After a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump, Mitt Romney said he is looking forward to Trump's administration.

Romney met with Trump at a golf course in New Jersey on Saturday.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee was an outspoken critic of Trump during the election, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." But the two have started to make amends since the election. Romney called Trump to congratulate him after his win.

POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 19 November 2016

++CONTINUOUS SHOT++

1. US President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walking out and shaking hands after meeting

2. SOUNDBITE (Englishll) Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate:

"We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the various theatres in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on those topics. Very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had. And, I appreciate the chance to speak with the president-elect, and look forward to the coming administration and the things they are doing. Thank you."

3. Romney walking to car, car driving off

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus067254

After a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Mitt Romney said he is looking forward to Trump's administration.

Romney met with Trump at a golf course in New Jersey on Saturday.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee was an outspoken critic of Trump during the election, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." But the two have started to make amends since the election. Romney called Trump to congratulate him after his win.

POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 19 November 2016

++CONTINUOUS SHOT++

1. President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walking out and shaking hands after meeting

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate:

"We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the various theatres in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on those topics. Very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had. And, I appreciate the chance to speak with the President-elect, and look forward to the coming administration and the things they are doing. Thank you."

3. Romney walking to car, car driving off

After a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Mitt Romney said he is looking forward to Trump's administration.

Romney met with Trump at a golf course in New Jersey on Saturday.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee was an outspoken critic of Trump during the election, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." But the two have started to make amends since the election. Romney called Trump to congratulate him after his win.

POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 19 November 2016

++CONTINUOUS SHOT++

1. President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walking out and shaking hands after meeting

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate:

"We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the various theatres in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on those topics. Very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had. And, I appreciate the chance to speak with the President-elect, and look forward to the coming administration and the things they are doing. Thank you."

3. Romney walking to car, car driving off

In a gesture of reconciliation with establishment Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lambasted Trump as a "con man" and a "fraud" in a stinging speech in March.

Trump responded by repeatedly referring to Romney as a "loser."

The two began mending fences after Trump's victory when Romney called with congratulations.

They are to meet this weekend, a transition official says.

Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says they are still "working on" the meeting.

RNC communications director Sean Spicer wouldn't comment to the Fox News Channel on whether Trump was set to offer Romney a position in the administration now being formed.

But when asked what the pair was expected to discuss, the Republican strategist said only that "they're going to have a conversation."

US POOL

Salt Lake City - 3 March 2016

1. Pan, Mitt Romney walking on stage

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, Former Republican Presidential Nominee:

"Here's what I know, Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud, his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing members of the American public for suckers, he gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession, his foreign policies would make America and the world less safe, he has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president and his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill."

US POOL

Portland, Maine - 3 March 2016

3. Various of Trump at rally

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate

"I backed Mitt Romney. I backed him. You can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees'. He would have dropped to his knees. He was begging."

US POOL

Fountain Hills, Arizona - 19 March 2016

5. Donald Trump walking to podium

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate:

"You have these stiffs like a (2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney - the guy is a total stiff. Did he let us down? This guy is a loser. Did he let us down? I mean, here's a guy, goes up, he's so devastated, he forgot to campaign in the final month, he gave it to Obama, believe me, that election. I'm going to beat Hillary so badly, but let me just tell you, beating Obama four years ago was easier than beating Hillary Clinton now, believe me, and Mitt Romney choked, pure and simple, he choked, he choked like a dog and that's not going to happen."

AP TELEVISION

St. Augustine, Florida - 13 August 2012

7. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney at campaign event in Florida

8. Cutaway of crowd

9. Romney waving to crowd

AP TELEVISION

Wisconsin - 12 August 2012

10. Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan in front of campaign bus

11. Mitt Romney's campaign bus driving down street in Wisconsin

In a gesture of reconciliation with establishment Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lambasted Trump as a "con man" and a "fraud" in a stinging speech in March.

Trump responded by repeatedly referring to Romney as a "loser."

The two began mending fences after Trump's victory when Romney called with congratulations.

They are to meet this weekend, a transition official says.

Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says they are still "working on" the meeting.

RNC communications director Sean Spicer wouldn't comment to the Fox News Channel on whether Trump was set to offer Romney a position in the administration now being formed.

But when asked what the pair was expected to discuss, the Republican strategist said only that "they're going to have a conversation."

US POOL

Salt Lake City - 3 March 2016

1. Pan, Mitt Romney walking on stage

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, Former Republican Presidential Nominee:

"Here's what I know, Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud, his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing members of the American public for suckers, he gets a free ride for to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession, his foreign policies would make America and the world less safe, he has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill. I'm convinced America has greatness ahead and this is a time for choosing, God bless us to choose a nominee who will make that vision a reality."

US POOL

Portland, Maine - 3 March 2016

3. Various of Trump at rally

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate

"I backed Mitt Romney. I backed him. You can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees.' He would have dropped to his knees. He was begging."

US POOL

Fountain Hills, Arizona - 19 March 2016

5. Donald Trump walking to podium

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate:

"You have these stiffs like a (2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney - the guy is a total stiff. Did he let us down? This guy is a loser. Did he let us down? I mean, here's a guy, goes up, he's so devastated, he forgot to campaign in the final month, he gave it to Obama, believe me, that election. I'm going to beat Hillary so badly, but let me just tell you, beating Obama four years ago was easier than beating Hillary Clinton now, believe me, and Mitt Romney choked, pure and simple, he choked like a dog and that's not going to happen."

AP TELEVISION

St. Augustine, Florida - 13 August 2012

7. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney at campaign event in Florida

8. Cutaway of crowd

9. Romney waving to crowd

AP TELEVISION

Wisconsin - 12 August 2012

10. Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan in front of campaign bus

11. Mitt Romney's campaign bus driving down street in Wisconsin

US President Donald Trump says his Republican party needs to "get tougher and fight" against the Democrat led impeachment inquiry.

Trump made the comments during a White House Cabinet meeting in which he again called the investigation "phony" and said "Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party" in the upcoming 2020 Election.

A growing number of Republicans have been critical of Trump following his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, followed by the announcement that the administration would host next summer's G-7 meeting at Trump's Doral private golf club outside Miami.  Trump has since reversed the Doral decision, saying he will host the meetings somewhere else.

Trump said though he believes Democrats "fight dirty" and are "lousy politicians," they have two things he admires: "they're vicious and they stick together."

He then called out Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney for his frequent criticisms of Trump and for "breaking off" from the party.  

"They don't have people like that," Trump said referring to the Democrats. "They stick together."

The president told reporters Democrats want to impeach him "and they want to do it as quick as possible" because he says they're afraid Trump is going to win the election.

Washington, DC - 21 October 2019

1. Wide shot of US President Donald Trump talking in Cabinet room

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"So there's a phony investigation. I watched a couple of people on television today talking about it. They were talking about what a phony deal it is, what a phony investigation it is. And the Republicans have to get tougher and fight. We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election, which is coming up."

3. Cutaway of Cabinet members

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"(Reporter question: You said the Republicans need to get tougher and fight. What are you talking about?)

Well I think the Democrats fight dirty. I think the Democrats are lousy politicians with lousy policy. They want open borders. They don't care about crime. They want sanctuary cities. They don't care about drugs, they don't care about almost anything. They don't care about USMCA, how about that? I think they're lousy politicians. But two things they have: they're vicious and they stick together. They don't have Mitt Romney in their midst. They don't have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off. You never see somebody go out and.."

5. Mid shot of Trump speaking

6 . SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"This whole thing is very bad for our country. In the midst of that, I'm trying to get out of wars. We may have to get in wars, too, OK? We may have to get in wars. We're better prepared than we've ever been. If Iran does something, they'll be hit like they've never been hit before. I mean, we have things that we're looking at. But can you imagine? I have to fight off these these low-lifes at the same time, I'm negotiating these very important things, that should have been done during Obama and Bush and even before that. All right. So that's where we are right now."

7. Cutaway of Cabinet members

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"(On impeachment) Well I think they want to. Any Democrat wants to because they're not going to beat me in the election. So of course, they want to impeach. Why wouldn't they want to impeach me? It's so, it's so illegitimate. It cannot be the way the founders, our great founders, meant this to be. But I see this guy, Congressman Al Green, say we have to impeach him, otherwise, he's going to win the election. What's that all about? But that's exactly what they're saying. We have to impeach him because otherwise he's going to win. I'm going to win the election."

9. Wide shot of Trump in Cabinet Room

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"You know you had a Never-Trumper-Bush, you have heard of those. Those people might be worse than the Democrats, the Never-Trumpers. The good news is they're dying off fast. They're on artificial respiration, I think. But, no impeachment, uh, they want to impeach and they want to do it as quick as possible. And that's pretty much the story, ok?"

11. Wide shot of press and Cabinet members

President Donald Trump says his Republican party needs to "get tougher and fight" against the Democrat led impeachment inquiry.

Trump made the comments during a White House Cabinet meeting in which he again called the investigation "phony" and said "Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party" in the upcoming 2020 Election.

A growing number of Republicans have been critical of Trump following his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, followed by the announcement that the administration would host next summer's G-7 meeting at Trump's Doral private golf club outside Miami.  Trump has since reversed the Doral decision, saying he will host the meetings somewhere else.

Trump said though he believes Democrats "fight dirty" and are "lousy politicians," they have two things he admires: "they're vicious and they stick together."

He then called out Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney for his frequent criticisms of Trump and for "breaking off" from the party.  

"They don't have people like that," Trump said referring to the Democrats. "They stick together."

The president told reporters Democrats want to impeach him "and they want to do it as quick as possible" because he says they're afraid Trump is going to win the election.

Washington, DC - 21 October 2019

1. Wide shot of Trump talking in Cabinet room

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"So there's a phony investigation. I watched a couple of people on television today talking about it. They were talking about what a phony deal it is, what a phony investigation it is. And the Republicans have to get tougher and fight. We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election, which is coming up."

3. Cutaway of Cabinet members

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"(Reporter question: You said the Republicans need to get tougher and fight. What are you talking about?)

Well I think the Democrats fight dirty. I think the Democrats are lousy politicians with lousy policy. They want open borders. They don't care about crime. They want sanctuary cities. They don't care about drugs, they don't care about almost anything. They don't care about USMCA, how about that? I think they're lousy politicians. But two things they have: they're vicious and they stick together. They don't have Mitt Romney in their midst. They don't have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off. You never see somebody go out and.."

5. Mid shot of Trump speaking

6 . SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"This whole thing is very bad for our country. In the midst of that, I'm trying to get out of wars. We may have to get in wars, too, OK? We may have to get in wars. We're better prepared than we've ever been. If Iran does something, they'll be hit like they've never been hit before. I mean, we have things that we're looking at. But can you imagine? I have to fight off these these low-lifes at the same time, I'm negotiating these very important things, that should have been done during Obama and Bush and even before that. All right. So that's where we are right now."

7. Cutaway of Cabinet members

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"(On impeachment) Well I think they want to. Any Democrat wants to because they're not going to beat me in the election. So of course, they want to impeach. Why wouldn't they want to impeach me? It's so, it's so illegitimate. It cannot be the way the founders, our great founders, meant this to be. But I see this guy, Congressman Al Green, say we have to impeach him, otherwise, he's going to win the election. What's that all about? But that's exactly what they're saying. We have to impeach him because otherwise he's going to win. I'm going to win the election."

9. Wide shot of Trump in Cabinet Room

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

"You know you had a Never-Trumper-Bush, you have heard of those. Those people might be worse than the Democrats, the Never-Trumpers. The good news is they're dying off fast. They're on artificial respiration, I think. But, no impeachment, uh, they want to impeach and they want to do it as quick as possible. And that's pretty much the story, ok?"

11. Wide shot of press and Cabinet members

"On October 1st 2016 Donald Trump again questioned the integrity of the nation's voting system.

The US Republican presidential nominee warned his supporters to keep a close eye on polling places after they vote next month - especially in ""certain areas.""

Trump made the comments on during a rally in Manheim, Pennsylvania.

He said, ""We can't lose an election because of, you know what I'm talking about,"" before adding: ""A lot of bad things happen. I don't want to lose for that reason.""

Trump has repeatedly suggested that only election fraud could stop him from becoming president.

There has never been evidence of widespread voting fraud in the United States.

***

The Republican presidential candidate said that in private business, he ""brilliantly used those laws"" to ""pay as little tax as legally possible"" during turbulent economic times.

But added that he now intends to use his tax law expertise to ""fix"" the complexity of those laws.

He spoke in the wake of a New York Times report that said he reported losing more than 900 million US dollars, which legally could have helped him avoid paying taxes for nearly two decades.

He did not say the article was correct, and did not dispute it.

***

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump blurted out lewd and sexually charged comments about women as he waited to make a cameo appearance on a soap opera in 2005.

The Republican presidential nominee issued a rare apology on Friday.

Trump bragged about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women on audio and video recordings obtained by The Washington Post and NBC News.

In a conversation with Billy Bush, then a host of the television show ""Access Hollywood, the celebrity businessman boasted: ""When you're a star, they let you do it.""

The remarks were caught by a live microphone that Trump didn't appear to know was recording their conversation.

In a statement released by his campaign, Trump said: ""This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologise if anyone was offended.""

***

About half a dozen people gathered at a downtown square and displayed the pinata, which was holding a banner reading ""Let's build bridges, not walls. Let's stop Donald Trump.""

The group of protesters, smaller than the number of reporters covering the event, later hung the pinata and hit it several times with a stick before burning it.

In Mexico, pinatas represent evil and to overcome it, one must break the pinata, which rewards you with candy stuffed inside at the end.

***

About 200 women, dressed in black, sat on the sidewalk outside Trump Tower during a protest in New York City on October 18th.

Organisers say the sit-in, which emphasised the concerns of women and immigrants, was one of many protests being held nationwide against Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The demonstration lasted about a half-hour.

Police stood by but did not intervene.

Trump both owns and lives in Trump Tower - and also coordinates his presidential campaign from there.

He was scheduled for appearances in Colorado on October 18th.

***

US presidential hopeful Donald Trump on October 20th mocked his much-derided comment at the presidential debate that he might not accept the results of the election.

Trump kicked off a rally in Delaware, Ohio, by saying that he ""would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supports and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election.""

But he added: ""If I win.""

Trump is continuing to raise concerns about the integrity of the election, despite a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud in the country.

***

Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has rebuked Donald Trump for refusing to say he'll respect the outcome of the upcoming election, saying that her Republican rival is now attacking ""democracy itself.""

Speaking in Florida on October 25th, Clinton said she has ""serious doubts"" about whether Trump understands the meaning of the president's oath of office to ""preserve, protect and defend the constitution.""

The former Secretary of State said that Trump is ""attacking everything that has set our country apart for 240 years.""

She pointed to his refusal at the final presidential debate to commit to conceding the race if he loses.

During the rally, the crowd broke into a spontaneous singing of ""Happy Birthday"" ahead of Clinton's 69th birthday on October 26th.

***

President Barack Obama is unloading on Donald Trump in battleground North Carolina and is suggesting to voters there that ""the republic is at risk"" if the GOP nominee makes it to the White House.

Obama told the Chapel Hill crowd Hillary Clinton is a ""steady ... tough"" and well-prepared for the job. He said Trump doesn't have the character for the job.

The president said Trump has many supporters who see him as ""their voice."" But he argued that Trump has never cared about working people. Obama also cited Trump's litany of boorish comments about women, his mockery of Republican Sen. John McCain's status as a war hero and his spat with the family of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq.

***

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton arrived at a Chappaqua, New York polling station to cast her ballot on November 8th.

Clinton arrived with her husband, former US President Bill Clinton to the polling station where voters snapped photos and cheered as Clinton cast her paper ballot.

***

President Barack Obama has met with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on November 10th.

Obama said that they had an ""excellent"" and ""wide-ranging"" conversation.

Obama met with Trump in the Oval Office for more than an hour to discuss the transition of power.

Obama said he was encouraged by Trump's wanting to work with his team on issues facing the country. He said it's important for all ""to now come together.""

Later, Trump will go to Capitol Hill to talk with congressional leaders about the Republicans' legislative agenda for 2017.

