US Election Results 2020 live: Trump alleges ballot counting abuse

A Trump loyalist and former Fox News commentator has been moved into the Pentagon's top policy job, defense officials said Tuesday, just a few months after he failed to get through Senate confirmation because of offensive remarks he made, including about Islam. Officials said Anthony Tata, a retired Army one-star general, will be performing the duties of the undersecretary for defense policy.

US defense officials said James Anderson, the top policy adviser at the Pentagon, submitted his resignation Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Anderson has been the acting undersecretary for policy since June. Previously he served as the deputy undersecretary since his confirmation for that job in August 2018.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday there's 'no reason for alarm' as President Donald Trump, backed by Republicans in Congress, pursues legal challenges to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's election victory. Republicans are increasingly pointing to a December deadline as they give Trump time and space to exhaust his legal challenges. That's when the states face a deadline to certify results and a Dec. 14 deadline for the Electoral College to cast its votes.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday held his first telephone talks with Joe Biden since the Democrat was elected the next president of the United States, his Elysee Palace office said. The talks between Biden and Macron, who sought to form a solid working relationship with outgoing President Donald Trump, focused on international cooperation on the main global issues, it added.

The Ohio lawmaker said Trump has the right to pursue legal challenges on the results, including seeking recounts, but must produce evidence to support any allegations of widespread fraud. He added he hoped states and courts would move "expeditiously" to resolve the matter.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday promised to ensure a "smooth transition" but insisted that President Donald Trump would be inaugurated again despite Joe Biden's projected victory. "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration," Pompeo said in a testy news conference.

“I believe that the strong cooperation and alliance between our countries will continue to contribute to world peace in the future, as it has done so far,” Erdogan said in his congratulatory message, made available by his office.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday said he spoke to Joe Biden after the Democrat's victory in the US presidential elections. "Just spoke to @JoeBiden to congratulate him on his election," Johnson wrote on his official Twitter account, making him one of the first world leaders to talk to the incoming president. "I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our countries and to working with him on our shared priorities - from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy and building back better from the pandemic."

President-elect Joe Biden has criticized Republican efforts to throw out the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the law is formally known, in the midst of a deadly coronavirus pandemic and hopes to buttress Obamacare after taking office on Jan. 20. The justices are due to hear 80 minutes of arguments by teleconference in an appeal by a coalition of Democratic-led states including California and New York and the Democratic-led House of Representatives to preserve Obamacare.

Richard Pilger, the director of the US Department of Justice's Election Crimes Branch, has resigned after Attorney General William Barr sent out a memo to federal prosecutors giving them a nod to probe allegations of fraud in the 2020 US presidential polls. "Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications ... I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch," Pilger's letter read, as quoted by Sputnik. This development comes as Republicans, led by in Donald Trump have refused to accept win of President-elect Joe Biden, claiming widespread "voter fraud."