Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told CNBC that he was “not surprised” to hear news of Attorney General William Barr’s resignation from the Justice Department.
“It was clear that part of the [Trump] Administration was a challenging job for him to say the least, “said Romney.” I’m not surprised that he was no longer able to connect to the process that is now running. ”
President Donald Trump brought the news of Barr’s resignation on Twitter, saying he would be leaving the Justice Department before Christmas. It comes less than two weeks after the attorney general denied the president’s unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged and the FBI found no evidence of widespread electoral fraud.
Romney added that he was “concerned” about the “democracy cause” not only in the United States but around the world when it comes to the president’s false electoral fraud claims.
“The biggest concern I have is that people here really believe that this election was stolen somehow, and there is no evidence, and the president said it was stolen even before election day,” said Romney during a taped interview Monday night on The News with Shepard Smith. “What’s going on now, I’m afraid, is terribly daunting for people around the world.”
Romney is also part of the bipartisan group of lawmakers who launched the $ 908 billion two-part stimulus package. Legislators are now splitting the original $ 908 billion bipartisan proposal into two bills, putting everything they can agree on in one bill and everything they disagree on in another bill. Romney told host Shepard Smith that he believes there is a chance to pass.
“You actually see a number of people coming in with support,” Romney said. “We hope that this will be achieved either in whole or in part, and that the help will reach people who are in dire need of it.”
As part of the potential compromise, states would receive $ 160 billion in three installments over the next six months. The payments would depend in part on the population and how much money each state has actually lost. The bill would raise the bar for lawsuits against companies, but this protection would only last for the duration of the pandemic.
Some of the broadly agreed items, including $ 748 billion for unemployment benefits, small business, vaccines and education, have been grouped into a separate bill. However, neither House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Nor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Have agreed to put the bipartisan compromise to a vote and Romney said it was not yet confident that either guide would do so.
“We have people who will lose their unemployment insurance the day after Christmas, and preventing it from happening is a high priority,” said Romney. “We want help for people who also need spiritual aid facilities, we urgently need help for small businesses, and we have a lot of businesses just clinging to it. So this is another round of small business PPP grants and loans . ”
Stimulus testing is not included in the bipartisan compromise. Romney noted that help will be given to the people who need the money to pay rent and eat.
“Sending checks to people who don’t need them isn’t as high a priority for us as sending checks to people who are unemployed, unable to pay rent and looking for food,” said Romney.
It has been 262 days since the last relief bill, and the nation has passed another dire milestone. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 300,000 people in the United States since February. More than one in ten deaths has been reported since early December, and over the course of the pandemic, the US has recorded an average of 1,000 deaths per day, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
Attorney General William Barr will step down before Christmas, President Donald Trump said Monday.
The eagerly anticipated departure of Barr, the Justice Department’s chief, came moments after President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump was formalized by the electoral college. The twilight shake of Trump’s tenure at the White House also followed weeks of public clashes between Barr and the president.
But Barr’s resignation letter, shared by Trump on Twitter when he made the announcement, extensively praised the president and said he was “proud to have played a role in the many achievements and unprecedented achievements you have achieved for the American people.” “.
“Your record is all the more historic as you got it in the face of relentless, relentless opposition,” says Barr’s letter. “Few of them could have survived these attacks, let alone advanced a positive program for the country.”
Trump also implied in the tweets that, despite his recent criticism, he was not malevolent towards Barr.
“I just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House,” Trump said in two tweets. “Our relationship was very good, he did an excellent job!”
Assistant Attorney General Jeff Rosen will serve as acting attorney general after Barr’s departure, Trump said on the tweets. Richard Donoghue, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will take on Rosen’s role as No. 2 officer in the Justice Department, Trump wrote.
Barr directly contradicted Trump in early December when he revealed that the Justice Department had found no evidence of large-scale election or election fraud that would undo President-elect Joe Biden’s planned victory.
This recording during an Associated Press interview undermined the president, who refused to admit Biden, falsely claiming he won the election by citing a number of unproven fraud conspiracies and claiming the race was “rigged” against him been.
Barr’s testimony also severely undermined lawyers’ legal efforts regarding the Trump campaign to reverse Biden’s victories in key swing states.
