Virus surge breaking infection records across the US
Texas on Wednesday became the first state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and California closed in on that mark as a surge of coronavirus infections engulfs the country. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said all restaurants, bars and gyms statewide will have to close at 10 p.m. starting Friday, a major retreat in a corner of the U.S. that had seemingly brought the virus largely under control months ago. He also barred private gatherings of more than 10 people. Texas, the second-most populous state, has recorded 1.02 million coronavirus cases and over 19,000 deaths since the outbreak began in early March, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. California, the most populous state, has logged more than 995,000 cases. The U.S. has recorded over 240,000 deaths and more than 10.3 million confirmed infections, with new cases soaring to all-time highs of well over 120,000 per day over the past week. Health experts have blamed the increase in part on the onset of cold weather and growing frustration with mask-wearing and other precautions. Cases per day are on the rise in 49 states, and deaths per day are climbing in 39. A month ago, the U.S. was seeing about 730 COVID-19 deaths per day on average; that has now surpassed 970. Among the many health officials sounding the alarm was Dr. Julie Watson of Integris Health in Oklahoma. “We are in trouble,” she said. “If nothing is done soon to slow the rise in cases, our hospitals will be more overwhelmed than they already are and we won’t be able to be there for all of those who need it.” Oklahoma’s health department said Wednesday that 1,248 people were hospitalized for confirmed or probable coronavirus, shattering the previous one-day record of 1,055. Texas reported 10,865 new cases on Tuesday, breaking a record set in mid-July. One of the hardest-hit places is the border city of El Paso; its county has nearly 28,000 active cases and has suffered more than 680 COVID-19 deaths. The American Medical Association renewed its plea for mask-wearing, physical distancing and frequent hand-washing. “With the holidays quickly approaching, each of us must do everything possible to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” AMA President Susan Bailey said. “Failing to do our part will prolong the suffering and disruption to our lives and inevitably lead to more deaths of our friends, neighbors and loved ones.” Meanwhile, many traditional Veterans Day celebrations gave way to somber virtual gatherings Wednesday. Many veterans homes have barred visitors to protect their residents from the virus. In New York City, a quiet parade of military vehicles, with no spectators, rolled through Manhattan to maintain the 101-year tradition of veterans marching on Fifth Avenue.
Around the country:
— The NFL’s Minnesota Vikings said it will close its remaining home games to fans, as the state blew past its record for new deaths in a day. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced new restrictions on bars and restaurants and said he wishes the neighboring Dakotas would take more aggressive steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus. He said this summer’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota was “absolutely unnecessary” and helped spread the virus beyond that state.
— Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued new orders on mask enforcement at businesses, while threatening to close bars, restaurants and fitness centers if infections keep surging. The Republican governor shifted the authority over mask enforcement from the counties to the state. If a business receives more than one violation, it must close for 24 hours. He’s also requiring businesses to display ‘No Mask, No Service’ signs and refuse service to customers who don’t comply. But DeWine’s orders Wednesday were not as far-reaching as in March, when Ohio became one of the first states to go into lockdown.
— In Nebraska, which is setting records for COVID-19 hospitalizations, new restrictions took effect Wednesday. Those include a requirement to wear masks at businesses where employees have close contact with customers for more than 15 minutes, such as barbershops, and a limit on large indoor gatherings to 25% of a building’s capacity. Gov. Pete Ricketts and his wife have gone into quarantine after being exposed to someone with the virus.
— North Carolina reported its highest single-day increase in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 3,119 people — 8% of those tested — testing positive for the virus.
— Kentucky posted a record daily high for new confirmed cases, at 2,700, as the governor implored people to wear masks to counter the accelerating outbreak.
— A group of Utah teachers is encouraging colleagues statewide to call in sick Thursday and use the day to get tested for the virus. Some teachers believe the action could prompt state officials to do more to increase classroom safety.
— In Sioux Falls, the largest city in hard-hit South Dakota, Mayor Paul TenHaken cast a tie-breaking vote that defeated a proposed mask mandate. Violations would have carried a $50 fine.
— North Dakota continues to have the most new COVID-19 cases per capita in the nation, according to Johns Hopkins data, with one in every 83 residents testing positive in the past week.
