Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said in an opinion piece published in USA Today on Wednesday that even as his state became embroiled in a national dispute over election integrity that was weaponized by the Trump campaign, his own family, who voted for President Donald Trump’s reelection “lost” when a recount revealed President-elect Biden’s lead.
Continue reading “GA Secretary Of State: My Family Voted Trump And Was ‘Thrown Under The Bus’”
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the ravages of the novel coronavirus forced millions of people out of work, shuttered businesses and shrank the value of retirement accounts, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to a three-year low.
Continue reading “David Perdue Boosted Wealth With Well-Timed Stock Trades As Pandemic Hit”
President Trump’s decision to allow the full, formal transition process to move forward signals the end of any real attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. It’s been clear for a while that this effort would fail; now you can be sure of it. The real impact of the blizzard of lies and frivolous lawsuits about voter fraud, however, will be as the premise and predicate for a new round of voter suppression laws Republican legislatures and GOP-appointed judges will try to put into effect starting next year.
We’ve seen this pattern before, as predictable as day follows night.
More than four years after the tragic death of their son Seth Rich — and after Fox News falsely suggested that he was part of a seedy story involving WikiLeaks — Rich’s parents have settled a lawsuit with the cable network.
Continue reading “Fox News Settles With Seth Rich’s Parents Years After Pushing Conspiracy Theory”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), one of President Donald Trump’s top allies in Congress, on Tuesday night encouraged Trump to pardon himself and a litany of other people before his presidency ends in January.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and former Obama-era surgeon general Vivek Murthy have emerged as top picks for Health and Human Services Secretary in the incoming Biden administration, Politico reported late Tuesday.
The role will arguably be among the most important that Biden will fill as the federal government prepares to roll out distribution of COVID-19 vaccines amid surging cases of the virus.
The HHS secretary will play a key role in managing how the nation conducts pandemic response, along with rebuilding trust in science-based guidance and health expertise, which President Donald Trump has spent many months eroding.
Although Biden has not yet made a formal decision, the nomination could follow a series of firsts as Biden seeks to diversify his team. Politico points out that Grisham would be the first Latina nominated for the role and that Murthy’s selection would make him the first nominee of Indian descent for the job.
An announcement of Biden’s pick for the role is not expected until Monday at the earliest, three people with knowledge of the selection process told Politico.
Murthy would join a host of Obama administration alumni if selected. A former surgeon general, who once focused on tackling the opioid crisis and the loneliness epidemic, he has served as health adviser to Biden during the campaign. Murthy has played a significant role in the incoming administration’s pandemic planning as co-chair of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board.
Grisham, another top contender for the leading HHS job, has broad managerial expertise — she once ran New Mexico’s health department. Grisham, a former U.S. congresswoman was elected governor in 2019, and has been rigorous in her efforts to curb COVID-19 in her state. She declared a statewide emergency on the same day her state confirmed its first positive cases.
While is not uncommon for incoming presidents to select governors to lead the Health and Human Services department, Grisham does not share ties to the Obama White House that have been characteristic of many of Biden’s picks so far.
According to Politico, Murthy will likely have a future in the Biden administration even if he is not selected as HHS secretary — potentially as part of the White House’s Covid-19 response team.
Also up for consideration have included Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, former Louisiana health secretary Rebekah Gee and North Carolina health secretary Mandy Cohen.
President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his administration would not be simply an extension of former President Barack Obama’s presidency as he begins to roll out his Cabinet and advisory picks.
Continue reading “Biden Says This Won’t Be Obama 3.0: ‘We Face A Totally Different World’ Now”
The federal government is planning to send out 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to U.S. communities within 24 hours of regulatory clearance, the Washington Post reported late Tuesday.
Officials anticipate that shots will be quickly administered to frontline health care workers first.
Gen. Gustave Perna who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed told reporters that “a steady drumbeat” of additional doses will be delivered as manufacturing capacity picks up.
Allocations will be made based on each state’s population Perna told the Post.
As manufacturing capacity expands, next in line for the vaccine –which will be free — would include an estimated 87 million other essential workers, including first responders, teachers and grocery workers, the Post said. More than 100 million adults with high-risk medical conditions and about 53 million adults over the age of 65 would also be among that group.
Enough doses of a shot to vaccinate 20 million people will likely be available by the end of the year. It probably will be April before the general public begins to get vaccinated, the Post noted.
According to the publication, the first batch of 6.4 million doses also includes vaccines that would go to five federal agencies — the Bureau of Prisons, the Defense and State departments, Indian Health Service and the Veterans Health Administration.
As vaccine distribution appears imminent, many states have identified large hospital systems to be the first places to receive vaccines because they have the appropriate freezers for the very low temperatures required to store the vaccine (minus-94 Fahrenheit) and can efficiently vaccinate many people.
Pfizer has been conducting test runs to prepare for delivery and proper handling of the shots and according to the Post, Perna said that the “lessons learned” during these rehearsals are being shared with other officials. He told the Post that he anticipated “to see growing confidence in people that are using it.”
President Donald Trump is poised to pardon convicted felon Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017 before attempting to withdraw the plea this year, according to multiple reports.
Continue reading “Trump Plans On Pardoning Michael Flynn And Others On His Way Out”
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s attendance at the White House event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court in late September reportedly caused tension among parents whose children also attend Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital, a private elementary school in the District, according to the New York Times on Tuesday.
