memeorandum: Jeff Bezos Says He Is “Proud” of Decision to End Endorsements at Washington Post, “Very Optimistic” About Second Trump Term (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)

9:45 PM ET, December 4, 2024

Top Items:

Trump Considers DeSantis for Defense Secretary as His Support for Hegseth Falters — President-elect Donald J. Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start.

The Hill:

Hegseth nomination sinking fast in the Senate — Senate Republicans say Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's choice to head the Defense Department, faces a very tough path to confirmation in the Senate and his bleak prospects have been communicated directly to the Trump transition team, which is now mulling other options.

Discussion: CBS News, Breitbart, Power Line, Politico, Washington Post, Mediaite, Raw Story, New Republic and CNN

Pete Hegseth / Wall Street Journal:

I've Faced Fire Before. I Won't Back Down — I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing, not a press show trial based on anonymous accusations. — On these pages 18 years ago I penned an article titled “More Troops, Please.” I was a young U.S. Army lieutenant who had just completed …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, NBC News, Washington Post, New York Post, Axios, RedState, The Hill, CBS News, Daily Mail and The Independent

CBS News:
Hegseth signed NDA, received six-figure severance payment after leaving veterans' group, sources say

Discussion: Washington Examiner, New York Post, Vanity Fair and Twitchy

Ryan Bort / Rolling Stone:
Hegseth Is Reportedly Vowing to Stop Drinking, Having His Mom Call Senators

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, NPR, The Nation, RedState, Megyn Kelly and Washington Times

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons for Those in Trump's Crosshairs — The nomination of Kash Patel, who has vowed to pursue Trump's critics, as FBI director has heightened concerns within the president's inner circle. — President Joe Biden's senior aides are conducting …

Discussion: HotAir, RedState, Breitbart, Alternet.org, The Gateway Pundit, acecomments.mu.nu, Daily Mail, Raw Story, Twitchy, The Post Millennial, BizPac Review, Washington Examiner and Fox News

Politico:

Jeffries stays out of the way as Dems mutiny against senior panel leaders — Democrats are increasingly anxious about the incoming Trump administration and are no longer bowing to seniority rules to pick their committee leaders. — House Democrats are poised to unseat several senior committee leaders …

Discussion: The Hill

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Nadler to Relinquish Democrats' Top Judiciary Post, Bowing to Calls for Change — Democrats' longtime leader on the panel faced a challenge from Representative Jamie Raskin, and pressure from colleagues who wanted a younger, more strategic figure at the helm.

Discussion: ABC News, Axios, Salon, The Hill, Associated Press, Townhall, NBC News, Politico, Washington Times, Roll Call, UPI, IJR, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, PoliticusUSA and Fox News

Heather Digby Parton / Salon:

Donald Trump is ready to make Republicans touch the third rail — Without a voting public to face again, Trump is gearing up to cut Social Security and Medicare — There are a thousand election hot takes and post-mortems floating around these days and I'm sure we'll soon come to some consensus …

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, The Mahablog, Democrats, New Republic and Talking Points Memo

Erin Doherty / Axios:
Vivek Ramaswamy to Axios: DOGE not planning cuts to Social Security, Medicare

Discussion: Raw Story and Washington Times

Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:
Before DOGE, Ramaswamy spent years attacking Musk for ties to China

Discussion: New Republic, Rolling Stone, Salon, Vanity Fair, New Jersey Online, Mediaite, Raw Story, New York Daily News and Daily Kos

David Frum / The Atlantic:

The Sound of Fear on Air — This morning, I had an unsettling experience. — I was invited onto MSNBC's Morning Joe to talk from a studio in Washington, D.C., about an article I'd written on Trump's approach to foreign policy. Before getting to the article, I was asked about the nomination …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, Alternet.org, Raw Story and Mediaite

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Jeff Bezos Says He Is “Proud” of Decision to End Endorsements at Washington Post, “Very Optimistic” About Second Trump Term — The Amazon founder said that he is working on a plan to turn around the Post: “We saved the Washington Post once, this will be the second time.”

Discussion: Business Insider, The Verge, Axios, TMZ.com, New York Times, Raw Story, Associated Press, Variety and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

New York Post:

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in possible targeted attack: sources — The CEO of UnitedHealth was fatally shot in the chest Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown in what police say was a targeted attack.

Chelsia Rose Marcius / New York Times:
C.E.O. of UnitedHealthcare Is Fatally Shot in Midtown Manhattan

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Trump Replaces His White House Counsel Before He Even Started the Job — The shake-up is a sign that the new administration may see the same chaos and infighting that so often plagued President-elect Donald J. Trump's first term in office. — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday replaced …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal, One America News Network, Washington Times, The Guardian, The Hill, Forbes, Bloomberg and Washington Examiner

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump changes gears at White House counsel

Discussion: New York Times and Washington Times

Steven Monacelli / The Texas Observer:

Revealed: the Operators Behind Four Major Neo-Nazi X Accounts — Under owner Elon Musk, the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, has become a hotbed of white supremacist and neo-Nazi content. A recent headline in the Atlantic doesn't mince words: “X is a white supremacist site.”

