Top Items:
Politico:
McConnell warns Senate Republicans against challenging election results — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Republican senators Tuesday during a private caucus call not to object to the election results on Jan. 6, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
RELATED:
Politico:
Why Biden thinks the GOP fever could break (really) — Welcome to POLITICO's 2020 Transition Playbook, your guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. — JOE BIDEN thinks he'll succeed where President BARACK OBAMA failed — at least when it comes to Republicans in Congress.
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Bearing Arms, New York Post, abc7NY, IJR, CBS News and The Week
Dan Merica / CNN:
Joe Biden picks Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary — (CNN)President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government.
Burgess Everett / Politico:
How McConnell and the GOP let Trump down gently
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Mediaite, NBC 6 South Florida and KIFI-TV
Alayna Treene / Axios:
Scoop: McConnell alerted White House before congratulating Biden
Discussion:
Breitbart, Mediaite, New York Times, Holy Bullies …, POLITICUSUSA and The Guardian
Reuters:
Exclusive: Biden taps former rival Buttigieg for U.S. Transportation secretary -sources
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, New York Times, Power Line, RedState, President-Elect Joe Biden, Denver Post, Bloomberg, Breitbart, NPR, Business Insider, Townhall and The Week
Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Defying Trump, McConnell Seeks to Squelch Bid to Overturn the Election
Discussion:
Washington Post, David Harris Jr., One America News Network, POLITICUSUSA, Business Insider and TheBlaze
Michael Stratford / Politico:
DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged career employees at the Education Department on Tuesday to “be the resistance” when the Biden administration comes into power next month, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by POLITICO.
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner, New York Magazine, Raw Story and POLITICUSUSA
RELATED:
Politico:
Biden to tap former Michigan Gov. Granholm to lead Energy Department — President-elect Joe Biden will pick former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to run the Energy Department, the agency that would play a key role in helping develop the technologies needed fulfill his pledge to move the country off fossil fuels.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CBS News, ABC News, NPR, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, USA Today, Axios, Talking Points Memo, National Review, The Guardian, KIFI-TV, Mediaite, The Week and New York Post
John Hudson / Washington Post:
Hundreds of invitees skip Mike Pompeo's indoor holiday party at State Department — Only a tiny fraction of the more than 900 guests invited to an indoor holiday party hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan showed up on Tuesday following an outcry from public health officials …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Bloomberg:
MacKenzie Scott Gives Away $4.2 Billion in Four Months — World's 18th-richest person announced contributions on Medium — Scott's total gifts this year are close to $6 billion — MacKenzie Scott is giving away her fortune at an unprecedented pace, donating more than $4 billion …
Discussion:
Gothamist
RELATED:
MacKenzie Scott / Medium:
384 Ways to Help — Emily Dickinson lived much of her life isolated in a single room, and I've found her poetry coming to me a lot this year. Though her isolation was voluntary, I doubt it was easy. Her room overlooked a cemetery, and many of her poems are focused on death.
Discussion:
CNN, New York Times, The Hill, CBS News, Orange County Register, Common Dreams, Vox, El Paso Matters, GeekWire, NewsOne and The Wrap
ABC13:
Alleged crusade to stop voter fraud lands former HPD captain in handcuffs — HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, TheBlaze, WTOP and The Intellectualist
Associated Press:
Trump asking about special prosecutor for Hunter Biden — Washington (AP) — President Donald Trump is considering pushing to have a special counsel appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden, setting up a potential showdown with incoming acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Mediaite, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, Political Wire and Deadline
RELATED:
Joyce Vance / MSNBC:
Barr's escape hatch isn't enough to shake Trump's stigma
Discussion:
USA Today, CNN, New Republic, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Raw Story and Real America's Voice
Rachel Sharp / Daily Mail:
San Francisco to rename Abraham Lincoln High School because former president did not demonstrate that ‘black lives mattered to him’ - as woke renaming committee also takes aim at Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein and Teddy Roosevelt — San Francisco Unified School District's renaming …
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon, The Western Journal, The College Fix, Big League Politics and Townhall
RELATED:
Jill Tucker / San Francisco Chronicle:
Abraham Lincoln was once a hero. In some S.F. education circles, he's now a bad guy
Discussion:
Joanne Jacobs, The Daily Caller and Breitbart
Washington Post:
Biden picks former EPA chief Gina McCarthy as White House climate czar — McCarthy heads the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Trump administration more than 100 times. — President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency …
Discussion:
BuzzFeed News, NPR, The Hill, Axios, New York Times and The Week
Sonia Moghe / CNN:
Trump Organization must turn over documents to NY attorney general, judge rules — (CNN)A state judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump Organization must turn over documents related to a property whose tax abatements were being investigated by New York Attorney General Letitia James' office.
