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America's closest allies are acknowledging Biden's victory even as Trump refuses to accept election loss
From CNN's Kate Sullivan, Kevin Liptak and Kylie Atwood
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris address their supporters at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7.
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
America’s closest allies are calling to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden even as President Trump refuses to concede the presidential election.
According to Biden’s transition team, the President-elect spoke Tuesday with:
President Emmanuel Macron of France
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin of Ireland
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said Monday that he had called Biden to congratulate him on his win.
Trump meanwhile has not publicly conceded and continues to make baseless claims of election rigging and voter fraud. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders in Congress are following the President’s lead and have not acknowledged Biden as the winner.
Biden said on Tuesday that he thinks Trump’s refusal to concede is an “embarrassment” and hurts the President’s legacy.
The President’s refusal to accept his loss has stalled the required steps to transition government to Biden.
Without a formal transition underway, foreign leaders have called former diplomats from the Obama administration to get the contact information for Biden’s team in order to call and congratulate him instead of using State Department channels, according to diplomatic officials familiar with how foreign governments approach a new administration.
Maryland's GOP governor calls what is happening with transition of power "really dangerous"
From CNN’s Jennifer Henderson
FILE - In this June 3, 2020 file photo Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan speaks during a news conference in Annapolis, Md. Gov. Hogan will be stepping down as the chairman of the the bipartisan National Governors Association. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo takes the reins of the group representing the nation’s governors, which has played a pivotal role in communicating with the Trump administration about state needs during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Brian Witte, file)
Brian Witte/AP
“I think if the President and his team have real evidence of widespread voter fraud, they should come forward with it,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said during a news conference when asked about Trump not conceding the election and what he sees as the way forward.
Hogan said he had not seen anything that would change the outcome of the election.
“This is the way it works in America. We, we cast the votes, we count the votes, and we live with the results, and I think most people realize that this election is over,” he said.
When asked about being a leading voice in the Republican party, Hogan said, “I was the first statewide Republican leader, I guess to come out and congratulate the President-elect on his victory, but a number of my fellow governors and a few senators and 37 Republican congressmen and others and many former elected officials and President Bush, you know, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, there are a lot of people saying that the election is over and that congratulating the Vice President-elect meant even more do not want to stop the transition from happening.”
When asked about the response other Republican leaders have given, Hogan said, “I was disappointed frankly, and I said so earlier with the some of the response from Leader McConnell and others who have a different you know, are taking a completely different take on it and I think it’s a mistake. I think it’s a mistake for the country. It’s a mistake for the Republican Party and especially as we have the Senate hanging in the balance and two runoff elections in Georgia, doing anything to tarnish the brand and have cost us votes is a pretty, pretty significant thing.”
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Biden to meet with transition advisers tomorrow
From CNN's Keith Allen and Dan Merica
President-elect Joe Biden addresses the media about the Trump Administration’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act on November 10, at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden will meet with transition advisors on Wednesday, according to a news release from his transition team.
Earlier today, Biden’s transition team announced the teams of people who will work to prepare the incoming administration to take control of the federal government.
The Biden transition posted the names of roughly 500 people who will work with the different government agencies — ranging from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Postal Service — to their website on Tuesday.
These people would, during a more traditional transition, work with career officials inside government to prepare a Biden administration to take over. But the Biden transition believes the groups can still get work done without full access.
Biden’s announcement comes as outgoing President Trump and his administration fight the election results and decline to give access to the incoming President-elect’s team.
Biden looks to project confidence about the work his transition team can do without Trump conceding the race or taking the required steps to begin the process of transitioning power from one administration to another.
The first, and most important step, is a formal determination from the General Services Administration, which would unfreeze more than $6 million in funding to Biden’s transition team.
The Biden transition statement noted that while the General Services Administration waits to ascertain the results of the election, these staffers will meet with “officials from think tanks, labor groups, trade associations, and other NGOs.”
Joe Biden "would certainly be easy to work with," says Republican Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson
From CNN’s Rebekah Riess
In this April 27, 2020 file photo, Gov. Asa Hutchinson takes off his Arkansas Razorbacks facemark as he arrives for the daily coronavirus briefing at the state Capitol in Little Rock.
Staton Breidenthal/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP, File
When asked during a news conference Tuesday if he had heard from or planned to work with President-Elect Joe Biden’s Covid-19 task force, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, said he had not heard from them.
“I think [Biden] is doing the right thing in trying to prepare for the eventuality, if he wins the election and all the results come in from the different states. He’s got to be prepared for that eventuality,” Hutchinson said.
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Trump campaign said it will file federal suit in Michigan
From CNN's Nikki Carvajal and Maegan Vazquez
The Trump campaign, still refusing to accept that Joe Biden is the President-elect, announced a new federal lawsuit that campaign officials said would be filed shortly in Michigan, and insisted that they “do believe that ultimately President Trump will be declared the winner of this election.”
