaving no record this year of which party they prefer.Atlanta-based political strategist Fred Hicks told Yahoo News that he believes more legal battles should be expected.“Unless Republicans win, this election will not be over Jan. 5,” Hicks said. “What we are seeing play out in the presidential election will happen in the Senate race if Democrats win.”

US: 'We stand by our principles, stand up for what is right' 2 to 167: Just Israel, US reject UN budget, over alleged bias against Jerusalem-Two allies object specifically to funding 20th-anniversary event for 2001 Durban conference, where motion equated Zionism with racism; $3.2 billion budget endorsed by 167 nations-By TOI staff and AFP-DEC 31,20-Today, 12:20 am

US President Donald Trump’s outgoing administration on Thursday fired a late salvo against the United Nations by voting against its budget, citing disagreements on Israel and Iran — but it found almost no international support.Only Israel voted with the United States, with 167 nations in favor, as the General Assembly closed the year by approving the $3.231 billion UN budget for 2021.Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to the United Nations, voiced objections that the budget would fund a 20th-anniversary event for the 2001 UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, where the United States walked out in solidarity with Israel after countries advanced a motion equating Zionism with racism. That analogy was deleted before the motion passed.The United States, the biggest funder of the UN, “called for this vote to make clear that we stand by our principles, stand up for what is right and never accept consensus for consensus’s sake,” Craft said on the General Assembly floor.(From L-R) UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, US UN Ambassador Kelly Craft, US Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meet in New York on August 21, 2020. (Ronny Przysucha/Israeli UN Mission)-“Twenty years on, there remains nothing about the Durban Declaration to celebrate or to endorse. It is poisoned by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias,” she said.Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said that the Durban conference “will become another meeting demonizing the Jewish state — it will be used once again to slander us and to launch false accusations of racism against Jewish self-determination.”“Today we must all speak out against commemorating the disgrace that was the Durban Conference,” Erdan said. “Israel opposes any measure aimed at allocating a budget for this purpose — we all know that such funds will not be used to support human rights but to spread even more anti-Semitism and hate towards Israel.”“It is part of a wider anti-Israel bias at the UN,” said Erdan. “I will not stand by when such lies and incitement against Israel and the Jewish people are freely given a platform.”The General Assembly separately approved a resolution backing follow-up efforts on the Durban conference.That resolution passed 106-14 with 44 abstentions. The United States and Israel were joined in voting no by Western powers including Britain, France and Germany.Craft also complained about how the United States received almost no support in the world body in September when it declared that UN sanctions against Iran had come back into force.The Trump administration said it was triggering UN sanctions due to alleged Iranian violations of a nuclear deal negotiated by former US president Barack Obama, but even US allies scoffed at the argument that Washington remained a participant in an accord that Trump had loudly rejected.“The US doesn’t need a cheering section to validate its moral compass,” Craft said. “We don’t find comfort based on the number of nations voting with us, particularly when the majority have found themselves in an uncomfortable position of underwriting terrorism, chaos and conflict.”Craft said that the US vote would not change its UN contribution, including 25 percent of peacekeeping expenditures and some $9 billion a year in UN-channeled humanitarian relief.US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to seek a more cooperative relationship with the UN, including stopping a US exit from the World Health Organization, which Trump blamed for not doing more to stop COVID-19.

