President-elect Joe Biden’s finalists for SEC chair are Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Gary Gensler, the former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief, the Washington Post reports.
US, States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed Competition
“The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states accused Facebook on Wednesday of becoming a social media monopoly by buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, and said the deals that turned the social network into a behemoth should be unwound,” the New York Times reports.
“Federal and state regulators, who have been investigating the company for over 18 months, said in separate lawsuits that Facebook’s purchases, especially Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion two years later, eliminated competition that could have one day challenged the company’s dominance.”
Stimulus Talks Sputter
“Democratic leaders are rejecting GOP offers on coronavirus relief, pointing to ongoing bipartisan talks as the best way forward. But behind the scenes, the Senate Republican majority is increasingly skeptical of those efforts,” Politico reports.
“After a flurry of momentum over the last week, the stimulus talks are back to where they’ve been for months: nowhere. Congressional leaders have retreated to their corners, blaming each other for inaction as the economy stumbles and the U.S. nears 300,000 dead from the virus. Time is running short in the lame duck, with as few as nine days for Congress to deliver much-needed relief.”
Trump Is Winning
Jonathan Last: “Everyone laughs at how stupid the Trump lawsuits are. Can you believe these morons? They lose everywhere! Even Republican judges keep slapping them down! How embarrassing for Trump!”
“But that’s the wrong way to think about Trump’s actions since November 3. Because his goal hasn’t been to keep the office of the president. It’s been to keep the Republican party.”
“Now, owning a major political party isn’t as useful as being president. But it’s not nothing, either. In a two-party system, you can exert a great deal of power by being the head of a party. You have businesses and foreign governments that will pay tribute to you. You have capos spread across the country, ready to do your bidding. You have an audience of something like 40 million partisans who can be mined for contributions and mobilized as a flash mob whenever you need them.”
“A political party is, to paraphrase El Blago, a valuable forking thing. Why would anyone willingly let go of it?”
Related: A new Morning Consult/Politico poll finds 71% of Republicans think Trump will run for president in 2024.
Roughly Half Are Willing to Get Vaccine
A new AP/NORC poll finds that 47% of Americans want the coronavirus vaccine, while 26% do not and 27% are not sure.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds 61% are willing to get vaccinated, while 37% are not.
Eighty Percent of Biden’s Inauguration Will Be Virtual
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), who chairs the inaugural committee for President-elect Joe Biden, told NBC News that most of the events Jan. 20 will take place virtually because of the pandemic.
Said Clyburn: “We will be setting an example with this inauguration. It is going to be, I may call it, hybrid. He will take the oath in the traditional way, but all of the inaugural festivities are going to be 80 percent virtual.”
New York Electors Will Meet In Person
USA Today notes New York’s electors will meet in person at the State Capitol — despite a raging pandemic — because of a strict interpretation of a section of state Election Law that says in part: “The electors shall convene at the state capitol.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that if the state were to allow remote votes from outside the Capitol building, it could open the state to a legal challenge from Trump and his supporters who have already proven to be litigious.
Melania Is Already Packing
CNN: “While the President is busy figuring out a way to stay in the White House, the first lady is determining what to put in storage, what goes to Trump’s New York City digs, and what should be tagged for shipment to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.”
Said one source: “She just wants to go home.”
Asked how the first lady feels about rumors her husband might announce a 2024 bid, the source added: “That might not go over well.”
Canada Approves Pfizer Vaccine
Canada’s health regulator has approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, the AP reports.
The Pfizer vaccine has already been approved in the United Kingdom.
Duncan Hunter’s Wife Seeks Divorce
Margaret Hunter, the estranged wife of former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), “is suing for divorce after 22 years of marriage—bringing an end to a family and legal drama that saw her cooperate with prosecutors in the East County Republican’s corruption scandal,” the Times of San Diego reports.
Trump’s Twitter Account Is In Jeopardy
“After Joe Biden is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump’s 11-year, anti-establishment, conspiracy-fueled salvos on Twitter could come to a screeching halt for repeatedly violating the platform’s content rules,” Adweek reports.
“Twitter, which has committed to more stringent rules against peddling misinformation this year, like labeling rule-breaking tweets, has repeatedly slapped Trump on the wrist for his behavior. But unlike normal platform abusers, the company has refused to banish Trump outright because, well, he’s the president. Twitter’s ‘World Leaders’ policy was codified last year and treats some rule-breaking tweets as newsworthy. But that designation will no longer protect Trump once he’s a former president.”
Kellyanne Conway Gets Big Book Deal
Members of President Trump’s inner circle are “quaking in their boots” after learning former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway “sealed a multi-million dollar deal to write a blockbuster memoir about her time in the White House,” the Daily Mail reports.
Georgia Senate Runoffs Trigger Panicked Door Knocking
Wall Street Journal: “Republicans worry that disillusioned backers of President Trump, convinced the system is rigged against them, in large part because of the president’s own pronouncements, will stay home. Democrats are wringing their hands over whether suburban and urban voters, motivated in November by the desire to oust Mr. Trump, will declare mission accomplished and not return to the polls on Jan. 5.”
“Both parties are conducting what they describe as enormous voter turnout operations—not only because so much is at stake for both sides, but because they’re fretting about turning out their own people when Mr. Trump is not on the ballot. So far, campaigns and outside groups are on track to spend more than $415 million on television and radio advertising, the most ever for a Georgia runoff.”
Gottleib Confirms White House Rejected More Vaccine
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who serves on Pfizer’s board, confirmed to CNBC that the White House rejected an offer to lock in additional doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
Said Gottleib: “Pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plan — basically the second-quarter allotment — to the United States government multiple times and as recently as after the interim data came out and we knew this vaccine looked to be effective.”
Google Will Lift Its Political Ad Ban Tomorrow
Google informed its advertising partners that beginning Dec. 10, it will lift the post-election political ad ban that went into effect after polls closed on Nov. 3, Axios reports.
How Biden Should Investigate Trump
James Fallows: “As he prepares to occupy the White House, President-elect Joe Biden faces a decision rare in American history: what to do about the man who has just left office, whose personal corruption, disdain for the Constitution, and destructive mismanagement of the federal government are without precedent.”
“Human beings crave reckoning, even the saintliest among us. Institutions based on rules and laws need systems of accountability. People inside and outside politics have argued forcefully that Biden should take, or at least condone, a maximalist approach to exposing and prosecuting the many transgressions by Donald Trump and his circle—that Biden can’t talk about where America is going without clearly addressing where it has been.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Madness. This is madness. We have a process. Recounts are appropriate. Going to the court is appropriate. Pursuing every legal avenue is appropriate. But trying to get electors not to do what the people voted to do is madness.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), quoted by The Hill, on Republican efforts to challenge the electoral vote.
Trump Says He’s Backing Texas Case
President Trump tweeted that his legal team will be joining the election case that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is attempting to bring to the U.S. Supreme Court against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Said Trump: “This is the big one.”
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA), who each face a Senate runoff election in January, put their names to a statement saying they “fully support” the complaint which seeks to throw out Georgia’s vote.
