Top Items:
Axios:
McConnell: No legislative agenda for 2022 midterms — Mitch McConnell has told colleagues and donors Senate Republicans won't release a legislative agenda before next year's midterms, according to people who've attended private meetings with the minority leader.
Discussion:
Political Wire
RELATED:
NBC News:
Avoiding shutdown, Congress approves bill to fund government through Feb. 18 — House deal on government funding bill could face challenge in the Senate — WASHINGTON — Congress on Thursday passed a short-term government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown before the Friday night deadline …
Discussion:
Forbes, New York Times, Breitbart, New York Post, The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, GovExec.com, The Daily Caller, Roll Call, Bloomberg, NPR, ABC13 and NewsNation Now
Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
GOP tactics herald a grim new era of governing for Biden and Democrats
GOP tactics herald a grim new era of governing for Biden and Democrats
Discussion:
Regular Order, HuffPost and Talking Points Memo
Jordain Carney / The Hill:
Senate cuts deal to clear government funding bill
Senate cuts deal to clear government funding bill
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Times, Breitbart and Political Wire
Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:
More Democratic senators are willing to weigh changes to Supreme Court — This week's Supreme Court argument on abortion has accelerated an urgency among Senate Democrats to fundamentally alter how the court operates, fueled in part by lingering anger over Republican confirmation maneuvers …
Discussion:
Fox News and Associated Press
RELATED:
Mariel Fernandez / NAACP Legal Defense …:
LDF Issues Statement on Misleading References to Brown v. Board of Education by Supreme Court Justices
Washington Post:
Abortion battles intensify in the states ahead of court ruling expected to undermine Roe v. Wade
Abortion battles intensify in the states ahead of court ruling expected to undermine Roe v. Wade
Discussion:
Postcards from Deda, NPR and USA Today
Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:
During Arguments Over Roe's Fate, Justice Breyer Played Right Into the Conservatives' Hands
During Arguments Over Roe's Fate, Justice Breyer Played Right Into the Conservatives' Hands
Discussion:
National Review, Informed Comment and The Intercept
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
John Kennedy Tells Biden Nominee Dale Ho He's Too ‘Angry’ To Be A Federal Judge
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
The Supreme Court faces an existential crisis of legitimacy
The Supreme Court faces an existential crisis of legitimacy
Discussion:
The Hill and The American Independent
CNN:
Exclusive: Sinema won't commit to voting for Biden's sweeping social safety net expansion — (CNN)Kyrsten Sinema, the influential moderate Democratic senator from Arizona, did not commit to voting for President Joe Biden's sweeping social safety net legislation in a sit-down interview with CNN on Thursday …
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, HotAir, TheBlaze and Twitchy
Wall Street Journal:
Didi Global Plans to Delist From New York Stock Exchange — Chinese ride-hailing giant says it plans to pursue a listing in Hong Kong — Didi Global Inc. plans to delist its shares in the U.S. and pursue a listing in Hong Kong, a dramatic reversal just months after the Chinese ride-hailing …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Shore News Network, One America News Network and Al Jazeera, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Politico:
Biden takes the fight to Omicron. But the toolkit is growing bare. — President Joe Biden has staked his presidency on defeating the pandemic. But nearly a year into his term, the administration is crashing into the limits of its power to end the nation's fight against Covid-19.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Wide World of News, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner and Voice of America
RELATED:
Joe Biden / USA Today:
President Biden: My winter plan fights COVID with testing and vaccines and without lockdowns
President Biden: My winter plan fights COVID with testing and vaccines and without lockdowns
Discussion:
New York Times, CNBC, Fox News, The Hill and KFF
Brooke Singman / Fox News:
White House says domestic travel vaccine requirements on the table due to omicron variant
White House says domestic travel vaccine requirements on the table due to omicron variant
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Examiner, National Review, The Hill, New York Times and TheBlaze
Washington Post:
As world focuses on omicron, delta variant overwhelms parts of U.S. — While the U.S. braces for the unknowns of omicron, which has now been detected in Minnesota, St. Cloud Hospital in the central part of the state is still deep in a battle with the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Discussion:
MN Department …, Shore News Network, CBS News and Vox
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Feds could release ‘alternative’ Mueller report soon — An unpublished investigative compilation sometimes referred to as the “Alternative Mueller Report” has been located in Justice Department files and could be released soon, according to a letter filed in federal court Thursday.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Beast:
Far-Right Shock Jock Confronts Mark Meadows on Alleged Ties to China — The former Trump official may have thought he was in friendly territory, but instead Meadows got grilled by a raving Peters who accused him of having been infiltrated by China. — Far-right radio personality Stew …
Discussion:
Raw Story and The Daily Beast
RELATED:
Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
Congress needs to act on Xi Jinping's genocide now — This week, a private U.K.-based investigative panel released what it says are classified Chinese government documents that appear to show how Chinese President Xi Jinping personally laid the groundwork for the systematic forced assimilation of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Discussion:
CNN, Mediaite and The New York Times Company
Stephen Gutowski / The Reload:
Alec Baldwin's Gun Could Have Fired Without Him Pulling the Trigger, But Did It? — In his first major interview since being involved in a fatal shooting on the set of his latest movie, Alec Baldwin made a surprising new claim about his actions that day. — Baldwin said the gun went off without him ever actually pulling its trigger.
