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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Biden presents new defense chief as son Hunter reveals his taxes are being investigated – as it happened

Summary

From Joan E Greve and me:

  • Joe Biden formally introduced his nominee to lead the defense department, Lloyd Austin. As a recently retired general, Austin will need a waiver from Congress to be confirmed, and Biden implored lawmakers to support the waiver. “I would not be asking for this exception if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it. It does call for it,” Biden said.
  • Hunter Biden said the US attorney’s office in Delaware is investigating his “tax affairs”. Biden said in a statement released by his father’s transition team, “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
  • The House passed a spending bill to keep the government funded for another week. The bill, if it passes the Senate, will give lawmakers another week to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package and coronavirus relief.
  • The US government and a coalition of states filed parallel antirust lawsuits against Facebook. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who is leading the coalition of states bringing one of the lawsuits, said in a statement, “For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”
  • Canada approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The UK has already started distributing the vaccine to its citizens, and the FDA released an analysis of the treatment yesterday that raised no safety concerns, meaning an approval is likely imminent in the US.
  • The US is expecting to begin administering its first coronavirus vaccines this week. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first to get access.

Updated

Report: Biden expected to pick Katherine Tai to be US trade rep

The president-elect plans to nominate Katherine Tai as US trade representative, the Washington Post reports:

Tai, who has been the chief trade counsel on the House Ways and Means Committee since 2017, is the lead adviser to Democrats and the committee chairman on international trade issues.

Though she would be making an unusual jump to a Cabinet-level position, Tai is well regarded by both the moderate and liberal wings of the party and is backed by prominent lawmakers, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). A group of 10 female House Democrats led by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.) and Judy Chu (Calif.) wrote Biden last month backing Tai as “uniquely qualified” for the job.

Google will investigate what led to AI researcher's exit, CEO says

From Guardian staff and agencies:

The CEO of Google has apologized for how a prominent artificial intelligence researcher’s abrupt departure last week has “seeded doubts” in the company.

Sundar Pichai told Google employees in a Wednesday memo, obtained by Axios, that the tech company was beginning a review of the circumstances leading up to Timnit Gebru’s exit last week, and how Google could have “led a more respectful process”.

Gebru is a top scholar of AI ethics and one of the most prominent Black scientists in her field. She said she had been fired; Google has referred to it as a resignation.

The dispute leading up to her departure concerned Google’s efforts to disassociate itself from a research paper that Gebru had co-authored, which examined the societal dangers of an AI technology used by Google. The paper contended that technology companies could do more to ensure AI systems aimed at mimicking human writing and speech did not exacerbate historical gender biases and use of offensive language, according to a draft copy seen by Reuters.

Gebru tweeted last week that she had been fired after sending an email to an internal group for women and allies working in the company’s AI unit. Her email referenced the disputed research paper but more broadly expressed frustration at Google’s diversity programs. In it, Gebru argued that “there is zero accountability” or real incentive for Google leadership to change.

Her departure has prompted widespread anger within the company. More than 1,200 Google employees signed a letter of protest last Friday, accusing Google of “unprecedented research censorship”, racism and defensiveness.

Read more:

California, the US’s most populous state, expects to begin vaccinations starting this month, according to the governor’s office.

Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first to access the vaccines. Across the US, the first doses of the vaccine could be administered this week.

Updated

The Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden’s taxes involve his Chinese business dealings, the AP reports:

Hunter Biden has a history of international affairs and business dealings in a number of countries. The revelation puts a renewed spotlight on the questions about his financial dealings that dogged his father’s successful White House campaign.

Federal investigators served a round of subpoenas on Tuesday, including for Biden, according to another person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. The tax investigation centers on his business dealings, the person said.

Covid vaccines: US regulator sceptical over AstraZeneca model

For a man presenting landmark results from trials of a vaccine that it is hoped will save the world from a devastating pandemic, Sir Menelas Pangalos did not look cheerful on Wednesday.

Pangalos, executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, and his colleagues are undoubtedly exhausted, having been working round the clock on the coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University since April. But they are now dealing with a sizeable new headache – the doubts of the US regulator.

It is clear that in spite of the critical need for coronavirus vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration is not going to rush to approve the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, even though the US, through its “Operation Warp Speed”, has put in substantial funding and ordered 300m doses.

Unlike Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA products, the AstraZeneca vaccine is cheap, can be stored at ordinary fridge temperatures, is easy to manufacture and presents the best hope at the moment for a vaccine for the billions rather than the few.

But while the UK, the rest of Europe, and Canada and India could approve it in the coming weeks, the US, which currently has the world’s biggest epidemic, will have to wait.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been the subject of withering criticism in the US media. It has suffered by comparison with Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccines, manufactured with a different and novel technology, have effectively scored straight As. Their vaccines have shown 95% efficacy in very large and straightforward trials involving respectively more than 40,000 and 30,000 people.

Criticism of the AstraZeneca vaccine focuses on three main issues. AstraZeneca’s efficacy data relates to fewer people than the other vaccines; so far 11,636 in the UK and Brazil trials, although there are more to come, including a 30,000-strong trial in the US partly funded by Operation Warp Speed.

A woman in the UK given the AstraZeneca jab developed transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder causing inflammation of the spinal cord, leading to the trials being paused worldwide in September. And the efficacy results were 62% overall, but 90% covering a sub-group of fewer than 3,000 people who were inadvertently given a lower starting dose.

Researchers said that pooling the results, which they had agreed to do with regulators before they knew the outcome, gave them 70% efficacy overall.

But it looked messy. One investment analyst opined at that point: “We believe that this product will never be licensed in the US.”

Read more:

Donald Trump has reportedly asked Texas senator Ted Cruz to argue a case seeking to invalidate the election results if it reaches the Supreme Court.

Per the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman:

The long-shot suit from attorney general Ken Paxton of Texas is seeking to challenge the electoral college outcomes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, and describes the votes as “tainted.”

Mr Trump asked Mr Cruz, Republican of Texas, if he would be willing to make oral arguments in the case should it reach the supreme court. Mr Cruz agreed.

The call was the latest example of Mr Trump’s continuing efforts to try to upend the results of the election with claims of widespread fraud that his lawyers have yet to demonstrate in court. Dozens of legal challenges by the Trump campaign and Republican proxies related to the election have been tossed out by judges, including judges appointed by Mr Trump.

Before he joined the Senate in 2013, Mr Cruz argued before the supreme court nine times, representing Texas in most of those cases in his role as the state’s solicitor general.

Trump just tweeted, in a post flagged by Twitter:

But the suit makes entirely false, odd claims about absentee ballots, and claims it was illegal for Georgia to process ballots before election day, even though states that Trump won – where Trump isn’t disputing the results – also processed ballots before election day.

Updated

The federal investigation into Hunter Biden has nothing to do with a laptop that Trump supporters alleged belonged to the younger Biden, and held up as evidence of wrongdoing.

The AP reports:

In the weeks before the election, Trump supporters used the existence of a laptop they said was connected to Hunter Biden – and the emergence of someone who maintains he had business discussions with him – to raise questions about Joe Biden’s knowledge of his son’s activities in Ukraine and China. The president-elect has said he did not discuss his son’s international business dealings with him and has denied having ever taken money from a foreign country.

The laptop surfaced publicly in October when the New York Post reported on emails that it said had come from Hunter Biden’s laptop and that it said it received from Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.

Another person familiar with the matter told the AP that the tax investigation does not have anything to do with the laptop.

