“Living conditions in Cuba under Communist rule have long been precarious, but today, deepening poverty and hopelessness have set off the largest exodus from the Caribbean island nation since Fidel Castro rose to power over half a century ago,” the New York Times reports.
Bolsonaro Breaks His Silence
“Outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has broken an almost six-week silence after his election defeat in October, telling supporters they will decide his next steps,” the Financial Times reports.
Said Bolsonaro: “Who decides where I go are you. Who decides which way the armed forces go are you.”
Lockerbie Plane Bomber in U.S. Custody
A Libyan man suspected of making a bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and killed 270 people, including 190 Americans, was taken into U.S. custody on Sunday, AP reports.
Behind the Quick Fall of Liz Truss
The Financial Times has “the inside story” of British prime minister Liz Truss’s disastrous 44 days in office.
Republicans Divided on Attacking Trump Probes
“Republicans in Congress are splintering over how aggressively to run interference for former president Donald Trump as he faces potential criminal prosecution, with only his closest allies planning to directly attack the Department of Justice investigations now under the purview of special counsel Jack Smith,” the Washington Post reports.
“The chasm between lawmakers who have continued to vehemently defend the newly announced presidential nominee and those who have started to quietly inch away from the former president widened last week as top GOP leaders laid out the party’s investigative priorities. The emerging split raises another sign of Trump’s uncertain position in the party after a month of taking blame for a disappointing midterm and drawing criticism for controversial statements.”
McCarthy Critics Still Lack an Alternative
“There’s trouble brewing in the House GOP’s anti-Kevin McCarthy ranks,” Politico reports.
“The group of conservatives wreaking havoc in the House GOP conference with their challenge to McCarthy’s bid for speaker is facing internal indecision that may hurt its ability to stay united, according to two Republicans familiar with dynamics in the Freedom Caucus. Most of the Californian’s right-flank critics are members of that dozens-strong Donald Trump-aligned bloc.”
“At the heart of the struggles among McCarthy foes is their lack of a clear plan to take down the GOP leader when the House meets on Jan. 3 to choose its next speaker.”
McCarthy Pledges Subpoenas for 51 Intel Agents
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy reacted to the “Twitter Files,” revealing how the tech giant purportedly suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election, Fox News reports.
Said McCarthy: “Those 51 intel agents that signed a letter that said the Hunter Biden information was all wrong — was Russia collusion — many of them have a security clearance.”
He added: “Why did they sign it? Why did they lie to the American public? A Clapper, a Brennan? Why did you use the reputation that America was able to give to you more information, but use it for a political purpose and lie to the American public?”
Trump’s Campaign Blowing Up
“Instead of taking off like a rocket over the past three weeks, Donald Trump’s bid to win back the White House appears, so far at least, to be blowing up on the launchpad,” The Guardian reports.
“The swagger of 2016 has given way to somnolence in 2022. Opinion polls are grim. Legal setbacks are piling up. A run of dismal results in the midterm elections, culminating in another Republican loss in Georgia this week, have punctured his aura of invincibility within the party.”
“And Trump has performed astonishing acts of self-sabotage, from dining with antisemites to calling for the constitution to be shredded. He has eschewed a widely-anticipated spree of public rallies, instead remaining largely out of the public gaze.”
Ronna McDaniel Says Abortion Likely Cost GOP Seats
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel addressed GOP midterm election performance, attributing some losses to candidates ignoring the abortion argument, The Hill reports,
Said McDaniel: “It was probably a bigger factor than a lot of people thought. We’ve got to get conversant on that.”
She added: “We can’t just do an ostrich method and pretend that it doesn’t exist when Democrats are spending $30 million on that message.”
Quote of the Day
“The main war that is taking place right now is the war over people’s minds. All of us in this room are the special forces fighting this war.”
— Sergei Kiriyenko, longtime aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
Russian Nobel Laureate Called Ukraine War ‘Criminal’
Russian Nobel Peace laureate Yan Rachinsky called Russia’s war on Ukraine “insane and criminal” in his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, CNN reports.