William Barr takes a seat on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA, on January 15, 2019, after pausing in his Senate Judicial Committee hearing on his appointment as Attorney General of the United States.
Yuri Gripas | Reuters
This legal team, led by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, has filed a series of lawsuits seeking to invalidate hundreds of thousands of votes, with an emphasis on countries that were heavily democratic in the presidential election. Many of these lengthy lawsuits have already been denied, and none has yet led the swing state judges to block or revoke certification of Biden’s victories.
After the vote in the electoral college the previous Monday, it was less likely that remaining efforts to undo Biden’s victory would be successful.
Giuliani and another Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis pushed Barr’s statements back after they were made public.
“With all due respect to the attorney general, there was no appearance of an investigation by the Justice Department,” said Giuliani and Ellis in a joint statement from the Trump campaign.
“Again, his opinion appears to be with the utmost respect for the Attorney General with no knowledge of or investigation into the material irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud,” the statement said.
Later in December, Trump expressed frustration with the Justice Department for refusing to conduct a public investigation into Biden’s son Hunter Biden in the run-up to the election.
The Wall Street Journal reported that, despite pressure from Trump and Republicans to obtain information about the Democratic candidate’s son, Barr had worked to hide the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business and finances.
Trump tweeted on December 11th, “Why didn’t the Fake News Media, FBI, and DOJ report the Biden matter before the election?”
He added, mistakenly, “Well it’s okay, we won the election anyway – 75,000,000 VOTES !!!”
On Saturday, Trump retweeted a post stating that if the attorney general had been working to keep a criminal investigation of Biden’s son Hunter Biden secret during the election, as did the Wall, Barr “should be fired until the end of business today.” Street Journal reported Friday.
“A big disappointment!” Trump wrote in a comment on this post.
Barr’s fall exacerbates an ongoing leadership crisis in the Justice Department. The attorney general has faced heavy criticism, including from current and former DOJ officials, for politicizing the department.
Barr has resolved issues through his interventions in a number of high profile federal cases involving Trump’s allies.
After federal prosecutors proposed a harsh sentence for GOP agent Roger Stone, a friend of Trump’s convicted of seven crimes related to congressional lies, Barr stepped in to whitewash the proposed verdict. Four of the federal attorneys in Stone’s case resigned from law enforcement shortly thereafter. Trump changed Stone’s ruling in July and saved him from entering prison.
Barr also faced a review of his dealings with former Special Adviser Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and the dismissal of Geoffrey Berman, former U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District.
At times, however, Barr publicly pushed Trump back. In an interview, Barr complained that some of the president’s tweets about ongoing cases made it “impossible” for him to do his job.
A recent controversy has involved an embarrassing mix-up over the replacement of the former US attorney in Manhattan.
In June, Barr announced that Berman was stepping down and being replaced by Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton.
Berman, who reportedly investigated Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, announced hours later that he had not resigned and would not resign until Trump officially nominated a replacement and that person received Senate approval.
Berman eventually stepped aside after Barr said he would be replaced on an acting basis by Berman’s second-in-command, Audrey Strauss.
The end of Barr’s tenure marks the final step in the deterioration of Trump’s relationship with his attorney general, an alliance that was once considered one of the strongest Trump had with a member of his cabinet.
Barr’s role in the Trump administration, which he took over in 2019, was his second term as the country’s top law enforcement officer. Barr also served as Attorney General under President George HW Bush in the 1990s.
Craig Jelinek, CEO of Costco, told CNBC on Monday that the company’s physical stores will continue to be of vital importance, despite the wholesaler seeing a surge in e-commerce sales during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our entire online business will continue to grow. Will we be difficult? No, we will not,” said Jelinek to “Closing Bell”. “We will simply continue to attach importance to high-quality goods and quality goods and deliver them either via the warehouse, stationary trade or electronic trade.”
Before the pandemic, Costco had made a name for itself for its personal shopping experience, with cheap items on its food court like the hot dog and soda combo for $ 1.50. However, many Costco members turned to their website this year, resulting in strong online sales growth that many competitors saw as well.
