This Election Result Won't Be Overturned  —  Recounts occasionally change margins in the hundreds, never in the tens of thousands.  —  It has been an eventful, unsettling year: A deadly virus struck without warning and claimed almost a quarter-million American lives; a lockdown demolished personal routines …

POLITICO Playbook: Maggie's Trump book, and some Biden world moves  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  NEW ... NYT'S MAGGIE HABERMAN is writing a book about President DONALD TRUMP.  —  WHAT ELSE do we need to say about this?  You know this is going to be awesome.  MAGGIE has been a singular force …

I'm Not Yet Ready to Abandon the Possibility of America  —  The Atlantic is pleased to offer, below, an adapted and updated excerpt from former President Barack Obama's new memoir, A Promised Land, which will be published on Tuesday by Crown.  Yesterday, The Atlantic's editor in chief …

Scoop: Trump eyes digital media empire to take on Fox News  —  President Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network, sources tell Axios.  —  The state of play: Some Trump advisers think Fox News …

State Department is preventing Biden from accessing messages from foreign leaders  —  Washington (CNN)A stack of messages from foreign leaders to President-elect Joe Biden are sitting at the State Department but the Trump administration is preventing him from accessing them …

Trump wants to make money off the fake ‘stolen election’ crisis he created.  Don't let him.  —  Republican donors beware!  Trump says he needs your money for legal challenges to the election, but the fine print says it won't be used that way.  —  For days, President Donald Trump has been blasting …

Trump aides privately plot a flurry of moves in their final 10 weeks  —  On Monday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gathered senior aides on a call.  —  One of his goals: to plot the conservative policy moves they could push through in their final 10 weeks on immigration, trade, health care, China and school choice.

Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money  —  MIAMI - Why would candidates for Florida Senate seats do no campaigning, no fundraising, have no issue platforms, nor make any effort to get votes?  —  Local 10 News has found evidence to suggest three …

U.S. Unemployment Claims Slip but Hold at High Levels  —  Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 48,000 to 709,000 last week  —  New applications for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, suggesting layoffs were easing despite a surge in coronavirus cases across the country.

Trump's Post-Election Tactics Put Him in Unsavory Company  —  Denying defeat, claiming fraud and using government machinery to reverse election results are the time-honored tools of dictators.  —  MOSCOW — When the strongman ruler of Belarus declared an implausible landslide victory …

Snell & Wilmer withdraws from election lawsuit as Trump contests Arizona results  —  The largest law firm representing the Trump campaign or its allies in post-election litigation challenging votes in key states has withdrawn from an election lawsuit in Maricopa County, Arizona.

N.Y.C. Schools May Close Again, a Grim Sign of a Global Dilemma  —  The school system, the nation's largest, has had strikingly few virus cases.  Even so, the mayor may end in-person classes because the city's overall rate is surging.  —  New York City has more students in classrooms …

Lankford guarantees “peaceful transition,” talks about COVID vaccine prospects  —  The Oklahoma Senator says Friday becomes the next important date, as the GSA can then start certifying the states' results  —  TULSA — Twin crises continue to create confusion for people across the country …

What Is Trump's Legal Strategy?  Try to Block Certification of Biden Victory in States.  —  Effort to get state Republicans to appoint pro-Trump Electoral College votes is a long shot, president's advisers and election-law experts say  —  President Trump's campaign is pursuing a patchwork …

Trump among long-shots to replace Alex Trebek as ‘Jeopardy!’ host … Let's meet today's contestants ...  Bookmakers are offering bets on who will be Alex Trebek's replacement as the host of “Jeopardy!”  — including longshot candidates such as President Trump.

Louisville police, county attorney's office hide 738,000 records in Explorer sex abuse case  —  Louisville Metro Police concealed at least 738,000 records documenting the sexual abuse of Explorer Scouts by two officers — then lied to keep the files from the public, records show.

What a Biden-Harris administration should prioritize on its first day  —  Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.  —  As Democrats celebrate the election of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris, we need to have an important conversation …

Trump endorses McDaniel to remain RNC chair, ponders 2024 run  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel to stay on in her position, in what one source said could be a prelude to Trump's announcing plans to run for president in 2024.

51 of 72 Wisconsin counties complete canvasses resulting in minor vote shift  —  More than two thirds of the counties in Wisconsin have submitted official election results after completing their canvasses.  —  The largest counties in the state including Milwaukee, Dane and Waukesha are still …

Passenger Aboard First Cruise Ship to Return to Sailing in Caribbean Tests Positive for COVID-19  —  Passengers and non-essential crew are now isolating in their cabins as the ship heads back toward its departure point in Barbados  —  The first cruise ship to set sail in the Caribbean since …

'We're not going to stop': Lawmakers press ahead with Trump-era investigations  —  Donald Trump will be a private citizen in January.  But Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are poised to carry on the investigations and legal battles that helped define his presidency.

Biden Can Pass His Agenda If He Gives Republicans What They Want Most  —  The Democrats won the presidency, but they don't have what a parliamentary system would call a “government.”  Even if they win both Georgia Senate seats in the runoffs, they'll have just 50 Senate seats and will need …

In poll watcher affidavits, Trump campaign offers no evidence of fraud in Detroit ballot-counting  —  Inside Detroit's absentee-ballot-counting center, one Republican poll watcher complained that workers were wearing Black Lives Matter gear.  She thought one of them — a “man of intimidating size” — had followed her too closely.

NYT's Maggie Haberman has deal for Trump book  —  NEW YORK (AP) — One of the top chroniclers of the Trump administration, New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman, has a book deal.  —  Penguin Press announced Thursday that the Pulitzer Prize winner's book, currently untitled, would come out in 2022.

The New Yorker to Jeffrey Toobin: Beat It!  —  The top writer had been suspended last month after exposing himself during a video call with colleagues.  —  The New Yorker has fired staff writer Jeffrey Toobin after a weeks-long investigation into an incident in which he exposed himself during a video call with colleagues last month.

President Trump's Show Has Been Canceled  —  For years, we've been living inside a story defined by Donald Trump's reality-TV worldview.  America finally changed the channel.  —  Many incumbent presidents have gone on the campaign trail to make their cases for a second term.

As coronavirus soars, hospitals hope to avoid an agonizing choice: Who gets care and who goes home  —  New cases and hospitalizations break records  —  The coronavirus pandemic is rolling across America like a great crimson wave.  —  In Illinois, the rate of new infections is so high …

Stop wasting time on Trump's lawsuits.  More nefarious behavior is afoot.  —  The post-election news environment — like all political horse-race coverage — prioritizes tension and conflict over boring reality.  This is normally a ratings gambit, but in the present election environment …

Will we ever see a Freedom Caucus of the left?  —  LIGHT IT UP LIKE DYNAMITE — Tensions inside the Democratic party are boiling over and spilling out into public view.  The latest shots came from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y), who responded to a report from Heather and Sarah that fellow …

Trump's National Security Adviser Tells Staff: Don't Even Mention Biden's Name  —  No one around Trump is willing to tell him he lost the election.  Into the “fucking clown show” stepped Robert O'Brien.  —  President Donald Trump continues to refuse to cede the election.