***

Stephen Bannon, a leading force of the far-right, a media mogul and professional provocateur, a man who made a career out of roiling the establishment from the outside, just landed squarely on the inside.

Donald Trump's pick for chief strategist and senior counselor signals the president-elect has no intention of abandoning his brash, outsider instincts as he puts together his new government.

Trump didn't give Bannon the top White House job - that went to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

Still, Trump made clear on Sunday that a man many credit with righting the businessman's campaign - and one others accuse of amplifying a bigoted fringe - would have a plum position in the West Wing.

Bannon joined Trump's election team as chief executive late in the campaign, following the departure of Trump's second campaign team in August.

He quickly became a member of Trump's inner circle, frequently traveling with the candidate and working to re-shape his message to emphasize Trump's populist and outsider appeal.

Bannon came from Breitbart News, an unabashedly pro-Trump outlet that had declared war on GOP leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, with whom Trump will have to work to pass his agenda if Ryan retains his role.

***

President-elect Donald Trump is offering the post of attorney general to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of the Trump's closest and most consistent allies.

That's according to a senior Trump official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the conversation.

The official on November 18th wouldn't say whether Sessions had accepted the job, which left open the possibility that the arrangement was not finalised.

Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump and was a close adviser throughout the campaign.

Trump released a statement November 17th after a meeting with the senator saying he was ""unbelievably impressed"" with Sessions.

The Alabama Republican previously struggled with a Senate confirmation hearing when he was nominated for a federal judgeship in 1986. He was dogged by racist comments he was accused of making while serving as U.S. attorney in Alabama.

He later withdrew from consideration for the post.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Mike Pompeo - a Kansas congressman - to be CIA director.

That's according to a Trump transition official.

Pompeo is a conservative Republican and a fierce critic of President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump is beginning to fill out his governing team, and the transition official says Trump will make the Pompeo announcement on Friday morning, along with his nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general and his selection of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to be national security adviser.

The official wasn't authorised to disclose the decisions ahead of Trump's announcement and insisted on anonymity.

***

President-elect Donald Trump agreed November 18th to pay 25 million US dollars to settle lawsuits against his now-defunct Trump University for real estate investors, averting a trial in a potentially embarrassing case that he had vowed during the campaign to keep fighting.

The settlement came 10 days before jury selection was scheduled to begin in one of the three cases.

The complaints accused Trump University, which wasn't an accredited school, of defrauding students who paid up to 35,000 US dollars a year to enroll in programs that promised to share Trump's real estate secrets.

If the proposed settlement is approved by a federal judge, about 6,000 students covered in two-class action lawsuits in San Diego would share 21 million US dollars, and Trump will pay 4 million US dollars to settle a complaint filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in 2013.

Under the terms, Trump admitted no wrongdoing.

The settlement lifts what would probably be a major obstacle for Trump as he works to fill key executive branch positions and get acquainted with foreign leaders.

The San Diego trial, on a case filed in 2010, was expected to last several weeks, guaranteeing daily news coverage of a controversy that dogged him during the campaign.

***

President-elect Donald Trump is holding another round of meetings at his New Jersey golf club with people who could fill out his cabinet.

The meetings come as Trump told reporters outside the clubhouse on November 20th that he was getting very close on new appointments.

Among those who met with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Sunday were Hollywood talent agent Ari Emmanuel.

His brother, Rahm Emanuel, was President Barack Obama's chief of staff and now the mayor of Chicago.

No details were given on what their meeting was about.

Peter Kirsanow, who is an attorney and member of the US Civil Rights Commission, also met with Trump and Pence.

Kirsanow also served on the National Labor Relations Board during the George W. Bush administration.

Also on Sunday former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani arrived through a side door at the clubhouse.

When reporters asked Trump what he planned on discussing with Giuliani, Trump smiled and replied, ""Wouldn't you like to know.""

Trump also met with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as the president-elect searches for a secretary of commerce.

Asked Sunday if he's considering Ross for the post, the president-elect replied: ""That's what we're looking for.""

When asked by reporters what he thought comments made by the cast of ""Hamilton,"" Trump said they were ""very inappropriate.""

He's demanded an apology for a message an actor delivered from the stage to Trump's running mate about the need for diversity in America.

Pence who attended the Broadway play said he was not offended by the message.

***

US President Barack Obama said December 16th based on intelligence assessments, Russia was responsible for hacking into the Democratic National Committee email server, interferring in the presidential election with the goal of supporting Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Speaking at his end of year news conference, Obama defended his administration's handling of the situation and said it is very important for everyone to ""distinguish between the politics of the election"" and the intergrity of the process.

***

US President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services in retaliation for Russia's hacking of American political sites and email accounts ahead of the November US presidential election.

The State Department also has kicked out 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco, giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the US the diplomats were declared persona non grata for acting in a ""manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status.""

Obama said Russians will no longer have access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the United States, in Maryland and in New York.

In a bid to expose Moscow's cyber aggression, the US released a detailed report about Russia's hacking infrastructure that it said was designed to help computer specialists identify compromised systems and prevent more hacking.

Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusation that the Russian government was trying to influence the US presidential election.

US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia's goal was to help Donald Trump win - an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.

04:52:11

"

"00:00:00

Trump Questions Integrity of Voting System

4058333

POOL

Manheim, Pennsylvania - 1 October 2016

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, US Republican presidential candidate:

""And you've got to watch your polling booths, because I hear too many stories about Pennsylvania - certain areas. I hear too many bad stories, and we can't lose an election because of you know what I'm talking about. So go and vote and then go check out areas, because a lot of bad things happen, and we don't want to lose for that reason. We don't want to lose, but we especially...we don't want to lose for that reason. So go over and watch - and watch carefully.""

00:15:03

Trump: I have used tax laws ""brilliantly""

4058634

POOL

Pueblo - 3 October 2016

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, US presidential nominee:

""Honestly I have brilliantly, I have brilliantly used those laws. I have often said on the campaign trail that I have a fiduciary responsibility to pay no more tax than as legally required like anybody.""

00:30:07

Audio of Trump's remarks about women

4059483

AP TELEVISION

New York - 7 October 2016

3. Screen shot of tweet from Hillary Clinton: ""This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president.""

4. Screen shot of Donald Trump statement from campaign website: ""This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologise if anyone was offended.""

00:38:22

Protesters burn Donald Trump pinata in Mexico

4060282

AP TELEVISION

Mexico City - 12 October 2016

5. Various of pinata resembling US presidential candidate Donald Trump holding a banner reading (in Spanish) ""Let's build bridges, not walls. Let's stop Donald Trump.""

6. Protester hitting pinata with a stick while others chant (Spanish) ""Hard!""

7. Another protester hitting pinata with stick while shouting

8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria del Carmen Cruz, protester:

""I feel relief. I feel satisfaction of having hit him, even if it was his pinata. He deserves more, he deserves to go to hell.""

9. Smoke billowing from pinata

01:05:14

Anti-Trump Women Protest Outside Trump Tower

4061220

AP TELEVISION

New York - 18 Ocotober 2016

++EDITOR'S NOTE - MILD EXPLETIVES PRESENT ON BANNERS IN THE BACKGROUND OF SHOTS++

10. Various of demonstrators chanting outside Trump Tower, owned by Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Noushin Ahdoot, student demonstrator:

""Donald Trump has legitimised ignorance,.""

12. Demonstrator holding sign reading (English) ""Keep your lawas off my body.""

01:20:03

Trump: Will honour election result - if he wins

4061641

POOL

Delaware - 20 October 2016

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, US Republican presidential candidate:

"" I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election... if I win.""

01:38:02

Clinton: Trump is Attacking Democracy Itself

4062463

US POOL

Coconut Creek, Florida - 25 October 2016

14. Hillary Clinton walking into rally

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Hillary Clinton, Democratic US presidential nominee:

""Donald Trump is attacking everything that has set our country apart for 240 years. Now, after spending his entire campaign attacking one group of Americans after another - immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, women, POWs, Muslims, people with disabilities - now his final target is democracy itself.""

02:08:01

Obama: Trump Would Put 'Republic at Risk'

4063891

POOL

Raleigh, North Carolina - November 2, 2016

16. President Barack Obama enters

17. SOUNDBITE (English) President Barack Obama

"" I ran against Mitt Romney -- I thought I'd be a better president, but I never thought that the republic was at risk if they were elected.""

18. SOUNDBITE (English) President Barack Obama

"" This guy is temperamentally-unfit to be commander in chief and is not equipped to be president

02:36:12

Hillary Clinton Casts Ballot on Election Day

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AP TELEVISION

Chappaqua - 8 November 2016

19. Various of Hillary Clinton voting

02:41:17

Obama meets Trump at the White House

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AP TELEVISION

Washington DC - 10 November 2016

20. US President-elect Donald Trump meeting with President Barack Obama

UPSOUND (English) Barack Obama, US President: ""Well I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with president-elect Trump. It was wide-ranging, we talked about some of the organisational issues in setting up the White House. We talked about foreign policy we talked about domestic policy

03:01:08

FILE Trump picks Bannon as chief strategist

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POOL

FILE: New York - 20 August 2016

21. Various of Donald Trump's campaign chief executive (at the time) Stephen Bannon who was named by President-elect Donald Trump his chief strategist and senior counselor

03:11:16

Trump Picks Sessions for AG; Pompeo for CIA

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AP TELEVISION, US POOL

AP TELEVISION

New York - 17 November 2016

22. Jeff Sessions and Kellyanne Conway at Trump Tower

US POOL

Madison, Alabama - 28 February 2016

23. Sessions and Trump at rally

AP TELEVISION

Washington - 28 June 2016

24. Rep. Mike Pompeo at news conference

03:30:05

Trump agrees to $25M Trump U settlement

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AP TELEVISION

San Diego - 18 November 2016

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Petrocelli, Trump's Lead Attorney:

""A very important part of our willingness to compromise this case was the acknowledgement that there was no fault or liability on the part of President-elect Trump or Trump University""

03:42:09

Trump, Pence meet with possible cabinet picks

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US POOL

Bedminster - 20 November 2016

US POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 20 November 2016

26. Trump and Pence greet Ross on doorstep UPSOUND (English) Reporter: ""Is Mr. Ross a candidate for Commerce Secretary, sir?"" Donald Trump, President-elect: ""Commerce Secretary. That's what we're looking for."" Reporter: ""Mr. Trump are you still upset about Hamilton?"" Trump: ""They were very inappropriate.""

03:59:02

Obama: Russia responsible for DNC hacking

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AP TELEVISION

Washington DC - 16 December 2016

27. Wide shot from behind Obama speaking at news conference

28. SOUNDBITE (English) Barack Obama, US President:

""There hasn't been a lot of squabbling. What we've simply said is the facts, which are that based on uniform intelligence assessments, the Russians were responsible for hacking the DNC

And my hope is that the president-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don't have potential foreign influence in our election process. I don't think any American wants that.

04:33:11

Obama retaliates after Russian election hacking

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Washington - 29 December 2016

29. Wide of Russian Embassy

30. Close up of Russian flag

31. Close up of Russian Embassy sign

04:44:08

35 Russian diplomats told to leave US

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AP TELEVISION

San Francisco - 29 December 2016

32. Wide exterior view of Russian consulate

33. Mid of plaque on consulate wall and military hat on fence"

Rushes of President Donald Trump’s rally in Valdosta, Georgia, ahead of the Georgia Senate runoff election. He was there to help campaign for Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. First Lady Melania Trump also spoke. The rushes are comprised of two camera rushes edited together and are almost four hours long total as a result.

Available in HD -

//ap.archive.sourceclips.prod.eu.s3.amazonaws.com/News%20Rushes/

Melania Trump: (01:30)

Hello, Georgia.

Audience: (01:31)

USA. USA. USA. USA.

Melania Trump: (02:55)

It is wonderful to be here with you tonight. Thank you for coming out and supporting us. President Trump continues to fight for you every single day. Do not let your voices be silenced. We must keep our seats in the Senate. It is more important than ever that your exercise your rights as an American citizen and vote. Under my husband’s leadership, our borders are safer global, terrorists have been destroyed, and historic peace deals in the Middle East have been made. Our nation is respected again and our allies are now doing their fair share globally. President Trump has brought jobs back to the American people. And opportunities for women have expanded in our workforce. Our economy has soared and unemployment has shrunk. When a global pandemic hit the United States last January, my husband put the American peoples first. And now under this administration and because of our amazing medical capabilities and resources, we are closer than ever to vaccinate that will save millions of lives. Let your voices be heard, Georgia.

Melania Trump: (04:54)

Get out and vote for Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue. Thank you. And God bless you and your families. It is now my pleasure to welcome the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Donald Trump: (05:35)

Thank you.

Audience: (05:35)

Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.

Donald Trump: (05:35)

Thank you. A very popular First Lady, I have to admit. Thank you very much and thank you, Melania. And I want to say, hello, Georgia. We did a great job. You know we won Georgia, just so you understand. And we won Florida and we won a lot of places.

Audience: (06:06)

We love you. We love you. We love you.

Donald Trump: (06:08)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Audience: (06:24)

We love you. We love you. We love you.

Donald Trump: (06:24)

Thank you.

Audience: (06:24)

We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you.

Donald Trump: (06:24)

Well, thank you very much. Thank you. No, we won a lot of places. We won Florida. We won Ohio. Big, big. We won them big. Remember we were going to lose Florida they said. We were five down in Florida. We won by a lot. We were way down in Ohio and we won by a lot. I think they say that if you win Florida and if you win Ohio in history, you’ve never lost an election. This has got to be a first time. But the truth is they were right, we’ve never lost that election. We’re winning this election. And I will say, we’re fighting very hard for this state. When you look at all of the corruption and all of the problems having to do with this election, all I can do is campaign and then I wait for the numbers. But when the numbers come out of ceilings and come out of leather bags, you start to say, “What’s going on?” But I want to just tell you that I love this state. I love the people in this state and I’m thrilled to be back in magnificent Georgia with thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots.

Donald Trump: (07:33)

Let me begin by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. Remember the word. Remember. We started five years ago, and I said you’re going to be saying Christmas again. And we say it proudly again, although there’ll be trying to take that word again out of the vocabulary. We’re not going to let them do that. I also want to express our profound condolences to the family of Harrison Deal, a young and brilliant campaign staffer for Senator Loeffler, who tragically died in a terrible car accident yesterday. You know about it. He was an incredible magnificent young man. And I just want to say our prayers are with his friends and loved ones and we will keep his memory in our hearts. And he’s looking down right now and he’s very proud of Kelly and David. He’s very proud of all of us. So I just want to express my best wishes to the family and everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. And let me also express our warmest best wishes and love to all of those people and families suffering from the COVID pandemic. Vaccines are on their way at a level that nobody ever thought possible. It would have taken another administration five years. It took us seven months and they’re starting next week and we’re going to start vaccinating. And a lot of people already are vaccinated. It’s called you have … You caught it and you’re immune. I hope it’s true. They say that before I had it, they said if you catch it, you’re immune for life. Once I got it, they said, if you catch it, you’re immune for four months. Right.

Donald Trump: (09:13)

But they’re on their way, the vaccines and they’re great vaccines and safe, and brilliant actually to think of it, what we’ve done in such a short period of time. Nobody thought. They call it, even some of the enemies call it a medical miracle what we’ve done. And we also have great therapeutics and they’re already here and I can testify to that fact. I’ll tell you what, some incredible work has been done over the last seven months. And we should always get credit for that. Don’t let anyone ever take it away from us.

Donald Trump: (09:45)

We’re gathered here tonight to ensure … A very important word, ensure because these are two great, great people that I know so well and respected by everybody in Washington and beyond, that David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler win the most important congressional runoff, probably in American history. I really believe that. I think it’s in American … There’s never been a time like this, where you have two at one time, at least you have two beauties. And you know what, you also have two beauties running against them, but beauty in a different way, there are two beauties.

