At 12:01, in the midst of his inaugural address, Joe Biden officially became the 46th president of the United States.

He was already well into outlining exactly how daunting a task he – and the nation – have ahead in what he called its « winter of peril ».

America is facing a devastating pandemic which has resulted in massive job losses and business closures, a threatened environment, urgent cries for racial justice and resurgence in « political extremism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism ».

His speech was not a laundry list of proposals and solutions. Those were reserved for documents released early in the morning outlining his first 17 executive actions as president – on immigration, climate change, transgender rights and public health, among others.

Instead, Biden used his speech to offer hope – and to argue, at times forcefully, that the nation must be united in facing the challenges ahead; that it has to move past its current « uncivil war ».

« Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury, » he said. « No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. »

« This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, » he continued. « And unity is the path forward ».

At times, Biden’s speech seemed a direct rebuttal to his predecessor’s administration, although he did not mention Donald Trump by name.

Where Trump frequently spoke of American greatness and glorified its founders, Biden noted that the nation’s history has been a « constant struggle » between its ideals and sometimes harsh realities.

Where Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway spoke of « alternative facts » almost four years ago, Biden said: « There is truth and there are lies – lies told for power and for profit. »

Biden wrapped up his inaugural address by warning that America must not « turn inward » – both as individuals retreating into « competing factions » and as a nation on the world stage.

« We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, » he said.

Rhetorically, Biden turned the page from Trump’s days of « America first ».

The first 100 days of any administration are always important to a new president. What are his priorities? What will he try to accomplish when his political capital is at its highest?

Biden’s speech reflected the reality that he enters office with his top priorities already determined for him.

His government will be responsible for distributing the coronavirus vaccine in an efficient and equitable way. After that, he will have to focus on the societal and economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.

The virus has exacerbated income inequality and pushed many households to the brink of economic ruin. It’s devastated the travel and hospitality industries and placed incredible strain on the finances of state and local governments.

His pledge to seek unity will be tested early, as he pushes a sharply divided Congress to pass another, massive round of pandemic stimulus aid. If he wants to enact it quickly, he will need Republican support in the Senate, and already there are signs that some on the right may be lining up in opposition to more spending.

Then there’s Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, which will present yet another challenge to national unity. It will keep Trump’s name in the news for weeks, as his defenders rally to his side and his detractors call for consequences for his actions.

After that, Biden’s potential political paths diverge. He has said he wants to improve healthcare in the US, address growing college debt, make new investments in infrastructure and tackle climate change.

He’s pledged to push immigration reform legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants – a political lightning rod that helped fuel Trump’s first presidential run.

What he prioritises, and how successful his first efforts are, could determine the overall success of his administration.

The inauguration ceremony is over. An evening of (virtual) celebration awaits. But, as Biden noted in his speech, the American people face one of the most challenging times in their nation’s history.

« We will be judged by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era, » he said.

Biden campaigned against Trump for the opportunity to face those crises. Now he has his chance.

By Anthony Zurcher – bbc.com

L’article Analysis. Biden’s inauguration speech calls for unity – it won’t be easy est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

US President-elect Joe Biden is to undo one of Donald Trump’s last actions in office by blocking his decree lifting Covid travel bans on visitors from much of Europe and Brazil.

Mr Biden’s spokeswoman said now was not the time to be easing travel measures.

Joe Biden will take office at 12:00 (17:00 GMT) on Wednesday. However, much of the spotlight is on Mr Trump’s final moves, including presidential pardons.

Security is intense in Washington DC ahead of the inauguration ceremony.

Thousands of National Guard reserve soldiers have been deployed in the wake of the storming of the Capitol building by a pro-Trump mob on 6 January that left five people dead.

The FBI had earlier warned of possible protests across the nation by right-wing extremists emboldened by the invasion.

What was the Trump decree about?

The US imposed travel restrictions on Europe last March and the Brazilian entry ban was put in place in May, but the White House decreed on Monday that the entry ban would end on 26 January, six days after Mr Biden takes office.

Just minutes later, Mr Biden’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said on Twitter: « On the advice of our medical team, the administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19. »

She said that with « more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel ».

What else might Trump do on his final full day?

Barred from Twitter following the Capitol riots, the president has been uncharacteristically quiet and there have been few details of what he might do on Tuesday.

A statement from the White House press office read simply: « President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings. »

There has been no invitation to Joe Biden for the traditional pre-inauguration meeting at the White House.

