memeorandum: GOP-led states back Trump's legal drive to challenge election (Politico)

7:45 PM ET, November 9, 2020

Top Items:

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Trump privately discussing 2024 run — President Trump has already told advisers he's thinking about running for president again in 2024, two sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios. — Why it matters: This is the clearest indication yet that Trump understands he has lost …

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

GOP fears conceding Trump loss would spark base revolt and loss of seats — Top Republicans in Washington are reluctant to call Joe Biden the president-elect publicly, fearing a rebellion by grassroots conservatives loyal to President Trump that would sink the party's Senate majority.

Discussion: ABC News, CBS News, BuzzFeed News, Washington Post, New York Times, Religion News Service and Politico

Axios:

McConnell defends Trump's refusal to concede to Biden — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) celebrated Republicans' congressional victories and defended President Trump's refusal to concede to Joe Biden, saying on the Senate floor Monday that Trump has “every right to look into allegations and request recounts.”

Discussion: Washington Examiner, American Prospect, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Mike Allen / Axios:
Scoop: Trump allies brace for 30-day legal war

Discussion: NBC News, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, Politico, The Hill, Washington Post, RedState, HotAir, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Week, Althouse, Business Insider and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Trump campaign adviser: Conceding ‘is not even in our vocabulary right now’

Discussion: USA Today, HotAir, Power Line, Brookings, The Hill, IJR, No More Mister Nice Blog and CBS News

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell declines in floor speech to congratulate Biden as president-elect

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Graham: Trump should consider running again in 2024 if he loses

Discussion: Fox News and Townhall

Orion Rummler / Axios: Georgia's Republican Lt. Gov.: No “credible incidents” of systemic voter fraud

Quint Forgey / Politico:
Ossoff says Georgia Dems ‘have the wind at our backs’ ahead of Senate runoffs

Discussion: NBC News, Townhall, Talking Points Memo, The Federalist, RedState and The Hill

Melissa Quinn / CBS News:
Money raised for Trump's election fights would help cover campaign debt

Discussion: Politico, Rolling Stone and NBC News

CNN:

Trump fires Secretary of Defense Mark Esper — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Monday that he has fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and that Christopher Miller, who serves as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will become acting secretary “effective immediately.”

Discussion: ABC News, USA Today, Reuters, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, CNBC, The Federalist, Forbes, NBC4 Washington, The Gateway Pundit, CANNONFIRE, National Review, Reuters, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Outside the Beltway, The Hill and The Root

Meghann Myers / Military Times:

Exclusive: Esper, on his way out, says he was no yes man — As had long been expected, President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, cutting short what would have otherwise been his final months at the Pentagon, in anticipation of President-elect Joe Biden's transition in January.

Politico:

GOP-led states back Trump's legal drive to challenge election — Republican-controlled state governments on Monday began throwing their weight behind President Donald Trump's legal drive to challenge the results of last week's presidential election. — A coalition of Republican attorneys general filed …

Discussion: USA Today, Fox News, Bloomberg, Reuters, Washington Examiner, National Review, Default, Business Insider, Alternet.org, The National Interest, Courier-Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, RedState, Florida Politics, The Gateway Pundit, Erick Erickson's Confessions …, CBS Philly and New York Times

Maryclaire Dale / Associated Press:
Trump faces long odds in challenging state vote counts

Discussion: Washington Post, USA Today, Politico and Fox News

Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:

Trump Adviser Leading Post-Election Legal Fight Has Coronavirus — Aide David Bossie was diagnosed Sunday in White House test — Bossie helping with strategy after Meadows tested positive — David Bossie, an outside adviser to Donald Trump who is leading his post-election fight over vote counts …

Discussion: Axios, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast and Washington Times

Washington Post:
HUD Secretary Ben Carson tests positive for the coronavirus

Discussion: Reuters, The Hill, CBS News, New York Times, ABC News, Washingtonian, The Daily Caller, CNN, The Hill, Politico, The Root and Washington Times

Michael Balsamo / Associated Press:

Barr OKs election probes despite little evidence of fraud — WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud.

