Breaking: GSA begins formal transition process to Joe Biden; Trump responds immediately



The General Services Administration said they would formally begin the transition of power to former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump immediately responded from his Twitter account.

GSA administrator Emily Murphy released a letter on Monday evening to Biden announcing the agency's intention to begin the transitioning process.

Trump tweeted about the letter just minutes after the letter was released.

"I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA," he tweeted.

"Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail!" he added in a second tweet. "Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same."

Murphy, a Trump appointee, said in her letter that she had carefully considered her duty in making the decision to begin the transition process, and she denied that any official had tried to influence her decision.

"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts," Murphy said in the letter. "I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official — including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination."

Murphy went on to claim that she had received threats by many demanding that she make the transition process prematurely.

"I did, however, receive threats online, by phone, and by mail directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely. Even in the face of thousands of threats, I always remained committed to upholding the law," she added.

Murphy's letter was released just after Michigan certified the results that indicated Biden had won the state and its electoral votes.

Here's more about the letter from the GSA:

Trump authorizes the GSA to start official Biden transitionwww.youtube.com

President Trump warns of 'violence in the streets' after losing court rulings on mail-in votes in Texas and Nevada

President Trump warns of 'violence in the streets' after losing court rulings on mail-in votes in Texas and Nevada



President Donald Trump warned on Monday that a court ruling against his administration would result in "violence in the streets" over mail-in balloting.

"The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one," tweeted the president.

"It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!" he added.

Trump was referring to a ruling in October by the court allowing mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, even if they are delivered as late as Friday.

The president blasted the mail-in balloting rules in a speech Monday to his supporters in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

"When the Supreme Court gave you an extension they made a very dangerous situation, and I mean dangerous, physically dangerous, and they made it a very, very bad," Trump said.

"They did a very bad thing for this state," he added. "They did a very bad thing for this nation. You have to have a date. You can't extend dates."

Rulings in Texas and Nevada

The president also might have on his mind two other similar rulings in Nevada and Texas on Monday.

A federal judge ruled against the petition from Hamilton County Republicans to toss out more than 127,000 ballots in Harris County, where the heavily Democratic city of Houston is located. Party officials argued that ballots had been collected through an illegal expansion of curbside voting. A judge disagreed and ruled the votes should be counted.

A judge in Nevada made a similar ruling against the Trump administration and the Nevada Republican Party who argued that counting of mail-in ballots should be halted to avoid fraud.

"There is no evidence of any debasement or dilution of any citizen's vote," said Nevada Circuit Court Judge James Wilson.

Hours after the ruling in Texas, Republicans filed an appeal at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Here's more about the Texas ruling:

Twitter will slap a warning label on tweets claiming election results before they're officially declared



Social media giant Twitter previewed on Monday a warning label that it would place on tweets that announce the results of the election before official sources declare the results.

The policy is meant to undermine the spread of misinformation about election results at a time when President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are warning their supporters about false election results.

"We may label Tweets, starting on election night, that make claims about election results before they're officially called. We'll be prioritizing the presidential election and other highly contested races where there may be significant issues with misleading information," read a statement from Twitter.

The warning labels may also fuel criticism from many that say the company is using its popular social media platform to influence the election.

Here's the preview that Twitter posted about the labels:

Image Source: Twitter screenshot

The statement went to say that accounts of any 2020 election candidate were eligible for the warning label, including President Trump's account.

Other accounts eligible for the warning label are those in the U.S. that have more than 100,000 followers, or tweets that have "significant engagement," which they define as having more than 25K likes or 25K quote tweets and retweets.

Twitter laid out the official sources of election results upon which they would rely to employ labeling. These include state election official results, and news outlets like Fox News, ABC News, the Associated Press, CNN News and NBC News.

When someone attempts to spread a tweet that has been labeled, Twitter said that would "see a prompt pointing them to credible information before they are able to amplify it further on Twitter."

Twitter also said that it would be monitoring for threatening tweets.

"If we see content inciting interference with the election, encouraging violent action or other physical harms, we may take additional measures, such as adding a warning or requiring the removal of Tweets," the statement concluded.

Twitter first labeled one of the president's tweets with a warning label in May when he tweeted that mail-in voting was "anything less than substantially fraudulent." The campaign fired off an angry response accusing Twitter of trying to interfere with the president's messaging.

"We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting this message through to voters. Partnering with the fake news media 'fact checkers' is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility," said Brad Parscale, who was the campaign manager for Trump 2020 at the time.

Here's more about Twitter warning labels:

Twitter To Provide Misinformation Warnings Ahead Of Electionwww.youtube.com

Trump declares he is 'immune' to COVID-19, Twitter flags and limits sharing of president's tweet



Twitter has once again flagged one of President Donald Trump's tweets. The tech giant's latest censoring of the president's account involves a post where Trump declared that he is "immune" to COVID-19.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted: "A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can't get it (immune), and can't give it. Very nice to know!"

Twitter flagged the president's tweet, claiming that it violated the company's rules "about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19." The post was not deleted after the social media platform deemed that while the communication broke Twitter's rules, the tweet may be in the public's interest to remain accessible.

A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t giv… https://t.co/oHtl2plfXY
— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1602430763.0

The president's tweet was accessible; however, Twitter limited how users could interact with the social media post. Attempts to reply to the president's immunity tweet result in a pop-up window that says Twitter "disabled most of the ways" a user can engage with the post as a way to stop the tweet from "reaching more people."

Twitter also disabled users from retweeting Trump's tweet or giving it a "Like." The only engagement of the president's tweet that is permitted is to "quote tweet" the post.

On August 3, CDC said people could continue to test positive for up to three months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others. Then the CDC issued another press release on Aug. 14 that provided clarification. "Contrary to media reporting today, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection," the CDC stated.

On Friday, Trump gave an interview to Dr. Marc Siegel, a medical contributor to Fox News, where the president said that he was at "the bottom of the scale or free" of coronavirus.

On Saturday, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley issued a memo and declared that Trump meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for "safe discontinuation of isolation," and by current "recognized standards" he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others.

On Sunday during an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump said, "It seems like I'm immune, so I can go way out of a basement, which I would have done anyway."

Trump resumed his campaign events on Saturday with a White House South Lawn event that was coordinated with Candace Owens' Blexit organization, which encourages minorities to not blindly and automatically vote for Democrats. Trump is scheduled to appear at a reelection rally on Monday in Sanford, Florida.

This isn't the first time that Twitter has censored Trump's account.

In May, Twitter flagged a Trump tweet for "glorifying violence." The post read: "...These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let it happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

In June, Twitter blocked a Trump tweet that said: "There will never be an 'Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!" Twitter's explanation for censoring the president is that the post violated the company's policy against abusive behavior, "specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group."

Also in June, Twitter removed a meme that the president posted because The New York Times filed a copyright complaint.

In July, Twitter removed one of Trump tweets over copyright complaints by the alternative rock band Linkin Park.

During a hearing on anti-Semitism in July, a Twitter representative defended the social media company's decision to flag tweets from Trump, while at the same time allowing tweets from Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that call for genocide.

Trump Uses the Media's OWN Headlines Against Them After They Whine About His Mail-In Voting Tweet

Trump Uses the Media's OWN Headlines Against Them After They Whine About His Mail-In Voting Tweet