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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Donald Trump made his most blatant attempt to prevent Joe Biden from taking office in the coming days, directly asking Georgia officials to find him over 11,000 votes to overturn the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, a new Congress takes over, and Nancy Pelosi is predictably re-elected Speaker of the House. Some things may never change!
And lastly, the U.S.’s rollout of the coronavirus vaccine is already devolving into a mess, as the predictable holiday surge of cases starts to mount.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
There are only 16 days left in Trump’s term as president, but the big guy won’t let that stop him, because we’ve got at least one more big scandal on his way out.
On Sunday, the Washington Post both reported on a taped call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the President demanded that Republican officials find him over 11,000 votes and overturn their decision that Joe Biden won the state. Here’s the quote:
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” ENDQUOTE
Trump went through every humiliating stage of grovelling and begging on the hour-long call. The Post released the full audio, if you really want to get into that, but the highlights are mostly Trump repeatedly insisting that there’s no way that he lost Georgia while Raffensperger repeatedly has to say things like this:
QUOTE
“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.” ENDQUOTE
Meanwhile, in Congress, an alarming number of GOP elected officials have signed on to the President’s conspiracy-laden attempt at preventing a peaceful transition of power.
In the Senate alone, 11 Republican Senators or Senators-elect have said they will vote against certifying the election. They obviously don’t have the numbers to actually prevent Biden from
becoming President, but what this all shows is that with a more capable president who has control of both houses of Congress and the executive branch, this kind of coup could be a lot more successful. This is the political reality that we face from here on out, unless we figure out a better system for transitioning between administrations.
New Congress on Capitol Hill
Speaking of Congress, let’s talk about the new one. The 117th Congress was sworn in on Sunday, putting all eyes on the razor-thin race for Speaker of the House.
Democrats still have a majority, of course, meaning that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was almost certain to keep her slot, but Pelosi’s deep unpopularity with various factions of the Party and the Democrats’s slim lead in the House overall meant that the final vote tally was far closer than last year.
Still, Pelosi carried the vote over Republican Kevin McCarthy 216-208, effectively ending the argument in recent weeks that progressives like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez should use the slim margin to hold the Speaker vote hostage in order to force progress on bills like Medicare for All. AOC, who eventually voted for Pelosi, has explained that she and her Squad of like-minded legislators have used that bargaining power to seek less-visible advances than a big showy floor vote for Medicare For All. With Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush adding two more votes to the AOC-led block in the House, we’ll see how much they can get done in what Pelosi says will be her last turn in the big chair.
Meanwhile, over in the Senate, the GOP is eating itself alive as the Mitch McConnell faction wars with the Trump die-hards. Mitch and most of the GOP have clearly decided to cut Trump loose, whereas the new Trump hardliners like openly corrupt Kelly Loeffler and Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville want to start their time on the hill by screaming about election conspiracies, as we mentioned in the last story block.
This strategy and infighting is going to get tested tomorrow, when the Georgia Runoff elections decide the final makeup of the Senate. If Ossoff and Warnock both win, they could hand the Democrats their first control of House, Senate and the Presidency since 2015.
COVID Vaccine Rollout Is a Mess
The U.S. is once again far behind Government targets in controlling the coronavirus, as vaccine distribution continues to lag behind across the country.
According to the CDC, more than 4.2 million people received the initial vaccination dose as of Saturday, but the government’s goal was 20 million by the end of December. That means we’re way, way behind.
Coupled with a new case surge brought on by holiday travel, that means we’re looking at some more dark months to come. According to a report by NPR, part of the breakdown is that the Federal government doesn’t have a comprehensive plan on how to allocate the vaccine, and has largely left it up to state and local governments to figure out who gets what and when.
All kinds of stuff is causing delays: shortages in virals, bureaucratic red tape, and long lines for the places actually administering the vaccine.
In New York, for instance, Governor Andrew Cuomo has placed a hefty $1 million penalty on any administrator who gives the vaccine to someone who’s not authorized to get it yet. While this is clearly intended to stop the rich and corrupt jumping the line, what it also does is adds a further layer of bureaucracy in between getting the most people the vaccine as fast as possible.
This kind of blunder is leaving millions of doses in freezers at hospitals where they could expire before they manage to actually get into peoples’ arms. NPR reports that local officials are blaming some of the holdups on the meager federal aid they’re receiving as well, which is unsurprising given how stingy the recent relief bill was.
There were almost 300,000 new cases of the disease nationwide on Saturday. We’ve got to figure this one out, quickly.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
In news that should surprise no one, Biden’s cabinet has a long track record of raking in cash for big corporate speaking appearances. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen has collected more than $7 million in the past few years, and prospective Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has also collected more than a million. So glad things are back to normal over there!
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Report, the world’s 500 richest people added a combined $1.8 Trillion to their collective worth in the past year, as the entire rest of the world struggled with a deadly pandemic and widespread economic collapse.
Israel is being touted by some as a success story in vaccine rollout, with one obvious caveat: Palestinians in the blockaded West Bank and Gaza Strip have little to no access to the treatment, while Israel’s government prioritizes illegal settlers instead.
The New Year gave us one last look at Trump’s court of fools, as the President’s Mar a Lago resort hosted its annual party complete with a performance from Vanilla Ice and hundreds of unmasked participants. With any luck, this is exactly the kind of supid, hedonistic future Trump himself will be relegated to in just over two weeks.
JAN 4, 2020 - AM QUICKIE
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn