https://youtu.be/-jG0QJOflb0

Law and Crime: “The day after Steve Bannon mused about beheading FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Trump loyalist’s powerhouse lawyers asked a federal judge on Friday to postpone a hearing scheduled for Monday because they intend to withdraw from his criminal case. ‘Mr. Bannon is in the process of retaining new counsel, and Quinn Emanuel intends to move to withdraw. As a result, Mr. Bannon respectfully requests that the status conference in this matter be adjourned for three weeks so that he may formally retain new counsel,’ Bannon’s current counsel William Burck wrote in a one-paragraph letter.”

“The law firm did not state any reason for the shake-up, which follows Bannon’s fantasizing about putting Wray and Fauci’s ‘heads on pikes’ as a warning to federal bureaucrats who do not bend to the president’s will. Social media companies quickly banned Bannon from their platforms, and ex-prosecutors warned that such remarks may have jeopardized Bannon’s bail as he awaits charges related to an alleged border-wall scam. The Southern District of New York declined to comment on whether prosecutors will seek to revoke his bail.”

https://twitter.com/stevethomma/status/1324761733303541760

The management of Fox “News” has directed the on-air talent, including its claimed “straight news” anchors and reports, to refrain from calling presumptive presidential election winner Democrat Joe Biden “president elect,” even after all the state races are called, CNN Business reports.

According to two internal Fox “News” memos obtained by CNN Business, the management of the Trump-friendly network says that anchors and reporters should refer to Biden as having “enough electoral votes to win the presidency.”

Asked about reports of outgoing president Donald Trump refusing to accept the results of the election and issuing a concession to likely president-elect Joe Biden, a Biden campaign spokesperson said the federal government is ready for Trump protests, according to Business Insider.

“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” Andrew Bates, a representative for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement.

The mail-in ballots of more than 150,000 citizens were not processed by the Election Day deadline even though they were in the possession of the USPS on or before election day, the Washington Post reports.

Those ballots may not have received the required November 3rd postmark required for them to be accepted by election boards, meaning those votes were nullified.

At least 12,000 of those votes, which were processed but not delivered on Election Day, were in states that are still undeclared in the presidential race.  By state law, some states, like Nevada, where 4,518 ballots arrived after Election Day, as well as North Carolina (2,958) and Pennsylvania (3,439), can process ballots received after November 3rd if they are postmarked by Election Day.

The votes going to Arizona (864 ballots) and Georgia (853 ballots), however, cannot be counted because state law requires the ballots to be in possession of election officials.  Those votes, per law, cannot be accepted because of the USPS delay.

“More votes in from Nevada — Biden lead increases to 22,076” reports Jake Tapper.

With the assumed margin of victory in the presidential election in Georgia expected to be under 0.5%, the Georgia Secretary of State announced that a recount of the vote will likely be mandatory, the Washington Post reports.

“Right now Georgia remains too close to call. Out of approximately 5 million votes cast we’ll have a margin of a few thousand,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. “The focus for our office and for the county election officials for now remains on making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately. As we are closing in on a final count, we can begin to look toward our next steps. With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia.”

Democratic nominee Joe Biden overtook incumbent Donald Trump in the state’s vote count early Friday morning, with just a few thousand votes outstanding.

A recount would take about a week, after which the results could be certified.  State officials say overturning the reported results through a recount is unlikely.

“Joe Biden’s lead has narrowed slightly to 43,569 votes. But NBC’s Steve Kornacki reports that Trump needed more votes to be on pace to catch up to Biden in the vote count. If Trump doesn’t over-perform in future batches, Biden will win Arizona” reports MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin.

“Philadelpiha has got a rotten history on election integrity.” @Varneyco @FoxBusiness

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2020

“We have said it many times and we will happily say it again: The Pennsylvania General Assembly does not have and will not have a hand in choosing the state’s presidential electors or in deciding the outcome of the presidential election. To insinuate otherwise is to inappropriately set fear into the Pennsylvania electorate with an imaginary scenario not provided for anywhere in law – or in fact. Pennsylvania law plainly says that the state’s electors are chosen only by the popular vote of the commonwealth’s voters. The General Assembly has a sworn duty to follow the Constitution and the Election Code, which does not involve the legislature in the process of choosing electors. There have been zero discussions occurring within the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate about changing this provision.”