Bill Ackman Sounds Alarm For Another COVID Market Crash Despite Vaccine Hype
Prominent hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is betting that the coronavirus pandemic could rattle the U.S. stock market again like in March in a time when major stock indexes just soared to an all-time high. Last time he made similar bets, he won and profited $2.6 billion, or a 10,000 percent return, on his investments in less than a month.
At the Financial Times‘ Dealmakers Conference on Tuesday, Ackman revealed that his hedge fund firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, bought a set of credit-default swaps, a financial derivative to insure his firm against a wave of corporate defaults, on Monday. Interestingly, it was the same day Pfizer declared early success with its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, which sent stock indexes to a record high. However,
Ackman is concerned that the news will encourage people to become nonchalant about preventive measures and actually make the pandemic worse before the vaccine gets to the market.
Ackman warned that investors are underestimating the severity of the pandemic. He sounded a similar alarm in early March, just before states imposed lockdown orders. “I hope we lose money on this next hedge,” Ackman said during a keynote speech at the event, per Financial Times. “What’s fascinating is the same bet we put on eight months ago is available on the same terms as if there had never been a fire and on the probability that the world is going to be fine.” The new hedge was about 30 percent the size of the bet he placed in spring, Ackman said. In late February, when the coronavirus outbreak was in full swing in China but hadn’t started its exponential spread to the rest of the world, Pershing Square bought $27 million worth of credit protection on global investment-grade and high-yield credit indexes to insure against $71 billion of corporate debt.
A week later, major stock indexes plummeted on skyrocketing COVID-19 cases across the U.S. By the time the market hit its rock bottom in late March, Ackman had finished unwinding those hedges and reaped $2.6 billion in proceeds.
He used the profits to buy shares in several existing portfolio companies, including Agilent Technologies, Berkshire Hathaway, Hilton Worldwide Holdings and Lowe’s and Restaurant Brands International. Nick Note: The biggest threat to the economy is the coronavirus that is now raging again in the US and Europe. People are numb sensitized to a death rate that exceeded all the wars the world has fought. Reality has away of kicking people in their ass. The stock market is in la La LA land. You can take magic mushroom, LSD and have a happy trip. But all Hallucinations come to a end. And can be very sobering. Reality is about to bite the stock market in its ass. I predict new lower lows. Their is no approved vaccine yet, their will be no vaccine in wide distribution any time soon……. So you know where i am at!
Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine Shows Promise, But How Will It Be Distributed?
Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine inched a step closer toward approval on Monday, with the company announcing 90% efficacy in phase 3 clinical trial. The vaccine will be offered in a two-dose jab, not unlike other candidates currently in development and a multitude of multi-dose medicines that have come before it. The vaccine’s two doses will be separated by a period of 21 days, with the first shot occurring on day zero, Dr. Anuj Mehta, a pulmonary and critical care physician at National Jewish Health, explained to Fox News. The period between the two shots is based on data collected in the lab before the vaccine was tested in humans, he explained. Each dose will be comprised of the same formulation, meaning there is no difference between the shots, but the reason there has to be two is because the body responds to each differently. The first dose, Mehta said, acts as a primer for the body’s immune system, and the second dose, given three weeks later, will kick it into gear, so to speak. Mehta, a member of the medical advisory group of the Governor’s Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee in Colorado who is not involved in Pfizer’s trials, said after the second dose the body will be able to better recognize the proteins created by the COVID-19 virus, translating into immunity. How long that immunity lasts, however, remains to be seen. “Based on the press release from Pfizer, it appears that the immunity sets in within a week of the second dose,” Mehta said, citing the press release published by Pfizer. “All the data supports the fact that a single-dose won’t provide really robust immunity, which is what we need to combat the pandemic.” Mehta added that it’s too soon to know if the vaccine will be an annual inoculation, similar to the flu shot, or if it will be effective for several years. “We don’t know if this is going to be something where people need repeated immunizations at different time intervals, or it’ll be sufficient for a very long period of time,” he said. “Long-term follow up included with the trials will tell us that. Nick Note: This will be a goveremnt run cluster fuck. A cryovaccine… Yea right and you need two shots within two weeks and they do not know how long immunity will last. And this is the great white hope? I call it little help. But it makes a good PR spin job. Hwelp is on the way YEAR RIGHT!
Record Infections Death Rates and it getting worse by the day
Several states posted records Tuesday, including over 12,600 new cases in Illinois, 10,800 in Texas and 7,000 in Wisconsin.
