Election 2020 live updates: Half of Republicans say Trump ‘rightfully won’ election, poll finds
USA TODAY’S coverage of the 2020 election continues this week as states prepare to finish certifying their vote counts after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the hard-fought presidential race. President Donald Trump has yet to concede the race as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris prepare to take office in January.
Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.
Poll: Half of Republicans say Trump ‘rightfully won’ election
About half of Republicans in a new a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll say President Donald Trump “rightfully won” the presidential election.
Overall, 73% of those polled Nov. 13-17 believe Biden won the election while 5% believe he had lost it. When specifically asked whether Biden “rightfully won” the election, Republicans became much more skeptical, with 52% saying Trump “rightfully won” while 29% said Biden “rightfully won,” the poll found.
with deep government experience when he enters the White House next year – breaking with the anti-establishment approach President Donald Trump embraced after his election four years ago.
With a series of personnel announcements Tuesday, the shape of the team that will occupy the West Wing after Jan. 20 came into sharper focus, with Biden turning to several aides who worked for him as vice president and others who either served President Barack Obama or have lengthy resumes from elsewhere in government.
“It’s a lot of experience,” Phil Schiliro, former director of legislative affairs for Obama, said of Biden’s picks, adding that they should help him get up and running quickly.
Biden’s appointments, which included Steve Ricchetti, a longtime adviser and lobbyist, and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, represented a departure from many of Trump’s early appointments of outsider figures to top White House jobs – from strategist Steve Bannon to son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump was limited in part because of the aggressively anti-establishment route he took to the presidency, experts said.
– John Fritze
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was ousted by President Donald Trump on Tuesday as part of a continuing post-election purge of top national security officials.
Trump announced the dismissal in two tweets Tuesday night. Twitter flagged both tweets with labels saying, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
Trump ousts Homeland Security cyber chief Chris Krebs, who called election secure
The statement served as a pointed rebuke to a president who continues to make unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud while Trump’s legal team pursues multiple legal challenges in battleground states.
“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” the agency reported Thursday in an assessment joined by a coalition of election security groups, including the National Association of State Election Directors. “All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors.”
The former director acknowledged Trump’s action in a brief tweet Tuesday: “Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow.”
– Kevin Johnson and David Jackson