Blowback Over Griner’s Release Shows America’s Divisions
New York Times: “Within hours of Ms. Griner’s release, much of the right wing was in full outrage mode, seizing upon both the man Ms. Griner had been exchanged for — Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms merchant serving time, in part, for endangering American lives — and the Biden administration’s failure to secure the release as well, or instead, of a former Marine, Paul Whelan, who has languished in a Russian prison since his 2018 arrest on espionage charges.”
“A considerable amount of attention was also paid to who Ms. Griner is: a Black woman, a celebrity, a married lesbian and, though it had gone largely unnoticed until now, an assertive liberal — one who, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, called to stop playing the national anthem at her team’s basketball games.”
Meanwhile, Axios reports David Whelan, brother of detained American Paul Whelan, said that President Biden “made the right choice” in choosing to bring Griner home from Russia.
The Guardian: Biden faced internal opposition to Brittney Griner’s release.
Biden’s Potential First Veto
House Republicans may soon force President Biden to issue his first veto — over a measure to terminate the national emergency declaration for Covid, Axios reports.
Only the Voters Can Crush Donald Trump
Peggy Noonan: “Mr. Trump has looked bad since his weak and formless presidential announcement last month—dining with anti-Semites and white supremacists, meeting with Q supporters, calling for the Constitution to be waived to return him to office. He appears to be deliberately marginalizing himself. There is a debate whether we are witnessing the end of Mr. Trump. But here is the truth: Only the voters can crush Mr. Trump.”
“It’s good if senators come forward and deplore his latest antics, if party operatives cast doubt on his viability and writers and thinkers on the right deplore him. But it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that voters on the ground turn away from him. That is how it ends. Any other way and he says the swamp did him in. Voters have to show no, it was us, and we’re not the swamp.”
John Ellis: “At the precinct level, Trump remains the champ. Until someone beats him at the precinct level, Trump remains the front-runner. And the more the media (on all platforms) and the GOP establishment (on but mostly off the record) attack Trump, the more the protective instincts of ‘base’ Republican voters kick in.”
McCarthy’s Speaker Bid Struggles
Daily Caller: “In order to placate the doubters, McCarthy and his allies have commenced a substantial whipping operation… The Republican leader is prepared to offer the holdouts prized committee seats through the Steering Committee.”
Walker ‘Shocked’ He Didn’t Win 100% in Home County
Herschel Walker (R) felt as though he should have received 100% of the vote in Johnson county — where he grew up — and was “absolutely shocked” by the result, the Daily Beast reports.
Said Walker: “I’m gonna call the sheriff and have him find out who didn’t vote for me.”
Business Groups Seek Immigration Deal
“Some of the largest business groups in Washington are making a last-ditch effort to get Congress to pass immigration legislation before the end of the year and are optimistic a bipartisan agreement could fall into place,” NBC News reports.
“Companies in a range of industries, from agriculture to technology, have long urged Congress to make changes to the immigration system to allow for more foreign-born workers and thereby address widespread worker shortages.”
“But with deep partisan divides on the issue, there was little optimism of a deal getting done, until this past week when Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) began circulating the contours of a possible deal.”
Putin’s Truth
New York Times: “Friday evening, continuing to take questions in a news conference after his spokesman tried to end it, President Vladimir Putin of Russia put forward a blunt thesis on the nature of truth.”
Said Putin: “You can’t trust anyone. You can only trust me.”
“It was a fitting coda to a week that saw Mr. Putin particularly busy in constructing his version of reality at a time when a Russian victory in Ukraine appears as distant as ever. In a marathon of public appearances that began on Monday with a televised drive across Russia’s damaged bridge to Crimea, Mr. Putin held forth on nuclear doctrine, prisoner swaps with the United States, supposed Polish revanchism and even the ‘very harsh’ practices of European zoos.”