For the 13 week period ending November 29, Costco’s total comparable revenue increased 14.5%. In particular, e-commerce increased by 82% compared to the same period in the previous year. A similar trend emerged in the company’s fourth quarter. Online sales increased 91% over the previous year.
“We will continue to grow this business,” said Jelinek, noting some of the technology investments the company had made. In March, for example, Costco acquired $ 1 billion worth of Innovel Solutions, which provides last-mile delivery services. It was owned by the company that has Sears and Kmart businesses.
“We see a great opportunity to build our last mile business with large ticket items and bulk items. … Our clothing business continues to grow online,” added Jelinek.
Even so, it remains an essential part for the retailer to have members shop in the store, Jelinek said. “It’s still important to physically get people into stores. I still think brick and mortar retail isn’t going to go away. We want to keep getting people into stores and there’s no better way to do it than a $ 1.50 price. ” Dog and a Roast Chicken “for $ 4.99, he said.
During the pandemic, Costco saw customers stock up on items like toilet paper, which resulted in a limit on the number of purchases. Jelinek said Costco began monitoring some of shoppers’ inventory behavior this fall as coronavirus cases rise in the US and state and local officials reintroduce public health restrictions. However, he said it was “not quite as much” as it was this spring during the first wave of the pandemic.
“They are still buying extra toilet paper, toiletries, and the like to keep making sure they are in place as some of those items … will continue to be a long-term need,” Jelinek predicted that some of the increased buying patterns will “likely be in the middle of next year if I had to guess “could persist.
Costco’s shares closed the session slightly on Monday at $ 374 apiece. The stock is up 27% since the start of the year.
When the quarantine started there were lots of jokes and lots of baby talk that emerged from this whole thing as we would be stuck in the house for a while. Well, it looks like some lovely couples really made the most of their time together, including Christina Milian and Matt Pokora!
Christina took to Instagram on Friday to announce that she has another bun in the oven just 11 months after giving birth to her little boy Isaiah.
Christina gave birth to Isaiah in January and announced that she and Matt would have their first child together in July 2019. Both published sonogram photos of Baby Isaiah with exciting messages about their family expansion.
As you know, Christina has a daughter from her previous relationship with ex-husband The Dream. Her daughter Violet loves Matt very much as her stepfather and the two often show their father-daughter relationship on the Grammar.
Christina and Matt happened to announce their new bundle of joy shortly after Cassie, one of Christina’s close friends, announced that she was pregnant too! What is planned? We’re not sure, but we can say both families will have wonderful trips together.
Are you feeling the baby fever now, roomies?
Would you like updates directly in your text inbox? Contact us at 917-722-8057 or https://my.community.com/theshaderoom
Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, will be welcomed by Dr. Michelle Chester of Northwell Health at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, USA, vaccinated with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine, 2020.
Mark Lennihan | Reuters
The United States administered the first shots of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine to healthcare workers on Monday. This was a pivotal moment in the country’s long march to get the virus under control.
The vaccine comes at an urgent time. The U.S. is nearing nearly 300,000 Covid-19 deaths and leading health officials are warning that new deaths every day could not slow down for months, even with a vaccine.
With limited doses available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended states prioritize distribution to frontline health workers and long-term care residents who are among the most severely affected by the disease .
The rapid introduction of the vaccine promises to be an enormous logistical challenge. The federal government has worked with UPS, FedEx, McKesson, CVS, and Walgreens, among others, to aid in the distribution of the vaccine and its actual administration. However, state officials have warned that the so-called last mile delivery of the vaccine will be the biggest challenge, and local officials are largely responsible for that effort. State officials have repeatedly urged the federal government to allocate more funds to accelerate efforts.
UPS employees move one of two shipping containers containing the first shipments of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on a ramp at UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday, December 13, 2020.
Michael Clevenger | Getty Images
“There is no part of this country that will not be touched until Wednesday,” said General Gustave Perna, who is responsible for the logistics of Operation Warp Speed, at a briefing on Monday. “It’s not a one-time delivery. It’s a consistent flow of ordering, preparation, and delivery.”
