Rabu, 06 Januari 2021

Mike Pence publicly DEFIES Trump's demand to block Joe Biden's confirmation - Daily Mail

Pence publicly DEFIES Trump's demand to block Biden's confirmation today and McConnell slams his 'conspiracy theories' minutes after President declares war on his own 'weak' party at DC rally - and GOP turns on him for losing the Senate

  • Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he will not follow President Donald Trump's demand that he overturn the election, vowing he will heed to the constitution, adding 'So Help Me God'
  • Pence sent a letter to the 535 senators and representatives on Capitol Hill ahead of his presiding over the Joint Session that will certify Joe Biden's victory 
  • He said vice presidents in the past have conducted 'the proceedings in an orderly manner even where the count resulted in the defeat of their party or their own candidacy' 
  • Donald Trump addressed thousands of his supporters at his rally Wednesday just before Congress was to begin counting the electoral votes that will make Joe Biden the next president 
  • Trump threatened Mike Pence telling him to overturn the general election results shortly before Congress s was to begin counting the electoral votes that will make Joe Biden the next president 
  • In an extraordinary speech, Trump once again called his election 'rigged' and said, 'We will never concede' 
  • Trump mocked his party's 2012 Republican presidential nominee, now-Sen. Mitt Romney, for conceded his own race back then   
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Mike Pence said Wednesday he will defy Donald Trump's demand that he overturn the election, vowing he will heed to the constitution, adding 'So Help Me God' – in a letter sent at exactly the same time as the president threatened him at a wild rally in Washington D.C.

Trump told thousands of supporters just outside the White House that he wanted Pence to 'come through' for us and demanded that he reject electoral votes out of hand over that the president claims is 'fraud.'

He threatened Pence saying 'I'm not hearing good stories' and telling him to have 'courage' to strike down swing states' votes – a move which would defy the constitution.

But minutes before arriving on Capitol Hill to preside over the joint session of Congress to certify the election's outcome, Pence bluntly told lawmakers that he would refuse to obey Trump's orders.

Pence sent a letter to the 535 senators and representatives on Capitol Hill ahead of his presiding over the Joint Session that will certify Joe Biden's victory.

In it, he outlined his belief in his role in the proceedings, which he notes is 'ceremonial' and adds that it doesn't include the authority to 'determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.'

Trump has tried to put the blame on Pence for his expected loss on Wednesday but the president also lacks support among the majority of senators in his own party, which dooms his efforts for a congressional overthrow of the results. 

Vice President Mike Pence has refused to follow Donald Trump's demand to overturn the electoral college results and certify Joe Biden's election victory

Vice President Mike Pence has refused to follow Donald Trump's demand to overturn the electoral college results and certify Joe Biden's election victory

President Donald Trump threatened Vice President Mike Pence telling him to overturn the general election results shortly before Congress s was to begin counting the electoral votes that will make Joe Biden the next president

President Donald Trump threatened Vice President Mike Pence telling him to overturn the general election results shortly before Congress s was to begin counting the electoral votes that will make Joe Biden the next president

Pence acknowledged Trump's allegations the election was rigged, which there has been no proof and no court has upheld, in a likely peace offering to the president

Pence acknowledged Trump's allegations the election was rigged, which there has been no proof and no court has upheld, in a likely peace offering to the president

In a letter Wednesday, Pence said, 'It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution contains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not'

In a letter Wednesday, Pence said, 'It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution contains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not'

Pence acknowledged Trump's allegations the election was rigged, of which there has been no proof and no court has upheld, in a likely peace offering to the president.

'I share the concerns of millions of Americans about the integrity of this election,' he wrote.

But he noted as vice president he does not have the power from the constitution to decide which electoral votes are counted and which are not.

'As a student of history who loves the constitution and reveres its Framers, I do not believe that the Founds of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress and no Vice President in American history has ever asserted such authority,' Pence noted.

He added vice presidents in the past have conducted 'the proceedings in an orderly manner even where the count resulted in the defeat of their party or their own candidacy.'

'It is my considered judgement that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,' he said.

He concluded his letter with a prayer to God: 'When the Joint Session of Congress convenes today, I will do my duty to see to it that we open the certificates of electors of the several states, we hear objections raised by Senators and Representatives, and we count the votes of the Electoral College for President and Vice President in a manner consistent with our Constitution, laws and history. So Help Me God.'

Lawmakers got through Alabama and Alaska, two states that went for Trump, without an objection.

Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, objected to his state's Electoral College votes going to Biden and Harris. He confirmed that his objection had been signed on to by a U.S. senator.

Democrats in the chamber audibly groaned.

Droves of Republicans in the chamber stood up and clapped.

The move forced Pence to order the houses out of joint session. The senators in the House chamber started moving back toward their side of the U.S. Capitol. 

McConnell ridiculed President Donald Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud in a five-minute speech which will be one of his last as majority leader ¿ and which he said was about the most important vote of his career

McConnell ridiculed President Donald Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud in a five-minute speech which will be one of his last as majority leader – and which he said was about the most important vote of his career

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shamed Donald Trump and his own Republican colleagues for mounting challenges to the Electoral College vote count, saying their doing so could lead to a 'death spiral' of American democracy – and pointing out there’s no real evidence of widespread voter fraud.

'We're debating a step that has never been taken in American history, whether Congress should overrule the voters and overtrun a presidential election,' he said on the Senate floor, after Rep. Paul Gosar and a batch of GOP senators, including Sen. Ted Cruz, objected to Arizona's Electoral College vote count.

McConnell ridiculed President Donald Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud in a five-minute speech which will be one of his last as majority leader – and which he said was about the most important vote of his career.

'The assertions range from specific, local allegations to Constitutional arguments to sweeping conspiracy theories,' McConnell said.

He reminded senators that he was supportive of Trump using the country's legal system, which handed the president and his team loss after loss. And pointed out that these cases were heard by some of the 'all-star judges whom the president himself nominated' - including on the U.S. Supreme Court.

McConnell said that every election is plagued by some instances of vote irregularity.

'And of course that's unacceptable,' he said.

The top Senate Republican also said he supported 'strong state-led votign reforms,' adding that he didn't wan tto see 'last year's bizarre pandemic procedures' - like mail-in ballots that gave Democrats an edge - 'become the new norm.'

'But my colleagues nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale, the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election,' McConnell argued. 'Nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break, when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence.'

He pointed out that the Constitution gives Congress a 'limited role.'

'We simply can't declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids,' McConnell said.

Twisting the knife into Trump, McConnell also pointed out that the race between Biden and Trump 'was not unusually close.'

'The Electoral College margin was almost idential to what it was in 2016,' McConnell pointed out.

'If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side our democracy would enter a death spiral,' McConnel warned. 'We'd never see a whole nation accept an election again.'

'Every four years there would be a scramble for power at any cost,' he added.

On the House side, during their debate on the Arizona objection, Republican lawmakers used their time to complain about the treatment of the president, particularly the impeachment process and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

They did not offer any proof of voter fraud but complained that voter laws were changed ahead of the November contest, which is not illegal.

‘The law says voter registration ends on October 5. Democrats said we don't care what the law says they went to a court got an Obama appointed judge to extend in 18 days,’ Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally on Capitol Hill, complained of Arizona.

Many states had their voter registration deadlines extended because of the coronavirus pandemic – the extension applied to voters of both parties. Other states extended the time period allowing mail-in voting, again because of the pandemic and it applied to all voters.

Democrats argued the election was legally conducted.

‘Under some of the most trying circumstances in our history, our fellow citizens conducted a free and fair election vindicating our founders belief once again that we were capable of self government, and a peaceful transition of power,’ Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over the debate. She sanitized the gavel before she used it. Pence had used it when he presided over the Joint Session.

Pelosi also reminded lawmakers that only 11 members from each party were allowed on the House floor at a time due to social distancing. She called out Republicans for having too many lawmakers on the floor.

Trump addressed his thousands of his supporters near the White House Wednesday at his 'Save America' rally and declared war on his own party, calling Republicans who opposed him 'weak'

Trump addressed his thousands of his supporters near the White House Wednesday at his 'Save America' rally and declared war on his own party, calling Republicans who opposed him 'weak'

Hours after a humiliating defeat in one Georgia Senate race and the prospect of losing another, Team Trump showed no sign of conceding

Hours after a humiliating defeat in one Georgia Senate race and the prospect of losing another, Team Trump showed no sign of conceding

A stand was being erected at the base of the US Capitol as a pro-Trump supporter holds a flag, hours before Congress meets to certify the electoral college vote for Biden

A crowd of Trump supporters started gathering outside of the White House for a rally on Wednesday

A crowd of Trump supporters started gathering outside of the White House for a rally on Wednesday

This came after President Donald Trump excoriated 'weak' Republicans and demanded fealty from Pence to a rally crowd near the White House Wednesday where he demanded Pence and Congress overturn the election results that lead to his defeat.

