The Commentariat -- January 6, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
See January 7 Commentariat for links to stories about the extraordinary mob violence instigated by Donald Trump & perpetratrated by his supporters against the U.S. Congress.
Marie: While Trump was standing before his crowd of rabble-rousers urging mike pence to undo the results of the election, pence put out a statement saying he would not do so. Update: See WashPo item in the paper's liveblog, linked below. The Post's blog remains interesting. The protesters are up to no good.
Tyler Pager, et al., of Politico: "Joe Biden has selected Judge Merrick Garland to serve as his attorney general, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. Biden selected Garland over former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) and former deputy attorney general Sally Yates, choosing to elevate the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals in D.C. to run the Justice Department." MB: If Garland intends to prosecute Trump for one or more of his many crimes, this is a great pick. If he doesn't, there are many other better choices. Update: The Washington Post's story is here.
The New York Times is liveblogging events around what is supposed to be a ceremonial Electoral College vote count before a joint session of Congress. The Times apparently intends to include what happens in the great outdoors, including Trump's planned address to the unruly gathered to protest the inevitable. MB: Call me the Oracle of Delphi, if you will, but I foresee Trump telling the rubes a lot of lies. And maybe worse.
The Washington Post's live update of today's hoo-hah is here: Vice President “Pence, in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday, rejected Trump’s view that he could unilaterally reject electoral college votes from states won by Biden when he presides over a joint session of Congress. 'My oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,' Pence said in the letter. 'My role as presiding officer is largely ceremonial.' His letter circulated as Trump repeatedly implored him to intervene in Congress’s counting of the results during a rally at the White House Ellipse. ~~~
~~~ “Rudolph W. Giuliani ... deployed violent imagery Wednesday in describing the president’s efforts to overturn Biden’s win, calling for the White House race to be settled by 'trial by combat.' As he addressed a crowd gathered outside the White House awaiting Trump’s remarks, Giuliani asserted that Pence has the power to unilaterally reject the electoral vote tally, even though the vice president has no such authority.”
Yes, Trump Is Claiming He Won in a "Landslide Election Victory."* Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: “... before the Wednesday joint session of Congress even begins, Trump’s effort will have fractured the GOP, activated thousands of MAGA marchers to descend on D.C. — drawing acute security concerns in the capital — and even pressured the vice president to exercise powers he doesn’t have to stop Joe Biden. 'I hope the Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people pouring into D.C,' Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon. 'They won’t stand for a landslide election victory to be stolen.' And overnight, as the results of two Senate runoffs in Georgia rolled in, it became clear that the effort by Trump loyalists to challenge the election would take place against the backdrop of a Washington about to land under full Democratic control. That reality underscored the extent to which Trump and his allies are powerless to affect the outcome, and in fact may have damaged their electoral prospects in the process.” *Wherein Minus 7 Million Votes is a landslide.
The European Union’s executive commission gave the green light Wednesday to Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, providing the 27-nation bloc with a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the virus rampaging across the continent. The European Commission granted conditional marketing authorization for the vaccine. The decision came against a backdrop of high infection rates in many EU countries and strong criticism of the slow pace of vaccinations across the region of some 450 million people."
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Marie: Two weeks to go. Today is, among other things, Christians' Day of the Epiphany, which this year also is the day Congressional Republicans, and perhaps the sitting VPOTUS*, will compete to establish which of them is the most immoral & least faithful to his oath of office.
Georgia Senate Race Results
Timothy Bella & Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: “When he declared victory early Wednesday morning as Georgia’s first Black senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock reflected on his mother’s hands. Before she was a mother of 12 and a Pentecostal pastor, Verlene Warnock spent her summers in Waycross, Ga., picking cotton and tobacco in the 1950s. 'The 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,' Warnock said in a live-streamed address. 'The improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in America could only happen here.' Warnock’s speech highlighted how his family’s story played a key role in his rise to becoming the first Black Democrat to win a Senate seat in the South since Reconstruction. It came as fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff leads in his runoff and could likewise break new ground as Georgia’s first Jewish senator and the youngest Democratic senator elected since Joe Biden in 1973.”
