Politics Central

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said there's one place he wants to determine the outcome of the presidential election: the U.S. Supreme Court. But he may have a difficult time ever getting there.
The Associated Press called the presidential race for Joe Biden on Saturday morning. Trump, however, has over the last few days leaned in to the idea that the high court should get involved in the election as it did in 2000, and there were no signs Saturday he was ready to concede.
"Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated," Trump said in a statement.
In 2000, the Supreme Court effectively settled the contested election for President George W. Bush in a 5-4 decision that split the court's liberals and conservatives. Today, six members of the court are conservatives, including three nominated by Trump. But this year's election seems to be shaping up very differently from 2000, when Florida's electoral votes delivered the presidency to Bush.
Then, Bush led in Florida and went to court to stop a recount. Trump has suggested a strategy that would focus on multiple states where the winning margins appear to be slim. But to overturn the election result, Trump would appear to have to persuade courts, including perhaps the Supreme Court to set aside votes in two or more states.
Chief Justice John Roberts, for his part, is not likely to want the election to come down to himself and his colleagues. Roberts, who was not on the court for Bush v. Gore in 2000 but was a lawyer for Bush, has often tried to distance the court from the political branches of government and the politics he thinks could hurt the court's reputation.
It's also not clear what legal issues might cause the justices to step in. Trump has made repeated, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. On Saturday, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed claims that so-called poll watchers, who observe as ballots are counted, were not allowed to get close enough to witness counting.
Still, Trump has focused on the high court. In the early morning hours following Election Day he said: "We'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court — we want all voting to stop." And on Thursday, as Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, Trump again told Americans, "It's going to end up, perhaps, at the highest court in the land, we'll see." On Twitter too he urged, "U.S. Supreme Court should decide!"
There is currently one election case at the Supreme Court and it involves a Republican appeal to exclude ballots that arrived after Election Day in Pennsylvania. But whether or not those ballots ultimately are counted seems irrelevant.
Ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day were a small fragment of the total vote count. Across Pennsylvania, counties reported receiving under 8,000 late mail-in ballots, though some were still assessing how many they had. Biden's lead over Trump by Saturday afternoon was more than 30,000 votes.
Still, Trump's campaign is trying to intervene in the case, an appeal of a decision by Pennsylvania's highest court to allow three extra days for the receipt and counting of mailed ballots. Because the case is ongoing, those ballots are being separated but counted.
Beyond the Pennsylvania case, if Trump wanted to use a lawsuit to challenge the election outcome in a state, he'd need to begin by bringing a case in a lower court.
So far, Trump's campaign and Republicans have mounted legal challenges in several states, but most are small-scale lawsuits that do not appear to affect many votes. On Thursday, the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. But judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed two other campaign lawsuits Thursday.
Biden's campaign,...

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NewstalkZB.co.nz has been using data from the Associated Press for our US Election Results. Here, the Associated Press explains why they called the election for Joe Biden:
As Election Day ground on into "election week," it became increasingly clear that Democrat Joe Biden would oust President Donald Trump from the White House. Late-counted ballots in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia continued to keep Biden in the lead and offered him multiple paths to victory.
The questions, rather, were these — where he would win, when it would happen and by how much.
On Saturday, Biden captured the presidency when The Associated Press declared him the victor in his native Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. EST. That got him the state's 20 electoral votes, which pushed him over the 270 electoral-vote threshold needed to prevail.
It was the final piece to fall into place after the former vice president carved a path to the White House by recapturing Democrats' "blue wall," a trio of Great Lakes states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — that Trump narrowly won in 2016. Those states had long served as a bulwark against Republican presidential candidates.
But he also made historic gains in the Sun Belt, becoming the first Democrat to win Arizona since 1996. He also held a narrow lead of more than 7,000 votes on Saturday in Georgia, where a Democrat hasn't won since 1992.
Democrats entered Election Day confident that Biden would win. But their hopes for a landslide that would quickly repudiate Trumpism — something that polls helped amplify — did not materialize.
Florida, the president's adopted state and one of the largest electoral prizes, went for Trump on Tuesday.
And a promising early Biden lead in North Carolina eroded. Trump continues to hold a narrow lead there, though the race is still too early to call and mail in ballots postmarked by the Nov. 3 election day can still be counted until Thursday.
On Election Night, both candidates stacked up wins in predictable places. Biden won the West Coast, and carried Democratic states in New England and the mid Atlantic. Trump won much of the South, Texas and rural, sparsely populated states in the Mountain West and Midwest.
Biden's win in Pennsylvania was a dramatic, though not unexpected, turn after Trump jumped out to an early Election Day lead of 675,000 votes and prematurely declared he had won the state.
Overcoming days, as local elections officials tabulated more ballots, Trump's lead dropped sharply, with Biden winning roughly 75 percent of the mail-in vote between Wednesday and Friday, according to an analysis by the AP.
Another reason the late-breaking mail vote broke Biden's way: Under state law, elections officials are not allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day.
By Saturday afternoon, Biden's lead in the state had climbed to over 34,000 votes, an edge over Trump of 0.51 percentage points that placed him outside the margin for a mandatory recount.
Under Pennsylvania law, a recount is automatic when the margin between two candidates in a statewide race is less than 0.5 percentage points. Biden's lead over Trump was on track to stay outside of that margin as final votes are counted.
And the slow-going nature of the vote count? Blame the coronavirus pandemic. The election, in many ways a referendum on Trump's poor management of the virus, led to widespread use of mail voting for the first time in many states.
Though five states conducted elections by mail before the pandemic, most did not. Concern that voters could catch the virus by waiting in line at crowded polling sites led election officials across the U.S. to scramble to quickly adopt the voting practice.
But mail ballots also take a long time to verify, process and count, delaying the tally.
Trump, who refused Saturday to concede the race, prematurely declared victory during a news conference at the White House early Wednesday...

