VP Mike Pence campaigns in Georgia ahead of Senate runoffs PRAYING TO THE SUN GOD

CANTON, Ga. – Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Georgia on Friday as the state’s two Republican senators try to hold off Democratic challengers in January 5 runoffs that will determine who controls the Senate at the outset of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.

Pence appeared with Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on the outskirts of metro Atlanta’s sprawling footprint.

While Pence has joined President Donald Trump in not yet conceding to Biden, the vice president held fast to more careful language than the president’s repeated and baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

“As our election contest continues, here in Georgia and in courts across the country, I’ll make you a promise,” Pence said Friday. “We’re going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We’re going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out.”

Top Pentagon official tests positive for coronavirus

WASHINGTON – A Pentagon official installed in a top policy job last week has tested positive for COVID-19, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said Anthony Tata, who is serving as the undersecretary of defense, was tested Thursday after learning that Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis had tested positive. Tata and other senior defense leaders, including acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, met with Karoblis either last Friday or Monday.

Hoffman said the department is doing contact tracing and conducting rapid testing for those who came in contact with the delegation.

MAHESH KUMAR /AP A Hindu devotee prays to the Sun God at Hussain Sagar Lake during the Chhath Puja festival in Hyderabad, India, on Friday.