In an extraordinary speech, Trump once again called his election 'rigged' just minutes before a joint meeting of Congress was to begin counting the certified electoral votes that have him losing to Joe Biden. 

Trump referred to votes that came in after 10pm election night – which consisted of in-person and mail-in ballots and denied him the lead he said he and his pollsters anticipated – as 'these explosions of bullsh*t.' 

Members of the crowd immediately chanted 'Bullshi*t!' in response. 

'Our election was over at 10:00 in the evening,' Trump said.

Trump mocked his party's 2012 Republican presidential nominee, now-Sen. Mitt Romney, for conceded his own race back then.

'We will never concede. It doesn't happen,' he said – although losing candidates have conceded for generations. 'There's never been anything like this. It's a pure theft.' 

Trump's comments amounted to a declaration of war on elements of his party, after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani demanded 'trial by combat' against opponents of his claims of election fraud.

Trump spoke to a crowd of several thousand – but referred to them as consisting of 'hundreds of thousands' of supporters fathered on a lawn south of the White House that doesn't hold that many.

He said his election was 'stolen by the fake news media. That's what they've done and that's what they're doing.'

He urged his supporters to march down to the Congress, which was to commence the count at 1 pm.

'We're going to walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,' he said, speaking from behind a pane of bullet-proof material.

He turned up the heat on Pence, a potential 2024 contender who will preside over the count. His role is set in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act, and is largely ceremonial.

'Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn't that will be a sad day for our country because you're sworn to uphold our Constitution,' he said.

Trump acknowledged that he has tried to pressure Pence into rejecting votes from states he lost, quoting from a conversation he has denied happened.

'All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to re-certify and we become president and you are the happiest people,' he told his fans, who cheered 'Stop the Steal!' at times.

'I said Mike, that doesn't take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage. And then we're stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that,' he said of Biden.

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani once again raised allegations of widespread election fraud – which he said also occurred in the Georgia Senate runoff elections

'If we're wrong we will be made fools of, but if we're right a lot of them will go to jail. Let's have trial by combat,' he said, without explaining exactly what he meant by combat

'If we're wrong we will be made fools of, but if we're right a lot of them will go to jail. Let's have trial by combat,' he said, without explaining exactly what he meant by combat

Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest son, demanded that Republican Party lawmakers in Congress 'be the hero, not the zero' and refuse to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory

Donald Trump Jr, the president's eldest son, demanded that Republican Party lawmakers in Congress 'be the hero, not the zero' and refuse to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory

Thousands of supporters of President Trump are seen above near the Washington Monument for the 'Save America' rally on Wednesday

Thousands of supporters of President Trump are seen above near the Washington Monument for the 'Save America' rally on Wednesday

Trump touted his own vote total, but denied Biden's was real.

'And by the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes?' Trump asked rhetorically. 'Does anybody believe that? He had 80 million computer votes. It's a disgrace,' Trump said.

His mention of the pandemic came in terms of his own race, where millions voted by mail as thousands battled infections in a year more than 300,000 Americans died of COVID-19.

'They've used the pandemic as a way of defrauding the people in a proper election,' Trump said.

'Eight weeks. I want to go back eight weeks. Let's go back eight weeks,' he mused at one point, as he described a conversation with an unnamed official who told him that he would be lock to win in 2024.  

Trump repeatedly couched his demands not as an effort to overturn the votes of the people, but as a legal effort.

'Somebody says: Well we have to obey the Constitution,' Trump said. 'And you are, because you're protecting our country and you're protecting the Constitution so you are,' he said.

He said it would protect the country from having what he called 'an illegitimate president.'

'The states were defrauded. They were given false information,' Trump claimed.

During various tangents, he complained about how he is treated on social media, such as when 'I get a flag' on his tweets. 'I don't care about Twitter, Twitter's bad news, he said afterward.

He went after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell several times, including for not going along with his proposal to change communications laws.

'I helped Mitch get elected,' he said of the longtime incumbent.

'And then all of a sudden you have something like this,' he said, going after 'weak Republicans' and 'pathetic Republicans' – despite a top official in Georgia blaming him for the likely defeats of two Senate Republican incumbents.

He also called out Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) after her comment that failing to accept the electors certified by states would violate the Constitution.

'The Liz Cheneys of the world, we've got to get rid of them,' Trump said.

'Brian Kemp – vote him the hell out of office please,' Trump said of the Georgia governor.

He said Georgia's secretary of state Brad Raffensperger had 'no clue' what was going on, but then said 'maybe' he was with the other side – the Democrats.

'I can't believe this guy was a Republican,' said Trump. 'He loves recording telephone conversations,' Trump said – mentioning a leaked call where Trump can be heard asking him to 'find' 11,780 votes to make him the winner.

'People love that conversation, because it says what's going on,' Trump said.  

Donald Trump Jr (left), the president's eldest son, kisses his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle (right), before addressing the rally on Wednesday

Donald Trump Jr (left), the president's eldest son, kisses his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle (right), before addressing the rally on Wednesday

Donald Trump Jr., claimed there were 100,000 people there but images showed far fewer and he bashed elected Republicans who have refused to go along with his father's claims of frau

Donald Trump Jr., claimed there were 100,000 people there but images showed far fewer and he bashed elected Republicans who have refused to go along with his father's claims of frau

Trump also complained about the Supreme Court, which failed to take up a Texas lawsuit he sought to join, and even his former attorney general Bill Barr, who said before leaving his post there wasn't sufficient fraud to change the outcome.

'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They look to rule against me. I picked three people. I fought like hell for one in particular,' Trump inveighed.

'You know I read a story in one of the newspapers recently, how I control the three Supreme Court Justices. I control them. They're puppets. I read it about Bill Barr - that he's my personal attorney, that he'll do anything for me.

'But he denied pulling Barr's strings'And I said, you know, it really is genius, because what they do is that, and it makes it really impossible for them to ever give you a victory, because all of a sudden Bill Barr changed if you hadn't noticed. I like Bill Barr but he changed because he didn't want to be considered my personal attorney, and the Supreme Court. They ruled against me so much you know why? Because the story is, I haven't spoken to any of them. Any since virtually they got in, but the story is that they're my puppet, right, that they're puppets. And now that the only way they can get out of that - because they hate that it's not good on the social circuit. And the only way they get out is to rule against Trump. So let's rule against Trump and they do.'

'You know I read a story in one of the newspapers recently, how I control the three Supreme Court Justices. I control them. They're puppets. I read it about Bill Barr - that he's my personal attorney, that he'll do anything for me.'

But he denied pulling Barr's strings'And I said, you know, it really is genius, because what they do is that, and it makes it really impossible for them to ever give you a victory, because all of a sudden Bill Barr changed if you hadn't noticed. I like Bill Barr but he changed because he didn't want to be considered my personal attorney, and the Supreme Court. They ruled against me so much you know why? Because the story is, I haven't spoken to any of them. Any since virtually they got in, but the story is that they're my puppet, right, that they're puppets. And now that the only way they can get out of that - because they hate that it's not good on the social circuit. And the only way they get out is to rule against Trump. So let's rule against Trump and they do.'

Giuliani said, 'If we're wrong we will be made fools of, but if we're right a lot of them will go to jail. Let's have trial by combat,' he said, without explaining exactly what he meant by combat.

'I'm willing to stake my reputation, the president is willing to stake his reputation on the fact that we're going to find criminality there,' said the former New York mayor. Trump and his allies have suffered dozens of losses in state and federal courts with suits charging election fraud.

He spoke to thousands of cheering supporters on the Ellipse south of the White House. A permit was for 30,000 people.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., claimed there were 100,000 people there but images showed far fewer.

He bashed elected Republicans who have refused to go along with his father's claims of fraud.

'The people who did nothing to stop the steal -- this gathering should send a message to them. This isn't their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump's Republican Party. This is the Republican Party that will put America first,' he said.

His girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, also spoke.

