Undercutting Trump, Barr says there’s no basis for seizing voting machines, using special counsels for election fraud, Hunter Biden

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Outgoing Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday that he saw no basis for the federal government seizing voting machines and that he did not intend to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud — again breaking with President Trump as the commander in chief entertains increasingly desperate measures to overturn the election.

At a news conference to announce charges in a decades-old terrorism case, Barr — who has just two days left in office — was peppered with questions about whether he would consider steps proposed by allies of the president to advance Trump’s claims of massive voter fraud.

Barr said that while he was “sure there was fraud in this election,” he had not seen evidence that it was so “systemic or broad-based” that it would change the result. He asserted he saw “no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government,” and he would not name a special counsel to explore the allegations of Trump and his allies. Continue reading.

House panel subpoenas for Azar, Redfield CDC documents

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Top Trump administration health officials were subpoenaed by House Democrats on Monday, after an investigation showed “extensive” political interference with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Over a period of four months, as coronavirus cases and deaths rose around the country, Trump Administration appointees attempted to alter or block at least 13 scientific reports related to the virus,” the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis said a letter.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), said he is seeking full, unredacted documents from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield, after “HHS has made clear that it will not provide a timely and complete response to the Select Subcommittee’s requests on a voluntary basis.” Continue reading.

‘Up to no good’: Why this retired 4-star general is sounding the alarm over Trump’s acting Pentagon chief

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Four star Army General Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) is sounding the alarm on reports acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has banned Pentagon brass from holding meetingswith Biden transition team officials, leaving career military staff “stunned.”

“Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—- MAKES NO SENSE. CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED. DOD GOES OPAQUE. TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD. DANGER. —-” tweeted McCaffrey, who is a well-known and highly-respected NBC News and MSNBC military analyst.

Reports from Axios and Business Insider both say Pentagon officials are feeling “overwhelmed” by the number of meetings they’ve attended with Biden staff, and Miller has decided to order a two-week break for the holidays. Continue reading.

What is in the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill

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Lawmakers late on Sunday released a long-awaited $900 billion coronavirus relief bill that is expected to be passed by Congress on Monday and signed into law by President Trump. 

The relief package will be combined with a $1.4 trillion measure to fund federal agencies through the end of September and a package extending expiring tax provisions. 

Both Democrats and Republicans touted various aspects of the relief package, though Democrats wanted a significantly larger bill. Continue reading.

There is no middle ground between fact and fiction on the election results

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AS PRESIDENT Trump continues to lie about last month’s election, national Republican leaders are trying to stake out what they imagine as a middle ground: While Joe Biden is the president-elect, the 2020 election was marred by substantial fraud and election irregularities. In fact, this is also a lie, and their dishonesty damages U.S. democracy.

At a Wednesday Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) declared that it is “not sustainable” for a large proportion of Americans to believe the election results are illegitimate. He then set about encouraging this false belief by dignifying debunked attacks on the vote’s integrity. Mr. Johnson insisted that pro-Trump forces have raised “legitimate concerns” about “violations of election laws,” “fraudulent votes and ballot stuffing,” and “corruption of voting machines and software that might be programmed to add or switch votes.”

Former Trump election security chief Christopher Krebs told the panel that the election was highly secure and that attacks on local voting officials were deeply unfair. Yet Mr. Johnson trotted out Trump lawyers who alleged massive numbers of illegal votes and blamed losses in court on negligent judges refusing to look at their so-called evidence. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) declared that “the fraud happened.” Other GOP senators emphasized that their constituents thought the vote was rigged. The overall message, about perhaps the cleanest presidential election ever run in the United States: We cannot prove that fraud changed the outcome, but we cannot rule it out, and Americans should be angry regardless. Continue reading.

As COVID-19 vaccines roll out, facemasks will still be essential

Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 won’t provide immunity from the public health directives to wear a cloth face mask in public.

“We are going to be in this mask phase well into 2021,” predicted Dr. Anthony Harris, associate medical director at occupational health firm WorkCare. “It won’t be until fall of next year that you’ll begin to see masks not being a part of our normal day-to-day, at the earliest.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized two COVID-19 vaccines so far, including Moderna’s vaccine, which got a green light Friday. Randomized clinical trials involving more than 70,000 people documented 94 to 95% fewer cases of COVID in adults who got vaccinated vs. those who received a placebo. Continue reading.

House Select Committee on Racial Justice issues new report with recommendations to dismantle systemic racism

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Tuesday,  the House Select Committee on Racial Justice adopted a new report chronicling persistent racial disparities and detailing specific policies to dismantle systemic racism in Minnesota. Click here to download a copy. 

“I’m proud of the Select Committee’s hard work this year to help Minnesotans understand the historical context behind systemic racism, and to give the unacceptable racial disparities throughout the state the attention they deserve,” said co-chair Rep. Rena Moran (DFL – Saint Paul). “Now, it’s time for the rest of the Legislature to follow through on these important recommendations to help Black, Indigenous, and People of Color live healthy, safe, and prosperous lives full of opportunity to reach their full potential.”

The Select Committee’s policy recommendations address intentional and unintentional systemic disparities and inequities based on race. The recommendations – which cover topics including economic development, housing, education, public safety, health and human services, and environmental justice – have the goal of expanding access to the opportunity to build a prosperous state for all Minnesotans.

Continue reading “House Select Committee on Racial Justice issues new report with recommendations to dismantle systemic racism”

How Trump drove the lie that the election was stolen, undermining voter trust in the outcome

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Elena Parent, a Democratic state lawmaker from the Atlanta area, listened incredulously in a small hearing room in early December as a stream of witnesses spun fantastical tales of alleged election fraud before the Georgia Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

A retired Army colonel claimed the state’s voting machines were controlled by Communists from Venezuela. A volunteer lawyer with President Trump’s campaign shared surveillance video that she said showed election workers in Atlanta counting “suitcases” of phony ballots that swung Georgia’s election to former vice president Joe Biden. The president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, told the panel: “Every single vote should be taken away from Biden.”

“Since this has been debunked repeatedly, what evidence can you give to us that counters what our elections officials presented us with only an hour ago?” Parent asked one of the witnesses, her voice rising in exasperation. When she tried to ask a follow-up question, the Republican committee chairman cut her off. Continue reading.

Inside Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the election

No president has ever made such expansive and individualized pleas. 

It started with a phone call.

In mid-November, President Donald Trump rang Monica Palmer, the Republican chair of an obscure board in Michigan that had just declared Joe Biden winner of the state’s most populous county.

Within 24 hours, Palmer announced she wanted to “rescind” her vote. Her reasoning mirrored Trump’s public and private rants: The Nov. 3 election may have been rife with fraud. Continue reading.

White House secures ‘three martini lunch’ tax deduction in draft of coronavirus relief package

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President Trump has long seized on the tax break as a way to revive the restaurant industry. But economists have panned it as ineffective and largely benefiting the wealthy.

The draft language of the emergency coronavirus relief package includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses pushed by the White House and strongly denounced by some congressional Democrats, according to a summary of the deal circulating among congressional officials and officials who are familiar with the provision.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a proposal that had not yet been publicly released.

President Trump has for months talked about securing the deduction — derisively referred to as the “three-martini lunch” by critics — as a way to revive the restaurant industry badly battered by the pandemic. Continue reading.