Trump rails against Supreme Court, GOP officials during Georgia rally

Catherine Garcia

President Trump went to Dalton, Georgia, on Monday night to encourage people to vote for Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in Tuesday's Senate runoffs, but he also used the occasion to air grievances against the Supreme Court and Georgia Republican officials who won't overturn the election results.

While Trump did urge people to vote for Perdue and Loeffler, saying the "fate of our country is at stake," he spent a lot of time focused on himself. "I don't do rallies for other people," he admitted. "I do them for me." He shared several debunked claims of election fraud, and claimed that Democrats are "trying to steal the White House," but "they're not taking this White House. We're going to fight like hell."

Trump's campaign filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits in an attempt to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win. Trump said the Supreme Court "let us down," adding, "so far. Who knows? Maybe they'll come back." Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both Republicans — also didn't go along with Trump's demands to overturn the state's election results, and Trump promised he'll return in 18 months to campaign against Kemp. "I'll guarantee you that," he said.

On Wednesday, Congress will meet in a joint session to formally count the Electoral College votes. Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the certification in a ceremonial role, but dozens of Republican lawmakers have said they will contest the results. "I hope Mike Pence comes through for us," Trump said, adding he "won't like him quite as much" if he doesn't overturn the results. Pence has no legal authority to override Biden's win.

More stories from theweek.com
After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers
McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun
Colbert's Late Show turns Trump's Georgia election call into a Stevie Wonder hit

Latest Stories

  • Why did Trump pick fights with Congress he was sure to lose?

    President Trump stood little chance of compelling Congress to change the stimulus package or defense funding bill. So why did he take a stand on both pieces of legislation?

  • GOP congressman who eked out victory in Biden district will join Electoral College objectors

    Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) became the latest congressional Republican to announce he'll object to the Electoral College certification on Wednesday. Garcia said that while he's a "federalist, I do believe there is enough evidence of compromised processes and break downs in election integrity by certain state legislatures that do in fact warrant a closer examination."At first glance, Garcia's decision to join his colleagues in challenging President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory isn't particularly noteworthy. There are more than 140 House Republicans who are on board, as well as a dozen known senators who plan on supporting them. But Garcia doesn't appear to fit the mold of a lawmaker attempting to satisfy a voter base "in deep red districts" calling for their representatives to do something about unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud. Instead, Garcia narrowly eked out a narrow November victory in a district that Biden won by around 10 percent.> This is notable because Garcia won by 0.2 percentage points in November. The Kraken stuff is not just from members in deep-red districts. https://t.co/nVeapjxDGB> > — Jeff Dufour (@dcdufour) January 4, 2021Theoretically, embracing this movement could mean Garcia is risking certain swing voters down the line, and his 2020 returns suggest he doesn't have a huge safety net.More stories from theweek.com After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Colbert's Late Show turns Trump's Georgia election call into a Stevie Wonder hit

  • Ex-chairman of China Huarong Asset Management sentenced to death

    BEIJING (Reuters) -The former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co has been sentenced to death, a court in the northern city of Tianjin said on Tuesday, in one of the country's highest profile corruption cases. Lai Xiaomin was convicted of receiving or seeking bribes totalling 1.788 billion yuan ($276.72 million) from 2008 to 2018, when he was also a senior banking regulator, according to the Secondary Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin. Lai, who was expelled from the ruling Communist Party in 2018, was also convicted on a charge of bigamy.

  • U.S. Attorney in Eastern Virginia announces resignation

    The leader of one of the nation's most prominent U.S. Attorney's offices said Tuesday he is resigning after nearly three years of prosecuting terrorists, spies and political operatives. G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is joining the private sector with a post at the Vinson and Elkins law firm. Terwilliger, 39, is the youngest U.S. Attorney in the country and has led the office since 2018, but his connections to the office go back to 1999, when he worked there as an intern.

