Federal judge in Michigan points out Trump campaign hiccups in election lawsuit filed in the state
From CNN’s Katelyn Polantz
In a last-ditch lawsuit from the Trump campaign to block the certification of election results in Michigan, a federal judge on Tuesday morning pointed out that the Trump campaign’s lawyers had not taken steps to move their case along quickly.
Judge Janet Neff wrote in a court order that the Trump campaign didn’t serve the lawsuit to the defendants, Michigan’s Secretary of State and Wayne County election officials, nor had it asked for the court to consider its case an emergency.
The lawsuit is part of a long shot court effort in Michigan and Pennsylvania from the Trump campaign as it so far fruitlessly trues to block election results in an unlikely play to grab electoral votes from President-elect Joe Biden.
The hiccup Neff points out comes after the Trump campaign has faced ridicule from the legal community for bringing meritless lawsuits to challenge the election, and after the campaign’s case in Pennsylvania faces its own series of setbacks including swapping the legal team there twice and being cut off from making some constitutional arguments.
The Trump campaign lawyers had outlined that they would need intervention to stop the election results in Michigan in the next few weeks because of an initial Electoral College deadline to finalize popular vote results on Dec. 8.
“Despite setting forth these looming deadlines and despite having characterized their pleading as one requiring ‘emergency’ relief, Plaintiffs have, to date, neither Plaintiffs have, to date, neither served their Complaint on Defendants nor filed any motions for immediate injunctive relief,” Neff wrote.
If the lawsuit is to continue at all, the Trump campaign has to serve the suit to the Michigan officials by 5 p.m. local time today, she added.
President Trump has “no public events” on his schedule again today
From CNN’s Kevin Liptak
President Trump has “no public events” on Tuesday — the tenth day since the election that those words have appeared on his daily schedule.
Even by Trump’s standards, the empty schedule is a remarkable stretch. Trump’s public appearances since Nov. 3 have amounted to a lie-filled appearance in the briefing room, a wreath-laying at Arlington and remarks about the coronavirus vaccine, all of which ended without any questions.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, some of Trump’s advisers pushed for more official events that would demonstrate the President going about the job he is now desperately trying to retain.
But the White House did not have any announcements or official engagements in the pipeline ahead of Nov. 3 because Trump and his team were so focused on re-election.
Trump has demonstrated little interest in adding more to his schedule, people familiar with the matter said, and few aides have raised the idea with him because of his dark mood and preoccupation with his loss.
Even as President-elect Joe Biden carries out daily public appearances focused on governing, Trump hasn’t felt obliged to keep pace — though he has watched Biden’s activities from the White House.
Instead, he is spending mornings in the residence watching television, arriving to the Oval Office later in the afternoon and remaining into the evening. He goes back-and-forth between the office and his adjoining dining room, which is equipped with the large television and where newspapers and magazines are strewn across the table.
The West Wing had also been without an in-person leader in the weeks since the election as chief of staff Mark Meadows recovered from coronavirus. Meadows returned to the White House on Monday. He had been working while in isolation and spent a lot of time on conference calls with colleagues and Trump, people familiar with what happened told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Biden will receive briefing from diplomatic, intel and defense experts today
From CNN’s Arlette Saenz
President-elect Joe Biden’s national security briefing today will feature a team of diplomatic, intelligence, and defense experts, a transition official said.
“They’ll discuss readiness at the relevant agencies as the president-elect prepares to lead on day one,” the official said.
The briefing comes as Biden has yet to receive classified intelligence briefings as President Trump has refused to concede the race and blocked his administration from taking any of the administrative steps typically taken in a transfer of power, including allowing the General Services Administration to declare that there is a president-elect — a move that triggers the transition process.
Speaking Monday to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden pointed to the fact that Vice president-elect Kamala Harris continues to receive intelligence briefings in her role on the Senate Intelligence committee.
“The good news here is my colleague is still on the intelligence committee, so she gets the intelligence briefings. I don’t anymore,” Biden said. “So that is, but there is a number of Republicans calling for that. I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20.”
Biden’s briefing Tuesday will not be an official US government national security briefing.
Michigan appeals court shoots down elections fraud case again
From CNN’s Jessica Schneider and Katelyn Polantz
A Michigan appeals court has again shot down an effort to push unfounded elections fraud claims, after a judge in the state decided there wasn’t any proof.
The judge denied another effort by two poll challengers trying to stop certification of the vote in Detroit. The challengers were appealing a decision from a state court judge in Wayne County on Friday.
Read more about the latest lawsuits here.
Biden urges Congress to pass coronavirus package as stimulus talks remain stalled
From CNN’s Eric Bradner
President-elect Joe Biden urged Congress to pass a coronavirus relief package that includes funding to help state and local governments with payrolls for public workers like teachers and first responders.
“There’s a reason why the federal government is able to run a deficit: because the states must, must, balance their budget. And they’re in real trouble,” Biden said in a speech yesterday in Delaware after a meeting with business and labor leaders.
He called on the Democratic-led House and Republican-controlled Senate to pass a package similar to legislation the House approved months ago — but that the Senate has refused to take up.
“We can deliver immediate relief, and it need be done quickly,” Biden said, characterizing the economy as “teetering on the edge” headed into a “very dark winter” months before coronavirus vaccines could become widely available.
And in an implicit rebuke of President Donald Trump, who has frequently opposed financial help for Democratic-led states and cities, Biden said that “we’re all American” and the need for bipartisan collaboration is “a mandate from the American people.”
“They want us to cooperate,” he said.
Read more here.
