Updated at 12:20 p.m. with comments from an interview with Jeffress.
WASHINGTON — One of President Donald Trump’s top evangelical Christian allies, Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress, called Democrat Joe Biden’s victory a “bitter pill to swallow” for conservatives and said that while the result isn’t official, “it appears that he won.”
Trump has refused to concede defeat, though Jeffress, does not embrace his claims that the election has been stolen, and that fraud and cheating on a scale big enough to tilt the outcome has occurred.
“I don’t pretend to be an election expert,” he said by phone. “I trust that if there is that kind of fraud that it would be uncovered.”
In an online column published by Fox News that refers to Biden as president-elect, Jeffress offered advice on how fellow Trump supporters should embrace that development.
“For millions of Christians across our nation, this is a bitter pill to swallow,” he wrote for the network, where he is a frequent commentator. “It’s always easier to submit and to pray for someone when he was our preferred candidate. But the rubber really meets the road when the person who takes office is not the one we supported. Here is our chance to show that Christians are not hypocrites,”
Jeffress’ stance might itself be a bitter pill for the president, who insists the election is not over.
The senior pastor at First Baptist Dallas, one of Texas’ biggest megachurches, was one of Trump’s earliest and most visible conservative Christian supporters in the 2016 campaign.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Jeffress emphasized that “I am not in any way calling this election,” though he acknowledged that Biden’s victory is “the most likely outcome.”
After the Associated Press and TV networks called Pennsylvania and the election for Biden on Saturday morning, Fox News asked him to write about how Christians should respond to a President Biden. The column started with that premise but wasn’t meant to assert that he agrees it’s over, Jeffress said, though it has carried a declarative headline for three days:
Pastor Robert Jeffress: Biden is president-elect — how should Christians respond? Below that, it asks: What is God doing in this outcome? Why would He allow this to happen?
“I did not choose the headline. That was Fox’s headline,” Jeffress said.
Trump called him “a terrific guy, a terrific man” on Good Friday, when he announced that he’d watch the Easter Service that Jeffress would lead in Dallas, at a point in the pandemic when church attendance was discouraged.
Trump campaign appeal for donations on Nov. 11, 2020, four days after Joe Biden was declared the winner, asserts that Democrats are trying to “STEAL the Election.”(Trump campaign email)
Evidence of fraud and cheating has not surfaced, though that has not stopped Trump and his campaign from alleging that the election has been stolen.
On Wednesday morning, for instance, the Trump campaign was still issuing pleas for donations that included the claim: “We cannot let the Democrats STEAL this election.”
Elections officials in every state have explicitly rejected the assertion, calling this a smooth if unusual election due to the pandemic and widespread use of mail ballots.
Trump trails Biden by more than 5 million votes, and the Democrat has secured a convincing victory margin in the Electoral College.
“I understand – looking at it, it appears that he won,” Jeffress said by phone on Wednesday, adding that “I’ve said publicly –I’ve said on Fox News – that I think the only way for us to have unity in our country is not only to respect the right of people to vote in an election, but the right to contest an election and President Trump has every right to contest this election.”
“It’s ‘if he becomes president’ and we won’t know that till I suppose December 14 when the Electoral College meets,” he said.
In his column, Jeffress cited admonitions from the Apostle Paul to submit to lawful civil authority, as in in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, when he called for prayer “for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions.”
“Paul didn’t give us any wiggle room — his command applies all the same, whether the emperor was the faith-friendly Constantine or the evil emperor Nero,” he wrote, adding, “If President Biden succeeds, we all succeed. May God bless Joe Biden, and may God bless the United States of America.”
None of that means Jeffress is without qualms about a Biden administration.
On Wednesday he criticized Biden for vowing to roll back Trump executive orders on abortion and religious liberty.
He hasn’t spoken with Trump since Election Day, though Vice President Mike Pence called him two days later “just to check in.”
“At that point, the Vice President was very clear that it wasn’t over in their mind, yet there were still recounts to be done. He and was optimistic,” Jeffress said.
Evangelical conservatives rallied to Trump over his policies and his promise, which he has fulfilled to a degree few imagined, to tilt the federal courts to the right. With the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett last month, he has named one third of the 9-member Supreme Court.
So disappointment on the right is natural.
“I think most people are well intentioned,” Jeffress said. “They want the best for our country. And I think Christians want to hope for the best with the new president, but frankly I think Joe Biden is making the wrong moves up front, if he really does want to work with all Americans. I mean to immediately attack religious liberty issues and protection of the unborn. I just don’t think that’s the kind of thing you do if you truly are interested in working with groups who may not believe like you do.”
Georgia’s secretary of state has announced a full hand recount of the presidential race.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a news conference Wednesday that his office wants the process to begin by the end of the week and he expects it to take until Nov. 20.
President-elect Joe Biden leads President Trump by about 14,000 votes out of nearly 5 million votes counted in the state. Nearly all ballots have been counted, though counties have until Friday to certify their results.
After results from the hand recount are certified, the losing campaign can request another recount, which will be performed by machine, Raffensperger said.
There is no mandatory recount law in Georgia, but state law provides that option to a trailing candidate if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. Biden’s lead stood at 0.28 percentage points as of Wednesday morning.
The move comes as Republicans are making more demands of Georgia’s chief elections officer as they seek to overturn Democrat Biden’s lead in the state.
U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who’s leading Trump’s recount team in Georgia, and state Republican Party Chairman David Shafer sent a letter to Raffensperger on Tuesday requesting that he order the hand recount before certifying the results.
