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12:50 PM ET, December 8, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
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 …
RELATED:
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 …
Benjamin Mueller / New York Times:
Britain Begins Mass Inoculation Campaign With Fully Tested Vaccine  —  Britain has become the first nation to begin a mass inoculation campaign using a fully tested vaccine, kicking off a global effort to fight Covid-19.  Doctors, nurses, certain people aged 80 or over and nursing home workers …
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:
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 …
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 …
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.
James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Democrats would need to twist themselves into pretzels to give Biden's Defense pick a waiver
Melanie Zanona / Politico:
GOP Rep. Mooney wants to condemn lawmakers who call on Trump to concede
Discussion: Washington Post and IJR
Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
This Is No Job for a General  —  On January 10, 2017, I sat at the witness table looking …
Discussion: Washington Post
Emma Platoff / The Texas Tribune:
In new lawsuit, Texas contests election results in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania  —  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the battleground states from casting “unlawful and constitutionally tainted votes” in the Electoral College.
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
Discussion: Washington Examiner
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.
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:
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:
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 …
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.
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:
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
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 …
Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:
Christopher Nolan Rips HBO Max as “Worst Streaming Service,” Denounces Warner Bros.' Plan  —  To many insiders, WarnerMedia's blindsiding of talent and their reps with news that it would send 17 films directly to HBO Max in 2021 felt like an insult.  —  For many in the movie business …
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.
Alex Pareene / New Republic:
Neal Katyal and the Depravity of Big Law  —  The United States has a political class that mistakes its professional norms for ethics.  Mainstream political journalists mindlessly grant anonymity to professional liars.  Elected officials put collegiality and institutional procedure over the needs and interests of their constituents.
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.”
Ben Makuch / VICE:
A Proud Boys Lawyer Wanted to Be a Nazi Terrorist  —  But the Base, a terror group that has been the recent recipient of a lot of FBI attention, turned him down.  —  The one-time leader and former lawyer of the Proud Boys, who was recently alleged to have tried to plot the assassination of a rival …
Discussion: Raw Story
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 …
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
 
 
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 More Items: 
Audrey Conklin / Fox News:
Bernie Sanders concedes Democrats held up coronavirus relief: 'That's right'
Discussion: The Daily Caller
Ben Hubbard / New York Times:
Saudi Court Jails Saudi-American Doctor Despite U.S. Pressure
Susannah George / Washington Post:
Behind the Taliban's ties to al-Qaeda: A shared ideology and decades of battlefield support
William McGurn / Wall Street Journal:
The Silence of Pope Francis
Kristi Noem / Wall Street Journal:
South Dakota's Balanced Covid Response
Discussion: Washington Post
 Earlier Items: 
Brian Niemietz / New York Daily News:
Howard Stern: Trump's COVID-19 handling is ‘treasonous’
Washington Examiner:
Biden's pick for healthcare boss is an unacceptable extremist
Discussion: Bloomberg
Adam Van Brimmer / USA Today:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to state legislators: Picking own presidential electors ‘not an option’
Discussion: The Hill
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.
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Sources: NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Bonnie Hammer plans to leave the company at the end of the year; she has been with the company since 2004

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
A Q&A with Chris Balfe, CEO of Red Seat Ventures, which has helped Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly set up their podcast and streaming businesses and sell ads

 
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