memeorandum: Is This Where We Are, America? — Some people oppose students loan forgiveness because they want others to suffer. (Roxane Gay/New York Times)

1:00 PM ET, November 20, 2020

Top Items:

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Do Trump's Lawyers Know What They Are Doing? — Today several of President Trump's lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, held a press conference in which they alleged that they have convincing if not conclusive evidence that the presidential election was rigged …

Discussion: Mediaite, Law & Crime, National Review, HotAir, Washington Examiner, Spin, strangeness, and charm, Political Wire, Erick Erickson's Confessions … and C-SPAN.org

Jim Geraghty / National Review:

Americans Deserve the Truth, Even If It's Unpleasant — On the menu today: a blunt message about who is conning whom in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. — You Are Being Conned — Rudy Giuliani, yesterday: … Sidney Powell, yesterday, in the same press conference:

Discussion: Lead Stories, CNN, Real Clear Politics, The Dispatch, The American Spectator, Washington Post and Washington Examiner

National Review:

Trump's Disgraceful Gambit — Americans Deserve the Truth, Even If It's Unpleasant — Trump's Election Disinformation: Three 'Don't's — Georgia Recount Confirms Biden Win in State — Memo to Raphael Warnock: Hundreds of U.S. Chaplains Have Been Killed in the Line of Duty

Discussion: HotAir, NBC Los Angeles and The National Interest

Axios:

Trump is on an island — Most of President Trump's closest advisers have completely distanced themselves from his legal effort and are avoiding his lawyers to avoid being swept into their courtroom dramas. — Why it matters: Some of the president's advisers act like they think he can still overturn …

Discussion: Business Insider, Defense One, HotAir, The Week and The Hill

Daniel Chaitin / Washington Examiner:

Sidney Powell fires back: Tucker Carlson was ‘insulting, demanding, and rude’ — Sidney Powell, an attorney on President Trump's election legal team, shot back at Fox News host Tucker Carlson the morning after he said she “got angry” and refused to provide evidence on his show for her claims of voting software flipping votes.

Discussion: Business Insider, RedState, Townhall, Raw Story, The Hill, Conservative News Today, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, LaCorte News and Breitbart

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Byron York's Daily Memo: Growing concern about Trump legal fight — Welcome to Byron York's Daily Memo newsletter. — Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to receive the newsletter. — GROWING CONCERN ABOUT TRUMP LEGAL FIGHT: Thursday's news conference by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani …

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, Conservative News Today and National Review

Tucker Carlson / Fox News:
Time for Sidney Powell to show us her evidence

Discussion: National Review, Digby's Hullabaloo, Forbes, Conservative News Today, TheBlaze, The Wrap, Spectator USA, Power Line, Alternet.org and Breitbart

Washington Post:
Trump uses power of presidency to try to overturn the election and stay in office

Discussion: The Hill, New York Times, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Raw Story, ABC News, Al Jazeera, Twin Cities, Los Angeles Times, Reuters and Mother Jones

Aaron Blake / Washington Post: The Trump campaign's much-hyped affidavit features a big, glaring error

Michael Brendan Dougherty / National Review:
The Insanity Oath — Conservatives sense that social progressives have achieved a critical level …

Discussion: The Stream and Raw Story

Washington Post:
Rudy Giuliani's post-election meltdown starts to become literal

Discussion: USA Today, Snopes.com, Daily Kos, Raw Story, CNN, New York Times, Breitbart and The Hill

Politico:

Yellen (seems) headed to Treasury — PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Money will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 26 and Friday, Nov. 27. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Monday, Nov. 30. — Editor's Note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services' morning newsletter …

New York Times:

Covid-19 Live Updates: Explosive Growth of Virus Is Recorded Across the U.S. — The country is close to recording 200,000 new cases a day and has set a hospitalization record. Deaths are rising steadily and hospitals are struggling to cope. The C.D.C. urged Americans to rethink Thanksgiving plans.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico, HotAir, POLITICUSUSA and Business Insider

New York Times: Could Limiting Corporate Candidates Hurt Biden's Diversity Push?

