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8:15 AM ET, January 20, 2021

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 Top Items: 
The White House:
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency  —  President Donald J. Trump granted pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of an additional 70 individuals.  —  Todd Boulanger - President Trump granted a full pardon to Todd Boulanger.
RELATED:
Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
With hours left in office, Trump pardons Bannon.  —  President Trump has granted clemency to Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who was charged with defrauding people who supported building a border wall that Mr. Trump supported, White House officials said.
Washington Post:
Trump grants clemency to 143 people in late-night pardon blast  —  President Trump on Tuesday granted clemency to 143 people, using a final act of presidential power to extend mercy to former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, well-connected celebrities and nonviolent drug offenders …
New York Times:
With Hours Left in Office, Trump Grants Clemency to Bannon and Other Allies  —  The president continued using his power to help his supporters, including his former chief strategist and one of his top 2016 fund-raisers.  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump used his final hours in office …
Washington Post:
Trump pardons Steve Bannon after ugly falling out early in his presidency  —  President Trump has pardoned Stephen K. Bannon, the firebrand architect of his 2016 campaign who was charged last year with defrauding donors to a private fundraising effort for construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border …
Andrew Restuccia / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Has Discussed Starting a New Party  —  President Trump has talked in recent days with associates about forming a new political party, according to people familiar with the matter, an effort to exert continued influence after he leaves the White House.  —  Mr. Trump discussed the matter …
RELATED:
Evan Semones / Politico:
Pelosi says Trump could be accessory to murder after Capitol riot  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump could be an accessory to murder after this month's deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol.  —  In an interview with MSNBC's Joy Reid that aired Tuesday night …
Discussion: The Hill, NBC News, Axios and Politico
Ben Feuerherd / New York Post:
Brendan Hunt threatened AOC, Schumer and Pelosi in unhinged rants
Discussion: Raw Story and Law & Crime
CNN:
Trump talked out of pardoning kids and Republican lawmakers  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump received an unsettling warning on his final Saturday night in the White House.  —  Huddled for a lengthy meeting with his legal advisers, Trump was warned the pardons he once hoped to bestow upon …
RELATED:
Jim Small / Arizona Mirror:
Biggs and Gosar sought pardons for Capitol riot, but won't get them: report  —  Arizona Republican Congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar have asked President Donald Trump to preemptively pardon them for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but the president has no plans to do so, CNN reported Tuesday.
CNN:
Trump tells people he's decided to pardon Steve Bannon as one of his final acts in office  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump has decided to pardon his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, in a last-minute decision made only hours before he is scheduled to depart the White House for a final time.
Discussion: The Guardian, UPROXX and CANNONFIRE
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
Obituary for a Failed Presidency  —  One last Letter from Trump's Washington.  —  Susan B. Glasser's column will continue as Letter from Biden's Washington.  Sign up for her newsletter to get her stories delivered to your in-box every week.  —  Precisely at noon on Wednesday …
RELATED:
David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg:
Trump Ends Where He Began, Fighting Release of His Tax Returns  —  President Donald Trump's lawyers made a preemptive move to stop congressional Democrats from obtaining his tax returns once President-elect Joe Biden takes power, asking a judge for an Inauguration Day hearing in a case …
ABC News:
Unity themes will get early tests in flurry of Biden actions: The Note  —  Governing actions are likely to shape the course of the Biden presidency.  —  Biden expected to sign several executive orders early in his term … Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images  —  Finally, and more than a bit nervously …
RELATED:
Molly Nagle / ABC News:
Biden takes office looking to turn the page, while rolling back Trump actions
Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:
HISTORIC: Joe Biden to Be Sworn In on Jeffrey Epstein's Birthday
Discussion: ABC News
New York Times:
Fox News Fires a Key Player in Its Election Night Coverage  —  The politics editor who defended the network's accurate projection that Biden had won Arizona is out after a backlash from viewers, including President Trump.  —  Two senior leaders of Fox News's reporting division are exiting …
RELATED:
Ron Johnson / JSOnline:
Senator Ron Johnson calls editorial about him ‘unhinged and uninformed.’ The Editorial Board responds.  —  Senator Johnson objects to the Editorial Board's call for him to resign over his actions after the presidential election. … In an unhinged and uninformed editorial …
Discussion: Mediaite and Raw Story
Tina Nguyen / Politico:
A big chunk of Trump's 1776 report appears lifted from an author's prior work  —  President Donald Trump's 1776 Commission was supposed to be the definitive “patriotic” rejoinder to the academic left for what conservatives view as a slanderous rendering of U.S. history.
RELATED:
Caroline Kelly / CNN:
Biden to rescind 1776 commission via executive order
Politico:
Biden plans 15 executive actions on his first day in office  —  The incoming administration isn't waiting to get started.  But they also aren't going quite as far, as fast, as progressives want.  —  President-elect Joe Biden is planning a blitz of unilateral action shortly after taking office …
RELATED:
nrdc.org:
Court Strikes Down Dirty Power Scheme  —  In a resounding win for climate and public health, a federal appeals court struck down the Trump administration's replacement of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan today, calling its do-nothing rule a clear violation of the Clean Air Act.
RELATED:
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
‘Are you QAnon?’:  One Trump official's brush with an internet cult gone horribly wrong  —  The deadly insurrection in the nation's capital this month brought intense public scrutiny to the online conspiracy theory QAnon and shock about its pervasiveness, but one prominent Trump administration official …
Washingtonian:
Conspiracy Theorists Target Comet Ping Pong on Trump's Last Night in Office  —  The Trump era in DC ends in a very similar fashion to the way it began  —  In a fitting finale to the Trump years in hometown DC, a group of homophobic conspiracy theorists gathered to shout slogans outside Chevy …
CNN:
Some Trump supporters think he's about to declare martial law — and they're excited.  —  (CNN Business)Sometime Monday, some of the remaining dead-enders convinced that President Trump will remain in office for at least the next four years got a sign.  A Telegram account falsely purporting …
Discussion: Infidel753 and Raw Story
Kevin Quealy / New York Times:
The Complete List of Trump's Twitter Insults (2015-2021)  —  As a political figure, Donald J. Trump used Twitter to praise, to cajole, to entertain, to lobby, to establish his version of events — and, perhaps most notably, to amplify his scorn.  This list documents the verbal attacks …
Discussion: Tortoise and HuffPost
Washington Post:
Trump's final day: A diminished and aggrieved president stays out of public view before exit  —  President Trump spent his final full day in office Tuesday the same way he spent many of his 1,460 prior days as president: brooding over imagined injustices, plotting retribution against perceived enemies …
Discussion: The Week
Dan Diamond / Washington Post:
Biden to ask Surgeon General Adams to resign  —  Ouster is regarded as a break with the Trump administration's covid-19 response, which the president-elect has called a failure  —  The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free.
Discussion: CNN
New York Times:
Justice Dept. Ends Stock Trade Inquiry Into Richard Burr Without Charges  —  Law enforcement officials told the senator that they would not pursue charges over his dumping of hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock after Senate coronavirus briefings early in the pandemic.
Jordan Fischer / wusa9.com:
Capitol rioter arrested after sending ‘selfie’ to girlfriend's brother - a federal agent  —  The DOJ says Thomas Fee, of Freeport, New York, sent a photo of himself in the Capitol Rotunda to a special agent for the State Department.  —  WASHINGTON — A New York man has now been charged …
Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Hill
Ben Collins / NBC News:
Increasingly militant ‘Parler refugees’ and anxious QAnon adherents prep for doomsday  —  Liesa Norris received a panicked phone call on Monday from her brother.  He told her to buy a ham radio.  —  The radio, he explained, would be one of the few ways they could communicate once President Donald …
Discussion: Axios
Transition / President-Elect Joe Biden:
FACT SHEET: President-elect Biden's Day One Executive Actions Deliver Relief for Families Across America Amid Converging Crises  —  Actions Address the COVID-19 Pandemic, Provide Economic Relief, Tackle Climate Change, and Advance Racial Equity  —  Today, hours after taking the oath of office …
Carl Zimmer / New York Times:
New California Variant May Be Driving Virus Surge There, Study Suggests  —  Researchers found that the variant originated in California and showed up in more than half of samples tested last week by researchers in Los Angeles.  —  In late December, scientists in California began searching coronavirus samples …
Discussion: National Review
Richard L. Hasen / Los Angeles Times:
Op-Ed: Election law can't protect democracy if our representatives are lawless  —  Does the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection demonstrate that the problems with the legitimacy of American elections exceed the capacity of election law to fix them?  —  Those of us in the field of election law …
New York Times:
The Financial Minefield Awaiting an Ex-President Trump  —  Baseless election fraud claims and the Capitol riot have compounded already-looming threats to his bottom line.  And the cash lifelines he once relied on are gone.  —  Not long after he strides across the White House grounds Wednesday morning …
Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money
Hans Nichols / Axios:
Incoming White House plans extraordinary steps to protect Biden from COVID-19  —  The incoming administration is planning extraordinary steps to protect its most prized commodity, Joe Biden, including requiring daily employee COVID tests and N95 masks at all times, according to new guidance sent to some incoming employees Tuesday.
Discussion: Washington Post, The Week and The Hill
Axios:
Off the rails: Inside Trump's campaign to coerce Pence into overturning the election  —  Beginning on election night 2020 and continuing through his final days in office, Donald Trump unraveled and dragged America with him, to the point that his followers sacked the U.S. Capitol with two weeks left in his term.
Matt Viser / Washington Post:
Biden, frequent commenter on inaugural addresses, finally gets his own  —  The Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter's insights  —  Following Bill Clinton's first inaugural address, Joe Biden had a few thoughts about how Clinton did.  “This guy really does represent a whole …
Discussion: National Review
 
 
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 More Items: 
Arizona Republic:
Trump pardons former U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona over land swap
Discussion: Business Insider
Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic:
Donald Trump Is Out. Are We Ready to Talk About How He Got In?
Discussion: The Mahablog
Michael McFaul / Foreign Affairs:
How to Contain Putin's Russia
Axios:
Biden will issue executive order to rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit
Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath / Axios:
On Day One, Biden will move to rejoin Paris Climate Agreement
Discussion: Politico, Reuters and The Independent
Bloomberg:
Jack Ma Emerges for First Time Since Ant, Alibaba Crackdown
Michelle Hackman / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Approves Deportation Protections for Venezuelans in U.S. Illegally
 Earlier Items: 
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Blinken appears to be sailing to confirmation as Biden's secretary of state
Chris Vivlamore / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
WNBA's Atlanta Dream on verge of being sold
Discussion: CBS News, UPROXX and KIFI-TV
Doug Emhoff / GQ:
I Might Be the First Second Gentleman, But I Don't Want to Be the Last
Discussion: CBS Los Angeles
Rosalind Erskine / Scotsman Food and Drink:
BrewDog troll Donald Trump by launching petition to rename Prestwick Airport ‘Joe Biden International’
Discussion: Raw Story
David Wickert / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
‘Kraken’ back on its leash: Georgia election lawsuit withdrawn
Andrew Desiderio / Politico:
Josh Hawley will delay swift confirmation of Biden's DHS pick
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
CNN confirms Kaitlan Collins as its chief White House correspondent; she will become CNN's first prime-time anchor to also serve as its top White House reporter

Sam Tobin / Reuters:
Prince Harry's phone-hacking lawsuit against News Group Newspaper will go to trial in January 2026, with the parties' legal costs set to exceed £38M

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
A group published a project on Hugging Face that seemingly granted brief access to OpenAI's Sora, protesting what it calls duplicity and “art washing” by OpenAI

 
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