memeorandum: Omicron Threatens Red America (David Leonhardt/New York Times)

2:50 PM ET, December 17, 2021

Top Items:

GOP blows off Trump's bid to oust McConnell — Former President Donald Trump has hit a wall in his efforts to oust Mitch McConnell as GOP leader. — Despite months of attacks, the Trump-led campaign to depose the Senate minority leader has resulted in firm pledges from just two Republican candidates …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Reason, HotAir, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, The Guardian, NBC News, Alternet.org, The Hill, Political Wire, Washington Post and Talking Points Memo

Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post:

McConnell says what the Jan. 6 committee uncovers is ‘something the public needs to know’ — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled support for the bipartisan House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, saying what the panel …

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, Insider, Washington Examiner, Spectrum News Kentucky, Talking Points Memo and HuffPost

Jamie Ross / The Daily Beast:
Republican Party Hands Trump $1.6M to Fund Mounting Pile of Legal Fights, Says Report

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Rolling Stone and Insider

Jamie Ross / The Daily Beast:
McConnell Goads Trump: The Public ‘Needs to Know’ What Happened on Jan. 6

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story and Mediaite

Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg:

South Africa Hospitalization Rate Plunges in Omicron Wave — Cases remain high compared with previous Covid waves — Omicron infections may have peaked in epicenter Gauteng — South Africa delivered some positive news on the omicron coronavirus variant on Friday …

Discussion: HotAir, The Daily Wire, New York Post, TheBlaze, RedState, Townhall, Washington Post and New York Post

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

Omicron Threatens Red America — In many communities, most adults remain unvaccinated. — Tucker Carlson could do it. So could Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin or Donald Trump himself. — One of these conservative figures could go on the air and explain that the Omicron variant has placed much of their audience in grave danger.

Discussion: Make Orwell Fiction Again, ACA Signups, CNN, POLITICUSUSA, Instapundit and New York Post

Nick Niedzwiadek / Politico:

Trump invokes antisemitic tropes while discussing his support for Israel — Former President Donald Trump veered into several antisemitic tropes in a recent interview, claiming that Israel used to have “absolute power over Congress” and saying that American Jews — the majority of whom vote Democratic …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Forbes, The Daily Caller, Alternet.org, Rolling Stone and Raw Story

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Trump says American Jews 'either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel' in new interview — Former President Donald Trump in a newly aired interview told an Israeli journalist that “the Jewish people in the United States either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel.”

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Political Wire and Mediaite

Oma Seddiq / Insider: Trump says American Jews ‘no longer love Israel’ and Jewish people ‘run the New York Times’

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

A glimmer of hope on Joe Manchin and voting rights? — By now, you'd be forgiven for concluding the chances of Sen. Joe Manchin III supporting a filibuster carve-out to pass democracy protections are somewhere between nonexistent and extremely nonexistent. — The West Virginia Democrat …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Ashraf Khalil / Associated Press:

Manchin's child tax credit stance draws criticism back home — WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin's reluctance to endorse the Biden administration's expanded child tax credit program is rippling through his home state of West Virginia. — Manchin, a moderate Democrat …

Discussion: National Review, Associated Press, Mock Paper Scissors and The Smirking Chimp

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Schumer says Build Back Better will be delayed

Discussion: Grist, The Guardian, Breitbart, The White House, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Common Dreams and POLITICUSUSA

Anna North / Vox:

The world as we know it is ending. Why are we still at work? — From the pandemic to climate change, Americans are still expected to work no matter what happens. — For a moment in early 2020, it seemed like we might get a break from capitalism. — A novel coronavirus was sweeping the globe …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:

Trump Rioter Who Attacked Cops With Fire Extinguisher Gets Longest Jan. 6 Sentence Yet — Capitol rioter Robert Scott Palmer, known to online sleuths as #FloridaFlagJacket, was arrested by the FBI 12 days after he was named in a HuffPost story. — A Florida man who attacked law enforcement officers …

Discussion: Insider and Law & Crime

Mike D'Onofrio / Axios: Capitol rioter who threw fire extinguisher at police gets more than 5 years in prison

Laura Meckler / Washington Post:

Children exposed to covid can safely stay in class with in-school testing, CDC says … Students who have been exposed to the coronavirus can safely continue in-person learning if they are regularly tested for the virus at school, avoiding disruptive at-home quarantines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Associated Press, UPI, NPR, Bridge Michigan, National Review and NBC Boston

Sabrina Siddiqui / Wall Street Journal:
CDC Endorses Covid-19 Test-to-Stay Strategy for K-12 Schools

Discussion: Bloomberg, TheBlaze and Just The News

Ed Yong / The Atlantic:

I Canceled My Birthday Party Because of Omicron — I turn 40 today, and I was planning to have a party. The Delta surge made me nervous about it. The arrival of Omicron made me cancel it. — The plan was to have an extended house party, with a couple dozen people popping by over the weekend.