The people had knowledge of the investigation but were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Updated

'All my plans were ruined': Covid's economic toll on young Americans

Michael Sainato reports:

David Little of Tampa, Florida, obtained his master’s degree in architecture and was excitedly waiting for his girlfriend to finish her degree before the couple moved to Philadelphia. The coronavirus pandemic halted those plans as they both struggled to find work matching their education.

“I have no idea what I’m doing right now. My plans were completely ruined by all of this,” said Little, 26, who was working as a valet before he was laid off in April. “There are no jobs out there even nationwide for entry level architecture grads, there is no real end in sight, and with my girlfriend not having any income because she’s also in architecture, it’s causing tension that wouldn’t normally be there.”

Like many young people, Little has been hit hard by the economic collapse in the wake of Covid-19. He’s uncertain of what will happen when his unemployment benefits run out at the end of this year, no longer has health insurance after turning 26 this year, and has already racked up significant credit card debt to cover bills over the past few months.

Before the pandemic, younger people in America were already making substantially less money than older generations, even compared with when those older people were young. In 1989, baby boomers controlled 21% of the nation’s wealth; millennials controlled just 5% of the nation’s wealth in 2019.

And coronavirus has made life worse.

From spring 2019 to spring 2020, unemployment among adults ages 16 to 24 increased from 8.4% to 24.4%, compared with an increase of 2.8% to 11.3% for adults 25 and older. Young Black (29.6%), Hispanic (27.5%), and Asian American (29.7%) workers are experiencing even higher rates of unemployment. One-third of young Americans in the current labor market are classified as underemployed.

Biden pledges ‘100m shots in 100 days’ as he introduces health teamRead more

Lane Klumb, 24, of Winona, Minnesota, was furloughed from his job in retail in March 2020 and wasn’t recalled until October, for a seasonal position.

“Between all the bills I accumulated during my furlough, I am still currently paying off credit cards, as I needed to max all of my cards out just to pay my bills and have food,” he said.

Read more:

Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate, has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to run for a seat that would be vacated by representative Marcia Fudge if Fudge is confirmed to serve in Biden’s cabinet.

Biden is expected to name Fudge as his pick for Housing and Urban Development secretary, though he has yet to make an official announcement. Fudge would then have to be confirmed by the Senate in order to take the post.

Politico first reported that Turner was eyeing a congressional seat yesterday.

In Idaho, a virtual health board meeting on Tuesday night was cut short because protestors gathered at the homes of officials. The Idaho Statesman reports:

The Central District Health Board of Health meeting Tuesday night to discuss and vote on a public health order dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic was adjourned shortly after it started because of the danger posed by protesters at the CDH office and at some board members’ places of residence.

Moments after a tearful Commissioner Diana Lachiondo left the virtual meeting to head to her house — where her children were home alone, and where anti-mask, anti-health-order protesters had reportedly gathered — CDH Director Russ Duke interrupted a doctor’s statements on the toll of the coronavirus to tell the board and people watching that Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee had requested that the meeting be ended for safety reasons.

Dr. Ted Epperly, another board member, said protesters gathered at his house as well. He told the Statesman that about 15 people were outside his home, “beating garbage cans and flashing strobe lights through my windows. Two came up and knocked on my door during the meeting.”

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting to a later date and seconded, and board members voted to adjourn shortly after Duke’s statement.

“I am disappointed that we had to table the vote,” Epperly told the Statesman.

As the coronavirus pandemic in the US escalates, so have protests against health orders to rein in the pandemic. In Idaho, coronavirus deaths have increased by nearly 50% over the past fortnight.

Commissioner Lachinondo, teary, told her colleagues, “my 12-year-old son is home by himself right now, and there are protesters banging outside the door. I’m going to go home and make sure he’s okay.”

Read more here.

Updated

Per NBC’s Tom Winter, Hunter Biden and his former wife Kathleen Buhle also had an IRS lien against them for unpaid taxes. It remains unclear whether the lien is part of the investigation by the US attorney’s office in Delaware.

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden formally introduced his nominee to lead the defense department, Lloyd Austin. As a recently retired general, Austin will need a waiver from Congress to be confirmed, and Biden implored lawmakers to support the waiver. “I would not be asking for this exception if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it. It does call for it,” Biden said.
  • Hunter Biden said the US attorney’s office in Delaware is investigating his “tax affairs.” Biden said in a statement released by his father’s transition team, “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
  • The House passed a spending bill to keep the government funded for another week. The bill, if it passes the Senate, will give lawmakers another week to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package and coronavirus relief.
  • The US government and a coalition of states filed parallel antirust lawsuits against Facebook. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who is leading the coalition of states bringing one of the lawsuits, said in a statement, “For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”
  • Canada approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The UK has already started distributing the vaccine to its citizens, and the FDA released an analysis of the treatment yesterday that raised no safety concerns, meaning an approval is likely imminent in the US.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

House passes one-week spending bill

The House has passed a bill to fund the government for another week, through 18 December, by a vote of 343 to 67.

If the bill is also passed by the Senate, it will allow the government to avoid a shutdown on Friday night, when funding is currently set to run out.

The legislation would also give lawmakers additional time to reach an agreement on an omnibus spending bill and a coronavirus relief package.

It’s still unclear whether Congress will be able to strike a deal on coronavirus relief before lawmakers leave for the holidays. There are lingering disagreements over liability protections for employers and state and local funding.

Updated

CNN has more details on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes:

After pausing in the months before the election, federal authorities are now actively investigating the business dealings of Hunter Biden, a person with knowledge of the probe says. His father the President-elect is not implicated.

Now that the election is over, the investigation is entering a new phase. Federal prosecutors in Delaware, working with the IRS Criminal Investigation agency and the FBI, are taking overt steps such as issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews, the person with knowledge says.

Activity in the investigation had been largely dormant in recent months due to Justice Department guidelines prohibiting overt actions that could affect an election, the person said. ...

Investigators have been examining multiple financial issues, including whether Hunter Biden and associates violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, principally China, according to two people briefed on the probe.

Some of those transactions involved people who the FBI believe sparked counterintelligence concerns, a common issue when dealing with Chinese business, according to another source.

According to CNN, the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes started in 2018 and is focused on his business dealings in China.

The investigation was put on hold in the immediate run-up to the presidential election because of department policy about not affecting elections, but investigators took additional steps after the race concluded last month.

CNN reporter Evan Perez said he had been in contact with Hunter Biden’s legal team in the last few days to discuss investigative steps being taken in connection to the president-elect’s son.

Biden’s attorneys did not get back to CNN before the transition team released its own statement today announcing the investigation.

Hunter Biden was a frequent target of attack for Donald Trump and his allies in the months leading up to the presidential election.

During his final campaign rallies, the president repeatedly (and falsely) referred to the Biden family as “a criminal enterprise”.

Following news of the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes, one Republican congressman called on attorney general William Barr to appoint a special counsel to investigate the president-elect’s son.

Updated

According to NBC News, Hunter Biden and his ex-wife had an IRS lien against them for unpaid taxes of $112,805.09 up until March of this year, but it’s unclear whether the newly announced investigation is in connection to that.

Hunter Biden says his tax affairs are being investigated

Joe Biden’s transition team has just released a statement from the president-elect’s son, Hunter Biden, saying his tax affairs are being investigated by federal prosecutors.

“I learned yesterday for the first time that the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,” the younger Biden said.

