On This Day: November 20

7 posts spanning 2017–2025

2017

• Day 305 Nov 20, 2017

2018

• Day 670: Trump won't take action against Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the death of Jamal Khashoggi; Ivanka Trump repeatedly used a private email account to conduct government business; a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from refusing asylum to immigrants crossing the U.S. border illegally; and Trump submitted his written answers to Robert Mueller's questions. Nov 20, 2018

2019

• Day 1035: The U.S. ambassador to the European Union testified that he and senior administration officials "followed the president's orders" to work with Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations; Gordon Sondland testified that he told Pence that he "had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations"; Sondland testified that he kept Secretary of State Michael Pompeo informed of the key developments in the campaign to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations; and the DemDebate starts tonight at 9 p.m. ET and will stream on MSNBC and the Washington Post. Nov 20, 2019

2020

• Day 1401: Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders met with Trump at the White House ahead of the state's canvassing board meeting on Monday; Georgia certified the state’s general election results, then issued a correction to say certification is still on-going because a staffer "sent out the wrong press release,” and then officially certified the results; the United States reported a record high of more than 185,000 new coronavirus cases, a record number of hospitalizations, and more than 2,000 deaths; the Trump Administration vaccine distribution team will not brief Biden’s transition team and has "no plans to do so"; and two separate New York State fraud investigations into Trump and his businesses have expanded to include about $26 million in consulting fee tax write-offs – some of which went to Ivanka Trump. Nov 20, 2020

2023

• Day 1035: A federal appeals court ruled that only the federal government — not private citizens or civil rights groups — can sue to enforce the Voting Rights Act; Earth briefly exceeded more than 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial benchmark this weekend; the world has a 14% chance of keeping global warming below 1.5C even if all net-zero pledges are met; the U.S., Israel, and Hamas are reportedly close to an agreement to release some of the 240 hostages taken during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting; and Americans can order another round of four free Covid-19 tests for home delivery. Nov 20, 2023

2024

• Day 1401: Trump nominated Linda McMahon, the co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the Education Department that he has repeatedly vowed to dismantle; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously said the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than 1.2 million Americans, felt “very planned” and suggested the government intentionally caused it; the House Ethics Committee voted against releasing its report into allegations of sex trafficking, corruption, and drug use by Matt Gaetz; and House Speaker Mike Johnson banned transgender individuals from using bathrooms on the House side of the Capitol that do not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Nov 20, 2024

2025

• Day 1766: Trump accused six Democratic lawmakers of “seditious behavior” and said their actions were “punishable by DEATH” after they released a video reminding service members they must refuse illegal orders; a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of more than 2,000 National Guard troops in Washington was likely unlawful and ordered the operation to end; the FBI opened a grand jury investigation into whether the Justice Department relied on unauthorized, outside people in its mortgage fraud investigations of Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James; the House voted 426-0 to repeal a new law that lets senators sue the federal government for at least $500,000 if their phone records were obtained without prior notice; Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, ordering the Justice Department to release within 30 days all unclassified records, communications and investigative materials related to Jeffrey Epstein; the CDC reversed its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism, calling that claim "not an evidence-based claim" despite decades of settled research; the delayed September jobs report showed a mixed economy, with employers adding 119,000 jobs even as the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%; and 76% of voters rated the economy as poor, 60% rated their personal finances as not so good, and 46% said they’ve been personally hurt by the Trump’s economic policies. Nov 20, 2025