Summary
From me and Adam Gabbatt:
- Donald Trump signed a temporary funding measure to avert a government shutdown. The stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution, will expire in a week. The short-term measure buys lawmakers time to reach an agreement on a delayed Covid relief bill.
- The supreme court rejected a lawsuit from the Texas attorney general challenging election results in other states. This shutting down yet another long-shot attempt by Republicans to change the election results. The suit was backed by over 100 Republicans in Congress, including the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.
- The administration said it will purchase an additional 100m doses of the Moderna vaccine. That means the US will be able to distribute 200m doses of the vaccine, if the FDA approves it. An FDA panel is scheduled to discuss and vote on whether to authorize the vaccine next week. The US has the option of getting up to 300m more doses of the vaccine.
- The Washington Post reported that Mark Meadows told Hahn to submit his resignation if the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was not approved by the end of Friday. The vaccine is expected to be approved, and will likely be made available to at-risk people on Monday or Tuesday.
- Dr Anthony Fauci said he will receive a Covid-19 vaccine publicly, in an attempt to build confidence in the vaccinations. Fauci said he would do so as soon as “the vaccine becomes available to me”. Last week former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush pledged to get vaccinated on TV to show its safety.
- The Senate passed a temporary government-wide funding bill, averting a government shutdown at midnight and buying time for negotiations over Covid-19 relief. It buys time for Congress to continue negotiations over a coronavirus relief package. Democrats and Republicans have been divided over the size of a bill.
- Indoor dining has been suspended indefinitely in New York City, amid surging hospitalizations. The number of people being treated for Covid-19 symptoms in hospital exceeded 5,000 on Thursday for the first time in nearly nine months. “Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk,” Cuomo said.
Following the supreme court decision, the Texas Republican party chairman released a statement suggesting secession, saying, “law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution”.
The @TexasGOP is out with a statement in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, all but calling for secession:
— Adam Kelsey (@adamkelsey) December 12, 2020
“Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.” pic.twitter.com/4bB3gk88t4
Updated
America's longest-serving marijuana prisoner freed after 31 years
A man believed to be the longest-serving inmate for non-violent, marijuana charges has been released from a Florida prison, and is set to spend the holidays with family for the first time in more than 31 years.
Richard DeLisi walked out of a correctional facility in Palm Beach county this week “grateful to everyone who [had] been there” and expressing appreciation for supporters and criminal justice reform advocates who say the now 71-year-old’s release was long overdue.
“It was so unjust what they did to me,” DeLisi told Florida’s Ledger newspaper. “I just hope that I can help other people that are in the same situation.”
Along with his older brother, DeLisi was sentenced to a 90-year prison term in 1989 after being convicted trafficking more than 100lb of marijuana from Colombia – as well as conspiracy and racketeering charges.
Both brothers received three, consecutive 30-year convictions, which well exceeded judicial guidelines for recommended sentences at the time. Criminal justice experts pointed to the sentence as part of the lingering “war on drugs” that saw incarceration rates rise sharply for low-level drug offenders in the 1980s and 90s.
While his brother eventually appealed and was released from prison in 2013, DeLisi’s appeal was rejected. He left prison this week ahead of a scheduled June 2022 release.
Read more:
Updated
Here’s more background on the Texas lawsuit that the supreme court had rejected, from Reuters:
Texas was suing the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in an unlikely bid, calling changes that the states had made to election procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic unlawful.
The suit was backed by Trump and more than 100 Republicans in Congress, including the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.
The court’s order marked its second this week rebuffing Republican requests that it get involved in the 2020 election outcome. The justices turned away an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday.
On Thursday, the states named in the lawsuit urged the supreme court to reject it, calling the case a publicity stunt that had no factual or legal grounds and made “bogus” claims.
“What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this court and other courts,” Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, wrote in a filing to the nine justices.
The electoral college meets on Monday to formally elect Biden as the next president.
Read more:
Updated
Trump signed a resolution to avert government shutdown at midnight
Donald Trump signed a temporary funding measure to avert a government shutdown. The stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution, will expire in a week.
The short-term measure buys lawmakers time to reach an agreement on a delayed Covid relief bill. Lawmakers are at odds over whether or not to send out another round of direct payments to Americans, as coronavirus cases rise and the economic crisis deepens.
Updated
US supreme court rejects lawsuit challenging Biden wins in swing states
The supreme court rejected a lawsuit from the Texas attorney general, challenging election results in other states, shutting down yet another long-shot attempt by Republicans to change the election results.
The suit was backed by over 100 Republicans in Congress, including the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.
Updated
Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will be extending travel restrictions at the US-Canada border ... until the day after Joe Biden is inaugurated.
“Non-essential travel between our two countries remains restricted until at least January 21st, 2021,” the Canadian prime minister said. President-elect Biden’s inauguration will be on 20 January.
Update on our border: To keep Canadians safe, we’ve extended the measures currently in place at the Canada-US border by another 30 days. Non-essential travel between our two countries remains restricted until at least January 21st, 2021.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 11, 2020
Updated
Administration to purchase additional 100m Moderna vaccine doses
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense said they’ll purchase an additional 100m doses of the Moderna vaccine - which means the US will be able to distribute 200m doses of the vaccine, once the FDA approves it.
An FDA panel is scheduled to discuss and vote on whether to authorize the vaccine next week. The US has the option of getting up to 300m more doses of the vaccine.
The Trump administration came under criticism after the New York Times reported that it passed on buying additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Updated
Today so far
- The Washington Post reported that Mark Meadows told Hahn to submit his resignation if the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was not approved by the end of Friday. The vaccine is expected to be approved, and will likely be made available to at-risk people on Monday or Tuesday.