Jeanna Smialek / New York Times:
Mnuchin to End Some Fed Emergency Programs, Limiting Biden

Discussion: Bloomberg, CNBC, Washington Post, ABC News, Raw Story, National Review, American Prospect, Axios, Lawyers, Guns & Money, POLITICUSUSA, Wall Street Journal and Politico

CBS News:
Mnuchin rejects renewal of some Fed emergency lending programs

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CNN, Axios and New York Post

CNN:

Trump told ally he's trying to get back at Democrats for questioning legitimacy of his own election — (CNN)President Donald Trump told an ally that he knows he lost, but that he is delaying the transition process and is aggressively trying to sow doubt about the election results in order …

Discussion: Business Insider, Reuters, Mock Paper Scissors and Raw Story

Matt Towery / Real Clear Politics:
A Realistic Primer on Georgia's Senate Runoffs

Discussion: Power Line

CNN:
Georgia to certify Biden's win today, officials say

Discussion: ABC News, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Axios, Talking Points Memo, CBS News, IJR, Associated Press and CBS Atlanta

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
A GOP civil war rattles Georgia Republicans at inconvenient time

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, NBC News, The Hill, Politico, HotAir, Raw Story, The Daily Caller and POLITICUSUSA

New York Times:

Trump Tax Write-Offs Are Ensnared in 2 New York Fraud Investigations — Inquiries into the president and his businesses, one criminal and one civil, are now looking at tax deductions taken on consulting fees. Some of the payments appear to have gone to Ivanka Trump.

Reuters:

Why Republican voters say there's ‘no way in hell’ Trump lost — SUNDOWN, Texas (Reuters) - Brett Fryar is like many mainstream Republicans. A 50-year-old chiropractor in this west Texas town, he owns a small business. He has two undergraduate degrees and a master's degree, in organic chemistry.

Discussion: Al Jazeera, CNN, USA Today, ABC News, Raw Story, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Week, Blue Virginia and Breitbart

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Republican Senate signals it will confirm Biden Cabinet — Senate Republicans are signaling they will confirm most of President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet picks in January — a rare bright spot for a White House that may clash with a GOP majority for years to come.

Discussion: Associated Press, NBC News, Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Hill, NPR, IJR and Raw Story

Steve Peoples / Associated Press:
Sanders, Warren under scrutiny as Biden weighs Cabinet picks

Discussion: The Daily Caller, NBC News and Associated Press

Bart Jansen / USA Today:

President-elect Biden names four White House staffers, including directors for legislative affairs and personnel — President-elect Joe Biden named four more officials Friday to White House posts - including directors overseeing congressional lobbying and personnel - as he prepares to take office Jan. 20.

Discussion: Democracy Journal, Politico, CNN, Associated Press, CBS News, Roll Call, WTOP and NBC News

Jaclyn Diaz / NPR:
Top House Democrats Demand Biden Transition Briefing From GSA Chief

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Washington Examiner, IJR and Business Insider

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Trump's Attempts to Overturn the Election Are Unparalleled in U.S. History — The president's push to prevent states from certifying electors and get legislators to override voters' will eclipses even the bitter 1876 election as an audacious use of brute political force.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Cyprus Mail, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Reuters, ABC13, Politico, Fox News, Washington Times, WTOP, USA Today, Vanity Fair and Michigan Advance

Jim VandeHei / Axios:

Blunt 2020 lessons for media, America — All of us — and the media, in particular — need some clear-eyed, humble self-reflection as the dust settles on the 2020 election results. — Here are a few preliminary Axios learnings. — The media remains fairly clueless about the America …

Discussion: Washingtonian and New York Times

Robert Faturechi / Georgia Public Broadcasting:

Georgia Senator David Perdue Privately Pushed For Tax Break For Rich Sports Team Owners — Robert Faturechi and - Justin Elliott — It's unclear why Senator Perdue was interested in tax regulation that would impact only a tiny set of the richest Americans.