** The New York Times' live Georgia run-off election blog is here: “Democrats inched closer to taking control of the Senate on Wednesday, winning one of the two Georgia seats up for grabs in a pair of runoff elections while the second contest remained too close to call. The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat and the pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, defeated Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican, to become the first Black senator in Georgia history and the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate in the South. In the other contest, David Perdue, the Republican whose Senate term ended on Sunday, and his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, were neck-and-neck, with thousands of votes still to be counted, many of them from Democratic-leaning areas.... If Democrats win both races, the party would hold 50 seats in the Senate and de facto control of the chamber, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaking vote and Senator Mitch McConnell relegated to becoming minority leader.... The remaining uncounted vote in Georgia appeared largely to be in Democratic-leaning counties in the Atlanta area.... ~~~
~~~ “'Spitballing here,' wrote Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s incoming chief of staff, on Twitter, 'but it may be that telling voters that you intend to ignore their verdict and overturn their votes from the November election was NOT a great closing argument for @KLoeffler.' He tagged Ms. Loeffler, who on the eve of the election had said she would side with Mr. Trump and his baseless claims of voter fraud in objecting to the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory. ~~~
~~~ ”The Perdue campaign issued a statement after 2 a.m. also predicting victory.... The statement ... promised to 'mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted.'... Ms. Loeffler spoke to supporters around midnight, before The Associated Press and other media outlets called the contest, and declined to concede.” ~~~
~~~ Politico's story is here. The AP's story is here.: Ossoff & Perdue "were locked in a tight race and it was too early to call a winner. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.... Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory."
Marie: At 6 am ET, Ossoff is leading Perdue by more than 16,000 votes. This is a close to a miracle, & Stacey Abrams is the angel who was central to making it happen. If she or any Democratic Georgia voter walked up to my door, I would summon her in out of the cold & kiss her feet. (Might ask for a Covid-free certificate first.) Update: As of 10 am ET, Ossoff is leading Perdue by about 17,000 votes; that's still within the 0.5 percent which will allow Perdue to request a recount.
Reid Epstein & Astead Herndon of the New York Times: “As the Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock inched closer to flipping Georgia’s two Senate seats from the incumbent Republicans, credit began to flow to one person broadly acknowledged as being most responsible for Georgia’s new status as a Democratic state: Stacey Abrams. Ms. Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia state House, has spent a decade building a Democratic political infrastructure in the state, first with her New Georgia Project and now with Fair Fight, the voting rights organization she founded in the wake of her losing campaign for governor in 2018. Late Tuesday night, Ms. Abrams came close to declaring victory in a tweet that praised the thousands of 'organizers, volunteers, canvassers & tireless groups' who helped rebuild the state’s Democratic Party from the rump it was when she became the state House minority leader in 2011.... Ms. Abrams was not alone in Georgia, of course: Numerous other Black women have led a decades-long organizing effort to transform the state’s electorate.”
Meredith McGraw, et al., of Politico: Some (anonymous) Republicans are blaming Donald Trump for the Georgia loss(es). Others are blaming Mitch McConnell & RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel. MB: So unfair.
The New York Times has the Georgia Senate vote tallies, plus related news, here. Currently (@7:25 pm ET Tuesday), the latest vote totals also are on the Times front page.
The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: “During four years in office, President Trump has trampled political norms, attacked democratic institutions, sought to discredit government agencies, peddled baseless conspiracy theories and been impeached by the House. Since his defeat in the November election, Trump’s critics have warned that his scorched-earth effort to invalidate the outcome amounts to a new level of danger: The first attempted coup d’état in U.S. history to illegally maintain power. The chorus of alarm grew this week after the disclosure that Trump bullied and threatened Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in an hour-long private phone call Saturday, during which the president demanded that Raffensperger find thousands of votes for Trump that do not exist.... Trump’s strategy represents a brazen attempt to overturn or 'steal' the election, historians and political scientists agreed. Some said he is tiptoeing toward an 'autogolpe,' a Spanish term popularized in Latin America to describe a 'self-coup' attempted by leaders who came to power legally and acted outside the law to try to maintain it. 'In technical terms, it’s probably not a coup. But it is an illegal and authoritarian attempt to stay in power,' said political scientist Steven Levitsky....”
New York Times Editors: "... a republic works only when the losers accept the results, and the legitimacy of their opponents. All the more reason to commend Republican officials like [Brad] Raffensperger and [Gabriel] Sterling [of Georgia] — and the handful of Republican Congress members who have spoken out, however wanly, about Mr. Trump’s scheme — for resisting the immense corruption and pressure from their leaders. If only that weren’t extraordinary in the Republican Party today."
