SINGAPORE - Prior bookings will be required before people head down to the vaccination centres to receive their Covid-19 shot, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong on Monday (Jan 4).
This is necessary given the cold-chain requirements at the vaccination sites and multi-dose vials of the vaccines, he said.
"It will also ensure operational efficiency and minimise individual wait times," said Mr Gan in Parliament, adding that more information on how to make the bookings will be provided later.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first one against the coronavirus that has been approved for use in Singapore, with vaccines by other pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Sinovac expected to arrive in the months ahead.
BioNTech had said that once removed from the freezer, the vaccine can be stored for up to five days at between 2 deg C and 8 deg C and up to two hours at temperatures up to 30 deg C, prior to use.
The vaccine, which uses new mRNA technology, must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of about minus 70 deg C before being shipped to distribution centres in specially designed cool boxes filled with dry ice.
The remaining NCID staff will be progressively vaccinated, with the rest of the National Healthcare Group management and staff from this month.
Mr Gan said that experts consulted by the Government have recommended that the nation prioritise vaccinations of groups that are most at risk. This is also in line with the guidance issued by the World Health Organisation, he added.
The nation's Covid-19 vaccination drive is kicking off first with healthcare workers and staff working in the healthcare sector as they work in direct care of patients or in supporting roles, he said.
Other front-line and essential personnel will also be among the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, Mr Gan said. This includes swabbers hired by the Health Promotion Board, as well as staff working at government quarantine facilities, community care facilities and dedicated stay-home notice facilities.
Mr Gan added that the elderly and those at greater risk of severe disease from the coronavirus will be vaccinated from next month.
This phase will begin with seniors aged 70 and above and those in jobs or settings where the risk of a super-spreading event is high, such as the construction, marine and process sectors, including migrant workers.
"Thereafter, we will progressively broaden our vaccinations to include other Singaporeans and long-term residents who are medically eligible," he said.
Mr Gan added that as more vaccines are approved for use, Singapore will adjust its vaccination programme, depending on vaccine supply and disease epidemiology.
He told the House that the Government had started planning for the Covid-19 vaccination programme "very early on", and that it has in place end-to-end processes to meet the cold-chain logistics requirements.
This includes delivery and receipt of the doses at the airport, storage and transport to vaccination sites so that the quality and efficacy of the vaccines are not compromised.
Watch the Singapore Parliament's first livestream of its full proceedings. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and Education Minister Lawrence Wong will give an update on the whole-of-government response to COVID-19.
SINGAPORE: Parliament sits for its first session in 2021 on Monday (Jan 4), and for the first time, the full proceedings will be shown in real time on the Ministry of Communications' YouTube channel.
On the agenda are ministerial statements from co-chairs of the multi-ministry task force to deal with COVID-19, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and Education Minister Lawrence Wong. They are due to give an update on the whole-of-government response to COVID-19. This comes a week after Singapore moved into Phase 3 of its re-opening of the economy.
A total of 99 questions have been filed by Members of Parliament for oral answer. These include queries on the country's COVID-19 vaccination programme.
MPs have also submitted questions about an incident at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where breast cancer patients may have received unnecessary treatment.
CUTHBERT, Georgia: Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, cemented his status as an unlikely hero for US Democrats following a fresh clash in which he rejected President Donald Trump’s claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.
Trump returned the 65-year-old former businessman to the limelight when he called Raffensperger on Saturday to badger him to “find” enough votes to reverse Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, according to audio of the hour-long call published by the Washington Post on Sunday (Dec 3).
As Georgia’s top election official, Raffensperger oversaw multiple recounts of the Nov 3 ballots, each of which reached the same result - that the southern state had narrowly favored a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in a generation.
He has vowed to fight any future election fraud even as he echoed the findings of his counterparts across the United States that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in November.
He has also repeatedly pushed back against Trump’s unfounded claims of fraud, even after the president labeled him an “enemy of the people.” He did so again on Saturday’s call, telling Trump the vote showed Biden was the rightful winner.
“Well Mr President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger could be heard telling Trump on the recording of Saturday’s call.
