“It was among the most consequential weeks of President Trump’s tenure: Across the country, health care workers began receiving a lifesaving coronavirus vaccine. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers neared a deal on economic relief aimed at averting a deeper recession. And on Friday, federal regulators authorized a second vaccine,” the New York Times reports.

“Yet Mr. Trump was largely absent from those events. It was Vice President Mike Pence who held a call with governors on Monday to hail a ‘medical miracle,’ and who received the Pfizer vaccine at week’s end on live television. Legislative leaders were the ones working late into the nights on a stimulus deal.”

“All the while Mr. Trump was conducting a Twitter-borne assault on Republicans for not helping him overturn the election results, even warning Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to ‘get tougher, or you won’t have a Republican Party anymore.’ By this weekend, the president was considering naming a conspiracy theorist as special counsel to investigate voting fraud, for which there’s no evidence, asking his advisers about instituting martial law and downplaying a massive hack his own secretary of state attributed to Russia.”

Wall Street Journal: Amid vaccine rollout, Trump remains focused on overturning the election.

Associated Press: “In a week when the Electoral College made official President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Trump remained out of sight, staying late in the Oval Office and working the phones and television remote in his private dining area just steps from the Resolute Desk.”

“While he made not one public appearance, some of those who have been his most influential allies and loyal defenders gave up the fight, letting the president down as gently as possible.”

The Washington Post reports on White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ efforts to keep a White House coronavirus outbreak secret from the public.

Meadows worked to hide when members of the White House team had positive coronavirus tests and attempted to hide his own diagnosis and told at least one other member of the White House team to keep quiet about testing positive.

“Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) faced a slew of social media criticism after he attended a White House Christmas party with his daughter on Friday, despite being repeatedly insulted by President Trump in the weeks since the Nov. 3 election,” USA Today reports.

“The morning of the Christmas party, Trump tweeted that Kemp should call a special session of the Georgia Legislature to challenge the election result… Trump also called him a so-called ‘Republican’ in another tweet that morning.”