Donald Trump: (10:21)

But there’s never been a case where a state has had this prominence on Senate races because they’re never together. And this is something that’s very important and you have to get out and you have to vote. You have to make sure you have every vote counted. Every one has to count. You got to make sure they don’t throw away any ballots. You got to make sure that when they collect the ballots and they start bragging about how many ballots they already have, you got to make sure your secretary of state knows what the hell he’s doing. And you got to make sure your governor gets a lot tougher than he’s been. He’s got to get a lot tougher. Because at stake in this election is control of the US Senate and that really means control of this country. The voters of Georgia will determine which party runs every committee, writes every piece of legislation, controls every single taxpayer dollar.

Donald Trump: (11:18)

Very simply, you will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or whether they will grow up in a free country. And I will tell you this, socialist is just the beginning for these people. These people want to go further than socialism. They want to go into a communistic form of government. I have no doubt about it. Somehow that doesn’t suit Georgia too well. That doesn’t work too well I think, Kelly, in Georgia, does it?

Donald Trump: (11:49)

David and Kelly are running against radical Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Ossoff and Warnock are the two most extreme, far-left liberal Senate candidates in the history of our country, and you got them both at one time. How did that happen? I think you both got lucky, but we’ll see, right? We’ll see. You must go vote and vote early starting December 14th. You have to do it. They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it. We will still win it. We’ll still win it. And they’re going to try and rig this election too.

Audience: (12:31)

Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal.

Donald Trump: (12:54)

No, we continue to fight. We’ve had some great moments. We just need somebody with courage to do what they have to do because everyone knows it’s wrong. We need somebody with courage, somebody that makes decisions, then we’ll be going up to the Supreme Court very shortly. And we really, if we have-

Audience: (13:10)

Fight. Fight. Fight.

Donald Trump: (13:17)

If we have courage and wisdom, I think, you know what the answer’s going to be because you can’t let people get away with what they got away with. Think of it, with over 74 million votes, over, think of that, more than … I got more votes than any sitting president in history. 11 million more votes than we got in 2016. And we thought that if we could get 68 million, 67 million that would be the end. All of our great, brilliant geniuses said you’d win if you get 67 or 68. It’s over. We got 74 million-plus and they’re trying to convince us that we lost. We didn’t lose. They found a lot of ballots to be nice about it. And they got rid of some too. The 74, let me tell you, the 74 could have been even higher.

Donald Trump: (14:10)

As the great pollster, John McLaughlin, who was really a great pollster, one of the most highly respected, he said, “There’s no way this could have happened other than the obvious cheating or a rigged election. There’s no way it could have happened.” It’s interesting, I wrote this out and I had just a few of the facts, which I think … Because I want to get onto the presidentials. I want to stay on presidential, but I got to get to these two because they’re incredible. But listen to this. These are the facts. And each fact is irrefutable and it means win. President Trump received, done by one of the most brilliant political people, President Trump received more votes than any previous incumbent president in history. And we lost. And we lost. So, we received more votes than anybody in history, any incumbent in history, and we lost, supposedly. We didn’t lose. You’re going to see that. No incumbent who received 75% of the total primary vote lost reelection in the history of our country. President Trump received 94, not 74. 94, which is one of the highest in history.

Donald Trump: (15:21)

In fact, President Trump is the only one of five incumbents since 1912 to receive more than 90% of the primary vote. And again, anybody received over 75%, they won. We got 94%. President Trump set a record for the most primary votes ever received by an incumbent, ever. And nobody that’s received all of the primary votes, nobody’s received at a much lesser level than what we, they always won. But we didn’t according to what they say. It’s rigged. It’s a fixed deal. Nationally, initial numbers show that 26% of President Trump’s voting share came from nonwhite voters. The highest percentage for a GOP presidential candidate since 1960. That’s a long time ago. President Trump won … Think of this one. President Trump won 18 of 19 bellwether counties. You know what a bellwether county is, it’s a big deal. So I won 18 of 19, a record, never happened. That between 1980 and 2016 voted for the eventual president in every single election, and before that, it was almost every election. And we won a record 18 of 19. Never lost. Nobody’s ever lost with anything like that.

Donald Trump: (16:48)

Biden did not demonstrate coattails for the downballot races, had no coattails. I’m shocked to hear that. In fact, he got 80 million votes. But what he made a Thanksgiving day speech on the internet, they say he had less than a thousand people. How do you have 80 million votes and you have a thousand people? Now how do you have 80 million votes and you have less than a thousand people?

Donald Trump: (17:12)

With Republicans maintaining control … So here’s what happened. So Biden didn’t demonstrate coattails downballot races, but with Republicans maintaining control, first time this has ever happened, control of the Senate, winning all 27 toss-up races in the House. Kevin McCarthy, great job. Mitch, great job. Winning all 27 toss-up races. And now, think of it. We didn’t lose a seat in the House. Think of this. The first time that anybody, I think in history, we didn’t lose one seat. Normally, you lose two, three, five, and you replay. We lost nobody sitting in Congress. I worked hard in the House, with Kevin McCarthy, not losing a single legislative chamber and making big gains at the state level and holding onto the Senate. I mean, look at what’s happened. We better hold onto the Senate, you two. And there’s never been numbers like that where a president even came close to losing, but they say we lost. The only way is they stuffed the ballot boxes.

Donald Trump: (18:14)

President Trump won. President Trump won as we said both in Florida and then Ohio. And by the way, won by a lot. Remember the fake polls where they said he’s down by four in Florida, and I won by a lot. He’s down by two in Ohio, and we won. I think we got eight or nine or something, up. But nobody’s ever done that. Those two very powerful, big, important states. And the beauty is that we also won Georgia, and that was good. We won South Carolina and we won Iowa. Remember, we’re not going to win an Iowa they said. We’re not going to win. I think the farmers like Trump a lot, right? Well, we want an Iowa by a lot. We won in Iowa by close to record numbers. I think I have the record. And we won all over the place.

Donald Trump: (19:06)

And many of these swing states, it’s a very interesting statistic. President Obama beat Biden all over the country, except in some of the swing states where Biden beat him badly. How does that work? And they say it’s statistically impossible. He beat crooked Hillary. Think of this. He beat crooked Hillary in the swing states, but she beat him everywhere else. Let me tell you, this election was rigged and we can’t let it happen to two of the greatest, most respected people in Washington. We can’t let it happen again. Can’t let it happen.

Audience: (19:48)

Stop the steal. Stop the steal.

Donald Trump: (19:48)

Can’t let it happen. Can’t let it happen.

Audience: (19:50)

Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Stop the steal.

Donald Trump: (19:58)

Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing. He could stop it very easily. Hundreds of thousands of illegal votes were cast in each state. Far from … I mean, if you look at this, hundreds of thousands more than we needed were cast in every state we’re talking about, not only here, but Michigan, Pennsylvania. How about Pennsylvania where they throw the poll Watchers out? They threw them out. They literally threw them out. And they did it here too, by the way. But we caught them cold and have numerous cases pending. And so far we haven’t been able to find the people with the courage to do the right thing. And that is true in Georgia, certainly. But we’re going to hit those people and they’re going to go down in history as great people. They’re going to go down because everyone knows what took place.

Donald Trump: (20:47)

But we’re going to talk about the presidential election a little bit later because we have a big senatorial race going on in Georgia and we are watching Democrats very, very closely. And remember this, we had this massive race all over the country, so they could cheat in Georgia and people aren’t really watching it like they should. And again, all I can do is say I’m running, win, and then do a good job as president. That’s all. I don’t run the elections. I don’t run to see if people are walking in with suitcases and putting them under a table with a black robe around it. I don’t do that. That’s up to your government here. And for whatever reason, your secretary of state and your governor are afraid of Stacey Abrams. They’re afraid of her.

Donald Trump: (21:37)

So we know the Democrats are planning to cheat and we can’t let them do it again. And we’re going to pull ours out one way or the other. But we have to be vigilant because I don’t want these two to work like that I … I thought we were going to easily win. And then maybe for the first time in a long time, I’d go take a nice little vacation for about two days and then we’d go back. And instead, I probably worked harder in the last three weeks than I’ve ever worked in my life doing this.

Donald Trump: (22:12)

And I’ve become friendly with legislators that I didn’t know four weeks ago and actually, they’re great people. In fact, in my pocket right here, we have a couple of them right here. Where’s Burt Jones. Where’s Burt Jones? Burt. Burt, boy, you’re a young guy. I thought you were young, but not that young. Burt Jones, I want to thank you, Burt, for being here. You’re friendly with a man next to you, right? He’s a man of courage. Thank you very much, Burt. I appreciate everything you’re doing and so does this big crowd. And this is a big … This is a lot of people. Also, Brandon Beach, Senator Brandon Beach. Brandon, thank you for everything. We appreciate it. William Liggins. William. Where’s William? Why are you so far away, William, from them? Oh, I like that group better actually. I agree. And Greg Dolezal, where’s Greg? Greg, thank you very much, Greg. We appreciate it. Really do. We appreciate it. Great people.

Donald Trump: (23:09)

And we said, have this brought back into your legislature, governor, have it brought back. Let these people make it. Keep it open, keep it transparent, and let us have a signature verification. What’s wrong with that? They keep counting the same votes. I said, “Don’t count votes, look at the signature. You’re going to find the signatures aren’t what they were two years ago, four years ago, six years ago.” But are two great Senate opponents, and these are the two people that fight and they’re going to fight like … I don’t know if you know this, but one of the people that you’re fighting, I went against him, Ossoff, four years ago. He was against a very fine woman, Karen, who was a great woman, and he was leading by quite a bit and we ended up beating him. He didn’t even live in the district. He was running for Congress. He didn’t even live in the district. So we’re going to have the same thing.

Donald Trump: (24:04)

But Ossoff and Warnock will be total pawns of Chuck Schumer, Crying Chuck. I only see him cry when the cameras are on. But he said, he did say this, maybe I’m hurting you when I say, he did say this, “If we get in we’re going to absolutely make Donald Trump’s life miserable.” Can you believe that? That’s Chuck Schumer. He made the statement. “We’re going to investigate him.” Oh, those investigations, we’ll go on and on. Well, they’ve been investigating me since the day we came down on the escalator, which what turned out to be our great First Lady, we came down to the escalator, right? Okay. And a spider in our campaign and lots of other things. But Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Bernie Sanders, and the lunatic radical left, that’s what you’re going to have.

Donald Trump: (24:56)

As Chuck Schumer said rather infamously, “First we take Georgia, then we take America.” But they don’t mean to take America in a good sense. They mean bring it over to things that the people of Georgia don’t want. You’re not going to like it when they want to take over your farm. “Gee, we own this farm too. We were here also. We own this farm.” Here’s exactly how they will change America forever. The radical Democrats, if they get power, they will immediately abolish the Senate filibuster, allowing them to pass any bill they want and giving them free rein to ram through the most extreme left-wing agenda ever conceived while at the same time, destroying our military through a lack of funding.

Donald Trump: (25:44)

And by the way, tell our senators end Section 230. End Section 230. Put it in. We put it in. I want it in the defense bill. Put it in because it’s a national security problem. It’s a big national security. So hopefully, Mitch and the senators will put it in. But it’s the one chance we have to bring big tech, who are vicious and violent and untruthful, to bring big tech … It’s the only thing they fear is that we’re going to end Section 230. So hopefully, we will do it. It happens to be a politically very popular thing to do, by the way.

Donald Trump: (26:23)

If these people get control, their draconian, military cuts will devastate Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, and the military families all across Georgia. We would also like to save the names of the forts if you don’t mind everybody. They have the right. They put in the Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren clause, where they have the right to take all the names of our past warriors heroes in some cases, many cases, some turned out to be heroes in disguise, perhaps, but they want to take the names off and they have the right to desecrate, to take down, to destroy, to demolish places in our national parks that we don’t want demolished. So we have to be very careful of that. We can’t let that happen. They want to put it in our military bill. Of all people, Elizabeth Warren puts that clause in the military bill.

Donald Trump: (27:15)

They will impose total open borders so that people can pour into our country and they will give them free healthcare, free welfare, and the right to vote in your elections. You won’t ever win another election as a Republic. They even want to take down the wall. The wall, I won on the wall too. We won on a lot of things. “Take down the wall,” I heard him say it the other day. “We will take down the wall.” We have the strongest border we’ve ever had now. We’re almost finished with the wall. Strongest border, right, Sonny? And we built it despite … It’s incredible, the effect it’s having. We built it despite, everybody said no chance. I mean, we had a whole very powerful Democrat party oppose me. And yesterday, I don’t know if you saw it, the court-

Donald Trump: (28:03)

Oppose me. And yesterday, I don’t know if you saw it, the court just ruled that the money I took was taken legally. So at least we have a legal wall. The appeals court. So we took it and we built the wall and we’ll be finished with it very soon, but it’s had a tremendous impact on illegal immigrants coming into the country. And by the way, we want people to come into our country, you see that by the vote I got, but we want people to come in legally and through merit. Through merit, where they can help us. The radical Democrats will implement nationwide catch and release. You know that is? You catch a killer, you catch a rapist and you say, “Oh, thank you very much. Please give us your name. Oh, come back in three years. We’re going to put you on trial. Oh, Good.” You never see them by the way. Remember I had that debate with Joe Biden? He said, “No, they come back.” Yeah, they don’t come back. They don’t come back. No. They don’t come back. Like, never. Maybe 1%, but I doubt it. That’s the end of them. You let them loose in our country. I got rid of it. You think that was easy?

Donald Trump: (29:02)

And install sanctuary cities all across the country, that’s what they want, freeing criminal aliens and MS-13 gang members, the most vicious people. They don’t like guns because it’s not painful enough. They like using knives. It’s true. They don’t like guns, they’d rather cut somebody up. To wreak havoc and terror upon innocent families. We’ve moved thousands and thousands of MS-13s the hell out of our country. We moved them back to where they came from. And some, we put in prison because they’re too dangerous to move back because they’ll try and figure away. They’re not stupid. They’re vicious, but they’re not stupid, sort of like the Democrats if you think about.

Donald Trump: (29:43)

They’ll confiscate privately owned firearms and share… What they will do, they will share everything with themselves, only dangerous equipment. And they will totally cut up a thing called your second amendment rights. They’ll Make Washington DC a State and many other places guaranteeing two, four, or six additional left wing senators. They want to make numerous places States, this way you have a lot more… Louie, you’re going to have a lot more company in Congress. You’ll have lots of… You’ll have another 30, 40 congressional people from places you’ve never even heard of. You’ve never even heard of. Louie Gohmert. The great Louie Gohmert.

Donald Trump: (30:29)

And there’ll be voting against Georgia every time, completely canceling out your voice in Washington forever like David Perdue. I’ll never forget it. You got hit by a piece of a hurricane. Remember that? The farmers got hit so hard. And I went with Sonny and with David or some other great people from Georgia. And I said, “Is there a way we can pay these people?” They never asked for anything, and their orchards were wiped out. One of the men said, “This was going to be the best crop I ever had. I was a week and a half away from finally, after 10, 12 years making some money.” And a week and a half early, he gets hit by the remnants of that big hurricane from Florida. Great state, great place. But you got hit. And David, we took 100% care of those people, right? We took 100% care, yeah, with the help of Sonny Purdue, Secretary of Agriculture. And I felt so good.

Donald Trump: (31:24)

But I met them. There were 33 of them standing and they were all in the line. “What do you do?” “I have this?” “What?” It was a tragic… And nobody wanted anything. They didn’t even want it. They said, “If we could borrow it, if we could…” They didn’t want it. These are incredible people. They don’t want anything. They just want a level playing field, but we took care of them. They’d never forgot it either. It’s very interesting. I still hear from some of those people.

Donald Trump: (31:47)

The extreme left will pack the Supreme Court with 24 radical Justices. That’s the last number I heard. I used to hear it was 16, now it’s up to 24. Pretty soon, you’ll have another Congress. Twenty-four radical justice is instead of nine justices that we have right now. And they want them to revolve up and down the court system so that Supreme Court Justices can spend time in other locations, down the totem pole. They want to hurt the Supreme Court and they want to hurt it very badly. And if these two don’t get in, or if I don’t get in and these don’t, we got to get… The best would be all three. Nothing will happen. All three.

