US breaks two Covid records in one day
Yesterday, the president posted a pre-recorded video in which he doubled down on his fantasy that the presidential election was "stolen" from him. It was 46 minutes of pure deception, with props this time, intended to show that mysterious "massive dumps" of votes in blue states must be fraudulent. Never mind that similar graphs of states he won would illustrate nearly identical dumps of votes from heavily Democratic areas in those otherwise red states. That doesn't suit his narrative, and his supporters wouldn't believe it anyhow. What if the rest of the world operated this way? What if your bankers decided, for example, that you should keep paying on a loan once you've paid it off, simply because they want you to. Loan documents? Payment receipts? Bah, they're just fake news. None of this is particularly surprising for Donald Trump, of course. He's always operated this way, manipulating reality whenever it doesn't serve his means. But what about Republicans? They were once firm believers (rightfully) in decentralized control, because hundreds of state officials acting in the public interest are a lot more accountable than a single executive acting in his own. Their silence—or worse, their enabling of this charade—is not only gutless; it is an appalling betrayal of principle. —Melissa Amour, Managing Editor
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'It's going to get worse'
More than 2,800 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the U.S. yesterday—the most the country has reported in a single day—as healthcare officials say their staff and facilities are struggling to support burgeoning numbers of patients. The number of coronavirus patients currently in U.S. hospitals—100,226, according to the COVID-19 Tracking Project—is also at the highest peak of the pandemic to date. "I want to be straight with the American people, it's going to get worse over the next several weeks," said U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. "But the actions that we take in the next several days will determine how bad it is, or whether or not we continue to flatten our curve." —CNN
— CDC director concurs. Speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event yesterday, Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that's going to be put on our healthcare system." —CNBC
— Is help from Congress on the way? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have thrown their support behind a compromise stimulus plan as the basis for COVID-19 relief talks going forward. "In the spirit of compromise we believe the bipartisan framework introduced by senators yesterday should be used as the basis for immediate bipartisan, bicameral negotiations," they said in a statement. The $908 billion compromise bill would effectively replace the stalled $2.2 trillion HEROES Act, adding pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to respond in kind. —The Hill
— Look who got a helping hand. Data from the Small Business Administration shows that businesses owned by Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner received funding through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, to the tune of $3.65 million this year. More than 25 PPP loans were given to real estate properties owned either by the Trump Organization or Kushner Companies. —The Independent
MORE: Former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton volunteer to get coronavirus vaccine publicly to prove it's safe —CNN
Bump: Trump's most petulant speech
"The essential question of the moment is how far Trump wants to go. Was this his way of sulking? Was the speech a lengthy vent, an airing of grievances without peer in American history? Or was it a sign Trump will continue to want to push the understood boundaries of what our electoral system allows? The second most important question is whether his enthusiastic base of supporters will recognize the difference between those two motivations." —Philip Bump in The Washington Post
Philip Bump is a national correspondent for The Washington Post.
MORE: Trump, in video from White House, delivers a 46-minute diatribe on the 'rigged' election —The New York Times
'This is Georgia. We ain't dumb'
Allies of President Trump's unsuccessful efforts to challenge the election results in Georgia are urging Republicans there to stay home on Jan. 5—the date of two runoff elections that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. During a raucous "Stop the Steal" gathering in Alpharetta, Ga., yesterday, attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell told a crowd of Trump loyalists not to vote for either of the two Georgia incumbent Republican senators, Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue, arguing that it would be another "rigged election." Hoo boy. —USA Today
— Enough is enough. Fortunately, the list of Republicans who are breaking with Trump over the wild assertions made by him and his legal representatives is growing, largely over fears about the Georgia runoffs. "The president values loyalty over all else. But as his grip on the presidency slips, his hold over other Republican leaders with their own brands is going to become increasingly tenuous," says Dan Eberhart, a GOP fundraiser who has urged Trump to move on from the election. —The Hill
— Et tu, Mike Pence? Vice President Pence, who surely has presidential aspirations of his own, is quietly backing away from Trump's election fraud campaign. Since Nov. 25, not a single fundraising email from the Trump campaign or the Republican National Committee has featured Pence's name in the "from" field. And this week, the Trump Make America Great Again Committee swapped out the official Trump-Pence campaign logo for one featuring just the president's name in its emails. —The Daily Beast— No Mo credibility. One Republican who isn't leaving Trump's side is Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama. He says he plans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress is expected to officially certify Biden's victory on Jan. 6. He is also looking for a GOP senator to join him in the effort, though he said he has had no direct communication with any senator thus far. Good luck with that. —AL.com
MORE: Trump aide banned from Justice after trying to get case info —Associated Press
Senate gains a Democrat
— Kelly's win narrows the Republican majority in the Senate to 52-48. With two runoff races scheduled for January in Georgia, the chamber could end up even, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking any ties.
