On NPR Tuesday morning, Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, proposed some editorial changes to the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed in bronze at the base of the Statue of Liberty, seeking to make the text of "The New Colossus" fit President Trump's new policy discouraging legal citizens from accessing public assistance like food stamps. On CNN Tuesday night, Cuccinelli offered some literary criticism, specifically arguing that Lazarus used "wretched" as a technical term in her 1883 poem.

"That poem was referring back to people coming from Europe, where they had class-based societies where people were considered wretched if they weren't in the right class," Cuccinelli told CNN's Erin Burnett when she asked him what he thinks "America stands for."

The poem envisions the Statue of Liberty as the "Mother of Exiles" with a beacon glowing "world-wide welcome."

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
[The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus]

"Our values are etched in stone on the Statue of Liberty," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted in response to Cuccinelli's comments. "They will not be replaced. And I will fight for those values and for our immigrant communities." Another 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Beto O'Rourke, offered a sharper critique: "This administration finally admitted what we've known all along: They think the Statue of Liberty only applies to white people." Peter Weber

Democrat Jon Ossoff is claiming victory over Republican David Perdue in their Georgia Senate runoff, though the race still remains too close to call.

The Democratic Senate candidate spoke during a live stream on Wednesday morning as the latest results show him leading Perdue by about 16,000 votes with 98 percent of votes reported, according to The New York Times. A winner in the race has not yet been projected by The Associated Press or any of the major television networks, however, and Perdue hasn't conceded.

"It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate," Ossoff said. "Thank you for the confidence and trust that you have placed in me."

Ossoff in his address also pledged to "serve all the people of the state" and "give everything I've got to ensuring that Georgia's interests are represented in the U.S. Senate."

Democrat Raphael Warnock was previously projected to defeat Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in their Senate runoff. A victory by Ossoff would, therefore, allow Democrats to take control of the Senate, creating a 50-50 split between both parties where ties would be broken by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Brendan Morrow

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser has denied bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after previously rejecting the United States' extradition request.

The judge on Wednesday ruled "there are substantial grounds for believing that if Mr. Assange is released today he would fail to surrender to court and face the appeal proceedings," and so he will remain in prison in London, CNN reports.

Earlier this week, Baraitser denied a request by the U.S. to extradite the WikiLeaks founder, ruling that "the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America." The Justice Department is appealing the decision.

Assange faces U.S. espionage and hacking charges in connection with WikiLeaks' publication of classified communications. He has been in custody since April 2019 after being arrested for skipping bail, The Associated Press reports.

While Assange's lawyer argued he has "every reason to stay in this jurisdiction where he has the protection of the rule of law and this court's decision" after the United States' extradition request was denied, the judge concluded that "as far as Mr. Assange is concerned this case has not yet been won," and "Mr. Assange still has an incentive to abscond from these as yet unresolved proceedings." Brendan Morrow

Republicans on Wednesday are reeling over the loss of one, probably two Senate seats in Georgia on Tuesday. If Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff flip both Senate seats, as now expected, the Democrats will take control of the Senate on Jan. 20. And "Republicans, who enabled President Trump with their silence and compliance, are privately furious with him for blowing their Senate majority," Mike Allen reports at Axios. "It's a fitting and predictable end to Trump's reign."

"In four years, Trump has lost his presidency, and the House and the Senate for the GOP," Marc Caputo notes at Politico. And "while Trump has a phoenix-like ability to rise from the ashes of his norm-shattering outrages, others just become ash." The "blame game is already burning within the GOP," he adds, but aside from Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling — who blamed Trump on CNN — most Republicans "are criticizing Trump anonymously."

"Trump is the cause of this, lock, stock, and barrel," one Republican strategist told Politico. "But when you're relying on someone to win you a Senate race that also lost statewide eight weeks prior, you're not in a position of strength." A senior Senate GOP aide, when asked why Republicans lost on Tuesday, said, "Donald J. Trump." Some Trump allies pushed back, blaming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for refusing to hold a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks. The Republican candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, also took friendly fire.

