“One of the Republicans in Michigan who acted as a fake elector for Donald Trump expressed deep regret about his participation,” the New York Times reports.

“The elector, James Renner, is thus far the only Trump elector who has reached an agreement with the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, which brought criminal charges in July against all 16 of the state’s fake Trump electors. In October, Ms. Nessel’s office dropped all charges against Mr. Renner after he agreed to cooperate.”

“The lie materialized on Friday afternoon and went viral on far-right social media accounts, just as a federal jury ruled that former President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani must pay $148 million to former Fulton County election staffers he falsely accused of voter fraud,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“The post wrongly claimed that Gov. Brian Kemp’s legal staff notified Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that more than 17,000 “invalid” votes were tallied in Fulton County in 2020, echoing debunked conspiracy theories that Trump’s allies have pushed for years.”

“The accusation was quickly repudiated by state officials, but that didn’t stop Trump’s loyalists from spreading it.”

“In a legal settlement Wednesday, the 10 Republicans who signed official-looking paperwork falsely purporting Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2020 have agreed to withdraw their inaccurate filings, acknowledge Joe Biden won the presidency and not serve as presidential electors in 2024 or in any election where Trump is on the ballot,” the Washington Post reports.

“I will confess to you all, I did not expect to be president.”

— 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, quoted by CNN at a book launch party.

“No, of course he lost. Joe Biden’s the president.”

— Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an interview with NBC News, on whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

A new CNN poll finds that 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaners say Joe Biden’s win in 2020 was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year and through last fall, even as there is no evidence of election fraud that would have altered the outcome of the contest.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told CNN that he believes Donald Trump “knew well he lost the election.”

He added: “At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to believe he knew well he had lost the election.”

“A top election security official who was fired by President Donald Trump weeks after the 2020 election has confirmed to CNN that he was interviewed in recent months by the special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election,” CNN reports.

“Federal prosecutors have interviewed the secretaries of state for both Pennsylvania and New Mexico in recent months as part of the ongoing investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” CNN reports.

“The interviews, which have not been previously reported, indicate that special counsel Jack Smith is focused on actions taken by former President Donald Trump and his allies in seven key battleground states as they sought to upend Joe Biden’s electoral victory.”

“Arizona’s top prosecutor is ramping up a criminal investigation into alleged attempts by Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state by signing and transmitting paperwork falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner,” the Washington Post reports.

“Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) assigned a team of prosecutors to the case in May, and investigators have contacted many of the pro-Trump electors and their lawyers.”

“Former President Donald Trump sent a Dante-like message to elected Republicans when he criticized Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday: There’s a special place in hell for those who remain neutral in times of crisis,” NBC News reports.

“Political insiders say that’s not hell; it’s Iowa.”

“The neutrality of many Republican elected officials in Iowa — and across the country — has rubbed Trump the wrong way at a time when he is the clear front-runner for a third consecutive GOP presidential nod. That’s because it’s one of the few evident counterpoints to the narrative that he’s on a glide path to locking down the nomination.”

“In a phone call in late 2020, President Donald Trump tried to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to overturn the state’s presidential election results, saying that if enough fraudulent votes could be found it would overcome Trump’s narrow loss in Arizona, according to three people familiar with the call,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump also repeatedly asked Vice President Mike Pence to call Ducey and prod him to find the evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of fraud, according to two of these people. Pence called Ducey several times to discuss the election, they said, though he did not follow Trump’s directions to pressure the governor.”

“The extent of Trump’s efforts to cajole Ducey into helping him stay in power have not before been reported, even as other efforts by Trump’s lawyer and allies to pressure Arizona officials have been made public.”

“The fringe legal theory that former President Donald Trump deployed to subvert the 2020 election faced withering scrutiny Tuesday from California legal authorities who want to disbar its key architect: attorney John Eastman,” Politico reports.

“Eastman’s bar trial, on charges that he committed professional misconduct by fomenting efforts to obstruct the election of President Joe Biden, comes as both he and Trump await word on whether they’ll be criminally charged for the scheme. But on Tuesday, California bar authorities made sure that Eastman’s legal theory itself would face its own thorough reckoning for the first time since Jan. 6, 2021.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “That Trump had been in contact with Mastriano and other Pennsylvania legislative leaders in December 2020 has previously been reported in the media, and documented by the House Jan. 6 committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

“But the new emails reveal additional details about Trump’s pressure campaign in Pennsylvania and provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how it was received in Harrisburg. Election-related conspiracy theories and bad legal advice percolated quickly through the legislature.”

A new CNN poll finds that 63% of Republican voters still think the result of the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate.

Tim Miller: “Both decided that they had to accede to every whim of their respective super-online activist bases rather than stick with what was working for them.”

“Warren tried simultaneously to attract the most strident Bernie bros by belatedly embracing Medicare for All (and other lefty issues) while also checking every box demanded by the identitarian wing of the resistance: putting pronouns in her Twitter bio, branding merch with Latinx, and attracting the support of a group of activists named ‘Black Womxn For’ (without actually gaining any meaningful support from Black WomEn).”

“DeSantis’s right-wing version has been much less earnest and well intentioned, but it’s just as out of touch. As a campaign prelude, Meatball Ron is presiding over a legislative session with a policy orientation more suited for Alabama than presidential battleground states. He’s tied himself to policies such as a six-week abortion ban and “constitutional carry” that even many Republicans don’t support. On top of that, his current stump speech requires a Ph.D. in based online discourse to have any idea what he’s talking about.”