'Nothing's going to stop' transition of power in U.S., Biden says

[webfact]

'Nothing's going to stop' transition of power in U.S., Biden says

By Simon Lewis

 

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden listens as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris speaks about protecting the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as she speaks to reporters about their "plan to expand affordable health care" during an appearance in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 10, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday that nothing would stop the transfer of power in the U.S. government, even as President Donald Trump says without evidence the election was marred by fraud and some of his Republican allies back probes.

 

Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has backed Trump's right to launch a legal challenge to Biden's victory in several battleground states such as Pennsylvania. Some senior Republicans sought to sow doubt about the outcome.

 

Biden secured the more than 270 votes in the Electoral College he needs to take the presidency by winning Pennsylvania on Saturday after four tense days of counting, which was delayed by a surge in mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Biden said in a speech in Delaware that his team was pushing ahead with forming a new administration to take over on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2021, no matter what.

 

"We're going to be going, moving along, in a consistent manner, putting together our administration, the White House, and reviewing who we're going to pick for the Cabinet positions, and nothing's going to stop that," he said. Biden said it was an "embarrassment" that Trump has not conceded the election.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted a "second Trump administration," in comments at odds with congratulatory phone calls between Biden and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Ireland.

 

"The whole Republican Party has been put in a position with a few notable exceptions of being mildly intimidated by the sitting president, but there's only one president at a time," said Biden, who chuckled when asked about the Pompeo remarks.

 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a conservative whose blustery style is often likened to Trump's, said he spoke to Biden on Tuesday by phone about working together.

 

"I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our countries and to working with him on our shared priorities – from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy and building back better from the pandemic," Johnson tweeted.

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan also congratulated Biden, a former vice president now heading to take over the White House after almost five decades in politics.

 

U.S. Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors on Monday to look into "substantial" allegations of voting irregularities but urged them not to pursue "fanciful or far fetched claims." Libby Hogan reports.

 

BIDEN TAKES QUESTIONS

Taking questions from the media for the first time since his victory, Biden was asked what he would say if Trump were watching. He said: "Mr. President, I look forward to speaking with you."

 

Judges have tossed out election lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia, and experts say Trump's legal efforts have little chance of changing the result.

 

Trump's campaign and Republicans have mostly sued over claims of procedural problems with vote counting and have not presented evidence of fraud in their lawsuits.

 

Attorney-General William Barr, a Trump appointee who heads the Justice Department, on Monday told federal prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

 

It was a break with the department's previous policy of not carrying out overt investigations into alleged electoral fraud until any recounts have been concluded and results certified.

 

Richard Pilger, director of the Election Crimes Branch in the Justice Department, said he was resigning from his post after learning of "the new policy and its ramifications".

 

Biden's campaign said Barr was fueling Trump's far-fetched allegations of fraud.

 

"Those are the very kind of claims that the president and his lawyers are making unsuccessfully every day, as their lawsuits are laughed out of one court after another," said Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to Biden.

 

A Trump appointee who heads the federal office charged with recognizing election results has yet to do so, preventing the Biden transition team from moving into federal government office space or accessing funds to hire staff.

 

PENNSYLVANIA FIGHT

In Pennsylvania, one of the hardest-fought states in a deeply divided nation, Republican state lawmakers urged an audit of the election results there.

 

State Representative Dawn Keefer called for a bipartisan investigation with subpoena powers to see if the "election was conducted fairly and lawfully." Asked about any evidence of fraud, Keefer told reporters, "We've just gotten a lot of allegations," adding that "they're too in the weeds" for her to know more without investigating.

 

The alleged voter irregularities in Pennsylvania that the Justice Department is looking into are related to a report from a whistleblower who has claimed that illegal back-dated postmarks may have been added to some late mail-in ballots. Democrats voted more by mail than Republicans did in much of the country after Trump repeatedly and without evidence called voting by mail unreliable.

 

McConnell, the Senate majority leader, on Monday carefully backed Trump, saying that he was "100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities."

 

But some senior Republican aides in Congress said Trump must soon produce significant evidence or exit the stage.