With distribution problems ahead and the ongoing outbreak, health care officials and workers took time Monday to celebrate the vaccine’s arrival and hope. Across the country, images were poured in of health care workers getting their first pictures and the first doses arriving at more than a hundred distribution locations.
new York
Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City, was among the first Americans to be vaccinated against the disease shortly after 9 a.m.
“I am very proud to be in this position and to promote public confidence in the safety of the vaccine. I encourage everyone to take the vaccine,” she said at a news conference with Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health, and Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York. “This should matter to all of us as it means hope, healing, restoring public health and public safety.”
At the event, Cuomo thanked healthcare workers for serving on the front lines of what has been called a “modern battlefield”.
“This vaccine is exciting because I believe this is the weapon that will end the war,” he said. “It’s the beginning of the last chapter of the book, but now all we have to do is do it. The vaccine won’t work if it’s in the vial, does it?”
Florida
Nearly 100,000 doses of the vaccine will arrive at five major Florida regional hospitals on Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference at Tampa General Hospital.
DeSantis said he was at the Tampa General loading dock to sign and receive the first dose. He later introduced Vanessa Arroyo, 31, a nurse at Tampa General, who DeSantis said was the first to receive the vaccine in Florida.
Dr. Charles Lockwood, dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine, compared it to the first moon landing to convey his excitement.
“From a health care perspective, this is our magical Neil Armstrong moment,” Lockwood said, adding that people should keep wearing their masks, practice social distancing and avoid large crowds.
Kentucky
Dr. Jason Smith shows his bandage after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination at the University of Louisville Hospital on December 14, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Jon Cherry | Getty Images
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear celebrated the historic day at the University of Louisville that Dr. Jason Smith, the chief medical officer of the University of Louisville Health, was the first to receive the vaccine in Kentucky.
“I firmly believe this is a safe and effective vaccine,” said Smith before rolling up his sleeve. “So I volunteered to go first.”
Connecticut
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont greeted nearly 2,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine Monday morning at Hartford Hospital, where Dr. Ajay Kumar, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of Hartford HealthCare, received the first dose.
“This is the beginning of a new day. This is a time of hope. This is a historic moment,” said Jeffrey Flaks, President and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, at a news conference. “Our doctors have described this in many ways for our country, like putting a man on the moon.”
Hartford Healthcare officials said 15 frontline health workers, including doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, would be the first people in the state to receive the vaccine.
Louisiana
Frontline workers at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans were among the first in Louisiana to receive the vaccine, said Governor John Bel Edwards, calling the day “the beginning of the end.”
Dr. Robert Hart, Ochsner’s chief medical officer, encouraged everyone to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible, adding that people should continue to follow public health guidelines such as: B. wearing masks and social distancing. As he spoke over his shoulder, the audience saw Dr. Leo Seoane, Ochsner’s academic director, received the vaccine.
“It was an incredible morning. As everyone says, it’s historic,” said Seoane. “As a Cuban American citizen and first generation immigrant to this country, it is truly an honor and a privilege to be part of the solution to something that we know has been so effective for the Hispanic community.”
Seoane noted that Covid-19 hit the Hispanic with a disproportionate burden. The CDC says that Hispanic and black Americans died nearly three times as often as white Americans. Seoane urged members of these communities to receive the vaccine as soon as they were given the opportunity.
Ohio
The first vaccinations in Buckeye state were at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, where Governor Mike DeWine was was there to receive the first shipment Monday morning.
“This is a very exciting day for Ohio. It is the day the trial begins near the end of the pandemic. The end is still a long way off, but the end is in sight,” he said on Twitter before the footage. “Every day as we move forward from here, more and more people are being vaccinated.”
One of the first Ohioans to be vaccinated was Dr. Stella Ogake, assistant professor for internal medicine in pulmonary and intensive care medicine at Wexner.
“It’s such a moment of hope because we can see the light. We can see the end of this pandemic,” she told CNN.
Iowa
The first Iowan to receive the Covid-19 vaccine was David Conway, a 39-year-old nurse with the University of Iowa Health Department.
“I feel great to have the vaccine and finally to be ahead of this virus,” he told reporters shortly after receiving the shot. “I’ve been expecting this for a long time and it’s great to finally have it.”
