Former Senate CIA Investigator Warns Biden Against Picks Tainted By Torture, ‘Cover-Up’

The chief investigator for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2014 torture report is urging President-elect Joe Biden not to include anyone in his administration who was complicit in torture, or who otherwise frustrated efforts to investigate and hold people responsible for it. 

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YouTube Suspends Trump-Touted OANN After It Hawks Unproven Cure For COVID

YouTube has banned One America News Network (OANN) from uploading new videos and livestreaming for one week, after the Trump-friendly media outlet promoted a fake cure for COVID-19. The news was first reported by Axios on Tuesday. Continue reading “YouTube Suspends Trump-Touted OANN After It Hawks Unproven Cure For COVID”

‘America Is Back’: Biden Highlights His Diverse Group Of Foreign Policy And Nat Sec Picks

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday at least implicitly rebuked President Trump’s “America First” attitude as the former VP introduced his first Cabinet and administration picks for national security and foreign policy positions.

In emphasizing the importance of America working with its allies, Biden highlighted his personal connections to each of his cabinet picks, as well as the diversity of his selections.

The President-elect touted his cabinet picks’ “unmatched experience and accomplishments.” The country can’t meet challenges with “old thinking and unchanged habits,” Biden said as he stressed a number of “firsts” in choosing them.

“We’re going to have the first woman lead the intelligence community; first Latino immigrant to lead Department of Homeland Security; and groundbreaking diplomat at the United Nations,” Biden said. “We’re going to have a principal on the National Security Council whose job is to fight climate change for the first time ever that will occur. And my national security team will be coordinated by one of the youngest national security advisers in decades.”

Biden praised Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken for being one of his “closest, most trusted advisers” and said that he personally knows his family, who are immigrants.

“I know him and his family, immigrants and refugees, Holocaust survivor who taught him to never take for granted the very idea of America as a place of possibilities,” Biden said.

Blinken described how his grandfather fled Russia. His father served in the Air Force in World War II and later as an ambassador. His mother fled communist Hungary and helped future refugees come to U.S. And his late stepfather was the only one of 900 children in his school in Poland to survive the Holocaust after four years in concentration camps.

Biden touted Alejandro Mayorcas, his nominee for secretary of Homeland Security, for taking on “one of the hardest jobs in government” of not only keeping the country safe from threats domestically and abroad, but also playing “a critical role fixing our broken immigration system.”

Mayorcas emphasized in his remarks that his “father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism.”

“They cherished our democracy and were intensely proud to become United States citizens,” Mayorcas said. “I have carried that pride throughout my nearly 20 years of government service and throughout my life.”

Biden introduced Linda Thomas-Greenfield, his choice for UN Ambassador, as “a seasoned, distinguished diplomat” with 35 years in foreign service “who never forgot where she came from, growing up in segregated Louisiana.”

“Eldest of eight, her dad couldn’t read or write. She says he was the smartest person she knew,” Biden said. “First in her family to graduate high school, then college. The whole world literally ahead of her as dad and mom taught her to believe.”

After Biden praised Thomas-Greenfield for being “known as the people’s ambassador” and serving as the top State Department official in charge of African policy during the Ebola crisis, Greenfield began her remarks by highlighting how she learned from her family much like the President-elect and VP-elect Kamala Harris.

“My parents had very little back in Louisiana where I grew up, but they gave me and my siblings everything they had, and I know how proud they would be of this day,” Greenfield said.

Greenfield added that she likes to put a “Cajun spin” in her 35 years of foreign service across four continents, which she calls “gumbo diplomacy.”

“Wherever I was posted around the world, I would invite people of different backgrounds and beliefs to help me make a roux, chop onions for the holy Trinity, make homemade gumbo,” Greenfield said. “It was my way of breaking down barriers, connecting with people, and starting to see each other on a human level. That’s the charge in front of us today.”

In introducing his pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, Biden brought up how his upbringing in Minnesota means that his nominee understands his vision that “economic security is national security.”

Biden also broke precedent as he introduced John Kerry as the first presidential envoy on climate.

“As for the man himself, if I had a former secretary of state that helped negotiate Paris climate accord, former presidential nominee, former leading senator or head of major climate organization for the job, I would show my commitment to the United States and the whole world,” Biden said. “The fact that I picked the one person who is all these things speaks unambiguously to my commitment.”

Kerry later reaffirmed Biden’s commitment to address the climate crisis that requires the kind of leadership that led the country to landing on the moon, curing diseases and beating “back global tyranny to win World War II.”

Kerry also stressed that Biden “will trust in God and he will also trust in science to guide our work on Earth to protect God’s creation.”

Harris closed out the announcement of the incoming administration’s Cabinet picks by highlighting that Biden “selected a cabinet that looks like America, that reflects the best of our nation, and that’s what we have done.”

“Today’s nominees and appointees come from different places, they bring a range of different life and professional experiences and perspectives,” Harris said. “And they also share something else in common, an unwavering belief in America’s ideals and unshakeable commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. And they understand the indispensable role of America’s leadership in the world.”

CNN: Former Nunes Aide Who Boosted Ukraine Conspiracy Theories To Lead DOD Transition

A Pentagon official known for spreading Ukraine-related conspiracy theories about President-elect Joe Biden will lead the Defense Department’s transition team, CNN reports.

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Trump Takes A Break From His Bunker To Celebrate ‘Sacred’ Stock Market Gains

President Donald Trump, who has bunkered very strongly since his electoral defeat earlier this month, made a surprise appearance Tuesday in the White House briefing room to credit himself for unprecedented gains in the stock market.

“The stock market’s just broken 30,000 — never been broken, that number,” Trump said in very short remarks that clocked in at about a minute. He was referring to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The President, who has largely failed to address the nation on how the country will grapple with surging COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, appeared eager to take the podium and credit his own administration for the market’s strength after largely shying away from making formal public remarks in the stinging weeks since losing his reelection.

“That’s a sacred number, 30,000, nobody thought they’d ever see it,” the one-term president said.

Trump has frequently claimed that markets would suffer dramatically if he lost reelection. Yet the record high has coincided with the formal start of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition to the role of commander-in-chief, after the General Services Administration chief finally allowed the process to begin late Monday.

“It’s the 48th time that we’ve broken records during the Trump administration,” Trump asserted, adding that he wanted to “congratulate all the people within the administration that work so hard.”

The sudden emergence from hiding may have been a direct effort by Trump to lay claim on the gains even as stock experts chattered that the record-high numbers were likely related to Biden’s transition and reports that he would nominate Janet Yellen for Treasury secretary. 

Twitter erupted in response:

Democracy and Accountability

We know that Joe Biden, President-Elect of the United States, has vast expectations for his presidency resting on his shoulders. That challenge grew only greater when it became clear Democrats would likely not control the Senate for the first two years of Biden’s presidency. But beyond specific legislation or executive actions there is something more basic we should focus on – something Democrats have often done poorly at, not least in the presidency of Barack Obama, in which Biden served as Vice President. It is never enough to govern well and trust that voters will reward good governance. It simply never works that way.

Report: CDC Officials Eager For Biden To Take The Reins

After months of the Trump administration kneecapping their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are ready for President-elect Joe Biden, according to CNN.

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Dem Rep Demands Giuliani Lose Law License After Election Legal Battles Hit Dead End

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) filed complaints in five states on Friday demanding that Rudy Giuliani and 22 other lawyers working with the Trump campaign be disbarred for filing “frivolous” lawsuits and allegedly engaging in “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation” in their failed attempts to overturn the election results. Continue reading “Dem Rep Demands Giuliani Lose Law License After Election Legal Battles Hit Dead End”