States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning that Twitter has disputed ~~~
Trump is on a Twitter rampage this morning. In another disputed tweet, he claims, "They just happened to find 50,000 ballots late last night. The USA is embarrassed by fools. Our Election Process is worse than that of third world countries!" I don't know who "they" are, where these ballots were supposedly found, & who they were for -- Trump? Perdue? Maybe we'll find out. -- Marie
~~~ Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “President Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, falsely asserting that Mr. Pence had the power to unilaterally throw out electoral votes on Wednesday when Congress meets to certify the election results.... 'The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,' the president tweeted on Tuesday. That’s not how it works.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ ** Update. Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Vice President Mike Pence told President Trump on Tuesday that he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the presidential election despite Mr. Trump’s baseless insistence that he did, people briefed on the conversation said. Mr. Pence’s message, delivered during his weekly lunch with the president, came hours after Mr. Trump further turned up the public pressure on the vice president to do his bidding when Congress convenes Wednesday in a joint session to ratify Mr. Biden’s Electoral College win.... The president has told several people privately that he would rather lose with people thinking it was stolen from him than that he simply lost, according to people familiar with his remarks.... More Republican senators came out on Tuesday against attempts to undermine the results, including Tim Scott of South Carolina and James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, who said he viewed challenging any state’s certification as 'a violation of my oath of office.'” CNN's story is here. ~~~
~~~ "A Presider, Not a Decider." Jane Timm of NBC News: "Pence ... can't intervene in the process. The law governing the certification process, the Electoral Count Act of 1887, specifically limits the power of the president of the Senate precisely because a president of the Senate had intervened in the count previously. In 1857, after James Buchanan's win, the Senate president overruled an objection against Wisconsin electors who had been delayed in their certification process by a snowstorm in 1856. 'One of the points of the Electoral Count Act is to constrain the vice president given this earlier episode and make it clear that he's a presider, not a decider,' said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Trevor Potter.... A federal district court in Washington recently ruled against a last-ditch effort suit by Trump supporters against Pence, Congress and the Electoral College that sought to stop the certification of Biden's win. The plaintiffs' theory 'lies somewhere between a willful misreading of the Constitution and fantasy,' a judge ruled Monday, denying the motion."
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Congress anxiously prepared on Tuesday for a marathon session to formalize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral College victory, after Republican loyalists to President Trump confirmed they would object to the results of at least three battleground states the Democrat won. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama planned to object on Wednesday to the certification of Arizona’s electors; Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia intended to object to those from her state; and Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri planned to object to Pennsylvania’s slate, according to people familiar with their plans. Their challenges were all but certain to fail amid bipartisan opposition. But their decision to join House Republicans in seeking to overturn the election ensured that Congress would be thrust into a caustic debate over the results and Mr. Trump’s repeatedly debunked claims of widespread fraud and irregularities that could last nine hours or more." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, at Josh's House.... Teo Armus of the Washington Post: “The activists said they had staged a peaceful vigil on Monday night to protest a GOP plan to object to Congress’s certification of the presidential electoral vote this week. On the sidewalk in a Northern Virginia suburb, a group of 15 people chanted while holding candles and signs saying, 'Protect democracy.' But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) had a different description for the scene outside his family’s home in Fairfax County: 'leftwing violence.' 'Tonight while I was in Missouri, Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter,' he wrote on Twitter late Monday. 'They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door.' Demonstrators with ShutDownDC, which organized the protest, told The Washington Post that they did not engage in vandalism or even knock on Hawley’s door.” The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Brian Flood of Fox "News": "Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., blasted the Washington Post on Tuesday, accusing the newspaper of 'printing outright lies' and falsely painting Antifa violence outside his home as a peaceful vigil." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Video of the protest, along with the fact that police on the scene made no arrests, strongly suggests that Josh just made up stuff, and no one threatened his family. Sadly, for many on the radical right -- especially those who enjoy victimizing the poor & helpless -- whining that they are the "real victims" of leftist thugs is a hallmark character flaw. For more evidence of this phenomenon, see Michael Kranish's WashPo story on confederate attorney Cleta Mitchell, linked below. ~~~
~~~ Update. Michael Balsamo of the AP: “Protesters who gathered outside the Virginia home of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley Monday evening were peaceful and they left when police explained they were violating local picketing laws, police said Tuesday. The Missouri senator on Twitter accused the protesters of vandalism and threatening his family.... A spokesman for the Town of Vienna Police Department ... said the protesters had been violating several laws, including a Virginia code about picketing in front of a house, a town ordinance about making noise in front of a home and a littering code. But he said the officers explained the violations and 'everyone just left.... There were no issues, no arrests,' he said. 'We didn’t think it was that big of a deal.'”
