New York Times: “The move — which is now regarded by some City Hall officials as a question of when, not if — would be perhaps the most significant setback yet for the city’s recovery since the bleak days of spring, when it was a global center of the pandemic and all the schools were shuttered.”
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Tensions Keep Flaring Up In Democratic Caucus
Politico: “Tensions inside the Democratic party are boiling over and spilling out into public view. The latest shots came from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who responded to a report that fellow New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries asked other top Dems on a private leadership call: ‘Do we want to govern or do we want to be internet celebrities?'”
Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter: “Pretty astounding that some Dems don’t believe it’s possible to govern, be politically popular, and command formidable bully pulpits at the same time, but it actually explains a lot about how we got here. We don’t have to choose between these things! We can do better and win!”
Quote of the Day
“It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted. Which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president. For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety.”
— Barack Obama, quoted by CNN, from his new memoir, A Promised Land.
A Promised Land
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Obama, Barack (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 753 Pages - 11/17/2020 (Publication Date) - Crown (Publisher)
Trump Eyes Digital Media Empire to Take on Fox News
President Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network, sources tell Axios.
Said a source: “He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it.”
“Trump’s digital offering would likely charge a monthly fee to MAGA fans. Many are Fox News viewers, and he’d aim to replace the network — and the $5.99-a-month Fox Nation streaming service, which has an 85% conversation rate from free trials to paid subscribers — as their top destination.”
Trump Stacks Intel Agencies with Loyalists
“There is no evidence so far that these new appointees harbor a secret agenda on Iran or have taken up their posts with an action plan in hand. But their sudden appearance has been a purge of the Pentagon’s top civilian hierarchy without recent precedent,” Politico reports.
“Administration officials said the appointments were partly about Afghanistan, where the president has been frustrated by what he sees as a military moving too slowly to fulfill his promise that all American troops will be home by Christmas.”
Lawmakers Press Ahead with Trump Era Probes
“Donald Trump will be a private citizen in January. But Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are poised to carry on the investigations and legal battles that helped define his presidency. In the House, Democrats are still in court fighting to obtain Trump’s financial records and testimony from his first White House counsel Don McGahn, a key figure in the obstruction of justice case against Trump,” Politico reports.
“In the Senate, where GOP control hinges on two Jan. 5 runoffs in Georgia, Republican lawmakers are plotting ways to expand and intensify their investigations targeting the former Obama administration and President-elect Joe Biden and his son Hunter, with Senate Republicans saying they will use the lame duck period to ramp up their probes.”
Pence’s Future Is Tied to Trump
New York Times “In the final weeks of Mr. Pence’s term, his relationship with President Trump is facing what may be the vice president’s toughest challenge yet. Mr. Pence must now balance his loyalty to an enraged president making baseless claims of voter fraud against his own political future and reputation. He also has to deal with how Mr. Trump’s talk of running for president again in 2024 could leave him with no lane to run in. It also makes it difficult for Mr. Pence to even start raising money if the president is floating his own name.”
“In reality, Mr. Pence’s allies expect him to return to Indiana and make a living giving paid speeches and potentially writing a book. It will be the first time in a long time that Mr. Pence will live as a private citizen — he moved from the governor’s mansion in Indiana to temporary housing in Washington during the presidential transition four years ago to the Naval Observatory. He currently does not own a house.”
White House Rushes to Execute Lame Duck Moves
“On Monday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gathered senior aides on a call. One of his goals: to plot the conservative policy moves they could push through in their final 10 weeks on immigration, trade, health care, China and school choice,” Politico reports.
The Coronavirus Soars
Washington Post: “The number of new daily coronavirus cases in the United States jumped from 104,000 a week earlier to more than 145,000 on Wednesday, an all-time high. Nearly every metric is trending in the wrong direction, prompting states to add new restrictions and hospitals to prepare for a potentially dark future.”
More Foreign Leaders Have Congratulated Biden
“Eight world leaders have now called to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden — four more than the number of GOP senators who have publicly done so,” Axios reports.
“The refusal by top Republicans to accept Biden’s victory and allow legal options to be exhausted could mean weeks of drama and serve as a distraction from the work that is necessary to ensure a smooth transition of power.”
The Completely Insane Electoral College Strategy
Rich Lowry: “President Trump is challenging the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election in several razor-thin battleground states, pushing for recounts and filing lawsuits that are very unlikely to overturn Joe Biden’s current leads.”
“Faced with this prospect, some allies of the president are advocating, or beginning to whisper about, Republican state legislatures taking matters into their own hands and sending slates of Trump electors to Congress regardless of the vote count.”
“This is a poisonous idea that stands out as radical and destructive, even in a year when we’ve been debating court-packing and defunding the police. The best that can be said for it is that it is almost certainly a nonstarter, which doesn’t mean that it won’t get more oxygen.”
Lankford Says Biden Must Get Intelligence Briefings
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told KRMG that if President-elect Joe Biden doesn’t have access to intelligence briefings by Friday then he will get involved.
Said Lankford: “I can assure you there will be a peaceful transition of power in the United States.”
Trump Backs Ronna McDaniel for RNC Chair
Trump’s Advisers See No Path to Overturning Election
Wall Street Journal: “Trump advisers have grown more vocal in conversations with Mr. Trump in recent days that they don’t see a path to victory, even if his legal efforts meet some success, a White House official said, though some advisers have continued to tell the president he still has a shot. An official said Mr. Trump understands that the fight isn’t winnable but characterized his feelings as: ‘Let me have the fight.'”
Washington Post: “Trump aides, advisers and allies said there is no grand strategy to reverse the election results.”
State Department Won’t Give Biden His Messages
“A stack of messages from foreign leaders to President-elect Joe Biden are sitting at the State Department but the Trump administration is preventing him from accessing them,” CNN reports.
“Traditionally, the State Department supports all communications for the President-elect, which is why many countries began sending messages to State over the weekend. But with Biden prohibited from accessing State Department resources by the Trump administration, because President Trump refuses to accept Biden’s victory, dozens of incoming messages have not been received.”
This Election Result Won’t Be Overturned
Karl Rove: “To win, Mr. Trump must prove systemic fraud, with illegal votes in the tens of thousands. There is no evidence of that so far. Unless some emerges quickly, the president’s chances in court will decline precipitously when states start certifying results, as Georgia will on Nov. 20, followed by Pennsylvania and Michigan on Nov. 23, Arizona on Nov. 30, and Wisconsin and Nevada on Dec. 1. By seating one candidate’s electors, these certifications will raise the legal bar to overturn state results and make it even more difficult for Mr. Trump to prevail before the Electoral College meets Dec. 14.”
2020 Expectations, Results, Overtime
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Biden Picks Ron Klain as Chief of Staff
President-elect Joe Biden will name Ron Klain, a veteran Democratic operative and a decades-long confidant, to be his White House chief of staff as early as Thursday morning, the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Klain, a lawyer with deep experience on Capitol Hill, advising President Barack Obama and in corporate board rooms, has been seen for months as the most likely choice to manage Mr. Biden’s team in the White House. Known for steady nerves, he is well versed as a tactician in the levers of power in both the executive and legislative branches. And he has a fierce wit, which he has frequently unleashed on President Trump on Twitter.”
