memeorandum: Biden is picking a Cabinet built for comfort. What he needs is vision. (David Ignatius/Washington Post)

9:15 AM ET, December 11, 2020

Top Items:

Barr Worked to Keep Hunter Biden Probes from Public View During Election — The attorney general knew for months about investigations into Biden's business and financial dealings — Attorney General William Barr has known about a disparate set of investigations involving Hunter Biden's business …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Talking Points Memo, National Review, Deadline, Conservative News Today, Raw Story, The Hill, Business Insider, Twitchy, Bloomberg and Crooks and Liars

New York Times:

Manhattan D.A. Intensifies Investigation of Trump — Prosecutors have recently interviewed employees of President Trump's lender and insurance brokerage, in the latest indication that he still faces the potential threat of criminal charges once he leaves office.

Discussion: Raw Story

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Paralyzed — DRIVING THE DAY — THE 116TH CONGRESS started with a government shutdown, and it's ending with the institution completely paralyzed by its efforts to put in place policies to help Americans rebound from the coronavirus. The same set of policies …

Discussion: ABC News and Washington Examiner

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Investigation of His Son Is Likely to Hang Over Biden as He Takes Office

Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, American Prospect, NPR, Patrick J. Buchanan, Real Clear Politics and The New Neo

Time:

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Are TIME's 2020 Person of the Year — Together, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket. And America bought what they were selling

Discussion: Washington Post, NPR, Fox News, TIME, CBS News, HotAir, Axios, IJR, NewsOne, Forbes, Townhall, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Hill, Raw Story, Business Insider, The Guardian, Variety, UPI, CNN, WRIC-TV, CBS San Francisco and CBS Los Angeles

Politico:

Biden's Cabinet picks give Kamala an edge in 2024 — Biden has opted for seasoned technocrats over ambitious pols for key jobs, denying potential political rivals to Harris a political springboard. — President-elect Joe Biden listens as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the media on November 10, 2020.

Discussion: Washington Examiner

TIME:
Who Will Be TIME's Person of the Year for 2020?

Discussion: CNN, Crooks and Liars, Hackwhackers, Washington Examiner, Deadline, The Week, Fox News, Meduza.io, REVOLT, IJR, New York Post, Mediaite, The Hill and Althouse

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

It's Not Just Trump's War on Democracy Anymore — Republicans have gone far beyond merely humoring their losing leader. — The streets are still quiet in Washington, nine months into a pandemic that is reaching yet another deadly peak. Most of the offices remain closed …

Discussion: Orange County Register, QU Poll and Reason

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:

The GOP Abandons Democracy — When Donald Trump was granted a coat of arms for his Scottish golf courses in 2012 (after a lengthy court battle, of course), he chose as its motto “Numquam concedere”: Never concede. He has not, even as it has become clear that he lost the presidential election by a wide margin.

New York Times:
Four State A.G.s Ask Supreme Court to Reject Texas Election Lawsuit

Discussion: Politico, Slate, The Gateway Pundit, Minnesota Reformer, The Week, Politics News, Fox News, The American Independent and UPI

Washington Post:
With time running out, Trump and GOP allies turn up pressure on Supreme Court in election assault

Discussion: RedState, Bark Bark Woof Woof, BuzzFeed News, The Moderate Voice, Holy Bullies …, Raw Story, Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, CBS Pittsburgh, Associated Press, NBC News, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, IJR, Arizona Mirror and Fox News

Jason Easley / POLITICUSUSA:
Meet The 106 House Republican Traitors Who Betrayed America For Trump

Discussion: Forbes, Washington Post, Florida Politics and The Hill

Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
The ‘Trump Won’ Farce Isn't Funny Anymore

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, The Hill, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, The Federalist, Off the Kuff, Mediaite, Business Insider and CBS News

Jeremy Pelzer / Plain Dealer:
Ohio AG Dave Yost files brief criticizing Texas' lawsuit challenging Biden win

Discussion: Fox News, Business Insider, Law & Crime, Political Wire, Bloomberg and ABC News

Associated Press:
Texas-led election lawsuit becomes conservative litmus test

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Hamodia, Talking Points Memo, Washington Examiner, Forbes, USA Today and LifeNews.com

George Conway / Washington Post:
Trump's last-ditch effort to steal the election is the biggest farce of all

Tony Plohetski / KVUE-TV:

FBI subpoenas Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton amid whistleblower allegations — The investigation started after top aides alleged they believe Paxton may be committing crimes that include abuse of office and bribery. — AUSTIN, Texas — FBI agents have issued at least one federal subpoena …

Discussion: The Hill, Newsweek and KXAN-TV

Tom Porter / Business Insider:
The FBI has subpoenaed Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general leading the long-shot lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election for Trump

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Vanity Fair

Amanda Carpenter / The Bulwark:
What's a Little Abuse of Power Among Friends?

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and National Memo

Jonah Goldberg / The Dispatch:
The Galling Hypocrisy of Texas AG Ken Paxton

Discussion: National Review, Washington Examiner and The Week

Tony Plohetski / Austin American-Statesman:
FBI agents seek Texas attorney general records in Paxton probe

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Texas Tribune, Raw Story, Washington Times and National Review

Jessica Schulberg / HuffPost:

Trump Administration Executes Brandon Bernard After Jurors Plead For His Life — Bernard was an accomplice to a crime at age 18. He is the ninth person to be executed as part of the Trump administration's end-of-office killing spree. — The Trump administration executed 40-year-old Brandon Bernard …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, NBC News, NewsOne, SCOTUSblog and Boing Boing

Emma Ockerman / VICE:

Brandon Bernard Was Just Put to Death In Trump's Unprecedented Push for Executions — His death marks the ninth federal execution this year. — EO — Brandon Bernard, whose death row case drew frantic pleas for mercy from activists and celebrities alike, has been executed by lethal injection.

