Transition
Biden Assails Trump Over Handling of Russia Hacking
David E. Sanger, The New York Times
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. accused President Trump on Tuesday of “irrational downplaying” of the widespread hack of the federal government and American industries, saying that the current administration was denying him intelligence and warning Russia that he would not allow the intrusion to “go unanswered” after he takes office. “This assault happened on Donald Trump’s watch when he wasn’t watching,” Mr. Biden said at a news conference in Delaware.
Biden addresses COVID bill, holiday pandemic precautions
Alexandra Jaffe, The Associated Press
President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday expressed empathy with struggling families and applauded Congress for passing the coronavirus relief bill as the nation deals with a COVID-19 surge that’s casting a shadow over the Christmas holiday. He called out to frontline workers, scientists, researchers, clinical trial participants and those with deployed family members during the holiday season.
China-E.U. Talks Hit Another Snag as Biden Camp Objects
Jack Ewing et al., The New York Times
Beijing and Brussels were on the brink of an agreement to roll back restrictions on investment. But the deal’s fate is uncertain amid growing animosity toward China and increasingly vocal opposition.
Biden picks Miguel Cardona, Connecticut schools chief, as education secretary
Laura Meckler et al., The Washington Post
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate the commissioner of public schools in Connecticut as his education secretary, settling on a low-profile candidate who has pushed to reopen schools and is not aligned with either side in education policy battles of recent years, several people familiar with the matter said. Miguel Cardona, 45, did not enjoy the enthusiastic support of some others who were considered for the post, but he also did not draw any significant opposition.
Deborah Birx eyeing retirement after Biden transition
Quint Forgey, Politico
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, indicated in an interview Tuesday that she would soon retire from government service, suggesting a recent report on her personal travel had taken a toll on her family. Asked whether she would stay on to assist President-elect Joe Biden’s pandemic response, Birx told the U.S. news network Newsy that she wants the incoming administration “to be successful,” and that she “will be helpful in any role that people think I can be helpful in. And then I will retire.”
White House & Administration
Pfizer to supply U.S. with 100 million more Covid shots by July
Reuters
Pfizer Inc will supply the United States with 100 million additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by July next year, the U.S. drugmaker said on Wednesday. The agreement brings the total number of doses to be delivered to the United States to 200 million, allowing for 100 million people to be vaccinated.
Jared Kushner signed off on secret payments to top campaign officials, source says
Roger Sollenberger, Salon
Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, personally signed off on keeping salary payments to top campaign officials off the books, according to a person involved with the arrangements. Federal Election Commission records show that the Trump campaign has made no salary payments to chief strategist Jason Miller, who came on board in June, or to campaign manager Bill Stepien, who joined the campaign in late 2018 and took over the top job from Brad Parscale in July.
U.S. Considers Granting Immunity to Saudi Prince in Suspected Assassination Attempt
Pranshu Verma and Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times
The Trump administration is considering a request to grant Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia immunity from a federal lawsuit that accuses him of trying to kill a former Saudi intelligence official living in Canada, legal documents related to the case show. If the request is granted, the State Department’s recommendation could potentially provide a legal basis to dismiss other cases against the prince, most notably one where he is accused of directing the assassination of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, a person familiar with the case said.
The Trump Administration’s Final Push to Make It Easier for Religious Employers to Discriminate
Lydia DePillis, ProPublica
Last-minute policies on religious freedom clear the way for employers to hire on the basis of faith. Some of the changes won’t be easy for Biden to undo.
U.S. Sues Walmart, Alleging Role in Fueling Opioid Crisis
Timothy Puko and Sadie Gurman, The Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration sued Walmart Inc. Tuesday, accusing the retail giant of helping to fuel the nation’s opioid crisis by inadequately screening for questionable prescriptions despite repeated warnings from its own pharmacists. The Justice Department’s lawsuit claims that Walmart sought to boost profits by understaffing its pharmacies and pressuring employees to fill prescriptions quickly.
