Tag: official

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Business

India’s plan to divest state-owned corporations is ‘again on observe’, says high official

India's plan to divest state-owned companies is 'back on track', says top official

An Air India passenger flight prepares to land.

STR | NurPhoto | Getty Images

India is “back on track” in its efforts to divest state-owned companies after delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a top Treasury official.

The country has a divestment target of rupees 1.75 trillion (about $ 24 billion) for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, said Treasury Secretary Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget announcement last month.

This means that the government is exiting itself by selling state-owned assets to the private sector or listing them on the stock exchange.

“In fact, there was a lot of prep work going on, but we had interruptions due to Covid. The divestment plan is back on track,” said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of Investment and Public Asset Management, in an interview on CNBC’s Streets “Signs Asia” on Tuesday.

“We have several transactions planned and we hope these deals continue this year,” he added.

In her budget speech, Sitharaman emphasized that the Indian government wants to privatize state-owned companies such as the national airline Air India and the oil and gas giant Bharat Petroleum Corporation, among others. It also proposed the privatization of two public sector banks and a general insurance company.

Although the aviation industry has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Pandey said the government is making progress on its privatization plan for Air India.

“The aviation industry is recovering quickly and Air India’s divestment plan has been on track for some time. We are moving forward with the expression of interest and the process is now in the second phase,” he noted.

According to Pandey, the Indian government intends to sell all of its stake in the national airline.

“The Air India divestment is 100%. That means the government has no stake in it,” he said, adding that the goal is to close the sale by June.

India’s ability to meet its divestment goal would also depend on the successful public offering of the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in India.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India last month relaxed public issuance norms to make it easier for the government to sell part of its stake in India’s largest insurer through a public listing. The IPO is expected this year.

“LIC is on target to go public. This is one of the largest financial institutions we have and work on it continues,” said Pandey.

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Politics

Saudi fund susceptible after MBS actions in Khashoggi killing, ex-Obama official says

Saudi fund vulnerable after MBS actions in Khashoggi killing, ex-Obama official says

According to a former senior diplomat in the Obama administration, the actions of the Saudi crown prince in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have exposed the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund to repercussions.

The government of Biden released a previously classified intelligence report on Friday in which Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the plan to assassinate Khashoggi in 2018.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, is managed by MBS. It appears to have played a role in the purchase of the plane that took Khashoggi’s murderer to Turkey, where the murder took place.

“If so, it could become a target for US human rights sanctions,” said Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state. That, in turn, could “cause an economic earthquake,” he said.

“If the United States determines that Khashoggi’s murder was a targeted human rights violation, the perpetrators and supporters of that murder could be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act,” said Rubin.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act gives the President the power to impose economic sanctions, freeze U.S. assets, and refuse entry to the U.S. for foreigners who have committed human rights abuses or corruption, while Americans are prohibited from doing business with him or her . Magnitsky Law was used against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cronies. Putin called it “a purely political, unfriendly act.”

Shortly after the secret service report was published on Friday, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken announced that the US had banned 76 people from Saudi Arabia. He called it the “Khashoggi Ban”. Blinken added that the US will not tolerate anyone who threatens or assaults activists, dissidents and journalists on behalf of foreign governments. However, no direct action has been taken against MBS.

The Saudi government rejected the results of the US report.

SWFs are widespread in oil-rich countries. They provide a haven where countries can store considerable wealth and keep that money in a self-controlled suitcase.

Funds such as the MBS-led Public Investment Fund help protect countries from oil price shocks that affect their annual budgetary positions while also making the country resilient to external financial pressures. The Public Investment Fund has assets of more than $ 360 billion and is the eighth largest sovereign wealth fund in the world by total assets.

“The Saudi fund, almost five decades old, is massive and guarantees the kingdom long-term financial stability,” said Rubin. “But it can also be a target for abuse, mismanagement and corruption.”

In 2018, NBC News learned that the CIA concluded that MBS was commanding the hit squad who lured Khashoggi to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, killed him and cut his body into pieces.

MBS is the heir to the Saudi crown. Rubin told CNBC that his domestic critics will see the public investment fund’s exposure to potential sanctions as another sign of his ruthlessness and willingness to both risk Saudi assets and put the country in international crosshairs for his personal agenda.

“The international private sector, which initially avoided Saudi Arabia after the assassination of Khashoggi, will see this as another setback for public relations work in engagements with Saudi Arabia,” said Rubin. “It could also open the fund to increased controls, lawsuits and legislative action against the fund’s activities from both overseas and Saudi Arabia.”

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that President Joe Biden would not make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” as it would mean US economic and military ties to interrupt the Saudis.

Even so, Biden said in 2019, “We wanted to actually get them to pay the price and actually make them the pariah for who they are.”

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Politics

High Senate Official Disqualifies Minimal Wage From Stimulus Plan

Top Senate Official Disqualifies Minimum Wage From Stimulus Plan

The Republicans applauded their decision.

“This decision to strengthen reconciliation cannot be used as a means to pass major legislative changes – by either party – by simple majority,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chief on the Budgets Committee. “This decision will strengthen Senate traditions over time.”

While the majority tend to follow the advice of the MP, Democrats could also try to override their leadership by effectively insisting on including the wage increase in legislation anyway, or trying to rewrite the provision to include the Rules of the Senate. In 2001, then MP Robert B. Dove was unceremoniously ousted from his position after Republican leaders objected to his decisions.

But senior White House officials, including Ron Klain, the chief of staff, have publicly stated that Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as Senate President, would not vote to override Ms. MacDonough. Ms. MacDonough, the first woman to hold the office, has maintained both the position and bipartisan respect under the leadership of both parties since her appointment in 2012.

Some Democrats privately grumbled Thursday night that Mr Klain’s comments in a television interview Wednesday in conjunction with Mr Biden’s public admission earlier that month that he did not believe the wage increase would survive made Ms. MacDonough the “permit structure” in essence gave kill the proposal, according to a Democratic aide who described his thinking on the condition of anonymity.

It was not clear whether the Democrats could have won a majority to defeat the MP. The Liberal Democrats, who have been calling for the removal of the 60-vote threshold, were concerned about the procedural defeat and asked Ms. Harris to intervene to change the decision.

“I’m sorry – an unelected MP cannot withhold 32 million Americans the raise they deserve,” California Democrat Ro Khanna wrote on Twitter. “This is a recommendation, not a decision. VP Harris must ignore and regulate a minimum wage of $ 15 to achieve this. We were chosen to deliver for the people. It’s time we did our job. “

Some Republicans have spoken out in favor of legislation that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $ 10 instead of $ 15.

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Politics

Former NY cop and Republican official charged in Capitol riot

Former NY cop and Republican official charged in Capitol riot

On January 6, 2021, rioters clashed with police trying to break into the Capitol through the front doors.

Lev Radin | Pacific Press | LightRocket | Getty Images

Federal authorities have arrested two New Yorkers – a former New York police officer and a Republican Party official from Queens – for their alleged roles in the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

Former New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster is accused of attacking a Capitol police officer with a pipe, NBC New York reported Tuesday.

Webster, who as a police officer had duties that included guarding City Hall and the Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayors, surrendered at the FBI’s Hudson Valley office on Monday, according to NBC.

He is expected to be tried in federal court in White Plains, New York, Tuesday.

Webster was featured on an “information search” poster tweeted by the FBI in late January.

The other defendant, Philip Grillo, 46, was arrested Monday afternoon at his girlfriend’s apartment in Queens, New York. Grillo calls himself “The Republican Messiah” on his Facebook page.

Grillo was identified by two tipsters as one of the mobs who invaded the Capitol. They recognized him by a Knights of Columbus jacket, which he was wearing, among other things, according to a fact sheet signed by an FBI agent.