“I was pretty shocked,” he added, explaining that he learned Monday morning that he would be the first person in Iowa to receive the vaccine. His principal, who he doesn’t talk to much, called his cell phone that morning and told him to be there at a certain time, Conway said.
He added that “it’s a fine day for a vaccine.”
District of Columbia
Nurse Lillian Wirpsza delivers a COVID-19 vaccine to emergency room nurse Barbara Neiswander while Alex Azar, Secretary for Health and Human Services, watches on December 14, 2020 at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, United States.
Jacquelyn Martin | Reuters
In the country’s capital, federal officials held a ceremony with faculties and staff from George Washington University Hospital and GW Medical Faculty Associates.
“The development of a Covid-19 vaccine is nothing short of revolutionary, and I hope everyone will appreciate the significance, the significance and the history of this moment,” said US surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams. He also urged people of color to get the vaccine if they can.
“It would be a great tragedy if the differences actually got worse because the people who could benefit most from this vaccine weren’t taking it,” he said.
Barbara Neiswander, a nurse in the emergency room of the GW hospital, received the vaccination.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Congressional efforts to fund state and local distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine continued to be balanced on Monday, even as the first doses of Pfizer’s landmark vaccine were given.
Legislators have yet to agree on a funding package to support health departments in the unprecedented vaccination campaign, despite bipartisan agreements that billions of dollars are needed.
The funding negotiations were fraught with deadlocked talks over possible bills that would provide economic relief to millions of Americans who have suffered from the coronavirus-related financial crisis.
These talks, which seemed to be moving slowly over the past few weeks, have taken on a new urgency as the Christmas holidays approach and the reality of viable Covid-19 vaccines has set in.
However, earlier in the week it was not clear whether Congress would make significant progress in passing its first major aid package to Covid-19 since the $ 2.2 trillion CARES bill was passed in March.
The latest plan, which is part of a $ 908 billion bailout bill tabled by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, puts $ 6 billion in sales efforts. The legislature should publish a legislative text on Monday.
The $ 6 billion price tag is in line with the Trump administration’s requirements, but well below what groups of health departments consider necessary.
For months, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Association of Immunization Managers have been demanding that Congress allocate at least $ 8.4 billion.
“These funds are urgently needed to expand and strengthen federal, state, local, territorial and tribal capacities for a timely, comprehensive and equitable vaccine distribution campaign,” the groups wrote in October.
The groups said that the $ 200 million previously allocated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was a “down payment.”
CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Senate in September that it would “take anywhere between $ 5.5 [billion] on $ 6 billion “to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine, saying the matter is” urgent. “
The Department of Health and Human Services, where the CDC is located, has not returned a request for comment on the state of the Congressional negotiations.
So far, the nature of the latest proposal to fund state and local vaccine distribution has only been published in summary form.
According to legislative summaries, the $ 908 billion package would provide $ 3.42 billion in direct grants to states and communities, $ 2.58 billion to fund CDC “vaccine distribution and infrastructure,” and $ 129 million for tribes and tribal organizations contain.
Claire Hannan, executive director of AIM, said her group was still learning the details of the $ 6 billion proposal, but that it looked promising that lawmakers would move the funds to distribute the vaccine from the funds for tracking and testing separated from contacts.
However, she cautioned against allocating less than needed to “programs with severe disabilities by registering more providers and expanding vaccination efforts”.
“Bottom line: If Congress doesn’t reach an agreement, we fear that the programs will not be able to expand their capacity to register additional providers, which means there could be fewer places and opportunities to vaccinate people and a longer period of time to emerge from this pandemic “, she said.
The bipartisan plan now under discussion was drawn up by a group of moderate senators from both major political parties and endorsed by the House Problem Solvers Caucus.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And Senate Minority Chairman Chuck Schumer have tentatively approved the plan and identified it as a starting point for negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would be instrumental in getting laws passed, has yet to board.
The ongoing negotiations go beyond funding vaccine distribution.
Unemployment benefits, which were expanded as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, will expire the day after Christmas, cutting payments to 12 million people. Each new deal is also expected to raise more funding for small businesses hit by the public health crisis.
Despite the widespread recognition that some sort of relief must be given, the barriers to reaching an agreement have remained largely unchanged for months.
Democrats have pushed for more spending and support to state and local governments facing budget crises as a result of the pandemic. Republicans largely oppose state and local aid, and have insisted that any deal include safeguarding businesses from liability claims arising from the crisis.
In addition to these sticking points, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a progressive, and Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Conservative, have proposed a bill that does not include direct payment to Americans in that sense of the $ 1,200 stimulus- Checks sent out earlier this year. The $ 908 billion plan does not include direct payments.
So far, White House involvement has been limited, although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has continued to negotiate with Pelosi.
President Donald Trump has shown little interest in reaching an agreement on Capitol Hill and has instead focused on his failed legal efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. If no agreement is reached in the coming weeks, the problem could soon be on President-elect Joe Biden’s plate.
Biden, who has already named several top doctors to positions in his administration, has signaled that distributing the Covid-19 vaccine will be a top priority for his administration in its first few days and is committed to 100 million doses in its first 100 days submit.
But Biden, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, has suggested that if Congress fails to reach an agreement, his plan could be foiled.
During an address in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, the former vice president urged Congress to quickly fund sales efforts and warned that efforts after an early round of vaccination could slow and stall after an early round of vaccination. “
“Let me repeat, we need Congress to end the bipartisan work, or millions of Americans may be waiting months longer – months longer – than they would otherwise have to get their vaccinations,” Biden said.
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WASHINGTON – The electoral college will vote on Monday to cement President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in this year’s presidential election.
The ballots are cast throughout the day by individual voters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and reflect their state’s referendum.
As of 12 p.m. ET, Indiana, Tennessee, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Oklahoma had their votes for Trump, bringing the president’s total to 56.
Vermont, Illinois, Nevada, Delaware and New Hampshire had all cast their votes for Biden, a total of 36 votes at noon. Biden is expected to win a total of 306 votes while Trump is expected to win 232 votes.
Voters in several major swing states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona, will gather at 12:00 PM ET to record their votes, all of which are expected to go to Biden. However, the former vice president is not expected to officially bring in the 270-vote majority required for victory, but until California gets its 55 electoral votes later in the day.
Voting in the electoral college is usually a formality that takes place more than a month after the vote is cast on election day. But Trump’s unprecedented legal and legislative efforts to reverse election results this year have made the process more important.
The president, his campaigning and political allies have filed dozens of lawsuits since election day, urging federal and state courts to invalidate the election results on the basis of countless unfounded allegations of irregularities.
These efforts failed repeatedly, prompting the president to change tactics in early December and personally pressure the Republican legislature to intervene in the selection of individual voters. This has also failed so far.
Still, Trump continues to falsely claim that he was not Biden, the legitimate winner of the November election, and that he was the victim of a massive, coordinated nationwide conspiracy to change the votes in Biden’s favor.
Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans, fearful of angering their Trump-loving voters, have largely lagged behind the president and have refused to recognize Biden’s victory.
After voters officially register their votes for the President and Vice-President, the next big event in the electoral college process is a joint congressional session on January 6th when both houses will officially count the votes.
Vice President Mike Pence, in his formal role as President of the Senate, is expected to lead the trial on January 6th. These tasks also include announcing the results.
All congressional objections to voting must be submitted in writing and signed by at least one member of the House and one senator. If an objection is raised, the two chambers will consider the objection separately.
Alabama Republican MP Mo Brooks has already announced that he will question the results of the House Electoral College census. In the Senate, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson has not ruled out filing a similar objection.
But not all Republicans are in favor of Brooks’ plan to increase the number of elections to challenge the results, which are sure to fail. And several Republican senators, who have yet to publicly acknowledge Biden’s victory, have announced that they will accept the results of Monday’s vote in the electoral college as the final verdict on the 2020 presidential election.
Still, some Republicans’ rejection of Biden’s victory in Congress is likely to extend into January and beyond.
In a December 6 poll by the Washington Post of all 249 Republicans in Congress, only 27 said they would accept Biden as legally elected president. Another 220 GOP lawmakers gave an unclear answer or didn’t respond, and two, Brooks and Rep. Paul A. Gosar of Arizona, said they believed Trump was the rightful election winner.
