Vice President-elect Kamala Harris receives her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine live on television today.
“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. It is relatively painless. It happens really quickly. It is safe,” she said immediately after receiving the vaccine at United Medical Center in Washington, DC.
“It’s literally about saving lives. I trust the scientists. And it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine. So I urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated. It’s about saving your life, the life of your family members and the life of your community,” Harris added.
She said her husband, Doug Emhoff, will also receive the vaccine today.
The vice president-elect’s vaccination comes just over one week after President-elect Joe Biden received his live on national television. After getting the shot, Biden reassured Americans of the vaccine’s safety and urged them to get vaccinated as soon as the shots became available to them.
Biden and Harris staggered their vaccinations at the recommendation of medical experts, according to transition spokesperson Jen Psaki. The reason for such a recommendation could be that if Biden and Harris reported any side effects, such as a headache or fever, they would not experience them on the same day.
Congress has the final vote in the 2020 election next week. Here’s what you need to know.
From CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf and Will Mullery
Voters voted. States counted the votes. Challenges were heard and rejected. The Electoral College made President-elect Joe Biden’s victory completely official.
The time for President Trump’s repeated baseless allegations of fraud is over, but that doesn’t mean the drama has ended. Lawmakers follow an archaic timeline set out the Constitution and US law to make Biden president.
Just as then-Vice President Biden oversaw the counting of electoral votes that gave Trump the White House in 2017, now it will be Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s loyal soldier these last four years, who will announce the vote tally that officially makes Biden the winner. Read more about that here.
And Republicans will have to choose how deeply they want to follow Trump into his rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.
Lawmakers will have the ability to raise objections about the vote — just like some Democrats did in 2017. But while those objections were dismissed easily in 2017, Republican senators could, if they choose, drag the process out this year, and force the House and Senate to vote on individual points.
Here’s a breakdown of what will take place next Wednesday, Jan. 6:
- Electoral votes are counted in Congress.
- Members of the House and the Senate will meet in the House chamber. The President of the Senate — that’s Vice President Mike Pence — will preside over the session and the electoral votes will be read and counted in alphabetical order by two appointees each from the House and Senate.
- They will then give their tallies to Pence, who will announce the results and listen for objections.
- If there are objections, the House and Senate consider them separately to decide how to count those votes.
- There are 538 electoral votes — one for each congressman and senator plus three for Washington, DC. If no candidate gets to a majority — that’s 270 — then the 435 members of the House decide the election. Each state gets a vote. So while there are more Democrats in the House, Republicans, as of now, control more state delegations, so it is possible the House could pick Trump even though there is a Democratic majority.
- The House has until noon on Jan. 20 to pick the President. If they can’t, it would be the vice president or the next person eligible in the line of presidential succession.
There will be no inaugural luncheon for Biden on Capitol Hill due to Covid
From CNN’s Lauren Fox
There will be no inaugural luncheon for President-elect Joe Biden on Capitol Hill due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
JCCIC consulted with the Presidential Inaugural Committee in making the decision.
“The health and safety of all guests attending the ceremonies has remained a top priority throughout the planning process. In light of the ongoing pandemic, the JCCIC, in consultation with the Presidential Inaugural Committee, has made the decision to not move forward with hosting the traditional inaugural luncheon,” the statement said.
CNN had reported a luncheon was unlikely, but this makes it official.
In final sprint to Georgia runoff election, Democrats are closing in on GOP ad spending
From CNN’s David Wright and Rachel Janfaza
With only days to go until the Jan. 5th Georgia Senate runoff elections, Democrats have begun closing in on what was previously a pronounced GOP ad spending advantage in the state.
Ad spending is up to nearly $540 million overall for the consequential elections that will determine which party has control of the Senate. Republicans lead Democrats in total Georgia ad spending, including reservations since Nov. 10 and through the runoff by about $281.7 million to $256.6 million.
The Democrats have raised money almost entirely through the strength of candidate advertising — Jon Ossoff has spent over $100 million in ads, while Rev. Raphael Warnock is at nearly $90 million, compared to about $53.7 million spent by Sen. Kelly Loeffler and $45.7 million for Sen. David Perdue, the Republican candidates.
The campaigns and outside sponsors wasted little time to influence the two crucial contests after Perdue and Loeffler failed to hit the 50% threshold on Election Day, setting up elections against their Democratic challengers Jan. 5.
When it comes to spending by outside groups on behalf of the candidates for Senate themselves, Republicans lead Democrats by nearly 3-to-1 — $180.5 million to $63.1 million.
Major outside GOP donors include American Crossroads — the Republican super PAC founded by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, Senate Leadership Fund —a super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican — and Peachtree PAC, which despite the name suggesting homegrown roots, is an arm of the Senate Leadership Fund.
Read more here.
Kamala Harris will receive a Covid-19 vaccine today
From CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Arlette Saenz
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is expected to receive the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine today, according to the Biden transition team.
A transition official told CNN that Harris will be administered the vaccine live on camera from Washington, DC. The official said Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, would also receive the vaccine today.
The vice president-elect’s vaccination will come just over one week after President-elect Joe Biden received his live on national television. After getting the shot, Biden reassured Americans of the vaccine’s safety and urged them to get vaccinated as soon as the shots became available to them.
Biden and Harris staggered their vaccinations at the recommendation of medical experts, according to transition spokesperson Jen Psaki. The reason for such a recommendation could be that if Biden and Harris reported any side effects, such as a headache or fever, they would not experience them on the same day.
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for two coronavirus vaccines: one from Pfizer/BioNTech and one from Moderna. Both Moderna’s and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have shown similar efficacy levels of near 95%, and both vaccines require two doses administered several weeks apart.
Biden will call out Trump administration on pace of vaccine distribution in remarks later today
From CNN’s Arlette Saenz
In his remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, this afternoon, President-elect Joe Biden is set to confront the slower-than-expected pace at which the Trump administration is administering vaccines, a transition official said, as current vaccinations significantly lag the 20 million officials promised by year’s end.
A transition official said the President-elect “will address the current administration falling short on its pace for vaccinations” and lay out his own plan for vaccinating people in a quick way.
The remarks will come after Biden receives a briefing from his Covid-19 advisory team, the official said, and the President-elect will also give a general status update on the pandemic and the stakes in the months ahead.
Axios was first to report the details of the speech.
Biden will deliver remarks this afternoon on the coronavirus pandemic
From CNN’s Holly Yan, Madeline Holcombe and and Aaron Pellish
President-elect Joe Biden will deliver remarks this afternoon on the coronavirus pandemic from Wilmington, Delaware. His transition team advises the remarks will start at 3:45 p.m. ET.
Biden’s remarks come as the nation continues to battle a surge in cases and a record number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.
More Americans were hospitalized this past week than any other week of the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Six states set new records Sunday for the most Covid-19 patients hospitalized: Alabama, California, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Meanwhile, more people traveled through US airports Sunday than any other day this pandemic, setting the stage for waves of new infections across the country.
Coronavirus vaccines continue to be administered and distributed across the country, but current figures fall well short of initial predictions for the end of the year and the US vaccination program appears to be taking longer than Warp Speed officials projected.
Coronavirus is one of Biden’s key priorities, and earlier this month, the President-elect detailed his plan to combat the pandemic, including asking Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days after he takes office.