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A former advisor of Donald Trump says he has morphed into a completely different person from when she first met him.
Omarosa Manigault-Newman, a controversial Apprentice contestant who became a White House staffer, resigned unexpectedly in December 2017 in a public falling out with Trump, joined The Weekend Collective before her unexpected resignation in December, provided the controversial audio to NBC.
Despite being a Democrat, she joined the White House as one of just two African-Americans in the room. She says she expected some normalcy, having worked in the Clinton White House, but it was "bizarre from day one" with the early introduction of a Muslim ban.
Manigault-Newman says that Trump was engaging and a good communicator when they first met on the first season of The Apprentice, but that has changed over 17 years. 
"The last time I had to brief him, he could not focus, he could barely read what I wrote on the note cards, and he kept forgetting what time of day it was and what event I was talking about.
"In terms of his mental state, there is deterioration." 
In terms of Trump's attitude towards race, Manigault-Newman says that he is racist, and that the recent book by his niece, Mary Trump, "shook her to her core". 
"She talked about him utilising the n-word throughout her lifetime. Can you just imagine I was around this man for 17 years of my life?"
She says that behind his facade, there is a lot of racism and bigotry in Trump.
Despite cutting all ties with Trump in 2017, asides from ongoing lawsuits over her book, Unhinged, Manigault-Newman says that she still has contacts in his camps.
There are several signs that his standing in the race is deteriorating, she says, including Trump cancelling a planned victory party and downsizing it to a smaller gathering at the White House.
Another critical factor for him is his difficulties raising money. 
"He has under-raised money. His campaign is in a significant amount of debt. It has left a trail of bills and debt across the nation at these rallies, not paying people, not paying vendors." 
However, if Trump loses, there are many concerns that he will not stand down peacefully. 
Manigault-Newman says that the windows in Washington DC are boarded up in anticipation of an "all-out war" that Trump will incite should he lose. 
"If he does not win, please note that he will not go peacefully, he has a bloodthirst that is dangerous. He will encourage his followers to respond with violence if necessary."
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The Greens have signed on the dotted line to accept a post-election deal with the Labour Government.
Green Party members agreed last night to what's being labelled the "cooperation agreement".
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it represents the continuation of the Labour-Greens relationship and provides stability.
She says she wants to bring as much consensus as possible, although this agreement didn't require consensus to be formed.
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson told reporters the party understands the opportunity.
She says for the first time in MMP history - a party with a clear majority has afforded ministerial positions and cooperation areas... while still allowing the Greens to maintain a unique voice.
Former United Future leader Peter Dunne told the Weekend Collective the winner from this new cooperation agreement is Labour.
"What they've done is they've thrown out a few little tidbits to the Greens, but the price of that is that they will almost certainly get the Greens vote on everything, as well as confidence and supply."
He says that, from the Greens point of view, they would be happy with the deal by getting the ministerial portfolios. 
The danger for them is they could be neutered on issues that are important to them.
"From Labour's point of view, that's precisely what they want, the Greens corralled into a corner where they can't be a conscience to Labour on the left."
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Producer Andy put together a small taste of Trumps most 'brazen and bizarre' comments from the last four years.
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National leader Judith Collins' "very literal come-to-Jesus moment" this week has raised suspicions among some people that she is politicising her faith to win over conservative Christians.
Some political commentators say her public comments and actions about her religion seem to have come out of nowhere, and the New Conservative Party thinks she's targeting voters who may be more inclined to side with them.
Collins is adamant that she has been upfront about her faith throughout her political career.
"I have always been a Christian and I have never been a lapsed anything."
Political commentator and former minister Peter Dunne told The Weekend Collective that Collins is entitled to her private belief, but the fact she has raised it so frequently this week is "odd". 
"Making it more overt suggests strongly to me that she's pitching out to the New Conservative party voters, because that's where the rump of the old Christian right has ended up. 
"Maybe she feels that they are getting too strong or whether she's worried about the votes she is losing from ACT."
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Marine One was idling on the South Lawn Friday as President Donald Trump's advisers were inside the White House making a last-minute push to get him to board the helicopter.
The President, who had recently tested positive for coronavirus, was reluctant to go to the hospital, multiple sources familiar with what happened later told CNN. Though Trump had developed symptoms and was now on experimental drugs, he didn't want to be "hospitalized," he said.
Aware of his hesitancy to appear seriously ill or convey the serious nature of his condition, Trump's aides now appear to be scrambling to provide a portrait of a mildly ill commander-in-chief. But on Friday, medical officials were concerned about his vitals and thought it would be better to monitor his response with the vast resources that Walter Reed National Military Medical Center provided. Trump was told the facility was a more prudent place for him to be in case his condition deteriorated.
"The White House is fully committed to providing transparent and regular updates on the President's condition and recovery," Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
A decision was made by senior officials to schedule his departure after markets closed to avoid an inevitable tumble, two people familiar with the matter said.
Looking tired and somewhat pale, Trump walked past the cameras he has stopped for so many times with a small wave, and boarded.
At the most fraught moment of Trump's presidency -- or of any presidency in decades -- the White House is facing a credibility crisis with dramatic repercussions for Americans' confidence in their government and its leadership.
Inside some areas of the White House, the lack of information about Trump's condition is causing concern as aides fear speculation and panic could fill the void, some of those officials said. On Friday evening, as the President was being flown to Walter Reed, several high-placed government officials -- including a Cabinet official and two senior Republicans -- had not been briefed fully about the situation, the officials told CNN.
Instead, many even inside the White House and the wider administration are relying on news reports to glean information about the President's health. That includes several White House allies who believe they could have potentially been exposed to coronavirus over the past week, but have not been contacted with instructions from the President's medical team.
Rosy portrait
At a late morning news conference on Saturday, the President's physician offered a rosy portrait of a man on the mend but repeatedly evaded questions about Trump's condition, including whether he'd been placed on supplemental oxygen over the past days and what his highest recorded temperature has been. He offered a timeline that appeared to place Trump's diagnosis well before it was publicly disclosed only to later say he misspoke.
"This morning the President is doing very well," Dr. Sean Conley said. "At this time, the team and I are extremely happy with the progress the President has made."
Moments later, another person familiar with Trump's condition offered a stark and very different portrait of the President's health to a group of reporters gathered at the hospital: "The President's vitals over last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery."
The second official was granted anonymity by the small group of reporters who traveled with the President and isn't known to the wider group. Chief of staff Mark Meadows was the only other White House official present when doctors came out of the building Saturday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ahead of the news conference.
A day earlier, Meadows told reporters at the White House that Trump was experiencing only "mild symptoms."
The disparity in how Trump is faring made for...