Since Election Day, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have tried largely to defy Trump’s increasingly desperate campaign to reverse the results.
While a small team of Biden campaign lawyers oversees Trump’s lawsuits, the former vice president goes through a formal transition process, announcing his candidates for his new cabinet, and putting forward a plan to aggressively fight the coronavirus pandemic during his first 100 days in office .
Biden and Harris are sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States on January 20, the day of their inauguration.
This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.
New trainers, a MacBook, a peloton – nowadays you can pay for almost anything in installments.
As with the schedule of previous loans, now known as point of sale loans, “Buy Now, Pay Later” allows shoppers to split their purchases into equal installments with no interest or fees, even with a debit card that can make even the largest of its own -Ticket items seem affordable.
Almost half, or 44%, of consumers said using Buy Now, Pay Later is or is very important in determining how much they are spending on vacation.
According to a recent survey of 6,500 adults conducted by Cardify.ai, a data firm that tracks consumer spending, they are concerned that they will overpend.
48% said they would buy now and pay later so they can spend at least 10% to 20% more than they would with a credit card.
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With the increasing dynamics of installment payments, start-ups such as Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna and QuadPay are booming.
These companies are working with merchants to provide an installment payment option at the checkout. Similar to credit cards, they charge the retailer, not the consumer, a processing fee.
At the same time, retailers benefit from the higher average purchase prices.
With more customers staying at home and buying almost anything online due to coronavirus-related restrictions, “it has been a perfect storm for the point of sale,” said Liz Pagel, senior vice president and director of consumer credit at TransUnion.
This phenomenon has put pressure on other lenders to come into play.
This year PayPal launched a new Pay-in-4 offer. Both Visa and Mastercard have announced partnerships with payment processors to create installment payment options, and American Express has created “Plan It” that allows cardholders to split large purchases of $ 100 or more into equal monthly payments for up to 24 months of no interest, available to US customers.
“We know that a little flexibility can go a long way, and sometimes people need more time to pay off purchases, especially during vacations,” said Shikha Narula, vice president, US consumer credit, American Express.
A separate survey by Amex Trendex found that half of all consumers would like more options for paying for Christmas presents this year and more than a quarter of consumers are more stressed about vacation spendingthan in previous years.
… it is really important to do some homework on these services before diving in.
Matt Schulz
Chief industry analyst at CompareCards
Since Plan It launched, nearly 5.5 million such plans have been created – mostly by Millennial and Gen Z consumers – with a total value of more than $ 4 billion, American Express said. The average plan size is $ 815.
However, if a cardholder misses the monthly budget, the account may default.
According to Matt Schulz, chief industry analyst at LendingTree, there is always a catch for consumers. If you miss a payment, you could face late fees, deferred interest, or other penalties depending on the lender.
“What happens when you miss a payment can be very different,” he said. “Some have late fees, others don’t, for example.
“This inequality is another reason why it is really important to do some homework on these services before you dive in,” added Schulz. “Since we are just getting started with these types of loans, there is no need to put all fees and interest rates in a single, large-format box like we do with credit cards.”
Card issuers will include your payment due date and minimum payment warnings on your monthly balance sheet.
CNBC selection
In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing economic crisis, consumers are generally more conscientious.
As Americans continue to grapple with rising Covid-19 cases and widespread unemployment, nearly 40% of Americans plan to spend less on gifts this holiday season than last year, the largest percentage since 2013, according to CNBC All-America Economic survey.
Although more than 186 million consumers have credit cards, credit card debt is falling to “unprecedented” levels, said Paul Siegfried, senior vice president and director of credit cards at TransUnion.
Average debt per borrower was $ 5,075 in the third quarter of 2020, a 10% year-over-year decrease, according to TransUnion.
There were fewer late and missed payments for credit card accounts in 2020, too: the percentage of overdue accounts that were 90 days or more overdue fell from 1.81% in the previous year to 1.22%.
Needless to say, this is not your average self-help book. As Manson says, “I wanted to write a book that didn’t necessarily give people hope, but that analyzes and examines the deep desire for hope. Because I think the desire for hope is actually more complicated than we think it is.” “”
“We tend to see hope as this generally good thing,” he continues. “But like many things in life, I think there is a dark side to hope, and I wanted to write a book about it.”