Discussion: Axios, The Appeal, NPR, BET, New York Times and UPI

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

Biden is picking a Cabinet built for comfort. What he needs is vision. — The “comfort-level” Cabinet that President-elect Joe Biden is assembling has some obvious benefits, especially after four years of the petulance and backbiting that turned the White House into what one Trump chief of staff reportedly called “Crazytown.”

Discussion: Bloomberg, Informed Comment, KTAR.com, The American Conservative, Liberty Unyielding and Raw Story

New York Times:

Pentagon Weighs Sharp Drawback in Support for C.I.A. — A broad review of the military's support for the agency is underway, including pulling back personnel and rethinking support for C.I.A. operations around the world. — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering whether …

Discussion: ABC News, UPI, Politics News, Defense One and Foreign Policy

Lara Seligman / Politico:
The White House is making big changes at the Pentagon — but Biden can reverse them

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, CNN and Defense One

Bloomberg:

China Authorities Detain Bloomberg News Beijing Staff Member — Chinese authorities have detained Haze Fan, who works for the Bloomberg News bureau in Beijing, on suspicion of endangering national security. — Fan was last in contact with one of her editors around 11:30 a.m. local time on Monday.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Forbes, New York Post, One America News Network, Hong Kong Free Press HKFP and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »

Terry Gross / NPR:

‘It Is Roiling Him’: Reporter Maggie Haberman Unpacks Trump's Refusal To Admit He Lost — With only a few weeks until President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, President Trump still won't admit defeat. White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, who has reported on Trump over the past 20 years, sheds light on his refusal to concede.

Discussion: The Hill

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Secession? Rush Limbaugh floats a startling notion — then quickly backs off. — Rush Limbaugh isn't saying he wants the country to split into red and blue factions as a result of conservative fury over the election results. As he attempted to make clear Thursday, he's just saying that other people are saying it.

Paul LeBlanc / CNN:

Utah Sen. Mike Lee blocks votes to establish Smithsonian museums for Latinos and women — Washington (CNN)Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah on Thursday blocked consideration for legislation to establish a National Museum of the American Latino and an American Women's History Museum as part …

Discussion: Politics News, ABC News, Business Insider and Political Wire

Marianne LeVine / Politico:
Mike Lee blocks legislation to create Smithsonian museums for Latinos and women

Discussion: Axios

New York Times:

Covid-19 caused the sudden death of a top state lawmaker in New Hampshire. — The New Hampshire State Legislature was already fiercely divided over the coronavirus when the new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Richard Hinch, died suddenly on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Boston Globe, Associated Press and UPI

Washington Examiner:

Biden is not the coronavirus messiah — With the help of his media allies, President-elect Joe Biden is trying to present himself as a messiah figure who will be able to lead America out of the darkest days of the pandemic within his first 100 days in office.

Michael Kruse / Politico:

How Trump Won One of America's Most Diverse Counties — By a Lot — PROSPECT, N.C.— Jarrod Lowery, a former Marine, a current member of the Lumbee Tribal Council and an up-and-coming local Republican activist and operator in this age-old Democratic stronghold, steered …

Discussion: Reuters and Raw Story

Dave Levinthal / Business Insider:

Donald Trump's campaign finally paid this Wisconsin city's police bill. But others — from El Paso, Texas, to Erie, Pennsylvania — are still getting stiffed. … - The city of La Crosse, Wisconsin got something many others are still waiting for. The Trump campaign finally paid some of the money …

Discussion: The Intellectualist

Ronald Krotoszynski / Politico:

The Conservative Idea That Would Let Biden Seize Control of Washington — Despite President Donald Trump's landslide defeat at the ballot box in November, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP caucus have embarked on a course to stack the federal administrative state with eleventh-hour appointees.

Discussion: Raw Story and The American Conservative

New York Times:

F.D.A. Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to Pfizer Vaccine — The blessing of these experts means that the agency will OK the vaccine's use, paving the way for health care workers to begin getting shots next week. — Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine passed a critical milestone on Thursday …

James Bovard / The American Conservative:

Why We Question the Election Results — Doubt over the election is widely dismissed as crankery, but skepticism of the media elite narrative is hardly unwarranted. — Americans' trust in government and the media has collapsed. Two months before the presidential election …

Discussion: Spectator USA, The Keyword and POLITICUSUSA

Sohrab Ahmari / New York Post:

Media disgraceful in trying to suppress Post's Hunter Biden reporting — In high-school journalism classes, teenaged would-be reporters are taught to value curiosity and independent thinking above all. Question powerful people, they're told, and don't trust anything anyone says, even if it's Mom telling you she loves you.

Discussion: Fox News

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Biden's visit to Georgia next week highlights ‘sea change’ in Democratic strategy — President-elect Joe Biden's plan to visit Georgia next week to campaign for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock is a sharp reminder of a seismic shift in the state's Democratic politics.

Discussion: The Nation, Washington Examiner, Real Clear Politics, USA Today, Georgia Recorder, Associated Press and Raw Story

Christine Byers / KSDK-TV:

Judge dismisses St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from Mark McCloskey case — The couple's attorneys argued Gardner's email solicitations for campaign contributions demonstrated she and her office have a personal interest in the case — ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis judge …

Discussion: Bearing Arms, HotAir, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, NPR, Big League Politics and Washington Examiner

Rob Crisell / The American Spectator:

Californians Are Fed Up With Newsom's Draconian Shutdowns — Golden Staters lose patience with the governor's tin-pot tyranny. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons) — Welcome to California, where our dictator has movie star hair, a dayglo smile, and an impeccably progressive resume.

Discussion: Washington Post