Simon Ateba covers the White House, the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions for Today News Africa in Washington D.C. Simon can be reached on simonateba@todaynewsafrica.com
President-elect Joe Biden has expanded his lead in Georgia to more than 14,000 votes out of the nearly 5 million votes counted in the state. Almost all the votes have been counted and the results will be certified.
The Secretary of State in Georgia has ordered a full hand recount because the win margin between Biden and President Donald Trump is below 0.5 percent.
The recount will begin at the end of the week and end by November 20, which is the deadline for certification of the results.
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Remember, Biden did not need Georgia to win. He received the 270 electoral votes needed to win a U.S. presidential election without Georgia, and without all the other states where he’s also leading.
Biden has also won Nevada and Arizona, according to the Associated Press. In Pennsylvania, where he won also, he has since expanded his lead there to about 50k votes, and in Michigan, to over 100k votes. He’s on a solid path to securing 306 electoral votes, which is what President Trump got in 2016 and called it a landslide.
Biden is also leading Trump in the popular count by more 5 million votes. He has already secured more than 77 million votes and Trump has received more than 72 million votes.
Many of Trump’s lawsuits have been thrown out by various courts, while Trump and the GOP have also withdrawn some of their own lawsuits.
More than a week after the election, there’s still no massive fraud evidence, the type of evidence Trump and the Republicans promoted in the media.
The Republicans set up an office in Arlington and are requesting that their supporters send them evidence of fraud. The office has been flooded with pranks, people calling and telling them they have the evidence they’re looking for, only to laugh at them, according to reports.
The Biden transition is moving on smoothly. President-elect Joe Biden honored veterans on Wednesday.
At a briefing on Tuesday, Biden described Trump’s refusal to concede as “an embarrassment”, and laughed off Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s reckless comment in DC that there would be a smooth transition to a second Trump term.
Trump is blocking the funding needed for a smooth transition, but Biden said on Tuesday, he was not bothered as everything was on track for a smooth transfer of power on January 20, 2021, at noon.
After days of silence, Trump was seen in public on Wednesday to honor the veterans. He will likely fade in the background in 70 days as Biden becomes more visible.
As Trump refuses to concede and congratulate Biden, he’s also not doing anything to fight the ravaging coronavirus pandemic.
The United States has recorded more than 10 million cases of COVID-19, and about 240,000 deaths under Trump’s leadership.
The disease is accelerating dangerously by the day, with more than 100,000 cases now being recorded every day, and hospitalizations skyrocketing across the country.
Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and President-elect Joe Biden have warned that the United States faces a dark winter.
The encouraging news from Pfizer that its vaccine is more than 90 percent effective is a good sign but it will take until April or May next year until the vaccine is widely available to the general public.
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