“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”

The transition also issued its own statement noting that the president-elect “is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger”.

Updated

Some Republican senators have said they are open to supporting Doug Jones if Joe Biden nominates him to become attorney general.

When asked about Jones’ possible nomination, Ted Cruz replied, “I’ll assess every nominee on the merits.”

Richard Shelby of Alabama added, “He’d probably get a bigger vote than anybody nominated.”

Jones lost his bid to serve a full term in the Senate last month, but he is now the frontrunner to become attorney general, according to multiple reports.

Updated

Fresh efforts to break up Facebook

The US Federal Trade Commission and a big coalition of states sued Facebook this afternoon, saying that the huge social media company broke US antitrust law.

The FTC said in a statement that it would seek an injunction that “could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp.”

In its complaint, the coalition of 46 states, Washington DC and the territory of Guam also asked for Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to be judged to be illegal.

The antitrust lawsuits were announced by the FTC, the federal regulators, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“It’s really critically important that we block this predatory acquisition of companies and that we restore confidence to the market,” James said during a press conference announcing the lawsuit, Reuters and the Associated Press report.

In its lawsuit, the FTC is seeking the separation of the services from Facebook, saying Facebook has engaged in a “a systematic strategy” to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.

James echoed that in her press conference, saying Facebook “used its monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”

Facebook is the world’s biggest social network with 2.7 billion users and a company with a market value of nearly $800bn whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the world’s fifth-richest individual and the most public face of “Big Tech” swagger.

Facebook did not have immediate comment.

A demonstrator protests outside of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s home.
A demonstrator protests outside of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s home. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

Read more ...

Updated

John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, wished Tom Wolf a speedy recovery from coronavirus after the governor announced his positive test result.

Fetterman attracted national attention last month, as he pushed back against baseless claims from Donald Trump and his allies about widespread election fraud in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania governor tests positive for coronavirus

Tom Wolf, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, announced he has tested positive for coronavirus.

“During a routine test yesterday, I tested positive for COVID-19,” Wolf said. “I have no symptoms and am feeling well and I am in isolation at home.”

Wolf said he was following all the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and would work remotely as he quarantines.

The governor asked all Pennsylvanians to continue following public health guidance, specifically wearing masks and socially distancing as much as possible.

“As this virus rages, my positive test is a reminder that no one is immune from COVID,” Wolf said. “Following all precautions as I have done is not a guarantee, but it is what we know to be vital to stopping the spread of the disease.”

Leaving the Queen theater in Wilmington after formally introducing Lloyd Austin as his defense secretary nominee, Joe Biden did not respond to reporters’ shouted questions about his choice for attorney general and whether he will make a trip to Georgia to campaign for the Senate runoff races.

Biden said yesterday that he would announce his attorney general nominee later this week, and senator Doug Jones, who will leave office next month, is currently the frontrunner for the job, according to NBC News.

Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris echoed Joe Biden’s comments about Lloyd Austin, saying the retired general was the right nominee to steer the Pentagon.

“I am absolutely confident that General Lloyd Austin is the right person to lead the Department of Defense at this critical moment,” Harris said. “We need a proven leader to help address this pandemic.”

The event concluded after Harris wrapped up her remarks. Biden did not take any of the shouted questions from reporters as he departed.

Austin: 'I come to this new role as a civilian leader'

Taking the podium in Wilmington, Lloyd Austin reflected on the African American service members who came before him.

Austin, who would become the first African American to lead the Pentagon if confirmed, noted that he came from the same Georgia hometown as Henry Flipper, the first African American cadet to graduate from West Point.

Reflecting on the four years since he retired from the military, Austin emphasized the importance of civilian leadership at the Pentagon.

“I come to this new role as a civilian leader -- with military experience, to be sure -- but also with a deep appreciation and reverence for the prevailing wisdom of civilian control of our military,” Austin said.

Joe Biden urged members of Congress to support a waiver for Lloyd Austin to become defense secretary.

The president-elect said he fully understood and respected the principle of civilian control of the military, but he argued this moment called for an exception to the rule that former military officers must be out of the service for seven years before taking over the Pentagon. (Lloyd retired from the military four years ago.)

“I would not be asking for this exception if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it. It does call for it,” Biden said. “He is the person we need for this moment.”

Some Democrats have already said they will not support a waiver for Austin because of the need to have a civilian lead the military.

Joe Biden touted the many accomplishments of Lloyd Austin, who served as the first African American commander of United States Central Command.

The president-elect noted that, if confirmed as defense secretary, Austin would be the first African American to lead the Pentagon.

“This is not a post he sought, but I sought him,” Biden said. “He’s the definition of duty, honor, country.”

Biden formally introduces defense secretary nominee

Joe Biden has taken the podium for his event in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is formally introducing Lloyd Austin as his nominee to become defense secretary.

The president-elect described Austin, a retired four-star general, as “a man of great decency and a man of dignity.”

“There is no question that he is the right person for this job,” Biden said.

The event comes as some Democrats have voiced hesitation about granting Austin a waiver to run the Pentagon, which he will need because of his recent military service.

A new poll finds that only about half of Americans say they will get the coronavirus vaccine once it becomes available.

According to the AP/NORC survey, 47% of American adults say they will get a vaccine, while 26% say they will not. Another 27% say they are not sure whether they will.

Men, white Americans and senior citizens are more likely to say they will receive the vaccine.

While 55% of American men say they will get the vaccine, only 40% of American women say the same.

Only 36% of Americans under 45 say they will get the vaccine, compared to 51% for those between the ages of 45 and 59 and 62% for those 60 and older.

More than half of white Americans -- 53% -- say they will receive the vaccine, in comparison to 24% for African Americans and 34% for Hispanic Americans.

Health experts have said they expect coronavirus vaccines to be widely available to the American public in the second quarter of 2021.

Kamala Harris named third most powerful woman in the world

The vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, has become the third most powerful woman in the world by virtue of being elected as America’s next veep, according to the latest rankings of a popular annual power list.

Kamala Harris speaking in Delaware yesterday.
Kamala Harris speaking in Delaware yesterday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Democratic senator from California was catapulted right into the No 3 spot for her debut on Forbes magazine’s world’s 100 most powerful women list. She appears just below Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made the top spot for the 10th straight year, in the 2020 list published this week.

Christine Lagarde in Brussels in February.
Christine Lagarde in Brussels in February. Photograph: François Lenoir/Reuters

Forbes highlighted Harris’s victory as Joe Biden’s running mate in the Democratic win over Donald Trump and his vice-president, Mike Pence, in the November race for the White House, noting she will be America’s first female vice-president and the first person of color in that role.

Harris, who was the attorney general of California before being elected to the US Senate, will be the first Black American and first Asian American to be elected vice-president.

She made a speech after the election victory in which she noted that she may be the first but she will not be the last woman in that role, and Forbes pointed to the break-out moment in her debate against Pence before the election when she confidently and calmly blocked Pence’s repeated interruptions by declaring: “Mr Vice President, I’m speaking.”

That riposte “launched a thousand memes (and even a handful of T-shirts), but it also became a rallying cry for women across America”, Forbes noted.