RELATED:
Adam Klasfeld / Law & Crime:
Trump Organization Must Cough Up Docs on Seven Springs Engineer to New York Attorney General, Manhattan Judge Rules
Discussion:
The Intellectualist
Corinne Ramey / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Organization Ordered to Turn Over Documents to New York Attorney General
Discussion:
WTOP
Vincent Marshall / Dodge City Daily Globe:
Mayor Warshaw resigns effective immediately — On Tuesday, Dec. 15, Dodge City Mayor Joyce Warshaw officially resigned from her position effective immediately. — “I understand people are under a lot of pressure from various things that are happening around society like the pandemic …
Discussion:
Axios
MSNBC:
'There's now one pro-democracy political party': Steve Schmidt announces he's a Democrat — On becoming a Democrat, former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt says “At the end of the day, there's now one pro-democracy political party in the United States of America and that's the Democratic Party.
RELATED:
Jordan Williams / The Hill:
Longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt announces he's registering Democrat
Discussion:
RedState, POLITICUSUSA, The Intellectualist and CNN
Washington Post:
Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere — Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don't want you to be our neighbor.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Jesse Paul / The Colorado Sun:
Jenna Ellis, President Trump's lawyer, was fired from Weld County DA's office for “mistakes,” records show — Jenna Ellis, the attorney from Colorado representing President Donald Trump in his bid to overturn his 2020 election loss, was fired from her job as a Weld County prosecutor in 2013 …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Hill, Law & Crime, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Colorado Newsline, Raw Story, The Intellectualist and Political Wire
Kadhim Shubber / Financial Times:
Prosecuting Donald Trump: the question that will roil Biden's first year — The US president could face investigation on a number of fronts when he leaves office — When Joe Biden is sworn in as president on January 20, his in-tray will include a pandemic that continues to kill thousands …
Discussion:
Politico and Just The News
RELATED:
Jonathan V. Last / The Triad:
Everyone Trump Touches Dies: The List — He revealed people for what they really were. — Bill Barr? He gone. — Barr began the Year of Our Lord 2016 as a well respected member of the conservative legal establishment. He concludes 2020 with his reputation destroyed …
CBS Chicago:
‘You Have the Wrong Place:’ Body Camera Video Shows Moments Police Handcuff Innocent, Naked Woman During Wrong Raid — CHICAGO (CBS) — For the first time, police body camera video reveals what an innocent woman said happened to her nearly two years ago: police officers wrongly entered …
Discussion:
Twitchy, Reason, Daily Kos, Instapundit, The Root, NewsOne, Law & Crime and The Daily Caller
New York Times:
So Jeffrey Toobin Had a Zoom Incident. What Now? — How a leading man of legal journalism lost his sweetest gig. — Until Jeffrey Toobin's fateful appointment with Zoom on Oct. 15, his quarantine was going better than most people's. — In August, his eighth book, “True Crimes and Misdemeanors …
Discussion:
Althouse, New York Post, Mercury News, Mediaite, Slate, The Wrap, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Forbes, Balloon Juice and Twitchy
Roger Sollenberger / Salon:
How did a Proud Boys leader with a felony record get into the White House? — Enrique Tarrio claims he visited the White House on Saturday, hours before a major pro-Trump rally — The chairman of the white nationalist Proud Boys group, a convicted felon, posted photos from inside …
Discussion:
WTOP and Holy Bullies …
The Daily Beast:
Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder — Two sources tell The Daily Beast that the president has expressed sympathy for the situation of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. … In his final weeks in office before Joe Biden's inauguration …
CNN:
How Qanon's lies are hijacking the national conversation — How Trump is fueling the alarming growth of QAnon — (CNN)It started with a Tweet from a QAnon supporter at 2:09 in the morning: #SubpoenaObama. — Though devoid of context, the cryptic message made sense to anyone in tune …
