“Intensifying attacks on the integrity of the vote by President Trump and his allies are fueling deep alarm among state and local officials, who have watched with dread in recent weeks as election workers have been targeted by fast-spreading conspiracy theories,” the Washington Post reports.
Bid to Exclude Immigrants from Census Appears Doomed
“President Trump’s determined effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census has been thwarted at every turn — by the courts, the coronavirus, the Constitution, and now by the clock,” The Week reports.
“Census Bureau documents released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee suggest that the final apportionment count won’t be delivered to the president until at least Jan. 23, three days after President-elect Joe Biden takes office, because of at least 15 data anomalies affecting more than a million census records.”
GOP Control to Linger Over Agency Key to Climate
“The Biden administration will take over the executive branch on Jan. 20, but the new president won’t have a Democratic majority on an independent commission that holds significant sway over one of his top priorities, a cleaner electric grid, until after June 30,” Roll Call reports.
“That’s because the Senate this week approved by voice vote a bipartisan pair of Trump administration nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — which oversees energy markets, the electric grid, natural gas pipelines and large power projects like wind farms — leaving it with a 3-2 Republican majority until June 30, when the term of Neil Chatterjee, a GOP commissioner, expires.”
Trump Trip to Georgia Has GOP on Edge
“President Trump’s planned trip to Georgia on Saturday to campaign for two Senate candidates embroiled in tight runoff races has put some Republicans on edge that he could do more harm than good by repeating false claims about the voting system, attacking GOP officials and further inflaming a simmering civil war within the state party,” the Washington Post reports.
“That war showed no signs of abating this week, with competing GOP factions growing increasingly angry and distrustful of one another.”
Los Angeles Times: Tumult in Georgia signals Trump’s post-presidency challenge for GOP.
Trump’s Grievances Feed Menacing Undertow
“The last throes of Donald Trump’s presidency have turned ugly — even dangerous. Death threats are on the rise. Local and state election officials are being hounded into hiding. A Trump campaign lawyer is declaring publicly that a federal official who defended the integrity of the election should be ‘drawn and quartered’ or simply shot,” the AP reports.
“Neutral public servants, Democrats and a growing number of Republicans who won’t do what Trump wants are being caught in a menacing postelection undertow stirred by Trump’s grievances about the election he lost.”
Senate GOP Warns Biden on Cabinet Picks
“Joe Biden is facing dueling headwinds as he looks to fill out his Cabinet: Senate Republicans want the President-elect to consult with them and choose nominees who could win their support, while liberal Democrats are pushing him to name progressives who could shape the policies of his government,” CNN reports.
“And Republicans, if they keep control of the chamber, are not committing to scheduling votes on nominees they consider out of the mainstream, nor are they vowing to quickly let Biden’s picks get confirmed in the first days of his administration despite the private and public lobbying by top Democrats.”
True Pandemic Toll in the U.S. Reaches 345,000
New York Times: “The data show how the coronavirus pandemic, which is peaking in many states, is bringing with it unusual patterns of death, higher than the official totals of deaths that have been directly linked to the virus.”
“Deaths nationwide were 19 percent higher than normal from March 15 to Nov. 14. Altogether, the analysis shows that 345,000 more people than normal have died in the United States during that period, a number that may be an undercount since recent death statistics are still being updated.”
Florida Lawyer Urges People to Illegally Vote In Georgia
Georgia officials tell Fox News they are investigating a Florida attorney for attempting to vote illegally for the Republican candidates in the state’s Jan. 5 Senate runoff, after a video emerged of him stating his intent to move to Georgia temporarily and encouraging others to use his relative’s address to do the same.
Trump Escalates Baseless Attacks on Election
This is quite the lede from the Washington Post:
“Escalating his attack on democracy from within the White House, President Trump on Wednesday distributed an astonishing 46-minute video rant filled with baseless allegations of voter fraud and outright falsehoods in which he declared the nation’s election system ‘under coordinated assault and siege’ and argued that it was ‘statistically impossible’ for him to have lost to President-elect Joe Biden.”
“Standing behind the presidential lectern in the Diplomatic Reception Room and flanked by the flags of his office and of the country whose Constitution he swore an oath to uphold, Trump tried to leverage the power of the presidency to subvert the vote and overturn the election results.”
Trump Is Said to Be ‘Livid’ at Barr
“President Trump remained livid at Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday, with one senior administration official indicating there was a chance Barr could be fired — not just for his public comments undercutting Trump’s unfounded claims of election-shifting fraud, but also for steps he did not take on a probe of the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Trump’s campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
“One senior administration official said there was a chance Trump would fire his attorney general and asserted that the president was not merely frustrated over Barr’s fraud-related assertions. The person said that several people are trying to persuade Trump not to do so.”
Pence Backs Away from Trump’s Election ‘Fraud’ Talk
Sources tell the Daily Beast that Vice President Mike Pence sees President Trump’s legal challenges to the election as doomed and has recoiled at the president’s attacks on Republican governors.
Said a senior administration official: “The vice president doesn’t want to go down with this ship and believes much of the legal work has been unhelpful.”
RNC Invites 2024 Hopefuls to January Meeting
Politico: “McDaniel is inviting roughly a dozen potential 2024 presidential candidates to the RNC’s January meeting in Amelia Island, Fla. — the most explicit move she’s made yet to show that the committee will be impartial going forward and not simply an extension of Trump’s political machine, even as he openly mulls a comeback bid.”
“The list of would-be candidates invited to speak includes South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley. Vice President Mike Pence, another potential contender, is planning to attend. Trump is also invited, though spokespersons declined to say whether he’d be going.”
Tensions Simmer Inside Biden Transition
“President-elect Joe Biden is rapidly assembling a team of Washington hands with deep experience, projecting an image of cohesion in contrast to the savage infighting often at play around President Donald Trump,” USA Today reports.
“But below the surface of his tightly scripted events, tensions simmer as factions within Biden’s decades-old orbit jockey for jobs and outside figures grow increasingly vocal in questioning some of the early choices for top positions within the administration.”
Ivanka Trump Deposed In Inauguration Lawsuit
Ivanka Trump sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office as part of its lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds, CNN reports.
Pompeo Invites Hundreds to Indoor Holiday Parties
“Following a sharp spike in coronavirus cases across the country, State Department leadership sent out a notice to employees one week ago recommending that “any non-mission critical events” be changed to ‘virtual events as opposed to in-person gatherings,'” the Washington Post reports.
“That same week, U.S. event planners were told that the guidance did not apply to the upcoming functions they were working on: large indoor holiday parties hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan, on the eighth floor of the State Department involving hundreds of guests, food and drinks.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“As the father of six children and the grandfather of seven, no. My children and grandchildren are much better behaved.”
— Chris Wallace, quoted by Poynter, on whether moderating the first presidential debate was like parenting.
UN Calls for End to ‘War on Nature’
“As an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires and heat waves comes to an end, the head of the United Nations challenged world leaders to make 2021 the year that humanity ends its ‘war on nature’ and commits to a future free of planet-warming carbon pollution,” the AP reports.
Said UN Secretary-General António Guterres: “The state of the planet is broken. This is suicidal.”
Grisham Turns Down Interior Secretary Post
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) turned down an offer to serve in President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet as Interior secretary, a source close to the transition told The Hill.