But he and his colleagues for weeks have been warning that Trump’s rhetoric placed them and their colleagues in danger.
“Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed,” Gabriel Sterling, the manager of the state’s voting systems, said at an emotional Dec 1 press conference.
Noting Raffensperger’s wife had been getting sexualised threats, he added, “It has all gone too far. It has to stop.”
It was unclear if the state had taken security measures around Raffensperger after the threats emerged. His office and that of Governor Brian Kemp did not respond to requests for comment.
REPUTATION AS ‘STRAIGHT SHOOTER’
After years as a civil engineer and successful businessman, Raffensperger served two years on a city council and four years in Georgia’s House of Representatives before succeeding Kemp in 2018 as the top election official.
Acquaintances of Raffensperger in the state House described him as a “straight shooter” who backed traditional Republican priorities, supporting a Bill to cut regulations on small businesses, for example, and voting against a tax on gasoline, according to a profile in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A lifelong Republican, Raffensperger was an early supporter of Trump in 2016, and the president returned the favor by endorsing him for secretary of state. But whatever goodwill existed between the two men has since disappeared.
“Brad Raffensperger: He’s not some liberal. Like he’s no hero of mine,” Hillary Rosen, a Democratic strategist, said on CNN. “He is a solid conservative Republican standing up to the president. That’s what makes it so significant.”
Trump’s relentless attacks since the Nov 3 election included an accusation that Raffensperger hid tens of thousands of illegal votes, ensuring Biden’s victory. Georgia’s Republican incumbent senators - David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler - have called on Raffensperger to resign.
Perdue and Loeffler themselves are locked in tight campaigns ahead of Tuesday run-off elections that will determine which party controls the US Senate.
Raffensperger has come under fire from the party establishment across the state for not bending to Trump’s will.
Ronald Ham, the Republican party’s head in rural Brantley County, said Raffensperger should take Trump’s allegations about voter fraud more seriously. He said there were discussions among some party leaders about recalling him.
“I’ve been a little too critical of Brad, but where there is so much smoke I would want to verify,” Ham said. “He’s a good guy, but he won’t survive re-election if he gets that far.”
Raffensperger told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in late November that he and his wife of 44 years had leaned on their faith to cope with the pressure.
“We’re straightforward people, simple people,” Raffensperger said. “We’re quiet people in an unquiet role.”
WASHINGTON: The extraordinary Republican effort to overturn the presidential election was condemned on Sunday (Jan 3) by an outpouring of current and former GOP officials warning the effort to sow doubt in Joe Biden's win and keep President Donald Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.
Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win.
With Biden set to be inaugurated on Jan 20, Trump is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, ripping the party apart.
Despite Trump's claims of voter fraud, state officials have insisted the elections ran smoothly and there was no evidence of fraud or other problems that would change the outcome.
The states have certified their results as fair and valid. Of the more than 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the US Supreme Court.
On a call disclosed Sunday, Trump can be heard pressuring Georgia officials to “find” him more votes.
“The 2020 election is over,” said a statement on Sunday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah.
The senators wrote that further attempts to cast doubt on the election are “contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results”.
Republican Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.”
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate" and that efforts to sow doubt about the election “strike at the foundation of our republic”.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, warned in a memo to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College results “set an exceptionally dangerous precedent”.
Other prominent former officials also criticised the ongoing attack on election results. In a brief op-ed in the Washington Post, the 10 living former defence secretaries - half of them having served Republican presidents - called on Pentagon officials to carry out the transition to the new administration “fully, cooperatively and transparently”.
They also asserted that efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes “would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory”.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theatre, Dec 29, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: AP/Andrew Harnik)
Citing election results, legal challenges, state certifications and the Electoral College vote, the former defence secretaries said that “the time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived”.
The unusual challenge to the presidential election, on a scale unseen since the aftermath of the Civil War, clouded the opening of the new Congress and is set to consume its first days. The House and Senate will meet on Wednesday in a joint session to accept the Electoral College vote, a typically routine process that's now expected to be a prolonged fight.