Purse first. Mask second. Angela Merkel.
Purse first. Mask second. Angela Merkel. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Beyond the stand-out moment for Harris and US politics, the 2020 list prominently featured female leaders who have earned accolades on the world stage for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Women from prime ministers to corporate executives earned spots in the list for their achievements helping mitigate and control the deadly contagious virus, which has infected more than 67 million people and caused 1.54 million deaths, Forbes said.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, Lagarde, who was previously head of the International Monetary Fund, and the Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike were particularly effective, it said. We’ll have the full story live on Guardian US shortly.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, Taiwan, in October.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, Taiwan, in October. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden will formally introduce his defense secretary nominee, Lloyd Austin, at an event this afternoon. The Wilmington event comes as some Democrats have expressed hesitation about granting Austin, a recently retired four-star general, a waiver to run the Pentagon.
  • Donald Trump continued to peddle false claims about the presidential election, as his campaign’s legal efforts dwindle. Yesterday, the US supreme court rejected a Republican effort to overturn Biden’s win in Pennsylvania.
  • Canada approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The UK has already started distributing the vaccine to its citizens, and the FDA released an analysis of the treatment yesterday that raised no safety concerns, meaning an approval is likely imminent in the US.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Senator Tammy Duckworth said she would not support a waiver for Lloyd Austin’s nomination as defense secretary but would ultimately vote to confirm him.

“I will support General Austin, but I will not support the waiver,” Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, told MSNBC.

Anchor Andrea Mitchell responded by noting that Austin, a recently retired four-star general, could not be confirmed unless the waiver is approved.

“I suspect that the waiver will pass,” Duckwoth said.

The Democratic senator described Austin as “an excellent officer,” but she said she would not vote for the waiver because of the importance of civilian oversight of the military.

“On principle, I cannot vote for the waiver,” Duckworth said. She added, “I do think he will be confirmed.”

As Donald Trump continues his long-shot bid to overturn the results of the presidential election, Melania Trump is reportedly planning for her post-White House life.

CNN reports:

While the President is busy figuring out a way to stay in the White House, the first lady is determining what to put in storage, what goes to Trump’s New York City digs, and what should be tagged for shipment to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

‘She just wants to go home,’ said another source familiar with Melania Trump’s state of mind. Asked how the first lady feels about rumors her husband might announce a 2024 bid, the source added: ‘That might not go over well.’ ...

And the first lady is hyper-focused of late on her legacy. One thing Trump is considering is a book, though it will likely not be a memoir -- the post-White House writing of which is a tradition most first ladies have adhered to. Michelle Obama’s memoir, ‘Becoming,’ and Laura Bush’s memoir, ‘Spoken from the Heart,’ were massive bestsellers.

Instead, Trump is said to be toying with writing a photo-centric coffee table book about White House hospitality history, or one perhaps centered on the design projects she has completed while first lady, according to a source in the publishing industry familiar with preliminary discussions. Trump has also reportedly done one of the final things most first ladies do before leaving office: select the administration’s official china service.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he was still considering whether to support a waiver for Lloyd Austin to become defense secretary.

“I’m going to have to study that,” Schumer told Capitol Hill reporters. “Bottom line is that Austin’s a very good nominee, and we’ll figure out where to go from there.”

The former general will need to receive a waiver from Congress to run the Pentagon because of his recent military service, and some Democrats have already said they are hesitant to have another recently retired general running the department, after Jim Mattis was granted a waiver in 2017.

“I haven’t talked to my colleagues yet about that,” Schumer said. “I want to see what they have to say.”

Joe Biden will formally introduce Austin as his nominee for defense secretary at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, later today.

Canada approves Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

Here’s some international news: Canada’s health regulator has now approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

The AP reports:

Health Canada posted on it is website that the vaccine made by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech is authorized.

Canada is set to receive up to 249,000 doses this month and 4 million doses of the vaccine by March.

The Canadian government has purchased 20 million doses of that vaccine, which requires people to receive two doses each, and it has the option to buy 56 million more.

Health Canada is reviewing three other vaccine candidates, including one from Moderna.

The Pfizer vaccine has already been approved in the UK and was distributed to a few lucky Britons yesterday.

The FDA also released an analysis of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday, raising no safety concerns about the treatment, making it likely that the US will soon approve the vaccine.

Updated

Trump tweets 'OVERTURN' as legal challenges dwindle

Donald Trump just sent a one-word tweet that raises more concerns about his efforts to subvert American democracy.

“#OVERTURN,” the president wrote in the tweet.

Trump’s apparent call to overturn the results of the presidential election comes as his legal attempts to reverse Joe Biden’s victory continue to dwindle.

Yesterday, the US supreme court rejected a Republican bid to reverse Biden’s win in Pennsylvania, and dozens of the Trump campaign’s lawsuits in battleground states have been dismissed or withdrawn.

The electoral college is set to certify Biden’s victory in just five days.

Rudy Giuliani said he expected to be discharged from the hospital today, three days after being hospitalized with coronavirus.

“I feel just about 100% right now,” Giuliani said in a radio interview. “I’m going to be discharged this afternoon.”

The president’s personal lawyer noted he would still have to quarantine for a few more days once he returned home because he probably contracted it seven or eight days ago.

But Giuliani said he felt “functionally fine” and was now suffering minimal symptoms, including a “teeny cough.”

“I feel better than when I came in,” Giuliani said. “I took some of the same medicines [as the president], and I have to say, they are miracles. I mean, there’s one that I took, by the next morning, I felt like I was ten years younger.”

Most people do not have access to the medications that the president took after he contracted coronavirus, and Giuliani’s comments may spark anger among the millions of Americans who have lost loved ones to coronavirus.

According to Johns Hopkins University. the US reported 2,546 coronavirus deaths just yesterday.

Donald Trump has nothing on his public schedule today, and he has been using his morning to spread false claims about the election.

“No candidate has ever won both Florida and Ohio and lost. I won them both, by a lot! #SupremeCourt,” Trump wrote in a new tweet.

That is not true. Richard Nixon won Florida and Ohio but lost the presidency in 1960.

The hashtag at the end of Trump’s tweet seems to be meant as a complaint about the supreme court rejecting a Republican effort to overturn the results in Pennsylvania yesterday.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell mocked last night’s press release from House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer about coronavirus relief negotiations.

In the statement, Pelosi and Schumer accused Donald Trump of trying to “obstruct the bipartisan Congressional talks that are underway” by offering his own $916 billion proposal.

“In a bizarre and schizophrenic press release, the speaker and the leader said the administration was obstructing negotiations by negotiating,” McConnell said.

The Republican leader accused Democrats of not working in good faith to reach a bipartisan agreement on coronavirus relief, although McConnell has been somewhat skeptical about the recent talks among a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strike a deal on a relief package.

The House is expected to pass a one-week spending bill today, which will give lawmakers additional time to try to reach an agreement on coronavirus relief.

Dr Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner under Donald Trump, confirmed that the White House rejected an offer to lock in additional doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

Gottlieb, who serves on Pfizer’s board, confirmed the New York Times’ report during an interview with CNBC this morning.

“Pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plan -- basically the second-quarter allotment -- to the United States government multiple times and as recently as after the interim data came out and we knew this vaccine looked to be effective,” Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb said he believed the US government made “a bet” that it would option vaccines from multiple manufacturers rather than relying mostly on Pfizer.

But the Times report, which the White House has denied, has sparked accusations that the Trump administration dropped the ball on Pfizer’s vaccine and has now put the country at a disadvantage compared to its global allies.

Donald Trump mocked Germany over its climbing coronavirus death rate, even though the US death toll remains significantly higher than Germany’s.