“I’ve seen him twice on CNN in two different incidents,” a witness told the FBI, finding that they knew Grillo from childhood in the Glen Oaks division of Queens.

Grillo, who has been confirmed by the FBI as a member of a council of the Queens Knights of Columbus, is listed as the GOP leader of the Queens Knights of Columbus District’s Republican party group as the GOP leader of the 24th district in Queens.

At the end of 2020, he was denied confirmation as a placeholder candidate in a special election on February 2 for a seat on New York City Council.

Grillo’s efforts to get himself on the ballot and swap another man for the actual candidate for the races – a tactic that is legal – failed after a former Democratic councilor seeking the seat challenged his petition’s signatures .

His Facebook page states that he is a GOP state commissioner in President Trump’s Hometown District.

“I’m really upset,” Grillo’s mother told CNBC when asked to comment on his arrest.

Image included in the statement of fact submitted with the arrest warrant.

DOJ

The FBI said in the fact sheet that on the day of the rioting in and around the Capitol, a cell phone number registered in the name of Grillo’s mother, who is in her early 70s, was used. She was not charged in the case.

Grillo is expected to appear in the US District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The statement of fact states that he was among the thousands of rioters who swarmed in and around the Capitol on January 6 after a rally by then-President Donald Trump asking his supporters to help him against the confirmation of Joe Biden as the winner of to fight the presidential election. On that day, a joint congressional session met to confirm Biden’s victory.

The factual statement states that video footage from the Capitol shows Grillo climbing through a broken window around 2:30 p.m. that day and then holding a megaphone.

Another surveillance video shows Grillo in the rotunda and among rioters trying to enter a room that contains doors that lead outside, “where more protesters have gathered”.

Those doors were ultimately opened by other members of the crowd pushing against Capitol police officers who were trying to keep the doors closed, the document says.

In YouTube footage shot right outside the Capitol, Grillo was seen among a crowd shouting “Fight for Trump”.

“This crowd was involved in a physical confrontation with uniformed officers at the entrance,” the document said. “Grillo was near the crowd. The crowd, including Grillo, was eventually driven back from the door when officers used a chemical irritant.”

The document states that Grillo posted a short video from “Donald J. Trump” ‘s Facebook page on his own page on November 11th.

“Trump’s entry was” WE WILL WIN! “And a short video that says believing in the impossible,” the document says.

Categories
Health

J&J doesn’t have massive stock of doses, Biden official says

J&J does not have large inventory of doses, Biden official says

Illustration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine

Given Ruvic | Reuters

Johnson & Johnson will not hold a “large inventory” of its Covid-19 vaccine until regulatory approval expected this month, President Joe Biden’s Covid tsar said Wednesday.

Jeff Zients said the government has learned in recent weeks that J&J will only manufacture “a few million” doses if its single vaccine is likely to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Federal and state health officials expected vaccine supplies to increase rapidly once the J&J emergency vaccine was approved. The FDA scheduled a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products on February 26th to discuss the vaccine. The US could approve the vaccine the next day.

J&J currently has a contract with the U.S. government to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June, said Zients, the president’s Covid-19 response coordinator. Assuming the vaccine is approved, the Biden government will work with J&J to increase supply as soon as possible. US officials hope many of these cans will be available in the first few months of their introduction.

“We are doing everything we can to work with the company and accelerate the delivery schedule,” Zients told reporters during a White House press conference on the pandemic.

The news comes as the Biden government works to increase the supply of cans after states complained that demand for the shots was rapidly exceeding supply. Around 39.7 million out of roughly 331 million Americans have received at least their first dose of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s two-dose vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 15 million of those people have already got their second shot.

Biden announced Thursday that the US has received 100 million more doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Moderna vaccine, bringing the total US supply to 600 million doses. Since the vaccines require two doses, a total of 600 million doses would be enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration is increasing the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses sent weekly to states, shipping 13.5 million doses this week and doubling the number of pharmacies sold to pharmacies.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that most Americans will have access to a Covid-19 vaccine by mid to late May or early June, a slight delay compared to previous predictions made in late March and April.

