In a nice bit of timing, the charges were handed down just as Espada released a 34-page report on his accomplishments as majority leader. [NYDN]
Yep, Biden’s still gonna win
A big subtweet of the president here
A brutal year for the media industry
Media industry layoffs are poised to reach an all-time high in 2020 due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research.
An estimated 28,637 cuts were reported in the industry by late October, Variety, citing data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, reported, nearly as many as the record 28,803 reported in the media sector in 2008. By comparison, the sector saw just over 10,000 job losses in 2019 and 15,474 in 2018.
Job losses spiked in May during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. After a June dropoff, layoffs increased again over the summer, dropping to pre-pandemic levels in September and October, Variety noted.
Another sign that the transition is finally moving forward
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are set to receive their first presidential daily briefing on Monday.
The briefing is a collection of high-level intelligence information and other materials pertinent to issues of national security prepared for the president by senior officials and advisers.
A president-elect typically begins receiving the briefings in the weeks before he is inaugurated to ensure a smooth transition process and protect the nation’s interests at home and abroad. The White House reportedly signed off of the briefings for Biden last week.
Moderna will become the second company, following Pfizer, to ask the FDA for emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine
Pharmaceutical company Moderna intends to apply Monday to the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine.
The company will ask the FDA to review an expanded data set showing the vaccine is 94.1% effective at preventing Covid-19 and 100% effective at preventing severe cases of the disease.
“This is striking,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee. “These are amazing data.”
Moderna’s chief medical officer said he became emotional when he saw the data Saturday night.
“It was the first time I allowed myself to cry,” Dr. Tal Zaks said. “We have a full expectation to change the course of this pandemic.”
The coddled dear leader
Sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like “Mad King George, muttering, ‘I won. I won. I won.’ ”
However cleareyed Trump’s aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were “happy to scratch his itch,” this adviser said. “If he thinks he won, it’s like, ‘Shh . . . we won’t tell him.’ ” …
In the days after the election, as Trump scrambled for an escape hatch from reality, the president largely ignored his campaign staff and the professional lawyers who had guided him through the Russia investigation and the impeachment trial, as well as the army of attorneys who stood ready to file legitimate court challenges.
Instead, Trump empowered loyalists who were willing to tell him what he wanted to hear — that he would have won in a landslide had the election not been rigged and stolen — and then to sacrifice their reputations by waging a campaign in courtrooms and in the media to convince the public of that delusion.
You didn’t think Trump would let us have a relaxing holiday weekend, did you?
Things are going well for the president
Trump still focusing on the important stuff
Some bad news for everyone looking forward to a repeat of Giuliani’s “meltdown” last week
President Trump on Wednesday canceled his trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he was scheduled to join his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a Republican-led state Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing on alleged election irregularities.
… The cancellation comes after Giuliani was exposed to a second person who tested positive for the coronavirus. It’s unclear if that’s the reason the trip was cancelled.
Ya think?
This does not bode well for Biden’s dreams of returning to the days of Senate bipartisanship
Some Republican senators have publicly acknowledged Democrat Joe Biden is the president-elect. Others have moved straight to criticizing his early Cabinet picks, even as President Trump continues to dispute the outcome of the Nov. 3 election.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), three weeks after Election Day, has still not said much of anything at all.
McConnell’s ongoing silence, even as the Trump administration moves to allow Biden to start his transition, leaves a question mark over what could be the most important Washington relationship of the next two years — between an incoming president who promised to tackle the nation’s most pressing concerns and the win-at-all-costs Capitol Hill operator who may well serve as his legislative gatekeeper.
The two men — Senate colleagues for 24 years and sparring partners in several high-stakes negotiations during Biden’s time as vice president — still have not spoken since the election, according to a GOP aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly.
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