Live politics updates: 90 House Democrats support Trump censure over Georgia election call
The year 2020 may now be behind us, but we aren't done with the 2020 election just yet.
This week, the new Congress gets to work, two runoff elections in Georgia Tuesday will determine control of the Senate, and President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory will be certified by Congress. Biden also still has a few Cabinet picks to announce – including his nominee for Attorney General – as he plans for his inauguration.
Here are the upcoming dates to watch:
- Tuesday: Senate runoff election in Georgia.
- Wednesday: Congress will count and certify the electoral results in a joint session.
- Jan. 20: Inauguration of Biden, who will take the oath of office.
Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the transition.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
Loeffler to object to Electoral College results
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., announced Monday evening she will object on Jan. 6.
In a statement, Loeffler said, "The American people deserve a platform in Congress, permitted under the Constitution, to have election issues presented so that they can be addressed. That’s why, on January 6th, I will vote to give President Trump and the American people the fair hearing they deserve and support the objection to the Electoral College certification process."
She will likely object to the certification of Georgia's electoral votes and has not ruled out challenging the certifications made in other contested states as well, according to a person familiar with her thinking who was granted anonymity to discuss Loeffler's planning.
Loeffler faces a tough runoff election on Jan. 5, the day before Congress meets to count the electoral votes. Her race is one of two that will determine which political party controls the upper chamber of Congress.
— Savannah Behrmann and Christal Hayes
90 House Dems support Trump censure after leaked GA election call
More than 90 House Democrats on Monday signed on to a three-page censure resolution against President Donald Trump after leaked audio from a phone call showed him pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to "find" enough votes to reverse his loss against Biden.
The explosive audio, which was obtained by the Washington Post, led Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., to introduce a censure resolution Monday against Trump. The Georgia Democrat passed around the three-page resolution earlier in the day to fellow House members and gathered support from more than 90 fellow Democrats, though it’s unclear whether the resolution would get a vote in the House.
“Whereas President Trump misused the power of his office by threatening an elected official with vague criminal consequences if he failed to pursue the president’s false claims,” the resolution states. “Whereas President Trump’s actions and statements on this call demonstrate an attempt to willfully deprive the citizens of Georgia of a fair and impartial election process in direct contravention of both Federal law and the laws of the State of Georgia.”
The resolution “censures and condemns” Trump over the call, a symbolic gesture to rebuke the president’s conduct that’s ultimately the equivalent to a slap on the wrist. The document also calls for Trump “to retract and disavow this unlawful and unconstitutional behavior and acknowledge President-elect Joseph R. Biden as the victor of the November 2020 presidential election.”
As Johnson heads the effort, some Democrats have weighed whether Trump’s conduct could be potentially impeachable or result in criminal charges. While the call and resulting outcry resembles the aftermath of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president that ultimately led to his impeachment in 2019, House Democrats are unlikely to launch impeachment proceedings against a president who only has several weeks left in office.
— Christal Hayes
Biden stumps for Ossoff and Warnock ahead of pivotal Tuesday vote
President-elect Joe Biden returned to Georgia on Monday to help boost Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock a day before voters determine if the new administration's agenda will have an easier time getting through Congress.
The Peach State's Senate runoff elections on Tuesday mark the end of the tumultuous 2020 election cycle, which continues to be pilloried by President Donald Trump with baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud.
"You voted in records numbers in November and we won, three times here with each recount," Biden told Atlanta voters during a drive-in rally on Monday, mocking Trump's repeated legal challenges over the outcome. "Now we need you to vote again in record numbers."
The visit set up a duel as Trump is also making a stop in northern Georgia on Monday to help boost Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. The visits underscore the election's importance to both parties that will either energize or stall the Biden administration's agenda in Congress in 2021.
Fifty Republican senators were sworn into the 117th Congress this week along with 48 senators who will caucus with the Democrats. If both Ossoff and Warnock prevail, the Senate will be tied, 50-50. But Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate.