Ending tortuous Brexit journey, UK breaks away from EU economy-‘We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it,’ Boris Johnson says, as London officially severs decades-long partnership with Europe-By Jitendra Joshi and Phil HAZLEWOOD-1 January 2021, 1:40 am

LONDON (AFP) — Britain on Thursday finally severed its turbulent half-century partnership with Europe, quitting the EU single market and customs union and going its own way four-and-a-half years after its shock vote to leave the bloc.Brexit, which has dominated politics on both sides of the Channel since 2016, became a reality as Big Ben struck 11:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) in London, just as most of mainland Europe ushered in 2021.Prime Minister Boris Johnson — the figurehead of the “Leave” campaign — described it as an “amazing moment” for the country and played up his upbeat narrative of a “Global Britain” unshackled from rules set in Brussels.He vowed that post-Brexit Britain, despite being battered by a surge in coronavirus cases, would be an “open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free-trading” country.“We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it..There will be plenty who will be only too happy to say goodbye to the grimness of 2020.But this was also the year when we rediscovered a spirit of togetherness, of community.In 2021 we have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it. Happy New Year! pic.twitter.com/gDRXe2SuCb — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 31, 2020-Legally, Britain left the European Union on January 31 but has been in a standstill transition period during fractious talks to secure a free-trade agreement with Brussels, which was finally clinched on Christmas Eve.Now the transition is over, EU rules no longer apply. The immediate consequence is an end to the free movement of more than 500 million people between Britain and the 27 EU states.Customs border checks return for the first time in decades, and despite the free-trade deal, queues and disruption from additional paperwork are expected.Matt Smith, managing director of HSF Logistics, which ships mainly fresh meat and chilled goods between Britain and Europe, said he was sending around 15 truckloads to the EU on New Year’s Eve ahead of the changes.The government’s new post-Brexit customs systems are largely untested and Smith was doubtful how his business would fare with the new paperwork.After disembarking from a ferry, lorries undergo checks at the port of Dover on the south-east coast of England, just after 2300 GMT, as Britain officially leaves the EU (European Union) trading block, late on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2020 (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)-“We’re not too sure to be honest, it seems to be a bit of a headache,” he told AFP. “There’ll be delays along the line at some stage.”Britain is the first member state to leave the EU, which was set up to forge unity after the horrors of World War II.The 2016 referendum opened up abiding wounds between Leavers and Remainers, and ushered in years of political paralysis before Johnson took power last year, vowing to chart a future for Britain built on scientific innovation and new partnerships across the seas.A parliamentary debate on Wednesday to ratify the trade deal was marked by elegiac farewells from pro-EU lawmakers, and warnings of disruption as Britain dismantles the intricate network of ties built since it joined the EU’s forerunner in 1973.While the EU trade deal averted potential business chaos in the immediate future, the divorce will play out in many practical ways.The clock-face on the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the name of the bell, ‘Big Ben’ in London, shows 2300 (GMT), as Britain officially leaves the EU (European Union) trading block, on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2020 (Tolga Akmen / AFP)-Changes apply to everything from pet passports, to how long Britons can visit their holiday homes on the continent and an end to British involvement in a student exchange program.Potential disruption at ports is stoking fears of food and medicine shortages, as well as delays to holidaymakers and business travelers used to seamless travel in the EU.British fishermen are disgruntled at a compromise to allow continued access for EU boats in British waters.The key financial services sector also faces an anxious wait to learn on what basis it can keep dealing with Europe, after being largely omitted from the trade agreement.In a landmark deal sealed just hours before 2300 GMT, the tiny British territory of Gibraltar will become part of Europe’s passport-free zone to keep movement fluid on its border with Spain.Northern Ireland’s border with EU member state Ireland will be closely watched to ensure movement is unrestricted — a key plank of a 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of violence over British rule.And in pro-EU Scotland, where Brexit has given a boost to calls for a new vote on independence, Johnson faces a potential constitutional headache as 2021 dawns.An anti-Brexit pro-Scottish independence activist holds a flag mixing the EU flag and the Scottish Saltire as she gathers for a small protest against Britain’s exit from the European Union outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on December 31, 2020 (Andy Buchanan / AFP)-But opinion polls indicate that most Britons, on both sides of the referendum divide, want to move on and are far more worried about the worsening coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the country harder than most.Johnson, who himself was among those who was struck down by the virus, warned of tough times ahead because of a resurgence of Covid-19 infections but said a UK-developed vaccine offered grounds for hope.