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Nov 11, 2020
AP MORNING WIRE Good morning. In today's AP Morning Wire:
TAMER FAKAHANY
The Rundown AP PHOTO/PHOTOGRAPHER US states cite smooth, well-run election, disputing Trump's baseless claims; Analysis: GOP lets doubts about Biden’s legitimacy flourish
State officials and election experts say the bitterly contested 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities.
That's a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud being leveled by President Donald Trump following his defeat to President-elect Biden, Christina A. Cassidy, Anthony Izaguirre and Julie Carr Smyth report. Trump has made numerous claims of fraud, though he hasn't provided any evidence to back up those claims.
“The 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable considering all the challenges,” said a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, which works closely with officials on election administration.
Election experts say the large increase in advance voting helped take pressure off Election Day operations. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation.
Analysis: Republicans are largely standing with Trump as he launches false attacks on the integrity of the 2020 election. The effort appears aimed at trying to discredit Biden, who has secured more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. The GOP efforts to malign the election could create challenges for Biden as he seeks to govern next year and address the nation's pressing problems, including the pandemic and economic uncertainty, AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace and Political Editor Steven Sloan report.
AP Explains: Election's validity intact despite Trump claims. The election was not tainted by widespread voter fraud or irregularities in how ballots were counted, despite a huge effort by Trump to prove otherwise. In refusing to concede the election, Trump claims that he would have won were it not for “illegal” votes counted in several states that he lost or where he is currently trailing. Trump and his allies have repeated specious claims that don’t have proof or have been rejected by the courts, Nomaan Merchant reports.
AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s claims on vaccine, election are wrong. Refusing to concede a presidential election he lost, Trump is spreading false claims about voter fraud and drugmaker Pfizer's news about its COVID-19 vaccine, Hope Yen, Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson report.
EXPLAINER-US Media Calling Races: Fifty-one separate elections — one in each state and one in Washington, D.C. Each with different rules and regulations, and no national elections commission to tell the world who wins on Election Day. How, then, to determine who won the highest office in the land? That’s where the news media comes in — and has done so since 1848, when it declared the election of Zachary Taylor.
The Electoral College actually chooses the president under the U.S. Constitution, acting on the popular vote across the republic. But its work takes weeks. In that strange vacuum, news organizations emerged as major players in announcing the victor based on data collected from election offices around the U.S., Alexandra Olson and David Koenig report.
Social Media Misinformation: A week after the final polls closed on Election Day, falsehoods about dead people voting and ballots being thrown out by poll workers are still thriving on social media, reaching an audience of millions. Trump and his supporters are pointing to those debunked claims on social media as reason to not accept that Biden won the election. Tweets and retweets with terms such as “steal,” “fraud,” “rigged” and "dead” referring to the election spiked more than 2,800% from Nov. 2 to Nov. 6, Amanda Seitz, David Klepper and Barbara Ortutay report.
Posts falsify ties between election tech firm and Democrats. Ali Swenson reports.
Election breathes new life into false ‘dead voter’ claims. Arijeta Lajka reports. AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER President-elect Biden vows to ‘get right to work’ despite Trump obstruction; Some big, early shifts on immigration policy expected
“We're going to get right to work” President-elect Joe Biden has promised, while downplaying concerns that Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his victory could undermine national security.
Trump has blocked his Democratic rival from receiving the intelligence briefings traditionally shared with incoming presidents.
Asked about the Republican stalling and obstruction, Biden said it “does not change the dynamic at all in what we’re able to do.” He says additional intelligence briefings “would be useful,” but “we don’t see anything slowing us down.”
He described Trump’s position as little more than an “embarrassing” mark on the outgoing president’s legacy, while predicting that Republicans on Capitol Hill would eventually accept the reality of Biden’s victory, Steve Peoples and Will Weissert report.
Immigration: Some quick and dramatic moves on immigration are expected in the early days of the incoming administration. Biden will likely use executive orders to reverse some of Trump’s most controversial and punitive actions, rolling back moves that were a central feature of his administration and important to his base. But it will take time to undo many actions taken by Trump. Biden will also likely face a divided Congress, making it difficult to enact any kind of sweeping, comprehensive changes to the nation’s immigration system, Ben Fox and Elliot Spagat report.
The Economy: Biden will inherit a shaky economy recovery under threat from a resurgent virus and will pursue a sharp shift in economic policy. He has vowed to reverse much of the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulation and indifference to social spending programs in favor of big investments in education, infrastructure and clean energy. He wants stricter rules to rein in big tech companies and fight climate change. To help pay for it all, he would turn to tax increases for corporations and wealthy individuals by reversing much of Trump’s tax cuts, Christopher Rugaber and Tali Arbel report.
Harris' Husband: The husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, plans to leave his private law practice by Inauguration Day to focus on White House duties. Emhoff's decision to leave DLA Piper also avoids any appearance of conflicts of interest, as the firm has a lobbying presence in Washington. Emhoff is the first man to hold the role of vice presidential spouse, as Harris is the nation's first female vice president. His decision to leave his high-profile job tracks with choices female political spouses have made for years. He hasn't yet said what issues he'll take on, Kathleen Ronayne reports. AP PHOTO/TED S. WARREN US hits record COVID-19 hospitalizations amid surge; In Iran, a massive cemetery struggles to keep up with virus
The U.S. has hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations and surpassed 1 million new confirmed cases in just the first 10 days of November.
These latest grim milestones come amid a relentless nationwide surge of infections that shows no signs of slowing. The new virulent wave appears bigger and more widespread than the surges that happened in the spring and summer — and threatens to be worse. Deaths are climbing again, reaching an average of more than 930 a day.
However, experts say medical and testing advances give them reason to believe the nation is better able to deal with the virus this time, Mike Stobbe reports.
