Reports from the White House press pooler this afternoon:
3:47: The pool has gathered and we are now waiting in vans on West Executive Avenue. The White House has not provided details on where we're headed, but your pooler will pass along any updates as soon as possible.
Motorcade is rolling from the White House at 4:33 p.m. Your pooler did not spot the president getting into his vehicle. Updates to come.
The motorcade came to a stop on New Hampshire Avenue just before 4:40 p.m. Pool is holding in vans, and we do not have information on what President Biden is doing, but on one side of the street is the Watergate Hotel, and on the other side is the Saudi Embassy.
4:54: From the White House: The President is visiting his close friend, Senator Bob Dole.
BG: Dole, 97, announced this week he has stage 4 lung cancer.
The ‘delusion’ was Trump’s that he’d won election and he spread that message and inspired the mob that resulted in deaths and an attempted coup. ‘He called us all to the Capitol and he wants us to make it WILD!!! Sir Yes Sir!!!’ wrote leader of the Oath Keepers after Trump tweet
“You’re killing me! This whole thing is! We’ve got all the damn cases,” Trump yelled at Jared Kushner in the Oval Office on Aug. 19. “I want to do what Mexico does. They don’t give you a test till you get to the emergency room and you’re vomiting.”
Among the most damning indictments you'll read about any president on his response to a crisis:
"The government’s public health experts were all but silenced by the arrival of Dr. Scott W. Atlas, the Stanford professor of neuroradiology recruited after appearances on Fox."
On his final day before retiring, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the 4th gen of his family to control the NYT, writes to its nearly 5000 employees: "We view ourselves first and foremost as stewards: Our highest purpose is to ensure the The Times’s mission thrives decade after decade."
"I’ve heard people wonder what place, if any, this kind of journalism has in a time when every partisan can find an agreeable opinion, the media is attacked as the enemy of the people, misinformation spreads with impunity..."
"... and financial pressures threaten the viability of century-old local newspapers and digital publications alike. But these threats, rather than call into question our mission, only underscore its importance...."
“As I long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should,” Biden said, adding that at the current pace under Trump, “It’s going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.” nytimes.com/live/2020/12/2…
Mr. Biden promised a “much more aggressive effort” under his administration.
“This is going to be the greatest operational challenge we’ve ever faced as a nation,” Mr. Biden said, “but we’re going to get it done.”
He has vowed to get at least 100 million vaccine shots into the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office.
PA’s GOP is unhappy with the State Supreme Court whose judges are elected statewide. Rs want a constitutional amendment to draw gerrymandered districts to ensure a GOP majority on the court. It could be on the May ballot, drawing torrents of dark money. nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/…
Current court has a Dem majority. GOP has been angry since it drew new congressional maps in 2018 that undid tortured GOP-favoring districts. There’s also anger after court loosened some restrictions on mail ballots in the 2020 election that Trump & his PA allies claim he won.
Needless to say, but saying it anyway, Trump did not win PA.
Opposing $600 benefits to those who lost work in the pandemic, Sen. Kelly Loeffler said people "needed to get back to work and limit gov't dependency."
Since 1995, her family's farms have collected $3.2 million in federal subsidies.
Self-described "political outsider" @KLoeffler's two biggest donors are her husband, the chair of the NY Stock exchange, and a hedge fund titan, whose businesses have kicked in $27 million to a PAC backing her.