— "I look forward to partnering with Sen. Mark Kelly to cut through Washington dysfunction and deliver results for everyday Arizonans," tweeted Arizona Sen. Kirsten Sinema. "I am confident Mark will uphold the Arizona values of seeking common ground and putting country above party." This is the first time Arizona has had two Democratic senators since the 1950s.
— Kelly and his family paid respects to McCain before his swearing-in, visiting his gravesite on Monday. "Sen. McCain has been a hero of mine since I was a young pilot. He left a legacy of service to Arizona and country that can't be matched, but that we should all strive towards," Kelly said. —UPI
Wolf: Can Trump really pre-pardon his kids?
"The fact that the pre-emptive pardon presumes guilt has been identified as one flaw of the idea, although Trump has so convinced himself and his followers that the 'deep state' has been rigging elections and subverting his presidency that he could easily self-justify that any and all charges brought against him or those closest to him would be a hoax." —Zachary Wolf on CNN
Zachary Wolf is a senior political analyst at CNN.
Ivanka deposed in inauguration lawsuit
— The Washington AG's office announced the lawsuit in January, saying one of the inauguration's planners, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, "raised concerns" about the hotel's rate with both Ivanka Trump and the deputy chairman of the PIC, Rick Gates, because it was at least twice the market rate. The committee paid more than $1 million to use the hotel.
— Wolkoff, who was brought on to help plan the inauguration by her longtime friend, First Lady Melania Trump, has since turned against the White House, and has been cooperating with federal investigators looking into the inauguration's spending. She is set to give a deposition on Dec. 9.
— Better get used to these courtrooms, kid. Multiple potential lawsuits may lie ahead for the president and his administration, which includes senior White House advisers Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, upon leaving office in January. The president is exploring the option of giving out pre-emptive pardons to his eldest children and Kushner. —Business Insider
MORE: Trump, Kushner, White House sued by watchdog to prevent illegal deletion of official emails, WhatsApp messages —The Hill
Bradley: A roadmap for stealing an election
"Trump revealed how many of the guardrails of our democracy are built on norms rather than on law, and he made clear the limits of the constraining effect of norms. These norms include a basic level of honesty by public officials (so that voters can make informed decisions) and a respect for democratic outcomes by those who lose elections. In ignoring these and other baseline assumptions of the U.S. political system, Trump has not only sown doubt and division in the country but also opened the way for others to do the same." —Curtis Bradley in The Washington Post
Curtis Bradley is the William Van Alstyne professor at Duke Law School.
MORE: Iowa Democrat will challenge election results with House —Politico
"My 10-year-old believes that if he repeats his 'version' of events enough he will be 'right,' and we will agree with him. We are confident he will outgrow this juvenile behavior. Not so for all it appears." —U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich. (@RepPaulMitchell)
Republicans still keep touting that they are the Party of Lincoln. If one follows the trajectory of principles in that party, the Party of Lincoln was more progressive and more aligned with today's Democrats. Over time, the Republicans have become more like the old Southern Democrats in their view of economic and social issues. It sounds good to identify with Lincoln, but come on, it just doesn't match reality. —Read G., Utah
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