WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, November 23, 2020

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1/ A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Trump’s campaign seeking to block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results. Judge Matthew Brann wrote that Trump’s campaign, which had asked him to disenfranchise nearly seven million voters, should have come to court “armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption” in its efforts to essentially nullify the results. The Trump campaign had claimed there were widespread improprieties with mail-in ballots in the state. In his 37-page ruling, Brann said he expected a compelling legal argument “and factual proof of rampant corruption” from the Trump campaign, but instead “this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” that were “unsupported by evidence.” Brann added: “This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.” (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / Bloomberg / CNN / Politico)

• The Michigan State Board of Canvassers voted to certify the state’s presidential election results, effectively awarding the state’s 16 electoral votes to President-elect Biden. (Washington Post / NBC News)

2/ A group of Republican national security experts demanded that Trump concede the election and begin the transition to the incoming Biden administration. The statement’s signers – including former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge – urged Republican leaders to “strongly oppose” Trump’s “dangerous and extra-legal efforts to threaten and intimidate state officials in order to prevent a vote by the Electoral College,” adding that “Trump’s refusal to permit the presidential transition poses significant risks to our national security.” Meanwhile, more than 160 top American executives asked the Trump administration to acknowledge Biden as the president-elect and begin the transition, writing that “Every day that an orderly presidential transition process is delayed, our democracy grows weaker in the eyes of our own citizens and the nation’s stature on the global stage is diminished.” Some of the executives who signed on to the letter have also discussed withholding campaign donations from the two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia until party leaders push for a presidential transition. (Washington Post / New York Times / NPR)

3/ Biden named a number of high-level administration and Cabinet positions for his foreign policy and national security team, tapping Linda Thomas-Gr...

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