Barr Hands Prosecutors the Authority to Investigate Voter Fraud Claims  —  The attorney general said that he had authorized “instances” of investigative steps but that inquiries should not be based on specious claims.  —  WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr …

White House, escalating tensions, orders agencies to rebuff Biden transition team  —  The Trump White House on Monday instructed its senior government leaders to block cooperation with President-elect Joe Biden's transition team, escalating a standoff that threatens to impede his takeover of the federal government in January.

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 …

Helping to Shape the Words of the President-Elect: A Presidential Historian  —  Jon Meacham, best known for writing about past presidents like Andrew Jackson and George Bush, has helped shape some of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s most significant speeches.  —  WASHINGTON — Jon Meacham …

Trump Plans PAC in Hopes of Keeping Hold on G.O.P.  —  The PAC could accept donations from an unlimited number of people and spend to benefit other candidates, allowing the president to retain influence in a party remade largely in his image.  —  President Trump is planning to form …

As an ex-president, Trump could disclose the secrets he learned while in office, current and former officials fear  —  As president, Donald Trump selectively revealed highly classified information to attack his adversaries, gain political advantage and to impress or intimidate foreign governments …

Be Alarmed  —  I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen amongst us.  —Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, January 27, 1838 I know, I know.  Donald Trump is a petulant child, and congressional Republicans are just humoring him.

No Evidence of Systematic Fraud in U.S. Elections, International Observer Mission Reports  —  A team of international observers invited by the Trump administration has issued a preliminary report giving high marks to the conduct of last week's elections—and it criticizes President …

Top Mississippi Republicans Fail to Acknowledge Biden Victory as Fitch Joins Trump Lawsuit  —  Two days after all major national networks called the 2020 presidential election for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, none of Mississippi's top Republican leaders has acknowledged the Democrats' victory.

'We're not some demonic cult': Democrats fume over faulty messaging  —  House Democrats have the majority and are ripping each other to shreds.  Senate Democrats fell short for the third cycle in a row, but are only grousing about getting out-messaged by Republicans.

Obama Official Ben Rhodes Admits Biden Camp is Already Working With Foreign Leaders: Exactly What Flynn Did  —  In late 2016, the FBI investigated Gen. Michael Flynn when he was a transition official for the possible “crime” of talking to Russia about foreign policy.  Why can Biden do this?

Trump's Final Hissy Fit Is Petty, Illegal and Stupid  —  Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States.  We're done.  It's all over but the weeping and rending of MAGA garments.  —  BEAST INSIDE … The Trump regime is in full and robust collapse.  It's not just his loss at the polls.

Election 2020 showed Republicans that it pays to be bold  —  Voters proved the Senate Democrats wrong by reelecting the vast majority of senators who had voted to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett.  —  The Democrats had ominously warned their Republican colleagues there would be severe …

Did Sen. Kelly Loeffler take advantage of a Trump tax loophole to write off campaign jet?  —  Records suggest Loeffler may have deducted a jet she used on campaign trips, letting the government eat the cost  —  Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican now seeking to hold her seat …

Former Marine Paul Whelan speaks from Russian prison: ABC News exclusive  —  It's his first interview since his arrest on spying allegations two years ago.  —  Referendum will allow Putin to stay in power until 2036  —  The referendum allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to run again …

Who Dies COVID took my grandfather.  But it wasn't what killed him.  —  We cremated my grandfather the week I was supposed to get married.  The white dress I bought a year ago still hangs in my closet, next to the black dress I brought home with me to Virginia.

POLITICO Playbook: The last gasp of Trumpism  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is bending the federal bureaucracy to his benefit.  Senate Republicans are taking his side.  The attorney general has authorized prosecutors to probe election irregularities — a hugely controversial move …

U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations surge to record of just over 59,000 patients: Reuters tally  —  (Reuters) - There were just over 59,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the United States on Monday, the country's highest number ever of in-patients being treated for the disease …

Who's Going to Tell Him?  Republicans Shy From Asking Trump to Concede  —  President Trump's iron grip on his party has inspired love for him among many Republican lawmakers, and fear in others.  Neither group will tell him it is time to concede his loss.  —  WASHINGTON — Since he was elected …

Islamists behead more than 50 people on a football pitch in Mozambique then chop the bodies to pieces after abducting female villagers  — Bodies of dismembered victims were found scattered across a forest clearing  — At least 15 boys were among the victims during attack on male initiation rite

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

Vatican says Pope John Paul II was aware of misconduct allegations against ex-cardinal McCarrick nearly 2 decades before his removal  —  ROME — A Vatican report examining the career of Theodore McCarrick says that Pope John Paul II had been informed that the then-bishop shared a bed …

Election Day should not last two months  —  The absurd delays in ballot-counting across the country add weight to arguments against the wide use of early- and mail-in voting.  They also should make opponents of early voting consider other alternatives that would make voting easier.

Nate Cohn Explains What the Polls Got Wrong  —  Last week, Joe Biden was elected the forty-sixth President of the United States, defeating Donald Trump by what is likely to be several percentage points nationwide.  The margins in crucial swing states, however, were closer than polling averages suggested that they would be.

This election wasn't a zero-sum game, and it's going to be messy  —  Politics, like most interests with competing claims, is a zero-sum game: One side's gains are the other's losses.  This year's national elections may defy that theory, with troubling news for both sides.

The Note: Georgia races loom as tests of Trumpism and Trump's GOP  —  Trump's political ideology will get at least one more big series of tests.  —  Obamacare in the balance before the Supreme Court  —  ABC News' Devin Dwyer reports on arguments before the Supreme Court this week …