President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Monday calling for federal agencies to improve their websites to deliver a better customer experience.
McConnell Thanks Biden for Assistance After Tornadoes
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thanked President Biden for quickly approving his governor’s request to declare a major disaster in the state following the deadly tornadoes on Friday.
Biden Was Not Required to Auction Drilling Rights
“The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, shortly before claiming it was legally obliged to do so when announcing the sell-off,” The Guardian reports.
“The enormous sale, which took place just four days after crucial UN climate talks in Scotland, represented a spectacular about-turn from Joe Biden’s previous promise to halt offshore drilling and was denounced by outraged environmental groups as a ‘huge carbon bomb.'”
Sara Goddard: Where is the climate leadership?
New Maps Will Kill Swing Districts From Coast to Coast
The Wall Street Journal finds just 12 politically competitive districts in the 22 states that have completed their House redistricting maps so far, down from 25 such districts currently.
Gavin Newsom Has the Public Stage to Himself
“After a Republican-led effort to recall him plummeted to defeat in September, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s prospects of gliding into a second term in 2022 appear as golden as the $23 million he has socked away for his reelection campaign,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Newsom is all but alone on the public stage with just six months to go before the June statewide primary, a testament to his dominating win in September and perhaps reflective of a postelection hangover among those who tried to oust him. Though a few of the Republicans who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Newsom in the recall said they would consider challenging the governor’s reelection, those opposition campaigns remain dormant for now.”
“At this point in the last race for California governor, the field of candidates was wide and two debates had been staged.”
Buttigieg Heads to New Hampshire
“U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in Manchester on Monday, cheering the city’s $25 million grant from the Department of Transportation, and highlighting the potential of a commuter rail connection to Boston,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.
“Buttigieg has been traveling extensively to talk up the infrastructure bill.”
Inflation, Supply Chain Issues Impact Holiday Shopping
A new Monmouth poll finds about 4 in 10 Americans report experiencing a higher than usual level of supply chain problems this holiday season and many have pared down their shopping lists due to rising prices.
In addition, four in ten Americans have cut back on their holiday shopping lists this year because of high prices – 19% have cut back a lot and 21% a little, while nearly half (48%) say they are purchasing the same amount of gifts as usual. Another 10% say they don’t shop for the holidays or wait until later.
White House Censored Map Showing Independent Taiwan
“A video feed of a Taiwanese minister was cut during U.S. President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy last week after a map in her slide presentation showed Taiwan in a different color to China, which claims the island as its own,” Reuters reports.
“The White House was concerned that differentiating Taiwan and China on a map in a U.S.-hosted conference – to which Taiwan had been invited in a show of support at a time when it is under intense pressure from Beijing – could be seen as being at odds with Washington’s ‘one-China’ policy, which avoids taking a position as to whether Taiwan is part of China.”
Political Misinformation Direct to Your Inbox
“A few weeks ago, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) falsely claimed that the centerpiece of President Biden’s domestic agenda, a $1.75 trillion bill to battle climate change and extend the nation’s social safety net, would include Medicare for all,” the New York Times reports.
“It doesn’t, and never has. But few noticed Mr. Crenshaw’s lie because he didn’t say it on Facebook, or on Fox News. Instead, he sent the false message directly to the inboxes of his constituents and supporters in a fund-raising email.”
“Lawmakers’ statements on social media and cable news are now routinely fact-checked and scrutinized. But email — one of the most powerful communication tools available to politicians, reaching up to hundreds of thousands of people — teems with unfounded claims and largely escapes notice.”
Justices Reject Appeal Over Press Access in Wisconsin
“The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a conservative think tank over Gov. Tony Evers’ decision to exclude the group’s writers from press briefings,” the AP reports.
“The justices acted without comment Monday, leaving in place lower court rulings that said the decision is legal.”
Nunes’s Retirement Says a Lot About Congress
Jonathan Bernstein: “Nunes probably had a route to re-election, and if he returned in 2023 with a Republican majority, he was in line to be chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over large portions of domestic policy. In the past, chairing that committee would’ve been worth sticking around for years, even decades; in some ways, it was a more important position than speaker of the House. But committees have declined in importance as the chamber has become more centralized.”
“What’s more, the relatively frequent turnover of party majorities means we’re unlikely to see a stretch such as that from 1957 through 1994, in which the committee had only three chairmen over an almost 40-year period. The prize is worth a lot less if it can’t be retained for long — and on the Republican side, committee term limits mean that six years is the current maximum anyway.”
Roll Call: Contenders vie for top Ways and Means GOP slot after Nunes exit.
Elon Musk Is Time’s Person of the Year
Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year.
Biden Underwater In New Hampshire
A new New Hampshire Journal poll in New Hampshire finds 70% of registered voters believe the country is on the wrong track.
That may explain why President Biden underwater with Granite Staters by 14 points, with a 43% favorable/57% unfavorable number.
Taliban Seeks Ties to the United States
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also told the Associated Press the Taliban is “committed in principle to education and jobs for girls and women, a marked departure from their previous time in power, and they seek the world’s ‘mercy and compassion’ to help millions of Afghans in desperate need.”
He added that the Taliban government “wants good relations with all countries and has no issue with the United States. He urged Washington and other nations to release upward of $10 billion in funds that were frozen when the Taliban took power Aug. 15, following a rapid military sweep across Afghanistan and the sudden, secret flight of U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani.”
Washington Post: As evacuations from Afghanistan slow to a trickle, some “at risk” allies may face long road to the United States.
Meadows Said Guard Would Protect ‘Pro-Trump People’
“Mark Meadows indicated in a Jan. 5 email that the National Guard was on standby to ‘protect pro Trump people,'” Politico reports.
“The context for the message is unclear, but it comes amid intense scrutiny of the Guard’s slow response to violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and conflicting timelines about their efforts from the Pentagon and National Guard leadership.”
Trump Says Netanyahu ‘Never Wanted Peace’
Former President Donald Trump contends that one big reason his “ultimate deal” between the Israelis and Palestinians collapsed is that then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never wanted to make peace, Axios reports.
Said Trump: “I don’t think Bibi ever wanted to make peace. I think he just tapped us along. Just tap, tap, tap, you know?”
Biden to Announce Electric Vehicle Charging Network
“The Biden administration is set to release a federal strategy Monday to implement an ambitious plan to build 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles across the country and ultimately transform the U.S. auto industry,” the AP reports.
1 of Every 100 Older Americans Has Perished
New York Times: “As the coronavirus pandemic approaches the end of a second year, the United States stands on the cusp of surpassing 800,000 deaths from the virus, and no group has suffered more than older Americans. All along, older people have been known to be more vulnerable, but the scale of loss is only now coming into full view.”
“Seventy-five percent of people who have died of the virus in the United States — or about 600,000 of the nearly 800,000 who have perished so far — have been 65 or older. One in 100 older Americans has died from the virus. For people younger than 65, that ratio is closer to 1 in 1,400.”
