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sabra's JournalBiden hires all-female senior communications team
Source: WP
WILMINGTON, Del. — Jennifer Psaki, a veteran Democratic spokeswoman, will be Joe Biden’s White House press secretary, one of seven women who will fill the upper ranks of his administration’s communications staff. It is the first time that all of the top aides tasked with speaking on behalf of an administration and shaping its message will be female.
Biden’s press team will be led by Kate Bedingfield, a longtime Biden aide who served as his campaign communications director and will hold the same title in his White House.
“Communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a President, and this team will be entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of connecting the American people to the White House,” Biden said in a statement.
“These qualified, experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better,” he added.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-hires-all-female-senior-communications-team/2020/11/29/5b60b58e-3277-11eb-a997-1f4c53d2a747_story.html
Kushner to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar seeking deal to end crisis
Source: Axios
Jared Kushner will travel in the coming days to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a last-ditch effort to resolve the dispute between the Gulf countries.
Why it matters: Fixing the rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar would bring a sense of stability back to the Gulf and notch a last-minute achievement for Kushner and the Trump administration before Jan. 20.
Background: In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and other Sunni states severed ties with Qatar and closed their airspace and sea routes to Qatari planes and vessels. They claimed their decision was based on Qatar's support for terror groups and relations with Iran.
The U.S. maintains close ties with both Qatar and its rivals, but the Trump administration's several attempts to reconcile the parties were unsuccessful.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/kushner-visit-saudi-arabia-qatar-gulf-crisis-121cb422-ef27-4174-914c-ef8666972ab5.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic
Trump: 'I'm ashamed that I endorsed' Kemp in Georgia
Source: The Hill
President Trump on Sunday said he regretted endorsing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), taking a swipe at the top Republicans in the state ahead of two critical Senate runoff elections.
The president decried the use of Dominion Voting Systems machines in Georgia, which are the subject of unproven conspiracies among some conservatives. He placed blame at the feet of Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) for approving the rules of the election.
"Everything has to be approved by the legislature, and they had judges making deals, and they had electoral officials making deals like this character in Georgia who’s a disaster," Trump said of Raffensperger, who has defended the integrity of the presidential election in Georgia, where President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump by just more than 12,000 votes.
"And the governor’s done nothing. He’s done absolutely nothing," Trump added of Kemp. "I’m ashamed that I endorsed him. But I look what’s going on. It's so terrible."
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/527882-trump-im-ashamed-that-i-endorsed-kemp-in-georgia
Biden twists ankle while playing with dog, visits a doctor
Source: AP
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden twisted his ankle while playing with one of his dogs and will be examined by a doctor “out of an abundance of caution,” his office said Sunday.
Biden suffered the injury on Saturday and was visiting an orthopedist for an examination Sunday afternoon, his office said.
Biden was playing with Major, one of the Bidens’ two dogs. They adopted Major in 2018, and acquired their first dog, Champ, after the 2008 election. The Bidens have said they’ll be bringing their dogs to the White House and also plan to get a cat.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-f3d0203ab30e3b77adef57d5a450afc7?utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow
Trump's Already Gaming Out a 2024 Run--Including an Event During Biden's Inauguration
Source: The Daily Beast
In the twilight of his presidency, Donald Trump is discussing different ways to disrupt the impending Joe Biden era, chief among them by announcing another run against him.
According to three people familiar with the conversations, the president, who refuses to acknowledge he lost the 2020 election as he clearly did, has not just talked to close advisers and confidants about a potential 2024 run to reclaim the White House but about the specifics of a campaign launch. The conversations have explored, among other things, how Trump could best time his announcement so as to keep the Republican Party behind him for the next four years. Two of these knowledgeable sources said the president has, in the past two weeks, even floated the idea of doing a 2024-related event during Biden’s inauguration week, possibly on Inauguration Day, if his legal effort to steal the 2020 election ultimately fails.
The president and some of his closest associates have already started surveying prominent donors to get a sense of who would be with him, or perhaps against him, if he chose to run in the 2024 election. Some top Trump allies have told The Daily Beast that they are doing what they can to stay in the president’s good graces, calculating that doing so will help ensure a seat at the table and a future in the party—in the event he runs again.
...
According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the president has privately bragged that he’d still remain in the spotlight, even if Biden is in the Oval Office, in part because the news media will keep regularly covering him since—as Trump has assessed—he gets the news outlets ratings and those same outlets find Biden “boring.”
