Trump blasts vote as ‘rigged’ at rally for Georgia GOP senators

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump blasted Georgia’s elections as corrupt but urged his supporters to vote for two GOP senators facing re-election anyway, keeping up attacks that party leaders worry could backfire and end their control of the Senate.
At a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, Trump took aim at GOP Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after complaining they didn’t take steps to subvert the election’s outcome and reverse Joe Biden’s win in Georgia. The president repeated unsubstantiated and outlandish claims that there was multi-state conspiracy by Democrats to cheat in the November 3 election.
“Your governor should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said of Kemp, whom the president claimed had been cowed by the “radical left” into refusing to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia. “He’s got to get a lot tougher.” The president told
his supporters that they must make sure Raffensperger, who has stood by the election results, “knows what the hell
he’s doing.”
The president repeatedly veered into the realm of fiction during his 99-minute appearance, at one point repeating a baseless assertion that a voting machine company altered the results to install Biden as president. The company, Dominion Voting Systems Inc, issued a statement rejecting the claims for which Trump and his team have produced no evidence.
Trump’s relentless attacks on the election risks confirming the worst fears of influential Republicans, who have raised alarm that Trump’s rally might not help GOP Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. They face January 5 run-off elections that will determine which party controls the Senate.
Trump turned the rally into a wide-ranging assault on his political foes, especially Democrats. He itemised what he described as his accomplishments, including a wall on the southern border, tax cuts and appointing conservative judges.
Trump openly mused about running for president again in 2024 but said he did not want to because he hoped to be inaugurated again in January — another jarring refusal to accept his loss.

‘Pentagon is cooperating with Biden transition’
Bloomberg

The Pentagon is “fully cooperating” with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said, pushing back against a newspaper report that the Trump administration blocked some briefings.
Planned transition meetings on Monday and Tuesday include the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), according to a Defense Department statement. The Washington Post reported that the administration had refused to let Biden’s transition team meet with officials at Pentagon-controlled intelligence agencies such as the DIA and the NSA.
“The accusation by anonymous sources that DoD has not been fulfilling its commitment to professionally assist any of the Agency Review Teams is demonstrably false and patently insulting,” the Pentagon said in the statement.