Washington Post: “Democratic Sen. Gary Peters gave a victory speech Thursday, a day after multiple news outlets declared he had won reelection to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. But his Republican challenger, businessman and veteran John James, is refusing to concede.”

“The James campaign has alleged, without providing evidence, that there were irregularities and deception in the vote-counting process. In a statement Thursday, the candidate claimed he had ‘deep concerns that millions of Michiganders may have been disenfranchised by a dishonest few who cheat.’ He called for an investigation, adding: ‘Those who object likely have something to hide.’ James offered no proof of his allegations.”

Where are Republicans! Have some backbone. Fight against this fraud. Our voters will never forget you if your sheep! https://t.co/jLzOIJbrwV

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) November 5, 2020

“The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Thursday afternoon in federal court seeking to halt the Philadelphia County Board of Elections’ count of votes. The complaint includes a request for an emergency injunction and is similar to one the campaign made in a different Pennsylvania court that briefly halted the count Thursday morning. The case is Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Philadelphia County Board of Elections, 20-5533, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)” – Bloomberg Law.

With the latest tranche of votes reported from Pennsylvania and Georgia, the leads held by incumbent republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have been cut significantly, with the mail-in ballots slanting sharply to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

According to the New York Times, Trump’s lead is down to 9,500 in Georgia, cut by 25% since the last public release of numbers.

In Pennsylvania, Trump’s lead fell from 119,000 votes to 91,000 votes, also a cut of roughly 25%.  In the mail-in ballot count, Biden is wiping Trump:  In Philadelphia, Biden won 91% of the ballots.  In Lehigh and Erie Counties, Biden got more than 70%.

If that pattern continues, Biden will win Pennsylvania by roughly 100,000 votes and he’ll win Georgia by just under 10,000.

REMINDER TO THE REPUBLICAN STATE LEGISLATURES, YOU HAVE THE FINAL SAY OVER THE CHOOSING OF ELECTORS, NOT ANY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, SECRETARY OF STATE, GOVERNOR, OR EVEN COURT. YOU HAVE THE FINAL SAY — ARTICLE II OF THE FED CONSTITUTION. SO, GET READY TO DO YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 5, 2020

NBC News reports that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has drafted a letter of resignation that he will turn into the White House shortly, ending a contentious tenure in which Esper frequently found himself at odds with the president.

Esper reportedly wrote the letter in anticipation of being one of a number of Cabinet officials who will be fired by President Trump.  Though he would only have less than three months left in his term given that he’s expected to lose the election, various Trump insiders foresee a number of people being fired by Trump in retaliation for perceived slights.

Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager, said during a press conference that the state still has more than 47,000 outstanding ballots.

Incumbent republican president Donald Trump currently has a lead of 12,835 in the state, but the new ballot counts are running for Biden in excess of 66%.  Biden needs to secure 64% of the outstanding votes to win the state. 

“President Donald Trump was charging ahead Thursday with a strategy to force an election victory, or at least forestall a loss, through legal maneuvers and demands for recounts, a final-ditch effort to prevent states from tallying ballots that could decide the next president. And despite campaign assurances that the numbers will break their way, reality appeared to be setting in for several of Trump’s aides in the White House and campaign that the President is facing an ever-narrowing path to victory. Some privately acknowledged the chances of Trump winning are now slim and were contemplating their next career steps.”

“But that reality hasn’t appeared to have set in for the candidate himself. Trump continued to make a series of phone calls overnight, stung that his lead in some states had vanished and convinced Biden is stealing the presidency. Trump does retain a chance of winning, though has fewer roads to 270 electoral votes than his rival Joe Biden. Entrenched at the White House with no public events on his schedule, Trump has personally dispatched advisers to battlegrounds across the country hoping to wage legal battle in places where the margins remain tight. Despite skepticism about the efficacy of his strategy, Trump has remained intent on waging a prolonged fight, viewing it as his only option. At the same time, he has sounded resigned at moments in conversations with some of his allies, questioning whether his legal strategy would work and whether his team was up to the challenge of fighting in the courts, according to a person who spoke to him. In those conversations, Trump sounded tired and down, people who spoke to him said” – CNN.

“Attorneys for Brad Parscale argued in court Thursday morning that the city of Ft. Lauderdale had no right to take his guns away after his wife told police in September he was ‘ranting and raving’ with a handgun. The hearing, over Zoom, was to determine whether Ft. Lauderdale has the right to obtain Parscale’s psychiatric records and use them to make a decision.”

“Florida’s ‘red flag’ law could allow the city to hold on to his 11 guns for one year if authorities determine he poses a significant threat to himself or others. Bradford Cohen — an attorney for Parscale, who has also represented Vanilla Ice, DMX, and Dennis Rodman — said Parscale was not acting aggressively when police detained him” – Business Insider.

So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill! https://t.co/4RNVBqRYBA

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 5, 2020

The Federal Reserve Board opted to keep interest rates near zero as it maintained its previous positions regarding the US economy and the ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reports.

“The ongoing public health crisis will continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a Thursday statement.

In language nearly identical to its September statement, The Fed announced it would make no increase to its purchases of bonds, maintaining status quo. 

The Pennsylvania Secretary of State said that there are around 500,000 uncounted ballots remaining and that the state could announce the final vote tally as early as tonight, the New York Times reports.

“Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, Kathy Boockvar, said there are about 500,000 ballots yet to be counted and told CNN ‘we definitely could’ know the winner by the end of Thursday,” Glenn Thrush reports.

Incumbent republican nominee Donald Trump holds a 114,000 vote lead in the state.  Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would have to win 62% of the remaining ballots to erase the deficit and win the state.

The bulk of outstanding vote counts are from Philadelphia, where currently Biden is winning, 80% to 20%.

Infamous Trump fan, gun enthusiast and misogynist Aubrey Huff took to Twitter to demonstrate his inability to understand numbers.

American population: 330,000,000

Americans who voted: 589,000,000

— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) November 5, 2020

Before you’re too hard on him, remember he made a living hitting a ball with a bat, not compiling the statistics.

“A judge in Michigan said she will deny the Trump campaign’s request to stop the counting of mail-in ballots in the state. Judge Cynthia Stephens announced her decision at the end of an oral briefing Thursday and has not yet issued a written order” – Axios.

Incumbent republican Senator David Perdue’s vote tally has fallen under the critical 50% mark as Georgia wraps up its ballot count, meaning that the race is likely to go to a January 5th runoff election, the New York Times reports.

Apparently, Junior doesn’t understand how votes get counted.  Nor does he understand the words “statistical” and “impossibility.”

Maybe he should put his nose into a civics book instead of, um, whatever his nose is buried in now.

We need a full audit of each and every vote cast in Pennsylvania. There is no way that anyone can believe that there’s this much statistical impossibility happening everywhere. https://t.co/8S7lrfq8Tl

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 5, 2020

With a data dump from Nevada election commissioners, presumptive president-elect Joe Biden has widened his lead in Nevada by a net of 5,000 votes, according to MSNBC.

In the 17,000 additional votes, Biden gained 12,000 votes to just 7,000 votes for Trump.  It widens Biden’s lead in Nevada to 14,757.

“Vote counting in Philly halted due to court order; Trump’s Pa. lead narrows as mail ballots counted; Biden has big margins in Montco and Chesco as counting wraps up” — Philadelphia Inquirer

UPDATE:  That didn’t last long.

https://twitter.com/MauraBarrettNBC/status/1324393923922579457