memeorandum: Biden backs Congress's last-second debt limit hike (Christian Datoc/Washington Examiner)

4:00 PM ET, December 14, 2021

Top Items:

Hunter Walker / Rolling Stone:

Two Jan. 6 Organizers Are Coming Forward and Naming Names: 'We're Turning It All Over' — After losing faith in Trump, the pair plan to hand over text messages, Instagram direct messages, and other documents related to the planning of the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse where Trump spoke

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, CNBC, The Hill, Digby's Hullabaloo, Insider, NBC News, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, National Review, New York Post, ABC News, abc7NY and CNN

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Byron York's Daily Memo: About those Jan. 6 texts — Welcome to Byron York's Daily Memo newsletter. — Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to receive the newsletter. — ABOUT THOSE JAN. 6 TEXTS. The House Jan. 6 committee has released a bunch of texts …

Discussion: ABC News, CNBC, RedState, Washington Post, CNN, One America News Network, NBC News, Raw Story and Patterico's Pontifications

The Daily Beast:

Mark Meadows' Personal Cell Is Becoming a Personal Hell — Meadows once chaired a panel with oversight of personal communications issues. Now he has an issue of his own—and the Jan. 6 committee and the National Archives have taken note. — It turns out Mark Meadows may have good reason …

Discussion: CNN, WGN-TV, DCReport.org, POLITICUSUSA, emptywheel, Raw Story and HuffPost

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

A federal court has ruled that obstructing the electoral vote count is illegal. Trump should panic. — U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruled last week that an effort to interrupt the counting of the electoral votes can be a crime — even if no violence was contemplated.

Discussion: Lawfare, Michigan Advance, Raw Story and New Republic

David Corn / Mother Jones:
I Compared the New January 6 Texts to Mark Meadows' Book. It's Damning.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, CNN, New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, CNBC, The Daily Wire, Daily News, New York Times, UPI and Raw Story

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Fox News hosts urged Meadows to have Trump stop Jan. 6 violence, texts show

John Stoehr / The Editorial Board:
Cheney hints at criminal charges for Trump in panel vote to hold Mark Meadows in contempt

Discussion: USA Today, CNN, Washington Post, The Status Kuo and CBS News

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Meadows: ‘Leaked’ text messages from Fox News hosts have been ‘weaponized’ by committee

Discussion: Washington Times, Houston Public Media, POLITICUSUSA and IJR

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: What the left doesn't get about the media

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, CNN, New York Times and Deadline

New York Times:
Fox News Hosts Sent Texts to Meadows Urging Trump to Act as Jan. 6 Attack Unfolded

Discussion: Washington Post, The American Independent, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Raw Story, Media Matters for America, Metro.co.uk, Twitchy, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, TVNewser, Boston.com, Un-Media, Mediaite, Insider, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Wire

New York Times:

Pfizer says its Covid pill will protect against severe disease, even from Omicron. — A highly anticipated study of Pfizer's Covid pill confirmed that it helps stave off severe disease, the company announced on Tuesday. — Pfizer also said its antiviral pill worked in laboratory studies …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, New York Post, The Guardian, 444 Blog, Raw Story, Politico, Twitchy and The Hill

Eric Topol / Ground Truths:

Omicron is getting more defined — In both good and bad ways — One week after my first Substack post on Omicron there's been a surge in new data. Here's a quick timeline of the progress for what has been reported in just over 2 weeks since this new variant surfaced.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Lesley Wroughton / Washington Post:
Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe covid, major South African study concludes

Discussion: USA Today, Reason, Reuters, Daily Mail, UPI, Politico, The Daily Beast, Wide World of News and New York Times

Washington Post:
Omicron spreading rapidly in U.S., could bring punishing wave of infections , CDC warns

Discussion: CBS News and STAT

Caitlin Owens / Axios:
Biden White House warns: COVID explosion imminent

Discussion: Insider, HotAir, Washington Examiner, Mynewsdesk, CBS News and Metro.co.uk

Matthew Herper / STAT: Pfizer's Covid pill remains 89% effective in final analysis, company says

Jamie Ross / The Daily Beast:

Three Republican Residents of The Villages Arrested for Casting Multiple 2020 Votes — CAUGHT OUT — Three Republican residents of the hedonistic Florida retirement haven The Villages have been charged with casting multiple votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to local reports.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Christina A. Cassidy / Associated Press:

Far too little vote fraud to tip election to Trump, AP finds — ATLANTA (AP) — An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump has found fewer than 475 — a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election.

Mike DeForest / WKMG:

3 residents of The Villages arrested for casting multiple votes in 2020 election — Few Central Floridians have faced similar charges over past two decades, records show — SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. - Three residents of The Villages have recently been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into voter fraud, court records show.

