| | | | Trump falsely claims voter fraud | | President-elect Donald Trump fired off a series of tweets Sunday, falsely alleging voter fraud kept him from winning the popular vote. Trump appears to be relying on fake news reports, but nobody from his transition team explained what he meant Sunday.
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," he tweeted.
Trump has offered no evidence to back his claim.
Meanwhile, the conventional wisdom on the recount effort launched by liberal activists and the Green Party is that it has almost no chance of changing the results of the election. And yet the man who is about to occupy the White House is clearly worked up over it. Here's my story. | | This came just hours after he blasted recount efforts in a series of tweets he sent just in time for political junkies rising for their Sunday morning talker fix.
| | So what gives with the recount? | | The recount, which Wisconsin election officials are expected to discuss Monday, has almost no chance of actually overturning the election results.
Former Clinton campaign staff are still directing questions about where they stand to a Medium.com post written by their former campaign counsel, Marc Elias, saying they have no evidence of a voter hack in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Michigan. But they're implicitly supporting the idea by pointing to Elias' message that they need to be a part of the recount, even if they don't lead the charge.
Trump meanwhile spent the weekend calling the fundraising effort by Green Party nominee Jill Stein to pay for the recount (it was up to more than $6 million by Sunday afternoon) "ridiculous" and a "scam." Stein, for her part, told CNN that the all money raised will be dedicated to paying for recounts in Wisconsin and anywhere else they can win a recount.
Meanwhile, the clock is racing. Fast. The federal deadline to complete any recount is December 13. | | "I'm all for party unity, but I'm not sure we have to pay for that with the secretary of state position," | | | Trump-world lights up Romney | | The in-fighting between Donald Trump loyalists and leaders of the Republican establishment spiraled into a full-on feast over the extended holiday weekend.
Kellyanne Conway dished on Sunday morning to Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union, saying that loyalists felt "betrayed" that he would consider someone who so viciously attacked him. This continued a marker she laid down Thanksgiving morning when she tweeted that she was receiving a "deluge" of opposition to Romney from across the nation.
Add that to the criticisms from other loyalists, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and the #NeverRomney conflagration dominated the holiday.
Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus -- soon-to-be Trump's White House chief of staff -- sought to tamp down concerns Sunday.
With top Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani and Romney clearly bruised publicly amid all the fighting, it led to talk of Trump possibly seeking a third alternative, such as former Gen. David Petraeus. Petraeus told the BBC last week he would gladly serve if called on. | | Bernie Sanders said Sunday that the Democratic Party needs Rep. Keith Ellison to reinvigorate the party base -- a clear shot at the Democratic establishment forces which fought him throughout the primaries. That doesn't mean that the Obama White House isn't working behind the scenes to find an alternative ...
Longtime House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi -- CNN's Manu Raju reports that Pelosi is looking to appease the many factions in her caucus as she looks to hold on for another
Wednesday, November 30 -- That's when we find out whether Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan's challenge to Pelosi mustered much support/whether her grip on the House Democratic caucus is in trouble. | | Back to a hard-line on Cuba? | | The Wall Street Journal reports that aging Cuban-Americans, who have been angry with the Obama administration's shift to detente with Cuba, see hope for a return to the hard-line strategies with Trump in the White House and Fidel Castro dead.
Trump's stance remains something of a question -- he blasted Castro Saturday and knocked Obama for being weak on Cuba throughout the campaign. But he also told CNN's Wolf Blitzer back in March that he'd like to build a hotel there, now that relations were normalizing.
Cuba hawks like Sen. Marco Rubio are reserving judgement. The Florida son of Cuban immigrants said Sunday that he would support any decision Trump makes that promotes democracy there.
Btw, guess who talked just yesterday about all of this? Frenemies Trump and Obama. They don't agree on much at all, but senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told NBC that Trump has been consulting 44 regularly since he won the election ...
| | They'll be out with "pitchforks and torches ..." | | Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sounded the alarm on some early flips Donald Trump appears to be making, saying that if he and Republican leaders in Congress don't follow through on their biggest promises -- like, say, repealing Obamacare -- there could be hell to pay.
"If we're given the White House and both houses of Congress and we don't deliver, I think there will be pitchforks and torches in the streets," Cruz said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Trump appeared to be the clear target of Cruz's comment, although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- who Cruz once accused of being a liar -- is also clearly in his sights. Just one day after the election, McConnell cautioned his colleagues against overreaching ... | | | Watch for more of this: The New York Times unravels Trump's sprawling global business interests to expose the many conflicts of interest he faces upon taking the White House . ... Didn't want it anyway: The Associated Press reports that Jerry Falwell Jr. turned down an offer to be education secretary after Trump asked for a 4-6 year commitment. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out CNNMoney's Reliable Sources, an insider's look into the media brought to you by Brian Stelter. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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