Eli Yokley of the Morning Consult: "According to a new Morning Consult survey, 62 percent of voters say Congress should accept Biden’s Electoral College victory over Trump, while 24 percent of voters align with the roughly two-thirds of House Republicans and a quarter of GOP senators who are planning to object to the certification of some states’ vote tallies. Most independents and nearly all Democrats agree that Congress should accept the states’ tallies. But Republican lawmakers taking the fruitless path to try and overturn the will of the electorate will do so backed by 53 percent of their party’s voters nationwide, compared to less than a third who oppose the attempt."
Allan Smith of NBC News: "Tuesday's rallies in support of ... Donald Trump ... featured an array of conservative speakers and drew in throngs of Trump supporters who traveled to the nation's capital ahead of Wednesday's proceedings. Though the formal events ended earlier Tuesday, protesters remained out in the street well into the night, with videos on social media showing some clashing with police. The main draw will take place Wednesday morning ahead of the congressional gathering, where the president himself will address a protest outside the White House dubbed the 'March for Trump/Save America' rally." ~~~
~~~ Craig Timberg & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Far-right online forums are seething with references to potential violence and urging supporters of President Trump to bring guns to Wednesday’s protests in Washington — in violation of local laws — as Congress meets to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Many of the posts appear to be direct responses to Trump’s demands that his supporters pack the nation’s capital in support of his bogus claims that November’s national vote for Biden resulted from election fraud.... Talk of guns and potential violence is rife on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, the conservative social media site Parler and on thedonald.win, an online forum that previously operated on Reddit before the company banned it in June after years of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and calls for violence." An NBC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Paul Sonne & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Pentagon leaders are bracing for any renewed presidential attempts to employ the military for political ends, as President Trump takes increasingly aggressive steps to overturn his electoral defeat, and unarmed National Guardsmen prepare for pro-Trump protests in Washington on the day Congress is set to certify the election results. Top Pentagon officials, in answering a request by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to deploy National Guardsmen in the nation’s capital in advance of Wednesday’s protests, emphasized that the Guard wouldn’t carry firearms, use armored vehicles or helicopters, or receive backup from units in other states — a far more muted presence than in June after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. The careful posture reflects the Pentagon’s wariness in the final days of a presidency during which Trump has tested the norms of a politically impartial military. It also comes after all 10 living former U.S. defense secretaries published a joint open letter warning that the military shouldn’t play a role in determining the election outcome or interrupt a peaceful transition." ~~~
~~~ Get Out! Jack Moore of WTOP (Radio) News (Washington, D.C.): "The leader of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, who was arrested Monday ahead of protests planned by supporters of ... Donald Trump, has been released from jail but has been ordered to leave D.C. and stay away until his next court appearance. Henry Tarrio, who goes by Enrique, was arrested shortly after arriving in D.C. on Monday afternoon. Tarrio is accused of being involved in the tearing down and burning of a Black Lives Matter banner from a historically Black church in downtown D.C. during a pro-Trump rally last month."
William Booth & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: “... on Tuesday, the leader of Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was asked if Trump was headed her way and what might be her message to him?... Sturgeon warned Trump he might be breaking the law if he came: 'We are not allowing people to come into Scotland now without an essential purpose, which would apply to him, just as it applies to everybody else. Coming to play golf is not what I would consider an essential purpose.' Scotland, alongside Northern Ireland, Wales and England are in lockdown, with stay-at-home orders....” See Patrick's comment in yesterday's thread. Patrick suspects it is not Trump who will be traveling to Scotland on January 19th, but some of his secret, incriminating presidential* papers White House staff have refused to shred. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Anita Kumar of Politico: “Donald Trump has privately acknowledged he lost the presidency. He knows Joe Biden will replace him. He recognizes Congress will formally certify the results on Wednesday. To one person, Trump even confided he was 'just disappointed we lost.'... Trump admits his defeat, but still maintains he would have won a fair election, they said, despite no concrete evidence emerging of widespread voter fraud. He has even discussed his exit plans from Washington with staff, debating when to move to his South Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, according to one of the people.... But mostly, he is continuing his fight to subvert the election ... to keep the attention on himself and give his supporters what they want, according to the people who have spoken with him.... At 10 p.m. on Tuesday [after Pence told him at lunch that he doesn't believe he has the power to block the certification of Biden's victory], Trump issued a statement denying that Pence had made those comments, calling it 'fake news' and saying he and the vice president were 'in total agreement' that Pence has the power to act.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Joe Biden will not "replace" Donald Trump. Joe Biden will be a real president, following the real presidency of Barack Obama.