Biden said that would make it easier for the incoming administration's priorities to get done around health care, climate change and other priorities. Biden said one immediate result voters would notice if Ossoff and Warnock win would be higher direct payments to individuals and families in economic distress due to the coronavirus.
"Their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2,000 stimulus check," he said. "That money will go out the door immediately to people who are in trouble."
— Phillip Bailey
Group of House Republicans say they'll object to electoral votes from 6 states
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said Monday a group of House Republicans would object to electoral votes from six states President Donald Trump had contested in the 2020 election when Congress meets Wednesday to certify Electoral College results.
The six states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin – have already certified their election results and Biden's victory, but Trump has baselessly alleged massive election fraud against him in those states.
A senator must join the House lawmakers in any objection in order for Congress to consider excluding the results. A majority of both the House and Senate must vote to exclude the results, an unlikely scenario.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Monday if all six of the states garner objections, the entire process could take over 24 hours.
It is unclear as of yet which states Republican senators will join House lawmakers in objecting to. The group who signed the statement with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, saying they will object to Electoral College results are still discussing which states they'll object to, according to a source familiar with the effort.
The debate over the objections has split Republican lawmakers. The third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., circulated a memo among House Republicans on Sunday morning denouncing the effort as "directly at odds with the Constitution’s clear text and our core beliefs as Republicans.” And on Monday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., said in a statement she would oppose the attempts to overturn the Electoral College, calling it a "grave step" for Congress to reject results already certified by their states.
— Nicholas Wu
Georgia election official: Trump legal team 'misled' voters
On the eve of key Senate runoffs, a Georgia election official accused President Donald Trump’s legal team of intentionally misleading voters about voter fraud and said the president persists despite evidence to the contrary.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia voting system implementation manager, explained to reporters Monday how voting was secured during the Nov. 3 election and explained how complaints raised by Trump and his allies were wrong. He specifically explained how Trump’s legal team inaccurately described a video of vote counting in Fulton County, which he said was observed by partisans and reporters.
"The president’s legal team had the entire tape, they watched the entire tape, and then – from our point of view – intentionally misled the state Senate, the voters and the people of the United States about this,” Sterling said. “It was intentional, it was obvious, and anybody watching this knows that."
Sterling explained how officials investigated complaints that felons voted, underaged voters cast ballots and voters cast ballots in multiple states. But he said outstanding complaints number in the dozens rather than tens of thousands that Trump’s team alleges.
“None of that is true, not a whit,” Sterling said of an accusation that pieces of voting machines were removed and replaced. “This is all obviously, easily provably false. Yet the president persists and, by doing so, undermines Georgians’ faith in the election system, especially Republican Georgians in this case, which is important because we have a big election coming up tomorrow, and everybody deserves to have their vote counted if they want it to be.”
A reporter asked Sterling whether he considered Trump’s call Saturday to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, when the president urged him to “find” votes for Trump to win against President-elect Joe Biden, was an attack on democracy.
“I personally found it to be something that was not normal, out of place,” Sterling said. “Nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state.”
— Bart Jansen
Rep. Kay Granger, who received first dose of COVID vaccine, tests positive
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, announced Monday she has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Granger, 77, received one dose of a vaccination in December. However, both vaccines require two doses in order to be effective. The Pfizer-BioNTech shots are being given 21 days apart, while the Moderna’s are given 28 days apart.
According to her office, she was tested when she "arrived in DC for the beginning of the 117th Congress" and "was later notified that she tested positive and immediately quarantined."
Granger is currently asymptomatic and, according to her office.
— Savannah Behrmann
Pence promises to 'hear the objections'
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday vocalized his support for some Republicans’ efforts to keep President Donald Trump in the White House by overturning the Electoral College results.
But Pence stopped short of saying he would do anything other than allow objections to the certified results to be heard.
“I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence,” Pence said at a rally in Milner, Georgia, for the two Senate races being decided on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Pence – in his constitutional role as president of the Senate – will preside over Congress’ acceptance of the Electoral College results, which have been certified by states.
