Texas Messes With Battleground States
- A bonkers long shot lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has become a litmus test for Republicans this week. The lawsuit seeks to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn election results in four states that handed Joe Biden a win: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
- On Wednesday, the Trump campaign and more than a dozen red-state attorneys general signed on to the legal gambit, which is all but certain to be unsuccessful. By the end of the day Friday we learned it, in fact, was.
- The long odds didn’t stopped more than 100 House Republicans from backing the effort. It started with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) sending an email to his GOP colleagues to sign onto an amicus brief supporting the Texas lawsuit.
- By the end of the week, even House GOP leaders Kevin McCarthy (CA) and Steve Scalise (LA) formally signed on to the brief.
- The targeted battleground states fired back at the Texas suit on Thursday, with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro calling the effort a “seditious abuse of the judicial process.”
- Paxton, who is under indictment for securities charges, told Fox News Thursday night that his baseless lawsuit is not an attempt to curry favor with Trump in an attempt to get a pardon.
A Shot In The Arm
- The United Kingdom on Tuesday began vaccinating citizens for COVID-19, after the Pfizer vaccine was approved for use there.
- Here at home, Josh Kovensky and Kate Riga reported on the challenges the U.S. will face in distributing the vaccine. Congress has yet to appropriate any money for vaccine distribution.
- Another key question that still remains unanswered: Will the vaccine prevent transmission of COVID-19?
- The Trump administration also reportedly declined an offer from Pfizer over the summer to purchase more doses of the vaccine.
- The FDA’s outside advisory board on Thursday voted to endorse the Pfizer vaccine, clearing the way for the FDA to authorize its use.
- HHS Secretary Alex Azar predicted that the first COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. would begin early next week.
Hunter Biden Under Investigation
- Hunter Biden announced on Wednesday that federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating his tax affairs.
- According to CNN, the probe began in 2018, before current Attorney General Bill Barr’s tenure.
- “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,” Hunter Biden said in a statement.
- The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that Barr had known about the probe since the spring, and had worked to keep it out of public view during the contentious campaign season.
- That sure irked Trump, who complained on Twitter about being kept in the dark on the probe: “Why didn’t the Fake News Media, the FBI and the DOJ report the Biden matter BEFORE the Election,” Trump wrote in a Thursday night tweet.”
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