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2:00 PM 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.
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump's swampiest pardons, ranked  —  President Trump came into office pledging to drain the swamp.  He exits having extracted a bunch of allies who were neck-deep in the muck from it.  —  As I've regularly noted with Trump's pardons, it's not unheard-of for a president to pardon an ally.
Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico
Andrew Weissmann / Just Security:
Gaps in Trump's Pardons: How the Biden Administration Can Still Pursue Justice  —  Former President Donald Trump issued numerous pardons and commutations to friends, family and associates, as well as felons who engaged in heinous crimes involving war crimes, murder, political corruption, and civil rights violations.
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: Law & Crime and Crooks and Liars
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
Tiana Lowe / Washington Examiner:   Trump's final insult to his supporters: Pardoning Bannon
Washington Post:
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president, pleads for unity in inaugural address to a divided nation  —  Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was sworn in Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, pledging to unite the country and confront an array of convulsing challenges dividing a fractured nation.
RELATED:
Amanda Arnold / The Cut:
Our Vice-President Is a Black Woman  —  For the first time in the history of the country, the vice president of the United States is a Black woman.  Today, Kamala Harris was officially sworn in to occupy the nation's second-highest office, becoming the first woman, who is also Black and South Asian, to do so.
Quint Forgey / Politico:
Biden pledges to steady the nation: ‘My whole soul is in this’  —  Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, delivering an inaugural address that preached unity among fellow Americans as the answer to an unprecedented series of national crises.
Discussion: New York Times, ABC News and Axios
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
Writing a speech for Biden can be hell. And that was before the inaugural.
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Biden sworn in as nation's 46th president
Discussion: The Gateway Pundit
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Inauguration Live Updates: Trump Leaves White House as Biden Prepares to Assume the Presidency
Allyson Waller / New York Times:
Joe Biden's Family Bible Has a Long History
ABC News:
Unity themes will get early tests in flurry of Biden actions: The Note
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:
Blake Montgomery / The Daily Beast:
Trump Discussed Forming ‘Patriot Party’ and Ditching GOP in Final Days: WSJ
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 …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Biden inauguration live updates: Speech emphasizes unity, vows to be ‘a president for all Americans’
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 …
RELATED:
Meridith McGraw / Politico:
Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying
Politico:
Biden plans executive action blitz for Day One
fmprc.gov.cn:
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Announces Sanctions on Pompeo and Others  —  Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people …
Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:
HISTORIC: Joe Biden to Be Sworn In on Jeffrey Epstein's Birthday  —  Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, bringing to a close one of the most successful administrations in American history.  —  In what may or may not be a coincidence …
RELATED:
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.
Ben Makuch / VICE:
Far-Right Extremists Tell One Another to Stay Home, Fight Another Day  —  Troop deployments, FBI crackdowns, deplatforming, and infighting seem to have deterred a bigger turnout of the far right across the country.  —  TORONTO, CA  —  In the wake of the Capitol Hill riots …
Discussion: NBC News and Raw Story
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 …
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.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
QAnon believers struggle with inauguration.  —  Followers of QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, have spent weeks anticipating that Wednesday would be the “Great Awakening” — a day, long foretold in QAnon prophecy, when top Democrats would be arrested for running a global sex trafficking ring …
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.
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.
Politico:
‘Really quite shocking’: Inside the ugly transition at the Pentagon  —  The Pentagon blocked members of President Joe Biden's incoming administration from gaining access to critical information about current operations, including the troop drawdown in Afghanistan, upcoming special operations missions …
Discussion: Defense One and Raw Story
Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
An Incompetent Authoritarian Is Still a Catastrophe  —  So what if he was bad at it?  —  The five years of the Trump era—which began with his descent down the gilded escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 and are ending with a massive military presence in the nation's capital to protect the transfer …
Discussion: Salon and Daily Kos
 
 
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 More Items: 
Gerry Shih / Washington Post:
China turbocharges bid to discredit Western vaccines, spread virus conspiracy theories
Discussion: HotAir
Evie Fordham / Fox News:
Liz Cheney gets 2022 primary challenger after Trump impeachment vote
Discussion: RedState, OpenSecrets.org and The Hill
Ronn Blitzer / Fox News:
Biden gives DOJ green light to resume Obama-era ‘slush fund’ payouts to liberal groups
Discussion: The Daily Caller
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump promised his supporters ‘everything.’ He didn't deliver on much of it.
National Review:
The Madness of the Arizona GOP
 Earlier Items: 
Bernie Sanders / The Guardian:
Joe Biden must put an end to business as usual. Here's where to start
Washington Post:
Biden is ‘inheriting a disaster’ as coronavirus continues to grip nation amid chaotic vaccine rollout
Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic:
Donald Trump Is Out. Are We Ready to Talk About How He Got In?
Discussion: The Mahablog
Washingtonian:
Conspiracy Theorists Target Comet Ping Pong on Trump's Last Night in Office
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
‘Are you QAnon?’: One Trump official's brush with an internet cult gone horribly wrong
New York Times:
Justice Dept. Ends Stock Trade Inquiry Into Richard Burr Without Charges
Ron Johnson / JSOnline:
Senator Ron Johnson calls editorial about him ‘unhinged and uninformed.’ The Editorial Board responds.
Discussion: Bulwark+, Raw Story and Mediaite