memeorandum: Texas lawsuit was the last straw. I'm leaving the Republican Party: Former NH GOP chair (Jennifer Horn/USA Today)

11:40 AM ET, December 17, 2020

Top Items:

Thomas P. Bossert / New York Times:

I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We're Being Hacked. — The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate. — Mr. Bossert was the homeland security adviser to President Trump and deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.

Discussion: CNN, GeekWire, Forbes, Mediaite, TheBlaze, Crooks and Liars, No More Mister Nice Blog, Raw Story and The Dispatch, more at Techmeme »

CNN:

Putin says if Russia wanted to kill opposition leader Navalny, it would have ‘finished’ the job — Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Thursday that opposition politician Alexey Navalny “is enjoying the support of the US special services,” adding that if Russian special services …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Associated Press, Business Insider, HotAir, The Sun, New York Post, Foreign Policy, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, MyNorthwest.com, One America News Network and Bloomberg

CISA:
Joint Statement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)

Discussion: The Sun and Slate

Jennifer Horn / USA Today:

Texas lawsuit was the last straw. I'm leaving the Republican Party: Former NH GOP chair — The GOP has ransacked our Constitution and attempted a coup. The Republican Party of Lincoln is no more. I'm switching my registration to independent. — My mother spent a lifetime trying to teach me to stand for what is right.

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, New York Post, Conservative News Today and The Texas Tribune

Politico:

Never-Trump movement splinters as its villain heads for the exit — The defeat of Donald Trump might have been the easy part for never-Trump Republicans. Next up: taking on the more elusive target of Trumpism with their boogeyman gone from office. — More than a dozen leaders …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Salon, The Week, Crooks and Liars and National Review

David Siders / Politico:

'Everything's great': GOP ditches election post-mortems — Democrats in Texas and New Hampshire are forming committees to examine the party's failings in last month's election. Less formal autopsies are underway in states across the country. — But the party that lost the presidential election isn't soul-searching at all.

Discussion: American Greatness, Associated Press, Raw Story, New York Times, Daily Kos and Bulwark+

Reed Galen / Washington Post:
The fight against Trumpism is only beginning

Discussion: Raw Story

Sabato's Crystal Ball:

Georgia Senate Runoffs: Breaking Down November, Looking to January — Dear Readers: This is the last issue of the Crystal Ball this year. We wanted to finish off our 2020 publishing schedule by taking a deep look at the Georgia Senate runoffs, which will decide control of the Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Discussion: CNN, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, National Review and CBS News

Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
75K new Georgia voters registered before US Senate runoffs

Discussion: Fox News

Politico:
GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of Georgia runoffs

Discussion: Washington Post, Bloomberg, Mother Jones, Wisconsin Examiner and Augusta Chronicle

Amber Phillips / Washington Post:
What you need to know about the Georgia Senate runoff elections

Discussion: NBC News, Fox News, The Daily Caller, WTOP and Washington Times

Marc Caputo / Politico:
'It's nonstop': Georgia Senate battles rage far from Atlanta

Discussion: WTOP

E.J. Dionne / Washington Post:
Joe Biden may be tougher than the GOP expects

Discussion: The Hill, The Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Bloomberg

Axios:

O'Malley Dillon's line that GOP are “f-ckers” worries some Biden aides — Some advisers close to President-elect Joe Biden are frustrated over a Glamour magazine interview in which incoming White House deputy chief of staff Jen O'Malley Dillon referred to Republicans on Capitol Hill as “f*ckers.”

Discussion: The Atlantic, Washington Examiner, Crooks and Liars, TheBlaze, Mediaite, Fox News, Raw Story, The Hill, IJR, Washington Free Beacon, The Federalist, HotAir, RedState, New York Magazine, Twitchy and Breitbart

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Republicans suddenly discover they don't like naughty words — Could someone please find Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) a cold compress and a place where he might lie down for a few minutes? — The senator, whom you might recall from the time he implied during a presidential campaign …

Discussion: RedState and Mediaite

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Mitch McConnell gives away the game: ‘Kelly and David are getting hammered’

Discussion: American Prospect, CNN, New York Times, Daily Kos, The Daily Beast, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Atlantic, The Sun, Raw Story and Reuters

Politico:
Congress prepares for weekend work as stimulus stalls

Discussion: The Daily Signal, Bloomberg and One America News Network

Politico:

Pence prepares to oversee Trump's loss — and then leave town — On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence will oversee final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. — Then he'll likely skip town. — As vice president, Pence has the awkward but unavoidable duty of presiding …

Discussion: The Hill, CNBC, Axios, Lawfare, Crooked Media, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, The Week, Election Law Blog and Washington Examiner

Alan Feuer / New York Times:

Dominion demands that Sidney Powell retract ‘baseless and false allegations’ about voting machines. — Dominion Voting Systems sent a blistering letter on Wednesday night to the right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell, demanding that she publicly retract her “wild, knowingly baseless and false accusations” …

Discussion: Law & Crime, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, Raw Story and The Gateway Pundit

Lisa Bonos / Washington Post:

Pete Buttigieg is right. Airports are romantic. — In accepting his pending appointment to be the next U.S. transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg spoke about how travel, in his mind, “is synonymous with growth, with adventure — even love.” Then he went for a laugh line, adding …

Discussion: National Review, NPR, Slate, Twitchy, CNN and USA Today

Jonathan Capehart / Washington Post: Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary is something Frank Kameny could have only dreamed of

