A partial recount in Wisconsin concluded Sunday with President-elect Joe Biden's winning margin over President Trump increasing by 87 total votes.
Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell told reporters Sunday that Trump netted a gain of 45 votes in the county, which includes the capital Madison. That followed Friday's completed recount in the state's most populous county, Milwaukee, where out of roughly 460,000 ballots cast, Biden made a net gain of 132 votes on review.
The results offer unwelcome news for Trump, who lost to Biden in Wisconsin by roughly 20,000 votes, and lost the national popular vote by more than 6 million.
Biden has not only won, he’s done so in historic fashion, now reaching a record 80 million votes, with still more to count. That is more than 10 million more votes than the previous popular-vote record-setting winner, Barack Obama, who secured 69 million votes in his victory over John McCain in 2008. Donald Trump, we can recognize, also sparked record-setting turnout for a loser, with nearly 74 million votes. But lose he did — now by more than 6 million votes — or greater than the popular vote deficit suffered by Mitt Romney, who conceded to the victorious Barack Obama on election night in 2012. At 51 percent, Biden’s share of the vote is the highest of any presidential challenger since FDR ousted Herbert Hoover in 1932.
While the president is well within his rights to seek recounts where applicable and call for an investigation into any irregularities that can be identified, if he waits too long to concede to Joe Biden, he runs the risk of badly tarnishing his reputation.
As President Trump brazenly seeks to delay the certification of the election in hopes of overturning his defeat, he is also mounting a less high-profile but similarly audacious bid to keep control of the Republican National Committee even after he leaves office.
Ronna McDaniel, Mr. Trump’s handpicked chairwoman, has secured the president’s support for her re-election to another term in January, when the party is expected to gather for its winter meeting. But her intention to run with Mr. Trump’s blessing has incited a behind-the-scenes proxy battle, dividing Republicans between those who believe the national party should not be a political subsidiary of the outgoing president and others happy for Mr. Trump to remain in control of it.
For generations, both parties have dreamed of emerging as the dominant power in our national life. Sometimes they think they are just about to live the dream. Then the voters wake them up.
In his first interview with Terry Gross, President Barack Obama talks about birtherism and fake news, and reflects on what he misses most about being president — and why he still has faith in democracy. The first volume of his memoir about his presidency is ‘A Promised Land.’
This is a really interesting podcast. I do miss Barack Obama. While I didn’t agree with all of his policies, I voted for him twice and I always thought he was a very thoughtful individual.