Reversing course, feds say some US inmates get virus vaccine
Michael Balsamo, The Associated Press
The Federal Bureau of Prisons says it has started to give the coronavirus vaccine to some high-risk inmates but won’t say how many inmates have been vaccinated or how it selects those to receive the vaccine. The revelation, in a statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday, contradicts the agency’s previous policy that initial doses were for staff members.
FBI links Iran to online hit list targeting top officials who’ve refuted Trump’s election fraud claims
Ellen Nakashima et al., The Washington Post
The FBI has concluded that Iran was behind online efforts earlier this month to incite lethal violence against the bureau’s director, a former top U.S. cyber expert and multiple state elections officials who have refuted claims of widespread voter fraud promoted by President Trump and his allies, federal and state officials said Tuesday. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and ousted Homeland Security Department official Christopher Krebs were among more than a dozen people whose images, home addresses and other personal information were posted on a website titled “Enemies of the People.”
Congress
Republicans plunge into open battle over attempts to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden
Seung Min Kim et al., The Washington Post
The GOP is plunging into open warfare over President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory — with President Trump taunting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and threatening primary challenges against other Republicans, House lawmakers egging on senators to contest the counting of electoral college votes next month, and senior GOP senators rebuffing that effort as a pointless political exercise. And while the internal Republican Party conflict festers, White House officials are scrambling in private to rein in Trump’s increasing embrace of conspiracy theorists as the defeated president and his most ardent allies continue to plot efforts to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election.
Trump attacks Thune: ‘He will be primaried in 2022’
Jordan Williams. The Hill
President Trump went after Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday as he put pressure on GOP senators to back efforts to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress meets on Jan. 6. The president lashed out at Senate Republicans on Twitter, claiming that they would have lost seats without his endorsement.
How the Georgia runoffs could delay Biden’s Cabinet
Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett, Politico
The next Congress will begin in a haze of uncertainty — and that has consequences for President-elect Joe Biden. With the Senate majority unknown until the Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs, much of the chamber’s business remains up in the air — potentially for days or weeks after if the elections are tight and certification is postponed.
Democrat Rita Hart files House challenge to six-vote Iowa loss
Bridget Bowman, Roll Call
Democrat Rita Hart has followed through on her pledge to challenge the close results in Iowa’s 2nd District with the House, filing a “notice of contest” Tuesday. On Nov. 30, Iowa election officials certified the results in the open 2nd District contest showing GOP state Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks with a six-vote lead after a recount.
How Senate candidate Jon Ossoff parlayed family wealth into an international media career
Michael Kranish, The Washington Post
Jon Ossoff was given a remarkable offer in 2013 when he was 26 years old. A longtime friend ran a small journalism company in London that produced films investigating corruption around the world. The friend wanted to step back from running the company and asked Ossoff to become CEO.
House chief administrative officer to depart
Niels Lesniewski, Roll Call
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday the departure of House Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko. “In his years as an officer of the House, Phil has earned a reputation as a champion of innovation, accountability and integrity, whose strategic leadership has furthered the ability of the People’s House to meet the needs of the American people,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.
General
Trump’s Longtime Banker at Deutsche Bank Resigns
David Enrich, The New York Times
President Trump’s longtime banker at Deutsche Bank, who arranged for the German lender to make hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to his company, is stepping down from the bank. Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in Deutsche Bank’s wealth management division, recently handed in her resignation, which the bank accepted, according to a bank spokesman, Daniel Hunter.
Dominion worker sues Trump campaign and conservative media for defamation
Shawna Chen, Axios
An election worker at Dominion Voting Systems filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Trump, his lawyers and conservative media networks, among others, for spreading false conspiracy theories that he says forced him into hiding.
DACA backers ask judge for reprieve until Biden administration
Josh Gerstein, Politico
A lawyer for states seeking to preserve the Obama-era program for so-called Dreamers asked a federal judge Tuesday to hold off ruling on a legal challenge to the arrangement until President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in next month. With backers of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program expecting another adverse decision from U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen, they pleaded with him to wait to see what the Biden administration does before issuing a ruling on a lawsuit Texas and other conservative states brought in 2018 to the original DACA plan issued back in 2012.