A day earlier, Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler called for Raffensperger’s resignation, claiming he ran the election poorly but citing no specific incidents of wrongdoing. Perdue will face Democrat Jon Ossoff and Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock in Jan. 5 runoffs that are likely to determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Raffensperger has refused to step down and defended how his office conducted the election. His office has refuted a number of claims made by Trump supporters.
“The process of reporting results has been orderly and followed the law,” Raffensperger said in a Monday statement. “Where there have been specific allegations of illegal voting, my office has dispatched investigators.”
“This is not about anything but a fair process and election,” Collins said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is not about sour grapes. It’s not about anything else. It’s just about saying, let’s restore the integrity, because we’ve got more elections here in Georgia in a very short time.”
Collins and Shafer also requested that election officials recanvass the results for Perdue’s Senate seat and a state Public Service Commission seat held by Lauren “Bubba” McDonald. The AP called a runoff in Perdue’s race and hasn’t made a call yet in McDonald’s race, where the Republican leads but is short of reaching a majority of votes, as required by Georgia law.
Additionally, Collins and Shafer asked Raffensperger to verify the validity of signatures on 1.4 million mailed-in ballots and confirm the ballots include the proper notations, check in-person and mail-in ballots to make sure no one cast one of each, check that no one who’s not eligible was able to vote and trace the ballots’ chain of custody to confirm that they were legally cast.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well, and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.
The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: problems with signatures, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. With Biden leading Trump by wide margins in key states, none of those issues would affect the election’s outcome.
Trump’s campaign has also complained that their poll watchers were unable to scrutinize the voting process, including in Georgia’s Fulton County. Many legal challenges based on those complaints have been tossed out by judges, some within hours of filing. None of the complaints show any evidence that the election’s outcome was affected.
Cathy Cox, dean of Mercer University law school and a former Georgia secretary of state, said the election law places the burden of proof on Trump and his allies to show evidence of vote fraud.
“All I’ve heard is noise and innuendo, rumor and gossip,” said Cox, a Democrat who served as Georgia’s top elections official from 1999 until 2007. “Just throwing junk at the wall to see if somebody will buy it.”
Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz told CNBC on Wednesday that the undecided U.S. Senate elections in Georgia are critical in shaping the trajectory of President-elect Joe Biden‘s time in the White House, calling them “the most important Senate elections in modern times.”
The race between GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock is headed to a runoff on Jan. 5, after neither candidate failed to secure 50% of the vote in last week’s general election. The state’s other Senate contest, between Republican Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, also appears to be headed to a runoff — although NBC News has not made an official call.
The balance of power in the Senate will be at stake if both end up heading to a January runoff — and if both were to flip Democratic, then the Senate would be split down the middle.
Republicans currently hold 50 seats, compared with 48 in Democratic hands, including two independent senators, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, who caucus with the Democrats. That means a pair of Democratic victories in Georgia would make the 100-seat Senate 50-50. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would hold the tie-breaking vote.
“If the Democrats can win both of these seats back, then they will be in control of the Senate and the president will have an agenda that won’t be able to be challenged” on Capitol Hill, Luntz said on “Squawk Box.” “If the Republicans win even one of these seats, then they [retain] control the majority and they will determine exactly what of the president’s agenda will go forward.”
Democrats will keep control of the House, according to NBC News, which puts the count at 225 Democrats and 210 Republicans. That would be a net-loss of seven seats for the Democrats but still over the 218-seat threshold needed to keep their majority.
Luntz said the “consequences” of Democrats winning both Senate seats in Georgia make it more likely that ambitious proposals on climate change and rolling back portions of President Donald Trump‘s signature tax reform law could be approved. Democrats also could push for changes to Senate rules, such as eliminating the filibuster, which establishes a 60-vote threshold to bring legislation to the floor, according to Luntz.
However, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said this week that he would oppose proposals to end the filibuster or expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court, a pledge that, if fulfilled, would dash progressive hopes for more structural reforms.
Luntz noted Manchin’s recent remarks, saying he takes the West Virginia Democrat at his word, calling him a “reasonable senator.” Nonetheless, Luntz noted that Democratic control of the Senate would still mean that committee chairs would be considerably more liberal than Republican counterparts. “The stakes have never been so high and everybody in Washington is going to be impacted by what happens on Jan. 5,” he said.
Even so, Luntz said he believes it is challenging to forecast what will happen in the Georgia senate races — especially given the prospect that Biden would ultimately win the presidential contest there. With 99% of the expected ballots counted, Biden leads Trump by just over 14,000 votes. No Democratic presidential candidate has won Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. Now, however, it is a “genuine swing state,” Luntz said.
However, later Wednesday morning after Luntz’s interview, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, announced a statewide “full, by-hand” recount in the presidential election. He said he aims to finish the recount in time for the Nov. 20 deadline to certify the state’s election results.
Among the factors that make the Georgia Senate outcomes hard to predict, according to Luntz, is the massive spending in the races. He said it is also unclear what role Trump will decide to play in the election. “We don’t know if he’s going to take his marbles and go home, whether he’s going to be active” in campaigning for the GOP candidates, Luntz said. Republican voters may also feel dejected if Biden ends up winning the state and not show up for the January vote, he said.
By contrast, Luntz said he expects Biden and allies to be active in courting support and turnout for Warnock and, potentially, Ossoff. “They will do everything they absolutely can. They’re going to flood the state,” he said.
Christopher Miller, seen at a Senate hearing in September, was named acting defense secretary on Monday as part of President Trump’s shake-up of the national security community.
Tom Williams/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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Tom Williams/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Christopher Miller, seen at a Senate hearing in September, was named acting defense secretary on Monday as part of President Trump’s shake-up of the national security community.