Deaths — a lagging indicator, since it takes time for people to get sick and die — are climbing again, reaching an average of more than 930 a day.
Hospitals are getting slammed. And unlike the earlier outbreaks, this one is not confined to a region or two.
“The virus is spreading in a largely uncontrolled fashion across the vast majority of the country,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University.
Governors made increasingly desperate pleas for people to take the fight against the virus more seriously.
In an unusual prime-time speech hours after Wisconsin set new records for infections and deaths, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced that he was advising people to stay in their houses and businesses to allow people to work remotely, require masks and limit the number of people in stores and offices.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, ordered bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m., and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said she will require masks at indoor gatherings of 25 or more people, inching toward more stringent measures after months of holding out.
While deaths are still well below the U.S. peak of about 2,200 per day back in April, some researchers estimate the nation’s overall toll will hit about 400,000 by Feb. 1, up from about 240,000 now.
But there is also some good news.
Doctors now better know how to treat severe cases, meaning higher percentages of the COVID-19 patients who go into intensive care units are coming out alive. Patients have the benefit of new treatments, namely remdesivir, the steroid dexamethasone and an antibody drug that won emergency-use approval from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday. Also, testing is more widely available.
In addition, a vaccine appears to be on the horizon, perhaps around the end of the year, with Pfizer this week reporting early results showing that its experimental shots are a surprising 90% effective at preventing the disease.
And there’s a change pending in the White House, with President-elect Joe Biden vowing to rely on a highly respected set of medical advisers and carry out a detailed coronavirus plan that experts say includes the kind of measures that will be necessary to bring the surge under control.
Biden pledged during the campaign to be guided by science, make testing free and widely available, hire thousands of health workers to undertake contact-tracing, and instruct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide clear, expert advice.
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“We are already seeing encouraging signs from President-elect Biden with regard to his handling of COVID-19,” said Dr. Kelly Henning, a veteran epidemiologist who heads the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ public health programs.
“I am relieved to see he’s already put some of the smartest scientific minds on his new coronavirus task force and that they are acting urgently to try and get the pandemic under control as quickly as possible,” Henning said.
While the first surge in the Northeast caught many Americans unprepared and cut an especially deadly swath through nursing homes, the second crest along the nation’s Southern and Western rim was attributed mostly to heedless behavior, particularly among young adults over Memorial Day and July Fourth, and hot weather that sent people indoors, where the virus spreads more easily.
The fall surge similarly has been blamed largely on cold weather driving people inside and disdain for masks and social distancing, stoked by President Donald Trump and other politicians.
Even in parts of the country that have been through coronavirus surges before, “you see people breaking out of it” and letting their guard down, Schaffner said.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak
“There really is COVID fatigue that is blending into COVID annoyance,” he said.
The short-term outlook is grim, with colder weather and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s ahead. Generations of family members gathering indoors for meals for extended periods “is not a recipe for anything good,” Hanage said.
Other factors could contribute to the spread of the virus in the coming weeks: Last weekend saw big street celebrations and protests over the election. On Saturday night, an upset victory by Notre Dame’s football team sent thousands of students swarming onto the field, many without masks.
Meanwhile, the next two months will see a lame-duck Congress and a president who might be even less inclined than before to enact disease-control measures. Those voted out of office or no longer worried about reelection for at least two more years, “are not going to be motivated to do a fantastic job,” Hanage said.
Experts are increasingly alarmed about the virus’s resurgence in places like Massachusetts, which has seen a dramatic rise in cases since Labor Day, blamed largely on young people socializing.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is warning that the health care system could become overwhelmed this winter, and he recently ordered restaurants to stop table service, required many businesses to close by 9:30 p.m., and instructed residents to stay home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Brooke Nichols, a professor and infectious-disease mathematical modeler at Boston University School of Public Health, said the governor’s actions don’t go far enough.
“Right now because of the exponential growth, throw the kitchen sink at this, and then you can do it for not as long,” Nichols said.
Meanwhile, political leaders in a number of newer coronavirus hot spots are doing less. In hard-hit South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem has made it clear she will not institute a mask requirement and has voiced doubt in health experts who say face coverings prevent infections from spreading.
Even higher case and death rates have been seen in North Dakota, where many people have refused to wear masks. Gov. Doug Burgum has pleaded with people to do so, and praised local towns and cities that have mandated masks. But he has avoided requiring masks himself.