Eric Trump (right), the president's son, and his wife, Lara Trump, raise their fists in front of thousands of supporters near the White House on Wednesday

Eric Trump (right), the president's son, and his wife, Lara Trump, raise their fists in front of thousands of supporters near the White House on Wednesday

A militia-like group is seen making their way to Trump's rally on Wednesday morning

A militia-like group is seen making their way to Trump's rally on Wednesday morning 

Trump supporters gather near the White House and watch the rally on a big screen set up nearby

Trump supporters gather near the White House and watch the rally on a big screen set up nearby

A woman is seen holding a sign that reads 'Trump is the party' as the president's supporters gather on the Washington Monument grounds

A woman is seen holding a sign that reads 'Trump is the party' as the president's supporters gather on the Washington Monument grounds 

Trump supporters braved cold temperatures in Washington, DC, on Wednesday hours before the start of planned demonstrations

Trump supporters braved cold temperatures in Washington, DC, on Wednesday hours before the start of planned demonstrations

A Trump supporter is seen with a protective vest decorated with Trump badges at Wednesday's rally

A Trump supporter is seen with a protective vest decorated with Trump badges at Wednesday's rally 

Trump was expected to address his supporters later in the morning during a rally on the Ellipse, just south of the White House

Trump was expected to address his supporters later in the morning during a rally on the Ellipse, just south of the White House

United States Park Police are seen above arresting a man near the Washington Monument on Wednesday

United States Park Police are seen above arresting a man near the Washington Monument on Wednesday

After claiming fraud in Trump's election, John Eastman claimed fraud in the count Tuesday night, which allowed Rev. Raphael Warnock to be called as the winner in one runoff and has Democrat Jon Ossoff leading in another.

Explaining how the fraud he claims occurred happened, Eastman said: 'You know the old way was to have a bunch of ballots sitting in a box under the floor … They put those ballots in a secret folder in the machines, sitting there waiting until they know how many they need … I can now in that machine match those unvoted ballots with an unvoted voter and put them together in the machine. How do we know that happened last night in real time? You saw when it went to 99 per cent of the vote total, and it stopped.'

He pointed to a point late in the vote count while counties were still tabulating votes – a version of Trump's complaint that he led in early returns on election night in November. Last night, Republicans led until addition in-person votes came in in populous Democratic-leaning counties 'That means they were unloading the ballots from that secret folder,' he claimed.

At least 10 people were arrested for gun possession crimes and other violations and others were seen clashing with counter-demonstrators.

One man from North Carolina was detained after he was caught carrying a gun without a license.

The man rode into the capital on a bus which was stopped by police near Ninth Street and Constitution Avenue NW.

Police boarded the bus and confiscated a rifle and a handgun as well as a drum magazine that holds additional ammunition. 

Many in the crowd were photographed not wearing masks and gathered in tight quarters, shoulder to shoulder, despite the raging pandemic and the nationwide surge in the number of coronavirus cases.  

'Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!' Donald Trump turns on Pence telling him to ignore the constitution and refuse to certify Joe Biden's victory in Congress - which even a White House aide calls 'shameful'

Donald Trump tweeted furiously at his own vice president Mike Pence Wednesday to demand he refuse to certify Joe Biden's election victory.

Trump demanded Pence ignore the constitution and instead 'return' swing states' slates of electors for Joe Biden to Republican-controlled legislatures who would then submit their own Trump electors.

Pence has no such power to do so - and told Trump that over lunch on Tuesday, the  New York Times reported - but Trump doubled down on his demands as thousands of his supporters, some in camouflage, gathered close to the White House. 

'States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!' Trump tweeted.

At the White House there was shock that Trump would turn so publicly on his ultra-loyal VP.

CNN reported that one aide called attacking the VP 'shameful,' amid fears from Pence's camp that worse was to come.

The tweet was hours before Pence was due to preside over the joint session of Congress which will formally declare Biden the election victor - and as the Republican party adsorbed the shock of being on the brink of losing the Senate.

Trump appeared to concede that the Senate was lost in an all-capitals tweet claiming that Republicans need to keep 'the power of the veto.'

'THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, OUR COUNTRY, NEEDS THE PRESIDENCY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE - THE POWER OF THE VETO. STAY STRONG!THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, OUR COUNTRY, NEEDS THE PRESIDENCY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE - THE POWER OF THE VETO. STAY STRONG!' Trump tweeted.

A move to turn on Pence had been growing in inevitability for days. Axios reported that Trump had no idea that Pence oversaw the certification of the election results - until he learned about it from a television ad by the Lincoln Project, the never-Trump Republican group led by Kellyanne Conway's husband George.

Tweetstorm turning on Pence: Donald Trump went after his own VP in a tweetstorm

Tweetstorm turning on Pence: Donald Trump went after his own VP in a tweetstorm

On Tuesday night ABC News' White House Correspondent Jon Karl reported that Trump was 'prepared to go after Pence and go after him hard' if he does not get in line and overturn the election at the special session of Congress which begins at 1pm Wednesday. 

That was after Trump slammed as 'fake news' the revelation that Pence had told him he was powerless to stop Biden's win in a statement which was signed only by Trump - and not by his deputy.

'Decertifying' the results would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis but Trump claimed that Pence was in 'total agreement' that he 'has the power to act.' 

Trump's statement publicly turned the heat up on Pence after a pressure campaign which has been going on in private for weeks and exploded into the public on Monday night at Trump's Georgia rally, then on Twitter Tuesday. 

'The New York Times report regarding comments Vice President Pence supposedly made to me today is fake news,' Trump said in a statement issued by the White House. It was dated 2020.

'He never said that. The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.

'The November 3rd election was corrupt in contested states, and in particular it was not in accordance with the Constitution in that they made large scale changes to election rules and regulations as dictated by local judges and politicians, not by state legislators. This means that it was illegal.

Delivering bad news: Mike Pence was spotted at the White House Tuesday after Trump had tweeted that the vice president could disqualify Electoral College votes. Pence was on his way to tell Trump that he could not

Delivering bad news: Mike Pence was spotted at the White House Tuesday after Trump had tweeted that the vice president could disqualify Electoral College votes. Pence was on his way to tell Trump that he could not

Trying to lighten the blow: Mike Pence told Trump he might attempt to 'acknowledge' his claims of fraud  - partly driven by his own fear that confirming Joe Biden's victory will be used against him

Trying to lighten the blow: Mike Pence told Trump he might attempt to 'acknowledge' his claims of fraud  - partly driven by his own fear that confirming Joe Biden's victory will be used against him

Trump's tweet is false and Pence does not have the power to reject slates of electors

Trump's tweet is false and Pence does not have the power to reject slates of electors

'Our Vice President has several options under the U.S. Constitution. He can decertify the results or send them back to the states for change and certification. 

'He can also decertify the illegal and corrupt results and send them to the House of Representatives for the one vote for one state tabulation.'

Significantly, however, the statement was not signed by Pence - and the legal claims Trump made appeared to be in line with plans outlined by Rudy Giuliani, not the Senate Parliamentarian who has advised Pence that his powers are limited to confirming the Electoral College votes read out on the floor of Congress.

Trump also tweeted 'big news from Pennsylvania' with a copy of a letter sent by Republican state lawmakers to Mitch McConnell and the Republican minority leader in the House asking for certification to be 'delayed.'

The lawmakers claimed that the election outcome should be put off until after the Supreme Court has considered a Republican challenge to how Pennsylvania's voting was run - which the justices have scheduled no date to hear, and asked for responses on January 22, after Trump leaves office. 

The letter repeats claims about the election which have been dismissed by state and federal courts repeatedly. 

That Trump tweeted it shows his level of desperate clutching at straws with Congress all but certain to torpedo his bid to overturn the election as early as Wednesday. 

Trump had first wanted Republicans to vote to reject electors from swing states, but a majority of GOP senators have made clear they will not go along with that, making it dead on arrival.

His next attempt is to claim Pence has powers to simply reject votes himself, a claim advanced by Rudy Giuliani and other fringe lawyers but dismissed by constitutional experts as absurd.

Pence was himself reported to have told Trump Tuesday that he was wrong.

He delivered the bad news over lunch, the New York Times reported, sugaring the pill by suggesting he could in some way acknowledge Trump's discredited claims when he presides over the Senate. 

Ahead of the traditionally ceremonial event, President Donald Trump had escalated his pressure campaign on Pence to help him overturn the election results and spend another four years in the White House.

