memeorandum: Trump White House made ‘deliberate efforts’ to undermine Covid response, report says (Rebecca Shabad/NBC News)

9:25 PM ET, December 17, 2021

Top Items:

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Trump ally Straka has provided potentially significant information — Brandon Straka, a Donald Trump ally who spoke at a Jan. 5 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington — and has since pleaded guilty for joining the mob that stormed onto the grounds of the U.S. Capitol the next day …

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Alternet.org

Mike D'Onofrio / Axios:

Capitol rioter who threw fire extinguisher at police gets more than 5 years in prison — A capitol rioter from Florida has been sentenced in federal court to more than five years in prison for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Pete Williams / NBC News:

Florida man gets 5 years for assault in Capitol riot, the longest sentence yet — WASHINGTON — A Florida man was sentenced Friday to just over five years in prison for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. — The sentence, of 63 months, was the longest …

Discussion: Raw Story, WHTM-TV, Joe.My.God. and Associated Press

New York Times:
Jan. 6 Committee May Add New Expertise for Investigation

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, Media Matters for America, CNN, UPI, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Washington Post and Washington Times

Politico:
Judge: Lack of charges for Trump over Jan. 6 is no basis for leniency for others

Discussion: Fox News and Rolling Stone

Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:
Trump Rioter Who Attacked Cops With Fire Extinguisher Gets Longest Jan. 6 Sentence Yet

Discussion: CNN, CBS News, Law & Crime and Alternet.org

Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post:
McConnell says what the Jan. 6 committee uncovers is ‘something the public needs to know’

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

Tom Jackman / Washington Post:
Fla. man sentenced to 5 years for attacking police, the longest Jan. 6 riot sentence yet

Discussion: BuzzFeed News and Insider

Alan Feuer / New York Times:
Man Gets 5 Years on Capitol Riot Charges, Longest Sentence So Far

Discussion: Mediaite, NPR and Associated Press

CNN:

CNN Exclusive: Jan 6 investigators believe Nov. 4 text pushing ‘strategy’ to undermine election came from Rick Perry — Washington (CNN)Members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol believe that former Texas Governor and Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Examiner, Forbes, No More Mister Nice Blog, POLITICUSUSA, ABC13, Raw Story, Joe.My.God., Mediaite, Alternet.org and Balloon Juice

Washington Post:

3 retired generals: The military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection — Paul D. Eaton is a retired U.S. Army major general and a senior adviser to VoteVets. Antonio M. Taguba is a retired Army major general, with 34 years of active duty service. Steven M. Anderson is a retired brigadier general …

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Raw Story

Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:

Trump White House made ‘deliberate efforts’ to undermine Covid response, report says — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration engaged in “deliberate efforts” to undermine the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes, a congressional report released Friday concludes.

Discussion: HuffPost and Metro.co.uk

Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
Trump Admin Sabotaged COVID Efforts to Score Political Points, House Probe Finds

Discussion: UPI

CNN:
House oversight committee releases report detailing efforts of Trump administration officials to ‘undermine’ Covid-19 efforts in US

Discussion: House Select Subcommittee …, Raw Story, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Digby's Hullabaloo, Bipartisan Report, The Hill, Insider, Washington Post and Compatible Creatures

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: HuffPost, Washington Post, Buttermilk Sky, Joe.My.God. and Talking Points Memo

Morgan Phillips / Daily Mail:
Trump accused of ‘vile anti-Semitism’ for saying American Jews ‘no longer love or care about Israel’ because of Biden, Obama and the ‘Jewish people’ who run the New York Times

Discussion: HotAir, The American Independent, The Hill, Digby's Hullabaloo, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, The Times of Israel, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Examiner, Rolling Stone, The Daily Caller and Alternet.org

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump says American Jews 'either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel' in new interview

Discussion: The Independent, Mediaite, Insider, KDFX-TV, Forbes, POLITICUSUSA, Slate, Raw Story, Washington Examiner and Political Wire

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Claims Israel Controlled Congress, Jews Run New York Times

Discussion: Breitbart, Twitchy and Mediaite

Randall Lane / Forbes:

Forbes Testified Before The Trump Grand Jury Yesterday - Here's Why We Fought Their Subpoena — Almost three months ago, I was subpoenaed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to appear before the grand jury investigating Donald Trump. I was asked to testify about the 2015 cover story …

Discussion: The Hill, CBS News, KDFX-TV, Alternet.org and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Randall Lane / Forbes:
Inside The Epic Fantasy That's Driven Donald Trump For 33 Years