Michael R. Blood / Associated Press:

Democrat Adam Gray captures California's 13th US House District, ousting Republican Rep. John Duarte — Democrat Adam Gray captured California's 13th Congressional District on Tuesday, unseating Republican Rep. John Duarte in the final U.S. House contest to be decided this year.

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Trump and the GOP will have a historically tiny House majority. What that means.

Discussion: Washington Times, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Newsbusters, Raw Story, New York Daily News, Twitchy, CBS News and Politico

James Downie / MSNBC:

South Korea just gave Donald Trump a warning — if his opponents are listening — Swiftly and decisively rebutting would-be authoritarians works better than hoping it works out for the best. — Just before 11 p.m. local time Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in a televised address to the nation.

Discussion: Raw Story and New York Times

Timothy Snyder / Thinking about:
Dictators for a Day — South Korea and America — South Korea's president, Yoon Suk Yeol …

Discussion: Letters from an American and Bloomberg, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

No-confidence vote topples French government, plunges country into chaos — The support of Marine Le Pen's far-right lawmakers was key to the motion, which made this the shortest-serving administration in the modern French republic. — A no-confidence vote in the French parliament …

Discussion: Vox, Reuters, Associated Press, CNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera and Voice of America

Politico:
French government collapse turns the screws on Macron

Discussion: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, freebeacon.com, Agence France-Presse, USA Today, Fox News and Semafor

Associated Press:

Trump Picks Cryptocurrency Advocate Paul Atkins For SEC Chair — Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” — LOADING — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends …

Josh Fiallo / The Daily Beast:

Hegseth Vows to Get Sober if Confirmed — The embattled Fox News host-turned-secretary of defense nominee denied ever having a drinking problem. — Satanic Temple To Host Public Elementary School Program — SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE — A parent personally requested they offer …

Eboni Boykin-Patterson / The Daily Beast:

Bill Maher Threatens to ‘Quit’ His Show Over Trump Win — REALLY? — The host told Jane Fonda he's “bored” with talking about the president-elect, but would have no choice. — Bill Maher “may quit,” his HBO show Real Time, he told Jane Fonda on the latest episode of his Club Random podcast …

Discussion: RADAR, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, New York Post and Variety

Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:

Trump's Project 2025 May Not Be What It Seemed. It's Worse. — On Nov. 19, two weeks after Election Day, Elon Musk demonstrated perhaps the most brutal, if not sadistic, technique for making life in the federal civil service intolerable. — A Wall Street Journal headline from Nov. 22 captures …

David Sirota / The Lever:

Trump Nominee Pressured IRS To Crush The Humane Society — Donald Trump's pick to head the Internal Revenue Service pressed the agency to investigate and consider stripping the country's leading animal welfare group of its tax status after it supported an initiative to protect dogs, according to documents reviewed by The Lever.

Discussion: Fox News, Axios, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Hill, Bloomberg, Roll Call, djt.nucleusemail.com and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Trump energy nominee misinterprets studies to support claims, scientists say — Chris Wright cites data to back his claim there is no climate crisis. Authors of the papers he cites say he is misinterpreting their work. — Oil executive Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump's pick …

Discussion: Raw Story

Nate Raymond / Reuters:

Texas judge blocks anti-money laundering law's enforcement nationwide — A federal judge in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction blocking the enforcement of an anti-money laundering law that requires corporate entities to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department the identities of their real beneficial owners.

Helen Santoro / The Lever:

Big Insurer Sets Time Limits On Anesthesia Coverage During Surgeries — One of the country's largest health insurance companies says it will no longer automatically pay for patients' anesthesia if a medical procedure takes longer than a predetermined time limit, regardless of complications or other factors that impact operation time.

Discussion: Progress Pond

New York Times:

Russian General Calls U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs — In a highly unusual call, the two men “discussed a number of global and regional security issues, to include the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” a spokesman said. — Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the architect of President Vladimir V. Putin's invasion …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Bloomberg and Compact

Associated Press:

Memphis says it won't agree to federal oversight of police department ahead of investigation report — The Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people, according to the findings of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation launched after the beating death …

Discussion: Axios, New York Times and Associated Press

CBS News:

Hawley says Hegseth cancelled meeting as DeSantis name gets floated — Sen. Joshua Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, says Pete Hegseth's team canceled a meeting before the Senate confirmation process begins. Axios' Juliegrace Brufke joins CBS News with more on President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense.

Discussion: Alternet.org

Financial Times:

UK uncovers vast crypto laundering scheme for gangsters and Russian spies — Multibillion-dollar ring across London, Moscow and Dubai connected cash-rich criminals with sanctions evaders — A UK-led operation has uncovered a multibillion-dollar money laundering scheme run out of London …

Discussion: The Kyiv Independent, Metro.co.uk, UPI, Wired and The US Sun, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Wired for the GOP — This column, by Alexander Burns, the head of news at Politico, is a rich example of the DC logic that only Democrats have agency and it's only to Democrats that standards, norms, rules or whatever else apply. “Joe Biden's Parting Insult: The president delivered a vote …

Sarah Kliff / New York Times:

Most Rural Hospitals Have Closed Their Maternity Wards, Study Finds — Labor and delivery units are losing money and struggling to find staff, in rural areas and large cities alike. — Over 500 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments since 2010, according to a large new study …

Discussion: Bloomberg