'The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,' the president tweeted on Tuesday morning, wrongly stating what Pence can do when he is in the presiding chair.

But shortly after when the two met for their regular lunch, Pence delivered the bad news that he could not. 

The New York Times reported that Pence also told Trump to lighten the blow that he would keep 'studying the issue' until the joint session begins at 1pm Wednesday.

In fact Pence spent hours this week with the Senate Parliamentarian, who advises senators and the vice president on the rules when they are on the floor of the Senate - or in Pence's unique case, presiding over the joint session certifying the election. 

Truth to power: Donald Trump demanded publicly Monday night at his rally in Georgia and then on Twitter that the vice president aid his campaign to overturn the election. Pence told him Tuesday he could not

Desperation move: Trump's extraordinary plan to overturn the election through Mike Pence is a final attempt to stop Joe Biden's victory being confirmed

Desperation move: Trump's extraordinary plan to overturn the election through Mike Pence is a final attempt to stop Joe Biden's victory being confirmed

If a member of the House and Senate both object to one of the state's slates of electors, the two chambers split to debate the objection for two hours - with Pence presiding over the Senate.

That is when he could offer some 'acknowledgment' of Trump's claims about fraud to ameliorate both the blow to his boss, and the potential for the president to turn on his ultra-loyal deputy in the dying days of the administration, and beyond. 

Pence is said to be particularly concerned that his certification of Biden's victory could be weaponized against him on social media.

His delivery of bad news to Trump came after a lawsuit brought by Louis Gohmert, an ultra-loyalist congressman, which demanded that federal courts say Pence could disqualify electoral college votes was dismissed rapidly by a judge and an appeals court. 

That legal move would have offered Pence some cover that he could point to judges as having ruled out the possibility that he could disqualify voters - which no vice president had ever done and which constitutional experts had said was simply legally impossible.

But an 'acknowledgment' of Trump's claims represents a Pyrrhic victory for the president - with Republican senators dealing his campaign to have them vote against approving swing states' votes a series of blows Tuesday, as more and more said they would not get behind it.

Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina
Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma

Senators Tim Scott and Jim Inhofe became the latest GOP lawmakers to risk the wrath of Trump with their decision to back Biden - at least 23 Republican senators will vote to certify Biden's election win

Senators Tim Scott and Jim Inhofe became the latest GOP lawmakers to risk the wrath of Trump with their decision to back Biden.

'As I read the Constitution, there is no constitutionally viable means for the Congress to overturn an election wherein the states have certified and sent their Electors. Some of my colleagues believe they have found a path, and while our opinions differ, I do not doubt their good intentions to take steps towards stamping out voter fraud,' Scott said in a statement.

Inhofe also cited the Constitution as his reason.

'My job on Wednesday is clear, and there are only two things I am permitted to do under the Constitution: ensure the electors are properly certified and count the electoral votes, even when I disagree with the outcome,' he said in a statement. 

More and more Republican senators joined in as the clock ticked toward Wednesday, including Senators Jerry Moran and John Boozman. 

Moran said the plan to object would 'risk undermining our democracy–which is built upon the rule of law and separation of powers.'

And Boozman made a similar argument.

'Under the Constitution, Congress does not have the legal authority to change the outcome,' he said. 'These principles are enshrined in the Constitution to ensure the American people, not the party in control of Congress, have the power to choose their president.'

At least 24 Republican senators will vote to certify Biden's election win, according to a count by Politico while 13 are supporting Trump. And 14 are undecided. The Senate is short one senator as David Perdue's term ended January 3rd. The winner of Tuesday's special election in Georgia will take the seat. 

It takes a simple majority of 51 senators to sustain the objection to a state's electoral college result, upending it. 

But with all 48 Democrats unlikely to do so and the 24 Republicans joining them, that's 72 votes for Biden, leaving Trump's hopes in the dust. 

Senator Ted Cruz, who is leading the objection effort, will challenge the results of Arizona on Wednesday while Senator Kelly Loeffler will likely lead the objection when it comes to the results in her home state of Georgia. Senator Josh Hawley, another GOP leader in the movement, will challenge Pennsylvania's. 

The focus of the objections would be on those three states - down from the original six lawmakers originally discussed.  

Even without the outcome highly unlikely to go Trump's way there is bound to be plenty of fiery floor debate and political theater. 

But Trump may not get a mass gathering of Republican lawmakers protesting on the floor.

The House Sergeant at Arms and Capitol physician sent a memo to lawmakers Tuesday evening about the joint session, requesting that 'access to the Floor of the House will be limited to those Members who are scheduled to speak during the joint session.'

And for Pence, who has walked the tight rope of Trump's presidency for four years without faltering, what he does Wednesday will be the ultimate loyalty test, at least in the eyes of the president, who is publicly putting on the pressure. 

Trump has made it clear he expects his second-in-command to keep him in the White House even if Pence does not legally or constitutionally have the power to do so.

'I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. He's a great guy,' Trump told a campaign rally Monday night in Dalton, Georgia. 'Of course if he doesn't come through I won't like him quite as much.' 

READ THE FULL 12th AMENDMENT

The 12th Amendment is the fundamental law behind Congress certifying the election on Wednesday. But it is also one of the most complicated parts of the Constitution, starting with a 202-word multi-clause sentence. Here is its full text. 

The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. 

But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. 

And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President-The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 

But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

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Ultimately, Biden is expected to be certified as the winner of the election on Wednesday, which Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, is expected to announce after the certification is complete. 

The 12th amendment of the Constitution - along with the Electoral Count Act of 1887 - makes it clear Pence's role is to make parliamentary rulings. It does not include any power in how Congress counts the electoral votes. 

When it comes to a conflict between the House and Senate over whether or not to certify a state's electoral college count, the Electoral Count Act of 1887 gives the deciding power to the state's governor and not the vice president, meaning the state's result will stand and Pence has no legal path to overturning it.

Pence would not be the first vice president to have to preside over his party's loss of the White House: Richard Nixon, Dan Quayle, Al Gore and Joe Biden all presided over counts that handed them, or their party, a defeat. Biden even gaveled down an effort to object to Trump's victory when he presided over the electoral count in January 2017.

But Pence is likely the first vice president who will be blamed by his boss for it.

Biden won the electoral college by 306 votes to Trump's 232. When all is said and done, Biden will be inaugurated the 46th president on January 20th.

Trump, however, has refused to concede the contest. He continues to claim massive voter fraud but has shown no proof of any such thing. His former Attorney General Bill Barr said he saw no evidence of widespread voter fraud.  

A report in Roll Call raised questions about what exactly Pence will do Wednesday. The Capitol Hill newspaper quoted Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, the pro temp of the Senate, saying he would be presiding instead of Pence because 'we don't expect him to be there.' 

But Pence's office was quick to say the vice president would be present and Grassley's office quickly clarified the senator was referring to having to take over if Pence needed a break. 

It raised questions, however, if Pence would be taking those breaks when things got hot politically speaking.

Pence's role is to open the states' sealed certificates in alphabetical order and hand them them to one of four 'tellers' — a Republican and a Democrat from each chamber of Congress  - who will announce how each state voted. 

As each state's result is read, Pence will ask whether any member of Congress wishes to raise an objection. If an objection is raised from both a House and Senate member, the matter goes to each chamber for two hours of debate and a vote on whether or not to sustain the objection.

As part of his parliamentary duties, it's Pence who will decide if the objection is valid to warrant the two-hour debate and vote in each chamber. 

After the breakout session, lawmakers return to the joint session to continue the roll call of state results. If there is another objection, the process begins all over again.

Given the Democratic control of the House and the fact that many Republican senators don't support the objections, none are expected to be sustained.

Trump and his allies were hoping enough objections would occur to bring Biden under the 270 mark in the electoral college count - the amount needed to win the presidency.

That would throw the election to the House. Under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, each state congressional delegation gets one vote. While Democrats control the House, Republicans control the majority of state delegations, which is how Trump hopes to be 'elected.' 

Vice President Mike Pence (left) and his Chief of Staff Marc Short stand in the Oval Office before President Donald Trump departs the White House on Monday for a campaign rally in Georgia

Vice President Mike Pence (left) and his Chief of Staff Marc Short stand in the Oval Office before President Donald Trump departs the White House on Monday for a campaign rally in Georgia

While campaigning for Georgia's Senate candidates in that state on Monday, Pence responded to shouts of the 'stop the steal' with this: 'We all got our doubts about the last election. And I want to assure you, I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. And I promise you, come this Wednesday, we'll have our day in Congress.' 

