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:
Vox, HuffPost, NBC News, Detroit Free Press, CNN, The Progressive Pulse, The Verge, Reuters, USA Today, Breitbart, New York Post, The Daily Caller, The Colorado Sun, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, Wall Street Journal, Axios, Washington Times, The Gateway Pundit, Gothamist, Florida Politics, The Independent, CBS Detroit, Business Insider, Washingtonian, CBS Baltimore, The Wrap, Reason, Metro.co.uk, The Week, Law & Crime, Althouse, Mediaite, Gizmodo, ProFootballTalk, TechCrunch, Variety, Al Jazeera, iPolitics, UPI, Mashable, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, 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, The Independent, USA Today, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, The Week, Axios, CNN, Washington Times and The Wrap
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, Politico, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Slate, Common Dreams and STEPHANIE MILLER SHOW
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:
NBC News, New York Post, Reuters, TheBlaze, Deseret News, CBS Baltimore, Raw Story, Japan Times, The Daily Caller, Defense One and The Week
Grant Stern / Byline Times:
Still Faces ‘We Build the Wall’ State Investigation — Joe Biden's presidency has just begun and the Donald Trump era has just come to an end - with its chief enabler the recipient of a last-minute pardon for federal felony charges. But new reporting shows that Steve Bannon is still staring …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars
Tiana Lowe / Washington Examiner:
Trump's final insult to his supporters: Pardoning Bannon — For two months, President Trump lied to his own supporters that he had actually won the presidential election. After feeding his following a saccharine diet of conspiracy theories involving midnight ballot theft and collusion with dead dictators …
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 …
Discussion:
Fox News, Washington Post, Big League Politics, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Washington Times, Business Insider, Metro.co.uk, Sputnik News, HuffPost, The Sun, The Hill, National Review, UPROXX, Summit News, Mediaite, The National Pulse, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast and Political Wire
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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
Alayna Treene / Axios:
Trump departs on final Air Force One flight — President Trump and his family took off on Air Force One at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning for the final time en route to Florida. — The big picture: Trump's final hours as president were punctuated by his decisions to snub his successor's inauguration …
Discussion:
HuffPost, Washington Post, NPR, Washington Examiner, ABC News, Metro.co.uk, Forbes, Washington Times, NBC News, The Week, Breitbart and UPI
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Peter Baker / New York Times:
Inauguration Live Updates: Trump Leaves White House as Biden Prepares to Assume the Presidency — Having issued a raft of pardons overnight, President Trump defied convention by skipping his successor's swearing-in. After taking the oath of office, President-elect Joe Biden plans …
Discussion:
Vox, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Axios, The Stranger, HotAir, Breitbart, Mercury News, GovExec.com, NBC News and Talking Points Memo
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
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
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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, Daily Kos, Politico, Axios, Al Jazeera, Sputnik News and Cyprus Mail
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CNN:
Trump revokes rule barring lobbying by former officials as he leaves office — The Trump legacy of new American carnage — Washington (CNN)As his term comes to an end, President Donald Trump revoked a rule he signed early in his term that imposed a five-year lobbying ban for administration officials …
Discussion:
NPR, Bloomberg, The American Independent, Florida Politics, The Daily Caller, Forbes, Axios and Washington Times
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Meridith McGraw / Politico:
Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying
Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying
Discussion:
Raw Story, The White House, Washington Post and Common Dreams
Hans Nichols / Axios:
Incoming White House plans extraordinary steps to protect Biden from COVID-19
Incoming White House plans extraordinary steps to protect Biden from COVID-19
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Post, The Week and The Hill
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.
Erin Patterson / KUSA-TV:
‘We hope to work with you’: 17 House GOP freshmen write letter to Biden — Just before Joe Biden is sworn in as president, 17 House GOP freshmen wrote a letter congratulating him and encouraging unity. — WASHINGTON — The morning before Joe Biden takes the oath of office …
Discussion:
Breitbart, Associated Press and The Federalist
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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 and No More Mister Nice Blog
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:
The Atlantic, BuzzFeed News, The Root 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:
Media Matters for America, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, TVNewser and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »
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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 Independent, Raw Story, The Daily Beast, Fox News, Foreign Policy, Reuters and Boston Herald
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 …
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.
Politico:
Republicans take on Biden's Cabinet, but without the Trumpian fury — A series of low-key confirmation hearings may reflect a shift in Washington's political atmosphere. — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listens during a confirmation hearing for Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken …
Discussion:
The Bulwark, Jewish Insider, Real Clear Politics and HotAir
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Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Blinken appears to be sailing to confirmation as Biden's secretary of state
Blinken appears to be sailing to confirmation as Biden's secretary of state
Discussion:
The Hill, Associated Press, Townhall, Daily Camera, The Sun, New York Times, Politico, Vox, USA Today, Fox News, Roll Call and KIFI-TV
Tal Kopan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Dianne Feinstein defends GOP senators' right to object to election results — WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended Republican senators who objected to Electoral College results and downplayed the importance of an upcoming impeachment trial for President Trump, diverging from her Democratic colleagues.
Discussion:
Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, GovExec.com and Townhall
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:
The Daily Caller, The Progressive Pulse, Washington Post, Raw Story, HotAir, The Week, HuffPost, Breitbart, Axios, TheBlaze, POLITICUSUSA, The Hill, Associated Press, Politico and KIFI-TV
Bloomberg:
Jack Ma Emerges for First Time Since Ant, Alibaba Crackdown — Billionaire addressed rural teachers live online Wednesday — His emergence follows persistent rumors about his plight — Jack Ma has resurfaced after months out of public view that fueled intense speculation …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Daily Caller, The Week and Al Jazeera, more at Techmeme »
Bernie Sanders / The Guardian:
Joe Biden must put an end to business as usual. Here's where to start — In this time of unprecedented crises, Congress and the Biden administration must respond through unprecedented action — record-breaking 4,000 Americans are now dying each day from Covid-19, while the federal …
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 …
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump promised his supporters ‘everything.’ He didn't deliver on much of it. — President Trump's term in office expires at noon Wednesday. And while he's never been a broadly popular president, those who stuck by him have almost always cited a few things.
Discussion:
Raw Story