A call with reporters about the action was originally scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, but was rescheduled until 6 p.m. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was billed as being on the call, but at the top of the presser, the campaign’s director of communications Tim Murtaugh announced that McEnany was “not able to be with us.”
Campaign General Counsel Matt Morgan said the campaign would be filing a new federal lawsuit in Michigan, alleging that “unequal treatment of Republican and Democrat poll watchers violates equal protection under the law.”
The lawsuit has yet to be filed, and different campaign officials gave different timelines for when it would be. Murtaugh initially said it may have been filed already, while Morgan said the lawsuit had been “authorized,” and counsel to the campaign Thor Hearne said the suit would be filed “within an hour or so.”
When asked about Biden’s relatively sizable lead in Michigan, which currently stands at more than 100,000 votes, Murtaugh insisted that “every filing and every action we are taking are getting us closer to the goal to seeing the president reelected.”
These two Georgia races could determine the Senate's balance of power
From CNN's Chandelis Duster
The eyes of the political world continue to turn to Georgia, where both US Senate races are primed for runoffs.
If Democrats win both Georgia seats, there would be a 50-50 tie in the Senate, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could serve as a tiebreaker.
Democrat Jon Ossoff, one of two Democrats who appears to be headed for a January runoff, is planning to make the response to the coronavirus pandemic a key part of his message and he welcomes an assist from President-elect Joe Biden.
CNN has not projected that the Senate race between Ossoff and Republican Sen. David Perdue will advance to a runoff, but both candidates are already campaigning to face each other on Jan. 5.
Ossoff told Berman “it’s all about getting people out to the polls for this January 5th runoff,” adding that again, the stakes against Perdue “are high.”
“This isn’t about partisan politics. This is about human lives and human livelihoods which are in the balance,” he said. “If we cannot mount an effective response to this pandemic, more people will needlessly, more people will needlessly lose their homes, their jobs, and their businesses.”
CNN projected last week a special election race between Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock will advance to a runoff in January.
Biden, who defeated President Trump for the presidency after a win in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, is leading in the Georgia presidential race, though CNN has not projected a winner in the state.
On this day four years ago, Melania Trump had tea at the White House and a tour of the executive residence, at the invitation of then-first lady Michelle Obama, as is customary.
But this time around, any movement towards a transition of the East Wing and the Executive Residence has not begun.
Instead, another source with knowledge of Melania Trump’s daily schedule said there is very little in the way of change taking place at all, and most of the focus of the first lady’s office remains on day-to-day meetings and upcoming holiday planning.
“It’s my understanding that it’s business as usual in the East Wing,” said the source. The source said that even if Melania Trump wanted to begin the process of a transition, the first lady is still hamstrung by President Donald Trump’s baseless refusal to accept Joe Biden’s victory.
No "substantial instances" of voter fraud in Georgia, says Republican lieutenant governor
From CNN's Josiah Ryan
Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan speaks with members of the press during the 29th day of the Georgia Legislative session, on Friday, March 13.
Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
Georgia’s Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, said today there have been no substantiated cases of voter fraud in the state but pledged to continue to work with local officials to investigate any reports, and ensure every vote counts.
“We have not had any sort of substantial instances get to us yet, but there’s still time,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper of potential voting improprieties or voter fraud in the state.
“I’m going to continue to work hard to make sure that every voter in Georgia has confidence that our elections are fair and legal,” he added.
Duncan would not say whether he’d felt pressure to say there was fraud or wrongdoing in the state’s elections, even as the state’s incumbent Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have called for the resignation of the state’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger alleging, without evidence, that the state’s election process was faulty. Both senators appear to be headed for runoff elections in January.
“Just because the person I voted for isn’t in the lead right now doesn’t mean my job description changes,” Duncan told Tapper today.
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Accusations of fraud are "theater," Biden campaign says
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden waves as he leaves the Queen Theater on November 10, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Top attorneys for the Biden campaign called the onslaught of recent court cases and accusations of voting fraud from President Trump and Republicans “theater,” during a phone briefing on Tuesday.
They reiterated that Biden had won the election, the vote margins couldn’t be overcome by court cases or recounts, and that the Biden campaign is full steam ahead toward Inauguration Day.
The court fight that Trump has touted is “noise, not really law. Theatrics, not really lawsuits,” Biden campaign senior adviser Bob Bauer said.
Bauer and campaign general counsel Dana Remus described how Republican allegations of fraud in court have repeatedly been found to be unmerited, and the recent spate of cases have offered no proof of supposed fraud.
Bauer also noted that if the Trump campaign did prompt recounts to happen in one or more states, election recounts since 2000 have on average found changes in vote counts of about 400 votes on average or around 270 at the median.
