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12:50 PM ET, January 20, 2021

memeorandum

 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 …
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
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 …
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump's swampiest pardons, ranked
Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico
Tiana Lowe / Washington Examiner:   Trump's final insult to his supporters: Pardoning Bannon
Washington Post:
Trump pardons Steve Bannon after ugly falling out early in his presidency
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:
Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Parting Words to U.S.: ‘Have a Nice Life.  See You Soon’  —  “We were not a regular administration,” Trump said.  —  Donald Trump is finally gone.  For the time being, at least.  —  After a half-decade of dominating the news cycles and American and global politics …
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 …
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 …
Blake Montgomery / The Daily Beast:
Trump Discussed Forming ‘Patriot Party’ and Ditching GOP in Final Days: WSJ
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:
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Biden sworn in as nation's 46th president
Discussion: Florida Politics
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:
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 …
ABC News:
Unity themes will get early tests in flurry of Biden actions: The Note
Meridith McGraw / Politico:
Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying  —  After campaigning on a promise to “drain the swamp,” Donald Trump ended his presidency by revoking his own rule meant to prevent White House staff from lobbying.  —  Shortly after he entered office, Trump signed an executive order …
RELATED:
CNN:
Trump revokes rule barring lobbying by former officials as he leaves office
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:
Politico:
Biden plans executive action blitz for Day One
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.
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.
RELATED:
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 …
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.
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.
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
Writing a speech for Biden can be hell.  And that was before the inaugural.  —  Joe Biden paces as he dictates long portions of his speeches to aides, spinning out thoughts that quickly pile into six, seven or eight paragraphs of copy, only to later be scrapped.
Discussion: RedState and Power Line
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.
Emily Cochrane / New York Times:
Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer who diverted the mob during the riot, is escorting Harris.  —  Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer who was captured on video facing down members of the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 and diverting them from entering the Senate chamber …
Discussion: Vox, The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, ABC7 and Daily Kos
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
National Review:
The Madness of the Arizona GOP  —  W  —  hat is the point of a political party bent on renouncing its own members?  —  A party exists for two purposes: to win elections, and to govern as its members want.  The two goals are sometimes in tension: Parties should aspire to a big tent at election time …
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 …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Ben Makuch / VICE:
Far-Right Extremists Tell One Another to Stay Home, Fight Another Day
Discussion: Raw Story and NBC News
Ronn Blitzer / Fox News:
Biden gives DOJ green light to resume Obama-era ‘slush fund’ payouts to liberal groups
Discussion: The Daily Caller
Scott Waldman / E&E News:
Gina McCarthy outlines Biden's first climate actions
Discussion: Washington Examiner and The Hill
threader.app:
Marc Ambinder … National security, counter-disinformation. |  Columnist @msnbc.  DMs open.
 Earlier Items: 
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?
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
 

 
From Techmeme:

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
The EU fines Meta €797.72M for tying Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and “imposing unfair trading conditions” on other online classified ads service providers

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google releases a free Gemini app for iOS, letting users ask questions, chat via text, voice, or their camera, and use the conversational mode Gemini Live

Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Sources: the CFPB moves to place Google under formal federal supervision, an extraordinary move that may lead to regular inspections; Google fiercely resisted

 
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