World Opinions News – bbc.com

L’article Biden to block Trump’s Covid rule change on president’s final day in office est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

To understand what’s going on at the Capitol today as the House considers impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time, it’s helpful to look at a bit of recent history.

Throughout much of 2009, progressives watched in deep frustration as President Barack Obama and his allies kept chasing bipartisan buy-in for the massive health care law under consideration in Washington. Democrats, against all realism, thought they might be able to win over some Republican colleagues through the merits of the legislation, the political upsides of getting onboard or even personal affinity.

Democrats included a stunning 188 concessions to Republicans, including allowing small businesses to band together to increase their negotiating power and forcing members of Congress to use it as their provider. White House negotiators spent hours monitoring the bipartisan Gang of Six in the Senate, chasing a way to get Republican buy-in. The genuine friendship between Democratic Senate Finance Chairman Max Bachus and top Republican Chuck Grassley led to some fun conversations about how to structure this part or that to make a deal less toxic to Republicans.

In the end, though, Republicans never got to yes. Grassley started talking about “death panels” and then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled that the future of lawmakers in his chamber hinged on toeing the line on this major vote. In the end, Obamacare became law without any meaningful Republican support.

In Washington, there are few lines as strong as a critique of a bill that “passed without a single vote from the other party.” It means the result was entirely one-sided — and it gives the other party implicit permission to scrap it as soon as it gets a majority. (One GOP House member, after the bill passed, cast his vote in support of Obamacare.) The 2009 economic stimulus package also passed without a single vote in the House, as did the Dodd-Frank financial reform package, which attracted zero GOP yays in the House. Taken together, they all all served to unify Republicans to start to tear down the laws’— and Obama’s — legitimacy.

But there’s another, possibly equal power to be harnessed. Let’s call it the Power of Non-Zero. Even a few votes in support of a piece of opposition-led legislation insulates it from total demonization, for to call it evil incarnate and corrupt at its core implies members of your own tribe betrayed your common sense of values. Want to neutralize your critics? Hire their best friends.

It’s why on questions of national importance, you usually see lawmakers reach across the aisle, even if they have the numbers they need to get something passed. President George W. Bush and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy were about as different as they came, but found common ground on education with No Child Left Behind. A year later, when it came time for Bush to get the greenlight for wars in Afghanistan and, later, Iraq, Bush’s White House lobbied for a bipartisan resolution. In the end, only one member of the House voted against Afghanistan and no Senators joined Rep. Barbara Lee in doing so. When it came to Iraq, roughly 40% of House Democrats backed it, and 60% of Senate Democrats did the same.

If you want to do big, durable things in Washington, you seldom can do it along party lines.

Which brings us to today, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to set in motion Trump’s second impeachment. A little more than a year ago, the House voted in favor of his first impeachment in a pretty straight, party-line vote. No Republicans in the House voted for it, and only Sen. Mitt Romney was willing to cross the President. Romney cast his vote to convict only on one of the two charges.

Now, you’re starting to see the floodgates break. Most significantly, Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of her party’s Leadership team, isn’t whipping votes away from Pelosi. She’s calling it a “vote of conscience,” meaning members can do what they think is best, and on Tuesday evening said she would be voting for impeachment. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the President,” she said.

In the Senate, Republican lawmakers like Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney have also been urging Trump to resign. It would take a massive flood of GOP defections to convict and remove Trump from office, though it might be possible. The rift between Establishment Republicans and the White House clearly is agape. But getting to the necessary 67 votes required in the upper chamber has always been tough, and purposefully so.

Ultimately, it doesn’t seem that enough Republicans in the Senate will defect, at least not right now. But that may not matter. The measure already has the Power of Not-Zero behind it, which may ultimately be what tells Trump that his career in politics is over next week.

World Opinions News – time.com

L’article Republicans Are Breaking Ranks on Impeachment. That’s Good for Democrats — and Bad for Trump est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

« Après examen approfondi des tweets récents de @realDonaldTrump et du contexte actuel – notamment comment ils sont interprétés (…) – nous avons suspendu le compte indéfiniment à cause du risque de nouvelles incitations à la violence » de la part du président américain sortant, a expliqué l’entreprise dans un communiqué.