“These margins cannot be overcome in recounts,” Bauer said of Biden’s battleground wins by several thousand votes.
When asked about the General Service Administration’s refusal to certify Biden as the winner of the election, Bauer said the Biden team was continuing with its transition.
Some of the court cases, he noted, may be aimed particularly at slowing down or putting obstacles in the way of the “smooth functioning of the process.”
He did not answer a question about legal options for the Biden campaign that are possible in response to GSA. “They will not be able to stop this process,” Remus added.
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A look at who could serve in top roles in the Biden administration
From CNN's Kate Sullivan, Gregory Krieg, Dan Merica and Jeff Zeleny
President-elect Joe Biden is set to announce who will serve in top roles in his administration in the coming days and weeks.
Each of his Cabinet nominees will need to be confirmed by the US Senate, which is currently controlled by Republicans. Two runoff elections in Georgia on January 5 could determine which party controls the chamber and impact the Cabinet confirmation process.
The Cabinet includes the vice president and the heads of 15 executive departments: Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.
Several key positions also have Cabinet-level rank: White House chief of staff, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Office of Management & Budget director, United States Trade Representative ambassador, Council of Economic Advisers chairman and Small Business Administration administrator.
Read below to see who has been mentioned in conversations about potential top roles in the Biden administration:
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the press on November 10, at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 today and Covid-19 was not detected, according to a Harris aide.
The President-elect’s office via the protective pool also informed reporters earlier this afternoon that Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 today.
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Massachusetts GOP governor: "I can’t think of a worse time to stall a transition than amid a deadly pandemic”
From CNN’s Sahar Akbarzai
Governor Charlie Baker speaks about the mask mandate at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, on November 3.
Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, on Tuesday criticized President Trump for stalling the presidential transition process during Covid-19, calling the President’s election claims “baseless.”
“I’m dismayed to hear the baseless claims coming from the president, from his team, and many other elected Republican officials in Washington,” Baker said. “I’ve been a Republican for 40 years…What this president is doing at this point in time is not in the best interest of this country.”
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Another top Pentagon official is departing
From Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Kristen Holmes
(L-R) Robert Wilkie, Mark Esper, Joseph Kernan and Guy Roberts testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee during their confirmation hearing in the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2017
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Pentagon’s top intelligence official is leaving his post, becoming the latest in a series of high profile departures from the Defense Department.
Retired Navy Vice Adm. Joseph Kernan, the defense department’s Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence has left his position according to a defense official. It not immediately clear if Kernan resigned or was fired.
Another official said Kernan had plan to leave the administration sometime after the election but his departure has been accelerated.
Kernan sent the following message to his colleagues upon his resignation:
Kernan has been in the post since 2017 following an unanimous Senate confirmation.
US farmers "concerned about being forgotten” under Biden administration
From CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich
Following a turbulent few years under President Trump’s policies, farmers across the US are trying to figure out what a Biden administration means for their futures.
Phil Ramsey, a fourth-generation farmer from Shelbyville, Indiana, supported President Trump in both 2016 and the most recent election. So now, he’s worried about his place under a Joe Biden presidency.
Farmers have been at the political forefront of President Trump’s administration. He has called them the “backbone of our country,” promising to make things better, but what ensued in the four years of his administration were trade policies that often hurt — not helped — US farmers.
The President launched a trade war with China that cut into farmers’ incomes in the form of Chinese tariffs on US agricultural exports. The Trump administration provided Market Facilitation Program payments to help offset their losses in revenue, but the funds often benefitted larger farms rather than family farmers.
Meanwhile, the spread of the coronavirus this yearshut down meat packing facilities — forcing farmers to kill their livestock — and closed ethanol plants across the country, leaving farmers nowhere to sell the corn used in production.
Still, Trump’s supporters stuck by him in the rural parts of states, adding to his more than 71 million votes.
“I had confidence in his business experience,” said Ramsey, who believes China has held up their end of the Phase 1 US-China Trade agreement the President negotiated earlier this year.
After nearly three years, a partial agreement was reached between the US and China in mid-January, right before the pandemic struck. The two countries agreed China would buy $50 billion in agricultural products in the first two years in exchange for the US reducing some tariffs.
Ramsey, like many farmers, is concerned President-elect Biden will undo many of the Trump policies popular with those in agriculture, such as the USMCA and Phase 1 of US-China Trade deal. However, Biden has not said he would undo either of those policies.
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Biden tested negative for Covid-19 today
From CNN's Daniella Diaz
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 10.
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden tested negative for coronavirus today.
“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected,” according to the President-elect’s office via the protective pool.