 

"I think the goal here is to give the president and his campaign team some space to demonstrate there is real evidence to support any claims of voter fraud. If there is, then they will be litigated quickly. If not, we’ll all move on," said a senior Senate Republican aide.

 

A second such aide, while noting that most Republican senators support Trump's right to refuse to concede, added that failing any surprise revelations of fraud, "At some point this has to give. And I give it a week or two."

 

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Humeyra Pamuk, Sarah N. Lynch, Michael Martina, Richard Cowan, and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-11

 

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[TopDeadSenter]

28 minutes ago, webfact said:

President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday that nothing would stop the transfer of power in the U.S. government

Trump being declared the winner after all legal votes are counted would stop it. 

 

Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration". 

 

Who is right? Who is wrong? No idea, but it seems prudent to wait for official confirmation before getting too carried away.

[Tug]

3 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Trump being declared the winner after all legal votes are counted would stop it. 

 

Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration". 

 

Who is right? Who is wrong? No idea, but it seems prudent to wait for official confirmation before getting too carried away.

Oh they know with certainty who’s right and who’s wrong I wonder if trumps attempting a coup that’s the only way he’s going to stay in power stonewalling in courts not going to get him past nov 20 he lost 

[OneMoreFarang]

31 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Trump being declared the winner after all legal votes are counted would stop it. 

 

Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration". 

 

Who is right? Who is wrong? No idea, but it seems prudent to wait for official confirmation before getting too carried away.

Is there anything that would convince you that Trump lost?

How often should they count? Is two times enough? Or better 10 times or maybe 100 times. Maybe after the hundred counts somethings changes. Or would that be unrealistic?

Trump lost in many states with a high enough margin. He can only delay but will never win because he lost.

[cmarshall]

At this point since the possibility of an effective coup looks dim, Trump is just holding out so that he can soak his followers for more money.  Grifter gotta grift.

[Scott]

Trolling  graphic removed.

 

[stevenl]

Why would Trump obey the law now? He really doesn't care about that.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a34632624/trump-purge-defense-department-after-rejecting-election-result/

[ChouDoufu]

50 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Trump being declared the winner after all legal votes are counted would stop it. 

 

Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration". 

 

Who is right? Who is wrong? No idea, but it seems prudent to wait for official confirmation before getting too carried away.

 

don't worry!  as requested, they're still counting!  biden still has a chance to take north carolina.

that would make it, what......321 electoral votes?  jinkies!  a veritable landslide.

 

 

 

North Carolina Democrats: 'Thousands of outstanding votes to be cast' could swing races

North Carolina presidential race still too close to call

 

An eyebrow-raising tweet from North Carolina Democrats claimed Monday that "thousands of outstanding votes to be cast" could swing key races in the battleground state.

North Carolina is one of at least 18 states allowing voters to "cure" ballots rejected for deficient information or missing signatures. Democrats in the state say they're seeking volunteers to help cure absentee and provisional ballots that they think could prove decisive in some races. 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/north-carolina-democrats-thousands-outstanding-votes

 

[Fat is a type of crazy]

I am a fan of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO who probably many on this site know. For two years he has been saying Trump won't leave. Guests would just laugh and go to the next topic. He almost seemed a bit obsessed sometimes. He can say I told you so now.

 

I've decided not to reply to comments from most Trump supporters on this site. They just make the same old comments straight from Trump or his enablers. No one is gonna change their mind so better to go for a walk than waste time.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Trump being declared the winner after all legal votes are counted would stop it. 

 

Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration". 

 

Who is right? Who is wrong? No idea, but it seems prudent to wait for official confirmation before getting too carried away.

Is this the same Trump who called for all vote counting to stop when the running tallies showed him in the lead?

 

The same Trump who declared victory while the count was still in progress?

 

 

 

 

[Sujo]

Seems the evidence of fraud is falling apart. The whistleblower who was the star for the gop has recanted his full testimony about fraud in Penn.

