Here’s more background on the Texas lawsuit that the Supreme Court had rejected, from Reuters:
Texas was suing the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in an unlikely bid, calling changes that the states had made to election procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic unlawful.
The court’s order marked its second this week rebuffing Republican requests that it get involved in the 2020 election outcome. The justices turned away an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday.
On Thursday, the states named in the lawsuit urged the supreme court to reject it, calling the case a publicity stunt that had no factual or legal grounds and made “bogus” claims.
“What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this court and other courts,” Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, wrote in a filing to the nine justices.
The electoral college meets on Monday to formally elect Biden as the next president.
Trump signed a resolution to avert government shutdown at midnight
Donald Trump signed a temporary funding measure to avert a government shutdown. The stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution, will expire in a week.
The short-term measure buys lawmakers time to reach an agreement on a delayed Covid relief bill. Lawmakers are at odds over whether or not to send out another round of direct payments to Americans, as coronavirus cases rise and the economic crisis deepens.
US supreme court rejects lawsuit challenging Biden wins in swing states
The supreme court rejected a lawsuit from the Texas attorney general, challenging election results in other states, shutting down yet another long-shot attempt by Republicans to change the election results.
The suit was backed by over 100 Republicans in Congress, including the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.
Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will be extending travel restrictions at the US-Canada border … until the day after Joe Biden is inaugurated.
“Non-essential travel between our two countries remains restricted until at least January 21st, 2021,” the Canadian prime minister said. President-elect Biden’s inauguration will be on 20 January.
Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau)
Update on our border: To keep Canadians safe, we’ve extended the measures currently in place at the Canada-US border by another 30 days. Non-essential travel between our two countries remains restricted until at least January 21st, 2021.
Administration to purchase additional 100m Moderna vaccine doses
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense said they’ll purchase an additional 100m doses of the Moderna vaccine – which means the US will be able to distribute 200m doses of the vaccine, once the FDA approves it.
An FDA panel is scheduled to discuss and vote on whether to authorize the vaccine next week. The US has the option of getting up to 300m more doses of the vaccine.
The Trump administration came under criticism after the New York Times reported that it passed on buying additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The Washington Post reported that Mark Meadows told Hahn to submit his resignation if the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was not approved by the end of Friday. The vaccine is expected to be approved, and will likely be made available to at-risk people on Monday or Tuesday.
Dr Anthony Fauci said he will receive a Covid-19 vaccine publicly, in an attempt to build confidence in the vaccinations. Fauci said he would do so as soon as “the vaccine becomes available to me”. Last week former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush pledged to get vaccinated on TV to show its safety.
The Senate passed a temporary government-wide funding bill, averting a government shutdown at midnight and buying time for negotiations over Covid-19 relief. It buys time for Congress to continue negotiations over a coronavirus relief package. Democrats and Republicans have been divided over the size of a bill.
Indoor dining has been suspended indefinitely in New York City, amid surging hospitalizations. The number of people being treated for Covid-19 symptoms in hospital exceeded 5,000 on Thursday for the first time in nearly nine months. “Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk,” Cuomo said.
My colleague Maanvi Singh will continue to bring you updates through the evening.
South Carolina reported its highest ever daily number of new Covid-19 cases on Friday.
“One week ago, today, South Carolina announced its highest number of new cases of COVID-19. Today, we eclipse that number by more than 700,” the South Carolina Department of health and environmental control said in a release.
The state reported 3,217 confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases on Friday, and 47 deaths. South Carolina has had more than 245,200 cases, and 4,673 deaths.
“South Carolina, like many other states, is currently experiencing a worsening of this pandemic,” said Dr Brannon Traxler, interim public heath director of the DHEC.
“While the arriving vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, it will be months before there is enough vaccine available for everyone. It is incumbent upon all of us to continue to take actions aimed at saving lives.”
White House threatened FDA head over vaccine approval – report
The White House chief of staff threatened Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, over the approval of a coronavirus vaccine, the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, Mark Meadows told Hahn to submit his resignation if the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was not approved by the end of the day. The newspaper cited people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The warning led the FDA to accelerate its timetable for clearing America’s first vaccine from Saturday morning to later Friday,” the Washington Post reported.
Earlier it had emerged that the FDA, which had previously been expected to formally approve the vaccine on Saturday, would move the authorization forward to Friday night. The Washington Post said that was a result of Meadows’ threat.
Mark Meadows, right, with assistant to the president Dan Scavino. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images
In a statement to the Post Hahn tamped down the report, however.
“This is an untrue representation of the phone call with the Chief of Staff,” Hahn said in a statement to the Post.
“The FDA was encouraged to continue working expeditiously on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EUA request. FDA is committed to issuing this authorization quickly, as we noted in our statement this morning.”
The Senate has passed a temporary government-wide funding bill, averting a government shutdown at midnight and buying time for negotiations over Covid-19 relief.
The stop-gap measure, which is expected to be signed by Donald Trump at some point today, will keep the government running until December 18.
It buys time for Congress to continue negotiations over a coronavirus relief package. Those talks remain stalled, but Associated Press reported that there is “universal agreement that Congress won’t adjourn for the year without passing a long-delayed round of pandemic relief”.
An emerging $900 billion aid package from a bipartisan group of lawmakers hit a rough patch after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell swung against the effort, but negotiations are ongoing and pressure remains intense.
Dr Anthony Fauci said he will receive a Covid-19 vaccine publicly in an attempt to build confidence in the vaccinations.
Fauci said he would “get vaccinated publicly, in the public space, so that people can see me getting vaccinated,” in an interview with the New York Times.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he would do so as soon as “the vaccine becomes available to me”.
Anthony Fauci, right. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
It’s not clear yet how Fauci would receive the vaccine in a manner that the public could witness it. Last week former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush pledged to get vaccinated on TV to show its safety.
Many Americans say they will not agree to be vaccinated against Covid-19. A poll by Gallup, released in mid-November, showed that 42% of the country would not take the vaccine even if it was “available right now at no cost”.
The US senate has thrown its weight behind the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Department of Defense. The bill passed with a margin large enough to overcome opposition from Donald Trump, who has threatened to veto partly because of a provision to remove the names of confederate generals from military bases.
Here’s the Associated Press with more:
The Republican-controlled Senate backed the bill by 84 to 13, more than the two-thirds majority needed in the 100-member chamber to override a veto.
Backers hope strong bipartisan support will prompt Trump to reconsider his threat to veto the annual bill, which sets policy for the US military and has become law for 59 straight years.
The White House said on earlier on Friday that Trump’s position had not changed. The Republican president will have 10 days – minus Sundays – to issue a veto, sign it or allow it to become law without his signature.