Both Noem and Burgum are Republicans and have taken positions in line with those of the president.
“It would be simplistic to say it’s a red-vs.-a-blue experience, but it does kind of go along party lines of whether people took it seriously, tried to prevent it and took painful measures, versus those who said, ‘Let it rip,’” said Dr. Howard Markel, a public health historian at the University of Michigan.
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
US hits record COVID-19 hospitalizations amid virus surge
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations Tuesday and surpassed 1 million new confirmed cases in just the first 10 days of November amid a nationwide surge of infections that shows no signs of slowing. The new wave appears bigger and more widespread than the surges that happened in the spring and summer — and threatens to be worse. But experts say there are also reasons to think the nation is better able to deal with the virus this time around. “We’re definitely in a better place” when it comes to improved medical tools and knowledge, said William Hanage, a Harvard University infectious-disease researcher. Newly confirmed infections in the U.S. were running at all-time highs of well over 100,000 per day, pushing the total to more than 10 million and eclipsing 1 million since Halloween. There are now 61,964 people hospitalized, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Several states posted records Tuesday, including over 12,600 new cases in Illinois, 10,800 in Texas and 7,000 in Wisconsin. Deaths — a lagging indicator, since it takes time for people to get sick and die — are climbing again, reaching an average of more than 930 a day. Hospitals are getting slammed. And unlike the earlier outbreaks, this one is not confined to a region or two. “The virus is spreading in a largely uncontrolled fashion across the vast majority of the country,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University. Governors made increasingly desperate pleas for people to take the fight against the virus more seriously. In an unusual prime-time speech hours after Wisconsin set new records for infections and deaths, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced that he was advising people to stay in their houses and businesses to allow people to work remotely, require masks and limit the number of people in stores and offices. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, ordered bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m., and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said she will require masks at indoor gatherings of 25 or more people, inching toward more stringent measures after months of holding out. While deaths are still well below the U.S. peak of about 2,200 per day back in April, some researchers estimate the nation’s overall toll will hit about 400,000 by Feb. 1, up from about 240,000 now.
A vaccine appears to be on the horizon, perhaps around the end of the year, with Pfizer this week reporting early results showing that its experimental shots are a surprising 90% effective at preventing the disease. While the first surge in the Northeast caught many Americans unprepared and cut an especially deadly swath through nursing homes, the second crest along the nation’s Southern and Western rim was attributed mostly to heedless behavior, particularly among young adults over Memorial Day and July Fourth, and hot weather that sent people indoors, where the virus spreads more easily. The fall surge similarly has been blamed largely on cold weather driving people inside and disdain for masks and social distancing, stoked by President Donald Trump and other politicians. Even in parts of the country that have been through coronavirus surges before, “you see people breaking out of it” and letting their guard down, Schaffner said.
The short-term outlook is grim, with colder weather and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s ahead. Generations of family members gathering indoors for meals for extended periods “is not a recipe for anything good,” Hanage said.
Other factors could contribute to the spread of the virus in the coming weeks: Last weekend saw big street celebrations and protests over the election. On Saturday night, an upset victory by Notre Dame’s football team sent thousands of students swarming onto the field, many without masks. Meanwhile, the next two months will see a lame-duck Congress and a president who might be even less inclined than before to enact disease-control measures. Those voted out of office or no longer worried about reelection for at least two more years, “are not going to be motivated to do a fantastic job,” Hanage said.
Experts are increasingly alarmed about the virus’s resurgence in places like Massachusetts, which has seen a dramatic rise in cases since Labor Day, blamed largely on young people socializing.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is warning that the health care system could become overwhelmed this winter, and he recently ordered restaurants to stop table service, required many businesses to close by 9:30 p.m., and instructed residents to stay home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Brooke Nichols, a professor and infectious-disease mathematical modeler at Boston University School of Public Health, said the governor’s actions don’t go far enough. “Right now because of the exponential growth, throw the kitchen sink at this, and then you can do it for not as long,” Nichols said. Meanwhile, political leaders in a number of newer coronavirus hot spots are doing less. In hard-hit South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem has made it clear she will not institute a mask requirement and has voiced doubt in health experts who say face coverings prevent infections from spreading. Even higher case and death rates have been seen in North Dakota, where many people have refused to wear masks. Gov. Doug Burgum has pleaded with people to do so, and praised local towns and cities that have mandated masks. But he has avoided requiring masks himself. Nick Note: Virus run wild. The vaccine IF it works as advertised is a year away at best. Can you hold your breath that long?