Tom Williams/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
The shake-up at the Pentagon continues after President Trump “terminated” Defense Secretary Mark Esper, replacing him with his counterterrorism chief, Christopher Miller, who was being read in on issues and operations.
Three other top Pentagon officials have been replaced with Trump loyalists who have pushed conspiracy theories and who are hawkish on Iran. There are concerns such personnel changes could mean a more aggressive stance toward Iran before the president leaves office in the next 2 1/2 months.
And such loyalists could possibly push for removing more or all troops from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, following through on Trump’s campaign pledge to get the U.S. out of “endless wars.”
Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, condemned the changes.
“It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition,” he said in a statement. “The top policy professional in the department resigning the day after the secretary of defense was fired could mark the beginning of a process of gutting the DoD.”
Esper himself has raised the issue of Trump loyalists changing policy. In an interview with Military Times after the Nov. 3 election, referring to his expected firing, Esper said: “Who’s going to come in behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes’ man. And then God help us.”
But even if policy changes are attempted, those civilian officials would still have to deal with top military leaders who could oppose or stall any abrupt policy moves.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Army Gen. Mark Milley, already has clashed with Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, who announced there would be sharp reductions in U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan.
Milley, in an interview last month with NPR, dismissed such talk as “speculation.” Together with Esper, Milley has opposed using active-duty troops to quell domestic unrest, something Trump suggested be done this past summer.
The three top positions that changed hands include chief of staff, undersecretary for policy and undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.
Kash Patel, currently serving at the White House on the National Security Council, will take the chief of staff job. Patel worked as a staffer for Republican Rep. Devin Nunes and was reportedly involved in pushing the narrative that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign in 2016. In addition, he also made the case that the FBI and Justice Department acted improperly when investigating Trump. Multiple inquiries have failed to produce evidence supporting these claims.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick will be the Pentagon’s new undersecretary for intelligence and security. Cohen-Watnick has reportedly favored using the U.S. intelligence community to undermine or oust Iran’s government. When he was at the National Security Council, he clashed with then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster and was forced out.
Press reports said Cohen-Watnick invited Devin Nunes to the White House to review material that suggested the intelligence community was surveilling the Trump campaign in 2016. Those claims were never proven.
Meanwhile, Anthony Tata will take over the top policy job. Tata, a retired Army brigadier general, was nominated for the job over the summer, but that ended because of his Islamophobic tweets as well as some more bizarre statements, including calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader.”
Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier react to GOP victory in Tar Heel State; looks ahead to George runoffs
Fundraising from across the nation for Georgia’s two embattled Senate races is already underway, and powerful New York City Democrat Ray McGuire, who is running for mayor in 2022, is rallying funds for Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Heaps of out-of-state money are expected to pour into Georgia to sway its two Senate runoffs after no candidate won a majority of votes in last week’s election. Republican Sen. David Perdue will face off against Ossoff, and Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is running against Warnock after fending off a challenge from Rep. Doug Collins.
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“All relevant components of the department agreed with this legal conclusion, and the department has concluded the matter,” the department said in a statement in September 2019. Officials said at the time that the campaign finance determination did not preclude further investigatory work on any other potential issues.
Mr. Trump’s allies seized on that determination on the narrow question of campaign finance law to declare his innocence. But lawyers in the Public Integrity section had not examined any other potential violations, according to five people familiar with the section’s work.
It was not clear whether that office pursued an inquiry into Mr. Trump.
Their swelling frustration was a test for the new head of the section, Corey Amundson, who had joined from the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility that September.
At the start of his tenure, Mr. Amundson told staff members that he had prewritten a resignation letter that he would submit if he felt he was asked to act unethically. He soothed tempers in the Ukraine matter in part by agreeing that the reconstructed transcript of the call issued by the White House left open questions about whether Mr. Trump had violated other statutes, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
He said that more investigation was warranted and notified his boss, Brian A. Benczkowski, then the head of the criminal division, about the tensions over the Ukraine call. Mr. Benczkowski agreed that further inquiry would be appropriate, the people said.
But once Congress began its impeachment inquiry, top Justice Department officials decided that an investigation of Mr. Trump had been overtaken by the events of impeachment, according to two people briefed on the matter. Then any inquiry into the call was consolidated with other Ukraine matters at the beginning of this year under the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office. Under the Trump administration, the department has often moved politically fraught work to prosecutors far from Washington. Those investigations have rarely resulted in charges.
Biden’s lead over Trump in the Peach State has grown to more than 14,000 votes since Election Day, according to NBC News’ analysis of the race. Nearly 5 million ballots have so far been counted in Georgia, with 99% of the expected vote in, according to NBC, which has not called a projected winner in the state.
Raffensperger had previously telegraphed that a recount was likely in the state, which has traditionally voted for Republican presidential nominees. Trump’s supporters, including GOP Rep. Doug Collins, earlier this week asked the Georgia official for a hand recount of the results.
“This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once,” Raffensperger said. “It will be a heavy lift but we will work with the counties to get this done in time for our state certification.”
Trump, on the day after the Nov. 3 election, falsely asserted that his campaign had “claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes,” Georgia and other states. With Biden now projected to secure more than the 270 electoral votes required to clinch the presidency, Trump and his surrogates have already demanded recounts in states including Georgia and Wisconsin.
They have also launched a flurry of accusations of electoral fraud, without citing clear evidence. Trump campaign lawyers have filed lawsuits in multiple key states related to those claims. Many of those cases have already been thrown out by judges.
In the meantime, Trump has refused to concede to Biden and is falsely claiming he won the election. The transition of power to a Biden administration cannot formally begin until the General Services Administration makes an “ascertainment” of the winner, which it has so far refused to do.
