Live election updates: Trump team eyeing campaign-style rallies; AOC almost didn’t run again
Nicholas WuMichael CollinsMatthew BrownSarah ElbeshbishiChristal Hayes
USA TODAY’S coverage of the 2020 election continues this weekend as Joe Biden wins a bitterly fought presidential election and as states work to finish counting their remaining ballots.
Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on how things are going.
USA TODAY will have live election information from across the country.
Trump might hold rallies to highlight recount, election litigation, reports say
The president is expected to hold a number of campaign-style rallies in the coming weeks where he will highlight ongoing litigation over the outcome of the election and potential recounts, NBC, CNN and Axios reported Sunday.
The rallies are likely to feature the president’s unfounded complaints of voter fraud; neither he nor his campaign have yet to release any proof of impropriety.
The likelihood of more campaign rallies comes after election analysts called the race for Joe Biden, determining Trump was too far behind, as the former vice president reached 270 electoral votes in winning Pennsylvania. Since then, Trump has lashed out on Twitter in a number of posts that featured capital letters and claims that he’d actually won the race.
Some close advisers to the president have pressured him to simply concede the race while others are backing his approach to exhaust all legal options and holding rallies to energize supporters, many of whom have held daily rallies in swing states.
Earlier Sunday, the Associated Press and CNN reported Jared Kushner was among those urging the president to concede. Later in the evening, the Wall Street Journal and CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that Kushner was supporting the president in moving forward in the courts and with rallies.
— Christal Hayes
Georgia Rep. Doug Collins to lead Trump campaign recount efforts in Georgia
Rep. Doug Collins, who lost a bid for Georgia Senate last week, will lead the Trump campaign’s recount team in Georgia, the campaign announced Sunday.
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The Republican is an ally of President Donald Trump who was pivotal in defending the president during his impeachment trial. He has also been a vocal defender of the president on a host of issues, including the multiyear probe examining the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
He will lead the Trump campaign’s continued efforts to highlight voting irregularities and the president’s claims of fraud. Both the campaign and the president have not provided any proof to back their unsubstantiated claims.
“Republicans stand by the ideal that every eligible voter should be able to vote legally and have it be counted,” Collins said in a statement. “During the coming recount, we are confident we will find evidence of improperly harvested ballots and other irregularities that will prove that President Trump won Georgia fairly again on his way to re-election as President. Georgians deserve a free and open process, and they will get one.”
Georgia hasn’t gone blue in a presidential election since 1992, when the state helped elect Democrat Bill Clinton. Voting this year has shown Biden and Trump neck and neck, causing the state to announce it would recount ballots.
The margin Sunday afternoon was 0.2% with 99% of votes counted, with Biden in the lead. The state had about 4,169 votes left to count, according to Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager. A recount could take until the end of the month, he noted.
– Christal Hayes
McEnany slams ‘superspreader’ Biden celebrations
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ripped the celebrations that occurred after news spread of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, calling them “superspreader events” and asking Biden to denounce them.
Shortly after Biden picked up the necessary 270 electoral votes with wins in key battleground states, and the major news networks projected that Biden would win the presidency, backers of the Democrat took the streets around the United States in celebration, honking horns, popping champagne, and gathering at landmarks, including the White House.
However, the gatherings came on a day where 126,742 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the U.S., the third day in a row the total exceeded 120,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
Many who gathered at the various events appear to have worn face masks but were not social distancing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people keep 6 feet apart from those whom they do not live with when outside their homes. “The mask is not a substitute for social distancing,” the CDC also says on its website.
“Where is @JoeBiden calling on the massive Super Spreader events held in his name to end,” McEnany tweeted, sharing a video of the massive crowd that had gathered outside the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza in support of Biden.
– Ryan W. Miller
Whitmer urges Biden to keep focus on ‘dinner table issues’
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said President-elect Joe Biden’s administration can avoid drifting too far to the left by focusing on everyday issues that matter to voters. By zeroing in on issues such as the economy, health care and the climate crisis, Democrats can keep the swing state of Michigan blue, Whitmer said in an interview with The New York Times.
“The most important thing our leaders can do is to have an agenda that really addresses the dinner table issues for the people they serve. Whether it is infrastructure, which Joe Biden cares a great deal about, which is wonderful news for us, or it’s health care, or it’s the pandemic that is threatening our lives and our livelihood, these are the dinner table issues of 2020,” Whitmer said. “And I do believe by staying focused there, you meet the needs of the majority of people on both sides of the aisle.”
The Biden-Harris transition team hit the ground running by launching its website and social media pages on Sunday, the day after Biden hit the required 270 electoral votes to win the White House. With only a few stated uncalled for either candidate, media outlets projected Biden the winner of the presidential race. The website, Buildbackbetter.com, lists the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change as its priority issues.
Whitmer was on the short list to be Biden’s running mate, and her home state is among the battleground states that were key to Biden’s victory, along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Biden beat President Donald Trump in Michigan by more than 146,000 votes after largely Democratic urban and suburban areas turned out in record numbers for the former vice president.
“I always said the road to the White House runs through the state of Michigan. And you can’t get this road without going through the city of Detroit,” Whitmer told the Times.