GOP backs Trump as he fights election results, transition
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration threw the presidential transition into tumult, with President Donald Trump blocking government officials from cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s team and Attorney General William Barr authorizing the Justice Department to probe unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.
Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, rallied behind Trump’s efforts to fight the election results. Few in the GOP acknowledged Biden’s victory or condemned Trump’s other concerning move on Monday: his firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
On Monday, Barr authorized U.S. attorneys to probe “substantial” allegations of voter irregularities and election fraud, though no widespread instances of that type of trouble in the 2020 election exist. In fact, election officials from both political parties have publicly stated that voting went well and international observers also confirmed that there were no serious irregularities. Biden campaign lawyer Bob Bauer said Barr’s memorandum authorizing investigations “will only fuel the ‘specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims’ he professes to guard against.” Biden pressed forward with plans to build out his administration, assembling a team of experts to face the surging pandemic. But the federal agency that needs to greenlight the beginnings of the transition of power held off on taking that step. And the White House moved to crack down on those not deemed sufficiently loyal as Trump continued to refuse to concede the race. Trump remained out of sight at the White House, with conversations ongoing about how the defeated president would spend the coming days and weeks as he challenged the people’s verdict. Trump is not expected to formally concede but is likely to grudgingly vacate the White House at the end of his term, according to several people around him. Also being discussed: the possibility of more campaign-style rallies as he tries to keep his supporters fired up despite his defeat. It was possible they would feature his family and top supporters but not the president himself. The ouster of Esper, the Pentagon chief, was expected by some aides to be the first of several firings by Trump, now freed from having to face voters again and angry at those in his administration perceived to be insufficiently loyal. Others believed to be vulnerable: FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA head Gina Haspel and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. The president was given cover to keep fighting by McConnell, seen by many in the GOP as the one who may eventually need to nudge Trump to the exit. “Our institutions are actually built for this,” McConnell said as he opened the Senate on Monday. “We have the system in place to consider concerns and President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer countered that the Republicans’ refusal to accept the election results was “extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy.” “Joe Biden won the election fair and square,” Schumer said. Republicans on Capitol Hill have been hesitant to push Trump to concede to Biden, knowing it would anger their base of Trump’s most devoted supporters. Most were also not overtly encouraging the president’s unfounded claims of fraud, while allowing baseless questions about the election process to linger. Adding to the sense of uncertainty, the General Services Administration held off on formally beginning the transition, preventing Biden’s teams from gaining access to federal agencies. An agency spokesperson said late Monday that an “ascertainment” on the winner of the election had not yet been made. Citing what the agency did during the extended 2000 electoral recount, it signaled that it may not do so until Trump concedes or the Electoral College meets next month. Despite Trump’s public stance, there was a growing realization in his inner circle that the election result would be impossible to overturn. Some senior officials have tried to make the case that Trump should turn his efforts to cementing his legacy, but they are wary of being labeled disloyal for even thinking it. Trump’s public schedule hasn’t included an intelligence briefing since Oct. 1. The White House hasn’t provided a “readout” of any call between the president and a foreign leader in weeks. He hasn’t met with members of the White House coronavirus task force in months. He also offered no public comment on Tropical Storm Eta lashing the Florida Keys. The drawn-out resolution to the election has only added to the culture of suspicion that has permeated the hollowed-out West Wing. Nick Note: This is well withing Trumps right. Been done before, especially when you consider in key states the vote count is very close. Their will not be anarchy in the streets. The system was built for this. Elections all over the world are contested. The problem is the left leaning media is blowing a blizzard of bullshit. Their are many checks and balances in the system designed to do exactly this. And that is to sort out hotly contested elections. At the end of the day their will be a peaceful transfer of power or Trump will be elected and remain in office………..