Discussion:
ABC News, Who the Hell Is Jim Treacher?, Breitbart, TheBlaze, New York Times and BizPac Review
Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News:
Liberty University professor charged in alleged abduction, sexual battery of student — A professor at Liberty University is accused in the abduction and sexual battery of a student, according to the evangelical school and court records in Lynchburg, Virginia.
General Michael Hayden / The Cipher Brief:
My Worry for America — OPINION — I was a Brigadier General 30 years ago, assigned in Europe as the head of intelligence. Most of the time I was looking at the Balkans because there was a war going on. Yugoslavia lasted for 72 years and then it was gone; it fell apart. — These were bitter rivalries.
Daniel Bates / Daily Mail:
Epstein visited the White House on 14 separate days and stopped by twice in one day on three occasions during Bill Clinton's first term — The disclosure puts renewed scrutiny on Clinton's friendship with Epstein, who was known to have flown the former president on his private jet …
Discussion:
New York Post
David Corn / Mother Jones:
A CIA Report Shows Trump Abandoned His Duty as Commander in Chief — The CIA is too polite to say this directly, but it has issued a report that shows that Donald Trump, while obsessing over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, abandoned one of his primary duties as president …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Lawfare
Josh Boswell / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: No COVID in Cabo! California governor Gavin Newsom does it again - with a Thanksgiving vacation at $29,000-a-night villa owned by Russian oligarch who admitted dodging $248M in taxes - days after extending state's state of emergency — Governor Gavin Newsom spent Thanksgiving …
Discussion:
Snopes.com, California Globe and The Gateway Pundit
Washington Post:
House Republicans express concern over party infighting, but not the Islamophobic rhetoric that set it off — House Republicans have decried the public feuding this week among a small group of GOP lawmakers as detrimental to the party's ability to win back the House in the 2022 midterm elections …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
Sophie Cocke / Honolulu Star-Advertiser:
Rep. Kai Kahele calls Navy water contamination ‘a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii’ — Hawaii Rep. Kai Kahele today said that the Navy “is currently experiencing a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii” as military officials scramble to respond to hundreds of reports …
Discussion:
The Hill and Associated Press
Insider:
Kayleigh McEnany says she didn't lie in the White House briefing room because she went to Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown and is a Christian — Former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claims she didn't lie in the White House briefing room. — She writes in her upcoming book …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Far right is using Twitter's new rule against anti-extremism researchers — Researchers fear the new ban on posts sharing people's private information will be ‘emboldening to the fascists’ eager to keep their identities concealed. ‘Things now unexpectedly work more in our favor,’ one Nazi sympathizer wrote.
Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:
Facebook sold ads comparing vaccine to Holocaust — New York (CNN Business)Facebook has sold ads promoting anti-vaccine messages, comparing the US government's response to Covid-19 to Nazi Germany, casting doubt on the result of the 2020 election, and even pushing political violence.
Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood among attorneys ordered to pay $175,000 over Michigan ‘Kraken’ suit — A federal judge in Michigan has ordered a group of lawyers who brought a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results to pay about $175,000 in legal fees to the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Forbes, HuffPost, POLITICUSUSA, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNN, Raw Story and Mother Jones
Jenny Jarvie / Los Angeles Times:
A drama professor told students they got their feelings hurt too easily. They decided to fight back — It all started with a misunderstanding. — A Black theater student at Coastal Carolina University told a visiting drama teacher she wanted to connect with nonwhite students …
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Senate candidate Mehmet Oz says he's a Pennsylvania resident now. So why's he still hanging out in his New Jersey mansion? — Mehmet Oz lived in North Jersey for more than three decades. The celebrity known as “Dr. Oz” has invited magazines and TV cameras to his home overlooking …
Discussion:
Politico