After that flurry in a thimble involving Pence and Grassley, we’re back in Georgia.
My Guardian colleague David Smith was there when Democratic candidate John Ossoff, who is hoping to flip a senate seat away from Republican David Perdue in the runoffs today, voted a little earlier in Atlanta.
In Atlanta. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff after voting: “This is history unfolding in Georgia right now. I want everyone to be part of it.” pic.twitter.com/g0SllH6afe
Ossoff once interned for the late civil rights and congressional icon John Lewis.
Ossoff: “I’m a John Lewis Democrat, I’m a civil rights Democrat and that’s the kind of Democrat running in the south right now.” pic.twitter.com/BeuDdJwzyD
You can hear from miles away the sound of the rending fabric of Republican leadership in Washington. The latest fog of war over who will preside over Congress tomorrow for the certification of the electoral college vote is signified by the instant confusion and disagreement apparently coming out of the offices of Vice-President Mike Pence and Iowa Republican Charles Grassley.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. Photograph: Reuters
Charles “Chuck” Grassley is Senate president pro tempore, defined by the Senate itself as “the constitutionally-recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the vice president. The president pro tempore (or, “president for a time”) is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service”.
A Grassley spokesman clarifies that the senator does not "have any indication Pence won't be present." Grassley, he said, was just trying to explain that at president pro tempore of the Senate, he would fill the chair if Pence does not show or steps out at points for a break https://t.co/iS8Wb7Yfpy
FYI: Grassley is 87 and tested positive for coronavirus last November. He recovered and shortly before Christmas urged fellow Iowans to get inoculated against Covid-19 asap.
Immediate confusion on Capitol Hill. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins now reporting that Mike Pence’s office is indicating he will preside over proceedings in Congress tomorrow to certify the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election.
Pence is still expected to preside over the certification of the election results tomorrow, per his office.
Pence "won't preside" over crucial election vote in Congress, may not even attend
Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley will preside over certification of the Electoral College vote in the US Congress tomorrow that will officially confirm Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in November’s election - not Mike Pence.
NEW: Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore, says he and not Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the certification of Electoral College votes, since "we don't expect him to be there."
Vice president Mike Pence had been assumed to be the one overseeing proceedings tomorrow in his role, under the US Constitution, as president of the US Senate.
Pence was put under huge pressure by Donald Trump last night urging him to engineer an overturning of the election results - even though the role of the person presiding over Congress tomorrow is simply to publicly count the electoral college votes, which went for Biden, not to determine unilaterally the outcome of the election.
And now it appears that Pence won’t be in the hot seat and might not even be present. There’s a massive showdown expected when some super-loyalist maverick Republicans object to and are expected to vote against confirming the Electoral College result, futile as that will be.
No explanations have been given yet and we await details.
A Grassley spokesman clarifies that the senator does not "have any indication Pence won't be present." Grassley, he said, was just trying to explain that at president pro tempore of the Senate, he would fill the chair if Pence does not show or steps out at points for a break https://t.co/iS8Wb7Yfpy
A record three million people took advantage of early voting in the Georgia runoffs, casting their ballots before the official election day today.
These are unheard of numbers for a runoff. And many are hitting the polls in person today.
My Guardian voting rights reporter colleague, Sam Levine, is in Atlanta this morning and has sent this report:
At Antioch Baptist Church, a polling station in Atlanta’s English avenue neighborhood, a steady stream of voters tricked in on a chilly Tuesday morning.
Most voters - all wearing masks - were in and out of the site in less than 5 minutes - a welcome relief in a state that saw hours long lines to vote last year.
Gabi Strode, 27, who moved to Georgia two years ago, said it was exciting to vote in a competitive election that will determine which party controls the US senate.
Gabi Strode, 27, said it was kind of “surreal” to participate in this election and see how her vote mattered pic.twitter.com/wFXHeimPeq
“To be able to be part of this specific election is memorable because I feel like my vote actually counted this time,” she said. “It’s surreal, kind of.”
Stephanie Aluko, 30, who works as an academic adviser, said it was “kind of cool” for Georgians to see how much their vote matters.
“It made people in Georgia see how important it actually is to vote,” she said. “If the whole world is looking at you and paying attention to you, suddenly, maybe your vote matters.”
(Note, this post has just been updated to correct the spelling of a name.)
National Guard requested to protect downtown Washington DC
Bracing for possible violence, the nation’s capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests today and tomorrow by Donald Trump’s supporters in connection with the congressional vote due tomorrow afternoon to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.
Washington, DC, mayor Muriel Bowser. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
Trump’s supporters are planning to rally, seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. “There are people intent on coming to our city armed,” DC acting police chief Robert Contee said yesterday, The Associated Press reports.
A pro-Trump rally in December ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the signature black and yellow of the extremist right-wing Proud Boys faction, sought out confrontations with a collective of local activists attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House.
(Here’s the late civil rights icon John Lewis in Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC):
Downtown DC businesses have been boarding up their windows again, which they did before the November election, Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested a limited National Guard deployment to help bolster the Metropolitan Police Department.
I am asking Washingtonians and those who live in the region to stay out of the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday and not to engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation, and we will do what we must to ensure all who attend remain peaceful.
Speculation rife over Trump's plans for inauguration day
Severin Carrell
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has warned Donald Trump against flying to Scotland to play golf in order to avoid Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president later this month, since that would breach Scottish coronavirus lockdown laws.
The US president playing a round at his Trump Turnberry course in Scotland in 2018. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images
Sturgeon was responding to a report that Prestwick airport, which is close to Trump’s (loss-making) Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire, has been told to expect a US military Boeing 757 used by Trump in the past on 19 January - the day before Biden’s inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC, our Scotland editor writes.