  • Wisconsin Gov. Activates National Guard ahead of Charging Decision in Kenosha Police Shooting

    Wisconsin governor Tony Evers mobilized the National Guard on Monday to provide support to law enforcement in Kenosha, ahead of an expected decision on whether to press charges a police shooting.A Kenosha officer shot Jacob Blake, an African American man, in August while responding to a domestic violence call. Authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Blake for suspected third-degree sexual assault. A white officer shot Blake several times during the attempted arrest, and Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down.Video of Blake's shooting quickly went viral and was followed by a week of riots in Kenosha, during which rioters destroyed dozens of businesses in the city. The riots came in the wake of widespread civil unrest after the police killing of George Floyd, an African American resident of Minneapolis.The Kenosha County District Attorney's Office is expected to announce a decision on whether to charge the officer who shot Blake sometime within last two weeks of January. Governor Evers ordered the National Guard to provide 500 service members to assist Kenosha law enforcement ahead of the district attorney's decision."We are continuing to work with our local partners in the Kenosha area to ensure they have the state support they need, just as we have in the past,” Evers told reporters on Monday. “Our members of the National Guard will be on hand to support local first responders, ensure Kenoshans are able to assemble safely, and to protect critical infrastructure as necessary.”Kenosha mayor John Antaramian and police chief Daniel Miskinis said in a joint statement that the city was preparing for possible unrest."Mayor Antaramian has been informed that the decision is likely to be announced within the first two weeks of January and is working with Chief Miskinis and other partners to protect peaceful demonstration and to guard against unlawful activity," the two said. "Our responsibility to public safety is paramount, and we are preparing for a number of possible public demonstration and safety efforts."

  • Indigenous Venezuelan man accused of raiding military post dies in jail -rights group

    Salvador Franco died just weeks after family members and activists reported he was suffering from health problems. A court in November had ordered his transfer to a medical facility, but authorities did not comply, according to Penal Forum attorney Olnar Ortiz. Critics of President Nicolas Maduro's government call him a dictator who has systematically jailed opponents and denied them rights to due process.

  • After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers

    Maureen Weil received the coronavirus vaccine Monday in New Orleans, and the 79-year-old hopes all of her fellow Americans follow in her footsteps.In an interview with NBC News, Weil said she felt "excited" and "blessed" to be among the first people to get the vaccine. "I have a chance to see a few more days on this Earth because I'm protected," Weil said. "I believe in science."When asked what she would tell people who question the vaccine and don't want to receive it, Weil responded, "I call them stupid because -- that or either a buffoon. Because that's the only thing I could think of that could justify their stupidity."She said a lot of people don't believe in the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 350,000 Americans, because "they listen to the man that's in Washington, D.C., that's on his way out the door talking about how it's all a hoax and all that bullcorn. And he shouldn't be doing that because that's peoples' lives. Look at the parents who've died and left young children. I mean, it's sad."Getting the vaccine "didn't hurt," Weil said, and now she has "peace of mind," and "knows one thing for sure. I'm gonna save somebody else's life by protecting myself. I won't get the corona so I can't spread it to anybody else. So that gives me a little satisfaction that I'm doing it not just for myself but for others." Americans "have to believe in science," Weil said. "There's no other way. When we didn't have a vaccine we were really up the creek, weren't we? And we had a hole in the boat. But we got a vaccine, so we got safety." > "I know one thing for sure. I'm gonna save somebody else's life by protecting myself.> > ... > Because then I won't get the corona so I can't spread it to anybody else." > -Maureen Weil, coronavirus vaccine recipient pic.twitter.com/TSecX57iAu> > -- Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 5, 2021More stories from theweek.com McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Colbert's Late Show turns Trump's Georgia election call into a Stevie Wonder hit Are we witnessing the fall of the United States?

  • EXPLAINER: Biden's Iran problem is getting worse by the day

    Joe Biden has an Iran problem. Thanks to provocative moves by Iran and less-than-coherent actions by the outgoing Trump administration, the president-elect is facing an increasingly uncertain situation when it comes to Iran, a decades-long American nemesis that has been a target of blame for much of the Middle East's instability. In the past week alone, President Donald Trump’s team has dispatched B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf in response to alleged Iranian attack planning and reversed an order to bring home the USS Nimitz, the only U.S. aircraft carrier in the region.

