Trump news live: Latest updates as Pence ‘to leave US after confirming Biden’

The Independent’s Rachel Brodsky has more on Joe Biden’s interview with Stephen Colbert.

“As a father, I understand that and I admire that,” says Colbert to Biden’s support of his son.

An outgoing congressman cracked open a beer on the House floor after condemning partisanship in his final speech.

Lawmaker Joe Cunningham celebrated his time in Washington DC by opening the DC Brau “Joint Resolution” pale ale – but did not take a sip as alcohol is banned on the floor.

The Democratic congressman for Charleston, South Carolina, previously tried to bring a six-pack of beer onto the floor in 2019 but was stopped by officials.

Mr Cunningham, who won his seat in 2018, lost the 1st District race to Republican Nancy Mace by one percentage point, a margin of just 5,000 votes.

The Independent’s Graeme Massie reports.

Vice President Mike Pence zeroed in on Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock by contending he is too radical and too anti-Israel for the Senate, telling a rally crowd there they should send back the state’s two GOP senators to block the Biden administration’s agenda.

Mr Pence spent more time during a rally in Columbus – his first of two there on Thursday – criticising Mr Warnock, who faces Senator Kelly Loeffler in a runoff election on 5 January. While he also had harsh words for Democrat Jon Ossoff, who faces GOP Senator David Perdue in another runoff the same day, the Black reverend took more flack.

“Radical liberal Raphael Warnock … has demeaned our military,” Mr Pence said to boos, adding an allegation that the senate candidate has “defended the antisemitic rhetoric of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright”. (He was the former pastor of Barack and Michelle Obama, and has made controversial statements about a number of issues in the past, making him a lightning rod for conservatives.)

The Independent’s John T Bennett reports.

The president-elect chose late-night comedy host Stephen Colbert to address the FBI probe of his son Hunter Biden, defending the investigation into so-called “tax affairs” as political “foul play”.

“We have great confidence in our son, I am not concerned about any accusation that have been made against him, it’s used to get to me, I think it’s kind of foul play, but look it is what it is,” Biden says in a preview of the interview.

“He’s a grown man, he is the smartest man I know, I mean in pure intellectual capacity, and as long as he’s good we’re good.”

The country may remain sans soul for a while longer.

While the Biden aide that called Congressional Republicans a “bunch of f*ckers” expressed second thoughts about the spicy language earlier today, AOC jumped aboard the taunt train to keep the flame wars alive.

She took a break from calling for Congressional Democrats to step aside for new leadership to confirm that bunch of “f*ckers” is, actually, the correct word to use for Congressional Republicans.

It came in an exchange with Rubio on, no surprises here, the Twitter hellscape.

The Independent’s Alex Woodward has more on Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond.

Joe Biden’s incoming senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement, Richmond tested positive for Covid-19, according to the president-elect’s transition team.

Richmond began experiencing symptoms on Wednesday, following a campaign appearance in Georgia supporting Democratic senates candidate Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

Interactions with the president-elect were in open air, “masked and totaled less than 15 consecutive minutes,” according to the transition team.

Following Richmond’s positive rapid test on Wednesday and a second positive test on Thursday, the transition “initiated contact tracing protocols immediately” and determined he was only in close contact per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance with two drivers during his Georgia trip.

Richmond will quarantine for 14 days and submit to two tests before he appears in Congress or with the transition.

Joe Biden has threatened “significant costs” against those responsible for the massive cyber attack on the US government.

“There’s a lot we don’t yet know, but what we do know is a matter of great concern,” said Mr Biden in a statement.

“I have instructed my team to learn as much as we can about this breach, and vice president-elect Harris and I are grateful to the career public servants who have briefed our team on their findings, and who are working around-the-clock to respond to this attack.”

He was in Georgia this week at the super spreader event known as the run-off elections.

The massive cyber-attack targeting multiple US agencies reportedly includes targets outside of those that used the compromised SolarWinds software, according to new reports.

Quoting two people briefed on the matter, Reuters reported a major technology supplier was hit by the same attack used to penetrate multiple federal agencies such as the Department of Energy, which oversees the US’ nuclear weapons program.

Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin on Thursday, and would hold a classified briefing for Congress on Friday.

“The SolarWinds Orion supply chain compromise is not the only initial infection vector this APT actor leveraged,” said DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, referring to “advanced persistent threat” adversaries, according to Reuters.

US agencies of Defence, State, Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce were among the 18,000 SolarWinds Orion customers that installed the back-door hack in updates to the software about six month before the presidential election.

Via Politico reporter Natasha Bertrand, who broke the original story of the Solar Winds attack on the Department of Energy’s National Security Administration.

“The investigation has found that the malware has been isolated to business networks only, and has not impacted the mission essential national security functions of the Department.”

“When DOE identified vulnerable software, immediate action was taken to mitigate the risk, and all software identified as being vulnerable to this attack was disconnected from the DOE network.”