“This election cycle is the most politically charged in our lifetime, so we understand that misrepresentations and attention-grabbing social media posts will be part of the rhetoric. We need to rise above that and not fall victim to outside influences that are trying to stir emotion. So, to set the record – once again – without question: The only and exclusive way that presidential electors can be chosen in Pennsylvania is by the popular vote. The legislature has no hand in this process whatsoever” – Pennsylvania’s Senate majority leader Jake Corman and majority leader of the State House of Representatives Kerry Beninghoff writing in the Centre Daily Times.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to quit in January 2021 amid speculations that he has Parkinson’s disease, according to media reports. Putin, who is 68 is reportedly being urged by his family members to retire due to his health.”

“A report in New York Post quoted Moscow political scientist Valery Solovei saying, ‘Putin’s 37-year-old girlfriend, Alina Kabaeva, and his two daughters are pushing him to leave the office. There is a family, it has a great influence on him. He intends to make public his handover plans in January.’ Putin is reportedly suffering from Parkinson’s as the president has been seen recently exhibiting symptoms of the disease. Some reports also say that Putin has begun to show signs of weakness in his hands, struggling to hold pens, as well as constantly twitching his leg. In fact, the recent footage in which Putin was seen constantly moving his leg from here to there and according to health experts, they said that Putin looked like he was in pain” – Yahoo News.

“This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final. Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail. There were many irregularities in Pennsylvania, including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaningful access to vote counting locations. We prevailed in court on our challenge, but were deprived of valuable time and denied the transparency we are entitled to under state law. In Nevada, there appear to be thousands of individuals who improperly cast mail ballots. Finally, the President is on course to win Arizona outright, despite the irresponsible and erroneous ‘calling’ of the state for Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press. Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected” – Matt Morgan, Trump 2020 campaign general counsel.

pic.twitter.com/omUpH1BxHJ

— Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) November 6, 2020

Daily Beast: “For Fox News, breaking up with Donald Trump will be hard to do. Their sometimes stormy (not Daniels) marriage began nine years ago, when the right-leaning cable channel’s founding chairman, the late Roger Ailes, gave Trump a weekly segment on the popular morning show Fox & Friends, thus launching the reality television star’s improbable trip to the White House. However, since Tuesday night—when the top-rated outlet’s Decision Desk, all alone among the nation’s major cable and broadcast networks, enraged Trump and millions of viewers by calling Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for Joe Biden—Fox News has been embarked on the thorny, painful and public process of separating from the 45th president of the United States. Which is not to mistake this tricky transition as the loving embrace of Biden.”

“‘Hosts will scream ‘socialism,’ tell its minority viewers that Biden’s policies are bad for them, and they will further push the narrative that it’s Kamala Harris viewers should be scared of, since she’s the actual president behind the scenes, according to their narrative,’ said a longtime Fox News staffer, one of four who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity in order to protect their jobs. ‘I believe it will be a resistance network if Biden wins, because being in the opposition is good for business.’ A second staffer predicted that in the event of a Biden presidency, Fox News’ programming ‘will be a black hole where news dies and conspiracy theories and opinions reign supreme.’ (Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo has already plunged into these dark and turbid waters.) The Fox employee continued: ‘They will highlight any issue that the economy has and blame it on Biden. Every news item that can be ‘spun’ to make Biden look bad will be magnified. Trump and his cabinet will likely have ‘contributor’ titles by the time Biden is sworn in.'”

Ga. Rep. Vernon Jones: We are starting now to see the white of their eyes and getting ready to start shooting. #elections2020 pic.twitter.com/7LgEmwrZDa

— Atlanta News First (@ATLNewsFirst) November 6, 2020

“Joe Biden just took the lead in Pennsylvania by 5,587 votes” – CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins.

“Senior White House and Trump campaign officials are complaining bitterly about poor internal communication, blaming colleagues, pondering what jobs they might try to get next year, and lashing out at their new enemy: Fox News. Aides told Axios they’re dreading the prospect of Fox calling Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, which could make the conservative network the first to give Biden 270 electoral votes. A Trump campaign official said the internal view was that it’s essential to keep the race ‘optically’ alive, and that if Fox were to call it, it would severely harm their efforts to support President Trump’s (false) claims that he’d already won.”

“The incandescent anger at Fox within Trumpworld is hard to overstate: Trump’s advisers remain furious at Fox’s decision desk for its early call of Arizona for Biden, and have been unsuccessfully lobbying their contacts at the network to retract the call. Fox hasn’t budged. A graphic during news coverage last evening by lead election anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum: ‘FOX DECISION DESK STANDS BEHIND DECISION TO CALL ARIZONA FOR BIDEN'” – Axios.