Trump is refusing to concede, and pressure is mounting on Vice President Mike Pence to ensure victory while presiding in what is typically a ceremonial role over the congressional session. Trump is whipping up crowds for a rally in Washington.
The president tweeted on Sunday against the election tallies and Republicans not on his side.
Biden’s transition spokesman, Mike Gwin, dismissed the senators' effort as a “stunt” that will not change the fact that Biden will be sworn in on Jan 20.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues that while there is “no doubt" of Biden's victory, their job now "is to convince more of the American people to trust in our democratic system".
The effort in the Senate was being led by Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Hawley defended his actions in a lengthy email to colleagues, explaining that his Missouri constituents have been “loud and clear” with their belief that Biden's defeat of Trump was unfair.
“It is my responsibility as a senator to raise their concerns,” Hawley wrote late on Saturday.
Hawley plans to object to the state tally from Pennsylvania. But that state's Republican senator, Pat Toomey, criticised the attack on Pennsylvania's election system and said the results that named Biden the winner are valid.
Senator Ted Cruz greets a crowd before he speaks at a campaign rally on Jan 2, 2021, in Cumming, Georgia. (Photo: AP/Brynn Anderson)
Cruz's coalition of 11 Republican senators vows to reject the Electoral College tallies unless Congress launches a commission to immediately conduct an audit of the election results.
They are zeroing in on the states where Trump has raised unfounded claims of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to agree to their demand.
The group formed with Cruz, which presented no new evidence of election problems, includes Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana.
New senators in the group are Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
The convening of the joint session to count the Electoral College votes has faced objections before. In 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s win but Biden, who presided at the time as the vice president, swiftly dismissed them to assert Trump's victory. Rarely have the protests approached this level of intensity.
The moment is a defining one for the Republican Party in a post-Trump era. Both Hawley and Cruz are potential 2024 presidential contenders, cementing their alignment with Trump’s base of supporters. Others are trying to forge a different path for the GOP.
Pence will be carefully watched as he presides over what is expected to be a prolonged showdown, depending on how many challenges are mounted.
The vice president “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections”, Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, said in a statement on Saturday.
Vice President Mike Pence waves as he walks off the stage after speaking at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Dec 22, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo: AP/Lynne Sladky)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned Republicans off such challenges but said little when asked about it at the Capitol as the Senate opened on Sunday.
“We’ll be dealing with all of that on Wednesday,” he said.
But Republicans simply said they do not plan to join the effort that will fail.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday his colleagues will have an opportunity to make their case, but they must produce evidence and facts. “They have a high bar to clear,” he said.
Congress have been loathe to interfere in the state-run election systems, a longstanding protocol. States choose their own election officials and draft their election laws.
During the coronavirus pandemic many states adapted by allowing mail voting to ease health risks of voting in person. Those changes and others are now being challenged by Trump and his allies.
Trump, the first president to lose a re-election bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud, despite the consensus of nonpartisan election officials and even Trump's attorney general that there was none.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the latest challenge from Representative Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and a group of Arizona electors, who filed suit to try to force Pence to step outside mere ceremony and shape the outcome of the vote. The appellate court sided with the federal judge, a Trump appointee, who dismissed the suit.
WASHINGTON: The extraordinary Republican effort to overturn the presidential election was condemned on Sunday (Jan 3) by an outpouring of current and former GOP officials warning the effort to sow doubt in Joe Biden's win and keep President Donald Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.
Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win.
With Biden set to be inaugurated on Jan 20, Trump is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, ripping the party apart.
Despite Trump's claims of voter fraud, state officials have insisted the elections ran smoothly and there was no evidence of fraud or other problems that would change the outcome.
The states have certified their results as fair and valid. Of the more than 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the US Supreme Court.
On a call disclosed Sunday, Trump can be heard pressuring Georgia officials to “find” him more votes.
“The 2020 election is over,” said a statement on Sunday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah.
The senators wrote that further attempts to cast doubt on the election are “contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results”.
Republican Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.”
