Top Items:
New York Times:
Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud — In a meeting at the White House on Friday, the president weighed appointing Sidney Powell, who promoted conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, to probe voter fraud. — President Trump on Friday …
Discussion:
RedState, Mother Jones, The Week and Mediaite
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Russia is behind the broad, ongoing cyber spy campaign against the U.S. government and private sector, Pompeo says — Russia is behind the massive, ongoing cyber spy campaign against the federal government and private sector, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday …
Discussion:
Axios, Forbes, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Monthly, The Guardian, HotAir and CNN, more at Techmeme »
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Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Pompeo says Russia ‘pretty clearly’ behind cyberattack on US — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the gravest cyberattack against the United States on record, the first administration official to publicly tie the Kremlin to the widespread intrusion …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and Axios, more at Techmeme »
Michael R. Pompeo / United States Department of State:
Secretary Michael R. Pompeo With Mark Levin of The Mark Levin Show — QUESTION: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Merry Christmas to you, sir. — SECRETARY POMPEO: Merry Christmas to you as well, Mark. It's great to be with you. — QUESTION: It's always a pleasure.
Discussion:
Business Insider, CNN, Alternet.org and New York Post
Steve Kenny / New York Times:
Pompeo Says Russia Was Behind Cyberattack on U.S.
Pompeo Says Russia Was Behind Cyberattack on U.S.
Discussion:
NPR, Slate, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, TOP SECRET UMBRA, Fox News, The Guardian and Mother Jones, more at Techmeme »
Evan Semones / Politico:
Trump downplays cyberattack on U.S., breaks with Pompeo on Russia's role
Trump downplays cyberattack on U.S., breaks with Pompeo on Russia's role
Discussion:
Washington Times, Daily Kos, NBC New York, Florida Politics, CBS News, Axios and The Week
Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Pompeo: Russia ‘pretty clearly’ behind massive cyberattack
Pompeo: Russia ‘pretty clearly’ behind massive cyberattack
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and Just The News
Alicia Victoria Lozano / NBC News:
Secretary of State Pompeo says hack was ‘pretty clearly’ Russian
Secretary of State Pompeo says hack was ‘pretty clearly’ Russian
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, The Week, Forbes, Business Insider and Radio Free Europe/Radio …
New York Times:
U.K. Imposes Harsher Lockdown on London, Citing New Version of Virus — Scientists in Britain say the new variant is spreading faster than previous ones, but does not appear to make people sicker. — LONDON — Alarmed by a what he called a faster-spreading variant of the coronavirus …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Washington Post:
Even as Trump vows to keep fighting, his aides are quietly starting to move on — Vice President Pence has begun looking for a new home in the Washington suburbs, and he's planning a valedictory foreign trip to begin the day Congress counts the electoral college votes.
Discussion:
POLITICUSUSA, Juanita Jean's, Washington Times, JONATHAN TURLEY and Political Wire
Brian Bakst / MPR News:
Minn. Sen. Jerry Relph dies of COVID-19 complications — Brian Bakst and Kirsti MarohnSt. — Jerry Relph, a first-term state senator from St. Cloud, died Friday of complications of COVID-19, his family and the Senate majority leader confirmed. — “Jerry dedicated his life to service …
Wall Street Journal:
Amid Vaccine Rollout and Historic Hack, Trump Remains Focused on Reversing Election — The president has been largely out of sight, paying little public attention to any events other than his efforts to overturn Joe Biden's victory — WASHINGTON—In a week that began with the Electoral …
Discussion:
CNN, Conservative News Today and Mediaite
Raw Story:
BUSTED? Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up — On a Thursday in August in Louisville, months before the 2020 election, a parade of cars filled with Kentucky Teamster representatives and labor groups, showed their fury at Mitch McConnell's constant blocking of critical COVID aid.