Discussion: National Review, Twitchy and The US Sun

Financial Times:

‘No evidence’ Omicron is less severe than Delta, say UK researchers — Imperial College study warns of elevated reinfection risk but notes ‘very limited’ data on hospitalisations — There is at present “no evidence” that the Omicron coronavirus variant is any less severe than the Delta strain …

Discussion: HotAir, Imperial News and The Atlantic

Jan Hoffman / New York Times:

Judge Overturns Purdue Pharma's Opioid Settlement — The ruling said the company's owners, members of the Sackler family, could not receive protection from civil lawsuits in return for a $4.5 billion contribution. — A federal judge on Thursday evening unraveled a painstakingly negotiated …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, Associated Press, Deseret News, The Times of Israel, The Full Belmonte, UPI, Al Jazeera, Boston.com, Forbes, One America News Network, Reuters, National Review, NBC New York, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Washington Examiner

The Daily Beast:

Kanye West's ‘Independent’ Campaign Was Secretly Run by GOP Elites — The campaign took steps, experts say, to mask its connections to GOP operatives. That could violate federal election laws. — New documents show Kanye West's doomed White House campaign—styled as an “independent” …

Discussion: Insider, Alternet.org, Joe.My.God. and Raw Story

CNN:

House oversight committee releases report detailing efforts of Trump administration officials to ‘undermine’ Covid-19 efforts in US — (CNN)Trump administration officials made “deliberate efforts to undermine the nation's coronavirus response for political purposes,” a House oversight committee led …

Discussion: USA Today, Washington Post, House Select Subcommittee …, Insider, Bipartisan Report, Raw Story and The Hill

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Herschel Walker's campaign falsely claimed he graduated from college — Republican Herschel Walker's campaign deleted a false claim that he graduated from the University of Georgia hours after it was posted on a website promoting his U.S. Senate bid. — The former football star's campaign removed …

Discussion: CNN, Joe.My.God., The Root and Political Wire

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

New York Times fires ‘Wirecutter’ editor accused of leaving profane voicemails for gun rights group — Erin Marquis, a staffer for the popular product-review site, had also lashed out at a gun-rights organization on Twitter. — The New York Times has fired an editor for Wirecutter …

Discussion: Mediaite and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

Dominion Defamation Suit Against Fox Can Move Forward — Fox had enough information to know claims false, judge says — Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson also targets of lawsuit — Fox News probably had enough information after the 2020 presidential election to know a conspiracy theory …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Raw Story, TVNewser, Associated Press, Deadline, Bipartisan Report, Insider, CNN and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

Reuters:
Fox News loses bid to dismiss Dominion defamation lawsuit over election coverage

Discussion: Washington Post, The American Independent and New York Times

Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed News:

“Corrosive Communities”: How A Facebook Fight Over Wind Power Predicts the Future of Local Politics in America — Bad vibrations abound. Many of them are obvious: We can sense them, measure the damage they do, try to counteract or avoid them. Others exist in a range outside the limit of normal human perception.

Discussion: Substack

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:

Russia Lays Out Demands for a Sweeping New Security Deal With NATO — The proposal, coming as Russia masses troops on the border with Ukraine, was directed at the United States and Ukraine's other Western allies. — KYIV, Ukraine — Russia outlined on Friday its demands for a sweeping …

Discussion: Bloomberg, CNN, Foreign Policy, The Cosmopolitan Globalist, Wall Street Journal, America Explained …, NATO, TASS, CBS News, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, news.com.au and Politico

Taylor Goldenstein / Houston Chronicle:

Texas AG Paxton's $2.2M voter fraud unit closed three cases in 2021. GOP lawmakers still boosted its budget. — Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has been one of former President Donald Trump's most reliable allies in spreading the myth of widespread voter fraud …

Discussion: Election Law Blog, Joe.My.God. and Raw Story

Reuters:

Special Report: Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm — Amazon.com Inc was marketing a collection of President Xi Jinping's speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago, when Beijing delivered an edict, according to two people familiar with the incident.

more at Techmeme »

Hugh Hewitt / The Hugh Hewitt Show:

Josh Mandel, Candidate for GOP Nomination for Senate, On The 2020 Election and President Biden's Legitimacy — Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel joined me this morning: — Audio: — 12-17hhs-mandel — Transcript: — HH: Josh Mandel, former state treasurer in Ohio, is running for Senate in Ohio.

Discussion: The Hill

Debra Soh / Washington Examiner:

J.K. Rowling is being erased for defending women — Those seeking to understand why the average person is too terrified to speak up against transgender activism need only to look to J.K. Rowling. In a promotional trailer for Rowling's forthcoming film, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore …

Kevin Daley / Washington Free Beacon:

Influential Judge Deals Blow to Biden's Employer Vaccine Mandate — The Biden administration's employer vaccine mandate took a beating this week from one of the nation's top judges, a major win for red states and conservative groups fighting it in court. — Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton …

Discussion: Townhall

Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:

REVIEW: What I Learned From Hillary Clinton's Master Class on ‘The Power of Resilience’ — You've probably heard the saying: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. In this day and age, those who really can't become Master Class instructors on how to fail.

Mary Jordan / Washington Post:

Melania Trump emerges to launch new NFT platform meant to ‘inspire’ — and earn cash — Former president Donald Trump once called bitcoin a scam that “competed against the dollar,” but on Thursday Melania Trump announced a new business venture embracing cryptocurrency and digital art.

Washington Post:

BBB negotiations stall in the Senate, could drag into next year — Good morning. It's Friday. President Biden is set to visit South Carolina today with Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.); Omicron is rapidly spreading in the U.S.; and Melania Trump wants you to gift her NFT for Christmas.

Discussion: Politico

Washington Post:

Biden decries ‘unrelenting assault’ on voting rights in S.C. graduation address at Clyburn alma mater — President Biden on Friday decried the “unrelenting assault on the right to vote” and called for Americans to challenge hate and racism, in remarks at historically Black university …

Discussion: ABC News, Fox News, NPR and Los Angeles Times