The White House chief medical officer said the federal government expects J&J to “significantly increase” starting doses.

“I’m a little disappointed that the number of doses we’re getting early from J&J is relatively small, but as we get further into spring there will be more and more,” said Fauci.

Meanwhile, Pfizer and Moderna are looking into whether their vaccines can prevent transmission of the virus, he said on Wednesday, adding that early studies point in a “favorable direction”.

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Health

Prioritizing instructor vaccinations might be a problem till scarcity is resolved, Biden official says

Prioritizing teacher vaccinations will be a challenge until shortage is resolved, Biden official says

Prioritizing teachers in the distribution of Covid vaccines will continue to be a challenge until more doses become available, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House’s Covid-19 response team, said Wednesday.

President Joe Biden has made reopening the country’s schools for personal teaching a top priority.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines that teachers shouldn’t be vaccinated to safely reopen schools, but that states should give teachers priority access to Covid vaccines.

Slavitt said governors had “tough decisions” to make to juggle vaccine distribution to groups like seniors, nursing home workers and teachers.

“We are trying to support them with science as much as possible, but until the shortage is fixed we will still have these challenges,” Slavitt told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith”.

The question of whether teachers should be vaccinated before returning to class has been a focus in the debate on reopening in-person teaching.

Vice President Kamala Harris said on the Today Show Wednesday morning, “Teachers should be priority.”

During a briefing on Wednesday, White House Chief Covid-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients said that while Biden and Harris believe that frontline teachers and other frontline staff should be on the front lines to get vaccines, they both do The CDC agree that vaccination of teachers “is not a requirement for schools to reopen.”

The CDC guidelines also recommend that schools adapt their reopening plans to the severity of the outbreak in their communities. The agency also recommends schools maintain “essential elements” of personal learning, including wearing masks, exercising physical distancing, and monitoring the spread in the area.

“If that were easy, it would be done,” Slavitt told CNBC. “We’re focused on how we get kids and teachers back to school – not if we should, but how. And that’s the CDC plan, in my opinion.”

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World News

George P. Shultz, High Cupboard Official Below Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 100

George P. Shultz, Top Cabinet Official Under Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 100

After two years in the Budget Office, Mr. Shultz became Minister of Finance in June 1972. Last year, Nixon made the dollar unilaterally convertible into gold. This forced the rest of the world to move from a system of fixed exchange rates for national currencies to a flexible system. Exchange rates were no longer the way governments did monetary policy. Mr. Shultz traveled the world making sure the dollar remained all powerful.

He resigned from the Nixon administration in May 1974, three months before the president fell from grace, as the last original cabinet member of Nixon. Before his death, he was the oldest living member in Nixon’s inner circle and, along with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, one of the last.

After 25 years in science and government, Mr. Shultz joined the Bechtel Corporation (now the Bechtel Group), one of the world’s largest engineering and construction companies, which served as president from 1974 to 1982. He received nearly $ 600,000 a year (about $ 2 million in today’s money) to run his global and domestic operations, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Washington Washington Subway, Riyadh King Khalid International Airport , Saudi Arabia, and much of the infrastructure of the Saudi government.

During his reign in Washington, Mr. Shultz tried to keep a secret out of print: that he had a tiger tattoo on his rump, an inheritance from his student days at Princeton University. When asked about the tattoo, Phyllis Oakley, a State Department spokeswoman, replied, “I am unable to comment.”

George Pratt Shultz was born on December 13, 1920 in Manhattan, the only child of former Margaret Lennox Pratt and Birl E. Shultz, an official of the New York Stock Exchange. He grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, and came to Princeton in the fall of 1938.

He was in his final year in economics in 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th. After graduating, he joined the Marines and witnessed combat in the Pacific. He joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after receiving a PhD in industrial relations there in 1949. His area of ​​expertise was labor economics.