- Dr Anthony Fauci said he will receive a Covid-19 vaccine publicly, in an attempt to build confidence in the vaccinations. Fauci said he would do so as soon as “the vaccine becomes available to me”. Last week former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush pledged to get vaccinated on TV to show its safety.
- The Senate passed a temporary government-wide funding bill, averting a government shutdown at midnight and buying time for negotiations over Covid-19 relief. It buys time for Congress to continue negotiations over a coronavirus relief package. Democrats and Republicans have been divided over the size of a bill.
- Indoor dining has been suspended indefinitely in New York City, amid surging hospitalizations. The number of people being treated for Covid-19 symptoms in hospital exceeded 5,000 on Thursday for the first time in nearly nine months. “Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk,” Cuomo said.
My colleague Maanvi Singh will continue to bring you updates through the evening.
Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman from California, has tested positive for coronavirus.
Nunes, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, reportedly broke the news during an interview with the KMJNOW radio station.
At least 45 members of Congress have now tested positive for coronavirus, according to CNN’s tracker. The majority of those are Republican.
South Carolina reported its highest ever daily number of new Covid-19 cases on Friday.
“One week ago, today, South Carolina announced its highest number of new cases of COVID-19. Today, we eclipse that number by more than 700,” the South Carolina Department of health and environmental control said in a release.
The state reported 3,217 confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases on Friday, and 47 deaths. South Carolina has had more than 245,200 cases, and 4,673 deaths.
“South Carolina, like many other states, is currently experiencing a worsening of this pandemic,” said Dr Brannon Traxler, interim public heath director of the DHEC.
“While the arriving vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, it will be months before there is enough vaccine available for everyone. It is incumbent upon all of us to continue to take actions aimed at saving lives.”
White House threatened FDA head over vaccine approval – report
The White House chief of staff threatened Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, over the approval of a coronavirus vaccine, the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, Mark Meadows told Hahn to submit his resignation if the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was not approved by the end of the day. The newspaper cited people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The warning led the FDA to accelerate its timetable for clearing America’s first vaccine from Saturday morning to later Friday,” the Washington Post reported.
Earlier it had emerged that the FDA, which had previously been expected to formally approve the vaccine on Saturday, would move the authorization forward to Friday night. The Washington Post said that was a result of Meadows’ threat.
In a statement to the Post Hahn tamped down the report, however.
“This is an untrue representation of the phone call with the Chief of Staff,” Hahn said in a statement to the Post.
“The FDA was encouraged to continue working expeditiously on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EUA request. FDA is committed to issuing this authorization quickly, as we noted in our statement this morning.”
Updated
The Senate has passed a temporary government-wide funding bill, averting a government shutdown at midnight and buying time for negotiations over Covid-19 relief.
The stop-gap measure, which is expected to be signed by Donald Trump at some point today, will keep the government running until December 18.
It buys time for Congress to continue negotiations over a coronavirus relief package. Those talks remain stalled, but Associated Press reported that there is “universal agreement that Congress won’t adjourn for the year without passing a long-delayed round of pandemic relief”.
An emerging $900 billion aid package from a bipartisan group of lawmakers hit a rough patch after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell swung against the effort, but negotiations are ongoing and pressure remains intense.
Fauci to 'get vaccinated publicly'
Dr Anthony Fauci said he will receive a Covid-19 vaccine publicly in an attempt to build confidence in the vaccinations.
Fauci said he would “get vaccinated publicly, in the public space, so that people can see me getting vaccinated,” in an interview with the New York Times.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he would do so as soon as “the vaccine becomes available to me”.
It’s not clear yet how Fauci would receive the vaccine in a manner that the public could witness it. Last week former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush pledged to get vaccinated on TV to show its safety.
Many Americans say they will not agree to be vaccinated against Covid-19. A poll by Gallup, released in mid-November, showed that 42% of the country would not take the vaccine even if it was “available right now at no cost”.
The US senate has thrown its weight behind the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Department of Defense. The bill passed with a margin large enough to overcome opposition from Donald Trump, who has threatened to veto partly because of a provision to remove the names of confederate generals from military bases.
Here’s the Associated Press with more:
The Republican-controlled Senate backed the bill by 84 to 13, more than the two-thirds majority needed in the 100-member chamber to override a veto.
Backers hope strong bipartisan support will prompt Trump to reconsider his threat to veto the annual bill, which sets policy for the US military and has become law for 59 straight years.
The White House said on earlier on Friday that Trump’s position had not changed. The Republican president will have 10 days - minus Sundays - to issue a veto, sign it or allow it to become law without his signature.
The Food and Drug Administration will reportedly issue emergency use authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Friday night.
The New York Times reported that the FDA had previously been expected to formally approve the vaccine on Saturday, but that has been moved forward.
People familiar with the FDA’s planning say that regulators are now racing to complete the required paperwork that goes with the authorization, including a fact sheet and information for physicians.
This morning Alex Azar, US health secretary, said: “We will work with Pfizer and get that shipped out so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.”
Afternoon summary
•Indoor dining has been suspended indefinitely in New York City, amid surging hospitalizations. The number of people being treated for Covid-19 symptoms in hospital exceeded 5,000 on Thursday for the first time in nearly nine months. “Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk,” Cuomo said.
•Anthony Fauci sought to temper vaccine enthusiasm, telling CNN it could be fall of 2021 before things calm down. “If we have a smooth vaccination program where everybody steps to the plate quickly, we could get back to some form of normality, reasonably quickly,” he said: “Into the summer, and certainly into the fall.”
•The Food and Drug Administration is “very close” to granting emergency use authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, Alex Azar said. The health secretary said: “We will work with Pfizer and get that shipped out so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.”
•Donald Trump continued to plead for someone to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost. On Friday Trump beseeched the Supreme Court to revise the result in his favor, but in doing so appeared to tacitly acknowledge that he will soon be out of office, claiming “the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come”.
Do check out the Guardian’s politics weekly podcast, where columnist Jonathan Freedland is joined by Lerone Martin of Washington University, to discuss how America’s strictest Christians came to back Donald Trump.
Now that Trump is on his way out, where does that leave his Christian backers?
Indoor dining banned in New York City
Indoor dining will end in New York City on Monday, Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference, amid rising infection rates in the country’s largest city.
Indoor dining will close in New York City starting Monday.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020
Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk.
Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will continue.
In New York state, total hospitalizations exceeded 5,000 on Thursday for the first time in nearly nine months, NBC 4 New York reported, and the number of people in hospital grew to 5,321 on Friday.
The test positivity rate was 4.98% on Thursday, Cuomo said, and there were 87 fatalities.
The Orlando Sentinel has issued a public apology for its endorsement of Republican Michael Waltz for Congress, after the congressman joined the Texas lawsuit attempting to throw out election results in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“We apologize to our readers for endorsing Michael Waltz in the 2020 general election for Congress,” the Sentinel wrote, noting that Waltz “wants to overturn the election”.
We had no idea, had no way of knowing at the time, that Waltz was not committed to democracy.
During our endorsement interview with the incumbent congressman, we didn’t think to ask, “Would you support an effort to throw out the votes of tens of millions of Americans in four states in order to overturn a presidential election and hand it to the person who lost, Donald Trump?”
Our bad.
Waltz was one of nine Florida Republican members of Congress who signed up to support a lawsuit brought by Texas in the US supreme court on Thursday. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the election results in key states won by Joe Biden.
The Orlando Sentinel endorsed Waltz despite a track record that includes Waltz being one of just 40 House members to vote against the coronavirus relief bill back in March.
Waltz also voted against legislation on Daca and voted against a motion expressing opposition to banning trans people from service in the military, so we probably shouldn’t give the Sentinel too much credit.
Updated
There are two places where the election still isn’t over, one being Donald Trump’s mind, and the other being Georgia, where campaigning continues ahead of the Senate runoffs in January.
Today the Georgia GOP has wheeled out the
irrelevant
big guns in its quest to retain control of the Senate, in the form of 2008’s Sarah Palin:
Thanks @SarahPalinUSA for coming to Georgia to campaign for @KellyLoefflerGA & @sendavidperdue! #SaveAmericaTour #Vote pic.twitter.com/jPt7GslWMW
— Ralph Reed (@ralphreed) December 11, 2020
Polling suggests the two Georgia races – Jon Ossoff v David Perdue and Raphael Warnock v Kelly Loeffler – are too close to call ahead of the runoff vote on January 5.
Joe Biden is expected to travel to Georgia on Tuesday to champion Ossoff and Warnock.
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci has issued what journalists like to call a “reality check” ahead of a vaccine potentially being rolled out next week.
“If we have a smooth vaccination program where everybody steps to the plate quickly, we could get back to some form of normality, reasonably quickly.
“Into the summer, and certainly into the fall,” Fauci told CNN.
“My hope and my projection is that if we get people vaccinated en masse so that we get that large percentage of the population, as we get into the fall, we can get real comfort about people being in schools, safe in school — be that K-12, or college,” he added.
Earlier we heard a grim prognosis from CDC director Dr Robert Redfield:
“We are in the time frame now that probably for the next 60 to 90 days, we’re going to have more deaths per day than we had in 9/11,” Redfield said.
“This is going to be a real unfortunate loss of life, as all that we’ve had so far, and the reality is the vaccine approval this week is not going to really impact.”
The term #trumpconceded is now trending on Twitter, after the president’s earlier tweet about “the Biden Administration”:
Now that the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what everybody knows has to be done. They must show great Courage & Wisdom. Save the USA!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020
Trump used the phrase as he encouraged the Supreme Court to overturn the election results and re-annoint Trump as leader.
He hasn’t properly conceded of course, but it could be an insight into his thinking. Or it could just be that he bashed out a tweet without really considering what he was saying, which has happened before.
People got all excited in mid-November when Trump tweeted of Biden: “He won because the Election was Rigged”. Trump corrected himself in a following tweet, however:
He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
The US isn’t the only country struggling with rising infection rates and record deaths. Our global coronavirus blog reports surging rates in many places.
Russia reported 613 deaths in the last 24 hours on Friday; its worst daily toll so far, and a figure that takes the country’s official cumulative death toll from the pandemic to 45,893. Authorities confirmed 28,585 new infections nationally, including 7,215 in Moscow, pushing the national case total to 2,597,711.
In Germany, interior minister Horst Seehofer said the country needs an immediate hard lockdown, as the chancellor and the heads of the German states prepare to discuss further measures. Seehofer told Der Spiegel magazine:
The only chance to regain control of the situation is a lockdown, but this must happen immediately. If we wait until Christmas, we’ll have to struggle with high numbers for months.
The nation reported its worst daily numbers of infections and deaths on Friday.
Indonesia, meanwhile, reported 6,310 infections and 175 deaths, the largest number of fatalities in a day, on Friday. Indonesia’s total number of cases rose to 605,243, while the number of deaths rose to 18,511, both are the highest tallies in Southeast Asia.
Aamer Madhani has this for Associated Press on why you may be getting a sense of deja vu as you look at president-elect Joe Biden’s picks for his administration – because he’s getting the old gang back together.
The incoming Biden administration has a distinctly Obama feel about it already. There’s Denis McDonough, former Obama chief of staff who Biden announced on Thursday would be nominated as the secretary of veterans affairs. Susan Rice, Obama’s former national security adviser, was named the director of Biden’s White House Domestic Policy Council.
That’s on top of Biden already tapping Obama’s agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, to head the department once again, former Secretary of State John Kerry to serve as special envoy on climate and Kerry’s Obama-era deputy Antony Blinken to lead the State Department. Jeff Zients, who did stints as acting Office of Management and Budget director and a top economic adviser in the Obama White House, will return as Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator.
Biden, assuming the presidency in the midst of the worst public health crisis in a century and facing a flagging economy, is putting a great premium on past experience and, as a result, has gone frequently back to the Obama well as he fills out his government.
“Many of the folks who are returning are returning because they believe in public service and know that after four turbulent and destructive years and a brutal pandemic, this is a particularly important time to serve,” said David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser to Obama. “Their experience is valuable. Their values and outlooks are consonant with (Biden’s). The challenge is to look forward and not back and innovate beyond what’s simply been broken.”
The reliance on Obama veterans carries risks. Some of the nominee are still distrusted by some Republicans. And Progressive Democrats view the Obama era with frustration, believing that those in power acted too cautiously at a time that called for bold change.
With a thinned majority in the House and a closely divided Senate, leaning on former Obama world aides to fill senior White House positions will be a necessity for Biden world for at least the first two years of his term, said University of Chicago political scientist William Howell.
“If you’re a liberal looking for sweeping change, you’re going to be disappointed, both in terms of its politics and the ambition of his agenda,” Howell said. “The Cabinet he’s putting together is consistent of both the hand he’s been dealt and moderate position that delivered him the nomination.”
One of the reasons for Donald Trump to be less than keen on leaving office is the legal problems he may face once he is an ex-president. The New York Times report this morning that the Manhattan district attorney has intensified the investigation of Trump:
State prosecutors in Manhattan have interviewed several employees of president Trump’s bank and insurance broker in recent weeks, significantly escalating an investigation into the president that he is powerless to stop.
The interviews with people who work for the lender, Deutsche Bank, and the insurance brokerage, Aon, are the latest indication that once Trump leaves office, he still faces the potential threat of criminal charges that would be beyond the reach of federal pardons.
It remains unclear whether the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., will ultimately bring charges. The prosecutors have been fighting in court for more than a year to obtain Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns, which they have called central to their investigation. The issue now rests with the supreme court.
But lately, Vance’s office has stepped up its efforts, issuing new subpoenas and questioning witnesses, including some before a grand jury .The grand jury appears to be serving an investigative function, allowing prosecutors to authenticate documents and pursue other leads, rather than considering any charges.
When Trump returns to private life in January, he will lose the protection from criminal prosecution that his office has afforded him.
Read more here: New York Times – Manhattan D.A. Intensifies Investigation of Trump
FDA 'very close' to granting emergency use authorization of Pfizer Covid vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration is “very close” to granting emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer in partnership with the German firm BioNTech, said Alex Azar Friday.
The vaccination of the first Americans outside clinical trials could begin on Monday, the health secretary said.
“I’ve got some good news for you here,” Azar told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday. “Just a little bit ago the FDA informed Pfizer that they do intend to proceed towards an authorization for their vaccine.
“We will work with Pfizer and get that shipped out so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.”
The step followed a vote on Thursday by an outside panel of experts convened by the FDA to recommend authorization of the vaccine. The recommendation signaled that the first approval of a Covid-19 vaccine for use in the US was imminent.
That would mark a major milestone in a pandemic that has killed more than 285,000 Americans and 1.5 million people globally. The US would become the third country in the world to have authorized the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the broader public behind the UK and Canada, and it will be the most populous country to do so.
A similar advisory panel will review a second vaccine, developed by Moderna with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on 17 December.
Read Tom McCarthy’s full story here: FDA ‘very close’ to granting emergency use authorization of Pfizer Covid vaccine
Donald Trump again calls on US supreme court to overturn 2020 election result
The president of the United States has once again made a public call for the US supreme court to overturn the November 2020 US election result in which he was defeated. It is unprecedented in American history for an outgoing president to make this kind of pronouncement, which comes after all the states have certified their results, and before the Electoral College meets on Monday to confirm president-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Now that the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what everybody knows has to be done. They must show great Courage & Wisdom. Save the USA!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020
Susan Glasser has some strong words in the New Yorker this morning aimed not at Donald Trump – whose post-defeat shenanigans she fully expected – but the senior Republicans who are continuing to enable him. As she puts it, it’s not just Trump’s war on democracy anymore:
Not only have both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to recognize his win; they both voted against a ceremonial motion of the committee organizing the 20 January handover of power to “notify the American people” of plans to inaugurate Biden. In the immediate aftermath of the election, McConnell said that Trump “has every right to look into allegations and request recounts under the law.” Now that Trump has lost the recounts and lost the lawsuits, now that the results have been certified and Trump is openly talking about overturning them, McConnell has been silent.
Somehow, that’s the part I was not entirely prepared for, even after all the Republican enabling and excuses of the past four years. The ballots that Trump and his allies are attacking, after all, are the same that elected Trump’s allies, if not Trump himself. The votes that they want thrown out were cast not only by evil Democrats in faraway cities but by their friends and, in some cases, neighbors. They were counted and recounted and certified by Republican officials in many of the places that sealed Trump’s defeat.