Trump said in a new tweet, “Germany has consistently been used by my obnoxious critics as the country that we should follow on the way to handle the China Virus. So much for that argument. I love Germany - Vaccines on the way!!!”

The tweet linked to a story from the AP about German Chancellor Angela Merkel asking residents to cut down on socializing after the country reported 590 coronavirus deaths in one day.

In comparison, the US reported 2,546 deaths yesterday, according to Johns Hopkins University. And while Germany’s overall death toll stands at 20,082, the US death toll is more than 14 times that, at 286,338.

That glaring gap is much more substantial than the population difference between the two countries, given that the US has about four times as many residents as Germany.

Biden to formally introduce defense secretary nominee at event today

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Here’s what the blog is keeping an eye on today: Joe Biden will formally introduce his nominee to lead the defense department, Lloyd Austin, at an event in Wilmington, Delaware.

The president-elect has held similar events with his other nominees. However, this is the first such event that is highlighting just one nominee rather than a team of advisers on issues like health care or foreign policy.

The one-on-one event amplifies the impression that the Biden team believes it will have to work harder to ensure Austin’s confirmation.

Shortly after Biden announced the nomination yesterday, the Atlantic published an op-ed from the president-elect explaining the choice and urging lawmakers to grant Austin a waiver to lead the Pentagon.

As a retired general, Austin will require a waiver from Congress to be confirmed due to his recent military service, and some Democrats are already voicing hesitation about supporting the waiver.

Biden’s event will happen this afternoon, so stay tuned.

Updated

Donald Trump has tweeted suggesting that his team will be joining the case that Texas attorney general Ken Paxton is attempting to bring to the US supreme court against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo usually reserves his Twitter account for official foreign policy platitudes, but he has clearly been irked this morning at the suggestion that his intention to visit Georgia ahead of the Senate runoffs there is a political move.

Brianna Holt writes for us today on “White clicktivism”, asking why are some Americans woke online but not in real life?

In the winter of 2018, Gwen Kansen, a 33-year-old self-professed liberal, met a man called Elias in a bar. Within minutes, she knew he was intense. His phone screensaver was of Pepe the Frog – a symbol of the alt-right movement. His style reminded her of a Confederate soldier, and he wore badges proudly proclaiming his hatred for political correctness.

It was not long before he disclosed he was a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right, male-only political organization. Still, Kansen didn’t put an end to the date. They drank rum and cokes; spoke about music, books, and exes; and that night, he walked her home. The two had a brief fling. Later, Kansen wrote an article about coming to terms with her so-called liberal beliefs while still choosing to entertain the affair.

The article was met with backlash. People spammed her Twitter, questioning her morals, dating standards and self awareness. How could a so-called liberal woman choose to date a member of a group known for its anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric, associations with extremist gatherings, and a white nationalist agenda? The consequences of this group are real-life harm: death threats, racial slurs, violence and even murder, and yet Kansen saw it as an opportunity to dabble in a forbidden experience.

The story might sound extreme, especially following a summer of “listening and learning”. Following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, many white Americans have spent the past year taking part in a social justice movement online and on the ground, combating systemic racism and opposing police brutality. Bookstores sold out of race education books, social media timelines were consumed with Black Lives Matter support, and protests drew diverse crowds.

But then we saw the election results. Trump won the support of 71 million Americans this year – including 55% of white women and 61% of white men. Even in liberal hotbeds like New York, California and Washington, Trump maintained 48%, 47%, and 36% of the white vote.

Given continued white support for a man who has refused to denounce white supremacy, lied about the severity of the coronavirus, and hasn’t been shy about his sexist and misogynistic beliefs, can liberal white Americans really be doing the groundwork their social media profiles would have you believe?

Read more of Brianna Holt’s piece here: White clicktivism: why are some Americans woke online but not in real life?

The attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over their election results has produced quite the pithy responses from officials in the states he is targeting.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called it “a publicity stunt, not a serious legal pleading”. She added “The Michigan issues raised in this complaint have already been thoroughly litigated and roundly rejected in both state and federal courts — by judges appointed from both political parties. Paxton’s actions are beneath the dignity of the office of attorney general and the people of the great state of Texas.”

Addressing Paxton’s central theme that the conduct of the election in the four battleground states which were all won by Joe Biden had undermined confidence in the election, she said “The erosion of confidence in our democratic system isn’t attributable to the good people of Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia or Pennsylvania but rather to partisan officials, like Paxton, who place loyalty to a person over loyalty to their country.”

For his part, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul cuttingly said “I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit.”

Overnight Axios have been touting as a scoop their report that Joe Biden is considering offering a high-profile ambassadorship for Pete Buttigieg – possibly China. Hans Nichols writes:

The 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, whom Biden has compared to his late son, Beau, played a key role in Biden’s nomination. Letting him deepen his foreign policy chops could boost Buttigieg’s future, since many inside the Democratic Party believe his return as a presidential candidate is a matter of when, not if.

Buttigieg electrified donors and rocketed to the top of the party, winning the most delegates in the Iowa caucuses earlier this year before dropping out to consolidate moderates’ support around Biden. But finding a Cabinet position for him has been a challenge as the former VP focuses on nominating women and people of color to high-level posts.

China isn’t the only foreign post where Buttigieg, a polyglot, could end up — and his name remains under discussion for some domestic leadership positions as well.

The Beijing post has often gone to experienced politicians, toward the middle or end of their careers, as a way to confer respect to the Chinese. A Buttigieg nomination would invert that model and give the Chinese an opportunity to get to know a potential future president.

Incidentally, outgoing secretary of state Mike Pompeo is giving a talk at 2:45ET about US-China relations, which we’ll have live here on the blog.

Read more here: Axios – Mayor Pete may get China post

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is getting excited on Twitter this morning that the Arkansas attorney general is offering support to Texas in the state’s attempt to sue four other states for not declaring Donald Trump the election winner.

Yesterday the FDA released it’s review of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine and found no major safety concerns, although they did not recommend its use on under 16s and pregnant women until more tests are carried out.

However, there’s been a development in the UK today, which may have them scurrying to update their advice. People with a history of significant allergic reactions should not receive the vaccine, the UK medicines regulator has said, after two frontline health workers experienced symptoms following receiving the injection this morning.

The workers are said to have developed symptoms of “anaphylactoid reaction” shortly after receiving the vaccine, and both have recovered after treatment.

Both of the staff were carrying adrenaline autoinjectors, suggesting they have suffered reactions in the past. These administer a swift adrenaline boost to counter allergic reactions that occur when some people, for instance, eat nuts.

The patient information leaflet with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine says it should not be given to people allergic to any substance in the vaccine, raising questions about the wisdom of selecting those staff members to be vaccinated in the first place.

Read more here: Allergy warning after reaction in two UK healthworkers given Covid vaccine

What do you get for a US president who appears to have everything he wants except for a second term? Well, apparently, for some, the answer is to try and gift Donald Trump his childhood home. Sarah Maslin Nir writes for the New York Times:

When Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens was on the market four years ago, he publicly mused about buying it himself. Now, he might not have to: The home’s latest owner is launching a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of giving it to the president as a gift — once the $3 million price tag is met.

The unusual real estate maneuver seeks to capitalize on the devotion of some of Trump’s supporters, in the hopes that the same commitment that has driven them to attend his large rallies in the middle of a pandemic will also induce them to open their wallets. The sellers hope donations might also be fueled by an impulse to mollify Trump with a personalized parting gift as his presidential term nears its end.