Le compte suspendu de Donald Trump. [Keystone]

Jeudi, Facebook et d’autres services comme Snapchat ou Twitch ont aussi suspendu le profil du locataire de la Maison Blanche pour une durée indéterminée. Mais Twitter compte plus que les autres pour Donald Trump, qui y avait plus de 88 millions d’abonnés.

Le réseau social avait déjà accru les mesures de rétorsion mercredi, en supprimant plusieurs messages du chef d’Etat, au lieu de simplement les masquer avec des notes d’avertissements.

Le républicain n’a pas cessé de contester la validité de l’élection présidentielle, enfreignant donc les règles des principales plateformes sur le respect des processus démocratiques.

Le dernier tweet

Twitter avait ensuite suspendu son compte pendant douze heures avant de le réactiver jeudi, à la surprise générale, le président étant tenu en bonne partie responsable des violences de mercredi, qui ont choqué le pays et à l’étranger.

Probablement sans le savoir, Donald Trump a tiré sa révérence sur son réseau social favori le 8 janvier en annonçant faire l’impasse sur la prestation de serment de son successeur, Joe Biden.

« A tous ceux qui ont demandé, je n’assisterai pas à la cérémonie d’investiture le 20 janvier ».

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021

Trop tard

Les critiques se sont multipliées toute la semaine contre les réseaux, jugés trop lents ou trop laxistes. Un nombre croissant de personnalités et d’organisations ont appelé à bannir le milliardaire des plateformes, de Michelle Obama au syndicat des employés de Google (pour YouTube, où le compte de Donald Trump est toujours actif).

Les décisions de Facebook et de Twitter, longtemps attendues, ont d’ailleurs été accueillies avec plus de colère et de mépris que de soulagement.

« Quand Twitter et d’autres agissent maintenant, c’est comme tous ces hauts responsables du gouvernement qui démissionnent à quelques jours de la fin (du mandat): c’est trop peu, trop tard », a regretté Angelo Carusone, président de l’ONG Media Matters for America. « S’ils avaient agi plus tôt, les horribles événements de mercredi auraient pu être évités. »

World Opinions News – agences

L’article Twitter suspend le compte de Donald Trump de façon permanente est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

«Hier était à mes yeux l’un des jours les plus sombres de notre Histoire», a déploré Joe Biden, qualifiant ceux qui ont participé à ces troubles de «terroristes».

Donald Trump s’était adressé mercredi à la foule, encourageant ses partisans à avancer vers le Congrès, avant de publier une vidéo où il répétait sans preuve que l’élection leur avait été «volée».

Le prochain président américain, qui s’installera à la Maison-Blanche dans 13 jours, s’est dit convaincu que des manifestants antiracistes auraient été traités « très différemment » des partisans de Donald Trump qui ont semé le chaos à Washington la veille.

«Ils auraient été traités très, très différemment que la foule hargneuse qui a envahi le Capitole. Nous savons tous que c’est vrai, et c’est inacceptable», a-t-il dénoncé depuis son fief de Wilmington.

Le Congrès des Etats-Unis a officialisé tôt jeudi la victoire de Joe Biden à la présidentielle, dernière étape avant son investiture le 20 janvier.  Dans la foulée, Donald Trump a promis une « transition ordonnée », tout en répétant son « complet désaccord avec le résultat de l’élection ».

World Opinions News – agences

L’article Biden accuse Trump d’avoir «déchaîné un assaut sans merci contre les institutions» démocratiques est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

When the president’s lies are amplified and repeated by a populist conservative media establishment that reaps millions in profits by fanning the flames of grievance, anger builds. And then, when members of that same media (supported by frightened and sycophantic politicians) uphold the president as a “great man,” perhaps even blessed with a special divine mission to “save the nation,” a cult of personality forms.

And so, in one sense, the scenes in the nation’s capital should not shock us. There is nothing about the United States that makes its people immune from misinformation and demagoguery. Our constitutional system creates barriers against abuses of power and firewalls against tyranny, but it does not protect the people from lies. It cannot guarantee that the marketplace of ideas will not be polluted by hate. And it certainly does not protect the people from the consequences of choosing a low-character man to lead the nation.

Donald Trump sowed the seeds for the riot of January 6th from the moment he entered the race in 2015, when he made it plain that he welcomed violence to silence protesters at his rallies, when he broadcast that any election defeat – even then – would not be legitimate. He kept sowing when he refused to promise that he’d support the peaceful transition of power. He sowed the seeds when he famously told the Proud Boys – a far-right street militia – to “stand back and stand by.” And he sowed still more when he raged, day by day, that he’d suffered a great injustice on November 3rd.

