Don Jr tests positive, as his father dodges media questions

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Trump refuses to take questions after prescription drugs presser

Donald Trump held a press conference on Friday to discuss prescription drug prices, but the moment also included him falsely claiming “he won” the 2020 election while accusing Moderna and Pfizer of working to stop his re-election efforts. The two pharmaceutical companies announced their coronavirus vaccines were 90 per cent or more effective against the novel virus following the election. 

The press conference was actually not a press conference because the president took no questions. His decision not to take questions potentially came after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held her press briefing since 1 October on Friday. 

Ms McEnany, who defended Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the election, was heckled by one reporter during the briefing over her inability to accept the election results. She also entered into a verbal spat with a CNN reporter, whom she called an “activist”, after refusing to answer more questions. 

This comes after Mr Trump was told to to move aside by Republican senator Lamar Alexander, who said on Friday that the US president should allow the transition to a Biden administration to take place after more than two weeks of delay. Sources close to the president suggested that his refusal to concede was, in part, an act of revenge on Democrats who investigated Russian interference in his 2016 win over Hillary Clinton. 

And later in the day it was confirmed that the president’s son, Don Jr, had tested positive for coronavirus and was quarantining.

• Trump 2024? What’s next for this president after the White House
• President insists ‘we will win’ and repeats rigged election claims
• Trump should concede and put country above his ego, Obama says

Key Points

• Don Jr tests positive for coronavirus
• Kayleigh McEnany heckled for not accepting election results
• Leading Republican senator says Trump should allow transition
• Trump attacks Romney over criticism and hints senator ‘lost his mind’
• Giuliani quotes My Cousin Vinny at bizarre press conference
• Biden says refusal to concede sends ‘damaging message’ to world

[17 November 2020 11:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Alec Baldwin says Trump should be ‘buried in a Nazi graveyard’ in scathing Twitter rant

Ooof. The actor who has played the president on Saturday Night Live for the last four years is not messing around.

Graig Graziosi has this report.

[17 November 2020 11:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Pelosi urges Democrats to project unity as control of the Senate hangs in the balance in Georgia runoffs

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging House Democrats to squash their beef - at least publicly - and “work as a team” to project unity before the “crucial” runoff elections in Georgia that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate.

“There is a great deal at stake in the next two months. The differences between the Democrats and the Republicans are great, especially in how we respect the health and well-being of America’s working families. In this fight, we must work as a team,” Pelosi said in a Dear Colleague letter to her House Democratic caucus, including newly elected members who will be sworn in on 3 January.

The speaker’s letter comes as progressives and moderates in the Democratic party have been running to their preferred media outlets to point fingers at each other over election night losses many did not expect.

Here’s more from Griffin Connolly.

[17 November 2020 12:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Twitter and Facebook bosses summoned to Congress to testify about handling of election

Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg could face a hostile reception after being summoned to Washington to defend their handling of election disinformation.

The Silicon Valley chiefs were threatened with subpoenas by the GOP majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee if they did not agree to appear on Tuesday.

The virtual hearing was organised last month after the social media giants reportedly slowed the sharing of a controversial New York Post article on Hunter Biden in the weeks before the election, a move that angered Republicans who accused the companies of siding with Joe Biden’s campaign.

Graeme Massie has the latest.

[17 November 2020 12:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump 2024? What’s next for this president after the White House

For Independent Premium, John T Bennett looks at what lies ahead for a president who seems to have run out of road in DC but still inspired more than 73m Americans to vote for him a second time.

[17 November 2020 12:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump’s national security adviser appears to admit Biden ‘obviously’ won

The president will not like this from Robert O’Brien one bit.

Speaking to the Soufan Center’s Global Security Forum, John Bolton’s replacement gave the most definite acknowledgement heard from the Trump camp so far that their man lost when he said: ”Look, if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner, and obviously things look that way now, we'll have a v professional transition."

Gino Spocchia has this one.

[17 November 2020 13:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Biden wary of Trump investigations: ‘He just wants to move on’

NBC News reports this morning that the president-elect is reluctant for his time in the Oval Office to become consumed by probes into the actions of his predecessor, quoting one adviser who said he "just wants to move on."

Another aide said, "He's going to be more oriented toward fixing the problems and moving forward than prosecuting them."

"His overarching view is that we need to move the country forward," says a third. "But the most important thing on this is that he will not interfere with his Justice Department and not politicise his Justice Department."

Even if the US government decides against pursuing Trump, his cronies or their actions in office, that need not stop state officials going after him like Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, who has fought to obtain the president’s withheld tax returns.

[17 November 2020 13:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Michelle Obama says she only met with Melania Trump ‘for the sake of the country’

In a fairly scathing Instagram post, the former first lady has reflected on having to welcome The Donald’s wife into the White House four years ago despite her entirely justified loathing of the couple over the 45th president’s smears against her husband on the campaign trail.

“Donald Trump had spread racist lies about my husband that had put my family in danger,” she wrote. “That wasn’t something I was ready to forgive.”

“But I knew that, for the sake of our country, I had to find the strength and maturity to put my anger aside.”

[17 November 2020 13:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Eric Trump lambasted for saying Trump rallies illustrate ‘rigged’ election

Louise Hall has the latest on the president’s overlooked middle child who, I regret to inform you, has once again said something stupid.

[17 November 2020 14:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

‘Trump has conceded, whether he walked it back or not. Now Emily Murphy has to act’

For Indy Voices, Hannah Selinger joins the chorus calling on the boss of the General Services Administration to call this thing already, taking the president’s weekend Twitter gaffe as the concession we’ve all been waiting for.

[17 November 2020 14:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

‘Trump supporters who won’t accept the election result are suffering from collective narcissism. We can help them’

Also for Voices, Alabama psychologist Alan D Blotcky gives his professional opinion on what precisely is rotten in the state of Trumpland and how it might be treated.