Discussion: Axios, Reuters, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Washington Post, The Epoch Times, Townhall, justoneminute.typepad.com and New York Post

Matt Friedman / Politico:

Man featured at Giuliani press conference is a convicted sex offender — The first person Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for President Donald Trump, called up as a witness to baseless allegations of vote counting shenanigans in Philadelphia during a press conference last week is a sex offender …

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, Slate, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Bloomberg, Crooks and Liars, HotAir, New Jersey Globe, Raw Story, New York Times, Washingtonian and Washington Post

Richard Hall / The Independent: I saw Donald Trump's presidency come crashing down at Four Seasons Total Landscaping

Jan Wolfe / Reuters:

Trump campaign sues to halt Pennsylvania from certifying Biden win — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign on Monday filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal court, seeking an emergency injunction to stop state officials from certifying Joe Biden's victory in the state.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, Townhall, KTVX-TV and The Guardian

Adam Klasfeld / Law & Crime:
Trump Campaign Files Federal Lawsuit Seeking to Block Pennsylvania from Certifying Election Results

Discussion: 6abc and NBC10 Philadelphia

Pfizer:

Pfizer and BioNTech Announce Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19 Achieved Success in First Interim Analysis from Phase 3 Study — Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis

Matthew Herper / STAT:
Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is strongly effective, early data from large trial indicate

Discussion: Bloomberg, Business Insider, Associated Press, CNBC, Japan Times, Fortune, The Verge, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy, Hackwhackers, Mediaite and Marginal REVOLUTION

Carolyn Y. Johnson / Washington Post:
Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is more than 90 percent effective in first analysis, company reports

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, Newsweek, New Republic, Breitbart, Twitchy, The Daily Signal, Fortune, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Week, Politico and Fox News

Politico:

Meadows doesn't expect GSA standoff to end before Friday — Welcome to POLITICO's 2020 Transition Playbook, your guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. — BIDEN STAND-OFF WITH GSA CONTINUES — The General Services Administration is not expected …

Discussion: Associated Press, Fox News, Washington Post, Breitbart and Wall Street Journal

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Leaked call audio shows Trump officials denying election results

Discussion: Business Insider, CNBC and Washington Post

Politico:

Cheri Bustos won't run for DCCC chief after House Dem losses — House Democratic campaign chief Cheri Bustos announced Monday that she would not seek reelection, days after an unexpected string of losses that could end up costing the caucus nearly a dozen seats.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Associated Press and The Federalist

Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Scoop: Rep. Tony Cárdenas is running for chair of House Democrats' campaign arm

Discussion: Roll Call and Washington Post

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:

Facebook takes down a large network of pages tied to Stephen Bannon for pushing misinformation — The pages, which pushed the ‘Stop the Steal’ effort and other misleading messages, were removed over the weekend, while the former top Trump strategist's account was frozen

Discussion: Raw Story and Breitbart, more at Techmeme »

Religion News Service:

Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., Trump evangelical adviser, has died — Bishop Harry Jackson of Maryland speaks at the unveiling of the “Justice Declaration,” a statement by Christian leaders on criminal justice, in Washington, D.C., on June 20, 2017. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks — Flip

Theodore Schleifer / Vox:

The former CEO of Google has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus — Eric Schmidt is effectively buying a passport that he can use to enter the European Union. — The former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, is finalizing a plan to become a citizen of the island of Cyprus, Recode has learned …

Discussion: New York Post

New York Times:

Growing Discomfort at Law Firms Representing Trump in Election Lawsuits — Some lawyers at Jones Day and Porter Wright, which have filed suits about the 2020 vote, said they were worried about undermining the electoral system. — Like many big law firms, Jones Day, whose roots …

Evan Osnos / New Yorker:

Pulling Our Politics Back from the Brink — After a bitterly contested election, the country teeters between persuasion and force. — In the hours after Election Day, as Donald Trump seemed on the point of losing the Presidency, he spiralled through emotions like Lear on the heath …

Discussion: CNN, Roll Call, IJR, The Marshall Project, Washington Post and New Republic

NBC News:

Lawyers can't find the parents of 666 migrant kids, a higher number than previously reported … WASHINGTON — Lawyers working to reunite migrant families separated by the Trump administration before and during its “zero tolerance” policy at the border now believe the number of separated children …

Discussion: The Hill, Political Wire, NBC10 Philadelphia and The Guardian

Associated Press:

The Latest: Ousted vaccine expert on Biden virus task force — President-elect Joe Biden has announced the members of his coronavirus task force, which will put together a blueprint for fighting the pandemic. — The co-chairs are former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy …