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10:00 AM ET, December 24, 2020

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 Top Items: 
Tim Miller / The Bulwark:
The Treasonous Pardon of Paul Manafort  —  Trump, Russia, and the swamp won.  America lost.  —  For four years we've been force-fed the preposterous dual notions that Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” and that any suggestion his campaign colluded with Russia in its interference in the 2016 election was a media hoax.
Discussion: Raw Story and FOX 5 San Diego
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump Gives Clemency to More Allies, Including Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner  —  It was the second wave of pardons and commutations by the president in two days, showing his willingness to use his power aggressively on behalf of loyalists.  —  President Trump doled out clemency …
Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:
The Triumph of Kleptocracy  —  Paul Manafort came of age in New Britain, Connecticut.  His father, the garrulous mayor of that decaying factory town, taught him how to cobble together an electoral coalition, passing down the tricks of the trade that became the basis for the son's lucrative career as a political consultant.
CNN:
Trump issues 26 new pardons, including ones for Stone, Manafort and Charles Kushner  —  Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening announced 26 new pardons, including ones for longtime ally Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's father, Charles.
The White House:
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency  —  Today, President Donald J. Trump granted Full Pardons to 26 individuals and commuted part or all of the sentences of an additional 3 individuals.  —  James Kassouf — President Trump granted a full pardon to James Kassouf.
Clarence Williams / Washington Post:
Trump pardons former Prince George's County police officer  —  President Trump granted a pardon Wednesday to a former Prince George's County canine police officer who was convicted of a federal civil rights violation for releasing her police dog on an unarmed homeless man in 1995.
Noah Bookbinder / USA Today:
The craven corruption of Trump's pardons: Separate justice system for friends and allies
Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Roll Call
Rep. Steve Cohen / The Hill:
Stopping the abuse of the pardon power
Emma Austin / Courier-Journal:
President Trump grants pardon for Louisville activist Christopher 2X
Discussion: Reason
Politico:
Trump pardons Manafort, Stone, father of Jared Kushner
Joe Concha / The Hill:
Joe Biden's continued ‘Russian misinformation’ defense of Hunter is conspiracy-level laughable  —  President-elect Joe Biden continued his campaign strategy of running from anything resembling a tough question from a reporter when attempting to leave the stage after another “press conference” …
Discussion: New York Times
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Jeffrey Rosen Takes Reins of a Justice Department Under Pressure
Robert Kuttner / American Prospect:   Biden's Cabinet: The Scorecard So Far
Sarah Isgur / Washington Post:   We in the ‘shallow state’ thought we could help. Instead, we obscured the reality of a Trump presidency.
Brooke Singman / Fox News:
DOJ officials in ‘ongoing discussions’ about Hunter Biden special counsel, some say it's ‘warranted’: sources
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Reuters:
Millions of U.S. vaccine doses sit on ice, putting 2020 goal in doubt  —  (Reuters) -Millions of COVID-19 vaccines are sitting unused in U.S. hospitals and elsewhere a week into the massive inoculation campaign, putting the government's target for 20 million vaccinations this month in doubt.
Discussion: The Hill
RELATED:
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Republicans just voted to defund the police  —  President Trump and Republicans campaigned in 2020 by scaring Americans into thinking Democrats would “defund the police” and unleash a crime spree.  —  This helped Republicans keep control of the Senate (for now) and grow their numbers in the House.
RELATED:
Politico:
‘Complete clusterf—’: Trump leaves Washington in limbo
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Oops!  Trump stomps all over David Perdue's dishonest TV messaging  —  As we have noted, a great many Republican ads in the Georgia runoffs feature endless fearmongering about phantom threats — scary non-white socialists, defunded police departments, Antifa mobs destroying property.
RELATED:
Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:
How Much Herd Immunity Is Enough?  —  Scientists initially estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the population needed to acquire resistance to the coronavirus to banish it.  Now Dr. Anthony Fauci and others are quietly shifting that number upward.  —  At what point does a country achieve herd immunity?