Raffensperger said at the press conference that at 1 p.m. ET, he will declare the presidential race in his state is subject to a “risk-limiting audit.”
“We’ll be counting every single piece of paper, every single ballot. every single lawfully cast, legal ballot,” he said.
When a reporter noted that such an audit usually involves just a sample of the ballots, rather than the entire body of votes, Raffensperger said, “you actually have to do a full hand-by-hand recount of all [ballots] because the margin is so close.”
WASHINGTON – President Trump has made wholesale changes in the Pentagon’s top civilian leadership, a purge that began with the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and continued Tuesday through the senior ranks.
Three top senior officials resigned on Tuesday, including the under secretaries for policy and intelligence. Esper’s chief of staff also resigned. The moves sparked concern on Capitol Hill that perceived instability at the Pentagon could embolden U.S. adversaries during the presidential transition.
James Anderson, the acting under secretary for policy, the Pentagon’s No. 3 spot, resigned Tuesday and was replaced by Anthony Tata, a retired Army general who once called former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader.” Tata had withdrawn his name for that Pentagon post in August before facing a contentious confirmation hearing in the Senate. He was then placed in another job that did not require a hearing.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman of the HouseArmed Services Committee, called the changes alarming.
“It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition,” Smith said in a statement. “The top policy professional in the department resigning the day after the Secretary of Defense was fired could mark the beginning of a process of gutting the DoD – something that should alarm all Americans.”
“If this is the beginning of a trend – the president either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him – then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst.”
“I want to thank Dr. Anderson, Admiral Kernan and Jen Stewart for their service to the nation and the Department,” Miller said in a statement. “Over their careers each has contributed greatly to the national defense and the future of the Department of Defense. We wish them the best in their next endeavors.”
White House officials said Trump wanted his own team at the Pentagon should he prevail with his legal challenges to the balloting. As for policy, officials said he has long wanted to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but they did not know if he plans to issue an order to that effect in his last two months in office. They noted that generals at the Pentagon would resist such an order.
About 4,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan. Trump has been pushing for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, negotiating with the Taliban to help end the American involvement there that began in 2001. Pentagon officials insist that the withdrawal should be based on security conditions there.
“This confirms what I have been saying for months: the President’s singular obsession with loyalty has severely undermined the competence of our government and made us less safe,” Smith said. “It is an insult to the American people to hamstring government, particularly during a period of presidential transition.”
Hurricane Hunters have found that Eta strengthened to a hurricane again. It has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and is moving north-northeast at 15 mph. It is located 170 miles south-southwest of Tampa. There are presently no changes to the tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings, but that could change at 10am when the National Hurricane Center issues a new update.
Update, 7 a.m.:
A Hurricane Watch has been issued for Anna Maria Island north to Yankeetown, FL, including the Tampa/St. Pete metropolitan areas, for the possibility of hurricane conditions. Tropical Storm Watches have been extended from the Suwannee River north to the Aucilla River in the Big Bend of Florida. Tropical Storm Warnings continue from the Suwannee River to the Fort Myers area.
Heavy rain bands are already moving onshore in southwest Florida and are expected to move into the Tampa/St. Pete areas this morning. These rain bands should spread north to the Nature Coast this afternoon and into north central Florida (including Gainesville and Ocala) by early this evening. Tropical storm winds are likely to reach the west coast by early Wednesday afternoon, spreading inland to near Interstate 75 on Wednesday evening.
There is a small chance hurricane winds could be experienced along the coast and that’s the reason for the Hurricane Watch area. The most probable outcome is for tropical storm force winds within the warning area.
Rain bands are likely to continue on Thursday before diminishing Thursday night or Friday as the storm heads for the Atlantic coast.
Original story from Tuesday evening:
Tropical Storm Eta’s next move is becoming a bit clearer, and the forecast track has again shifted. The shift is to the east this time, which puts more of Florida’s Gulf Coast at risk for impacts.
The Tropical Storm Watch issued Tuesday afternoon for the greater Tampa metro area and portions of the Nature Coast was upgraded to a Tropical Storm Warning just six hours later. It was also extended farther south to Bonita Beach and now includes Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Port Charlotte. A Tropical Storm Watch was issued along Florida’s Big Bend from north of the Suwannee River to the Aucilla River. A Storm Surge Watch was issued for coastal residents from the Steinhatchee River also to Bonita Beach, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay.
Tropical storm force winds of 40 to 60 mph are now likely in the warned area from Fort Myers to Tampa as early as Wednesday night, spreading north along the Nature Coast and portions of North-Central Florida during the day Thursday. Gusts nearing hurricane force are also possible in these areas along the coast, which will likely coincide with the stronger rain bands as they rotate inland.
The National Hurricane Center says a life-threatening storm surge of 2 to 4 feet is possible from the Nature Coast to just north of Naples, including Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor. Residents in these areas are encouraged to listen to local authorities for possible evacuation orders Wednesday. An inundation of 1 to 2 feet above dry ground is possible farther south from Bonita Beach to Florida Bay.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said the most recent shift in the forecast guidance was a bit of a “surprise”, and likely a result of additional hurricane hunter data recently ingested into the models. Atmospheric conditions are still expected to be hostile to the storm as it moves north over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the official forecast continues to call for gradual weakening after Wednesday. However, the rate of weakening and speed of the storm are still very much in question due to large spreads in how the models handle several external factors that will likely play a role in Eta’s fate.