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate" and that efforts to sow doubt about the election “strike at the foundation of our republic”.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, warned in a memo to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College results “set an exceptionally dangerous precedent”.
Other prominent former officials also criticised the ongoing attack on election results. In a brief op-ed in the Washington Post, the 10 living former defence secretaries - half of them having served Republican presidents - called on Pentagon officials to carry out the transition to the new administration “fully, cooperatively and transparently”.
They also asserted that efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes “would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory”.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theatre, Dec 29, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: AP/Andrew Harnik)
Citing election results, legal challenges, state certifications and the Electoral College vote, the former defence secretaries said that “the time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived”.
The unusual challenge to the presidential election, on a scale unseen since the aftermath of the Civil War, clouded the opening of the new Congress and is set to consume its first days. The House and Senate will meet on Wednesday in a joint session to accept the Electoral College vote, a typically routine process that's now expected to be a prolonged fight.
Trump is refusing to concede, and pressure is mounting on Vice President Mike Pence to ensure victory while presiding in what is typically a ceremonial role over the congressional session. Trump is whipping up crowds for a rally in Washington.
The president tweeted on Sunday against the election tallies and Republicans not on his side.
Biden’s transition spokesman, Mike Gwin, dismissed the senators' effort as a “stunt” that will not change the fact that Biden will be sworn in on Jan 20.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues that while there is “no doubt" of Biden's victory, their job now "is to convince more of the American people to trust in our democratic system".
The effort in the Senate was being led by Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Hawley defended his actions in a lengthy email to colleagues, explaining that his Missouri constituents have been “loud and clear” with their belief that Biden's defeat of Trump was unfair.
“It is my responsibility as a senator to raise their concerns,” Hawley wrote late on Saturday.
Hawley plans to object to the state tally from Pennsylvania. But that state's Republican senator, Pat Toomey, criticised the attack on Pennsylvania's election system and said the results that named Biden the winner are valid.
Senator Ted Cruz greets a crowd before he speaks at a campaign rally on Jan 2, 2021, in Cumming, Georgia. (Photo: AP/Brynn Anderson)
Cruz's coalition of 11 Republican senators vows to reject the Electoral College tallies unless Congress launches a commission to immediately conduct an audit of the election results.
They are zeroing in on the states where Trump has raised unfounded claims of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to agree to their demand.
The group formed with Cruz, which presented no new evidence of election problems, includes Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana.
New senators in the group are Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
The convening of the joint session to count the Electoral College votes has faced objections before. In 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s win but Biden, who presided at the time as the vice president, swiftly dismissed them to assert Trump's victory. Rarely have the protests approached this level of intensity.
The moment is a defining one for the Republican Party in a post-Trump era. Both Hawley and Cruz are potential 2024 presidential contenders, cementing their alignment with Trump’s base of supporters. Others are trying to forge a different path for the GOP.
Pence will be carefully watched as he presides over what is expected to be a prolonged showdown, depending on how many challenges are mounted.
The vice president “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections”, Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, said in a statement on Saturday.
Vice President Mike Pence waves as he walks off the stage after speaking at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Dec 22, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo: AP/Lynne Sladky)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned Republicans off such challenges but said little when asked about it at the Capitol as the Senate opened on Sunday.
“We’ll be dealing with all of that on Wednesday,” he said.
But Republicans simply said they do not plan to join the effort that will fail.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday his colleagues will have an opportunity to make their case, but they must produce evidence and facts. “They have a high bar to clear,” he said.
Congress have been loathe to interfere in the state-run election systems, a longstanding protocol. States choose their own election officials and draft their election laws.
During the coronavirus pandemic many states adapted by allowing mail voting to ease health risks of voting in person. Those changes and others are now being challenged by Trump and his allies.
Trump, the first president to lose a re-election bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud, despite the consensus of nonpartisan election officials and even Trump's attorney general that there was none.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the latest challenge from Representative Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and a group of Arizona electors, who filed suit to try to force Pence to step outside mere ceremony and shape the outcome of the vote. The appellate court sided with the federal judge, a Trump appointee, who dismissed the suit.