The rally was the first time that Pence himself publicly addressed Wednesday’s proceedings.
— Maureen Groppe
Georgia secretary of state to hold press conference after Trump call revelations
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, announced a Monday press conference a day after the Washington Post first reported a call between President Donald Trump and top election officials pressuring them to "find" more votes for him.
Raffensperger said on "Good Morning America" Monday morning Trump did most of the talking on the call, but he wanted to make the point to the president "that the data that he has is just plain wrong."
The conference is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. EST at the Georgia State Capitol.
Trump has taken some criticism from Republicans over the call. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the third-ranking House Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday the call was "deeply troubling."
— Nicholas Wu
2 House Democrats ask FBI to investigate Trump’s call to Georgia election official
Two House Democrats asked the FBI to open a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the president asked him to “find” more votes to overturn Joe Biden's win.
“As Members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes. We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the President,” Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The FBI acknowledged receiving the referral but declined further comment.
In a call reported first yesterday by the Washington Post, Trump told Raffensberger, a Republican, to alter the result of the election.
“So look. All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state," the president said in a recording of the call released by media outlets.
The two House Democrats said evidence of Trump’s election fraud was “now in broad daylight.”
Georgia has retallied its results three times and has reaffirmed Biden’s win each time despite Trump’s unfounded allegations of massive electoral fraud against him. Biden won the state by 12,670 votes.
Democrats have hammered the president over the call, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., calling it an impeachable offense. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a stalwart defender of the president, said on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning the call was “not a helpful call.”
But a top House Democrat, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., struck a more cautious tone in a Monday press conference, telling reporters he had not reviewed the transcript of the call and that "We're not looking backward, we're looking forward to the inauguration of Joe Biden."
-Nicholas Wu
Trump ally Blackburn says president's talk with Georgia official 'not a helpful call'
Democrats and some Republicans have loudly decried President Donald Trump's request for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to hand him the state's electors, which was revealed in a recording released Sunday by The Washington Post. Sen. Dick Dubin, D-Ill., has suggested the call "merits nothing less than a criminal investigation."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. – a staunch supporter of the president – did not go nearly that far, but told Fox News on Monday everyone has said "that this call was not a helpful call."
Blackburn is one of a dozen senators who have vowed to object to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College defeat of Trump during a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, citing baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud. But during an interview with "Fox & Friends" Blackburn stressed that "the states are the ones that are going to resolve this issue."
"We do not have federalized elections in this country. We do not want federalized elections in this country," Blackburn said. "But it is going to be up to these state legislatures and these elected officials, not non-elected or appointed officials, to make these decisions."
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told Fox News that he had not listened to the recording of Trump's call with Raffensperger, but dismissed it as a "distraction" from the more important Tuesday runoff elections for his state's Senate seats.
"We’ve got to keep majority control in the U.S. Senate," Kemp said. But "the horse has left the barn here in Georgia," regarding the outcome of the presidential election, he said.
"Our election’s been certified. The electors have voted."
David Perdue, whose first term in the Senate ended with the closing of the 116th Congress on Sunday, told Fox News he did not think the revelation of Trump's effort to pressure Raffensperger would impact the Senate runoffs and his race for a second term. And rather than criticize the president, Perdue took aim at Raffensperger.
"I’m still shocked that a member of the Republican Party would tape a sitting president and then leak that. It’s disgusting in my view," Perdue said.
Defending Trump's phone call, Perdue said, "what the president said in this tape today is no different than what he's been saying for the last two months."
– William Cummings
Raffensperger says DA probe of Trump call would be 'appropriate'
Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said it would be "appropriate" for the Fulton County district attorney to investigate President Donald Trump's request that he "find" enough votes to make him the winner of the state's presidential election, which he lost to President-elect Joe Biden by nearly 12,000 votes.
On Sunday, The Washington Post released a recording of the hourlong conversation Trump had the day before with Raffensperger. In the call, Trump repeats several previously debunked claims of voter fraud to argue why Raffensperger should "recalculate" the vote total, which was certified after both manual and machine recounts.