Texas has become the first state to surpass 1 million infections. According to the Johns Hopkins website, the state recorded 1,010,364 cases early today with 19,337 deaths since the pandemic began in early March.
Iran Cemetery Crisis: The Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery on the outskirts of the capital, Tehran, is struggling to keep up with the pandemic ravaging the country. The site's manager calls it the greatest crisis the vast necropolis has seen in its 50-year history — and it's not clear when it will end. Double the usual number of bodies are arriving each day, and grave diggers have excavated thousands of new plots. With 1.6 million people buried on its grounds, which stretch across more than five square kilometers (around two square miles), Behesht-e-Zahra is one of the world’s largest cemeteries. But Mohammad Nasiri reports that it wasn't big enough for the coronavirus, which roared into Iran early this year, seeding the region’s worst known outbreak. More than 39,000 have died from the virus in Iran.
Lebanon Searching for Medicine: Adding to the nation's woes, desperate Lebanese search daily for their prescriptions after many medications — including fever pills used in COVID-19 treatment — have vanished from pharmacies, a new dark chapter in their country's financial meltdown exacerbated by the pandemic. After the Central Bank governor warned subsidies on drug imports could no longer be afforded, people went on a panic buying spree, Sarah El Deeb reports.
WHO Pandemic Recordings: As the virus explodes again, the World Health Organization finds itself both under intense pressure to reform and holding out hope that Joe Biden will reverse a U.S. decision to leave the health agency. With its annual meeting underway this week, WHO has been sharply criticized for not taking a stronger and more vocal role in handling the pandemic. In private internal meetings in the early days of the virus, top scientists described some countries' approaches as “an unfortunate laboratory to study the virus” and a “macabre” opportunity to see what worked, recordings obtained by the AP show. Yet in public, they lauded governments for their responses, Maria Cheng reports.
Brazil's Samba and COVID-19: In a normal year, the Unidos de Padre Miguel samba school in Rio would be a hive of preparation for Carnival. But this is not a normal year. For the first time in more than a century, Carnival is canceled. In the country with the second-highest virus death toll, there was fear that one of the world’s biggest parties — with its thronging masses of flesh pressed against flesh — would become the super-spreader event to top them all. Yet again, one of the city's downtrodden communities pulled together rather than waiting for help from authorities, David Biller reports from Rio de Janeiro.
Business Travel: It might never look the same in the wake of the virus. Consulting firm McKinsey and Co. says it took international business travel five years to recover after the 2008 recession. But this time, the ease of videoconferencing could put a permanent dent in corporate trips. That’s chilling news for hotels, airlines and others that rely on business travelers. Corporate travel represents 21% of all travel spending globally, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Dee-Ann Durbin and David Koenig report. VATICAN SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
A Vatican investigation of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has found that bishops, cardinals and popes downplayed or dismissed multiple reports of sexual misconduct.
But the 449-page report determined that Pope Francis merely continued his predecessors’ handling of the predator until a former altar boy alleged abuse, Nicole Winfield reports from Rome.
The report put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.
The Vatican took the extraordinary step of publishing its two-year investigation into the American prelate’s rise and fall to restore credibility to the U.S. and Vatican hierarchies, which have been shattered by the McCarrick scandal.
Francis defrocked the 90-year-old McCarrick last year after a Vatican investigation confirmed decades of allegations that the successful church fundraiser had sexually molested adults as well as children.
McCarrick Anonymous Letters: The Vatican’s report reveals the previously unknown contents of anonymous letters accusing McCarrick of pedophilia that were sent to U.S. church leaders in the early 1990s and later forwarded to the Holy See. It also includes testimony from an unidentified woman who told Vatican investigators she, too, tried to raise the alarm with anonymous letters after she saw McCarrick behave inappropriately with her sons in the 1980s. No investigation was initiated as a result, .Luis Andres Henao and Elana Schor report.
VIDEO: Lawyers, alleged victim say Vatican covered up abuse.
Other Top Stories A more conservative U.S. Supreme Court appears unwilling to do what Republicans have long desired — kill off the Affordable Care Act. That includes its key protections for preexisting health conditions and subsidized insurance premiums that affect tens of millions of Americans. The justices met remotely in the midst of a pandemic that has closed their courtroom to hear the highest-profile case of the term so far. They took on the latest Republican challenge to the law known as “Obamacare,” with three appointees of Donald Trump, an avowed foe of the health care law, among them. Dozens of Russian peacekeepers destined for Nagorno-Karabakh began deploying hours after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to halt fighting over the separatist region and amid signs the cease-fire would hold where others hadn’t. The truce came after significant advances by Azerbaijani forces that the Armenian-backed leader of Nagorno-Karabakh said made it impossible to carry on. It was celebrated in Azerbaijan, but left Armenians bitter, and many stormed government buildings overnight, demanding Parliament invalidate the agreement. Up to 200,000 refugees could pour into Sudan while fleeing the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, while the first details emerge of largely cutoff civilians under growing strain. The local U.N. humanitarian chief says long lines have appeared outside bread shops in Tigray, and supply-laden trucks are stranded at its borders. He told the AP “we want to have humanitarian access as soon as possible" and “fuel and food are needed urgently.” Up to 2 million people in Tigray rely on humanitarian aid. Ethiopia's leader has rejected negotiations with a regional government he regards as illegal. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers are expected to resign en masse, following a move by the city’s government to disqualify four pro-democracy legislators. The 19 lawmakers from the opposition camp said that they would move to resign in a show of defiance if any pro-democracy legislators were disqualified. The disqualification of the four legislators came after the National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed a resolution stating that those who support the city’s independence or refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over the city, as well as commit acts that threaten national security, should be disqualified. GET THE APP
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