memeorandum: Worse Than Treason — “We are what we pretend to be,” Kurt Vonnegut wrote in the opening … (Tom Nichols/The Atlantic)

9:40 AM ET, January 4, 2021

Top Items:

Audio: Trump's full Jan. 2 call with Ga. secretary of state — As Georgia runoff looms, Republicans stick to election fraud claims — Audio: Trump berates Ga. secretary of state, urges him to ‘find’ votes — Republicans previously promised Trump would accept the election results

Discussion: Business Insider, Towleroad Gay News, We Love Trump, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, The Hill, IJR, Balloon Juice, Juanita Jean's and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Marc Caputo / Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: The backstory of Trump's Georgia call — DRIVING THE DAY — Good morning from Atlanta, Gateway to the South and the pulsing center of Tuesday's two U.S. Senate runoffs that will determine partisan control of the upper chamber and the success of Joe Biden's first term as president.

Discussion: NBC News, Raw Story, The Hill, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ABC News and NPR

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Trump Call to Georgia Official Might Violate State and Federal Law — The president's demand for action to overturn the result of the election in the state raised questions about whether he violated election fraud statutes, lawyers said, though a charge is unlikely.

Amy Gardner / Washington Post:

‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor — President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat …

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Fox News, The Hill, New York Times, The Daily Beast, Business Insider, National Review, Axios, The Guardian, Mediaite, Raw Story, Real Clear Politics, Power Line, The Bulwark, Daily Kos, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, CREW, The Week, New York Magazine, Towleroad Gay News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Foreign Policy, Common Dreams, Informed Comment, The Sun, DNyuz, Election Law Blog, NBC News, HuffPost, WRIC-TV, Law & Crime, Mock Paper Scissors, Spectator USA, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, TheGrio, We Love Trump, The Moderate Voice, Variety, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Monthly, Deadline, Zandar Versus The Stupid, IJR, Crooks and Liars, New York Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, UPI, CANNONFIRE, Althouse, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, NBC New York, Slate, The Mahablog, Washington Examiner, POLITICUSUSA, Mother Jones, Washington Times, littlegreenfootballs.com, The Carpentariat, The Intellectualist, FOX 5 San Diego, emptywheel, WREG-TV, CBS San Francisco, The Atlanta Voice, Media Matters for America, Vox, Townhall, Blue Virginia, Patterico's Pontifications, Breitbart, The Wrap, Compatible Creatures and Roll Call

David Frum / The Atlantic:

Trump Crosses a Bright-Red Line — In a bombshell conversation with Georgia's secretary of state yesterday, President Donald Trump made monkeys of every Republican official and every conservative talking head who professed to believe Trump's allegations of voter fraud.

Discussion: Fox News, The Nation, Washington Post, The Economist, Reuters, National Review, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Associated Press, DCReport.org, DNyuz, The Guardian, Real America's Voice and Business Insider

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:

Trump's Phone Call Is What Coup Fever Looks Like — The U.S. president goes back to Georgia, looking for some votes to steal. He knows that he's been beat. — Like the little boy haunted by ghosts in the horror movie “The Sixth Sense,” President Donald Trump sees dead people everywhere.

Discussion: ABC News, IJR, Mediaite, Conservative News Today, Raw Story and New York Times

Washington Post:

Here's the full transcript and audio of the call between Trump and Raffensperger — About 3 p.m. Saturday, President Trump held an hour-long call with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, in which he repeatedly urged him to alter the outcome of the presidential vote in the state.

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Trump knows no limits as he tries to overturn the election

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Dispatch, KDFX-TV, The Guardian, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, RedState, The Hill, DNyuz, The Week and WGN-TV

Raheem Kassam / The National Pulse:
Trump Call Actually Reveals a President Deep into Detail, with Establishment Republicans Dismissive, Unwilling, and Rejecting Transparency

Discussion: Raw Story, DNyuz, The Lid, The Sun and CNN

CNN:
Trump's deranged phone call with Georgia secretary of state reveals a desperate man

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, DNyuz and Business Insider

Tia Mitchell / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Democrats denounce Trump's call to Raffensperger as criminal, GOP mostly silent

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, WGN-TV, Bloomberg, NewsNation Now, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and Strangely Blogged

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:
The GOP Can't Stop Biden but They'll Murder Democracy Trying

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill and DNyuz

Shant Shahrigian / New York Daily News:
In unhinged phone call, Trump urges Georgia official to ‘find’ votes to overturn election results: report

Discussion: USA Today, Salon and ABC7

Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Republicans Begin New Congress Feuding Over Bid to Overturn Election

Discussion: Politico, Bloomberg, Washington Post, CNN, Boston Herald, The National Interest, Real Clear Politics, CBS News, The Daily Caller, The Signorile Report, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, Blue Virginia, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, Florida Politics, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and Crooks and Liars

New York Times:
Georgia Is Getting More Blue. The Senate Races Will Tell How Much.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Beast, USA Today, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Snopes.com, The Hill, DNyuz, Orange County Register and Florida Politics

Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:

Worse Than Treason — “We are what we pretend to be,” Kurt Vonnegut wrote in the opening of his 1962 novel, Mother Night, “and so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” Republicans in Congress are pretending to be seditionists—and so they have become, in fact, seditionists.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Business Insider and NBC News

Russell Berman / The Atlantic:

Mitch McConnell's Slipping Grip on the Republican Party — Mitch McConnell begins the new year with his hold on the Senate, and on his own party, loosening by the hour. — A pair of runoff elections in Georgia tomorrow could end the Kentucky Republican's six-year reign as majority leader …

Discussion: Vox, ABC News, Just Security, Crooks and Liars and The Week

Washington Examiner:
Judiciary should actively resist coming Biden power grabs

Discussion: NBC News, The Nation, The Sun, The Federalist, Raw Story and Common Dreams

Washington Post:

All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory — Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld are the 10 living former U.S. secretaries of defense.

Discussion: The Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Conservative News Today, CNN, Daily Kos, New York Times, Business Insider, The Gateway Pundit, NPR, DNyuz, UPI, The Week, Balloon Juice, Task & Purpose, HuffPost, TheGrio, Mediaite, Raw Story, Politico and Axios

Dan Lamothe / Washington Post:
The time to question election results has passed, all living former defense secretaries say

Discussion: The Hill and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas:

Cotton Statement on Joint Session of Congress — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Contact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 734-0430 — Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement on the joint session of Congress later this week:

Discussion: Townhall, Business Insider and Laura Ingraham

Mike Allen / Axios:
The GOP battle lines drawn by Trump and McConnell will shape the next four years

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, DNyuz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Washington Monthly

Politico:
Congress adopts rules governing Jan. 6 Electoral College count

Discussion: The American Spectator, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, Congressman Ken Buck, Yahoo News, DNyuz, Washington Post, National Review, Associated Press, Townhall, Axios, Fox News, WV MetroNews, The Texas Tribune, WTOP and CNN

Jamie Ross / The Daily Beast:

Plane Sightings Fuel Rumors Trump Planning Escape to Scotland on Day Before Biden Inauguration — GOLF WAR — Something strange is happening on the west coast of Scotland. According to a report from the Sunday Post, a lot of unusual U.S. military activity has been recorded at one airport …

Discussion: Raw Story

Rebecca Falconer / Axios:

U.K. judge rules Julian Assange should not be extradited to the U.S. — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange must not be extradited to the U.S., where he's wanted on charges of violating the Espionage Act and hacking government computers, because of the high risk of suicide in U.S. custody, a British judge in London ruled Monday.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, KDFX-TV and DNyuz

BBC:
Julian Assange: Wikileaks founder extradition to US blocked by UK judge

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Guardian, The Verge and EUobserver

Elian Peltier / New York Times:
U.K. Judge Blocks Assange's Extradition to U.S., Citing Mental Health Concerns

Discussion: CBS News, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Summit News, The Gateway Pundit, IJR, DNyuz, UPI, We Love Trump, CNN and NPR, more at Mediagazer »

Jill Lawless / Associated Press:
UK judge refuses extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange

Discussion: The Hill, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, National Review, HotAir, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Variety, DNyuz, The Week, Al Jazeera, Althouse, abc7NY, Deadline, NewsNation Now and WTOP

Kate Conger / New York Times:

Hundreds of Google Employees Unionize, Culminating Years of Activism — The creation of the union, a rarity in Silicon Valley, follows years of increasing outspokenness by Google workers. Executives have struggled to handle the change. — OAKLAND, Calif. — More than 225 Google engineers …

Discussion: The Verge

Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Google Workers Publicly Launch Union

Discussion: New York Times, TechCrunch and DNyuz, more at Techmeme »

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:

Trump to give ally Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom — Congressman from California has accused FBI and Justice Department of bias against Trump during Russia probe. — President Trump on Monday is expected to give Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) the Presidential Medal of Freedom …

Discussion: Slate, The Guardian, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, CNN, The Federalist, Towleroad Gay News, UPI, DNyuz, The Hill, The Week, Fox News, Raw Story, Mock Paper Scissors, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Political Wire

Axios:
Trump to give Reps. Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes Presidential Medal of Freedom

Discussion: Associated Press and CANNONFIRE

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

Terry McAuliffe raises a record $6.1 million in bid to reclaim Executive Mansion — RICHMOND — Democrat Terry McAuliffe announced Monday that he has raised more than $6 million for his comeback bid for Virginia governor, far surpassing what previous gubernatorial hopefuls have raised at similar points in their campaigns.

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire

Jessica Yun / Yahoo Finance:

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma suspected missing — Speculation has swirled around Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's whereabouts after reports surfaced that the high-profile businessman has not made a public appearance in more than two months. — The Alibaba founder also failed to appear …

Discussion: Orange County Register, New York Post, We Love Trump and Reuters