Donald Trump: (32:30)

But they want to destroy the sanctity of the Supreme Court, the importance of the Supreme Court, the majesty of the Supreme Court. They’ll terminate religious liberty, cancel free speech, and force you to fund extreme late-term abortion. And there will be nothing to stop them. If they don’t get in, there’s going to be nothing to stop them. You have no idea how bad it will be. There will be nothing. I used to argue with certain people about the filibuster. I said, look, I don’t like it either, but I do it because I know they are going to do it. Everybody said, “Oh, they’ll never do it.” They’re doing it. They’ve already announced they’re going to do it. That means they can do anything they want.

Donald Trump: (33:16)

And the Republicans, they play a different game. I don’t know, maybe they love the country more. But they said, “No, no, they’ll never do it.” And I said, “Well Schumer, he’ll do it the first day he gets in, he’ll do it.” And that’s exactly what’s happening and he’ll do it. And he will do that to the Supreme Court, there’s no question. But they look forward to it because you know why? We put on three… Think of this, three great Justices and we’ll be over 300 federal judges in the United States, which will be a record. Three hundred, 300. And they don’t want to wait, they want to do it very quickly. “Let’s just vote and we’ll take it.” This takes years and years and years to slowly change a court and perhaps I got a little bit lucky to get three. A lot of presidents have had none. They’ve never had… They stay on for a long time, they’re young when they go on and they’re old when they come off.

Donald Trump: (34:15)

But the fact is a lot of presidents, good presidents, great presidents… They say you can’t be a great president unless you’ve put in Supreme Court Justice. They say it’s the single most important thing a president can do. And I’m not sure that’s right, I think military defense, military offense, frankly, is the most important thing. But it’s certainly one of the most important things you can do. And the fact that I have more than… I will have by the end, more than 300… First term, think of it. And if we do a second term, which I hope we do, we could have close to 540.

Donald Trump: (34:55)

But the fact that I had three Supreme Court Justices in the first term is not making them feel too good. They will unilaterally surrender to China. They’re already doing it. They’re already doing it. And Hunter made a lot of money in China. What’s he going to do? Sending our factories and our jobs overseas. They will raise your taxes. We lowered your taxes. We gave you the greatest tax decrease, tax cut, in the history of our country and they want to get rid of that and raise your taxes, and raise your regulations. We cut more regulations than any president in the history of our country. That’s one of the reasons our business came back.

Donald Trump: (35:37)

With the pandemic, as bad as it is, it’s horrible. Should have never happened. China allowed this to happen. Should have never happened. But we went down less. A lot of people don’t like to talk… Our economy. We went down less and we went up more than any other country in the world. We went down less because we had a good foundation. And yesterday again… So now I thought it was 48, it’s actually 128 times… Can you believe it? We set a new stock market record, but this one was great because the Dow Jones industrial average over… Think of this. Over 30,000 for the first time ever over the last couple of weeks. And yesterday it was 30,200. Can you believe this? And this is during hopefully what will be… We’re rounding the turn, we’re rounding the corner of the pandemic. But this is during a pandemic. We broke 30,000. A number that was unthinkable when I first came.

Donald Trump: (36:34)

When I first came in at around 16,000, the concept of hitting a 30,000 Dow was not even possible. And we not only hit we… Can you imagine if we didn’t get hit by this is freak? This total freak that came into our country, could you imagine if we didn’t get hit? And I of this before, David, in a way we did this sort of twice. We took it from the time I came in to the time we got hit and nobody’s blaming us for… Every country, 188 got hit. Some were totally devastated. I don’t know if they ever recover. But if you think about it, we had two. We did it the first time, we went up from where I took it over. Way up, then it went down. Then we had a second. So we really had two.

Donald Trump: (37:21)

And now we’re going to get money because we want the money. First of all, these States and cities should open up. They should open up. And we’re working hard against the Democrats, but we’re working hard to get some money out to the people because they need it. It’s not their fault that they got hit with something from China. And you notice the way the Democrats like to say it came from Italy? No, it came from China. And that’s okay to say it. They like to say it came from Europe. “No, actually, well specifically came from Italy.” Italy saying, “What did we do?”

Donald Trump: (37:58)

They’ll wage war on American energy. Absolutely decimating Georgia’s middle-class. Your bills will go up. Not a huge energy producer, but Texas…. Remember they said, “Trump will lose Texas by a lot.” I said, “Wait a minute. I’m in favor of energy. I’m the one that built… We have the greatest energy we’ve ever had. And it all happened this period of time. So you’re telling me, you’re telling me that I’m going to lose Texas to a guy that’s against fracking, against energy, against religion, and against guns.” You tell me that, I end up winning Texas by so much. Somebody said, “We don’t even know how much.” And we knew that before, but it’s fake news.

Donald Trump: (38:38)

They said Wisconsin. A poll came out. Washington Post, ABC, just before the election, I’m going to lose Wisconsin by 17 points. I said, “No, I’m going to win Wisconsin.” Well, actually I won Wisconsin. They’re trying to say he’s a little down. But I actually won. But that’s called suppression. That’s called a suppression poll. That’s a poll that’s so devastating, when I asked one of the pollsters, I said, “Why did they go so far? Why don’t they just say four or five?” “Because in four years they’re going to lose all respect. They don’t care. They’ll do anything to win. They’ll do anything to beat you. They don’t care.” These people are sick. Seventeen points. And we actually won.

Donald Trump: (39:16)

Remember so many of the States? I won every one of them. Every one of these States. And by the way, the swing States that we’re all fighting over now, I won them all by a lot. I won them all by a lot. And I have to say, if I lost I’d be a very gracious loser. If I lost, I would say I lost and I’d go to Florida, and I’d take it easy, and I’d go around and I’d say, “I did a good job.” But you can’t ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. You can’t accept it.

Crowd Chants: (39:54)

Stop the steal.

Donald Trump: (40:09)

Well, the Democrats did try to steal the presidency. They’re trying like hell. Do you ever notice the fake news? “Today he’s appointing his this, his that.” Sonny, his Secretary of Agriculture. Sonny. I liked Sonny. We want Sonny. He was a great governor here for eight years. Right? You would have solved this problem in about two hours, Sonny. He would have said, “Let the legislature open. Let the vote… Let us be transparent on signatures.” I think that’s okay.

Donald Trump: (40:44)

But we’re working hard to ensure that it doesn’t happen. And now they’re trying to steal these two important Senate seats from Georgia. These seats are the last line of defense to save America and protect all that we have accomplished. And we’ve accomplished things that no other president has accomplished, no other administration. And I did it with these two people. I didn’t know Kelly. When Kelly came in, I didn’t really know what to think. There is nobody that fought harder for me. And I have to tell you this… Do you mind if me tell you here publicly, is that okay? There is nobody… David understands this too. She fought. What a trooper. She was so tough and smart. She even went against Mitt Romney. She didn’t like Mitt Romney too much. I won’t say what she said, but it was tough. But she is… We call him Kryptonite. Anything he touches, they lose. But you were so great. And I’ll not forget it. And David’s been my friend for a long time, for a long, long time. And there’s nobody in Washington that’s more respected than David Perdue. There’s nobody. There’s nobody. So we have to keep them.

Donald Trump: (41:58)

If the other side manages to steal both elections, we will have total, one party, socialist control and everything you care about will be gone. Your whole philosophy is going to be gone. Joe Biden, Kamala… Kamala [inaudible 00:14:13]. Crying Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, they want to take away your guns. I never got it. I never got it. That’s one of the reasons I knew. How can you win? No oil, no guns. No God. Oh, they won. I don’t think so. Okay. I don’t think. We knew that a long time ago. They want to take away your jobs, take away your borders, take away your freedom, take away your religion. And they even want to take away your beautiful Christmas that we just got back.

Donald Trump: (42:49)

I have to be very careful. When I of imitate that, right? You remember I was saying suburban women. I say, “Suburban women, love me. Please love me. I’ve been so good to you. I’ve been so good to you.” I got rid of the worst regulation of the history of suburbia. I got rid of that regulation. So now you can actually have a house without a building going up next to it that you’re not going to be happy about, without crime increasing by tenfold and this and that. So I said, “But suburban women, please, please love me.” And CNN put me on. “Donald Trump. Donald Trump is begging. He’s begging and crying for the vote of suburban women, [inaudible 00:15:31]”

Donald Trump: (43:32)

These people are sick. So you have to be very careful when you’re sarcastic. Sarcasm doesn’t work. Sarcasm doesn’t work with… Wow, that is a big group of people back there. Look at that. The fake news. Whoa. That’s a big group. That is a lot of fake news. Well, now we call it the fake news and suppression news. I use the word suppression because now they got a new thing going. This happened since Hunter, because we were killing them on Hunter, stealing money from every country. He was a human vacuum cleaner and it was hurting them badly. So all of a sudden big tech, together with their partner the Democrats, and their partner the fake news media, they decide under no circumstances will we ever talk about it again. So you have 95% of the media. You could have him be Jesse James and walk into the bank with a gun, hold them up, give me all your money, and they won’t talk about it. And it’s hard to have a scandal if they don’t talk about it.

Donald Trump: (44:42)

Other than the New York Post and people like Sean Hannity and people like Laura, and Tucker is doing good. I like Tucker lately. And our friends in the morning. And I tell you, we have some great new people. OAN. NewsMax. And Judge Jeanine, she’s on right? She’s on tonight. And Jesse Waters is great. And Pete Hexa. And I’m in trouble because I don’t mention everybody, but we have great people. We have a great voice, but the fact is most of the press was suppressed, so that no matter what they wouldn’t talk and it was incredible. And I have to give a lot of credit to Col Alan in the New York Post for what they did because they went out and they fought him and they fought them hard. Oldest paper in America, fourth or fifth biggest, and they should be very proud of themselves.

Donald Trump: (45:44)

But we’re doing the same thing. These two incredible people are doing the same thing. We fight. If you don’t get out and vote, they are going to win. Now, a lot of people, friends of mine say, “Let’s not vote. We’re not going to vote because we’re angry about the presidential…” And they’re friends of mine. There are people that are great people. They’re real friends. And more than just two, there are numerous people. And it’s almost like a protest. But if you do that, the radical left wins. Okay? It was sort of an instinct of mind. You’re angry because so many votes were stolen. It was taken away. And you say, “Well, we’re not going to do it.” We can’t do that. We have to actually do just the opposite. We can’t do that. We can’t do that. We have to do just the opposite.

Donald Trump: (46:26)

If you don’t vote, the socialists and the communists win. They win. Georgia Patriots must show up and vote for these two incredible people. And I’m telling you, they’re two of the finest people you’ll ever meet. We can fight for the presidency and fight to elect our two great senators and we can do it at the same time. We’ll do it at the same time, it’s all right. The election is about David Purdue, one of the greats. Kelly Leffler, a person who is just unbelievable. How she picked it up. There’s natural talent. As an athlete, I’d always say, “Would you rather practice or have natural talent?” I said, “The best is both right?” But she’s got a great natural talent, a great natural talent. Just very [inaudible 00:47:12]. But they believe, both of them, in America, and they believe in our values and all that we stand for. And they understand this state. They love your state. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be here because I love you stay too, by the way.

Donald Trump: (47:25)

This election is about the radical left movement that hates America and wants to erase our history and wipe away everything that we hold dear. They want to rip down our statues. I signed a bill. I took an old bill because we could never get it today in the house headed by crazy Nancy. I took an old bill that said, “Ten years in prison.” They used the word prison, not jail. “Ten years in prison if you take down a statue.” I haven’t seen it happen lately. Do you notice? Everyone said you can’t use that. I’ll never forget. I heard they were going to… They did destruction around… And all in radical left, Democrat-run cities, by the way, and we’re not supposed to go in. If I had it to do again, I think I would have said the military in, if you want to know the truth. But we’re not supposed to. They’re supposed to be able to handle their own affairs. I don’t know.

Donald Trump: (48:16)

But all over, they said, “Sir, you can’t do this bill. This is too tough.” I said, “Really, they’re going to tear down a statue of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Desecrate the most beautiful pieces of art… And they represent our country. And now they want to do it again. They want to put it in. I told you, we can’t let it happen.”

Donald Trump: (48:37)

Over the last four years, David Purdue has been one of the toughest fighters for our America First, America First agenda in Washington. And David saw this. Did you see last week? China said… China doesn’t like me too much. They pay us billions and billions. That never happened. Billions and billions of dollars in tariffs and they pay it, they devalued their currency. They paid a lot of money. They don’t like me. The happiest people in the world right now are the leaders of China, the second happiest or the leaders of Iran. What we would have done in the next four years, we would have been on a footing like nobody’s ever. And now we’re giving it all away. But China said, “We will not deal with you unless you get rid of the America First policy.” And you know what the Democrats said? They said, “Yes, we will do that.” Can you believe this?

Donald Trump: (49:35)

And that’s what I realized what a brilliant name that is. We come up with some good ones, but that’s a good one. We came up with plenty of good ones, haven’t we? Some of them I won’t use because some of those people are now friends of mine, but we came up with some good ones. But America First and I looked at Melania a week ago and I said, “Can you believe it? They are saying that they don’t agree with America First.” How do you say that? I mean, how do you say it? “We don’t agree with America first. We agree with China. Yes. We will get rid of America First policy.” I think David, you don’t like that too much. Right?

Donald Trump: (50:09)

And if they’re here, it won’t happen because nothing’s going to be able to get past that’s not going to be reasonable. He fought to pass the largest package, David, of tax cuts and reforms in American history. He helped lead the effort to repeal a record number of job killing regulations, the likes of which you’ve never seen, including the unfair Waters of the United States Rule that crippled work for our farmers and our builders. It’s such a beautiful name, but it was destroying people and I’ll never… Waters of the United… How beautiful is that? Waters of the United States. And I said, “I got to get rid of it. I got to do it, but I’m going to get killed.” Because the only thing good about it was the title. Waters. “What are you doing today?” “I’m terminating waters of the United States.”

Donald Trump: (50:57)

Well it was a little bit like the Paris Environmental Accord, right? The Paris Environmental Accord. I said, “I’m going to get killed in this one.” But we would have paid trillions and trillions of dollars. Russia has a big advantage of us. They go back to old days when the air was very dirty, that was their standard. China doesn’t kick in until 2030. We kick in immediately. And the money that would have cost us… And if we adhere to it, we would have had to close up 20% of our factories. And now the first thing they want to do… John Kerry, great negotiator. The first thing they want to do is, number one, they want to bring back the Paris Environmental Accord, which will cost us.

Donald Trump: (51:39)

That was designed to destroy the United States. The second thing they want to do is, let’s give Iran billions of dollars. Oh, they’re so happy. Iran would have been in my office in the first hour after we won the election to make a deal. But perhaps they still will. He said they still will.

Donald Trump: (51:59)

After hurricane Michael devastated our farmers in Southwest Georgia, as I said, no one worked harder to get them relief than David Perdue. He would call me all the time. He actually called me more than Sonny and Sonny’s at Agriculture. What the hell’s going on, Sonny? Sonny, what happened to you, Sonny? It’s true, David would call all the time. And remember how tough the Democrats meant. They didn’t want to give them anything. But we got it. We got them more than they even thought possible.

Donald Trump: (52:24)

Senator Purdue helped pass the unprecedented $2.5 trillion investment in our United States Military delivering the largest pay raises, in addition to everything else, for our warriors in a decade. And we now have the greatest, most modern military in the history of our country. We have brand new fighter jets, brand new bombers, brand new missiles and rockets, hypersonic missiles. We have hypersonic and hydro-sonic. You know what hydro-sonic is? Water. We have them all. We have missiles that go seven times faster than any missile in the world.

Crowd Chants: (53:06)

USA.

Donald Trump: (53:10)

And when we took over, our military was decimated, our military was tired, our military was in big trouble. And you remember and I’ve said it a lot. One of the world’s most overrated generals came to see me. He said, “Sir, we have no ammunition.” We had a little problem with a certain country. And he said, “Sir, we have no ammunition.” I said, “Tell me, you’re not saying that.” We didn’t have ammunition. Think of it. We had very little ammunition and I’ll never forget that statement. I said, “That should never happen to a president of the United States again nor should being spied on ever happened to a president of the United States again.”