John Eligon / New York Times:
Black Doctor Dies of Covid-19 After Complaining of Racist Treatment  —  “He made me feel like a drug addict,” Dr. Susan Moore said, accusing a white doctor of downplaying her complaints of pain and suggesting she should be discharged.  —  Lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen tube hugging her nostrils …
Discussion: Raw Story
USA Today:
Exclusive: As Trump leaves office, 50% of Americans see him as a ‘failed’ president  —  Susan Page Sarah ElbeshbishiUSA TODAY  —  President Donald Trump leaves the White House next month with the country more sharply divided than when he moved in and amid caustic assessments of his record in office …
Isaac Arnsdorf / ProPublica:
Inside Trump and Barr's Last-Minute Killing Spree  —  Private executioners paid in cash.  Middle-of-the-night killings.  False or incomplete justifications.  ProPublica obtained court records showing how the outgoing administration is using its final days to execute the most federal prisoners since World War II.
Paul Campos / New York Magazine:
Pence Should Remove Trump From Office on Sunday  —  In what are supposed to be the final days of his presidency, Donald Trump has been discussing invoking martial law to overturn the results of the 2020 election and seizing supposedly fraudulent voting machines that — according …
Washington Examiner:
The season of truth  —  Christmas is a celebration of many things, but most of all, of truth.  —  The Christ child was a threat to a violent and avaricious ancient world just as he is to a modern world drowning in lies.  The greatest lie of all is each person's belief in its own ability …
Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:
Covid-19 Latest Updates: Democrats' Bid to Call Trump's Stimulus Bluff Is Swiftly Rejected  —  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is inching up percentages for community immunity.  Covid has come to the town where Christmas started.  Millions of Americans are traveling for the holidays.  Here's the latest on the pandemic.
Discussion: CNBC, WINK NEWS and ABC30
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Host of ‘The Daily’ Clouds ‘N.Y. Times’ Effort To Restore Trust After ‘Caliphate’  —  Toggle more options  —  Late last week, The New York Times issued one of its biggest mea culpas in years.  The nation's leading newspaper returned a Peabody award and a citation as a finalist …
Discussion: Meduza.io and New York Times
Washington Post:
Trump administration pushes forward on $500 million weapons deal with Saudi Arabia  —  The Trump administration has formally notified Congress that it intends to sell nearly $500 million in precision bombs to Saudi Arabia, a transaction that is likely to fuel criticism from lawmakers who object …
Discussion: Raw Story
Jerusalem Post:
Trump gives awards to top aides for Arab-Israeli deals  —  Senior US officials are hoping to seal one more agreement before Trump's term expires on Jan. 20.  —  President Donald Trump gave national security awards on Wednesday to several top advisers for their role in helping broker agreements aimed …
Discussion: Washington Examiner
RELATED:
The Daily Beast:
‘This Is Just What Jared Does’: Kushner Bails on Trump's Mission to Destroy the 2020 Election
Discussion: Lawfare and Alternet.org
Politico:
New cracks emerge among Democrats over Biden's Pentagon pick  —  President-elect Joe Biden's historic choice for secretary of defense is running into hurdles on Capitol Hill, as key Democrats express concerns publicly and privately about whether installing a retired four-star general at the helm …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Joel Achenbach / Washington Post:
Fauci's Christmas Eve: Turning 80 and fighting the pandemic
Perla Trevizo / The Texas Tribune:
The Trump administration awarded border wall contracts to build on land it doesn't own in Texas
Discussion: American Oversight
Jeremy Page / Wall Street Journal:
How the U.S. Misread China's Xi: Hoping for a Globalist, It Got an Autocrat
Helen Raleigh / The Federalist:
Meet The Black ‘Trumpsters’ Who Helped Fire Up Minority Voters In 2020
Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Trump is trashing the government on his way out. Biden is confident he can fix it.
Politico:
The secret Biden power broker
Maryam Rahmanian / Wall Street Journal:
One Iranian Woman's Year in the Shadow of U.S. Sanctions and Covid-19
 Earlier Items: 
Yascha Mounk / Persuasion:
Why I'm Losing Trust in the Institutions
Jonah Goldberg / The Dispatch:
The Long March Back  —  A prudent, controlled burn of the GOP's dead weight would be wiser than an unmitigated act of arson.
Gerald F. Seib / Wall Street Journal:
Biden Declares Political Center Alive and Well
Discussion: The Guardian
David Corn / Mother Jones:
Trump's Very Swampy Pardon of a Ben Carson Crony
Discussion: WPXI-TV
Sarah Ellison / Washington Post:
What happened to Maria Bartiromo?
Business Insider:
EXCLUSIVE: A deputy to Eric Trump helped build a campaign shell company to protect the president from grift. …
Discussion: The Guardian
Kaitlan Collins / CNN:
Giuliani told to preserve all records as lawyers for Dominion warn legal action is ‘imminent’