Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
By JORDYN PHELPS and BENJAMIN SIEGEL, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) While President Donald Trump has refused to acknowledge that he lost the election, he’s handling the lame-duck period as his predecessors did in one respect: awarding plum appointments to key allies, donors and friends on his way out of the White House.
Since the election, the White House has announced more than 100 appointments and nominations – some to key administration posts, but also to various advisory boards and commissions, in a practice also done by the Bush and Obama White Houses.
He’s named former White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors despite having no obvious connection to the school or the military, along with Heidi Stirrup, an administration official recently barred from the Justice Department over claims she pressured officials for information related to election fraud.
By JORDYN PHELPS and BENJAMIN SIEGEL, ABC News (WASHINGTON) — While President Donald Trump has refused to acknowledge that he lost the election, he’s handling the lame-duck period as his predecessors did in one respect: awarding plum appointments to key allies, donors and friends on his way out of the White House. Since the election, [.]
The Senate Friday passed two important pieces of legislation: A continuing resolution to extend federal government funding to Dec. 18 and the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). While President Donald Trump signed the funding bill to avert a shutdown, he has threatened to veto the NDAA; however, the NDAA passed both chambers by veto-proof majorities.
Government funding was set to expire at midnight Friday, but the continuing resolution was passed to give negotiators additional time to reach an agreement on a longer-term funding deal. Negotiations also continue on additional coronavirus relief provisions after a bipartisan package was recently introduced, some of which could be added to the larger funding package.
While President Donald Trump keeps claiming with no evidence that computers were programmed to switch votes and alter the outcome of the election, he has so far said nothing about a real hack launched by Russia’s foreign intelligence service that experts call one of the widest, most sophisticated, and potentially most damaging in years.
The attack penetrated at least five U.S. government agencies and 18,000 other users of the Orion network management system, manufactured by a privately traded company called SolarWinds. Those five agencies the departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Treasury, and the National Institutes of Health are the only ones so far identified as victims of the hack, though there may have been others. (Ironically, one mission of Homeland Security is to protect the nation from cyberattacks.)
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