Regardless of how strong Tropical Storm Eta still is when it moves into the northeastern Gulf later this week, heavy rain, flash flooding and isolated tornadoes are possible in the same areas under the Tropical Storm Warning Thursday and Friday. A few outer rain bands not directly associated with Eta are likely to continue producing locally heavy rain occasionally in South and Central Florida as well through at least Wednesday. The National Weather Service continued Flood Watches into Wednesday evening for Southeast Florida because of the possibility of additional heavy rain on top of already saturated ground.
A high risk of rip currents will continue for several more days in Collier county on the west coast and along the Gold coast of Southeast Florida. High Surf Advisories were issued from the Treasure and Space Coasts northward to the First Coast, and rip currents are also anticipated in these areas through Thursday.
Eta is increasingly likely to encounter higher wind shear and dry air starting Thursday, which would cause the storm to weaken as it moves north toward Apalachee Bay. However, forecasters noted in their advisory late Tuesday evening that the center of Tropical Storm Eta might reform to the east of its current location. If it does, there remains the possibility that Eta would briefly regain hurricane strength and make landfall somewhere along the Nature Coast or just north of Tampa Bay.
Elsewhere in the Subtropical Storm Theta formed in the open waters of the central Atlantic Ocean Monday evening. It’s the season’s 29th named storm — a new all-time record for the number of named storms in the Atlantic Basin in one season. Theta is not forecast to affect land areas at this time. Yet another tropical wave in the central Caribbean has a high chance of becoming the season’s next tropical depression later this week or weekend when it reaches the western Caribbean. It is far too soon to say whether it will ever impact the U.S. coastline.
“From the very beginning of the campaign, when President-elect Biden rolled out his climate plan, he made it clear he sees this as an all-of-government agenda, domestic, economic, foreign policy,” said Stef Feldman, campaign policy director for Biden, a Democrat. “From the very beginning, when he talked about infrastructure, he talked about making sure that it built in climate change, that we are making our communities more resilient to the effects of climate change.”
State health officials will report a record 56 new deaths from COVID-19 when they release updated figures, Gov. Tim Walz told MPR News Wednesday, a day after he rolled out new restrictions on late-night social life to stem the spread of the disease.
“We’ll be unfortunately announcing numbers today: positivity rates above 20 percent and unfortunately we are going to have the highest death count since this began with 56 Minnesotans dying,” he said. “This is just inevitable if we do not change our behaviors and take some mitigation efforts, this will continue to spike.”
On Tuesday, the Health Department data showed again that a tough October is turning into a brutal November. State health officials on Tuesday reported 4,906 newly confirmed or probable cases, and 23 more deaths.
New hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 hit a new one-day record high, 262. More than 1,200 people are in Minnesota hospital beds now with nearly 250 needing intensive care.
The disease’s rampant spread is being fueled by informal gatherings and get-togethers with family and friends, transmitted unknowingly by people who have the virus but do not have symptoms, officials say.
Deaths are rising inside and outside long-term care facilities. The seven-day trend for deaths outside long-term care is at a record high; the similar trend for deaths in long-term care is near the record set back in May.
Caseloads rising across age groups
New cases are up dramatically over the past six weeks in all age groups.
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — nearly 40,000 since the pandemic began, including nearly 22,000 among people ages 20-24.
The number of high school-age children confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 15,600 total cases among children ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.
Those numbers help explain why experts remain particularly concerned about teens and young adults as spreaders of the virus.
While less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth and young adults will spread it to grandparents and other vulnerable populations. It’s especially concerning because people can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they don’t have symptoms.
Active, confirmed cases of the disease remain at record levels.
Virus surges in swaths of rural Minnesota
Regionally, central and northern Minnesota have driven much of the recent increase in new cases while Hennepin and Ramsey counties show some of the slowest case growth in the state.
Northwestern Minnesota no longer has the state’s fastest-growing outbreak. It’s been passed by east-central Minnesota. But new cases are rising at accelerating rates everywhere.
Collectively, rural areas of Minnesota continue to report the most new COVID-19 cases.
Northern Minnesota, once the region least affected by the disease, has also seen its caseload grow dramatically in recent weeks.
In Itasca County in northeastern Minnesota, COVID-19 cases are surging to the point that county health officials have suspended individual contact tracing, citing a record high rate of infections through community transmission.
“If you are in a group setting, just assume that someone has COVID,” said Kelly Chandler, department manager for Itasca County Public Health, in a press release.
Latino cases jump
In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hit communities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths. That’s especially true for Minnesotans of Hispanic descent.
Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.
Similar trends hold true for Minnesota’s Indigenous residents. Counts among Indigenous people jumped in October relative to population.
Cases among all races and ethnicities continue to rise, although currently the growth slowest among Black Minnesotans, who reported the most new COVID-19 cases per capita for much of the spring and summer.
‘Our behavior is driving this’
About 1,000 people are in Minnesota hospital beds now from COVID-19, including more than 200 needing intensive care. New hospital admissions continue to rise to new records, with the current seven-day average running at 176 per day.
The newest numbers come after a week of record case increases — more than 31,000 new cases reported since last Monday — as hospitalizations and deaths climbed steeply. A tough October became a brutal first week of November.
“Our behavior is driving this … literally thousands and thousands of small decisions happening around Minnesota that are the issue here,” Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Friday.
The deaths reported Monday raised Minnesota’s toll to 2,675. Among those who’ve died, about 69 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.
‘Minnesota is in a bad spot’
The overall numbers continue to paint a troubling picture of a rapidly worsening pandemic in Minnesota. The latest numbers continue to show rampant spread across Minnesota, not limited to just one region or demographic group, like earlier in the pandemic.