And now, as the nation’s capital reaps what he sowed, he can’t stop stoking the flames. In a video message ostensibly designed to quell the violence, he repeated his election lies. And he told members of the insurrection, “I know how you feel.” He told the rioters, “We love you.”

Yes, Donald Trump loves his violent mob.

The American system is under great strain – greater strain than I’ve ever seen in my entire adult life. But the system is strong. It contains the means of dealing with a deranged president. Even now, mere days before the still-certain inauguration of Joe Biden, the House can impeach Trump. The Senate can convict Trump. Together they can banish Trump from public office.

In addition, Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the Constitution grants each house of Congress the ability to expel a member on a 2/3 vote. The House and Senate should give those members who objected to the counting of the electoral votes – and who stoked the fear and paranoia of the mob – an opportunity to withdraw their baseless objections. If they refuse, they should be expelled.

There is a deep sickness in the United States of America. Trump is not its sole cause, but he and his devoted allies are making that sickness worse. There is a long road to a cure, but it can begin by purging a seditious president from the Oval Office, removing seditious members from Congress, and firmly declaring to a nation that is reeling from the shock of the worst breach of Capitol security since British Regulars burned it to a husk in the War of 1812 that this republic has the will to defend itself from hate, from the mob, and from the man who would rather destroy a nation than lose his throne.

By David French – time.com

L’article We Must Impeach Donald Trump Again est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Sans surprise, les grands électeurs, qui se sont réunis lundi Etat par Etat, ont confirmé la consécration de l’ancien vice-président de Barack Obama. Si l’étape du vote des grands électeurs est traditionnellement une formalité, Donald Trump lui a donné un relief particulier en refusant d’admettre le verdict des urnes et donnant de l’écho à des théories du complot sur des allégations de tricheries électorales.

Today, the members of the Electoral College cast their votes for president and vice president.

And once again, the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people have prevailed.

Our democracy—pushed, tested, and threatened—proved to be resilient, true, and strong. pic.twitter.com/Ka1Aj3hV3m

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 15, 2020

RT @AJEnglish: “Not even a pandemic, or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame.”

🇺🇸 President-elect Joe Biden responds after the US Electoral College officially affirms his win. pic.twitter.com/hYcTVwExn1

— Shukur Biya (@Shuk_bi) December 15, 2020

« C’est une position extrême que nous n’avons jamais vue auparavant », a dénoncé Joe Biden lors d’un discours prononcé dans son fief de Wilmington, dans le Delaware, à propos des nombreux recours en justice engagés sans succès par le républicain pour faire invalider les résultats dans certains Etats. « Il a refusé de respecter la volonté du peuple, de respecter l’État de droit et a refusé d’honorer notre constitution », a tancé le démocrate.

What beats deep in the hearts of the American people is this: Democracy. pic.twitter.com/jVM7Zc3qWP

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 15, 2020

« Tourner la page »

Joe Biden s’était pour le moment gardé d’attaquer si frontalement Donald Trump sur le sujet. « L’intégrité de nos élections a été préservée. Maintenant, il est temps de tourner la page. De nous rassembler », a invité le futur président des Etats-Unis. « La flamme de la démocratie a été allumée il y a longtemps dans ce pays. Et nous savons désormais que rien, ni même une pandémie ou un abus de pouvoir, ne peut éteindre cette flamme. »

Les résultats du scrutin du 3 novembre ont déjà été certifiés par chacun des 50 Etats américains: le démocrate a remporté le nombre record de 81,28 millions de voix, soit 51,3% des suffrages, contre 74,22 millions (46,8%) au président républicain sortant.

306 grands électeurs

Mais aux Etats-Unis, le locataire de la Maison-Blanche est choisi au suffrage universel indirect. Le vote lundi de ce « collège électoral » a entériné la victoire de Joe Biden. Comme annoncé par les médias peu après l’élection, le président élu a recueilli l’appui de 306 grands électeurs, contre 232 pour le président sortant.

Trump annonce le départ de son ministre de la Justice William Barr

Le ministre américain de la Justice Bill Barr, qui avait subi les critiques de Donald Trump pour n’avoir pas dénoncé des fraudes électorales alléguées, susceptibles selon le président d’invalider la victoire de Joe Biden, a annoncé lundi sa démission.