‘Great day for humanity’: Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine over 90% effective
(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc’s PFE.N experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective based on initial trial results, the company said on Monday, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed over a million people and battered the world’s economy.Experts welcomed the first successful interim data from a large-scale clinical test as a watershed moment that showed vaccines could halt the pandemic though mass roll-outs of the shot, which needs regulatory approval, won’t happen this year. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE BNTX.O said they had so far found no serious safety concerns and expected to seek U.S. authorization this month for emergency use of the vaccine, raising the possibility of a regulatory decision as soon as December. If granted, the companies estimate they can roll out up to 50 million doses this year, enough to protect 25 million people, and then produce up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. “Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.” Experts cautioned that they still needed to see the full trial data, which have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal, but the preliminary results looked encouraging so far. There are still many questions around the vaccine, such as how effective it is for vulnerable groups and how long it will provide immunity, and the “new normal” of social distancing and face masks looks set to remain for the foreseeable future. BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin told Reuters he was optimistic the immunisation effect of the vaccine would last for a year though that was not yet certain. “This news made me smile from ear to ear. It is a relief to see such positive results on this vaccine and bodes well for COVID-19 vaccines in general,” said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford. The prospect of a vaccine electrified world markets with the S&P 500 and Dow hitting record highs as shares of banks, oil majors and travel companies soared. Pfizer shares were 8.6% higher in New York at 1450 GMT, while BioNTech’s stock was up 11%. Nick Note: This vaccine must be kept in sub zero conditions and at the most they can deliver 30 million vaccines. Is it a game changer. Honestly no. But it makes people feel good…. at least for now… Think Mink!
Gram says Trump should NOT concede
Sen. Lindsey Graham urged supporters not to accept Joseph R. Biden as the projected winner of the presidential election on Sunday, with the Trump campaign vowing to pursue legal challenges. “This is a contested election. The media doesn’t decide who becomes president. If they did, you would never have a Republican president for forever, so we’re discounting them,”
Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, said on Fox News. “President Trump should not concede.”
He was one of several top Trump allies on Capitol Hill to encourage the president to continue to contest the election, arguing there were widespread issues with the election in several key states. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, said the presidential race shouldn’t have been called if there are still House races being deliberated. “That’s why every vote should be counted, every recount should go forward, and every challenge should be heard. Because if it’s still good to keep going on these Congressional seats…I think we should actually do that as well for the highest office,” he said on Fox News.
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and the face of President Trump‘s legal team, said on Fox three of the broader issues they’re bringing up in court challenges include allegations of dead persons voting, backdating of late mail-in ballots, and poll watchers denied access to voting locations.
“I think we have enough to change Pennsylvania,” Mr. Giuliani said. “It would be wrong for [Mr. Trump] to concede.” Mr. Giuliani said earlier this weekend that the campaign plans to file more lawsuits on Monday. Mr. Biden, the presumptive president-elect, was projected to be the winner on Saturday, four grueling days after Election Day. Only a handful of Republicans, like Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, have acknowledged Mr. Biden as their president-elect. “I understand why the president wants to keep on fighting. I do believe, however, that it is destructive to the cause of democracy to suggest widespread fraud or corruption. There’s just no evidence of that at this stage,” Mr. Romney said on CNN. “I think it’s important for us to recognize that the world is watching.” Others, like Sen. Roy Blunt, haven’t endorsed a Biden victory, but have said it’s time to begin considering that Mr. Trump lost while acknowledging it is still a close race. “It’s time for the president’s lawyers to present the facts and it’s time for those facts to speak for themselves,” the Missouri Republican said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Almost every state within 7-10 days of the election goes through that entire canvas, there are always some changes, seems unlikely that any changes could be big enough to make a difference but this is a close election, we need to acknowledge that,” he said. Nick Note: The key states are very close. It makes sense to examine the count under a microscope. Remember France tried mail in balloting. They soon abonded the system because they found fraud ran wild and the system was impossible to control.
Trump campaign announces Rep. Doug Collins to lead Georgia recount effort
Fresh off his Senate campaign loss, Republican Rep. Doug Collins will lead President Donald Trump campaign’s recount team in Georgia, according to an announcement on Sunday from the Trump campaign.
Collins on Tuesday night lost in Georgia’s special election Senate race, which CNN projected will head to a runoff between GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock.
The former top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Collins gained national prominence as one of the President’s most vocal defenders during the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Trump late last year. CNN has not projected a winner in Georgia. President-elect Joe Biden currently leads in the state by 10,353 votes. About 99% of the ballots in the state have been tallied. Nick Note: Trump has a right to contest a close election. And should……. This is not over by a long shot!