But many "top Republicans blame Trump for sabotaging what should have been two easy wins — turning off suburban voters with his chaos and craziness, and sowing distrust of the Peach State election machinery with base voters," Axios' Allen writes. Still, "as a curtain call for Trumpism, approximately a dozen senators and 100+ House Republicans today will publicly support an idea that many of them think is idiotic and doomed to fail, as they protest congressional certification of President-elect Biden's victory." Peter Weber

Hong Kong police early Wednesday arrested at least 53 pro-democracy advocates over their roles in last year's unofficial vote to choose opposition candidates in city elections. Authorities said the vote was part of a plan to "overthrow" the government in the semi-autonomous, China-ruled former British colony. The arrests amounted to the biggest roundup of democracy advocates yet under a new national security law Beijing imposed to discourage dissent. Among the former lawmakers and activists arrested was an American citizen, lawyer John Clancey, detained during a raid on a law firm, Reuters reports.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee said the operation targeted people "suspected to be involved in the crime of overthrowing or interfering seriously to destroy the Hong Kong government’s legal execution of duties." Victoria Hui, a Notre Dame political science professor who studies Hong Kong, called the raids a "total sweep" of opposition leaders that suggest Beijing will treat running for office as subversion. Harold Maass

Georgia had two big Senate elections Tuesday, and "to support the Republican candidates, last night the president went down to Georgia — as devils often do," Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday's Late Show. "But the main thing on his mind was tomorrow's congressional certification of Joe Biden's win. The president still thinks he has a chance to somehow overturn that, partly because the guy overseeing the certification ceremony" is his loyal Vice President Mike Pence, "and he really expects Pence to have his back on this."

"The thing is, Pence's role as president of the Senate is a purely ceremonial job," Colbert noted. "The vice president can't arbitrarily decide who's the next president! Otherwise, in 2001 I'm gonna guess Al Gore would have picked Al Gore." Still he said, "this is gotta be a painful moment for Pence, having to choose between the country he loves and the man he's pledged to help destroy it."

The Late Show predicted how Pence will choose in an animated short.

"Yeah, Trump has to be begging Pence to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote tomorrow," which Pence can't do, Jimmy Fallon said at The Tonight Show. "Pence's only role is to preside over the ballot counting — he's basically one step above a BINGO caller." That may be sad, Fallon said, but at least Pence isn't Trump, "still campaigning for an election he already lost. Imagine Justin Guarini tweeting today, 'Text 50815 to make me the next American Idol!'"

"Trump still has a lot of supporters, he still has plenty of talking heads who eagerly peddle these cockamamie claims that the election was stolen," and "at least a dozen Republican senators and about 140 Republicans in the House are planning to object to certifying the results of the election tomorrow," Jimmy Kimmel said on Kimmel Live. "It's a move that will certainly fail. The only question now is what is Mike Pence gonna do about?"

"Pence is in a pickle because the vice president is the one who officially declares the winner, and Boss Baby is pressuring Pence to say he's the winner — which makes no sense," Kimmel said. "The vice president's role is ceremonial, it's like the Oscars: He basically opens the envelope and announces the name. But Trump wants him to pull a La La Land, and Mike Pence is now in a tight spot." Watch him feign pity for Pence below. Peter Weber

If Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff maintain their leads and win both up-for-grab Georgia Senate seats when the votes are all counted from Tuesday's election, the Senate will be split 50-50. Once Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is sworn in on Jan. 20, Democrats will have 51 votes and control of the chamber — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will be majority leader and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will be minority leader, among other changes.

There have only been three other 50-50 Senate splits in U.S. history, mostly for short periods, The Washington Post reports, and it isn't clear how this one will work out. The last time the Senate was evenly divided, from January to June 2001, Democratic leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) and Republican leader Trent Lott (Miss.) reached a power-sharing agreement in which the committees were split evenly. Lott was majority leader from when Vice President Dick Cheney (R) took office until Democrats convinced Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords to switch parties, giving Democrats a 51-49 majority.

For those six months, "I could have been a horse's rear, and said, 'We have the majority, the hell with you,'" Lott told the Post on Tuesday. "And we would have had daily warfare." The Senate could replicate that 2001 agreement, as McConnell suggested in 2016, but Lott is skeptical, given the increased polarization in the Senate. "Tom Daschle and I used to talk more in a day than Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer do in a month of Sundays," he said.

Either way, Democrats can use their 51 votes to set the Senate agenda, green-light President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet and other appointees, confirm federal judges and Supreme Court nominees, and pass certain budget-related items under the reconciliation process. Most other legislation needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster — which Democrats could also scrap but won't, thanks to objections from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other moderates.

Since Democrats also control the House, the Post's Dave Weigel notes, they can use the Congressional Review Act to kill any Trump administration regulations enacted in the past few months, as Republicans did liberally with Obama administration regulations in early 2017. If either Georgia Democrat loses, the Senate remains in GOP control. Peter Weber