He made no promises of an outcome. 

Other points of pressure are coming Pence's way.

Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, claimed inaccurately on Fox News over the weekend that Pence could call for an 'emergency 10-day audit' of the election returns in the states Trump allies are disputing.  Pence does not have that power. 

Pence and his chief of staff Marc Short were in the Oval Office with President Trump and other advisers on Monday night before the president left for Georgia to campaign for the two Republican senators on the ballot in Tuesday's special election.

But most of Trump's remarks at that rally were about himself. 

'You know I've had two elections, I've won both of them, it's amazing,' Trump said. 'And I actually did much better in the second one.' 

The low down on how Congress certifies the Electoral College vote

At 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Senators and Representatives will gather in the House chamber for a Joint Session of Congress to count and certify the electoral college ballots. 

Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump by 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. 

But the constitution calls for Congress to certify the results, in a process that  has become largely procedural. It is very difficult to over turn an election and it has never happened in American history.

Republicans, however, have vowed to object to the electoral college results, dragging out the certification process and putting on a grand display of theater that will likely please the president.

Here's how the day will play out: 

The process is presided over by the president of the Senate, which is Vice President Mike Pence. 

Pence will open the states' sealed certificates in alphabetical order and hand them them to one of four 'tellers' — a Republican and a Democrat from each chamber of Congress  - who will announce how each state voted.

As each state's result is read, Pence will ask whether any member of Congress wishes to raise an objection.  

At least one member of the House and one member of the Senate must object for the objection to stand. The law also states the objection must be in writing.

If the objection is recognized, the lawmakers go to their respective chambers to debate the matter for up to two hours.

Then the House and Senate each votes on whether to sustain the objection - which would dismiss the state's votes - or reject the objection.

For a state's results to be dismissed, majorities of both chambers have to vote to sustain the objection. If one chamber votes to sustain the objection and the other doesn't, the objection is dismissed and the state's electoral college results stand.

The Democratically-controlled House is unlikely to support sustaining an objection, meaning the states' results will stand and Biden will ultimately be declared the winner. 

Additionally, the Republican-controlled Senate isn't likely to vote in favor of an objection, either. The GOP has a slim margin in the upper chamber and a number of Republican senators have voiced their objections to the objection process. 

After the objection is voted on by each chamber, the joint session reconvenes and continues with the count. If there's another objection to a different state's vote, the process is repeated. 

President Trump's allies are looking at challenging three states: Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, which could go into the early morning hours of Thursday.

'At the end of the day, which could be the middle of the night, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be officially declared the next President and Vice President of the United States,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote to Democratic House members on Monday. 

After the votes are recorded from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the vice president declares who has received the requisite majority of electoral college votes. That announcement finalizes the election. 

 WHAT IF THE OBJECTIONS ARE SUSTAINED?

If, by some remote chance, an objection is sustained, Trump and his allies hope that will result in the electors being thrown out, ultimately bringing Biden's electoral count below the 270 needed to win.

If all three state challenges are successful, Biden would have 259 electoral votes, throwing the election to the House of Representatives to select the next president. 

Under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, each state congressional delegation gets one vote.

While Democrats control the House, Republicans control the majority of state delegations, which is how Trump hopes to be 'elected.'

Sources: NBC News, Washington Post, New York Times 

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'Don't argue with fools!' Top Democrat Cedric Richmond warns party's reps not to get dragged into debate in Congress over Republicans' bid to overturn the election results on Wednesday 

President Trump's demand that Congress overturn the election results in states he lost has provoked a split in his party – and Democratic leaders are now cautioning their own members to steer clear of arguments when the vote gets certified.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat who is joining the incoming Biden administration as director of White House engagement, has told colleagues there isn't an upside to jumping into a point-by-point clash over Trump's election fraud claims.

'You don't argue with fools, because at a distance you can't tell who the fool is,' he said on a party conference call Monday, Politico reported.  

'You don't argue with fools,' Representative Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana is urging colleagues

'You don't argue with fools,' Representative Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana is urging colleagues

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is mindful of the spectacle that the election challenges could provoke – and wants her members to be 'dignified' through the process – although unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud by Texas GOP Rep. Louis Goehmert and others is certain to provoke an angry backlash.

The House meets Wednesday in a special joint session to count the Electoral College votes. 

The number of Republican senators planning to go along with election challenges grew to 13 at Trump's Georgia rally when Sen. Kelly Loeffler announced she was behind the effort.

But the leaked recording of Trump's call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger may have undermined the Senate GOP efforts by linking claims the lawmakers hitched to the Constitution to the president's request that Raffensperger 'find' 11,780 votes for him.  

It was unclear if the explosive call had prompted Senate Republicans to dial back some of their plans and focus on a smaller number of states to launch challenges. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Democrats to remain dignified as Republicans challenge the election Joe Biden won by 306 to 232 electoral votes

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Democrats to remain dignified as Republicans challenge the election Joe Biden won by 306 to 232 electoral votes

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he will raise election challenges

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he will raise election challenges

President Donald Trump asked Georgia's secretary of state to 'find' 11,780 votes for him

President Donald Trump asked Georgia's secretary of state to 'find' 11,780 votes for him

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) was the first senator to say publicly he would back election challenges

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) was the first senator to say publicly he would back election challenges

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling debunked many of the president's 'fantastical' claims in a press conference Monday.

GOP strategist Doug Heye told The Hill regarding Trump's leaked call: 'The tape now makes it harder for other people to join on. They had a legal process argument that they could make even if it wasn't the most credible one,' he continued. 'The tape blows that out of the water.'

Whatever Democratic leaders caution, rank-and-file Democrats who get opportunities to speak when Republicans raise protests to states' electoral votes are likely to get heated.  

'It¿s treasonous. The fact of the matter is the election results have been certified,' said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif. Party leaders are preparing for tense debates on Wednesday

'It's treasonous. The fact of the matter is the election results have been certified,' said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif. Party leaders are preparing for tense debates on Wednesday

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) is among those who have erupted at Republicans going along with Trump's effort. 

'It's treasonous. The fact of the matter is the election results have been certified,' he said

If a House and Senate member object to a state's certification, each chamber will meet separately for two hours to consider the challenge, where members will give speeches, followed by a vote.

More than 100 House Republicans are expected to back election challenges.  

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2021-01-06 18:16:00Z
CAIiEK69ikNHn9wv2n3jdV9JbpgqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowzuOICzCZ4ocDMO7xqQY

Fury as China denies entry to WHO experts to investigate origins of Covid - Daily Mail

Fury as China denies entry to WHO experts investigating origins of Covid pandemic as Number 10 calls decision 'disappointing' amid growing suspicions of a cover-up

  • Tom Tugendhat MP slammed China's 'shameful behaviour' towards the experts
  • And an expert on the regime accused them of hiding key evidence
  • The first outbreak of coronavirus was recorded in Wuhan, China, in late 2019
  • But the country has fiercely maintained it is not the source of the pandemic 

Politicians and experts today blasted China for refusing entry to members of a World Health Organization(WHO) team being sent to the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Number 10 described the move as 'disappointing', insisting that it was vital the probe happens.

Tory MP and founder of Britain's China Research Group, Tom Tugendhat, accused Beijing of 'shameful behaviour'. He said the failure to investigate 'puts everyone at risk of a repeat, and particularly those who are closest - the Chinese people.'

And Sari Haven, of the Mercator Institute for China Studies think-tank, dismissed the regime's claim that a 'visa issue' led to the team being denied entry. She said: 'Of course the decoy narrative becomes more difficult to maintain when the WHO team is snooping around.'

Even the WHO's chief, in a rare critique of the Beijing regime, warned he was 'very disappointed', especially given the fact that 'two members had already begun their journeys'. 

It comes amid growing suspicions of a cover-up in China, where Covid-19 is thought to have originated at the end of 2019, although its source remains bitterly contested as officials battle to control the narrative.

The first cases of the virus that has brought the world to its knees were identified in Wuhan in late December last year, and linked to a seafood market.

Beijing agreed to allow 10 experts into the country in the summer after many months of negotiations. But today Chinese officials insisted a date for the trip and 'details' of the visit still haven't been arranged. The WHO said it is in contact with Chinese authorities.

