Related video: Georgia election official debunks one Trump conspiracy theory after another
Donald Trump‘s hopes of escaping to play golf at his Turnberry resort in Scotland rather than attend the inauguration of Joe Biden in Washington on 20 January have been dashed by the country’s first minister, Nicola Stugeon, who says he will not be allowed to enter due to new lockdown measures. The White House has denied Trump ever planned to travel to Scotland.
Mr Trump returned to the campaign trail in Georgia on Monday night to stump for the Republican candidates in the state’s Senate runoffs on Tuesday, pushing his baseless election fraud narrative and pressuring his own deputy, vice president Mike Pence, over his role in certifying the outcome before Congress on Wednesday.
That came as a lie tracker maintained by The Washington Post found that the president had lied more than 29,500 times as of 5 November. In October 2020 alone, the month before the presidential election, Mr Trump was found to have told almost 4,000 lies. He also faces continued controversy over the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, with Iran issuing an Interpol arrest warrant for the president and 47 others.
Check out The Independent’s live coverage and analysis below.
Trump denies Pence story as ‘fake news’
This via the Trump campaign:
“The New York Times report regarding comments Vice President Pence supposedly made to me is fake news. He never said that. The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.”
The statement goes on with more of everything that has been heard before, and it can be read in full below.
Justin Vallejo6 January 2021 03:46
Trump continues ‘voter dump’ narrative as GOP falls behind in Georgia runoff
“Waiting to see how many votes they need?” Trump asked in a tweet.
Justin Vallejo6 January 2021 03:41
BREAKING: Trump turns screws on Pence after ‘tense lunch’ and falsely insists he can block Biden win
Donald Trump has heaped extra pressure on Mike Pence, insisting he does have the constitutional power to bock Joe Biden’s victory after the vice president told him he did not.
On Wednesday, Mr Pence is scheduled in his constitutional role, to oversee a joint session of Congress, in which the House and Senate will vote to formally confirm Mr Biden’s victory, a move that represents the final step in the process before his inauguration.
Around 150 Republicans, among them senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, have said they will vote against certification.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported Mr Pence told Mr Trump that while he supported him, it was not within his constitutional powers to block the certification process and derail Mr Biden’s move into the Oval Office.
CNN said the meeting had been “tense”, and that Mr Trump told Mr Pence that not stopping Mr Biden would be politically “damaging”.
The Independent’s Andrew…
Read More: Trump news today: Latest updates and tweets from president