What came as a gut punch, though, and still, even after all this time, a real surprise to me, was the announcement that seventeen other states—or at least their attorneys general—had filed a brief supporting the spurious Texas lawsuit, representing, from South Carolina to Utah, an array of pro-Trump red states. Eighteen states, in other words, are making the preposterous—and democratically devastating—argument that the Supreme Court should throw out other states’ votes because they do not like the results. So much for federalism and states’ rights and all those other previously cherished Republican principles.
Up on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, a hundred and six House Republicans filed an amicus brief of their own supporting the Texas lawsuit. Some of these same Trump supporters in Congress are also now considering objecting to the Electoral College results when they are presented to the House, on 6 January, in what is meant to be a purely pro-forma procedural move. Mitt Romney dismissed the idea as “madness,” but he remains a lonely public voice against Trump, as his fellow-Republicans either fall in line or remain inexcusably silent. This has gone far beyond just humoring Trump for a few days.
Read more here: New Yorker – It’s not just Trump’s war on democracy anymore
University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck is putting his money on the supreme court issuing some kind of decision on the Texas bid to overturn the election results in four states today.
My bet is that we hear from #SCOTUS on the Texas overturn-the-election case sometime today/tonight.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) December 11, 2020
Still hard to imagine the Court doing anything other than denying leave to file—or granting leave while summarily dismissing the complaint on the merits. Either way, it’d be over.
One Republican state attorney general who has not been backing the attempt to overthrow the vote is Idaho’s Lawrence Wasden. He issued a statement yesterday saying:
The legally correct decision may not be the politically convenient decision. This decision is necessary to protect Idaho’s sovereignty. As attorney general, I have significant concerns about supporting a legal argument that could result in other states litigating against legal decisions made by Idaho’s Legislature and governor. Idaho is a sovereign state and should be free to govern itself without interference from any other state. Likewise, Idaho should respect the sovereignty of its sister states.
This has always appeared to be a flaw in the approach of the Texas attorney general in putting the case together. It’s all very well Texas complaining about the way Wisconsin runs its elections, but if the state were to win the case, that would then presumably grant Wisconsin an equal power to take Texas to the supreme court over, for example, closing hundreds of polling sites, and therefore making it harder for minorities to vote.
There’s still a chance we might end up with a government shutdown by the end of the day, as Erik Wasson notes for Bloomberg:
The Senate Thursday postponed a vote on a one-week stop-gap bill to keep the government running past Dec. 11 amid wrangling over demands for amendments to the bill and to an unrelated defense policy measure.
An agreement to stage the vote in time for President Donald Trump to sign the measure before the Friday deadline still is seen as likely.
One reason for the holdup is an attempt by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and conservative Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri to get consent to vote on an amendment granting most Americans a $1,200 stimulus payment. Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, is also holding up the vote, which requires unanimous consent of all senators to proceed, seeking a vote on a bill to withhold lawmaker pay for failure to pass a budget.
If the deadline is missed, the White House budget office has some discretion to hold off on shutting federal agencies and furloughing workers over the weekend if a stopgap is expected to pass.
Read more here: Bloomberg – Senate postpones vote on spending bill as shutdown looms
President Trump angrily tweets for FDA to 'Get the vaccines out now'
Incidentally, while Alex Azar has been patiently been explaining the situation with the proposed roll-out of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine in the US, the president has been shouting about it on Twitter, ordering the head of the DFA to “Get the dam vaccines out now”
While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic @US_FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn @SteveFDA. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020
Donald Trump also seems to be using the vaccine as another pretext to dispute that he will be handing over the presidency to Joe Biden in January.
The Swine Flu (H1N1), and the attempt for a vaccine by the Obama Administration, with Joe Biden in charge, was a complete and total disaster. Now they want to come in and take over one of the “greatest and fastest medical miracles in modern day history.” I don’t think so!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020
Health secretary Azar says US could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday or Tuesday
Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar has been on TV this morning with an update on the process for the FDA approving the emergency use of Pfizer’s Covid vaccination. Speaking on ABC News’s Good Morning America he said:
I’ve got some good news for you here...just a little bit ago the FDA informed Pfizer that they do intend to proceed towards an authorization for their vaccine, so in the next couple of days probably as we work to negotiate with Pfizer, the information doctors need to prescribe it appropriately, we should be seeing the authorization of this first vaccine...we will work with Pfizer and get that shipped out so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.
He went on to say:
There was really good discussion at the advisory committee yesterday especially around these issues of the allergic reactions that we saw in the United Kingdom ,to put the appropriate language in there that the FDA is considering, also what’s called a fact sheet for doctors that’s really an important part of just getting the doctors exactly the information they need, so that as they work with their patients they can make a very informed decision. So it’s very close, it’s really just the last dotting of i’s and crossing of t’s.
Updated
The Electoral College will meet in state capitols on Monday to cast their votes, setting Joe Biden on his path to the White House. Not, of course, if Donald Trump has anything to do with it. He’s still peddling baseless claims of voter fraud and backing court challenges that are attempting to subvert American democracy and overturn the election result. Amber Phillips writes for the Washington Post that the Texas lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election may be the most outlandish effort yet:
Trump has become enamored with the suit. He, through a personal lawyer rather than the administration, has joined in. He talks to his advisers about it; he’s tweeted about it. Republican attorneys general from 17 other states have already joined in.
Not all Republicans, however, are on board. Sen Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), an occasional Trump critic, singled out Paxton’s own legal troubles back home and said this, in part, in a statement about the lawsuit: “It looks like a fella begging for a pardon filed a PR stunt.” (Paxton is facing indictment on securities fraud charges and says he has not discussed a pardon with the White House).