Pictured: Workers in protective suits in Wuhan, China, blocking entry to the seafood market. It is believed to have been where the Covid-19 outbreak, that sparked the pandemic, began

Pictured: Workers in protective suits in Wuhan, China, blocking entry to the seafood market. It is believed to have been where the Covid-19 outbreak, that sparked the pandemic, began

Tory MP and founder of Britain's China Research Group, Tom Tugendhat, accused Beijing of 'shameful behaviour'
And Sari Haven, of the Mercator Institute for China Studies think-tank, dismissed the regime's claim that a 'visa issue' led to the team being denied entry

Tory MP and founder of Britain's China Research Group, Tom Tugendhat, accused Beijing of 'shameful behaviour'. And Sari Haven, of the Mercator Institute for China Studies think-tank, dismissed the regime's claim that a 'visa issue' led to the team being denied entry

The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the 10 scientists it is sending to coronavirus ground zero Wuhan to probe the origins of the disease. It is thought the virus may have jumped into humans at the Wuhan seafood market (pictured)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the 10 scientists it is sending to coronavirus ground zero Wuhan to probe the origins of the disease. It is thought the virus may have jumped into humans at the Wuhan seafood market (pictured)

THE KILLER VIRUS MAY HAVE COME FROM BATS, SCIENTISTS SAY 

The killer coronavirus sweeping across the world may have come from bats, scientists have said.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People's Liberation Army and Institut Pasteur of Shanghai came to the conclusion.

In a statement, the team said: 'The Wuhan coronavirus' natural host could be bats… but between bats and humans there may be an unknown intermediate.

Tests of the virus, which has yet to be named, have revealed it targets a protein called ACE2 – just like its cousin SARS, the South China Morning Post reported.

Tracing the evolution of the virus, the team of experts found it belonged to betacoronavirus, making it structurally similar to SARS.

Authorities have pointed the blame on food markets in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak that scientists are scrambling to contain.

Rodents and bats among other animals are slaughtered and sold in traditional 'wet markets', which tourists flock to see the 'real' side of the country.

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A spokesman for the Prime Minister warned China against blocking the vital research team today.

They said: 'As the WHO said yesterday it is disappointing this vital research trip is being held up.

'It's important that the investigation is able to progress without delay and is open, transparent and scientifically rigorous.

'We have said throughout the pandemic it is important that an investigation happens and that remains our position.'

Asked whether China was engaging in a cover-up, the spokesman added: 'There is clearly questions that need to be answered about the origins and spread of the virus.

'Which is why we are supportive of the WHO independent international team of experts who will lead the investigation.' 

The WHO's director of emergencies Michael Ryan said yesterday the problem was visa clearances at the border, but added he hoped it was a 'logistic and bureaucratic issue that can be resolved very quickly'.

Its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference they had arranged for members of the team to start travelling to China this week.

'Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team's arrival in China,' he said in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday.

'I am very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute.'

He said they had been 'in contact' with senior Chinese officials, and had 'once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for the WHO'. 

'I have been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedure of the earliest possible deployment. We're eager to get the mission under way as soon as possible,' he added.

Earlier this week Chinese authorities had refused to confirm the exact dates and details of the visit, a sign of the enduring sensitivity of their mission. 

The WHO team has promised to focus on the science, specifically how the coronavirus jumped from animals - believed to be bats - to humans.

'This is not about finding a guilty country or a guilty authority,' Fabian Leendertz from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's central disease control body who will be among the team to visit, told AFP new agency in late December.

'This is about understanding what happened to avoid that in the future, to reduce the risk.'

But doubt has been cast over what the WHO mission can reasonably expect to achieve and the state pressure they will face, raising fears that the mission will serve to rubber stamp China's official story, not challenge it.

The upcoming visit will not be the first time Covid-19 has brought WHO teams to China. A mission last year looked at the response by authorities rather than the virus origins, with another in the summer laying the groundwork for the upcoming probe.

But this time the WHO will wade into a swamp of competing interests, stuck between accusatory Western nations and a Chinese leadership determined to show that its secretive and hierarchical political system served to stem, not spread, the outbreak.

It is unclear who the experts will be able to meet when they arrive in Wuhan to retrace the initial days and weeks of the pandemic.

Inside China, whistle-blowers have been silenced and citizen journalists jailed, including a 37-year-old woman imprisoned last week for four years over video reports from the city during its prolonged lockdown.

Outside, responsibility for the virus has been weaponized.

From the outset, US President Donald Trump used the virus as political bludgeon against big power rival China.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticised Beijing

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticised Beijing

He accused Beijing of trying to hide the outbreak of what he dubbed the 'China virus' and repeated unsubstantiated rumours it leaked from a Wuhan lab.

Trump then pulled the US out of the WHO, accusing it of going soft on China, a nation with which he was also engaged in a bitter trade war.

Critics say that blizzard of accusations sought to divert attention from Washington's bungled response to a crisis which has so far killed more than 355,000 Americans.

Without them, said one, 'a lot of these situations that we had in January 2020 would not have played out the way it did.'

'It is the geopolitics that... put the world in this situation,' Ilona Kickbusch, of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, told AFP.

China has since deftly re-framed its version of events, hailing its 'extraordinary success' in curbing the pandemic within its borders and rebooting its economy.

Beijing now says it will ride to the rescue of poorer nations, promising cheap vaccines and seeding doubt that the virus even originated in China.  

WHO ARE THE 10 SCIENTISTS THAT ARE BEING SENT TO WUHAN?

Included in the line up is England's former deputy chief medical officer John Watson

Included in the line up is England's former deputy chief medical officer John Watson

John Watson

Epidemiologist and former deputy chief medical officer 

Peter Daszak

Zoologist and president of the New York-based group, the EcoHealth Alliance

Marion Koopmans

Virologist and head of the Erasmus Medical Centre’s Department of Viroscience in Rotterdam

Farag El Moubasher

Infectious disease expert in Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health

Hung Nguyen

From the Animal and Human Health Program at the International Livestock Research Institute, based in Vietnam

Thea Kølsen Fischer

Infectious disease expert at Denmark's University of Copenhagen 

Fabian Leendertz

Epidemiologist at Germany’s Robert Koch Institut 

Dominic Dwyer

Virologist and based at Westmead Hospital in Sydney

Ken Maeda

Veterinary microbiologist at Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID)

Vladimir Dedkov

Epidemiologist at the Pasteur Institute in Russia

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Chinese doctors were recording at least DOUBLE the number of coronavirus cases that Beijing was reporting to the world in February, leaked documents revealed in December 

China under-reported its coronavirus cases and deaths by up to half during the early stages of the pandemic, leaked documents revealed in December.

Beijing has long been accused of under-reporting its coronavirus numbers, but the data gives an idea of the scale of the problem for the first time. 

For example, on February 10 China reported 2,478 new cases of the virus across the entire country - but leaked data shows that, on the same date, Hubei province alone logged 5,918 cases.

Meanwhile on March 7, Hubei was officially reporting a cumulative death toll of 2,986, but documents show it actually stood at 3,456.

The official figures, which were reported across the world, downplayed the severity of the outbreak at a time when world leaders were trying to devise their own response strategies - leaving many unprepared for what was to come.

China was able to use the figures and its authoritarian powers to lock down hard and early, all-but wiping the virus out and meaning its economy has grown this year, while under-prepared western democracies have seen their economies devastated. 

On February 10, China reported a total of 2,478 cases in its daily report, which was published around the world. Leaked documents show the total was 5,918 in Hubei province alone

On February 10, China reported a total of 2,478 cases in its daily report, which was published around the world. Leaked documents show the total was 5,918 in Hubei province alone

On February 17, the province of Hubei reported 93 new deaths to the public. In fact, documents show that it was 196

On February 17, the province of Hubei reported 93 new deaths to the public. In fact, documents show that it was 196

Other discrepancies revealed in the data include February 17, when Hubei officially reported 93 deaths from the virus while the documents show a toll of 196.

On March 7, Hubei officially reported 83 cases, but 115 are recorded in the leaked papers. 

Another report also records the deaths of six health care workers from coronavirus by February 10, which were never publicly disclosed.

Data also suggests that the number of cases recorded in 2019, when the virus first emerged, was 200.

Until now, China has only publicly acknowledged 44 cases in 2019 - which it reported to the WHO as 'a pneumonia of unknown etiology' on January 3.