“It’s going to be better,” said Maureen Martin, from the port of Dover that lies across the Channel from France. “We need to govern ourselves and be our own bosses.”Britain is a financial and diplomatic big-hitter and a major NATO power with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and in the G7 grouping of the world’s richest economies.The EU has now lost 66 million people and an economy worth $2.85 trillion, and there is regret that Britain wanted out.French President Emmanuel Macron said Britain will remain “our friend and ally” but lamented that Brexit was the fruit of “a lot of lies and false promises.”Michel Barnier, head of the European Commission’s Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics in London, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)-“No one has been able to show me the added value of Brexit,” added EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. “It’s a divorce… you can’t celebrate a divorce.”Boarding a Eurostar train in Paris as the Brexit hour approached, Francois Graffin, 59, said he was going to pack up his life in London and return to live in France.“It breaks my heart,” he said.In Britain, Brexit has been the culmination of years of anti-Brussels agitation as the union morphed from a trading community to a more ambitious political project.However, the 2016 referendum never spelt out what shape Brexit should take.Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May repeatedly failed to drive through a “soft” separation that would have kept Britain largely bound to the EU.But he drove a much harder bargain, to the profound unease of UK businesses and opposition parties.Now after months of stormy negotiations that were repeatedly upended by the pandemic, Brussels, too, is keen to move on.But UK lawmaker Chris Hazzard, from the Irish republican Sinn Fein party, said Brexit was far from over.“When all the bluster dies down… it will become depressingly clear that this trade deal is… the beginning of a new trading relationship built on permanent negotiation, disputes and recriminations,” he warned.The Daily Telegraph, where Johnson made his name as a Brussels-bashing Europe correspondent, said the government faced a new reality shorn of the EU bogeyman.“Politicians will have to get used to bearing much greater responsibilities than they have been used to while the UK has been in the EU,” it said.

Exclusive-Set to amend ‘pay to slay,’ PA hopes Biden will shun law deeming PLO ‘terrorist’ Palestinians aim to fundamentally change relationship with US when new president takes office, hope to reopen PLO office in DC, including by overcoming a US law that hinders ties-By Jacob Magid-DEC 31,20-Today, 6:16 pm

NEW YORK — With just three weeks until US President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is putting together a strategy for a reset of ties with Washington after three years of boycotting the Trump administration.The centerpiece of the effort will be convincing the Biden administration to designate as unconstitutional congressional legislation from 1987 that labeled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “and its affiliates” a terror group, senior Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel.They hope that doing so will set the stage for a renewed bilateral relationship — one in which Ramallah is viewed as a more equal partner, and that isn’t entirely tied to the peace process with Israel.PA President Mahmoud Abbas severed relations with the Trump administration after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in May 2018. He also preemptively rejected Trump’s January 2020 “vision” for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The administration, while repeatedly urging Abbas to reengage, drastically reduced state funding for the Palestinians.Senior Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel that a fresh willingness to alter the way it pays stipends to Palestinian security prisoners, as well as the families of terrorists and others killed by Israelis, is aimed at laying the groundwork for the new diplomatic push.The altered policy would base the stipends on prisoners’ financial need rather than the length of their sentence, potentially marking a shift away from what has long been a sticking point for the PA’s detractors.The readiness to amend the stipends policy was first reported by The New York Times last month and confirmed to The Times of Israel this week by a senior Palestinian official.The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks — often referred to by some Israeli officials as a pay-to-slay policy —  has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror.Palestinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.Over the past year, officials in the US and the EU have warned Ramallah that a failure to substantively change the policy would prove a major obstacle to improved relations, two sources familiar with the matter said.The change may also usher Ramallah into compliance with the 2018 Taylor Force Act, which suspended US aid to the PA as long as it continued to implement the existing prisoner payment policy.An effort to amend the practice would be “a step forward… if it means that the welfare allocations will be similar to those of needy families, which are less than a tenth of what the terrorists earn,” said Yossi Kupferwasser, the former research division head in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and a vocal critic of the PA’s stipends policy. “If not, this is a trick.”Highlighting his skepticism, Kupferwasser pointed to an announcement earlier this month by the PA Prisoners Affairs Commission that it would pay three months of the prisoner salaries in advance in order to avoid an Israeli military order penalizing banks that distribute them.