WASHINGTON: Nancy Pelosi was narrowly re-elected on Sunday (Jan 3) as Speaker, giving her the reins of Democrats' slender House majority as President-elect Joe Biden sets a challenging course of producing legislation to tackle the pandemic, revive the economy and address other party priorities.
The California Democrat, who has led her party in the House since 2003 and is the only woman to be Speaker, had been widely expected to retain her post. Pelosi received 216 votes to 209 for Representative Kevin McCarthy who again will be the chamber's minority leader.
To gain her victory, Pelosi had to overcome some Democratic grumbling about her longevity, a slim 222-211 edge over Republicans after November's elections, and a handful of absences because of the coronavirus. There were two vacancies in the 435-member House, and whatever happens Democrats will have the smallest House majority in two decades.
The new Congress convened on Sunday, just two days after lawmakers ended their contentious previous session and with COVID-19 guidelines requiring testing and face coverings for House members.
There was widespread mask-wearing and far fewer lawmakers and guests in the chamber than usual, an unimaginable tableau when the last Congress commenced two years ago, before the pandemic struck.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries formally nominated Pelosi for the job, calling her “a notorious negotiator and a legendary legislator for such a time as this".
Jeffries, a member of House leadership who's expected to contend for the speakership whenever Pelosi steps aside, said that as Pelosi prepares to work with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, “Brighter days are ahead in the United States of America. This is the day of great renewal in the House of Representatives.”
To be re-elected, Pelosi needed a majority of votes cast for specific candidates and could afford to lose only a handful of Democratic votes. House rules give her a bit of wiggle room because lawmakers who are absent or who vote “present” are not counted in the total number of those voting.
Sunday’s vote was expected to last perhaps three hours as lawmakers voted in groups of around 72 each to minimise exposure to the virus.
With every vote at a premium, workers had constructed an enclosure in a balcony overlooking the House chamber so lawmakers exposed to or testing positive for the coronavirus could more safely vote. Representative Tim Ryan voted from there.
Two Democrats who tested positive for the virus last month and say they have recovered voted for Pelosi from the House floor: Wisconsin Representative Gwen Moore and Washington state Representative Rick Larsen.
In a positive sign for Pelosi, newly elected progressive Representative Jamaal Bowman voted for her. “Our country needs stability right now, and it's really important for the Democratic Party to come together," Bowman told a reporter.
Pelosi won plaudits from many Democrats for two years of leading their opposition to President Donald Trump, largely keeping her party's moderates and progressives united on their joint goal of defeating him and raising mountains of campaign funds.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California speaks to the media on Dec 30, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
No Democrat has stepped forward to challenge her, underscoring the perception that she would be all but impossible to topple.
But Pelosi is 80 years old, and ambitious younger members continue chafing at the longtime hold she and other older top leaders have had on their jobs.
Democrats were also angry and divided after an Election Day that many expected would to mean added House seats for the party but instead saw a dozen incumbents lose, without defeating a single GOP representative.
Pelosi recently suggested anew that these would be her final two years as Speaker, referencing a statement she made two years ago in which she said she would step aside after this period.
The Speaker's election was coming 17 days before Biden is inaugurated. Yet rather than a fresh start for him and Pelosi, there were issues and undercurrents that will be carrying over from Trump's tempestuous administration.
Though Congress enacted - and Trump finally signed - a US$900 billion COVID-19 relief package late last month, Biden and many Democrats say they consider that measure a down payment.
They say more aid is needed to bolster efforts to vaccinate the public, curb the virus and restore jobs and businesses lost to the pandemic.
Many Democrats, with the unlikely support of Trump, wanted to boost that bill's US$600 per person direct payments to US$2,000 but were blocked by Republicans. Democrats want additional money to help state and local governments struggling to maintain services and avoid layoffs.
Biden's priorities also include efforts on health care and the environment.
Guiding such legislation through the House will be a challenge for Pelosi because her party's narrow majority means just a handful of defectors could be fatal.
