CNN: “In South Carolina a few days before Thanksgiving, the crowd was filled with people offered $50 gift cards to stay for the entirety of Phillips’ speech.”
New York Ordered to Redraw Congressional Map
“New York’s highest court ordered the state to redraw its congressional map on Tuesday, making a major pre-election intervention in the 2024 fight for the House that could allow Democrats to tilt a key battleground leftward,” the New York Times reports.
“Powered by a new liberal majority, the State Court of Appeals effectively wiped out the highly competitive map that helped Republicans flip four seats and win the House majority. It said the neutral lines, which it had imposed just last year, were meant only to be a temporary fix.”
Washington Post: “The ruling could be consequential in determining which party controls the House during the next Congress. In 2022, Republicans flipped four districts in New York, giving them a razor-thin majority in the House. Democrats need to win a net of five seats to win back the House next year.”
Dean Phillips Lost Top Adviser Over Biden Attacks
CNN: “Steve Schmidt, the well-known GOP operative who helped him launch the campaign, has departed in part over not wanting Phillips to attack Biden if there was no chance of beating him.”
“And Schmidt has decided that the super PAC he started to boost Phillips’ campaign will now support candidates outside of the White House race.”
Biden Says Israel Is Losing Support
“A divide between Israel and the United States, its closest ally, burst into the open on Tuesday as President Biden warned that Israeli leaders were losing international support for their war in Gaza,” the New York Times reports.
Russia Has Suffered Staggeringly High Losses
New York Times: “Since the beginning of the war Russia has suffered from a staggeringly high number of losses, according to another newly declassified assessment shared with Congress. At the start of the war the Russian army stood at 360,000 troops. Russia has lost 315,000 of those troops, forcing them to recruit and mobilize new recruits and convicts from their prison system.”
“Moscow’s equipment has also been crushed, according to the assessment. At the start of the war, Russia had 3,500 tanks but has lost 2,200, forcing them to pull 50 year old T-62 tanks from storage.”
Biden Feels Angry and Guilty When His Son Is Attacked
“In private, no issue is more likely to anger or sadden President Biden than attacks on his son Hunter, according to people close to the president who have seen his moods shift when there’s bad news about Hunter,” Axios reports.
“The 81-year-old president has suggested to close associates that if he hadn’t run in 2020, Hunter wouldn’t be facing criminal prosecutions or be the target of daily stories by conservative media — all while trying to stay sober and rebuild his life.”
“The ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden has strained President Biden’s relationship with his attorney general, Merrick Garland, who appointed a special counsel in August to oversee the federal investigation into Hunter after the prosecutor requested that status.”
“Only a few long-serving aides feel free to discuss Hunter’s situation with the president, and only at certain moments — knowing that it can prompt both fury and dejection.”
Harry Litman: Hunter Biden isn’t being accused of any new wrongdoing. So why was he just indicted again?
Zelensky’s Visit Changed Nothing
Punchbowl News: “Republican senators told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday that they would continue to object to billions of dollars in new military aid for his embattled country until a bipartisan agreement is reached on border security.”
“It was the clearest signal to date that Ukraine isn’t likely to get any additional help soon from its most important ally in the 20-month war with Russia…”
“It all comes as both parties cast serious doubt about the Senate’s ability to clinch a deal before leaving town for the holidays. The House and Senate are both scheduled to go on recess at the end of the week.”
Judge Says Giuliani Defamed Election Workers Again
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell scolded Rudy Giuliani for again defaming the two Georgia election workers he’s currently on trial for defaming, Politico reports.
He made comments outside the courthouse yesterday which Howell said “could support another defamation claim.”
Trump Now Claims He Wanted to Testify
Donald Trump is now claiming he wanted to testify Monday in his New York civil fraud trial but couldn’t because of a gag order in place.
However, the gag order only bars him from disparaging the court staff.
Nearly Everything Trump Said in Interview Was False
“A bogus claim every 12 seconds, on average. That’s what a single five-minute clip of former president Donald Trump speaking in Iowa on Dec. 5 yielded,” the Washington Post reports.
Netanyahu Rejects U.S. Plan for Postwar Gaza
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would block the Biden administration’s postwar plan to have the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza, the sharpest sign of Israeli pushback against the U.S. blueprint for administering the enclave after Israel’s invasion ends,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Matt Gaetz Gets an Award
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was trolled at a campaign event with a fake award for “allegedly paying underage girls to have sex with you.”
Joe Biden’s Hunter Problem
The Dispatch: “Hunter’s legal troubles are getting worse. On Friday, three months after he was charged in Delaware with making false statements while buying a handgun, a federal court in California indicted the younger Biden with nine alleged tax crimes, including three felonies.”
“The indictment contains eye-popping descriptions of Hunter’s lurid lifestyle between 2016 and 2019, and while in some respects it raises more questions than it answers—how exactly does a person manage to spend $188,960 on adult entertainment?—it’s easy to get the gist. Hunter, prosecutors allege, spent millions on ‘drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.’ (That isn’t quite true: He was fighting to avoid paying child support at the time as well.)”
GOP Lawmaker Admits Biden Likely Committed No Crimes
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told a small group of reporters this morning that there are “probably not” high crimes or misdemeanors that Joe Biden has committed, The Messenger reports.
But he still plans to vote to authorize the impeachment inquiry.
Kamala Harris Staffs Up for Campaign
“Brian Fallon, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton who recently stepped down as head of the group Demand Justice, will join the Biden campaign as Vice President Harris’s communications director,” the New York Times reports.
Why Campus Speech Is Vexing
David Leonhardt: “In recent years, U.S. colleges have indeed focused more on restricting speech that upsets liberals than conservatives.”
“That inconsistency — which Jewish students and their allies have highlighted — has put university leaders in an awkward position. Whatever their own politics, they are uncomfortable publicly defending one standard for one ideology and another for a different ideology.”
Huge Cyberattack Hits Ukraine Mobile Operator
“Ukraine’s largest mobile operator said it had come under a powerful cyberattack on Tuesday morning that knocked out service to millions of people,” the New York Times reports.
31% of Republicans Won’t Vote for Trump If Convicted
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that 31% of Republicans said they would not vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 general election if a jury convicts him of a felony.
