memeorandum: Jussie Smollett takes the stand in his own defense (Associated Press)

3:25 PM ET, December 6, 2021

Top Items:

Barton Gellman / The Atlantic:

Trump's Next Coup Has Already Begun — Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024.

Discussion: Washington Post, Balloon Juice, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Florida Politics, FiveThirtyEight, Uneasy Citizenship and Axios

George Packer / The Atlantic:

Are We Doomed? — A year after the insurrection, I'm trying to imagine the death of American democracy. It's somehow easier to picture the Earth blasted and bleached by global warming, or the human brain overtaken by the tyranny of artificial intelligence, than to foresee the end of our 250-year experiment in self-government.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Raw Story

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic: A Party, and Nation, in Crisis

Axios:

Right wing builds its own echo chamber — Conservatives are aggressively building their own apps, phones, cryptocurrencies and publishing houses in an attempt to circumvent what they see as an increasingly liberal internet and media ecosystem. — Why it matters: Many of these efforts …

Discussion: RedState, Ace of Spades HQ, National Review, Raw Story, Political Wire and Twitchy

New York Times:

Donald Trump's media company deal is being investigated by securities regulators. — Securities regulators have opened investigations into the planned merger of a nascent social media company backed by former President Donald J. Trump with a so-called blank-check company that raised nearly $300 million …

Discussion: Bipartisan Report, The Verge, Insider, Mediaite and Hollywood Reporter

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:

Who Just Gave Trump $1 Billion? Let's Find Out. — Investments in a blank-check company backing the former president could turn out to be IOUs if he wins back the White House. — Donald Trump's new social media enterprise announced on Saturday that the blank-check company it set …

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump SPAC under investigation by federal regulators, including SEC

Discussion: NBC News, Washington Times, Florida Politics, Variety, WTOP News, Bipartisan Report and One America News Network

Aaron Gregg / Washington Post: Trump SPAC under investigation by financial regulators

Katy O'Donnell / Politico:
Trump shell company faces SEC investigation

Discussion: NPR, CNN, Rolling Stone, Mic, Deadline, New York Post and Talking Points Memo

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Social-Media SPAC Deal Being Investigated By SEC

Discussion: Reuters

Matt Schudel / Washington Post:

Fred Hiatt, Washington Post editorial page editor, dies at 66 — Fred Hiatt, a onetime foreign correspondent who in 2000 became The Washington Post's editorial page editor and greatly expanded the global reach of the newspaper's opinion writers in the era of 9/11, the election of Barack Obama …

Discussion: Washingtonian, The Hill, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:

‘Absolute liars’: Ex-D.C. Guard official says generals lied to Congress about Jan. 6 — A former D.C. National Guard official is accusing two senior Army leaders of lying to Congress and participating in a secret attempt to rewrite the history of the military's response to the Capitol riot.

Discussion: NBC News, VICE, Breitbart, Raw Story, Bipartisan Report, New York Post, Defense One, Rolling Stone, The Lid, Insider, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, Political Wire and Eschaton

Washington Post:

Justice Dept. sues Texas over state redistricting maps, citing discrimination against Latinos — The Justice Department on Monday sued Texas for the second time in a month over new voting laws, this time alleging that Republican state lawmakers discriminated against Latinos and other minorities …

Discussion: Bipartisan Report

Politico:
DOJ sues to block Texas congressional map

Discussion: ABC News, CNN, Fox News and Talking Points Memo

Politico:

Democrats fall flat with ‘Latinx’ language — As Democrats seek to reach out to Latino voters in a more gender-neutral way, they've increasingly begun using the word Latinx, a term that first began to get traction among academics and activists on the left. — But that very effort …

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Post, National Review, Louder With Crowder, Latino Rebels, TheBlaze, Townhall, The Daily Caller, RedState and The Daily Wire

Washington Post:

Sidney Powell group raised more than $14 million spreading election falsehoods — In the months after President Donald Trump lost the November election, lawyer Sidney Powell raised large sums from donors inspired by her fight to reverse the outcome of the vote.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story and Rolling Stone

Washington Post:

No U.S. government official will attend Beijing Winter Olympics, White House announces — The United States will not send President Biden or any U.S. government official to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February in a signal of displeasure over China's human rights abuses, the White House announced Monday.