In 1955, he took a year off to serve as an officer in the Council of Economic Advisers to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, chaired by Arthur F. Burns, who later headed the Federal Reserve Board.

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Health

Biden official says docs holding again wanted doses as reserve

Biden official says doctors holding back needed doses as reserve

Close-up of the Moderna vaccine at the Park County’s Department of Health’s COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic for Seniors 80+ on January 28, 2021 in Livingston, Montana.

William Campbell | Getty Images

Some health care providers have regularly withheld doses of vaccine for Covid-19 to ensure supplies are in place when people come back to get their second shots, an official on President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team said Monday.

Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to Biden’s Covid Response Team who previously served in the Obama administration, said health care providers shouldn’t withhold vaccine doses. He said the practice is actually causing some vendors to cancel appointments and preventing some Americans from getting their first shots.

“We want to make it clear that we understand why health care providers did this, but that it doesn’t have to and shouldn’t,” he told reporters during a coronavirus briefing, adding that US officials are aware of supplies of Covid vaccines to states were often unpredictable during the early rollout in late December.

“We fully understand that this is a direct result of the unpredictability that many states and suppliers have had about the number of doses they would receive,” he said. “That’s one reason we announced last week that the federal government would provide a continuous three-week window for the vaccines to be shipped.”

“With this move, states and vaccine providers will use their allocation of the first doses faster to vaccinate as many people as quickly and equitably as possible because they now have the predictability,” he said, that the second shots will be on time.

Biden is trying to accelerate the pace of vaccination in the US after a slower-than-expected rollout under the administration of former President Donald Trump. The Biden government has advised states and health care providers that they no longer need to withhold the two-dose doses reserved for the second round of Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations.

Still, some states have raised concerns that the federal government will be able to maintain an adequate dose supply for the second round of firing. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two vaccinations three to four weeks apart, and the states vaccinate approximately 1 million people daily.

The U.S. has distributed nearly 50 million doses of vaccine, but only about 31.1 million had been administered as of 6 a.m. ET Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Monday, states had 62% of their vaccine inventories managed, but officials expect that number will improve, Slavitt said.

U.S. officials also hope vaccine supplies will increase after Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. The FDA could give the OK this month.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced in August that it had signed a contract with Janssen, J & J’s pharmaceutical subsidiary, worth approximately $ 1 billion for 100 million doses of its vaccine. The deal gives the federal government the opportunity to order another 200 million cans, according to the announcement.

Unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, J & J’s vaccine only requires one dose, which makes logistics easier for healthcare providers.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Monday that making sure people who get their first dose can get their second remains a top priority for officials. CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the agency is still recommending people get their second recordings on time.

On Sunday, an epidemiologist advising Biden’s transition to the Covid-19 crisis warned of an impending wave of infections and said the US should adjust its vaccination strategy to save lives.

Dr. Michael Osterholm told NBC’s Meet the Press that the government should try to give as many first vaccine doses as possible, especially for those over 65, before there is a potential increase in cases involving mutations overseas.

Categories
Entertainment

The Official Strolling Useless Twitter Shuts Down Homophobic Followers

The Official Walking Dead Twitter Shuts Down Homophobic Fans

the Walking Dead wants people to know that there is no place for homophobia in fandom after comments have been made on characters by The Walking Dead: World Beyond. During the episode of January 25 of the Talk to me dead Podcast, TWD: world beyond Actor Jelani Alladin discussed LGBTQ + portrayal on the show along with Will’s relationship with Felico by Nico Tortorella.

Alladin’s comments were immediately greeted with hatred by homophobic fans. “I can’t enjoy gay male TV show characters. I’m sorry man, I can’t,” one commented on a YouTube clip of the episode. Others noted that the relationship looked forced, and one YouTube user replied, “I don’t like how every character just has to have a love interest. Oh, we can’t find a character for you, fuck it, you’re gay with it.” Man. Just stop. It’s so wrong just for added emotional drama. ”

the Walking DeadThe Twitter account wasted no time sharing support for Alladin. “If LGBTQ + signs on TV (or anywhere else) make you uncomfortable or angry, please don’t follow us,” the account said. “While we also encourage you to look inward and accept more, know that there is no place in our fandom for hateful discrimination or willful ignorance.” See the full tweet below as well as Alladin’s response.