But more than 100 House Republicans signed on to a brief supporting the effort. All these Republicans are setting themselves up for a quick failure
She cites the flaws in several key parts of the lawsuit, including these two beauties:
The allegation: That states counted votes as they came in. Texas AG Paxton pulls an accusation straight out of Trump’s Twitter feed — not even something Trump’s lawyers dared make in a courtroom — that it was odd that Biden took late-night leads in states after Trump initially was leading.
The allegation: That Biden did better in 2020 than Hillary Clinton did in 2016 in these states. Paxton alleges that “the statistical improbability of Mr. Biden winning the popular vote in these four states collectively is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000.” It’s unclear, even in the lawsuit, where and how he got that number
Read more here: Washington Post – Why the Texas lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election may be the most outlandish effort yet
In 2016, white evangelical Christians were all in for Donald Trump. No voting bloc was more committed to him. In that year he got 81% of the white evangelical vote. And they stood by him again in 2020. Last month his support among that group was 75%. Down a bit, but still huge.
So, how come?
Jonathan Freedland puts this to Lerone Martin, associate professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. They discuss how America’s strictest Christians came to back Donald Trump. And ponder, now that Trump is on his way out, where does that leave his Christian backers?
Listen to it here: Why did white evangelicals vote for Trump? Politics Weekly Extra podcast
Ian Haney López and Kristian Ramos write for us this morning that the roadmap to Democrats’ long-term political power is a multiracial coalition:
The key to the Democrats’ 2020 win in the United States is hiding in plain sight: their success in forming a multiracial coalition. Whereas Republicans relied overwhelmingly on white voters alone, poll data indicates that Democrats convinced white voters along with Latino, Black, Asian American and Native American voters to form a powerful coalition. The Democrats’ success in 2020 provides a roadmap to winning future elections.
The US is a multiracial nation, and the Democrats are a multiracial coalition. But this can be hard to recognize from the way most polling is reported. In almost every case, statistics break down voting patterns by race, for instance reporting that 87% of Blacks and 65% of Latinos voted for Joe Biden, while 58% of whites pulled the lever for Trump. Political reporting is saturated with information highlighting voting patterns by discrete racial groups, but almost nowhere can one find numbers about the assembled coalitions.
The problem is not the statistics themselves. Pollsters provide numerical answers to the questions they’re asked. When it comes to race, conventional political wisdom urges splitting groups into contending racial camps. But that routine splitting of racial groups accepts the Republicans’ basic framing of American politics, blinding Democrats to their great strength as a multiracial coalition.
Since the 1960s, Republicans have campaigned on a message of racial conflict. They urge whites to see themselves as threatened by demands for racial equality as well as by immigration from continents other than Europe. Republican rhetoric is usually coded, replacing racial epithets and frank endorsements of white supremacy with terms like “thugs”, “welfare queens” and “illegal aliens”. Even so, the underlying message remains pervasive: racial groups are locked into conflict – whites against all the rest – and everyone must choose a racial side.
When Democrats and liberal pundits parse the vote by racial bloc rather than by multiracial coalition, they unintentionally reinforce this mental schema.
Read more here: Ian Haney López and Kristian Ramos – The roadmap to Democrats’ long-term political power? A multiracial coalition
Politico have a piece this morning looking at how Joe Biden’s cabinet picks so far seem to have entrenched Kamala Harris as the Democratic party’s front-runner for the 2024 election.
Biden has built an administration free of political threats to Harris.
“He’s not putting together a team of rivals, he’s putting together a team. That sets him apart from everybody,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist from Massachusetts who served in senior roles for John Kerry, Biden’s incoming special envoy on climate change. “Obama had a team of rivals, other presidents have had a team of rivals. He’s not interested in conflict as much as he wants to have people who have done the job before and they can all work together to get all the work done.
“That,” Marsh added, “benefits Kamala Harris.”
Biden still could bring in people with presidential aspirations. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is close with the president-elect, is expected to join the administration in what was described as a “significant role”. Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who both ran in 2020, are also in the mix for posts.
But the Biden administration is not yet a bridge to the next generation, as he once suggested it would be — or even a conduit to the political leaders preferred by many younger voters. The lack of 2020 rivals in the Cabinet in some respects reflects Democrats’ under-performance down-ballot in November. Democrats can hardly afford to remove a sitting senator from their ranks, even temporarily.
Installing a popular left-wing Democrat high in the Cabinet could help neutralize anticipated critiques of Biden by progressives over policy. Regardless of who Biden picks for his staff, liberals expect Harris to face primary challenges from her left flank—in either 2024, or 2028 should Biden run and win reelection.
Read more here: Biden’s Cabinet picks give Kamala an edge in 2024
Of all the names bouncing around as prospects yet to be tapped for the incoming Biden-Harris administration, there’s one triggering intense emotion, especially in his home town.
News that Rahm Emanuel is being considered for transportation secretary or another position in Joe Biden’s cabinet or senior team has sparked outrage among Chicagoans who believe his controversial tenure as mayor of that city should disqualify him from a return to the highest echelons of Washington.
Emanuel is a Chicago native with a track record as an Illinois congressman before serving as Barack Obama’s chief of staff then two terms as Chicago mayor.
But he’s a divisive figure who long ago upset liberals, most prominently in Washington, by discouraging Obama from pursuing what became his signature legislative achievement – healthcare reform via the Affordable Care Act – and then in myriad ways as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019.
He’s been endorsed by key moderate figures such as Illinois senator and Democratic whip Dick Durbin, ex-transportation secretary and former Illinois Republican congressman Ray LaHood, current congressman Mike Quigley and Chicago South Side alderman Michelle Harris, who described him as “the perfect candidate” for the transportation job.
