Outgoing US President Trump refused to attend the U.S. President’s handover ceremony on January 20, highlighting an unprecedented question: How can Trump’s “nuclear suitcase” be handed over to President-elect Biden?
Business Insider said on the 9th that the so-called “nuclear suitcase” refers to a briefcase held by the President of the United States, usually carried by a full-time assistant, and contains communicators and passwords related to nuclear war.
In the past, at the presidential handover ceremony, its control could be easily transferred between the old and the new presidents in person, but Trump refused to attend the presidential handover ceremony, and the “nuclear suitcase” in his hand could not be temporarily kept by a third party. What should he do?
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that there were plans, but refused to provide any details.
Christensen, a nuclear weapons expert of the American Federation of Scientists, speculated that it would be possible to transfer control of nuclear command and all accompanying equipment to the Vice President or other senior commanders in the future, taking into account the plan of the President’s loss of control.
The report also mentioned that there are at least three “nuclear suitcases”, carried by the president, vice president and “designated survivors”, but only the “nuclear suitcase” in the president’s hand are activated.
So before the presidential handover ceremony begins, Biden can get an inactive “nuclear suitcase”. When he is sworn in as President of the United States, a military aide will launch the “nuclear suitcase”, and the “nuclear suitcase” in Trump’s hand will fail, and the control of the world’s most powerful nuclear arsenal will be completed.
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More than once? U.S. media broke again: Trump called Georgia officials at least three times to pressure in an attempt to overthrow the election results.
U.S. President Trump has called Georgia officials three times to pressure them to overthrow the election results.
Earlier, it was revealed that Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger on the 2nd of this month, hoping that the latter would “find” about 12,000 votes and reverse Biden’s victory in the state.
However, the Washington Post quoted sources on the 10th to report that Trump had called at least three times to Georgia officials about overthrowing the election results.
The New York Times commented that House Democrats are currently considering a second impeachment against Trump.
Legal experts believe that Trump’s call to Georgia officials may have serious criminal implications, suspected of violating anti-bribery laws and interfering with ongoing investigations. However, the case is hard to prove the guilt of the accused, and the decision to prosecute Trump – even after he leaves office – will bring political tension.
Raffensperger confirmed in an interview with The Washington Post on the 8th that Trump called the head of the election investigation in the office of the Georgia Secretary of State on December 23 last year.
He said it was unclear what Trump said in his conversation with the head of the investigation, but it was inappropriate to try to intervene in the case. The Washington Post declined to disclose the name of the investigation leader due to possible threats and harassment.
The person in charge of the investigation did not respond to repeated requests for comment from reporters. The White House has not responded yet.
Trump asked the head of the investigation to “find the fraud in the state” on the phone. The man was auditing over 15,000 votes in the suburb of Cobb County, Atlanta.
The New York Times said the audit appeared to be to appease Trump and his allies for their repeated and unfounded claims of “election fraud”. Trump also called the official a “national hero” on the phone. Subsequently, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office announced that no evidence of fraud was found in the audit.
The New York Times said on the 9th that Cobb County was once the stronghold of the Republican Party, but did not support Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
The president of the United States has repeatedly claimed that there is a problem with the signature matching system used by Georgia election officials to verify the identity of absent voters.
Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger announced an audit of the Cobb County ballot on December 14 last year.
Pressure on Georgia’s chief election investigator is just one of the actions Trump and his allies have tried to influence Georgia’s election results since last year’s election.
According to the American media, Trump called Georgia Governor Kemp, a Republican, in early December last year. Trump accused Kemp of certifying the state’s election results at the time.
About a week after calling an election investigator in Georgia, Trump called Raffensperger for an hour on January 2 this year to urge him to reverse the vote.
During that call, the president of the United States sometimes scolded Raffensperger, sometimes flattered him, and sometimes pleaded with him to take action, threatening the criminal consequences if the Republican did not investigate the alleged election fraud.
At one time, he warned that Raffensperger was “taking great risks”.
South Carolina Republican Senator Graham contacted Raffensperger in mid-November last year to ask if the latter could invalidate mail-in ballots throughout the county if it found a high percentage of ballot signature mismatch documents in the state’s jurisdiction at the time of the audit.
Late last December, White House Chief of Staff Meadows came to Cobb County to check personally the progress of the ballot signature audit.
He did not enter the audit room at that time, but he could observe it at the window.
On the second day of Meadows’s Cobb County, Trump called the Georgia election investigator. The audit ended on December 29, six days after the President called Georgia investigators. Of the more than 15,000 signatures audited, only two mismatched signatures were found.
On January 2, Trump was angry about the investigation results while talking to Rafinsperger.
In addition, according to the Associated Press on the 9th, Park Byung, a Korean prosecutor in Georgia, suddenly resigned recently. Trump is unhappy with Park Byung’s investigation into election fraud in his jurisdiction, according to people familiar with the matter.
In recent weeks of calls and meetings, sources said, Trump has pressured politicians and officials, including Acting Attorney General Rosen, severely accusing them of not doing enough to overturn the election results. Despite Trump’s plea for more efforts on election fraud, senior Justice Department officials such as Rosen have not made a public statement on the matter so far.
Justice Department officials quietly dismissed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, defending Pence in a federal lawsuit that tried to pressure Vice President Pence to overturn the election, which surprised Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
Legal experts believe Trump’s call to Laffinsperger to pressure him may violate Georgia or federal law, the New York Times said.
After Trump supporters besieged the Capitol, House Democratic leaders said on the 8th that they were preparing draft impeachment draft articles, which were scheduled to be submitted to the House for a vote as early as Wednesday.
While the Republican Party is primarily concerned with Trump’s role in inciting mobs to attack the Capitol, Trump’s call to Raffensperger will also serve as an example of the President’s attempt to subvert and obstruct the certification of election results.