Donald Trump: (53:45)

Senator Perdue has been a tremendous leader on pro-American immigration reform. Like nobody else. He voted very powerfully when I was going through hell on the wall. They would have given me anything. They gave me the money for the military. They just didn’t want to give me money for the wall. So I took it out of the military. What the hell could I do? That was rather good. It’s good to be a developer. Everyone said it was. That was the one where the judges ruled yesterday. So they said it was fine because I called it natural security. So we took it out of the… They didn’t figure that one out. Now they do. But you know what? They don’t have to be careful because it’s turned out to be very popular, very successful.

Donald Trump: (54:20)

Shut down sanctuary cities. End chain migration and protect American jobs, David did. He voted to confirm nearly 300 of the judges that I talked about. The federal judges that interpret the constitution is written. And when the Democrat mob came for judge Kavanaugh, David Purdue stood strong. And I’m just thinking, they both stood strong when they impeached your president for making a perfect phone call too. I’m the only president ever will never… That got impeached for making a perfect phone call. But those two were among the best.

Donald Trump: (55:02)

Senator Purdue is an outsider, a businessman, a great businessman, and a true American Patriot. You need him fighting for you and your family and your values because the United States Senate cannot be the same without him. So that’s why I’m here. I don’t do these things for other people. In fact, I was curious, I didn’t know if anyone was going to show up. I said, “I’m doing it for other people.” This is a hell of a crowd lift. As far as the eye can see. As far as the eye can see. I don’t like doing it for other people. I said, “David and Kelly called, would you do a rally?” I said, “Not really. I did 56 of them in a little tiny period of time.” I said, “Let me have…” And I said, when they asked I… It was really not. But I don’t do them for other people. It’s a lot of work to do a rally. A lot of work. People don’t realize. When you do… I did five a day, the last four or five days. One day I did six. Six. And the smallest one… Think of it, the smallest one.

Donald Trump: (56:03)

And the smallest one, think of it, the smallest one at 25,000 people, you think that’s fun? In some of them it’s 75 degrees and another it’s 20 degrees below zero and you’re doing them both. I’m saying, “How’s the weather out there?” “Sir, it’s about 20 degrees below zero.” That’s good. Then I land the next step, “How are we doing?” “Sir, it’s 82.” David’s opponent Jon Ossoff is a radical left wing zealot who is very proud to be endorsed by Bernie Sanders, crazy Bernie. Ossoff supports defunding the police, supports the crazy Green New Deal, that’s another beauty. Don’t forget, the Green New Neal is really $100 trillion, okay? It’s $100 trillion. They don’t say that, Louis, do they? Talk about 3 trillion? They got down to 3 trillion, no, it’s $100 trillion is what they wanted. That’s more money, if our economy was going unbelievable gangbusters for 100 years, no recession, no anything we couldn’t come close to making 100 trillion.

Donald Trump: (57:04)

They want to rip down buildings and rebuild them with no windows. I like windows, I like big, beautiful windows. He wants to do a total government takeover of healthcare that will destroy your doctor’s offices and rural hospitals. So if you are sick, if you have a cold go to a hospital, wait on line for about three days and hope you get a decent doctor. Ossoff also supports a crippling nationwide lockdown. He wants you to lock your home nice and tight after you’re inside of it and he passes legislation to let hardened criminals go free, get them out of jail, get them out of jail. Ossoff will be a complete tool for the radical left donors who are trying to buy Georgia Senate seats.

Donald Trump: (57:51)

You see the money these people have raised? I mean, well, of course I just raised $250 million and I should say. I didn’t raise it’s just… I said, how are we doing on that front? Because we didn’t get great publicity, boy, they were so happy these guys. You might not be happy in a few weeks, you might not. They were so happy. I said, “How’s fundraising going?” They said, “Sir, about 250 million.” I said, “250 million what?” “Dollars.” How the hell did that happen? Because people believe in what we’re doing, that’s why. They believe in what we’re doing. But that’s why Ossoff’s donations come from Silicon Valley, San Francisco and the other liberal places and they don’t come from Georgia. This is not your fault… I know you. You’re with me, I’m with you, we’ve always had wins from primers to two elections. We won two elections, believe it or not. I think I won the second one by more than I won the first one, I do, right? I won the second one by more.

Donald Trump: (59:03)

On January 5th you also need to vote for your incredible Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler. Kelly has been an exceptional champion for Georgia’s workers and families. And I know what they fight for. If I could tell you about David, I could tell you about Kelly, she fights for you every single day, loves you state. When our nation was hit with the China virus, Senator Loeffler helped rescue the U.S. economy by voting to pass a historic $3 trillion bill relief for American workers and families that a lot of people were against it and turned out to be a great thing. Kelly, thank you.

Donald Trump: (59:44)

A lot of people said, “Oh, it’s too much.” I said, “It’s not their fault that I want to get them more money now.” And I like the higher number rather than the lower number, we’ll make it back. With our help we secured $15 billion for 175,000 Georgia small businesses and saved 1.5 million Georgia jobs, that was both of them really, both of them. Kelly is a relentless advocate for Georgia farmers and she is for tirelessly to get them relief in this pandemic. And by the way her husband is a fine man who’s one of the most respected men in the country, I want to tell you that. I want to tell you that. He’s a great man, he’s a great gentleman.

Donald Trump: (01:00:28)

If you’re successful that it’s supposed to be a bad thing. No, I think it means you’re smart sometimes, right? He’s a smart guy but he’s a great guy, he’s a great man. At the urging of Kelly and David my administration took historic action to protect growers of Georgia blueberries, peppers, squash and cucumbers. Who does cucumbers around here? Because I like cucumbers. I’m the only one, I like cucumbers.

Donald Trump: (01:00:54)

When our law enforcement heroes were under attack Senator Loeffler stood up to the Marxists and introduced legislation to protect our brave men and women in blue and she was threatened all over the place. That threat meant nothing. That was a wasted number of phone calls or however the hell they threatened you, that was a waste of time. She also introduced legislation to prevent Democrat gun grabbers like Beto O’Rouke. Remember Beto? Beto.

Donald Trump: (01:01:23)

There’s a guy, here’s another one. He wants to take your guns away. Oh, by the way, Trump is going to lose Texas but Beto O’Rouke who’s a big factor of that all thing wants to take. Remember when Beto was running he was riding high and then Ted Cruz has done a great job, beat Beto O’Rouke. But Beto was riding high for a while. I remember he was on the cover of a certain really bad magazine, I won’t mention the name it’s failing. It won’t be in business for another six months, I don’t think, I hope. But he was on the cover and he said, “I was born to do this.” And I said, “Anybody that says they were born to do this they’re going to be losing very quickly.” And you know what? Within about two months he was a stone cold loser. And just weeks ago Senator Loeffler her vote to confirm our newest Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett. They both did by the way, they both did. I can’t leave David out of that one.

Donald Trump: (01:02:24)

Kelly’s opponent, Raphael Warnock is a dangerous extremist who is radically opposed to your values. He said he believes that, “Nobody can serve God and the military.” Oh, really? An appalling statement that dishonors the memory and generations of American heroes who fought for God and for our country. Raphael Warnock has openly declared his support for socialism and he is even praised Marxists all over the world. He once hosted the barbaric communist dictator, Fidel Castro. He likes Castro, he thinks he was a good man. “He was a good guy,” he said. He falsely slandered patriotic Americans as racist. He called police officers gangsters, thugs, and bullies.

Donald Trump: (01:03:15)

He supports abolishing cash bail. Look at what happened to New York with their cash bail, no cash bail. Don’t bail, don’t worry about it. You killed somebody, don’t worry about it you’re on the honor code. And he’s declared, “Open up the jails.” Free the violent criminals and prey on Georgia families, children. Now you can’t do that. This is not for Georgia, yeah, I’m telling you. It might be for some places that I tell you that too, this is not for Georgia. I think Raphael has to move to another state.

Audience: (01:03:45)

Warnock.

Donald Trump: (01:03:46)

Try it again. Warnock is strongly anti-Israel and Warnock’s own writings make clear that he believes America is a sinister nation that must be punished. Don’t just take my word for it. We did something, I shouldn’t be doing this for them, of course it’s too much money but we’ll do it anyway. We have a little video to play, please.

Speaker 1: (01:04:09)

We, Senator Sanders, Senator Warren and myself are all on the same team. What are you willing to sacrifice to make sure that’s over-funding police departments is stopped? There is no middle road on the climate crisis. I not only support a Green New Deal, I don’t think it goes far enough. I’m all for a Green New Deal. This is part of what gun registration is about, we want to track where the guns are. We need to cut the defense budget. Bye-bye for Chick-Fil-A.

Speaker 3: (01:04:36)

Are you in favor of expanding the court or perhaps an age limit in place instead of a lifetime appointment?

Speaker 1: (01:04:45)

Well, I’ve said everything is on the table.

Speaker 2: (01:04:49)

But if we win the majority everything is on the table.

Speaker 4: (01:04:52)

Now we take Georgia and then we change America. Change is coming to America.

Speaker 5: (01:04:58)

The blue wave is comprised of those who are documented and undocumented.

Speaker 6: (01:05:02)

We’ll win these races in Georgia so that we don’t have to negotiate.

Speaker 7: (01:05:08)

That’s their goal, total radical control to bring horrific change to America. Only Georgians can stop them.

Raphael Warnock: (01:05:16)

Nobody can serve God and the military.

Speaker 7: (01:05:19)

Raphael Warnock attacks our military.

Raphael Warnock: (01:05:21)

Police power, the kind of gangster and thug mentality.

Speaker 7: (01:05:26)

Warnock attacks our police.

Raphael Warnock: (01:05:29)

Somebody’s got to open up the jails.

Speaker 7: (01:05:31)

Raphael Warnock is dangerous, no wonder he defended this.

Raphael Warnock: (01:05:36)

Not God Bless America, not (beep) America. Now my hope is that in early January Democrats will pick up two more seats in the Georgia runoffs and that will make our life a lot easier. We need to send a message this year. We need to send a message that if you indulge this kind of politics, you’re not just going to get beaten. You’re going to get beaten so bad you can never run or show your face again in public. [crosstalk 01:06:09]. Because we have had enough, absolutely enough of what we are getting from Donald Trump and his fellow travelers right now. [crosstalk 01:06:23].

Audience: (01:06:25)

Listen.

Raphael Warnock: (01:06:28)

You’re not going to get beaten, you’re going beaten so bad you can never run again or show your face in public.

Donald Trump: (01:06:42)

So we had, I just looked at that one scene because it was in Washington and we had about a month ago incredible crowds of people. They were angry as hell at the election and they showed up and it was incredible, there were hundreds of thousands of people, people couldn’t believe. Now, of course some of the fake news said, “Hundreds of people.” Again, no, no, tens of thousands of people. And Antifa, Antifa showed up. Not the right but the left showed up and they looked at some of these people and they wanted to attack the crowd. They looked and they said, “No, thank you,” and they left. No problem. They looked at some of these people they said, “No, thank you.”

Donald Trump: (01:07:24)

Then it broke up about three o’clock, everyone went home very peacefully, it was a beautiful day, actually. They all went home peacefully. And that night they came back and there were a few families that stayed around with young children and there were some elderly people that were having dinner in Washington, very elderly people. And they got attacked, those people got attacked viciously by the scum from Antifa. We can’t let this happen, we can’t let this happen.

Donald Trump: (01:07:51)

But what they didn’t play, what the fake news didn’t play is during the day they walked in and they wanted to do some damage and they took a look and they said, “No, thank you, we won’t do it. We’ll wait. We’ll wait till we get the people with the children. We’ll wait till we get the elderly people that want to stay in Washington and really just have a good time.” And it was disgusting to watch. On January 5th, you must defeat Ossoff and Warnock and send two great people, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler back to the Senate. And if you don’t mind I’d like to ask David and Kelly to come up and say a few words, please.

Kelly Loeffler: (01:08:54)

Thank you, Georgia, thank you Mr. President. President Trump, you made America great again because you put America first, thank you. President Trump created the strongest economy because he put the American worker first. He stood up, that’s right, he stood up to the cancel culture, China, big tech, the fake news. We are standing strong for President Trump because he’s fought for us every single day, every day. Georgia, we need you to vote January 5th. If you’re our voice on January 5th we’ll be your voice for years. We have to make sure that we keep America strong. Thank you. Well, you know what? My colleague David Perdue, my good friend was to make sure that you vote. We are going to vote because if we don’t vote we will lose the country. If we vote, we will win.

David Perdue: (01:10:06)

Hey guys, I want to take literally just one second. I want to say something personal to President Trump. Hey guys, I want to say something for President Trump personally. Yes, I want to say something personal for President Trump. God bless you, we love you, Mr. President. We love the first lady and we’re going to fight to win those two seats and make sure you get a fair square deal in the State of Georgia. God bless you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump: (01:10:40)

Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. Thank you both. Thank you, thank you. We’re fighting, we’re going to fight like you never saw before, thank you. We can’t let what happened three weeks ago, we can’t let it happen. Note, it’s beyond me. We can’t let it happen. And somewhere there’s going to be a champion, you’re a champion, somewhere there’s going to be a champion that’s going to do what’s right. Because this has been going on for a long time, but never like it’s happened recently. And they’ve used the pandemic and the phony fake ballots, the mail-in ballots, they used that to sabotage our country. We’re not going to let it happen.

Donald Trump: (01:11:38)

As you know a major issue in this state is voter fraud, it’s been a big issue for a long time but never like this. We sent out tens of thousands, millions and millions of ballots. Nobody knew where they came from, where they are, people were getting two, three, four ballots. They were signing them, sending them in, what a mess. And I said it a year ago and I said it every month and I even said, “Let’s postpone the election,” and they said, “Oh, he’s not at American.” They knew what they were doing. They knew what they were doing.

Donald Trump: (01:12:09)

Were all deeply disturbed and upset by the lying, cheating, robbing, stealing that’s gone on with our elections. We know the Democrats will have dead people voting and you got to watch it, dead people. You wouldn’t believe how many illegal aliens from out of the state and they’ll be filing out and filling out ballots for people who don’t even exist. They put up names, they have people signing their own name over and over. They have people signing names with the same pen, with the same signature. They don’t even change because they know once they get it in it’ll never be looked at, it’ll never be looked at again because of people like your secretary of state and your governor.

Donald Trump: (01:12:57)

So we want signature verification but the answer… And we’re going to be very careful, we’re going to watch every ballot, David and Kelly, we can’t let this happen again. And again we have more light shining here because of what happened and because of the fact it’s pinpointed. The answer to the Democrat fraud is not stay at home, that’s what Nancy Pelosi and Schumer, that’s what they want you to do, stay at home, just stay at home. If you want to do something to them, I don’t want to use the word revenge, but it is a certain revenge to the Democrats. You show up and vote in record numbers, that’s what you have to do.

Donald Trump: (01:13:41)

They can only win if they cheat, they can’t win this state unless they cheat and they cheat better than anybody. When you think it the Republicans are much nicer. They’re not nearly as vicious, maybe a few of us. “Republicans are too nice,” she said. You’re right. That’s a very good.. Thank you very much, I like that. But they are, they’re too nice. They don’t go after these criminals, they got to go after them. We’re talking to people, “Go after them,” they don’t go after them. They’re afraid they’ll hurt their reputation when they get out, I don’t know, they don’t go after them. But we’re watching this so closely, we have everybody watching. You got to get out and vote.

Donald Trump: (01:14:22)

Let them steal Georgia again you’ll never be able to look yourself in the mirror. We have to hold the line and you have two of the greatest people in earth so we have to hold the line. Make sure that you and everyone else know that you have to register to vote before this Monday, December 7th, is that right? Monday, December 7th, you have to register to vote. Of course, you’ll probably be allowed to if you’re a Democrat, they don’t have any time limit. Did you see where Stacey is allowed to harvest but other people can’t harvest. How is that constitutional? How is that constitutional? Has anybody looked at that?

Donald Trump: (01:15:05)

Go to georgia.gov and register immediately then request your absentee ballot before December 31st. Don’t delay, watch it closely. Do it today, do it tomorrow and return your ballot the same day you get it. So they can’t say, “Gee, it didn’t come in on time.” You know what they did it in one of the states? Ballots were coming in late, very, very late so they backdated the ballots. We have all the information, we have so much evidence. And then you go to a court, “Oh, they don’t have enough evidence.” We have hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of affidavits. And they say, “Oh, he doesn’t have the evidence.” We have so much evidence we don’t know what to do with it. I’m saying, “Do we put all of this into a file?” Again it’s like with wheelbarrows.