There’s increasing concern about the ability of hospitals to handle more. They were already filling in the summer and fall from normal use, and the surge in COVID-19 patients is putting hospitals in the Twin Cities “near the top of their capacity,” Malcolm said last week.
Staffing is becoming a challenge as more health care workers get sick, she added.
“Minnesota is in a bad spot … and it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Ehresmann told reporters.
While more testing is uncovering more cases, “it’s not the testing that’s the problem,” Ehresmann said. “It’s the sheer fact that we have so much virus circulating in our state.”
Developments around the state
MN opening more sites for free COVID testing
Minnesota is adding more than a dozen new COVID-19 testing locations over the next couple of weeks, including 10 in armories around the state and several locations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
On Monday, the state opened a saliva testing site at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Similar testing is already available free of charge at sites in St. Paul, Mankato, Winona, Brooklyn Park, Moorhead, Duluth and St. Cloud.
Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the saliva test is as effective as ones that use nasal swabs.
“There’s more than one type of saliva test. This one was I believe the first that got FDA emergency use authorization and the reliability is very high,” Malcolm said.
Testing is free and available to anyone who wants to be tested whether they have symptoms or not. The state does not require identification or insurance for saliva testing, but does recommend that patients make an appointment. The tests taken at the Minneapolis Convention Center will be analyzed at a lab in the state and results should be available in 24 to 48 hours, state health officials say.
Other types of testing are available at medical clinics, pop-up sites and temporary locations throughout the state.
Health authorities recommend testing for anyone who is exhibiting symptoms, or people who have been exposed, think they’ve been exposed or think they need to be tested.
Minnesota lawmakers are coming back into special session on Thursday to decide if Gov. Tim Walz will maintain his emergency powers to manage the coronavirus response.
Walz called the special session in a proclamation Monday because he is again extending the executive order tied to COVID-19 measures his administration has taken. That will remain in place for an additional 30 days unless both the House and Senate vote to unwind the authority. That’s unlikely given that the Legislature is under split-party control.
Walz said the climbing cases require a nimble response.
“This is a dangerous phase of this pandemic. We’re in the midst of a surge in case positivity and hospitalizations,” he said in a written statement. “Extending the peacetime emergency will help ensure we have the tools we need to respond quickly to protect Minnesotans’ health and well-being.”
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she’s expecting a quick special session.
“A real ‘Groundhog Day’ event — so very similar to what we saw in August and September when we were in the quiet period and talked about the emergency powers and did not pass legislation,” she said. “I anticipate that’s what kind of special session it will be.”
The Minnesota Legislature has had an unprecedented five special sessions already this year due to the pandemic. Last week’s election won’t alter party control next year, but Democrats will have a narrower edge in the House and Republicans will lead the Senate by a single seat.
— Brian Bakst | MPR News
N.D. hospitals face bed shortage as COVID hospitalizations spike
North Dakota’s coronarvirus risk level has increased across the state as COVID-19 hospitalizations increase. North Dakota reported more than 1,100 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.
Gov. Doug Burgum said hospital capacity is becoming a serious issue.
“We know that we could be facing a situation in our state in the next two to three weeks where we could be severely constrained on hospital capacity, some parts of the state we’re already seeing that,” Burgum said.
But it’s not just beds becoming scarce. Burgum said the state is facing a shortage of hospital workers to care for patients in those beds, too. The state is allowing some health care workers who test positive for COVID-19 but don’t have symptoms to keep working instead of quarantining, Burgum said.
The governor moved every county in the state into the high risk level on the state COVID-19 monitor. Each risk level carries different mitigation recommendations. High risk includes a recommendation to limit restaurants and bars to 25 percent capacity.
Burgum said hospital capacity could be severely constrained in the next two weeks by a growing COVID-19 caseload. North Dakota hospitals in Fargo and Grand Forks are primary referral hospitals for seriously ill patients in much of northwestern Minnesota.
— Dan Gunderson | MPR News
Top headlines
Walz backs 10 p.m. curfew on in-person service at bars, eateries, curbs on events to stem COVID: Starting Friday, Minnesota bars and restaurants must end in-person service at 10 p.m., although takeout and delivery would still be allowed. Patrons will not be allowed to sit at bars, and standing games such as darts and pool will be limited. Beyond that, the state plans to cap wedding receptions and other events at 50 people on Nov. 27, down to 25 after Dec. 11.
Itasca Co. suspends contact tracing as infections surge: The coronavirus is surging in northeastern Minnesota to the point that Itasca County has suspended individual contact tracing, citing a record high rate of infections through community.
Understanding COVID-19 case rates over time: On Monday, Minnesota reported 3,930 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Is that bad? Is it OK? How should we interpret those numbers? Figuring it out can be difficult. Data reporter David Montgomery shares one trick he uses to help put COVID-19 figures in context — by making a rough translation into personal risk.
Asst. health commissioner says ‘we want everyone in the state to get tested’: The number of places where Minnesotans can get COVID-19 tests is growing — and taken together, the range of options can be dizzying. So how do you pick which COVID-19 test to get? To answer that question, MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Assistant State Health Commissioner Dan Huff.
COVID-19 in Minnesota
Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health’s cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at the Health Department website.
You make MPR News possible. Individual donations are behind the clarity in coverage from our reporters across the state, stories that connect us, and conversations that provide perspectives. Help ensure MPR remains a resource that brings Minnesotans together.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins delivers election night remarks to supporters and staff on Nov. 3 in Bangor, Maine. Collins was down by four points in an average of polls before Election Day but won by 9 percentage points.
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Republican Sen. Susan Collins delivers election night remarks to supporters and staff on Nov. 3 in Bangor, Maine. Collins was down by four points in an average of polls before Election Day but won by 9 percentage points.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Republicans outperformed the polls up and down the ballot in the 2020 election, to the surprise even of many Republican political operatives and survey researchers.
