Biden: If Dems win in Georgia, '$2,000 checks will go out the door'

President-elect delivers remarks at an Atlanta drive-in rally for Democratic Senate candidates

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  • 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 Why Trump may have Lindsey Graham to blame for Raffensperger call recording Hawley and Cruz: How to lie without quite lying What do we do about COVID vaccine refusal?

  • ‘He works for me’: Trump jealously hits out at favourable media coverage of Fauci

    Dr Fauci has already been included by President-elect Joe Biden in his health team

  • SpecOps Colonel Arrested in Police Standoff Was Subject of Toxic Command Climate Investigation

    The 1st Special Forces Command Inspector General dismissed the complaint as "not substantiated."

  • Democrats tighten control with House rules changes

    Democrats controlling the House moved aggressively Monday to tighten their hold over the chamber despite their narrow margin, ramming through a rules package that limits the potential for embarrassing votes and caters to the party’s progressive wing by weakening deficit-neutrality requirements for legislation such as a “Green New Deal.” Democrats have freely used the new system, which maximized their voting participation while Republican leaders have urged their members to vote in person. The rules changes come as Democrats hold a bare majority in the House of fewer than a half-dozen seats, significantly smaller than over the past two years.

  • New York, Florida tell hospitals to dispense COVID-19 vaccines quicker or lose supply

    The U.S. federal government has distributed more than 13 million vaccine doses to states and territories around the country, but only around 4 million have actually been administered, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last updated on Saturday. New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker notified hospitals of the potential actions in a letter on Sunday, Cuomo told reporters. "I don't want the vaccine in a fridge or a freezer, I want it in somebody's arm," he said.

  • 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 Why Trump may have Lindsey Graham to blame for Raffensperger call recording Hawley and Cruz: How to lie without quite lying What do we do about COVID vaccine refusal?

  • Prosecutor: Wisconsin pharmacist thought vaccine was unsafe

    A Wisconsin pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday. Police in Grafton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, arrested Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg last week following an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contained enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people. “He’d formed this belief they were unsafe,” Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said during a virtual hearing.

  • Pediatric use of COVID-19 antibody drugs not advised by experts; disinfectant use can cause asthma flares

    (Reuters) -The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. As of now, antibody therapies for COVID-19 should not be used to treat infections with the new coronavirus in children or adolescents, "including those ... at high risk of progression to hospitalization or severe disease," according to a panel of experts from 29 hospitals across North America who reviewed the available evidence. The antibody drugs - bamlanivimab from Eli Lilly and Co and the combination of casirivimab plus imdevimab from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc - were authorized in November by the U.S Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in certain groups of adolescents and adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

  • Paul Ryan, Dick Cheney, 9 ex-defense secretaries slam 'anti-conservative' GOP effort to overturn Biden's win

    "As the new Congress was sworn in Sunday, the Republican Party splintered badly as at least 12 senators planned to join about 140 House members to contest Joe Biden's election win," Politico reports. "The tensions are so high that individual GOP senators are now directly battling" in "open warfare against each other." While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is asking his caucus to accept President Trump's loss, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is reportedly giving his GOP colleagues the green light to object to the Electoral College results on Wednesday.McCarthy's predecessor, former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), urged Republicans to knock it off in a rare public statement Sunday. "Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden's victory strike at the foundation of our republic," Ryan said. "It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act," and "the fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy." Trump has "had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence," he added. "Joe Biden's victory is entirely legitimate."Also on Sunday evening, all 10 living former defense secretaries signed an op-ed in The Washington Post affirming Biden's victory and warning that the military should not be dragged into Trump's effort to contest his loss. The signatories include James Mattis and Mark Esper, who served under Trump, as well as conservative stalwarts like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Cheney, who was also vice president for eight years, came up with the idea for the joint statement, said William Perry, former President Bill Clinton's defense secretary."American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy," the defense secretaries said. "Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the Electoral College votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived."Chuck Hagel, a Republican who served as defense secretary under President Barack Obama, told the Post he considered whether warning about military intervention was an overreaction, but decided it was better to nip the idea, raised by some close Trump allies, in the bud.More stories from theweek.com Why Trump may have Lindsey Graham to blame for Raffensperger call recording Hawley and Cruz: How to lie without quite lying What do we do about COVID vaccine refusal?

  • 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.

  • Iran  seizes South Korean tanker and begins uranium enrichment to 20 per cent in fresh confrontations

    Iran provoked fresh confrontations with the West today by seizing an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and confirming it would further enrich the raw materials for a nuclear bomb, in violation of international agreements. South Korea mobilised its forces in the Strait of Hormuz and dispatched an anti-piracy unit to the Gulf on Monday afternoon after a ship bearing its flag, the MT Hankuk Chemi, was intercepted off the coast of Oman and escorted into Iranian waters. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) later confirmed it had seized the vessel and detained its crew in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, "due to the repeated infringement of maritime environmental laws". Iranian media reported that the ship, which was carrying 7,200 tonnes of oil chemical products from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, had been “polluting the Persian Gulf with chemicals”.

  • 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."

  • Flawless Floor Mirrors for Every At-Home OOTD Pic

    Here’s looking at you, kidOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Most U.S. COVID-19 vaccines go idle as New York, Florida move to penalize hospitals

    More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have so far gone unused, U.S. health officials said on Monday, as the governors of New York and Florida vowed to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly enough. In New York, hospitals must administer vaccines within a week of receiving them or face a fine and a reduction in future supplies, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, hours before announcing the state's first known case of a new, more infectious coronavirus variant originally detected in Britain. "I don't want the vaccine in a fridge or a freezer, I want it in somebody's arm," the governor said.