That doesn’t mean giving up hope, mind you. As Manson says in the book, “Don’t hope for better. Just be better. Be better. Be more compassionate, resilient, humble, more disciplined.”
Buyers were faced with partially empty shelves in a supermarket in London on March 14, 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak resulted in stockpiling.
JUSTIN TALLIS | AFP | Getty Images
UK grocery stores store groceries under the possibility of a no deal scenario as negotiations on a Brexit trade deal between the EU and the UK are at stake.
According to the Sunday Times newspaper, supermarkets have reportedly been instructed by government ministers to hoard non-perishable goods. Legislators said a “no-deal Brexit is imminent”. A UK government spokesman was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
There have already been widespread warnings from business leaders of possible fresh food shortages, possible delays in deliveries from the continent and price increases in the event of a no-deal scenario – in which the UK and the EU fail to agree on a post-Brexit trade deal.
Both sides have until December 31st to agree on a deal, and although talks will continue at this late stage, they have warned that a no-deal is the more likely outcome.
However, there were glimmers of hope on Sunday when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and instructed their negotiators to continue speaking.
Grocery retailers are closely monitoring the negotiations, but leading chains have already taken steps to ease a no-deal situation.
Online grocer Ocado stores long-life products like Italian beer, according to a report last week, while Tesco chairman said his company “tried as much as possible to ensure that we store long-life products either in our warehouses or with our suppliers . “
Speaking to Bloomberg, John Allan said higher food prices are “inevitable” if a deal doesn’t come off, warning that grocery bills could rise by an average of 3-5% from Jan. 1. Some food products, such as B. Continental cheese could do much larger price increases with the introduction of tariffs, he said, despite urging buyers not to panic.
“There may be a shortage of fresh food, especially fresh, short-lived foods. I think this will only be for a limited time, maybe a month or two, before we’re back to normal,” Allan said.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab dismissed Tesco’s chairman’s comments and told the BBC last Thursday that he was not concerned about price increases. “Of all the things that will be a challenge, I’m not worried about whether the supermarket cabinets are empty or the cost of food prices,” said Raab, although he has admitted that there would be “some bumps on the road, if we don’t get it. ” a free trade agreement. “
No cause of action
There are fears that uncertainty about a deal could lead to panic buying among consumers.
In a no-deal scenario, the current duty-free trade relationship between the UK and the EU would end abruptly on December 31st and both sides would fail to comply with World Trade Organization rules. Both sides could then impose tariffs on each other’s imports, driving up business costs and leading to higher prices for consumers.
The UK retail consortium said the companies were trying to prepare for a no-deal situation, warning consumers against stockpiling goods.
“Retailers are doing everything they can to prepare for any January 1st eventuality. They are increasing inventory of cans, toilet rolls and other longer-lasting products so that enough critical items are available,” said Helen Dickinson, BRC executive director in one Statement Sunday.
“While no amount of preparation by retailers can completely prevent disruption, the public does not need to buy more food than usual as the main impact is on imported fresh produce such as fresh fruits and vegetables that cannot be stored by either retailers or for extended periods of time by consumers, “she said.
The BRC warned that without a deal, the UK public will face food duties in excess of £ 3 billion (US $ 4.02 billion), saying that retailers “would have no choice but to offer some of these additional costs.” Passing on their customers who do so would see filters for higher prices [through] in 2021. “In addition, new checks and red tape, effective January 1, are expected to put an additional burden on retailers and their customers.
Like other sectors that could be hard hit by a no-deal outcome, such as the automotive industry, the BRC has urged the UK and EU “to do what is necessary to get a zero-tariff deal, otherwise it will be the public.” . ” that pays the price for that mistake. “
Probably higher food prices and a disruption of inventories would occur after an already difficult year for consumers in light of the coronavirus pandemic, adding an additional burden to household finances.
The lifting of regional coronavirus restrictions for Christmas is also likely to increase demand for goods in supermarkets. This at a time when delivery problems have been occurring due to clogging in one of the UK’s largest ports in Felixstowe on the east coast of England, reportedly due to a backlog of containers with personal protective equipment.
