Washington Post: “Pence and his advisers have begun thinking about how to handle Jan. 6 and escape Trump’s ire, but no final decisions have been made.”
Said one administration official: “The vice president does not want to leave on bad terms with the president, I can assure you that.”
“White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made a surprise visit Tuesday to observe Georgia’s audit of absentee ballot envelope signatures and ask questions about the process,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Meadows, accompanied by Secret Service agents, showed up at the Cobb County Civic Center, where investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and secretary of state’s office were reviewing absentee ballot envelopes to check whether voter signatures match those on file.”
Meadows was overheard saying: “I’m not making any allegations as much as I am trying to get to the truth.”
Wall Street Journal: “Aides said they view the tweet more as the president voicing his displeasure with the bill than an actual veto threat. One aide said Mr. Trump’s announcement amounted to an effort to make Congress squirm.”
New York Times: “Current and former administration officials speculated on Tuesday evening that Mr. Trump did not like the narrative that he had been sidelined from the negotiations and that calling for higher direct payments was a political move to please his base.”
Said one administration official to the Washington Post: “So dumb. So, so dumb.”
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Politico: “The next Congress will begin in a haze of uncertainty — and that has consequences for President-elect Joe Biden. With the Senate majority unknown until the Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs, much of the chamber’s business remains up in the air — potentially for days or weeks after if the elections are tight and certification is postponed. And that could mean more delay for staffing Biden’s cabinet and implementing his agenda.”
“The Trump administration and Pfizer are close to a deal under which the pharmaceutical company would bolster supply of its coronavirus vaccine for the United States by at least tens of millions of doses next year in exchange for a government directive giving it better access to manufacturing supplies,” the New York Times reports.
“An agreement, which could be announced as early as Wednesday, would help the United States at least partly offset a looming vaccine shortage that could leave as many as 110 million adult Americans uncovered in the first half of 2021.”
“With a madman in the White House, we are entering the most dangerous four weeks of his presidency.”
— David Gergen, on Twitter.
President Trump backed a 2022 challenge to Sen. John Thune (R-SD), tweeting that his political career will be “over” and calling Thune a “RINO” and “Mitch’s boy.”
He added: “South Dakota doesn’t like weakness.”
“President Trump is plotting a final stand in Congress on Jan. 6, casting it as the ultimate loyalty test in his quest to remain in power and shutting out anyone who won’t get in line,” Politico reports.
“Trump has been strategizing in recent days with a band of his fiercest congressional supporters about the effort, which will involve lodging objections during the typically pro forma congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.”
“It’s a gambit that even Republican leaders and those around Trump concede is doomed to fail… But that’s not the only point… The objections will also force Republicans in Congress to go on record voting to affirm Biden’s victory — acknowledging the outcome and likely inflaming Trump’s diehard supporters, a crucial GOP faction that has joined the president in denying the election results.”
Washington Post: Republicans plunge into open battle over attempts to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden.
“Twitter has told President-elect Joe Biden’s team that President Trump’s followers will not carry over to the official accounts assigned to the new president and White House in January, a reversal from the last transition,” Bloomberg reports.
“The move would mean the Biden administration’s accounts will start with zero followers, cutting off a way for Biden to instantly reach millions of people who currently follow the official accounts used by Trump. The @POTUS account has more than 33 million followers while @WhiteHouse has 26 million.”
“The FBI has concluded that Iran was behind online efforts earlier this month to incite violence against the bureau’s director, a former top U.S. cyber expert and multiple state elections officials who’ve refuted claims of widespread voter fraud promoted by President Trump and his allies, federal and state officials said Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.
President Trump, in a stunning Tuesday night tweet, called the $900 billion Covid relief bill passed by Congress an unsuitable “disgrace” and urged lawmakers to make a number of changes to the measure, including bigger direct payments to individuals and families, CNBC reports.
“The president’s tweet, which included a video of him discussing what he considers the bill’s many flaws, came less than 24 hours after the Senate passed the measure.”
Washington Post: “Some aides were stunned that Trump weighed in the way he did after his economic team had publicly praised the bill. But administration officials had negotiated the bill with lawmakers in the final days without explicitly securing Trump’s approval.”
Axios: “The surprise announcement could delay desperately needed aid for millions of Americans if Trump decides not to sign the package as it stands. It also risks a government shutdown.”
“President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to 20 people, including three former Republican members of Congress and two people were convicted of crime as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 president election,” the Washington Post reports.
“The pardons and commutations came as Trump has been exploring how to use his clemency powers to reward friends and allies in the waning days before leaving office next month.”
Trump’s pardons included grants of clemency to former Republican members of congress Steve Stockman, Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins.
CNN: “The pardons came at the recommendation of Trump allies in Congress and, in some cases, the conservative media.”
The Democratic National Committee will pick its new chair during its virtual Winter Meeting on Jan. 21, NBC News has learned, one day after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
Current DNC Chairman Tom Perez has said he will not serve another four-year term.
Donald Trump informed the conspiracy-theory-driven MAGA attorney Sidney Powell on Monday that he does not intend to appoint her “special counsel” to investigate “election fraud,” the Daily Beast reports.
Asked whether Trump told Powell that she wouldn’t be “special counsel,” Rudy Giuliani—who leads the president’s post-election legal team—said: “Yes,” adding, “she is no longer part of our team. She is on her own.”
“President Trump on Tuesday announced plans to appoint another slate of top allies to various government boards, yet another sign that his time in office is winding to a close,” Politico reports.
Former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) filed suit against her ex-husband and the owners of Redstate.com and the Daily Mail, saying they had distributed what amounted to “nonconsensual porn” and arguing the outlets did not have a “carte blanche right” under the First Amendment to “sexually degrade and expose public officials,” NBC News reports.
“Less than a month before he is sworn in, President-elect Joe Biden has not yet selected his attorney general, a key role given how politicized the department became under President Donald Trump and while federal officials are investigating Biden’s son,” Bloomberg reports.
“Senior advisers to President Trump are preparing to launch a nonprofit group to promote the president’s policies once he leaves office, creating a landing spot for former Trump officials after the White House changes hands,” Politico reports.
“White House domestic policy adviser Brooke Rollins and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow have been putting the organization together and are expected to be heavily involved once it gets off the ground. National Security adviser Robert O’Brien and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry are also among those likely to play roles.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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