Trump Relies on QAnon for Election Fraud “Research.” Ben Collins, et al., of NBC News: “... Donald Trump cataloged a series of false conspiracy theories during an hourlong call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday in which he sought to overturn the state's election results, and they were familiar to anyone following the far fringes of the internet. Trump floated fragments of several baseless conspiracy theories that were primarily pushed by QAnon followers over the last two months, including a widely debunked theory about voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems. The wide-ranging slew of theories, spawned on extremist forums like 4chan, were repeatedly referred to by Trump as 'rumors' that are 'trending on the internet.' He claimed they were reasons Raffensperger should 're-examine it [the election] with people that want to find answers.' Saturday's call offered a look at just how much he is now relying on some of the most outlandish theories from obscure corners of the internet to make his case for election fraud.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times: “What got me [about Trump's phone call to Brad Raffensperger] was how thoroughly Trump’s arguments involved conspiracy theories hatched or spread by QAnon, the online cultlike thing that seems to be gaining a death grip on the American right.... In the Church of Q, Donald Trump is the one and only messiah. But the Georgia call shows how fully he participates in it, too.... Travis View, a co-host of the excellent Q-tracking podcast 'QAnon Anonymous,...,' described a symbiotic relationship between Trump, QAnon message boards and pro-Trump news outlets like One America News and Newsmax.... QAnon originated in 2017 as an exceptionally bizarre conspiracy theory, centered around the premise that the country is run by a cabal of pedophiles whom Trump is bringing down. It has since morphed into something even stranger. More than a single conspiracy theory, QAnon is best regarded as a general-purpose conspiracy infrastructure, spreading lies across a range of subjects, from coronavirus denial to mask and vaccine skepticism and, now, to a grab bag of theories about election fraud.”
Everyone Trump Touches Turns to Dust. Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: “Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who advised President Trump during his Saturday phone call with Georgia’s secretary of state in an effort to overturn the election, resigned on Tuesday as a partner in the Washington office of the law firm Foley & Lardner. Mitchell’s resignation came after the law firm on Monday issued a statement saying it was 'concerned by' her role in the call. The firm noted that as a matter of policy, its attorneys do not represent 'any parties seeking to contest the results of the election.'... [Mitchell] blamed what she called 'a massive pressure campaign in the last several days mounted by leftist groups . . . because of my personal involvement with President Trump' and the Georgia election.”
Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “Attorneys for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday lit into a 'thirteenth hour' effort by ... Donald Trump to decertify the results of the state’s Nov. 3 election, calling it a belated bid to nullify the ballots of millions of voters.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Tierney Sneed of TPM: “Following the abrupt Monday resignation of Byung Jin 'BJay' Pak, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, President Trump is bypassing his first assistant, a career prosecutor, to name a new acting leader from outside the office. The announcement came early Tuesday morning in an internal email obtained by TPM. The new acting U.S. attorney in Atlanta will be Bobby Christine, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, according to the email. Christine will continue simultaneously in both roles, according to the email.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Katie Benner & Erica Green of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has embarked on an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people, according to a draft document, in a change that would mark one of the most significant shifts in civil rights enforcement in generations.... The Justice Department quietly submitted the change to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Dec. 21, making it one of former Attorney General William P. Barr’s final acts. It did not make the language available for public review or comment, as is typically required in the federal rule-making process, citing an exception for matters related to agency loans, grants and contracts.... The incoming Biden administration could not immediately reverse the move, but a new attorney general could delay its enactment.... Should the revised language be put in place, as the White House is expected to do, progressive legal groups are likely to challenge it, setting up a potential review by a Supreme Court with a conservative majority seen as hostile to civil rights protections."
