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11:50 AM ET, December 8, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Will Wright / New York Times:
Covid-19 Live Updates: U.S. Breaks Record for Most Deaths in a Week  —  Trump officials passed when Pfizer offered to sell more vaccine doses months ago.  Britain is readying a mass vaccination drive.  —  RIGHT NOW The U.S. has recorded its most Covid-19 deaths in a week.  —  Here's what you need to know:
RELATED:
Quint Forgey / Politico:
'I literally don't know': Operation Warp Speed scientist can't explain Trump's vaccine order  —  The chief scientist of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed was unable to explain President Donald Trump's latest executive order Tuesday, which aims to prioritize shipment …
New York Times:
Pfizer's Vaccine Offers Strong Protection After First Dose  —  The Food and Drug Administration's first analysis of the clinical trial data also found that the coronavirus vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer's race, weight or age.  —  WASHINGTON — The coronavirus vaccine …
New York Times:
Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. more vaccine doses.
The Guardian:   Trump administration refused offer to buy millions more Pfizer vaccine doses
Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
Presidential Transition Live Updates: ‘Safe Harbor’ Day Arrives, the Deadline to Resolve State Election Challenges  —  Today is the deadline for all state-level election challenges to be completed.  President-elect Joe Biden will tap a retired four-star Army general to be the first Black secretary of defense.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Trump asks Pennsylvania House speaker for help overturning election results, personally intervening in a third state  —  President Trump called the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives twice during the past week to make the extraordinary request for help reversing his loss in the state …
Politico:
Biden picks retired general Lloyd Austin to run Pentagon  —  President-elect Joe Biden has selected Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as secretary of defense, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.  If confirmed, Austin would be the first Black person to lead the Pentagon.
Jim Golby / New York Times:
Sorry, Gen. Lloyd Austin.  A Recently Retired General Should Not Be Secretary of Defense.  —  After a tumultuous four years, we need civilian leadership and a return to normalcy.  —  Mr. Golby has been a special adviser to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Mike Pence.
James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Democrats would need to twist themselves into pretzels to give Biden's Defense pick a waiver
Discussion: Politico, HotAir, Just Security and Vox
Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:   This Is No Job for a General  —  President-elect Joe Biden should choose a civilian to lead his Department of Defense.
RELATED:
Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart:
Texas Sues Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin at Supreme Court over Election Rules  —  The State of Texas filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court shortly before midnight on Monday challenging the election procedures in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania …
Kimberly Wehle / The Bulwark:
Ted Cruz Wants to Toss Out 7 Million People's Votes.  Appalling.  —  The ‘constitutionalist’ senator volunteers to help make the case at the Supreme Court.  —  Ladies and gentleman, Fox News just learned—this is “breaking,” mind you—that the junior senator from Texas, Ted Cruz …
Jordan Williams / The Hill:
Lou Dobbs goes after Stephen Miller for not doing enough for Trump  —  Fox Business host Lou Dobbs went after White House adviser Stephen Miller on Monday for not doing enough to help President Trump in his re-election efforts.  —  The exchange came after Dobbs asked Miller about an offer by Sen. Ted Cruz …
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: Trump plots mass pardons, even to people not asking  —  President Trump isn't just accepting pardon requests but blindly discussing them “like Christmas gifts” to people who haven't even asked, sources with direct knowledge of the conversations told Axios.
RELATED:
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: West Wing fears COVID spread after Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis attends WH party  —  President Trump's lawyer Jenna Ellis has informed associates she has coronavirus, multiple sources tell Axios, stirring West Wing fears after she attended a senior staff Christmas party on Friday.
CNN:
Florida police raid home of former state Covid-19 data scientist  —  (CNN)Florida police raided the home of a former state coronavirus data scientist on Monday, escalating a feud between the state government and a data expert who has accused officials of trying to cover up the extent of the pandemic.
RELATED:
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian / Axios:
Exclusive: Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians  —  A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run …
RELATED:
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
Report: Alleged Chinese Spy Raised Money For Eric Swalwell, Planted Intern In His Office
Discussion: Sara A. Carter and Axios
David Siders / Politico:
Trump blows a hole in the GOP on his way out  —  Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election have met with defeat in every swing state and in nearly every court where his cases have been heard.  But Trump's campaign to pressure GOP elected officials to support his baseless claims …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Christopher Krebs sues Trump campaign, lawyer Joe diGenova for defamation  —  The former top U.S. cybersecurity official responsible for securing November's presidential election sued the Trump campaign and one of its lawyers for defamation Tuesday, asserting that they conspired to falsely claim …
HuffPost:
The Marines And The Racist Porn Actor Who Tried To Start A ‘Modern Day SS’  —  Four neo-Nazis arrested on gun charges wanted to spark a race war, prosecutors said, and their potential targets included Black Lives Matter protesters.  —  In 2016, Liam Collins, then just a teenager living in New Jersey …
Zeynep / Insight:
Is This a Coup?  Introducing The Counter  —  I present my own essay on the dangers of the moment and a strong counterargument against it  —  One of the best ways to think through and sharpen—or abandon—an argument is to confront the best case against it.  So I'm launching a feature of this newsletter: “The Counter.”
