Update 4:02 p.m.: Jason Charter and Ryan Clayton of the anti-Trump activist group Americans Take Action have taken credit for passing out the flags before President Trump's speech, BuzzFeed News reports. Our original post appears below.

President Trump has repeatedly expressed his intent to "get along well" with Russia, although some of his critics worry about exactly how friendly he means to be. Certainly this stunt will do nothing to lessen their concerns: At CPAC on Friday, someone passed out Russian flags emblazoned with the word "Trump" to the audience.

The optics apparently sparked some concern. Staffers quickly confiscated the flags:

Snap Inc.'s Peter Hamby reports that the flags weren't a rogue move by protesters — rather, they were passed out by "unwitting college kids," who, judging by their sense of humor, might want to pick up a copy of next week's New Yorker. Jeva Lange

President Trump's team may want to revise their search for a "James Baker-like" figure to lead his legal war.

As absentee votes have been counted over the past few days, Trump's re-election chances have turned narrower and narrower, leading his campaign to mount legal fights to stop the count of votes in several swing states. Trump's team was also reportedly looking for someone like Baker, who led former President George W. Bush's successful 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, to lead that effort. But the actual Baker says Trump's current approach is all wrong.

While Trump's campaign may have some legitimate legal concerns with the nationwide count, calling for a full stop of the count isn't the way to handle them, Baker told The New York Times. "We never said don't count the votes," Baker explained of his 2000 effort versus Trump's. "That's a very hard decision to defend in a democracy."

Baker went on to outline the "huge differences" between Bush's Florida fight and what's ahead for Trump. "For one thing, our whole argument was that the votes have been counted" over and over again "and it's time to end the process," Baker said. That's not what he heard from Trump, Baker added. He particularly had a problem with Trump's team trying to throw out drive-through votes cast in his hometown of Houston, even though Baker said he did personally vote for Trump. Kathryn Krawczyk

Democrats gathered on a Thursday call to discuss the results of the 2020 election, and at least one lawmaker reportedly bluntly made her disappointment known.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) on a Democratic caucus call on Thursday afternoon reportedly went off on what she described as House Democrats' "failure" in this year's election, ABC News' Ben Siegel reports. Democrats are expected to maintain their House majority, but after the election, the party will "likely have fewer seats in January than it does now," CNBC reports. Still, Pelosi deemed Tuesday a "big win," per CNN's Manu Raju.

Spanberger clearly disagreed, reportedly saying, "We need to be pretty clear ... it was a failure. It was not a success. We lost incredible members of Congress." She also angrily told Democrats that "no one should say 'defund the police' ever again" and "nobody should be talking about socialism," adding that if the party doesn't change course for 2022, "We will get f---ing torn apart," Politico reports.

Pelosi reportedly rejected the idea that the election was a "failure" for Democrats, saying that "we won the House." She also reportedly told Democrats that "we did not win every battle but we won the war" and that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden "has a mandate," although a winner in the 2020 presidential race has not been declared.

But the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reportedly also said on the call that "I'm furious" because "something went wrong here across the entire political world," promising to conduct a "post mortem." Brendan Morrow

As the presidential vote count nears the end of its second day, former Vice President Joe Biden urged his supporters to remain calm. "The process is working," he emphasized in brief remarks from Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden added that he and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, "continue to feel very good about where things stand," but that "each ballot must be counted and that's what we're going to see going through now." His remarks stand in sharp contrast to those made by President Trump, who tweeted "STOP THE COUNT!" on Thursday morning as his path to victory showed signs of narrowing.

"Democracy is sometimes messy," Biden reminded his supporters. "It sometimes requires a little patience." Jeva Lange

The votes in the 2020 presidential election aren't even fully counted yet, but already candidates are shoring up for the next round. In Georgia, Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) has already released a new ad in preparation for facing incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a January runoff.

"Get ready, Georgia," the Democrat warns in the clever ad spot, that nevertheless might be triggering for people who still haven't recovered from our current election cycle. "The negative ads against us are coming."

Oh, we know. Jeva Lange

The Trump campaign is continuing to lose its legal campaigns around the country.

Thursday afternoon marked the end of Republicans' challenge to mail-in votes in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia, where the GOP wanted to invalidate absentee ballots that were "cured" after they were submitted. And in the already-called Michigan, a judge threw out another Trump campaign complaint looking for more oversight over the ballot count there.

In Pennsylvania and much of the country, people who submit ballots early are allowed to fix, or "cure," their ballot if an elections official finds a problem with it — a missing signature or an unsealed envelope, for instance. Republicans filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the legitimacy of those fixed ballots, arguing Pennsylvania's Supreme Court had already decided those ballots can't be counted. But U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Savage was clearly skeptical in a Wednesday hearing, Politico reports.

The Montgomery County case was especially consequential given that it's a heavily Democratic area where votes could tip the whole state of Pennsylvania — and thus the whole presidential race — into Democratic nominee Biden's favor. But the GOP withdrew its case Thursday afternoon in one of several losses to its legal challenges around the country, with no cured ballots coming down with it.

Michigan meanwhile already went in Biden's favor Wednesday night, but the Trump campaign still launched a lawsuit to challenge the count of ballots in the battleground state. Trump's team demanded Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson allow poll watchers to view ballot counting and hand over video of ballot drop boxes around the state. But a Michigan judge determined Thursday that Benson had already allowed "meaningful access" for poll watchers, and that there was no legal basis for the surveillance, the Detroit Free Press reports. Kathryn Krawczyk

President Trump has not lost the 2020 presidential election, but some aides are apparently already discussing whether he'll try again for four more years in four more years.

Votes are still being counted in several battleground states and no winner has been projected in the 2020 race, though Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as of Thursday afternoon leads in the electoral vote count. As Americans await key projections, CNN's Jim Acosta reports there's a "growing pessimism" inside the Trump campaign.

"There are some aides and advisers who are starting to talk about the potential not only that the president is going to lose this election, but that he may mount some sort of resurrection run in 2024," Acosta reported. "This possibility has been discussed, I'm told, inside the Trump campaign by some aides and advisers, and that some have even talked about it with the president himself."

Acosta reports it's unclear whether Trump actually would run again but says this talk suggests the campaign feels like it may be "running out of time." He also reports that "there is a growing pessimism" inside the campaign and cites an adviser as saying things are looking "increasingly bleak" for Trump in Georgia.

This comes after The New York Times on Wednesday similarly reported that "in private lately [Trump] has broached the idea of running again in 2024" and for months, he's reportedly suggested, at times jokingly, that he might "promptly announce that he was running again" were he to lose. The Times notes Trump will be 78 by the next election. Biden is 77.

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is also weighing in on the idea of another Trump run, saying on Thursday that should Biden win, "I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics and would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024," per the Irish Times. Mulvaney added, "He doesn't like losing." Brendan Morrow