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Labour leader Jacinda Ardern wants to make it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of someone's religion as well as possibly sexual orientation or disability.
Her commitment follows a visit to Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch today where Imam Gamal Fouda made an impassioned plea for stronger political leadership around hate speech laws.
The Government has been reviewing hate speech in the aftermath of the March 15 attacks, and NZ First is thought to be why nothing has changed.
Justice Minister Andrew Little told The Weekend Collective that there are already laws around hate speech that are around race and ethnicity, including the Human Rights Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act.
"The problem with the law is that it criminalises conduct in relation to inciting hostility to others on the grounds of race but not on any other grounds, including religion."
Little says that provisions such as Incite to Violence only apply to abuse targetted at specific people, rather than wider groups. 
He says that freedom of speech is there to protect minorities and those who speak up against those in power. 
"It's not there to protect against those who want to threaten and intimidate others because of who they are."
The proposed move has prompted criticism from ACT leader David Seymour.
He told The Weekend Collective that they don't want a Government department to decide what people can and can't decide. 
"No matter how they try and dress it up, that's the only way it can work."
Seymour says that this is legislating against offence, which he says it will led to high-level censorship. 
He says that the current provisions on defending race against hate speech have not worked properly for several decades.
Prior to Seymour coming on the show, Little told The Weekend Collective that Seymour is a smart enough guy to know there should be limits and they can be well-defined. 
"He's got to explain why it is that it's a criminal offence to say 'let's kill at the Māoris' but it's not a criminal offence to say 'let's kill all the Jews and the Muslins'. And if his defence to that is to say 'we should be allowed to say let's all the Māoris', then that's on him."
Little says that there are no plans to make it illegal to be offended.

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