Washington's failed strategy in Venezuela 3:13
(CNN) -
President Donald Trump's legal team for weeks has worked to delay the certification of Joe Biden's election victory in a risky effort to create an opportunity for Trump to remain in power.
On Tuesday, that small window for subversion officially closes.
That's because Tuesday is the "safe harbor" deadline under federal law.
What that means is that when Congress counts the electoral votes in January, it must accept the electoral results that were certified before the deadline.
Most states have already certified their results.
Missouri will certify Tuesday.
Others, like Hawaii, have delayed their formal proceedings, but none of the battle states that Trump's team hoped to resist will be in play after Tuesday.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig puts it this way: The arrival of the safe harbor date should effectively extinguish any embers of hope, even for the last remaining electoral deniers.
And what a total disaster, legally and otherwise, has been the Trump team's effort to challenge the election in court.
Trump's team sees the dark signs.
There is a feeling developing within Trump's legal team and what remains of his campaign staff that his efforts to reverse or delay the election results are coming to an end, multiple sources told CNN.
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But there is still room for drama.
Now it's up to the Electoral College to make Biden's victory completely official.
(More of that in a minute).
Conservatives in the House want a plenary fight.
Trump's staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill are urging him not to back down even after the Electoral College vote next week, calling on his party leader to fight his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud until the House plenary in January. .
Be on the lookout for an unceremonious departure.
Where Trump decides to spend the final weeks of his presidency has become a subject of internal speculation as advisers wonder if he will leave the White House for the holidays and never return.
LEE
: Conservative representatives urge Trump not to admit defeat and press for a fight in the House plenary
At this stage, there are plans for Trump to stay at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach over Christmas and New Years, but the orientation offered to employees ends there, people familiar with the plans said.
: Snapshot of the stimulus
This is the week when things finally come together or come undone for good in a coronavirus relief package.
CNN's Lauren Fox and Manu Raju have a rundown of where the negotiations are right now on the main sticking points:
State and local funding:
Legislators are close on this issue.
They are considering $ 160 billion for state and local funding that would be based on two factors.
The first would be based in part on population.
The second would be based on states and localities that demonstrate a loss of income.
Liability Insurance:
Republicans have been channeling potential proposals with the GOP leadership, but there is still no deal.
It is the problem that is proving most difficult to solve.
Not yet part of the proposal: stimulus checks.
Aides familiar with the negotiations tell CNN that despite Friday's progressive push for stimulus checks for $ 1,200 to be included under the bipartisan framework, they will not yet be included.
LEE
: US Senators optimistic about agreeing on a stimulus plan earlier this week
: But first, Congress needs to buy time
The House and Senate will vote this week to keep government open until Dec. 18, giving negotiators an additional week to agree on a massive government spending package and pandemic relief.
Unless it passes additional legislation, the federal government will run out of money on December 11 and a series of measures addressing the economic crisis will expire at the end of the month.
The House will vote on Wednesday.
: The Electoral College occupies a central place
With certified election results, voters and legislators follow an archaic timeline established by the Constitution and law of the United States to appoint Biden as president.
Just as then-Vice President Biden oversaw the electoral vote count given to Trump by the White House in 2017, it will now be Vice President Mike Pence, Trump's loyal soldier for the past four years, who will announce the vote count that officially converts. to Biden on the winner.
READ
: ANALYSIS |
Trump's pandemic blindness and electoral denial darken America's desperate winter
And Republicans will have to choose how deeply they want to follow Trump in his den of conspiracy theories.
Lawmakers will have the ability to raise objections to the vote, just as some Democrats did in 2017.
But while those objections were easily dismissed in 2017, Republican senators could, if they choose, extend the process this year and force the House and Senate to vote on individual items.
Donald trump