But prominent progressives in Chicago and elsewhere are livid that Biden would even give his name an airing, accusing Emanuel of exacerbating the city’s entrenched, acute inequalities and, most dramatically, botching the handling of Black teenager Laquan McDonald’s killing by a white police officer in 2014.
Rahm Emanuel “covered up the murder of a young Black man in Chicago in order to advance his political career,” city alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said of his potential appointment.
Dashcam footage of 17-year-old McDonald being gunned down by officer Jason Van Dyke, who was convicted in 2018 of the murder, was suppressed for more than a year before a judge ordered it released. Emanuel’s role in that delay ignited weeks of local and national protests and calls for his resignation. It left an indelible stain and he didn’t run for a third term.
Eva Maria Lewis, a Chicago artist and organizer as well as the founder of the Free Root Operation, a non-profit fighting poverty-induced gun violence, said that a post for Emanuel in the Biden-Harris administration would mean “people don’t care” what Black Americans have to say.
Read more of Gloria Oladipo’s report from Chicago: Talk of Rahm Emanuel in Biden cabinet dismays his Chicago critics
And if you are wondering how that Hunter Biden story is playing out on the television networks this morning…
A.M. leads on MSNBC and CNN: Gutting covid death toll, vaccine updates, Trump's attempt to overturn the election.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 11, 2020
Over on Fox, the banner: "TRUMP SLAMS MINIMAL COVERAGE OF HUNTER BIDEN PROBE." 11 straight minutes of Hunter rage. Doocy: "What did Joe know & when did he know it?"
Republican voices on social media have reacted with glee to the renewed interest in Hunter Biden’s tax and business affairs. Chris Cillizza asks just how much trouble he might be in:
The short answer is we simply don’t know yet. And the reason is, at least in part, because it’s just so hard to differentiate the spin from the facts. What we know is that Hunter Biden had dealings with Chinese companies both during and after his father served as vice president.
First and most obviously, it’s never a good thing to be the subject of a federal investigation. Like, you would rather not be under federal investigation – all other things being equal. (For those who think they see the hidden hand of Attorney General – and Trump consigliere – Bill Barr in this, the investigation reportedly predates Barr’s time as the nation’s top cop.)
And we know – and have known – that it was a bad look for Hunter Biden to be sitting on the boards of foreign companies while his dad was the sitting vice president of the United States. Hunter acknowledged as much in an interview with ABC News in October 2019.
“I did nothing wrong at all,” Hunter Biden said. “However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is – it’s a swamp, in many ways? Yeah. Did I do anything improper? No.”
That is the point on which all of this rests. While it may have been a mistake from a perception standpoint for Hunter Biden to sit on foreign boards, that doesn’t mean that any laws were broken. What passes for guilt in the court of public opinion often would get you laughed out of a court of law.
So that’s where we are. The investigation is ongoing. We need to wait to see what it turns up – if anything. Only then will we be able to definitely ascertain how much trouble Hunter Biden is actually in.
Read more here: CNN – What does the Hunter Biden investigation actually tell us?
Erwin Seba and Jessica Resnick-Ault at Reuters are raising the rather alarming sounding prospect that US workers could soon face choices such as free Covid-19 shots and a cash bonus if all get immunized, or those unwilling to be vaccinated get reassigned or even lose their jobs.
Those options are being studied by businesses hoping to bring at-home employees back without triggering a backlash or violating federal and state employment law. Companies are consulting with lawyers, health care experts and polling their workers to gauge when to offer carrots and when to use a stick.
Workplace programs could come following US approval of the first vaccine this week. But the array of choices reflects huge hurdles. A Pew Research poll shows 21% of Americans are firmly opposed, with 60% likely to get a shot. That split, and worries about side effects, have led to a wide variety of potential options.
“Some of my clients say ‘if you get a vaccine, we’ll give you a bonus,’” said Rogge Dunn, who runs a Dallas law practice and is advising businesses on setting up programs to encourage workers to get inoculated.
Employees may not be easily swayed.
“All this rushing has me nervous,” said a registered nurse in Georgia, who insisted no incentive would change her mind. Other workers say they will freely line up for shots once the rollout to health care workers proves successful.
“I’m willing to take it, but not maybe immediately,” said Sean Rollins, a 37-year-old Massachusetts carpenter who wants to see if serious side effects emerge. Protecting his family is more important than any incentive, but free would be nice.
“I want to get it as soon as possible. No incentive necessary,” said Alissa Gabriel, 51, a San Diego, California, municipal worker, who believes the vaccines will help workers return to their office towers from remote work.
Private employers could set up mandatory vaccinations so long as they offer accommodations to workers with religious and medical conditions that would exempt them, said Sarah Mitchell Montgomery, a partner at Jackson Walker advising corporate clients. The direct threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic will allow mandatory programs to win approvals soon, she believes.
“There may be situations where there is not a good accommodation,” such as allowing those employees to continue to work from home, wear protective clothing or equipment on the job, she said. To protect workers from unvaccinated employees, companies also could argue they need to remove recalcitrant staff to protect others, she said.
Vaccination programs, exemptions and access are being studied by union officials. The United Steelworkers union, which represents teachers, healthcare, mining, petrochemical and government workers, is looking to the CDC for recommendations. But it is concerned about workers being told to get vaccinated.
“Vaccination should be strongly encouraged,” said Michael Wright, USW director of health, safety and environment, but not mandatory. Workers who develop side effects should receive free health care and be paid for time out of work, he said.
“The questions we have are: what is the strategy if there are side effects, and who is responsible for that?” said Wright.
In the Southern California oceanside city of Manhattan Beach, one arm of government is urging residents to stay home except for essential needs while another is encouraging them to get out and shop and even providing places where they can sit down to relax, eat takeout and watch the sun set on the Pacific.
