Playbook: “The ‘victory’ part didn’t pan out for the Harris Victory Fund. But the funding part remains alive and well on the bank statements of some Democratic donors.”

“Two months after Kamala Harris’ defeat, the joint fundraising committee her campaign set up with the Democratic National Committee is still charging monthly recurring donors to the committee… And some donors are not happy.”

Said a Democratic operative: “It’s silly, out of touch, and needlessly takes advantage of our most loyal supporters.”

President Biden told USA Today that he would’ve won re-election: “It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes.”

But he was unsure if he could have served another full four-year term: “So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old? … Who the hell knows?”

“Former Vice President Mike Pence released a statement praising Vice President Kamala Harris and members of Congress for a peaceful transfer of power after certifying Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election,” USA Today reports.

Said Pence: “The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy.”

Congress has certified President-elect Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory in the 2024 election in a meeting that took roughly 30 minutes, Punchbowl News reports.

Not a single lawmaker challenged the result of the election. It stood in extraordinarily stark contrast to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

“A joint session of Congress is set to convene at 1 p.m. to perform a ritual that was considered ceremonial and uneventful before a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in 2021,” the New York Times reports.

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Matthew Yglesias: “Electoral politics in a two-party system is hard. So much is at stake at the ballot box — tax policy, abortion rights, immigration, and a million other things, all of which are incredibly important. I deeply respect and admire the decision made by Liz Cheney and a handful of others to take a fully principled stand on the January 6 question, but I also respect (or at least understand) the decision of those who’ve decided they care more about other things than about Trump’s low character and basic unfitness for office.”

“But what disturbs me is the extent to which the entire conservative movement has retconned not just the events of four years ago, but their own reactions to those events, such that these days, to be disturbed by them is considered some form of lib hysteria.”

“The reality is quite the opposite.”

William Kristol: “George Orwell wrote that in our day ‘restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.’”

“So let me restate the obvious: January 6, 2021 is a day that should live in infamy.”

“But for the next four years January 6th won’t live in infamy. Because in two weeks the man who incited January 6th, the man who now excuses it—no, celebrates it—will be sworn in as our next president.”

“So the obvious if unpleasant fact is that today we as a nation are in a worse condition, facing a more ominous future, than we faced four years ago.”

“It’s the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a solemn reminder of a day that rattled U.S. democracy and set off far-reaching legal and political ramifications,” the Washington Post reports.

“But it’s an especially disheartening occasion this year for those who spent last year campaigning against Donald Trump on the issue of democracy, hoping that his central role leading up to Jan. 6 would disqualify him among voters.”

“Instead, they handed Trump a second term in the November election, and he is returning to the White House largely unapologetic about the events of that day — and even promising to pardon those charged in connection with the attack.”

John Ganz: “We are accustomed to repeating now that Trump’s coalition is fragile or that there are intrinsic weaknesses in his governing style. True so far as it goes, but how fragile is a coalition that reformed and expanded after he attempted to overthrow the U.S. government? And how weak is someone who managed to suffuse the atmosphere with a sense of total credulity about himself and total cynicism about his opponents?”

“This is an attitude now shared even among those who do not consider themselves his supporters. There is now a process of retrospective legitimation, as if the vote somehow wipes the slate clean, and makes lies the truth…”

“Some of that can be blamed on the failure of the media or the opposition party, but some credit has to be given to Trump himself. The great insult comic has landed his jibes: he has embarrassed the opposition, he has humiliated them. They are forced to laugh along now or look like spoilsports.”

David Ferris: How the January 6 insurrectionists won in the end.

Playbook: “Every indication is that it will go smoothly. No riots, no storming of the Capitol, no delays. Of course, a few things are different this time compared to 2021: There’s a formidable fencing system up around the Capitol, the overnight snowstorm has made it difficult to get around the city and no Democratic congressional leaders are doing what many Republican leaders did four years ago by publicly questioning the validity of the election results.”

Joshua Spivak: “At least 108 recalls went to the ballot in 2024, with 77 resulting in removal and 31 officials surviving the vote. Sixteen officials resigned in the face of a serious recall effort, and one official in Flint, Mich., died before the recall vote was held.”

James Carville: “I thought Kamala Harris would win. I was wrong. While I’m sure we Democrats can argue that the loss wasn’t a landslide or take a little solace in our House performance, the most important thing for us now is to face that we were wrong and take action on the prevailing ‘why.'”

“I’ve been going over this in my head for the past two months, all the variables, all the what-ifs, all the questions about Joe Biden’s re-election decisions and what kind of Democrat or message might have worked against Donald Trump. I keep coming back to the same thing. We lost for one very simple reason: It was, it is and it always will be the economy, stupid. We have to begin 2025 with that truth as our political north star and not get distracted by anything else.”

Playbook: “As we say goodbye to 2024, a whipsaw of a political year, it’s worth stepping back in a newsletter obsessed with what’s driving the day and reflecting about what drove the year.”

“This year will be forever branded on the American political consciousness, one remembered for the first criminal conviction of a former president, not to mention half a billion dollars in court-ordered payments and a defamation case; two assassination attempts; the current president dropping out after a disastrous debate performance and endorsing his own running mate to succeed him on the ticket; and that same former president storming back to win 312 electoral votes.”

“If you’re like us, you haven’t caught your breath since the election, even as a new year promises — or threatens, depending on your point of view — to reveal itself.”

Judd Legum: “Musk spent nearly $300 million to elect a president with a virulently anti-immigrant agenda and now is telling Trump’s anti-immigrant supporters to ‘Fuck yourself in the face.’”

“Unclear who Musk thought was voting for the guy who blamed immigrants for all of America’s economic problems.”