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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

After threats and waffling, Donald Trump signed the compromise-laden relief bill, meaning suffering Americans will get at least some federal aid in the coming days.

Meanwhile, authorities identified the 63-year-old man who detonated a car bomb in an RV camper in Nashville on Friday, in a bizarre attack that killed only the bomber.

And lastly, to catch everyone up -- Trump dropped some of his most outrageous pardons yet right before Christmas, wiping the sentences of four Blackwater mercenaries convicted of killing children in Iraq, as well as a laundry list of his political allies.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Here’s the good news: after an absurd period of whining and complaining, Donald Trump signed Congress’s lackluster relief bill into law on Sunday night, meaning that we’re all going to get another measly $600 from the government and state and local agencies will get some of the aid they need. We also avoided a government shutdown. Hooray.

But here’s the bad news. Once again, the bill is wildly insufficient for what Americans actually need. And to make matters worse, Trump’s delay let the expanded unemployment benefits millions of Americans are relying on expire. While those benefits have been restored for the future, it’s unclear what that will mean for the immediate week after the lapse.

Of course, while all this was going on the Trump White House was on vacation. Mike Pence is currently in Vail, Colorado, Trump himself is down in Florida as always, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin flew his private jet down to his resort in Mexico for the holidays. They’re not even pretending to care at this point.

Strangely, Trump’s initial resistance to the relief bill came because he actually wanted bigger checks to go out to everyone. Trump was pushing for $2,000, a number that sounds a lot better than $600. No one would have complained, except the Republican party of course, so Trump threw a tantrum and picked a fight with his own party and threatened to call the whole thing off.

Fortunately, he had an abrupt change of heart on Sunday night, and now the American people will get at least something to keep them going.

Authorities ID Nashville Bomber

A bizarre bombing in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday night has worried and perplexed pretty much all of us for several days. If you’re not caught up, on Friday night an RV drove through downtown Nashville, playing music and a pre-recorded message for people to evacuate because it had a bomb inside. It parked outside an AT&T transmission building, and then exploded around 6:30 a.m. Fortunately, police officers responding to reports of gunfire found the van and managed to evacuate most of the surrounding buildings.

On Sunday, authorities identified the perpetrator as 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner. Warner’s remains were found at the site of the blast. No one else was killed, and only three people were injured.

The blast knocked out cell service in some areas and briefly shut down flights at Nashville’s airport. Warner’s motive is still unclear, as is whether or not he was deliberately targeting the AT&T building.

Also on Sunday, police discovered a large box truck parked outside of a convenience store near Nashville playing the same music. That could be a coincidence, however, as no explosive device was found. We’ll hopefully know a little bit more about the motivations of the bomber in the coming days.

Trump Pardons Child Killers

Trump gave out one last round of perverse Christmas gifts last week as well. In an unexpected but somehow unsurprising move, Trump pardoned a list of corporate crooks, corrupt politicians, and outright killers.

In one day, Trump pardoned Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Jared Kushners crook of a father Charles Kushner. He also wiped the convictions of George Pappadopolous and Alex van der Zwaan, who both caught charges as a result of the Mueller investigation. Oh, corrupt former Congressmen Duncan Hunter, Steve Stockman, and Chris Collins also got a pass.

It’s pretty clear that Trump knows he’s on the way out at this point, and is using his final days to clear the records of all his buddies and bank some favors for his return to a world where he’s not President. But what’s telling is who he’s willing to let out at the same time.

See, Trump also pardoned some of the only people held accountable for atrocities during the Iraq war, a group of four former soldiers who participated in a massacre while working as contactors for the notorious mercenary company Blackwater. Blackwater, if you’ll remember, was at the time owned by a man named Erik Prince, whose sister is Trump’s secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

The Blackwater guards were convicted for their role in a massacre at a checkpoint outside of Iraq’s Green Zone in 2007, which left 17 civilians dead including two children. These are the type of people Trump wants to go to bat for, just in case that wasn’t clear.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The new strain of coronavirus that originated in the UK has jumped its borders, as several European nations as well as Japan, Lebanon, Canada and others reported cases. Once again, this is cause for concern, not panic, but it certainly means full vaccination can’t come soon enough.

A new report by Huffington Post found that Donald Trump’s donors funneled some $10.5 million into his businesses during his presidency, largely through costs charged by Trump’s golf courses and hotels. That’s shocking by normal standards of course, but in the grand scheme of things you’d expect a smarter crook to pocket more than 10 million while literally running the country.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who’s spent the last four years letting Trump officials come on his air and lie to him about whatever they want, tried to do a little bit of hand waving about it by bragging to Brian Stelter about how he’d never booked Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany or advisor Jason Miller because they quote “tell lies the way that most people breathe.” endquote. Then again, Tapper does regularly interview CNN contributor Rick Santorum, so win some, lose some, Jake.

And finally, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned once again of a surge in COVID cases after the holidays. We saw exactly this effect after Thanksgiving, and Christmas is unlikely to be any different. With the vaccine on the way, it’s crazy to start throwing caution to the winds now. Take care of yourselves out there.

DEC 28, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn