State Electors Hand Trump (Another) Big Loss

Electors from all 50 states of the U.S. and the District of Columbia cast their ballots on the afternoon of December 14th, 2020, confirming that Joe Biden is the president-elect.

Normally a formality, this year's elector's vote had more attention than usual; soon-to-be former President Donald Trump had hoped for republican electors to overturn the results (and go against the will of their states' voters) in a number of swing states (Collinson/CNN). It was not to be. Since the results were announced yesterday, already a number of leading republican lawmakers have reached out to formally congratulate Biden today, including most notably Mitch McConnell (NYT).

Other notable figures to finally come around to congratulating the President-elect today: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, and Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Troianovski/NYT). Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America on January 20th, 2021 in Washington D.C. in a reportedly smaller event than usual. This is supposedly in order to impress upon U.S. citizens the seriousness of the covid-19 pandemic still surging throughout the Unites States (Viser/Washington Post).

Meanwhile Bill Barr resigned as U.S. Attorney General this morning, and will step down when White House aides go home for the holidays next week. Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen is reported to be set to replace the controversial soon-to-be former Attorney General for Trump's final month in office (Swan & Basu/Axios).