Discussion: Washington Post, Orlando Sentinel, Mediaite, Raw Story and Orlando Weekly

Grace Ashford / New York Times:

Cuomo Is Ordered to Forfeit Earnings From $5.1 Million Book Deal — The ex-governor ran afoul of ethics laws in writing a book focused on his leadership during the pandemic, a state panel had previously found. — ALBANY, N.Y. — Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was ordered to turn …

Discussion: Insider, Politico, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, National Review, Mediaite, The Wrap, City & State New York, abc7NY, Just The News and Political Wire

Carl Campanile / New York Post:

Andrew Cuomo ordered to return $5.1M pandemic book profits to state — New York's ethics watchdog panel ordered disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to return the $5.1 million in profits from his pandemic book deal to the state next month. — The extraordinary resolution was approved …

Discussion: CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire and Twitchy

Nick Reisman / Spectrum News 1 Central NY:
New York ethics commission orders Cuomo to return book money

Discussion: The Hill and Townhall

Washington Post:

D.C. attorney general sues Proud Boys, Oath Keepers over Jan. 6 attack — D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) on Tuesday sued the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, seeking to use a law written to cripple the Ku Klux Klan to exact stiff financial penalties …

Discussion: NBC News, Insider, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, CNN, The Daily Beast, BuzzFeed News, NPR, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Talking Points Memo, UPI, news.com.au, Rolling Stone, Raw Story, Metro.co.uk and Forbes

Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Proud Boys Regroup, Focusing on School Boards and Town Councils

Discussion: Raw Story

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Manchin seeks child tax credit “we can afford” — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is telling colleagues the expanded child tax credit is both the most underpriced item — and biggest inflation-driver — in President Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Discussion: Vox, RedState, USA Today, NPR, CNN, Washington Post and The Hill

Amber Phillips / Washington Post:
The filibuster debate is (maybe) coming to a head on voting rights. Here's what could happen.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Insider, NBC News, One America News Network, Wall Street Journal and CNN

Henry Olsen / Washington Post:
It's time to entertain the possibility that the Build Back Better bill won't pass

Discussion: Breitbart and Funding Democracy …

New York Times:

How Beijing Influences the Influencers — We are on the outskirts of Shanghai today at the most incredible hotel we've ever stayed at. — It's the first in the world built inside a quarry. — Stick around when we show you around. — Catch you later.

Discussion: HotAir

Politico:

How a 100-year-old newspaper became the go-to way to influence Biden — Interest groups trying to influence the president of the United States will often fork over millions of dollars in order to do so. During the Biden era, however, an old media-centric, less splashy technique has been deployed.

Nathan Baca / wusa9.com:

Zebras on the loose since August found in Prince George's County — We are not horsing around: The two missing zebras have been safely found and captured. A third was found dead in September. — PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Two zebras that have been on the loose since Aug. 22 from an Upper Marlboro farm have been caught.

Sarah Mimms / BuzzFeed News:

The Pro-Trump Conspiracy Internet Is Moving From Facebook To Your Doorstep — The man at the door said he was just there to verify some publicly available information. — In the home security video, he seems nervous and out of breath as he waits at the doorway, glancing frequently at his phone.

Discussion: Raw Story

Chuck Ross / Washington Free Beacon:

Blumenthal Speaks at Communist Party Awards Ceremony — Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) spoke at an awards ceremony over the weekend hosted by a Communist Party affiliate whose leaders used the event to recruit potential members to the organization. — Blumenthal, one of the wealthiest members …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Yankee Institute and American Greatness

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump Revealed Norman Podhoretz for What He Always Was … One of the most contentious questions in American political thought over the past half-dozen years has been whether Donald Trump represents a departure from the ideals of American conservatism or, alternatively, its apotheosis.

Discussion: Kevin Drum and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Daniel Snyder pledged support for the NFL's investigation. His actions tell a different story. … In July 2020, just a few days after prominent D.C. attorney Beth Wilkinson began investigating allegations of widespread sexual harassment in the Washington Football Team workplace …

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:

Senate Confirms First Korean American Woman As U.S. Appeals Court Judge — Lucy Koh, 53, now has a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. — The Senate voted Monday night to confirm Lucy Koh to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit …

Discussion: Reuters and The Hill

Equis Research:

2020 Post-Mortem (Part Two): The American Dream Voter — A collaboration of Equis Research and Equis Institute — Today Equis is releasing Part Two of a post-mortem on the Latino vote in the 2020 election. The REPORT IS HERE. — In Part One (available HERE), we attempted to document …

Discussion: Politico

Brad Polumbo / Foundation for Economic Education:

YouTube Star Dave Rubin Announces That He's Leaving California, Heading to This Free State Instead — Celebrities like Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Elon Musk have fled California for greener pastures in recent years, making headlines. But it's not just individuals: According to a Stanford study …

Discussion: The Daily Wire, YouTube and Florida Politics

Wall Street Journal:

United Arab Emirates Threatens to Pull Out of $23 Billion F-35, Drone Deal With U.S. — Gulf ally complained U.S. security requirements are too onerous, U.S. officials say — WASHINGTON—The United Arab Emirates is threatening to pull out of a multibillion-dollar deal to buy American-made F-35 aircraft …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, The Daily Caller and MyNorthwest.com