The fund-raiser could also solve another problem that has plagued the home’s owner in recent years: an inability to find a buyer. The house was put up for auction last fall, but failed to meet the reserve price

Read more here: New York Times – Trump faithful asked to donate $3 Million to buy his boyhood home

Last night Idaho public health officials abruptly ended a meeting after the Boise mayor and chief of police said intense protests outside the health department building as well as outside some health officials’ homes were threatening public safety.

The request from Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and the Boise Police Department came just a few minutes after one health board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo, tearfully interrupted the online meeting to say she had to rush home from work to be with her son. The board had been expected to vote on a four-county mask mandate in Idaho’s most populated region.

“My 12-year-old son is home alone right now and there are protestors banging outside the door,” Lachiondo said.

Another board member, family physician Dr. Ted Epperly, said protests were “not under control at my house,” as well. Protesters went to at least three board members’ homes, the Boise Police Department said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Central District Health parking lot before and during the meeting.

Anti-masker demonstrators converge on Central District Health offices in Boise, Idaho.
Anti-masker demonstrators converge on Central District Health offices in Boise, Idaho. Photograph: Darin Oswald/AP

Other groups are supportive of the proposed mask rule though. An organization called the “Pandemic Committee” gathered supportive messages from 600 area residents, putting them on yard signs delivered to the health district building several hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin.

The Associated Press reports that Central District Health Director Russ Duke interrupted the Tuesday meeting to inform board members of the mayor’s request.

“I got a call from the mayor, and it sounds like the police, and she is requesting that we stop the meeting at this time because of the intense level of protesters in the parking lot and concern for police safety and staff safety as well as the protesters that are at some of our board members’ homes right now,” Duke said.

The Boise Police Department later issued a statement on Twitter that said they requested the meeting adjourn “in the interest of public safety.”

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has repeatedly urged Idahoans to wear masks but has declined to issue a statewide mask mandate, instead leaving that decision in the hands of the regional health boards. He condemned the protestors’ actions at the board members’ homes.

The governor’s statewide orders require physical distancing at gatherings, limit public and private gatherings to 10 people (except for religious or political events), require patrons to be seated at bars and restaurants and require masks at long term-care facilities.

Last week, regional hospital officials warned that they were so overwhelmed by high numbers of coronavirus patients and by health care staffers unable to work because they are sick that the state could be forced to implement “crisis standards of care” within the next month. Crisis standards of care are designed to ensure that the patients most likely to survive Covid-19 are given access to potentially life-saving treatment when there isn’t enough to go around.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reports that at least 113,905 Idaho residents have been infected with the virus so far, including 2,012 new cases reported on Tuesday. So far at least 1,074 residents have died from Covid-19.

You’ll have to excuse me if I get confused reporting the Trump campaign’s defeats in court, as there have been so many of them. Yesterday the US supreme court turned away a long-shot bid by Republicans to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania. And the Nevada supreme court also had their say, in another brutal reversal for Republican efforts to overthrow the results of the 2020 US election. Timothy Bella writes for the Washington Post:

The Nevada Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday night to reject an appeal from President Trump’s campaign to overturn the state’s election results. The 6-to-0 decision from Nevada’s high court came after a lower court gave a full-scale ruling against the Trump campaign’s efforts in the state last week. Judge James T. Russell of the Nevada District Court ruled Friday that there was no evidence supporting the claims of fraud and wrongdoing made by the campaign in a state that president-elect Joe Biden won by more than 33,000 votes.

In a 40-page order from the Nevada Supreme Court late Tuesday, the justices “affirmed” the decision from Russell and said the court would take no action. The court found that the Trump campaign failed to identify “any unsupported factual findings” in Russell’s decision, with the state’s high court concluding that it had also “identified none.”

“To prevail on this appeal, appellants must demonstrate error of law, findings of fact not supported by substantial evidence or an abuse of discretion in the admission or rejection of evidence by the district court,” the order read. “We are not convinced they have done so.”

The Trump campaign’s Nevada lawsuit included baseless allegations that more than 61,000 people voted twice or from out of state. Although Trump campaign lawyer Jesse R. Binnall said last week a “robust body of evidence” supported his claim that the state’s six electoral votes were “stolen” from the president, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford had challenged Trump’s attorneys to present any evidence supporting the unfounded allegations.

Read more here: The Washington Post – Nevada Supreme Court rejects Trump campaign’s appeal to overturn Biden’s win

Minneapolis City Council members will be voting today on their “Safety for All” plan which would shrink the police force in the city in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May.

Eleven of the 13 council members have already cast committee votes in favor of the largest parts of the plan, signaling that passage is likely. It would cut nearly $8 million from Mayor Jacob Frey’s $179 million policing budget and redirect it to mental health teams, violence prevention programs and other initiatives. The mayor is threatening to use his veto to defeat it, the Associated Press report.

“I am actively considering a veto due to the massive, permanent cut to officer capacity,” Frey said in a statement earlier this week. Reducing the authorized size of the force by 138 officers before enacting alternatives is “irresponsible,” he said. The mayor and 12 of the 13 council members are Democrats; one council member is from the Green Party.

Cities around the US, including Los Angeles, New York City and Portland, Oregon, are shifting funds from police departments to social services programs in an effort to provide new solutions for problems traditionally handled by police. Such cuts have led some departments to lay off officers, cancel recruiting classes or retreat from hiring goals.

Referring to a national outpouring of protest over racial injustice, Oluchi Omeoga, a cofounder of Black Visions, which supports “Safety for All”, said “This summer happened because George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department and it wasn’t an accident, it’s because the system of policing we know now is not just racist, but it doesn’t create safety for all.”

Due to austerity forced by the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor’s proposal already bakes in a $14 million cut to the department compared with its original 2020 budget, mostly through attrition. Frey aims to hold the number of sworn officers around 770 through 2021 with hopes of eventually increasing the force to 888.

“Safety for All” would cap the number at 750 by 2022. The department is already down by about 120 partly due to officers claiming post-traumatic stress disorder from a summer of unrest with more preparing to leave amid retirements and poor morale.

Passions ran hot on both sides as more than 400 citizens signed up to speak during a marathon hearing last week that ran into the early hours Thursday, with many expressing alarm that the council was even contemplating cuts.

“I think we need to make bold decisions on a path forward,” said Council Member Steve Fletcher, a coauthor of the proposal. While acknowledging that it would mean fewer officers, he defended the plan by saying it would reduce the department’s workload by shifting 911 calls away from armed officers to other specialists such as mental health professionals.

“Combined those investments add up to a safer city for everybody and an approach that creates a more sustainable public safety system for our city,” Fletcher said in an interview.

Updated

Chuck Collins and Omar Ocampo write for us this morning, saying that billionaires have made $1tn since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and that they can afford to protect their workers.

As the US heads into another wave of Covid-19 infections, the wealth of 650 American billionaires has increased by over $1tn since mid-March, the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns.

Who’s generating all this wealth? In many cases, it’s frontline retail, healthcare, and food workers who are underpaid and under-protected from the virus.

These workers risk their lives every day to do the work that increases already obscene corporate wealth. And going into a holiday shopping season with cases exploding, the risk is only increasing. Corporations and their billionaire beneficiaries must do more to protect essential workers going into this winter of pain.

They should immediately provide, regularly replace, and upgrade high quality personal protective equipment (PPE) at no cost to all their essential workers. They should implement hazard pay of at least an extra $5 an hour. And they must provide substantial paid sick leave benefits for workers to stay home when ill and exposed.