To be clear, Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Trump; Democrats will still control the House and still have a chance of picking up the Senate.
But Republicans made gains in the House — so far netting five seats (with 22 races not yet called). Given their presumed strength in the suburbs, Democrats had been expected to expand their majority.
That became increasingly likely the closer the election got — and not just because of public polls. That was also the expectation of Republicans, who conduct their own private polling and work on, run and advise campaigns.
In the Senate, Democrats have so far gained one seat, but they need three with a Biden win to take over the chamber. Democrats still have a chance of doing that with two runoff elections in Georgia. But that’s seen as possible, not likely.
It wasn’t expected to be this way. Democrats had put lots of Senate races in play, ones not expected to go their way at the beginning of the 2020 cycle, places like Kansas and Montana.
To be sure, many of the Senate races were expected to be close, perhaps with razor-thin margins, and a Democratic-controlled Senate was never an assured outcome. But when you look at the average of the polls in the last week of the election versus the ultimate result, it’s clear that Republicans were underrepresented all across the country.
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All of these races, except Colorado and Alabama, were within single digits in the polls. Colorado, a state Biden won handily, wound up pretty close to the average. Alabama, a state Trump won by a lot, was an even bigger blowout than expected.
Many of the supposedly tightest races didn’t wind up tight at all. Maine is perhaps the most stunning one. Biden won the state by 9 percentage points, but Republican incumbent Susan Collins won re-election by 9 points.
Not only was Collins down by 4 points heading into Election Day in an average of the polls in the week before the election, but she led in one — ONE — poll in all of 2020. And that was back in July. That’s one poll out of almost three dozen.
In South Carolina, money flowed to Democrat Jaime Harrison, who looked like he actually had a shot of defeating incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham. The Cook Political Report, which talks to the committees that help elect the candidates in each part, and others rated the race as a toss-up.
The polls seemed to bear that out, showing the race even. But in the end, it wasn’t even close. Graham won by 10 percentage points. It was always going to be tough for a Democrat to win statewide in South Carolina in a presidential year.
Alaska’s margin could tighten with mail-in votes still out and only 58% of the votes in, so put an asterisk next to that one, but that was supposed to be a 3-point race.
There is going to be a reckoning — again — within the polling industry. Survey researchers are already combing their numbers for patterns of what went wrong.
Some theories at this point include:
Early voting: Surveys having too many people in their samples saying they would vote early. The pollsters had a tough time adjusting for that, because there’s no historical trend to go by;
Democratic overresponse: Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents seem to have been more willing to talk to pollsters, and pro-Trump Republicans just didn’t want to participate as much because of their deep distrust of and disdain for the polls and the media.
This is not the idea of a “shy” Trump voter. While survey researchers — Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan — all found people less willing to say they are Trump supporters to their friends and families, especially women, they have found little evidence they aren’t telling pollsters they support the president.
The bigger problem may be Trump supporters simply not wanting to participate at all. That would seem to make sense, considering the consistent underestimation of Republican vote, especially in Republican-leaning states.
A Trump phenomenon: The other thing that is tough to quantify is whether this is something unique to when Trump is on the ballot. He has vilified polls and the media to a far-greater extent than any other presidential candidate. Supporting the idea that this was simply a Trump phenomenon is that polls were right in the 2018 midterm elections and nearly every special election in the last four years.
These are just early theories, but it’s probably going to be best practice to put even less stock in horse-race polling as an exact science, and to use rough, more artful measures, including demography, ad spending and private campaign poll reporting to find out where the campaigns think is important and where a candidate may or may not have a shot.
WASHINGTON – President Trump has made wholesale changes in the Pentagon’s top civilian leadership, a purge that began with the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and continued Tuesday through the senior ranks.
Three top senior officials resigned on Tuesday, including the under secretaries for policy and intelligence. Esper’s chief of staff also resigned. The moves sparked concern on Capitol Hill that perceived instability at the Pentagon could embolden U.S. adversaries during the presidential transition.
James Anderson, the acting under secretary for policy, the Pentagon’s No. 3 spot, resigned Tuesday and was replaced by Anthony Tata, a retired Army general who once called former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader.” Tata had withdrawn his name for that Pentagon post in August before facing a contentious confirmation hearing in the Senate. He was then placed in another job that did not require a hearing.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman of the HouseArmed Services Committee, called the changes alarming.
“It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition,” Smith said in a statement. “The top policy professional in the department resigning the day after the Secretary of Defense was fired could mark the beginning of a process of gutting the DoD – something that should alarm all Americans.”
“If this is the beginning of a trend – the president either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him – then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst.”
“I want to thank Dr. Anderson, Admiral Kernan and Jen Stewart for their service to the nation and the Department,” Miller said in a statement. “Over their careers each has contributed greatly to the national defense and the future of the Department of Defense. We wish them the best in their next endeavors.”
White House officials said Trump wanted his own team at the Pentagon should he prevail with his legal challenges to the balloting. As for policy, officials said he has long wanted to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but they did not know if he plans to issue an order to that effect in his last two months in office. They noted that generals at the Pentagon would resist such an order.
About 4,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan. Trump has been pushing for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, negotiating with the Taliban to help end the American involvement there that began in 2001. Pentagon officials insist that the withdrawal should be based on security conditions there.
“This confirms what I have been saying for months: the President’s singular obsession with loyalty has severely undermined the competence of our government and made us less safe,” Smith said. “It is an insult to the American people to hamstring government, particularly during a period of presidential transition.”
