CNN: “Harris has told people close to her that she wants to shape her vice presidency after the way Biden worked with President Barack Obama over eight years: testing and pushing the administration in private, while in public remaining a dedicated and loyal lieutenant. Harris, in effect, wants to be Biden’s Biden.”

Jonathan Bernstein: “It’s not unusual to put someone from the other party in the Cabinet; indeed, Democrats have repeatedly nominated Republicans for Defense secretary, and not only after close elections. Commerce, however, might be the least important Cabinet position, at least in a Democratic administration.”

“That said, Biden would be fooling himself if he thought that adding a Republican to his administration would buy him goodwill from Republicans in Congress. And any Republican who would be willing to do it would be attacked as a RINO who doesn’t belong in the party in the first place. Nor is it remotely plausible that Republican voters would be more inclined to support Biden because of such a gesture. Even for people who pay close attention to politics, the selection of a Cabinet secretary is a barely noticeable one-day story.”

“The idea of seeking to build good relations with interest groups is more worthwhile.”

“Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department,” Axios reports.

“Miller’s move, which stunned officials throughout the Pentagon, was the biggest eruption yet of animus and mistrust toward the Biden team from the top level of the Trump administration. … A senior Defense Department official sought to downplay the move, calling it ‘a simple delay of the last few scheduled meetings until after the new year.’”

“In a forceful effort to shape a more progressive foreign policy, a coalition of left-leaning and other groups on Friday will deliver a detailed roster of 100 candidates they recommend for senior posts in the Biden administration,” Politico reports.

“The effort marks a new phase for progressive groups, which have criticized the ties to arms-makers of some Cabinet picks and have also lobbied the Biden-Harris team to enlist a more diverse set of views in building out its national security staff.”

President-elect Biden told Stephen Colbert said that he considered political efforts to target his son, Hunter Biden, “kind of a foul play.”

Said Biden: “It’s used to get to me, I think it’s kind of a foul play, but look it is what it is and he’s a grown man. He is the smartest man I know in pure, intellectual capacity, and as long as he’s good, we’re good.”

Washington Post: “From the outside, advocates, groups, and members of Congress can find his process cryptic and unpredictable as they attempt to discern which directions Biden and his small core of advisers are leaning, only to find out he’s abruptly switched course. Some nominations have been rushed much quicker than expected, while other decisions have lingered, creating some frustration even among allies. Proponents of demographic and ideological diversity have complained that he has rested too much power in more moderate White officials like himself.”

“But Biden, in what was a defining feature of his campaign, has largely shrugged off the criticism, confident in his own approach to what he sees as a gut-check decision-making process. Lately he has become more animated in defending some of the choices that his internal deliberations have yielded, urging those on the outside to take his full Cabinet into consideration.”

“Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti acknowledged Thursday night that he would not serve in the Biden administration, defusing the longstanding assumption that he would be rewarded for his support of the president-elect,” Politico reports.

“Garcetti said he had turned down an unspecified administration post — asserting that ‘Joe Biden has told me for the last two years that he was very interested in me coming to Washington, D.C., and there were things on the table for me’ — and said he would instead remain mayor of California’s largest city.”

“If Joe Biden picks Merrick Garland to be his attorney general, he could cost his party control of one of the most important judicial appointments in America — and many Democrats do not want the president-elect to take that chance,” Axios reports.

“Biden still hasn’t named his choice to lead the Justice Department, and if he taps Garland, it would open up his seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. If Democrats don’t win both Georgia Senate runoff seats next month, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would almost surely prevent the president-elect from filling it.”

Jen O’Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, walked back comments she made in a recent interview suggesting that congressional Republicans were “a bunch of fuckers,” Politico reports.

Addressing the controversy over her comment, O’Malley Dillon argued that “the point that I was really making is an incredibly important point. And that really is about the president-elect and why he was supported by over 81 million people, and what they were looking for.”

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) to serve as the first Native American interior secretary in a historic pick for a department that oversees the country’s vast natural resources, including tribal lands, the Washington Post reports.

The Washington Post has launched a Political Appointee Tracker for the incoming Biden administration.

President-elect Joe Biden is considering New York finance executive Diana Taylor for a key role in the administration, possibly to lead the Small Business Administration, the Export-Import Bank or the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, NBC News reports.

Taylor also just happens to be the longtime partner of Michael Bloomberg.

President Trump not only insists he actually won the 2020 presidential election but has suggested at times that he will not vacate the premises on January 20, CNN reports.

“In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge.”

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to get his first Covid-19 vaccination early next week, and plans to get his shot in public, CNN reports.