As America waits with bated breath for the final results of US Election 2020, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has taken a narrow lead over his Republican opponent Donald Trump in Georgia. Biden who is leading with 264 votes to Trump’s 214 needs six more electoral votes to win the presidency. According to Associated Press data, around 99% of the total votes have been counted in the state and the Democrat is ahead of Trump with 917 votes. Trump needs to win all remaining four states and it will be all over for him if the Democrat takes Georgia with 16 votes.

It is important to note that Georgia has always been a stronghold for Republicans. The state has not voted for a Democrat President since 1992. There is a probability of recount as well in the state in case the margin between the two is under half a percentage point of difference. Meanwhile, incumbent President Donald Trump continues to maintain that there’s been a fraud in counting of ballots. The President tweeted earlier in the day that he would easily become the President again if legal votes are counted. He said observers were not being allowed during the counting of ballots and votes counted during this period should be declared illegal. He asked the US Supreme Court to take action.

Experts and Biden’s campaign have been thrashing comments made by Trump terming them as outrageous. Micro-blogging site Twitter has also put a warning sign on many of his tweets saying the President might be spreading misinformation. Earlier many US TV networks stopped the coverage of the President’s first public appearance since election day stating Trump was spreading misinformation.

Read Also: Study reveals Donald Trump’s 18 election rallies may have led to over 30,000 Covid cases, 700 deaths

It has been three days since the election day in the United States. However, a winner is yet to be declared as four states continue to count the ballots.

Read Also: US President Donald Trump says he’s won, says there’s been fraud

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Following his nomination as the Republican candidate for the November 3 presidential election, Donald Trump in his speech told Republicans to be on alert for what he claimed was a Democratic plan to rig the contest through increased use of mail-in voting, a measure Democrats say is needed to protect people from catching COVID-19 in crowded polling stations.

“They are trying to steal the election,” he told party delegates.

“The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.”

Opponents say Trump’s increasingly extreme resistance to expanded mail-in voting, a method already used widely in the United States, is an attempt to suppress voter turnout, while setting up an excuse to challenge the result if he is defeated.

Trump hopes the convention, which concludes Thursday with his formal acceptance of the nomination, will shift voters’ attention from the coronavirus to what he says is the “super-V” shaped economic recovery.

As a veteran of reality TV, Trump is convinced that the more he gets on stage the better for changing the narrative in his favor.

So while incumbents usually keep away from their party conventions until the final night, Trump immediately took over the event in Charlotte, which had been drastically scaled back due to COVID-19 precautions.

He then flew to the North Carolina town of Mills River with his daughter Ivanka to give another speech, declaring “the great American comeback is underway.”

Trump is expected to make more live television appearances on each of the four days of the convention ahead of his acceptance speech at the White House. Trump’s use of the White House as a setting for the acceptance speech will be a dramatic show of political muscle, but it tramples over the custom of separating political campaigns from the office of president.

Beyond bread and butter issues, Trump’s abrasive style, his habit of insulting people in public, his demonization of journalists and almost total inability to talk to Democratic leaders has left the country divided and exhausted.

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Biden is tapping into unhappiness with the president’s handling of the pandemic, unrest over racial inequality and fear of longterm economic damage from the coronavirus shutdown. Biden is ahead in poll surveys but Republicans insist that Trump can replicate his surprise 2016 win and hope the convention will put the wind in his sails.

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United States of America’s House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday, Sep 24, announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump over allegations of seeking foreign help to smear Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of next year’s election.

The move came after mounting pressure from fellow Democrats, plunging a deeply divided nation into an election year clash between Congress and the President.

Pelosi, who for months had been reluctant to embrace an impeachment effort, said, “The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

In a deeply divided country, the inquiry means there would be highly partisan fight in Congress and a polarised presidential campaign in coming months.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the inquiry after a closed-door meeting with Democratic lawmakers, saying Donald Trump’s actions undermined national security and violated the US Constitution.

Trump, who was meeting with world leaders at the United Nations, previewed his defense in an all-caps tweet: “PRESIDENTIAL HARRASSMENT!”

He called the inquiry “Witch Hunt garbage”.

Such an important day at the United Nations, so much work and so much success, and the Democrats purposely had to ruin and demean it with more breaking news Witch Hunt garbage. So bad for our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019

Pelosi’s change of heart followed reports that Donald Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call to investigate Biden, the Democratic presidential front-runner, and his son Hunter, who had worked for a company drilling for gas in Ukraine.

In the days before the call, Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400 million in military aid for Ukraine — prompting speculation that he was holding out the money as leverage for information on the Bidens. Trump has denied that charge, but acknowledged he blocked the funds.

Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to release a transcript of his phone call. He has acknowledged he discussed Biden in the call, but denied he withheld nearly $400 million in US aid to Ukraine as leverage to get Zelenskiy to launch a probe that would damage Biden, who leads opinion polls in the Democratic presidential race.

Pelosi said the six congressional committees currently investigating Donald Trump would continue with their probes as part of the inquiry.

The panels would work collaboratively, and then decide whether the House Judiciary Committee should draft articles of impeachment, according to media reports quoting House aides.

“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed a dishonourable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” Pelosi said.

Congressional allies of Donald Trump accused Pelosi of playing politics with the decision.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it “a rush to judgement”, saying it should have waited until after details of the phone call were revealed. “It simply confirms that House Democrats’ priority is not making life better for the American people, but their nearly three-year-old fixation on impeachment,” he said.

The impeachment inquiry could eventually lead to Donald Trump’s removal from office, although that would be a steep task for Democrats. Even if the Democratic-controlled House voted to impeach Trump, the Republican-majority Senate would have to take the next step of removing him from office after a trial. A conviction would require a two-thirds Senate majority.