BREAKING: BILL BARR to resign | REACTION https://t.co/40reSOtdvn via @YouTube

— Carly 🇺🇸 🇮🇱(Parler @Carly) (@ParisW2010) December 15, 2020

« Bill partira juste avant Noël pour passer les fêtes avec sa famille, le ministre de la Justice adjoint Jeff Rosen, une personne incroyable, assurera l’interim », a tweeté le président sortant, sans réitérer ses accusations. Le ministre partira ainsi un mois avant l’entrée en fonctions du président élu démocrate.

Félicitations russes pour Joe Biden

Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a félicité mardi Joe Biden pour son élection à la présidence américaine et affirmé vouloir collaborer avec lui, malgré les relations délétères entre les deux pays.

Election américaine : Vladimir Poutine félicite Joe Biden, se dit "prêt à une collaboration" #electionamericaine #VladimirPoutine #JoeBiden #collaboration #Russie #Kremlin #EtatsUnis https://t.co/Eb8N8swKwM

— CKZW, le son gospel (@ckzw) December 15, 2020

« Je suis pour ma part prêt à une collaboration et à des contacts avec vous », a-t-il écrit dans un télégramme, selon un communiqué du Kremlin.

Le président russe est un des rares dirigeants à avoir attendu le vote du collège électoral américain en faveur de Joe Biden pour le féliciter, expliquant ce refus par l’incertitude pesant sur le résultat du scrutin du 4 novembre compte-tenu du refus de Donald Trump de reconnaître sa défaite et ses multiples recours en justice.

World Opinions News – AFP

L’article La victoire de Joe Biden confirmée par le collège des grands électeurs est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

On global issues from climate change, to non-proliferation and human rights, the US under the Trump administration had literally gathered up its papers and pens and left the meeting room. Biden’s election victory and choice of committed internationalists to lead the foreign policy team, means that there will actually be someone sitting in what has been an empty chair.

“There’s a lot of relief that we’re going to have a much more normal US to deal with,” said Richard Gowan, the UN director at the International Crisis Group. “It has been symptomatic of US diplomacy in the last couple of years that other countries have really struggled to get a clear picture of what US policies are at times on issues like Libya or Yemen.”

Gowan said one of the many clear winners on the world stage from Biden’s win is the UN secretary general, António Guterres, who has spent four years straining to make nice with Donald Trump to prevent the outgoing president from pulling the plug altogether on US involvement in, and funding for, UN agencies.

“Now there’s a lot of talk that Guterres is preparing to put out lots of big ideas next year about fighting inequality, speeding up the fight against climate change, and really try to get the UN back into the centre of global conversation.”

How a slogan as all-encompassing as “America is Back” is received around the world will inevitably be a Rorschach test for what is perceived to be the “real America” that has been absent in the past four years.

In the liberal democracies in Europe, the general hope and expectation from Biden’s language and demeanour is that the America being restored includes all the best features from the past – with an added dose of humility.

“‘America is Back’ means something very different than if George W Bush had said it, or even if Obama had said it in the context,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the centre on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution. “And this means that this is a different kind of America – not a rapacious America First at whatever price, but one that makes a very sober assessment of its options and limitations of power.”

The clear lack of US popular support for adventurism in foreign support – which was effectively channeled by Trump – the failures in Libya, Yemen and Syria, and the loss of relative power and prestige of the past four years, suggest that the country returning to the world stage is a chastened America.

“I think that Obama was still able to assume that America had almost unlimited power, and therefore had sovereign choices to make about international engagement, and about the way it dealt with authoritarian rivals,” Stelzenmüller said. “I think the huge difference with this administration is going to be a distinct understanding of limitations – domestic and foreign. And that puts an entirely new value on allies, and also gives allies a great deal of power.”

Some leaders and governments were clearly quite happy with the America that has been evident in the Trump era – none more than the Gulf monarchs and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. They are now making common cause to try to block a US return to pre-Trump policies, particularly the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

“A lot of these regimes were extremely fond of the Trump administration, for a variety of reasons,” said Khaled Elgindy, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “Obviously the posture towards Iran is one issue, but also the kind of laissez-faire attitude toward human rights and rule of law is another reason I think a lot of these authoritarians especially are going to really miss the Donald Trump era.”