David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “American intelligence agencies formally named Russia as the 'likely' source of the broad hacking of the United States government and private companies, and declared that the operation was 'ongoing' nearly a month after it was discovered. The statement jointly issued Tuesday by four government agencies was a clear rebuke of President Trump’s efforts, in posts on Twitter, to suggest that China was behind the hacking. But inside the intelligence agencies, there are few doubts that Russia is responsible. There has been no information gathered pointing to China, according to people briefed on the material. The statement also underscored the degree to which American intelligence agencies are still playing catch-up, after being alerted in mid-December by private security firms to the broadest and deepest penetration of American computer networks in modern times. The intelligence agencies have concluded with a high degree of confidence that Russia was responsible for the hacking, according to people briefed on the analysis.”
Ben Quinn of the Guardian: “Julian Assange has been refused bail by a judge who this week rejected a US request to have him extradited to face espionage and hacking charges. The co-founder of WikiLeaks has been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London for the past 18 months after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years. Two days after her ruling against the US extradition request, which is being challenged, district judge Vanessa Baraitser said the 49-year-old 'still has an incentive to abscond from these, as yet unresolved, proceedings.... As a matter of fairness the US must be allowed to challenge my decision,' said the judge.... Assange 'had already demonstrated a willingness to flout' the orders of the court, she said, and people who had previously put their trust in him and given sureties had been let down and saw their money forfeited. She was also satisfied that his mental health was being managed at Belmarsh.”
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
CNN's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The US reported its highest daily Covid-19 death count ever Tuesday -- a grim milestone that comes as state leaders work urgently to combat a slow pace of vaccinations. More than 3,770 American deaths were reported in one day -- more than two dozen above the country's previous record, set less than a week ago. The country also topped 21 million infections Tuesday and set a hospitalization record, with more than 131,100 Covid-19 hospitalized patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project."
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "Wealthy donors to one Florida nursing home received coronavirus vaccines that were supposed to be reserved for staff members and residents — prompting frustration and outrage as less-affluent senior citizens camp out in long lines to be immunized."
Beyond the Beltway
Pennsylvania. Trump Effect. Mark Scolforo & Marc Levy of the AP: “A bitter dispute erupted on the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday when majority Republicans blocked a Democratic incumbent from being sworn in because his GOP challenger has disputed the razor-thin election results. Lawmakers were back in the Capitol for swearing-in day when the Senate quickly dissolved into chaos over the Republican challenge that Democrats called a reflection of ... Donald Trump’s unprecedented efforts to undo his loss in the Nov. 3 election.... Democrats in the Senate began protesting — in some cases, shouting — when GOP senators signaled they would not seat Democratic state Sen. Jim Brewster of Allegheny County. His election has been certified by the state but is being contested by his Republican challenger, Nicole Ziccarelli.... Republicans muscled through a motion to remove Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, as the presiding officer for the day, after Fetterman insisted that Brewster be sworn in with the other senators. Republicans then voted through another motion to recognize the election in every Senate contest, except for Brewster’s.... Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, said Brewster is the rightful winner and called the Senate Republicans’ move 'a shameful power grab that disgraces the institution.'”
Wisconsin. Robert Chiarito, et al., of the New York Times: "The top prosecutor in Kenosha, Wis., declined to bring charges against the police officer who shot and gravely wounded Jacob Blake outside an apartment building in August, an episode that sparked protests and rioting and made the city an instant flash point in a summer of unrest that began with the killing of George Floyd. The decision not to file charges against the officer, Rusten Sheskey, was announced on Tuesday afternoon by Michael Graveley, the Kenosha County district attorney. He said that investigators had reviewed 40 hours of video and hundreds of pages of police reports before making the decision. The prosecutor said a case against the officer would have been very hard to prove, in part because it would be difficult to overcome an argument that the officer was protecting himself.... The case ... drew the attention of President Trump, who voiced support for a white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three protesters on the streets of Kenosha, two of them fatally, as part of an armed group that sought to confront protesters." An AP story is here.
Way Beyond
Vivian Wang & Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "The Hong Kong police arrested dozens of elected pro-democracy officials and activists early Wednesday on suspicion of undermining a new national security law after they tried to organize an informal primary election last year for the city’s legislature. The mass arrests marked the largest roundup yet under the security law, which the central Chinese government imposed on Hong Kong in June to quash dissent after months of fierce anti-Beijing protests. The move on Wednesday suggested that the authorities were casting a wide net for anyone who had played a prominent role in opposing the government." An AP story is here.
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