Sturgeon said she had no knowledge of Trump’s travel plans, adding that the only thing she expected was that he will vacate the White House as required before 20 January, in good time for Biden’s arrival.
But she added that Scotland’s strict Covid lockdown laws, which came into effect at midnight last night and are in force for the rest of January, and perhaps beyond, made it illegal to travel into Scotland for non-essential reasons.
Being back in lockdown is really hard to take for everyone, but it is necessary to slow down this new strain of the virus while we get people vaccinated. Please - for you own safety, that of your loved ones and of the whole country: Stay at Home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives.
“We’re not allowing people to come to Scotland without an essential purpose and that would apply to him just as it would apply to anybody else and coming to play golf isn’t what I would consider to be an essential purpose.”
There is no official confirmation or any clear indication that Trump is planning to fly to Scotland in the final days of his presidency, apart from an anonymous source cited by the Sunday Post newspaper. There has been significant speculation in the US he would travel instead to his Mar-a-Lago private resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
However, if he did opt to visit Trump Turnberry or his other golf course in Aberdeenshire he could claim that was for business reasons, on the grounds he needed to update himself on the multi-million pound expansion and upgrading plans at both his loss-making resorts.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on reports of a Trump visit to Scotland: "I've no idea what Donald Trump's travel plans are. I hope and expect that as everybody hopes - and it's what everybody expects - that the travel plan immediately that he has is to exit the White House". https://t.co/Tm5aaV9SZM
Now that he is soon to leave the White House, Trump is almost certain to resume hands-on control of his business empire’s finances and tax affairs, which are under intense scrutiny from prosecutors.
That amounts to a disruption, delay and signal-to-the-base move as much as anything. And it’s unclear what he’s actually trying to do.
Josh Hawley on Capitol Hill. Photograph: Liz Lynch/Getty Images
My colleague Martin Pengelly reported moments ago on how Hawley dodged the question when asked if he was definitively involve in trying to overturn November’s election result.
Asked if he was trying to “overturn the election” and keep Donald Trump in power, Missouri senator Josh Hawley told Fox News: “That depends what happens on Wednesday.”
That is when Congress will meet to count Joe Biden’s 306-232 electoral college victory, which has been certified by all 50 states. Formal objections due to be raised by Hawley, around a dozen other senators and more than 100 Republicans in the House will not overturn the result – as Trump and his supporters hope they will.
Democrats hold the House, guaranteeing defeat there, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and other senior Republicans in that chamber also oppose the objections.
Speaking on Monday night, Hawley at first avoided questions about whether he was trying to overturn an election and thereby disenfranchise millions of Americans, insisting he was objecting to the handling of the presidential election in states including Pennsylvania.
“I just want to pin you down,” anchor Bret Baier said, eventually, “on on what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to say that as of 20 January [inauguration day] that President Trump will be president?”
“Well,” said Hawley, “that depends on what happens on Wednesday. I mean, this is why we have to debate.”
Baier answered: “No it doesn’t. The states, by the constitution, they certify the election, they did certify it by the constitution. Congress doesn’t have the right to overturn the certification, at least as most experts read it.”
“Well,” Hawley said, “Congress is directed under the 12th amendment to count the electoral votes, there’s a statute that dates back to the 1800s, 19th century, that says there is a right to object, there’s a right to be heard, and there’s also [the] certification right.”
Secretary of State indicates Trump administration is on the way out
This shouldn’t be news. But after secretary of state Mike Pompeo talked after the election about a “smooth transition” tiny pause, smirk “to a second Trump administration”, we now see an effective acknowledgement of a changing of the guard in Washington, DC.
Questioned at an event about his legacy in the Trump administration, Pompeo gave a fulsome and plain answer that was all about leaving office.
“I think we’re leaving the world safer than when we came in,” Pompeo said.
He added: “I hope that the policies that we put in place will have the capacity to continue and whoever the next secretary of state is will continue down this path...”
Etc.
Here’s the key tweet from CBS.
While the president is trying to change the results of the election, @SecPompeo seems to be openly admitting reality. Asked about his legacy, starts by saying “we are leaving— after four years...” pic.twitter.com/A2yAZfpiYd
Good morning, US live blog readers. It’s G-Day! The Georgia runoffs that will determine two US Senate seats and the balance of power in the senate overall after November’s close elections. There will be lots of action in US politics today so please stay with us as we bring you live developments.
And, importantly, we are running this blog non-stop for the next 24 hours to reflect the vital news from Georgia. Do stay tuned for our bloggers as we hand the baton over to each other around the clock.
Here’s what we’re watching this morning.
Georgians began lining up in the dark this morning outside polling stations in Atlanta before they opened at 7am eastern time across the state for in-person voting.
Record numbers of people voted early but many will want to cast their ballots on the day – the polling stations are open from 7am to 7pm ET.
Four candidates are fighting over two seats, with Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue hoping to retain power against Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff.
The US Senate in Washington was so closely fought in the November election that the outcome of the Georgia runoffs today (after Loeffler and Perdue failed to get above 50% of the vote in November to win re-election on the spot) will determine whether the GOP or the Democrats have control over the senate in the incomingJoe Biden-Kamala Harris administration.
In Washington, DC, mayor Muriel Bowser has requested National Guard troops to back up local police tomorrow for expected pro-Donald Trump protests coinciding with the vote in Congress to certify the Electoral College vote and formally declare Joe Biden the winner of November’s presidential election.
In rallies in Georgia yesterday, Biden said: “Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you”, while Donald Trump tried to strong-arm his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the election result in Congress tomorrow – a power the vice-president does not possess whether he wanted to or not.