  • France pledges to catch up with neighbours on vaccinations 'within days' after slow start

    France on Tuesday pledged to catch up with its neighbours on anti-Covid vaccinations “within days”. Facing widespread recrimination for only vaccinating 512 people in the first week, health minister Olivier Véran said more than 2,000 people had been vaccinated on Monday and that the "cruising speed of vaccinations will catch up with our neighbours in the coming days”. Germany has vaccinated 264,000 people since the start of an EU-wide vaccination drive on December 27 and the UK has administered more than a million doses. Opposition politicians have slammed the slow progress as a “state scandal”, calling the sluggish start a national disgrace. Under pressure to take personal responsibility, President Emmanuel Macron held a crisis meeting on the bottleneck with his prime minister and other officials at the Elysée on Monday evening. Hours later, Mr Véran said France would now "amplify, accelerate and simplify" its vaccination strategy. “By Thursday we will increase numbers in a major way. We will be on an exponential curve,” he told RTL. Vaccinations for people over 75 years of age who are not in care homes would be authorised by the end of January, covering five million people, he said, adding that the campaign would also be widened to include firefighters and home helpers over 50. Anyone who wished to be vaccinated would “in the coming days” be able to register for a jab online, he added. Rules requiring only a doctor or a nurse under the direct supervision of a doctor to inject the vaccine would be eased. A doctor would be allowed to supervise multiple nurses at any one time in a vaccination centre, said Mr Véran. Similarly, rules requiring that any person wanting a Covid vaccine must hold a consultation with a doctor first would also be made simpler.

  • 11 Storage Beds to Keep You Organized in 2021

    Read on for space-saving, clutter-clearing magicOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Texas pastor killed, others injured in church shooting; suspect arrested

    The 62-year-old pastor reportedly confronted Mytrez Deunte Woolen with a gun, but he was overpowered. A pastor was killed and two parishioners were injured in a church shooting in East Texas on Sunday. Authorities had been searching for 21-year-old Mytrez Deunte Woolen on Saturday, using dogs and drones, when the pastor of Starrville Methodist Church in Winona reportedly discovered him hiding in a church bathroom Sunday.

  • Russia now probing case of helicopter downed by Azerbaijan as murder -Interfax

    Russian military investigators are now treating the Nov. 9 downing of a helicopter over Armenia as "wilful murder", a more serious charge than the previous "death through negligence", Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing a source. A Russian Mi-24 helicopter was shot down over Armenia near the border with a region belonging to Azerbaijan, killing two crew members and injuring another, just few hours before a Moscow-brokered peace deal over Nagorno-Karabakh was reached. Heavy fighting between Azerbaijan, which has the political backing of Turkey, and ethnic Armenian forces over the mountainous region had been raging for six weeks at the time of the incident.

  • Why Kelly Loeffler's attack ads on Raphael Warnock may backfire

    Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) "has run the most negative campaign in Georgia history," her Democratic challenger, Rev. Raphael Warnock, said at a recent campaign rally, reports HuffPost. Loeffler and Republican groups backing her campaign, HuffPost notes, have run various attacks on Warnock in the lead up to Tuesday's Senate runoff, which include labeling him a Marxist and suggesting he's covered up child abuse. But the ads may not be riling up Loeffler's supporters as much as they are boosting Democratic turnout, especially among Black voters."The attack ads, the portrayal of Rev. Warnock using historically racist tropes in the ads is insulting," Gwen Mills, the secretary-treasurer of the labor union Unite Here, told HuffPost. "But it's also invigorating in the sense that people aren't going to stand for this. We've heard it a lot."That backlash in addition to a few other key factors seem to be paying off for Democrats. Tom Bonier, the CEO of the Democratic data firm TargetSmart, said Black voters have "been leading the way in increasing Black turnout," and 40 percent of the 102,000 people who cast ballots during early voting in the runoff after sitting out the general election are Black. Read more at HuffPost.More stories from theweek.com After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Colbert's Late Show turns Trump's Georgia election call into a Stevie Wonder hit

  • Just 1% of Californians immunized amid slow vaccine rollout

    Distribution hiccups and logistical challenges have slowed the initial coronavirus vaccine rollout in California, setting a pace that's “not good enough,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. The state is trying to execute the massive immunization campaign “with a sense of urgency that is required of this moment and the urgency that people demand,” but so far only about 1% of California's 40 million residents have been vaccinated, the Democratic governor said. The 454,000 doses of vaccine that have been administered in California represent just a third of the more than nearly 1.3 million received in the state so far, according to the California Department of Public Health.