Washington Post:
Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uighur minorities and alert police, report says  —  An internal report claims the face-scanning system could trigger a ‘Uighur alarm,’ sparking concerns that the software could help fuel China's crackdown on the mostly Muslim minority group
Page Six:
Ivanka and Jared buy $30M lot on high-security Miami island  —  Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have splurged on a $30 million-plus lot of land on Miami's uber-swanky and high-security Indian Creek Island — known as the “Billionaire's Bunker” — Page Six can exclusively reveal.
Brian Niemietz / New York Daily News:
Howard Stern: Trump's COVID-19 handling is ‘treasonous’  —  Shock jock Howard Stern notched up his war of words on President Trump — a former regular on his show — by accusing the lame duck leader of criminal behavior against his country.  —  The charge came Monday when a man identifying himself …
Jonathan Tamari / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey calls Trump's campaign to overturn Pennsylvania election ‘completely unacceptable’  —  Sen. Pat Toomey said Tuesday that it's “completely unacceptable” for President Donald Trump to pressure state lawmakers to overturn Pennsylvania's election result …
Ian Millhiser / Vox:
The $124 billion Supreme Court case that could throw the housing market into turmoil, explained  —  Collins v. Mnuchin is an early test of just how much chaos the Supreme Court's new majority is willing to impose on the government.  —  SHARE All sharing options
Discussion: Just Security
Ben Hubbard / New York Times:
Saudi Court Jails Saudi-American Doctor Despite U.S. Pressure  —  American officials have said privately that the charges against the doctor, Walid Fitaihi, were politically motivated.  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Saudi court sentenced a prominent Saudi-American doctor to six years in prison …
Washington Post:
Senate stimulus negotiations at risk of collapsing over whether companies can be sued for outbreaks  —  Democrats want protection for workers but Republicans warn of lawsuit frenzy, and debate is weighing on negotiations  —  The economic relief package attracting bipartisan interest in Congress …
Zolan Kanno-Youngs / New York Times:
Armed Mexicans Were Smuggled In to Guard Border Wall, Whistle-Blowers Say  —  In a complaint unsealed on Friday, whistle-blowers working on President Trump's wall said that contractors were illegally bringing in Mexican guards to protect construction sites.  —  WASHINGTON — Two whistle-blowers …
Discussion: New York Magazine and Raw Story
Washington Examiner:
Biden's pick for healthcare boss is an unacceptable extremist  —  Joe Biden, after promising to unite the country as a centrist president, has taken a radical turn by tapping California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to oversee the vast Department of Health and Human Services.
Discussion: Bloomberg
 
 
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 More Items: 
Susannah George / Washington Post:
Behind the Taliban's ties to al-Qaeda: A shared ideology and decades of battlefield support
Alex Pareene / New Republic:
Neal Katyal and the Depravity of Big Law
Discussion: Reason
Chad Livengood / Crain's Detroit Business:
Whitmer adds 12 days to business shutdowns as hospitals brace for holiday spread of COVID-19
Discussion: The Daily Caller
William McGurn / Wall Street Journal:
The Silence of Pope Francis
Luis Martinez / ABC News:
Army to release results of broad review of Fort Hood command climate
Discussion: CBS News and Associated Press
Kristi Noem / Wall Street Journal:
South Dakota's Balanced Covid Response
Discussion: Washington Post
 Earlier Items: 
Politico:
Stimulus stuck as Covid rages
Discussion: HotAir and Bloomberg
Adam Van Brimmer / USA Today:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to state legislators: Picking own presidential electors ‘not an option’
Discussion: The Hill
Matt Lewis / The Daily Beast:
Rudy Giuliani's COVID Case Shows There's No Vaccine to Treat the Disease the GOP Has Become
Discussion: Raw Story
Helen Sullivan / The Guardian:
Christchurch inquiry report released - as it happened
Discussion: The Verge
J. Michael Luttig / Washington Post:
No, President Trump can't pardon himself
Discussion: Althouse
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
Tribes Want Deb Haaland For Interior Secretary. Some Biden Advisers Are Trying To Thwart Her.