The documents, comprising 117 pages, were handed to CNN by a whistleblower inside the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which was at the epicentre of the outbreak.

The whistleblower described themselves as 'a patriot' who was 'motivated to expose a truth that had been censored, and honor colleagues who had also spoken out.'

Alongside the true case and death tolls, the documents reveal for the first time that Hubei was in the midst of a major flu epidemic at the time coronavirus struck.

By March 7, Hubei had officially logged 2,986 deaths from the virus, but leaked documents show that toll was actually 3,456

By March 7, Hubei had officially logged 2,986 deaths from the virus, but leaked documents show that toll was actually 3,456

On March 7, Hubei province - where epicentre Wuhan was located - reported 83 new infections to the public. Leaked documents give a figure of 115

On March 7, Hubei province - where epicentre Wuhan was located - reported 83 new infections to the public. Leaked documents give a figure of 115

The province was reporting up to 20 times the normal number of seasonal flu cases in December 2019, centered in the cities of Yichang and Xianning.

Wuhan, where coronavirus would first emerge, was third worst-affected.

Data also shows that a large number of flu cases, including in Wuhan, were diagnosed as 'unknown cause' - dating a far back as December 2.

Researchers told CNN that it is possible some of these were mis-diagnosed coronavirus cases, but there is no way to know for sure because the data is simply not available.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, at Johns Hopkins University which has been at the forefront of tracking the virus, said: 'They were only testing for what they knew.' 

China claims it has done studies looking for cases of coronavirus in Wuhan before December 2019, but has been unable to find any. 

While there is no suggestion that the outbreaks are linked, the flu epidemic likely left health officials stretched and unprepared for the emergence of a new illness.

The documents also reveal a shambles among China's early testing regime, which contributed to the cases being under-reported.

According to the data, nucleic acid tests which were initially used to diagnose the virus only worked between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of the time.

Documents also reveal Hubei province was in the midst of a flu epidemic when coronavirus emerged, with hospitals under-funded and staff demoralised (file image)

 Documents also reveal Hubei province was in the midst of a flu epidemic when coronavirus emerged, with hospitals under-funded and staff demoralised (file image)

That meant scientists were often forced to use other methods - such as scans of the lungs - to diagnose patients they were sure had the virus, but whose tests kept coming back negative.

But because of the way China's reporting system worked, only those cases which had been confirmed by the test were publicly reported.

All other cases were marked down as 'suspected' or 'clinically diagnosed'.

While bureaucrats would have been aware of both figures, and may have been aware of the problems with testing, they chose only to report cases with a positive test - at least initially.

China did start adding 'clinically diagnosed' cases to its totals in mid-February, but by then the virus had already spread far beyond its own borders. 

Yanzhong Huang, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who specilaises in Chinese public health, told CNN: 'It was clear they did make mistakes.

'Not just mistakes that happen when you're dealing with a novel virus, also bureaucratic and politically-motivated errors in how they handled it. 

'These had global consequences.' 

The early testing regime also suffered huge delays, with the average time taken from the onset of disease to diagnosis being 23 days.

That meant China's official daily totals were lagging three weeks behind reality, while at the same time hampering its own ability to respond to the crisis.

Internal documents also show that Hubei health authorities were under-funded and suffering staff motivation issues when the pandemic struck.

And while Beijing boasted that it had massively invested in early-stage detection of infectious diseases in 2003 during the SARS epidemic, in reality the system was slow, under-funded, and weighed down with bureaucracy.

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The world must investigate all the mounting evidence Covid leaked from a Wuhan lab, writes IAN BIRRELL 

By Ian Birrell for the Mail on Sunday 

It is a year since the world learned of a deadly new respiratory disease stalking the central Chinese city of Wuhan. 

Yet we still know little about how and why the virus spread with such devastating consequences.

 It can almost certainly be traced to bats. But we do not know how this pathogen – having evolved an extraordinary ability to infect, causing such damage to different bodily organs – made the jump into human beings.

At last, a World Health Organisation investigation is under way into the origins of the coronavirus, but it is accused of meekly pandering to China's agenda by recruiting patsy scientists and relying on Beijing's dubious data.

Now there is growing clamour from experts around the world that no stone should be left unturned during this inquiry – and that it must include one key element of a hunt which has all the hallmarks of a thriller novel.

It is a year since the world learned of a deadly new respiratory disease stalking the central Chinese city of Wuhan, writes Ian Birrell. Pictured: Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who was dubbed 'Batwoman', at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

It is a year since the world learned of a deadly new respiratory disease stalking the central Chinese city of Wuhan, writes Ian Birrell. Pictured: Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who was dubbed 'Batwoman', at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

Why did China build a virus lab in Wuhan?

Chinese officials decided to build the Wuhan Institute of Virology after the country was ravaged by an outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003.

SARS, another kind of coronavirus, killed 775 people and infected more than 8,000 globally in an epidemic that lasted about eight months.

It took the Chinese 15 years to fully complete the project, which cost a total of 300million yuan (£34million). The French helped design the building. 

Its crown jewel is a four-storey lab with the highest biosafety level of P4.

It's the most advanced laboratory of its type in China.

Construction of the lab was finished in 2015 and it officially opened on January 5, 2018, after passing various safety inspections. 

Describing the significance of the P4 lab, China Youth Online billed it as the 'aircraft carrier of China's virology'. The state-run newspaper said it 'is capable of researching the deadliest pathogens'. 

One researcher, Zhou Peng, told state news agency Xinhua in 2018: 'We are proud to say that we are already at the forefront in the field of studying the immunity mechanism of bats, which carry viruses for a long time. 

'Bats carry viruses but are not infected [by them]. [They] provide hope for mankind to study how to fight viruses.'

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This centres on a cave filled with bats, a clutch of mysterious deaths, some brilliant scientists carrying out futuristic experiments in a secretive laboratory – and a cover-up of epic proportions that, if proven, would have huge consequences for the Chinese Communist Party and the global practice of science.

So what, precisely, is this theory on the origins of this pandemic?

It must be stated clearly that it is just a theory, albeit one based on crumbs of evidence teased out by a few courageous scientists and some online detectives.

New diseases have emerged throughout human history. Most experts believe Covid to be a 'zoonotic' disease that spilled over naturally from animals to humans. 

They think it was most likely 'amplified' by an intermediate species – similar to how Chinese people's consumption of civet cats sparked the 2002 Sars epidemic.

Yet at the same time, Beijing's actions from the outset – covering up the outbreak, blaming a wild animal market that it has since admitted wasn't at fault, barring outside investigators, burying data and silencing its own experts – have served to fuel suspicions.

Last week, leaked documents exposed how the Chinese government, under orders from President Xi Jinping, is strictly controlling all research into the origins of Covid while promoting fringe theories suggesting it came from outside China.

And it is an uncomfortable coincidence that Wuhan – a city buzzing once again, with busy shops, packed restaurants and many people without masks on the streets celebrating New Year – is home to the world's top coronavirus research unit as well as ground zero to a pandemic from a strange new strain.

The clues start with an abandoned copper mine in Mojiang, a hilly region in Yunnan, southern China, where bats roost in a network of underground caves, cracks and crannies.

Days after three Chinese miners who had been clearing bat droppings inside caves died, Zhengli went to investigate

Days after three Chinese miners who had been clearing bat droppings inside caves died, Zhengli went to investigate

Two weeks ago, a BBC reporter was prevented from reaching this remote site after being trailed by police for miles along bumpy tracks, then blocked by a lorry and confronted by men at roadblocks saying their job was to stop him.

The previous month, a team of US journalists had also been tailed by plainclothes police who barred their access. 

One research team recently managed to take some samples at the mine, but reportedly had them confiscated.

The reason for such secrecy goes back to the end of April 2012 when a 42-year-old man clearing bat droppings in these underground caverns turned up at a nearby hospital with a bad cough, high fever and struggling to breathe. 

Within a week, five colleagues had similar symptoms. Three later died, one after doctors spent more than 100 days fighting to save his life – yet the two youngest spent less than a week in the hospital and survived. Sound familiar?

We have since learned from a detailed masters thesis, which included medical reports and radiological scans, that these miners suffered a viral pneumonia, attributed to Sars-like coronaviruses originating from horseshoe bats.

One leading US health body pointed out last year that they had 'an illness remarkably similar to Covid-19'. 

Little wonder a prominent vaccine scientist told me: 'This is about as close to a smoking gun as exists.'

