From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Trump cuts Florida vacation short without explanation
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleUS President Donald Trump is cutting short his Florida holiday vacation and returning to Washington on Thursday, one day earlier than expected, for reasons the White House didn’t explain.
The White House announced the abrupt change in the president’s schedule late Wednesday, hours after Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said he will raise objections when Congress meets on January 6 to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.
The Republican challenge is a futile attempt intended to keep Trump in power, and a path the president has pursued after his campaign lost scores of legal challenges to the election outcome, including at the Supreme Court, and the Electoral College certified Biden’s 306-232 win.
Trump’s early return comes as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran in the final weeks of his administration. There is concern in Washington that Iran could order further military retaliation for the US killing last January 3 of top Iranian military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s initial response, five days after that deadly US drone strike, was a ballistic missile attack on a military base in Iraq that caused brain concussion injuries to about 100 US troops.
— AP
The Times of Israel Community.