“President-elect Joe Biden will receive his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe,” the AP reports.
U.K. In Crisis
“At least 30 countries, including 17 in the neighboring European Union, have banned flights from the United Kingdom after the British government warned that a new variant of the coronavirus could be up to 70% more transmissible,” Axios reports.
“U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to hold an emergency meeting of advisers after France announced Sunday that it would close its borders for 48 hours, blocking off ports that account for roughly 20% of the U.K.’s trade in goods.”
Pollsters Disappear In Georgia
Politico: “Something’s missing from Georgia’s high-stakes Senate runoffs: the polls. After a disastrous November election for the polling industry, when the polls again underestimated President Donald Trump (who lost regardless) as well as GOP candidates down the ballot, pollsters are mostly sidelined in the run-up to the Jan. 5 Georgia elections, which most observers regard as toss-ups.”
“The public polls that drove so much of the news coverage ahead of November — and generated tremendous distrust afterward — have all but disappeared in Georgia, and they are set to stay that way: Some of the most prolific, best-regarded media and academic pollsters told Politico they have no plans to conduct pre-election surveys in Georgia.”
Inside Biden’s Cabinet Confirmation Drive
Politico: “Already, Biden has tapped a vast network of current and former elected officials, interest groups, CEOs and others to take part in lobbying efforts for his Cabinet picks. That has included dispatching nominees to engage in Zoom meetings with interest groups, amplifying transition messaging on social media and reaching out to powerful Senate members who will be key to the confirmation.”
“The Biden transition team, which is expecting that at least some confirmation hearings will begin before the Jan. 20 inauguration, has already had hundreds of conversations with Hill members and staff and taken part in dozens of meetings with members of Congress. Before Cabinet names go public, notifications go out to bipartisan leadership, relevant committee offices and home state members of Congress. Once they are announced, nominees are making dozens of calls, including to Republicans, who have signaled they could put up resistance to some of picks.”
How Trump Will Be Remembered
“The most improbable of presidents, Donald Trump reshaped the office and shattered its centuries-old norms and traditions while dominating the national discourse like no one before,” the AP reports.
“Trump, governing by whim and tweet, deepened the nation’s racial and cultural divides and undermined faith in its institutions. His legacy: a tumultuous four years that were marked by his impeachment, failures during the worst pandemic in a century and his refusal to accept defeat. He smashed conceptions about how presidents behave and communicate, offering unvarnished thoughts and policy declarations alike, pulling back the curtain for the American people while enthralling supporters and unnerving foes — and sometimes allies — both at home and abroad.”
“While the nation would be hard pressed to elect another figure as disruptive as Trump, it remains to be seen how much of his imprint on the office itself, occupied by only 44 other men, will be indelible.”
Stimulus Deal Provides Economic Relief, for Now
“For much of the economy — especially people and industries that have been insulated from the worst effects of the pandemic — it may provide a bridge to a vaccine-fueled rebound. That is especially likely if the vaccine is quickly and widely distributed, and the swelling number of coronavirus cases doesn’t force another round of widespread shutdowns,” the New York Times reports.
“The injection of money comes months too late for tens of thousands of failed businesses, however, and it may not be enough to sustain unemployed workers until the labor market rebounds. Moreover, it could be the last help from Washington the economy gets anytime soon.”
Trump Files Another Supreme Court Appeal
“President Trump’s campaign team on Sunday filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to reverse several cases by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to change the state’s mail ballot law before and after the 2020 presidential election,” Fox News reports.
Rick Hasen: “John Eastman should be ashamed of this petition… The citation to the Epoch Times in support of the choice of the alternative slate made me laugh out loud.”
What Books Should Biden Read?
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss tells the New York Times the incoming president should read Washington by Ron Chernow.
“This classic shows how, when our democracy was fragile, a human and courageous leader — through his acts, language and personal example — defined the office of the presidency in order to protect our liberties, defend the country from secret foreign threats, ensure the rule of law, bring our people together and inspire our next generation.”
It’s an excellent choice.