 

Oh dear donald, what to do.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html

[ExpatOK]

45 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

I am a fan of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO who probably many on this site know. For two years he has been saying Trump won't leave. Guests would just laugh and go to the next topic. He almost seemed a bit obsessed sometimes. He can say I told you so now.

 

I've decided not to reply to comments from most Trump supporters on this site. They just make the same old comments straight from Trump or his enablers. No one is gonna change their mind so better to go for a walk than waste time.

Thank you.

[ExpatOK]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

Oh they know with certainty who’s right and who’s wrong I wonder if trumps attempting a coup that’s the only way he’s going to stay in power stonewalling in courts not going to get him past nov 20 he lost 

You're on to something, for once.  As reported by CNN, Trump has wiped out the upper ranks of the Pentagon.  Also, it looks like Haspel is on her way out.

 

Something is up.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/pentagon-policy-official-resigns/index.html

[Thailand]

America, get your act together this whole farce is a huge  embarrassment as Trump and his remaining minions take the p out of the electorate.

 

President Elect Biden, no pardon for Trump, let him stew in whatever is coming to him.

 

Anyway,fun to watch, better than a lof of other fiction currently on thr TV.

[simple1]

2 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Trump being declared the winner after all legal votes are counted would stop it. 

 

Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration". 

 

Who is right? Who is wrong? No idea, but it seems prudent to wait for official confirmation before getting too carried away.

 

The noise from the trump world is utterly ridiculous. Not one piece of empirical evidence has been produced to support the various claims of illegality. In fact in Pennsylvania, the republican supporter who claimed inappropriate practises, echoed by the trump world, has now recanted his claims

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/richard-hopkins-usps-staffer-at-center-of-gop-voter-fraud-push-recants-his-allegation

 

If any side is potentially guilty of breach of voting laws it would be trump and his enablers repeated attempts at voter suppression and false claims which so far have not upheld by the Courts.

 

Voter recounts have historically identified a maximum of some hundreds of incorrectly counted votes, nowhere near enough to overturn any of the trump contested States who have voted for Biden.

 

 

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

At this point since the possibility of an effective coup looks dim

 

Agree, but would like to know the play at Defense/Pentagon? Just a simple "clean-up" op? Or something else? A few anti-Iran hard-liners, incl. Miller, added so hopefully they don't try something stoopid.

 

Assume it's a targeted/drone-strike kill that Esper was rebuffing. Now it will go forward. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[herfiehandbag]

2 hours ago, Tug said:

Oh they know with certainty who’s right and who’s wrong I wonder if trumps attempting a coup that’s the only way he’s going to stay in power stonewalling in courts not going to get him past nov 20 he lost 

Not a military coup, but perhaps something similar with the electoral college? Keep up the delaying tactics until after the various State certification deadlines, then the Governors of the contended States will direct their Electoral College votors as to how to vote, or even replace them with their own appointees.

[riclag]

4 hours ago, Sujo said:

Seems the evidence of fraud is falling apart. The whistleblower who was the star for the gop has recanted his full testimony about fraud in Penn.

 

Oh dear donald, what to do.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html

Update ,to your point

"Update, 8:26 p.m., 11/10/20: This story has been updated to include Hopkins' denial that he recounted his story to the U.S. Oversight Committee".

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-campaign-downplays-news-pa-usps-whistleblower-recounting-tampered-ballot-allegations-1546525

[simple1]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Update ,to your point

"Update, 8:26 p.m., 11/10/20: This story has been updated to include Hopkins' denial that he recounted his story to the U.S. Oversight Committee".

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-campaign-downplays-news-pa-usps-whistleblower-recounting-tampered-ballot-allegations-1546525

Comes across as very suspicious, not an investigation by an independent team. The whistleblower was interviewed by USPS internal investigation staff. USPS executive is known to be corrupted by the trump administration. Let's see if a video of the questioning is vetted by third party as authentic - at this stage I trust nothing coming out of the thoroughly corrupt trump administration, without independent oversight.