Donald Trump: (01:15:50)

If you aren’t planning to vote by mail, vote early in person or vote on election day. Whatever you do I need each of you, every one of you, your friends, your family to go and vote. And after we win we need to pass landmark election reform including voter ID, is that so bad? Residency verification, like we live in the country, we live in this state. Citizenship confirmation. They want to say, “Oh, he doesn’t have to be a citizen.” You got to see what’s voting… They’re not citizens. “You’re a citizen?” “No, I’m not citizen.” “You speak English?” No, no English. I speak, no English.” “Oh, you’re voting?” “Yeah.” This is the craziest thing.

Donald Trump: (01:16:40)

The Democrat National Committee had their convention. And they had a picture, you couldn’t get in unless you had a picture, you had a photo ID. But when it comes to the most important thing voting they don’t want to do it. And they know, they know exactly. We just can’t let that happen. I’ve only been doing this for short time. Believe me this is something we’re going to do because we can’t allow it to happen. And complete overhaul of our election security systems because right now Dominion is a joke, okay? Not a very funny joke.

Donald Trump: (01:17:15)

It’s a disgrace that in 2020 no state in America even makes any real attempt to verify that those who cast ballots by mail are eligible and lawfully registered voters. The evidence of fraud is overwhelming and again, I’m going to ask you to look up at that very, very powerful and very expensive screen. I do this for a few people, let’s go.

Pearson Sharp: (01:17:39)

We certainly want transparency. What he saw is what we revealed to you last night on this program what appears to be Atlanta, Georgia ballot counters being told to leave the counting room, then a short time later with no observers, with no media, hidden cases of possible ballots are rolled out from under a table. Four people under a cloud of suspicion begin what looks an awful lot like ballot stuffing.

Richard Barron: (01:18:09)

And the media did pack up and leave at 11:15, but there weren’t observers there at that time and there was no announcement made for anyone to leave.

Pearson Sharp: (01:18:21)

Now, wait a second here, that is disheveled Fulton County Elections Chief Richard Barron, but he doesn’t have the facts right, video proves it. At 10:40 PM, not 11:15, 10:40, the media is packing up a half hour before he thinks they’ll leave, you can see them putting on their jackets there. And by 10:56, they are long gone. And the Trump team has sworn witness testimony claiming an announcement was most certainly made. In fact, even CNN reported the counting was being shut down due to a water main break that even election administrators now acknowledge was a leaky toilet so someone had to tell those people to leave.

Pearson Sharp: (01:19:05)

And if you look at this table there are ballots in boxes open and ready for counting. Now, watch as they get packed up. Why would you need to secure them and then ultimately take out the mysterious ballots from under the table to start counting? It just doesn’t add up. Elections board member, Dr. Kathleen Ruth shows her skepticism in that Zoom call this morning with the elections chief.

Dr. Kathleen Ruth: (01:19:33)

It is interesting that these ballots were under a table versus being in the open.

Richard Barron: (01:19:42)

Well, I think there’s this… I don’t know that there… I think those ballot boxes get heavy. I don’t think they want to be lifting those things up and putting them back down.

Pearson Sharp: (01:19:59)

It makes no sense. The guy is scratching his head, he just looks nervous. The guy does not inspire confidence. There were already ballots out, but even almost 24 hours since I posted what could be “smoking gun video of election fraud,” a video now with 2.5 million views as of right now on my Twitter feed, the head of elections whose ballot counters are now being accused of ballot stuffing declares this.

Richard Barron: (01:20:30)

I’ll have to review. I need to review the video, I have not seen the video.

Speaker 8: (01:20:34)

Now, please do.

Pearson Sharp: (01:20:38)

Points to life. He hasn’t watched the video that could upend the presidential election, and the guy in charge of the very people in the room admits he didn’t watch the video before updating board members this morning? That’s insanity. And yet Fulton County still certified the election. But you know who did watch our video? Our viewers, Stinchfield army. One directed me to this moment in the video. The woman in purple after putting ballots in to be scanned it appears to take the same batch of ballots out, straighten them, and then, look what she does with them. She re-inserts them back into the ballot counting machine again, the same set of ballots. Now, there may or may not be an explanation for this, but it certainly needs to be investigated by law enforcement as the greatest political heist in election history may have just been caught on camera.

Pearson Sharp: (01:21:43)

Evidence of election fraud mounts as the mainstream media and Democrats loudly insist Joe Biden is still the 2020 winner. However, numerous whistleblowers are coming forward with credible information that hundreds of thousands of votes for President Trump mysteriously disappeared on election night. On Tuesday, Jesse Morgan, a worker for the U.S. Postal Service revealed that his trailer full of ballots simply went missing after he dropped them off. The worker drove his truck from Bethpage, New York, all the way to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and says he was carrying some 288,000 completed mail-in ballots.

Pearson Sharp: (01:22:18)

Phil Kline, the director of the legal group, Thomas More Society Amistad Project says they have many more testimonies from whistleblowers with similar stories. The project is working to discover flaws and even expose cases of voting fraud in the 2020 election and has already uncovered serious examples of voting irregularities. Backing out President Trump’s warnings, Kline explains that the Post Office was rife with fraud and that many Postal Service workers were taking part in widespread illegal efforts to undermine the election.

Pearson Sharp: (01:22:49)

While the missing truck full of ballots is bad enough, other whistleblowers say they drove thousands of prefilled ballots right over state lines, which is a federal crime. A subcontractor for the Post Office, Nathan Pease, said that he was told by two separate postal workers that the Post Office in Wisconsin had collected and backdated over 100,000 ballots on the morning after the election. Unsurprisingly others also claimed the integrity of Dominion voting machines has been compromised and cannot be trusted.

Pearson Sharp: (01:23:20)

During a press conference in Arlington, Virginia on Tuesday, the Project explained that election officials in blue jurisdictions have failed to maintain the ballot chain of custody which leaves the door wide open for voting fraud. The Project said it has photographic evidence of people improperly accessing voting machines and eye witness accounts on how the seals on ballot hard drives were illegally tampered with and broken. Kline says that in total there are over 300,000 fraudulent ballots in Arizona, 548,000 in Michigan, 204,000 in Georgia, and 121,000 in Pennsylvania. Based on this evidence the FBI has reportedly requested to look at the Project’s data on voting integrity…

Pearson Sharp: (01:24:03)

… has reportedly requested to look at the project’s data on voting integrity and potential election fraud. Pearson Sharp, One America News.

Donald Trump: (01:24:13)

So if you just take the crime of what those Democrat workers were doing, and by the way, there was no water main break. You know they said… there was no water main break.

Donald Trump: (01:24:25)

That’s 10 times more than I need to win this state, 10 times more. It’s 10 times maybe more than that, but it’s 10 times more because we lost by a very close number. The alleged Biden margin of victory in several states is entirely accounted for by extraordinarily large midnight vote dumps. You saw them going up to the sky, all extremely skewed to Biden. Like, Biden would get 10,000 votes and Trump would get three in a Trump area. Oh. For, example, at 6:31 AM in Michigan, reported 141,238 votes for Joe Biden and 5,900 votes for Donald Trump.

Audience: (01:25:13)

Boo.

Donald Trump: (01:25:14)

96% for Biden, 4% for Trump in an area where I should be doing quite well. You know, I won almost every county in Michigan, almost every district, except for one. And they actually had more people, if you look at the ballots, they had ballots all over. They had more ballots than they had people voting. How do you do that? So they had people and they’re voting, and then as you know, two of the canvassers were very brave. They didn’t vote, and they got the hell knocked out of them from the standpoint of what they went through. All the cameras went off and then they raised their hand, but then they couldn’t sign it ultimately, but more ballots than they had voters. Now, how simple is that?

Donald Trump: (01:25:56)

A similar vote dump occurred in Wisconsin at 3:42 AM. This is 3:42 in the morning. In fact, when I went to bed that night, everybody was calling, “Congratulations. You’re up 600,000 votes in Pennsylvania.” Across all of the key swing states, there were impossibly low rejection rates, you saw that, for mail-in ballots, drastically less than the historic norm. In Georgia 0.5% of the mail-in ballots were rejected in 2020 compared to 5.77%. That’s a difference of 11 times more. It’s hundreds of thousands of votes. In Pennsylvania, 0.03% were rejected in 2020 compared to a much, much higher percentage in 2016. This issue alone is enough to change the election results in many states.

Donald Trump: (01:26:51)

Whistleblowers. And that’s the smallest of the issues, whistleblowers in multiple states have testified to witnessing postal workers and election workers illegally backdating thousands and thousands of ballots, fixing ballots, filling out false birthdays, registering ineligible voters, and much, much more. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of votes in each state. In Arizona, a sample of 100 ballots reviewed by a judge found that a very small percentage of these ballots, very small, but when you look at it, it was turned out to be very large, it was tens of thousands of votes, more than we would have needed to win Arizona. We should have won that state very easily. We have a similar type of governor, I think, but I’ll let you know that in about a week.

Donald Trump: (01:27:43)

In one Michigan county, and by the way, when Laura Ingram interviewed your governor, he said he was an offensive lineman. I said, “That’s strange. He doesn’t look like an offensive lineman to me.” In one Michigan county using Dominion voting systems, nearly 6,000 votes were discovered that were wrongly switched from Trump to Biden. They called it a glitch. You know a glitch? Just like the machine broke. Numerous times we found glitches, and every single time, the glitch went a hundred percent to Biden and no percent to Trump. The same systems are used in 30 states.

Donald Trump: (01:28:20)

The left lies, they cheat and they steal. They are ruthless and they are hellbent on getting power and control by any means necessary. They investigate you and they prosecute you. The moment you question them, they try and intimidate you. They call you a poor American. You’re not a good American. You don’t love our country. They don’t love our country. They beat you down, shut you up and make you retreat. That’s what they do. That’s what they’ve done to your governor. They’ve done that to your governor. Your governor should be ashamed of himself. That’s what they want to do right here in Georgia. They want you to be quiet. They want you to go away, but we don’t go away. We don’t go.

Donald Trump: (01:29:09)

It’s the biggest open secret in America that Democrats cheat in elections, this year by sending out 65 million mail-in ballots. They perpetrated the largest fraud in the history of our country. Democrat officials and politicians in every swing state, systematically weakened every measure to combat election fraud. They ensured that there were no identity checks, no signature checks. “I want to check a signature, please.” “I’m sorry. We don’t let you do that.” No eligibility checks, no nothing.

Donald Trump: (01:29:44)

Every single one of you know that if these ballots are properly audited, if the signatures and envelopes were examined, if the envelopes were correlated to the votes, because you’ll find there are far more ballots than there are envelopes, all you have to do is count them up. How many ballots do you have? How many envelopes do you have? And if the voter rolls are studied, in other words, studied to check the signature. “Ms. Smith. Oh, it’s a totally different signature from 2 years ago, from 6 years ago, from 10 years ago. What’s that all about?” We will find that hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast in your state and all over the country, by the way, more than enough to give us a total historic victory.

Donald Trump: (01:30:35)

This is our country that they are… and you know this and you see it, but they’re trying to take it from us through rigging, fraud, deception, and deceit. That’s what we saw in the election. That’s what’s going on, and it’s happening right now in our country. We will do something about it, and we’re going to do something about it quickly. We’re going to be watching on January 5th, we’re going to be watching every element of what they do. This fraud that they perpetrated on our country, we’re going to be watching it more closely than any election has ever been watched. Hopefully, our legislatures and the United States Supreme Court will step forward and save our country.

Donald Trump: (01:31:23)

I used to say, “Without borders, we don’t have a country.” I can say also without an honest voting system, without an electoral process that works and that’s honest and fair, we don’t have a country either. We need to check every single signature in the presidential and senatorial elections. Right now, we have to get out to vote for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to show the radical left that we will never surrender, we will only win. We’re going to win. We always win. Somehow we find a way to win.

Donald Trump: (01:31:54)

Now, is not the time to retreat. Now is the time to fight harder than ever before. So don’t listen to my friends. Just go out, just go out. And you know what they’re saying? They’re saying, “We want you to fix the system.” We’re going to fix the system, but the system will be fixed when these people get in. They’ll get in and we’ll fix this system because we’re all victims. Everybody here, all these thousands of people here tonight, they’re all victims, every one of you.

Donald Trump: (01:32:24)

The next great victory for our movement begins right here on January 5th. Then we are going to win back the White House. We’re going to win it back. We’re going to take back the house in 2022, and then in 2024. And hopefully I won’t have to be a candidate, we’re going to win back the White House again. A friend of mine said, “Oh, don’t worry about it, sir. You’re way up in the polls. You’ll win in 2024.” I said, “I don’t want to wait until 2024. I want to go back three weeks.”

Donald Trump: (01:33:07)

We’re thrilled to be joined tonight by some real friends of all of ours, Representatives Doug Collins. It was fantastic, and by the way, I’ve got to tell you. As you know, he and Kelly had a great primary, a very strong primary. They both did fantastically well, and he is on board and he is one of the greatest advocates I’ve ever met in Washington. I want to thank Doug Collins. Where’s Doug? Thank you, Doug. What a job he does. Thank you. Doug, you want to run for governor in two years [inaudible 01:33:45]? Yeah. Good-looking governor.

Donald Trump: (01:33:55)

A friend of mine, one of the toughest guys you’ll ever see, Louie Gohmert of Texas. Louie. Thank you Louie. Thank you, Louie. And a young up-and-comer who’s taken Washington by storm, Dan Crenshaw. Where’s Dan? Where’s Dan? Where is Dan? I didn’t see you, Dan. The first time that’s ever happened to me. Yeah, because you do stand out in many ways. Thank you very much, San.

Donald Trump: (01:34:27)

The next Senator from Tennessee just got elected. Did my endorsement help? Ah? Better believe it. We love Tennessee. Bill Haggerty. He’s going to be a great Senator. He’s going to be a great senator for a long time. You’re a former eight-year governor. He only left because of a thing called term limits. If I would’ve known, I would’ve tried to end those term limits, but he went to the Department of Agriculture as his head.

Donald Trump: (01:34:55)

He’s done a tremendous job. We’ve handed out $28 billion to farmers, 28 billion. I said, how badly have we been targeted by China? And Sonny produced that over a two-year period, sir. $28 billion. That’s when I put the tariffs on China, took the money and gave it out to the farmers. And we had a lot of money left over and we put that into the U.S. treasury, right Sonny? You’ve done a fantastic job. He knows more about farms than any human being.

Donald Trump: (01:35:24)

State representative. A friend of mine, and great gentleman. He saw what was happening. He happens to be a Democrat, but we love him. I’m trying to talk him into joining our party. Vernon Jones. [inaudible 01:35:36]. Thank you Vernon. What a great guy.

Donald Trump: (01:35:44)

Agriculture commissioner, Gary Black. Gary, good job you’re doing. Boy, what a good reputation. Thank you very much, Gary. Your Public Service Commission’s Tricia Pridemore, Jason Shaw and a great man. Great, great man who’s also on the ballot next month. Bubba McDonald. I like that name. Where’s Bubba? [inaudible 01:36:06].

Audience: (01:36:06)

Go Bubba. Yes.

Donald Trump: (01:36:10)

Great, great job. Great job. That’s great. Thanks a lot, Bubba. And I introduce you to Bert Jones. Bert’s going to be a very important man, I think, over the next coming with William and Brandon and the folks and I appreciate it. And Greg, thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it very much. Very important. Georgia Republican Party Chairman, David Shafer. David. Hi David, how are we doing, David? We’ll fire you so fast if we don’t. Now, David’s done a great, great job, and he works very closely with RMC chairwoman. This is how we won. We won a great state. We won a great state known as Michigan when she was there. And I said, “Let’s bring her to Washington.” Ronna McDaniel. Thank you, Ronna. Thank you. Thank you, Rona.