Washington: A Life (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Chernow, Ron (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 930 Pages - 10/05/2010 (Publication Date) - Penguin Books (Publisher)
‘The Last Republican President’
Eric Bolling savaged “establishment” Republicans, telling his viewers on Sinclair they were the reason Donald Trump would be the last Republican president for the foreseeable future.
Said Bolling: “Donald Trump will be the last Republican president in my lifetime. He may be the last GOP president ever again.”
Trump Has Put the Lame In ‘Lame Duck’
George Condon: “President Trump is only the third incumbent to lose reelection since Inauguration Day was moved to Jan. 20 almost nine decades ago. He is the first to seemingly stop doing the job during the two-and-a-half months before he officially leaves, the first not to view those final days as a last opportunity to enact laws and cement his legacy.”
“In stark contrast with the other presidents who lost their second-term bids, Trump has all but disappeared from public view. Even worse, behind the scenes he has not pressed his own administration to keep working right up to noon on Inauguration Day when his successor takes his oath of office. Instead, he has dug in, refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, and is spending most of his time brooding as he desperately seeks for a way to undo the verdict of the 84 million Americans who voted to end his presidency.”
“The contrast with defeated incumbents Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992 is both stark and undeniable.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It seems like the constant fight in the Republican Party is trying to stop the lunatics from taking over the asylum.”
— Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), quoted by the New York Times.
Ex-Justice Department Lawyer Apologizes
Erica Newland writes in the New York Times that she’s “haunted by what I did” as a lawyer in President Trump’s Justice Department.
“No matter our intentions, we were complicit. We collectively perpetuated an anti-democratic leader by conforming to his assault on reality. We may have been victims of the system, but we were also its instruments. No matter how much any one of us pushed back from within, we did so as members of a professional class of government lawyers who enabled an assault on our democracy — an assault that nearly ended it.”
“We owe the country our honesty about that and about what we saw. We owe apologies. I offer mine here.”
White House Secures ‘Three Martini Lunch’ Deduction
Washington Post: “The draft language of the emergency coronavirus relief package includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses pushed by the White House and strongly denounced by congressional Democrats.”
How Oddsmakers Made a Killing Off Trump Supporters
Slate: “The odds-shifting bonanza on election night, with all that money on the line, was not a sign that the oddsmakers knew something the mainstream media did not. Instead, the Trump spike was the peak of a phenomenon that had been unfolding all year. Many Trump supporters were certain he could not lose, and they plowed so much money into betting on him that they distorted markets in his (and ultimately, the sportsbooks’) favor.”
Said gambling writer Collin Sherwin: “It’s the most irrational market I ever saw.”
John Gruber: “The MAGA types were still wagering real money on Trump after the election had been called for Biden. It was like taking candy from babies who deserved to have their candy stolen.”
Quote of the Day
“Russia is a gas station parading as a country.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney, in an interview with CNN.
McConnell Announces Deal on Relief Package
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced late Sunday night that lawmakers have finalized an approximately $900 billion economic relief package, the Washington Post reports.
Said McConnell: “More help is on the way. Moments ago, in consultation with our committees, the four leaders of the Senate and House finalized an agreement for another major rescue package for the American people.”
McConnell said lawmakers only have to “promptly finalize text” and “avoid any last minute obstacles.”
Trump Memoir Could Fetch a $100 Million Advance
Vanity Fair: “Page Six got the speculation swirling with an item last month suggesting that Trump could land book deal for $100 million. Some in the publishing world find that figure laughable, but my colleague Gabriel Sherman subsequently reported that Rupert Murdoch ‘is considering a plan to offer Trump a $100 million package that would include HarperCollins publishing Trump’s post presidential memoir and Fox News giving Trump a contributor deal or his own show.'”
“The other publisher to watch is Simon & Schuster, whose CEO, Jonathan Karp, has a long-standing rapport with Trump and has published his books in the past.”
Maria Bartiromo Airs Fact Check of Her Own Claims
“Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo ended her Sunday morning program by airing the same fact-check video about election conspiracies that was previously shown on the Fox programs of Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro,” the Daily Beast reports.
