Elections

Election 2020: All 50 states and DC have certified their results, with the Electoral College voting Monday

Published

3 years ago

December 10, 2020

All 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have officially certified their presidential election results, with the final state, West Virginia, certifying its results on Wednesday.

On Monday next week, the Electoral College will convene in Washington, DC to cast their votes for president, declaring an official winner of the contentious one-of-a-kind 2020 election. After which, the electors’ votes will later be transmitted to officials and tallied in a joint session of Congress on January 6.

Coupled with that, President-elect Joe Biden also has enough electoral votes to successfully secure his victory, with the Associated Press giving him 306 Electoral College votes to President Donald Trump’s 232. Some faithless electors, however, could theoretically shake that up, but experts say it’s unlikely. The 2016 election saw an unusually high number of electors break ranks with their state delegations and casting their votes for individuals who were never candidates, but ultimately these electors had no impact on changing who won that election.

Additionally, the General Services Administration (GSA) officially started the presidential transition a few days before Thanksgiving and, starting in November, Biden’s transition team has been announcing the president-elect’s cabinet and administration appointments each week.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump refuses to concede the election as his team and supporters continue to launch lawsuits in multiple swing states, alleging widespread election fraud. Of the dozens of lawsuit that have been launched since November 3, none have been successful in changing the election results in any state.

In recent days, some more lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election have been filed. In fact, 17 states have joined Texas to have the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin investigated.

The president’s support among Republican politicians in his post-election legal fights has been gradually waning as the lawsuits keep falling flat and as the states pushed forward in certifying their results.

Reports have been circulating that Trump might run for president again in 2024 and that Trump is allegedly planning not to attend Biden’s swearing-in ceremony on January 20 and will instead host a political rally in Florida, possibly announcing a 2024 bid that day. This would make him the first president since 1869 to skip his successor’s inauguration and the fourth president in U.S. history to do so.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Elections

Videotapes from Jan. 6 Committee Witness Interviews Vanish

Published

5 days ago

December 4, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

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Videotapes containing witness interviews conducted by the Democrat-led January 6 congressional committee have disappeared. The chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), expressed his apprehension on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show.

According to Loudermilk, all videotapes of depositions have vanished, raising questions about the preservation of crucial evidence. He argued that, under House rules, these tapes qualified as congressional evidence, especially since some clips were aired during hearings. Loudermilk contended that the tapes should have been preserved by the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee and its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

Loudermilk’s revelation has broader implications, potentially impacting criminal trials in both state court in Georgia and federal court in Washington, where individuals, including former President Donald Trump, face charges related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Notably, Trump’s legal team had recently requested evidence from the Jan. 6 committee but was denied by a judge.

The situation takes a further twist as Loudermilk disclosed that the J6 committee had sent certain evidence, such as transcripts, to the Biden White House and the Homeland Security Department. Shockingly, these transcripts have now been returned to Loudermilk’s GOP-led subcommittee almost entirely redacted, preventing the disclosure of their contents.

The lack of records regarding witnesses, their statements, and the extensive redactions have raised concerns among House Republicans. Loudermilk emphasized that these documents belong to the House and should not have been sent in such a heavily redacted form. The chairman questioned the motives behind the redactions, asking why a Democrat-run House was allowed to have unredacted documents while a Republican committee’s efforts were obstructed. This development adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing investigations into the events surrounding January 6, 2021.