Covid deaths at highest level since April as 100,000 Americans are hospitalized – as it happened

We’re closing out live US politics blog for this evening, but you can continue following along with breaking news on our global coronavirus blog.

An updated summary of today’s key events:

• More than 100,000 Americans are now hospitalized with Covid-19, the highest number yet during the pandemic, and nearly double the number during earlier waves of the pandemic in April and July.
• The months of December, January and February will be “the most difficult in the public health history of the nation”, Dr Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned.
• In Michigan, Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, urged Republican activists to pressure the states Republican legislators to award the state’s electoral votes to Trump, even though Biden won the state by 154,000 votes.

From earlier:

• Joe Biden said that his priority when he enters office is to get the economy back on track. He suggested that he is open to compromise with Republicans in Congress, but emphasized the consequences the party will face if relief is not given to Americans. He also noted that recovery will have to involve “America first” investment.
• Congress is still struggling to agree on a new coronavirus stimulus package. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi urged Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to agree to start negotiations with a $908bn bipartisan plan, but McConnell said the amount is too high.
• Donald Trump is doing all he can to propel his debunked claims of voter fraud in the presidential election, posting a 46-minute video on social media detailing his thoughts on the matter. As the 8 December deadline for states to certify their election results approaches, Trump is quickly running out of options to contest the election.

As of today, 100,226 Americans are currently hospitalized with Covid-19, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.

This is the highest number yet recorded, and nearly twice as many people as were hospitalized at the peak of earlier coronavirus waves in April and July.

Nearly 20,000 of those hospitalized patients are in the ICU, and at least 6,855 are on ventilators.

The coming winter months will be “the most difficult in the public health history of this nation,” said Dr Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today, citing the “stress that’s going to be put on our health-care system” as the numbers of coronavirus cases rise.

He also said that 90% of hospitals in the United States are currently in “hot zones and the red zones,” CNBC reported.

Iowa Democrat who lost by 6 votes is still fighting for another recount

A Democratic congressional candidate who trailed by just six votes after a recount said Wednesday she will appeal directly to the US House for additional recount proceedings, rather than continue to pursue legal challenges in Iowa, where her Republican opponent was certified as the winner of the election this week, the Associated Press reported.

It’s the closest House race the US has seen in decades.

New from the Associated Press:

President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer urged Michigan Republican activists on Wednesday to pressure the GOP-controlled legislature to “step up” and award the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump despite Democrat Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory.

Giuliani said the US constitution empowers legislatures to appoint electors directly, even though the legislature long ago passed a law allotting them to the popular vote winner. Biden won the state by 2.8 percentage points.

GOP legislative leaders have said they will not try to replace Michigan’s electors.

The impetus of Trump’s pardon talk? ‘Fear of prosecution,’ CNN reporter says

CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins highlighted a key line in Trump’s long video address today: his fear of the investigations into him and his businesses that are currently underway in New York state.

Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s investigation “is particularly troublesome for Trump,” the Associated Press reported, “because it involves possible state-level charges that could not be wiped away with a presidential pardon.”

Full text of Trump’s 46-minute video repeating debunked election claims

Should you wish to read the full text of Trump’s long recorded speech today, there is a transcript here, originally shared with journalists by today’s White House pool reporter.

Austin mayor urged residents to stay at home, while on vacation in Mexico

This is Lois Beckett picking up our live politics coverage from our West Coast bureau in Los Angeles.

It’s the second day of December, and ‘tis the season for … bad choices.

Yet another big-city mayor has been found to have been advocating careful public health measures for citizens while indulging in a risky behavior in a luxe environment.

This time, it’s Austin mayor Steve Adler, who told Austin residents in a video address in November, “We need to stay home if you can” and “This is not the time to relax,” while not disclosing that he himself was speaking to them from a vacation home in Mexico.

The Austin-American Statesman had the scoop, which followed revelations about risky indoor dinner parties at an exclusive restaurant attended by California’s governor and San Francisco’s mayor, and risky personal Thanksgiving choices by the mayors of Denver and San Jose.

Here’s everything that’s happened so far today.

• Joe Biden said that his priority when he enters office is to get the economy back on track. He suggested that he is open to compromise with Republicans in Congress, but emphasized the consequences the party will face if relief is not given to Americans. He also noted that recovery will have to involve “America first” investment.
• Congress is still struggling to agree on a new coronavirus stimulus package. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi urged Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to agree to start negotiations with a $908bn bipartisan plan, but McConnell said the amount is too high.
• Donald Trump is doing all he can to propel his debunked claims of voter fraud in the presidential election, posting a 46-minute video on social media detailing his thoughts on the matter. As the 8 December deadline for states to certify their election results approaches, Trump is quickly running out of options to contest the election.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new quarantine guidelines that said if a person has been exposed to Covid-19, they can shorten their quarantine period from 14 days to seven if they receive a negative Covid-19 test. The change in guidelines is meant to acknowledge the burden a 14-day quarantine may have on individuals.

I’m passing the blog over to my Guardian colleague Lois Beckett. Stay tuned for more live updates.

At a press conference dedicated to a new coronavirus stimulus package, top Democrats indicated that they would be willing to use a $908bn bipartisan stimulus plan as the starting point for negotiations over a new relief package.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi said they are now considering a slimmer package, which is over $2tr less than the HEROES Act that was passed by the Democrat-controlled House in May.

“While we made a new offer to leader [Mitch] McConnell and leader [Kevin] McCarthy on Monday, in the spirit of compromise we believe the bipartisan framework introduced by senators yesterday should be used as the basis for immediate bipartisan, bicameral negotiations,” the leaders said in a joint statement.

But McConnell has already rejected the plan, saying that he now endorses about $500bn in spending, which is worth half the amount that Republicans had originally set in the HEALS Act in July. McConnell has indicated that he wants to tie aid to Congress’ spending bill, which needs to pass by 11 December to prevent funding for nearly all government agencies from expiring.

Donald Trump just posted a video on social media of him talking about the election, repeating debunked claims he has made on social media in the last few weeks following his loss to Joe Biden.

Standing at a podium stamped with the presidential seal, Trump started the video by saying, “This may be the most important speech I’ve ever made …” – all while hundreds of Americans die of Covid-19 each day – and said it is an “update on the efforts to expose the tremendous voter fraud and irregularities” during the election, which he noted (in the 46-minute video) was “ridiculously long”. Trump repeated his claims that the election was under “coordinated assault and siege”.

Election officials have made clear that the election was one of the most safe and secure in US history, and there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump’s battle to hold onto his place in the White House is quickly coming to an end as 8 December approaches, which is the last day states have to resolve any disputes and certify their results, at which point the results of the election will be nearly impossible to overturn.