It will be the first impeachment inquiry in Congress since the 1998 probe of President Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice in relation to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The House voted to impeach Clinton in December 1998, but the Democratic president was acquitted two months later by the Senate and remained in office.

The only other president to be impeached, Andrew Johnson in 1868, was also acquitted by the Senate. President Richard M Nixon resigned in 1974 after the House initiated impeachment proceedings but before an official vote, stepping down rather than face the embarrassment of such a rebuke.

Biden said he would back impeachment if the president did not fully comply with congressional investigations. “If we allow a president to get away with shredding the Constitution, that will last forever,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, in his home state of Delaware.

Most Democratic presidential contenders support an impeachment inquiry, including US Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar; former US Representative Beto O’Rourke; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; and former US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro.

But the move carries a risk of backfiring on Democrats if voters believe they are overreaching, as it did on House Republicans who unexpectedly lost seats in the 1998 elections after pursuing impeachment against Clinton.

Donald Trump has proven particularly resilient since taking office in January 2017, withstanding repeated scandals and retaining strong support from Republicans.

He promised to release a “complete, fully declassified and unredacted” transcript of the July 25 Ukraine call on Wednesday.

Democrats are also seeking the original complaint about Donald Trump’s call, filed by a whistleblower within the US intelligence community, as well as information on deliberations over the Ukrainian aid.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said his panel was communicating with an attorney representing the whistleblower and that the individual would like to testify this week.

The White House had refused to hand over the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress. But an administration official said late on Tuesday it was now preparing to release it by the end of the week and most likely allow the whistleblower to meet with congressional investigators.

The Senate approved a resolution on Tuesday calling for the complaint to be submitted to the Senate and House Intelligence committees. The House will vote on a similar resolution on Wednesday.

Donald Trump said the transcript would show the Ukraine call was “totally appropriate”, that he had not pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and that there had been no “quid pro quo” for US aid in exchange for a probe.

Donald Trump has produced no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.

“When you see the readout of the call, which I assume you’ll see at some point, you’ll understand. That call was perfect. It couldn’t have been nicer,” Donald Trump told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Donald Trump indicated there was nothing sinister about withholding the aid to Ukraine but he wanted Europe and not just the United States to step up and provide Ukraine assistance.

The money was later released by the Trump administration. Trump told reporters he had wanted the money for Ukraine frozen, but changed his mind after “people called me.”

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Trump remained low-profile on first anniversary in White House

US government shutdown has ended after three days with President Donald Trump signing a bill on Monday night. The House and Senate voted to end the shutdown, approving the latest short-term funding bill. The Democrats accepted Republicans’ promises for a broad debate later on the future of young illegal immigrants, the “Dreamers”.

The fourth temporary funding bill since October easily passed the Senate and the House of Representatives. The positive vote came largely after negotiations among Senate leaders.

According to Reuters, enactment by Trump of the bill allowed the government to reopen fully on Tuesday and keep the functioning till Feb. 8, when the Republican-led Congress will have to revisit budget and immigration policy,

The funding bill was approved by a vote of 266-150 just hours after it passed the Senate by a vote of 81-18. It was made possible after a deal between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding assurances about immigration.

Big win for Republicans as Democrats cave on Shutdown. Now I want a big win for everyone, including Republicans, Democrats and DACA, but especially for our Great Military and Border Security. Should be able to get there. See you at the negotiating table!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2018

On Friday midnight, The US administration was forced to shut down federal government as senators continued to scramble to reach a deal to fund the government. In a late night vote, Democrats had joined to block a bill that could have kept the government running for another four weeks.

Trump’s attempts to negotiate an end to the shutdown with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer were collapsed on that day.

After signing the bill President Donald Trump said in a statement on Monday night, “I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses. We will make a long term deal on immigration if and only if it’s good for the country.”

 

After 3 days of a government shutdown, a bipartisan majority has brought the Democratic Leader’s extraordinary filibuster to an end. pic.twitter.com/xe2fAdjEaZ

— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) January 22, 2018

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in his latest tweet:

Soon, the govt will reopen, and we have a lot to do:

• #ProtectDreamers
• Write a budget
• Address health care, veterans, disaster relief, pensions & the opioid epidemic.

The #TrumpShutdown will soon end, but the work goes on.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 22, 2018

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, while talking to media persons before voting, said “We will vote today to reopen the government,” saying he and McConnell had reached an “arrangement.”

McConnell reiterated the same on the Senate floor, adding the shutdown was distracting senators from focusing on passing legislation.

He said, “I respect the passion that many of my friends in this chamber, Democrat and Republican alike bring to the major issue before the Senate, all of these issues. But we should not let the political feuds or policy disagreements obscure the simple fact that every member of this body cares deeply about the challenges facing our country.”

McConnell continued: “It’s evident that this government shutdown is doing nothing, absolutely nothing to generate bipartisan progress on the issues the American public care about.”

Reports say that Immigration and the budget are entangled because of Congress’ failure to approve a full-scale budget on time by Oct. 1, 2017, just weeks after Trump summarily ordered an end by March to Obama-era legal protections for young immigrants known as the “Dreamers.”

In US politics a government shutdown occurs when Congress and the President fall to pass appropriations legislation funding government operations and agencies.

During Ronald Reagan administration, there were three funding gaps leading to shutdowns lasting one day or less. A funding gap in 1990 during George H.W. Bush administration caused a weekend shutdown. Bill Clinton administration also faced two full government shutdowns during 1995 and 1996 lasting five and twenty days. During Barack Obama presidency, government shutdown occurred during October 1-16, 2013.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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