Donald Trump: (01:37:06)

Over the last four years, we’ve built the greatest political movement in the history of our country. Already, we’ve achieved more than anyone thought possible and we’re just getting started and we don’t want other people to rip it apart. We must reelect Kelly and David to keep it going for decades. Our politicians spent trillions and trillions of dollars rebuilding other foreign nations, fighting foreign wars and defending foreign borders. We want to defend our border if it’s okay. And we’re now finally protecting our nation, rebuilding our cities, and we are bringing our jobs, our factories, and our troops back home to the USA where they belong, thank you.

Donald Trump: (01:37:51)

Bringing them home. Not easy to bring them home. I bring them home, and they say, “Well, Sir, we got to keep them there, sir. We got to keep spending money.” We got to keep giving money to these countries that can’t stand us, that nobody ever heard of-

Audience: (01:38:06)

Boo.

Donald Trump: (01:38:06)

In everything we do, we are putting America first. We ended the war on American energy and the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere on earth.

Donald Trump: (01:38:21)

We achieved the most secure border in U.S. history, and we built our wall, as I say. Very important for you because you’re a big military between the equipment we build and VA choice and VA accountability, right? You ever notice the vets? We used to always have… On television, you’d have the fake news, they’d always be… Well in that case, it wasn’t fake, but for years, you’d always see vets how badly treated they were, how badly treated. I shouldn’t say this because they’ll find one somewhere in the country, but you don’t see that. You don’t see that anymore. You don’t see the stories on the evening news about vets that are being treated horribly. And accountability was a big factor. We fired 9,000 horrible people that took advantage of our vets, and they’re gone. Now if our vets don’t get good service, they go out, they see a doctor. We pay the bill, they get better. They don’t wait in line for weeks and months.

Donald Trump: (01:39:20)

We destroyed 100% of the ISIS caliphate in Iraq and Syria. We killed the leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi and we eliminated the world’s top terrorist, Soleimani is dead. I withdrew from the last administration’s disastrous Iran nuclear deal, and I think they want to start it up again. Can you believe this?

Audience: (01:39:44)

Boo.

Donald Trump: (01:39:46)

I wonder if they’ll give him 150 billion. No, they’ll give him 250. They were ready to rock. They were ready to do whatever we wanted. Now they’re going to… they’re salivating. I recognized the true capital of Israel and opened the American embassy in Jerusalem, and also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Instead of endless war, we are forging peace all over the world.

Donald Trump: (01:40:13)

And you know, we have the greatest military ever. We have the greatest equipment, all made in the USA. A lot of it made in Georgia, but you know what? I’m the only one in many, many decades that hasn’t started a war. Everyone thought that with my personality, I’d be in war the first week. They were all saying war, and we developed relationships. Let’s see how he would do with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. I don’t think too well, but whatever happened to that? Remember I came in, it was going to be war with North Korea. It was going to be war with everybody.

Donald Trump: (01:40:46)

Now, we built the greatest military in the world and the better it is, the less likely it is that we’re going to have to use it. But everything that we’ve achieved together is on the line on June 5th. And this election, you can send a message to the fake news media, and there’s a lot of them right back there.

Audience: (01:41:03)

Boo.

Donald Trump: (01:41:08)

They’ll find something wrong with this evening. I don’t know what it is, but they’ll find something wrong. Maybe it was the person that shouted love. They’ll say I was a horrible protester. They’ll find something. Kelly and David, they’re going to find something. They’re looking and having a hard time. It’s been a love fest. This is a love fest for these two people. But they all want the Silicon Valley sensors and the corrupt Democrat political machine. They’re partners. You must vote for David Perdue and Kelly Leffler. Go out and vote. With your help, we are going to continue our mission to save America. We will defend the right to life, religious liberty, free speech and the right to keep and bear arms. They’re going to take your guns away.

Donald Trump: (01:41:57)

We will always support the heroes of law enforcement. We will maintain America’s unrivaled military might, and we will preserve peace through strength. We will protect social security and Medicare, and we will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.

Donald Trump: (01:42:18)

We will stop the radical indoctrination of our students and children, and restore a patriotic education to our schools. We will teach our children to love our country, honor our history and always respect our great American flag. We will live by the words of our national motto, In God We Trust.

Donald Trump: (01:42:47)

From Atlanta to Augusta, from Savannah to Columbus and from Athens to right here, right here, this is a nice place. It’s a nice place, Valdosta. We inherit the legacy of generations of American patriots who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to defend our country and our freedom. We stand on the shoulders of American heroes who crossed the oceans, settled the continent, tamed the wilderness, laid down the railroads, raised up the great skyscrapers, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and made America into the single greatest nation in the history of the world.

Donald Trump: (01:43:32)

And if they get in, and add me into the group, if you don’t mind, we will be greater than ever before without question. The best is yet to come.

Donald Trump: (01:43:46)

Proud citizens like you helped build this country, and together we are taking back our country. Our fight to drain the Washington swamp and reclaim America’s destiny has just begun. We will not bend. We will not break. We will not yield. We will never give in. We will never give up and we will never back down. We will never, ever surrender because we are Americans and our hearts bleed red, white, and blue.

Audience: (01:44:20)

U.S.A. U. S.A.

Donald Trump: (01:44:39)

We are one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. And together with the incredible people of Georgia, we have made America powerful again. They’ve done it. We have made America wealthy again. We have made America strong again. We have made America proud again. We have made America safe again, and we will make America great again. Thank you, Georgia. Get out and vote, get out and vote.

Voters in Massachusetts are deciding who advances to the November general election to run for governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House and a slew of other offices.

One of the closest watched contests in Tuesday's primary pits longtime incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano against Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley. If elected, she'd be the first black woman Massachusetts has sent to Congress.

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate seeking a second term, faces conservative Springfield minister Scott Lively. Jay Gonzalez and Robert Massie are competing in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Three Republicans are seeking their party's nomination to oppose Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November. Warren is unopposed in the primary.

Several members of Massachusetts' all-Democratic U.S. House delegation faced challenges in Tuesday's primary, which also featured races for governor and a Republican contest for the U.S. Senate.

Another veteran congressman, Rep. Richard Neal, also faced a spirited primary challenge from Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a black attorney from Springfield who if elected would be the first Muslim to serve in Congress from Massachusetts. Neal, the dean of the state's House delegation, first was elected in 1989.

Three other Democratic incumbents _ Reps. Stephen Lynch, William Keating and Joe Kennedy _ also faced primary opponents Tuesday. That's a stark difference from just two years ago, when not a single Democratic incumbent was challenged in the primaries.,

Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, is retiring at the end of this term and the open seat has touched off a political scramble with 10 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot.

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate who has been popular with voters in what is perceived as one of the nation's bluest states, faced a primary challenge from Scott Lively, a conservative minister from Springfield.

Lively, who has little money or staff, calls Baker a "RINO" ("Republican in name only") and declares he is "100 percent" behind President Donald Trump.

A pair of lesser-known Democrats, Jay Gonzalez and Robert Massie, are battling in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Both contend that Baker's support among voters is soft and that his administration has failed to make significant strides in many areas, particularly the problems plaguing the Boston-area transit system known as the T.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is unopposed in the Democratic primary, but three Republicans are competing for the nod to face her in November: state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who was the co-chair of Trump's Massachusetts campaign; John Kingston, a businessman who once tried to fund a third-party challenge to Trump but has become more supportive of the president; and Beth Lindstrom, who served in former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney's administration.

With the primary falling on the day after Labor Day, just as many voters return from summer vacations and the new school year is starting, turnout was expected to be modest. Democratic Secretary of State William Galvin said he had little choice because other possible primary dates conflicted with religious holidays or posed other obstacles.

Galvin himself faced a primary challenge Tuesday from Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim.

Boston – 30 August, 2018

1. SOUNDBITE Bob Salsberg, AP Statehouse Reporter:

++PARTIALLY COVERED++

"There are several interesting storylines going into the Massachusetts primary on Tuesday. Let's begin with talking about the U.S. Senate race, where Elizabeth Warren, seeking a second term, is unopposed in the Democratic primary, but there are three Republicans who are vying for the chance to oppose her in November: Geoff Diehl, John Kingston and Beth Lindstrom. Now, none of – all three of them would be considered a long shot to beat Warren in November, but from the Republican perspective, this is an opportunity, perhaps, to point out some of what they consider to be Warren's weaknesses. They have said that she's a divisive force, and remember that Warren is among the Democrats most prominently mentioned as potential contenders to President Donald Trump in 2020."

Malden, Massachusetts – 30 April, 2013

2. Still image of "I Voted" stickers resting on a table at a polling place

Woburn, Massachusetts – 8 August, 2018

3. Still image of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a town hall style gathering

(From left to right)

Worcester, Massachusetts – 28 April, 2018

4. Still image of Geoff Diehl addressing the Massachusetts Republican Convention at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester, Massachusetts – 28 April, 2018

5. Still image of John Kingston addressing the Massachusetts Republican Convention at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Worcester, Massachusetts – 28 April, 2018

6. Still image of Beth Lindstrom addressing the Massachusetts Republican Convention at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester, Massachusetts – 1 June, 2018

7. Still image of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren speaking at the 2018 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts

8. SOUNDBITE Bob Salsberg, AP Statehouse Reporter:

++PARTIALLY COVERED++

"You also have the House races here in Massachusetts, which are interesting from the perspective of well, none of them are really expected to flip to Republican in November. Five of the eight incumbent Democrats who are seeking re-election in November have primary challenges on Tuesday. Now, that's extremely unusual, because if you look back just two years ago, not a single Democratic House incumbent was challenged in the party primary here."

Washington DC – 8 December, 2016

9. Still image of the Capitol Building as seen in Washington

(Top: From left to right. Bottom: From left to right.)

Boston – 7 August, 2018

10. Still image of Incumbent Democratic congressman Michael Capuano at the University of Massachusetts, in Boston

Springfield, Massachusetts – 26 March, 2011

11. Still image of U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, speaking at a public hearing held by the legislative redistricting committee in Springfield, Massachusetts, March 26, 2011

Taunton, Massachusetts – 6 September, 2012

12. Still image of U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy, addressing a crowd during a watch party in Taunton, Massachusetts, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012

Quincy, Massachusetts – 14 September, 2010

13. Still image of U.S. Rep. William Keating addressing supporters during his primary night campaign victory rally, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010, in Quincy, Massachusetts

Unknown location – 2013

14. Still file photo of U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch

15. SOUNDBITE Bob Salsberg, AP Statehouse Reporter:

++PARTIALLY COVERED++

"It's entirely possible that none of those Democrats will actually lose their seats. It is reflective, I think, of a strong progressive movement here in Massachusetts – in particular, where you have the race in the 7th District, where Ayanna Pressley, a Boston city councilor, first black woman elected to the Boston City Council, is challenging Mike Capuano, a longtime congressman serving in that district – not so much on differences in particular issues, but more in terms of leadership and overall vision of where the party and where the country should be headed."

Boston – 7 August, 2018

16. Still image of Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., during a debate at the University of Massachusetts, in Boston.

Cambridge, Massachusetts – 1 February, 2018

17. Still image of U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., speaking Feb. 1, 2018, during a town hall-style event at the Cambridge Public Library, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney says it's time for his party to disavow the "big lie" fueled by President Donald Trump and his supporters that the election was fraudulent.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday, the Utah Senator said that lie continues to divide the country, and he called that "a real problem."

"As long as we continue to pretend like the lie is something other than a lie, then the nation will be divided," Romney said.

"I do believe that it's important for us as Republicans in particular to point out that the big lie is simply that - a lie. That Joe Biden won the election, fair and square," he said.

Romney, who was the only Republican senator to vote to convict President Donald Trump during his last impeachment trial, has not said how he will vote in the upcoming trial.

But he said he hopes the Senate can balance providing "the justice that would be anticipated in an impeachment trial with quick confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees.

POOL

Washington, DC - 19 January 2021

1. Senator Mitt Romney walks down Senate hallway, stops to talk to press

2. Romney elbow bumps Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's nominee for Homeland Security Secretary

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Mitt Romney, (R) Utah:

"I think it's very, very important that we have a secretary of homeland security in place as soon as possible, and we'll be able to have a chance to discuss his vision today, and I'll get a chance to speak with him privately before the end of the week.

(Reporter:  I know this probably won't be a decision you get to be intimately involved in but how would you like to see this senate balance an impeachment trial and confirming these nominees and doing the other business of the new administration?)

You're right. It's not my choice. I hope that we can do both as quickly as possible and provide the justice that would be anticipated in an impeachment trial, at the same time to carry out the responsibilities we have to get a cabinet confirmed."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Mitt Romney, (R) Utah:

"(Reporter: You had some pretty harsh words for some of your colleagues who had spoken out during the electoral challenge process. What do you think they need to do to get right with this body and with the American people after what we saw on January 6?)

Well I think those that raised questions about seeding electors raise legitimate issues but I think the timing of those issues being raised was not appropriate. And I disagreed with them bringing them forward at the time they did. But I think they were entitled to do so, it didn't violate our Senate rules. And so suggestions of some kind of punishment or whatever I think are out of line. But, but I do believe that it's important for us as Republicans in particular to point out that the big lie is simply that - a lie. That Joe Biden won the election, fair and square. And as long as we continue to pretend like the lie is something other than a lie, then the nation will be divided. When people are saying oh we need to have unity, and at the same time, they don't recognize that the lie, is what's causing the disunity, that obviously is a real problem and so I think it's important for people to say hey, Joe Biden won fair and square. Let's become united and proceed from there."

5. Romney walks away

Microsoft has uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups ahead of the midterm elections.

The company said Tuesday that a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute.

Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate.

Microsoft didn't offer any further description of the fake sites, although it has previously outlined in court filings how this hacking group operated a network of fake sites designed to trick victims into installing malicious software.The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Microsoft's report reflects a "witch hunt" in the U.S. The ministry said Tuesday that Microsoft's statement lacked any proof of Russian involvement because "there can't be any."

The revelation of new hacking efforts arrives just weeks after a similar Microsoft discovery led Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is running for re-election, to reveal that Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network.

The hacking mirrors similar Russian attacks ahead of the 2016 election, which U.S. intelligence officials have said were focused on helping to elect Republican Donald Trump to the presidency by hurting his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him," Florida Senator Marco Rubio said.

This time, more than helping one political party over another, "this activity is most fundamentally focused on disrupting democracy," Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said in an interview this week.

The FBI said Tuesday it's aware of Microsoft's actions to disrupt the sites but the agency wouldn't provide details about whether it's working with the company to combat the hacking group.

Microsoft's court filing last week said the hackers "registered or used" the fake domains at some point after April 20.

Smith said there is no sign the hackers were successful in persuading anyone to click on the fake websites, which could have exposed a target victim to computer infiltration, hidden surveillance and data theft. Both conservative think tanks said they have tried to be vigilant about "spear-phishing" email attacks because their global pro-democracy work has frequently drawn the ire of authoritarian governments.

The Hudson Institute, which promotes American global leadership on multiple fronts, doesn't always see eye-to-eye with President Donald Trump, particularly with respect to Russia. In April, the institute published a report entitled "Countering Russian Kleptocracy" that laid out a blueprint for punishing Russian corruption and discouraging it through sanctions, including on Russia's sovereign debt.

The International Republican Institute, the GOP counterpart to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, trains foreign political operatives and parties on how to run elections and govern. Its members help political parties organize campaigns and observe election processes with the aim of fixing flaws and improving public confidence in elections.

It is led by a board that includes six Republican senators, and one prominent Russia critic and Senate hopeful, Mitt Romney, who is running for a Utah seat this fall.

The group's president, Daniel Twining, said in a statement that the apparent hacking is "consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights."

Microsoft calls the hacking group Strontium; others call it Fancy Bear or APT28. An indictment from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has tied it to Russian's main intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and to the 2016 email hacking of both the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

Microsoft has waged a legal battle with Strontium since suing it in a Virginia federal court in summer 2016. The company obtained court approval last year allowing it to seize certain fake domains created by the group. It has so far used the courts to shut down 84 fake websites created by the group, including the most recent six announced Tuesday.

Microsoft has argued in court that by setting up fake but realistic-looking domains, the hackers were misusing Microsoft trademarks and services to hack into targeted computer networks, install malware and steal sensitive emails and other data.

