memeorandum: How to Socialize Safely in the Booster Era (Joe Pinsker/The Atlantic)

10:00 AM ET, December 7, 2021

Top Items:

Former WH chief of staff Mark Meadows will cease cooperation with Jan. 6 committee — The former Trump administration official had previously been working with the committee — Fox News Flash top headlines for December 7 — Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows will no longer …

Discussion: Axios, Washington Examiner and Raw Story

Amanda Carpenter / The Bulwark:

Who is Jeffrey Clark and Why Does He Matter? — Clark wanted to do all the election subversion Bill Barr wouldn't. — There's no good reason you should know Jeffrey Clark's name. — Before the 2020 election, he was just another run-of-the-mill Republican lawyer with a cushy appointment in the federal government.

Discussion: Raw Story and Washington Post

CNN:
CNN Exclusive: Top Pence aide cooperating with January 6 committee

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Letters from an American, HuffPost, Politico, Raw Story, NBC News, Bipartisan Report, Insider, The Hill, Raw Story, Task & Purpose, Breitbart, Politico and VICE

Daniel Chaitin / Washington Examiner:
Capitol riot panel finds White House metadata on letter pushing Georgia to overturn Trump election loss

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story and Mediaite

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
A GOP lawyer issues a frantic warning to his own party about Trump and 2024

Discussion: The Hill, Talking Points Memo and Bipartisan Report

Tal Axelrod / The Hill:
More voters would pick Trump over Biden if election were held today: poll

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, CNN, Breitbart and Washington Post

Los Angeles Times:

California Rep. Devin Nunes leaving Congress to head Trump social media group — Rep. Devin Nunes, a controversial San Joaquin Valley Republican, is leaving Congress to head a social media company created by former President Trump. — “I will deeply miss being your congressman,” Nunes said in a message to his constituents on Monday.

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

Trump's new media company is a $1.6 billion mirage — In October, former President Trump announced the creation of a new company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Its signature product is a new social media site, Truth Social. According to an investor presentation …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post

CNN:
Who has the power? — As the senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee …

Discussion: The Western Journal, Townhall, Washington Post, Raw Story, Morning Shots, Instapundit, Al Jazeera, BizPac Review and Todd Starnes, more at Mediagazer »

Financial Times:
US regulators probe Donald Trump's social media Spac deal

Discussion: SPAC Track

Connor O'Brien / Politico:

Lawmakers drop proposal to add women to the draft as defense bill headaches mount — Compromise defense policy legislation set to be filed Monday will not require women to register for a military draft, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations, a stunning turnaround …

Discussion: ABC News, The Daily Wire, Fox News, Roll Call, Breitbart and Althouse

Katherine Tully-McManus / Politico:
Legislative mix-and-match combo meal

Discussion: Political Wire

Siobhan Hughes / Wall Street Journal: McConnell Says Republican Party Needs to Move Forward

Manu Raju / CNN:
Mitch McConnell moves to cut deal on debt ceiling but faces GOP resistance

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and Bloomberg

CNN:

Biden administration considering options for possibly evacuating US citizens from Ukraine if Russia invades — (CNN)The Biden administration is exploring options for a potential evacuation of US citizens from Ukraine if Russia were to invade the country and create a dire security situation, half a dozen sources tell CNN.

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Washington Post:

Biden, Putin to discuss Ukraine in video call amid growing tensions — President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a video call Tuesday morning focused on growing tensions over Ukraine. — The secure call, which Biden will take from the Situation Room at the White House …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CBS News, Bloomberg, CNN, The Hill, ABC News, New York Times, New York Post, UPI, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Raw Story, Associated Press, Voice of America, USA Today and Insider

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Experts fear Putin ‘preparing citizens for war’ against Ukraine

Discussion: Fox News, Politico and The National Interest

Gordon Lubold / Wall Street Journal:

Saudi Arabia Pleads for Missile-Defense Resupply as Its Arsenal Runs Low — Conflict pits $1 million Patriot interceptors against Houthi rebels' $10,000 ‘flying lawn mowers’ — WASHINGTON—Saudi Arabia is running out of the ammunition it uses to defend against weekly drone and missile attacks …

Sarah Leah Whitson / Foreign Policy: Congress Must Halt Biden's Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

New York Times:

Trump's Blood Oxygen Level in Covid Bout Was Dangerously Low, Former Aide Says — Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump's former chief of staff, said in his new book that the weakened president's blood oxygen level reached 86 during a harrowing fight against the coronavirus.

Discussion: CNN, HuffPost, The Hill, Raw Story, Rolling Stone and Insider

Donald Graham / Washington Post:

I've never known a better editor than Fred Hiatt — or a better person — Donald Graham was publisher of The Post from 1979 to 2000 and served as chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Co. until 2013. — If you are reading this in the Opinion section of the online Washington Post or …

Washington Post: Fred Hiatt was an editor of surpassing integrity, intelligence and compassion

Matt Schudel / Washington Post:
Fred Hiatt, Washington Post editorial page editor, dies at 66

Discussion: New York Times, Poynter, Washingtonian, Associated Press, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Hill and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Omicron Is Fast Moving, but Perhaps Less Severe, Early Reports Suggest — Researchers in South Africa, where the variant is spreading quickly, say it may cause less serious Covid cases than other forms of the virus, but it is unclear whether that will hold true.

Discussion: HotAir, Twitchy and Political Wire

Tom Mashberg / New York Times:

Michael Steinhardt, Billionaire, Surrenders $70 Million in Stolen Relics — The hedge fund pioneer is barred for life from buying more antiquities. He turned over 180 stolen objects that had decorated his homes and office. — Michael H. Steinhardt, the billionaire hedge fund pioneer …

Discussion: CNBC

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Defendant in Case Brought by Durham Says New Evidence Undercuts Charge — Lawyers for Michael Sussmann, accused by the Trump-era special counsel of lying to the F.B.I., asked for a quick trial after receiving what they said was helpful material from prosecutors.

Katie Honan / THE CITY:

City Hall Withheld COVID Neighborhood Death Data During NYC's 2020 Pandemic Peak, Emails Show — The city Department of Health prepared a map breaking down COVID fatalities by ZIP code in early April 2020, just as New York was about to hit the height of deaths, THE CITY has learned.

Politico:

Kamala Harris is Bluetooth-phobic — Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. — KAMALA HARRIS is never missing her AirPods. That's because she's wary of them. — While a growing number …

Discussion: Mediaite and The Western Journal

ProPublica:

These Real Estate and Oil Tycoons Avoided Paying Taxes for Years — The Secret IRS Files … Here's a tale of two Stephen Rosses. — Real life Stephen Ross, who founded Related Companies, a global firm best known for developing the Time Warner Center and Hudson Yards in Manhattan, was a massive winner between 2008 and 2017.

Dean Obeidallah / MSNBC:

Media isn't partisan. Democrats need to stop claiming it is. — Too often, Democrats make the dangerous mistake of viewing the media as an ally. It's got to stop. — Donald Trump “may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS,” Les Moonves, CBS president at the time, declared during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Discussion: CNN

Janelle Bitker / San Francisco Chronicle:

S.F. made parklets permanent — but added so many rules that many restaurants plan to tear them down — “It's the most uncoordinated, messed up, insulting display of government incompetence,” one supervisor said — Chelsea Hung spent $5,000 on the parklet to help save her family's 25-year-old restaurant …

New York Times:

On the Banks of the Furious Congo River, a 5-Star Emporium of Ambition — As the clean energy revolution upends the centuries-long lock of fossil fuels on the global economy, dealmakers and hustlers converge on the Fleuve Congo Hotel. — KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo …

Daily Mail:

Fury as transgender UPenn swimmer who used to compete as a man smashes TWO US women's records and finishes one race 38 seconds ahead of her nearest rival — Lia Thomas, 22, smashed two U.S. swimming records at an Akron, Ohio contest — Thomas won the 1,650 freestyle in a record …

Robby Soave / Reason:

Jussie Smollett Tries To Convince the Court ‘There Was No Hoax’ — Taking a page out of the Kyle Rittenhouse playbook—though with a very different outcome likely in store—former Empire star Jussie Smollett testified at his own trial on Monday. Authorities have accused the actor of hiring …

Discussion: The Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and HotAir

Axios:

Letter comparing parent protests to domestic terrorism triggers funding fallout — The nation's leading school board advocacy group is facing a critical loss of funding and membership after sending a letter comparing parent protests and threats to domestic terrorism.

Discussion: HotAir and Twitchy

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:

You'd better believe there's a war on Christmas, says ... Pope Francis? — As my friend Francis X. Rocca quipped today, don't say “Happy Holidays” to Pope Francis. The oft-cited war on Christmas in the US often gets “debunked” by media focused on all of the secular celebrations of the holiday.

Discussion: Politico and Vatican News

Ed Shanahan / New York Times:

Man Charged With Sending Dozens of Violent Threats to L.G.B.T.Q. Groups — Robert Fehring warned that an attack on New York City's Pride March would make the Pulse nightclub shooting “look like a cakewalk,” the authorities said. — A Long Island man was charged on Monday with threatening violence …