  • Pelosi supporters 'a little nervous' about House speaker vote but believe enough lawmakers will be present

    With the 117th Congress set to be sworn in Sunday, some Democrats are feeling "a little nervous" about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) chances of retaining the gavel, Rep. Filemon (D-Texas) told The Hill. The concern is over whether enough lawmakers will actually show up to give her the required majority of those present and voting. If they do, she's on track to win as expected.Filemon said the worries stem from the coronavirus pandemic, and Democrats are hoping no one falls ill before the vote. Reps. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) tested positive for COVID-19 in late December, though Larsen is out of quarantine. And although it's unclear, it sounds as if Moore will be free from isolation as well, with Politico's Jake Sherman reporting that 221 out of the 222 Democratic members of the new House are expected to be present. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who is being treated for pancreatic cancer, will not be at the Capitol.> NEWS on Dem attendance. Alcee Hastings, an ailing Florida Dem, is not going to make it to the speaker vote today. Jamie Raskin, who recently lost his son, is going to make it. > > Democrats believe they’ll have 221 present today. > > Pelosi needs a majority of present and voting> > — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 3, 2021If there are indeed 221 Democrats on hand, as well as all 211 Republicans, Pelosi could only afford to have four Democrats vote for someone else, The Hill notes. While there may be a few Democrats who don't back Pelosi, they may vote "present," which essentially renders them absent. They would not be counted against the final tally, likely allowing her to capture the majority. There's also no guarantee every Republican will be there."I think she'll win," Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) said of Pelosi. "But I'm just not sure how she gets there." Read more at The Hill.More stories from theweek.com Why Trump may have Lindsey Graham to blame for Raffensperger call recording Hawley and Cruz: How to lie without quite lying What do we do about COVID vaccine refusal?

  • Wisconsin pharmacist accused of trying to destroy vaccine is 'conspiracy theorist,' authorities say

    Police said Steven Brandenburg "told investigators that he believed that Covid-19 vaccine was not safe for people and could harm them and change their DNA."

  • Wrong number draws mistaken calls, ire from Trump supporters

    A former Michigan resident was briefly amused to be mistaken for a high-ranking legislator by President Donald Trump supporters who demanded nullification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory in the state. The recipient, who goes by the name O Rose and uses non-gendered they/them pronouns, has a phone number nearly identical to that of Lee Chatfield, former Republican speaker of the Michigan House, whose term expired this month. In social media postings Sunday, the president's campaign organization targeted Chatfield and Lee Shirkey, a Republican and the Senate majority leader.

  • The Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the past half century

    If 2020 felt like a drag, you may be surprised to discover it actually went faster than you thought ... and this year is set to be even speedier. The Earth has been spinning unusually quickly lately, and July 19 saw the shortest day since records began, with the planet completing its rotation in 1.4602 milliseconds less than the usual 86,400 seconds. The previous shortest day in 2005 was beaten 28 times last year, and 2021 is on track to be the most nippy year ever, with the average day passing 0.5 milliseconds faster than usual. The changes to the length of a standard day were only discovered after highly accurate atomic clocks were developed in the 1960s and compared to fixed stars in the sky. In recent decades, Earth's average rotational speed has consistently decreased and timekeepers have been forced to add 27 leap seconds to atomic time since the 1970s to keep clocks in sync with the slowing planet. The last one was added on New Year’s Eve 2016, when clocks around the world paused for a second to allow the Earth’s rotation to catch up. Then, BT's speaking clock added a second's pause before its third pip while Radio 4 inserted an extra pip to its 1am bulletin.

  • The Pentagon Has 6 Months to Disclose What It Knows About UFOs

    Lawmakers are demanding answers from U.S. intelligence agencies and the DoD on the potential existence of UFOs.

  • Kushner-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia, Qatar gets tepid reviews from analysts

    After months of haggling, it appears Jared Kushner has helped secure a "last-minute achievement" for the Trump administration in the form of a brokered agreement between Qatar and a Saudi-led bloc of regional partners, including Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. The deal, which will be signed Tuesday, involves Saudi Arabia reopening its land border with Qatar, while Bahrain and the UAE will unlock their airspace and waters for Qatari transit. In turn, Qatar is expected to "pursue more open-minded engagement" with its neighbors. But analysts and those involved aren't sure whether things will really cool down.A senior diplomat for one of the Gulf nations reportedly described the pact as a "step in the right direction," but suggested the "root causes" of the longstanding rift between the sides are "still there."> 14 \ “Some of the issues were solved but the root causes for the rift – bad personal relationships between the leaders and big policy differences on Iran, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood are still there”, the diplomat told me on the Saudi-Qatar deal> > — Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) January 4, 2021In the Washington Examiner, Tom Rogan similarly writes that "this deal may be a detente. But it should not be seen as a restoration of formal alliances." He argues Saudi Arabia will "continue to be enraged" by Doha's relationship with Iran, its financial support of Islamist movements, and its "quiet alliance with Turkey," among other things.Ultimately, the agreement may be a nod to the Trump administration, as well as an attempt to start fresh with the Biden administration. Tim O'Donnell> 3 \ Why it matters: Saudi Arabia and Qatar were under pressure by the Trump administration to sign the deal. Both countries see the signing of the agreement as a gesture to Trump & also as part of their effort to “clean the table” and prepare for the incoming Biden administration> > — Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) January 4, 2021More stories from theweek.com Why Trump may have Lindsey Graham to blame for Raffensperger call recording Hawley and Cruz: How to lie without quite lying What do we do about COVID vaccine refusal?