Intriguingly, a second thesis three years later also highlighted these cases. 

It was written by a student of Oxford-trained virologist Professor George Gao Fu, who is now head of China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, which is leading their response to the pandemic.

So the Chinese authorities must have known about the dead miners. 

Yet they quickly tried to blame the wildlife market in Wuhan as Covid's source, until challenged by respected studies revealed in this newspaper. 

Following the miners' deaths, Shi Zhengli, a Wuhan-based virologist known as Batwoman for her expeditions to gather samples in such caves and a member of the team that traced the origin of Sars to bats, went to investigate.

'The mine shaft stank like hell,' she told Scientific American magazine, explaining how her colleagues spent a year discovering new coronaviruses in samples taken from the blood and faeces of bats. 

The miners, she claimed, died from a fungal infection.

'The mine shaft stank like hell,' she told Scientific American magazine, explaining how her colleagues spent a year discovering new coronaviruses in samples taken from the blood and faeces of bats. The miners, she claimed, died from a fungal infection.

'The mine shaft stank like hell,' she told Scientific American magazine, explaining how her colleagues spent a year discovering new coronaviruses in samples taken from the blood and faeces of bats. The miners, she claimed, died from a fungal infection.

Another expert noted how the miners who died were treated with anti-fungal medications, while those surviving were given other drugs. 

'So in addition to the fact that the cases were more Sars-like than fungal-like, this treatment story argues against a fungal [cause],' he said. 

'It is very odd that Shi Zhengli would assert these cases were fungal.'

Prof Shi examined samples in her Wuhan lab, a few miles from the infamous market. Studies later found the virus in sewage, but it was not detected in animals.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is the first laboratory with the highest global bio-safety level in China. 

It specialises in the study of bat-borne viruses and is spearheading China's drive to assert itself in bio-technology. 

Leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US officials who visited the lab two years ago warned about safety weaknesses and the risks of a new Sars-like epidemic emerging from the site. 

The lab's own safety chief also publicly admitted concerns over flawed security systems.

The institute has carried out experiments on bat coronaviruses since 2015 – including research that can increase their virulence by combining snippets from different strains. 

Some viruses were injected into special 'humanised' mice that had been created for use in labs with human genes, cells or tissues in their bodies.

These controversial experiments artificially force the evolution of viruses so as to boost our understanding of diseases and their transmissibility. 

They help researchers develop new drugs and vaccines.

The Wuhan scientists were working with prominent Western experts and supported financially by the National Institutes of Health, the most important US funding body – although this relationship was ended on safety grounds after being revealed by The Mail on Sunday.

Some scientists argue this type of pathogen research is too risky since it could trigger a pandemic from a new disease. 

As a result, there was a moratorium on such work by the US for four years under the Obama administration.

Other critics have warned that the Wuhan Institute was constructing 'chimeric' coronaviruses – new hybrid micro-organisms that show no sign of human manipulation.

Now the big question is whether they took samples from the coronavirus that killed the Yunnan miners and, back in their laboratory more than 1,000 miles away, created a new virus that somehow leaked out into their own city.

Leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US officials who visited the lab two years ago warned about safety weaknesses and the risks of a new Sars-like epidemic emerging from the site

Leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US officials who visited the lab two years ago warned about safety weaknesses and the risks of a new Sars-like epidemic emerging from the site

As leading experts have suggested, it would have been a logical step to create chimeric viruses by combining properties from different samples. 

Many scientific breakthroughs have emerged from such speculative endeavours. 

One medical professor suggested to me that the miners may have died after being exposed to very high doses of coronaviruses while working in deep shafts filled with bats and their droppings. 

But the Wuhan scientists then struggled to prove causality in their lab as their samples were too weak to infect human cells.

'This would have stopped them publishing a major finding of a new Sars-like virus infecting humans. 

The possibility is they might then have tried modifying the virus to make it better able to infect human cells in a bid to establish the missing link.' 

This is, it must be stressed, unproven speculation. 

And it is understandable why China wants to comprehend as much as possible about bat viruses that emerge in their country.

Yet as experts say, there are many unanswered questions centring on Beijing's reluctance to come clean about the miners' cases, viruses and samples held in their labs. 

The Wuhan Institute has even taken key databases offline.

Key to all this is the enigmatic Batwoman, Prof Shi. First, she published a genetic sequence for Sars-Cov-2 – the strain of coronavirus that causes Covid-19 – which, despite close analysis of other novel features, ignored its most surprising characteristic. 

This is 'the furin cleavage site', a mutation not found on similar types of coronavirus that allows its spike protein to bind so effectively to many human cells.

The lab's own safety chief also publicly admitted concerns over flawed security systems

The lab's own safety chief also publicly admitted concerns over flawed security systems

Then, last January, Prof Shi and two colleagues published a paper in Nature that revealed the existence of a virus called RaTG13 that was taken from a horseshoe bat and stored on their premises, the biggest repository of bat coronaviruses in Asia.

This paper, submitted on the same day China admitted to human transmission, caused a stir in the scientific world since it revealed the existence of the closest known relative to Sars-Cov-2 with more than 96 per cent genetic similarity.

It underlined that such diseases occur in nature – yet although closely related, it would have taken RaTG13 several decades to evolve in the wild into Sars-Cov-2 and was too distant to be manipulated in a laboratory.

Other experts wondered why there was so little information about this new strain. One reason soon became clear: the name had been changed from that of another virus called Ra4991 identified in a previous paper – but, unusually, not cited in the Nature piece.

This obscured a direct link to the dead miners, which was only confirmed when Nature sought publication of an 'addendum' following complaints. 

The Wuhan team also admitted it had eight more Sars viruses from the Yunnan mine that have not been disclosed.

Some scientists say these new details raise many fresh issues – including a 20-point critique put on her blog by an Indian microbiologist called Monali Rahalkar.

Many high-profile experts, however, still dismiss the idea of a lab leak as a conspiracy theory.

Yet David Relman, one of the world's leading experts in this field, points out that scientists could easily have combined a 'furin cleavage site' from one viral ancestor with the backbone of Sars-Cov-2 taken from another.

'Alternatively, the complete Sars-Cov-2 sequence could have been recovered from a bat sample and viable virus recreated from a synthetic genome to study it before that virus accidentally escaped,' wrote Relman, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University's medical school, in a recent paper.

The former US government adviser on bio-security told me he raised the issues out of frustration with scientists who seemed discomforted by the idea. 

'This perplexing story does not add up – the possibility of a lab accident cannot be discounted,' he said.

There have also been questions over the apparent disappearance of a young woman researcher who worked in the laboratory. 

It has been suggested she might have been patient zero of this pandemic, although this has been denied by the Chinese authorities.

Even if the miners' link was eliminated, it would not rule out the possibility of an accident causing this pandemic. 

Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, said Wuhan scientists have shown in publications that they have sampled hundreds of bats and people living near bat caves in their search for Sars-related viruses.

'Even if the precursor to Sars-Cov-2 was not from these miners or the Mojiang mine, did they find other viruses that are very closely related that we do not yet know about?' she asked.

It sounds like the plot from a science-fiction film: an engineered virus leaking from a high-tech lab to cause global chaos. 

Yet there are plenty of precedents, including two researchers infected with Sars in a Beijing virology lab in 2004.

Studies also show accidents with deadly pathogens are common in labs where people are working with microscopic viruses.

Prof Shi admitted she never expected an outbreak in a city so far from the home of the bats she studied. 

She said her first thought on hearing coronaviruses might be the culprit was to wonder: 'Could they have come from our lab?'

She then frantically rushed back to Wuhan to check her records for any possible mishandling of materials – which proves she believed such a leak was a possibility.

There is also another lab in Wuhan with a lower level of bio-security, 500 yards from the animal market. 

A study posted by two Chinese scientists in February on a site for sharing research – then pulled two days later – enigmatically claimed 605 bats were kept here, describing how some attacked, bled and urinated on a researcher. 

'It is plausible that the virus leaked,' the paper concluded.

Perhaps this theory will unravel as we find out fresh facts. 

Or scientists will uncover an alternative explanation for the path of Covid-19 from bats to humans. 

Equally, it is possible we may never discover the truth about the origins of this virus.

But at this stage the only certainty is that we all do science – and indeed, investigative reporting – a disservice if this idea is discarded without being properly disproved and devoid of evidence.

We owe this to a world dislocated so terribly by this pandemic.

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2021-01-06 14:59:00Z
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