-A means to an end-As Ramallah moves to change the controversial practice, it hopes that Biden will agree to deem the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 an unconstitutional constraint on his powers, said two senior Palestinian officials, insisting on anonymity.The reality has changed dramatically since 1987, the officials said. As part of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. The PA governing body that was formed as part of that deal has gone on to ink bilateral anti-terrorism agreements with both the US and Israel. Also as part of the accords, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat publicly renounced violence as a means for achieving self-determination — a commitment Israeli leaders have long dismissed, with many alleging that Arafat played a direct role in orchestrating the suicide bombing onslaught of the Second Intifada.But in a post-Oslo era where Ramallah has relations with both the US and Israel, “it is simply unfair to continue deeming the PLO a terror organization,” said a member of the PLO’s National Council. Palestinian officials declined to speak on record, saying that they feared the intended strategy would be interpreted as an ultimatum to the transition team before the US president-elect even takes office.Snubbing the 1987 law designating the PLO a terror group, as two of Biden’s predecessors did, would allow for the reopening of the PLO mission in Washington.Distinct from, yet affiliated with the PA, the PLO coalition of Palestinian factions had been operating a diplomatic office since the Oslo Accords until it was closed by the Trump administration in 2018.The 1987 legislation deeming the PLO a terror group remained in place, but Congress allowed for the mission’s operation, so long as the president signed a waiver every six months stipulating that doing so was a US national interest.In 2011, Congress began placing additional conditions on the mission’s continued presence, including one requiring the president to certify that “the Palestinians have entered into direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.” This effectively conditioned Washington’s relations with the Palestinians on a substantive peace process.That paradigm is one the Palestinians are desperate to change. “We’re not asking to detach the peace process from the relationship entirely, but ties shouldn’t be exclusively judged based on the outcome of it, because that punishes Palestinians regardless of whether they’re responsible for the stalemate,” said the PLO’s National Council member who spoke to The Times of Israel.Other provisions to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 added by Congress in recent years have included a ban on the Palestinians joining any UN bodies or pursuing a case against Israel at the-International Criminal Court.When Ramallah began to seek action against Israel at the ICC in 2017, filing an official complaint against Israel at The Hague, it effectively prevented Trump from signing the waiver and the PLO mission was officially shuttered in September 2018.Nonetheless, US legal tradition gives presidents wide leeway to disregard parts of laws that they deem to be unconstitutional shackles on their powers, especially regarding foreign policy.Biden could use that privilege to allow the mission to reopen, thus obviating the need for the waiver along the way. Otherwise, the only way to reopen the diplomatic office within the confines of the law would be to alter provisions that banned the Palestinians from Washington once they went to the ICC. Then the waiver process could be re-introduced.The Palestinians, however, are intent on resetting relations entirely, rather than simply returning to the days where their operations in DC were limited and constantly under a microscope.One Palestinian official who spoke to The Times of Israel on the condition of anonymity said Ramallah could no longer accept its presence in Washington being up for debate every six months. However, he recognized that the eradication of the 1987 law would take time and characterized it as an “intermediate goal” that would likely require at least a year to see through.Biden indeed campaigned on reopening the PLO mission as well as a US consulate in East Jerusalem, but one former campaign adviser familiar with the transition’s discussions on the matter said that the president-elect has yet to decide how he would go about doing so.In the meantime, the Palestinians may be forced to continue operating without representatives in Washington.The PLO national council member acknowledged that the Israeli-Palestinian issue likely won’t be at the top of the Biden administration’s agenda, but said that declaring the 1987 legislation unconstitutional would prevent the further deterioration of US-Palestinian ties in the interim.When Trump did the Palestinians a favor-While doing so might require a degree of political capital, there is in fact precedent for the move.In a signing statement issued at the time of the passage of the 1987 legislation, US president Ronald Reagan asserted that while he had no intention of forging ties with the Palestinians, “the right to decide the kind of foreign relations, if any, the United States will maintain is encompassed by the President’s authority under the Constitution” and by not Congress through legislation aimed at handcuffing the executive’s diplomatic capabilities.Subsequent presidents chose to ignore Reagan’s concerns, even after the Oslo Accords, deciding that they would operate within the letter of the law and sign the presidential waiver every six months.It was Trump who ended that trend. He went further than Reagan when he allowed the PLO mission to remain open for almost