It’s one example of confusing messages from governments as most of California is under a broad shutdown order that includes an overnight curfew to try to stem record-breaking coronavirus cases that threaten to overwhelm the hospital system.
The Associated Press report that while state and county health officials are pleading with residents to stay home and only mingle with those in their household, the order allows all retailers to remain open with 20% capacity and encourages people to get outside to exercise.
Manhattan Beach Mayor Suzanne Hadley said her community saw an opportunity to aid local businesses while meeting the stipulations of the order. The solution: repurposing city-owned patio areas set up to allow restaurants to serve diners outdoors - which no longer is allowed - into “public seating areas” where downtown shoppers can relax.
“Shopping for a Christmas gift, buying a to-go meal, watching a sunset are allowed, and even the outdoor activities are encouraged by the state,” she said.
Manhattan Beach in is Los Angeles County, the state’s largest with 10 million residents and disproportionately large numbers of California’s coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
On Thursday, when the state set a one-day record of 220 deaths, county Health Director Barbara Ferrer said if people don’t follow orders to stay home except for essential needs and not mingle with people outside their households “we are running a risk that could have catastrophic consequences, with hospitals becoming overwhelmed and severely ill patients not able to get the care they need.”
“We need to get back to what we did in the spring, at the beginning of the pandemic, when few people went out and we took seriously our responsibility to care for each other,” she said.
The shutdown order by Gov. Gavin Newsom took effect last weekend, but it seems to be having a minimal effect on daily life. It allows many more activities than the March shutdown that made the state a model on how to respond to the pandemic.
Over at CNN, Christina Maxouris says that while the US is closer to a vaccine, that is unlikely to impact the dark and deadly days ahead. She writes:
The vote by the FDA committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, is a “very important step.”
“We want to make sure that we impress the American public that decisions that involve their health and safety are made outside of the realm of politics, outside of the realm of self-aggrandizement and are made in essence, by independent groups,” Fauci told CNN Thursday night.
While the green light for a Covid-19 vaccine will offer a light at the end of the tunnel, leading experts have warned the worst days of the pandemic are still ahead for the US.
Hospitalization numbers break records daily – with Thursday reporting the highest number of Covid-19 patients nationwide since the pandemic’s start: more than 107,200. A CNN analysis of newly released data from the US Department of Health and Human Services showed that at least 200 hospitals across the US were at full capacity last week. And more than 90% of ICU beds were occupied in a third of all hospitals.
“We are in the time frame now that probably for the next 60 to 90 days, we’re going to have more deaths per day than we had in 9/11,” CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said. “This is going to be a real unfortunate loss of life, as all that we’ve had so far, and the reality is the vaccine approval this week is not going to really impact.”
Read more here: CNN – The US is a step closer to a Covid-19 vaccine authorization. But that’s unlikely to impact the dark and deadly days ahead
What happens next with the FDA and the Pfizer vaccine? Well, it cleared the hurdle of being approved by the vaccines committee yesterday – with a couple of dissenting voices, as the Washington Post notes:
The committee voted yes, 17 in favor, four against and one absention. Panel members did not have an opportunity to explain their votes, but at least two dissenters objected to inclusion of 16- and 17-year-olds, given what they described as the low risk of severe disease in that age group and how few had participated in the trial.
“I would have voted ‘yes’ most enthusiastically had the language been ‘ … 18 years of age and older,’ ” said David Kim, director of the division of Vaccines in the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Assuming that the formal approval for emergency use comes soon, the US could be administering the shots early next week, or even, at a push, by the weekend.
If as expected, the FDA follows quickly with an emergency authorization, the shots will start being moved to the states within 24 hours, according to officials at Operation Warp Speed. Inoculations could begin early next week.
After the FDA authorization, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will vote on whether to recommend the vaccine and for which groups. First in line to be inoculated are health care personnel and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, according to its previous recommendations. But states will have the final say on who gets the first shots and where they are administered. Those considerations are complicated by extreme logistics challenges, including the sub-Antarctic storage temperatures the vaccine requires.
The two-shot vaccine, which has been shown to be 95 percent effective in randomized trials involving thousands of people, has already been approved by the United Kingdom, Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. US officials, however, have hewed to a more rigorous approval process that they believe will boost confidence in the vaccine among the general public.
“The American public demands and deserves a rigorous, comprehensive and independent review of the data,” said Doran Fink, deputy director of the FDA’s Division of Vaccines and Related Products. “That is what FDA physicians and scientists, all of us career public health servants, have been doing over days, nights, weekends and, yes, over the Thanksgiving holiday.”
Read more here: Washington Post – FDA advisers recommend Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, with agency action expected soon
Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Friday. Here’s a catch up on where we are, and some of what we might see today:
- The Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee meeting voted to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for distribution. The FDA is expected to follow the committee’s recommendations, meaning the vaccine could be administered to healthcare workers and nursing home residents within days.
- There were 224,452 new coronavirus cases yesterday, and 2,768 further deaths. The total death toll has now passed 290,000.
- Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Virginia were among states taking new measures to halt the spread, while there remains no nation strategy to combat Covid from the Trump administration.
- Four attorneys general responded to a Supreme Court lawsuit that claims that they mishandled their election. In their filings, the AGs said the lawsuit, filed by the Texas attorney general, is baseless in facts and is just an attempt to overturn the election.
- Joe Biden will nominate Susan Rice as director of the Domestic Policy Council and Denis McDonough as secretary of Veteran Affairs. Both were top officials in the Obama administration.
- Congressional bickering seems to be overwhelming attempts to get any kind of coronavirus economic relief package passed.
- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were named as Time magazine’s person of 2020.