[riclag]

11 minutes ago, simple1 said:

Comes across as very suspicious, not an investigation by an independent team. The whistleblower was interviewed by USPS internal investigation staff. USPS executive is known to be corrupted by the trump administration. Let's see if a video of the questioning is vetted by third party as authentic - at this stage I trust nothing coming out of the thoroughly corrupt trump administration, without independent oversight.

There is  video recordings of the the postal worker denying he said  that while asking the WP to re track their story but unfortunately the source isn't allowed ,so the best I can come up with is the good old left news   source newsweek

[simple1]

9 minutes ago, riclag said:

There is  video recordings of the the postal worker denying he said  that while asking the WP to re track their story but unfortunately the source isn't allowed ,so the best I can come up with is the good old left news   source newsweek

 

I presume you're referring to Project Veritas which has a track record of false reporting. Shameful how the trump presidency has dragged the reputation of US governance into the mud. Whatever turns out to be the truth of the matter, will not change the outcome of the election - Biden has won.

[riclag]

11 minutes ago, simple1 said:

 

I presume you're referring to Project Veritas which has a track record of false reporting. Shameful how the trump presidency has dragged the reputation of US governance into the mud. Whatever turns out to be the truth of the matter, will not change the outcome of the election - Biden has won.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/richard-hopkins-usps-staffer-at-center-of-gop-voter-fraud-push-recants-his-allegation

Hopkins called on the Post to “recant” their report and said “that is not what happened” and that he “did not recant” his statements. “And you will find out tomorrow,” he said, without elaborating.

 

 

Be patient your current POTUS hasn't  completed his legal options yet

 

[Jeffr2]

23 minutes ago, riclag said:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/richard-hopkins-usps-staffer-at-center-of-gop-voter-fraud-push-recants-his-allegation

Hopkins called on the Post to “recant” their report and said “that is not what happened” and that he “did not recant” his statements. “And you will find out tomorrow,” he said, without elaborating.

 

 

Be patient your current POTUS hasn't  completed his legal options yet

 

We're not patient.  He lost, now let's move on.  Sad you're holding on to this conspiracy theory of voter fraud.  There isn't any that would change the results.  Catch up!

[Rimmer]

A post has been removed:

 

14) You will not post any copyrighted material except as fair use laws apply (as in the case of news articles). Please only post a link, the headline and the first three sentences.

[Bluespunk]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has backed Trump's right to launch a legal challenge to Biden's victory in several battleground states such as Pennsylvania. Some senior Republicans sought to sow doubt about the outcome.

There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”

― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

[riclag]

10 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”

― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Thats very true,at least that's what your POTUS is trying to prove through legal challenges  

[onthedarkside]

The entity pushing the U.S.P.S. postal worker's claims, Project Veritas, is rated as a "questionable source" and thus links to their claims/information will not be allowed on the forum.

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/project-veritas/

 

Quote

Overall, we rate Project Veritas Right Biased and Questionable based on the promotion of conspiracy theories and propaganda, misleading videos, and several failed fact checks.

 

Quote

Finally, during the 2020 election Project Veritas promoted misleading and false information (See fact checks below). In general, all stories on Project Veritas advance the conservative agenda, while denigrating the left often in a misleading way.

 

[onthedarkside]

A post repeating false and already debunked Trump campaign claims about projections for the election outcome has been removed, along with numerous replies.

 

Posters who continue to post blatantly false and disproven election information on the forum, typically without any credible sourcing included, will face suspensions for doing so.

 

[Bluespunk]

23 minutes ago, riclag said:

Thats very true,at least that's what your POTUS is trying to prove through legal challenges  

Not my anything and the one term trump presidency has been ended by the electorate. 
 

He lost.

 

Both he and those denying the truth of this need to deal with it. 

[riclag]

46 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Not my anything and the one term trump presidency has been ended by the electorate. 
 

He lost.

 

Both he and those denying the truth of this need to deal with it. 

Statistically but not officially! Nobody can dismiss that ! Its like American Baseball, biden could score 20 runs in the first inning and all the fans go home only to find after they get home  the final official  score after a complete game of  9 innings has changed