Discussion: Raw Story

Ann E. Marimow / Washington Post:

Appeals court reinstates Biden's vaccine policy for businesses, setting up a likely showdown at Supreme Court — A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated the Biden administration's coronavirus vaccination policy for large private businesses, reversing an earlier court ruling that had halted …

Discussion: CNBC, CNN, Forbes, WHTM-TV, Townhall, The Daily Caller, One America News Network and Political Wire

Kevin Daley / Washington Free Beacon:
Influential Judge Deals Blow to Biden's Employer Vaccine Mandate

Discussion: Politico, RedState and Townhall

Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times:

Kamala Harris, in interview, says administration did not anticipate Omicron variant — Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that the administration failed to anticipate the variants that have prolonged and worsened the COVID-19 pandemic and that she underestimated the role misinformation …

Discussion: Twitchy

Wall Street Journal:

New York Hits Covid-19 Case Record as Omicron Looms — Hospitalizations, deaths are rising in the U.S. while variant presents new risks — Officials worked to shore up testing and healthcare capacity, as new Covid-19 infections hit a daily record in New York state and the Omicron variant added …

Discussion: Vox, Axios, Slate and Associated Press

Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg:
South Africa Hospitalization Rate Plunges in Omicron Wave

Discussion: New York Times, The Last Refuge, TheBlaze, The Guardian, The Daily Wire, HotAir, RedState, Townhall, New York Post and ACA Signups

USA Today:

Southwest CEO said masks don't do much on planes at maskless Senate hearing. He tested positive for COVID the next day. — Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly has tested positive for COVID-19 after a high-profile Senate commerce committee hearing in Washington, D.C.

Discussion: Forbes, New York Times, CNN, CBS News, RedState, Reuters and Joe.My.God.

David Shepardson / Reuters:
Southwest CEO tests positive for COVID-19 after Senate hearing - airline

Discussion: CNBC and CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Wall Street Journal:

‘The Corpse Bride Diet’: How TikTok Inundates Teens With Eating-Disorder Videos — The app's algorithm can send users down rabbit holes of narrow interest, resulting in potentially dangerous content such as emaciated images, purging techniques, hazardous diets and body shaming

Discussion: Protocol and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Gary Fineout / Politico:

DeSantis shares stage with activist who posted QAnon-related conspiracy theories on social media — TALLAHASSEE — A Miami activist Gov. Ron DeSantis' office handpicked to amplify his criticism of critical race theory has espoused views aligned with QAnon conspiracy theories and appears …

Robert Tracinski / Symposium:
If Everything Is “Woke,” Nothing Is

Discussion: Overtime

Pfizer:

PFIZER AND BIONTECH PROVIDE UPDATE ON ONGOING STUDIES OF COVID-19 VACCINE — NEW YORK and MAINZ, GERMANY, DECEMBER 17, 2021 — Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and — BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) today shared that following a routine review by the external independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, NPR, National Review, UPI, Washington Examiner and NBC New York

New York Times:
New York reports a record number of coronavirus cases for one day.

Discussion: COVID-19 Policy Update, New York Post, Human Events and Stereogum

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, The US Sun and Twitchy

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: Alternet.org, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Townhall, CNN and Mock Paper Scissors

Zoya Teirstein / Grist:
Build Back Better is stalled, and so are Biden's ambitious climate plans

Discussion: CIS.org, Wall Street Journal, RedState, Associated Press, Sacramento Bee, Washington Post, CNBC, TheBlaze, Florida Politics, Breitbart, Townhall, Common Dreams, CNN, FiveThirtyEight and National Review

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, The Hill, New York Post, HotAir, TheBlaze, Townhall and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

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.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, more at Techmeme »

TMZ.com:

NFL LEGEND LAWRENCE TAYLOR ARRESTED IN FLORIDA ... Mug Shot Released — EXCLUSIVE DETAILS — 3.2K … 4:21 PM PT — Taylor's attorney, Arthur Aidala, tells us ... “Lawrence Taylor has been compliant with all of the rules and regulations regarding his legal status for the past decade.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, ProFootballTalk, New York Post, The US Sun and Denver Post

Scott Alexander / Astral Codex Ten:

The Phrase “No Evidence” Is A Red Flag For Bad Science Communication — ... Related to: Doctor, There Are Two Types Of No Evidence; A Failure, But Not Of Prediction. — I. — Every single one of these statements that had “no evidence” is currently considered true or at least pretty plausible.