It is not just the world’s autocracies who are apprehensive about the “America is Back” slogan. For some longstanding critics of US foreign policy, the very idea of a golden age to which the next administration can return, is a delusion.

For those sceptics, much will depend on whether the Biden foreign policy team, who are familiar faces from the Obama era, will aspire to a restoration or to a fundamental rethink.

“I think the big question – given that Biden is basically putting the Obama band back together – is did they learn anything from the previous eight years they had in power, which was not a stunning success in lots of respects?” asked Stephen Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

“Have they acquired a greater sense of realism about what American foreign policy can accomplish and what American power can do?”

By Julian Borger in Washington – theguardian.com

L’article Biden says ‘America is back’ at the head of the table – but is that a good thing? est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The board of state canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 3-0 vote with one abstention. Allies of Trump and the losing Republican Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in heavily Democratic Wayne county, home to Detroit.

The move is another setback in Trump’s efforts to use unconventional means to undermine the results of the 3 November election and comes even after he made direct overtures to Republican officials in the state by inviting them to the White House last week.

Under Michigan law, Biden claims all 16 electoral votes. Biden won by 2.8 percentage points – a larger margin than in other states where Trump is contesting the results, including Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Some Trump allies had expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors in states that do not certify. That long-shot bid is no longer possible in Michigan.

Board of state canvassers confirms 154,000-vote victory in 3-0 vote with one abstention

Trump’s efforts to stave off the inevitable – formal recognition of his defeat – faced increasingly stiff resistance from the courts and fellow Republicans with just three weeks to go until the electoral college meets to certify Biden’s victory. Time and again, Trump’s challenges and baseless allegations of widespread conspiracy and fraud have been met with rejection as states move forward with confirming their results.

“The board’s duty today is very clear,“ said Aaron Van Langevelde, the Republican vice-chair. “We have a duty to certify this election based on these returns. That is very clear. We are limited to these returns. I’m not going to argue that we’re not.”

Mary Ellen Gurewitz, an attorney for the state Democratic party, told the canvassers that attacks on the election results “are part of a racist campaign, directed by soon-to-be-former president Trump, to disparage the cities in this country with large Black populations, including Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.”

Biden crushed the president by more than 330,000 votes in Wayne county, where two local Republican canvassers who certified the results unsuccessfully tried to reverse course last week after being called by Trump.

World Opinions News – theguardian.com

L’article US Election: Michigan certifies Biden’s victory despite Trump’s efforts to undermine it est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Le réseau social « se prépare activement à la transition des comptes Twitter institutionnels de la Maison-Blanche le 20 janvier 2021 », a indiqué vendredi son porte-parole à Politico dans un email. L’opération est réalisée en collaboration avec les archives nationales, comme c’était le cas en 2017.

Tous les tweets publiés sur les comptes @POTUS, @FLOTUS, @VP et les autres profils officiels seront archivés. Les comptes seront ensuite réinitialisés et remis à la nouvelle administration de la Maison-Blanche le même jour. On peut d’ailleurs retrouver les archives de messages envoyés pendant les deux mandats de Barack Obama sur le compte dédié @POTUS44.

Un outil central pour Donald Trump

Donald Trump, qui n’a toujours pas admis sa défaite du 3 novembre, a construit son personnage politique sur Twitter. Il utilise cependant principalement son compte personnel @realDonaldTrump, dont les 88 millions d’abonnés dépassent largement les 32 millions du compte présidentiel @POTUS.

@POTUS est surtout utilisé pour retweeter le compte personnel de Donald Trump, ainsi que celui de la Maison-Blanche et d’autres comptes.

Messages présidentiels scrutés

Twitter est sous pression pour freiner la diffusion de fausses informations et des théories complotistes. Depuis l’élection, la plateforme a ajouté des messages d’avertissement à de nombreux tweets de Donald Trump, alors qu’il continue d’affirmer qu’il a remporté l’élection et que la victoire de son adversaire démocrate est liée à une fraude massive, sans apporter de preuves.

La Géorgie, où Joe Biden l’a emporté d’une courte tête, a officiellement certifié vendredi après-midi les résultats de l’élection. « Les chiffres ne mentent pas », a lancé le secrétaire d’Etat républicain de cet Etat du Sud. « Ils représentent le verdict du peuple ».

World Opinions News – AFP

L’article Twitter remettra le compte présidentiel à Joe Biden le jour de l’investiture est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.