Election 2024 live: Trump allies tussle for cabinet jobs as Harris concedes

A Republican lawyer thought to be in the running to be Donald Trump’s attorney general has said he wants to drag Democrats’ “dead political bodies” through the streets and “burn” them in a graphic social media post.

Mike Davis, a former Supreme Court clerk and Senate aide, shared the violent post on X on November 6, shortly after Trump surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

“Here’s my current mood: I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall,” Davis said.

“(Legally, politically, and financially, of course),” he added.

“F*** unity… We have the votes. And they tried to kill Trump,” he said in another expletive-laden post, referring to the opposition.

The Trevor Project, a non-profit collective dedicated to supporting LGBT+ youths and preventing suicide, has issued a statement reporting that it experienced a 125 percent increase in calls, texts and chat messages on Election Day and on Wednesday from young people distressed by the dawning news of Donald Trump’s win at the polls.

The Rainbow Youth Project told The Washington Post something similar, saying that it had received more than 3,810 calls this month.

Other groups supporting the LGBT+ community like OneIowa also told The Post it had experienced an increase in emails and messages.

Actor Bradley Whitford, best known for The West Wing and The Handmaid’s Tale, wants Democrats to avoid falling into “despair” after Trump’s second victory, he told The Independent in an exclusive interview.

Whitford, known for his Emmy-winning West Wing performance as the firebrand political strategist Josh Lyman, said he was surprised by Trump’s decisive win.

The 65-year-old has long been a Democratic ally, and most recently spoke at a Harris rally in Wisconsin on October 22.

“I absolutely thought we were going to win,” Whitford told The Independent outside the White House on Wednesday afternoon, less than 12 hours after Trump secured his second term.

“I thought it was going to be closer,” he added.

“But whenever any of my friends asked me, I would end it with, ‘You can never underestimate how you know, racist and sexist this country is.’”

Katie Hawkinson has more.

While Trump and Harris battled it out for the presidency, a war was being fought in the shadows among the networks trying to draw in viewers to their election coverage.

Millions of Americans were glued to their TV sets on Tuesday night, watching the results roll in, with one news channel trouncing its competitors in the ratings: Fox News.

Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum led the network’s primetime election coverage on Democracy 2024, garnering an average of 10.3 million viewers between 8pm and 11pm ET on Tuesday evening, according to Nielsen data.

Project 2025 was not the only concern on Steve Bannon’s mind yesterday.

He also floated the idea that Marjorie Taylor Greene should be appointed to the president-elect’s new administration as the head of Homeland Security.

Fellow Trump ally Greene, who was re-elected to congress for the third time on Tuesday, spoke to Bannon following the sweeping Republican victory.

Bannon noted that the Georgia firebrand had “been with us from the beginning,” adding “Congressman Greene, you’ve done so much work. You’re such a fighter. Now, is there any truth to the rumor that you’re going to take over as DHS?”

Greene laughed but dodged the question somewhat, replying: “I don’t know what’s going to happen Steve, we’re just thrilled to have President Trump back in the White House.”

In his first show since the election was called, the late-night host, who goaded Trump at this year’s Oscars ceremony, fought back tears as he reeled off a list of people who could now suffer under a second Trump administration.

The former Republican strategist has gone viral with this assessment of the vote, offered as part of Anderson Cooper’s CNN panel on Election Night.

Jennings, often a highly divisive presence, argued that the outcome served as “the revenge of the regular old working class American”, as well as “an indictment of the political information complex”.

He explained that the final weeks of the campaign had been dominated by accusations of Nazism and fascism against the Trump campaign and media narratives like the Puerto Rico joke, Liz Cheney’s support for Harris, disaffected Nikki Haley voters potentially tanking the Trump vote and, before that, the popularity of Tim Walz and Harris-Walz camouflage hats.

None of those talking points ultimately mattered, Jennings argued, accusing the liberal media of “ignoring the fundamentals” in the process, meaning the state of the economy and the cost of living, which is what the public finally voted on.

Here’s John Bowden on why the pollsters got it so wrong – again.

Donald Trump’s allies have boasted they can finally admit that Project 2025 is on “the agenda” when the president-elect returns to the White House next year.

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist who walked free from prison just days before the election, took to his War Room podcast on Wednesday to consider the former president’s upcoming second term.

Bannon cited a social media post by conservative activist Matt Walsh, who baited Kamala Harris supporters about the right-wing blueprint.

“Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda. Lol,” Walsh posted on X in a likely bid to get a rise out of his political opponents.

“Matt Walsh, I think, is a very smart and funny guy,” Bannon said on his podcast.

“Now that the election is over, I think we can finally say that, yeah, actually, Project 2025 is the agenda.”