Morgan Phillips / Fox News:
Biden transition team deletes old ad hammering Buttigieg's lack of experience

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fortune and New York Post

CNN:

Biden's search for an attorney general complicated by ‘competing questions’ — Washington (CNN)The deliberations among President-elect Joe Biden's tight circle of advisers about whom he should nominate as attorney general have emerged as some of the more complicated of the transition …

Discussion: New York Times, Issues & Insights, American Prospect, The Gateway Pundit, Mic and Washington Free Beacon

CNN:
Biden expected to get coronavirus vaccination early next week

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Hill, Business Insider, Politico, BuzzFeed News, MyNorthwest.com, USA Today, Axios, HotAir, POLITICUSUSA, UPI and New York Post

Newsweek: We Need a Special Counsel

Kyle Smith / National Review:

Jill Biden's Doctorate Is Garbage Because Her Dissertation Is Garbage — Her dissertation is not an addition to the sum total of human knowledge. — You can tell someone is smarting from an inferiority complex when he insists on being addressed as “Dr.” on the basis of holding an academic doctorate rather than being a physician.

Discussion: Twitchy and Arizona Mirror

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Obsessed Tucker Carlson Calls Jill Biden ‘Illiterate’ and ‘Our National Shame’

Discussion: The Hill, The Daily Caller and The Wrap

NBC News:

Is it time for a 9/11-style commission to study the nation's Covid response? — WASHINGTON — After terrorists hijacked airliners, slammed them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and killed nearly 3,000 Americans, Congress created an independent bipartisan 9/11 Commission to definitively answer …

Discussion: Gallup, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Political Wire

Washington Post:

French President Macron tests positive for the coronavirus after showing symptoms — PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for the coronavirus, the country's presidential palace announced Thursday. — He was administered a test after he began to show symptoms associated with the virus.

Discussion: Axios, KTLA and Business Insider

CNN:
France's Emmanuel Macron tests positive for Covid-19, sending other European leaders into quarantine

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Associated Press, TheBlaze, Bloomberg, Politico, One America News Network and Forbes

Roger Sollenberger / Salon:

This hedge-fund billionaire is a huge fan of Sen. Kelly Loeffler — but why? — Finance mogul Ken Griffin gave big chunks of cash to Kelly Loeffler's PAC — and the timing is intriguing — On Oct. 9, billionaire Ken Griffin, the head of a multinational financial services company …

Washington Post:

Interior Secretary Bernhardt tests positive for covid-19 — Two other top Interior officials contracted the virus last month — Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt, 51, tested positive for covid-19 Wednesday, the department spokesman confirmed after an inquiry from The Post.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, CNN, NBC News, NBC4 Washington, The Hill, USA Today, The Week, Associated Press, Axios and New York Post

Bloomberg:

Amazon Has Turned a Middle-Class Warehouse Career Into a McJob — Amazon.com Inc. job ads are everywhere. Plastered on city buses, displayed on career web sites, slotted between songs on classic rock stations. They promise a quick start, $15 an hour and health insurance.

Justine Coleman / The Hill:

Trump cuts $200M in health care funds to California over abortions — President Trump's administration announced on Wednesday an upcoming cut of $200 million in federal Medicaid funding to California over the state's requirement for abortions to be covered under health care plans.

Discussion: The American Independent, Live Action News and HHS News Releases

Michelle Ruiz / Vogue:

How Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker Won the 2020 Election Coverage — FIVE MINUTES before NBC called the 2020 election for Joe Biden, Kristen Welker was sprinting. After rising at 4 a.m. and coanchoring Weekend Today in New York, the White House correspondent darted into a car …

Neal Rothschild / Axios:

Trump states shut out COVID headlines as virus rages — States that voted for President Trump tend to have high coronavirus caseloads compared to how much COVID content they read online, while the opposite is true of states that voted for President-elect Biden, according to exclusive data …

Christopher Bedford / The Federalist:

This Series Of Fact-Checks On America's Mission To Defeat COVID Exposes Media Hatred — Fact checks on the United States' COVID vaccine timeline expose how outlets like NBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are willing to attack American aspirations to score political points.

Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:

Robinhood Financial to Pay $65 Million to Settle SEC Probe — The brokerage firm settles investigation over early failure to highlight deals with high-speed trading firms — WASHINGTON—Robinhood Financial LLC has agreed to pay $65 million to settle regulatory claims that it didn't sufficiently disclose …

Discussion: New York Post, NBC Boston, Forbes, TechCrunch and One America News Network, more at Techmeme »

xkcd.com:

2020 Election Map — Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2399/ — Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/2020_ election_map.png — Comics I enjoy: — Three Word Phrase, SMBC, Dinosaur Comics, Oglaf (nsfw), A Softer World, Buttersafe …

Washington Examiner:

Raphael Warnock's embrace of anti-Semite Farrakhan is disqualifying for Senate service — It was once said of a famously vulnerable Senate candidate that, with respect to the opposition research that could be used against her in a campaign, “there's a haystack of needles.”

Washington Post:

Congressional leaders try to clear final hurdles in sprint to finish coronavirus relief package — Negotiators tout progress but must resolve disagreements over several policy issues to strike an approximately $900 billion agreement. — Congressional leaders are trying to resolve a number …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, NBC4 Washington and IJR

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

We've finally identified the source of fraud in the 2020 election. It's Ron Johnson. — Finally, significant fraud has been identified in the 2020 election. It is being perpetrated by Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin. — President Trump lost the election. He lost the recounts.