Trump news today: Latest updates and tweets from president

Mitt Romney on Tuesday was hounded on his way from Salt Lake City to Washington DC by supporters of Donald Trump who accused the Utah Senator of not supporting the outgoing president over his unfounded claims of voter fraud.

In a video posted on social media, the Republican senator could be seen being confronted by a Utah constituent as she lashed out at him, writes Namita Singh.

The Associated Press has called Raphael Warnock’s Senate runoff in favour of the Democrat, who was facing GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler.

Here’s our full story on the victory for Democrats:

Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine election integrity and overturn the will of American voters resonated in Pennsylvania’s state legislature on Tuesday, as Republicans refused to seat a Democratic lawmaker elected to office in November.

GOP lawmakers also voted to remove the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor John Fetterman, who serves as the state Senate’s president, from presiding over the session and to replace him with a Republican.

Democratic state Senator Jim Brewster has effectively been barred from taking the oath of office, as Republicans argued that pending litigation over the outcome of his race must first play out in the courts.

The Independent’s Alex Woodward has the story.

The FBI launched an investigation after air traffic controllers heard a threat to crash an airplane into the US Capitol on the day Joe Biden’s election win is certified.

The shocking message said that the terror act would be done to “avenge” the death of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

“We are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged,” the message heard by controllers in New York said according to CBS News.

The threat was made on the one year anniversary of the 2020 drone strike killing ordered by Donald Trump.

It is unknown who made the threat and federal officials reportedly do not believe that it is credible.

The Independent’s Graeme Massie has the story.

The Trump doesn’t fall far from the Trump.

Eric Trump threatened to campaign against any Republicans who don’t support his father’s challenge to the Electoral College votes.

“I will personally work to defeat every single Republican Senator / Congressman who doesn’t stand up against this fraud – they will be primaried in their next election and they will lose,” he said on Twitter.

As the Democrats look to be on course to flip the Senate with the Georgia runoff, Trump supporters and police have begun to clash in Washington DC.

Videos posting to Twitter show police pushing back the crowd from BLM plaza as people can be heard saying: “This is f*cking American plaza” and “F*** BLM!”

“You lost both sides of support. We had your f***ing back, but we ain’t got your back no more!” one man says to police.

Another says: “Heads are going to roll”.

Police can be seen spraying protestors in the face, most likely with some kind of mace or pepper spray, with reports from the ground via journalist Lindsay Watts that six arrests in DC surrounding protests ncluding firearm offences, assaults on an officer and traffic-related offences.

“Waiting to see how many votes they need?” Trump asked in a tweet.

Donald Trump has heaped extra pressure on Mike Pence, insisting he does have the constitutional power to bock Joe Biden’s victory after the vice president told him he did not.

On Wednesday, Mr Pence is scheduled in his constitutional role, to oversee a joint session of Congress, in which the House and Senate will vote to formally confirm Mr Biden’s victory, a move that represents the final step in the process before his inauguration.

Around 150 Republicans, among them senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, have said they will vote against certification.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported Mr Pence told Mr Trump that while he supported him, it was not within his constitutional powers to block the certification process and derail Mr Biden’s move into the Oval Office.

CNN said the meeting had been “tense”, and that Mr Trump told Mr Pence that not stopping Mr Biden would be politically “damaging”.

The Independent’s Andrew Buncombe is following the story as it unfolds.

Nancy Pelosi told Democrats they will give a “civics lesson” in protecting US democracy when Congress meets to certify Joe Biden’s election win.

The House Speaker told her colleagues in a letter that Mr Biden had beaten Donald Trump “decisively” with his “resounding victory” in November.

“Tomorrow is a day of enormous historic significance, as the United States Congress meets for a Joint session to count the results of the 2020 election – which president-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris won, decisively,” she wrote in the letter on Tuesday.

“When the Congress meets tomorrow, this resounding victory will be recognised, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be officially declared the next president and vice president of the United States.”

Graeme Massie has the story.