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s attorney, speaks at a press conference held in the back parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping on Saturday in Philadelphia.
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Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s attorney, speaks at a press conference held in the back parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping on Saturday in Philadelphia.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Four Seasons Total Landscaping wants to “Make America Rake Again.”
Just a day after the Philadelphia family business became the unlikely backdrop for a belligerent Trump campaign press conference, its owners cashed in on the viral fame — and even crossed party lines.
On Sunday night, the company rolled out a line of T-shirts, hoodies and stickers, featuring the slogans “Lawn and Order,” and its riff on MAGA.
On Monday, it started offering face masks as well.
By Tuesday, everything had sold out.
Four Seasons’ pivot to apparel had clearly paid off. The company posted on its Facebook page that it was temporarily suspending sales of most of its items due to lack of stock.
“We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support we’ve received! You all are amazing!” the post said.
It’s still not entirely clear how the Trump campaign ended up holding a press conference in Northeast Philadelphia near a sex shop, a crematorium and a jail. The hoopla was kicked off Saturday morning with a Trump tweet about an event at the Philadelphia Four Seasons.
That message was quickly deleted and a new tweet clarified that instead of the swanky downtown hotel, the presser would be held at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a business which offers services such as mulching, weed control, pruning shrubs, leaf removal, among other jobs.
At the press event, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed without evidence that Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania was due to voter fraud. Four Seasons Total Landscaping declined requests for comment.
Whatever its original motivation, the company is capitalizing on its fame by pitching itself to consumers from across the political spectrum.
Not only is it offering “Make America Rake Again” and “Lawn and Order” merchandise, but has also “liked” and retweeted a number of left-leaning accounts. And for those who don’t care for politics, it offers a picture of its parking lot as a Zoom background.
Wendy Gordon, a Philly expat now living in Washington, D.C., ordered a Four Seasons T-shirt Monday. The Biden supporter said she never wants to forget that surreal half-hour on Saturday when a week’s worth of election anxiety finally started to dissipate.
“It’s so funny, and so just completely innocuous and random and silly, that it was kind of like a collective exhale,” said Gordon, 60.
By Tuesday morning, much of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping seemed back to normal, except for a small memorial to Saturday’s events outside the front door — a few candles, and some flowers.
The business continued to attract a steady stream of tourists.
“It’s interesting, it’s definitely very industrial. A big pile of dirt and an old building,” said Brian Gannon, a 42-year-old Virginia resident who had come to Philadelphia for a doctor’s appointment.
Zoe Grobman, a Philadelphia-based graduate student, trekked across town with a friend to check out the now-iconic business.
“[We are here] to see the newest Philly landmark,” the 27-year-old said.
Grobman, who had already purchased a Four Seasons T-shirt said the fact that the press conference ended up here of all places speaks to what she loves about her home city.
“The moral of the story is, like, don’t mess with Philly,” she said.
Aficionados of the landscaping business now have another event to look forward to: On Nov. 29, runners can take part in an 11-mile charity run from Four Seasons Total Landscaping to the Four Seasons hotel inside the Comcast Center.
HOUSTON, Texas (KWTX) – Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on Tuesday announced he will pay up to $1 million to people who report credible voter fraud.
Patrick said whistleblowers and tipsters should turn over their evidence to local law enforcement.
Anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction will be paid a minimum of $25,000.
President Trump and many in the Republican Party are alleging voter fraud in the presidential election but have yet to provide any evidence to back up the claims.
On Saturday, Democrat Joe Biden was projected to win the election after securing a victory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
“I support President Trump’s efforts to identify voter fraud in the presidential election and his commitment to making sure that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is disqualified,” Patrick said.
Patrick said that in just the past 60 days in Texas, authorities made “three major arrests on voter fraud,” including a Central Texas social worker arrested last week for allegedly registering almost 70 developmentally disabled adults to vote without their signature or consent.
Louisiana AG Jeff Landry argues Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot deadline extension is unconstitutional on ‘The Story.’
A postal worker who has made claims of alleged voter fraud in Pennsylvania is being questioned over the veracity of those assertions, which have been cited by Republican lawmakers as the basis for an investigation.
Richard Hopkins, a mail carrier from Erie, Pa., accused his boss of instructing employees to pick up and bring him ballots that were received after Election Day. Hopkins said he overheard his boss discussing backdating postmarks to make the ballots appear as though they had been collected by Nov. 3, instead of Nov. 4 or after.
In order for ballots to have been eligible in the state, they needed to be postmarked by Election Day.
On Monday, Hopkins is said to have signed an affidavit recanting those claims, which appeared to be confirmed in a tweet by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
The Washington Post, which cited three officials briefed on the investigation, also said Hopkins allegedly admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that claims of widespread voting irregularities were fabricated.
However, Project Veritas – the far-right activist group which aired Hopkins’ initial claims – posted a video to its Twitter page on Tuesday, which appeared to show Hopkins saying he did not recant his statements, along with the promise that more details would be released on Wednesday.
Project Veritas also released recordings that purportedly show an investigator attempting to convince Hopkins to change his narrative.
Project Veritas founded James O’Keefe said he would be “happy to go under oath” to back up the story and his reporting.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has asked the Justice Department and the FBI to initiate investigations.
Graham argued that the massive surge in mail-in voting had made the Postal Service’s role in the elections much larger than usual.
The confusion comes as President Trump questions the validity of mail-in voting in a number of key swing states, including Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign and Republican groups have already filed a flurry of lawsuits in the state.
Trump has also refused to publicly concede the election to President-Elect Joe Biden over unfounded claims that the election may have been rigged.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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