"All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump told Raffensperger. "Because we won the state."
The president also baselessly warned the Republican state official that he could be committing "a criminal offense" by not acting on the unproven fraud claims.
Fact check:Trump’s made-up claims of fake Georgia votes in controversial phone call
The New York Times reported that the call was the 19th made to Raffensperger's office from the White House switchboard since the Nov. 3 election. Raffensperger did not dispute that number when asked about it Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I never believed it was appropriate to speak with the president. But he pushed out – and I guess he had his staff push us and they wanted the call," Raffensperger said, explaining he had been reluctant to speak to the president because they were still involved in litigation related to the election. "But we took the call and we had a conversation. He did most of the talking, we did most of the listening, but I did want to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong."
When asked if he planned to open a criminal investigation into the call, he said he would have a conflict of interest, but added, "I understand that the Fulton County district attorney wants to look at it. Maybe that's the appropriate venue for it to go."
When asked if he thought Trump's request to change the vote total was illegal, Raffensperger said, "I'm not a lawyer."
"All I know is that we're going to follow the law, follow the process. Truth matters, and we've been fighting these rumors for the past two months," he said.
Raffensperger has said he voted for Trump. When asked if he would vote for the president again, Raffensperger replied, "I support Republicans. I always have, I probably always will."
When pressed he said, "Well, President Trump is not on the ballot in 2024 right now, so we'll just have to wait and see what would happen."
– William Cummings
Reports: Trump to give Reps. Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan the Medal of Freedom
President Donald Trump plans to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Reps. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, according to reports from Axios and The Washington Post.
Nunes and Jordan zealously defended the president amid both his impeachment and former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.
Trump plans to award Nunes with the medal, the nation's highest civilian honor, on Monday, according to the reports. Axios and the Post said Jordan was expected to be honored sometime next week.
Trump said in October 2018 that he thought Nunes deserved the award, though he mistakenly first referred to it as the Medal of Honor. Trump said Nunes had earned it for defending him through the allegations that his campaign had colluded with the Kremlin.
"What he's gone through, and his bravery, he should get a very important medal," Trump said.
In May 2020, he praised both Jordan and Nunes, who he said "wouldn't stop" trying to defend him.
"You deserve a medal. You deserve the equivalent of Pulitzer Prizes," Trump told the congressmen. "They ought to take the Pulitzer Prize away from all of these phony journalists that got a Pulitzer Prize."
Critics, however, say both men used obfuscation and deception as they sought to protect the White House from scrutiny. Those critics were disturbed by the reports of Trump's plan to honor his two congressional allies.
"I feel for all the great Americans who have received the Medal of Freedom over the decades. What’s next, spray painting MAGA on the WH walls?" tweeted David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.
– William Cummings
Trump and Biden to stump in Georgia on eve of Senate runoffs
President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden are scheduled to travel to Georgia Monday to support their parties' respective candidates in Georgia's two runoff elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Trump is scheduled to appear with Davide Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two Republican Senate incumbents who failed to win a majority of the vote on Nov. 3, while Biden will stump for their Democratic opponents, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Polling indicates a tight race for both Senate seats and while Democrats appear to have an edge in early voting returns, Republicans are counting on a massive in-person turnout on Tuesday.
But Trump has cast doubts on the integrity of Georgia's elections, last week calling the runoff elections "illegal and invalid," which some Republicans fear could discourage Trump's ardent supporters from turning out to vote. And on Sunday, the race was further complicated when The Washington Post released a recording of a phone in which Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State to "recalculate" the results of the Nov. 3 election and to "find" enough votes to make him the winner.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was in Savannah Sunday, campaigning for Ossoff and Warnock just after the news of Trump's extraordinary call broke.
"Have y'all heard about that recorded conversation? Well, it was certainly the voice of desperation, most certainly that," Harris told onlookers during the drive-in rally. "And it was a bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States."
– William Cummings and Phillip Bailey