Konrad Putzier / Wall Street Journal:
Well-Employed in Pandemic Times: Landscaping Goats — The animals are hired to clear land because of their insatiable hunger for weeds. And they don't have to honor lockdowns. — TEXT — 43 RESPONSES — Candace Thompson, manager of the Stuyvesant Cove Park in lower Manhattan …
Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:
Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Indicted on Sex-Trafficking Charges — Mr. Nygard was arrested in Canada at the request of the U.S. attorney's office in New York City, which accused him of recruiting dozens of women for sex. — Peter Nygard, the Canadian fashion retailer …
Discussion:
Justice News, Washington Examiner, NBC New York, The Hill and The Week
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Why Representative Mike Johnson Thinks That the Election Isn't Over — Last week, the Republican attorney general of Texas, with support from Republican attorneys general in eighteen other states, filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to overturn the results of the election in four swing states that favored Joe Biden.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vox, Mercury News, Michigan Advance and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Hack may have exposed deep US secrets; damage yet unknown — BOSTON (AP) — Some of America's most deeply held secrets may have been stolen in a disciplined, monthslong operation being blamed on elite Russian government hackers. The possibilities of what might have been purloined are mind-boggling.
Adrienne LaFrance / The Atlantic:
Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine — The Doomsday Machine was never supposed to exist. It was meant to be a thought experiment that went like this: Imagine a device built with the sole purpose of destroying all human life. Now suppose that machine is buried deep underground …
Discussion:
HotAir
Hans Nichols / Axios:
Biden close to naming Michael Regan as EPA administrator — Michael Regan, the top environmental regulator in North Carolina, has emerged as a leading candidate to head the Environmental Protection Agency, according to people familiar with the matter. — Why it matters: If nominated and confirmed …
Alex Stamos / Washington Post:
Enough is enough. Here's what we should do to defend against the next Russian cyberattacks. — Alex Stamos is the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and the former chief information security officer of Yahoo and Facebook. — The details are still trickling in …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, American Military News and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:
Bill Barr's Resignation Letter Perfectly Reflects His Entire Career — Twice, William Barr has been Attorney General of the United States. And twice he has proven to be a willing footman for political deceit and political corruption. — Twice, I have seen William Pelham Barr ascend …
Senior Data Journalist, NY — 
Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — 
Oil Reporter, Singapore — 
Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — 
Business Reporter, SC — 
State Government Reporter, WA — 
Climate Crisis Columnist — 
Multimedia Journalist, CA — 
Community Engagement Mgr., DC — 
Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — 
Staff Writer - Business, NY — 
Team Editor - Opinion, ON — 
Assistant Correspondent, DC — 
Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — 
Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — 
Lead Business Reporter, TN — 
Managing Editor, WA — 
Private Credit Reporter, NY — 
Trending News Reporter, TX — 
City Correspondent, London — 
Legislative Reporter, CA — 
Reporter, PA — 
Visual Editor, Remote — 
Staff Writer, MI — 
Senior Political Reporter, DC — 
California Playbook Writer, CA — 
National Investigative Reporter, NY — 
Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — 
Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — 
Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — 
Coordinating Editor, OR — 
Editor, Remote US — 
Business Reporter, WA — 
Editor-in-Chief, AZ — 