When companies fall short, policymakers must act.

President-elect Biden should establish a Presidential Commission on Essential Workers with on-the-ground, diverse worker representation. And lawmakers should address this rampant pandemic profiteering – starting with an emergency pandemic wealth tax on billionaires to raise revenue for healthcare and aid to localities. Congress should also establish a Pandemic Profiteering Oversight Committee.

Read more here: Chuck Collins and Omar Ocampo – Billionaires made $1tn since Covid-19. They can afford to protect their workers

More than 1,500 lawyers have got together to sign an open letter condemning Trump’s legal team’s efforts to reverse his election defeat. The Washington Post reports:

Coordinated by the nonpartisan group Lawyers Defending American Democracy, the open letter questions the conduct by Rudy Giuliani, as well as current and former Trump legal team members Joseph diGenova, Jenna Ellis, Victoria Toensing and Sidney Powell.

The LDAD letter claims that the Trump campaign attorneys have abused the judicial process by making baseless claims of voter fraud in public, only to abandon them in the courtroom in favor of wildly speculative, unsupported claims, before once again doubling down on dishonest arguments in public to appease Trump.

“It’s really unusual to see a coalition like this calling for disciplinary action; it takes a lot,” said Deborah Rhode, a Stanford Law School professor and one of the leading American legal ethicists. “Many of these letters have been crossing the political aisle, and that testifies to both the egregiousness of the conduct and its seriousness for the rule of law and the democratic process.”

The signers include a bipartisan coalition of former ABA presidents, state bar presidents, retired federal judges, retired state Supreme Court justices and attorneys in private practice.

Read more here: Washington Post – Letter from 1,500 attorneys says Trump campaign lawyers don’t have ‘license to lie’

A northern California church and its pastor have been fined and ordered to stop holding unmasked indoor gatherings which violate Covid-19 health orders, NBC News report.

“I respect the judge, I understand what the laws are, but there’s a bigger law,” Mike McClure, head pastor of Calvary Chapel San Jose, said. The church was fined around $55,000.

The Santa Clara County district attorney and the county counsel sued in October after they said the church had been holding indoor services involving hundreds of people not wearing masks, in violation of health orders aimed at slowing the spread of the deadly disease.

In early November a court granted a temporary restraining order, and both the church and McClure repeatedly violated it, the county said in a statement.

Santa Clara County Counsel James R. Williams said in a statement that the church is putting the whole community at risk.

Hospitals across California are reaching a breaking point amid a shortage of ICU beds and healthcare workers, as the state faces its worst surge in Covid cases since the pandemic began.

Read more here: NBC News – California pastor, church found in contempt, fined over Covid rules

The former president of the nation’s largest teachers union has received endorsements from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and dozens of national Hispanic organizations as she pursues the top job at the US Education Department in the Biden administration, report the Associated Press.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, who was president of the National Education Association until September, has been calling members of Congress to build support for her candidacy. She has been courting Democrats and some Republicans, including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is chairman of the Senate education committee and a former education secretary.

Former National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia speaking on Capitol Hill in 2017.
Former National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia speaking on Capitol Hill in 2017. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

Her supporters have ramped up lobbying efforts on her behalf, urging president-elect Joe Biden to nominate her and, in doing so, appoint the first Latina to lead the Education Department.

In a letter to Biden on Monday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus offered its “enthusiastic endorsement” for Eskelsen Garcia, saying her ties to Congress position her well for Senate confirmation. The caucus drew attention to Biden’s proposals to confront racial disparities in education, saying Eskelsen Garcia has been pursuing that work for decades.

“Lily’s long record of accomplishments, working across the political divide, and building and maintaining constituencies would make her an excellent Secretary of Education,” according to the letter, which is signed by 23 members.

Last week she also received the endorsement of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of more than 40 Hispanic civil rights and public policy groups. The coalition sent a letter to Biden on Friday calling Eskelsen Garcia the ideal candidate to steer away from the “destructive practices and policies of the Trump Administration.”

Others widely seen as contenders to lead the Education Department include Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Sonja Santelises, the CEO of Baltimore City Schools; and Rep. Jahana Hayes, a Connecticut Democrat who was named the National Teacher of the Year in 2016.

Weingarten said Tuesday she has had conversations with the Biden transition team but is not campaigning for the nomination. “I am really honored by the mention, but I am just doing my work,” she said in an interview.

Supporters of Eskelsen Garcia say her nomination would fulfill Biden’s promise to install an education chief with experience working in public education. Nominating the former president of a teachers union would win Biden favor with public school advocates, but it could risk alienating education reform advocates who see teachers unions as an obstacle to change.

Eskelsen Garcia served on a White House panel for Hispanic education under former president Barack Obama, but she also sparred with his administration over its policies around standardized testing.

Jill Biden, a longtime community college professor and member of the National Education Association, recently said the union’s advocacy was “critical” in her husband’s victory.

Susan Cornwell at Reuters has been looking at what we can expect in Congress today. The House of Representatives will vote later on a one-week stopgap funding bill to provide more time for lawmakers to reach a deal on both Covid-19 relief and an overarching spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.

The measure aims to prevent existing funds for operating federal programs from running out on Friday at midnight by extending current funding levels until 18 December.

After the vote in the Democratic-run House, the Republican-led Senate is expected to follow by the end of the week, then send the measure to President Donald Trump to sign into law.

The move will give Congress seven more days to enact a broader, $1.4 trillion “omnibus” spending measure, to which congressional leaders hope to attach a long-awaited Covid-19 relief package - if they can reach a deal on both fronts.

Members of Congress have not been able to agree for months on another round of aid to mitigate the effects of shutdowns to curb the spread of the virus, after quickly approving $3 trillion last spring.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell proposed to break the deadlock yesterday by passing a targeted aid package including money for vaccine distribution and for small businesses, without what he said were the most contentious items - the liability protections for businesses desired by Republicans, and more aid to state and local governments desired by Democrats.

But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others in his party rejected the offer, saying that failing to include fresh aid to state and local governments would put at risk the jobs of police, firefighters and other public workers on the frontlines of the pandemic fight.

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday he had presented to House speaker Nancy Pelosi a $916 billion relief proposal that includes both money for state and local governments and liability protections for businesses.

In recent days, there has also been talk among lawmakers of adding another round of direct checks to individuals, which both Pelosi and Schumer support. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters he thought Mnuchin’s Covid-19 aid proposal had a provision for $600 checks.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said on Tuesday he expected the stopgap bill to pass this week without additions.

President-elect Joe Biden has called on Congress to act immediately, noting that efforts to ensure early vaccination for COVID-19 by the outgoing Trump administration may stall otherwise.

David Little of Tampa, Florida, obtained his master’s degree in architecture and was excitedly waiting for his girlfriend to finish her degree before the couple moved to Philadelphia. The coronavirus pandemic halted those plans as they both struggled to find work matching their education.

“I have no idea what I’m doing right now. My plans were completely ruined by all of this,” said Little, 26, who was working as a valet before he was laid off in April. “There are no jobs out there even nationwide for entry level architecture grads, there is no real end in sight, and with my girlfriend not having any income because she’s also in architecture, it’s causing tension that wouldn’t normally be there.”

Like many young people, Little has been hit hard by the economic collapse in the wake of Covid-19. He’s uncertain of what will happen when his unemployment benefits run out at the end of this year, no longer has health insurance after turning 26 this year, and has already racked up significant credit card debt to cover bills over the past few months.

