Veterans and their families, active members of the military, President-elect Joe Biden and President Trump gathered throughout the day Wednesday to pay tribute to those who served the U.S. in the armed forces.
Details: Set against the backdrop of the raging coronavirus pandemic, Biden and his wife, Jill, visited the Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia Wednesday morning around the same time that Trump and his family visited the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
After the 2020 election, Republicans need to rebrand their party as the champions of working-class voters and steer away from its traditional embrace of big business, Sen. Marco Rubio said in an interview with Axios.
Why it matters: Rubio told me he is leaving the door open for a 2024 presidential run — so his comments are some of the earliest signals of how the GOP contenders may try to acknowledge President Trump's successes while finding their own path.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a Wednesday interview that working alongside the Trump administration to combat the coronavirus in the U.S. has been "very stressful."
Why it matters: AlthoughFauci, who considers himself apolitical, is among the most trusted voices in the country on the coronavirus, he has faced attacks from Trump loyalists and the president himself, who recently called him a "disaster."
President-elect Joe Biden told veterans he "will never betray the values you fought so bravely to defend" in a Veterans Day statement.
What he's saying: "For many years, I have said that we as a nation have many obligations, but we have only one truly sacred obligation: to prepare and equip our troops we send into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home," Biden said.
Driving the news: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has repeatedly said that strict rules were unnecessary and ineffective, on Tuesday issued limits on large gatherings and implemented a partial mask mandate for social settings and some businesses.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, plans to leave his private law practice by Inauguration Day, AP reports.
Why it matters: With Emhoff set to become the first-ever second gentleman, his departure from the law firm, DLA Piper, to support his wife and focus on his role at the White House is unprecedented.
President Trump's newly installed acting Pentagon chief is bringing on a senior adviser in a sign the administration wants to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East before the end of his presidency in January, three people familiar with the move told Axios.
Why it matters: A senior administration official says a wave of firings at the Pentagon and the hiring of Ret. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor is in part a settling of Trump's personal scores — but senior White House officials also have made clear "they want them more publicly to talk about getting out of Afghanistan by the end of the year."
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK.) on Wednesday won re-election against Al Gross, an independent running as a Democrat, AP reports.
Why it matters: With the Alaska race results in, Republicans now have a 49-48 hold on the Senate. Neither party can claim the majority until the January runoff elections in Georgia.
Facebook and Google are extending their bans on political ads to prevent confusion about the election, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Why it matters: While tech companies are trying to limit post-election misinformation, hundreds of millions of dollars are about to pour into Georgia, now that control of the Senate — and the fate of the next president's agenda — hinges on runoffs for now one, but both of the state's seats, set for Jan. 5.
President-elect Joe Biden's projected Georgia win will give him 306 electoral votes over President Trump — virtually matching Trump's margin over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The latest: Trump has not yet conceded after Biden surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to capture the presidency. Instead, his legal team, led by Rudy Giuliani, has been spinning baseless conspiracy theories and throwing out evidence-free accusations of fraud.
President Trump has defeated President-elect Joe Biden in Alaska, AP projected on Wednesday.
Driving the news: Alaska’s three electoral votes for Trump do not alter the outcome of the election. Trump has not yet conceded after Biden surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to capture the presidency.
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced on Wednesday a "full, by-hand recount" of ballots cast in the presidential election in every county in the state.
Why it matters: Joe Biden leads by about 14,000 votes in the traditionally red state. No winner has been declared in either of the state's two Senate battles, which means we likely won’t know which party will hold the Senate majority until 2021.
The Biden presidency may revitalize an alliance of interests and values with other "advanced high-income democracies" around the world, writes Martin Wolf, Financial Times chief economics commentator.
Why it matters: Reconstructing America's relationships with global allies could smooth over the last four years of foreign policy under President Trump. President-elect Joe Biden has already received congratulations from a number of world leaders and spoken on the phone with some about working together.
The Trump administration has placed White House loyalists in key positions at the Pentagon amid a reshuffling of multiple senior level defense officials this week.
Why it matters: "The decisions swept decades of experience out of the Pentagon..." the Washington Post writes. The post-election personnel changes are anticipated to complicate the transition for President-elect Joe Biden as President Trump refuses to concede.
As the weaknesses of President Trump's legal cases to overturn Joe Biden's win become clearer, Republicans are talking more about the Electoral College — hinting at an extreme last-chance way for Trump to cling to power.
What we're watching: In this long-shot scenario, Trump and his team could try to block secretaries of state in contested states from certifying results. That could allow legislatures in those states to try to appoint new electors who favor Trump over Biden.
Geography, rather than race or age, paints the clearest picture of President Trump's defeat and illustrates the demographic trends that could hurt Republicans in future elections.
The big picture: The rural-urban divide demonstrated President-elect Joe Biden's power in and around cities — which helped him flip the states that delivered his election victory.
The Republican governors of Massachusetts and Maryland both criticized President Trump during separate news conferences Tuesday for holding up the presidential transition during the coronavirus pandemic.
What they're saying: Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker called Attorney General Bill Barr's decision to authorized U.S. attorneys to investigate alleged voter fraud "wildly inappropriate." "I'm dismayed to hear the baseless claims from the president, from his team, and from many other elected Republican officials in Washington," he said.
Jaime Harrison is interested in chairing the Democratic National Committee and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) has "confidence" that he can do the role, the South Carolina Democrat told the Washington Post Tuesday.
Why it matters: DNC Chair Tom Perez isn't expected to stay on in the role, and a committee rep noted he said several times previously he'd serve only one term. Clyburn is an influential figure and key ally of President-elect Joe Biden, who can pick a replacement.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) called on President Trump to start cooperating with President-elect Biden's transition team in an interview Tuesday with Pittsburgh's Action News 4.
The big picture: Toomey said the "transition process ought to begin," making him one of the few sitting Republican senators to have implored Trump to let the transition take place. But Toomey did not go so far as to say Biden won the election, remarking instead the result is "not 100% certain."
TikTok could be banned in the U.S. after this Thursday, although it remains unclear whether the Trump administration will follow through or if a judge will intervene.
Why it matters: The short-video entertainment and social networking app is estimated to have around 100 million U.S. users and more than 1,500 U.S. employees.
/2020/11/10/1605033554766.gif?w=3840)