“Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have splashed out on a $30 million-plus dollar lot of land on Miami’s uber-swanky and high-security Indian Creek Island — known as the ‘Billionaire’s Bunker’ — the New York Post reports.
“Ahead of President Trump’s exit from the White House, the couple is busy making plans for life after D.C. and have viewed numerous properties and lots of land in the Miami and Palm Beach area.”
“China is increasingly flouting international sanctions on North Korea and is no longer trying to hide some of its smuggling activity as it seeks to help Pyongyang endure the Trump administration’s pressure campaign,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The illicit trade between China and North Korea presents a particular challenge for the incoming Biden administration.”
“State police brandishing firearms raided the home of Rebekah Jones, the former Department of Health data scientist who built the state’s much-praised COVID-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to ‘manipulate data,'” the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
“Jones — who launched her own COVID-19 dashboard after she was fired, and used crowdsourcing to raise money to support it — said the agents knocked on her door around 8:30 a.m. that morning, took all her ‘hardware and tech’ after showing her a warrant based on a complaint filed by the Florida Department of Health.”
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“Multiple House lawmakers, including the top Democrat and Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, have said they will cut their holiday short if necessary to override a veto by President Donald Trump of the National Defense Authorization Act,” CNN reports.
“President Trump’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill are urging him not to concede even after President-elect Joe Biden wins the Electoral College vote next week, calling on their party’s leader to fight for his unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud all the way to the House floor in January,” CNN reports.
“The view of Trump’s defenders is at odds with that of many top congressional Republicans, including leaders of the Senate, who believe the election will be over next Monday when electors cast their votes and make Biden’s win official — even though the Democrat’s victory in the presidential race has been clear for weeks.”
“Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine,” the New York Times reports.
“Now Pfizer may not be able provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries.”
Wall Street Journal: “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler has decided to retain current standards for soot pollution, saying those standards are sufficient despite research suggesting that tougher standards could save lives. The move retains standards on soot, or fine-particle pollution, adopted in 2012 that set limits at 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air.”
Both Pfizer and Moderna, the two major drug manufacturers likely to receive emergency authorizations for a Covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, have rejected invitations from President Trump to appear at a White House “Vaccine Summit” on Tuesday, Stat reports.
Bloomberg says the three-hour summit is scheduled to be held indoors, despite a raging pandemic.
“The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth,” the AP reports.
Former Alabama state Sen. Larry Dixon (R), who also served as the executive director of the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, died from Covid-19 on Dec. 4, NBC News reports.
His wife said his last words were: “We messed up, we let our guard down. Please tell everybody to be careful. This is real, and if you get diagnosed, get help immediately.”
“Georgia’s election results were recertified Monday to show President-elect Joe Biden still won the state, as officials continue to forcefully debunk misinformation pushed by top Republicans seeking to cast doubt on election integrity,” Georgia Public Broadcasting reports.
“The objective fact is I believe Trump probably did actually carry Georgia… Republicans simply have to turn out more votes than Stacey Abrams can steal.”
— Newt Gingrich, while offering no evidence of his “objective fact” in a Fox News interview.
The Office of Special Counsel issued a report finding that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro repeatedly violated the Hatch Act by using his official authority for campaign purposes.
“Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is not happy that the leading coronavirus proposals lack another round of direct payments to Americans — and he’s taking his case straight to President Trump,” Politico reports.
“The Missouri Republican lobbied Trump to veto any coronavirus aid bill that does not contain a second tranche of checks to Americans in a phone call on Saturday. And Hawley said the president listened intently as he flew home on Air Force One from a rally in Georgia.”
Politico: “In interviews with more than two dozen voters in the state over the weekend, not a single person told Politico they thought Joe Biden won the election, despite two recounts in Georgia and elections being certified in enough states for him to be above 270 electoral college votes. … But all of the voters said they planned to vote again on Jan. 5, heeding calls from Trump, Pence and most every other Republican to show up again.”
Playbook: “It’s now certain that Congress is going to pass a one-week stopgap funding bill, which will avert a shutdown at the end of this week, and give negotiators time to continue to try to cobble together an omnibus bill and Covid relief package. (Covid relief has really a tricky path. As does an omni.)”
“The House will vote first on the one-week stopgap Wednesday. The Senate wants the continuing resolution ASAP to avoid any uniquely senatorial drama — they prefer Tuesday.”
“What’s this all mean? The drama of this week now leaks into next. You mean you didn’t want to be thinking about government funding a few days before Christmas?”
Melania Trump announced the completion of the White House tennis courts.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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