In addition, cooperation with Republicans could be made more difficult as many in the GOP are continuing to demonstrate fealty to the divisive Trump, backing his unfounded claims that his reelection loss was tainted by fraud.
Congress will meet Wednesday to officially affirm Biden's clear Electoral College victory over Trump. Many House and Senate Republicans say they will contest the validity of some of those votes, but their efforts that are certain to fail.
There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country, as well as Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed.
Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states.
Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.
Meanwhile, it's not clear which party will control the Senate, which Republicans will hold unless Democrats win both Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Tuesday.
In the House, one race in New York is still being decided and there is a vacancy in Louisiana after GOP Representative-elect Luke Letlow, 41, died after contracting COVID-19.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's top election official to "find" enough votes to overturn his defeat in the southern state, according to a recording of the hour-long call released by US media on Sunday (Jan 3).
The Saturday call was the latest move in Trump's two-month effort insisting that his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov 3 election was the result of widespread voter fraud, a claim that has been widely rejected by state and federal election officials as well as multiple courts.
Trump's call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, came as some of Trump's allies in the US Congress said they plan to object to the formal certification on Wednesday of Biden's victory. The former vice president won by a margin of 306-232 in the state-by-state Electoral College, and by more than 7 million votes overall.
The Washington Post, which first reported the call, said that Trump alternately flattered, begged and threatened Raffensperger with vague criminal consequences in an attempt to undo his loss.
Raffensperger and his office's general counsel rejected Trump's assertions throughout, and told the president that he was relying on debunked conspiracy theories spread on social media about what was a fair and accurate election, according to the audio excerpts and the newspaper's account.
"The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry," Trump said, according to audio of the call published online by the Post. "And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated."
"So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state," Trump said in the recording, insisting that there was "no way" he lost in Georgia.
The White House declined to comment. Raffensperger's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to Biden, said the recording captures "the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump's assault on American democracy."
"We now have irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place," Bauer said.
Biden's narrow victory in Georgia was the first by a Democratic presidential candidate in a generation and has raised hopes among Democrats that they could win a pair of U.S. Senate runoffs in the state on Tuesday, giving their party control of Congress.
Even if Trump had won Georgia's 16 Electoral College votes, he would still have lost the White House to Biden, who will be sworn into office on Jan 20.
Before the Washington Post published its report of the call, Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that he had spoken by phone with Raffensperger about voter fraud in Georgia.
"He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters', dead voters, and more. He has no clue!" Trump tweeted.
Raffensperger responded on Twitter: "Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out."
'POTENTIALLY CRIMINAL'
News of Saturday's call drew immediate criticism from congressional Democrats, including Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, who said it could amount to an illegal act.
"Trump's contempt for democracy is laid bare. Once again. On tape," Schiff wrote on Twitter. "Pressuring an election official to 'find' the votes so he can win is potentially criminal, And another flagrant abuse of power by a corrupt man who would be a despot, if we allowed him. We will not."
There is a strong case that Trump violated a Georgia law against soliciting election fraud, as well as a similar federal law, according to Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University.
"If any other person did this – someone else with power to leverage over an election official – there is no doubt in my mind that at the very least a criminal investigation would be opened right away," said Kreis, adding that he thought that was unlikely under Georgia prosecutors or the Biden administration.
"There just does not seem to be the political will for that," he said.
The call came days before US Senator Ted Cruz is set to lead several of Trump's allies in a long-shot bid to disrupt the formal recognition of Biden's win when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress on Jan 6.
Cruz has said he and nearly a dozen Republican senators will object to electors from states that have been at the center of Trump's unproven assertions of election fraud, and will demand an emergency 10-day audit of the results from those states.
The move, seen as a mostly symbolic protest, is in defiance of Senate Republican leaders, who have argued that Congress' upper chamber has a largely ceremonial role in certifying the results of presidential elections.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump supporter, said in a statement on Sunday that Cruz' insistence on a vote audit commission had "zero chance" of success.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer posted a link to the Washington Post story on Twitter and added that if Cruz and "his gang" wanted to investigate election fraud, they should start with Trump's call with Raffensperger.
