December 10 political news briefs

Here are today’s political news briefs.

As of today, a total of 18 states have joined Texas in its lawsuit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to block four states from giving electoral votes to Joe Biden. The four states are Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan and they will have to respond to the lawsuit by 3 pm today in the Supreme Court. I incorrectly said yesterday that the Supreme Court would respond to the lawsuit today — I misunderstood it — the response is due today from the four states. The lawsuit said the four states illegally expanded mail-in voting and it caused Trump to lose because there were no longer strong election security safeguards. They alleged fraud. But keep in mind that states expanded mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit wants the Supreme Court to basically take away the four states’ millions of ballots and give the victory to President Trump. The court has six conservative justices and three of them were appointed by Trump over the past four years. It is not known what the Supreme Court will do because this kind of thing has never happened before. However we have seen the Supreme Court turn down an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans to invalidate their state’s election results on Tuesday.

CNN explained that the court could act after the four states’ responses arrive or wait until Texas’ counter response to the four states’ responses before making a move. The court has a scheduled meeting on the phone for tomorrow. It will take five justices to agree to allow the Texas lawsuit to proceed, but if the court refuses to consider the lawsuit, then it will be like a death blow to Trump and his team’s hopes to reverse the results of the 2020 election. It is important to note that all 50 states and D.C. has certified their presidential election results.

President Trump quoted a Trump supporter who said on OANN that “our country is being stolen” and that there is a “coup taking place in front of our eyes.” However there are several opinion pieces saying what Trump is trying to do is a coup.

Biden made several new announcements of key figures in his upcoming administration. He named Susan Rice to become the director of his Domestic Policy Council, which is responsible for coordinating Biden’s agenda. Rice was former President Obama’s national security adviser. Biden named Tom Vilsack to be the Secretary of Agriculture, a position he held during the Obama administration. Biden announced that Denis McDonough, who was Obama’s chief of staff, would be his nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. Biden said Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) would head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Biden named Katherine Tai to be the U.S. Trade Representative. The New York Times said these people are not “fresh faces” but the types of people who have had long relationships with Biden throughout the Obama administration or Biden’s time as a senator.

Joe Biden’s son Hunter announced last night that he is under a federal investigation on his “tax affairs.” CNN said the investigation was on “whether Hunter and his associates violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, principally China.” CNBC said there are tax liens against him from the IRS for over $112,000 and from the D.C. government for over $450,000. This is yet another controversy for Hunter, who had embarrassing photos of him released in October by Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Axios reported that a suspected Chinese spy named Fang Fang or Christine Fang was in the U.S. from 2011 to 2015 trying to build relationships with local and national politicians. The most well-known politician tied with Fang is Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif). Axios said Fang attended multiple events with Swalwell over several years, but said there was no evidence of illegal financial contributions. Intelligence agencies in the U.S. alerted Swalwell in 2015, who then cut off all ties to Fang. Axios said Fang left the country in 2015. Axios said it is the Chinese government’s strategy to send spies to develop relationships with up and coming politicians. Republican lawmakers called on Swalwell to lose his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, but House Speaker Pelosi said she has no concerns about him.

That’s all the political news briefs for today.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/529614-18-states-join-texas-case-seeing-to-overturn-biden-win

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/10/politics/trump-texas-supreme-court-election/index.html

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/this-is-going-to-escalate-dramatically-trump-threatens-a-dangerous-moment-forthcoming-in-twitter-spree-assailing-election/

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/10/us/joe-biden-trump

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/09/hunter-biden-under-federal-investigation-over-taxes.html

https://www.axios.com/china-spy-california-politicians-9d2dfb99-f839-4e00-8bd8-59dec0daf589.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/10/pelosi-swalwell-chinese-spy-444308