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Schumer defends Democrats' efforts in 2020 election and says “we won the most important election"
From CNN's Ali Zaslav and Manu Raju
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on November 10, in Washington, DC.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer defended Democrats campaign efforts in the 2020 election, despite potentially losing the Senate majority, at his policy news conference on Tuesday.
Schumer argued Democrats are “happy” because “we won the most important election.”
CNN’s Manu Raju asked Schumer about his efforts with Democratic groups to try to take back the Senate and whether he personally miscalculated the effort spent in red states where Senate Democrats lost.
Asked his reaction to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refusing to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory, saying Tuesday that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Schumer replied shouting into the mic: “Secretary Pompeo, Joe Biden has won, he’s won the election, now move on.”
Schumer also criticized the many Senate Republicans who continue to back President Trump’s “patently ridiculous lawsuits,” despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
“It never ceases to amaze me, how afraid just about… close to every Republican senator is just so afraid of Donald Trump that they’re willing to tie themselves in legal pretzels to not offend him,” Schumer also said.
“This is not one state where there is a 597 vote difference,” Schumer said of the presidential race. “These are many states where there are tens of thousands of votes different. The Republicans have no legal case. They are politically distraught. But that’s not going to create any success for them in the courts.”
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State Department officials shocked and confused by Pompeo's remarks on transition
From CNN's Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington DC, on November 10.
Jacquelyn Martin/POOL/AFP/Getty Images
State Department officials and diplomats are shocked, confused and outraged after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to recognize Joe Biden’s presidential election victory and said “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” when asked if State Department will cooperate with the Biden transition.
“I am sick,” said one US diplomat overseas. “How dare he undermine our work.”
“How can he be serious?” said another US diplomat. “This is actually incredibly scary.”
One State Department official said they had been watching the news conference until Pompeo “joked about the transition” and then they “flipped it off in disgust.”
US diplomats have received no guidance from the State Department as to how to discuss the election results, and Pompeo did not answer a question about the matter during Tuesday’s news conference.
Diplomats are angry and confused about whether Pompeo was suggesting that they should be telling their counterparts that Trump will somehow get a second term, which they know is virtually impossible. Pompeo did not answer directly about whether he believed there was widespread voter fraud – there is no evidence to support such beliefs.
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement Tuesday that Pompeo “shouldn’t play along with baseless and dangerous attacks on the legitimacy of last week’s election.”
“In fact, all Administration officials should drop their false claims about electoral fraud and GSA should release the funding and support necessary for a smooth transition that protects our national security,” Chairman Eliot Engel said. “The State Department should now begin preparing for President-elect Biden’s transition.”
CNN has asked the State Department for clarity on Pompeo’s remarks.
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White House is advising agencies to prepare a budget as Trump refuses to concede loss
From CNN's Sarah Westwood and Kevin Liptak
Gardening crew works on replacing the lawn on the ground of the White House on November 10, in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The White House’s Office and Management and Budget is continuing to advise agencies to prepare the budget proposal as if nothing is changing, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The person said the team is “going forward assuming a win” when it comes to budget preparation, despite the major networks calling the race for President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump has refused to admit defeat even though his claims contesting the election results haven’t held up in court.
Another person says while there hasn’t been a formal memo spelling this out, the message to agencies is to proceed as normal.
The President’s budget, which normally comes out in February, is more of a political document than a policy proposal, since Congress determines how money is spent.
It amounts to a yearly signal of the White House’s priorities in the coming months.
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Biden-Harris transition team announces agency review teams tasked with evaluating government agencies
From CNN's Elizabeth Hartfield
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden listens as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the press on the Affordable Care Act on November 10.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The Biden- Harris transition team has released their full list of the members of their agency review teams — the teams tasked with reviewing operations at the federal agencies across the government. They reiterated that their transition is “continuing full steam ahead.”
“The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One,” he continued.
Biden: "I don't see a need for legal action" over transition
President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 10.
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden said he does “not see a need for legal action” to force the beginning of the transition process and plans to continue to move ahead with his transition plans despite President Trump not yet conceding.
Biden laid out how he plans to proceed, regardless of how Trump responds. The President-elect noted that there is “one president at a time” and Trump will “be president until Jan. 20.”
“We’re just going to proceed the way we have. We’re gonna do exactly what we’d be doing if he had conceded, and said, ‘we’ve won,’ which we have, and so there’s nothing really changing,” Biden said.
Trump’s administration is also so far refusing to sign off on a key document needed to formally begin the transition process. The Trump-appointed General Services Administration administrator is the person tasked with officially affirming Biden has won the election on behalf of the Trump administration. The official needs to sign a letter to release funds to the Biden transition team through a process called ascertainment.
This would mark the first formal acknowledgment from the Trump administration that Biden has in fact won the election, but it would also unlock access to national security tools to streamline background checks and additional funds to pay for training and incoming staff.
