Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Pelosi re-elected as U.S. House speaker amid political uncertainty

Nancy Pelosi was narrowly re-elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Sunday, as a new Congress took office amid political uncertainty, with Senate control undecided and a Republican fight looming over presidential election results. The House voted 216-209 to reinstate Pelosi, after Democrats lost 11 seats in the November elections to command a narrower 222-212 majority. Five Democrats chose not to support her - two voted for Democratic lawmakers who were not running, while three others simply voted "present." Trump turns up heat on Georgia Republican in fight to overturn election loss

Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, cemented his status as an unlikely hero for U.S. Democrats following a fresh clash in which he rejected President Donald Trump's claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Trump returned the 65-year-old former businessman to the limelight when he called Raffensperger on Saturday to badger him to "find" enough votes to reverse Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state, according to audio of the hour-long call published by the Washington Post on Sunday. U.S. Senate control, and Biden's agenda, at stake as Georgia runoff elections loom

Control of the U.S. Senate – and with it, the likely fate of President-elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda – will be on the ballot on Tuesday when voters in Georgia decide twin runoff elections. The high-stakes campaign that has unfolded since Nov. 3, when Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the presidential election, has obliterated spending records and spurred unprecedented turnout. Political groups have flooded the southern state with a tsunami of television advertising. Four Republican senators urge congressional certification of presidential election results

Four Republican senators on Sunday joined a bipartisan statement calling on Congress to certify the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. “The voters have spoken, and Congress must now fulfill its responsibility to certify the election results," said the statement co-signed by Republican senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, and Mitt Romney. In recorded call, Trump pressures Georgia official to change election results - media

U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's top election official to "find" enough votes to overturn his defeat in the southern state, according to a recording of the hour-long call released by U.S. media on Sunday. The Saturday call was the latest move in Trump's two-month effort insisting that his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election was the result of widespread voter fraud, a claim that has been widely rejected by state and federal election officials as well as multiple courts. Nashville bombing suspect may have believed in lizard people, aliens-source

The federal investigation into the bombing in Nashville on Christmas day has uncovered evidence suggesting the suspected bomber believed in aliens and lizard people, according to a senior law enforcement source. Federal, state and local law enforcement officers have been trying to figure out why the 63-year-old suspect, Anthony Q. Warner, who died by suicide in the explosion, detonated the bomb while inside his motor home on Dec. 25 in downtown Nashville, Tennessee's largest city. Gunman kills pastor at Texas church before being captured by police

A gunman killed a pastor at an East Texas church on Sunday and wounded at least one other person before fleeing the scene and being arrested by police in a nearby county, authorities said. Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith told reporters the pastor of the Starrville Methodist Church in Winona discovered a man hiding in a church bathroom and confronted the man with a gun. The man then grabbed the pastor's pistol and shot the two victims before stealing a car from the church's parking lot, Smith said. 'That's real:' Fauci rejects Trump claim that U.S. coronavirus deaths overcounted

Two top U.S. health officials on Sunday disputed a claim by President Donald Trump that federal data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States is overblown, and both expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinations is picking up. "The deaths are real deaths," Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC News’ This Week, adding that jam-packed hospitals and stressed-out healthcare workers are "not fake. That’s real.” U.S. CDC reports 349,246 total deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 349,246 deaths from the new coronavirus, a rise of 2,321 deaths from its previous count. The agency said the number of cases had risen by 284,554 to 20,346,372. U.S. cities, left behind in COVID-19 aid, look for lifeline in Biden era

In Washington's months-long political slugfest over who should get aid to counter the financial damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, there was at least one clear loser: local government. In the midst of cutbacks in workforce and emergency services and growing poverty, U.S. cities, especially the smaller ones, are hoping the next round of stimulus includes them and that President-elect Joe Biden advocates for them when he takes office on Jan. 20.