Discussion: Democratic Party of Georgia

Chuck Goudie / ABC7:

Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer — CHICAGO (WLS) — There is new and disturbing information in the alleged militia plot against the governor of Michigan. — The 14 men charged had far more violent plans than just a kidnapping, according to federal and state authorities.

Discussion: Task & Purpose, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, TheBlaze, The Week and Gothamist

Wall Street Journal:

Biden Team Lacks Full U.S. Cybersecurity Support in Transition Fracas — The incoming administration is working remotely, operating on a standard, paid Google network — WASHINGTON—When it comes to protecting sensitive information from foreign hackers, President-elect Joe Biden's team is largely on its own.

Ed Yong / The Atlantic:

Hospitals Know What's Coming — Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. — Perhaps no hospital in the United States was better-prepared for a pandemic than the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

I Traced My Covid-19 Bubble and It's Enormous — And if you have kids, yours probably is, too. — Experts and officials are unequivocal: Stay home for the holidays. Getting together with family for Thanksgiving without quarantining beforehand is like “bringing a loaded pistol for Grandma's head …

New York Times:

How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation — Increasingly allied, the American far right and members of the Chinese diaspora tapped into social media to give a Hong Kong researcher a vast audience for peddling unsubstantiated pandemic claims.

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Trump's Clown Coup Crisis — On another terrible week for American democracy. — In a way, we are ending the week where we began it: Donald Trump still did not win the 2020 Presidential election, and he is still, on Friday as he was on Monday, holed up in the White House, challenging Joe Biden's victory.

Discussion: Vox, HuffPost, The Guardian, HotAir, One America News Network, Bloomberg and Alternet.org

Rick Hasen / Election Law Blog:

The Trump Campaign's Lack of Evidence in the Pennsylvania Case Dooms It to Failure (On Top of Everything Else): What GOP Senators (And Everyone Else) Need to Know Today — Yesterday Jenna Ellis of the Trump campaign (who had comically attacked me for noting that one of campaign's proposed orders erred …

Discussion: Vox, Snopes.com and Truthout

Richard Fausset / New York Times:

Top Georgia Election Official Certifies Biden's Win: 'Numbers Don't Lie' — The Biden-Harris transition team announced four more staff appointments on Thursday, continuing to plan for a Biden White House even as President Trump pursues groundless efforts to subvert the election results.

Discussion: The Hill, Los Angeles Times, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Democracy Journal, USA Today, HotAir, Salon and Fox News

Tyler Whetstone / USA Today:

Sen. Lamar Alexander says no evidence of voter fraud, Biden should receive briefings — KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander isn't ready to say former Vice President Joe Biden is president-elect, but he's close. In the meantime, he said, Biden should have been getting presidential briefings for weeks.

Discussion: The Hill, Reuters and NBC News

Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:

A Bogus Dispute Is Doing Real Damage — Conspiracy theories are damaging the country today and will hurt Republicans tomorrow. — No hard evidence of widespread fraud, no success in the courts or prospect of it. You can have a theory that a bad thing was done, but only facts will establish it.

Discussion: The Hill and No More Mister Nice Blog

Carrie Johnson / NPR:

Merrick Garland Among Biden Candidates For Attorney General, Sources Say — Federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland is under consideration to serve as attorney general in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, NPR has learned from two people closely following the process.

David French / The French Press:

Let's Talk About Fear — On the carrots and sticks of the Trump era. — Earlier this week, I read a series of depressingly familiar news reports. The secretaries of state in charge of vote counts in Georgia and Arizona have received a series of threats to their families and their staffs.

Alex Yablon / New Republic:

Why Police Back Gun Guys — Three years since Charlottesville, armed clashes at street protests over racial justice are still a defining feature of American politics, but the constellation of participants has changed. The white supremacists who paraded in fascist sword-and-sandals kitsch …