Before the pandemic, younger people in America were already making substantially less money than older generations, even compared with when those older people were young. In 1989, baby boomers controlled 21% of the nation’s wealth; millennials controlled just 5% of the nation’s wealth in 2019.

And coronavirus has made life worse.

From spring 2019 to spring 2020, unemployment among adults ages 16 to 24 increased from 8.4% to 24.4%, compared with an increase of 2.8% to 11.3% for adults 25 and older. Young Black (29.6%), Hispanic (27.5%), and Asian American (29.7%) workers are experiencing even higher rates of unemployment. One-third of young Americans in the current labor market are classified as underemployed.

Read more of Michael Sainato’s report from Florida here: ‘All my plans were ruined’: Covid’s economic toll on young Americans

“The only questions now are how many more times President Donald Trump wants to lose the election to President-elect Joe Biden and whether his Republican acolytes on Capitol Hill will wake up and recognize reality.”

That’s Stephen Collinson’s analysis at CNN this morning. He writes:

Trump’s dangerous delusions about a stolen election represent the most overt attempt in modern history by a President to overthrow the will of the voters. But they have reached the point of no return after the conservative-majority Supreme Court largely crushed what remaining hallucinatory hopes Trump harbored of reversing his defeat.

The Court’s devastating first response to the post-election fray sent a clear signal that the top bench disdains frivolous and long-shot cases already witheringly rejected by lower courts.

The denial of Pennsylvania Republicans’ request to block the certification of their state’s results, for which there were no noted dissents, was a humiliating repudiation of Trump’s fundamental misunderstanding that three justices that he installed on the Court would swing him a disputed election. It also showed that evidence-free conspiracy theories might thrill the President’s base and his media propagandists, but they don’t cut it in court.

The Supreme Court weighed in just hours after the President’s latest illusory claims that he won the election, prevailed in swing states and was the victim of a massive, orchestrated operation by Democrats to defraud the electorate.

Biden’s spokesman Mike Gwin said: “This election is over. Joe Biden won and he will be sworn in as President in January.”

Read more here: CNN – Trump’s false crusade rolls on despite devastating Supreme Court rebuke

The president-elect will introduce retired four-star General Lloyd J. Austin III as his nominee for Secretary of Defense at 2:30pm today. We also have the suggestion that Joe Biden has reportedly selected Ohio congresswoman Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and and the former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration.

Fudge was first elected to Congress in 2008 to represent a district that includes Cleveland, and is a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Vilsack spent eight years as head of the US Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor.

Their intended nominations were confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday by five people familiar with one or both of the decisions who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid preempting the president-elect’s announcement.

As other news outlets started reporting Fudge’s selection as HUD secretary Tuesday, Fudge said on Capitol Hill that it would be “an honor and a privilege” to be asked to join Biden’s cabinet, though she didn’t confirm she had been picked.

“It is something in probably my wildest dreams I would have never thought about. So if I can help this president in any way possible, I am more than happy to do it,” she said.

Read more here: Biden cabinet – Marcia Fudge reportedly tapped for housing and Tom Vilsack for agriculture

Peter Baker at the New York Times was also struck by the extreme contrast between the two events yesterday. He writes:

Rarely has there been a single hour on a single day that saw such discordant messages emanating from Washington in a time of national crisis. In the middle of a transition of power that has already proved more unsettling than any in more than a century, the departing and incoming presidents on Tuesday offered the American people vastly divergent assessments of the state of their union.

“We’re here to discuss a monumental national achievement,” President Trump boasted on one screen. “From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action.”

“We’re in a very dark winter,” President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said minutes later in his own speech on another screen. “Things may well get worse before they get better.”

Trump offered told-you-so triumphalism as he bragged about the “incredible,” “amazing” and “unprecedented” development of vaccines for the coronavirus. Biden projected feel-your-pain empathy, urged resisters to wear masks and warned that “this mess” would not end quickly.

The American tradition of one president at a time during the 10-week period between election and inauguration days has fallen by the wayside as Biden seeks to assert moral leadership even without the instruments of power and Trump spreads evermore outlandish claims about an invented conspiracy to steal the election and evermore desperate efforts to overturn the will of the people.

Read more here: New York Times – Two Presidents, Two Messages, One Killer Virus

And here’s that clip of Joe Biden yesterday pledging he would aim for 100 million vaccine shots for Americans within the first 100 days of his presidency.

Joe Biden introduces his health team and makes a pledge on vaccines.

A staple of Star Trek storylines is alternative realities: someone slipping through a wormhole into a parallel universe where history took a radically different turn. Cable news viewers went through the wormhole at 2pm on Tuesday: two captains, two crews, two languages (one English, the other Klingon).

Those watching CNN and MSNBC could see a sombre president-elect, Joe Biden, opening his remarks by acknowledging the terrible Covid-19 death toll (more than 285,000 in the US), setting out an ambitious vision for his first hundred days in office (“Masking. Vaccinations. Opening schools”) and unveiling a healthcare team heavy on experience, science and diversity.

But those watching Fox News or other conservative networks found the lame-duck president, Donald Trump, making no mention of the dead (“In many respects we’re still doing incredibly, with our stock markets and everything else, which are hitting all new highs”), boasting about the speed of vaccine development and ranting egregious lies about a stolen election.

In what is now routinely described as a split-screen nation, the contrast was on the nose. It was also an unusual role reversal from the norm, with the outgoing president delivering happy talk and sunny uplands, while his successor offered a darker vision that warned of trouble ahead.

Biden said “For Black, Latino, and Native Americans – who are nearly three times as likely to die from it – Covid-19 is a mass casualty. For families and friends left behind, it’s a gaping hole in your heart that will never be fully healed.”

By contrast, despite a daily death toll that now rivals that of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, Trump began by taking a victory lap, praising Vice-President Mike Pence for doing “an absolutely incredible” job at the head of the coronavirus taskforce. “Stand up, Mike. Great job!” Applause.

Read more of David Smith’s sketch from Washington here: Trump’s ‘Warp Speed’ vaccine summit zooms into alternative reality

Welcome to today’s coverage of US politics, as the nation reached the grim 15 million milestone of coronavirus cases. Here’s a catch up on where we are, and what we might expect to see today

  • There were 215,586 new coronavirus cases recorded yesterday in the US, and 2,534 further deaths. That’s the third highest daily caseload on record. It comes as total cases pass 15 million amid stark warnings over hospital care.
  • Joe Biden called for 100 million Americans to receive coronavirus vaccines during his first 100 days in office. At an event where he formally introduced his team of health care advisers, the president-elect also reiterated his call for Americans to wear masks for 100 days to limit the spread of coronavirus.
  • By contrast, Donald Trump peddled yet more baseless claims about the election during an event that was supposed to be about vaccine distribution.
  • An FDA analysis of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine raised no safety concerns, lifting hopes that the vaccine could soon become available to American adults.
  • The state of Texas is attempting to sue four other states in the supreme court in a bid to help the president’s unprecedented push to reverse the outcome of the democratic vote in the US.
  • Biden has reportedly selected Ohio congresswoman Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and and the former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration.
  • The president-elect will introduce retired four-star General Lloyd J. Austin III as his nominee for Secretary of Defense at 2:30pm.
  • In Congress today the House is expected to pass a one-week continuing resolution to keep the government open.
  • The president has no public events scheduled.
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