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.
Discussion:
The Progressive Pulse, Detroit Free Press, USA Today, The Daily Beast, Business Insider, The Verge, NBC News, Axios, Reuters, The Independent, CNN, Washingtonian, Mashable, Althouse, iPolitics, The Week, ProFootballTalk, Gizmodo, UPI, CBS Baltimore, The Wrap, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, Reason, Metro.co.uk, Law & Crime, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch, Variety, HuffPost, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, HBCU Gameday, The Marshall Project and CBS Chicago, more at Techmeme »
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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.
Discussion:
Mediaite, CNN, The Week, The Independent, USA Today, Breitbart, Axios, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap and Washington Times
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 …
Discussion:
ABC News, Slate, Politico, STEPHANIE MILLER SHOW and Common Dreams
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 …
Discussion:
Conservative News Today, Deseret News, The Week, CBS Baltimore, Raw Story, New York Post, Business Insider and Breitbart
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 …
Discussion:
Fox News, ImmigrationProf Blog and emptywheel
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 …
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Blake Montgomery / The Daily Beast:
Trump Discussed Forming ‘Patriot Party’ and Ditching GOP in Final Days: WSJ
Trump Discussed Forming ‘Patriot Party’ and Ditching GOP in Final Days: WSJ
Discussion:
Florida Politics, The Daily Beast and Wall Street Journal
Amanda Carpenter / The Bulwark:
Never Forget: Mitch McConnell Underwrote Trump's Big Lie
Never Forget: Mitch McConnell Underwrote Trump's Big Lie
Discussion:
Washington Post, Daily Kos, CNN, National Review and Vox
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 …
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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.
Discussion:
NBC News, The Stranger, Raw Story and Associated Press
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 …
Discussion:
Common Dreams, Raw Story, IJR, Power Line and Business Insider
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David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg:
Trump Ends Where He Began, Fighting Release of His Tax Returns
Trump Ends Where He Began, Fighting Release of His Tax Returns
Discussion:
Washington Times, Politico, Voice of America and Washington Post
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 …
Discussion:
New York Times, USA Today, CBS News, Washington Post, Politico, Axios, Poynter, Real Clear Politics, NPR, Wired, The Dispatch, Crooks and Liars, WHYY, Balloon Juice, NBC News, Washington Times and The Colorado Sun
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Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:
HISTORIC: Joe Biden to Be Sworn In on Jeffrey Epstein's Birthday
HISTORIC: Joe Biden to Be Sworn In on Jeffrey Epstein's Birthday
Discussion:
ABC News
Molly Nagle / ABC News:
Biden takes office looking to turn the page, while rolling back Trump actions
Biden takes office looking to turn the page, while rolling back Trump actions
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Associated Press, Reuters, New York Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, Bloomberg, NPR, USA Today, Axios, Los Angeles Times and Al Jazeera
Jim Newell / Slate:
Joe Biden's Chance at Greatness
Joe Biden's Chance at Greatness
Discussion:
CBS News, The Daily Beast, CNN, Florida Politics and Foreign Policy
Caroline Kelly / CNN:
Biden to rescind 1776 commission via executive order — (CNN)President-elect Joe Biden will issue an executive order to dissolve the 1776 commission, a panel stood up by President Donald Trump as a rebuttal to schools applying a more accurate history curriculum around slavery in the US, Biden's transition team announced Wednesday.
Discussion:
BuzzFeed News, The Atlantic and New Republic
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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 …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, TVNewser and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »
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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 …
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
Politico:
Biden plans 15 executive actions on his first day in office — President-elect Joe Biden is planning a blitz of unilateral action shortly after taking office on Wednesday that will mark his first extensive effort to undo the last four years under President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
Axios, CBS News, The Hill, NPR, Talking Points Memo, Denver Post, The Moderate Voice, President-Elect Joe Biden, Cyprus Mail and Mercury News
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 …
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:
Lisa Friedman / New York Times:
Court Voids a ‘Tortured’ Trump Climate Rollback
Court Voids a ‘Tortured’ Trump Climate Rollback
Discussion:
Reuters, Associated Press, KTLA and Wall Street Journal
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 …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Axios and Sputnik News
Ben Feuerherd / New York Post:
Brendan Hunt threatened AOC, Schumer and Pelosi in unhinged rants — A Queens man arrested by the FBI this morning for threatening politicians posted unhinged and anti-Semitic rants on social media — and threatened to kill Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Law & Crime
RELATED:
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 …
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.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Raw Story, Axios, The Daily Caller, The Week, Breitbart, HuffPost, POLITICUSUSA, Politico, TheBlaze, The Hill, Associated Press and KIFI-TV
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 …
Discussion:
Persuasion, New York Times, The Atlantic, Fox News and The Independent
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
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
Politico:
‘Like a Ghost’ in the White House: The Last Days of the Trump Presidency — During his last days in the White House, Donald Trump spent a lot of time thinking about the one and only election he ever lost, plotting every way he could to try to change the results. — He thought about when to leave Washington.
Discussion:
CBS News, New York Times, Defense One, Fox News, FiveThirtyEight, Daily Kos, The Federalist, Sputnik News, The Colorado Sun, Japan Times and KIFI-TV
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
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
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
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.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Fox News, Boston Herald and Reuters