a year after the Palestinians began pursuing a criminal case against Israel in the ICC in the fall of 2017, in direct violation of the Congressional provision to the 1987 law.Instead, Trump’s State Department simply asked the Palestinians to limit their operations “to those related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.”The PA hopes that when it changes its prisoner payment practice, Biden will be prepared to similarly disregard the 1987 legislation. To justify the reopening of the PLO mission, the incoming president could simply point to the precedent set by Reagan and Trump. No further action would be needed. While the position could be challenged in court, the executive’s constitutionally granted authority to oversee diplomatic relations would be difficult to rebut.Alternatively, Congress could simply repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act, but doing so would be a much taller order, given that the legislative branch has historically been much tougher on the Palestinians than the executive.Mission impossible? Even if the Biden administration grants Ramallah’s wish, the PA will still face obstacles once the PLO mission is reopened. This is because the return of its officials to Washington would trigger the 2018 Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), which allows American victims of terror to sue the PA for damages in US courts by deeming Ramallah’s monthly “martyr” allowances funding for terrorism.Skirting such suits would require the US secretary of state to invoke exemptions listed in the legislation. This would be politically fraught but legally tenable and also easier to justify if the Biden administration could point to Ramallah’s reform of the prisoner payments policy.“There are forces out there that are going to be looking to exact a political price on Biden for anything that he does that is seen as conciliatory for the Palestinians,” said Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman, a dovish commentator on Israel. “The best thing he can do is own his policies.”She added that heeding the PA’s request regarding the 1987 legislation “would be a powerful declaration of independence by Biden from decades of foreign policy-making shackled by logic and legal constructs [imposed by Congress] geared not to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace but to prevent it.”“Aside from declaring the law unconstitutional, Biden has no clear path to allowing the PLO back in Washington,” Friedman said.The Biden transition team and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office declined a request to comment on this story.

Iran’s Zarif says Trump trying to fabricate ‘pretext for war’Slamming US president for show of force in region, foreign minister says Tehran will ‘openly and directly defend its people, security & vital interests’-By TOI staff-31 December 2020, 4:37 pm

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused outgoing US President Donald Trump of attempting to fabricate a “pretext for war” as tensions mount between the two countries.His remarks come ahead of the first anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3.US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz has been patrolling Gulf waters since late November and two American B-52 bombers recently overflew the region.“Instead of fighting Covid in US, @realDonaldTrump & cohorts waste billions to fly B52s & send armadas to OUR region,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.“Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war,” he added.A US Air Force B-52H ‘Stratofortress’ from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., is refueled by a KC-135 ‘Stratotanker’ in the US Central Command area of responsibility, December 30, 2020. (Senior Airman Roslyn Ward/U.S. Air Force via AP)-Trump ordered a drone strike on January 3 this year to kill Soleimani near Baghdad’s international airport.Days later, Iran launched a volley of missiles at Iraqi bases housing US and other coalition troops, with Trump refraining from any further military response.“Iran doesn’t seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests,” Zarif said.Instead of fighting Covid in US, @realDonaldTrump & cohorts waste billions to fly B52s & send armadas to OUR region-Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war.Iran doesn't seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests.— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 31, 2020-Trump said last week said he would hold Iran “responsible” for any fatal attack on Americans in Iraq after accusing Tehran of being behind a rocket strike on the US embassy in Baghdad on December 20.Zarif at the time warned the US president against any “adventurism” before leaving the White House on January 20, and said, “putting your own citizens at risk abroad won’t divert attention from catastrophic failures at home.”US President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing US troops, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)-The US embassy in Iraq and other foreign military and diplomatic sites have been targeted by dozens of rockets and roadside bomb attacks since later 2019.Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran and world powers in 2018 and launched a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, reimposing and reinforcing crippling sanctions.The two countries have twice come to the brink of war since June 2019, especially following the killing of Soleimani.Tensions with Iran further escalated with the killing in November of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic’s disbanded military nuclear program. Iran has blamed Israel for the killing, but US officials are concerned that any Iranian retaliation could hit US interests.