memeorandum: Trump International Hotel in Washington report exposes gaping corruption loopholes (NBC News)

4:10 PM ET, December 18, 2021

Top Items:

Highly vaccinated countries thought they were over the worst. Denmark says the pandemic's toughest month is just beginning. — COPENHAGEN — In a country that tracks the spread of coronavirus variants as closely as any in the world, the signals have never been more concerning.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and New York Times

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

‘Stop the Steal’ founder told Jan. 6 committee about contacts with GOP lawmakers — Ali Alexander, who founded the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement and attended the rally that preceded the Capitol attack, told congressional investigators that he recalls “a few phone conversations” …

Discussion: KDFX-TV, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Raw Story and Rolling Stone

Brie Stimson / New York Post:

Kamala Harris interview with Charlamagne Tha God gets heated after he asks who is ‘real’ president — Vice President Kamala Harris bristled Friday after TV host Charlamagne Tha God asked her who the nation's “real” president is. — “I want to know who the real president of this country is — is it Joe Biden, or Joe Manchin?”

Discussion: HotAir, Slate, The Liberty Loft, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, Townhall, BizPac Review, TMZ.com, National Review, The Daily Caller, Conservative Brief, TheBlaze, Insider and Washington Times

Jasmine Wright / CNN:
Harris says Biden administration 'didn't see' Delta or Omicron coming

Discussion: Fox News, HotAir and The Daily Wire

Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times:
Kamala Harris, in interview, says administration did not anticipate Omicron variant

Discussion: The Guardian, Conservative Brief, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Wire, Instapundit, BizPac Review, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Twitchy and Insider

Juana Summers / NPR:

After years at the center of political power, Mark Meadows now faces legal jeopardy — Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has offered the most stunning revelations yet in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Discussion: Mother Jones and Raw Story

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

Congress Ends ‘Horrible Year’ With Divisions as Bitter as Ever — Democrats' achievements were overshadowed by legislative setbacks, fallout from the Jan. 6 attack and a sense that Congress was not rising to meet a perilous moment in history. — WASHINGTON — A congressional year that began …

Discussion: Washington Post, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Associated Press:

OSHA vaccine mandate penalties to start Jan. 10 — The Occupational Health and Safety Administration said Saturday that it would not issue citations tied to its coronavirus vaccination mandate before Jan. 10, so that companies have time to adjust to and implement the requirements.

Discussion: FreightWaves and POLITICUSUSA

Andrea Hsu / NPR:
Biden's vaccine-or-test rule for 84 million workers is back after court lifts stay

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Keith Koffler / Fox Business:
Federal appeals court allows Biden vaccine mandate for large companies to resume

Discussion: USA Today, Breitbart, Politico, Slate, Raw Story, Brownstone Institute, The Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and Washington Post

Spencer Kimball / CNBC:
Federal appeals court reinstates Biden administration's business vaccine and testing mandate

Discussion: New York Times, Zandar Versus The Stupid, CNN, One America News Network, Washington Examiner and We Love Trump

Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg:

Vaccine Data Gaps Point to Millions More in U.S. Who Lack Shots — The U.S. government has over-counted the number of Americans who are at least partly vaccinated against the coronavirus, state officials warn, meaning millions more people are unprotected as the pandemic's winter surge gathers steam.

Discussion: The Last Refuge and The Times of Israel

New York Times:
As Covid Surges, Experts Say U.S. Booster Effort Is Far Behind

Discussion: Politico

Azmat Khan / New York Times:

Hidden Pentagon Records Reveal Patterns of Failure in Deadly Airstrikes — The promise was a war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs. The documents show flawed intelligence, faulty targeting, years of civilian deaths — and scant accountability.

Zach Dorfman / Yahoo News:

More than two years after Trump tweeted a classified image of Iran, former officials are divided on fallout — On the morning of Aug. 30, 2019, then-President Donald Trump was receiving his daily intelligence briefing with a a select group of senior national security officials …

Discussion: The National Interest

Mike Allen / Axios:

Team Biden is making a list: Favorite Year 1 numbers — White House communications director Kate Bedingfield sent Democratic lawmakers a memo outlining President Biden's Year 1 accomplishments, even with Build Back Better in limbo. — Driving the news: A copy came down the Axios AM chimney.

Discussion: Twitchy

Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:

When facts have a liberal bias, New York Times editors can get squirmy — Nina Bernstein was covering homelessness for the New York Times in 1999 when then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced his intention to lock homeless families out of the city's shelters for even minor rule violations.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Moderna backs down in its vaccine patent fight with the N.I.H. — Moderna has backed down in a bitter dispute with the government over who deserves credit for a crucial component of its coronavirus shot, in a case that has major implications for the vaccine's future distribution and Moderna's future profits.

Discussion: Washington Post

New York Times:

Map by Map, G.O.P. Chips Away at Black Democrats' Power — Black elected officials in several states, from Congress down to the counties, have been drawn out of their districts this year or face headwinds to hold onto their seats. — More than 30 years ago, Robert Reives Sr. marched …

Discussion: Alternet.org

NBC News:

Biden to deliver Tuesday speech on omicron variant as Covid cases rise — President Joe Biden will deliver a speech Tuesday to address the omicron variant and unveil new steps the administration is taking to help communities in need of assistance, a White House official told NBC News on Saturday.

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Hill, CBS News, Fox 8 Cleveland WJW, KDFX-TV and Political Wire

David Siders / Politico:

'Let's get a drink': Dems confront prospect of a 2022 hurricane — CHARLESTON, S.C. — Democratic Party leaders moved quietly this week to lower expectations for the midterm elections as they met for year-end talks against the backdrop of an increasingly bleak electoral landscape. — The House?

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo, New York Times and Insider

NBC News:

Trump International Hotel in Washington report exposes gaping corruption loopholes — Why does the House report matter? The D.C. hotel was the epicenter of Trump's graft. — Donald Trump should never have been allowed to retain ownership of his Washington, D.C., hotel while president.

Camilla Turner / Telegraph:

Fury over Oxford University plan to hire academics based on how woke they are — Anger among lecturers who fear they may have to give researchers a score on their beliefs about diversity and equality — Oxford dons are furious that a candidate's “woke score” could be part of the criteria …

Discussion: Breitbart

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

‘We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,’ new study says — If you know people still in denial about the crisis of American democracy, kindly remove their heads from the sand long enough to receive this message: A startling new finding by one of the nation's top authorities …

Revolver:

Experience Revolver without ads … Support Revolver By Going AD-FREE—Donate HERE to fund investigative journalism — CHECK OUT THE NEWS FEED—FOLLOW US ON GAB—FOLLOW US ON GETTR — Six weeks ago, Revolver News published a blockbuster investigative report on Ray Epps — a man who …

Discussion: Steve Bannon's War Room

Chris Arnold / NPR:

How the government helps investors buy mobile home parks, raise rent and evict people — Money is tight for Mary Hunt. She often has to decide which bills to pay on time — heat, her car loan, the phone bill. But she's been able to scrape by for more than 30 years, living in a mobile home park in Swartz Creek, Mich.

Associated Press:

Biden marks anniversary of 1972 car crash that killed wife — GREENVILLE, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Saturday commemorated the 49th anniversary of the car crash that killed his first wife and infant daughter, visiting their graves at the Saint Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church.

Discussion: The Hill and New York Post