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Politics

Georgia election official disputes Trump claims about Biden win

Georgia election official disputes Trump claims about Biden win

Gabriel Sterling, manager for the implementation of the voting system in the Georgian Foreign Minister’s office, speaks at a press conference at the State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia on January 4, 2021.

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President Donald Trump made a number of “demonstrably false” claims during his controversial phone call to pressure the Georgian Foreign Secretary to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s victory there, a senior election official said Monday.

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s implementation manager for the voting system, point by point rejected Trump’s claims at a press conference two days after Trump relied on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during an unprecedented hour-long phone call to “find” the president has enough votes to win Biden to beat.

During that call, recorded by officials in Raffensperger’s office, Trump made a series of allegations of alleged voting irregularities in the Georgian presidential election that resulted in Biden’s unjust victory.

The president and his allies elsewhere have made similar allegations relating to offenders, minors and dead people who allegedly cast ballots.

“The reason I have to be here today is because there are people in positions of authority and respect who have said their votes don’t count, and that’s not true,” Sterling said.

“And I’ll do it again, and I’ll go through all of this, ‘Anti-Disinformation Monday’.”

Standing next to a chart that read “Claim vs. Fact” with two lines under each of these words, Sterling said, “This is all easily and demonstrably wrong.”

“However, the president remains in place, undermining the confidence of Georgians in the electoral system, especially Georgian Republican in this case,” he said.

Sterling also said Trump campaign lawyers “deliberately misled” the public by claiming that a videotape showed fraudulent votes given to Biden during an election count.

Sterling suggested that Trump’s allegations could hurt Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in their runoff elections Tuesday for Georgia’s Senate seats, where they face major challenges from Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.

There are concerns among GOP leaders that Trump’s allegations of widespread electoral fraud in Georgia and Perdue and Loeffler’s support for the president’s rhetoric could dampen turnout by Republican voters.

Sterling urged voters to register for Tuesday’s election race even if they had concerns about the integrity of the elections.

“I’m not admitting that there was massive electoral fraud because there wasn’t. But if you believe in your heart, the best you can do is to stand out and vote and make it harder to steal,” said he.

Sterling seemed upset as he quickly ran over claims made by Trump and his allies.

“I’ll admit after listening to the audio from [Trump’s] Phone call … I wanted to scream, well, I screamed at the computer and I screamed and talked about it in my car, on the radio, because this was exposed, “Sterling said.

Referring to the nearby chart and Trump’s claims, Sterling said, “Nobody changes parts or parts of Dominion voting machines.”

“That said, that’s – I don’t even know what that means. That’s not a real thing,” added Sterling.

“It’s not shredded. It’s not real.”

Trump’s call to Raffensperger sparked speculation that the president could face criminal prosecution for attempting to influence a state official to change the results of an election.

When asked whether the undersecretary, who did not appear at the press conference, considered asking Georgia’s attorney general or a local district attorney to investigate Trump over the call, Sterling said, “I don’t know.”

“I’m going to leave other people to make the decision,” Sterling said when asked if the call was an attack on democracy. “Personally, I found it to be something that was abnormal and out of place, and no one I know who would be president would do that to a secretary of state.”

“Trump probably had eight to 10 points [during the call]”Every one of his numbers was wrong,” Raffensperger said later Monday during a controversial interview with Fox News. “Our numbers will be confirmed in court.” Your numbers won’t be. “

Congress will meet on Wednesday to confirm Biden’s victory in the electoral college. A planned effort by a number of GOP senators and members of the House of Representatives to question the results of several battlefield states won by Biden is likely to fail.