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Insider, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, The Guardian, Twitchy and UPI

Kaitlan Collins / CNN:
Biden administration expected to announce diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics this week

Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Won't Send Officials to Beijing Winter Olympics

Discussion: The Daily Caller, NBC New York and Breitbart

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:

Cuomo absent from SiriusXM radio show following firing from CNN — Chris Cuomo was absent from his weekday radio show on SiriusXM, two days after being fired by CNN following a scandal involving his effort to help his brother deal with accusations of sexual harassment.

Discussion: NBC News, The Daily Wire and Ground News, more at Mediagazer »

Lee Brown / New York Post:
Chris Cuomo claims CNN boss Jeff Zucker knew about involvement in gov scandal

Discussion: The Western Journal, The Federalist, RedState, National Review, Twitchy and HotAir

Wall Street Journal:
CNN President Jeff Zucker Protected Chris Cuomo. Then Came a U-Turn.

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Post, New York Post, Townhall, Vanity Fair, RedState, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller, Poynter, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Ace of Spades HQ, The Daily Wire, Washington Examiner, HuffPost and Associated Press, more at Mediagazer »

Brian Murphy / Raleigh News & Observer:

Court ruling stops 2022 candidate filing in new NC districts — The North Carolina Court of Appeals has halted candidate filing in U.S. House, state Senate and state House districts, according to the state elections board. — Candidate filing starts at noon Monday in federal, state and local races across North Carolina.

Natalie Allison / Politico:
Trump brokers deal to remake the field in N.C. Senate race

Discussion: Fox News, Washington Post, Raw Story, The Daily Caller and The Hill

Emma G. Fitzsimmons / New York Times:

New York City sets sweeping vaccine mandate for all private employers. — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a sweeping Covid vaccine mandate for all private employers in New York City on Monday morning to combat the spread of the Omicron variant. — Mr. de Blasio said the aggressive measure …

Discussion: New York Post, The Last Refuge, Twitchy, NPR, Axios, Human Events, HotAir, Bloomberg, The Gateway Pundit, National Review, WTOP News and Liberty Unyielding

New York Times:

Inside Tesla as Elon Musk Pushed an Unflinching Vision for Self-Driving Cars — The automaker may have undermined safety in designing its Autopilot driver-assistance system to fit its chief executive's vision, former employees say. — To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times …

Discussion: Raw Story and Eschaton

Associated Press:

Jussie Smollett takes the stand in his own defense — CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett took the witness stand Monday at his trial where he is facing charges accusing him of staging a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lying to Chicago police about it. — The former actor from the TV show …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, KTLA and abc7NY

Ryan Goodman / Just Security:

The Absence of “The Donald” — In the several hundred criminal cases brought against individuals involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Department of Justice and FBI have included scores of incriminating communications posted by defendants on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Parler.

Hannah Natanson / Washington Post:

A White teacher taught White students about White privilege. It cost him his job. … KINGSPORT, Tenn. — Matthew Hawn checked his phone to see if the wait was finally over. — It had been five months since he was fired for teaching about White privilege at a high school in rural Tennessee.

Washington Post:

‘Rife’ cocaine use reported in U.K. Parliament — just as Boris Johnson announces crackdown on drug crime — LONDON — The speaker of Britain's House of Commons says he is calling in police to investigate reports that drug use is “rife” in Parliament — as Prime Minister Boris Johnson dressed …

Discussion: Sky News, Insider, Conquest of the Useless and Breitbart

Associated Press:

Trump-tied group pushing for voting changes in Wisconsin — MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — A group formed to support former President Donald Trump's agenda is working with Wisconsin Republicans on a ballot measure that would bypass the state's Democratic governor to change how elections are run in the battleground state.

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

Brian Kemp moves swiftly to neuter David Perdue in primary poised to bloody Georgia GOP — Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday struck former Sen. David Perdue fast and hard, foreshadowing a bloody, months-long primary poised to tear the Georgia Republican Party asunder and elevate Democrats to power in a key battleground state.

Lenny Bernstein / Washington Post:

As covid persists, nurses are leaving staff jobs — and tripling their salaries as travelers — Wanderlust, and the money to fund it, made Alex Stow's decision easy. After working a couple of years in an intensive care unit, he signed up to be a travel nurse, tripling his pay to about $95 …

Bryan Schott / Salt Lake Tribune:

A Utah group is going door to door looking for election fraud. But they don't want you to know about it — Who is behind the Utah Voter Verification Project? A Tribune investigation uncovers some troubling tactics and connections. — (Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) …