  • Coronavirus latest news: Boris Johnson confirms third national lockdown to last until March

    Boris Johnson announces tough lockdown: What it means Schools closed, shielding back, and people told to stay home Covid school closures: Latest on education restrictions What are the five levels of Covid-19 alert in the UK? The challenges facing the Oxford Covid vaccine roll-out In full: Prime Minister's speech as lockdown confirmed Subscribe to The Telegraph for a month-long free trial Britain will be in strict lockdown until March after Boris Johnson said the country faces a “tough, tough” few months because of rocketing Covid infections. In an address to the nation, Mr Johnson returned to the 'stay at home' message of last March as he confirmed all primary and secondary schools will close from Tuesday. Everyone living in England has been told to stay at home, and only to go out for one of five reasons: to work if it is “impossible” to work from home; to shop for essentials; to exercise; to provide care, and for medical appointments. The third national lockdown begins immediately, with new laws coming into force within 24 hours. Mr Johnson said he had been forced to act to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed, but offered the prospect of restrictions being lifted. Mr Johnson insisted the deployment of the Covid vaccine would provide a route out of the lockdown, potentially by mid-February. The Prime Minister has challenged the NHS to vaccinate all over-70s, frontline workers, and vulnerable Britons by mid-February - a total of 13.2 million people - to protect the health service from becoming overwhelmed.

  • Veteran whistleblower claims Trump has secret plan to trigger conflict with Iran and urges someone to leak classified files

    'Don't do what I did. Don't wait years after the bombs have started falling’

  • Germany mulls delaying second COVID-19 vaccine shot, Denmark approves delay

    Germany was weighing on Monday whether to allow a delay in administering a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from BioNTech and Pfizer to make scarce supplies go further, after a similar move by Britain last week. Separately, Denmark approved on Monday a delay of up to six weeks between the first and second shots of the vaccine. In Berlin, the health ministry was seeking the view of an independent vaccination commission on whether to delay a second shot beyond a current 42-day maximum limit, according to a one-page document seen by Reuters on Monday.

  • Georgia election official on Trump call: ‘Nobody I know who would be president would do something like that’

    Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling condemned President Trump’s call with Georgia’s secretary of state, saying, “I personally found it to be something that was not normal, out of place and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state."

  • GOP congressmembers won't reject Electoral College vote because party 'depends' on it for presidential wins

    Republican House members against an attempt to oppose the certification of the Electoral College's vote are saying the quiet part of their argument very, very loud.A coalition of 11 GOP senators are planning to join with some House Republicans to oppose the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's win on Wednesday, giving debunked claims of election fraud as their reasoning. But another group of seven House congressmembers warned against undermining trust in the Electoral College, saying in a Monday statement that doing so could cost the party its only chance to win a future presidential election.Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas) released their joint statement Monday, claiming they do believe "significant abuses in our election system" took place in 2020. The U.S. electoral system should guarantee "only legal votes are cast to select its leaders" and the electors who formally choose them, the statement said. "But only the states have authority to appoint electors," and after they do so, Congress can only count their votes, the group wrote. "To take action otherwise" only "strengthen[s] the efforts of those on the left" who want to end the Electoral College altogether.From there, the groups gets specific about the "purely partisan" side of their argument. Republican presidential candidates have only won the popular vote once in the past 32 years, relying on the Electoral College for the majority of their wins. "If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes ... we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024," the congressmembers finished.Top intelligence officials and former Attorney General William Barr have affirmed there is no evidence of election-altering fraud in the 2020 election.More stories from theweek.com After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Colbert's Late Show turns Trump's Georgia election call into a Stevie Wonder hit

  • Kentucky detectives in Breonna Taylor case face termination

    A Kentucky police detective facing termination in connection with his role in the raid that left Breonna Taylor dead has met with his police chief, an attorney said Monday. Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes received notice last week from Louisville Police Interim Chief Yvette Gentry that she intends to fire them. Jaynes met with Gentry on Monday “to explain his perspective surrounding the investigation and proposed discipline,” according to a statement from Jaynes' attorneys provided to media outlets.