Trump supporters plan D.C. rally on day Congress certifies election results
Marissa J. Lang, The Washington Post
In a tweet last week, President Trump foreshadowed a “wild” protest in the District on Jan. 6 — the day Congress formally counts the electoral college votes — and his supporters are determined not to disappoint him. This week, Women for America First requested a protest permit for that day.
NAACP files suit accusing Trump, GOP of violating KKK Act
Harper Neidig, The Hill
The NAACP is accusing President Trump and the Republican Party of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act with their efforts to overturn election results in key battleground states. In an amended lawsuit filed Monday night, the civil rights organization added the Reconstruction-era law to their case against the president’s campaign that was filed last month.
Former Rep. Katie Hill sues ex-husband, Daily Mail, Redstate.com over ‘nonconsensual porn’
Andrew Blankstein, NBC News
Former congresswoman Katie Hill filed suit in Los Angeles Tuesday against her ex-husband and the owners of Redstate.com and the Daily Mail, saying they had distributed what amounted to “nonconsensual porn” and arguing the outlets did not have a “carte blanche right” under the First Amendment to “sexually degrade and expose public officials.”
States
Despite Trump’s intense hunt for voter fraud, officials in key states have so far identified just a small number of possible cases
Rosalind S. Helderman et al., The Washington Post
In Pittsburgh, the local police department this year received 10 complaints of possible fraudulent voting in the November election. Eight of those cases have already been closed without charges or findings of wrongdoing.
States Impose Strictest Covid-19 Lockdowns Since Spring
Joe Barrett and Ben Kesling, The Wall Street Journal
States and major cities across the country have imposed the most extensive restrictions on business and social gatherings since widespread lockdowns during the spring, in hopes of preventing a further surge in Covid-19 cases over the winter holidays. Even as Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. deliver the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine, officials are pleading with a weary—and sometimes defiant—public to avoid the kinds of gatherings and travel that helped drive new cases to record levels nationally after Thanksgiving.
Harry Reid made Nevada a presidential battleground. Now he wants more
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times
Biden was Reid’s friend in the White House. Reid endorsed Biden for president and was instrumental this year in delivering Nevada’s six electoral votes. Now, once again, Reid has a favor to ask: He’d like to elbow aside Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that go first and second in picking the nation’s president, and start the nominating process in Nevada.
William Winter, Reform-Minded Mississippi Governor, Dies at 97
Clay Risen, The New York Times
William F. Winter, a Mississippi politician who stood athwart the racism of many of his fellow white Democrats during the civil rights era and used his single term as governor to address injustice in the state’s education system, died on Friday at his home in Jackson, Miss. He was 97.
Advocacy
Republican attorneys general back NRA in fight against New York effort to dissolve gun rights group
Tom Hamburger, The Washington Post
The ongoing legal battle between the National Rifle Association and New York’s attorney general escalated Tuesday when 16 Republican attorneys general backed the gun rights group in seeking to block a New York effort to dissolve the tax-exempt organization. In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a lawsuit that also called for the removal of CEO Wayne LaPierre from the leadership post he has held for the past 39 years, saying he and others used the group to finance a luxury lifestyle.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Pat Toomey was making Congress relevant again
George F. Will, The Washington Post
If you believe, sensibly, that Congress’s diminished — mostly self-diminished — role in governance is regrettable, you should regret that Sen. Patrick J. Toomey is leaving the Senate in 2022, upon completion of his second term. Last week, the Pennsylvania Republican showed why he will be missed in an institution that has too few members concerned about its waning relevance.
Biden’s Withering Olive Branch
Frank Bruni, The New York Times
The year will turn, Joe Biden will take the oath of office, and we’ll heal. That was the fundamental promise of his campaign, no? That was the hope. But I’m struggling mightily to hold on to even a sliver of it.
Research Reports and Polling
Final Presidential Results Show Substantial Shifts in Exurbs, Hispanic Centers, and Military Posts
Dante Chinni, American Communities Project
The Electoral College formalized Joe Biden’s presidential win on Dec. 14, but the country is still unpacking the meaning of 2020’s results. The American Communities Project’s particular prism shows serious movement in the country’s body politic.
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