Discussion:
HotAir
Jennifer Hansler / CNN:
US plans to shutter remaining consulates in Russia — (CNN)The Trump administration has informed lawmakers of its plan to shutter its two remaining consulates in Russia. — In a notification dated December 10, the US State Department told Congress it intends to close the consulate …
Discussion:
NPR, One America News Network, East Bay Times, Bloomberg and Political Wire
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Molly Jong-Fast / Vogue:
No, This Pandemic Is Not Over. Please Don't Act Like It Is. — The other night, I made my stepmother cry. I've never done that before, but this time I felt as if I had to. My brother had told me about my father and stepmother's holiday plan, which included staying with relatives …
Discussion:
Mother Jones and IJR
Business Insider:
EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers ask FBI and Federal Election Commission to investigate Jared Kushner-backed Trump campaign company after Insider's reporting … - Two lawmakers demanded that the FBI and the Federal Election Commission open an investigation into whether the Trump campaign violated federal law …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, POLITICUSUSA, Vanity Fair, The Sun, The Daily Beast and Daily Kos
Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Scoop: Lance Bottoms rejected Biden's SBA offer — Joe Biden implored Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to accept a job heading the Small Business Administration earlier this week, a lesser position she rejected after he characterized it as “only the first step” for her during his presidency …
John S Gardner / The Guardian:
From A Very Stable Genius to After Trump: 2020 in US politics books … A long time ago, in 1883, a future president (Woodrow Wilson, a subject of this year's reckonings) studied political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in a classroom in which was inscribed the slogan …
Ashok Selvam / Eater Chicago:
Stephanie Izard Apologizes For a Poorly Received Representation of a Korean Dish — A photo posted Thursday using Izard's social media handle showed a “bibimbap” without any cultural context, igniting a conversation on cultural appropriation — A fellow Chicago chef is once again accusing …
New York Times:
No ‘Negative’ News: How China Censored the Coronavirus — Thousands of internal directives and reports reveal how Chinese officials stage-managed what appeared online in the early days of the outbreak. — 阅读.体中 文.閱讀.體 中文.
Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Hacked networks will need to be burned ‘down to the ground’ — It's going to take months to kick elite hackers widely believed to be Russian out of the U.S. government networks they have been quietly rifling through since as far back as March in Washington's worst cyberespionage failure on record.
Steven Sloan / Associated Press:
Analysis: For Republicans, profanity is suddenly scandalous — WASHINGTON (AP) — The definition of a scandal changes quickly in Washington. — Over the course of four years, the nation's capital has careened from crisis to crisis. There was the travel ban, the investigation …
Discussion:
The Nation, Crooks and Liars and NBC News
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Auguste Meyrat / The American Mind:
Keep Texas Red — Here's how. — Texas is still a red state, but the it's not the Republican stronghold it used to be. Whereas Republican candidates earned well over 60% of votes in states like Oklahoma and Alabama in 2020, they earned a little over 50% in Texas—a result more resembling Florida than anything else.
Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Lou Dobbs Airs Stunning Fact-Check of His Own Election Conspiracies After Company Threatens Legal Action — Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has recently taken to raising questions about voting machine companies, which have been cast as complicit in the supposed grand conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
HotAir, Crooks and Liars and Washington Examiner, more at Mediagazer »
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
In Last Rush, Trump Grants Mining and Energy Firms Access to Public Lands — The outgoing administration is pushing through approval of corporate projects over the opposition of environmental groups and tribal communities. — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is rushing to approve …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Turnout in Georgia US Senate runoff approaches presidential levels — Almost as many Georgians have voted in the U.S. Senate runoffs as at the same point before the presidential election, a huge turnout that reflects the high stakes of the race. — Over 1.1 million people had voted through Thursday …
Discussion:
Alternet.org, CITIZEN FREE PRESS and The American Independent
RELATED:
US Food and Drug Administration:
FDA Takes Additional Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for Second COVID-19 Vaccine — Action Follows Thorough Evaluation of Available Safety, Effectiveness, and Manufacturing Quality Information by FDA Career Scientists, Input from Independent Experts
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Berkeley Lovelace Jr / CNBC:
FDA approves second Covid vaccine for emergency use as it clears Moderna's for U.S. distribution
FDA approves second Covid vaccine for emergency use as it clears Moderna's for U.S. distribution
Discussion:
CNN, Reuters, National Review, Washington Examiner, KNSD-TV, IJR, NBC4 Washington, The Week, Washington Post, The Sun, The Colorado Sun, abc7NY, Politico, CBS News and TASS