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-already-gaming-out-a-2024-run-including-an-event-during-bidens-inauguration
Trump Uses Data From Wrong Election To Claim Massive Voter Fraud In Pennsylvania
Source: politicus usa
A Republican state legislator in Pennsylvania used figures from the wrong election to claim widespread voter fraud in the state – and Donald Trump took to Twitter early Saturday morning to cite that data.
In a tweet, Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano used numbers from the primary to suggest that over a million votes were pulled from thin air in the general election.
As Derek Willis noted on Twitter, it’s “astounding” that a state official in Pennsylvania would brazenly use data from the wrong election as a basis to overturn the results, but this is where the current Republican Party is.
...
It got even worse on Saturday as Mastriano suggested that “mounting evidence” shows that the presidential election in Pennsylvania was stolen and that the state legislature should select delegates to the Electoral College that will overturn Biden’s win.
Read more: https://www.politicususa.com/2020/11/28/trump-uses-data-from-wrong-election-to-claim-massive-voter-fraud-in-pennsylvania.html
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1332552283553476608
(Axios) Scoop: Biden weighs retired General Lloyd Austin for Pentagon chief
Source: Axios
Joe Biden is considering retired four-star General Lloyd Austin as his nominee for defense secretary, adding him to a shortlist that includes Jeh Johnson, Tammy Duckworth and Michele Flournoy, two sources with direct knowledge of the decision-making tell Axios.
Why it matters: A nominee for Pentagon chief was noticeably absent when the president-elect rolled out his national security team Tuesday. Flournoy had been widely seen as the likely pick, but Axios is told other factors — race, experience, Biden's comfort level — have come into play.
Between the lines: Biden's top advisers feel pressure to announce an African American to a prominent Cabinet role. Earlier this week, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a top ally, said he was disappointed more African Americans had not been included in Biden's early selections.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/biden-defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-1af4a702-aaf2-4e9e-9f5f-3ece6a9ff362.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=twitter
Iran's Army Says U.S. Also Behind Scientist's Killing, ILNA Says
Source: Bloomberg
The head of Iran’s Army said “the criminal hand of the United States” and Israel were “clearly seen” in the assassination of a top nuclear scientist in Tehran on Friday, the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency reported, quoting Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi,.
Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier blamed Israel for the attack without mentioning the U.S.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-27/iran-s-army-says-u-s-also-behind-scientist-s-killing-ilna-says?utm_content=business&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business
Dominion Voting Systems Says Sidney Powell's 'Bizarre' and 'False' Fraud Claims Have Led to Death...
Source: Law & Crime
The widely derided conspiracy theories of outgoing President Donald Trump and the attorneys aligned within him have had real-world consequences, Dominion Voting Systems said in a Thanksgiving press release cataloguing stalking, harassment and death threats employees have received.
Dominion said it has reported threats to law enforcement and plans to hold attorney Sidney Powell personally responsible if any of the company’s staff is harmed.
“This criminal activity has been duly reported to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and we intend to hold Ms. Powell, and those aiding and abetting her fraudulent actions, accountable for any harm that may occur as a result,” Dominion wrote in an unsigned statement.
The Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell just eight days after the president praised her on Twitter. Reportedly too unhinged even for a legal team led by Rudy Giuliani—who had hair dye streaming down his face at a press conference—Powell has bandied about multiple iterations of a lawsuit challenging the now-certified results of Georgia’s presidential election. The first and seemingly very rough version was riddled with errors, starting with the caption, which twice misspelled the Northern District of Georgia as “DISTRICCT” and “DISTRCOICT.” A second and better-proofread one has been uploaded on the internet, and it remains unclear which version was filed. (Powell also filed a case in Michigan.)
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/dominion-voting-systems-says-sidney-powells-bizarre-and-false-fraud-claims-have-led-to-death-threats-and-other-crimes/
Trump Gave W.H.O. a List of Demands. Hours Later, He Walked Away.
Source: NYT
GENEVA — In late May, the American ambassador in Geneva, Andrew Bremberg, went on a rescue mission to the World Health Organization headquarters. He told its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that despite weeks of threats that President Trump would quit the health organization, the relationship could still be salvaged.
Mr. Bremberg hand-delivered a list of seven demands that American officials saw as the beginning of discreet discussions.
Hours later, Mr. Trump took the lectern outside the White House and blew it all up, announcing that the United States would leave the W.H.O. The announcement blindsided his own diplomats and Dr. Tedros alike.
If Mr. Trump thought Dr. Tedros would relent under the pressure of an American withdrawal, he was wrong. The W.H.O. leader has refused to make concessions or counteroffers, according to American and Western officials. And Mr. Trump ultimately made good on his promise to abandon a health agency that the United States helped form a half-century ago.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/world/europe/trump-who-tedros-china-virus.html
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