Smith also announced Tuesday that the company is offering free cyber security protection to all U.S. political candidates, campaigns and other political organizations, at least so long as they're already using Microsoft's Office 365 productivity software. Facebook and Google have also promoted similar tools to combat campaign interference.

Mountain View, California - 20 October 2014

1. Wide view of Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

2. Close view of Microsoft sign

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina:

"For the record I would like to put in the Microsoft article about the Microsoft operation and it basically says that Microsoft, to their great credit, found out that the Russians were up to it again and the target this time was the International Republican Institute which Senator McCain is the chairman that has been very vocal against Russia's interference in democracies particularly on the Hudson Institute and the United States Senate. To Republicans, if you think the Russians just don't have you in mind, you're making a great mistake. They're trying to undermine the democratic process. Now that we're in charge, we're a natural target."

Mountain View, California - October 20, 2014

4. Various, Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Marco Rubio (R) Florida:

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him. It's a very low cost way for him to discredit his opponents but more importantly to sow internal strife in the United States which he views as something that weakens us and and undermines our willingness and our resolve."

Internet - 21 August 2018

6. STILLS Onscreen views of conservative websites that were hacked

Washington, DC -21 August 2018

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Jeff Flake (R) Arizona:

"You know I think you're going to find other avenues as well they've been trying to influence. So they're the bad guys and they're trying to influence our elections. They're trying to, on every level, I think that they felt that they had some success last time and so they'll step it up."

Internet - 21 August 2018

8. STILL, screen grab of U.S. Senate website

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Bob Menendez (D) New Jersey:

"Concern is that they are also trying to hack the Senate as well as conservative think tanks and it just shows if there's no limit to what the Russian Federation under Putin will do to undermine American democracy so we should be doing everything we can. I'm looking forward to the briefing that we will have tomorrow by the administration to understand what it is in fact they're doing but it doesn't seem to me that we have deterred Russian aggression."

Moscow, Russia - 8 August 2018

10. Various, Kremlin video

Microsoft has uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups ahead of the midterm elections.

The company said Tuesday that a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute.

Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate.

Microsoft didn't offer any further description of the fake sites, although it has previously outlined in court filings how this hacking group operated a network of fake sites designed to trick victims into installing malicious software.The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Microsoft's report reflects a "witch hunt" in the U.S. The ministry said Tuesday that Microsoft's statement lacked any proof of Russian involvement because "there can't be any."

The revelation of new hacking efforts arrives just weeks after a similar Microsoft discovery led Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is running for re-election, to reveal that Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network.

The hacking mirrors similar Russian attacks ahead of the 2016 election, which U.S. intelligence officials have said were focused on helping to elect Republican Donald Trump to the presidency by hurting his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him," Florida Senator Marco Rubio said.

This time, more than helping one political party over another, "this activity is most fundamentally focused on disrupting democracy," Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said in an interview this week.

The FBI said Tuesday it's aware of Microsoft's actions to disrupt the sites but the agency wouldn't provide details about whether it's working with the company to combat the hacking group.

Microsoft's court filing last week said the hackers "registered or used" the fake domains at some point after April 20.

Smith said there is no sign the hackers were successful in persuading anyone to click on the fake websites, which could have exposed a target victim to computer infiltration, hidden surveillance and data theft. Both conservative think tanks said they have tried to be vigilant about "spear-phishing" email attacks because their global pro-democracy work has frequently drawn the ire of authoritarian governments.

The Hudson Institute, which promotes American global leadership on multiple fronts, doesn't always see eye-to-eye with President Donald Trump, particularly with respect to Russia. In April, the institute published a report entitled "Countering Russian Kleptocracy" that laid out a blueprint for punishing Russian corruption and discouraging it through sanctions, including on Russia's sovereign debt.

The International Republican Institute, the GOP counterpart to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, trains foreign political operatives and parties on how to run elections and govern. Its members help political parties organize campaigns and observe election processes with the aim of fixing flaws and improving public confidence in elections.

It is led by a board that includes six Republican senators, and one prominent Russia critic and Senate hopeful, Mitt Romney, who is running for a Utah seat this fall.

The group's president, Daniel Twining, said in a statement that the apparent hacking is "consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights."

Microsoft calls the hacking group Strontium; others call it Fancy Bear or APT28. An indictment from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has tied it to Russian's main intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and to the 2016 email hacking of both the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

Microsoft has waged a legal battle with Strontium since suing it in a Virginia federal court in summer 2016. The company obtained court approval last year allowing it to seize certain fake domains created by the group. It has so far used the courts to shut down 84 fake websites created by the group, including the most recent six announced Tuesday.

Microsoft has argued in court that by setting up fake but realistic-looking domains, the hackers were misusing Microsoft trademarks and services to hack into targeted computer networks, install malware and steal sensitive emails and other data.

Smith also announced Tuesday that the company is offering free cyber security protection to all U.S. political candidates, campaigns and other political organizations, at least so long as they're already using Microsoft's Office 365 productivity software. Facebook and Google have also promoted similar tools to combat campaign interference.

Mountain View, California - 20 October 2014

1. Wide view of Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

2. Close view of Microsoft sign

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina:

"For the record I would like to put in the Microsoft article about the Microsoft operation and it basically says that Microsoft, to their great credit, found out that the Russians were up to it again and the target this time was the International Republican Institute which Senator McCain is the chairman that has been very vocal against Russia's interference in democracies particularly on the Hudson Institute and the United States Senate. To Republicans, if you think the Russians just don't have you in mind, you're making a great mistake. They're trying to undermine the democratic process. Now that we're in charge, we're a natural target."

Mountain View, California - October 20, 2014

4. Various, Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Marco Rubio (R) Florida:

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him. It's a very low cost way for him to discredit his opponents but more importantly to sow internal strife in the United States which he views as something that weakens us and and undermines our willingness and our resolve."

Internet - 21 August 2018

6. STILLS Onscreen views of conservative websites that were hacked

Washington, DC -21 August 2018

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Jeff Flake (R) Arizona:

"You know I think you're going to find other avenues as well they've been trying to influence. So they're the bad guys and they're trying to influence our elections. They're trying to, on every level, I think that they felt that they had some success last time and so they'll step it up."

Internet - 21 August 2018

8. STILL, screen grab of U.S. Senate website

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Bob Menendez (D) New Jersey:

"Concern is that they are also trying to hack the Senate as well as conservative think tanks and it just shows if there's no limit to what the Russian Federation under Putin will do to undermine American democracy so we should be doing everything we can. I'm looking forward to the briefing that we will have tomorrow by the administration to understand what it is in fact they're doing but it doesn't seem to me that we have deterred Russian aggression."

Moscow, Russia - 8 August 2018

10. Various, Kremlin video

Microsoft has uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups ahead of the midterm elections.

The company said Tuesday that a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute.

Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate.

Microsoft didn't offer any further description of the fake sites, although it has previously outlined in court filings how this hacking group operated a network of fake sites designed to trick victims into installing malicious software.The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Microsoft's report reflects a "witch hunt" in the U.S. The ministry said Tuesday that Microsoft's statement lacked any proof of Russian involvement because "there can't be any."

The revelation of new hacking efforts arrives just weeks after a similar Microsoft discovery led Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is running for re-election, to reveal that Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network.

The hacking mirrors similar Russian attacks ahead of the 2016 election, which U.S. intelligence officials have said were focused on helping to elect Republican Donald Trump to the presidency by hurting his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him," Florida Senator Marco Rubio said.

This time, more than helping one political party over another, "this activity is most fundamentally focused on disrupting democracy," Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said in an interview this week.

The FBI said Tuesday it's aware of Microsoft's actions to disrupt the sites but the agency wouldn't provide details about whether it's working with the company to combat the hacking group.

Microsoft's court filing last week said the hackers "registered or used" the fake domains at some point after April 20.

Smith said there is no sign the hackers were successful in persuading anyone to click on the fake websites, which could have exposed a target victim to computer infiltration, hidden surveillance and data theft. Both conservative think tanks said they have tried to be vigilant about "spear-phishing" email attacks because their global pro-democracy work has frequently drawn the ire of authoritarian governments.

The Hudson Institute, which promotes American global leadership on multiple fronts, doesn't always see eye-to-eye with President Donald Trump, particularly with respect to Russia. In April, the institute published a report entitled "Countering Russian Kleptocracy" that laid out a blueprint for punishing Russian corruption and discouraging it through sanctions, including on Russia's sovereign debt.

The International Republican Institute, the GOP counterpart to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, trains foreign political operatives and parties on how to run elections and govern. Its members help political parties organize campaigns and observe election processes with the aim of fixing flaws and improving public confidence in elections.

It is led by a board that includes six Republican senators, and one prominent Russia critic and Senate hopeful, Mitt Romney, who is running for a Utah seat this fall.

The group's president, Daniel Twining, said in a statement that the apparent hacking is "consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights."

Microsoft calls the hacking group Strontium; others call it Fancy Bear or APT28. An indictment from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has tied it to Russian's main intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and to the 2016 email hacking of both the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

Microsoft has waged a legal battle with Strontium since suing it in a Virginia federal court in summer 2016. The company obtained court approval last year allowing it to seize certain fake domains created by the group. It has so far used the courts to shut down 84 fake websites created by the group, including the most recent six announced Tuesday.

Microsoft has argued in court that by setting up fake but realistic-looking domains, the hackers were misusing Microsoft trademarks and services to hack into targeted computer networks, install malware and steal sensitive emails and other data.

Smith also announced Tuesday that the company is offering free cyber security protection to all U.S. political candidates, campaigns and other political organizations, at least so long as they're already using Microsoft's Office 365 productivity software. Facebook and Google have also promoted similar tools to combat campaign interference.

Mountain View, California - 20 October 2014

1. Wide view of Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

2. Close view of Microsoft sign

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina:

"For the record I would like to put in the Microsoft article about the Microsoft operation and it basically says that Microsoft, to their great credit, found out that the Russians were up to it again and the target this time was the International Republican Institute which Senator McCain is the chairman that has been very vocal against Russia's interference in democracies particularly on the Hudson Institute and the United States Senate. To Republicans, if you think the Russians just don't have you in mind, you're making a great mistake. They're trying to undermine the democratic process. Now that we're in charge, we're a natural target."

Mountain View, California - October 20, 2014

4. Various, Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Marco Rubio (R) Florida:

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him. It's a very low cost way for him to discredit his opponents but more importantly to sow internal strife in the United States which he views as something that weakens us and and undermines our willingness and our resolve."

Internet - 21 August 2018

6. STILLS Onscreen views of conservative websites that were hacked

Washington, DC -21 August 2018

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Jeff Flake (R) Arizona:

"You know I think you're going to find other avenues as well they've been trying to influence. So they're the bad guys and they're trying to influence our elections. They're trying to, on every level, I think that they felt that they had some success last time and so they'll step it up."

Internet - 21 August 2018

8. STILL, screen grab of U.S. Senate website

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Bob Menendez (D) New Jersey:

"Concern is that they are also trying to hack the Senate as well as conservative think tanks and it just shows if there's no limit to what the Russian Federation under Putin will do to undermine American democracy so we should be doing everything we can. I'm looking forward to the briefing that we will have tomorrow by the administration to understand what it is in fact they're doing but it doesn't seem to me that we have deterred Russian aggression."

Moscow, Russia - 8 August 2018

10. Various, Kremlin video

Microsoft has uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups ahead of the mid-term elections.

The company said Tuesday that a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute.

Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate.

Microsoft didn't offer any further description of the fake sites, although it has previously outlined in court filings how this hacking group operated a network of fake sites designed to trick victims into installing malicious software.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Microsoft's report reflects a "witch hunt" in the U.S. The ministry said Tuesday that Microsoft's statement lacked any proof of Russian involvement because "there can't be any."

The revelation of new hacking efforts arrives just weeks after a similar Microsoft discovery led Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is running for re-election, to reveal that Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network.

The hacking mirrors similar Russian attacks ahead of the 2016 election, which U.S. intelligence officials have said were focused on helping to elect Republican Donald Trump to the presidency by hurting his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him," Florida Senator Marco Rubio said.

This time, more than helping one political party over another, "this activity is most fundamentally focused on disrupting democracy," Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said in an interview this week.

The FBI said Tuesday it's aware of Microsoft's actions to disrupt the sites but the agency wouldn't provide details about whether it's working with the company to combat the hacking group.

Microsoft's court filing last week said the hackers "registered or used" the fake domains at some point after April 20.

Smith said there is no sign the hackers were successful in persuading anyone to click on the fake websites, which could have exposed a target victim to computer infiltration, hidden surveillance and data theft. Both conservative think tanks said they have tried to be vigilant about "spear-phishing" email attacks because their global pro-democracy work has frequently drawn the ire of authoritarian governments.

The Hudson Institute, which promotes American global leadership on multiple fronts, doesn't always see eye-to-eye with President Donald Trump, particularly with respect to Russia. In April, the institute published a report entitled "Countering Russian Kleptocracy" that laid out a blueprint for punishing Russian corruption and discouraging it through sanctions, including on Russia's sovereign debt.

The International Republican Institute, the GOP counterpart to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, trains foreign political operatives and parties on how to run elections and govern. Its members help political parties organize campaigns and observe election processes with the aim of fixing flaws and improving public confidence in elections.

It is led by a board that includes six Republican senators, and one prominent Russia critic and Senate hopeful, Mitt Romney, who is running for a Utah seat this fall.

The group's president, Daniel Twining, said in a statement that the apparent hacking is "consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights."

Microsoft calls the hacking group Strontium; others call it Fancy Bear or APT28. An indictment from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has tied it to Russian's main intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and to the 2016 email hacking of both the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

Microsoft has waged a legal battle with Strontium since suing it in a Virginia federal court in summer 2016. The company obtained court approval last year allowing it to seize certain fake domains created by the group. It has so far used the courts to shut down 84 fake websites created by the group, including the most recent six announced Tuesday.

Microsoft has argued in court that by setting up fake but realistic-looking domains, the hackers were misusing Microsoft trademarks and services to hack into targeted computer networks, install malware and steal sensitive emails and other data.

Smith also announced Tuesday that the company is offering free cyber security protection to all U.S. political candidates, campaigns and other political organizations, at least so long as they're already using Microsoft's Office 365 productivity software. Facebook and Google have also promoted similar tools to combat campaign interference.

Mountain View, California - 20 October 2014

1. Wide view of Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

2. Close view of Microsoft sign

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina:

"For the record I would like to put in the Microsoft article about the Microsoft operation and it basically says that Microsoft, to their great credit, found out that the Russians were up to it again and the target this time was the International Republican Institute which Senator McCain is the chairman that has been very vocal against Russia's interference in democracies particularly on the Hudson Institute and the United States Senate. To Republicans, if you think the Russians just don't have you in mind, you're making a great mistake. They're trying to undermine the democratic process. Now that we're in charge, we're a natural target."

Mountain View, California - October 20, 2014

4. Various, Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Marco Rubio (R) Florida:

"If you're involved in politics in America at a high level especially if you have views Vladimir Putin doesn't like you should expect to be the target of a campaign to access your e-mails, get into your systems, divulge information or even falsify information against him. It's a very low cost way for him to discredit his opponents but more importantly to sow internal strife in the United States which he views as something that weakens us and and undermines our willingness and our resolve."

Internet - 21 August 2018

6. STILLS Onscreen views of conservative websites that were hacked

Washington, DC -21 August 2018

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Jeff Flake (R) Arizona:

"You know I think you're going to find other avenues as well they've been trying to influence. So they're the bad guys and they're trying to influence our elections. They're trying to, on every level, I think that they felt that they had some success last time and so they'll step it up."

Internet - 21 August 2018

8. STILL, screen grab of U.S. Senate website

Washington, DC - 21 August 2018

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Bob Menendez (D) New Jersey:

"Concern is that they are also trying to hack the Senate as well as conservative think tanks and it just shows if there's no limit to what the Russian Federation under Putin will do to undermine American democracy so we should be doing everything we can. I'm looking forward to the briefing that we will have tomorrow by the administration to understand what it is in fact they're doing but it doesn't seem to me that we have deterred Russian aggression."

Moscow, Russia - 8 August 2018

10. Various of Kremlin